On the recommendation of my good friend I starting reading The Complete Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I’ve only have made it through the beginning several pages, but I can tell that this is a work worth owning. This is the opening paragraph of Chapter One. I love the wit and the utility!
“We safely arriv’d in England on the 17th of July 1757 after having been chas’d several times on our passage by privateers. But we outsail’d everything, and in thirty days had good soundings. We met with no accident except the night before our arrival, when we narrowly escap’d running ashore on the rocks of Silly, owing to our not having discover’d the lights ashore till it was almost too late to avoid them. The bell ringing for church, we went thither immediately, and with hearts full of gratitude, returned sincere thanks to God for the mercies we had received: were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion have vowed to build a chapel to some saint; but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should have been to build a lighthouse.” – The Complete Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin.
by {C. D Petsche} 