Franklin, The apostle of modern times

Preface

Wuen Franklin was living in France, he claimed that his face was as familiar there as the moon. This was no exaggeration: innumerable prints and engravings pictured the Patriarch everywhere; columns in the newspapers were devoted to his activities, and historians wrote about him constantly.

They have continued to do so ever since —at least in America. Few great men have been honored with more biographies than he. Some of them are excellent: Parton’s huge work, “Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin ’’, is of an inexhaustible erudition; Paul Leicester Ford’s “The Many-Sided Franklin” is incomparably precise, but the latest biography “Franklin, the First Civilized American”, by Mr. Phillips Russell is rather comical.

Why, then, write a new book on Franklin? Simply, because in the last six years I have spent in research, I have discovered innumerable documents unknown to former biographers — between six hundred to nine hundred unpublished letters, for example, which throw new light on the Doctor’s life. They have cleared up many obscure points: his religious and moral attitude, his Masonic réle, his political and diplomatic activity, and the loves of his later years.

Some have called Franklin Christian, others, Atheist. Both judgments are equally unjust. These documents of Franklin’s private life enable me to show that he was a follower of the seventeenth-century English Pythagoreans. He believed in metempsychosis, and in a supreme Deity, who was surrounded with innumerable inferior gods, with Christ for one of His prophets. He garnered these ideas during his boyhood in the curious society of anti-clerical radicals, doctors, shopkeepers, vi | PREFACE tavern-keepers and journalists, which he and his brother, James, frequented (1720-23).

Franklin’s successes and setbacks, his principles and opinions cannot be followed or understood, unless his Masonic career, with all its implications, is carefully studied. He never could have formed a middle-class political party in Pennsylvania, nor had himself accepted by the British Government, nor — and most important — could he have been able to win over Vergennes and Louis XVI to America’s side, had it not been for the invaluable support of his Masonic brothers. I have attempted in this book to give a complete and continuous history of Franklin’s Masonic career, and it is the first time that such an attempt has been made.

The unpublished documents at my disposal gave an enurely different sense to Franklin’s political activity. Its nationalistic character disappears, and the fact that Franklin’s policies were based on a haunting ideal of an empire becomes more and more evident. Earl Loudoun’s diaries, now in the Huntington Library, clear up the mystery of Franklin’s brusque departure for England, and reveal the great hopes he entertained on his voyage. The Franklin-Galloway correspondence at the Mason Library enables us to follow day by day his incomparable diplomacy between the crafty Penns, and haughty King and the mercenary Parliament. It also includes the extraordinary letter to Pitt in which Franklin denounced the Privy Council of the King as being a pack of rascals. -This revealing document has been hitherto unknown and offers a brilliant example of Franklin’s infinite cunning.

Thanks to the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France, and the Public Record Office in London, we can at length realize the difficulties that Franklin had to surmount before he inveigled France into the Revolutionary War. He was surrounded with spies. Some of his best friends, and American advisers, such as Bancroft, were paid by England. His colleague, Ralph Izard, who had been sent over by Congress, almost succeeded, by a last minute maneuver, in hindering the signing of the Franco-American treaty. Izard also kept

PREFACE vil

London in touch with what was going on. Some Frenchmen dabbled in treason, too, those who were suspected the least, the Philosophers, who were, besides, most friendly to Franklin. But they were so fond of peace they kept up a continual correspondence with London! Franklin’s success is well known, but the obstacles he had to overcome before he triumphed have been less emphasized.

As to Franklin’s sentimental life, its richness has already been hinted at, and there was so much to discover! Mr. Roelker’s archives give us details on Franklin’s love for Katy Ray, the pretty Rhode Island girl, whom he kept from marrying a handsome Spaniard. (In after years, to thank Franklin, she sent him sugar plums.) Thanks to the papers of the Guestiers and Mun families, we learn of Franklin’s courtship (at the age of 75), of Madame Helvétius, who had been pretty and who was still attractive; of his plan to marry his grandson, Temple, to a charming, wealthy French girl, Mademoiselle Brillon; and how Temple rascally repaid his efforts by presenting him with an illegitimate great-grandson, and causing a lovely blueeyed Frenchwoman to grieve.

