he was an odd fish; ignorant of common life, fond of rudely opposing
receiv'd opinions, slovenly to extream dirtiness, enthusiastic in
some points of religion, and a little knavish withal.
We continu'd there near three months; and by that time I could
reckon among my acquired friends, Judge Allen, Samuel Bustill,
the secretary of the Province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph Cooper,
and several of the Smiths, members of Assembly, and Isaac Decow,
the surveyor-general. The latter was a shrewd, sagacious old man,
who told me that he began for himself, when young, by wheeling
clay for the brick-makers, learned to write after he was of age,
carri'd the chain for surveyors, who taught him surveying, and he
had now by his industry, acquir'd a good estate; and says he,
"I foresee that you will soon work this man out of business,
and make a fortune in it at Philadelphia." He had not then
the least intimation of my intention to set up there or anywhere.
These friends were afterwards of great use to me, as I occasionally
was to some of them. They all continued their regard for me as long as
they lived.
Before I enter upon my public appearance in business, it may be well
to let you know the then state of my mind with regard to my principles
and morals, that you may see how far those influenc'd the future events
of my life. My parents had early given me religious impressions,
and brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissenting way.
But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of several
points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read,
I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against Deism
fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons
preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought
an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them;
for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted,
appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short,
I soon became a thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others,
particularly Collins and Ralph; but, each of them having afterwards
wrong'd me greatly without the least compunction, and recollecting
Keith's conduct towards me (who was another freethinker), and my own
towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble,
I began to suspect that this doctrine, tho' it might be true,
was not very useful. My London pamphlet, which had for its motto
these lines of Dryden:
"Whatever is, is right. Though purblind man
Sees but a part o' the chain, the nearest link:
His eyes not carrying to the equal beam,
That poises all above;"
and from the attributes of God, his infinite wisdom, goodness and power,
concluded that nothing could possibly be wrong in the world, and that
vice and virtue were empty distinctions, no such things existing,