The select works of Benjamin Franklin; including his autobiography

Front matter

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Preface

I ranklin's personal celebrity lias so eclipsed his literary farae, that justice has hardly been done to him as a writer and an essayist ; and yet he has himself confessed that he was indebted mainly to his pen for his advancement in public life. He was singularly indifferent, however, to any reputation or profit that might accrue from his writings, and left it to his friends to collect and republish them as they might please. The consequences of this indifference are manifest even to the present time, in the absence of any cheap popular edition of his select works. He has been posthumously fortunate, however, in having so able an editor as Mr. Sparks, whose ten volumes of the Works of Franklin, with a memoir and notes, leave nothino; to be desired in the way of an ample and accurate collection.

But Franklin's is a name so eminently and intimately popular, that the want of a collection of his best works, more generally accessible in respect to size and cost, has long been experienced ; and to supply this want the present edition is offered. In the introductory memoir, the editor

VI PREFACE.

has been indebted for some new facts to the French memoirs by Mignet and Sainte-Beuve ; and the works of John Adams, recently published, have supplied many interesting details, not embraced in any other biographical account. All Franklin's purely literary productions of merit are contained in the present collection, with liberal specimens of his philosophical writings, and the choicest of his letters. Much that he wrote was of merely local and temporary interest, designed to affect provincial legislation ; and, though valuable to the historian, is unprofitable to the general reader of a subsequent time.

Contents

MEMOIR OF FRANKLIN.

I. — Account of Franklin's Autobiography — His Story best told by him self — His Birth — His Uncle Benjamin — Acrostic by the Latter — Lines to his Nephew — Summary of Events related in the Autobiography . . 15

II. — Franklin's Second Visit to England — His Electrical Discoveries — Stuber's Account — The Experiment with a Kite — Scientific Merits — London Contemporaries — Hustile Letter to Strahan, with Autograph — Illness — Interview with the Penns — Pamphlets, ic. — Musical Tastes — The Harmonica — Scientific Studies and Letters — Visit to poor Pielations — His Degi-ee — Acquaintances — David Hume — Account of William Franklin 19

I

No memoir of Franklin can be a successful substitute for his Autobiography. In the present sketch, we shall aim at little but a review of such facts as are too lightly touched on in his own charming narrative, or as are needed to complete the account of his useful and eventful life. The First Part of his Autobiography, addressed in the form of a letter to his son, William Franklin, Governor of New Jersey, was written in England, in the year 1771, during the author's sojourn at Twyford, the seat of Dr. Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph. In this Part, he brings down the narrative of his life to the year 1730 ; and of it there were an original draft and a copy taken with a machine. The original manuscript was given to M. Le Veillard, of Passy, who was guillotined during the French revolution, when it fell into the possession of his daughter. The copy became the property of Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin,

By M. Veillard this First Part was translated into French, and published together with a collection of Franklin's Essays. It is a curious circumstance, that an English translation having been made from this French version for a similar collection, published in London, shortly after Franklin's death, this translation of a translation has been repeatedly republished, both in England and this country, as the life of Franklin, written by himself What renders the fate of it still more singular is the fact that the English re-translation, translated back into French, was published in Paris in 1798. The Autobiography as originally written, and as printed in the present volume, was first published in 1818, by William Temple Franklin.

The occurrence of the American revolution interrupted Franklin's autobiographical task, and he did not resume it till twelve years later, while resident at Passy, near Paris, in France. The Second, and last, Part of his Autobiography, terminates with his arrival in London, in 1757, as the agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly, in their dispute with the descendants of Penn, the "proprietaries,'' as they were called, of the territory ceded to their ancestor.

Such is the graceful and unaffected candor of Franklin's style, that his story is ever best told in his own words. "His confessions of his faults," says Sainte Beuve, "have an air of sincerity and simplicity, which leave us in no doubt as to the genuineness of the sentiment he expresses. When Rousseau, in his Confessiojis^ makes similar avowals, he vaunts, even while he accuses himself Franklin, who has few but venial faults to reveal, accuses himself less vehemently and does not vaunt at all."

