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Jorgenson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Benjamin Franklin + Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notes + +Author: Frank Luther Mott + Chester E. Jorgenson + +Release Date: March 6, 2011 [EBook #35508] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENJAMIN FRANKLIN *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Christine Aldridge and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"> +<h4>Transcriber's Notes:</h4> + + <p>1. This text uses UTF-8 (unicode) file encoding. If the apostrophes + and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, you may + have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. First, make sure + that your browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” is set to + Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font.</p> + +<p>2. The editor of the original book marked some mispelled words with + [<i>sic</i>], and these have been retained as written, uncorrected.</p> + +<p>Additional words found to be mispelled have been corrected and are + listed under <a href="#SPELLING_CORRECTIONS">"Spelling Corrections"</a> at the end of this e-text.</p> + +<p>Additionally this work contains a large number of word spelling + variations found to be valid in Webster's English Dictionary as well + as several unverified spellings that appear multiple times, + inconsistant word capitalization and hyphenation, all of which have + been retained as printed. The interested reader will find an + alphabetic <a href="#WORD_VARIATIONS">"Word Variations"</a> list at the end of this e-text.</p> + +<p>3. Numbered footnotes in Sections I-VII of the Introduction have been + relocated to the end of the Introduction and marked with an "i-". + Lettered footnotes in the "Selections" have been relocated directly + under the paragraph they pertain to.</p> + +<p>4 Additional <a href="#Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber's Notes</a> are located at the end of this e-text.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="main"> + +<p class="center txt120">*</p> + +<h2>AMERICAN WRITERS SERIES</h2> + +<p class="center txt120">*</p> + +<p class="center bold">HARRY HAYDEN CLARK<br /> +<i>General Editor</i></p> + +<p class="center txt120">*</p> + +<hr /> +<h3><span style="padding-right: 1em">*</span> AMERICAN WRITERS SERIES <span style="padding-left: 1em">*</span></h3> + +<div class="txt90"> +<p><i>Volumes of representative selections, prepared by American scholars under +the general editorship of Harry Hayden Clark, University of Wisconsin.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>Volumes now ready are starred.</i></p> + +<p class="section hang"><span class="smcap">American Transcendentalists</span>, <i>Raymond Adams, University of North +Carolina</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">William Cullen Bryant</span>, <i>Tremaine McDowell, University of Minnesota</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">James Fenimore Cooper</span>, <i>Robert E. Spiller, Swarthmore College</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Jonathan Edwards</span>, <i>Clarence H. Faust, University of Chicago, and +Thomas H. Johnson, Hackley School</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Ralph Waldo Emerson</span>, <i>Frederic I. Carpenter, Harvard University</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Benjamin Franklin</span>, <i>Frank Luther Mott and Chester E. Jorgenson, +University of Iowa</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson</span>, <i>Frederick C. Prescott, +Cornell University</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Bret Harte</span></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Nathaniel Hawthorne</span>, <i>Austin Warren, Boston University</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Oliver Wendell Holmes</span>, <i>Robert Shafer, University of Cincinnati</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Washington Irving</span>, <i>Henry A. Pochmann, Mississippi State College</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Henry James</span>, <i>Lyon Richardson, Western Reserve University</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Abraham Lincoln</span></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</span>, <i>Odell Shepard, Trinity College</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">James Russell Lowell</span>, <i>Norman Foerster, University of Iowa, and Harry +H. Clark, University of Wisconsin</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Herman Melville</span>, <i>Willard Thorp, Princeton University</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">John Lothrop Motley</span></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Thomas Paine</span>, <i>Harry H. Clark, University of Wisconsin</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Francis Parkman</span>, <i>Wilbur L. Schramm, University of Iowa</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Edgar Allan Poe</span>, <i>Margaret Alterton, University of Iowa, and Hardin +Craig, Stanford University</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">William Hickling Prescott</span>, <i>Claude Jones, Johns Hopkins University</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Southern Poets</span>, <i>Edd Winfield Parks, University of Georgia</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">Southern Prose</span>, <i>Gregory Paine, University of North Carolina</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Henry David Thoreau</span>, <i>Bartholow Crawford, University of Iowa</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Mark Twain</span>, <i>Fred Lewis Pattee, Rollins College</i></p> + +<p class="hang">*<span class="smcap">Walt Whitman</span>, <i>Floyd Stovall, University of Texas</i></p> + +<p class="hang"><span class="smcap">John Greenleaf Whittier</span></p> +</div></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 328px;"> +<img src="images/benfranklin.jpg" width="328" height="500" alt="BENJAMIN FRANKLIN" +title="BENJAMIN FRANKLIN" /> +<p class="artist"><i>Pen drawing by Kerr Eby, after an<br /> +engraving by Mason Chamberlin</i></p> + +<span class="caption">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</span> + +<p class="center bold txt90">ÆT. 56</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/titlescript.jpg" width="500" height="107" alt="Benjamin Franklin" title="Benjamin Franklin" /> +</div> + +<p class="section center">REPRESENTATIVE SELECTIONS, WITH<br /> +INTRODUCTION, BIBLIOGRAPHY, AND NOTES</p> + +<p class="section author"><span class="txt90">BY</span><br /> +<span class="smcap txt110">Frank Luther Mott</span></p> + +<p class="center txt90"><i>Director, School of Journalism<br /> +University of Iowa</i></p> + +<p class="section author"><span class="txt90">AND</span><br /> +<span class="smcap txt110">Chester E. Jorgenson</span></p> + +<p class="center txt90"><i>Instructor in English<br /> +University of Iowa</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> +<img src="images/publogo.jpg" width="75" height="112" alt="Publisher's Logo" title="Publisher's Logo" /> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 10%;" /> + +<p class="center txt120">AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY</p> + +<p class="center"><i>New York</i> · <i>Cincinnati</i> · <i>Chicago</i><br /> +<i>Boston</i> · <i>Atlanta</i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1936, by</span><br /> +AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +<span class="txt90"><i>All rights reserved</i></span></p> +<hr style="width: 5%;" /> +<p class="center txt90"><span class="smcap">Mott and Jorgenson's Franklin</span><br /> +W.P.I.</p> + +<p class="section center txt90"><span class="smcap">Made in U.S.A.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a><i>PREFACE</i></h2> + + +<p>Benjamin Franklin's reputation in America has been singularly +distorted by the neglect of his works other than his +<i>Autobiography</i> and his most utilitarian aphorisms. If America +has contented herself with appraising him as "the earliest incarnation +of 'David Harum,'" as "the first high-priest of the +religion of efficiency," as "the first Rotarian," it may be that +this aspect of Franklin is all that an America plagued by growing +pains, by peopling and mechanizing three thousand miles +of frontier, has been able to see. That facet of Franklin's mind +and mien which allowed Carlyle to describe him as "the Father +of all Yankees" was appreciated by Sinclair Lewis's George F. +Babbitt: "Once in a while I just naturally sit back and size up +this Solid American Citizen, with a whale of a lot of satisfaction." +But this is not the Franklin of "imperturbable common-sense" +honored by Matthew Arnold as "the very incarnation of +sanity and clear-sense, a man the most considerable ... whom +America has yet produced." Nor is this the Franklin who +emerges from his collected works (and the opinions of his +notable contemporaries) as an economist, political theorist, +educator, journalist, scientific deist, and disinterested scientist. +If he wrote little that is narrowly belles-lettres, he need not be +ashamed of his voluminous correspondence, in an age which +saw the fruition of the epistolary art. The Franklin found in +his collected and uncollected writings is, as the following +Introduction may suggest, not the Franklin who too commonly +is synchronized exclusively with the wisdom and wit of <i>Poor +Richard</i>.</p> + +<p>Since the present interpretation of the growth of Franklin's +mind, with stress upon its essential unity in the light of scientific +deism, tempered by his debt to Puritanism, classicism, and neoclassicism,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> +may seem somewhat novel, the editors have felt it +desirable to document their interpretation with considerable +fullness. It is hoped that the reader will withhold judgment as +to the validity of this interpretation until the documentary +evidence has been fully considered in its genetic significance, +and that he will feel able to incline to other interpretations only +in proportion as they can be equally supported by other evidence. +The present interpretation is also supported by the +Selections following—the fullest collection hitherto available +in one volume—which offer, the editors believe, the essential +materials for a reasonable acquaintance with the growth of +Franklin's mind, from youth to old age, in its comprehensive +interests—educational, literary, journalistic, economic, political, +scientific, humanitarian, and religious.</p> + +<p>With the exception of the selections from the <i>Autobiography</i>, +the works are arranged in approximate chronological order, +hence inviting a necessarily genetic study of Franklin's mind. +The <i>Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain</i>, +never before printed in an edition of Franklin's works or in a +book of selections, is here printed from the London edition of +1725, retaining his peculiarities of italics, capitalization, and +punctuation. Attention is also drawn to the photographically +reproduced complete text of <i>Poor Richard Improved</i> (1753), +graciously furnished by Mr. William Smith Mason. <i>The Way +to Wealth</i> is from an exact reprint made by Mr. Mason, and +with his permission here reproduced. One of the editors is +grateful for the privilege of consulting Mr. Mason's magnificent +collection of Franklin correspondence (original MSS), especially +the Franklin-Galloway and Franklin-Jonathan Shipley +(Bishop of St. Asaph) unpublished correspondence. With Mr. +Mason's generous permission the editors reproduce fragments +of this correspondence in the Introduction.</p> + +<p>The bulk of the selections have been printed from the latest, +standard edition, <i>The Writings of Benjamin Franklin</i>, collected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> +and edited with a Life and Introduction by Albert Henry +Smyth (10 vols., 1905-1907). For permission to use this material +the editors are grateful to The Macmillan Company, +publishers. The editors are indebted to Dr. Max Farrand, +Director of the Henry E. Huntington Library, for permission +to reprint part of Franklin's MS version of the <i>Autobiography</i>.</p> + +<p>Chester E. Jorgenson is preparing an analysis and interpretation +of Franklin's brand of scientific deism, its sources and +relation to his economic, political, and literary theories and +practice. Fragments of this projected study are included, especially +in Section VII of the following Introduction. For the +past two years Mr. Jorgenson has enjoyed the kindness and +generosity of Mr. William Smith Mason, and has incurred an +indebtedness which cannot be expressed adequately in print.</p> + +<p>The work of the editors has been vastly eased by Beata +Prochnow Jorgenson's assistance in typing, proofreading, et +cetera. They are extremely grateful to Professor Harry Hayden +Clark for incisive suggestions and valuable editorial assistance.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +F. L. M.<br /> +C. E. J. +</p> + + + +<div class="main"> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + +<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction</a></span></p> + +<table class="toc" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Introduction Contents"> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#I_FRANKLINS_MILIEU_THE_AGE_OF_ENLIGHTENMENT">I.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#I_FRANKLINS_MILIEU_THE_AGE_OF_ENLIGHTENMENT">Franklin's Milieu: The Age of Enlightenment</a>, xiii</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#II_FRANKLINS_THEORIES_OF_EDUCATION">II.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#II_FRANKLINS_THEORIES_OF_EDUCATION">Franklin's Theories of Education</a>, xxxii</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#III_FRANKLINS_LITERARY_THEORY_AND_PRACTICE">III.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#III_FRANKLINS_LITERARY_THEORY_AND_PRACTICE">Franklin's Literary Theory and Practice</a>, xlvi</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#IV_FRANKLIN_AS_PRINTER_AND_JOURNALIST">IV.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#IV_FRANKLIN_AS_PRINTER_AND_JOURNALIST">Franklin as Printer and Journalist</a>, lvii</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#V_FRANKLINS_ECONOMIC_VIEWS">V.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#V_FRANKLINS_ECONOMIC_VIEWS">Franklin's Economic Views</a>, lxiv</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#VI_FRANKLINS_POLITICAL_THEORIES">VI.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#VI_FRANKLINS_POLITICAL_THEORIES">Franklin's Political Theories</a>, lxxxii</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#VII_FRANKLIN_AS_SCIENTIST_AND_DEIST">VII.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#VII_FRANKLIN_AS_SCIENTIST_AND_DEIST">Franklin as Scientist and Deist</a>, cx</td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#CHRONOLOGICAL_TABLE">Chronological Table</a></span>, cxlii</p> + +<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#SELECTED_BIBLIOGRAPHY">Selected Bibliography</a></span></p> + +<table class="toc" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Bibliography Contents"> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#I_WORKS">I.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#I_WORKS">Works</a>, cli</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#II_COLLECTIONS_AND_REPRINTS">II.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#II_COLLECTIONS_AND_REPRINTS">Collections and Reprints</a>, cliii</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#III_BIOGRAPHIES">III.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#III_BIOGRAPHIES">Biographies</a>, clv</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#IV_BIOGRAPHICAL_AND_CRITICAL_STUDIES">IV.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#IV_BIOGRAPHICAL_AND_CRITICAL_STUDIES">Biographical and Critical Studies</a>, clviii</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#V_THE_AGE_OF_FRANKLIN">V.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#V_THE_AGE_OF_FRANKLIN">The Age of Franklin</a>, clxxiv</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="tocix"><a href="#VI_BIBLIOGRAPHIES_AND_CHECK_LISTS">VI.</a></td> +<td align="left"><a href="#VI_BIBLIOGRAPHIES_AND_CHECK_LISTS">Bibliographies and Check Lists</a>, clxxxvi</td></tr> +</table> + +<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#Selections_from">Selections</a></span></p> + +<ul> +<li><a href="#From_the_AUTOBIOGRAPHY"><i>From the</i> Autobiography</a>, 3</li> +<li><a href="#DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_I">Dogood Papers, No. I (1722)</a>, 96</li> +<li><a href="#DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_IV">Dogood Papers, No. IV (1722)</a>, 98</li> +<li><a href="#DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_V">Dogood Papers, No. V (1722)</a>, 102</li> +<li><a href="#DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_VII">Dogood Papers, No. VII (1722)</a>, 105</li> +<li><a href="#DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_XII">Dogood Papers, No. XII (1722)</a>, 109</li> +<li><a href="#EDITORIAL_PREFACE_TO_THE_NEW_ENGLAND_COURANT">Editorial Preface to the <i>New England Courant</i> (1723)</a>, 111</li> +<li><a href="#A_DISSERTATION_ON_LIBERTY">A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain (1725)</a>, 114</li> +<li><a href="#RULES_FOR_A_CLUB">Rules for a Club Established for Mutual Improvement (1728)</a>, 128</li> +<li><a href="#ARTICLES_OF_BELIEF_AND_ACTS_OF_RELIGION">Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion (1728)</a>, 130</li> +<li><a href="#THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_1">The Busy-Body, No. 1 (1728/9)</a>, 137</li> +<li><a href="#THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_2">The Busy-Body, No. 2 (1728/9)</a>, 139</li> +<li><a href="#THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_3">The Busy-Body, No. 3 (1728/9)</a>, 141</li> +<li><a href="#THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_4">The Busy-Body, No. 4 (1728/9)</a>, 145</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_THE_PENNSYLVANIA_GAZETTE">Preface to the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> (1729)</a>, 150</li> +<li><a href="#A_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_PHILOCLES_AND_HORATIO">A Dialogue between Philocles and Horatio (1730)</a>, 152</li> +<li><a href="#A_SECOND_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_PHILOCLES_AND_HORATIO">A Second Dialogue between Philocles and Horatio (1730)</a>, 156</li> +<li><a href="#A_WITCH_TRIAL_AT_MOUNT_HOLLY">A Witch Trial at Mount Holly (1730)</a>, 161</li> +<li><a href="#AN_APOLOGY_FOR_PRINTERS">An Apology for Printers (1731)</a>, 163</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1733">Preface to <i>Poor Richard</i> (1733)</a>, 169</li> +<li><a href="#A_MEDITATION_ON_A_QUART_MUGG">A Meditation on a Quart Mugg (1733)</a>, 170</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1734">Preface to <i>Poor Richard</i> (1734)</a>, 172<span class="pagenum lpad2"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1735">Preface to <i>Poor Richard</i> (1735)</a>, 174</li> +<li><a href="#HINTS_FOR_THOSE_THAT_WOULD_BE_RICH">Hints for Those That Would Be Rich (1736)</a>, 176</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOSIAH_FRANKLIN">To Josiah Franklin (April 13, 1738)</a>, 177</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1739">Preface to <i>Poor Richard</i> (1739)</a>, 179</li> +<li><a href="#A_PROPOSAL">A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America (1743)</a>, 180</li> +<li><a href="#SHAVERS_AND_TRIMMERS">Shavers and Trimmers (1743)</a>, 183</li> +<li><a href="#TO_THE_PUBLICK">To the Publick (1743)</a>, 186</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_LOGANS_TRANSLATION_OF_CATO_MAJOR">Preface to Logan's Translation of "Cato Major" (1743/4)</a>, 187</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOHN_FRANKLIN_AT_BOSTON">To John Franklin, at Boston (March 10, 1745)</a>, 188</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1746">Preface to <i>Poor Richard</i> (1746)</a>, 189</li> +<li><a href="#THE_SPEECH_OF_POLLY_BAKER">The Speech of Polly Baker (1747)</a>, 190</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1747">Preface to <i>Poor Richard</i> (1747)</a>, 193</li> +<li><a href="#TO_PETER_COLLINSON_194">To Peter Collinson (August 14, 1747)</a>, 194</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_IMPROVED_1748">Preface to <i>Poor Richard Improved</i> (1748)</a>, 195</li> +<li><a href="#ADVICE_TO_A_YOUNG_TRADESMAN">Advice to a Young Tradesman (1748)</a>, 196</li> +<li><a href="#TO_GEORGE_WHITEFIELD">To George Whitefield (July 6, 1749)</a>, 198</li> +<li><a href="#PROPOSALS_RELATING_TO_THE_EDUCATION_OF_YOUTH_IN_PENSILVANIA">Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania (1749)</a>, 199</li> +<li><a href="#IDEA_OF_THE_ENGLISH_SCHOOL">Idea of the English School (1751)</a>, 206</li> +<li><a href="#TO_CADWALLADER_COLDEN_ESQ_AT_NEW_YORK">To Cadwallader Colden Esq., at New York (1751)</a>, 213</li> +<li><a href="#EXPORTING_OF_FELONS_TO_THE_COLONIES">Exporting of Felons to the Colonies (1751)</a>, 214</li> +<li><a href="#OBSERVATIONS">Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, Etc. (1751)</a>, 216</li> +<li><a href="#TO_PETER_COLLINSON_223">To Peter Collinson (October 19, 1752)</a>, 223</li> +<li><a href="#POOR_RICHARD_IMPROVED_1753"><i>Poor Richard Improved</i> (1753)—facsimile reproduction</a>, 225</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOSEPH_HUEY">To Joseph Huey (June 6, 1753)</a>, 261</li> +<li><a href="#THREE_LETTERS_TO_GOVERNOR_SHIRLEY">Three Letters to Governor Shirley (1754)</a>, 263</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_270">To Miss Catherine Ray, at Block Island (March 4, 1755)</a>, 270</li> +<li><a href="#TO_PETER_COLLINSON_272">To Peter Collinson (August 25, 1755)</a>, 272</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_274">To Miss Catherine Ray (September 11, 1755)</a>, 274</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_277">To Miss Catherine Ray (October 16, 1755)</a>, 277</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MRS_JANE_MECOM_278">To Mrs. Jane Mecom (February 12, 1756)</a>, 278</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_E_HUBBARD">To Miss E. Hubbard (February 23, 1756)</a>, 278</li> +<li><a href="#TO_REV_GEORGE_WHITEFIELD">To Rev. George Whitefield (July 2, 1756)</a>, 279</li> +<li><a href="#THE_WAY_TO_WEALTH">The Way to Wealth (1758)</a>, 280</li> +<li><a href="#TO_HUGH_ROBERTS">To Hugh Roberts (September 16, 1758)</a>, 289</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MRS_JANE_MECOM_291">To Mrs. Jane Mecom (September 16, 1758)</a>, 291</li> +<li><a href="#TO_LORD_KAMES_293">To Lord Kames (May 3, 1760)</a>, 293</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_295">To Miss Mary Stevenson (June 11, 1760)</a>, 295</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MRS_DEBORAH_FRANKLIN">To Mrs. Deborah Franklin (June 27, 1760)</a>, 298</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JARED_INGERSOLL">To Jared Ingersoll (December 11, 1762)</a>, 300</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_301">To Miss Mary Stevenson (March 25, 1763)</a>, 301</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOHN_FOTHERGILL_MD">To John Fothergill, M.D. (March 14, 1764)</a>, 304</li> +<li><a href="#TO_SARAH_FRANKLIN">To Sarah Franklin (November 8, 1764)</a>, 307</li> +<li><a href="#A_NARRATIVE_OF_THE_LATE_MASSACRES"><i>From</i> A Narrative of the Late Massacres in Lancaster County (1764)</a>, 308<span class="pagenum lpad2"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></li> +<li><a href="#TO_THE_EDITOR_OF_A_NEWSPAPER">To the Editor of a Newspaper (May 20, 1765)</a>, 315</li> +<li><a href="#TO_LORD_KAMES_318">To Lord Kames (June 2, 1765)</a>, 318</li> +<li><a href="#LETTER_CONCERNING_THE_GRATITUDE_OF_AMERICA">Letter Concerning the Gratitude of America (January 6, 1766)</a>, 321</li> +<li><a href="#TO_LORD_KAMES_325">To Lord Kames (April 11, 1767)</a>, 325</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_330">To Miss Mary Stevenson (September 14, 1767)</a>, 330</li> +<li><a href="#ON_THE_LABOURING_POOR">On the Labouring Poor (1768)</a>, 336</li> +<li><a href="#TO_DUPONT_DE_NEMOURS">To Dupont de Nemours (July 28, 1768)</a>, 340</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOHN_ALLEYNE">To John Alleyne (August 9, 1768)</a>, 341</li> +<li><a href="#TO_THE_PRINTER_OF_THE_LONDON_CHRONICLE">To the Printer of the <i>London Chronicle</i> (August 18, 1768)</a>, 343</li> +<li><a href="#POSITIONS_TO_BE_EXAMINED_CONCERNING_NATIONAL_WEALTH">Positions to be Examined, Concerning National Wealth (1769)</a>, 345</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_347">To Miss Mary Stevenson (September 2, 1769)</a>, 347</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_348">To Joseph Priestley (September 19, 1772)</a>, 348</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_349">To Miss Georgiana Shipley (September 26, 1772)</a>, 349</li> +<li><a href="#TO_PETER_FRANKLIN">To Peter Franklin (undated)</a>, 351</li> +<li><a href="#ON_THE_PRICE_OF_CORN_AND_MANAGEMENT_OF_THE_POOR">On the Price of Corn, and Management of the Poor (undated)</a>, 355</li> +<li><a href="#AN_EDICT_BY_THE_KING_OF_PRUSSIA">An Edict by the King of Prussia (1773)</a>, 358</li> +<li><a href="#RULES_BY_WHICH_A_GREAT_EMPIRE_MAY_BE_REDUCED_TO_A_SMALL_ONE">Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One (1773)</a>, 363</li> +<li><a href="#TO_WILLIAM_FRANKLIN">To William Franklin (October 6, 1773)</a>, 371</li> +<li><a href="#PREFACE_TO_AN_ABRIDGMENT_OF_THE_BOOK_OF_COMMON_PRAYER">Preface to "An Abridgment of the Book of Common Prayer" (1773)</a>, 374</li> +<li><a href="#A_PARABLE_AGAINST_PERSECUTION">A Parable against Persecution</a>, 379</li> +<li><a href="#A_PARABLE_ON_BROTHERLY_LOVE">A Parable on Brotherly Love</a>, 380</li> +<li><a href="#TO_WILLIAM_STRAHAN">To William Strahan (July 5, 1775)</a>, 381</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_382">To Joseph Priestley (July 7, 1775)</a>, 382</li> +<li><a href="#TO_A_FRIEND_IN_ENGLAND">To a Friend in England (October 3, 1775)</a>, 383</li> +<li><a href="#TO_LORD_HOWE">To Lord Howe (July 30, 1776)</a>, 384</li> +<li><a href="#THE_SALE_OF_THE_HESSIANS">The Sale of the Hessians (1777)</a>, 387</li> +<li><a href="#MODEL_OF_A_LETTER_OF_RECOMMENDATION">Model of a Letter of Recommendation (April 2, 1777)</a>, 389</li> +<li><a href="#TO_mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash_390">To —— (October 4, 1777)</a>, 390</li> +<li><a href="#TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_390">To David Hartley (October 14, 1777)</a>, 390</li> +<li><a href="#A_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_BRITAIN_FRANCE_SPAIN_HOLLAND_SAXONY_AND_AMERICA">A Dialogue between Britain, France, Spain, Holland, Saxony and America</a>, 394</li> +<li><a href="#TO_CHARLES_DE_WEISSENSTEIN">To Charles de Weissenstein (July 1, 1778)</a>, 397</li> +<li><a href="#THE_EPHEMERA">The Ephemera (1778)</a>, 402</li> +<li><a href="#TO_RICHARD_BACHE">To Richard Bache (June 2, 1779)</a>, 404</li> +<li><a href="#MORALS_OF_CHESS">Morals of Chess (1779)</a>, 406</li> +<li><a href="#TO_BENJAMIN_VAUGHAN_410">To Benjamin Vaughan (November 9, 1779)</a>, 410</li> +<li><a href="#THE_WHISTLE">The Whistle (1779)</a>, 412</li> +<li><a href="#THE_LORDS_PRAYER">The Lord's Prayer (1779?)</a>, 414</li> +<li><a href="#THE_LEVEE">The Levée (1779?)</a>, 417</li> +<li><a href="#PROPOSED_NEW_VERSION_OF_THE_BIBLE">Proposed New Version of the Bible (1779?)</a>, 419</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_420">To Joseph Priestley (February 8, 1780)</a>, 420</li> +<li><a href="#TO_GEORGE_WASHINGTON">To George Washington (March 5, 1780)</a>, 421</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_422">To Miss Georgiana Shipley (October 8, 1780)</a>, 422<span class="pagenum lpad2"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span></li> +<li><a href="#TO_RICHARD_PRICE">To Richard Price (October 9, 1780)</a>, 423</li> +<li><a href="#DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_FRANKLIN_AND_THE_GOUT">Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout (1780)</a>, 424</li> +<li><a href="#THE_HANDSOME_AND_DEFORMED_LEG">The Handsome and Deformed Leg (1780?)</a>, 430</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_432">To Miss Georgiana Shipley (undated)</a>, 432</li> +<li><a href="#TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_434">To David Hartley (December 15, 1781)</a>, 434</li> +<li><a href="#SUPPLEMENT_TO_THE_BOSTON_INDEPENDENT_CHRONICLE">Supplement to the Boston <i>Independent Chronicle</i> (1782)</a>, 434</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOHN_THORNTON">To John Thornton (May 8, 1782)</a>, 443</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_443">To Joseph Priestley (June 7, 1782)</a>, 443</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JONATHAN_SHIPLEY_445">To Jonathan Shipley (June 10, 1782)</a>, 445</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JAMES_HUTTON">To James Hutton (July 7, 1782)</a>, 447</li> +<li><a href="#TO_SIR_JOSEPH_BANKS_448">To Sir Joseph Banks (September 9, 1782)</a>, 448</li> +<li><a href="#INFORMATION_TO_THOSE_WHO_WOULD_REMOVE_TO_AMERICA">Information to Those Who Would Remove to America (1782?)</a>, 449</li> +<li><a href="#APOLOGUE">Apologue (1783?)</a>, 458</li> +<li><a href="#TO_SIR_JOSEPH_BANKS_459">To Sir Joseph Banks (July 27, 1783)</a>, 459</li> +<li><a href="#TO_MRS_SARAH_BACHE">To Mrs. Sarah Bache (January 26, 1784)</a>, 460</li> +<li><a href="#AN_ECONOMICAL_PROJECT">An Economical Project (1784?)</a>, 466</li> +<li><a href="#TO_SAMUEL_MATHER">To Samuel Mather (May 12, 1784)</a>, 471</li> +<li><a href="#TO_BENJAMIN_VAUGHAN_472">To Benjamin Vaughan (July 26, 1784)</a>, 472</li> +<li><a href="#TO_GEORGE_WHATELY">To George Whately (May 23, 1785)</a>, 479</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JOHN_BARD_AND_MRS_BARD">To John Bard and Mrs. Bard (November 14, 1785)</a>, 481</li> +<li><a href="#TO_JONATHAN_SHIPLEY_481">To Jonathan Shipley (February 24, 1786)</a>, 481</li> +<li><a href="#TO_mdashmdashmdashmdashmdash_484">To —— (July 3, 1786?)</a>, 484</li> +<li><a href="#SPEECH_IN_THE_CONVENTION_ON_THE_SUBJECT_OF_SALARIES">Speech in the Convention; On the Subject of Salaries (1787)</a>, 486</li> +<li><a href="#MOTION_FOR_PRAYERS_IN_THE_CONVENTION">Motion for Prayers in the Convention (1787)</a>, 489</li> +<li><a href="#SPEECH_IN_THE_CONVENTION">Speech in the Convention at the Conclusion of Its Deliberations (1787)</a>, 491</li> +<li><a href="#TO_THE_EDITORS_OF_THE_PENNSYLVANIA_GAZETTE">To the Editors of the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> (1788)</a>, 493</li> +<li><a href="#TO_REV_JOHN_LATHROP">To Rev. John Lathrop (May 31, 1788)</a>, 496</li> +<li><a href="#TO_THE_EDITOR_OF_THE_FEDERAL_GAZETTE">To the Editor of the <i>Federal Gazette</i> (1788?)</a>, 496</li> +<li><a href="#TO_CHARLES_CARROLL">To Charles Carroll (May 25, 1789)</a>, 500</li> +<li><a href="#AN_ACCOUNT_OF_THE_SUPREMEST_COURT">An Account of the Supremest Court of Judicature in Pennsylvania, viz. the Court of the Press (1789)</a>, 501</li> +<li><a href="#AN_ADDRESS_TO_THE_PUBLIC">An Address to the Public (1789)</a>, 505</li> +<li><a href="#TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_506">To David Hartley (December 4, 1789)</a>, 506</li> +<li><a href="#TO_EZRA_STILES">To Ezra Stiles (March 9, 1790)</a>, 507</li> +<li><a href="#ON_THE_SLAVE-TRADE">On the Slave-Trade (1790)</a>, 510</li> +<li><a href="#REMARKS_CONCERNING_THE_SAVAGES_OF_NORTH_AMERICA">Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America</a>, 513</li> +<li><a href="#AN_ARABIAN_TALE">An Arabian Tale</a>, 519</li> +<li><a href="#A_PETITION_OF_THE_LEFT_HAND">A Petition of the Left Hand (date unknown)</a>, 520</li> +<li><a href="#SOME_GOOD_WHIG_PRINCIPLES">Some Good Whig Principles (date unknown)</a>, 521</li> +<li><a href="#THE_ART_OF_PROCURING_PLEASANT_DREAMS">The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams</a>, 523</li></ul> + +<p><span class="smcap"><a href="#NOTES">Notes</a></span>, 529</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a><i>INTRODUCTION</i></h2> + +<h3><a name="I_FRANKLINS_MILIEU_THE_AGE_OF_ENLIGHTENMENT" id="I_FRANKLINS_MILIEU_THE_AGE_OF_ENLIGHTENMENT"></a>I. FRANKLIN'S MILIEU: THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT</h3> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin's reputation, according to John Adams, +"was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick +or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed than +any or all of them."<a name="FNanchor_I-1_1" id="FNanchor_I-1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-1_1" class="fnanchor">[i-1]</a> The historical critic recognizes increasingly +that Adams was not thinking idly when he doubted +whether Franklin's panegyrical and international reputation +could ever be explained without doing "a complete history of +the philosophy and politics of the eighteenth century." Adams +conceived that an explication of Franklin's mind and activities +integrated with the thought patterns of the epoch which fathered +him "would be one of the most important that ever was written; +much more interesting to this and future ages than the 'Decline +and Fall of the Roman Empire.'" And such a historical and +critical colossus is still among the works hoped for but yet unborn. +Too often, even in the scholarly mind, Franklin has +become a symbol, and it may be confessed, not a winged one, +of the self-made man, of New-World practicality, of the successful +tradesman, of the Sage of <i>Poor Richard</i> with his +penny-saving economy and frugality. In short, the Franklin +legend fails to transcend an allegory of the success of the <i>doer</i> +in an America allegedly materialistic, uncreative, and unimaginative.</p> + +<p>It is the purpose of this essay to show that Franklin, the +American Voltaire,—always reasonable if not intuitive, encyclopedic +if not sublimely profound, humane if not saintly,—is +best explained with reference to the Age of Enlightenment, of +which he was the completest colonial representative. Due attention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> +will, however, be paid to other factors. And therefore it is +necessary to begin with a brief survey of the pattern of ideas +of the age to which he was responsive. Not without reason does +one critic name him as "the most complete representative of his +century that any nation can point to."<a name="FNanchor_I-2_2" id="FNanchor_I-2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-2_2" class="fnanchor">[i-2]</a></p> + +<p>When Voltaire, "the patriarch of the <i>philosophes</i>," in 1726 +took refuge in England, he at once discovered minds and an +attitude toward human experience which were to prove the +seminal factors of the Age of Enlightenment. He found that +Englishmen had acclaimed Bacon "the father of experimental +philosophy," and that Newton, "the destroyer of the Cartesian +system," was "as the Hercules of fabulous story, to whom the +ignorant ascribed all the feats of ancient heroes." Voltaire then +paused to praise Locke, who "destroyed innate ideas," Locke, +than whom "no man ever had a more judicious or more methodical +genius, or was a more acute logician." Bacon, Newton, +and Locke brooded over the currents of eighteenth-century +thought and were formative factors of much that is most characteristic +of the Enlightenment.</p> + +<p>To Bacon was given the honor of having distinguished between +the fantasies of old wives' tales and the certainty of +empiricism. Moved by the ghost of Bacon, the Royal Society +had for its purpose, according to Hooke, "To improve the +knowledge of naturall things, and all useful Arts, Manufactures, +Mechanick practises, Engynes and Inventions by Experiments."<a name="FNanchor_I-3_3" id="FNanchor_I-3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-3_3" class="fnanchor">[i-3]</a> +The zeal for experiment was equaled only by its miscellaneousness. +Cheese making, the eclipses of comets, and the intestines<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> +of gnats were alike the objects of telescopic or microscopic +scrutiny. The full implication of Baconian empiricism came to +fruition in Newton, who in 1672 was elected a Fellow of the +Royal Society. Bacon was not the least of those giants upon +whose shoulders Newton stood. To the experimental tradition +of Kepler, Brahe, Harvey, Copernicus, Galileo, and Bacon, +Newton joined the mathematical genius of Descartes; and as +a result became "as thoroughgoing an empiricist as he was a +consummate mathematician," for whom there was "no <i>a priori</i> +certainty."<a name="FNanchor_I-4_4" id="FNanchor_I-4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-4_4" class="fnanchor">[i-4]</a> At this time it is enough to note of Newtonianism, +that for the incomparable physicist "science was composed of +laws stating the mathematical behaviour of nature solely—laws +clearly deducible from phenomena and exactly verifiable in +phenomena—everything further is to be swept out of science, +which thus becomes a body of absolutely certain truth about +the doings of the physical world."<a name="FNanchor_I-5_5" id="FNanchor_I-5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-5_5" class="fnanchor">[i-5]</a> The pattern of ideas known +as Newtonianism may be summarized as embracing a belief in +(1) a universe governed by immutable natural laws, (2) which +laws constitute a sublimely harmonious system, (3) reflecting a +benevolent and all-wise Geometrician; (4) thus man desires to +effect a correspondingly harmonious inner heaven; (5) and feels +assured of the plausibility of an immortal life. Newton was a +believer in scriptural revelation. It is ironical that through his +cosmological system, mathematically demonstrable, he lent reinforcement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> +to deism, the most destructive intellectual solvent +of the authority of the altar.</p> + +<p>Deists, as defined by their contemporary, Ephraim Chambers +(in his <i>Cyclopædia ...</i>, London, 1728), are those "whose distinguishing +character it is, not to profess any particular form, +or system of religion; but only to acknowledge the existence of +a God, without rendering him any external worship, or service. +The Deists hold, that, considering the multiplicity of religions, +the numerous pretences to revelation, and the precarious arguments +generally advanced in proof thereof; the best and surest +way is, to return to the simplicity of nature, and the belief of +one God, which is the only truth agreed to by all nations." +They "reject all revelations as an imposition, and believe no +more than what natural light discovers to them...."<a name="FNanchor_I-6_6" id="FNanchor_I-6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-6_6" class="fnanchor">[i-6]</a> The +"simplicity of nature" signifies "the established order, and +course of natural things; the series of second causes; or the laws +which God has imposed on the motions impressed by him."<a name="FNanchor_I-7_7" id="FNanchor_I-7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-7_7" class="fnanchor">[i-7]</a> +And attraction, a kind of <i>conatus accedendi</i>, is the crown, according +to the eighteenth century, of the series of secondary causes. +Hence, Newtonian physics became the surest ally of the deist +in his quest for a religion, immutable and universal. The Newtonian +progeny were legion: among them were Boyle, Keill, +Desaguliers, Shaftesbury, Locke, Samuel Clarke, 'sGravesande, +Boerhaave, Diderot, Trenchard and Gordon, Voltaire, Gregory, +Maclaurin, Pemberton, and others. The eighteenth century +echoed Fontenelle's eulogy that Newtonianism was "sublime +geometry." If, as Boyle wrote, mathematical and mechanical +principles were "the alphabet, in which God wrote the world," +Newtonian science and empiricism were the lexicons which the +deists used to read the cosmic volume in which the universal +laws were inscribed. And the deists and the liberal political +theorists "found the fulcrum for subverting existing institutions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span> +and standards only in the laws of nature, discovered, as +they supposed, by mathematicians and astronomers."<a name="FNanchor_I-8_8" id="FNanchor_I-8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-8_8" class="fnanchor">[i-8]</a></p> + +<p>Complementary to Newtonian science was the sensationalism +of John Locke. Conceiving the mind as <i>tabula rasa</i>, discrediting +innate ideas, Lockian psychology undermined such a theological +dogma as total depravity—man's innate and inveterate +malevolence—and hence was itself a kind of <i>tabula rasa</i> on +which later were written the optimistic opinions of those +who credited man's capacity for altruism. If it remained for +the French <i>philosophes</i> to deify Reason, Locke honored it as the +crowning experience of his sensational psychology.<a name="FNanchor_I-9_9" id="FNanchor_I-9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-9_9" class="fnanchor">[i-9]</a> Then, too, +as Miss Lois Whitney has ably demonstrated, Lockian psychology +"cleared the ground for either primitivism or a theory of +progress."<a name="FNanchor_I-10_10" id="FNanchor_I-10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-10_10" class="fnanchor">[i-10]</a> In addition, his social compact theory, augmenting +seventeenth-century liberalism, furnished the political theorists +of the Enlightenment with "the principle of Consent"<a name="FNanchor_I-11_11" id="FNanchor_I-11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-11_11" class="fnanchor">[i-11]</a> in their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span> +antipathy for monarchial obscurantism. Locke has been described +as the "originator of a psychology which provided democratic +government with a scientific basis."<a name="FNanchor_I-12_12" id="FNanchor_I-12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-12_12" class="fnanchor">[i-12]</a> The full impact of +Locke will be felt when philosophers deduce that if sensations +and reflections are the product of outward stimuli—those of +nature, society, and institutions—then to reform man one +needs only to reform society and institutions, or remove to +some tropical isle. We remember that the French Encyclopedists, +for example, were motivated by their faith in the +"indefinite malleability of human nature by education and +institutions."<a name="FNanchor_I-13_13" id="FNanchor_I-13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-13_13" class="fnanchor">[i-13]</a></p> + +<p>"With the possible exception of John Locke," C. A. Moore +observes, "Shaftesbury was more generally known in the mid-century +than any other English philosopher."<a name="FNanchor_I-14_14" id="FNanchor_I-14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-14_14" class="fnanchor">[i-14]</a> Shaftesbury's +a priori "virtuoso theory of benevolence" may be viewed as +complementary to Locke's psychology to the extent that both +have within them the implication that through education and +reform man may become perfectible. Both tend to undermine +social, political, and religious authoritarianism. Shaftesbury's +insistence upon man's innate altruism and compassion, coupled +with the deistic and rationalistic divorce between theology +and morality, resulted in the dogma that the most acceptable +service to God is expressed in kindness to God's other children +and helped to motivate the rise of humanitarianism.</p> + +<p>The idea of progress<a name="FNanchor_I-15_15" id="FNanchor_I-15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-15_15" class="fnanchor">[i-15]</a> was popularized (if not born) in the +eighteenth century. It has been recently shown that not only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">[xix]</a></span> +the results of scientific investigations but also Anglican defenses +of revealed religion served to accelerate a belief in progress. +In answer to the atheists and deists who indicted revealed +religion because revelation was given so late in the growth of +the human family and hence was not eternal, universal, and immutable, +the Anglican apologists were forced into the position +of asserting that man enjoyed a progressive ascent, that the religious +education of mankind is like that of the individual. If, +as the deists charged, Christ appeared rather belatedly, the +apologists countered that he was sent only when the race was +prepared to profit by his coming. God's revelations thus were +adjusted to progressive needs and capacities.<a name="FNanchor_I-16_16" id="FNanchor_I-16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-16_16" class="fnanchor">[i-16]</a></p> + +<p>Carl Becker has suggestively dissected the Enlightenment in +a series of antitheses between its credulity and its skepticism. +If the eighteenth-century philosopher renounced Eden, he discovered +Arcadia in distant isles and America. Rejecting the +authority of the Bible and church, he accepted the authority +of "nature," natural law, and reason. Although scorning metaphysics, +he desired to be considered philosophical. If he denied +miracles, he yet had a fond faith in the perfectibility of the +species.<a name="FNanchor_I-17_17" id="FNanchor_I-17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-17_17" class="fnanchor">[i-17]</a></p> + +<p>Even as Voltaire had his liberal tendencies stoutly reinforced +by contact with English rationalism and deism,<a name="FNanchor_I-18_18" id="FNanchor_I-18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-18_18" class="fnanchor">[i-18]</a> so were the +other French <i>philosophes</i>, united in their common hatred of the +Roman Catholic church, also united in their indebtedness to +exponents of English liberalism, dominated by Locke and Newton. +If, as Madame de Lambert wrote in 1715, Bayle more than +others of his age shook "the Yoke of authority and opinion," +English free thought powerfully reinforced the native French +revolt against authoritarianism. After 1730 English was the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">[xx]</a></span> +model for French thought.<a name="FNanchor_I-19_19" id="FNanchor_I-19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-19_19" class="fnanchor">[i-19]</a> Nearly all of Locke's works had +been translated in France before 1700. Voltaire's affinity for the +English mind has already been touched on. D'Alembert comments, +"When we measure the interval between a Scotus and a +Newton, or rather between the works of Scotus and those of +Newton, we must cry out with Terence, <i>Homo homini quid +præstat</i>."<a name="FNanchor_I-20_20" id="FNanchor_I-20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-20_20" class="fnanchor">[i-20]</a></p> + +<p>Any doctrine was intensely welcome which would allow +the Frenchman to regain his natural rights curtailed by the +revocation of the Edict of Nantes, by the inequalities of a state +vitiated by privileges, by an economic structure tottering because +of bankruptcy attending unsuccessful wars and the upkeep +of a Versailles with its dazzling ornaments, and by a religious +program dominated by a Jesuit rather than a Gallican +church.<a name="FNanchor_I-21_21" id="FNanchor_I-21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-21_21" class="fnanchor">[i-21]</a> Economic, political, and religious abuses were inextricably +united; the spirit of revolt did not feel obliged to +discriminate between the authority of the crown and nobles and +the authority of the altar. Graphic is Diderot's vulgar vituperation: +he would draw out the entrails of a priest to strangle a king!</p> + +<p>Let us now turn to the American backgrounds. The bibliolatry +of colonial New England is expressed in William +Bradford's resolve to study languages so that he could "see with +his own eyes the ancient oracles of God in all their native +beauty."<a name="FNanchor_I-22_22" id="FNanchor_I-22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-22_22" class="fnanchor">[i-22]</a> In addition to furnishing the new Canaan with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</a></span> +ecclesiastical and political precedent, Scripture provided "not +a partiall, but a perfect rule of Faith, and manners." Any dogma +contravening the "ancient oracle" was a weed sown by Satan +and fit only to be uprooted and thrown in the fire. The colonial +seventeenth century was one which, like John Cotton, regularly +sweetened its mouth "with a piece of Calvin." One need not +be reminded that Calvinism was inveterately and completely +antithetical to the dogma of the Enlightenment.<a name="FNanchor_I-23_23" id="FNanchor_I-23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-23_23" class="fnanchor">[i-23]</a> Calvinistic +bibliolatry contended with "the sacred book of nature." Its +wrathful though just Deity was unlike the compassionate, virtually +depersonalized Deity heralded in the eighteenth century, +in which the Trinity was dissolved. The redemptive Christ became +the amiable philosopher. Adam's universally contagious +guilt was transferred to social institutions, especially the tyrannical +forms of kings and priests. Calvin's forlorn and depraved +man became a creature naturally compassionate. If once man +worshipped the Deity through seeking to parallel the divine +laws scripturally revealed, in the eighteenth century he honored +his benevolent God, who was above demanding worship, +through kindnesses shown God's other children. The individual +was lost in society, self-perfection gave way to humanitarianism, +God to Man, theology to morality, and faith to reason. +The colonial seventeenth century was politically oligarchical:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</a></span> +when Thomas Hooker heckled Winthrop on the lack of suffrage, +Winthrop with no compromise asserted that "the best +part is always the least, and of that best part the wiser part is +always the lesser."<a name="FNanchor_I-24_24" id="FNanchor_I-24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-24_24" class="fnanchor">[i-24]</a> If the seventeenth-century college was a +cloister for clerical education, the Enlightenment sought to +train the layman for citizenship.</p> + +<p>With the turn of the seventeenth century several forces came +into prominence, undermining New England's Puritan heritage. +Among those relevant for our study are: the ubiquitous frontier, +and the rise of Quakerism, deism, Methodism, and science. The +impact of the frontier was neglected until Professor Turner +called attention to its existence; he writes that "the most important +effect of the frontier has been in the promotion of +democracy here and in Europe.... It produces antipathy to +control, and particularly to any direct control.... The frontier +conditions prevalent in the colonies are important factors in +the explanation of the American Revolution...."<a name="FNanchor_I-25_25" id="FNanchor_I-25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-25_25" class="fnanchor">[i-25]</a> In the +period included in our survey the frontier receded from the coast +to the fall line to the Alleghenies: at each stage it "did indeed +furnish a new field of opportunity, a gate of escape from the +bondage of the past; and freshness, and confidence, and scorn +of older society, impatience of its restraints and its ideas, and +indifference to its lessons, have accompanied the frontier."<a name="FNanchor_I-26_26" id="FNanchor_I-26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-26_26" class="fnanchor">[i-26]</a> +One recalls the spirited satire on frontier conditions, as the above +aspects give birth to violence and disregard for law, in Hugh +Brackenridge's <i>Modern Chivalry</i>. Under the satire one feels the +justness of the attack, intensified by our knowledge that Brackenridge +grew up "in a democratic Scotch-Irish back-country +settlement." If the frontiersmen during the eighteenth century +did not place their dirty boots on their governors' desks, they +were partially responsible for an inveterate spirit of revolt,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</a></span> +shown so brutally in the "massacres" provoked by the "Paxton +boys" of Pennsylvania. One is not unprepared to discover +resentment against the forms of authority in a territory in +which a strong back is more immediately important than a +knowledge of debates on predestination. Granting the importance +of the frontier in opposing the theocratic Old Way, it +must be considered in terms of other and more complex factors.</p> + +<p>Reinforcing Edwards's Great Awakening, George Whitefield, +especially in the Middle Colonies, challenged the growing +complacence of colonial religious thought with his insistence +that man "is by nature half-brute and half-devil." It has been +suggested that Methodism in effect allied itself with the attitudes +of Hobbes and Mandeville in attacking man's nature, and hence +by reaction tended to provoke "a primitivism based on the +doctrine of natural benevolence."<a name="FNanchor_I-27_27" id="FNanchor_I-27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-27_27" class="fnanchor">[i-27]</a></p> + +<p>The "New English Israel" was harried by the Quakers,<a name="FNanchor_I-28_28" id="FNanchor_I-28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-28_28" class="fnanchor">[i-28]</a> +who preached the priesthood of all believers and the right of +private judgment. They denied the total depravity of the natural +man and the doctrine of election; they gloried in a loving +Father, and scourged the ecclesiastical pomp and ceremony of +other religions. They were possessed by a blunt enthusiasm +which held the immediate private revelation anterior to scriptural +revelation. Faithful to the inner light, the Quakers seemed to +neglect Scripture. Although the less extreme Quakers, such as +John Woolman, did not blind themselves to the need for personal +introspection and self-conquest, Quakerism as a movement +tended to place the greater emphasis on morality articulate in +terms of fellow-service, and lent momentum to the rise of +humanitarianism expressed in prison reform and anti-slavery +agitation. Also one may wonder to what extent colonial Quakerism +tended to lend sanction to the rising democratic spirit.</p> + +<p>In the person of Cotton Mather, until recently considered a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</a></span> +bigoted incarnation of the "Puritan spirit ... become ossified," +are discovered forces which, when divorced from Puritan theology, +were to become the sharpest wedges splintering the deep-rooted +oak of the Old Way. These forces were the authority +of reason and science. In <i>The Christian Philosopher</i>,<a name="FNanchor_I-29_29" id="FNanchor_I-29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-29_29" class="fnanchor">[i-29]</a> basing +his attitude on the works of Ray, Derham, Cheyne, and Grew,<a name="FNanchor_I-30_30" id="FNanchor_I-30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-30_30" class="fnanchor">[i-30]</a> +Mather attempted to shatter the Calvinists' antithesis between +science and theology, asserting "that [Natural] Philosophy is no +Enemy, but a mighty and wondrous Incentive to Religion."<a name="FNanchor_I-31_31" id="FNanchor_I-31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-31_31" class="fnanchor">[i-31]</a> +He warned that since even Mahomet with the aid of reason +found the Workman in his Work, Christian theologians should +fear "lest a Mahometan be called in for thy Condemnation!"<a name="FNanchor_I-32_32" id="FNanchor_I-32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-32_32" class="fnanchor">[i-32]</a> +Studying nature's sublime order, one must be blind if his +thoughts are not carried heavenward to "admire that Wisdom +itself!" Although Mather mistrusted Reason, he accepted it as +"the voice of God"—an experience which enabled him to discover +the workmanship of the Deity in nature. Magnetism, the +vegetable kingdom, the stars infer a harmonious order, so wondrous +that only a God could have created it. If Reason is no +complete substitute for Scripture it offers enough evidence to +hiss atheism out of the world: "A Being that must be superior +to Matter, even the Creator and Governor of all Matter, is +everywhere so conspicuous, that there can be nothing more +monstrous than to deny the God that is above."<a name="FNanchor_I-33_33" id="FNanchor_I-33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-33_33" class="fnanchor">[i-33]</a> Sir Isaac +Newton with his mathematical and experimental proof of the +sublime universal order strung on invariable secondary causes, +Mather confessed, is "our perpetual Dictator."<a name="FNanchor_I-34_34" id="FNanchor_I-34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-34_34" class="fnanchor">[i-34]</a> Conceiving of +science as a rebuke to the atheist, and a natural ally to scriptural<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</a></span> +theology, Mather, like a Newton himself, juxtaposed rationalism +and faith in one pyramidal confirmation of the existence, +omnipotence, and benevolence of God. Here were +variations from Calvinism's common path which, when augmented +by English and French liberalism, by the influence of +Quakerism and the frontier, were to give rise to democracy, +rationalism, and scientific deism. The Church of England +through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had "pursued +a liberal latitudinarian policy which, as a mode of thought, +tended to promote deism by emphasizing rational religion and +minimizing revelation."<a name="FNanchor_I-35_35" id="FNanchor_I-35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-35_35" class="fnanchor">[i-35]</a> It was to be expected that in colonies +created by Puritans (or even Quakers), deism would have +a less spectacular and extensive success than it appears to have +had in the mother country. If militant deism remained an +aristocratic cult until the Revolution,<a name="FNanchor_I-36_36" id="FNanchor_I-36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-36_36" class="fnanchor">[i-36]</a> scientific rationalism +(Newtonianism) long before this, from the time of Mather, +became a common ally of orthodoxy. If a "religion of nature" +may be defined with Tillotson as "obedience to Natural Law, +and the performance of such duties as Natural Light, without +any express and supernatural revelation, doth dictate to man," +then it was in the colonies, prior to the Revolution, more commonly +a buttress to revealed religion than an equivalent to it.</p> + +<p>Lockian sensism and Newtonian science were the chief +sources of that brand of colonial rationalism which at first complemented +orthodoxy, and finally buried it among lost causes. +The Marquis de Chastellux was astounded when he found on a +center table in a Massachusetts inn an "Abridgment of Newton's +Philosophy"; whereupon he "put some questions" to his +host "on physics and geometry," with which he "found him +well acquainted."<a name="FNanchor_I-37_37" id="FNanchor_I-37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-37_37" class="fnanchor">[i-37]</a> Now, even a superficial reading of the eighteenth +century discloses countless allusions to Newton, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvi" id="Page_xxvi">[xxvi]</a></span> +popularizers, and the implications of his physics and cosmology. +As Mr. Brasch suggests, "From the standpoint of the +history of science," the extent of the vogue of Newtonianism +"is yet very largely unknown history."<a name="FNanchor_I-38_38" id="FNanchor_I-38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-38_38" class="fnanchor">[i-38]</a></p> + +<p>In Samuel Johnson's retrospective view, the Yale of 1710 at +Saybrook was anything but progressive with its "scholastic +cobwebs of a few little English and Dutch systems."<a name="FNanchor_I-39_39" id="FNanchor_I-39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-39_39" class="fnanchor">[i-39]</a> The year +of Johnson's graduation (1714), however, Mr. Dummer, Yale's +agent in London, collected seven hundred volumes, including +works of Norris, Barrow, Tillotson, Boyle, Halley, and the +second edition (1713) of the <i>Principia</i> and a copy of the <i>Optics</i>, +presented by Newton himself. After the schism of 1715/6 the +collection was moved to New Haven, at the time of Johnson's +election to a tutorship. It was then, writes Johnson, that the +trustees "introduced the study of Mr. Locke and Sir Isaac +Newton as fast as they could and in order to this the study of +mathematics. The Ptolemaic system was hitherto as much believed +as the Scriptures, but they soon cleared up and established +the Copernican by the help of Whiston's Lectures, Derham, +etc."