The innumerable facts that I have gathered together here for the first time, bring us closer to Franklin and show him to be more picturesque, more in contrast to the background of his epoch, the eighteenth century. This biography is neither local nor national, but is the story of one of the great leaders of men in the eighteenth century. Thus, one can judge and estimate his immense influence, which was also varied, as he dominated the political, scientific and philosophic world of his time. But of all his titles to glory, the most outstanding one is that he was the first bourgeois in the world.

In this eighteenth century which attempted to do away with aristocracy, and to orient itself to the domination of the middle-class, Franklin was the great precursor, the great example. He defined the principles of the bourgeois in his works, and made his life a pattern to follow. He exemplified it by Poor Richard and this was why the entire universe submitted to his influence. To understand the amplitude and importance of this influence, ai PREFACE

Franklin had to be considered from an international standpoint, and his activity in science, politics, religion and philosophy had to be fully studied.

A work of such great scope could not have been accomplished without the aid and support of the very many generous persons who, by their erudition, criticism, and acquirements, rendered me such inestimable services. Mr. Mason’s collection, the richest in the world, was opened to me, and I am especially indebted to him and his librarian, Mr. George Edward, for their invaluable suggestions. _Mr.G.S. Eddy, whose Franklinian erudition is profound, furnished me with the most precious part of my bibliography, and offered solutions to such prickly problemsas Franklin’s territorial speculations, the Hutchinson affair, the Gargaz affair, etc. In several cases, I have simply used the facts he gave me, or permitted me to collect, though, of course, I alone am responsible for my conclusions and my method.

I wish also to thank the National Library of France — in particular, M. de La Ronciére, M. Lailler and their colleagues for their innumerable kind services; the administration of the British Museum, the Public Library of New York, the Imperial Library of Berlin, the Royal Library of Stockholm, the Royal Archives of Denmark, the Boston Public Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, the New York Historical Society, the Morgan Library of New York, Dr. Rosenbach, etc.

I must single out, for my especial gratitude, Mr. Franklin Bache, a direct descendant of Franklin, who allowed me to make use of his extraordinary collection; the American Philosophical Society, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (at Philadelphia) whose archives were opened to me with unstinted generosity.

The burden of my work was considerably lightened by my special study of the collection in the Huntington Library of Pasadena, and I derived much benefit from the erudition of its director, Mr. Farrand, as well as from the amiable assistance of the Librarian, Mr. Bliss, the Keeper of Manuscripts, Mr. Hazelden, and the Keeper of Printed Books, Mr. Shad.

PREACH ix

Professor Laski of the School of Economics in London and his secretary, Mrs. Turin, greatly facilitated my researches and gave me many precious suggestions.

At Philadelphia, Miss Cherry, a graduate student of the University of Pennsylvania, offered invaluable practical assistance. Finally, I wish especially to thank Mr. Bravig Imbs, who prepared the English version of this book with friendly zeal and his customary talent.

I should have to add many more names to this list, were I to give a complete account of all those who have encouraged me and indirectly bettered my work. I have not forgotten them, but I fear it would seem presumptuous on my part to present this book to the public with so great a company of friends. I only hope that, once published, it may win as much good will as it has already enjoyed in manuscript.

BERNARD Fay.

Paris.

June, 1929.

Book One

The Rearing of an XVIIIth Century Radical I BOOK TWO The “Way to Wealth” 109 BOOK THREE

BOOK FOUR His Excellency, Doctor Franklin, the Patriarch 379 Bibliography Vey, Index 535

A. Se ee eee

ILLUSTRATIONS

PorTRAIT OF FRANKLIN MADE IN FRANCE . Frontispiece

Portrait of Franklin in France made by the famous Carmontelle. Franklin has no wig. He is in the “plain Quaker dress” which so touched the tender hearts of France. On the table is seen a paper, the laws of Pennsylvania; in the background, a landscape with ships. Under the portrait is a translation of the famous Latin epigram on Franklin: Eripuit celo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis (“He snatches the thunder from the hands of the gods and the scepter from the hands of the tyrants’’). See pages 381, 412, 436- 437, 480-481.

Tue BrirtTH-PLAcE OF FRANKLIN . : 4 4 2

The house in which Franklin was born and in which his mother raised her large family. This drawing has been often reproduced since the beginning of the eighteenth century. It seems to be based on an old and very respectable tradition although we cannot find eighteenth-century evidence respecting it. See pages 3, 7.