We shall give a brief summary of the events related in the Autobiography, and then take up the thread of Franklin's history where he drops it.

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, January the 17th, 1706. His father, who had emigrated from England, was a tallow-chandler. Benjamin was the fifteenth of seventeen children, and the eighth of ten by a second wife. He was named for an uncle, who emigrated to Boston in the year 1715. This uncle had the poetical faculty in no ordinary degree, as may be inferred from the following pieces, which, while they are marked by the fashionable quaintnesses of the religious poets of the seventeenth century, give evidence of considerable literary culture. The first bears the title of an "Acrostic sent to Benjamin Franklin, in New England, July 15, 1710."

A printer's apprenticb. 17

** Be to thy parents an obedient son ; Each (lay let duty coustantlj be done ; Never give way to sloth, or lust, or pride. If free you 'd be from thousand ills beside ; Above all ills be sure avoid the shelf Man's danger lies in, — Satan, sin and self I In virtue, learning, -wisdom, progress make ; Ne'er shrink at sutfering for thy Saviour's sake.

«* Fraud and all falsehood in thy dealings flee; Religious always in thy station be ; Adore the Maker of thy inward part ; Now 's the accepted time, give Him thy heart ; Keep a good conscience, — 't is a constant friend ; Like judge and witness this thy acts attend ! In heart, with bended knee, alone, adore None but the Three in One forevermore."

From the following lines, " sent to Benjamin Franklin, 1T13," when he was only seven years old, it would seem that his literary tendencies were developed even earlier than his own account would lead us to suppose :

" 'Tis time for me to throw aside my pen, When hanging sleeves read, write, and rhyme like men. This forward spring foretells a plenteous crop ; For, if the bud bear grain, what will the top ? If plenty in the verdant blade appear.

What may we not soon hope for in the ear ? When flowers are beautiful before they 're blown. What rarities will aftei'ward be shown !

If trees good fruit unnoculated bear, You may be sure 't will afterward be rare. If fruits are sweet before they 've time to yellow. How luscious will they be when they are mellow ! If first years' shoots such noble clusters send. What laden boughs, Engedi-like, may we expect in the end ! '*

At twelve years of age, Benjamin was apprenticed to his elder brother, James, a printer, and publisher of the New England Coiirant. a newspaper in Boston. Benjamin had a passion for reading, and he now found means of gratifying it. He was also tempted to try his skill in lit€/- rary composition, and wTote some anonymous pieces for his brother's journal, which were published and approved. Some political articles in the Courant having offended the Legislative Assembly of the colony, the publisher was imprisoned and forbidden to continue his journal. To elude this prohibition, young Franklin was made the nominal editor, and his indentures were temporarily cancelled. After the 2* release of his brother, he availed himself of this act to assert his freedom, and thus escaped from a position which had been irksome in consequence of the ill treatment to which he was subjected. Franklin subsequently blamed himself for thus taking advantage of his brother's difficulty, and set down his own conduct on this occasion as one of the errata of his life.

He now secretly embarked, without means or recommendations, on board a small vessel bound to New York. Not finding employment there, he set out for Philadelphia, where he arrived on foot, with a penny-roll in his hand, and one dollar in his purse. Here he obtained emplo3anent as a compositor, and, having attracted the notice of Sir William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania, was, through his promises, induced to visit England, for the purpose of purchasing the materials for establishino- himself in business as a printer. On reaching London, in 1725, he found himself entirely deceived in his promised letters of credit and recommendation from Governor Keith ; and being, as before, in a strange place, without credit or acquaintances, he went to work once more as a compositor.

In 1726, after a residence of about eighteen months in London, he returned to Philadelphia, soon after which he entered into business as a printer and stationer ; and in 1728 established a newspaper. In 1732 he published his "Poor Richard's Almanac," wdiich became noted for its pithy maxims, — some original, but mostly taken from various sources, ancient and modern. In 1736 he was ap- 23ointed clerk to the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and the year following postmaster of Philadelphia. In the French war, in 1744, the Governor having in vain importuned the legislature, a majority of whom were Quakers, to pass a militia law, and adopt other precautions for defence, Franklin proposed to accomplish the object by a voluntary subscription ; and he set forth its importance in a pamphlet entitled " Plain Truth," which did not fail of effect.