<a name="FNanchor_I-40_40" id="FNanchor_I-40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-40_40" class="fnanchor">[i-40]</a> Johnson studied Euclid, algebra, and conic +sections "so as to read Sir Isaac with understanding." He +gloomily reviews the "infidelity and apostasy" resulting from +the study of the ideas of Locke, Tindal, Bolingbroke, Mandeville, +Shaftesbury, and Collins. That Newtonianism and even +deism made progress at Yale is the tenor of Johnson's backward +glance. About 1716 Samuel Clarke's edition of Rohault was introduced +at Yale: Clarke's Rohault<a name="FNanchor_I-41_41" id="FNanchor_I-41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-41_41" class="fnanchor">[i-41]</a> was an attack upon this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxvii" id="Page_xxvii">[xxvii]</a></span> +standard summary of Cartesianism. Ezra Stiles was not certain +that Clarke was honest in heaping up notes "not so much to illustrate +Rohault as to make him the Vehicle of conveying the +peculiarities of the sublimer Newtonian Philosophy."<a name="FNanchor_I-42_42" id="FNanchor_I-42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-42_42" class="fnanchor">[i-42]</a> This +work was used until 1743 when 'sGravesande's <i>Natural Philosophy</i> +was wisely substituted. Rector Thomas Clap used Wollaston's +<i>Religion of Nature Delineated</i> as a favorite text. That +there was no dearth of advanced natural science and philosophy, +even suggestive of deism, is fairly evident.</p> + +<p>Measured by the growth of interest in science in the English +universities, Harvard's awareness of new discoveries was not +especially backward in the seventeenth century. Since Copernicanism +at the close of the sixteenth century had few adherents,<a name="FNanchor_I-43_43" id="FNanchor_I-43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-43_43" class="fnanchor">[i-43]</a> +it is almost startling to learn that probably by 1659 the +Copernican system was openly avowed at Harvard.<a name="FNanchor_I-44_44" id="FNanchor_I-44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-44_44" class="fnanchor">[i-44]</a> In 1786 +Nathaniel Mather wrote from Dublin: "I perceive the Cartesian +philosophy begins to obteyn in New England, and if I conjecture +aright the Copernican system too."<a name="FNanchor_I-45_45" id="FNanchor_I-45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-45_45" class="fnanchor">[i-45]</a> John Barnard, +who was graduated from Harvard in 1710, has written that no +algebra was then taught, and wistfully suggests that he had been +born too soon, since "now" students "have the great Sir Isaac +Newton and Dr. Halley and some other mathematicians for their +guides."<a name="FNanchor_I-46_46" id="FNanchor_I-46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-46_46" class="fnanchor">[i-46]</a> Although Thomas Robie and Nathan Prince are +thought to have known Newton's physics through secondary +sources,<a name="FNanchor_I-47_47" id="FNanchor_I-47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-47_47" class="fnanchor">[i-47]</a> and, as Harvard tutors, indoctrinated their charges +with Newtonianism, it was left to Isaac Greenwood<a name="FNanchor_I-48_48" id="FNanchor_I-48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-48_48" class="fnanchor">[i-48]</a> to transplant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxviii" id="Page_xxviii">[xxviii]</a></span> +from London the popular expositions of Newtonian +philosophy. A Harvard graduate in 1721, Greenwood continued +his theological studies in London where he attended +Desaguliers's lectures on experimental philosophy, based essentially +on Newtonianism. From Desaguliers Greenwood learned +how</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By Newton's help, 'tis evidently seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Attraction governs all the World's machine.<a name="FNanchor_I-49_49" id="FNanchor_I-49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-49_49" class="fnanchor">[i-49]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He learned that Scripture is "to teach us Morality, and our +Articles of Faith" but not to serve as an instructor in natural +philosophy.<a name="FNanchor_I-50_50" id="FNanchor_I-50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-50_50" class="fnanchor">[i-50]</a> In fine, Greenwood became devoted to science, +and science as it might serve to augment avenues to the religious +experience. In London he had come to know Hollis, who in +1727 suggested to Harvard authorities that Greenwood be +elected Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural and Experimental +Philosophy.<a name="FNanchor_I-51_51" id="FNanchor_I-51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-51_51" class="fnanchor">[i-51]</a> Greenwood accepted, and until 1737 +was at Harvard a propagandist of the new science. In 1727 he +advertised in the <i>Boston News-Letter</i><a name="FNanchor_I-52_52" id="FNanchor_I-52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-52_52" class="fnanchor">[i-52]</a> that he would give +scientific lectures, revolving primarily around "the Discoveries +of the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton." From 1727 through +1734 he was a prominent popularizer of Newtonianism in +Boston.<a name="FNanchor_I-53_53" id="FNanchor_I-53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-53_53" class="fnanchor">[i-53]</a></p> + +<p>It remained for Greenwood's pupil John Winthrop to be the +first to teach Newton at Harvard with adequate mechanical and +textual materials. Elected in 1738 to the Hollis professorship +formerly held by Greenwood, Winthrop adopted 'sGravesande's +<i>Natural Philosophy</i>, at which time, Cajori observes, "the teachings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxix" id="Page_xxix">[xxix]</a></span> +of Newton had at last secured a firm footing there."<a name="FNanchor_I-54_54" id="FNanchor_I-54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-54_54" class="fnanchor">[i-54]</a> +The year after his election he secured a copy of the <i>Principia</i> +(the third edition, 1726, edited by Dr. Henry Pemberton, friend +of Franklin in 1725-1726). According to the astute Ezra Stiles, +Winthrop became a "perfect master of Newton's Principia—which +cannot be said of many Professors of Philosophy in +Europe."<a name="FNanchor_I-55_55" id="FNanchor_I-55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-55_55" class="fnanchor">[i-55]</a> That he did not allow Newtonianism to draw him +to deism may be seen in Stiles's gratification that Winthrop +"was a Firm friend to Revelation in opposition to Deism." +Stiles "wish[es] the evangelical Doctors of Grace had made a +greater figure in his Ideal System of divinity," thus inferring that +Winthrop was a rationalist in theology, however orthodox.<a name="FNanchor_I-56_56" id="FNanchor_I-56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-56_56" class="fnanchor">[i-56]</a></p> + +<p>A cursory view of the eighteenth-century pulpit discloses +that if the clergy did not become deistic they were not blind +to a natural religion, and often employed its arguments to augment +scriptural authority. Aware of the writings of Samuel +Clarke, Wollaston, Whiston, Cudworth, Butler, Hutcheson,<a name="FNanchor_I-57_57" id="FNanchor_I-57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-57_57" class="fnanchor">[i-57]</a> +Voltaire, and Locke, Mayhew revolts against total depravity<a name="FNanchor_I-58_58" id="FNanchor_I-58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-58_58" class="fnanchor">[i-58]</a> +and the doctrines of election and the Trinity, arraigns himself +against authoritarianism and obscurantism, and though he draws +upon reason for revelation of God's will, he does not seem to +have been latitudinarian in respect to the holy oracles. Although +he often wrote ambiguously concerning the nature of Christ, +he asserted: "That I ever denied, or treated in a bold or ludicrous +manner, the divinity of the Son of God, as revealed in scripture,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxx" id="Page_xxx">[xxx]</a></span> +I absolutely deny."<a name="FNanchor_I-59_59" id="FNanchor_I-59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-59_59" class="fnanchor">[i-59]</a> He is antagonistic toward the mystical in +Calvinism, convinced that "The love of God is a calm and +rational thing, the result of thought and consideration."<a name="FNanchor_I-60_60" id="FNanchor_I-60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-60_60" class="fnanchor">[i-60]</a> His +biographer thinks that Mayhew was "the first clergyman in New +England who expressly and openly opposed the scholastic doctrine +of the trinity."<a name="FNanchor_I-61_61" id="FNanchor_I-61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-61_61" class="fnanchor">[i-61]</a> Coupling "natural and revealed religion," +he does not threaten but he urges that one "ought not to leave +the clear light of revelation.... It becomes us to adhere to the +holy Scriptures as our only rule of faith and practice, discipline +and worship."<a name="FNanchor_I-62_62" id="FNanchor_I-62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-62_62" class="fnanchor">[i-62]</a> In Mayhew one finds an impotent compromise +between Calvinism and the demands of reason, fostered by +the Enlightenment. Like Mayhew's, in the main, are the views +of Dr. Charles Chauncy, who reconciled the demands of reason +and revelation, concluding that "the voice of reason is the voice +of God."<a name="FNanchor_I-63_63" id="FNanchor_I-63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-63_63" class="fnanchor">[i-63]</a> Jason Haven and Jonas Clarke are typical of the +orthodox rationalists who were alive to the implications of +science, and to such rationalists as Tillotson and Locke. Haven +affirms that "by the light of reason and nature, we are led to +believe in, and adore God, not only as the maker, but also as +the governor of all things."<a name="FNanchor_I-64_64" id="FNanchor_I-64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-64_64" class="fnanchor">[i-64]</a> "Revelation comes in to the assistance +of reason, and shews them to us in a clearer light than +we could see them without its aid." Clarke observes that "the +light of nature teaches, which revelation confirms."<a name="FNanchor_I-65_65" id="FNanchor_I-65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-65_65" class="fnanchor">[i-65]</a> Rev. +Henry Cumings, illustrating his indebtedness to scientific rationalism, +honors "the gracious Parent of the universe, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxi" id="Page_xxxi">[xxxi]</a></span> +tender mercies are over all his works ...,"<a name="FNanchor_I-66_66" id="FNanchor_I-66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-66_66" class="fnanchor">[i-66]</a> a Deity "whose +providence governs the world; whose voice all nature obeys; +to whose controul all second causes and subordinate agents are +subject; and whose sole prerogative it is to dispense blessings +or calamities, as to his wisdom seems best."<a name="FNanchor_I-67_67" id="FNanchor_I-67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-67_67" class="fnanchor">[i-67]</a> Simeon Howard +discovers the "perfections of the Deity, as displayed in the +Creation" as well as in the "government and redemption of the +world."<a name="FNanchor_I-68_68" id="FNanchor_I-68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-68_68" class="fnanchor">[i-68]</a> Both Phillips Payson<a name="FNanchor_I-69_69" id="FNanchor_I-69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-69_69" class="fnanchor">[i-69]</a> and Andrew Eliot<a name="FNanchor_I-70_70" id="FNanchor_I-70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-70_70" class="fnanchor">[i-70]</a> affirm the +identity of "the voice of reason, and the voice of God."</p> + +<p>No clergyman of the eighteenth century was more terribly +conscious of the polarity of colonial thought than was Ezra +Stiles. Abiel Holmes has told the graphic story of Stiles's +struggles with deism after reading Pope, Whiston, Boyle, +Trenchard and Gordon, Butler, Tindal, Collins, Bolingbroke, +and Shaftesbury.<a name="FNanchor_I-71_71" id="FNanchor_I-71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-71_71" class="fnanchor">[i-71]</a> If he finally, as a result of his trembling and +fearful doubt, reaffirmed zealously his faith in the bibliolatry and +relentless dogma of Calvinism,<a name="FNanchor_I-72_72" id="FNanchor_I-72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-72_72" class="fnanchor">[i-72]</a> Newtonian rationalism was a +means to his recovery, and throughout his life a complement to +his Calvinism.<a name="FNanchor_I-73_73" id="FNanchor_I-73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-73_73" class="fnanchor">[i-73]</a> Turning from his well-worn Bible, the chief +source of his faith, he also kindled his "devotion at the stars." +It should be remembered, however, that this tendency among +Puritan clergy to call science to the support of theology had +been inaugurated by Cotton Mather as early as 1693,<a name="FNanchor_I-74_74" id="FNanchor_I-74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-74_74" class="fnanchor">[i-74]</a> and that +it was the Puritan Mather whom Franklin acknowledged as +having started him on his career and influenced him, by his +<i>Essays to do Good</i>, throughout life.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxii" id="Page_xxxii">[xxxii]</a></span></p><p>Only against this complex and as yet inadequately integrated +background of physical conditions and ideas (the dogmas of +Puritanism, Quakerism, Methodism, rationalism, scientific +deism, economic and political liberalism<a name="FNanchor_I-75_75" id="FNanchor_I-75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-75_75" class="fnanchor">[i-75]</a>—against a cosmic, +social, and individual attitude, the result of Old-World thought +impinging on colonial thought and environment) can one attempt +to appraise adequately the mind and achievements of +Franklin, whose life was coterminous with the decay of Puritan +theocracy and the rise of rationalism, democracy, and science.</p> + + +<h3><a name="II_FRANKLINS_THEORIES_OF_EDUCATION" id="II_FRANKLINS_THEORIES_OF_EDUCATION"></a>II. FRANKLIN'S THEORIES OF EDUCATION</h3> + +<p>Franklin's penchant for projects manifests itself nowhere more +fully than in his schemes of education, both self and formal. One +may deduce a pattern of educational principles not undeservedly +called Franklin's <i>theories</i> of education, theories which he successfully +institutionalized, from an examination of his Junto +("the best school of philosophy, morality, and politics that then +existed in the province"<a name="FNanchor_I-76_76" id="FNanchor_I-76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-76_76" class="fnanchor">[i-76]</a>), his Philadelphia Library Company +(his "first project of a public nature"<a name="FNanchor_I-77_77" id="FNanchor_I-77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-77_77" class="fnanchor">[i-77]</a>), his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxiii" id="Page_xxxiii">[xxxiii]</a></span> +<i>Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in +America</i>, calling for a scientific society of ingenious men or +virtuosi, his <i>Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in +Pensilvania</i> and <i>Idea of the English School</i>, which eventually +fathered the University of Pennsylvania, and from his fragmentary +notes in his correspondence.</p> + +<p>Variously apotheosized, patronized, or damned for his practicality, +expediency, and opportunism, dramatized for his allegiance +to materiality, Franklin has commonly been viewed +(and not only through the popular imagination) as one fostering +in the American mind an unimaginative, utilitarian prudence, +motivated by the pedestrian virtues of industry, frugality, and +thrift. Whatever the educational effect of Franklin's life and +writings on American readers, we shall find that his works contain +schemes and theories which <i>transcend</i> the more mundane +habits and utilitarian biases ascribed to him.</p> + +<p>Franklin progressively felt "the loss of the learned education" +his father had planned for him, as he realized in his +hunger for knowledge that he must repair the loss through assiduous +reading, accomplished during hours stolen from recreation +and sleep.<a name="FNanchor_I-78_78" id="FNanchor_I-78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-78_78" class="fnanchor">[i-78]</a> Proudly he confessed that reading was his +"only amusement."<a name="FNanchor_I-79_79" id="FNanchor_I-79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-79_79" class="fnanchor">[i-79]</a> In 1727 he formed the Junto, or Leather +Apron Club, his first educational project. Franklin was never +more eclectic than when founding the Junto. To prevent Boston +homes from becoming "the porches of hell,"<a name="FNanchor_I-80_80" id="FNanchor_I-80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-80_80" class="fnanchor">[i-80]</a> Cotton Mather +had created mutual improvement societies through which +neighbors would help one another "with a rapturous assiduity."<a name="FNanchor_I-81_81" id="FNanchor_I-81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-81_81" class="fnanchor">[i-81]</a> +Mather in his <i>Essays to do Good</i> proposed:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxiv" id="Page_xxxiv">[xxxiv]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>That a proper number of persons in a neighborhood, whose +hearts God hath touched with a zeal to do good, should form +themselves into a society, to meet when and where they shall +agree, and to consider—"what are the disorders that we may +observe rising among us; and what may be done, either by +ourselves immediately, or by others through our advice, to +suppress those disorders?"<a name="FNanchor_I-82_82" id="FNanchor_I-82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-82_82" class="fnanchor">[i-82]</a></p></div> + +<p>Since Franklin's father was a member of one of Mather's "Associated +Families" and since Franklin as a boy read Mather's +<i>Essays</i> with rapt attention,<a name="FNanchor_I-83_83" id="FNanchor_I-83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-83_83" class="fnanchor">[i-83]</a> and since his <i>Rules for a Club +Established for Mutual Improvement</i> are amazingly congruent +with Mather's rules proposed for his neighborly societies, it is +not improbable that Franklin in part copied the plans of this +older club. One also wonders whether Franklin remembered +Defoe's suggestions in <i>Essays upon Several Projects</i> (1697) for +the formation of "Friendly Societies" in which members covenanted +to aid one another.<a name="FNanchor_I-84_84" id="FNanchor_I-84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-84_84" class="fnanchor">[i-84]</a> In addition, M. Faÿ has observed +that the "ideal which this society [the Junto] adopted was the +same that Franklin had discovered in the Masonic lodges of +England."<a name="FNanchor_I-85_85" id="FNanchor_I-85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-85_85" class="fnanchor">[i-85]</a> Then, too, in London during the period of +Desaguliers, Sir Hans Sloane, and Sir Isaac Newton, he would +have heard much of the ideals and utility of the Royal Society. +Many of the questions discussed by the Junto are suggestive +of the calendar of the Royal Society:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="hang">Is sound an entity or body?</p> + +<p class="hang">How may the phenomena of vapors be explained?</p> + +<p class="hang">What is the reason that the tides rise higher in the Bay of +Fundy, than the Bay of Delaware?</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxv" id="Page_xxxv">[xxxv]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">How may smoky chimneys be best cured?</p> + +<p class="hang">Why does the flame of a candle tend upwards in a spire?<a name="FNanchor_I-86_86" id="FNanchor_I-86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-86_86" class="fnanchor">[i-86]</a></p></div> + +<p>The Junto members, like Renaissance gentlemen, were determined +to convince themselves that nothing valuable to the +several powers of life should be alien to them. They were urged +to communicate to one another anything significant "in history, +morality, poetry, physic, travels, mechanic arts, or other parts +of knowledge."<a name="FNanchor_I-87_87" id="FNanchor_I-87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-87_87" class="fnanchor">[i-87]</a> Surely a humanistic catholicity of interest! +Schemes for getting on materially, suggestions for improving +the laws and protecting the "just liberties of the people,"<a name="FNanchor_I-88_88" id="FNanchor_I-88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-88_88" class="fnanchor">[i-88]</a> +efforts to aid the strangers in Philadelphia (an embryonic association +of commerce), curiosity in the latest remedies used for +the sick and wounded: all were to engage the minds of this assiduously +curious club. Above all, the members must be "serviceable +to <i>mankind</i>, to their country, to their friends, or to +themselves."<a name="FNanchor_I-89_89" id="FNanchor_I-89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-89_89" class="fnanchor">[i-89]</a> The intensity of the Junto's utilitarian purpose +was matched only by its humanitarian bias. Members must swear +that they "love mankind in general, of what profession or religion +soever,"<a name="FNanchor_I-90_90" id="FNanchor_I-90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-90_90" class="fnanchor">[i-90]</a> and that they believe no man should be persecuted +"for mere speculative opinions, or his external way of +worship." Also they must profess to "love truth for truth's +sake," to search diligently for it and to communicate it to +others. Tolerance, the empirical method, scientific disinterestedness, +and humanitarianism had hardly gained a foothold in +the colonies in 1728. On the other hand, the Junto members +were urged, when throwing a kiss to the world, not to neglect +their individual ethical development.<a name="FNanchor_I-91_91" id="FNanchor_I-91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-91_91" class="fnanchor">[i-91]</a> Franklin's humanitarian<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxvi" id="Page_xxxvi">[xxxvi]</a></span> +neighborliness is associated with a rigorous ethicism. The +members were invited to report "unhappy effects of intemperance," +of "imprudence, of passion, or of any other vice +or folly," and also "happy effects of temperance, of prudence, +of moderation." Franklin reflects sturdily here, and boundlessly +elsewhere, the Greek and English emphasis on the Middle Way. +If this is prudential, it is an elevated prudence.</p> + +<p>The Philadelphia Library Company was born of the Junto +and became "the mother of all the North American subscription +libraries, now so numerous."<a name="FNanchor_I-92_92" id="FNanchor_I-92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-92_92" class="fnanchor">[i-92]</a> The colonists, "having no publick +amusements to divert their attention from study, became +better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observ'd +by strangers to be better instructed and more intelligent than +people of the same rank generally are in other countries."<a name="FNanchor_I-93_93" id="FNanchor_I-93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-93_93" class="fnanchor">[i-93]</a> It +is curious that although many articles have been written describing +the Library Company no one seems to include a study +of the climate of ideas represented in its volumes.<a name="FNanchor_I-94_94" id="FNanchor_I-94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-94_94" class="fnanchor">[i-94]</a> One must +be careful not to credit Franklin with solely presiding over +the ordering of books. At a meeting in 1732 of the company, +Thomas Godfrey, probable inventor of the quadrant and he +who learned Latin to read the <i>Principia</i>, notified the body +that "Mr. Logan had let him know he would willingly give +his advice of the choice of the books ... the Committee esteeming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxvii" id="Page_xxxvii">[xxxvii]</a></span> +Mr. Logan to be a Gentleman of universal learning, and the best +judge of books in these parts, ordered that Mr. Godfrey should +wait on him and request him to favour them with a catalogue +of suitable books."<a name="FNanchor_I-95_95" id="FNanchor_I-95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-95_95" class="fnanchor">[i-95]</a> The first order included: Puffendorf's +<i>Introduction</i> and <i>Laws of Nature</i>, Hayes upon Fluxions, Keill's +<i>Astronomical Lectures</i>, Sidney on Government, Gordon and +Trenchard's <i>Cato's Letters</i>, the <i>Spectator</i>, <i>Guardian</i>, <i>Tatler</i>, +L'Hospital's <i>Conic Sections</i>, Addison's works, Xenophon's +<i>Memorabilia</i>, Palladio, Evelyn, Abridgement of Philosophical +Transactions, 'sGravesande's <i>Natural Philosophy</i>, Homer's <i>Odyssey</i> +and <i>Iliad</i>, Bayle's <i>Critical Dictionary</i>, and Dryden's <i>Virgil</i>. +As a gift Peter Collinson included Newton's <i>Principia</i> in the +order. The ancient phalanxes were thoroughly routed! Then +there is the MS "List of Books of the Original Philadelphia +Library in Franklin's Handwriting"<a name="FNanchor_I-96_96" id="FNanchor_I-96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-96_96" class="fnanchor">[i-96]</a> which lends recruits to +the modern battalions. Included in this list are: Fontenelle on +Oracles, Woodward's <i>Natural History of Fossils</i> and <i>Natural +History of the Earth</i>, Keill's <i>Examination of Burnet's Theory of +the Earth</i>, <i>Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Surgery at Paris</i>, +William Petty's <i>Essays</i>, Voltaire's <i>Elements of Sir Isaac Newton's +Philosophy</i>, Halley's <i>Astronomical Tables</i>, Hill's <i>Review of +the Works of the Royal Society</i>, Montesquieu's <i>Spirit of Laws</i>, +Burlamaqui's <i>Principles of Natural Law</i> and <i>Principles of Politic +Law</i>, Bolingbroke's <i>Letters on the Study and Use of History</i>, +and Conyer Middleton's <i>Miscellaneous Works</i>. From the +volumes owned by the Library Company in 1757 it would +have been possible for an alert mind to discover all of the +implications, philosophic and religious, of the rationale of +science. No less could be found here the political speculations +which were later to aid the colonists in unyoking themselves +from England. The Library was an arsenal capable of supplying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxviii" id="Page_xxxviii">[xxxviii]</a></span> +weapons to rationalistic minds intent on besieging the +fortress of Calvinism. Defenders of natural rights could find +ammunition to wound monarchism; here authors could discover +the neoclassic ideals of <i>curiosa felicitas</i>, perspicuity, +order, and lucidity reinforced by the emphasis on clarity and +correctness sponsored by the Royal Society and inherent in +Newtonianism as well as Cartesianism. In short, the volumes +contained the ripest fruition of scientific and rationalistic modernity. +One can only conjecture the extent to which this library +would perplex, astonish, and finally convert men to rationalism +and scientific deism, and release them from bondage to throne +and altar.</p> + +<p>In 1743 Franklin wrote and distributed among his correspondents +<i>A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among +the British Plantations in America</i>. From a letter (Feb. 17, +1735/6) of William Douglass, one-time friend of Franklin's +brother James, to Cadwallader Colden, we learn that some years +before 1736, Colden "proposed the forming a sort of Virtuoso +Society or rather Correspondence."<a name="FNanchor_I-97_97" id="FNanchor_I-97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-97_97" class="fnanchor">[i-97]</a> I. W. Riley suggests that +Franklin owes Colden thanks for having stimulated him to form +the American Philosophical Society.<a name="FNanchor_I-98_98" id="FNanchor_I-98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-98_98" class="fnanchor">[i-98]</a> There remains no convincing +evidence, however, to disprove A. H. Smyth's observation +that Franklin's <i>Proposal</i> "appears to contain the first suggestions, +in any <i>public form</i> [editors' italics] for an American +Philosophical Society." P. S. Du Ponceau has noted with compelling +evidence that the philosophical society formed in 1744 +was the direct descendant of Franklin's Junto.<a name="FNanchor_I-99_99" id="FNanchor_I-99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-99_99" class="fnanchor">[i-99]</a> That in part +the Philadelphia Library Company was one of the factors in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xxxix" id="Page_xxxix">[xxxix]</a></span> +the formation of the scientific society may be inferred from +Franklin's request that it be founded in Philadelphia, which, +"having the advantages of a good growing library," can "be the +centre of the Society."<a name="FNanchor_I-100_100" id="FNanchor_I-100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-100_100" class="fnanchor">[i-100]</a> The most important factor, however, +was obviously the desire to imitate the forms and ideals of the +Royal Society of London. Both societies had as their purpose +the improvement of "the common stock of knowledge"; neither +was to be provincial or national in interests, but was to have in +mind the "benefit of mankind in general." A study of Franklin's +<i>Proposal</i> will suggest the purpose of the Royal Society as +interpreted by Thomas Sprat:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Their purpose is, in short, to make faithful Records, of all +the Works of Nature, or Art, which can come within their +reach: that so the present Age, and posterity, may be able to +put a mark on the Errors, which have been strengthened by +long prescription: to restore the Truths, that have lain neglected: +to push on those, which are already known, to more +various uses: and to make the way more passable, to what +remains unreveal'd.<a name="FNanchor_I-101_101" id="FNanchor_I-101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-101_101" class="fnanchor">[i-101]</a></p></div> + +<p>The Royal Society, no less than Franklin's <i>Proposal</i>, stressed +the usefulness of its experimentation. Even as it sought "to overcome +the mysteries of all the Works of Nature"<a name="FNanchor_I-102_102" id="FNanchor_I-102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-102_102" class="fnanchor">[i-102]</a> through +experimentation and induction, the Baconian empirical method, +so Franklin urged the cultivation of "all philosophical experiments +that let light into the nature of things, tend to increase the +power of man over matter, and multiply the conveniences or +pleasures of life."<a name="FNanchor_I-103_103" id="FNanchor_I-103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-103_103" class="fnanchor">[i-103]</a> Though Franklin may have stopped short +of theoretical science,<a name="FNanchor_I-104_104" id="FNanchor_I-104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-104_104" class="fnanchor">[i-104]</a> he was not only interested in making<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xl" id="Page_xl">[xl]</a></span> +devices but also in discovering immutable natural laws on which +he could base his mechanics for making the world more habitable, +less unknown and terrifying. Interpreting natural phenomena +in terms of gravity and the laws of electrical attraction +and repulsion is to detract from the terror in a universe presided +over by a providential Deity, exerting his wrath through portentous +comets, "fire-balls flung by an angry God."</p> + +<p>Franklin's program is no more miscellaneous, or seemingly +pedestrian, than the practices of the Royal Society. As a discoverer +of nature's laws and their application to man's use, +Franklin, the Newton of electricity, appealed to fact and experiment +rather than authority and suggested that education in +science may serve, in addition to making the world more comfortable, +to make it more habitable and less terrifying. The +ideals of scientific research and disinterestedness were dramatized +picturesquely by the Tradesman Franklin, who aided the +colonist in becoming unafraid.</p> + +<p>Although his <i>Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth +in Pensilvania</i> (1749) furnished the initial suggestion which +created the Philadelphia Academy, later the college, and ultimately +the University of Pennsylvania, it is easy to overestimate +the real significance of Franklin's influence in these +schemes unless we remember that political quarrels separated +him from those who were nurturing the school in the 1750's. In +1759 Franklin wrote from London to his friend, Professor Kinnersley, +concerning the cabal in the Academy against him: +"The Trustees have reap'd the full Advantage of my Head, +Hands, Heart and Purse, in getting through the first Difficulties +of the Design, and when they thought they could do without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xli" id="Page_xli">[xli]</a></span> +me, they laid me aside."<a name="FNanchor_I-105_105" id="FNanchor_I-105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-105_105" class="fnanchor">[i-105]</a> After Franklin failed to secure +Samuel Johnson,<a name="FNanchor_I-106_106" id="FNanchor_I-106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-106_106" class="fnanchor">[i-106]</a> Rev. William Smith was made Provost and +Professor of Natural Philosophy of the Academy in 1754. He +quoted Franklin as saying that the Academy had become "a +narrow, bigoted institution, put into the hands of the Proprietary +party as an engine of government."<a name="FNanchor_I-107_107" id="FNanchor_I-107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-107_107" class="fnanchor">[i-107]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlii" id="Page_xlii">[xlii]</a></span></p><p>With Milton, Locke, Fordyce, Walker, Rollin, Turnbull, +and "some others" as his sources, Franklin adapted the works of +these pioneers in education to provincial uses. (One finds it +difficult to discover any original ideas in the <i>Proposals</i>.) Like +Locke and Milton, he urged that education "supply the succeeding +Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour +to themselves, and to their Country."<a name="FNanchor_I-108_108" id="FNanchor_I-108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-108_108" class="fnanchor">[i-108]</a> Here he was unlike +President Clap, who in 1754 explained that "the Original End +and design of Colleges was to instruct and train up persons +for the Work of the ministry.... The great design of founding +this school [Yale] was to educate ministers in our own +way."<a name="FNanchor_I-109_109" id="FNanchor_I-109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-109_109" class="fnanchor">[i-109]</a> As early as 1722, in <i>Dogood Paper</i> No. IV, Franklin +caricatured sardonically the narrow theological curriculum +of Harvard College.<a name="FNanchor_I-110_110" id="FNanchor_I-110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-110_110" class="fnanchor">[i-110]</a> Existing for the citizenry rather than +the clergy, offering instruction in English as well as Latin and +Greek, in mechanics, physical culture, natural history, gardening, +mathematics, and arithmetic rather than in sectarian theology, +Franklin's Academy was to be more secular and utilitarian +than any other school in the provinces. Indeed, Rev. George +Whitefield lamented the want of "<i>aliquid Christi</i>" in the curriculum, +"to make it as useful as I would desire it might be."</p> + +<p>Franklin stressed the need for the acquisition of a clear and +concise literary style. He observed: "Reading should also be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xliii" id="Page_xliii">[xliii]</a></span> +taught, and pronouncing, properly, distinctly, emphatically; not +with an even Tone, which <i>under-does</i>, nor a theatrical, which +<i>over-does</i> Nature." Hence he reflected the virtues of neoclassic +perspicuity and correctness. (These plans he more fully expressed +in his <i>Idea of the English School</i>, published in 1751.) As +he grew older he apparently became less tolerant of the teaching +of the ancient languages in colonial schools: in <i>Observations +Relative to the Intentions of the Original Founders of the Academy +of Philadelphia</i> (1789), he charged that the Latin school had +swallowed the English and that he was hence "surrounded by the +Ghosts of my dear departed Friends, beckoning and urging me to +use the only Tongue now left us, in demanding that Justice to +our Grandchildren, that our Children has [<i>sic</i>] been denied."<a name="FNanchor_I-111_111" id="FNanchor_I-111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-111_111" class="fnanchor">[i-111]</a> +The Latin and Greek languages he considered "in no other light +than as the <i>Chapeau bras</i> of modern Literature."<a name="FNanchor_I-112_112" id="FNanchor_I-112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-112_112" class="fnanchor">[i-112]</a> Like Emerson's, +his opposition was to linguistic study rather than to the +classical ideas.</p> + +<p>Although he emphasized the study of science and mechanics, +it is important to observe that he kept his balance. He warned +Miss Mary Stevenson in 1760: "There is ... a prudent Moderation +to be used in Studies of this kind. The Knowledge of Nature +may be ornamental, and it may be useful; but if, to attain +an Eminence in that, we neglect the Knowledge and Practice of +essential Duties, we deserve Reprehension."<a name="FNanchor_I-113_113" id="FNanchor_I-113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-113_113" class="fnanchor">[i-113]</a> Not without +reserve did he champion the Moderns; remembering several +provocative scientific observations in Pliny, he wrote to William +Brownrigg (Nov. 7, 1773): "It has been of late too much the +mode to slight the learning of the ancients."<a name="FNanchor_I-114_114" id="FNanchor_I-114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-114_114" class="fnanchor">[i-114]</a> He would not +agree with the enthusiastic and trenchant disciple of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xliv" id="Page_xliv">[xliv]</a></span> +moderns, M. Fontenelle, that "We are under an obligation to +the ancients for having exhausted almost all the false theories +that could be found."<a name="FNanchor_I-115_115" id="FNanchor_I-115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-115_115" class="fnanchor">[i-115]</a> Although he would agree that the +empirical method of acquiring knowledge is more reasonable +than authoritarianism reared on syllogistic foundations, and +with Cowley that</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Bacon has broke that scar-crow Deity ["Authority"],<a name="FNanchor_I-116_116" id="FNanchor_I-116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-116_116" class="fnanchor">[i-116]</a><br /> +</p> + +<p>he was not blithely confident that science and the knowledge +gained from experimentation would create a more rigorously +moral race. He wrote to Priestley in 1782: "I should rejoice +much, if I could once more recover the Leisure to search with +you into the Works of Nature; I mean the <i>inanimate</i>, not the +<i>animate</i> or moral part of them, the more I discover'd of the +former, the more I admir'd them; the more I know of the latter, +the more I am disgusted with them."<a name="FNanchor_I-117_117" id="FNanchor_I-117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-117_117" class="fnanchor">[i-117]</a> He often suggested, +"As Men grow more enlightened," but seldom did this clause +carry more than an intellectual connotation. Progress in knowledge<a name="FNanchor_I-118_118" id="FNanchor_I-118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-118_118" class="fnanchor">[i-118]</a> +did not on the whole suggest to Franklin progress in +morals or the general progress of mankind.</p> + +<p>Essentially classical in morality, extolling a temperance like +that of Xenophon, Epictetus, Cicero, Socrates, and Aristotle, +Franklin could not cheerily champion the moderns without +serious reservations. Considering only progress in knowledge, +man may be considered as <i>pedetentim progredientes</i>, but, +Franklin thought, man seemed to have found it easier to conquer +lightning than himself. If science and other contemporaneous +knowledge detracted from cosmic terror, it did not solve the +problem of the mystery of evil and sin: like Shakespeare, Franklin +was perplexed by the inexplicability and ruthlessness of +Man's potential and actual malevolence.<a name="FNanchor_I-119_119" id="FNanchor_I-119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-119_119" class="fnanchor">[i-119]</a> Thus in stressing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlv" id="Page_xlv">[xlv]</a></span> +utility and vocational adaptiveness, Franklin did not forget to +stress the need for development of character, man's internal self, +and here he did not find the ancients dispensable.<a name="FNanchor_I-120_120" id="FNanchor_I-120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-120_120" class="fnanchor">[i-120]</a> If unlike +Socrates in his studies of physical nature, he was like the Athenian +gadfly in his quest for moral perfection in the teeth of "perpetual +temptation," in his strenuous and sober effort to know +himself. Too little attention has been paid Franklin's Hellenic +sobriety—even as it has had too meagre an influence. Let +Molière challenge, "The ancients are the ancients, we are the +people of today"; Franklin, although confident that he could +learn more of physical nature from Newton than from Aristotle, +was not convinced that the wisdom of Epictetus or the +Golden Verses of Pythagoras were less salutary than the wit +of his own age. A modern in his confidence in the progress of +knowledge, Franklin, approaching the problem of morality, +wisely saw the ancients and moderns as complementary. Aware +of the continuity of the mind and race, he was not willing to +dismiss the ancients as fit to be imitated. Yet he failed to discover +in the welter of egoistic men any continuous moral progress, +although, unlike the determinists, he thought that the individual +could improve himself through self-knowledge and +self-control. Unlike contemporary exponents of the "original +genius" cult who scorned industrious rational study and conformity, +Franklin as an educational theorist was the exponent +of reason and of conscious intellectual industry and thrift; he +would mediate between the study of nature and of man, and, like +Aristotle, he would rely not so much upon individualistic self-expression +as upon a purposeful <i>imitation</i> of those men in the +past who had led useful and happy lives.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlvi" id="Page_xlvi">[xlvi]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="III_FRANKLINS_LITERARY_THEORY_AND_PRACTICE" id="III_FRANKLINS_LITERARY_THEORY_AND_PRACTICE"></a> +III. FRANKLIN'S LITERARY THEORY AND PRACTICE<a name="FNanchor_I-121_121" id="FNanchor_I-121_121"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_I-121_121" class="fnanchor">[i-121]</a></h3> + +<p>Uniting the "wit of Voltaire with the simplicity of Rousseau," +Franklin achieved a style "only surpassed by the unimprovable +Hobbes of Malmesbury, the paragon of perspicuity." Characterized +by simplicity, order, and a trenchant pointedness, his +prose style was "a principal means" of his "advancement."<a name="FNanchor_I-122_122" id="FNanchor_I-122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-122_122" class="fnanchor">[i-122]</a></p> + +<p>He was "extreamly ambitious ... to be a tolerable English +writer." In the <i>Autobiography</i> he recalls that he read books in +"polemic divinity," Plutarch's <i>Lives</i> (probably Dryden's translation), +<i>Pilgrims Progress</i>, Defoe's <i>Essays upon Several Projects</i>, +Mather's <i>Essays to do Good</i>, Xenophon's <i>Memorabilia</i>,<a name="FNanchor_I-123_123" id="FNanchor_I-123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-123_123" class="fnanchor">[i-123]</a> +the <i>Spectator</i> papers, and the writings of Shaftesbury and Collins.</p> + +<p>Born in Boston, he knew the Bible,<a name="FNanchor_I-124_124" id="FNanchor_I-124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-124_124" class="fnanchor">[i-124]</a> characterized by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlvii" id="Page_xlvii">[xlvii]</a></span> +the apostle of Augustan correctness, Jonathan Swift, as possessing +"that simplicity, which is one of the greatest perfections +in any language." If Franklin did not achieve its "sublime +eloquence," he approximated at intervals its directness and +simplicity. In reading Defoe's <i>Essays</i> he learned that Queen +Anne's England urged that writers be "as concise as possible" +and avoid all "superfluous crowding in of insignificant words, +more than are needful to express the thing intended." (It is possible +that Defoe's efforts "to polish and refine the English +tongue," to avoid "all irregular additions that ignorance and +affectation have introduced," influenced Franklin in favor of +"correctness" and against provincialisms.) Defoe's "explicit, +easy, free, and very plain" rhetoric is Franklin's.</p> + +<p>After Franklin's father warned him that his arguments were +not well-ordered and trenchantly expressed, he desperately +sought to acquire a convincing prose style. In 1717 James, +Franklin's elder brother, returned from serving a printer's +apprenticeship in London. James had known and been attracted +to Augustan England, the England of the <i>Tatler</i>, <i>Spectator</i>, and +<i>Guardian</i>. Familiar is Franklin's narrative of how he patterned +his fledgling style on the pages of the <i>Spectator</i> papers, and +learned to satisfy his father—and himself. Like the neoclassicists, +Franklin learned to write by imitation, by respectfully +subordinating himself to those he recognized as masters, and +not, like the romanticists, by expressing his own ego in revolt +against convention and conformity to traditional standards. The +group who supplied copy for James's <i>New England Courant</i>, +we are told, were trying to write like the <i>Spectator</i>. "The very +look of an ordinary first page of the <i>Courant</i> is like that of the +<i>Spectator</i> page."<a name="FNanchor_I-125_125" id="FNanchor_I-125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-125_125" class="fnanchor">[i-125]</a> In the <i>Dogood Papers</i> (1722) and the <i>Busy-Body</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlviii" id="Page_xlviii">[xlviii]</a></span> +series (1728) Franklin's writings show a literal indebtedness +to the style and even substance of the <i>Spectator</i>.<a name="FNanchor_I-126_126" id="FNanchor_I-126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-126_126" class="fnanchor">[i-126]</a> If, after +the <i>Busy-Body</i> essays, Franklin's writings bear little resemblance +to the elegance and glow of the <i>Spectator</i>, he did learn +from it a long-remembered lesson in orderliness. From the +<i>Spectator</i> he may have learned to temper wit with morality and +morality with wit; he may have learned the neoclassic objection +to the "unhappy Force of an Imagination, unguided by the +Check of Reason and Judgment";<a name="FNanchor_I-127_127" id="FNanchor_I-127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-127_127" class="fnanchor">[i-127]</a> he may have acquired +his distrust of foreign phrases when English ones were as good, +or better, insisting on the use of native English undefiled. It is +interesting but perhaps futile to conjecture to what degree +Franklin at this time, on reading <i>Spectator</i> No. 160, "On Geniuses" +(warning against a servile imitation of ancient authors, +a warning which anticipates the cult of original geniuses of later +decades), would have been predisposed against ancient literature +and languages. If the <i>Spectator</i> was partially responsible for his +pleasantries at the expense of Greek in <i>Dogood Paper</i> No. IV, his +attitude toward the ancients is more ostensibly the result of his +later preoccupation with the sciences,<a name="FNanchor_I-128_128" id="FNanchor_I-128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-128_128" class="fnanchor">[i-128]</a> and of contact with +representatives of the deistic time-spirit whose faith in progress +led them to underrate the past.</p> + +<p>When Franklin went to live in London in 1724-1726, and +became familiar with such men of science as Dr. Henry Pemberton +and others, he must have become aware of ideals of prose +style not a little unlike those practised by the preachers of his +Boston. In Boston he had heard (and in the polemical works +in his father's library, read) sermons couched in a style satirized +in <i>Hudibras</i> as a "Babylonish dialect ... of patched and piebald +languages" (ll. 93 ff.). Sensing the disparity between the seventeenth-century<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xlix" id="Page_xlix">[xlix]</a></span> +prose styles and the empirical, logical, and orderly +method of science, the Royal Society not long after its +inception inaugurated a campaign for a clarity akin to the pattern +urged by Hobbes: "The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous +Words, <i>Reason</i> is the Pace, Encrease of <i>Science</i> the <i>way</i>; +and the benefit of man-kind the <i>end</i>. And on the contrary, +Metaphors, and senseless and ambiguous words, are like <i>ignes +fatui</i>; and reasoning upon them, is wandering among innumerable +absurdities."<a name="FNanchor_I-129_129" id="FNanchor_I-129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-129_129" class="fnanchor">[i-129]</a> Summarizing the intent of the stylistic +reformations instituted by the Royal Society, Thomas Sprat +urged writers "to reject all the amplifications, digressions, and +swellings of style: to return back to the primitive purity, and +shortness, when men deliver'd so many things, almost in an +equal number of words ... a close, naked, natural way of +speaking; positive expressions; clear senses; a native easiness: +bringing all things as near the Mathematical plainness, as they +can: and preferring the language of Artizans, Countrymen, and +Merchants, before that, of Wits, or Scholars."<a name="FNanchor_I-130_130" id="FNanchor_I-130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-130_130" class="fnanchor">[i-130]</a> It is asserted +that the program of the Royal Society "called for stylistic reform +as loudly as for reformation in philosophy. Moreover, +this attitude was in the public mind indissolubly associated with +the Society."<a name="FNanchor_I-131_131" id="FNanchor_I-131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-131_131" class="fnanchor">[i-131]</a> It is only reasonable to infer that Franklin (as +a member of the Royal Society and as founder of the American +Philosophical Society) was alive to the movement toward "undefiled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_l" id="Page_l">[l]</a></span> +plainness" which had for half a century been gathering +momentum.<a name="FNanchor_I-132_132" id="FNanchor_I-132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-132_132" class="fnanchor">[i-132]</a></p> + +<p>Even as Cartesianism<a name="FNanchor_I-133_133" id="FNanchor_I-133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-133_133" class="fnanchor">[i-133]</a> in France is said to have fostered +logic and lucidity of detail, and that which is universally valid +and recognized by all men, and that art which is aloof to the +non-human world, so in England may Newtonianism (which +overthrew Cartesianism) have conditioned writers to develop +a uniform style, purged of tenuous rhetorical devices. An age +characterized by a worship of reason, which was supposed to +be identical in all men, an age deferring to the general +mind of man, would be hostile to the rhetorical caprices of +those expressing their private, idiosyncratic enthusiasms. If +the neoclassic apotheosis of simplicity and freedom from intricacy +was the result of a "rationalistic anti-intellectualism,"<a name="FNanchor_I-134_134" id="FNanchor_I-134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-134_134" class="fnanchor">[i-134]</a> +expressed in terms of hostility to belabored proof of ideas +known to the general will, then it would seem that one of the +factors sturdily conditioning this hostility was Newtonian +science. Admitting that <i>reason</i> leads to uniformitarianism, one +may recall that the processes of science are discoverable by +reason, and that such a cosmologist as Newton illustrated +mathematically and empirically a system, grand in its lucidity, +and capable of being apprehended by all through +reason. If the deistic fear of "enthusiasm" in religion—the +individual will prevailing against the <i>consensus gentium</i>—parallels, +according to Professor Lovejoy, the neoclassic fear of +feeling and the unrestrained play of imagination in art, then +Newtonian science, as it reinforced deism, was no negligible +factor in discrediting enthusiasm, and hence indirectly militating +against originality, emotion, and the unchecked imagination. +Is it not conceivable that the Newtonian<a name="FNanchor_I-135_135" id="FNanchor_I-135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-135_135" class="fnanchor">[i-135]</a> cosmology, popularized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_li" id="Page_li">[li]</a></span> +by a vast discipleship, challenged the scientists and men +of letters alike to achieve a corresponding order, clarity, and +simplicity in poetry and prose?</p> + +<p>After Franklin's return from London, he reinforced his Addison-like +style with the rhetorical implications of science and +Newtonianism: in his <i>Preface</i> (1729) to the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> +he observed that an editor ought to possess a "great Easiness +and Command of Writing and Relating Things clearly +and intelligibly, and in few Words."<a name="FNanchor_I-136_136" id="FNanchor_I-136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-136_136" class="fnanchor">[i-136]</a> Good writing, in +Franklin's opinion, "should proceed regularly from things +known to things unknown [surely the method of all inductive +reasoning and science] distinctly and clearly without confusion. +The words used should be the most expressive that the language +affords, provided that they are the most generally understood. +Nothing should be expressed in two words that can be as well +expressed in one; that is, no synonyms should be used, or very +rarely, but the whole should be as short as possible, consistent +with clearness; the words should be so placed as to be agreeable +to the ear in reading; summarily it should be smooth, clear, and +short, for the contrary qualities are displeasing."<a name="FNanchor_I-137_137" id="FNanchor_I-137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-137_137" class="fnanchor">[i-137]</a> Like the +members of the Royal Society, Franklin would bring the words +of written discourse "as near as possible to the spoken."<a name="FNanchor_I-138_138" id="FNanchor_I-138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-138_138" class="fnanchor">[i-138]</a> In +1753 he observed: "If my Hypothesis [concerning waterspouts] +is not the Truth itself it is [at] least as naked: For I have not with +some of our learned Moderns, disguis'd my Nonsense in Greek, +cloth'd it in Algebra or adorn'd it with Fluxions. You have it +in puris naturalibus."<a name="FNanchor_I-139_139" id="FNanchor_I-139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-139_139" class="fnanchor">[i-139]</a> He briefly summarized his rhetorical +ideal, in a letter to Hume: "In writings intended for persuasion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lii" id="Page_lii">[lii]</a></span> +and for general information, one cannot be too clear; and every +expression in the least obscure is a fault."<a name="FNanchor_I-140_140" id="FNanchor_I-140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-140_140" class="fnanchor">[i-140]</a></p> + +<p>Unlike Jefferson, "no friend to what is called <i>purism</i>, but a +zealous one" to neology, Franklin had an inveterate antipathy +toward the use of colloquialisms, provincialisms, and extravagant +innovations.<a name="FNanchor_I-141_141" id="FNanchor_I-141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-141_141" class="fnanchor">[i-141]</a> In another letter to Hume, he hoped that +"we shall always in America make the best English of this +Island [Britain] our standard."<a name="FNanchor_I-142_142" id="FNanchor_I-142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-142_142" class="fnanchor">[i-142]</a> If he did not hold the typical +eighteenth-century view that "English must be subjected to a +process of classical regularizing,"<a name="FNanchor_I-143_143" id="FNanchor_I-143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-143_143" class="fnanchor">[i-143]</a> neither did he, with his +friend Joseph Priestley, espouse the idea of correctness, dependent +only on usage. In general, he seems to have had a tendency +toward purism; it is not unlikely that as a youth he was influenced +by Swift's <i>Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and +Ascertaining the English Tongue</i>.<a name="FNanchor_I-144_144" id="FNanchor_I-144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-144_144" class="fnanchor">[i-144]</a> Striving for correctness, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_liii" id="Page_liii">[liii]</a></span> +the avoidance of "affected Words or high-flown Phrases"<a name="FNanchor_I-145_145" id="FNanchor_I-145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-145_145" class="fnanchor">[i-145]</a> he +approximated the <i>curiosa felicitas</i> of the neoclassicists.<a name="FNanchor_I-146_146" id="FNanchor_I-146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-146_146" class="fnanchor">[i-146]</a></p> + +<p>A solid neoclassicist<a name="FNanchor_I-147_147" id="FNanchor_I-147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-147_147" class="fnanchor">[i-147]</a> in style. Franklin accepted the canon +of imitation as it was imperfectly understood in the eighteenth +century. To the extent, however, that the models were conceived +of as approximating the <i>consensus gentium</i>, fragments +illustrating universal reason, there may be little disparity between +neoclassic imitation and Aristotle's use of the term in the +sense of imitating a higher ethical reality. His own life, Franklin +thought, (with the exception of a few "errata") was "fit to +be imitated."<a name="FNanchor_I-148_148" id="FNanchor_I-148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-148_148" class="fnanchor">[i-148]</a> A. H. Smyth notes, perhaps extravagantly, +"Nothing but the 'Autobiography' of Benvenuto Cellini, or the +'Confessions' of Rousseau, can enter into competition with it."<a name="FNanchor_I-149_149" id="FNanchor_I-149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-149_149" class="fnanchor">[i-149]</a> +This may suggest a clue to the durable nature of Franklin's +life-tale. Cellini, it is true, was tremendously alive to Benvenuto, +even as Michel de Montaigne was interested in his own whims, +but neither Cellini, nor Montaigne, nor Franklin, could have +penned the <i>Confessions</i>, the thesis of which is that if Rousseau +is not better than other men at least he is different. Cellini, +Montaigne, and Franklin, on the other hand, while allowing us +to see their fancies and singular biases, tended to emphasize<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_liv" id="Page_liv">[liv]</a></span> +those qualities which they held in common with their age, +nation, and even the continuity of mankind. Montaigne, it will +be remembered, sought to express <i>la connaissance de l'homme en +général</i>. With no aspirations to become an original genius, +Franklin, both in his prose style and his yearning for perfection, +sought the guidance of models, which he conceived as embodying +universal reason. Had he been a writer of epics<a name="FNanchor_I-150_150" id="FNanchor_I-150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-150_150" class="fnanchor">[i-150]</a> he would +with Pope have acquired "from ancient rules a just esteem"—when +the rules were, in his mind, "according to nature."</p> + +<p>Likewise Franklin is representative of the Enlightenment in +his description of the province of the imagination. It is an +axiom that "the belief that the imagination ought to be kept in +check by reason, pervades the critical literature of the first half +of the eighteenth century."<a name="FNanchor_I-151_151" id="FNanchor_I-151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-151_151" class="fnanchor">[i-151]</a> Franklin observes that poetasters +above all need instruction on how to govern "Fancy [Imagination] +with Judgement."