FRANKLIN’s Printinc PREss . : ; 3 . :

The printing press at which Franklin worked when he was an apprentice to his brother. In the possession of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, Boston. See pages 17, 29, 38.

Tue New Enctanp Courant oF FEBRUARY II, 1723

The issue of the New England Courant in which James Franklin announced to his readers that he had to give up publishing his paper, and in which Benjamin Franklin published his first editorial. This sheet gives a good idea of an eighteenth-century newspaper in America. The printing of James Franklin was rather above the American average. See pages 44 and 60-64, but especially 57.

Cartoon or 1764 DepictTinc THE Famous ELECTION IN WHICH FRANKLIN WAS DEFEATED

This cartoon, made in 1764 to depict the famous election in which Franklin and Galloway were defeated, shows how an election was conducted in Philadelphia and the bitterness of the political quarrels in the Quaker City between 1745 and 1775. In the foreground Franklin, surrounded by his friends and supporters, is

xiii oy ILLUSTRATIONS listening to the Devil who whispers to him: “Thee shall be my Agent, BEN, for all my realms.” On the left a group of Quakers with their big hats are discussing their chances of winning the election. On the right the other friends of Franklin, Assoctators and unto, come to his rescue. In the center is shown the City Hall where the balloting took place. In 1764 the tide was turned against Franklin, who was beaten principally because of the hostility of the democracy. Note that Franklin is shown bareheaded in this cartoon and in the other two. It shows that this habit of his had impressed his contemporaries. See page 197, and also pages 13, 198, 200, 207, 310.

Cartoon oF 1764 DepicTING FRANKLIN AND THE PENN- SYLVANIA POLITICIANS : : : : ; <) 0257

Franklin and the Pennsylvania politicians described by a contemporary cartoon. Franklin says: “Fight Dog, Fight Bear, I am contented if I but get the Government.” He is getting the money and holding the bag, while his Quaker friends are smoking and scheming with the Devil. One of them, Pemberton, is very busy with an Indian girl, The cartoon was drawn in 1764, but gives a good idea of the political situation in Pennsylvania from 1750to1770. See pages 213-216, and also pages 112, 234-236, 251, : 307, 308. E

Cartoon ILLUSTRATING THE OPPOSITION BETWEEN Po.iricaAL ParTIES IN PENNSYLVANIA FROM 1755 TO

Franklin is shown holding a paper on which is written: “Resolves, ye Proprietaries are knave and tyrant.” He is handing it to a Quaker (easy to recognize because of his big hat) who is riding on a Scotch-Irish man and leading a blindfolded German by a rope. On the German an Indian is riding. The package carried by the Indian bears two letters: I. P. (Indian Presents) because it seemed highly shocking to the Proprietary Party to have to make gifts to the Indians, and it was, on the contrary, one of the essential features of the Quaker policy followed by Franklin. See pages 256-257, 277-280, 304-306.

FRANKLIN as A Mippie-AcepD Man : ‘ s- 298

Portrait made by Mason Chamberlin. Print made in France after 1776. It shows Franklin as he was between 1755 and 1775, with his wig and the rather elegant way of dressing he had adopted in England. (Compare with the simplicity of his dress in France, as shown in the Carmontelle drawing.) Through the window one sees a thunderstorm and a lightning rod. In the room behind Franklin is his library, and next to him, on his right, the famous electric bell he had inventedand put in his Philadelphia home. It rang when the electricity was passing through it, and during Franklin’s stay in England Deborah was so scared to hear it ring day and night that it had to be dismantled. See page 271, and also pages 227, 231, 341, 344, 351-354.

ILLUSTRATIONS XV

Tue Famous CarTroon wHIcH FRANKLIN HAD MADE AT THE TIME OF THE Stamp AcT : : : 5 pre:

Franklin wrote his letters on the back of this cartoon during the time of the acute fight against the Stamp Act (January and February, 1766). The cartoon shows the state of England after it had succeeded in alienating completely the American Colonies by the Stamp Act. It was republished by the Political Register. See pages 321-322, and also pages 314-318.