About the year 1 746, he commenced his electrical experiments, and made several important discoveries. In 1747 he was chosen a representative of the General Assembly, in which situation he distinguished himself by several acts of public utility. By his influential exertions a mihtia

SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND. 19

bill was passed, and he was appointed colonel of the Philadelphia regiment. In 1757 he was sent to England as agent for Pennsylvania.

II

Franklin's second visit to England was made under auspices very different from those which had attended his first. Then he went a poor printer, relying upon the imaginary influence of the graceless Sir William Keith, who had amused him with chimerical promises, and cajoled him with sham letters of recommendation. Now it was Franklin, the eminent philosopher and discoverer, the gifted writer and sagacious statesman, w^io took up his temporary residence in London. His electrical discoveries had been promulgated some ten years before. His first letter on the subject was communicated March 28, 1747, to Peter Collinson, a member of the Royal Society. In this and his subsequent letters, Franklin makes known the power of points in drawing and throwing off the electrical matter, — a fact which had hitherto escaped the attention of electricians. He also made the discovery of a plus and Qiilmis^ or of a positive and negative^ state of electricity.

"Besides these great principles," says Dr. Stuber, '' Franklin's letters on electricity contain a number of facts and hints which have contributed greatly towards reducing this branch of knowledge to a science. His friend, Mr. Kinnersley, communicated to him a discovery of the different kinds of electricity excited by rubbing glass and sulphur. The philosophers were disposed to account for the phenomena rather from a difference in the quantity of electricity collected ; and even Du Faye himself seems at last to have adopted this doctrine. Franklin at first entertained the same idea : but. upon repeating the experiments, he perceived that Mr. Kinnersley was right, and that the vitreous and resinous electricity of Du Faye were nothing more than the positive and negative states which he had before observed ; that the glass globe charged positively^ or increased the quantity of electricity on the prime conductor ; whilst the globe of sulphur diminished its natural quantity, or charged negatively. These experiments and ohservations opened a new field for investigation, upon which electricians entered with avidity ; and their labors have added much to the stock of our knowledge."

In 1749 he suggested an explanation of the aurora borealis and thunder-gusts on electrical principles. The same year he conceived the project of testing the truth of his theory in respect to lightning, by means of sharp-pointed iron rods, raised into the region of the clouds. But it was not till the summer of 1T52 that he resorted to the expedient of a common kite, and by means of it converted what was theory into scientific truth.

While waiting for the construction of a spire from which to try his experiment, it occurred to him that he might secure the desired contact with the clouds by means of a kite. He prepared one of a silk handkerchief, as being less likely to be affected by rain than paper. To the upright stick of the frame he attached an iron point. The string was, as usual, of hemp, except the lower end, which was of silk ; and where the hempen and silken cords were united, he fastened a metallic key.

With this apparatus, he went forth, with his son, into the fields, as a thunder-storm was coming on, to try the experiment, the memory of which was to be immortal. Well knowing the ridicule which scientific experiments, when unsuccessful, often call forth, he kept his intentions a secret from all but his companion. He placed himself under a shed, to avoid the rain. His kite was raised. A thundercloud passed over it. No sign of electricity appeared. Franklin began to despair of success, when suddenly he saw the loose fibres of his string in motion, and bristhng, in an upright position, as if placed on a conductor. On applying his knuckle to the key, he experienced a smart shock, accompanied by a bright spark. Here was his theory verified ! As the string became wet with the rain, it operated better as a conductor, and he was enabled to collect an abundant supply of electricity, with which he charged a jar.

This experiment was made in June, 1752. It had been successfully performed, according to Franklin's original plan, by means of a pointed bar of iron, about a month previous, in Paris, by M. De Lor ; but Franklin had not

ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES. 21

been apprized either of the attempt or the result at the time of making his experiment with the kite. He afterwards had an insulated rod constructed to draw the lightning into his house, with a bell attached, in order to inform him when the rod was affected by electricity. By means of this apparatus he was enabled to collect a considerable quantity of electric fluid, on which to experiment at his leisure.

