By being too nice in the Choice of the little Pieces sent me by my Correspondents to be printed, I had almost discouraged them from writing to me any more. For the Time to come, and that my Paper may become still more generally agreeable, I have resolved not to regard my own Humour so…
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The Death of Infants
Ostendunt Terris hunc tantum Fata, neque ultra Esse sinunt. ——– Virgil. It has been observ’d Sir William Petty in his Political Arithmetick, that one half of Mankind, which are born into this World, die, before they arrive to the age of Sixteen, and that an half of the remaining part never measure out the short…
On Constancy
Hi mores baec duri immota Catonis Secta fuit, servare modum, finemque tenere, Naturamque sequi, patriaeque impendere vitam. Lucan. When I have sometimes observ’d Men of Wit and Learning, in Spite of their excellent natural and acquir’d Qualifications, fail of obtaining that Regard and Esteem with Mankind, which their Inferiors in point of Understanding frequently arrive…
Queries on a Pennsylvania Militia
B. Franklin, Thee art desired to insert the following Queries in the Gazette, for the Consideration of People. Whether it is not a great Disadvantage to the French, and a great Discouragement to their Colonies on this Continent, that from the Mouth of Missisipi to St. Lawrence they have no Ports to the Sea, for…
Brave Men at Fires
To the Publisher of the GAZETTE. An experienc’d Writer has said, there was never a great Man that was not an industrious Man, and I believe that there never was a good Man that was a lazy Man. This may serve to introduce a few Thoughts I have had while meditating on the Circumstances of…