TypicaAL ENGLISH CARTOON MADE BY THE WHIGS AND THE FRIENDS OF THE AMERICANS TO CELEBRATE THE REPEAL OF THE Stamp AcT A : Be ee

This cartoon represents the funeral procession of Miss Americ- Stamp, who is going to join in their tomb the bodies of all the obnoxious and discarded laws of England. George Grenville is carrying the coffin with great sadness, and he is followed by a group of Tory ministers who are crying, the most noticeable of them being Lord Bute with his Scotch kilt. (He was accused of having conceived and strongly backed the Stamp Act.) In the background are English ships and English warehouses ready to ship goods to America. See pages 322-323.

ENGLISH CARTOON OF 1770 . : : : : ee

A very pretty and naughty cartoon of 1770, made in England for the Whigs and the friends of America. It shows the English ministers torturing America and obliging her to swallow English tea. Great Britain is mourning on the right. On the left a Frenchman and a Spaniard are gesticulating with great pleasure and expectation. See pages 362, 369, 373-378.

PorTRAIT OF FRANKLIN MADE IN FRANCE . : . 406

A portrait of Franklin, with the fur cap, made in France a few months after his arrival (1777). Drawing by Desrayes, print by Lebeau. It gives an idea of the Franklin who was so much admired by the ladies in Nantes, Paris and Passy as a “patriarch”, as a “peasant’’, and as the shrewdest of all diplomatists. See pages 407, 480-481.

Woopcut or Louis XVI GiIviING To THE AMERICANS A PAPER ON WHICH IS WRITTEN “LIBERTY” : eA 3S

The King is trampling over a yoke and chains, while, on the right, the redcoats are fleeing, and young America with a pike and a liberty cap is binding fasces with a ribbon decorated with the French lilies. On the left Benjamin Franklin, followed by other Americans, is coming with great joy to receive from the King the precious paper. A palm tree on the right gives an exotic touch to the composition. This is one of the many popular woodcuts made xvi

[ILLUSTRATIONS in France in 1788 to celebrate the French-American Alliance. It was sold in the streets for a few cents. It is the only one actually known and is for the first time reproduced with permission of the Bibliothéque Nationale, where it is preserved in the Hennin collection. See pages 438-439, 480-481.

VIEW OF THE SEINE AND PaRIS FROM FRANKLIN’S TER- ' RACE AT Passy : ; 5 : : Pott :

In the foreground are small Passy houses, a typical French garden of the time, on the Seine the ferryboat which bothered Franklin and Benny Bache so much when they went to swim in the river precisely at that place. Near to the ferryboat is the scaffold (on which a few years later so many of Franklin’s friends were going to be hanged by the crowd). In the sky a beautiful balloon, such as were made then, with the initials of the King: two interlaced L’s. On the other bank of the Seine, from left to right, are to be seen the Invalides (Home for the Old Soldiers), the two towers of |

Notre Dame, the two towers of Saint Sulpice, one of them then in process of being repaired. Drawing made in 1783 apropos of the balloon experiments in La Muette and Passy. See pages 454-469, 479, 483.

EMBLEMATICAL PoRTRAIT OF FRANKLIN ; : :

Diogenes with his lantern is holding the portrait of Franklin. (It is the portrait of Franklin by Van Loo.) He is glad to have found at lasta MAN. Behind him a bird flies, after having escaped from a cage, and on a pike a liberty cap is raised. A book, probably the laws of Pennsylvania, is open. In front of Franklin and Diogenes are to be seen some carrots, commemorating Diogenes’ and Franklin’s frugality, a broken yoke, evoking Franklin’s triumph over English despotism, and an eagle spreading thunder on a map of North America, as a symbol of Franklin’s emancipating influence in the New World. A Latin inscription announces: “Nations! Stop and wonder: Diogenes has found a man.” This print was made and presented to Franklin in July, 1780. See pages 468, 480-481, 512, 515.

