, which still remain in my
journal book, to practice them ever while I lived. Revelation had
indeed no weight with me, as such; but I entertain'd an opinion that,
though certain actions might not be bad because they were forbidden by
it, or good because it commanded them, yet probably these actions might
be forbidden because they were bad for us, or commanded because they
were beneficial to us, in their own natures, all the circumstances of
things considered. And this persuasion, with the kind hand of
Providence, or some guardian angel, or accidental favorable
circumstances and situations, or all together, preserved me, thro' this
dangerous time of youth, and the hazardous situations I was sometimes
in among strangers, remote from the eye and advice of my father,
without any willful gross immorality or injustice, that might have been
expected from my want of religion. I say willful, because the
instances I have mentioned had something of necessity in them, from my
youth, inexperience, and the knavery of others. I had therefore a
tolerable character to begin the world with; I valued it properly, and
determin'd to preserve it.

We had not been long return'd to Philadelphia before the new types
arriv'd from London. We settled with Keimer, and left him by his
consent before he heard of it. We found a house to hire near the
market, and took it. To lessen the rent, which was then but
twenty-four pounds a year, tho' I have since known it to let for
seventy, we took in Thomas Godfrey, a glazier, and his family, who were
to pay a considerable part of it to us, and we to board with them. We
had scarce opened our letters and put our press in order, before George
House, an acquaintance of mine, brought a countryman to us, whom he had
met in the street inquiring for a printer. All our cash was now
expended in the variety of particulars we had been obliged to procure,
and this countryman's five shillings, being our first-fruits, and
coming so seasonably, gave me more pleasure than any crown I have since
earned; and the gratitude I felt toward House has made me often more
ready than perhaps I should otherwise have been to assist young
beginners.

There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin. Such a
one then lived in Philadelphia; a person of note, an elderly man, with
a wise look and a very grave manner of speaking; his name was Samuel
Mickle. This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopt one day at my door,
and