<a name="FNanchor_I-152_152" id="FNanchor_I-152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-152_152" class="fnanchor">[i-152]</a> He implies that imagination is a +power lending an air of unreality to a creation, often like "the +Effect of some melancholy Humour."<a name="FNanchor_I-153_153" id="FNanchor_I-153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-153_153" class="fnanchor">[i-153]</a> He feared that the unchecked +fancy would vitiate his ideals of simplicity and correctness, +and a sober and practical argument.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lv" id="Page_lv">[lv]</a></span></p><p>Posing as no original genius independent of the wisdom of +the ages,<a name="FNanchor_I-154_154" id="FNanchor_I-154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-154_154" class="fnanchor">[i-154]</a> confessing that "from a child" he "was fond of +reading" and that as a youth "reading was the only amusement" +he allowed himself, Franklin was not backward in cataloguing +many of the authors who helped to motivate his thought. He +seems to have been acquainted with portions of Plato, +Aesop, Pliny, Xenophon, Herodotus, Epictetus, Vergil, +Horace, Tacitus, Seneca, Sallust, Cicero, Tully, Milton, Jeremy +Taylor, Bacon, Dryden, Tillotson, Rabelais,<a name="FNanchor_I-155_155" id="FNanchor_I-155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-155_155" class="fnanchor">[i-155]</a> Bunyan, Fénelon, +Chevalier de Ramsay,<a name="FNanchor_I-156_156" id="FNanchor_I-156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-156_156" class="fnanchor">[i-156]</a> Pythagoras, Waller, Defoe, Addison +and Steele, William Temple, Pope, Swift, Voltaire, +Boyle, Algernon Sidney, Trenchard and Gordon,<a name="FNanchor_I-157_157" id="FNanchor_I-157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-157_157" class="fnanchor">[i-157]</a> Young, +Mandeville, Locke, Shaftesbury, Collins, Bolingbroke, Richardson, +Whiston, Watts, Thomson, Burke, Cowper, Darwin, +Rowe, Rapin, Herschel, Paley, Lord Kames, Adam Smith, +Hume, Robertson, Lavoisier, Buffon, Dupont de Nemours, +Whitefield, Pemberton, Blackmore, John Ray, Petty, Turgot, +Priestley, Paine, Mirabeau, Quesnay, Raynal, Morellet, and +Condorcet, to suggest only the more prominent.<a name="FNanchor_I-158_158" id="FNanchor_I-158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-158_158" class="fnanchor">[i-158]</a> Such a +catalogue tends to discredit the all too common idea that the +untutored tradesman was torpid to the information and wisdom +found in books.</p> + +<p>If his prose style shows none of the delicate rhythms and +haunting imagery of the prose born of the romantic movement, +it is nevertheless far from pedestrian. If it seems devoid of +imaginative splendor, it is not lacking in force and persuasion.<a name="FNanchor_I-159_159" id="FNanchor_I-159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-159_159" class="fnanchor">[i-159]</a> +After one has noted Franklin's canon of simplicity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lvi" id="Page_lvi">[lvi]</a></span> +and order, his insistence on correctness, his assumed role +as <i>Censor Morum</i>, his acceptance of the doctrine of imitation +and the use of imagination guided by reason, one +returns to the question of the degree to which the ideals +of rhetoric fostered by the men of science may have helped to +motivate Franklin's prose style, and to what degree his acceptance +of deism augmented by Newtonianism may have furnished +him with a rationale which lent sanction to his demand for a +simple style.</p> + +<p>Sir Humphrey Davy found in Franklin's scientific papers a +language lucid and decorous, "almost as worthy of admiration +as the doctrine"<a name="FNanchor_I-160_160" id="FNanchor_I-160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-160_160" class="fnanchor">[i-160]</a> they contain. S. G. Fisher buoyantly maintained +that Franklin's "is the most effective literary style ever +used by an American." After reading Franklin's paper on stoves +he was "inclined to lay down the principle that the test of literary +genius is the ability to be fascinating about stoves."<a name="FNanchor_I-161_161" id="FNanchor_I-161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-161_161" class="fnanchor">[i-161]</a> +Whether he writes soberly (albeit tempered by Gallic fancy) of +the mutability of life, as in <i>The Ephemera</i>, or of sophisticated +social amenities, as in the letters to Madame Brillon and +Madame Helvétius, or in his memoirs, in which solid fact +follows solid fact, sifted by the years of good fortune, +Franklin's style never loses its compelling charm and vigor. +If he never wrote (or uttered) less than was demanded +by the nature of his subject, neither would he have disgusted +the Clerk of Oxenford who</p> + +<p class="blockquot"> +Nought o word spak he more than was nede.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lvii" id="Page_lvii">[lvii]</a></span></p> + +<p>He was no formal literary critic such as Boileau, Lessing, or Coleridge, +and no acknowledged arbiter of taste, such as Dr. Johnson. +Yet Franklin, in voluminous practice, enjoying tremendous +international vogue, proved that his theories bore the acid test +of effectiveness. Indirectly he challenged his readers to honor +principles of rhetoric which could so trenchantly serve the +demands of his catholic pen, and make him one of the most +widely read of all Americans.</p> + + +<h3><a name="IV_FRANKLIN_AS_PRINTER_AND_JOURNALIST" id="IV_FRANKLIN_AS_PRINTER_AND_JOURNALIST"></a>IV. FRANKLIN AS PRINTER AND JOURNALIST</h3> + +<p>Franklin was a printer chiefly because of two proclivities +which were basic in his personality from childhood to old age—a +bent toward practical mechanics ("handiness") and a fondness +for reading (bookishness). Further, he was a journalist and +publisher chiefly because he was a printer.</p> + +<p>A thorough printer is both an artisan and an artist; he has +both the manual dexterity of a good workman and the aesthetic +appreciation of the amateur of beauty. Franklin always took +pride in his ability to handle the printer's tools, from the time +when, at the age of twelve, he became "a useful hand"<a name="FNanchor_I-162_162" id="FNanchor_I-162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-162_162" class="fnanchor">[i-162]</a> in the +print shop of his brother James, until the very end of his life. +One of the pleasantest anecdotes of the old printer is that which +tells of his visit to the famous Didot printing establishment in +Paris, when he stepped up to a press, and motioning the printer +aside, himself took possession of the machine and printed off +several sheets. Then the American ambassador smiled at the +gaping printers and said, "Do not be astonished, Sirs, it is my +former business."<a name="FNanchor_I-163_163" id="FNanchor_I-163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-163_163" class="fnanchor">[i-163]</a></p> + +<p>Even in his boyhood, it was a pleasure to Franklin "to see +good workmen handle their tools," and he tells in his autobiography +how much this feeling for tools meant to him throughout +his life.<a name="FNanchor_I-164_164" id="FNanchor_I-164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-164_164" class="fnanchor">[i-164]</a> His flair for invention, though founded on this same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lviii" id="Page_lviii">[lviii]</a></span> +"handiness," was not always directed toward the production of +tools; but in the two fields of "philosophical" experimentation +and the printing trade, his dexterity and cleverness in making +needful instruments and devices were invaluable.</p> + +<p>Partly because of the fact that printers' supplies must be imported +from England, and partly because of his natural tool-mindedness, +Franklin manufactured more of his own supplies +than any other American commercial printer before or since. +He cast type, made paper molds, mixed inks, made contributions +to press building, did engraving, forwarded experiments +in stereotyping, and worked at logotypy. Long after he had +retired from the printing business. Franklin continued to influence +developments in that field. It is a common saying +among printers that one never forgets the smell of printer's ink. +Franklin kept touch with his former business through various +partnerships, through correspondence with printer friends, +through the establishment of a private press in his home at +Passy during his ambassadorship to France, and through his +personal supervision of the education of his grandson in "the +art preservative of arts." "I am too old to follow printing again +myself," he wrote to a friend, "but, loving the business, I have +brought up my grandson Benjamin to it, and have built and +furnished a printing-house for him, which he now manages +under my eye."<a name="FNanchor_I-165_165" id="FNanchor_I-165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-165_165" class="fnanchor">[i-165]</a></p> + +<p>As to just how adept Franklin was on the distinctively aesthetic +side of printing, critics must differ. It has been customary +to assume that the output of his shop was far superior to that of +the several other printing houses in the colonies.<a name="FNanchor_I-166_166" id="FNanchor_I-166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-166_166" class="fnanchor">[i-166]</a> Such broad +generalizations are misleading, however; and it is certainly possible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lix" id="Page_lix">[lix]</a></span> +to find Parks and even Bradford imprints which compare +favorably enough with some of Franklin's. In typography, the +phase of printing which affords the widest aesthetic scope, +Franklin was by no means a genius. William Parks, of Annapolis +and later of Williamsburg, was at least Franklin's peer during +the seventeen-thirties and 'forties in the artistic arrangement of +type; and William Goddard, who practiced the art a little later +in several of the colonies, was his superior. Yet Franklin was +an outstanding printer in a region blessed with few good presses. +The difference between him and most of the other colonial +printers may be stated thus: Franklin maintained a high average +of workmanlike (though not inspired) performance, while his +contemporaries were inclined to be slovenly, inaccurate, and +generally careless.</p> + +<p>In the later years of his life Franklin gave no little attention +to fine printing, though as a dilettante rather than as a commercial +printer. In France he was friendly with François Ambroise +Didot, the greatest French printer of his times, and put his +grandson Benjamin Franklin Bache to school in Didot's establishment. +With Pierre Simon Fournier, who ranked next to +Didot among French printers, Franklin corresponded from time +to time. In England the American printer maintained touch +with prominent practitioners of his craft from the time of his +first visit abroad until his death. Samuel Palmer, Franklin's +first London employer, was but a mediocre printer; but John +Watts, to whose house the young American went after a year +at Palmer's, stood much higher in his vocation.<a name="FNanchor_I-167_167" id="FNanchor_I-167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-167_167" class="fnanchor">[i-167]</a> Both Watts +and Palmer were patrons of William Caslon, from whom +Franklin later bought type. But John Baskerville, Caslon's +rival, was the founder whom Franklin did most to encourage +and to bring to the attention of discriminating printers. The +English printer with whom Franklin was upon the terms of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lx" id="Page_lx">[lx]</a></span> +greatest intimacy—and that for many years—was William +Strahan, member of Parliament, King's Printer, and a successful +publisher. Strahan was a man of parts, a great letter writer, and +a friend of David Hume and Samuel Johnson. The latter referred +to the Strahan shop as "the greatest printing house in +London."<a name="FNanchor_I-168_168" id="FNanchor_I-168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-168_168" class="fnanchor">[i-168]</a> Another correspondent was John Walter, logotyper, +press builder, and founder of the London <i>Times</i>.<a name="FNanchor_I-169_169" id="FNanchor_I-169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-169_169" class="fnanchor">[i-169]</a> In all +his letters to his printer friends, Franklin shows not only a lively +interest in improvements and inventions for the trade, but also +an increasing interest in the artistic side of printing and type-founding.</p> + +<p>The "bookish inclination" which Franklin credits in the +<i>Autobiography</i> with being the quality that decided his father to +make a printer of him, appertained to the trade because printers +were commonly publishers and sellers of books and pamphlets, +and often editors and publishers of newspapers. How the young +Franklin satisfied his literary urge in the print shop of his brother +James is a familiar story, and his theories of writing are traced +in another section of this Introduction. The contribution to +literature which he made as a publisher of original books is negligible, +but he did his part both as publisher and bookseller to +spread that bookishness to which he felt that he owed much of +his own success. Like all publishers before and since, he was +forced by his customers to issue books of a lower sort than he +could fully approve in order to float editions of more desirable +works: he tells plaintively of his public's preference for "Robin +Hood's Songs" over the Psalms of his beloved Watts.<a name="FNanchor_I-170_170" id="FNanchor_I-170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-170_170" class="fnanchor">[i-170]</a> In still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxi" id="Page_lxi">[lxi]</a></span> +another way, Franklin promoted the bookishness of his community: +he founded the first of American circulating libraries, +and he built up for himself one of the largest private libraries +in the country.<a name="FNanchor_I-171_171" id="FNanchor_I-171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-171_171" class="fnanchor">[i-171]</a></p> + +<p>Journalism was a common by-product of the printing trade. +When Franklin and Meredith took over Keimer's <i>The Universal +Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette</i> in +1729, there were six other newspapers being published in the +colonies—three in Boston and one each in New York, Philadelphia, +and Annapolis. The Williamsburg press had a newspaper +a few years later, but the other two printing towns in the +colonies had to wait some thirty years for journalistic ventures—a +newspaper in New London and a magazine in Woodbridge.<a name="FNanchor_I-172_172" id="FNanchor_I-172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-172_172" class="fnanchor">[i-172]</a></p> + +<p>The fundamental question to be asked in analyzing a newspaper +may be stated thus: What is the editorial conception of the +primary function of the press? Franklin had received his early +newspaper training on his brother's <i>New England Courant</i>, +which frankly acknowledged entertainment as its primary +function and relegated news to a minor place. Of his contemporaries +in 1729, the oldest, the <i>Boston News-Letter</i>, held the +publication of news to be its sole function; while the <i>Boston Gazette</i>, +the <i>New York Gazette</i>, and the <i>Maryland Gazette</i> took +much the same attitude. In the main, they were rather dreary +reprints of stale European news. Bradford's <i>American Weekly +Mercury</i>, in Philadelphia, gave somewhat more attention to +local news; but with the exception of the Franklin-Breintnal +<i>Busy-Body</i> papers, contributed in 1728-1729 in order to bring +Keimer to his knees, the <i>Mercury</i> gave very little attention to +the entertainment function. Only the <i>New England Weekly +Journal</i>, carrying on something of the tradition of the old <i>Courant</i>, +dealt largely in entertainment as well as in news. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxii" id="Page_lxii">[lxii]</a></span> +bi-functional policy was the one adopted by Franklin's <i>Pennsylvania +Gazette</i>, which was always readable and amusing at +the same time that it was newsy.</p> + +<p>Of the editorial or opinion-forming function of newspapers +there was little evidence in Franklin's paper,<a name="FNanchor_I-173_173" id="FNanchor_I-173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-173_173" class="fnanchor">[i-173]</a> at least in the +field of politics. The obvious reason was the active governmental +censorship. It remained for John Peter Zenger to introduce +that function into colonial journalism in the <i>New York +Weekly Journal</i> in 1733: his struggle for the freedom of the +press is well known.<a name="FNanchor_I-174_174" id="FNanchor_I-174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-174_174" class="fnanchor">[i-174]</a> But the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> never became +in any degree a political organ while Franklin edited it; +and his first political pronouncement was published not in his +paper but in a pamphlet, <i>Plain Truth</i>, issued just before his +retirement from editorial duties.</p> + +<p>Two common misconceptions in regard to Franklin's newspaper +call for correction: (1) The <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> was not +connected as forerunner or ancestor with the <i>Saturday Evening +Post</i>. The <i>Gazette</i>, a newspaper to the end, closed its file in +1815;<a name="FNanchor_I-175_175" id="FNanchor_I-175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-175_175" class="fnanchor">[i-175]</a> the <i>Post</i>, a story paper, issued its Volume I, Number 1, +in 1821. Throughout much of the latter half of the nineteenth +century, the <i>Post</i> carried the legend "Founded in 1821" on its +front page; and not until after the Curtis Publishing Company +bought it in 1897 did it begin to print the words "Founded <span class="txt90">A.D.</span> +1728 by Benjamin Franklin" on its cover. The sole connection +of the <i>Post</i> with Franklin lies in the fact that it was first issued<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxiii" id="Page_lxiii">[lxiii]</a></span> +from an office at 53 Market Street which Franklin had once +occupied.<a name="FNanchor_I-176_176" id="FNanchor_I-176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-176_176" class="fnanchor">[i-176]</a> (2) Franklin did not publish a "chain" of newspapers. +A "chain" implies some kind of co-operative connection +between the various members, but the several papers which +Franklin helped to finance had no such relationship. In some he +was a six-years partner,<a name="FNanchor_I-177_177" id="FNanchor_I-177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-177_177" class="fnanchor">[i-177]</a> keeping his interest until the resident +publisher, usually a former employee, was established; to some +he made loans or, in the case of relatives, gifts.<a name="FNanchor_I-178_178" id="FNanchor_I-178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-178_178" class="fnanchor">[i-178]</a></p> + +<p>One of his journalistic ventures which is not mentioned in +the <i>Autobiography</i> is the <i>General Magazine</i>, of 1741. It missed +by three days being the first of American magazines: Andrew +Bradford had learned of Franklin's project and, with his <i>American +Magazine</i>, beat him in the race for priority. But the <i>American +Magazine</i> was a failure in three monthly numbers, while +Franklin's periodical, though more readable, died after its +sixth issue.<a name="FNanchor_I-179_179" id="FNanchor_I-179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-179_179" class="fnanchor">[i-179]</a> As an initial episode in the history of American +magazines, the <i>General Magazine</i> has a certain eminence; but +Franklin's neglect of it when writing his <i>Autobiography</i>, after +the events of nearly fifty busy years had apparently crowded it +out of his memory, is sufficient commentary on its unimportance.</p> + +<p>To the end of his life Franklin was proud of his trade of +printing, with its handmaiden journalism. His last will and +testament begins: "I, Benjamin Franklin, Printer...." Though +clearly not the chief interest of his life, it was one to which he +was fundamentally and consistently attached.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxiv" id="Page_lxiv">[lxiv]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="V_FRANKLINS_ECONOMIC_VIEWS" id="V_FRANKLINS_ECONOMIC_VIEWS"></a>V. FRANKLIN'S ECONOMIC VIEWS</h3> + +<p>An eighteenth-century colonial who wrote on paper money, +interest, value, and insurance, who discussed a theory of population +and the economic aspects of the abolition of slavery, who +championed free trade, and who probably lent Adam Smith +some information used in his <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, who was an +empirical agriculturist, who was "half physiocratic before the +rise of the physiocratic school"—such a colonial has, indeed, +claims to being America's pioneer economist.</p> + +<p>Franklin's hatred of negro slavery was conditioned by more +than his humanitarian bias. It may be seen that his indictments +of black cargoes were the resultant of an interplay of his convictions +that economically slavery was enervating and dear +and of his abstract sense of religious and ethical justice. One +should not minimize, however, his distrust of slavery on other +than economic bases. He was acutely influenced by the Quakers +of his colony who, like gadflies, were stinging slaveholders to +an awareness of their blood traffic, and by the rise of English +humanitarianism. In his youth he had published (first edition, +1729; second, 1730), with no little danger to himself and his +business, Ralph Sandiford's <i>A Brief Examination of the +Practice of the Times</i>, an Amos-like vituperative attack on +the "unrighteous Gain" of slaveholding. He also published +works of Benjamin Lay and John Woolman.<a name="FNanchor_I-180_180" id="FNanchor_I-180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-180_180" class="fnanchor">[i-180]</a> Friend of +Anthony Benezet, Benjamin Rush, Fothergill, and Granville +Sharp, and after 1760 a member of Dr. Bray's Associates, +he lent his voice and pen to denouncing slavery on religious +and ethical grounds; and in England, after the James Sommersett<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxv" id="Page_lxv">[lxv]</a></span> +trial (1772), he "began to agitate for parliamentary +action" toward the abolishing of slavery in all parts of the British +Empire.<a name="FNanchor_I-181_181" id="FNanchor_I-181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-181_181" class="fnanchor">[i-181]</a> Following the Sommersett verdict, Franklin contributed +a brief article to the <i>London Chronicle</i> (June 18-20, +1772) in which he denounced the "constant butchery of the +human species by this pestilential detestable traffic in the bodies +and souls of men."<a name="FNanchor_I-182_182" id="FNanchor_I-182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-182_182" class="fnanchor">[i-182]</a> Losing his temperamental urbanity when +observing "the diabolical Commerce,"<a name="FNanchor_I-183_183" id="FNanchor_I-183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-183_183" class="fnanchor">[i-183]</a> "the abominable +African Trade," he recollects approvingly that a certain French +moralist<a name="FNanchor_I-184_184" id="FNanchor_I-184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-184_184" class="fnanchor">[i-184]</a> could "not look on a piece of sugar without conceiving +it stained with spots of human blood!"<a name="FNanchor_I-185_185" id="FNanchor_I-185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-185_185" class="fnanchor">[i-185]</a> Conditioned by +Quakerism, by his deism, which suggested that "the most +acceptable Service we render him [God] is doing good to his +other Children," and by the eighteenth century's growing repugnance +toward suffering and pain,<a name="FNanchor_I-186_186" id="FNanchor_I-186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-186_186" class="fnanchor">[i-186]</a> Franklin (although he +took little part in legislating against slavery in Pennsylvania) +became through his writing a model to be imitated, especially +in France, by a people more intent on becoming humane than +saintly.</p> + +<p>His letter to Anthony Benezet (London, July 14, 1773), however, +clearly indicates that for economic, as well as humanitarian +reasons, he had sought freedom for slaves:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I am glad to hear that such humane Sentiments prevail so +much more generally than heretofore, that there is Reason to +hope our Colonies may in time get clear of a Practice that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxvi" id="Page_lxvi">[lxvi]</a></span> +disgraces them, and, without producing any equivalent Benefit, +is dangerous to their very Existence.<a name="FNanchor_I-187_187" id="FNanchor_I-187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-187_187" class="fnanchor">[i-187]</a></p></div> + +<p>Franklin's view of the economic disabilities of slavery is best +expressed in <i>Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, +Peopling of Countries, Etc.</i> (1751). Arguing against British restraint +of colonial manufactures, he observed that "'tis an ill-grounded +Opinion that by the Labour of slaves, <i>America</i> may +possibly vie in Cheapness of Manufactures with <i>Britain</i>. The +Labour of Slaves can never be so cheap here as the Labour of +working Men is in <i>Britain</i>."<a name="FNanchor_I-188_188" id="FNanchor_I-188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-188_188" class="fnanchor">[i-188]</a> With arithmetic based on empirical +scrutiny of existing conditions, resembling the mode of economists +following Adam Smith, he charged that slaves are economically +unprofitable due to the rate of interest in the colonies, +their initial price, their insurance and maintenance, their negligence +and malevolence.<a name="FNanchor_I-189_189" id="FNanchor_I-189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-189_189" class="fnanchor">[i-189]</a> In addition, "Slaves ... pejorate the +Families that use them; the white Children become proud, disgusted +with Labour, and being educated in Idleness, are rendered +unfit to get a Living by Industry."<a name="FNanchor_I-190_190" id="FNanchor_I-190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-190_190" class="fnanchor">[i-190]</a> Slaves are hardly +economical investments in terms of colonial character. Looking +to the "<i>English</i> Sugar <i>Islands</i>" where Negroes "have greatly +diminish'd the Whites," and deprived the poor of employment, +"while a few Families acquire vast Estates," he realized that +"population was limited by means of subsistence,"<a name="FNanchor_I-191_191" id="FNanchor_I-191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-191_191" class="fnanchor">[i-191]</a> which +foreshadowed the more pessimistic progressions of Malthus. +Having just maintained that "our People must at least be +doubled every 20 Years,"<a name="FNanchor_I-192_192" id="FNanchor_I-192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-192_192" class="fnanchor">[i-192]</a> and intuitively suspecting that +the means for subsistence progress more slowly, he exclaimed, +"Why increase the Sons of <i>Africa</i>, by planting them in <i>America</i>, +where we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks +and Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red?"<a name="FNanchor_I-193_193" id="FNanchor_I-193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-193_193" class="fnanchor">[i-193]</a> He +saw mere economic extravagance as the short-time effect of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxvii" id="Page_lxvii">[lxvii]</a></span> +slavery; he feared that the long-time effect would be to create an +aristocracy subsisting at the head of a vast brood of slaves and +poor whites.<a name="FNanchor_I-194_194" id="FNanchor_I-194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-194_194" class="fnanchor">[i-194]</a></p> + +<p>It was inevitable in a state having no staple crop, such as rice, +sugar, tobacco, or cotton, which offered at least economic justification +for negro slavery, that abolition of slaves should be +urged partially on purely economic grounds, and that Pennsylvania +should have been the first colony to legislate in favor of +abolition, in 1780. Although one may feel that economic determinism +is overly simple and audacious in its doctrinaire interpretations, +one can not refuse to see the extent to which economics +tended to buttress humane and religious factors in +Franklin's mind to make him a persuasive champion of +abolition.<a name="FNanchor_I-195_195" id="FNanchor_I-195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-195_195" class="fnanchor">[i-195]</a></p> + +<p><i>A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper +Currency</i><a name="FNanchor_I-196_196" id="FNanchor_I-196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-196_196" class="fnanchor">[i-196]</a> has been appraised as "by far the ablest and most +original treatise that had been written on the subject up to 1728<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxviii" id="Page_lxviii">[lxviii]</a></span> +and was probably the most widely read work on paper currency +that appeared in colonial America."<a name="FNanchor_I-197_197" id="FNanchor_I-197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-197_197" class="fnanchor">[i-197]</a> That Franklin's interest +in paper money was not unique, one may gather from the fact +that between 1714 and 1721 "nearly thirty pamphlets appeared" +on this subject in Massachusetts alone.<a name="FNanchor_I-198_198" id="FNanchor_I-198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-198_198" class="fnanchor">[i-198]</a> One of the 1728 +theses at Harvard, answered in the affirmative, was: "Does the +issue of paper money contribute to the public good?"<a name="FNanchor_I-199_199" id="FNanchor_I-199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-199_199" class="fnanchor">[i-199]</a> "Since +there was a scarcity of circulating medium, caused by the +constant drain of specie for export," explains Mr. D. R. +Dewey, "it is not strange that projects for converting credit +into wealth should have sprung up in the colonies."<a name="FNanchor_I-200_200" id="FNanchor_I-200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-200_200" class="fnanchor">[i-200]</a> +Franklin argued in his <i>Modest Enquiry</i><a name="FNanchor_I-201_201" id="FNanchor_I-201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-201_201" class="fnanchor">[i-201]</a> that (1) "A plentiful +Currency will occasion Interest to be low," (2) it "will +occasion the Trading Produce to bear a good Price," (3) +it "will encourage great Numbers of labouring and Handicrafts +Men to come and settle in the Country," and (4) it "will +occasion a less consumption of European Goods, in proportion +to the Number of the People." Thus he saw paper money as +a "Morrison's Pill," promising to cure all economic ills.<a name="FNanchor_I-202_202" id="FNanchor_I-202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-202_202" class="fnanchor">[i-202]</a> It +has been suggested that as a printer Franklin naturally would +favor issues of paper money. In view of his later apostasy one +should note that in this essay Franklin apparently accepted the +current mercantilist notions, best expressed here in his conviction +that paper money will secure a favorable balance of trade.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxix" id="Page_lxix">[lxix]</a></span> +Demands for emissions of paper money were inevitable in a +colony in the grip of such a restrictive commercial policy as +British mercantilism. It must be observed, however, that Franklin +differed from the proper mercantilists to the extent that +simple valuable metals were not to be measures of value. Deriving +his idea from Sir William Petty, Franklin took labor as the +true measure of value,<a name="FNanchor_I-203_203" id="FNanchor_I-203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-203_203" class="fnanchor">[i-203]</a>—a position later held by Karl Marx. In +his preoccupation with the growth of manufactures and favorable +balances of trade, Franklin gave no suggestions that at +least by 1767 he was to become an exponent of agrarianism and +free trade. One wonders to what extent his warnings against +the purchase of "unnecessary Householdstuff, or any superfluous +thing," his inveterate emphasis on industry and frugality, +were conditioned by his view that such indulgence would essentially +cause a preponderance of imports, hence casting against +them an unfavorable trade balance.<a name="FNanchor_I-204_204" id="FNanchor_I-204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-204_204" class="fnanchor">[i-204]</a></p> + +<p>In 1751 Parliament passed an act regulating in the New England +colonies the issue of paper money and preventing them +"from adding a legal tender clause thereto"; in 1764 Parliament +forbade issue of legal tender money in any of the colonies. As a +member of the Pennsylvania assembly, Franklin had successfully +sponsored issues of paper money; in London, following the +1764 act, he urged that one of the causes breeding disrespect for +Parliament was "the prohibition of making paper money among +[us]."<a name="FNanchor_I-205_205" id="FNanchor_I-205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-205_205" class="fnanchor">[i-205]</a> Economics blends into politics when we remember that +the 1764 restraining legislation was "one of the factors in the +subsequent separation, for it caused some of the suffering that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxx" id="Page_lxx">[lxx]</a></span> +inevitably follows in the wake of an unsound monetary policy +whose onward course is suddenly checked."<a name="FNanchor_I-206_206" id="FNanchor_I-206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-206_206" class="fnanchor">[i-206]</a> In 1766 Franklin +was yet an ardent imperialist, who sought politically and +economically to keep whole "that fine and noble China Vase, +the British Empire." His <i>Remarks and Facts Concerning +American Paper Money</i> (1767), in answer to Lord Hillsborough's +Board of Trade report circulated among British merchants, +is an ardent plea for legal tender paper money. He +argued that British merchants (since yearly trade balances had +regularly been in their favor) had not been deprived of gold and +silver, that paper money <i>had worked</i> in the Colonies,<a name="FNanchor_I-207_207" id="FNanchor_I-207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-207_207" class="fnanchor">[i-207]</a> and that +British merchants had lost no more in their colonial dealings +than was inevitable in war times. Franklin concluded that since +there were no mines in the colonies, paper money was a necessity +(arguing here very shrewdly that even English silver "is obliged +to the legal Tender for Part of its Value"). Hence, at least for +colonies deserving it, the mother country should take off the restraint +on legal tender. What Franklin seems not to have known +and what the merchants had actually felt (they had their accounts +staring at them) was that in the past, especially after 1750, much +of the legal tender was in effect nothing but inconvertible fiat +money. Mr. Carey quotes from an uncollected item, Franklin's +"The Legal Tender of Paper Money in America," in which he +threatened that "if the colonies were not allowed to issue legal-tender +notes there was no way in which they could retain hard +money except by boycotting English goods."<a name="FNanchor_I-208_208" id="FNanchor_I-208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-208_208" class="fnanchor">[i-208]</a> Franklin suggested +(to S. Cooper, April 22, 1779) that depreciation may +not be unmixed evil, since it may be viewed as a tax: "It should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxi" id="Page_lxxi">[lxxi]</a></span> +always be remembered, that the original Intention was to sink +the Bills by Taxes, which would as effectually extinguish the +Debt as an actual Redemption."<a name="FNanchor_I-209_209" id="FNanchor_I-209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-209_209" class="fnanchor">[i-209]</a> Not a little Machiavellian +for one who was not blind to the sanctity of contracts!</p> + +<p>With the Revolution and the attendant depreciation in currency, +Franklin tended to warn against over-issues.<a name="FNanchor_I-210_210" id="FNanchor_I-210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-210_210" class="fnanchor">[i-210]</a> Like +Governor Hutchinson, who said that "the morals of the +people depreciate with the currency," Franklin confessed in +1783 "the many Mischiefs, the injustices, the Corruption of +Manners, &c., &c., that attended a depreciating Currency."<a name="FNanchor_I-211_211" id="FNanchor_I-211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-211_211" class="fnanchor">[i-211]</a> +There is no evidence to show that Franklin dissented from the +conservative prohibition in the Constitutional Convention of +1787 against issues of legal tender paper.<a name="FNanchor_I-212_212" id="FNanchor_I-212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-212_212" class="fnanchor">[i-212]</a></p> + +<p>Deborah Logan (in a letter in 1829) stated that Franklin +"once told Dr. Logan that the celebrated Adam Smith, when +writing his 'Wealth of Nations,' was in the habit of bringing +chapter after chapter as he composed it, to himself, Dr. Price +and others of the literati; then patiently hear [<i>sic</i>] their observations, +and profit by their discussion and criticism—even sometimes +submitting to write whole chapters anew, and even to reverse +some of his propositions."<a name="FNanchor_I-213_213" id="FNanchor_I-213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-213_213" class="fnanchor">[i-213]</a> James Parton observed that +the allusions to the colonies which "constitute the experimental +evidence of the essential truth of the book" were supplied by +Franklin.<a name="FNanchor_I-214_214" id="FNanchor_I-214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-214_214" class="fnanchor">[i-214]</a> But Rae reasonably counters: "It ought of course +to be borne in mind that Smith had been in the constant habit of +hearing much about the American Colonies and their affairs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxii" id="Page_lxxii">[lxxii]</a></span> +during his thirteen years in Glasgow from the intelligent merchants +and returned planters of that city."<a name="FNanchor_I-215_215" id="FNanchor_I-215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-215_215" class="fnanchor">[i-215]</a></p> + +<p>In general, we may conclude that Franklin and Smith were +exponents of free trade in proportion as they were reactionaries +against British mercantilism. Each in his reaction tended to +elevate the function of agriculture beyond reasonable limits. +Unlike the physiocrats and Franklin, however, Adam Smith did +not hold that, in terms of wealth-producing, manufacturers +were sterile. Even if Franklin saw only agriculture as <i>productive</i>, +he was not blind to the utility of manufactures, especially after +the break with the mother country, when he realized that home +industry must be developed to supply the colonial needs +formerly satisfied by British exports.<a name="FNanchor_I-216_216" id="FNanchor_I-216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-216_216" class="fnanchor">[i-216]</a></p> + +<p>Finally, each was, in varying degrees, an exponent of laissez<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxiii" id="Page_lxxiii">[lxxiii]</a></span> +faire.<a name="FNanchor_I-217_217" id="FNanchor_I-217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-217_217" class="fnanchor">[i-217]</a> Since we shall discover that politically Franklin was less +a democrat than is often supposed, we may feel that his belief in +free trade led him to embrace reservedly the principle of laissez +faire, rather than that free trade, an economic concept, was but a +fragment of a larger dogma, namely, that government should be +characterized by its passivity, frugality, and maximum negligence. +V. L. Parrington quotes<a name="FNanchor_I-218_218" id="FNanchor_I-218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-218_218" class="fnanchor">[i-218]</a> from George Whately's +<i>Principles of Trade</i>, which contained views congenial to Franklin:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>When Colbert assembled some wise old merchants of France, +and desired their advice and opinion, how he could best serve +and promote commerce, their answer, after consultation, was, +in three words only, <i>Laissez-nous faire</i>: "Let us alone." It is +said by a very solid writer of the same nation, that he is well +advanced in the science of politics, who knows the full force of +that maxim. <i>Pas trop gouverner</i>: "Not to govern too much!" +<i>which, perhaps, would be of more use when applied to trade, than +in any other public concern</i>. (Present editors' italics.)</p></div> + +<p>Laissez faire in Franklin's as in Whately's view tended to be +synonymous with free trade. Laissez faire was suggested by +his insistence on free trade, as he progressively expressed his +antipathy for mercantilism, rather than that free trade was simply<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxiv" id="Page_lxxiv">[lxxiv]</a></span> +a natural deduction from a more inclusive economic-political +dogma.</p> + +<p>Writing to the pro-colonial Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. +Asaph, whose "sweet Retirement" at Twyford he had long +enjoyed, Franklin, seeing no hopes of a reconciliation between +the colonies and Great Britain, uttered what marked him as +the first American disciple of Quesnay's school of economic +thought: "Agriculture is the great Source of Wealth and Plenty. +By cutting off our Trade you have thrown us <i>to the Earth</i>, +whence like <i>Antaeus</i> we shall rise yearly with fresh Strength +and Vigour."<a name="FNanchor_I-219_219" id="FNanchor_I-219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-219_219" class="fnanchor">[i-219]</a> Upon learning of the colonists' "Resolutions +of Non-Importation" he wrote to "Cousin" Folger +that they must promote their own industries, especially those +of the "Earth and their Sea, the true Sources of Wealth and +Plenty."<a name="FNanchor_I-220_220" id="FNanchor_I-220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-220_220" class="fnanchor">[i-220]</a> Learning that the colonists had threatened to boycott +English manufacturers by creating their own basic industries, +Franklin demurred in a letter to Cadwallader Evans: "Agriculture +is truly <i>productive of new wealth</i>; manufacturers only +change forms, and whatever value they give to the materials +they work upon, they in the mean time consume an equal value +in provisions, &c. So that riches are not <i>increased</i> by manufacturing; +the only advantage is, that provisions in the shape of +manufactures are more easily carried for sale to foreign markets."<a name="FNanchor_I-221_221" id="FNanchor_I-221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-221_221" class="fnanchor">[i-221]</a> +<i>Positions to be Examined, Concerning National +Wealth</i><a name="FNanchor_I-222_222" id="FNanchor_I-222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-222_222" class="fnanchor">[i-222]</a> affords a succinct statement of Franklin's agrarianism. +"There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire +wealth. The first is by <i>war</i>, as the Romans did, in plundering +their conquered neighbours. This is <i>robbery</i>. The second by +<i>commerce</i>, which is generally <i>cheating</i>. The third by <i>agriculture</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxv" id="Page_lxxv">[lxxv]</a></span> +the only <i>honest way</i>, wherein man receives a real increase of the +seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, +wrought by the hand of God in his favour, as a reward for his +innocent life and his virtuous industry."<a name="FNanchor_I-223_223" id="FNanchor_I-223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-223_223" class="fnanchor">[i-223]</a> Dupont de Nemours, +as early as 1769, had written: "Who does not know that the English +have today their Benjamin Franklin, who has adopted the +principles and the doctrines of our French economists?"<a name="FNanchor_I-224_224" id="FNanchor_I-224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-224_224" class="fnanchor">[i-224]</a> +Before attempting to appraise the real indebtedness of Franklin to +the physiocrats, it is well to seek to learn how he came in contact +with their ideas, and especially why by the year 1767 he was +acutely susceptible to their doctrine. In the summer of 1767, in +the company of Sir John Pringle, Franklin went to Paris, not an +unknown figure to the French savants, who were acquainted +with his scientific papers already translated into French by +D'Alibard. That he was feted by the Newtons of the physiocrats, +François Quesnay and the elder Mirabeau, as "le Savant, +le Geomètre, le Physicien, l'homme à qui la nature permet de +dévoiler ses secrets,"<a name="FNanchor_I-225_225" id="FNanchor_I-225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-225_225" class="fnanchor">[i-225]</a> we are assured, when to De Nemours +(July 28, 1768) he writes regretfully: "Be so good as to present +my sincere respect to that venerable apostle, Dr. Quesnay, and +to the illustrious Ami des Hommes (of whose civilities to me at +Paris I retain a grateful remembrance)...."<a name="FNanchor_I-226_226" id="FNanchor_I-226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-226_226" class="fnanchor">[i-226]</a> Having missed +Franklin in Paris (1767), De Nemours had sent Franklin "un +recueil des principaux traités économiques du Docteur Quesnay" +and his own <i>Physiocratie</i> (1768), which cast him in the role +"of a propagandist of Physiocratie doctrines."<a name="FNanchor_I-227_227" id="FNanchor_I-227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-227_227" class="fnanchor">[i-227]</a> Franklin +admitted, "I am perfectly charmed with them, and wish I +could have stayed in France for some time, to have studied in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxvi" id="Page_lxxvi">[lxxvi]</a></span> +your school, that I might by conversing with its founders have +made myself quite a master of that philosophy."<a name="FNanchor_I-228_228" id="FNanchor_I-228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-228_228" class="fnanchor">[i-228]</a> That Franklin +was not before 1767 unacquainted with the Économistes we +learn when he tells Dupont de Nemours that Dr. Templeman +had shown him the De Nemours-Templeman correspondence +when the latter was Secretary of the London Society for the +Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. A +second trip to Paris (in 1769) to confer with Barbeu Dubourg, +an avowed physiocrat, concerning his forthcoming translation +of Franklin's works, served to acquaint him still further with +the doctrines of the new school.</p> + +<p>Franklin's agrarianism<a name="FNanchor_I-229_229" id="FNanchor_I-229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-229_229" class="fnanchor">[i-229]</a> is congruent with physiocracy<a name="FNanchor_I-230_230" id="FNanchor_I-230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-230_230" class="fnanchor">[i-230]</a> in +as far as he observed that agriculture alone, of the many industries, +produced a surplus of wealth after all of the expenses of +production had been paid.<a name="FNanchor_I-231_231" id="FNanchor_I-231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-231_231" class="fnanchor">[i-231]</a> Each laborer produced more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxvii" id="Page_lxxvii">[lxxvii]</a></span> +enough to satisfy his own needs. This surplus the Économistes +termed the <i>produit net</i>. A worker in manufactures, it was assumed, +consumed foodstuffs and other materials in proportion +to the value he created in his manufacturing process. Hence +there obviously could be no <i>produit net</i> accruing from manufactures. +Like the physiocrats, Franklin felt that manufactures +were <i>sterile</i>, to the extent that no new wealth was created. The +physiocrats believed, however, that laborers in manufacturing +industries <i>could</i> create a <i>produit net</i> if they stinted themselves in +consuming foodstuffs, et cetera, but it was argued that this prudential +asceticism was not a characteristic habit. To this extent +at least the physiocrats were empirical.</p> + +<p>Free trade no less than agrarianism characterized physiocracy. +Although Franklin indicated his antagonism toward governmental +restraint of trade, internal and among nations, in his +antipathy toward British mercantilism, it was not until after he +became impregnated with French doctrine that he began to express +very fully his advocacy of free trade. After Connecticut +imposed a 5% duty on goods imported from neighboring +colonies, Franklin wrote to Jared Eliot in 1747 that it was likely +that the duty would devolve on the consumer and be "only another +mode of Taxing" the purchaser. In addition he recognized +that smuggling, virtually a colonial art, would cause the +"fair Trader" to "be undersold and ruined."<a name="FNanchor_I-232_232" id="FNanchor_I-232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-232_232" class="fnanchor">[i-232]</a> He urged that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxviii" id="Page_lxxviii">[lxxviii]</a></span> +the import duty might suggest selfishness, and might also tend +to deter Connecticut commerce. Here, it must be admitted, +Franklin did not sanction free trade with a priori appeals to the +"natural order," the key in the arch of physiocracy. He rather +appealed to the instincts and observations of the prudential +tradesman. His <i>Plan for Regulating Indian Affairs</i> (1766), unlike +his 1747 letters, <i>suggested</i> (if it did not express concretely) +inviolable laws of commerce in the words: "It seems contrary +to the Nature of Commerce, for Government to interfere +in the Prices of Commodities.... It therefore seems to me, +that Trade will best find and make its own Rates; and that Government +cannot well interfere, unless it would take the whole +Trade into its own hands ... and manage it by its own Servants +at its own Risque."<a name="FNanchor_I-233_233" id="FNanchor_I-233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-233_233" class="fnanchor">[i-233]</a> To Dupont de Nemours he admitted that +British mercantilism had not achieved "that wisdom which sees +the welfare of the parts in the prosperity of the whole."<a name="FNanchor_I-234_234" id="FNanchor_I-234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-234_234" class="fnanchor">[i-234]</a> To +Sir Edward Newenham, representing the County of Dublin, he +expressed admiration for Irish efforts to secure freedom of commerce, +"which is the right of all mankind." "To enjoy all the +advantages of the climate, soil, and situation in which God and +nature have placed us, is as clear a right as that of breathing; and +can never be justly taken from men but as a punishment for +some atrocious crime."<a name="FNanchor_I-235_235" id="FNanchor_I-235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-235_235" class="fnanchor">[i-235]</a> Three years before he met Quesnay +(though after he had read Dupont de Nemours's letters to +Templeman), Franklin sanctioned free trade through appeal to +other than utilitarian prudence: first he admitted that British restraint +of colonial commerce, for example with the West Indies, +will tend to prevent colonists from making remittances for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxix" id="Page_lxxix">[lxxix]</a></span> +British manufactured goods, since "The Cat can yield but her +skin." Then with a suggestion of philosophic generalization he +hoped that "In time perhaps Mankind may be wise enough to +let Trade take its own Course, find its own Channels, and regulate +its own Proportions, etc."<a name="FNanchor_I-236_236" id="FNanchor_I-236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-236_236" class="fnanchor">[i-236]</a> Restraint of manufactures +"deprive[s] us of the Advantage God & Nature seem to have intended +us.... So selfish is the human Mind! But 'tis well there +is One above that rules these Matters with a more equal Hand. +He that is pleas'd to feed the Ravens, will undoubtedly take +care to prevent a Monopoly of the Carrion."<a name="FNanchor_I-237_237" id="FNanchor_I-237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-237_237" class="fnanchor">[i-237]</a> Glorifying the +husbandman and suggesting that trade restrictions disturb a +natural order, Franklin wrote to David Hartley in 1783 that +Great Britain has tended to impede "the mutual communications +among men of the gifts of God, and rendering miserable +multitudes of merchants and their families, artisans, and cultivators +of the earth, the most peaceable and innocent part of the +human species."<a name="FNanchor_I-238_238" id="FNanchor_I-238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-238_238" class="fnanchor">[i-238]</a></p> + +<p>That Franklin was not without his influence in eighteenth-century +economic thought we may gather from Dugald Stewart's +opinion that "the expressions <i>laissez-faire</i> and, <i>pas trop gouverner</i> +are indebted chiefly for their extensive circulation to the short +and luminous comments of Franklin, which had so extraordinary +an influence on public opinion in the old and new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxx" id="Page_lxxx">[lxxx]</a></span> +world."<a name="FNanchor_I-239_239" id="FNanchor_I-239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-239_239" class="fnanchor">[i-239]</a> Mr. Carey maintains that Franklin, unlike the physiocrats, +inveighed against trade regulations because they led to +smuggling rather than because to any important degree they +violated the "natural order." The physiocrats are tenuous, +amorphous, and ambiguous when they seek to define <i>L'Ordre +naturel</i>. At times Dupont de Nemours seems to identify it +with a primitivistic past.<a name="FNanchor_I-240_240" id="FNanchor_I-240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-240_240" class="fnanchor">[i-240]</a> Quesnay, on the other hand, says: +"Natural right is indeterminate in a state of nature. The right +only appears when justice and labour have been established."<a name="FNanchor_I-241_241" id="FNanchor_I-241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-241_241" class="fnanchor">[i-241]</a> +Again, he asserts: "By entering society and making conventions +for their mutual advantage men increase the scope of natural +right without incurring any restriction of their liberties, for this +is just the state of things that enlightened reason would have +chosen."<a name="FNanchor_I-242_242" id="FNanchor_I-242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-242_242" class="fnanchor">[i-242]</a> Natural order is a "providential order": "Its laws +are irrevocable, pertaining as they do to the essence of matter +and the soul of humanity. They are just the expression of the +will of God."<a name="FNanchor_I-243_243" id="FNanchor_I-243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-243_243" class="fnanchor">[i-243]</a> According to the physiocrats, the laws of the +natural order are "unique, eternal, invariable, and universal."<a name="FNanchor_I-244_244" id="FNanchor_I-244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-244_244" class="fnanchor">[i-244]</a> +Now it is true that nowhere did Franklin assert that his advocacy +of laissez faire and agrarianism was neatly dependent on +these a priori bases. Even though this is true, there are references +(quoted above) which seem to suggest that trade restrictions are +violations of the very nature of things. It is not wholly fanciful +(bearing in mind Franklin's adoration of a Deity who is the creator +and sustainer of immutable, universal physical laws which +together present the mind with the concept of a vast, wonderfully +harmonized physical machine) to conjecture to what extent +this matchless physical harmony tended to challenge him with +the possibility of discovering a parallel economic machine +operating according to immutable laws capable of proof and +human adaptability.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxi" id="Page_lxxxi">[lxxxi]</a></span></p><p>O. H. Taylor has shown that "The evolution of the idea of +'laws' in economics has closely paralleled its evolution in the +natural sciences."<a name="FNanchor_I-245_245" id="FNanchor_I-245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-245_245" class="fnanchor">[i-245]</a> In searching for these economic constants, +"the economic mechanism was regarded as a wise device of the +Creator for causing individuals, while pursuing only their own +interests, to promote the prosperity of society; and for causing +the right adjustment to one another of supplies, demand, prices, +and incomes, to take place automatically, in consequence of the +free action of all individuals."<a name="FNanchor_I-246_246" id="FNanchor_I-246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-246_246" class="fnanchor">[i-246]</a> After giving due weight to the +fact that Franklin saw in the doctrine of the physiocrats trenchant +arguments to buttress his attacks on British mercantilism, +one has cogent evidence for at least raising the question, To +what extent may his apprehension of a demonstrable physical +harmony have suggested to his speculative mind an economic +analogy?<a name="FNanchor_I-247_247" id="FNanchor_I-247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-247_247" class="fnanchor">[i-247]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxii" id="Page_lxxxii">[lxxxii]</a></span></p> +<h3><a name="VI_FRANKLINS_POLITICAL_THEORIES" id="VI_FRANKLINS_POLITICAL_THEORIES"></a>VI. FRANKLIN'S POLITICAL THEORIES</h3> + +<p>Plague of the Pennsylvania proprietaries, propagandist of the +American Revolution, moderator of the Constitutional Convention, +Franklin was all through his life a politician and statesman +in an age characterized above all by political speculations +and changes in the destiny of states. Colonial patriot, "arch +rebel of King George III," "idol of the court of Versailles," +Franklin was a cyclopedia of political strategy and principles. +Only through a genetic survey of Franklin the political theorist +can one hope to understand his mind as he changed from +imperialist, to revolutionist, to the patriarch of the Constitutional +Convention who, like a balance wheel, moderated the extreme +party factions.</p> + +<p>In the early 1720's, Franklin had breathed a Boston air +saturated with discontent between the royal governor and the +governed. By 1730 he was printer to the Pennsylvania Assembly +and in 1736 was appointed clerk to that body. Yet one +learns little of his political biases until 1747, when he published +<i>Plain Truth</i>. In 1729 he genially asserted that he was "no +Party-man,"<a name="FNanchor_I-248_248" id="FNanchor_I-248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-248_248" class="fnanchor">[i-248]</a> and in 1746 temperately stated,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Free from the bitter Rage of Party Zeal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All those we love who seek the publick Weal.<a name="FNanchor_I-249_249" id="FNanchor_I-249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-249_249" class="fnanchor">[i-249]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>His <i>Plain Truth</i> (November, 1747), directed against the proprietary +governor as well as against the Quaker assembly, +showed Franklin a party man only if one dedicated to "the +publick weal" was a party man. With all respect for the Quaker +conscience which checks military activity, Franklin could not, +however, condone its virtually prohibiting others from defending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxiii" id="Page_lxxxiii">[lxxxiii]</a></span> +the province's border. And the proprietaries had shown +an inveterate unwillingness to arm Pennsylvania—a reluctance +which did not, however, prevent them from collecting taxes and +quitrents. On other questions the governor and his chiefs +had to contend with the opposition of the assembly. Without +opposition, the proprietary government could serenely kennel +itself in its medieval privilege of remaining dumb to an urgent +need: one remembers that eighteenth-century proprietary +colonies were "essentially feudal principalities, upon the grantees +of which were bestowed all the inferior regalities and subordinate +powers of legislation which formerly belonged to the +counts palatine, while provision was also made for the maintenance +of sovereignty in the king [the king paid little attention +to Pennsylvania], and for the realization of the objects of the +grant."