MAPS

THE Town or Boston Durinc FRANKLIN’s YOUTH PHILADELPHIA AND Parts ADJACENT, 1750

Lonpon, 1767 Paris AND Environs, 1781

Passy AND AUTEUIL

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3 5 = :

- BOOK ONE

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I

THE month of January, 1706, in the distant colony of New England was a bitter one, and the little city of Boston, squeezed between the Atlantic and the marshes, had all it could do to resist the storms and the rigorous cold. The weather was very disagreeable with its brusque alternations of intense frosts, hurricanes, snow and thaws; the last part of December was one continual tempest. At the beginning of January, the weather improved slightly and there were a few mild hours, but, starting on the fourteenth, the cold struck in again with a blizzard, bringing back suffering and danger. John Coleburn of Dedham lost himself in the snow and his corpse was found near Roxbury. In the taverns where men got together to drink rum they hardly spoke about anything but the precautions they had to take in driving their ox-carts and sleighs over the snowy countryside, when they were looking for firewood, or carrying provisions to the farms of the interior.

Then, too, they gossiped a little about their neighbors. A son had just been born to Josiah Franklin, the tallow-chandler at the Sign of the Blue Ball, on Milk Street, —a big boy named Benjamin. He was born on the sixth, a Sunday, so of course he would be lucky. He would be a good Christian, too, and a good Whig; his parents had had him baptized immediately in the neighboring church, Old South, thus making one more Presbyterian for the city. And the drinkers laughed in whispering that Old Josiah wasn’t leading such a dull life; his wife was pretty and he wasn’t losing his time, fourteen children already. And no doubt they wouldn’t be all. Well, such families would provide soldiers for Queen Anne and her great general, Marlborough. They would be needed with all those men killed now in Flanders, Germany and America, and

{ with all the epidemics that had swept the country. For the moment, there were more than enough people, but in 1703 nearly three hundred persons had died of smallpox.

Life wasn’t easy with such three enemies as the Winter, the French and the Devil. Ever since the Puritans, Children of God and Preservers of Holy Tradition, had gained the desert and founded their pious colony in distant America, these three enemies had persisted against them. The Puritans had never confessed themselves conquered, but, in spite of the vigilance of their pastors, the Devil was always prowling around the pious people and their dwellings. In 1692, hadn’t he come to attack them directly and in person by loosing those horrible witches whom the virtuous Mr. Mather denounced and had put to death? With a little courage and firmness, the Devil had been vanquished, a few executions had sufficed, and the People of God, after some hours of anguish, had found their peace once more. But the Devil hadn’t given up, after all; now he employed devices and ruses less direct.

The city grew, it became a kind of capital, and some even said it included four thousand houses and eighteen thousand inhabitants. No doubt they exaggerated, but really to remain pure in this port filled with sailors, young exiled craftsmen, outlaws, merchants from all countries, and Negro slaves, was not always easy, and the Devil had his due. How many young men were enticed and carried away by the sailors who never gave them up, how many little children were born five or six months after their parents’ marriage, and how many times men left home to warm themselves on winter evenings at the tavern and returned, late and drunk, to beat their wives!

No doubt there remained some good customs and apostles. No doubt the Sabbath was still enforced by the law and one could not, under pain of the most severe punishments, either walk about, swim or travel on Sunday. The faithful had, besides their sermons on Sunday, the “lectures” on Thursday, when their devoted pastors informed them of God’s word. And these latter, no doubt, let no occasion such as catastrophes, national or royal anniversaries, or public executions, slip

—— eye Cte a

THER BIRTH-PLACE OF FRANKLIN, sTOOD IN MILK STREET, OPFOSITE THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON.

THE BIRTH-PLACE OF FRANKLIN

AN XVIIITH CENTURY RADICAL ¢ by without commenting on them in the pulpit or accompanying them with a sermon. Some of them were well attended, in particular those which were pronounced before the executions. But also what backsliding in the city and in the entire colony! Since the king had changed the charter, it sufficed to be rich to vote; a prospective citizen no longer had to undergo a public conversion, or prove that he was a member of the Calvinist Church. The king delegated his authority to a governor chosen by himself and not by the pious Christians. Massachusetts had no longer a government elected by unaided devotees, but it was submitted to the influence of rich men, merchants, ungodly and indifferent. Even the college, this Harvard, founded to educate pastors and to be a sanctuary of pure religion, forsook its traditions more and more. The young men drank every day, and sang often, even on Sunday. The most strict and pious pastors had been rejected and the presidency refused to the venerable Mr. Mather. A layman, Mr. Leverett, was going to direct this institution, formerly so holy.

