The Washington herald., 1910-02-16
HOW FRANKLIN LEARNED.
His Good English Was Acquired by
Reading and Rewriting.

His Good English Was Acquired by
Reading and Rewriting.
From BENJAMIN Franklin's Autobiography.
After some time an ingenious trades
man. Mr Matthew Adams. who had a
pretty collection Of books. and who fire.
quented our printing house. took notice
Of me, invited me TO his library and very
kindly lent me such books as ] chose 10
read. l now took fancy 70 poetry, and
made some little pieces. My brother.
thinking It might turn 20 account, en-
couraged me and put me on composing
occasional ballads.
one was called THE Lighthouse Trag-
edy," and contained an account of the
drowning of Capt W0rthilake. with
his two daughters; the other was a
sailors song. on the taking OF Teach Cor
BlackbearD. the pirate. They We're
wretched stun. in the Grub Street ballad
style, and when thcy were printed he
sent me about the town TO sell them.
The first sold wonderfully, the event
being recent, having made great noise.
This flatteTed my vanity, but ms
father discouraged me by ridiculing my
performances. and telling me verse
makers were generally beggars. So !
escaped being a poet. most probably e
very bad one: but as prose writing has
been OF great use TO me in the course
OF my life. and was a principal means OF
my advancement, ] shall tell you how. in
such a situation, / acquired what little
ability have in that way.
About this time met with an odd
volume Of the Spectator II was the
third had never before seen any Of
them. I bought it. read it over and
over, and was much delighted with IT,
thought the writing excellent. and
wished, if possible. 10 initiate L.
With this view I took some of the
papers. and. making short hints Of the
sentiment in each sentence. laid them
by a few days, and then, without look
ing at the book, tried 10 complete the
papers again, by expressing each hinted
sentiment az length. and as fully as &;
had been expressed before, in any suit
able words that should come to hand.
Then compared my Spectator with
the original. discovered some Of my
faults, and corrected them.
But / found I wanted a stock of words.
or a readiness in recoIlecting and using
them. which I thought I should have
acquired before that time If had gone
on making verses. since the continual
occasion for words Of the same import,
but Of different length TO suit the meas
ure, or or different sound for the rhyme,
would have laid me under q constant
necessity of searching for variety, and
also have tended to fix that variety In
my mind, ana make me master OF it.
Therefore, took some of the tales and
turned them into verse, and. after a
time. when l had pretty well forgotten
the prose, turned them back again
also sometimes jumbled my collec-
tions of hints into confusion. and after
some weeks endeavored TO reduce them
into the best order. before began TO
form the fuII sentences and complete the
paper This was to teach me method
in the arrangement of thoughts.
BY comparing my work afterward
with the original, I discovered many
faults and amended them; but some
times had the pleasure of fancying that.
in certain particulars OF small import. I
had been lucky enough TO improve the
method or the language; and this en-
couraged me to think I might possibly
in time come to be a tolerable English