Franklin's letters to Collinson, narrating his electrical experiments, were at first received with incredulous raillery by the Royal Society, and regarded as unworthy of being printed among its transactions. The scientific men of France, however, did ample justice to Franklin's merits, and at length the experiment of procuring lightning from the clouds by a pointed rod having been verified in England, the Royal Society made amends for its neglect by choosing him a member, exempting him from the customary admission fee of twenty-five guineas, and, in 1753, presenting him with the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Copley.

"The fame of Franklin," says Mignet, "rapidly spread with his theory over the whole world. His Treatise, published by Dr. Fothergill, a member of the Royal Society, was translated into French, Italian, German and Latin. It produced a scientific revolution throughout Europe. The experiments of the American philosopher, which Dalibard had made simultaneously with him at Marly-le-Roi, were repeated at Montbard, by the great naturalist Buffon ; at Saint Germain, by De Lor, before Louis XV., who wished to be a witness of them : at Turin, by Father Beccaria ; in Russia, by Professor Richmann, who, receiving too powerful a discharge, fell hghtning-struck, and gave to science a martyr. Everywhere conclusive, these experiments caused the new system to be adopted by acclamation; and it was styled Franklinian^ in honor of its author.

' ' Thus all at once distinguished, the Philadelphia sage became the object of universal regard, and was abundantly loaded with academic honors. The Academy of Sciences of Paris made him an associate member, as it had Newton and Leibnitz. All the learned bodies of Europe eagerly admitted him into their ranks.* To this scientific glory,

* Emmanuel Kant, the celebrated German philosopher, spok© of Franklin, ui 1755, as " the Prometheus of modern times."

■wliich he miglit have extended if he had congecrated to his favorite pursuits his thoughts and his time, he added high political distinction. To this man, happy because he was intelligent, great because he had an active genius and a devoted heart, was accorded the rare felicity of serving his country skilfully and usefully for a period of fifty years ; and, after havino; taken rank amono; the immortal founders of the positive sciences, of enrolling himself among the generous liberators of the nations."

With a scientific and literary reputation familiar to all Europe, Franklin was hospitably received in England on the occasion of his second visit, which lasted from July 27, 1757, to the latter part of August, 1762. At this time Dr. Johnson was publishing his Idle?^ ; Burke had just given to the world his "Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful," and was editing the Annual Reglstei' for Dodsley ; Hume was about completing his History of England ; Sterne Avas publishing his Tristram Shandy ; Swedenborg was residing obscurely in London, engaged upon his mystical writings ; Goldsmith was just launching upon a literary career in the same great metropolis ; Garrick was electrifying the town with his acting ; and the brothers Wesley were engaging in their extraordinary labors for the establishment of a reformed Protestantism. Sir Isaac Newton had died thirty years before. Franklin, when in London before, had been promised a sight of him, but the promise was not kept. It does not appear that Franklin ever became personally acquainted with any of these distinguished persons, excepting Hume, Garrick and Burke.

After partaking of the hospitality of his friend and correspondent, Mr. Collinson, he took lodgings at a house in Craven-street, a few doors from the Strand, which had been recommended to him by some of his Philadelphia friends. It was kept by a Mrs. Stevenson, " a very discreet, good gentlewoman," and Franklin did not change his quarters during the whole period of his stay in England. Many of his best philosophical papers were addressed to Miss Mary Stevenson, a daughter of his landlady, and a young lady of decided taste for scientific investigation. With this family he maintained the most afiectionate relations during his long life.

ACQUAINTANCES IN ENGLAND.