Was it surprising that God should punish New England for its infidelity? That He should unloose Indians and French against them? Had he not once armed the Philistines against the guilty Israelites in the same way? And every Sunday, every Thursday, in the pulpits of New England, along with pressing invitations to become converted, violent invectives were hurled against Louis XIV, this “detestable old tyrant, this persecutor of God, this new Nebuchadnezzar, surrounded by his courtesans, his illegitimate children, the glorification of his sins and the pagan pomp of Catholic civilization.” His death was predicted and his defeats celebrated, as on the twentyfourth of January, 1706, when the governor ordered a great thanksgiving festival in honor of Marlborough’s victories in Flanders. However, the people still trembled a little from fear. Canada was so close and the French privateers so often laid hold on the English vessels.

In 1707 they went to see a fair-sized fleet brought together in the harbor of Boston for the purpose of attacking the French.

Preparations and defense were necessary. They could never forget that danger was always pressing. The people hoped for victory; Louis was growing old, and all of Europe, including the Empire, Holland, Portugal, Savoy and England, were armed against him, endeavoring to wrest Spain from his grasp, a country he wanted to give to his grandson, as well as the world scepter he also sought for him.

But he was always feared and his court remained the center of the civilized world. What stories were told about the luxury of the court, its unheard-of bursts of debauchery! From far off it was vaguely fascinating and those who saw it closely and without illusion were dazzled.

The Duc de Saint Simon Pair de France, an exact observer, and not very favorable to his king, noted in his diary for the first weeks of 1706:

I do not know whether the misfortunes of the year just ended and the great enterprises being planned for the coming one, have not but inclined the King to the pleasures of winter as a policy to cheer his realm and show his enemies how slightly he is disturbed by their prosperity. However it came about, we were surprised to hear him announce that, beginning the first day of the year up to Lent, there would be balls held at Marly at all his appearances there. At the same time he named the men and women to dance at them and said that he would be well pleased if impromptu balls should be given at Versailles in honor of Madame la Duchesse de Bourgogne. Also many balls were given for him and there were masquerades at Marly from time to time. One day the King even desired that the oldest and most serious men of his court, here at Marly, as well as the women, attend the ball, masked: he, himself, in order to do away with all exception and all restraint, came and remained throughout with a robe of gauze over his garments.

The glory of the King of France was so sparkling that he had to veil it in order not to blind his subjects. Even in the midst of trials and clouds it shone at a distance, symbol of absolute monarchy, of the divine right of kings, of Catholicism, of classic Greek art, of pagan elegance, of all this aristocratic old Roman Europe, which Boston, new and far-away, hated and feared.

— ~~

II

THERE was not a more convinced Whig nor a more fervent Protestant in Boston than Josiah Franklin, tallow-chandler of Milk Street. He was a strong, energetic and skillful man who raised his numerous family with firmness and happiness. Although he had arrived but a few years before, he had acquired an estimable position in the commerce of the city. The family belonged, really, to the lower middle-class, characteristic peasants of Renaissance England. The Franklins had long been blacksmiths and farmers in their village of Ecton, Northamptonshire (one of the counties of central England). They had become Protestants early, at a time when it was not always without danger to admit belonging to the reformed religion. There was still to be seen in their house the large Bible fastened under the seat of a taboret, to be used at critical periods. When the seat was lifted, the Bible was turned up to the light and services were held around this strange pulpit which shut up instantly, hiding the Forbidden Book when the neighbors uttered the cry agreed upon to announce the arrival of soldiers. One of the Franklin brothers had become a solicitor and a considerable citizen in the community, but the others scarcely distinguished themselves except by their honesty, the dexterity of their fingers, their intelligence and industry. Of the nine children, three had adopted the trade of dyer, — John, Josiah and Benjamin. All three were established at Banbury in Oxfordshire and were married there. The most tender intimacy united Josiah and Benjamin, both of them strongheaded and both of whom had abandoned the Church of England to join the dissenters. But King Charles II, who reigned then, looked with disfavor upon the independent sectarians and Josiah, rather than drag through a difficult and dangerous life in England, came to establish himself at Boston, with his wife and three children. He left behind him Benjamin, who could hardly manage to make a fortune in England in spite of his active mind, and who was not at all happy in his home despite his good disposition. He lost his wife and all but one of his ten children. To console himself, he read the Bible, a great many sermons, some ancient philosophers, and sent letters in verse to his brother.