constantly diminish, and when a very old man he wrote: “It may be well my posterity should be informed that to this little artifice, with the blessing of God, their ancestor owed much of the constant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year.”
Thus the great Franklin, as history knows him, began to take shape. He prospered in his business of course, working early and late, setting type and printing; making lampblack and ink; dealing in rags and soap and live-geese-feathers, and when he had bought a new supply of paper carting it home himself on a wheelbarrow. He got the bulk of the jobs, and soon he had a newspaper going, the Pennsylvania Gazette, which he presently made the best and most successful in the colonies. Having disciplined himself, he now began to educate the people.
It may be doubted whether any publication in this country ever made so large an impression upon the public mind as Franklin's famous almanac, the Poor Richard. It was a comic almanac, full of fun, not always quite decent; but it achieved its phenomenal success and celebrity by those quaint bits of proverbial philosophy which were inserted in the little spaces between the remarkable days in the calendar. Almost all of them became household words at once, and many have remained so ever since. Here are some of our old acquaintances: “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise.” “He that has a trade, has an estate.” “There are no gains without pains.” “He that by the plow would thrive, himself must either hold or drive.” “Little strokes fell great oaks.” “He that goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing.” “Vessels large may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore.” “Three removes are as bad as a fire.” “What maintains one vice would bring up two children.” “Forewarned, forearmed.” “Fish and visitors smell in three days.”