Among the acquaintances of Franklin at this time was John Baskerville, whose improvements in printing and type-founding had commended him to the literary Avorld. He was born the same year with Franklin, and similarity of mechanical tastes brouo;ht them too-ether. William Strahan. king's printer, and a member of Parliament, was one of Franklin's most intimate associates and admirers, and his regard seems to have been reciprocated. " He was very urgent with me," says Franklin, in a letter to his wife, " to stay in England, and prevail with you to remove hither with Sally. He proposed several advantageous schemes to me, which appeared reasonably founded." In a letter to Mrs. Franklin, dated London, December 13, 1757, Mr. Strahan writes of her husband : — "I never saw a man who was, in every respect, so perfectly agreeable to me. Some are amiable in one view, some in another, — he in all." It is a painful example of the estrangements produced by war to read, in connection with this, the folloAving letter (by some supposed not wholly serious) from Franklin to Strahan, written some eighteen years afterwards :

Phil ad., July 5, 1775.

Mr. Strahan : You are a Member of Parliament, and one of that majority which has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn our towns and murder our people. Look upon your hands ; — • they are stained with the blood of your relations ! You and I were long friends, — you are now my enemy ; and I am

After the independence of the Colonies, the friendly intercourse of Franklin with Strahan was renewed, and old ties were reknit with added warmth on both sides.

In the autumn of 1757 Franklin had an attack of illness, resulting in a violent cold and fever ; during which, as he writes to his wife, he was " now and then a little delirious." "They cupped me," he continues, "on the back of the head, which seemed to ease me for the present. I took a good deal of bark, both in substance and infusion ; and, too soon thinki-ng myself well, I ventured out twice, to do a little business and forward the service I am engaged in, and both times got fresh cold and fell down again. My good doctor grew very angry with me for acting contrary to his cautions and directions, and obliged me to promise more observance for the future." The "good doctor" here alluded to was Doctor Fothergill, who attended Franklin very carefully and affectionately during his illness, Avhich lasted nearly two months,

Franklin entered into the objects of his mission with his usual alacrity and fidelity of attention. A brief review of these objects will be appropriate in this place.

By the death of the widow of William Penn, and of Springett Penn, son and heir of William Penn the younger, the territorial rights of the province were reunited, under the will of William Penn, the founder, in John, Thomas, and Richard, his sons by his second wdfe. John, the eldest, born in Pennsylvania during his father's last visit, possessed a double share. By John's death, without issue, his half of Pennsylvania descended to his next brother, Thomas, who thus became "Proprietary" of three-fourths of the province, his brother Richard being the "Proprietary" of the remainder.

To extend their influence, these Proprietaries had claimed the appointment of judicial and other officers. They had forbidden all other persons to purchase lands of the natives, — thus establishing a monopoly in their own favor ; and they had insisted on the exemption of their immense estates from taxation. In an address to the Proprietaries in 1751, the General Assembly urge the old complaint, that the Province was at the sole expense of Indian treaties, of which the chief benefit resulted to the Proprietaries in the

PUBLIC OPINION AND THE PRESS. '25

cession of lands. Disputes ensued on these controverted claims between the General Assembly and the Governor, who was the nominee of the Proprietaries, and the representative of their interests. The ready pen and clear judgment of Franklin were frequently called into requisition in drawing up reports and representations in reply to the Proprietaries and their advocates ; and, at last, havino' showed himself more than a match for the wi^iters on the other side, the Assem])ly sent him as their agent, as already mentioned, to represent their case to the king.

On his arrival in England he found that the newspapers were mostly in the Proprietary interest, and that " intelligence from Pennsylvania," evidently manufactured with a view to prejudicing public opinion, represented the inhabitants of the province as actuated by a selfish and refractory spirit ; although they merely withstood the claim of the Proprietaries to an exemption from a taxation which was as necessary to the defence of their ow^n estates as to the general safety. One of Franklin's first steps was to reform an erroneous public opinion, through the same medium by w^hich it had been created, — namely, the press. It having been stated in a newspaper called 71ie Citizen, or General Advertiser^ that ravages had been committed by the Indians on the inhabitants of the western part of the province, and that the Assembly's pertinacious disputes with the Governor prevented anything being done for the public protection, Franklin caused a reply to be inserted in the same new^spaper. over the signature of his son, William Franklin, and dated from the " Pennsylvania Coffee-house, London, Sept. 16, IToT." In this communication a circumstantial denial is given to the charges brought against the Assembly, and more especially the Quaker portion of that body.

