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732318

1.5.2827.10.5

DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA, to wit:

{Seal.

BE IT REMEMBERED. That on the sixtir day of May, in the thirty-fifth year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1811. JOHN WYETH, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor in the words following, to wit;

"Memoirs of a life, chiefly passed in Pennsylva "nia, within the last sixty years; with occasional "remarks upon the general occurrences, character "and spirit of that eventful period."

In conformity to the act of congress of the United States, intituled," An act for the oncouragement "of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts "and books, to the authors and proprietors of such "copies during the times therein mentioned." And also to the act entitled, " An act supplementary to 56 an act, entitled "An act for the encouragement of "learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts "and books, to the authors and proprietors of such "copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of disigning, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.

D. CALDWELL,

Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania:

MEMOIRS

OF A LIFE, &c.

1

T

HE dealers in self-biography, ever sedulous to ward off the imputation of egotism, seldom fail to find apologies for their undertakings. Some, indeed, endeavor to persuade themselves, that they design their labours merely for their scrutoires; while others, less self-deceived, admit they have an eye to the public. The Cardinal De Retz is brought out at the request of a lady; Rousseau, by the desire of showing himself to a misjudging world, in all the verity of nature; Marmontel, writes his life for his children at the instance of their mother; and Cumberland, so far as his motives can be collected from his introduction, because he lived and was an auIf, from these, we recur to the account given of himself, by our own Franklin, we shall find, that, although addressed to his son, it is intended for the world; and that the acknowledged motives to it, are a combination of family curiosity and personal vanity, with the desire of showing the connection between thrifty youth and respectable age—a kind of practical comment on the useful truths, contained in Poor Richard's almanae,

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