The use of these fireplaces in very many houses,
both of this and the neighbouring colonies, has been, and is,
a great saving of wood to the inhabitants.
Peace being concluded, and the association business therefore at
an end, I turn'd my thoughts again to the affair of establishing
an academy. The first step I took was to associate in the design
a number of active friends, of whom the Junto furnished a good part;
the next was to write and publish a pamphlet, entitled Proposals
Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. This I
distributed among the principal inhabitants gratis; and as soon
as I could suppose their minds a little prepared by the perusal
of it, I set on foot a subscription for opening and supporting
an academy; it was to be paid in quotas yearly for five years;
by so dividing it, I judg'd the subscription might be larger,
and I believe it was so, amounting to no less, if I remember right,
than five thousand pounds.
In the introduction to these proposals, I stated their publication,
not as an act of mine, but of some publick-spirited gentlemen,
avoiding as much as I could, according to my usual rule, the presenting
myself to the publick as the author of any scheme for their benefit.
The subscribers, to carry the project into immediate execution,
chose out of their number twenty-four trustees, and appointed
Mr. Francis, then attorney-general, and myself to draw up constitutions
for the government of the academy; which being done and signed,
a house was hired, masters engag'd, and the schools opened, I think,
in the same year, 1749.
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