_believe_
in order that he may be saved."--_Parton's Life of Franklin, Vol. I,
p. 71._]

James Franklin was prosperous in his business. On the 17th of August,
1721, he issued the first number of a newspaper entitled "The New
England Courant." Benjamin set the type, struck off the impression
of two or three hundred, with a hand-press, and then traversed
the streets, carrying the diminutive sheet to the homes of the
subscribers. The Courant soon attracted attention. A knot of sparkling
writers began to contribute to its columns, and while the paper was
with increasing eagerness sought for, a clamor was soon raised against
it. It was denounced as radical in its political tendencies, and as
speaking contemptuously of the institutions of religion. Cotton
Mather, even, launched one of his thunderbolts against it. He wrote,

"We find a notorious, scandalous paper called 'The Courant'
full freighted with nonsense, unmanliness, raillery,
profaneness, immorality, arrogance, calumnies, lies,
contradictions and what not, all tending to quarrels and
divisions, and to debauch and corrupt the mind and manners
of New England."

Increase Mather also denounced the paper, in terms still more
emphatic.

At this time a strong antipathy was springing up between James, and
his apprentice brother. James assumed the airs of a master, and was
arrogant and domineering, at times in his anger proceeding even to
blows. Benjamin was opinionated, headstrong and very unwilling to
yield to another's guidance. As Benjamin compared his own compositions
with those which were sent to the Courant, he was convinced that he
could write as well, if not better, than others. He, therefore, one
evening prepared an article, before he was sixteen years of age,
which, with the greatest care, was written in pure Addisonian diction.
Disguising his hand, he slipped this at night under the door of the
printing office. The next morning several contributors were chatting
together in the editorial office, as Benjamin stood at the printing
case setting his types. The anonymous article was read and freely
commented upon. The young writer was delighted in finding it highly
commended, and in their guesses for the author, the names of the most
distinguished men in Boston were mentioned.

The singular nom de plume he assumed was "Silence Dogood." Over that
signature he wrote many articles before it was ascertained that he was
the author. Thes