I have been continued one of its trustees from the beginning,
now near forty years, and have had the very great pleasure of seeing
a number of the youth who have receiv'd their education in it,
distinguish'd by their improv'd abilities, serviceable in public
stations and ornaments to their country.
When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from private business,
I flatter'd myself that, by the sufficient tho' moderate fortune
I had acquir'd, I had secured leisure during the rest of my life
for philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased all
Dr. Spence's apparatus, who had come from England to lecture here,
and I proceeded in my electrical experiments with great alacrity;
but the publick, now considering me as a man of leisure, laid hold
of me for their purposes, every part of our civil government,
and almost at the same time, imposing some duty upon me.
The governor put me into the commission of the peace; the corporation
of the city chose me of the common council, and soon after an alderman;
and the citizens at large chose me a burgess to represent them
in Assembly. This latter station was the more agreeable to me,
as I was at length tired with sitting there to hear debates,
in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and which were often
so unentertaining that I was induc'd to amuse myself with making
magic squares or circles, or any thing to avoid weariness; and I
conceiv'd my becoming a member would enlarge my power of doing good.
I would not, however, insinuate that my ambition was not flatter'd by all
these promotions; it certainly was; for, considering my low beginning,
they were great things to me; and they were still more pleasing,
as being so many spontaneous testimonies of the public good opinion,
and by me entirely unsolicited.
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