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t solicitations for the admission of improper persons, but that the members should each of them search among his acquaintance for ingenuous, well-disposed youths, to whom, with prudent caution, the scheme should be gradually communicated; that the members should engage to afford their advice, assistance, and support to each other in promoting one another's interests, business, and advancement in life; that, for distinction, we should be call'd _The Society of the Free and Easy_: free, as being, by the general practice and habit of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice; and particularly by the practice of industry and frugality, free from debt, which exposes a man to confinement, and a species of slavery to his creditors.

This is as much as I can now recollect of the project, except that I communicated it in part to two young men, who adopted it with some enthusiasm; but my then narrow circumstances, and the necessity I was under of sticking close to my business, occasioned my postponing the further prosecution of it at that time; and my multifarious occupations, public and private, induc'd me to continue postponing, so that it has been omitted till I have no longer strength or activity left sufficient for such an enterprise; though I am still of opinion that it was a practicable scheme, and might have been very useful, by forming a great number of good citizens; and I was not discourag'd by the seeming magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.

X

POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC AND OTHER ACTIVITIES

In 1732 I first publish'd my Almanack, under the name of _Richard Saunders_; it was continu'd by me about twenty-five years, commonly call'd _Poor Richard's Almanac_.[74] I endeavour'd to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reap'd considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand. And observing that it was generally read, scarce any neighborhood in the province being without it, I consider'd it as a proper vehicle for conveying instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely any other books; I therefore filled all the little spaces that occurr'd between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want, to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, _it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright_.

[74] The almanac at that time was a kind of periodical as well as a guide to natural phenomena and the weather. Franklin took his title from _Poor Robin_, a famous English almanac, and from Richard Saunders, a well-known almanac publisher. For the maxims of Poor Richard, see pages 331-335.

These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many ages and nations, I assembled and form'd into a connected discourse prefix'd to the Almanack of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. The bringing all these scatter'd councils thus into a focus enabled them to make greater impression. The piece, being universally approved, was copied in all the newspapers of the Continent; reprinted in Britain on a broadside, to be stuck up in houses; two translations were made of it in French, and great numbers bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute gratis among their poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it discouraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some thought it had its share of influence in producing that growing plenty of money which was observable for several years after its publication.

Two pages from _Poor Richard's Almanac_ for 1736. Size of original. Reproduced from a copy at the New York Public Library.

_IV Mon._ June hath xxx days.

Things that are bitter, bitterrer than Gall Physicians say are always physical: Now Women's Tongues if into Powder beaten, May in a Potion or a Pill be eaten, And as there's nought more bitter, I do muse, That Women's Tongues in Physick they ne'er use. My self and others who lead restless Lives, Would spare that bitter Member of our Wives.

1 3 _fine weather_, 4 Le 4 36 8 Moon set 10 12 aft 2 4 Ascension Day 5 19 4 35 8 _He that can have_ 3 5 Mars Sat. Ven. _Sudden_ 6 Vi 4 35 8 _Patience, can_ 4 6 _showers_ 6h 19 4 35 8 _have what he_ 5 7 _of Rain_. 7 Li 4 35 8 First Quarter. 6 C Eraudi 8 19 4 35 8 _will._ 7 2 Trine Mars Merc. _thunder_, 9 Sc 4 35 8 Le. Vi. Li. 8 3 _perhaps hail._ 10 17 4 35 8 Sun ent. Cn. today 9 4 7* rise 2 15 10 Sa 4 34 8 making longest 10 5 _very hot_, 11 13 4 34 8 day 14 h. 51 m. 11 6 St. Barnabas. 12 26 4 34 8 Full Moon 12 day, 12 7 _then rain_. 1 Cp 4 34 8 at 1 morn. 13 C Whitsunday. 2 20 4 35 8 Moon rise 8 20 aft. 14 2 2h Aq 4 35 8 _Now I've a sheep_ 15 3 K. Geo. II. procl 3 15 4 35 8 _and a cow, every_ 16 4 ff. Sun Sat. _wind, rain_, 4 27 4 35 8 _body bids me good_ 17 5 Sxtil Sat. Merc. _hail and_ 5 Pi 4 35 8 _morrow._ 18 6 _thunder_ 6 21 4 35 8 Moon rise 11 10 af. 19 7 Day shorter 2 m. 6h Ar 4 35 8 20 C Trinity Sund. 7 15 4 36 8 Last Quarter 21 2 _If we have rain about_ 8 27 4 36 8 _God helps them_ 22 3 _the Change_, 9 Ta 4 36 8 _that help themselves_ 23 4 _Let not my reader_ 10 22 4 36 8 24 5 St. John Bap. 10 Gm 4 36 8 Moon rise 2 morn. 25 6 7* rise 1 8 11 18 4 37 8 _Why does the_ 26 7 vc Sun Jup. _think it_ 12 Cn 4 37 8 _blind man's wife_ 27 C _strange._ 1 16 4 38 8 New moon 27 day, 28 2 Sxtil Sat. Mars _hail and_ 2 Le 4 38 8 near noon. 29 3 St. Peter & Paul 2h 15 4 39 8 _paint herself._ 30 4 Square Mars Ven. _rain_. 3 Vi 4 40 8 Moon sets 9 30

_V Mon._ July hath xxxi days.

Who can charge _Ebrio_ with Thirst of Wealth? See he consumes his Money, Time and Health, In drunken Frolicks which will all confound, Neglects his Farm, forgets to till his Ground, His Stock grows less that might be kept with ease; In nought but Guts and Debts he finds Encrease. In Town reels as if he'd shove down each Wall, Yet Walls must stand, poor Soul, or he must fall.

1 5 Day short 11 mi. 4 15 4 40