<a name="FNanchor_I-250_250" id="FNanchor_I-250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-250_250" class="fnanchor">[i-250]</a> While the government remained inert, Pennsylvania +would be a pawn in the steeled hands of the French and their +rum-subsidized Indian mercenaries. Appealing to Scripture +and common sense, Franklin pleaded for "Order, Discipline, +and a few Cannon."<a name="FNanchor_I-251_251" id="FNanchor_I-251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-251_251" class="fnanchor">[i-251]</a> Not untruthfully he warned that "we +are like the separate Filaments of Flax before the Thread is +form'd, without Strength, because without Connection, but +<span class="smcap">Union</span> would make us strong, and even formidable."<a name="FNanchor_I-252_252" id="FNanchor_I-252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-252_252" class="fnanchor">[i-252]</a> Since +war existed, there was no need to consider him a militarist +because he challenged, "The Way to secure Peace is to be prepared +for War."<a name="FNanchor_I-253_253" id="FNanchor_I-253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-253_253" class="fnanchor">[i-253]</a> In the midst of <i>Plain Truth</i> Franklin uttered +what only <i>before</i> the time of Locke could be interpreted in +terms of feudal <i>comitatus</i>: he entreated his readers to consider, +"if not as Friends, at least as Legislators, that <i>Protection</i> is as +truly due from the Government to the People, as <i>Obedience</i> +from the People to the Government."<a name="FNanchor_I-254_254" id="FNanchor_I-254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-254_254" class="fnanchor">[i-254]</a> Suggestive of the contract +theory, this is revolutionary only in a very elementary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxiv" id="Page_lxxxiv">[lxxxiv]</a></span> +way. With the French writhing under the Treaty of Paris, with +appeals to natural rights and the right of revolution, this once +harmless principle took on Gargantuan significance. But Thomas +Penn anticipated wisely enough the ultimate implication of +Franklin's paper; Penn intuitively saw the march of time: "Mr. +Franklin's doctrine that obedience to governors is no more due +them than protection to the people, is not fit to be in the heads +of the unthinking multitude. He is a dangerous man and I +should be glad if he inhabited any other country, as I believe +him of a very uneasy spirit. However, as he is a sort of tribune +of the people, he must be treated with regard."<a name="FNanchor_I-255_255" id="FNanchor_I-255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-255_255" class="fnanchor">[i-255]</a> It is difficult +to see how Franklin's passion for order and provincial union,<a name="FNanchor_I-256_256" id="FNanchor_I-256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-256_256" class="fnanchor">[i-256]</a> +obviously necessary, could have been considered so illiberally +subversive of the government. By 1747 Franklin had read in +<i>Telemachus</i> that kings exist for the people, not the people for +the kings; he must have read Locke's justification of the "Glorious +Revolution" and have become aware of the impetus it gave +to the British authority of consent in its subsequent constitutional +history.</p> + +<p>After his first political pamphlet, he widened his horizon from +provincial to colonial affairs. Two years before the London +Board of Trade demanded that colonial governors hold a conference +with the Iroquois, Franklin seems to have devised plans +for uniting the several colonies. He was aware of the narrow +particularism shown by the provinces; he knew also that since +"Governors are often on ill Terms with their Assemblies," no +concerted military efforts could be achieved without a military<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxv" id="Page_lxxxv">[lxxxv]</a></span> +federation.<a name="FNanchor_I-257_257" id="FNanchor_I-257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-257_257" class="fnanchor">[i-257]</a> One remembers that as soon as he could think +politically he was an imperialist, a lesser William Pitt, and in his +<i>Increase of Mankind</i> (1751) could gloat over an envisioned +thickly populated America—"What an Accession of Power to +the <i>British</i> Empire by Sea as well as Land!"<a name="FNanchor_I-258_258" id="FNanchor_I-258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-258_258" class="fnanchor">[i-258]</a> When the Board +of Trade, after British efforts to bring the colonies together had +failed, demanded that something be done, Franklin was appointed +one of the commissioners to meet at Albany in 1754. +Like Franklin, Governor Glen had admitted that the colonies +were "a Rope of Sand ... loose and inconnected."<a name="FNanchor_I-259_259" id="FNanchor_I-259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-259_259" class="fnanchor">[i-259]</a> Franklin's +plan, adopted by the commissioners, called for a Governor-General +"appointed by the king" and a Grand Council made up +of members chosen by the Assembly of each of the colonies, the +Governor "to have a negation on all acts of the Grand Council, +and carry into execution whatever is agreed on by him and that +Council."<a name="FNanchor_I-260_260" id="FNanchor_I-260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-260_260" class="fnanchor">[i-260]</a> Surely not a very auspicious beginning for one +who later was to favor the legislative over the executive functions +of state. The plan included the powers of making Indian +treaties of peace and war, of regulating Indian trade and Indian +purchases, of stimulating the settling of new lands, of making +laws to govern new areas, of raising soldiers, of laying general +duties, et cetera.<a name="FNanchor_I-261_261" id="FNanchor_I-261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-261_261" class="fnanchor">[i-261]</a> But Franklin did not minimize the lack of +cohesion of the colonies. We recollect that "in 1755, at a time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxvi" id="Page_lxxxvi">[lxxxvi]</a></span> +when their very existence was threatened by the French, Massachusetts +and New York engaged in a bitter boundary controversy +leading to riot and bloodshed."<a name="FNanchor_I-262_262" id="FNanchor_I-262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-262_262" class="fnanchor">[i-262]</a> The colonies refused +to ratify the plan—"their weak Noddles are perfectly +distracted,"<a name="FNanchor_I-263_263" id="FNanchor_I-263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-263_263" class="fnanchor">[i-263]</a> wrote Franklin. He was probably right when he +observed in 1789 that had the plan been adopted "the subsequent +Separation of the Colonies from the Mother Country +might not so soon have happened."<a name="FNanchor_I-264_264" id="FNanchor_I-264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-264_264" class="fnanchor">[i-264]</a> The sending of British +regulars to America and the resulting efforts at taxation were not +least among the sparks which set off the Revolution.</p> + +<p>Franklin's <i>Three Letters to Governor Shirley</i> (1754), while +expressing no credulous views of the wisdom of the people, +maintained in one breath that the colonists were loyal to the +Constitution and Crown as ever colonists were and in another +that "it is supposed an undoubted right of Englishmen, not to +be taxed but by their own consent given through their representatives."<a name="FNanchor_I-265_265" id="FNanchor_I-265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-265_265" class="fnanchor">[i-265]</a> +(Shirley had apparently written that the Council +in the Albany Plan should be appointed by England, and +not by the colonial assemblies.) Franklin held for the colonists' +right to English civil liberty and the right to enjoy the +Constitution. Here again we find a factor later magnified into +one of the major causes of the Revolution.</p> + +<p>In addition to being lethargic in the defense of the Pennsylvania +borders, the proprietor refused "to be taxed except for +a trifling Part of his Estate, the Quitrents, located unimprov'd +Lands, Money at Interest, etc., etc., being exempted by Instructions +to the Governor."<a name="FNanchor_I-266_266" id="FNanchor_I-266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-266_266" class="fnanchor">[i-266]</a> Thereupon Franklin turned from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxvii" id="Page_lxxxvii">[lxxxvii]</a></span> +colonial affairs (which had indeed proved obstinate) to pressing +local matters, when in 1757 he was appointed agent to go to London +to demand that the proprietor submit his estates to be taxed. +In the <i>Report of the Committee of Aggrievances of the Assembly +of Pennsylvania</i><a name="FNanchor_I-267_267" id="FNanchor_I-267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-267_267" class="fnanchor">[i-267]</a> (Feb. 22, 1757) it was charged that the proprietor +had violated the royal charter and the colonists' civil +rights as Englishmen, and had abrogated their natural rights, +rights "inherent in every man, antecedent to all laws."<a name="FNanchor_I-268_268" id="FNanchor_I-268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-268_268" class="fnanchor">[i-268]</a> +Later it was but a short step from provincial matters to +colonial rights of revolution. In this <i>Report</i> we see Franklin +associated for the first time expressly with the throne-and-altar-defying +concept of natural rights.</p> + +<p>Although we have yet to review the evidence which shows +that Franklin at one stage in his political career was an arch-imperialist, +we need to digress to observe an intellectual factor +which, if only fragmentarily expressed in his political thought +during his activities in behalf of Pennsylvania liberties, was to +become a momentous sanction when during the war he became +a diplomat of revolution. From the Stoics, from Cicero, Grotius, +Puffendorf, Burlamaqui, and as Rev. Jonathan Mayhew<a name="FNanchor_I-269_269" id="FNanchor_I-269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-269_269" class="fnanchor">[i-269]</a> +observes, from Plato and Demosthenes, from Sidney, Milton, +Hoadley, and Locke; in addition, from Gordon and Trenchard +(see <i>Cato's Letters</i> and <i>The Independent Whig</i>), Blackstone, +Coke—from these and many others, the colonists derived a +pattern of thought known as natural rights, dependent on natural +law.<a name="FNanchor_I-270_270" id="FNanchor_I-270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-270_270" class="fnanchor">[i-270]</a> There is no better summary of natural rights<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxviii" id="Page_lxxxviii">[lxxxviii]</a></span> +than the Declaration of Independence; and of it John Adams +remarked: "There is not an idea in it but what has been hackneyed +in Congress for two years before."<a name="FNanchor_I-271_271" id="FNanchor_I-271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-271_271" class="fnanchor">[i-271]</a> Carl Becker pointedly +observes: "Where Jefferson got his ideas is hardly so +much a question as where he could have got away from +them."<a name="FNanchor_I-272_272" id="FNanchor_I-272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-272_272" class="fnanchor">[i-272]</a> A characteristic summary of natural law may be +found in Blackstone's <i>Commentaries</i>:<a name="FNanchor_I-273_273" id="FNanchor_I-273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-273_273" class="fnanchor">[i-273]</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>This law of nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated +by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any +other. It is binding over all the globe, in all countries and at all +times: no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; +and such of them as are valid derive all their force and all their +authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.<a name="FNanchor_I-274_274" id="FNanchor_I-274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-274_274" class="fnanchor">[i-274]</a></p></div> + +<p>Discoverable only by reason, natural laws are immutable and +universal, apprehensible by all men. As Hamilton wrote,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The origin of all civil government, justly established, must be +a voluntary compact between the rulers and the ruled, and must +be liable to such limitations as are necessary for the security of +the <i>absolute rights</i> of the latter; for what original title can any +man, or set of men, have to govern others, except their own +consent? To usurp dominion over a people in their own despite, +or to grasp at a more extensive power than they are willing to +intrust, is to violate that law of nature which gives every man +a right to his personal liberty, and can therefore confer no +obligation to obedience.<a name="FNanchor_I-275_275" id="FNanchor_I-275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-275_275" class="fnanchor">[i-275]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_lxxxix" id="Page_lxxxix">[lxxxix]</a></span></p><p>In a pre-social state, real or hypothetical, men possess certain +natural rights, the crown of them, according to Locke,<a name="FNanchor_I-276_276" id="FNanchor_I-276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-276_276" class="fnanchor">[i-276]</a> being +"the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties, and estates, +which I call by the general name, property." In entering the +social state men through free consent are willing to sacrifice +fragments of their natural rights in order to gain civil rights. +This process would seem tyrannical were one to forget that +the surrender is sanctioned by the principle of consent. Men in +sacrificing their rights expect from society (i.e., the governors) +civil rights and, in addition, protection of their unsurrendered +natural rights. A voluntary compact is achieved between the +governor and the governed. If laws are fabricated which contravene +these, the governed have retained for themselves the right +of forcible resistance. A natural inference from these premises +is that sovereignty rests with the people. In the colonies this +secular social compact was buttressed by the principle of covenants +and natural rights within the churches. Sermons became +"textbooks of politics."<a name="FNanchor_I-277_277" id="FNanchor_I-277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-277_277" class="fnanchor">[i-277]</a> Miss Baldwin has ably illustrated +how before 1763 the clergy in Franklin's native New England<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xc" id="Page_xc">[xc]</a></span> +had popularized the "doctrines of natural right, the social contract, +and the right of resistance" as well as "the fundamental +principle of American constitutional law, that government, +like its citizens, is bounded by law and when it transcends its +authority it acts illegally."<a name="FNanchor_I-278_278" id="FNanchor_I-278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-278_278" class="fnanchor">[i-278]</a></p> + +<p>In an oration commemorating the Boston massacre Dr. Benjamin +Church stated the principle of the compact: "A sense of +their wants and weakness in a state of nature, doubtless inclined +them to such reciprocal aids and support, as eventually established +society."<a name="FNanchor_I-279_279" id="FNanchor_I-279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-279_279" class="fnanchor">[i-279]</a> Defining liberty as "the happiness of living +under laws of our own making by our personal consent or that +of our representatives,"<a name="FNanchor_I-280_280" id="FNanchor_I-280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-280_280" class="fnanchor">[i-280]</a> he warned that any breach of trust +in the governor "effectually absolves subjects from every bond +of covenant and peace."<a name="FNanchor_I-281_281" id="FNanchor_I-281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-281_281" class="fnanchor">[i-281]</a></p> + +<p>Then, too, Newtonian science buttressed the principle of +natural rights. Sir Isaac Newton demonstrated mathematically +that the universe was governed by a fagot of immutable, universal, +and harmonious physical laws. These were capable of +being apprehended through reason. Now even as reason discovered +the matchless physical harmony, so could reason, men +argued, ferret out unvarying, universal principles of social-political +rights. These principles constituted natural rights, +natural to the extent that all men had the power, if not the capacity, +to discover and learn them through use of their native +reason. Newton demonstrated the validity of physical law: +Locke sanctioned the supremacy of reason. Since Franklin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xci" id="Page_xci">[xci]</a></span> +was himself motivated by Newtonian rationalism and was a +student of Locke, there is reason to believe that he was vibrantly +aware of the extent to which the scientific-rationalistic +ideology lent sanction to man's timeless quest for the certitude +of "natural rights," antecedent to all laws.</p> + +<p>Franklin's mission to London in 1757 as Pennsylvania agent +may be understood through an examination of <i>An Historical +Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania</i> (London, +1759).<a name="FNanchor_I-282_282" id="FNanchor_I-282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-282_282" class="fnanchor">[i-282]</a> If not written by him, at least "the ideas are his." +Convinced that the proprietors "seem to have no regard to the +Publick Welfare, so the private Point may be gained—'Tis like +Firing a House to have Opportunity of stealing a Trencher,"<a name="FNanchor_I-283_283" id="FNanchor_I-283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-283_283" class="fnanchor">[i-283]</a> +Franklin knew that a brilliant attack had to be made were +he to intimidate the proprietary government into assuming +its charter responsibilities and granting the colonists what +they considered to be inviolable rights. By 1758 his "Patience +with the Proprietors is almost tho' not quite spent."<a name="FNanchor_I-284_284" id="FNanchor_I-284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-284_284" class="fnanchor">[i-284]</a> A few +months later, impatient with unresponsive officials, he wrote +to Joseph Galloway: "God knows when we shall see it finish'd, +and our Constitution settled firmly on the Foundation of Equity +and English Liberty: But I am not discouraged; and only wish +my Constituents may have the Patience that I have, and that I +find will be absolutely necessary."<a name="FNanchor_I-285_285" id="FNanchor_I-285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-285_285" class="fnanchor">[i-285]</a> In 1759 Franklin still +found the proprietors "obscure, uncertain and evasive," and +was acutely virulent in despising Rev. William Smith, who was +in London attacking him and the Quaker Assembly's demands.<a name="FNanchor_I-286_286" id="FNanchor_I-286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-286_286" class="fnanchor">[i-286]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xcii" id="Page_xcii">[xcii]</a></span> +In the same letter to Galloway he uttered a thought +which he sought to develop during his second trip to London +as Assembly agent in 1764: "For my part, I must own, I am +tired of Proprietary Government, and heartily wish for that +of the Crown."</p> + +<p>Turning to <i>An Historical Review</i> to learn the political principles +sanctioning the Assembly's grievances against its feudal +lords, one finds that the colonists conceived it "our duty to +defend the rights and privileges we enjoy under the royal +charter."<a name="FNanchor_I-287_287" id="FNanchor_I-287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-287_287" class="fnanchor">[i-287]</a> Secondly, they reminded the lords that the laws +agreed upon in England (prior to the settling of Pennsylvania) +were "of the nature of an original compact between the proprietary +and the freemen, and as such were reciprocally received +and executed."<a name="FNanchor_I-288_288" id="FNanchor_I-288_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-288_288" class="fnanchor">[i-288]</a> Thirdly, they demanded the right to exercise +the "birthright of every British subject," "to have a property +of [their] own, in [their] estate, person, and reputation; subject +only to laws enacted by [their] own concurrence, either in +person or by [their] representatives."<a name="FNanchor_I-289_289" id="FNanchor_I-289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-289_289" class="fnanchor">[i-289]</a> Fourthly, they resisted +the proprietors on basis of their possession of natural rights, +"antecedent to all laws."<a name="FNanchor_I-290_290" id="FNanchor_I-290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-290_290" class="fnanchor">[i-290]</a> The editor of the protest charged +that "It is the cause of every man who deserves to be free, +everywhere."<a name="FNanchor_I-291_291" id="FNanchor_I-291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-291_291" class="fnanchor">[i-291]</a> It is ironic that this grievance should have +enjoyed the sanction of one who, like Lord Chatham, was an +empire builder, one who proudly wrote, "I am a Briton," and +even during the time he sought to retrieve the Pennsylvania +colonists' lost natural rights, entertained the ideas of a British +imperialist. Franklin little saw that the internal Pennsylvania +struggle was to be contagious, that the provincial revolt was +motivated partially at least by political theories which were to be +given expression <i>par excellence</i> when a discontented minority +created the Declaration of Independence. In 1760 Franklin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xciii" id="Page_xciii">[xciii]</a></span> +had the satisfaction of witnessing the victory of the Assembly +over the Proprietors, although he was not unaware that the +right to tax feudal lands was less than that right he had already +envisioned—the right to become a royal colony.<a name="FNanchor_I-292_292" id="FNanchor_I-292_292"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-292_292" class="fnanchor">[i-292]</a></p> + +<p>But Franklin's pleas for charter, constitutional, and natural +rights may be misleading if one considers his position as suggestive +of doctrinaire republicanism, of Paine's "Government is +the badge of our lost innocence," or of Shelley's</p> + +<p class="blockquot">Kings, priests, and statesmen blast the human flower.</p> + +<p>His political activities assert the rights of the governed against +the governor; his writings often indirectly suggest the intemperance +of the governed, and the need for something more +lasting than mere outer freedom. Like Coleridge, who wrote:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">[Man] may not hope from outward forms to win<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The passion and the life, whose fountains are within,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>white-locked Father Abraham harangued:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the +Government were the only Ones we had to pay, we might more +easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more +grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our +<i>Idleness</i>, three times as much by our <i>Pride</i>, and four times as +much by our <i>Folly</i>; and from these Taxes the Commissioners +cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an Abatement.<a name="FNanchor_I-293_293" id="FNanchor_I-293_293"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-293_293" class="fnanchor">[i-293]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xciv" id="Page_xciv">[xciv]</a></span></p><p>With solid good sense Franklin acknowledged that "happiness +in this life rather depends on internals than externals."<a name="FNanchor_I-294_294" id="FNanchor_I-294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-294_294" class="fnanchor">[i-294]</a></p> + +<p>His purpose for being in London accomplished, Franklin +wrote <i>The Interest of Great Britain Considered with Regard to +Her Colonies, and the Acquisitions of Canada and Guadaloupe</i> +(1760). Since "there is evidence that the pamphlet created much +contemporary interest,"<a name="FNanchor_I-295_295" id="FNanchor_I-295_295"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-295_295" class="fnanchor">[i-295]</a> Franklin undoubtedly had some influence +in causing the retention of Canada, a retention which +"made the American Revolution inevitable."<a name="FNanchor_I-296_296" id="FNanchor_I-296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-296_296" class="fnanchor">[i-296]</a> If the release +from French terrorism caused the colonists to become myopic +toward advantages lent them as a British colony, it is appropriate +in view of Franklin's later advocacy of independence and +ironic in view of his then imperialistic principles, that he should +have written <i>The Interest of Great Britain</i>. Here Franklin, +later to be a propagandist of revolution, cast himself in the role +of architect of a vast empire. For economic reasons, and for +colonial safety, he urged the retention, ridiculing the charge that +the colonies were lying in wait to declare their independence +from England, if the French were cast out from Canada.</p> + +<p>Back in Pennsylvania in 1764 he declared the provincial government +"running fast into anarchy and confusion."<a name="FNanchor_I-297_297" id="FNanchor_I-297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-297_297" class="fnanchor">[i-297]</a> In his +<i>Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of Our Public Affairs</i> +(1764) he set up a sturdy antagonism between "Proprietary +Interest and Power, and Popular Liberty." Unlike the "lunatic +fringe" of liberals who see "Popular Liberty compatible only +with a tendency toward anarchy" Franklin urged that the Pennsylvania +government lacked "Authority enough to keep the +common Peace."<a name="FNanchor_I-298_298" id="FNanchor_I-298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-298_298" class="fnanchor">[i-298]</a> The constitutional nature of proprietary +government had lost dignity and hence "suffers in the Opinion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xcv" id="Page_xcv">[xcv]</a></span> +of the People, and with it the Respect necessary to keep up the +Authority of Government." Almost Burkean in his apology +for change, he suggested that the popular party demand "rather +and only a Change of Governor, that is, instead of self-interested +Proprietaries, a gracious King!" His <i>Narrative of the Late Massacres +in Lancaster County</i><a name="FNanchor_I-299_299" id="FNanchor_I-299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-299_299" class="fnanchor">[i-299]</a> is a bloody tribute to the lack of +authority and police power of the current regime. The <i>Petition +to the King</i> for a royal governor maintained that, torn by "armed +Mobs," the government was "weak, unable to support its own +Authority, and maintain the common internal Peace of the +Province."<a name="FNanchor_I-300_300" id="FNanchor_I-300_300"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-300_300" class="fnanchor">[i-300]</a></p> + +<p>While petitioning for a crown colony, he found himself in +1765 faced with a larger than provincial interest—Lord Grenville's +Stamp Act forced him into the role of one seeking definition +of colonial status. Such was his position in his examination +(1766) before the House of Commons relative to the repeal of +the Stamp Act. Almost brusquely he told his catechizers that +even a moderated stamp act could not be enforced "unless compelled +by force of arms."<a name="FNanchor_I-301_301" id="FNanchor_I-301_301"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-301_301" class="fnanchor">[i-301]</a> With a preface asserting that +colonials before 1763 were proud to be called Old-England +men, he summarized: "The authority of parliament was allowed +to be valid in all laws, except such as should lay internal taxes. +It was never disputed in laying duties to regulate commerce."<a name="FNanchor_I-302_302" id="FNanchor_I-302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-302_302" class="fnanchor">[i-302]</a> +Parliament, in the colonial view, had no right to lay internal +taxes because "we are not represented there." Mr. Merriam +observes that in advancing this legal and constitutional issue, +the colonists "had in short an antiquated theory as to the position +and power of Parliament, and a premature theory of +Parliamentary representation."<a name="FNanchor_I-303_303" id="FNanchor_I-303_303"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-303_303" class="fnanchor">[i-303]</a></p> + +<p>Franklin referred to the Pennsylvania colonial charter to prove +that all that was asked for was the "privileges and liberties of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xcvi" id="Page_xcvi">[xcvi]</a></span> +Englishmen." When the examiners asked whether the colonists +appealing to the Magna Charta and constitutional rights of +Englishmen could not with equal force "object to the parliament's +right of external taxation," Franklin with cautious ambiguity +declared: "They never have hitherto."<a name="FNanchor_I-304_304" id="FNanchor_I-304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-304_304" class="fnanchor">[i-304]</a> Franklin's +skill in upholding tenuous, almost "metaphysical," constitutional +grievances (grievances, however, which were not upheld +by constitutional legalists in England) captivated Edmund +Burke's imagination: Franklin appeared to him like a schoolmaster +catechizing a pack of unruly schoolboys. Conservative +in his omission of any appeal to "natural rights," he was radical +in his legalistic distinctions between parliamentary rights +to levy certain kinds of taxes. His position in 1766 and for +several years following was one of seeking legal definitions of +the colonial status. Considering the popular excesses in the +colonies, Franklin's view was anything but illiberally radical. +Trying to counteract "the general Rage against America, artfully +work'd up by the Grenville Faction,"<a name="FNanchor_I-305_305" id="FNanchor_I-305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-305_305" class="fnanchor">[i-305]</a> fearful that the +unthinking rabble in the colonies might demonstrate too lustily +against duties and the redcoats,<a name="FNanchor_I-306_306" id="FNanchor_I-306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-306_306" class="fnanchor">[i-306]</a> Franklin saw, as a result of +the constitutional dilemma, the true extent of the fracture:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>But after all, I doubt People in Government here will never +be satisfied without some Revenue from America, nor America +ever satisfy'd with their imposing it; so that Disputes will from +this Circumstance besides others, be perpetually arising, till +there is a consolidating union of the whole.<a name="FNanchor_I-307_307" id="FNanchor_I-307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-307_307" class="fnanchor">[i-307]</a></p></div> + +<p>His chief demand was for a less ambiguous relation between the +mother and her offspring, for a unified, pacific commonwealth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xcvii" id="Page_xcvii">[xcvii]</a></span> +empire. Until he left for the colonies in 1775, he tirelessly +sought through conversation, conference, and articles<a name="FNanchor_I-308_308" id="FNanchor_I-308_308"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-308_308" class="fnanchor">[i-308]</a> +sent to the British press (in addition he "reprinted everything +from America" that he "thought might help our Common +Cause") to reiterate patiently the colonies' "Charter liberties,"<a name="FNanchor_I-309_309" id="FNanchor_I-309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-309_309" class="fnanchor">[i-309]</a> +their abhorrence of Parliament-imposed internal taxes, and +the quartering of red-coated battalions. Constantly hoping for +a favorable Ministry (of a Lord Rockingham or a Shelburne), and +bemoaning the physical infirmities of Pitt which rendered him +politically impotent, Franklin felt almost romantically confident +at first of a change that must come. All the while, like Merlin's +gleam, visions of a world-encircling British empire haunted the +Pennsylvania tradesman. A letter to Barbeu Dubourg discloses +at once his belief in an imperial federation<a name="FNanchor_I-310_310" id="FNanchor_I-310_310"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-310_310" class="fnanchor">[i-310]</a> and in the sovereignty +of the colonial assemblies: "In fact, the British empire +is not a single state; it comprehends many; and, though the +Parliament of Great Britain has arrogated to itself the power of +taxing the colonies, it has no more right to do so, than it has to +tax Hanover. We have the same King, but not the same legislatures."<a name="FNanchor_I-311_311" id="FNanchor_I-311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-311_311" class="fnanchor">[i-311]</a> +Marginalia by Franklin's hand in an anti-colonial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xcviii" id="Page_xcviii">[xcviii]</a></span> +pamphlet written by Dean Tucker indicate how completely +he (and here he represented colonial, not private, opinion) had +failed to see the growth of parliamentary power: "These Writers +against the Colonies all bewilder themselves by supposing +the Colonies <i>within the Realm</i>, which is not the case, nor ever +was."<a name="FNanchor_I-312_312" id="FNanchor_I-312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-312_312" class="fnanchor">[i-312]</a></p> + +<p>By 1774 Franklin had discovered the futility of his imperialistic +illusions: ministries, fearing the siren colonies, had blocked +their ears with wax. The Pennsylvanian knew that "Divine +Providence first infatuates the power it designs to ruin."<a name="FNanchor_I-313_313" id="FNanchor_I-313_313"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-313_313" class="fnanchor">[i-313]</a> He +who had wished for an empire as harmoniously companied as +the orbited harmony of celestial bodies lamented while on his +way to America in 1775 that "so glorious a Fabric as the present +British Empire [was] to be demolished by these Blunderers."<a name="FNanchor_I-314_314" id="FNanchor_I-314_314"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-314_314" class="fnanchor">[i-314]</a> +Broken was "that fine and noble China Vase, the British +Empire."<a name="FNanchor_I-315_315" id="FNanchor_I-315_315"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-315_315" class="fnanchor">[i-315]</a> In 1774 he would have gained little cheer from +William Livingston's opinion (uttered in 1768): "I take it that +clamour is at present our best policy."<a name="FNanchor_I-316_316" id="FNanchor_I-316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-316_316" class="fnanchor">[i-316]</a></p> + +<p>His sense of defeat was aggravated by that ugly scene in the +Cockpit in 1774 when Wedderburn bespattered the taciturn +colonial agent with foul invective. It had been charged that +Franklin, the postmaster, had purloined<a name="FNanchor_I-317_317" id="FNanchor_I-317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-317_317" class="fnanchor">[i-317]</a> letters of Governor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xcix" id="Page_xcix">[xcix]</a></span> +Hutchinson and Lieutenant Governor Oliver of Massachusetts +and had sent them back to the colonies as proof of the colonists' +contention that the royal governors were hostile to +their colonial subjects. He whom (as Lord Chatham said) +"all Europe held in high Estimation for his Knowledge and +Wisdom, and rank'd with our Boyles and Newtons," was +decked by Wedderburn "with the choicest flowers of Billingsgate." +In the presence of Lord Shelburne, Lord North, the +Archbishop of Canterbury, Edmund Burke, Jeremy Bentham, +and Priestley, Franklin, "motionless and silent," bore the +harangue of the solicitor general for a full three hours.<a name="FNanchor_I-318_318" id="FNanchor_I-318_318"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-318_318" class="fnanchor">[i-318]</a> +Franklin's eloquent mock humility inspired Horace Walpole +to write:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sarcastic Sawney, swol'n with spite and prate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On silent Franklin poured his venal hate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The calm philosopher, without reply,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Withdrew, and gave his country liberty.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As propagandist for legislative freedom, Franklin, appealing +for sanction to legalistic and constitutional liberty more than +to natural rights, was no more radical than Edmund Burke. If +ever an extreme democrat, Franklin had yet by 1775 to become +one. Temperamentally hostile to "drunken electors," the "madness +of mobs," he held a patrician attitude toward authority. +Earlier, in 1768, he had written from London: "All respect to +law and government seems to be lost among the common people, +who are moreover continually inflamed by seditious scribblers, +to trample on authority and every thing that used to keep them +in order."<a name="FNanchor_I-319_319" id="FNanchor_I-319_319"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-319_319" class="fnanchor">[i-319]</a> To Georgiana Shipley he sent (<i>Epitaph</i> on Squirrel +Mungo's death) this Miltonic and unrepublican sentiment:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_c" id="Page_c">[c]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center"> +Learn hence,<br /> +Ye who blindly seek more liberty,<br /> +Whether subjects, sons, squirrels or daughters,<br /> +That apparent restraint may be real protection<br /> +Yielding peace and plenty<br /> +With security.<a name="FNanchor_I-320_320" id="FNanchor_I-320_320"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-320_320" class="fnanchor">[i-320]</a><br /></p> + +<p>In 1771 he indicted Parliament in a letter to Joseph Galloway: +"Its Censures are no more regarded than Popes' Bulls. It is +despis'd for its Venality, and abominated for its Injustice." +But he hastened to show that he had no illusions that men +are natively pure, that only governments are wicked. With +almost a Hamiltonian distrust of the public ranks he wrote: +"And yet it is not clear that the People deserve a better Parliament, +since they are themselves full as corrupt and venal: witness +the Sums they accept for their Votes at almost every Election."<a name="FNanchor_I-321_321" id="FNanchor_I-321_321"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-321_321" class="fnanchor">[i-321]</a></p> + +<p>Back in the colonies, Franklin remained just long enough to +help form a constitution for Pennsylvania,<a name="FNanchor_I-322_322" id="FNanchor_I-322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-322_322" class="fnanchor">[i-322]</a> and to aid Jefferson +in writing the Declaration of Independence.<a name="FNanchor_I-323_323" id="FNanchor_I-323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-323_323" class="fnanchor">[i-323]</a> After +the royal governors had dissolved the assemblies and the Continental +Congress urged the colonies to form their own constitutions, +Franklin assumed leadership in his state and helped +to compose a constitution less conservative than those of most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ci" id="Page_ci">[ci]</a></span> +of the other colonies.<a name="FNanchor_I-324_324" id="FNanchor_I-324_324"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-324_324" class="fnanchor">[i-324]</a> Created between July 15 and Sept. 28, +1776, essentially by one who had just worked on and signed the +Declaration of Independence, it is not strange that the dominant +ideology of this constitution—that of natural rights, the +compact theory, and consent of the governed—should be like +that of the Declaration. The new constitution has been called +the "most democratic constitution yet seen in America."<a name="FNanchor_I-325_325" id="FNanchor_I-325_325"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-325_325" class="fnanchor">[i-325]</a> +The unicameral legislature, the assembly of representatives, the +plan of judicial review of laws every seven years, and other features +have been looked upon as demonstrating the dangerous +ultra-democratic tendencies of Franklin. The revolutionary +Benjamin Rush, who had helped Paine with <i>Common Sense</i>, was +dismayed because, in his view, Pennsylvania "has substituted +mob government for one of the happiest governments in the +world.... A single legislature is big with tyranny. I had rather +live under the government of one man than of seventy-two."<a name="FNanchor_I-326_326" id="FNanchor_I-326_326"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-326_326" class="fnanchor">[i-326]</a> +One wonders to what extent Franklin was responsible for the +unicameral legislature when we know that it "was the natural +outcome of Penn's ideas of government as embodied in his +various charters."<a name="FNanchor_I-327_327" id="FNanchor_I-327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-327_327" class="fnanchor">[i-327]</a> The plural executive, the right of freemen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cii" id="Page_cii">[cii]</a></span> +to form their militia and elect their own officers, the +extension of male suffrage, and other innovations in this constitution +were of a radical nature in as far as the populace +were given greater liberties and responsibilities than ever +before in the colonies. It seems almost incredible that the patrician-minded +Franklin, with his Puritan heritage, should +have thus almost hurriedly cast himself at the feet of the +people. Certain extenuating factors may be mentioned in an +attempt not to gloss over but to understand the violent antithesis +between Franklin the imperialist and Franklin the revolutionist. +To what extent did his antipathy for proprietary +governors, as well as the general colonial experience with governors, +suggest a joint executive of a council and governor?<a name="FNanchor_I-328_328" id="FNanchor_I-328_328"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-328_328" class="fnanchor">[i-328]</a> +Since his experience as a Whig propagandist had been to exalt +colonial legislatures, to what extent did he see in the unicameral +form a plan which would give freest movement to the legislative +activity? Prior to 1776 there is little that would suggest that +Franklin had any confidence in men, <i>unchecked</i>.<a name="FNanchor_I-329_329" id="FNanchor_I-329_329"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-329_329" class="fnanchor">[i-329]</a> Yet it is +difficult to show that, in the first flush of indignation against +England and revolutionary enthusiasm, Franklin did not favor +for a time distinctly radical tendencies.</p> + +<p>In 1776 he left, as he wrote to Jan Ingenhousz, "to procure +those aids from European powers, for enabling us to defend our +freedom and independence."<a name="FNanchor_I-330_330" id="FNanchor_I-330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-330_330" class="fnanchor">[i-330]</a> He who had "been a Servant +to many publicks, thro' a long life" went to Passy, where from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ciii" id="Page_ciii">[ciii]</a></span> +the Hôtel de Valentinois of M. Roy de Chaumont he was to direct +financial efforts calculated, with Washington's generalship, and +the assiduous loyalty of a minority group, to win the Revolution. +Welcomed as the apotheosis of "les Insurgens,"<a name="FNanchor_I-331_331" id="FNanchor_I-331_331"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-331_331" class="fnanchor">[i-331]</a> he +was virtually deified; as Turgot expressed it, <i>Eripuit caelo +fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis</i>. The universality of his vogue in +France was primarily due to his deistic naturalism, his wily +pleading and activities in behalf of colonial independence, the +receptivity of the Gallic mind for any marten-capped child of +the New World, and to his scientific thought and experimentation +which had fortified Reason in purging the unknown of its +terror, helping thus to make the <i>philosophe</i> at home in his +reasonable world. Three weeks after Franklin arrived in France, +one Frenchman said that "it is the mode today for everybody +to have an engraving of M. Franklin over the mantelpiece."<a name="FNanchor_I-332_332" id="FNanchor_I-332_332"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-332_332" class="fnanchor">[i-332]</a> +France overnight became Franklinist when the savant came to +dwell at Passy. Even before the victory of Yorktown he became +<i>la mode</i>. It was to be his success to convert France's unrecognized +alliance with the colonies to an open and undisguised +alliance, perhaps even to war with England.<a name="FNanchor_I-333_333" id="FNanchor_I-333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-333_333" class="fnanchor">[i-333]</a> But even +for one who enjoyed, as John Adams wrote, a reputation "more +universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire,"<a name="FNanchor_I-334_334" id="FNanchor_I-334_334"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-334_334" class="fnanchor">[i-334]</a> +it was to be a difficult task to manipulate a Beaumarchais, +a Vergennes, and others, in spite of the well-known +and inveterate economic and political grievances which the +French held for the English. The virtues he stressed in the +<i>Morals of Chess</i> he was able to translate into a diplomatic mien,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_civ" id="Page_civ">[civ]</a></span> +uniting "perfect silence" with a "generous civility." As a result, +his record as minister to France is marked by complete success; +but for this "it is by no means certain that American independence +would have been achieved until many years later."<a name="FNanchor_I-335_335" id="FNanchor_I-335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-335_335" class="fnanchor">[i-335]</a></p> + +<p>Plagued by Frenchmen desiring places in the colonial army, +feted by the <i>philosophes</i>, sorely vexed by the need for settling +countless maritime affairs, embracing and embraced by the +venerable Voltaire, corresponding with Hartley concerning exchange +of prisoners, shaping alliances and treaties, conducting +scientific experiments, investigating Mesmer, intrigued by +balloon ascensions, made the darling of several salons, associating +in the Lodge of the Nine Sisters with Bailly, Bonneville, +Warville, Condorcet, Danton, Desmoulins, D'Auberteuil, Pétion, +Saint-Étienne, Sieyès, and others, all men who helped to +give shape (or shapelessness) to the French Revolution,<a name="FNanchor_I-336_336" id="FNanchor_I-336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-336_336" class="fnanchor">[i-336]</a> +Franklin found little time to search for that philosophic repose +which he had long coveted. It may be extravagant to say +that Franklin was the "Creator of Constitutionalism in +Europe,"<a name="FNanchor_I-337_337" id="FNanchor_I-337_337"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-337_337" class="fnanchor">[i-337]</a> but we know that in 1783 he printed the colonial +constitutions for continental distribution.<a name="FNanchor_I-338_338" id="FNanchor_I-338_338"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-338_338" class="fnanchor">[i-338]</a> It has been suggested +that Franklin was an important formative factor in +Condorcet's faith in universal suffrage, a unicameral legislature, +and the liberties guaranteed by constitutional law.<a name="FNanchor_I-339_339" id="FNanchor_I-339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-339_339" class="fnanchor">[i-339]</a> Then, +too, Franklin had signed the Declaration of Independence—a +document which the French hailed as the "restoration of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cv" id="Page_cv">[cv]</a></span> +humanity's title deeds."<a name="FNanchor_I-340_340" id="FNanchor_I-340_340"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-340_340" class="fnanchor">[i-340]</a> The Duc de la Rochefoucauld eulogized +the unicameral legislature of Pennsylvania, identifying +"this grand idea" and its "maximum of simplicity" as Franklin's +creation.<a name="FNanchor_I-341_341" id="FNanchor_I-341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-341_341" class="fnanchor">[i-341]</a> Fauchet eulogized him as "one of the foremost +builders of our sacred constitution."<a name="FNanchor_I-342_342" id="FNanchor_I-342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-342_342" class="fnanchor">[i-342]</a> Along with Helvétius, +Mably, Rousseau, and Voltaire, Franklin was considered as one +who laid the foundations for the French revolution.<a name="FNanchor_I-343_343" id="FNanchor_I-343_343"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-343_343" class="fnanchor">[i-343]</a> Franklin's +taciturnity, his "art of listening," his diplomatic reserve, +do not suggest a volatile iconoclast doing anything consciously +to bring about a republican France. This did not prevent him +from becoming a symbol of liberty by his mere presence in the +land, stimulating patriots to examine the foundations of the +tyrannical authority which they saw or imagined enslaving +them. Holding no brief for natural equality, Franklin suggested +that "quiet and regular Subordination" is "so necessary +to Success."<a name="FNanchor_I-344_344" id="FNanchor_I-344_344"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-344_344" class="fnanchor">[i-344]</a> Realist that he was, he became almost obsessed +with the innate depravity of men until he was doubtful +whether "the Species were really worth producing or preserving."<a name="FNanchor_I-345_345" id="FNanchor_I-345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-345_345" class="fnanchor">[i-345]</a> +One would not be considered excessively republican +who inveighed against the "collected passions, prejudices, +and private interests" of collective legislative bodies.<a name="FNanchor_I-346_346" id="FNanchor_I-346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-346_346" class="fnanchor">[i-346]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cvi" id="Page_cvi">[cvi]</a></span> +He wrote to Caleb Whitefoord: "It is unlucky ... that the +Wise and Good should be as mortal as Common People and +that they often die before others are found fit to supply their +Places."<a name="FNanchor_I-347_347" id="FNanchor_I-347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-347_347" class="fnanchor">[i-347]</a> The great proportion of mankind, weak and selfish, +need "the Motives of Religion to restrain them from +Vice."<a name="FNanchor_I-348_348" id="FNanchor_I-348_348"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-348_348" class="fnanchor">[i-348]</a> No less extreme than J. Q. Adams's retort to Paine's +<i>Rights of Man</i>, that it is anarchic to trust government "to the +custody of a lawless and desperate rabble," was Franklin's +distrust of the unthinking majority.<a name="FNanchor_I-349_349" id="FNanchor_I-349_349"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-349_349" class="fnanchor">[i-349]</a></p> + +<p>Having helped to free the colonies, Franklin fittingly became, +if not one of the fathers of the Constitution, then, due to the +serenity with which he helped to moderate the plans of extremists +on both sides, at least its godfather. If, as Mr. James M. +Beck asserts, the success of the Constitution has been the result +of its approximation of the golden mean, between monarchy and +anarchy, the section and the nation, the small and the large state, +then its success may be attributed not a little to Franklin's +genius.<a name="FNanchor_I-350_350" id="FNanchor_I-350_350"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-350_350" class="fnanchor">[i-350]</a> After small and large states had waged a fruitless +struggle over congressional representation, Franklin spoke:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The diversity of opinion turns on two points. If a proportional +representation takes place, the small States contend that +their liberties will be in danger. If an equality of votes is to be +put in its place, the large States say their money will be in +danger. When a broad table is to be made, and the edges <of +planks do not fit> the artist takes a little from both, and makes +a good joint.<a name="FNanchor_I-351_351" id="FNanchor_I-351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-351_351" class="fnanchor">[i-351]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cvii" id="Page_cvii">[cvii]</a></span></p> + +<p>The former imperialist could not logically become a state +rights advocate. Engrossed essentially in "promoting and securing +the common Good,"<a name="FNanchor_I-352_352" id="FNanchor_I-352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-352_352" class="fnanchor">[i-352]</a> he derided the advantage the +greater state would have, asserting that he "was originally of +Opinion it would be better if every Member of Congress, or +our national Council, were to consider himself rather as a Representative +of the whole, than as an Agent for the Interests of a +particular State." When Mr. Randolph considered,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>To negative all laws, passed by the several States, contravening, +in the opinion of the national legislature, the articles of +union: (the following words were added to this clause on motion +of Mr. Franklin, "or any Treaties subsisting under the authority +of the union.")<a name="FNanchor_I-353_353" id="FNanchor_I-353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-353_353" class="fnanchor">[i-353]</a></p></div> + +<p>This is anything but the corollary of a defender of state rights. +Franklin was convinced that the permanence of the national +view alone could prevent federal anarchy. Addressing himself +to the problem of delegated authority Madison observed: "This +prerogative of the General Govt. is the great pervading principle +that must controul the centrifugal tendency of the States; +which, without it, will continually fly out of their proper orbits +and destroy the order & harmony of the political system."<a name="FNanchor_I-354_354" id="FNanchor_I-354_354"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-354_354" class="fnanchor">[i-354]</a> +One is tempted to see here Newton's principle of gravity translated +into terms of political nationalism; one wonders whether it +is probable that (like Madison's) Franklin's emphasis on the +harmony of the whole could have been partly conditioned by +the cohesiveness and harmony of universal physical laws incarnate +in Newtonian physics, of which he was a master.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cviii" id="Page_cviii">[cviii]</a></span></p><p>Franklin was "apprehensive ...—perhaps too apprehensive,—that +the Government of these States may in future times end +in a Monarchy."<a name="FNanchor_I-355_355" id="FNanchor_I-355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-355_355" class="fnanchor">[i-355]</a> He suggested that moderate rather than +kingly salaries paid the chief executive would tend to allay this +danger. Between Randolph, who belabored a single executive +as the "foetus of monarchy," and Wilson, who harbored it as +the "best safeguard against tyranny," stood Franklin, who saw +it as subversive of democratic sovereignty but not necessarily +fatal. He declared himself emphatically against the motion +that the executive have a complete negative.<a name="FNanchor_I-356_356" id="FNanchor_I-356_356"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-356_356" class="fnanchor">[i-356]</a> Extolling +popular sovereignty, he warned that "In free Governments the +rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors & sovereigns."<a name="FNanchor_I-357_357" id="FNanchor_I-357_357"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-357_357" class="fnanchor">[i-357]</a> +He refused to consider a plan which sought to +establish a franchise only for freeholders: "It is of great consequence +that we shd. not depress the virtue & public spirit +of our common people; of which they displayed a great deal +during the war, and which contributed principally to the favorable +issue of it."<a name="FNanchor_I-358_358" id="FNanchor_I-358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-358_358" class="fnanchor">[i-358]</a> Pinckney had made a motion that rulers +should have unencumbered estates:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Doctr Franklin expressed his dislike of every thing that +tended to debase the spirit of the common people. If honesty +was often the companion of wealth, and if poverty was exposed +to peculiar temptation, it was not less true that the possession +of property increased the desire of more property—<a name="FNanchor_I-359_359" id="FNanchor_I-359_359"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-359_359" class="fnanchor">[i-359]</a>.... This +Constitution will be much read and attended to in Europe, and +if it should betray a great partiality to the rich—will not only +hurt us in the esteem of the most liberal and enlightened men +there, but discourage the common people from removing to +this Country.<a name="FNanchor_I-360_360" id="FNanchor_I-360_360"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-360_360" class="fnanchor">[i-360]</a></p></div> + +<p>Pinckney's motion was rejected. Franklin within the Convention<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cix" id="Page_cix">[cix]</a></span> +did not seem to fear Gerry's threat—"the evils we experience +flow from the excess of democracy."<a name="FNanchor_I-361_361" id="FNanchor_I-361_361"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-361_361" class="fnanchor">[i-361]</a></p> + +<p>Franklin suggested the adoption of a unicameral legislature, +but does not seem to have made any struggle for it. His article +of 1789 in defense of the Pennsylvania (unicameral) legislature, +however, shows that he clung to the principle as firmly as he +had in 1776.<a name="FNanchor_I-362_362" id="FNanchor_I-362_362"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-362_362" class="fnanchor">[i-362]</a> He questioned: "The Wisdom of a few Members +in one single Legislative Body, may it not frequently stifle bad +Motions in their Infancy, and so prevent their being adopted?" +In addition the bicameral house is cumbersome and provocative +of delay.</p> + +<p>Little is known of Franklin's attitude toward the violent +controversy attendant upon efforts toward ratification. In his +<i>Ancient Jews and Anti-Federalists</i><a name="FNanchor_I-363_363" id="FNanchor_I-363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-363_363" class="fnanchor">[i-363]</a> he warned the traducers of +the new Constitution against voiding an instrument which in +his opinion was as sound as the frailty of human reason would +allow it to be. In fact, said he, it "astonishes me, ... to find +this system approaching so near to perfection as it does."<a name="FNanchor_I-364_364" id="FNanchor_I-364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-364_364" class="fnanchor">[i-364]</a> +He may be said to have been anti-federalistic to the extent that +he feared a strong executive, guarded jealously the legislative +sphere, worried little about checks and balances, sought to +accelerate popular sovereignty; he was federalistic to the extent +that he opposed state localism with national sovereignty, was +not blind to the depravity of human nature and hence felt the +need for a vigorous coercive government. To M. Le Veillard +he confessed an almost Hamiltonian distrust of the multitude: +The Constitution "has ... met with great opposition in some +States, for we are at present a nation of politicians. And, though +there is a general dread of giving too much power to our <i>governors</i>, +I think we are more in danger from too little obedience +in the <i>governed</i>."<a name="FNanchor_I-365_365" id="FNanchor_I-365_365"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-365_365" class="fnanchor">[i-365]</a> He made the same complaint a year later: +"We have been guarding against an evil that old States are most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cx" id="Page_cx">[cx]</a></span> +liable to, <i>excess of power</i> in the rulers, but our present danger +seems to be <i>defect of obedience</i> in the subjects."<a name="FNanchor_I-366_366" id="FNanchor_I-366_366"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-366_366" class="fnanchor">[i-366]</a> It is +difficult to reconcile his inveterate distrust of men with his +activity in behalf of an almost universal franchise, reluctance +to sanction the principle of checks and balances, and belief in +a unicameral legislature; it is difficult to reconcile the Plutarchan +fervor with which he advocated the wisdom of following great +leaders with his fear of a vigorous executive. It is not improbable +that those ideas which are generally anti-federalistic in +Franklin's political view are in part the result of his hatred of +proprietary abuses which he witnessed as a provincial statesman +during his middle age.