work; in order to diſcover the bent of my inclination, and fix it if he could upon ſome occupation that might retain me on ſhore. I have ſince, in conſequence of theſe viſits, derived no ſmall pleaſure from ſeeing ſkilful workmen handle their tools; and it has proved of conſiderable benefit, to have acquired thereby ſufficient knowledge to be able to make little things for myſelf, when I have had no mechanic at hand, and to conſtruct ſmall machines for my experiments, while the idea I have conceived has been freſh and ſtrongly impreſſed on my imagination.
My father at length decided that I ſhould be a cutler, and I was placed for ſome days upon trial with my couſin Samuel, ſon of my uncle Benjamin, who had learned this trade in London, and had eſtabliſhed himſelf at Boſton. But the premium he required for my apprenticeſhip diſpleaſing my father, I was recalled home.
From my earlieſt years I had been paſſionately fond of reading, and I laid out in books all the little money I could procure. I was particularly pleaſed with accounts of voyages. My firſt acquiſition was Bunyan's collection in ſmall ſeparate volumes. Theſe I afterwards ſold in order to buy an hiſtorical collection by R. Burton, which conſiſted of ſmall cheap volumes, amounting in all to about forty or fifty. My father's little library was principally made up of books of practical and polemical theology. I read the greateſt part of them. I have ſince often regretted, that at a time when I had ſo great a thirſt for knowledge, more eligible books had not fallen into my hands, as it was then a point decided that I ſhould not be educated for the church. There was alſo among my father's books Plutarch's Lives, in which I read continually, and I ſtill regard as advantageouſly employed the time I devoted to