With a view to enlightening public opinion still further in regard to the rights of the people of Pennsylvania, as opposed to the claims of the two sons of William Penn, in the beginning of 1759 an anonymous work was published, entitled " An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania from its origin." The motto was as follows: "Those who give up essential hberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty 3

26 ■ MEMOIR OF BENJAMIN TRANKLIN.

nor safety." The autliorsliip of tiiis work was at once charged upon Franklin, although by some it was attributed to his old comrade, James Ralph, then resident in London. The volume was dedicated to Arthur Onslow, Speaker of the House of Commons ; and, in his dedication, the writer says, " The cause we bring is, in fact, the cause of all the provinces in one. It is the cause of every British subject in every part of the British dominions. It is the cause of every man who deserves to be free, everywhere."

Following the dedicatory epistle is an "Introduction," in which Thomas Penn is referred to as "an assuming landlord, strongly disposed to convert free tenants into abject vassals, and to reap what he did not sow." As an excuse for bringing before the British public '• the transactions of a Colony till of late hardly mentioned in our annals," the author remarks : " But then, as there are some eyes which can find nothing marvellous but what is marvellously great, so there are others which are equally disposed to marvel at what is marvellously little, and who can derive as much entertainment from their microscope, in examining a mite,

as Br. in ascertaining the geography of the moon, or

measuring the tail of a comet." The author does not presume that "such as have long been accustomed to consider the Colonies in general as only so many dependencies on the Council-board, the Board of Trade, and the Board of Customs, or as a hot-bed for causes, jobs, and other pecuniary emoluments, and as bound as effectually by instruct lions as by laivs, can be prevailed upon to consider these patriot ?v/stics with any degree of respect. Derision, on the contrary, must be the lot of him who imagines it in the power of the pen to set any lustre upon them." And he eloquently concludes in these words : " But how contemptibly soever these gentlemen may talk of the Colonies, how cheap soever they may hold their Assemblies, or how insignificant the planters and traders who compose them, truth will be truth, and principle principle, notwithstanding. Courage, wisdom, integrity, and honor, are not to be measured by the sphere assigned them to act in, but by the trials they undergo, and the vouchers they furnish ; and, if so manifested, need neither robes nor titles to set them off."

INTERVIEW WITH THE PENNS. 27

The Proprietaries were much incensed by the language applied to them in this work. The belief that it was from the pen of Franklin was so fixed and general, that he made no public disavowal of the authorship, — partly, perhaps, throuo;h a willino;ness to incur all the odium of it, and partly because he was really responsible for the publication and for many ol the facts. In the Philadelphia edition of his works, published as late as 1840, the "Historical Review" is inseited entire, as from his pen. It appears, however, from a letter to David Hume, dated' September 27, 1760, that the work was incorrectly attributed to him. In this letter (first published by Mr. Sparks) he says : "I am obliged to you for the favorable sentiments you express of the pieces sent to you ; though the volume relating to our Pennsylvania affairs was not written by me, nor any part of it, except the remarks on the proprietor's estimate of his estate, and some of the inserted messages and reports of the Assembly, which I wrote when at home, as a member of committees appointed by the House for that purpose. The rest was by another hand." The " Historical Review," though anonymous, appears to have been of considerable service in gaining friends for the Assembly, in opposition to the Proprietaries.

In conformity with directions from the Assembly, Franklin had an interview with the Proprieta^ries. resident in England, and discussed the points of difference. The Messrs. Penn would not relax in their arbitrary claims. They seemed ambitious of holding the whole population of the province in a state of vassalage. Not only did they claim political privileges, insisting on giving such instructions to their deputy governor as made him a mere puppet in their hands, and trammelled him in a manner to render him powerless for good to the people, but they looked sharply after their pecuniary interests, and continued to chaffer with the Assembly for an exemption of their princely domains from taxation.