</p> + + +<h3><a name="VII_FRANKLIN_AS_SCIENTIST_AND_DEIST" id="VII_FRANKLIN_AS_SCIENTIST_AND_DEIST"></a>VII. FRANKLIN AS SCIENTIST AND DEIST</h3> + +<p>Jan Ingenhousz, the celebrated physician to Maria Theresa +of Austria, wrote a letter to Franklin on May 3, 1780, which +doubtless caused the patriarch of Passy to reflect—not without +sadness of heart—on the diversified fortune which time and +circumstance had devised for him. The physician (no friend to +the American revolution) implored Franklin not to abandon +"entirely the world Nature whose laws made by the supreme +wisdom and is constant and unalterable as its legislature himself +[<i>sic</i>]." Ingenhousz lamented that Franklin, "a Philosopher +so often and so successfully employed in researches of the most +intricate and the most mysterious operations of Nature,"<a name="FNanchor_I-367_367" id="FNanchor_I-367_367"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-367_367" class="fnanchor">[i-367]</a> +should have given his time to politics.</p> + +<p>Franklin is now most commonly viewed as a utilitarian +moralist, a successful tradesman and printer, a shrewd propagandist +and financier, the diplomat of the Revolution, and if at +all as a scientist, then only as a virtuoso, fashioning devices, such +as open stoves, bifocal spectacles, and lightning rods, for practical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxi" id="Page_cxi">[cxi]</a></span> +uses. Probably few general readers are aware that Franklin +was a disinterested scientist in the sense that he interrogated +nature with an eye to discovering its immutable laws. It is +conversely supposed that Franklin himself was unaware of any +inclination to pursue natural science to the exclusion of those +political achievements which have identified him as one of the +wiliest and sagest diplomats of the Enlightenment.</p> + +<p>It may be learned, however (not without astonishment), that +Franklin almost from the beginning of his participation in +politics resented the time given over to such activities, as so +much time lost to his speculations and research in natural science. +As early as 1752 he wistfully (though realistically) confessed +that "business sometimes obliges one to postpone philosophical +amusements."<a name="FNanchor_I-368_368" id="FNanchor_I-368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-368_368" class="fnanchor">[i-368]</a> A month after this, he wrote to Cadwallader +Colden: "I congratulate you on the prospect you have, of +passing the remainder of life in philosophical retirement."<a name="FNanchor_I-369_369" id="FNanchor_I-369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-369_369" class="fnanchor">[i-369]</a> +In the midst of investigating waterspouts, he observed to John +Perkins: "How much soever my Inclinations lead me to philosophical +Inquiries, I am so engag'd in Business, public and private, +that those more pleasing pursuits [of natural science] are frequently +interrupted...."<a name="FNanchor_I-370_370" id="FNanchor_I-370_370"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-370_370" class="fnanchor">[i-370]</a> He urged Dr. John Fothergill to +give himself "repose, delight in viewing the Operations of +nature in the vegetable creation."<a name="FNanchor_I-371_371" id="FNanchor_I-371_371"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-371_371" class="fnanchor">[i-371]</a> In 1765, upon completing +his negotiations in behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly, he +promised Lord Kames that he would "engage in no other" +political affairs.<a name="FNanchor_I-372_372" id="FNanchor_I-372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-372_372" class="fnanchor">[i-372]</a> To the notable professor of physics of the +University of Turin, Giambatista Beccaria, he wrote in 1768 +from London (where he had sought to have the Stamp Act +rescinded) that he had to "take away entirely" his "attention +from philosophical matters, though I have constantly cherished +the hope of returning home where I could find leisure to resume<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxii" id="Page_cxii">[cxii]</a></span> +the studies that I have shamefully put off from time to time."<a name="FNanchor_I-373_373" id="FNanchor_I-373_373"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-373_373" class="fnanchor">[i-373]</a> +Again, in 1779, he confessed to Beccaria: "I find myself here +[Passy] immers'd in Affairs, which absorb my Attention, and +prevent my pursuing those Studies in which I always found the +highest Satisfaction; and I am now grown so old, as hardly to +hope for a Return of that Leisure and Tranquillity so necessary +for Philosophical Disquisitions."<a name="FNanchor_I-374_374" id="FNanchor_I-374_374"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-374_374" class="fnanchor">[i-374]</a> He longed (in 1782) to +have Congress release him so that he might "spend the Evening +of Life more agreeably in philosophic [devoted to natural +science] Leisure."<a name="FNanchor_I-375_375" id="FNanchor_I-375_375"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-375_375" class="fnanchor">[i-375]</a> He who, John Winthrop claimed, "was +good at starting Game for Philosophers,"<a name="FNanchor_I-376_376" id="FNanchor_I-376_376"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-376_376" class="fnanchor">[i-376]</a> acknowledged that +he had thrown himself on the public, which, "having as it were +eaten my flesh, seemed now resolved to pick my bones."<a name="FNanchor_I-377_377" id="FNanchor_I-377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-377_377" class="fnanchor">[i-377]</a> +Reverend Manasseh Cutler visited Franklin a few months before +the patriarch's death. They ardently discussed botany, Franklin +boyish in his eagerness to show the Reverend Mr. Cutler a +massive book, containing "the whole of Linnaeus' Systema +Vegetabilies." "The Doctor seemed extremely fond, through +the course of the visit, of dwelling on Philosophical subjects, +and particularly that of natural History, while the other Gentlemen +were swallowed up with politics."<a name="FNanchor_I-378_378" id="FNanchor_I-378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-378_378" class="fnanchor">[i-378]</a> In a fictitious (?) +conversation between Joseph II of Austria and Franklin, the +Newton of electricity is reported as explaining that he was early +in life attracted by natural philosophy: "Necessity afterwards +made me a politician.... I was Franklin, the <i>Philosopher</i> to the +world, long after I had in fact, become Franklin the Politician."<a name="FNanchor_I-379_379" id="FNanchor_I-379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-379_379" class="fnanchor">[i-379]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxiii" id="Page_cxiii">[cxiii]</a></span> +After reviewing the evidence, it seems incredulous +to doubt that, regardless of his achievements in other fields, +Franklin sought his greatest intellectual pleasure in scientific research +and speculation, and that his doctrines of scientific deism +antedated and conditioned his political, economic, and humanitarian +interests.</p> + +<p>If Franklin's inventions have been justly praised, his affections +for the empirical scientific method and his philosophic +interest in Nature's laws have been unjustly ignored. He observed +to Ebenezer Kinnersley "that a philosopher cannot be +too much on his guard in crediting their ["careless observers'"] +relations of things extraordinary, and should never build an +hypothesis on any thing but clear facts and experiments, or it +will be in danger of soon falling ... like a house of cards";<a name="FNanchor_I-380_380" id="FNanchor_I-380_380"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-380_380" class="fnanchor">[i-380]</a> +and to Abbé Soulavie, "You see I have given a loose to imagination; +but I approve much more your method of philosophizing, +which proceeds upon actual observation, makes a collection of +facts, and concludes no farther than those facts will warrant."<a name="FNanchor_I-381_381" id="FNanchor_I-381_381"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-381_381" class="fnanchor">[i-381]</a> +In 1782 he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal +Society, that he longed to "sit down in sweet Society with my +English philosophic Friends, communicating to each other new +Discoveries, and proposing Improvements of old ones; all tending +to extend the Power of Man over Matter, avert or diminish +the Evils he is subject to, or augment the Number of his Enjoyments."<a name="FNanchor_I-382_382" id="FNanchor_I-382_382"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-382_382" class="fnanchor">[i-382]</a> +A careful study of his scientific papers discloses +that he was not untrained in the method of hypotheses sustained +or rejected by patient and laborious experimentation: not fortuitously +did he arrive at conclusions in electricity, which were +epochal in (1) "His rejection of the two-fluid theory of electricity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxiv" id="Page_cxiv">[cxiv]</a></span> +and substitution of the one-fluid theory; (2) his coinage of the +appropriate terms <i>positive</i> and <i>negative</i>, to denote an excess or a +deficit of the common electric fluid; (3) his explanation of the +Leyden jar, and, notably, his recognition of the paramount +rôle played by the glass or dielectric; (4) his experimental +demonstration of the identity of lightning and electricity; and +(5) his invention of the lightning conductor for the protection +of life and property, together with his clear statement of its +preventive and protective functions."<a name="FNanchor_I-383_383" id="FNanchor_I-383_383"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-383_383" class="fnanchor">[i-383]</a> Not only an inventor, +Franklin inductively observed natural phenomena, and drew +conclusions until he had created a virtual <i>Principia</i> of electricity. +His contemporaries were not loath to honor him as a second +Newton. Franklin, however, was in all of his researches under +a self-confessed yoke which doubtless tended to deny him access +to the profoundest reaches of scientific inquiry: from Philadelphia +he wrote in 1753 to Cadwallader Colden, eminent +mathematician (as well as versatile scientist): "Your skill & +Expertness in Mathematical Computations, will afford you an +Advantage in these Disquisitions [among them, researches in +electricity], that I lament the want of, who am like a Man searching +for some thing in a dark Room where I can only grope and +guess; while you proceed with a Candle in your Hand."<a name="FNanchor_I-384_384" id="FNanchor_I-384_384"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-384_384" class="fnanchor">[i-384]</a></p> + +<p>In an effort to learn the <i>modus operandi</i> of Franklin's philosophic +thought, let us now review its genetic development, its +probable sources, its relation to scientific deism, and the degree +to which he achieved that serene repose for which he ever +strove. A pioneer American rationalist, not without his claims +to being "another Voltaire," Franklin as a youth read those +works which were forming or interpreting the thought patterns +of the age. Born in an epoch presided over by a Locke and a +Newton, an epoch of rationalism and "supernatural" rationalism,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxv" id="Page_cxv">[cxv]</a></span> +alike fed by physico-mathematical speculation. Franklin, +barely beyond adolescence, felt the impacts of the age of reason. +Scholars before and since M. M. Curtis have explained that "in +religion he was a Deist of the type of Lord Herbert of Cherbury."<a name="FNanchor_I-385_385" id="FNanchor_I-385_385"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-385_385" class="fnanchor">[i-385]</a> +M. Faÿ has sought, without convincing documentary +evidence, to interpret Franklin's philosophic mind in terms +of Pythagoreanism.<a name="FNanchor_I-386_386" id="FNanchor_I-386_386"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-386_386" class="fnanchor">[i-386]</a> We may find that these views are over +simple and historically inadequate—even wrong.</p> + +<p>Franklin was reared "piously in the Dissenting way"<a name="FNanchor_I-387_387" id="FNanchor_I-387_387"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-387_387" class="fnanchor">[i-387]</a> by a +"pious and prudent" Calvinistic father who died as he lived, +with "entire Dependence on his Redeemer."<a name="FNanchor_I-388_388" id="FNanchor_I-388_388"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-388_388" class="fnanchor">[i-388]</a> "Religiously +educated as a Presbyterian,"<a name="FNanchor_I-389_389" id="FNanchor_I-389_389"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-389_389" class="fnanchor">[i-389]</a> young Benjamin was taught that +<i>Major est Scripturae auctoritas quam omnis humani ingenü capacitas</i>. +He was nurtured on the Bible and "books in polemic +divinity," and he regularly attended services at the Old South +Church. Doubtless without reflection he was led to identify +goodness with the church and its worship. He was a part of +New England's bibliolatry. Not long before he was apprenticed +to his brother James he read Cotton Mather's <i>Bonifacius—An Essay +upon the Good that is to be Devised and Designed by those +who desire to Answer the Great End of Life, and to do good while +they live</i>, and Defoe's <i>Essays upon Several Projects: or Effectual +Ways for Advancing the Interests of the Nation</i>. He confessed +in 1784 that <i>Bonifacius</i> "gave me such a turn of thinking, as to +have an influence on my conduct through life; for I have always +set a greater value on the character of a <i>doer of good</i> than on +any other kind of reputation."<a name="FNanchor_I-390_390" id="FNanchor_I-390_390"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-390_390" class="fnanchor">[i-390]</a> Mather, as an exponent of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxvi" id="Page_cxvi">[cxvi]</a></span> +Christian charity, urged that man help his neighbors "with +a rapturous assiduity,"<a name="FNanchor_I-391_391" id="FNanchor_I-391_391"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-391_391" class="fnanchor">[i-391]</a> that he may discover the "ravishing +satisfaction which he might find in relieving the distresses of a +poor miserable neighbor."<a name="FNanchor_I-392_392" id="FNanchor_I-392_392"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-392_392" class="fnanchor">[i-392]</a> It is ironic that Mather should +have apparently aided a young man to divorce himself from the +strenuous subtleties of theology. (Franklin was too young to +gather that Mather circumspectly warned against a covenant of +works, and hence was Pauline in his advocacy of <i>charity</i> rather +than of humanitarianism.) And from Defoe's <i>Essays</i> Franklin +received more than a penchant for projects. Like Mather, Defoe +observed that "God Almighty has commanded us to relieve and +help one another in distress."<a name="FNanchor_I-393_393" id="FNanchor_I-393_393"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-393_393" class="fnanchor">[i-393]</a> Defoe seemed to young Franklin +to dwell on fellow-service—to promise that the good man need +not have understood all of the dogma of Old South meetinghouse.</p> + +<p>Apprenticed to James, Franklin admitted that he "now had +access to better books."<a name="FNanchor_I-394_394" id="FNanchor_I-394_394"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-394_394" class="fnanchor">[i-394]</a> Whatever the extent of James's +library in 1718, by 1722 the <i>New England Courant</i> collection +included Burnet's <i>History of the Reformation</i>, <i>Theory of the +Earth</i>, the <i>Spectator</i> papers, <i>The Guardian</i>, <i>Art of Thinking</i> [Du +Port Royal], <i>The Tale of a Tub</i>, and the writings of Tillotson.<a name="FNanchor_I-395_395" id="FNanchor_I-395_395"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-395_395" class="fnanchor">[i-395]</a> +After reading most probably in these, and, as we are told, in +Tryon's <i>Way to Health</i>, Xenophon's <i>Memorabilia</i>, digests of +some of Boyle's lectures, Anthony Collins, Locke, and Shaftesbury, +Franklin became in his Calvinist religion a "real doubter."<a name="FNanchor_I-396_396" id="FNanchor_I-396_396"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-396_396" class="fnanchor">[i-396]</a> +He became at the age of sixteen, as a result of reading Boyle's +Lectures,<a name="FNanchor_I-397_397" id="FNanchor_I-397_397"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-397_397" class="fnanchor">[i-397]</a> a "thorough Deist."<a name="FNanchor_I-398_398" id="FNanchor_I-398_398"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-398_398" class="fnanchor">[i-398]</a> We cannot be certain of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxvii" id="Page_cxvii">[cxvii]</a></span> +the Lectures read by Franklin, but we may observe Bentley's +<i>Folly of Atheism</i> (1692) and Derham's <i>Physico-Theology</i> (1711-1712), +which are representative of the series provided for by +Boyle. Like Mather's <i>The Christian Philosopher</i> (1721)<a name="FNanchor_I-399_399" id="FNanchor_I-399_399"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-399_399" class="fnanchor">[i-399]</a> they +both employ science and rationalism to reinforce (never as +equivalent to or substitute for) scriptural theology. Fed by +Newtonian physics, Bentley discovers in gravity "the great +basis of all mechanism," the "immediate <i>fiat</i> and finger of God, +and the executions of the divine law."<a name="FNanchor_I-400_400" id="FNanchor_I-400_400"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-400_400" class="fnanchor">[i-400]</a> Gravity, "the powerful +cement which holds together this magnificent structure of the +world,"<a name="FNanchor_I-401_401" id="FNanchor_I-401_401"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-401_401" class="fnanchor">[i-401]</a> is the result of the Deity "who <i>always acts geometrically</i>." +Borrowing from Cockburne, Ray, Bentley, and Fénelon, +Derham offers likewise to prove the existence and operations of +the Workman from his Work.<a name="FNanchor_I-402_402" id="FNanchor_I-402_402"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-402_402" class="fnanchor">[i-402]</a></p> + +<p>It is unlikely that Boyle's Lectures (characterized by orthodox +rationalism, augmented by Newtonianism) would alone +have precipitated in Franklin a "thorough deism." Not improbably +Locke, Shaftesbury, and Anthony Collins (whom +Franklin mentions reading) were most militant in overthrowing +his inherited bibliolatry. Although he does not say exactly +which of Collins's works he read, Collins's rationale is repeated +clearly enough in any one of his pieces. Warring against "crack-brain'd +Enthusiasts," the "prodigious Ignorance" and "Impositions +of Priests," against defective scriptural texts, Collins<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxviii" id="Page_cxviii">[cxviii]</a></span> +defends "our natural Notions" against the authoritarianism of +priests. Vilifying the authority of the surplice, he apotheosizes +the authority of reason.<a name="FNanchor_I-403_403" id="FNanchor_I-403_403"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-403_403" class="fnanchor">[i-403]</a> He intensifies the English tradition +of every-man-his-own-priest, and exclaims "How uncertain +Tradition is!"<a name="FNanchor_I-404_404" id="FNanchor_I-404_404"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-404_404" class="fnanchor">[i-404]</a> From this militant friend of John Locke, +Franklin was doubtless impregnated with an <i>odium theologicum</i> +and an exalted idea of the sanctity of Reason.</p> + +<p>Having read <i>An Essay Concerning Human Understanding</i>,<a name="FNanchor_I-405_405" id="FNanchor_I-405_405"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-405_405" class="fnanchor">[i-405]</a> +Franklin may have remembered that Locke there observed, +"Nothing that is contrary to, and inconsistent with, the clear +and self-evident dictates of reason, has a right to be urged or +assented to as a matter of faith, wherein reason hath nothing +to do."<a name="FNanchor_I-406_406" id="FNanchor_I-406_406"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-406_406" class="fnanchor">[i-406]</a> Like Collins, Locke urged a deistic rationale:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Since then the precepts of Natural Religion are plain, and +very intelligible to all mankind, and seldom to come to be controverted; +and other revealed truths, which are conveyed to us +by books and languages, are liable to the common and natural +obscurities and difficulties incident to words; methinks it would +become us to be more careful and diligent in observing the +former, and less magisterial, positive, and imperious, in imposing +our own sense and interpretations of the latter.<a name="FNanchor_I-407_407" id="FNanchor_I-407_407"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-407_407" class="fnanchor">[i-407]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxix" id="Page_cxix">[cxix]</a></span></p><p>In addition Franklin may have been influenced by Locke's implied +Newtonianism; he would suspect the subtleties of the +Old South Church when he read: "For the visible marks of +extraordinary wisdom and power appear so plainly in all the +works of the creation, that a rational creature, who will but +seriously reflect on them, cannot miss the discovery of a +Deity."<a name="FNanchor_I-408_408" id="FNanchor_I-408_408"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-408_408" class="fnanchor">[i-408]</a> Like Newton, Locke inferred an infinite and benevolent +Geometrician from "the magnificent harmony of the universe."</p> + +<p>Franklin also read Shaftesbury's <i>Characteristics</i>, which Warburton +quotes Pope as saying "had done more harm to revealed +religion in England than all the works of infidelity put together."<a name="FNanchor_I-409_409" id="FNanchor_I-409_409"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-409_409" class="fnanchor">[i-409]</a> +Although he may have pondered over Shaftesbury's +"virtuoso theory of Benevolence," he was not one to be readily +convinced of the innate altruism of man. His Puritan heritage +linked with an empirical realism prevented him from becoming +prey to Shaftesbury's a priori optimism. He was aware of the +potential danger of a complacent trust in natural impulses, which +often lead to</p> + +<p class="blockquot">The love of sweet security in sin.</p> + +<p>To what extent did Franklin's nascent humanitarianism—mildly +provoked by the neighborliness of Mather and Defoe—receive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxx" id="Page_cxx">[cxx]</a></span> +additional sanction from Shaftesbury's doctrine that "compassion +is the supreme form of moral beauty, the neglect of it the +greatest of all offenses against nature's ordained harmony"?<a name="FNanchor_I-410_410" id="FNanchor_I-410_410"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-410_410" class="fnanchor">[i-410]</a> +Identifying self-love and social, Shaftesbury saw the divine +temper achieved through affection for the public, the "universal +good."<a name="FNanchor_I-411_411" id="FNanchor_I-411_411"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-411_411" class="fnanchor">[i-411]</a> Born among men who were convinced of the supremacy +of scripture, Franklin would at first be astonished +(then perhaps liberated) upon reading in the <i>Characteristics</i> that +"Religion excludes only perfect atheism."<a name="FNanchor_I-412_412" id="FNanchor_I-412_412"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-412_412" class="fnanchor">[i-412]</a> From such a piece +as Shaftesbury's <i>An Inquiry Concerning Virtue or Merit</i> Franklin +learned that not all men preserved a union between theology +and ethics, scripture and religion. Although Shaftesbury occasionally +indicated a reverence for sacred scriptures, the totality +of his thought was cast in behalf of natural religion. He was convinced +that the "Deity is sufficiently revealed through natural +Phenomena."<a name="FNanchor_I-413_413" id="FNanchor_I-413_413"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-413_413" class="fnanchor">[i-413]</a> Extolling the apprehension of the Deity +through man's uniform reason, Shaftesbury urbanely lampooned +enthusiasm, that private revelation which threatened to prevail +against the <i>consensus gentium</i>.</p> + +<p>By 1725 Franklin had divorced theology from morality and +morality from conscience, having punctuated his youth with +faunish "errata."<a name="FNanchor_I-414_414" id="FNanchor_I-414_414"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-414_414" class="fnanchor">[i-414]</a> Although he was as a youth too much at ease +in Zion, he did not lose substantial (if then a theoretic) faith in +the struggle between the law of the spirit and the law of the +members. Nurtured by the Bible, Bunyan, Addison and Steele, +Tryon, Socrates, and Xenophon—a blend of Christian and +classical traditions—he felt the reasonableness, if not the saintliness, +of curbing the resolute sway of his natural self.<a name="FNanchor_I-415_415" id="FNanchor_I-415_415"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-415_415" class="fnanchor">[i-415]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxi" id="Page_cxxi">[cxxi]</a></span></p><p>After five years with James, a year in Philadelphia where part +of the time he worked with Samuel Keimer,<a name="FNanchor_I-416_416" id="FNanchor_I-416_416"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-416_416" class="fnanchor">[i-416]</a> a fanatic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxii" id="Page_cxxii">[cxxii]</a></span> +and bearded Camisard, Franklin, through the duplicity of +Governor Keith, found himself in November, 1724, aboard the +<i>London-Hope</i>, England-bound. It would be unfair to Franklin +were we to think him a primitive colonist to whom England +was an unreal, incalculable land. We remember that James +knew the London of Anne, Addison, Steele, Locke, and Newton. +And we have seen that the <i>New England Courant</i> library +was one of which no London gentleman and scholar need have +been ashamed. As a worker on this newspaper Franklin had set +up the names and some indications of the thoughts of such men +as Fénelon, Tillotson, Defoe, Swift, Butler, Bayle, Isaac Watts, +Blount, Burnet, Whiston, Temple, Trenchard and Gordon, +Denham, Garth, Dryden, Milton, Locke, Flamstead, and Newton.<a name="FNanchor_I-417_417" id="FNanchor_I-417_417"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-417_417" class="fnanchor">[i-417]</a></p> + +<p>During his two years in London, working successively in the +printing houses of Samuel Palmer and James Watts, he mingled +with many of the leaders of the day. Probably because he had, +while yet in America, read (in the transactions of the Royal +Society) of the virtuosi's interest in asbestos, he wrote to +Sir Hans Sloane, offering to show him purses made of that +novel stuff.<a name="FNanchor_I-418_418" id="FNanchor_I-418_418"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-418_418" class="fnanchor">[i-418]</a> And we know that Sir Hans Sloane received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxiii" id="Page_cxxiii">[cxxiii]</a></span> +Franklin in his home at Bloomsbury Square. Before he met +other notables he published (what he called later an "erratum") +<i>A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and +Pain</i> (1725).<a name="FNanchor_I-419_419" id="FNanchor_I-419_419"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-419_419" class="fnanchor">[i-419]</a> Franklin himself said this work was the result +of his setting up Wollaston's <i>The Religion of Nature Delineated</i><a name="FNanchor_I-420_420" id="FNanchor_I-420_420"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-420_420" class="fnanchor">[i-420]</a> +at Palmer's and his not agreeing with the author's "reasonings." +Coming to Wollaston's work (with Franklin's <i>Dissertation</i> +and <i>Articles of Belief</i> in mind) we can, however, see +much that Franklin agreed with, general principles which do +little more than reflect the current patterns of thought. Like +Franklin, Wollaston saw Reason as "the great law of our +nature."<a name="FNanchor_I-421_421" id="FNanchor_I-421_421"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-421_421" class="fnanchor">[i-421]</a> With Locke he denied innate ideas.<a name="FNanchor_I-422_422" id="FNanchor_I-422_422"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-422_422" class="fnanchor">[i-422]</a> That part +of <i>The Religion of Nature Delineated</i> in which he searched +with laborious syllogistic reasoning for the Ultimate Cause +(which could not produce itself) may have been boring to the +less agile mind of the young printer. Wollaston, however, +apologized for his syllogistic gymnastics offered in proof of +Deity since "much more may those greater motions we see in +the world, and the phenomena attending them" afford arguments +for such a proof:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>I mean the motions of the planets and the heavenly bodies. +For <i>these</i> must be put into motion, either by one Common +mighty Mover, acting upon them immediately, or by causes and +laws of His Appointment; or by their respective movers, who, +for reasons to which you can by this time be no stranger, must +depend upon some <i>Superior</i>, that furnished them with the power +of doing this.<a name="FNanchor_I-423_423" id="FNanchor_I-423_423"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-423_423" class="fnanchor">[i-423]</a></p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxiv" id="Page_cxxiv">[cxxiv]</a></span></p><p>With Newtonian rapture he marveled at "the grandness of this +fabric of the world,"<a name="FNanchor_I-424_424" id="FNanchor_I-424_424"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-424_424" class="fnanchor">[i-424]</a> at "the chorus of planets moving periodically, +by uniform laws." Rapt in wonder, he gazed "up to +the fixt stars, that radiant numberless host of heaven." Like a +Blackmore, Ray, Fontenelle, or Newton, he felt that they were +"probably all possest by proper inhabitants."<a name="FNanchor_I-425_425" id="FNanchor_I-425_425"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-425_425" class="fnanchor">[i-425]</a> He wondered +at the "just and geometrical arrangement of things."<a name="FNanchor_I-426_426" id="FNanchor_I-426_426"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-426_426" class="fnanchor">[i-426]</a> These +are all sentiments that Franklin expressed in his philosophical +juvenilia.<a name="FNanchor_I-427_427" id="FNanchor_I-427_427"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-427_427" class="fnanchor">[i-427]</a> But then, Franklin (after reading this sublimated +geometry which reduced the parts of creation to an equally +sublime simplicity) noted in Wollaston that man must be a free +agent,<a name="FNanchor_I-428_428" id="FNanchor_I-428_428"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-428_428" class="fnanchor">[i-428]</a> that good and evil are as black and white, distinguishable,<a name="FNanchor_I-429_429" id="FNanchor_I-429_429"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-429_429" class="fnanchor">[i-429]</a> +that empirically the will is free, the author urging with +Johnsonian good sense, "The short way of knowing this certainly +is to try."<a name="FNanchor_I-430_430" id="FNanchor_I-430_430"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-430_430" class="fnanchor">[i-430]</a> Franklin's <i>Dissertation</i> was dedicated to his +friend James Ralph and prefaced by a misquotation from Dryden +and Lee's <i>Oedipus</i>. It purports, as Franklin wrote in 1779, +"to prove the doctrine of fate, from the supposed attributes of +God ... that in erecting and governing the world, as he was +infinitely wise, he knew what would be best; infinitely good, he +must be disposed, and infinitely powerful, he must be able to +execute it: consequently all is right."<a name="FNanchor_I-431_431" id="FNanchor_I-431_431"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-431_431" class="fnanchor">[i-431]</a> With confidence lent +him by his a priori method, he proposed: "I. There is said to +be a First Mover, who is called God, Maker of the Universe. +II. He is said to be all-wise, all-good, all-powerful."<a name="FNanchor_I-432_432" id="FNanchor_I-432_432"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-432_432" class="fnanchor">[i-432]</a> With +the nonchalance of an abstractionist, he concluded, "Evil doth +not exist."<a name="FNanchor_I-433_433" id="FNanchor_I-433_433"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-433_433" class="fnanchor">[i-433]</a> Transcending the sensational necessitarianism<a name="FNanchor_I-434_434" id="FNanchor_I-434_434"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-434_434" class="fnanchor">[i-434]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxv" id="Page_cxxv">[cxxv]</a></span> +of Anthony Collins and John Locke, Franklin observed (with +an eye on Newton's law of gravitation) that man has liberty, +the "Liberty of the same Nature with the Fall of a heavy Body +to the Ground; it has Liberty to fall, that is, it meets with nothing +to hinder its Fall, but at the same Time it is necessitated to fall, +and has no Power or Liberty to remain suspended."<a name="FNanchor_I-435_435" id="FNanchor_I-435_435"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-435_435" class="fnanchor">[i-435]</a> As a +disciple of Locke's psychology, Franklin reflected his concept of +the <i>tabula rasa</i> in describing an infant's mind which "is as if it +were not." "All our Ideas are first admitted by the Senses and +imprinted on the Brain, increasing in Number by Observation +and Experience; there they become the Subjects of the Soul's +Action."</p> + +<p>In the <i>Dissertation</i> one can discover the extent to which Franklin +had absorbed (if not from Newton's own works, then from +his popularizers and intellectual sons such as Pemberton, Franklin's +friend) several of the essential tenets of Newtonianism. +Here we see his belief in a universe motivated by immutable +natural laws comprising a sublimely harmonious system reflecting +a Wise Geometrician; a world in which man desires to +affect a corresponding inner heaven. Enraptured by the order +of the natural laws of Newtonianism, and like a Shaftesbury +searching for a demonstrable inner harmony, Franklin (carrying +his a priorism to logical absurdity) was unable to reconcile free +will with Omniscience, Omnipotence, and Goodness. (In how +far was this partly the result of his having been steeped in +Calvinism's doctrine of Election?)</p> + +<p>The <i>Dissertation</i> is as appreciative of Newton's contribution +to physics and thought as Thomson's<a name="FNanchor_I-436_436" id="FNanchor_I-436_436"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-436_436" class="fnanchor">[i-436]</a> <i>To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxvi" id="Page_cxxvi">[cxxvi]</a></span> +Not unlike Franklin's framework is Shaftesbury's +thought in <i>An Inquiry Concerning Virtue or Merit</i>.<a name="FNanchor_I-437_437" id="FNanchor_I-437_437"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-437_437" class="fnanchor">[i-437]</a> +Since Franklin acknowledged his reading of Shaftesbury and +since as late as 1730 he borrowed heavily from the <i>Characteristics</i>, +it seems probable that Shaftesbury lent Franklin in this +case some sanction for his only metaphysical venture.<a name="FNanchor_I-438_438" id="FNanchor_I-438_438"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-438_438" class="fnanchor">[i-438]</a></p> + +<p>As one result of his printing <i>A Dissertation</i> he made the +acquaintance of Lyons, author of <i>The Infallibility of Human +Judgement</i><a name="FNanchor_I-439_439" id="FNanchor_I-439_439"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-439_439" class="fnanchor">[i-439]</a> who introduced him to Mandeville<a name="FNanchor_I-440_440" id="FNanchor_I-440_440"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-440_440" class="fnanchor">[i-440]</a> and Dr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxvii" id="Page_cxxvii">[cxxvii]</a></span> +Henry Pemberton, who in turn "Promis'd to give me an opportunity, +some time or other, of seeing Sir Isaac Newton, <i>of +which I was extreamly desirous</i>; but this never happened [the +italics are the editors']."<a name="FNanchor_I-441_441" id="FNanchor_I-441_441"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-441_441" class="fnanchor">[i-441]</a> Dr. Pemberton, physician and mathematician, +met Newton in 1722, and during the time Franklin +enjoyed his friendship was helping Newton to prepare the third +edition of the <i>Principia</i>. As a result of his aiding Newton "to +discover and understand his writings,"<a name="FNanchor_I-442_442" id="FNanchor_I-442_442"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-442_442" class="fnanchor">[i-442]</a> Pemberton in 1728 +published <i>A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy</i>. It is obvious +that Franklin could have discovered few men with a more +concentrated and enthusiastic knowledge of Newtonianism than +that possessed by Dr. Pemberton. As we have already noted, +Franklin undoubtedly derived his appreciation of Newtonian +speculation not from grubbing in the <i>Principia</i> but from secondary +sources. There is no reason to apologize for Franklin +on this score when we remember that Voltaire, who popularized +Newtonianism in France, exclaimed: "Very few people read +Newton because it is necessary to be learned to understand him. +But everybody talks about him." Desaguliers, coming to London +from Oxford in 1713, observed that "he found all Newtonian +philosophy generally receiv'd among persons of all ranks +and professions, and even among the ladies by the help of experiments."<a name="FNanchor_I-443_443" id="FNanchor_I-443_443"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-443_443" class="fnanchor">[i-443]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxviii" id="Page_cxxviii">[cxxviii]</a></span> +Pemberton wrote that the desire after knowledge +of Newtonianism "is by nothing more fully illustrated, than +by the inclination of men to gain an acquaintance with the operations +of nature; which disposition to enquire after the causes of +things is so general, that all men of letters, I believe, find themselves +influenced by it."<a name="FNanchor_I-444_444" id="FNanchor_I-444_444"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-444_444" class="fnanchor">[i-444]</a> Through the sublimated mathematics +of the <i>Principia</i>, Pemberton observed, "the similitude found +in all parts of the universe makes it undoubted, that the whole +is governed by one supreme being, to whom the original is +owing of the frame of nature, which evidently is the effect of +choice and design."<a name="FNanchor_I-445_445" id="FNanchor_I-445_445"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-445_445" class="fnanchor">[i-445]</a> To what extent Franklin later gave evidence +of his knowledge of Newtonian speculation we shall +further discover in his <i>Articles of Belief</i>.</p> + +<p>He returned in the summer of 1726 on the <i>Berkshire</i> to Philadelphia +with Mr. Denham, a sweetly reasonable Quaker.<a name="FNanchor_I-446_446" id="FNanchor_I-446_446"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-446_446" class="fnanchor">[i-446]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxix" id="Page_cxxix">[cxxix]</a></span> +During this journey he wrote his <i>Journal of a Voyage from +London to Philadelphia</i>, indicating a virtuoso's interest in all +novel phenomena of nature. In Philadelphia he worked for +Denham, then Keimer, and finally established his own printing +house in 1728, a year after founding the Junto,<a name="FNanchor_I-447_447" id="FNanchor_I-447_447"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-447_447" class="fnanchor">[i-447]</a> and the year +of his <i>Articles of Belief</i>. By this time, Franklin, like Hume, +wearied of metaphysics. Commonly this creed has been described +as illustrating the deism of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. It +is true that Franklin admits a God who ought to be worshipped,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxx" id="Page_cxxx">[cxxx]</a></span> +the chief parts of worship being the cultivation of virtue and +piety; but there is no suggestion of Lord Herbert's fourth and +fifth dogmas, that sin must be atoned for by repentance, and that +punishment and rewards follow this life. His reaction against +Calvinism may be shown in his failure to include reference to +scripture, the experience of faith, and the triune godhead presided +over by the redeemer Christ. As a deist he accepted "one +supreme, most perfect Being." This Deity is the "Author and +Father of the Gods themselves." "Infinite and incomprehensible," +He has created many gods, each having "made for himself +one glorious Sun, attended with a beautiful and admirable +System of Planets." Franklin offered his adoration to that "Wise +and Good God, who is the author and owner of our System." +It is conventional to suggest that his interest in the plurality of +worlds and gods should be traced to Plato's <i>Timaeus</i>.<a name="FNanchor_I-448_448" id="FNanchor_I-448_448"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-448_448" class="fnanchor">[i-448]</a> In the +absence of any conclusive evidence concerning Franklin's study +of Plato, and in view of his profound awareness of contemporary +scientific and philosophical thought, it seems more reasonable +to see the source of this idea in the thought of his own age. +Let us remember that with the growth of the heliocentric cosmology +there resulted a vast expanse of the unknown, bound to +intrigue the speculations of the philosophers of the age. We +know that Ray, Fénelon, Blackmore, Huygens, Fontenelle, +Shaftesbury, Locke, and Newton all wondered about the plurality +of worlds and gods.</p> + +<p>In company with the supernatural rationalists and deists, +Franklin exalted Reason as the experience through which God is +discovered and known. Through Reason he is "capable of observing +his Wisdom in the Creation." With Newtonian zeal, +upon observing "the glorious Sun, with his attending Worlds," +he saw the Deity responsible first for imparting "their prodigious +motion," and second for maintaining "the wondrous Laws by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxi" id="Page_cxxxi">[cxxxi]</a></span> +which they move." As we have seen above, this argument +from the design of creation to a Creator was one of the most influential +and popular of the impacts of Newtonian physics. Like +Fénelon, Blackmore, and Ray, whom he read and recommended +that others read,<a name="FNanchor_I-449_449" id="FNanchor_I-449_449"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-449_449" class="fnanchor">[i-449]</a> Franklin exclaimed:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Thy Wisdom, thy Power, and thy Goodness are everywhere +clearly seen; in the air and in the water, in the Heaven and on +the Earth; Thou providest for the various winged Fowl, and the +innumerable Inhabitants of the Water; thou givest Cold and +Heat, Rain and Sunshine, in their Season, [et cetera].</p></div> + +<p>In addition to the works mentioned above which aided Franklin +in arriving at a natural religion, it is certain that his views and +even idiom received stout reinforcement from such a passage as +follows from Ray's classic work:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>There is no greater, at least no more palpable and convincing +argument of the existence of a Deity, than the admirable act +and wisdom that discovers itself in the make and constitution, +the order and disposition, the ends and uses of all the parts and +members of this stately fabric of heaven and earth; for if in the +works of art ... a curious edifice or machine, counsel, design, +and direction to an end appearing in the whole frame, and in +all the several pieces of it, do necessarily infer the being and +operation of some intelligent architect or engineer, why shall +not also in the works of nature, that grandeur and magnificence, +that excellent contrivance for beauty, order, use &c. which is +observable in them, wherein they do as much transcend the +effects of human art as infinite power and wisdom exceeds finite, +infer the existence and efficacy of an omnipotent and all-wise +Creator?<a name="FNanchor_I-450_450" id="FNanchor_I-450_450"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-450_450" class="fnanchor">[i-450]</a></p></div> + +<p>Then he directly referred to the Archbishop of Cambray's <i>Traité +de l'existence et des attributs de Dieu</i>. Oliver Elton observes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxii" id="Page_cxxxii">[cxxxii]</a></span> +that this work "with its appeal to popular science, is the chief +counterpart in France to the 'physico-theology' current at the +time in England."<a name="FNanchor_I-451_451" id="FNanchor_I-451_451"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-451_451" class="fnanchor">[i-451]</a> From the skeleton of the smallest animal, +"the bones, the tendons, the veins, the arteries, the nerves, the +muscles, which compose the body of a single man"<a name="FNanchor_I-452_452" id="FNanchor_I-452_452"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-452_452" class="fnanchor">[i-452]</a> to "this +vaulted sky" which turns "around so regularly,"<a name="FNanchor_I-453_453" id="FNanchor_I-453_453"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-453_453" class="fnanchor">[i-453]</a> all show +"the infinite skill of its Author."<a name="FNanchor_I-454_454" id="FNanchor_I-454_454"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-454_454" class="fnanchor">[i-454]</a> Although Fénelon is +applying Cartesian physics, here Descartes reinforced Newtonianism; +like Newton, Fénelon argued that cosmic motion is +ordered by "immutable laws," so "constant and so salutary." +Blackmore's <i>Creation, a Philosophical Poem</i> (1712), aiming to +demonstrate "the existence of a God from the marks of wisdom, +design, contrivance, and the choice of ends and means, which +appear in the universe"<a name="FNanchor_I-455_455" id="FNanchor_I-455_455"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-455_455" class="fnanchor">[i-455]</a> also furnished additional sanction for +Franklin's emphasis on the wondrous laws of the creation and +the discovery of the Deity in his Work. Like James Thomson, +Blackmore seeks to show how</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The long coherent chain of things we find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leads to a Cause Supreme, a wise Creating Mind.<a name="FNanchor_I-456_456" id="FNanchor_I-456_456"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-456_456" class="fnanchor">[i-456]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In revolt against the contractile elements in Calvinism, +Franklin believed that God "is not offended, when he sees his +Children solace themselves in any manner of pleasant exercises +and Innocent Delights."<a name="FNanchor_I-457_457" id="FNanchor_I-457_457"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-457_457" class="fnanchor">[i-457]</a> In his <i>Articles of Belief</i> Franklin +retains from his <i>Dissertation</i> his a priori concept of the Deity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxiii" id="Page_cxxxiii">[cxxxiii]</a></span> +as a creator and sustainer of "Wondrous Laws," immutable and +beneficent. To the depersonalized First Mover, however, +he has added "some of those Passions he has planted in us," +and he suggests furthermore that the Deity is mildly providential. +A maker of systematic, if inhuman, metaphysics in the +<i>Dissertation</i>, the author of the <i>Articles</i>, in spite of the superficial +and embryonic metaphysics, succeeds better in making +himself at home in his world. To this embryonic religion +(linked with Franklin's obsession with the plurality of worlds +and gods—of no real significance save to indicate picturesquely +the extent to which he had, with the scientists of his age, extended +the limits of the physical universe) Franklin welded a +pattern of ethics, prudential but stern.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hefelbower's description of the growth of free thought +might appropriately be applied to Franklin's <i>Articles</i>: "As the +supernatural waned in radical Deism, the ethical grew in importance, +until religion was but a moral system on a theistic +background."<a name="FNanchor_I-458_458" id="FNanchor_I-458_458"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-458_458" class="fnanchor">[i-458]</a> Although the metaphysical portions of this +work are far too neighborly and casual to be inspiring and +provocative of saintliness, the ethical conclusions (would that +they were uttered less consciously and complacently!) are +worthy of the introspective force of New England's stern mind, +of the classic tradition of Socrates and Aristotle, and of England's +unbending emphasis on the middle way.<a name="FNanchor_I-459_459" id="FNanchor_I-459_459"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-459_459" class="fnanchor">[i-459]</a> One could +learn from the <i>Articles</i> how to be just, if he did not discover +what is meant by the beauty of holiness. In 1728 Franklin, +though bewildered by the tenuousness of metaphysics, based +his religion on the "everlasting tables of right reason," plumbing +the "mighty volumes of visible nature." He was thus our pioneer +scientific deist, who discovered his chief sanction in popularized +Newtonian physics.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxiv" id="Page_cxxxiv">[cxxxiv]</a></span></p><p>Following Franklin's formal profession of deism buttressed by +Newtonian science in 1728, one must depend on scattered references +to plot the persistence of his philosophic ideology. His +<i>Dialogues between Philocles and Horatio</i> (1730), borrowed<a name="FNanchor_I-460_460" id="FNanchor_I-460_460"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-460_460" class="fnanchor">[i-460]</a> +from Shaftesbury's <i>The Moralists</i>, suggest that his <i>moral</i> speculations +were dual and not reconciled; he seems torn between +humanitarian compassion and the self-development of the individual, +unable to decide which is the nobler good. One may +observe that this moral bifurcation was inveterate in Franklin's +mind, never resolving itself into a fondness for the idea that +human nature is inexorably the product of institutions and outward +social forms. <i>A Witch Trial at Mount Holly</i> suggests +that he felt free to handle scriptures with Aristophanic levity. +His intellectual conviction of a matchless physical harmony, as +yet unmatched in the world by a corresponding moral harmony, +is joyously seen in <i>Preface to Poor Richard, 1735</i>:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Whatever may be the Musick of the Spheres, how great +soever the Harmony of the Stars, 'tis certain there is no Harmony +among the Stargazers; but they are perpetually growling +and snarling at one another like strange Curs....<a name="FNanchor_I-461_461" id="FNanchor_I-461_461"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-461_461" class="fnanchor">[i-461]</a></p></div> + +<p>Even Polly Baker is made to appeal to "nature and nature's +God,"<a name="FNanchor_I-462_462" id="FNanchor_I-462_462"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-462_462" class="fnanchor">[i-462]</a> discovering in her bastard children the Deity's "divine +skill and admirable workmanship in the formation of their +bodies." In <i>Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in +Pensilvania</i> (1749) Franklin remarked in a note on Natural +Philosophy that "Proper Books may be, Ray's <i>Wisdom of +God in the Creation</i>, Derham's <i>Physico-Theology</i>, [Pluche's?] +<i>Spectacle de la Nature, &c.</i>"<a name="FNanchor_I-463_463" id="FNanchor_I-463_463"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-463_463" class="fnanchor">[i-463]</a> <i>Poor Richard</i>, in addition to prognostications +of weather, survey of roads, Rabelaisian wit, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxv" id="Page_cxxxv">[cxxxv]</a></span> +aphoristic wisdom, was a popular vehicle for the diffusion of a +Newtonianism bordering on a mild form of deism.<a name="FNanchor_I-464_464" id="FNanchor_I-464_464"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-464_464" class="fnanchor">[i-464]</a></p> + +<p>Since Franklin's interest in science is too commonly discussed +as if his research were synonymous with a tinkering and +utilitarian inventiveness, it is pertinent to inquire in how far it +was at least partially (or even integrally) the result of his +philosophic acceptance of Newtonianism. Since his philosophic +rationale preceded his activities in science, it will not do to +suggest that his interest in science was responsible for his +scientific deism. He wrote (August 15, 1745) to Cadwallader +Colden, who was receptive to Newtonianism, that he [Franklin] +"ought to <i>study</i> the sciences" in which hitherto he had merely +dabbled.<a name="FNanchor_I-465_465" id="FNanchor_I-465_465"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-465_465" class="fnanchor">[i-465]</a> Then follow his electrical experiments. In one of +his famous letters on the properties and effects of electricity +(sent to Peter Collinson, July 29, 1750) he allowed that the +principle of repulsion "affords another occasion of adoring +that wisdom which has made all things by weight and +measure!"<a name="FNanchor_I-466_466" id="FNanchor_I-466_466"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-466_466" class="fnanchor">[i-466]</a> Investigating—like a Newton—nature's <i>laws</i>, +Franklin at first hand added to his philosophic assurance of the +existence of a Deity, observable in the physical order.</p> + +<p>In 1739 Franklin met Reverend George Whitefield, whose +sermons and journals he printed while the evangelist remained +in the colonies.<a name="FNanchor_I-467_467" id="FNanchor_I-467_467"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-467_467" class="fnanchor">[i-467]</a> He first angled public opinion through the +<i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, promising to print Whitefield's pieces +"if I find sufficient Encouragement."<a name="FNanchor_I-468_468" id="FNanchor_I-468_468"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-468_468" class="fnanchor">[i-468]</a> The <i>Pennsylvania +Gazette</i> piously hoped that Whitefield's heavenly discourses +would be ever remembered: "May the Impression on all our Souls +remain, to the Honour of God, both in Ministers and People!"<a name="FNanchor_I-469_469" id="FNanchor_I-469_469"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-469_469" class="fnanchor">[i-469]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxvi" id="Page_cxxxvi">[cxxxvi]</a></span> +As editor (perhaps even writer of some of those notices) Franklin +must have squirmed in praising the activities of one who +daily cast all deists in hell! But it should be observed that if +Franklin could not accept Methodistic zeal, he loved Whitefield, +the man.<a name="FNanchor_I-470_470" id="FNanchor_I-470_470"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-470_470" class="fnanchor">[i-470]</a> Even so did Whitefield regard Franklin, the man +and printer—though not the scientific deist. Waiting to embark +for England in 1740, Whitefield wrote to Franklin from +Reedy Island: "Dear Sir, adieu! I do not despair of your seeing +the reasonableness of Christianity. Apply to God, be willing +to do the Divine Will, and you shall know it."<a name="FNanchor_I-471_471" id="FNanchor_I-471_471"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-471_471" class="fnanchor">[i-471]</a> Twelve years +later Whitefield wrote to his printer-deist friend: "I find that +you grow more and more famous in the learned world. As you +have made a pretty considerable progress in the mysteries of +electricity, I would now humbly recommend to your diligent +unprejudiced pursuit and study the mysteries of the new +birth."<a name="FNanchor_I-472_472" id="FNanchor_I-472_472"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-472_472" class="fnanchor">[i-472]</a> When troops had been sent to Boston, Franklin wrote +a letter to Whitefield (after January 21, 1768) which offers a +significant clue for estimating Franklin's philosophy: "I <i>see</i> +with you that our affairs are not well managed by our rulers +here below; I wish I could <i>believe</i> with you, that they are well +attended to by those above; I rather suspect, from certain circumstances, +that though the general government of the universe +is well administered, our particular little affairs are perhaps below +notice, and left to take the chance of human prudence or +imprudence, as either may happen to be uppermost. It is, however, +an uncomfortable thought, and I leave it."<a name="FNanchor_I-473_473" id="FNanchor_I-473_473"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-473_473" class="fnanchor">[i-473]</a> Whitefield +"endorsed his friend's letter with the words, '<i>Uncomfortable</i> +indeed! and blessed be God, <i>unscriptural</i>!'"<a name="FNanchor_I-474_474" id="FNanchor_I-474_474"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-474_474" class="fnanchor">[i-474]</a> If in 1786 Franklin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxvii" id="Page_cxxxvii">[cxxxvii]</a></span> +wrote to an unknown correspondent (perhaps Tom Paine?)<a name="FNanchor_I-475_475" id="FNanchor_I-475_475"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-475_475" class="fnanchor">[i-475]</a> +that any arguments "against the Doctrines of a particular +Providence" strike "at the Foundation of all Religion,"<a name="FNanchor_I-476_476" id="FNanchor_I-476_476"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-476_476" class="fnanchor">[i-476]</a> he also +had written not long before that "the Dispensations of Providence +in this World puzzle my weak Reason."<a name="FNanchor_I-477_477" id="FNanchor_I-477_477"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-477_477" class="fnanchor">[i-477]</a> Beneath the +taciturn and allegedly complacent, imperturbable Franklin +there is apparent a haunting inquietude. Never dead to his +Calvinist heritage, he sought to establish a providential relationship +between the Deity and man's fortunes, not a little chilled +in the presence of the virtually depersonalized Deity of the +Enlightenment. If Calvin's God was wrathful, he was providential; +his own Deity, if benevolent and omnipotent, seemed +strangely remote from the ken of man's moral experience. +Science had shown him a Deity existing at the head of a fagot of +immutable laws. If this Creator was picturesquely unlike the +fickle gods of Olympus, he was strangely like them to the +extent that he seemed to exist apart from man's moral nature. +When he wrote to his friend, the Bishop of St. Asaph, +"It seems my Fate constantly to wish for Repose, and never +to obtain it,"<a name="FNanchor_I-478_478" id="FNanchor_I-478_478"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-478_478" class="fnanchor">[i-478]</a> was he in part longing for the retirement when +he would be able to resolve his doubts as to the workings of +Providence?</p> + +<p>M. Marbois, discussing Franklin's religion with John Adams, +quietly noted that "Mr. Franklin adores only great Nature."<a name="FNanchor_I-479_479" id="FNanchor_I-479_479"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-479_479" class="fnanchor">[i-479]</a> +Joseph Priestley "lamented that a man of Dr. Franklin's general +good character and great influence should have been an unbeliever +in Christianity, and also have done so much as he did to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxviii" id="Page_cxxxviii">[cxxxviii]</a></span> +make others unbelievers."<a name="FNanchor_I-480_480" id="FNanchor_I-480_480"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-480_480" class="fnanchor">[i-480]</a> This evidence appears untrustworthy +in light of his diffident attitude toward church attendance, +even toward scriptures, as it may be discovered in his collected +works.<a name="FNanchor_I-481_481" id="FNanchor_I-481_481"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-481_481" class="fnanchor">[i-481]</a> Even if he did not feel the desire to attend formal services, +he seemed, like Voltaire, to feel that they were salutary, if +only to furnish the <i>canaille</i> with the will to obey authority. In +1751 Franklin's mother, Abiah Franklin, wrote to her son: "I +hope you will lookup to God, and thank Him for all His good providences +towards you."<a name="FNanchor_I-482_482" id="FNanchor_I-482_482"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-482_482" class="fnanchor">[i-482]</a> If he were unable to understand God's +providences, it was certain that he did not seek to disturb +others by calling the concept of a providential deity into question.</p> + +<p>In England and France Franklin was revered as the answer +to the Enlightenment's prayer for the ideal philosopher-scientist. +Sir John Pringle,<a name="FNanchor_I-483_483" id="FNanchor_I-483_483"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-483_483" class="fnanchor">[i-483]</a> one of his warmest friends, in a Royal +Society lecture in honor of Maskelyne, might well have been +describing Franklin's place in eighteenth-century science when +he said: "As much then remains to be explored in the celestial +regions, you [Maskelyne] are encouraged, Sir, by what has been +already attained, to persevere in these hallowed labours, from +which have been derived the greatest improvements in the most +useful arts, and the loudest declarations of the power, the wisdom, +and the goodness of the Supreme Architect in the Spacious +and beautiful fabric of the world."<a name="FNanchor_I-484_484" id="FNanchor_I-484_484"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-484_484" class="fnanchor">[i-484]</a> To his age Franklin was +"that judicious philosopher," judicious and "enlightened" to +the extent that his experiments showed how men "may perceive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxxxix" id="Page_cxxxix">[cxxxix]</a></span> +not only the direction of Divine Wisdom, but the <i>goodness</i> +of Providence towards mankind, in having so admirably +settled all things in the sublime arrangement of the world, that +it should be in the power of men to secure themselves and their +habitations against the dire effects of lightning."<a name="FNanchor_I-485_485" id="FNanchor_I-485_485"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-485_485" class="fnanchor">[i-485]</a> Turgot's +famous epigram on Franklin, the republican-deist, that he +snatched sceptres from kings and lightning from the heavens, in +part expressed the extent to which the French public conceived +of Franklin, the scientist, as detracting from the terror in the +cosmos, hence making their reasonable world more habitable.<a name="FNanchor_I-486_486" id="FNanchor_I-486_486"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-486_486" class="fnanchor">[i-486]</a> +In the popular mind death-dealing lightning had been the visible +symbol and proof of Calvin's wrathful and capricious Jehovah. +Franklin's dramatic and widely popularized proof that even +lightning's secrets were not past finding out, that it acted according +to immutable laws and could be made man's captive +and menial slave, no doubt had a powerful influence in encouraging +the great untheological public to become ultimately more +receptive to deism. If Franklin was apotheosized as the apostle +of liberty, he was no less sanctified as a "Modern Prometheus." +In his own words, he saw science as freeing man "from vain +Terrors."<a name="FNanchor_I-487_487" id="FNanchor_I-487_487"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-487_487" class="fnanchor">[i-487]</a> To Condorcet, his friend and disciple, Franklin +was one who "was enabled to wield a power sufficient to disarm +the wrath of Heaven."<a name="FNanchor_I-488_488" id="FNanchor_I-488_488"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-488_488" class="fnanchor">[i-488]</a></p> + +<p>He expressed his creed just before his death in the often-quoted +letter to Ezra Stiles.<a name="FNanchor_I-489_489" id="FNanchor_I-489_489"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-489_489" class="fnanchor">[i-489]</a> Bearing in mind his inveterate +scientific deism, we are not surprised that his religion is one +created apart from Christian scripture, that Jesus is the conventional, +amiable philosopher, respected but not worshipped by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxl" id="Page_cxl">[cxl]</a></span> +the Enlightenment. If he seems convinced in this letter that +God "governs" the universe "by his Providence," we have +seen above that his attitude toward the Deity's relation to man +and his world was anything but sure and free from disturbing +reflection. Convinced that the Deity "ought to be worshipped," +he next observed "that the most acceptable service we render to +him is doing good to his other children." His a priori concept +of a benevolent Deity whose goodness is expressed in the harmony +of the creation, in effect challenged him to attempt to +approximate this kindness in his relations with his fellow men. +Apart from provoking humanitarianism, primarily an ethical +experience guided not by sentimentality but by reason and +practicality. Franklin's natural religion—like deism in general—failed, +as scriptural religion does not, to establish a +union between theology, the religious life, and ethical behavior. +It must be seen that Franklin had no confidence in achieving +the good life through mere fellow-service: he continually +urged man to conquer passion through reason, seeming to covet +pagan sobriety more than he did the satisfaction of having aided +man to achieve greater physical ease. If he felt that "to relieve +the misfortunes of our fellow creatures is concurring with the +Deity; it is godlike,"<a name="FNanchor_I-490_490" id="FNanchor_I-490_490"></a><a href="#Footnote_I-490_490" class="fnanchor">[i-490]</a> he warned against helping those who +had failed to help themselves, implying that the inner growth of +the individual is more significant than his outward charity to +others. Whatever be the ultimate resolution of these antithetic +principles, we see that his humanitarianism was the offspring +of his a priori conceived Deity, augmented by his experiments +in science which led to discovery of nature's laws. His emphasis +on the inward and vertical growth of the individual toward +perfection, on the other hand, may be viewed as the expression +of the introspective force of his Puritan heritage and his knowledge, +direct and indirect, of classical literature. As in the polarity +of his thoughts concerning Providence, so here we see that the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxli" id="Page_cxli">[cxli]</a></span> +<i>modus operandi</i> of his mind is explicable in terms of the interplay +of the old and the new, Greek paganism (Socratic self-knowledge) +and Christianity and the rationale of the Enlightenment.</p> + +<p>Before he became an economist, a statesman, a man of letters, +a scientist, he had embraced scientific deism, primarily impelled +by Newtonianism. We have observed that it is not improbable +that his agrarianism, emphasis on free trade, and tendency +toward laissez faire were partially at least the result of his efforts +to parallel in economics the harmony of the physical order. +Likewise, his views on education were conditioned by his faith +in intellectual progress, in the might of Reason, which in turn +was in part the result of his scientific deism. Then too, it may +well be suggested that his theories of rhetoric were to some degree +the result of his rationalistic and scientific habits of mind. +We have also seen that his scientific deism was among the +motivating factors of his belief in natural rights, which, coupled +with his empirical awareness of concrete economic and political +abuses issuing from monarchy and imperialistic parliamentarians, +made him alive to the sovereignty of the people in their +demands for civil and political liberty. This introduction, it +is hoped, has made apparent the fact that the growth of +Franklin's mind was a complex matter and that it was moulded +by a vast multitude of often diverse influences, no one of +which alone completely "explains" him. Puritanism, classicism, +and neoclassicism were all important influences. Yet perhaps +the <i>modus operandi</i> of this myriad-minded colonial, this provincial +Leonardo, is best explained in reference to the thought +pattern of scientific deism. To see the reflection of Newton and +his progeny in Franklin's activities, be they economic, political, +literary, or philosophical, lends a compelling organic unity to +the several sides of his genius, heretofore seen as unrelated. +Franklin's mind represents an intellectual coherence—an imperfect +counterpart to the physical harmony of the Newtonian +order, of which all through his life he was a disciple.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-1_1" id="Footnote_I-1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-1_1"><span class="label">[i-1]</span></a> <i>The Works of John Adams</i>, ed. by C. F. Adams (Boston, 1856), f, 660.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-2_2" id="Footnote_I-2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-2_2"><span class="label">[i-2]</span></a> W. P. Trent, "Benjamin Franklin," <i>McClure's Magazine</i>, VIII, 273 +(Jan., 1897).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-3_3" id="Footnote_I-3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-3_3"><span class="label">[i-3]</span></a> Cited in C. R. Weld's <i>History of the Royal Society</i> (London, 1848), I, +146. For Baconian influence see I, 57 f. See also Edwin Greenlaw, "The +New Science and English Literature in the Seventeenth Century," <i>Johns +Hopkins Alumni Magazine</i>, XIII, 331-59 (1925). Of dominant tendencies +he stresses (a) a "new realism, or sense of fact and reliance on observation +and experiment"; (b) the disregard for authority in favor of free inquiry; +and (c) the development of faith in progress, inspiring men to improve +their worldly condition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-4_4" id="Footnote_I-4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-4_4"><span class="label">[i-4]</span></a> E. A. Burtt, <i>The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science</i>, +208. Newtonianism as a method and a philosophy has been ably examined +by recent scholars. See, for examples, C. Becker, <i>The Declaration of Independence</i>, +especially chap. II, and <i>The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century +Philosophers</i>; and in Bibliography, pp. cli ff., below, W. M. Horton +(chap. II); C. S. Duncan; H. Drennon; L. Bloch; E. Halévy. See also +Isabel St. John Bliss, "Young's <i>Night Thoughts</i> in Relation to Contemporary +Christian Apologetics," <i>Publications of the Modern Language Association</i>, +XLIX, 37-70 (March, 1934); J. H. Randall, <i>The Making of the +Modern Mind</i> (Boston, 1926), chap. X ff.; H. H. Clark, "An Historical +Interpretation of Thomas Paine's Religion," <i>University of California +Chronicle</i>, XXXV, 56-87 (Jan., 1933), and "Toward a Reinterpretation +of Thomas Paine," <i>American Literature</i>, V, 133-45 (May, 1933).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-5_5" id="Footnote_I-5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-5_5"><span class="label">[i-5]</span></a> Burtt, <i>op. cit.</i> 223.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-6_6" id="Footnote_I-6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-6_6"><span class="label">[i-6]</span></a> Article, "Deism."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-7_7" id="Footnote_I-7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-7_7"><span class="label">[i-7]</span></a> Article, "Nature."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-8_8" id="Footnote_I-8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-8_8"><span class="label">[i-8]</span></a> P. Smith, <i>A History of Modern Culture</i> (New York, 1934), II, 17-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-9_9" id="Footnote_I-9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-9_9"><span class="label">[i-9]</span></a> See S. Hefelbower, <i>The Relation of John Locke to English Deism</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-10_10" id="Footnote_I-10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-10_10"><span class="label">[i-10]</span></a> <i>Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of +the Eighteenth Century</i>, 168-9: "One inference that might be drawn from +the theory was that while the infant whose mind is a blank page at birth +is not so well off from the primitivistic point of view as the one who +comes into the world already equipped with a complete set of the laws of +nature and a predisposition to obey them, he is infinitely better off than +the infant whose poor little mind had been loaded with original sin by his +remote ancestors. For the orthodox baby, born in sin, there is almost no +hope, except in supernatural aid; but if we suppose that man's ideas are +all derived, as Locke postulated, from sense-impressions, then we may conclude +that all men, rich and poor, primitive and civilized, are on an equal +footing intellectually at birth. Although the primitive child does not have +the help of civilization in the development of his mind, neither does he +have its superstitions, prejudices, and corrupting influences; and he might +actually be better off than the product of civilization—at least so many +a primitivist argued. But one might draw another inference from the +<i>tabula rasa</i> theory. Men, however corrupt they are now, may still have +a chance of regeneration if their mind is really like blank paper at birth." +For eighteenth-century primitivism see also H. N. Fairchild, <i>The Noble +Savage</i> (New York, 1928).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-11_11" id="Footnote_I-11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-11_11"><span class="label">[i-11]</span></a> H. J. Laski, <i>Political Thought in England from Locke to Bentham</i> +(New York, 1920), 9. See also W. A. Dunning, <i>A History of Political +Theories from Luther to Montesquieu</i>; G. S. Veitch, <i>Genesis of Parliamentary +Reform</i>; and G. P. Gooch, <i>English Democratic Ideas in the Seventeenth +Century</i> (2d ed., Cambridge, England, 1927).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-12_12" id="Footnote_I-12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-12_12"><span class="label">[i-12]</span></a> K. Martin, <i>French Liberal Thought in the Eighteenth Century</i>, 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-13_13" id="Footnote_I-13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-13_13"><span class="label">[i-13]</span></a> See J. B. Bury, <i>The Idea of Progress</i>, chap. VIII; and J. Morley, +<i>Diderot and the Encyclopædists</i>, I, 6: "The great central moral of it all was +this: that human nature is good, that the world is capable of being made +a desirable abiding-place, and that the evil of the world is the fruit of bad +education and bad institutions."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-14_14" id="Footnote_I-14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-14_14"><span class="label">[i-14]</span></a> "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, 1700-1760," <i>Publications +of the Modern Language Association</i>, XXXI (<span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXIV), 277 (June, +1916).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-15_15" id="Footnote_I-15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-15_15"><span class="label">[i-15]</span></a> See Bury, <i>op. cit.</i>; Whitney, <i>op. cit.</i>; and J. Delvaille, <i>Essai sur l'histoire +de l'idée de progrès</i> (Paris, 1910).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-16_16" id="Footnote_I-16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-16_16"><span class="label">[i-16]</span></a> R. Crane, "Anglican Apologetics and the Idea of Progress, 1699-1745," +<i>Modern Philology</i>, XXXI, 273-306 (Feb., 1934), and 349-82 (May, +1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-17_17" id="Footnote_I-17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-17_17"><span class="label">[i-17]</span></a> <i>The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers</i>, 30-1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-18_18" id="Footnote_I-18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-18_18"><span class="label">[i-18]</span></a> N. L. Torrey, <i>Voltaire and the English Deists</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-19_19" id="Footnote_I-19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-19_19"><span class="label">[i-19]</span></a> D. Mornet, <i>French Thought in the Eighteenth Century</i>, 50-1. Also see +his <i>Les sciences de la nature en France au XVIII<sup>e</sup> siècle</i> (Paris, 1911), +and R. L. Cru, <i>Diderot as a Disciple of English Thought</i> (New York, +1913). See Morley, <i>op. cit.</i>, I, 31 ff., and Martin, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-20_20" id="Footnote_I-20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-20_20"><span class="label">[i-20]</span></a> <i>An Account of the Destruction of the Jesuits in France</i> (Glasgow, 1766), +61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-21_21" id="Footnote_I-21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-21_21"><span class="label">[i-21]</span></a> Consult M. Roustan, <i>The Pioneers of the French Revolution</i>, and L. +Ducros, <i>French Society in the Eighteenth Century</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-22_22" id="Footnote_I-22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-22_22"><span class="label">[i-22]</span></a> Quoted in J. Fiske's <i>The Beginnings of New England</i>, 73. For +the seventeenth-century New England way, see especially F. H. Foster, +<i>A Genetic History of the New England Theology</i> (Chicago, 1907); P. Miller, +<i>Orthodoxy in Massachusetts, 1630-1650: A Genetic Study</i> (Cambridge, +Mass., 1933); B. Wendell, <i>Cotton Mather, The Puritan Priest</i>; I. W. Riley, +<i>American Philosophy: The Early Schools</i>, 3-58 and <i>passim</i>; H. W. +Schneider, <i>The Puritan Mind</i>; J. Haroutunian, <i>Piety versus Moralism</i>; +R. and L. Boas, <i>Cotton Mather: Keeper of the Puritan Conscience</i> (New +York, 1928). See Bk. V of Mather's <i>Magnalia</i>, "prose epic of New +England Puritanism" (B. Wendell, <i>Literary History of America</i>, 50).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-23_23" id="Footnote_I-23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-23_23"><span class="label">[i-23]</span></a> Prior to the Treaty of Paris (1763) the American colonies were indebted +primarily to English liberalism for ideas subversive of colonial +orthodoxy. If works of Fénelon, Fontenelle, Bayle, Voltaire, and Rousseau +are occasionally found in the colonies prior to 1763, these are dwarfed +beside the impact of such English minds as those of Trenchard and Gordon, +Collins, Wollaston, Tillotson, Boyle, Shaftesbury, Locke, and Newton. +It was only in the twilight of the century that French liberalism, itself +nursed on English speculation, began to impinge on the thought-life of +the colonies. See H. M. Jones, <i>America and French Culture</i>. Also see +L. Rosenthal, "Rousseau at Philadelphia," <i>Magazine of American History</i>, +VII, 46-55. See works of Riley, Koch, Gohdes, Morais, in Bibliography, +pp. cli ff., below.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-24_24" id="Footnote_I-24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-24_24"><span class="label">[i-24]</span></a> Fiske, <i>op. cit.</i>, 124.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-25_25" id="Footnote_I-25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-25_25"><span class="label">[i-25]</span></a> F. J. Turner, <i>The Frontier in American History</i> (New York, 1920), 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-26_26" id="Footnote_I-26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-26_26"><span class="label">[i-26]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 38.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-27_27" id="Footnote_I-27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-27_27"><span class="label">[i-27]</span></a> Whitney, <i>op. cit.</i>, 83-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-28_28" id="Footnote_I-28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-28_28"><span class="label">[i-28]</span></a> See R. M. Jones, <i>The Quakers in the American Colonies</i> (London, 1921).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-29_29" id="Footnote_I-29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-29_29"><span class="label">[i-29]</span></a> T. Hornberger's "The Date, the Source, and the Significance of +Cotton Mather's Interest in Science," <i>American Literature</i>, VI, 413-20 +(Jan., 1935), offers evidence to show that Mather's thought in this work +is latent in earlier works.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-30_30" id="Footnote_I-30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-30_30"><span class="label">[i-30]</span></a> K. Murdock (ed.), <i>Selections from Cotton Mather</i> (New York, 1926), +xlix-l; see G. L. Kittredge items (Murdock, lxii), and Hornberger, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-31_31" id="Footnote_I-31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-31_31"><span class="label">[i-31]</span></a> Murdock, <i>op. cit.</i>, 286.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-32_32" id="Footnote_I-32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-32_32"><span class="label">[i-32]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 292.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-33_33" id="Footnote_I-33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-33_33"><span class="label">[i-33]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 349.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-34_34" id="Footnote_I-34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-34_34"><span class="label">[i-34]</span></a> Riley, <i>op. cit.</i>, 196.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-35_35" id="Footnote_I-35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-35_35"><span class="label">[i-35]</span></a> Quoted in H. M. Morais, <i>Deism in Eighteenth Century America</i>, 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-36_36" id="Footnote_I-36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-36_36"><span class="label">[i-36]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 17. See also G. A. Koch, <i>Republican Religion</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-37_37" id="Footnote_I-37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-37_37"><span class="label">[i-37]</span></a> <i>Travels in North America, in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782</i> (London, +1787), I, 445.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-38_38" id="Footnote_I-38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-38_38"><span class="label">[i-38]</span></a> F. E. Brasch, "Newton's First Critical Disciple in the American +Colonies—John Winthrop," in <i>Sir Isaac Newton, 1727-1927</i> (Baltimore, +1928), 301.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-39_39" id="Footnote_I-39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-39_39"><span class="label">[i-39]</span></a> H. and C. Schneider (eds.), <i>Samuel Johnson, President of Kings College: +His Career and Writings</i> (New York, 1929), I, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-40_40" id="Footnote_I-40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-40_40"><span class="label">[i-40]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 8-9. It will be remembered that Thomas Young was struck +with science and deism while at Yale: he it was who introduced liberal +ideas to that militant prince of deists (with Thomas Paine), Ethan Allen.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-41_41" id="Footnote_I-41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-41_41"><span class="label">[i-41]</span></a> <i>Jacobus Rohaultus physica Latine reddita et annotata ex, Js. Newtonii +principiis</i> (1697).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-42_42" id="Footnote_I-42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-42_42"><span class="label">[i-42]</span></a> <i>Literary Diary</i>, I, 556 (1775).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-43_43" id="Footnote_I-43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-43_43"><span class="label">[i-43]</span></a> D. Stimson, <i>The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory</i>, 48.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-44_44" id="Footnote_I-44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-44_44"><span class="label">[i-44]</span></a> See S. E. Morison, "The Harvard School of Astronomy in the Seventeenth +Century," <i>New England Quarterly</i>, VII, 3 (March, 1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-45_45" id="Footnote_I-45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-45_45"><span class="label">[i-45]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 7. In 1672 Harvard received her first telescope. Such men as +Winthrop and Thomas Brattle were actively interested in science.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-46_46" id="Footnote_I-46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-46_46"><span class="label">[i-46]</span></a> F. Cajori, <i>The Teaching and History of Mathematics in the United +States</i>, U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, No. 3, 1890 +(Washington, D. C.), 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-47_47" id="Footnote_I-47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-47_47"><span class="label">[i-47]</span></a> Brasch, <i>op. cit.</i>, 308.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-48_48" id="Footnote_I-48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-48_48"><span class="label">[i-48]</span></a> <i>Dictionary of American Biography</i>, VII, 591-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-49_49" id="Footnote_I-49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-49_49"><span class="label">[i-49]</span></a> <i>The Newtonian System of the World ...</i> (Westminster, 1728), 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-50_50" id="Footnote_I-50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-50_50"><span class="label">[i-50]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-51_51" id="Footnote_I-51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-51_51"><span class="label">[i-51]</span></a> See J. Quincy, <i>History of Harvard University</i> (Boston, 1860 [1840]), +II, 4-21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-52_52" id="Footnote_I-52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-52_52"><span class="label">[i-52]</span></a> Jan. 12, 1727, Feb. 23, and others. Also see June 13 and July 11 of +1734.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-53_53" id="Footnote_I-53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-53_53"><span class="label">[i-53]</span></a> See advertisements in <i>Boston Gazette</i>, June 17-24, 1734, quoted in +W. G. Bleyer's <i>Main Currents in the History of American Journalism</i>, 73-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-54_54" id="Footnote_I-54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-54_54"><span class="label">[i-54]</span></a> <i>Op. cit.</i>, 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-55_55" id="Footnote_I-55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-55_55"><span class="label">[i-55]</span></a> <i>Literary Diary</i>, II, 334.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-56_56" id="Footnote_I-56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-56_56"><span class="label">[i-56]</span></a> Through the kindness of the Hollis family, Harvard (by 1764) gained +a remarkable collection of scientific instruments, possessed the Boylean +lectures, Transactions of the Royal Society and of the Academy of Science +in Paris, the works of Boyle and Newton, "with a great variety of other +mathematical and philosophical treatises" (Quincy, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 481). +Notable among these items are Chambers's <i>Cyclopædia</i>, received in 1743, +and Pemberton's <i>View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy</i>, in 1752.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-57_57" id="Footnote_I-57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-57_57"><span class="label">[i-57]</span></a> A. Bradford, <i>Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. Jonathan +Mayhew ...</i> (Boston, 1838), 18-9, 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-58_58" id="Footnote_I-58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-58_58"><span class="label">[i-58]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-59_59" id="Footnote_I-59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-59_59"><span class="label">[i-59]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 305. Mayhew is on record as saying: "The inspired scriptures +are our only rule of faith and conduct" (<i>ibid.</i>, 140).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-60_60" id="Footnote_I-60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-60_60"><span class="label">[i-60]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 75. On the other hand, he reacts against what deism and orthodox +rationalism commonly became: "A religion consisting in nothing but +a knowledge of God's attributes, and an external conduct agreeable to his +laws, would be a lifeless, insipid thing. It would be neither a source of +happiness to ourselves, nor recommend us to the approbation of him, who +requires us 'to give him our hearts.'"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-61_61" id="Footnote_I-61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-61_61"><span class="label">[i-61]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 464.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-62_62" id="Footnote_I-62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-62_62"><span class="label">[i-62]</span></a> <i>Two Discourses Delivered Oct. 9th, 1760 ...</i> (Boston, 1760), 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-63_63" id="Footnote_I-63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-63_63"><span class="label">[i-63]</span></a> <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 27, 1747 (Boston, 1747), 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-64_64" id="Footnote_I-64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-64_64"><span class="label">[i-64]</span></a> <i>A Sermon</i> [election], May 31, 1769 (Boston, 1769), 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-65_65" id="Footnote_I-65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-65_65"><span class="label">[i-65]</span></a> <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 30, 1781 (Boston, 1781), 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-66_66" id="Footnote_I-66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-66_66"><span class="label">[i-66]</span></a> <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 28, 1783 (Boston, 1783), 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-67_67" id="Footnote_I-67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-67_67"><span class="label">[i-67]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-68_68" id="Footnote_I-68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-68_68"><span class="label">[i-68]</span></a> <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 31, 1780 (Boston, 1780), 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-69_69" id="Footnote_I-69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-69_69"><span class="label">[i-69]</span></a> <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 27, 1778 (Boston, 1778), 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-70_70" id="Footnote_I-70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-70_70"><span class="label">[i-70]</span></a> <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 29, 1765 (Boston, 1765), 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-71_71" id="Footnote_I-71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-71_71"><span class="label">[i-71]</span></a> <i>Life of Ezra Stiles</i> (Boston, 1798), <i>passim</i>; see especially pp. 34-54.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-72_72" id="Footnote_I-72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-72_72"><span class="label">[i-72]</span></a> See his <i>United States Elevated to Glory and Honour ...</i>, May 8, 1783 +(Worcester, 1785).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-73_73" id="Footnote_I-73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-73_73"><span class="label">[i-73]</span></a> See <i>Literary Diary</i> for his inveterate interest in science and the laws +of nature; see also I. M. Calder (ed.), <i>Letters & Papers of Ezra Stiles ...</i> +(New Haven, 1933).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-74_74" id="Footnote_I-74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-74_74"><span class="label">[i-74]</span></a> See Hornberger, <i>op. cit.</i>, 419.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-75_75" id="Footnote_I-75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-75_75"><span class="label">[i-75]</span></a> For full backgrounds, see G. P. Gooch, <i>English Democratic Ideas in +the Seventeenth Century</i>, W. A. Dunning, <i>A History of Political Theories +from Luther to Montesquieu</i>; H. L. Osgood, "Political Ideas of the Puritans," +<i>Political Science Quarterly</i>, VI, 1-29, 201-31; Mellen Chamberlain, +<i>John Adams ... with Other Essays</i> (Boston, 1898), especially pp. 19-53, +stressing the influence of Puritanism on political liberalism; Alice Baldwin, +<i>The New England Clergy and the American Revolution</i>; J. W. Thornton, +<i>The Pulpit of the American Revolution</i> (Boston, 1860), a collection of +election sermons edited with an extensive introduction; C. H. Van Tyne, +"The Influence of the Clergy ... in the American Revolution," <i>American +Historical Review</i>, XIX, 44-64. In stressing the influence on Franklin of +European ideas, it is important to remember that, as we shall see, it is +probable that some of Franklin's interest in doing good (charity), in +science, and in democracy may have been inspired by his exposure during +his formative years to American Puritanism.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-76_76" id="Footnote_I-76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-76_76"><span class="label">[i-76]</span></a> <i>The Writings of Benjamin Franklin</i>, ed. by Albert Henry Smyth (New +York, 1905-1907), I, 300; (hereafter referred to as <i>Writings</i>). For a scholarly +exposition of backgrounds of educational theory in relation to philosophy, +especially the cult of progress, see A. O. Hansen's <i>Liberalism and +American Education in the Eighteenth Century</i>, which includes a valuable +bibliography. This work, however, slights Franklin and Jefferson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-77_77" id="Footnote_I-77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-77_77"><span class="label">[i-77]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 312.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-78_78" id="Footnote_I-78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-78_78"><span class="label">[i-78]</span></a> For an exhaustive survey of the means Franklin pursued to educate +himself, and suggestive notes on his ideas of education, see F. N. Thorpe's +<i>Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania</i>, chaps. I-II, 9-203. +See also Thomas Woody's <i>Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin</i> (New +York, 1931), which in addition to relevant selections from Franklin's +works contains stimulating observations by the editor.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-79_79" id="Footnote_I-79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-79_79"><span class="label">[i-79]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 323.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-80_80" id="Footnote_I-80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-80_80"><span class="label">[i-80]</span></a> <i>Essays to do Good</i>, with an Introductory Essay by Andrew Thomson +(Glasgow, 1825 [1710]), 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-81_81" id="Footnote_I-81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-81_81"><span class="label">[i-81]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 102.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-82_82" id="Footnote_I-82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-82_82"><span class="label">[i-82]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 192-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-83_83" id="Footnote_I-83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-83_83"><span class="label">[i-83]</span></a> See his letter to Samuel Mather, May 12, 1784 (<i>Writings</i>, IX, 208-10).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-84_84" id="Footnote_I-84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-84_84"><span class="label">[i-84]</span></a> <i>The Works of Daniel Defoe</i>, ed. by Wm. Hazlitt (London, 1843), I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-85_85" id="Footnote_I-85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-85_85"><span class="label">[i-85]</span></a> <i>Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times</i>, 119. Also see his "Learned +Societies in Europe and America in the Eighteenth Century," <i>American +Historical Review</i>, XXXVII, 258 (1932), in which he suggests that the +Junto "had Masonic leanings."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-86_86" id="Footnote_I-86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-86_86"><span class="label">[i-86]</span></a> These and others quoted in Woody, <i>op. cit.</i>, 45-6 (reprinted from +Sparks, <i>The Works of Benjamin Franklin</i>, II, 9-10).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-87_87" id="Footnote_I-87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-87_87"><span class="label">[i-87]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 88.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-88_88" id="Footnote_I-88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-88_88"><span class="label">[i-88]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 89.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-89_89" id="Footnote_I-89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-89_89"><span class="label">[i-89]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-90_90" id="Footnote_I-90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-90_90"><span class="label">[i-90]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 90.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-91_91" id="Footnote_I-91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-91_91"><span class="label">[i-91]</span></a> Questions suggestive of the Junto's interest in moral, political, and +philosophical topics are: "Is self-interest the rudder that steers mankind, +the universal monarch to whom all are tributaries?" which causes one to +suspect that Franklin had challenged his friends with <i>The Fable of the Bees</i>; +"Can any one particular form of government suit all mankind?" which +may have stirred controversies in the Junto between logical relativists and +historic absolutists, the realists and those motivated by a priori abstractions, +as, for example, in the Burke-Paine intellectual duel; "Whether it ought +to be the aim of philosophy to eradicate the passions?" which may tend +to suggest that Franklin would gear philosophy to moral action rather +than to arid metaphysics.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-92_92" id="Footnote_I-92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-92_92"><span class="label">[i-92]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 312.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-93_93" id="Footnote_I-93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-93_93"><span class="label">[i-93]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 322.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-94_94" id="Footnote_I-94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-94_94"><span class="label">[i-94]</span></a> Since writing this the editors have noted Morais's fragmentary use of +the Company's catalogues in <i>Deism In Eighteenth Century America</i>. For +popular accounts of the general character and function of the Company +see L. Stockton, "The Old Philadelphia Library," <i>Our Continent</i>, Oct., +1882, 452-9; J. M. Read, Jr., "The Old Philadelphia Library," <i>Atlantic +Monthly</i>, March, 1868, 299-312; B. Samuel, "The Father of American +Libraries," <i>Century Magazine</i>, May, 1883, 81-6. The ablest survey is G. M. +Abbot's <i>A Short History of the Library Company of Philadelphia</i>. He lists, +however, only the first books ordered in 1732 through Peter Collinson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-95_95" id="Footnote_I-95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-95_95"><span class="label">[i-95]</span></a> Cited in Abbot, <i>op. cit.</i>, 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-96_96" id="Footnote_I-96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-96_96"><span class="label">[i-96]</span></a> Photostat used as source is in the William Smith Mason Collection in +Evanston, Ill.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-97_97" id="Footnote_I-97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-97_97"><span class="label">[i-97]</span></a> "The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden, Vol. II, 1730-1742," +<i>Collections of the New York Historical Society</i> (New York, 1919), II, 146-7. +See also A. M. Keys, <i>Cadwallader Colden: A Representative Eighteenth-Century +Official</i> (New York, 1906), 6-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-98_98" id="Footnote_I-98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-98_98"><span class="label">[i-98]</span></a> <i>American Philosophy: The Early Schools</i>, 330.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-99_99" id="Footnote_I-99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-99_99"><span class="label">[i-99]</span></a> <i>An Historical Account of the Origin and Formation of the American +Philosophical Society</i> (Philadelphia, 1914); J. G. Rosengarten, in "The +American Philosophical Society," tends to agree with Du Ponceau.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-100_100" id="Footnote_I-100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-100_100"><span class="label">[i-100]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 229.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-101_101" id="Footnote_I-101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-101_101"><span class="label">[i-101]</span></a> <i>The History of the Royal Society of London ...</i> (2d ed., London, +1702), 61.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-102_102" id="Footnote_I-102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-102_102"><span class="label">[i-102]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 64.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-103_103" id="Footnote_I-103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-103_103"><span class="label">[i-103]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 230.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-104_104" id="Footnote_I-104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-104_104"><span class="label">[i-104]</span></a> In 1750 he wrote: "Nor is it of much importance to us, to know the +manner in which nature executes her laws; 'tis enough if we know the +laws themselves. 'Tis of real use to know that china left in the air unsupported +will fall and break; but <i>how</i> it comes to fall, and <i>why</i> it breaks, +are matters of speculation. 'Tis a pleasure indeed to know them, but we +can preserve our china without it" (<i>Writings</i>, II, 434-5). We remember +that even Sir Isaac Newton confessed that "the <i>cause</i> of gravity is what +I do not pretend to know" (<i>Works of Richard Bentley</i>, London, 1838, III, +210). He observed that "Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly +according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or +immaterial, I have left to the consideration of my readers" (<i>ibid.</i>, 212).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-105_105" id="Footnote_I-105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-105_105"><span class="label">[i-105]</span></a> <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, XIII, 247-8 (1889).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-106_106" id="Footnote_I-106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-106_106"><span class="label">[i-106]</span></a> Franklin was unable to prevail upon Johnson to accept the provostship +of the Academy. In 1752 he printed Johnson's <i>Elementa Philosophica</i> +and suggested in <i>Idea of the English School</i> that it be used in the Academy. +In a letter of 1754 Franklin informs Johnson that the grammatical and +mathematical parts were already being used—the rest would be when the +instructors and pupils were ready for it (E. E. Beardsley, <i>Life and Correspondence +of S. Johnson, D. D.</i>, 2d ed., New York, 1874, 180-1). In the +<i>Elementa Philosophica</i> Johnson stresses the use of mathematics in man's +study of nature (p. xv). Through mathematics, an indispensable aid in +"considering that wonderful and amazing Power, that All-comprehending +Wisdom, that inimitable Beauty, that surprizing Harmony, that immutable +Order, which abundantly discover themselves in the Formation and Government +of the Universe, we are led to their divine Original, who is the +unexhausted Source, the glorious Fountain of all Perfection ..." (<i>ibid.</i>, +xiii). The <i>Elementa</i> is a rhapsodic manual extolling the discovery of +the Deity in his Work, through the study of the physical laws of the +creation. Although subordinated to this, there are frequent reactions +against Lockian sensationalism, suggesting an ecstatic mystical union between +man and God. On the whole, the volume is a treatise on the glories +of a natural religion (a religion of course which buttresses rather than +refutes scriptural religion).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-107_107" id="Footnote_I-107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-107_107"><span class="label">[i-107]</span></a> Quoted in T. H. Montgomery's <i>A History of the University of Pennsylvania</i>, +396. Smith's educational principles may be partially seen in +his "View of the Philosophy Schools" (1754) printed in H. W. Smith's +<i>Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith</i> (Philadelphia, 1879), +I, 59 f. Although he conceived Nature as affording only "those fainter +exhibitions of the Deity" (I, 156), he was a sturdy orthodox rationalist, +tending toward, yet not embracing deism. Emphasizing the principal +writings of Barrow, Maclaurin, Watts, Keill, Locke, Hutcheson, 'sGravesande, +Martin, Desaguliers, Rohault (Clarke's edition), Ray, Derham, and +Sir Isaac Newton, Smith suggests the rationalist who buttresses scriptural +revelation with the evidences of Deity through discovery by reason of the +Workman in the Work. His <i>Discourses on Public Occasions in America</i> +(2d ed., London, 1762) are the result "of his office as Head of a seminary +of learning [Philadelphia Academy and College]; in order to advance the +interests of Science, and therewith the interests of true Christianity" (p. vi). +"A General Idea of the College of Mirania" (1762), though written about +1752 while Smith was in New York, suggests the form of his "View": he +observes that "besides his revealed will, God has given intimations of his +will to us, by appealing to our senses in the constitution of our nature, +and the constitution and harmony of the material universe" (<i>Discourses</i>, +44). The same titles and authors are listed as in the "View." A Newtonian +rationalist, Smith meditated: "All thy works, with unceasing voice, echo +forth thy wondrous praises. The splendid sun, with the unnumbered orbs +of heaven, thro' the pathless void, repeat their unwearied circuits, that, to +the uttermost bounds of the universe, they may proclaim Thee the source +of justest order and unabating harmony" (<i>ibid.</i>, 155). Smith arrived at his +principles of rationalism apparently without indebtedness to Franklin: +there seems to be no evidence that as provost he was merely attempting +to fulfill the scientific and rationalistic ideas latent in Franklin's <i>Proposals</i>, +that he was a tool in Franklin's hands. Indeed, they were anything but +friendly to one another. Hence, one feels that the credit for the relatively +modern curriculum should be given more abundantly to Smith than to +Franklin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-108_108" id="Footnote_I-108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-108_108"><span class="label">[i-108]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 388.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-109_109" id="Footnote_I-109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-109_109"><span class="label">[i-109]</span></a> Montgomery, <i>op. cit.</i>, 254 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-110_110" id="Footnote_I-110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-110_110"><span class="label">[i-110]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 9-14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-111_111" id="Footnote_I-111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-111_111"><span class="label">[i-111]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, X, 29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-112_112" id="Footnote_I-112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-112_112"><span class="label">[i-112]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, X, 31. Compare similar views in Benjamin Rush's "Observations +upon the Study of the Latin and Greek Languages," in <i>Essays, +Literary, Moral and Philosophical</i> (Philadelphia, 1798), and Francis Hopkinson's +"An Address to the American Philosophical Society," in <i>Miscellaneous +Essays and Occasional Writings</i> (Philadelphia, 1792), I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-113_113" id="Footnote_I-113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-113_113"><span class="label">[i-113]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-114_114" id="Footnote_I-114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-114_114"><span class="label">[i-114]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VI, 153.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-115_115" id="Footnote_I-115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-115_115"><span class="label">[i-115]</span></a> Quoted in J. B. Bury's <i>The Idea of Progress</i>, 104. See also Lois +Whitney's <i>Primitivism and the Idea of Progress</i>, especially chap. V.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-116_116" id="Footnote_I-116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-116_116"><span class="label">[i-116]</span></a> Bury, <i>op. cit.</i>, 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-117_117" id="Footnote_I-117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-117_117"><span class="label">[i-117]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, VIII, 451.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-118_118" id="Footnote_I-118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-118_118"><span class="label">[i-118]</span></a> For example see <i>ibid.</i>, IX, 74, 557.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-119_119" id="Footnote_I-119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-119_119"><span class="label">[i-119]</span></a> See <i>Writings</i>, VIII, 454.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-120_120" id="Footnote_I-120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-120_120"><span class="label">[i-120]</span></a> See R. M. Gummere, "Socrates at the Printing Press. Benjamin +Franklin and the Classics," <i>Classical Weekly</i>, XXVI, 57-9 (Dec. 5, 1932).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-121_121" id="Footnote_I-121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-121_121"><span class="label">[i-121]</span></a> Several of the following arguments are included in C. E. Jorgenson's +"Sidelights on Benjamin Franklin's Principles of Rhetoric," <i>Revue +Anglo-Américaine</i>, Feb., 1934, 208-22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-122_122" id="Footnote_I-122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-122_122"><span class="label">[i-122]</span></a> Hume wrote to Franklin: "You are the first philosopher, and indeed +the first great man of letters for whom we are beholden to her [America]" +(<i>Writings</i>, IV, 154). Cowper exclaimed that Franklin was "one of the +most important [men] in the literary world, that the present age can boast +of" (Parton, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 439); for other engaging estimates of Franklin as +a man of letters consult C. W. Moulton, <i>Library of Literary Criticism ...</i>, IV, +79-106.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-123_123" id="Footnote_I-123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-123_123"><span class="label">[i-123]</span></a> Franklin found in an appendix to Greenwood's <i>English Grammar</i> +and in the <i>Memorabilia</i> specimens of the Socratic method which influenced +him to adopt the manner of "the humble inquirer and doubter," to write +and harangue with a "modest diffidence." On several occasions he approvingly +quotes Pope's rule: "to speak, tho' sure, with seeming Diffidence." +Jefferson recognized Franklin's use of this kind of Machiavellian diffidence, +noting, "It was one of the rules which, above all others, made Dr. Franklin +the most amiable of men in society, never to contradict anybody," and +that "if he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking +questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts." In the <i>Autobiography</i> +Franklin sees the Socratic method as a necessary ally to "doing +good," observing that many who mean to be helpful "lessen their power +of doing good by a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, +tends to create opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for +which speech was given to us."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-124_124" id="Footnote_I-124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-124_124"><span class="label">[i-124]</span></a> Bunyan's dignified simplicity, his "sound and honest Gospel strains," +may have been one of Franklin's incentives to write lucidly and compellingly. +For Bunyan's literary ideals, see the prefaces to his works, +especially that to <i>Grace Abounding</i>. The best study of Defoe and Swift +as literary theorists is W. Gückel and E. Günther, <i>D. Defoes und J. Swifts +Belesenheit und literarische Kritik</i> (Leipzig, 1925).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-125_125" id="Footnote_I-125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-125_125"><span class="label">[i-125]</span></a> E. C. Cook, <i>Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, 1704-1750</i>, +15. This scholarly work shows the great influence in America of neoclassical +authors.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-126_126" id="Footnote_I-126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-126_126"><span class="label">[i-126]</span></a> For a generous catalog of the devices borrowed see <i>ibid.</i>, 15 f.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-127_127" id="Footnote_I-127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-127_127"><span class="label">[i-127]</span></a> <i>Spectator</i>, No. 167.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-128_128" id="Footnote_I-128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-128_128"><span class="label">[i-128]</span></a> For a fuller discussion of Franklin's view of the ancients, see section +on "Franklin's Theories of Education," p. xxxii above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-129_129" id="Footnote_I-129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-129_129"><span class="label">[i-129]</span></a> Cited in R. F. Jones, "Science and English Prose Style ...," <i>Publications +of the Modern Language Association</i>, XLV, 982 (Dec., 1930). On +the backgrounds of literary theories underlying the sermons which Franklin +heard, see scholarly studies such as Caroline F. Richardson's <i>English +Preachers and Preaching, 1640-1670</i> (New York, 1928), and W. F. Mitchell's +<i>English Pulpit Oratory</i> (New York, 1932). From 1750 on, however, +the Puritan clergy in America increasingly advocated a simple, clear, and +easy style. See Howard M. Jones, "American Prose Style; 1700-1770," +<i>Huntington Library Bulletin</i>, No. 6, 115-51 (Nov., 1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-130_130" id="Footnote_I-130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-130_130"><span class="label">[i-130]</span></a> <i>History of the Royal Society ...</i> (2d ed., London, 1702), 113.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-131_131" id="Footnote_I-131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-131_131"><span class="label">[i-131]</span></a> R. F. Jones, <i>op. cit.</i>, 989. Tillotson, whom Franklin suggested as a +model worthy of emulation (<i>Writings</i>, II, 391), was "another great exponent +of the new style" (R. F. Jones, <i>op. cit.</i>, 1002).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-132_132" id="Footnote_I-132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-132_132"><span class="label">[i-132]</span></a> L. M. MacLaurin (<i>Franklin's Vocabulary</i>, 21) also suggests Franklin's +probable indebtedness to the Royal Society program.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-133_133" id="Footnote_I-133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-133_133"><span class="label">[i-133]</span></a> O. Elton, <i>The Augustan Age</i>, 8-12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-134_134" id="Footnote_I-134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-134_134"><span class="label">[i-134]</span></a> A. O. Lovejoy, "The Parallel of Deism and Classicism," <i>Modern +Philology</i>, XXIX, 281-99 (Feb., 1932).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-135_135" id="Footnote_I-135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-135_135"><span class="label">[i-135]</span></a> Franklin's friend Henry Pemberton, in his <i>View of Sir Isaac Newton's +Philosophy</i> (London, 1728), had said (pp. 2-3) that the Newtonian thirst for +knowledge, especially of the causes of the operations of nature, had become +"so general, that all men of letters, I believe, find themselves influenced +by it."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-136_136" id="Footnote_I-136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-136_136"><span class="label">[i-136]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 157.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-137_137" id="Footnote_I-137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-137_137"><span class="label">[i-137]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 37.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-138_138" id="Footnote_I-138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-138_138"><span class="label">[i-138]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, ix.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-139_139" id="Footnote_I-139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-139_139"><span class="label">[i-139]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 121. For his demand that sculpture and music have "beautiful +simplicity" of form see <i>ibid.</i>, VII, 194; VIII, 578; IV, 210, 377-8, 381; +V, 530; VIII, 94. On the basis of confusion of genres, Franklin disliked +the opera.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-140_140" id="Footnote_I-140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-140_140"><span class="label">[i-140]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 41. See also X, 33, 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-141_141" id="Footnote_I-141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-141_141"><span class="label">[i-141]</span></a> Miss MacLaurin's research has disclosed that Franklin's vocabulary +(4,062 words, between 1722 and 1751) contained only 19 words which +"were discovered to be pure 'Americanisms,' and of these, 6 are the names +of herbs or grasses; 1 is derived from the name of an American university, +and 1 from the name of an American state" (<i>op. cit.</i>, 38-9).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-142_142" id="Footnote_I-142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-142_142"><span class="label">[i-142]</span></a> Quoted in Bruce, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 439. Also see his letters to Noah +Webster, <i>Writings</i>, I, 29; X, 75-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-143_143" id="Footnote_I-143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-143_143"><span class="label">[i-143]</span></a> S. A. Leonard, <i>The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, +1700-1800</i>, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-144_144" id="Footnote_I-144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-144_144"><span class="label">[i-144]</span></a> See L. Richardson, <i>A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789</i>, +index, for the vogue of Swift. In the library of the <i>New England +Courant</i>, as early as 1722, there was a copy of <i>The Tale of a Tub</i> (T. G. +Wright, <i>Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620-1730</i>, 187-8). +Franklin was probably indebted to the Dean for his prophecies of the +death of Titan Leeds (although he could have learned the use of this +device from Defoe). In <i>Idea of the English School</i> Franklin recommends +Swift for use in the sixth class (<i>Writings</i>, III, 28). His <i>Meditation on a +Quart Mugg</i> is undoubtedly derived from Swift's <i>Meditation upon a +Broomstick</i>, each forced to undergo the indignities of a "dirty wench." In +1757 he made the acquaintance of Dr. John Hawksworth, who in 1755 +had edited Swift's works. It is likely that this friendly union may have +helped to produce Franklin's 1773 masterpieces of caustic irony and the +disarmingly effective hoaxes. Variously he quotes (acknowledged and otherwise) +bits from Swift's poetry and prose. See Herbert Davis's "Swift's +View of Poetry," in <i>Studies In English by Members of University College, +Toronto</i> (1931), collected by M. W. Wallace.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-145_145" id="Footnote_I-145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-145_145"><span class="label">[i-145]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-146_146" id="Footnote_I-146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-146_146"><span class="label">[i-146]</span></a> To suggest that Franklin knew his Horace, see <i>ibid.</i>, VI, 150; +VIII, 148.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-147_147" id="Footnote_I-147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-147_147"><span class="label">[i-147]</span></a> It seems unnecessary to extend a discussion of the didacticism inherent +in Franklin's writing. Addison, and the ethical bent of neoclassicism +in general, impinging on a mind no small part of which was motivated +by its Puritan heritage, help to account for Franklin's ethicism, a lifelong +quality. References illustrating his assumed role as <i>Censor Morum</i> are: +<i>Writings</i>, I, 37, 243; II, 4, 50, 101, 110-1, 117, 175. Franklin proposes +not only to delight, but also, in the Jonsonian and Meredithian sense, to +instruct through a mild catharsis brought about by holding up man's +excesses and vagaries for ridicule. He is firm in distinguishing good writing +by its "tendency to benefit the reader, by improving his virtue or his +knowledge." Consonant with Horace's</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"To teach—to please—comprise the poet's views,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or else at once to profit and amuse,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and with Sidney's "to teach delightfully," Franklin's literary purpose included +a basic ethical motivation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-148_148" id="Footnote_I-148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-148_148"><span class="label">[i-148]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 226.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-149_149" id="Footnote_I-149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-149_149"><span class="label">[i-149]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 42-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-150_150" id="Footnote_I-150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-150_150"><span class="label">[i-150]</span></a> Fully aware "that I am no <i>Poet born</i>" (Bruce, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 498), +apparently agreeing with his father that poets "were generally beggars" +(<i>Writings</i> I, 240), Franklin allowed only that writing poetry may improve +one's language. Yet <i>Dogood Paper</i> No. VII and his estimate of Cowper +(characterized by easiness in manner, correctness in language, clarity of +expression, perspicuity, and justness of the sentiments) (<i>ibid.</i>, VIII, 448-9), +and the "Tears of Pleasure" he shed over Thomson, all suggest that he +was not wholly blind to poetry. He hoped to see Philadelphia "become +the Seat of the <i>American</i> Muses" (<i>ibid.</i>, II, 245, 110; IV, 181, 184; VI, 437).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-151_151" id="Footnote_I-151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-151_151"><span class="label">[i-151]</span></a> A. Bosker, <i>Literary Criticism in the Age of Johnson</i>, 34. For important +qualifications see the thorough study by Donald F. Bond, "'Distrust' +of Imagination in English Neo-Classicism," <i>Philological Quarterly</i>, XIV, +54-69 (Jan., 1935). Those interested in considering Franklin with reference +to contemporary literary theory will find full materials in J. W. +Draper's <i>Eighteenth-Century English Aesthetics: A Bibliography</i>, and additions +to it by R. S. Crane, <i>Modern Philology</i>, XXIX, 25 ff. (1931); W. D. +Templeman, <i>ibid.</i>, XXX, 309-16; R. D. Havens, <i>Modern Language Notes</i>, +XLVII, 118-20 (1932).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-152_152" id="Footnote_I-152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-152_152"><span class="label">[i-152]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-153_153" id="Footnote_I-153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-153_153"><span class="label">[i-153]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, V, 182; also II, 43, and VIII, 128, 163, 604.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-154_154" id="Footnote_I-154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-154_154"><span class="label">[i-154]</span></a> See G. S. Eddy, "Dr. Benjamin Franklin's Library," <i>Proceedings of +the American Antiquarian Society</i>, <span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXXIV, 206-26 (Oct., 1924).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-155_155" id="Footnote_I-155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-155_155"><span class="label">[i-155]</span></a> See C. E. Jorgenson, "Benjamin Franklin and Rabelais," <i>Classical +Journal</i>, XXIX, 538-40 (April, 1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-156_156" id="Footnote_I-156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-156_156"><span class="label">[i-156]</span></a> <i>The Travels of Cyrus.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-157_157" id="Footnote_I-157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-157_157"><span class="label">[i-157]</span></a> <i>Independent Whig</i> and <i>Cato's Letters</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-158_158" id="Footnote_I-158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-158_158"><span class="label">[i-158]</span></a> For an interesting summary of Franklin's references to the classics, +see R. M. Gummere, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-159_159" id="Footnote_I-159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-159_159"><span class="label">[i-159]</span></a> Add to this, Franklin's use of the Swiftian hoax and complex irony. +After writing <i>Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small +One</i> (1773) he explained to a friend: "These odd ways of presenting Matters +to the publick View sometimes occasion them to be more read, talk'd +of, and more attended to" (<i>Writings</i>, VI, 137). Parton observes that the +<i>Edict of the King of Prussia</i> "was the nine-days' talk of the kingdom." +Raynal unsuspectingly used Franklin's <i>Polly Baker</i>, as an authentic document +in his <i>Histoire ...</i>. Franklin's <i>Exporting of Felons to the Colonies</i>, +<i>The Sale of Hessians</i>, and <i>A Dialogue between Britain, France, Spain, +Holland, Saxony, and America</i> illustrate these trenchant devices used to +achieve a political purpose.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-160_160" id="Footnote_I-160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-160_160"><span class="label">[i-160]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-161_161" id="Footnote_I-161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-161_161"><span class="label">[i-161]</span></a> <i>The True Benjamin Franklin</i>, 158.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-162_162" id="Footnote_I-162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-162_162"><span class="label">[i-162]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 239.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-163_163" id="Footnote_I-163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-163_163"><span class="label">[i-163]</span></a> Smyth's note, <i>Writings</i>, VIII, 336.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-164_164" id="Footnote_I-164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-164_164"><span class="label">[i-164]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 238.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-165_165" id="Footnote_I-165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-165_165"><span class="label">[i-165]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, X, 4 (to Mrs. Catherine Greene, March 2, 1789).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-166_166" id="Footnote_I-166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-166_166"><span class="label">[i-166]</span></a> There were eight towns in the colonies which had presses when +Franklin went into business for himself: Cambridge, Boston, New York, +Philadelphia, Annapolis, New London (Conn.), Woodbridge (N. J.), and +Williamsburg. See Isaiah Thomas, <i>The History of Printing in America</i> +(Worcester, 1810), II, <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-167_167" id="Footnote_I-167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-167_167"><span class="label">[i-167]</span></a> "A printer of first-rate eminence," according to Charles Henry Timperley's +<i>A Dictionary of Printers and Printing</i> (London, 1839), 714 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-168_168" id="Footnote_I-168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-168_168"><span class="label">[i-168]</span></a> R. A. Austen Leigh, "William Strahan and His Ledgers," in <i>Transactions +of the Bibliographical Society</i>, <span class="txt90">N. S.</span> III, 286. For Strahan see also +Spottiswoode & Co.'s <i>The Story of a Printing House, Being a Short Account +of the Strahans and Spottiswoodes</i> (London, 1911); and Timperley, +<i>op. cit.</i>, 754-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-169_169" id="Footnote_I-169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-169_169"><span class="label">[i-169]</span></a> See G. S. Eddy, "Correspondence Between Dr. Benjamin Franklin +and John Walter, Regarding the Logographic Process of Printing," <i>Proceedings +of the American Antiquarian Society</i>, <span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXXVIII, 349-69 +(Oct., 1928).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-170_170" id="Footnote_I-170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-170_170"><span class="label">[i-170]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 175.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-171_171" id="Footnote_I-171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-171_171"><span class="label">[i-171]</span></a> See W. P. and J. P. Cutler, <i>Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. +Manasseh Cutler</i>, I, 269, letter of July 13, 1787; also G. S. Eddy, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-172_172" id="Footnote_I-172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-172_172"><span class="label">[i-172]</span></a> See Thomas, <i>loc. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-173_173" id="Footnote_I-173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-173_173"><span class="label">[i-173]</span></a> A notable exception was the type of "letter to the editor" which +Franklin used as a means of suggesting reforms, such as those affecting +the city watch, the fire companies, and the cleaning and lighting of the +streets. See J. B. McMaster, <i>Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters</i>, 82-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-174_174" id="Footnote_I-174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-174_174"><span class="label">[i-174]</span></a> A correspondent of Franklin's paper commended Zenger's stand (see +<i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, May 11-18, 1738; reprinted in W. G. Bleyer, <i>Main +Currents in the History of American Journalism</i>, 66-7), but Franklin +shrewdly kept his own paper free of factional politics. See Livingston +Rutherford, <i>John Peter Zenger</i> (New York, 1904).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-175_175" id="Footnote_I-175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-175_175"><span class="label">[i-175]</span></a> See Clarence S. Brigham, "American Newspapers to 1820," <i>Proceedings +of the American Antiquarian Society</i>, <span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXXII, 157-9 (April, +1922), for detailed bibliography of the <i>Gazette</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-176_176" id="Footnote_I-176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-176_176"><span class="label">[i-176]</span></a> A. H. Smyth, <i>Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors</i>, 200.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-177_177" id="Footnote_I-177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-177_177"><span class="label">[i-177]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 360.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-178_178" id="Footnote_I-178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-178_178"><span class="label">[i-178]</span></a> For a list of the printers with whom Franklin had such connections, +see M. R. King, "One Link in the First Newspaper Chain, the <i>South +Carolina Gazette," Journalism Quarterly</i>, IX, 257 (Sept., 1932).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-179_179" id="Footnote_I-179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-179_179"><span class="label">[i-179]</span></a> For sketches of both magazines, see L. N. Richardson, <i>A History of +Early American Magazines</i>, 17-35, and F. L. Mott, <i>A History of American +Magazines</i>, 1741-1850, 71-7. See also Philip Biddison, "The Magazine +Franklin Failed to Remember," <i>American Literature</i>, IV, 177 (June, 1932); +the writer thinks certain accusations in the Bradford-Franklin controversy +over the magazines discreditable to Franklin, so that the latter's lapse of +memory saved him "embarrassment."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-180_180" id="Footnote_I-180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-180_180"><span class="label">[i-180]</span></a> See letter to John Wright, Nov. 4, 1789 (<i>Writings</i>, X, 60-3). For +European backgrounds of Franklin's economic views see Gide and Rist, +in Bibliography. On American backgrounds the standard work is E. A. J. +Johnson's <i>American Economic Thought in the Seventeenth Century</i> (London, +1932), which shows the intimate relation between economic and religious +theories.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-181_181" id="Footnote_I-181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-181_181"><span class="label">[i-181]</span></a> Lewis J. Carey, <i>Franklin's Economic Views</i> (Garden City, N. Y., +1928), 72.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-182_182" id="Footnote_I-182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-182_182"><span class="label">[i-182]</span></a> Cited in Carey, 73. He had used in this article facts lent by Benezet +concerning the "detestable commerce" motivated in part by English "laws +for promoting the Guinea trade" (<i>Writings</i>, V, 431-2).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-183_183" id="Footnote_I-183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-183_183"><span class="label">[i-183]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IX, 627.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-184_184" id="Footnote_I-184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-184_184"><span class="label">[i-184]</span></a> In 1779 he professed mortification that the King of France gave +"freedom to Slaves, while a king of England is endeavouring to make +Slaves of Freemen" (<i>ibid.</i>, VII, 402).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-185_185" id="Footnote_I-185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-185_185"><span class="label">[i-185]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 404. See also <i>ibid.</i>, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-186_186" id="Footnote_I-186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-186_186"><span class="label">[i-186]</span></a> Suggestive notes on this point may be found in N. Foerster's article +in the <i>American Review</i>, IV, 129-46 (Dec., 1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-187_187" id="Footnote_I-187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-187_187"><span class="label">[i-187]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, VI, 102. See also VI, 39-40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-188_188" id="Footnote_I-188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-188_188"><span class="label">[i-188]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 66.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-189_189" id="Footnote_I-189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-189_189"><span class="label">[i-189]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 66-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-190_190" id="Footnote_I-190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-190_190"><span class="label">[i-190]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 68.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-191_191" id="Footnote_I-191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-191_191"><span class="label">[i-191]</span></a> Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-192_192" id="Footnote_I-192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-192_192"><span class="label">[i-192]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-193_193" id="Footnote_I-193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-193_193"><span class="label">[i-193]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 73.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-194_194" id="Footnote_I-194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-194_194"><span class="label">[i-194]</span></a> That others in the colonies saw slavery as an economically unsound +investment (without any reference to its being <i>malum in se</i>) may be witnessed +in an article in the <i>Boston News-Letter</i> (March 3, 1718): "In the +previous year there had been eighty burials of Indians and negroes in +Boston. The writer argued that the loss of £30 each amounted to £2,400. +If white servants had been employed instead, at £15 for the time of each, +the 'town had saved £1,200.' A man could procure £12 to £15 to purchase +the time of a white servant that could not pay £30 to £50 for a negro +or Indian. 'The Whites Strengthens [<i>sic</i>] and Peoples the Country, others +do not'" (W. B. Weeden, <i>Economic and Social History of New England, +1620-1789</i>, Boston, 1891, II, 456). Congruent with Franklin's <i>Observations</i> +is John Adams's note that "Argument might have some weight in the +abolition of slavery in Massachusetts, but the real cause was the multiplication +of labouring white people, who would no longer suffer the rich to +employ these sable rivals so much to their injury" (<i>ibid.</i>, II, 453).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-195_195" id="Footnote_I-195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-195_195"><span class="label">[i-195]</span></a> In Franklin's view, slavery was also politically subversive. In 1756 +he feared that the slaves, along with servants and loose people in general, +would desert to the French (<i>Writings</i>, III, 359). Since the danger undoubtedly +existed (<i>ibid.</i>, VII, 48, 69), Franklin had a right to be sardonic +in commenting on Dr. Johnson's advice that slaves be incited "to rise, +cut the throats of their purchasers, and resort to the British army, where +they should be rewarded with freedom" (<i>ibid.</i>, X, 110-1).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-196_196" id="Footnote_I-196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-196_196"><span class="label">[i-196]</span></a> Printed in <i>Maryland Gazette</i> (Dec. 17, 1728); later as pamphlet +(April 3, 1729).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-197_197" id="Footnote_I-197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-197_197"><span class="label">[i-197]</span></a> Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, 7. See <i>Writings</i> I, 306-7, for Franklin's own account +of the effect of this work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-198_198" id="Footnote_I-198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-198_198"><span class="label">[i-198]</span></a> C. J. Bullock, <i>Essays on the Monetary History of the United States</i>, +51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-199_199" id="Footnote_I-199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-199_199"><span class="label">[i-199]</span></a> Weeden, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 485.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-200_200" id="Footnote_I-200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-200_200"><span class="label">[i-200]</span></a> <i>Financial History of the United States</i>, 21. Bullock observes another +factor: "Sooner or later all the plantations were deeply involved in the +mazes of a fluctuating currency, for the burdens attending the various wars +of the eighteenth century were so great as to induce even the most conservative +colonies to resort to this easy method of meeting public obligations" +(<i>op. cit.</i>, 33).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-201_201" id="Footnote_I-201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-201_201"><span class="label">[i-201]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 133-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-202_202" id="Footnote_I-202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-202_202"><span class="label">[i-202]</span></a> See Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, chap. I, for suggestive survey of this pamphlet. +Carey points out Franklin's indebtedness to writings of Sir William Petty.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-203_203" id="Footnote_I-203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-203_203"><span class="label">[i-203]</span></a> Carey (chap. II, "Value and Interest") quotes Franklin: "Riches of +a Country are to be valued by the Quantity of Labour its inhabitants are +able to purchase, and not by the Quantity of Silver and Gold they possess" +(<i>Writings</i>, II, 144).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-204_204" id="Footnote_I-204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-204_204"><span class="label">[i-204]</span></a> See, for example, <i>Plan for Saving One Hundred Thousand Pounds</i>, +1755 (<i>Writings</i>, III, 293-5).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-205_205" id="Footnote_I-205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-205_205"><span class="label">[i-205]</span></a> Writings, IV, 420: <i>Examination of Benjamin Franklin</i>. He was +obliged to admit that Massachusetts colonists had taken a calmer view of +the 1751 act (IV, 428).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-206_206" id="Footnote_I-206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-206_206"><span class="label">[i-206]</span></a> G. L. Beer, <i>British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765</i>, 188.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-207_207" id="Footnote_I-207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-207_207"><span class="label">[i-207]</span></a> Although it is true that Pennsylvania suffered less from paper money +because of better security (Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, 23 note), it seems curious that +Franklin should have been blind to the evils of inflation and the operations +of Gresham's law.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-208_208" id="Footnote_I-208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-208_208"><span class="label">[i-208]</span></a> Paper in William Smith Mason Collection; cited in Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, 20. +See also <i>Writings</i>, V, 189, in which he repeats the threat. British restraint +must hence provoke colonial "industry and frugality."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-209_209" id="Footnote_I-209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-209_209"><span class="label">[i-209]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, VII, 294. Cf. <i>ibid.</i>, IX, 231-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-210_210" id="Footnote_I-210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-210_210"><span class="label">[i-210]</span></a> See <i>Writings</i>, VII, 275, 335, 341.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-211_211" id="Footnote_I-211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-211_211"><span class="label">[i-211]</span></a> To Josiah Quincy, Sept. 11, 1783 (<i>Writings</i>, IX, 93-5).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-212_212" id="Footnote_I-212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-212_212"><span class="label">[i-212]</span></a> In 1779 (see <i>Writings</i>, VII, 294) Franklin explained that the French +knew little of paper currency. Mr. Carey offers convincing evidence to +show that Franklin helped to predispose the deputies of the first National +Assembly to use assignats (<i>op. cit.</i>, 27-33). See <i>Of the Paper Money of the +United States of America</i> (<i>Writings</i>, IX, 231-6).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-213_213" id="Footnote_I-213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-213_213"><span class="label">[i-213]</span></a> J. F. Watson, <i>Annals of Philadelphia</i> (1844 ed.), I, 533.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-214_214" id="Footnote_I-214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-214_214"><span class="label">[i-214]</span></a> Cited by J. Rae in his <i>Life of Adam Smith</i> (London, 1895), +265.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-215_215" id="Footnote_I-215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-215_215"><span class="label">[i-215]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 266. See Carey's chapter, "Franklin's Influence on Adam +Smith," for an exhaustive survey of the <i>personalia</i> linking Adam Smith and +Franklin. Both were in London in 1773-1776 and were occasional companions, +having in 1759 met in Edinburgh at the home of Dr. Robertson. +Probably they again met in Glasgow during the same year. Smith could +have received copies of Franklin's works through Hume and Lord Kames; +among Franklin's works in Smith's library was <i>Observations Concerning +the Increase of Mankind</i>; when Smith in the <i>Wealth of Nations</i> observes +that colonial population doubles in every twenty to twenty-five years, it +seems reasonable to infer that he was beholden to Franklin for the suggestion. +It is within the realm of reasonable inference, says Mr. Carey, +that Franklin did, as Parton urges, help to educate Smith in the colonial +point of view. T. D. Eliot, in "The Relations Between Adam Smith and +Benjamin Franklin before 1776," <i>Political Science Quarterly</i>, XXXIX, 67-96 +(March, 1924), after calling attention to the lack of extant correspondence +between them and the silence of their contemporaries concerning a vital +relationship, shows a reasonable hesitancy in observing that little is +known about Smith's alleged debt to Franklin. Like Wetzel and Carey, +Eliot thinks the debt has been exaggerated. He has been unable to prove +Dr. Patten's intuition that in 1759 Franklin went to Smith in Scotland to +urge him to write a treatise on colonial policy. In 1765 Turgot met Adam +Smith. In the following year he published his <i>Réflexions sur la formation +et la distribution des richesses</i>, antedating Smith's <i>Wealth of Nations</i> by +ten years. See J. Delvaille's <i>Essai sur l'histoire de l'idée de progrès</i> (Paris, +1910), chap. IV, on Adam Smith; and Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, 152, 158-9, for the +relationship between Turgot and Franklin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-216_216" id="Footnote_I-216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-216_216"><span class="label">[i-216]</span></a> Although both Franklin and Smith held to the labor theory of value +(Franklin was indebted to Petty for his use of the term), Smith was confirmed +in his belief before he knew of Franklin or his works.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-217_217" id="Footnote_I-217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-217_217"><span class="label">[i-217]</span></a> According to Jacob Viner ("Adam Smith and Laissez Faire," in +<i>Adam Smith, 1776-1926. Lectures to Commemorate the Sesqui-Centennial +of the Publication of 'The Wealth of Nations</i>,' 116-55), "Smith's major +claim to fame ... seems to rest on his elaborate and detailed application +to the economic world of the concept of a unified natural order, operating +according to natural law, and if left to its own course producing results +beneficial to mankind" (p. 118), which suggests, especially in <i>Theory of +Moral Sentiments</i>, that self-love and social are the same. When Smith came +to write the <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, he tended, Viner asserts, to distrust the +operations of the harmonious natural order—yet Viner admits that many +passages tend to corroborate his earlier view expressed in <i>Theory of Moral +Sentiments</i> and that "There is no possible room for doubt that Smith in +general believed that there was, to say the least, a stronger presumption +against government activity beyond its fundamental duties of protection +against its foreign foes and maintenance of justice" (p. 140). We shall see +elsewhere that Franklin seems to have urged a less frugal governmental +restraint in activities other than economic.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-218_218" id="Footnote_I-218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-218_218"><span class="label">[i-218]</span></a> <i>The Colonial Mind</i>, 173. It is generally thought that <i>Principles of +Trade</i> is "partly" Franklin's "own composition" (Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, 161).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-219_219" id="Footnote_I-219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-219_219"><span class="label">[i-219]</span></a> Philadelphia, Sept. 13, 1775: MS letter (unpublished) in W. S. +Mason Collection.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-220_220" id="Footnote_I-220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-220_220"><span class="label">[i-220]</span></a> London, Sept. 29, 1769: MS letter (unpublished) in W. S. Mason +Collection.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-221_221" id="Footnote_I-221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-221_221"><span class="label">[i-221]</span></a> London, Feb. 20, 1768 (<i>Writings</i>, V, 102).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-222_222" id="Footnote_I-222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-222_222"><span class="label">[i-222]</span></a> Dated April 4, 1769 (<i>ibid.</i>, V, 200-2).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-223_223" id="Footnote_I-223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-223_223"><span class="label">[i-223]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, V, 202.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-224_224" id="Footnote_I-224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-224_224"><span class="label">[i-224]</span></a> Cited by F. W. Garrison in "Franklin and the Physiocrats," <i>Freeman</i>, +VIII, 154-6 (Oct. 24, 1923).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-225_225" id="Footnote_I-225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-225_225"><span class="label">[i-225]</span></a> Dupont de Nemours's opinion of Franklin (<i>Writings</i>, V, 153-4).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-226_226" id="Footnote_I-226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-226_226"><span class="label">[i-226]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, V, 156. See W. Steell's entertaining "The First Visit to +Paris," in <i>Benjamin Franklin of Paris</i>, 3-21; also E. E. Hale and E. E. +Hale, Jr., <i>Franklin in France</i>, I, 7-13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-227_227" id="Footnote_I-227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-227_227"><span class="label">[i-227]</span></a> C. Gide and C. Rist, <i>A History of Economic Doctrines</i>, 4 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-228_228" id="Footnote_I-228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-228_228"><span class="label">[i-228]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, V, 155.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-229_229" id="Footnote_I-229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-229_229"><span class="label">[i-229]</span></a> As an <i>experimental</i> agriculturist Franklin has been given too little +honor. He performed many valuable services in introducing Old-World +plants, trees, and fruits to the New, and in encouraging others to carry on +practical botanical experiments. Particularly from 1747 to 1757 he experimented +in agriculture and was in constant communication with that pioneer +scientific husbandman, Jared Eliot. See E. D. Ross's "Benjamin +Franklin as an Eighteenth-Century Agriculture Leader," <i>Journal of Political +Economy</i>, XXXVII, 52-72 (Feb., 1929).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-230_230" id="Footnote_I-230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-230_230"><span class="label">[i-230]</span></a> Although no scholarly substitute for the works of Quesnay, Mirabeau, +Mercier de la Rivière, Dupont de Nemours, Le Trosne, Abbé +Bandeau, Abbé Roubaud, and some pieces of the occasional physiocrat +Turgot, the following will enable the student to derive adequately for +general purposes the thought of the Économistes: H. Higgs, <i>The Physiocrats</i> +(1897); Gide and Rist, op. cit.; L. H. Haney, <i>History of Economic +Thought</i> (1911), 133-57; G. Weulersse, <i>Le mouvement physiocratique en +France (de 1756 à 1770)</i>; A. Smith, <i>Wealth of Nations</i>, Bk. IV, chap. IX; +J. Bonar, <i>Philosophy and Political Science</i> (1893); in addition see critical +and interpretative writings of Oncken, Stem, Kines, Hasbach, Schelle, +Bauer, Feilbogen, De Lavergne.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-231_231" id="Footnote_I-231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-231_231"><span class="label">[i-231]</span></a> An integral idea of the French school was its advocacy of the <i>impôt +unique</i>—a single tax on land. It is difficult to find evidence to controvert +Mr. Carey's assertion that Franklin seems never to have advocated this +tax (<i>op. cit.</i>, 154). However, in marginalia on a pamphlet by Allan +Ramsay, Franklin held: "Taxes must be paid out of the Produce of the +Land. There is no other possible Fund" (cited by Carey, 155). Another +reference is found in a letter of 1787 to Alexander Small: "Our Legislators +are all Land-holders; and they are not yet persuaded, that all taxes are +finally paid by the Land" (<i>Writings</i>, IX, 615). It is probable that he felt +that a land tax would be dubiously effective in view of the difficulties of +collection in sparse settlements.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-232_232" id="Footnote_I-232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-232_232"><span class="label">[i-232]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 313 (July 16, 1747). See also <i>Note Respecting Trade +and Manufactures</i>, London, July 7, 1767 (Sparks, II, 366):</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Suppose a country, X, with three manufactures, as <i>cloth</i>, <i>silk</i>, <i>iron</i>, +supplying three other countries. A, B, C, but is desirous of increasing the +vent, and raising the price of cloth in favor of her own clothiers.</p> + +<p>In order to do this, she forbids the importation of foreign cloth from A.</p> + +<p>A, in return, forbids silks from X.</p> + +<p>Then the silk-workers complain of a decay of trade.</p> + +<p>And X, to content them, forbids silks from B.</p> + +<p>B, in return, forbids iron ware from X.</p> + +<p>Then the iron-workers complain of decay.</p> + +<p>And X forbids the importation of iron from C.</p> + +<p>C, in return, forbids cloth from X.</p> + +<p>What is got by all these prohibitions?</p> + +<p><i>Answer.</i>—All four find their common stock of the enjoyments and conveniences +of life diminished."</p></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-233_233" id="Footnote_I-233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-233_233"><span class="label">[i-233]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 469-70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-234_234" id="Footnote_I-234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-234_234"><span class="label">[i-234]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, V, 155.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-235_235" id="Footnote_I-235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-235_235"><span class="label">[i-235]</span></a> Passy, May 27, 1779 (<i>Writings</i>, VII, 332).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-236_236" id="Footnote_I-236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-236_236"><span class="label">[i-236]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 242-5 (April 30, 1764). As Mr. Carey notes. Franklin in +several places. <i>On the Labouring Poor</i> and in a letter (IX, 240-8), suggests +that private vices—demands for luxuries—make public benefits, hence resembling, +if not ultimately derived from, Mandeville's <i>Fable of the Bees</i>. +Franklin's sanction of free trade is, however, antithetical to Mandeville's +'dog eat dog' basis. (See Kaye's Intro. to <i>The Fable of the Bees</i>, xcviii ff.) +Franklin in no uncertain terms looks upon trade restrictions definitely as +the result of "the abominable selfishness" of men (VII, 332). As long as +selfishness is the rule, mercantilism, not economic laissez faire, will be +king. It is theoretically probable also that belief in man's innate altruism +could furnish emotional if not logical sanction for laissez faire—but this +abstraction is in Franklin's case futile, since like Swift he was not blind to +man's malevolence!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-237_237" id="Footnote_I-237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-237_237"><span class="label">[i-237]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 245; see also <i>ibid.</i>, VIII, 107-8, 261, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-238_238" id="Footnote_I-238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-238_238"><span class="label">[i-238]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 41; also 63, 578, 588.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-239_239" id="Footnote_I-239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-239_239"><span class="label">[i-239]</span></a> Cited in Carey, <i>op. cit.</i>, 160-1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-240_240" id="Footnote_I-240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-240_240"><span class="label">[i-240]</span></a> See Gide and Rist, <i>op. cit.</i>, 7 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-241_241" id="Footnote_I-241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-241_241"><span class="label">[i-241]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 7 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-242_242" id="Footnote_I-242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-242_242"><span class="label">[i-242]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-243_243" id="Footnote_I-243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-243_243"><span class="label">[i-243]</span></a> Mercier de la Rivière, cited in <i>ibid.</i>, 8 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-244_244" id="Footnote_I-244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-244_244"><span class="label">[i-244]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 9-10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-245_245" id="Footnote_I-245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-245_245"><span class="label">[i-245]</span></a> "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," <i>Quarterly Journal of +Economics</i>, XLIV, 16 (1929). See also O. H. Taylor's valuable dissertation, +"The Idea of a 'Natural Order' in Early Modern Economic Thought," +summarized in Harvard University <i>Summaries of Theses</i>, 1928, 102-6, and +available in manuscript at the Harvard University Library.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-246_246" id="Footnote_I-246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-246_246"><span class="label">[i-246]</span></a> Taylor, "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," <i>loc. cit.</i>, 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-247_247" id="Footnote_I-247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-247_247"><span class="label">[i-247]</span></a> Even this fragmentary view of the more obvious economic principles +held by Franklin offers convincing evidence that had he been less incidentally +an economist he would have been at least a lesser Adam Smith. +Mr. Wetzel, in <i>Benjamin Franklin as an Economist</i>, offers a convenient +summary of Franklin as an economist, some items suggesting aspects of +his views which, had space permitted, we should have included in this +study: "1. Money as coin may have a value higher than its bullion value. +2. Natural interest is determined by the rent of so much land as the money +loaned will buy. 3. High wages are not inconsistent with a large foreign +trade. 4. Population will increase as the means of gaining a living increase. +5. A high standard of living serves to prolong single life, and thus acts +as a check upon the increase of population. 6. People are adjusted among +the different countries according to the comparative well-being of mankind. +7. The value of an article is determined by the amount of labor +necessary to produce the food consumed in making the article. 8. While +manufactures are advantageous, only agriculture is truly productive. +9. Manufactures will naturally spring up in a country as the country becomes +ripe for them. 10. Free trade with the world will give the greatest +return at the least expense. 11. Wherever practicable, State revenue should +be raised by direct taxes."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-248_248" id="Footnote_I-248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-248_248"><span class="label">[i-248]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 110.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-249_249" id="Footnote_I-249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-249_249"><span class="label">[i-249]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 295. In 1736 Franklin wrote: "Faction, if not timely suppressed, +may overturn the balance, the palladium of liberty, and crush us +under its ruins" (cited in R. G. Gettell, <i>History of American Political +Thought</i>, 149).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-250_250" id="Footnote_I-250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-250_250"><span class="label">[i-250]</span></a> W. R. Shepherd, <i>History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania</i> +(New York, 1896), 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-251_251" id="Footnote_I-251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-251_251"><span class="label">[i-251]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 351.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-252_252" id="Footnote_I-252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-252_252"><span class="label">[i-252]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-253_253" id="Footnote_I-253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-253_253"><span class="label">[i-253]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 352.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-254_254" id="Footnote_I-254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-254_254"><span class="label">[i-254]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 347.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-255_255" id="Footnote_I-255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-255_255"><span class="label">[i-255]</span></a> Shepherd, <i>op. cit.</i>, 222. In 1764 Penn thought that Franklin was one +"who may lose the government of a post office by grasping at that of a +province" (<i>ibid.</i>, 564). In turn one of the proprietors wrote to him: +"Franklin is certainly destined to be our plague" (<i>ibid.</i>, 566). Penn professed +not to fear "your mighty Goliath." For proof that Franklin's fear +expressed in <i>Plain Truth</i> was not idle see <i>Extracts from Chief Justice +William Allen's Letter Book</i>, 17, 22-3, 25, 31-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-256_256" id="Footnote_I-256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-256_256"><span class="label">[i-256]</span></a> <i>Plain Truth</i> inspirited the colonists to defend themselves, even if it +failed in its larger purpose; see <i>Writings</i>, II, 354, 362.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-257_257" id="Footnote_I-257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-257_257"><span class="label">[i-257]</span></a> To James Parker, March 20, 1750/51 (<i>Writings</i>, III, 40-5). L. C. +Wroth, in <i>An American Bookshelf</i>, 1755 (Philadelphia, 1934), 12 ff., reviews +A. Kennedy's <i>The Importance of Gaining the Friendship of the Indians +to the British Interest</i> (1751), to which was appended a letter, prefiguring +the Albany Plan of Union. This letter, Mr. Wroth observes, was by +Franklin. C. E. Merriam states that "The storm centre of the democratic +movement during the colonial period was the conflict between the governors +and the colonial legislatures or assemblies" (<i>A History of American +Political Theories</i>, 34). Also see E. B. Greene, <i>The Provincial Governor in +the English Colonies of North America</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-258_258" id="Footnote_I-258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-258_258"><span class="label">[i-258]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 71.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-259_259" id="Footnote_I-259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-259_259"><span class="label">[i-259]</span></a> Cited in G. L. Beer, <i>British Colonial Policy</i>, 1754-1765, 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-260_260" id="Footnote_I-260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-260_260"><span class="label">[i-260]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 197.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-261_261" id="Footnote_I-261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-261_261"><span class="label">[i-261]</span></a> For a suggestive source study see Mrs. L. K. Mathews's "Benjamin +Franklin's Plans for a Colonial Union, 1750-1775," <i>American Political +Science Review</i>, VIII, 393-412 (Aug., 1914).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-262_262" id="Footnote_I-262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-262_262"><span class="label">[i-262]</span></a> Cited in Beer, <i>op. cit.</i>, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-263_263" id="Footnote_I-263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-263_263"><span class="label">[i-263]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 242.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-264_264" id="Footnote_I-264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-264_264"><span class="label">[i-264]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 226. As Beer has pointed out (<i>op. cit.</i>, 23 note), since the +plan was not ratified, it never went before the Crown; hence Franklin's +retrospective glance is misleading: "The Crown disapproved it, as having +placed too much Weight in the Democratic Part of the Constitution; and +every Assembly as having allowed too much to Prerogative. So it was +totally rejected" (<i>Writings</i>, III, 227).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-265_265" id="Footnote_I-265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-265_265"><span class="label">[i-265]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 233.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-266_266" id="Footnote_I-266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-266_266"><span class="label">[i-266]</span></a> To Peter Collinson, Nov. 22, 1756 (<i>Writings</i>, III, 351).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-267_267" id="Footnote_I-267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-267_267"><span class="label">[i-267]</span></a> As A. H. Smyth says, this was probably <i>inspired</i> by Franklin although +not written by him; at any rate "it undoubtedly reflects" his opinions (III, +vi). Isaac Sharpless observes that Franklin "had sympathy with their +[Quakers'] demands for political freedom, but none for their non-military +spirit" (<i>Political Leaders of Provincial Pennsylvania</i>, New York, 1919, +178).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-268_268" id="Footnote_I-268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-268_268"><span class="label">[i-268]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 372.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-269_269" id="Footnote_I-269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-269_269"><span class="label">[i-269]</span></a> A. Bradford, <i>Memoir of the Life and Writings of Rev. J. Mayhew</i> +(Boston, 1838), 119.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-270_270" id="Footnote_I-270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-270_270"><span class="label">[i-270]</span></a> See for capable studies: B. F. Wright, <i>American Interpretations of +Natural Law</i>; C. F. Mullett, <i>Fundamental Law and the American Revolution</i>; +D. G. Ritchie, <i>Natural Rights</i> (London, 1895), and his "Contributions +to the History of the Social Contract Theory," <i>Political Science +Quarterly</i>, VI, 656-76 (1891); C. Becker, <i>The Declaration of Independence</i>, +chap. II; C. E. Merriam, <i>op. cit.</i>, chap. II; H. J. Laski, <i>Political Thought in +England from Locke to Bentham</i> (New York, 1920).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-271_271" id="Footnote_I-271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-271_271"><span class="label">[i-271]</span></a> Becker, <i>op. cit.</i>, 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-272_272" id="Footnote_I-272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-272_272"><span class="label">[i-272]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-273_273" id="Footnote_I-273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-273_273"><span class="label">[i-273]</span></a> Burke said that nearly as many copies of this work were sold in the +colonies as in Great Britain. It will be remembered that Hamilton leaned +heavily on Blackstone in <i>The Farmer Refuted</i> (1773).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-274_274" id="Footnote_I-274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-274_274"><span class="label">[i-274]</span></a> Cited in Wright, <i>op. cit.</i>, 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-275_275" id="Footnote_I-275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-275_275"><span class="label">[i-275]</span></a> <i>The Farmer Refuted.</i> For discussion of changes in Hamilton's political +theory see F. C. Prescott's Introduction to <i>Hamilton and Jefferson</i> +(American Writers Series, New York, 1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-276_276" id="Footnote_I-276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-276_276"><span class="label">[i-276]</span></a> Franklin acknowledges his close reading of Locke's <i>Essay Concerning +Human Understanding</i> (<i>Writings</i>, I, 243). In 1749 he urges that Locke +be read in the Philadelphia Academy (II, 387) and refers again to the great +logician in <i>Idea of the English School</i> (III, 28). He is supposed to have defended +in spirited debate Locke's treatise on Toleration (I, 179). The +catalogues of the Philadelphia Library Company disclose that by 1757 all +of Locke's works had been obtained. One may ask how an alert eighteenth-century +mind could have escaped the impact of Locke's thought. +</p><p> +It is more difficult to establish satisfactorily a nexus between Rousseau's +and Franklin's minds. Mr. George Simpson Eddy has kindly allowed us to +consult his "Catalogue of Pamphlets, Once a Part of the Library of Benjamin +Franklin, and now owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania" +in which are included Rousseau's <i>Preface de la Nouvelle Hélöise ...</i> (1761) +and <i>Discours sur l'économie politique ...</i> (1760). Even if +Rousseau's mistress, Countess d'Houdetot, feted Franklin in 1781, and +Franklin was acquainted with Rousseau's physician, Achille-Guillaume +le Bègue de Presle, and directly in 1785 mentions Rousseau on child-education +(<i>Writings</i>, IX, 334), one can not be sure to what extent Rousseau's +writings may have aided Franklin in formulating notions similar to +the social contract theory (IX, 138).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-277_277" id="Footnote_I-277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-277_277"><span class="label">[i-277]</span></a> Cited in A. M. Baldwin, <i>The New England Clergy and the American +Revolution</i>, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-278_278" id="Footnote_I-278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-278_278"><span class="label">[i-278]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, xii. See also C. H. Van Tyne's able study, "The Influence of +the Clergy, and of Religious and Sectarian Forces, on the American Revolution," +<i>American Historical Review</i>, XIX, 44-64 (Oct., 1913). He takes +issue with the economic determinists and concludes that of all the causes +of the Revolution, religious causes are "among the most important" +(p. 64). The Revolution was in large measure caused by a conflict of +political ideas, and these were disseminated mostly by the clergy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-279_279" id="Footnote_I-279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-279_279"><span class="label">[i-279]</span></a> <i>An Oration, Delivered March 5, 1773</i> (Boston, 1773), 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-280_280" id="Footnote_I-280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-280_280"><span class="label">[i-280]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 10-11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-281_281" id="Footnote_I-281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-281_281"><span class="label">[i-281]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 8. Also see S. Stillman, <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 26, 1779 (Boston, +1779); J. Clarke, <i>Election-Sermon</i>, May 30, 1781 (Boston, 1781).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-282_282" id="Footnote_I-282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-282_282"><span class="label">[i-282]</span></a> Although Franklin denied having written it (<i>Writings</i>, IV, 82), Mr. +Ford (<i>Franklin Bibliography</i>, III) asserts that "this work must still be +treated as from Franklin's pen." He sent 500 copies to Pennsylvania consigned +to his partner, David Hall, for distribution.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-283_283" id="Footnote_I-283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-283_283"><span class="label">[i-283]</span></a> To Joseph Galloway, April 11, 1757 (unpublished MS letter in W. +S. Mason Collection). For a description of the unpublished Franklin-Galloway +correspondence see W. S. Mason's article in <i>Proceedings of the +American Antiquarian Society</i> for Oct., 1924.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-284_284" id="Footnote_I-284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-284_284"><span class="label">[i-284]</span></a> To Joseph Galloway, Feb. 17, 1758 (unpublished MS letter in W. S. +Mason Collection).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-285_285" id="Footnote_I-285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-285_285"><span class="label">[i-285]</span></a> June 10, 1758 (unpublished MS letter in W. S. Mason Collection).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-286_286" id="Footnote_I-286_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-286_286"><span class="label">[i-286]</span></a> April 7, 1759 (unpublished MS letter in W. S. Mason Collection).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-287_287" id="Footnote_I-287_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-287_287"><span class="label">[i-287]</span></a> <i>The Works of Benjamin Franklin</i> (Philadelphia, 1809), II, 147.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-288_288" id="Footnote_I-288_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-288_288"><span class="label">[i-288]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-289_289" id="Footnote_I-289_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-289_289"><span class="label">[i-289]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-290_290" id="Footnote_I-290_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-290_290"><span class="label">[i-290]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, vii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-291_291" id="Footnote_I-291_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-291_291"><span class="label">[i-291]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, xvi.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-292_292" id="Footnote_I-292_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-292_292"><span class="label">[i-292]</span></a> Apropos of many colonial ferments, not unlike the one we have considered +above, Carl Becker writes: "Throughout the eighteenth century, +little colonial aristocracies played their part, in imagination clothing +their governor in the decaying vesture of Old-World tyrants and themselves +assuming the homespun garb, half Roman and half Puritan, of a +virtuous republicanism.... It was the illusion of sharing in great events +rather than any low mercenary motive that made Americans guard with +jealous care their legislative independence" (<i>The Eve of the Revolution</i>, +New Haven, 1918, 60). Also see C. H. Lincoln, <i>The Revolutionary +Movement in Pennsylvania, 1760-1776</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-293_293" id="Footnote_I-293_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-293_293"><span class="label">[i-293]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 408-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-294_294" id="Footnote_I-294_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-294_294"><span class="label">[i-294]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 457.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-295_295" id="Footnote_I-295_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-295_295"><span class="label">[i-295]</span></a> V. W. Crane, "Certain Writings of Benjamin Franklin on the British +Empire and the American Colonies," <i>Papers of the Bibliographical Society</i>, +XXVIII, Pt. 1, 6 (1934). Also see W. L. Grant, "Canada vs. Guadaloupe," +<i>American Historical Review</i>, XVII, 735-43, (Oct., 1911-July, 1912).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-296_296" id="Footnote_I-296_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-296_296"><span class="label">[i-296]</span></a> Beer, <i>op. cit.</i>, 313.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-297_297" id="Footnote_I-297_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-297_297"><span class="label">[i-297]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-298_298" id="Footnote_I-298_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-298_298"><span class="label">[i-298]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 229.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-299_299" id="Footnote_I-299_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-299_299"><span class="label">[i-299]</span></a> The massacre led by the "Paxton boys."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-300_300" id="Footnote_I-300_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-300_300"><span class="label">[i-300]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 314.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-301_301" id="Footnote_I-301_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-301_301"><span class="label">[i-301]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 418.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-302_302" id="Footnote_I-302_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-302_302"><span class="label">[i-302]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 419. See Beer, <i>op. cit.</i>, 294 f.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-303_303" id="Footnote_I-303_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-303_303"><span class="label">[i-303]</span></a> <i>A History of American Political Theories</i>, 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-304_304" id="Footnote_I-304_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-304_304"><span class="label">[i-304]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 445-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-305_305" id="Footnote_I-305_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-305_305"><span class="label">[i-305]</span></a> To Joseph Galloway, May 20, 1767 (photostat of unpublished MS +letter in W. S. Mason Collection; original in W. L. Clements Library).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-306_306" id="Footnote_I-306_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-306_306"><span class="label">[i-306]</span></a> To Joseph Galloway, Aug. 20, 1768 (photostat of unpublished MS +letter in W. S. Mason Collection; original in W. L. Clements Library).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-307_307" id="Footnote_I-307_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-307_307"><span class="label">[i-307]</span></a> To Joseph Galloway, April 14, 1767 (photostat of unpublished MS +letter in W. S. Mason Collection; original in W. L. Clements Library). +Cf. also letter to the same, Jan. 11, 1770, <i>ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-308_308" id="Footnote_I-308_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-308_308"><span class="label">[i-308]</span></a> See, for example, <i>An Edict by the King of Prussia</i> (1773)—for its +effect see <i>Writings</i>, VI, 146—and <i>Rules by Which a Great Empire May +Be Reduced to a Small One</i> (1773). Crane, <i>op. cit.</i>, concludes that Franklin +appears as "the chief agent of the American propaganda in England, +especially between 1765 and 1770" (p. 26). For treatment of American +propagandists see P. G. Davidson, "Whig Propagandists of the American +Revolution," <i>American Historical Review</i>, XXXIX, 442-53 (April, 1934), +and his <i>Revolutionary Propagandists in New England, New York and Pennsylvania, +1763-1776</i> (unpublished dissertation, University of Chicago, +1929); summarized in <i>Abstracts of Theses</i>, Humanistic Series VII, 239-42; +F. J. Hinkhouse, <i>The Preliminaries of the American Revolution as Seen in +the English Press</i> (New York, 1926).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-309_309" id="Footnote_I-309_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-309_309"><span class="label">[i-309]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, V, 297.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-310_310" id="Footnote_I-310_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-310_310"><span class="label">[i-310]</span></a> See R. G. Adams, <i>Political Ideas of the American Revolution</i>, 35, +62-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-311_311" id="Footnote_I-311_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-311_311"><span class="label">[i-311]</span></a> Oct. 2, 1770 (<i>Writings</i>, V, 280). See also <i>Causes of the American +Discontents before 1768</i> (V, 78 f., 160-2). An aspect of his loyalty to the +crown may be seen in his hatred of French desire to separate the colonies +from England (V, 47, 231, 254, 323). The printing of the <i>Examination</i> +and other of Franklin's pieces in Europe buttressed the predisposition of +France to hate Great Britain (V, 231). The best comprehensive treatment +of backgrounds is C. H. Van Tyne's <i>The Causes of the War of Independence</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-312_312" id="Footnote_I-312_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-312_312"><span class="label">[i-312]</span></a> <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, XXV, 311 +(1901). See also <i>ibid.</i>, 307-22, and XXVI, 81-90, 255-64 (1902). See +<i>Writings</i>, VI, 144.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-313_313" id="Footnote_I-313_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-313_313"><span class="label">[i-313]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, VI, 173.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-314_314" id="Footnote_I-314_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-314_314"><span class="label">[i-314]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VI, 319. His unpublished letters of 1775 in the Original Correspondence +of Benjamin Franklin with the Bishop of St. Asaph (in the +W. S. Mason Collection) emphasize his progressive apathy toward a reconciliation. +Especially see letters of May 15 and July 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-315_315" id="Footnote_I-315_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-315_315"><span class="label">[i-315]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VI, 460.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-316_316" id="Footnote_I-316_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-316_316"><span class="label">[i-316]</span></a> Cited in Davidson, <i>op. cit.</i>, 442.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-317_317" id="Footnote_I-317_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-317_317"><span class="label">[i-317]</span></a> Hugh Williamson claimed that he actually gave Franklin the letters. +Apparently another person went to the office where the letters were archived +and posing as an authorized person secured the desired correspondence +(D. Hosack, <i>Biographical Memoir of Hugh Williamson</i>, New +York, 1820, 37 ff.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-318_318" id="Footnote_I-318_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-318_318"><span class="label">[i-318]</span></a> For an interesting account of this episode see Parton, <i>op. cit.</i>, 1, +chap. IX.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-319_319" id="Footnote_I-319_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-319_319"><span class="label">[i-319]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, V, 134. Franklin and Burke were friendly; see their correspondence. +The best exposition of Burke's doctrines is that by John +MacCunn, <i>The Political Philosophy of Edmund Burke</i> (London, 1913).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-320_320" id="Footnote_I-320_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-320_320"><span class="label">[i-320]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, V, 439; see also 527.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-321_321" id="Footnote_I-321_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-321_321"><span class="label">[i-321]</span></a> London, April 20, 1771; unpublished MS letter in W. S. Mason +Collection. Compare with Abbé Raynal's opinion that "society is essentially +good; government, as is well known, may be, and is but too often +evil" (<i>The Revolution of America</i>, Dublin, 1781, 45).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-322_322" id="Footnote_I-322_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-322_322"><span class="label">[i-322]</span></a> M. Eiselen (<i>Franklin's Political Theories</i>, Garden City, N. Y., 1928) +observes that Franklin as presiding officer had actually little to do with +casting the instrument. From his later paper on the Constitution it is +possible, however, to see that he accepted most of its major ideas (pp. +57-8). See S. B. Harding, "Party Struggles over the First Pennsylvania +Constitution," <i>Annual Report of the American Historical Association for +1894</i>, 371-402.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-323_323" id="Footnote_I-323_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-323_323"><span class="label">[i-323]</span></a> That Franklin "had more to do with the phraseology of the Declaration +of Independence than has been recognized up to now" (J. C. Fitzpatrick, +<i>Spirit of the Revolution</i>, Boston, 1924, 11) has been shown by +Becker, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-324_324" id="Footnote_I-324_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-324_324"><span class="label">[i-324]</span></a> See text in S. E. Morison, <i>Sources and Documents Illustrating the +American Revolution, 1764-1788, and the Formation of the Federal Constitution</i> +(Oxford, 1923, 162-76).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-325_325" id="Footnote_I-325_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-325_325"><span class="label">[i-325]</span></a> C. H. Lincoln, <i>The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania, 1760-1776</i>, +277.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-326_326" id="Footnote_I-326_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-326_326"><span class="label">[i-326]</span></a> Cited in N. G. Goodman, <i>Benjamin Rush</i> (Philadelphia, 1934), 62. +Another wrote that the unicameral form is good "if men were wise and +virtuous as angels" (Lincoln, <i>op. cit.</i>, 282; see also 283). The American +Philosophical Society, of which Franklin was president, declared against it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-327_327" id="Footnote_I-327_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-327_327"><span class="label">[i-327]</span></a> T. F. Moran, <i>The Rise and Development of the Bicameral System in +America</i> (Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political +Science, 13th ser., V [Baltimore, 1895]), 42. The legislative Council (upper +chamber) had been destroyed by the 1701 constitution. See B. A. Konkle, +<i>George Bryan and the Constitution of Pennsylvania</i> (Philadelphia, 1922), +114. P. L. Ford ("The Adoption of the Pennsylvania Constitution of +1776," <i>Political Science Quarterly</i>, X, Sept., 1895, 426-59) observes: +"The one-chamber legislature and the annual election were hardly the +work of the Convention, for they were merely transferred from the Penn +Charter; having yielded such admirable results in the past, it is not strange +that they were grafted into the new instrument" (p. 454).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-328_328" id="Footnote_I-328_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-328_328"><span class="label">[i-328]</span></a> Defending (in 1789) the Pennsylvania constitution, Franklin wrote, +"Have we not experienced in this Colony, when a Province under the +Government of the Proprietors, the Mischiefs of a second Branch existing +in the Proprietary Family, countenanced and aided by an Aristocratic +Council?" (<i>Writings</i>, X, 56.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-329_329" id="Footnote_I-329_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-329_329"><span class="label">[i-329]</span></a> In 1775 he submitted to the Second Continental Congress his +<i>Articles of Confederation</i> (<i>Writings</i>, VI, 420-6) which called for a "firm +League of Friendship" motivated by a unicameral assembly and a plural +executive, a Council of twelve. It was democratic also in its "basing +representation upon population instead of financial support" (Eiselen, <i>op. +cit.</i>, 54).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-330_330" id="Footnote_I-330_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-330_330"><span class="label">[i-330]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, VII, 48.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-331_331" id="Footnote_I-331_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-331_331"><span class="label">[i-331]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VII, 23. No dull sidelight on the quality of Franklin's radicalism +during this period is the fact that he brought Thomas Paine to the +colonies and was partly responsible for the writing of <i>Common Sense</i>. It +is alleged that Franklin considered Paine "his adopted political son" +(cited in M. D. Conway's <i>Life of Thomas Paine</i>, 3d ed., New York, 1893, +II, 468). For explication of Paine's political theories see C. E. Merriam, +"Political Theories of Thomas Paine," <i>Political Science Quarterly</i>, XIV, +389-403.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-332_332" id="Footnote_I-332_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-332_332"><span class="label">[i-332]</span></a> Hale and Hale, <i>op. cit.</i>, I, 70; see also 75.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-333_333" id="Footnote_I-333_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-333_333"><span class="label">[i-333]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-334_334" id="Footnote_I-334_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-334_334"><span class="label">[i-334]</span></a> Cited in J. B. Perkins, <i>France in the American Revolution</i>, 140.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-335_335" id="Footnote_I-335_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-335_335"><span class="label">[i-335]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 127.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-336_336" id="Footnote_I-336_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-336_336"><span class="label">[i-336]</span></a> See D. J. Hill, "A Missing Chapter of Franco-American History," +<i>American Historical Review</i>, XXI, 709-19, (July, 1916).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-337_337" id="Footnote_I-337_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-337_337"><span class="label">[i-337]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 710.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-338_338" id="Footnote_I-338_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-338_338"><span class="label">[i-338]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IX, 132. The Due de la Rochefoucauld translated them +into French (IX, 71). Franklin thought they would induce emigration to +the colonies. See the scores of requests (on the part of notable Frenchmen) +and thanks for copies of the constitutions of the United States listed in +<i>Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American +Philosophical Society</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-339_339" id="Footnote_I-339_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-339_339"><span class="label">[i-339]</span></a> J. S. Schapiro, <i>Condorcet and the Rise of Liberalism</i>, 79-81 and +<i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-340_340" id="Footnote_I-340_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-340_340"><span class="label">[i-340]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-341_341" id="Footnote_I-341_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-341_341"><span class="label">[i-341]</span></a> Cited in W. T. Franklin's edition, I, 303-4. E. P. Oberholtzer, +essentially hostile to Franklin, is obliged to admit that Franklin "seems +not to have had more than an advisory part" in making the Constitution +of 1776. He adds that if Franklin did not form it, "he was at any rate a +loyal defender of its principles," and that he seems to have allowed the +French to think that the Constitution was his own (<i>The Referendum in +America</i>, New York, 1900, 26-42). For Franklin's later defenses of unicameralism, +see <i>Writings</i>, IX, 645, 674; X; 56-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-342_342" id="Footnote_I-342_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-342_342"><span class="label">[i-342]</span></a> Cited in B. Faÿ, <i>The Revolutionary Spirit In France and America</i>, 289. +Faÿ shows that in France the "revolutionary leaders" who took lessons +from Franklin regarded him as "the prophet and saint of a new religion," +as the "high priest of Philosophy." See also E. J. Lowell, <i>The Eve of the +French Revolution</i> (Boston, 1892), chaps. XVI and XVIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-343_343" id="Footnote_I-343_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-343_343"><span class="label">[i-343]</span></a> B. Faÿ, <i>The Revolutionary Spirit in France and America</i>, 302.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-344_344" id="Footnote_I-344_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-344_344"><span class="label">[i-344]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, VIII, 34.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-345_345" id="Footnote_I-345_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-345_345"><span class="label">[i-345]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VIII, 452; June 7, 1782 (to Joseph Priestley).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-346_346" id="Footnote_I-346_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-346_346"><span class="label">[i-346]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 241.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-347_347" id="Footnote_I-347_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-347_347"><span class="label">[i-347]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 330.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-348_348" id="Footnote_I-348_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-348_348"><span class="label">[i-348]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 521; see also IX, 489.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-349_349" id="Footnote_I-349_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-349_349"><span class="label">[i-349]</span></a> Although the preponderance of evidence bears out the trustworthiness +of this assertion, one can not idly dismiss his <i>Some Good Whig Principles</i> +or disregard his expressed belief that the people "seldom continue +long in the wrong" and if misled they "come right again, and double their +former affections" (cited in W. C. Bruce, <i>Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed</i>, +II, 100; also see <i>Writings</i>, X, 130). There is a clearly evident +polarity in Franklin's mind between ultra-democratic faith and a rigorous +observation that if "people" are so constituted, many men are utter +rascals. One almost senses a dichotomy between Franklin the politician +and Franklin the man and moralist.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-350_350" id="Footnote_I-350_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-350_350"><span class="label">[i-350]</span></a> See his <i>The Constitution of the United States</i> (New York, 1924).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-351_351" id="Footnote_I-351_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-351_351"><span class="label">[i-351]</span></a> <i>The Records of the Federal Convention</i>, ed. by Max Farrand, I, 488; +see <i>Writings</i>, IX, 602-3, 595-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-352_352" id="Footnote_I-352_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-352_352"><span class="label">[i-352]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IX, 596.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-353_353" id="Footnote_I-353_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-353_353"><span class="label">[i-353]</span></a> <i>The Records of the Federal Convention</i>, I, 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-354_354" id="Footnote_I-354_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-354_354"><span class="label">[i-354]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 165.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-355_355" id="Footnote_I-355_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-355_355"><span class="label">[i-355]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IX, 593.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-356_356" id="Footnote_I-356_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-356_356"><span class="label">[i-356]</span></a> <i>The Records of the Federal Convention</i>, I, 109.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-357_357" id="Footnote_I-357_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-357_357"><span class="label">[i-357]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 120.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-358_358" id="Footnote_I-358_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-358_358"><span class="label">[i-358]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 204.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-359_359" id="Footnote_I-359_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-359_359"><span class="label">[i-359]</span></a> Franklin objected to primogeniture and entail.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-360_360" id="Footnote_I-360_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-360_360"><span class="label">[i-360]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 249.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-361_361" id="Footnote_I-361_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-361_361"><span class="label">[i-361]</span></a> Gettell, <i>op. cit.</i>, 122.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-362_362" id="Footnote_I-362_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-362_362"><span class="label">[i-362]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, X, 56-8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-363_363" id="Footnote_I-363_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-363_363"><span class="label">[i-363]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 698-703.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-364_364" id="Footnote_I-364_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-364_364"><span class="label">[i-364]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 608.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-365_365" id="Footnote_I-365_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-365_365"><span class="label">[i-365]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 638.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-366_366" id="Footnote_I-366_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-366_366"><span class="label">[i-366]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, X, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-367_367" id="Footnote_I-367_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-367_367"><span class="label">[i-367]</span></a> Letter in American Philosophical Society Library; cited by B. M. +Victory, <i>Benjamin Franklin and Germany</i>, 128.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-368_368" id="Footnote_I-368_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-368_368"><span class="label">[i-368]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 96.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-369_369" id="Footnote_I-369_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-369_369"><span class="label">[i-369]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 97.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-370_370" id="Footnote_I-370_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-370_370"><span class="label">[i-370]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 107.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-371_371" id="Footnote_I-371_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-371_371"><span class="label">[i-371]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 221.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-372_372" id="Footnote_I-372_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-372_372"><span class="label">[i-372]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 377.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-373_373" id="Footnote_I-373_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-373_373"><span class="label">[i-373]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, V, 165. He repeated this thought to Beccaria in 1773 (<i>ibid.</i>, VI, +112). Also see V, 206, 410-1, VII, 49.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-374_374" id="Footnote_I-374_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-374_374"><span class="label">[i-374]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VII, 418; also see VIII, 211.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-375_375" id="Footnote_I-375_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-375_375"><span class="label">[i-375]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VIII, 315; also see letter to Priestley, June 7, 1782, VIII, 451; +to Comte de Salmes, July 5, 1785, IX, 361.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-376_376" id="Footnote_I-376_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-376_376"><span class="label">[i-376]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 652.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-377_377" id="Footnote_I-377_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-377_377"><span class="label">[i-377]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, IX, 621. He wrote this after he was reappointed President of +Pennsylvania in 1787. He confessed, however, that this honor gave him +"no small pleasure."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-378_378" id="Footnote_I-378_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-378_378"><span class="label">[i-378]</span></a> W. P. and J. P. Cutler, <i>Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. +Manasseh Cutler</i>, I, 269-70.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-379_379" id="Footnote_I-379_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-379_379"><span class="label">[i-379]</span></a> <i>Joseph and Benjamin, A Conversation</i>, Trans. from a French Manuscript +(London, 1787), 72. If this meeting never took place, the reported +conversation is anything but "decidedly silly" as Ford opines (<i>Franklin +Bibliography</i>, #936, 371).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-380_380" id="Footnote_I-380_380"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-380_380"><span class="label">[i-380]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IV, 143.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-381_381" id="Footnote_I-381_381"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-381_381"><span class="label">[i-381]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VIII, 601. Also see IX, 53.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-382_382" id="Footnote_I-382_382"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-382_382"><span class="label">[i-382]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VIII, 593.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-383_383" id="Footnote_I-383_383"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-383_383"><span class="label">[i-383]</span></a> Brother Potamian and J. J. Walsh, <i>Makers of Electricity</i>, 126.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-384_384" id="Footnote_I-384_384"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-384_384"><span class="label">[i-384]</span></a> "Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden, IV (1748-54)," <i>Collections +of the New York Historical Society</i> (1920), 372.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-385_385" id="Footnote_I-385_385"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-385_385"><span class="label">[i-385]</span></a> "An Outline of Philosophy in America," <i>Western Reserve University +Bulletin</i> (March, 1896). See also I. W. Riley, <i>American Philosophy: +The Early Schools</i>, 229-65.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-386_386" id="Footnote_I-386_386"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-386_386"><span class="label">[i-386]</span></a> <i>Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times</i>, iv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-387_387" id="Footnote_I-387_387"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-387_387"><span class="label">[i-387]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 295.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-388_388" id="Footnote_I-388_388"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-388_388"><span class="label">[i-388]</span></a> <i>Boston News-Letter</i>, Jan. 17, 1744/5. Also see 1669-1882. <i>An +Historical Catalogue of the Old South Church (Third Church), Boston</i> +(Boston, 1883), 304.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-389_389" id="Footnote_I-389_389"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-389_389"><span class="label">[i-389]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 324.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-390_390" id="Footnote_I-390_390"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-390_390"><span class="label">[i-390]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IX, 208.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-391_391" id="Footnote_I-391_391"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-391_391"><span class="label">[i-391]</span></a> <i>Essays to do Good</i>, with an Introductory Essay by A. Thomson +(Glasgow, 1825), 102.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-392_392" id="Footnote_I-392_392"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-392_392"><span class="label">[i-392]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 213-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-393_393" id="Footnote_I-393_393"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-393_393"><span class="label">[i-393]</span></a> <i>Works of Daniel Defoe</i>, ed. by Wm. Hazlitt (London, 1843), I, 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-394_394" id="Footnote_I-394_394"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-394_394"><span class="label">[i-394]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 239.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-395_395" id="Footnote_I-395_395"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-395_395"><span class="label">[i-395]</span></a> See <i>New England Courant</i>, No. 48, June 25-July 2, 1722.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-396_396" id="Footnote_I-396_396"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-396_396"><span class="label">[i-396]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 244.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-397_397" id="Footnote_I-397_397"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-397_397"><span class="label">[i-397]</span></a> Consecrated to piety, Robert Boyle at his death left £50 per annum, +for a clergyman elected to "preach eight sermons in the year for proving +the Christian religion against notorious infidels, <i>viz.</i> Atheists, Theists, +Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans ..." (<i>Works of Robert Boyle</i>, London, +1772, I, clxvii.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-398_398" id="Footnote_I-398_398"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-398_398"><span class="label">[i-398]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 295.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-399_399" id="Footnote_I-399_399"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-399_399"><span class="label">[i-399]</span></a> In his Introduction to <i>Selections from Cotton Mather</i> (New York, +1926), xlix-li, K. B. Murdock agrees with I. W. Riley that <i>The Christian +Philosopher</i> (1721) represents the first stage of the reaction from scriptural +Calvinism to the scientific deism of Paine and Franklin. T. Hornberger's +"The Date, the Source, and the Significance of Cotton Mather's +Interest in Science" (<i>loc. cit.</i>) shows that "as early as 1693 Cotton Mather +was expressing that delight in the wonder and beauty of design in the +external world which Professors Murdock and Riley regard as deistic in +tendency," that he "was unconsciously vacillating between two points +of view."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-400_400" id="Footnote_I-400_400"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-400_400"><span class="label">[i-400]</span></a> <i>Works of Richard Bentley</i>, ed. by A. Dyce (London, 1838), III, 74-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-401_401" id="Footnote_I-401_401"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-401_401"><span class="label">[i-401]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-402_402" id="Footnote_I-402_402"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-402_402"><span class="label">[i-402]</span></a> <i>Physico-Theology ...</i> (5th ed., London, 1720), 25-6. God's "exquisite +Workmanship" is seen in "every Creature" (p. 27).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-403_403" id="Footnote_I-403_403"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-403_403"><span class="label">[i-403]</span></a> See <i>A Discourse of Free-Thinking</i> (London, 1713).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-404_404" id="Footnote_I-404_404"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-404_404"><span class="label">[i-404]</span></a> <i>Priestcraft in Perfection ...</i> (London, 1710).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-405_405" id="Footnote_I-405_405"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-405_405"><span class="label">[i-405]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 243.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-406_406" id="Footnote_I-406_406"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-406_406"><span class="label">[i-406]</span></a> A. C. Fraser ed. (Oxford, 1894), II, 425-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-407_407" id="Footnote_I-407_407"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-407_407"><span class="label">[i-407]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 121. For Locke and his place in the age see S. G. Hefelbower's +<i>The Relation of John Locke to English Deism</i>. About the time +he read Locke, Franklin notes he studied Arnauld and Nicole's <i>La logique +ou l'art de penser</i>. Mr. G. S. Eddy has informed one of the editors that +the Library Company of Philadelphia owns John Ozell's translation of +the work (London, 1718), and that this was the copy owned by Franklin. +(See Lowndes's <i>Bibliographer's Manual</i>, IV, 1930, and <i>Dictionary of +National Biography</i>, "John Ozell.") In accord with the English deistic +and rationalistic tendency, <i>La logique</i> admits that Aristotle's authority is +not good, that "Men cannot long endure such constraint" (Thomas S. +Bayne's trans., 8th ed., Edinburgh and London, n.d., 23). Indebted to +Pascal and Descartes, it admits with the latter that geometry and astronomy +may help one achieve justness of mind, but it vigorously asserts +that this justness of mind is more important than speculative science (p. 1). +Anti-sensational, it denies "that all our ideas come through sense" (p. 34), +affirming that we have within us ideas of things (p. 31). It is uncertain of +the value of induction, which "is never a certain means of acquiring perfect +knowledge" (p. 265; see also 304, 307, 308, 350). It accords little praise +to the sciences and reason, and seems wary of metaphysical speculation, +assuring more humbly that "Piety, wisdom, moderation, are without +doubt the most estimable qualities in the world" (p. 291). As we shall +discover, this work on the whole seems to have had (with the exception +of the last very general principle) little formative influence on the young +mind which was fast impregnating itself with scientific deism. Were it +not for the recurring implications (particularly in the harvest of editions +of the <i>Autobiography</i>) that <i>La logique</i> is as significant for our study as, +for example, the works of Locke and Shaftesbury, this note would be +pedantic supererogation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-408_408" id="Footnote_I-408_408"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-408_408"><span class="label">[i-408]</span></a> A. C. Fraser, <i>op. cit.</i>, I, 99. See also 190, 402-3; II, 65, 68, 352.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-409_409" id="Footnote_I-409_409"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-409_409"><span class="label">[i-409]</span></a> Cited in C. A. Moore, "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, +1700-1760," <i>Publications of the Modern Language Association</i>, +XXXI (<span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXIV), 276 (June, 1916).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-410_410" id="Footnote_I-410_410"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-410_410"><span class="label">[i-410]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 271.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-411_411" id="Footnote_I-411_411"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-411_411"><span class="label">[i-411]</span></a> J. M. Robertson, ed., <i>Characteristics ...</i> (New York, 1900), I, 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-412_412" id="Footnote_I-412_412"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-412_412"><span class="label">[i-412]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, I, 241-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-413_413" id="Footnote_I-413_413"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-413_413"><span class="label">[i-413]</span></a> Moore, <i>op. cit.</i>, 267.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-414_414" id="Footnote_I-414_414"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-414_414"><span class="label">[i-414]</span></a> In <i>Dogood Paper</i> No. XIV Franklin suggests (autobiographically?): +"In Matters of Religion, he that alters his Opinion on a <i>religious Account</i>, +must certainly go thro' much Reading, hear many Arguments on both +Sides, and undergo many Struggles in his Conscience, before he can come +to a full Resolution" (<i>Writings</i>, II, 46).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-415_415" id="Footnote_I-415_415"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-415_415"><span class="label">[i-415]</span></a> He read Thomas Tryon's <i>The Way to Health, Long Life and +Happiness</i>, probably the second edition (London, 1691), a copy of which +is in the W. S. Mason Collection. Tryon holds that no "greater Happiness" +than Attic sobriety is "attainable upon Earth" (p. 1). Divine +Temperance is the "spring head of all Virtues" (p. 33). Inward harmony +"is both the Glory and the Happiness, the Joy and Solace of created +Beings, the celebrated Musick of the Spheres, the Eccho of Heaven, the +Business of Seraphims, and the Imployment of Eternity" (p. 500). From +Xenophon he learned that "self-restraint" is "the very corner-stone of +virtue." The classic core of the <i>Memorabilia</i> is the love of the moderate +contending with the love of the incontinent. Franklin has impressed +many as representing an American Socrates. Emerson was certain that +Socrates "had a Franklin-like wisdom" (Centenary Ed., IV, 72). Franklin's +fondness for Socratic centrality, discipline, and knowledge of self is +fragmentarily shown by the aphorisms appropriated in <i>Poor Richard</i>. +There are scores of the quality of the following: "He that lives carnally +won't live eternally." "Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?" "Caesar +did not merit the triumphal car more than he that conquers himself." "If +Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins." "A man in a Passion rides a +mad Horse." "There are three Things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond +and to know one's self." Consult T. H. Russell's <i>The Sayings of Poor +Richard, 1733-1758</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-416_416" id="Footnote_I-416_416"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-416_416"><span class="label">[i-416]</span></a> See S. Bloore, "Samuel Keimer. A Footnote to the Life of Franklin," +<i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, LIV, 255-87 (July, +1930), and "Samuel Keimer," in <i>Dictionary of American Biography</i>, X, 288-9. +In 1724 Samuel Keimer (probably with Franklin's aid) reprinted Gordon +and Trenchard's <i>The Independent Whig</i>. (See W. J. Campbell's <i>A Short-Title +Check List of all the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, known to have +been printed by Benjamin Franklin</i>.) Franklin also was acquainted with +their <i>Cato's Letters</i>, having helped to set up parts from it while working +on the <i>New England Courant</i>. <i>The Independent Whig</i> emphasizes humanitarian +morality rather than theological dogma, morality which "prompts +us to do good to all Men, and to all Men alike" (London, 1721, xlviii). It +is fearful of metaphysical vagaries (p. 26). Warring against priests and +their "Monkey Tricks at Church" (p. 165)—"One Drop of Priestcraft +is enough to contaminate the Ocean" (p. 168)—it sets up a violent antithesis +between reason and authority (p. 212), declaring that "we must +judge from Scripture what is Orthodoxy" <i>but</i> "we must judge from +Reason, what is Scripture" (p. 276). Tilting at a Deity "revengeful, +cruel, capricious, impotent, vain, fond of Commendation and Flattery," +exalting an "All-powerful, All-wise, and All-merciful God" (p. 413), +<i>The Independent Whig</i>, like Franklin's <i>Articles</i>, suggests that "it is absurd +to suppose, that we can direct the All-wise Being in the Dispensation of +his Providence; or can flatter or persuade him out of his eternal Decrees" +(p. 436). In <i>Cato's Letters</i> (3rd ed., 4 vols., London, 1733), which +were tremendously popular in the American colonies, Franklin could +have read that "The People have no Biass to be Knaves" (I, 178), +that man "cannot enter into the Rationale of God's punishing all Mankind +for the Sin of their first Parents, which they could not help" (IV, 38), +"That we cannot provoke him, when we intend to adore him; that the +best Way to serve him, is to be serviceable to one another" (IV, 103). +Jesus instituted a natural religion, a worship of One Immutable God, free +from priests, sacrifices, and ceremonies, in which one shows through +"doing Good to men" his adoration for God (IV, 265-6). Here are +observations which could easily have reinforced Franklin's deistic rationale. +For interesting evidence of further deistic and rationalistic works available +to Franklin, see L. C. Wroth's <i>An American Bookshelf</i>, 1755.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-417_417" id="Footnote_I-417_417"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-417_417"><span class="label">[i-417]</span></a> One of the editors has examined the photostated <i>New England +Courant</i> in the W. S. Mason Collection. For readable accounts of this +newspaper see: W. G. Bleyer, <i>Main Currents in the History of American +Journalism</i>, chaps. I-II; C. A. Duniway, <i>The Development of Freedom of +the Press in Massachusetts</i>, 97-103; W. C. Ford, "Franklin's New England +Courant," <i>Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society</i>, LVII, +336-53 (April, 1924); H. F. Kane, "James Franklin Senior, Printer of +Boston and Newport," <i>American Collector</i>, III, 17-26 (Oct., 1926).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-418_418" id="Footnote_I-418_418"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-418_418"><span class="label">[i-418]</span></a> See <i>Writings</i>, II, 52-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-419_419" id="Footnote_I-419_419"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-419_419"><span class="label">[i-419]</span></a> One of the editors has used the Huth copy now possessed by W. S. +Mason. Not included in the Sparks, Bigelow, or Smyth editions of his +works, it was printed by Parton as an Appendix to his <i>Life</i>; by I. W. +Riley, <i>op. cit.</i>, and recently edited by L. C. Wroth for The Facsimile Text +Society.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-420_420" id="Footnote_I-420_420"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-420_420"><span class="label">[i-420]</span></a> Franklin must have been mistaken in his belief that he set up the +second edition. The work was privately printed in 1722, reprinted in +1724 and a second time in 1725. Hence Franklin really set up the <i>third</i> +edition. For an extensive analysis of this work, see C. G. Thompson's +dissertation, <i>The Ethics of William Wollaston</i> (Boston, 1922).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-421_421" id="Footnote_I-421_421"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-421_421"><span class="label">[i-421]</span></a> Wollaston, <i>op. cit.</i>, 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-422_422" id="Footnote_I-422_422"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-422_422"><span class="label">[i-422]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-423_423" id="Footnote_I-423_423"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-423_423"><span class="label">[i-423]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 78-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-424_424" id="Footnote_I-424_424"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-424_424"><span class="label">[i-424]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-425_425" id="Footnote_I-425_425"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-425_425"><span class="label">[i-425]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-426_426" id="Footnote_I-426_426"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-426_426"><span class="label">[i-426]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 83.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-427_427" id="Footnote_I-427_427"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-427_427"><span class="label">[i-427]</span></a> It would be interesting to know whether Franklin's much discussed +prudential virtues (listed in <i>Autobiography</i>) were not in part motivated by +Wollaston's pages 173-80.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-428_428" id="Footnote_I-428_428"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-428_428"><span class="label">[i-428]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-429_429" id="Footnote_I-429_429"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-429_429"><span class="label">[i-429]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-430_430" id="Footnote_I-430_430"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-430_430"><span class="label">[i-430]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 63 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-431_431" id="Footnote_I-431_431"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-431_431"><span class="label">[i-431]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, VII, 412.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-432_432" id="Footnote_I-432_432"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-432_432"><span class="label">[i-432]</span></a> <i>A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity</i>, <i>Pleasure and Pain</i> (London, +1725), 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-433_433" id="Footnote_I-433_433"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-433_433"><span class="label">[i-433]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-434_434" id="Footnote_I-434_434"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-434_434"><span class="label">[i-434]</span></a> For an incisive exposition of the earlier and contemporary controversy +regarding freedom of the will, see C. H. Faust and T. H. Johnson's +Introduction to <i>Jonathan Edwards</i> (American Writers Series, New +York, 1935), xliii-lxiv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-435_435" id="Footnote_I-435_435"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-435_435"><span class="label">[i-435]</span></a> <i>A Dissertation ...</i>, 10-1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-436_436" id="Footnote_I-436_436"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-436_436"><span class="label">[i-436]</span></a> In Franklin's liturgy of the '30's (in the <i>Autobiography</i>) he quotes +from Thomson's <i>Winter</i> (lines 217 ff.). While the references to Thomson +are few in the complete works, his later influence on Franklin need not +be underestimated. See Franklin's letter to W. Strahan (<i>Writings</i>, II, 242-3) +in which he confesses that "That charming Poet has brought more Tears +of Pleasure into my Eyes than all I ever read before." It is not inconceivable +that in Thomson Franklin found additional sanction for his +humanitarian bias. One remembers the wide differences between the +humanitarianism of Thomson and Franklin. Franklin's practical and +masculine-humanitarianism keyed to the saving of time and energy was +unlike the sentimental warmheartedness often displayed by Thomson. +Franklin was never moved to tears at beholding the worm's "convulsive +twist in agonizing folds."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-437_437" id="Footnote_I-437_437"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-437_437"><span class="label">[i-437]</span></a> Phillips Russell has suggested <i>Spectator</i>, No. 183, as Franklin's +probable source in Part II of the <i>Dissertation</i>. There, pleasure and pain +are "such constant yoke-fellows." This intuitive assertion can hardly +be conceived as the elaborate metaphysical rationale upon which this +idea rests in Franklin's work.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-438_438" id="Footnote_I-438_438"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-438_438"><span class="label">[i-438]</span></a> Robertson, <i>op. cit.</i>, 239-40.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-439_439" id="Footnote_I-439_439"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-439_439"><span class="label">[i-439]</span></a> London (4th ed.), 1724. A despiser of authoritarianism in religion, +intrigued by the physico-deistic thought of his day, Lyons (with a vituperative +force akin to Thomas Paine's) damns those who damn men for +revolting against divine and absolute revelation (p. 25). "Men have +<i>Reason</i> sufficient to find out proper and regular ways for improving and +perfecting their laws." Faith he calls "an unintelligible Chymæra of the +Phantasie" (p. 92). The doctrine of the Trinity "is one of the most nice +Inventions that ever the subtlest Virtuoso constru'd to puzzle the Wit of +Man with" (p. 112). Through faith people make of God "only a confus'd +unintelligible Description of a <i>Heterogeneous Monster</i> of their own Making" (p. 117). +Deistically he opines that "we shall soon see that the Object +of <i>True Religion</i>, and all Rational Mens Speculations, is an Eternal, Unchangeable, +Omnipotent Being, infinitely Good, Just and Wise" (p. 123). +Like Toland he urges, "To pretend to Believe a Thing or the Working of +a Miracle, is a stupid and gaping Astonishment" (p. 195). Although he +enjoyed Franklin's dissertation, he does not in his work hold to Franklin's +necessitarianism: "Nothing interrupts Men, but only as they interrupt +one another" (p. 238). Religion to Lyons is remote from books, but is +found in the "unalterable laws of Nature, which no Authority can destroy, +or Interpolator corrupt" (p. 252).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-440_440" id="Footnote_I-440_440"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-440_440"><span class="label">[i-440]</span></a> Although Franklin indicates in his <i>Autobiography</i> that he delighted +to listen to Mandeville hold forth at the Horns, there seems to be traceable +in his writings no direct influence of Mandeville's thought. (One may +wonder whether Franklin's use of the name "Horatio" in his 1730 dialogues +between Philocles and Horatio could be traced to Mandeville's use +of the name in his dialogues between Cleomenes and Horatio.) Mandeville's +empirical view of man's essential egoism would have found sympathetic +response from Franklin. On the other hand, Mandeville's ethical +rigorism (see Kaye's Introd. to The <i>Fable of the Bees</i>) differs from the +utilitarian cast Franklin sheds over his strenuous ethicism. One may +suspect that like a Bunyan, a Swift, a Rabelais, Mandeville would have +fortified Franklin against accepting too blithely Shaftesbury's faith in +man's innate altruism, even if he did not short-circuit Franklin's growing +humanitarianism.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-441_441" id="Footnote_I-441_441"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-441_441"><span class="label">[i-441]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, I, 278.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-442_442" id="Footnote_I-442_442"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-442_442"><span class="label">[i-442]</span></a> David Brewster, <i>Life of Sir Isaac Newton</i> (New York, 1831), 258. +For fuller treatment see his <i>Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries +of Sir Isaac Newton</i> (Edinburgh, 1855), II, 378 ff., and <i>passim</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-443_443" id="Footnote_I-443_443"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-443_443"><span class="label">[i-443]</span></a> Quoted in C. S. Duncan, <i>op. cit.</i>, 16. See Desaguliers's <i>A System +of Experimental Philosophy, Prov'd by Mechanicks ...</i> (London, 1719), +and his <i>The Newtonian System of the World, The Best Model of Government: +An Allegorical Poem</i> (Westminster, 1728). The popularizers of +Newton were legion: see especially Watts, Derham, Ray, Huygens, +Blackmore, Locke, Thomson, Shaftesbury, S. Clarke, Whiston, Keill, +Maclaurin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-444_444" id="Footnote_I-444_444"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-444_444"><span class="label">[i-444]</span></a> <i>A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy</i> (London, 1728), 2-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-445_445" id="Footnote_I-445_445"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-445_445"><span class="label">[i-445]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 405. Cf. also 13, 18, 181, 406.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-446_446" id="Footnote_I-446_446"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-446_446"><span class="label">[i-446]</span></a> Not to be neglected in a summary of the factors influencing Franklin +during his youth is Quakerism. Taught in Boston to suspect the Quakers, +in Philadelphia in the midst of their stronghold he came soon, one may +imagine, to have a sympathetic regard for them. Quakerism, in its +antagonism towards sacraments and ceremonies, in its emphasis on the +priesthood of every man and the right of private judgment, in its strenuous +effort to promote fellow-service, was congenial to the young printer, +reacting against Presbyterianism. Like the radical thought of the age, +Quakerism refused first place to scriptural revelation, which became +secondary to the light within, the dictates of one's heart. Often, we may +suspect, the light within was blended with the concept in deism, that +regardless of the promptings of scripture, each man has within him a +natural sense which enables him to apprehend the truths of nature. The +effort of deism to simplify religion was historically shared by Quakerism. +During the years we have under consideration Franklin was endeavoring +to make a simple worship out of the subtle theology which had been +offered him during his early years. Presbyterianism had frowned upon a +covenant of works; Quakerism attempted to express its covenant with God +in terms of human kindliness, fellowship, and service.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-447_447" id="Footnote_I-447_447"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-447_447"><span class="label">[i-447]</span></a> It would be interesting to know if M. Faÿ is able to document his +statement that the Junto "had Masonic leanings" ("Learned Societies in +Europe and America in the Eighteenth Century," <i>American Historical +Review</i>, XXXVII, 258 [1932]). R. F. Gould (<i>The History of Freemasonry</i>, +London, 1887, III, 424) conjectures whether where was a lodge in Boston +as early as 1720 but can offer no evidence of a real history of Masonry in +the colonies until 1730, when colonial Masonry "may be said to have its +commencement." Chroniclers of Franklin's Masonic career have found +no documentary evidence of his affiliation with Masonry until February, +1731, when he entered St. John's Lodge. See J. F. Sachse, <i>Benjamin +Franklin as a Free Mason</i>; J. H. Tatsch, <i>Freemasonry in the Thirteen +Colonies</i> (New York, 1924); <i>Early Newspaper Accounts of Free Masonry +in Pennsylvania, England, Ireland, and Scotland. From 1730 to 1750 by Dr. +Benjamin Franklin. Reprinted from Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette</i> +(Philadelphia, 1886); <i>Masonic Letters of Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia +to H. Price of Boston</i>, ed. by C. P. MacCalla (Philadelphia, 1888); M. M. +Johnson, <i>The Beginnings of Freemasonry in America</i> (New York, 1924). +See "Prefatory Note" in W. B. Loewy's reprint of Anderson's <i>Constitutions</i> +(a reprint of Franklin's imprint of 1734) in <i>Publications of the +Masonic Historical Society of New York</i>, No. 3 (New York, 1905). Arriving +in London only seven years after the inauguration of the Grand Lodge, +Franklin could hardly have been unaware of the broader speculations of +Masonry. In London only a year after Anderson's <i>Constitutions</i> were +printed (in 1723), he may conceivably have read the volume. +</p><p> +Stressing toleration, the universality of natural religion, morality +rather than theology, reason rather than faith, Masonry could easily +have augmented these ideas as they were latent or already developed in +Franklin's mind. Scholars have yet to work out the extent to which +Freemasonry, yokefellow of deism, reinforced free thought and was +one of the subversive forces breaking down colonial orthodoxy. B. Faÿ's +<i>Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800</i> neglects non-political influences +of Freemasonry. +</p><p> +Although there is no evidence that Franklin as early as 1728 read +such works (popular in the colonies) as De Ramsay's <i>The Travels of +Cyrus</i> and Rowe's translation of <i>The Golden Sayings of Pythagoras</i>, the +manner in which oriental lore augmented science and Masonry in fostering +deism is an intriguing problem in eighteenth-century colonial letters.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-448_448" id="Footnote_I-448_448"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-448_448"><span class="label">[i-448]</span></a> See I. W. Riley, <i>op. cit.</i>, 249. Also see C. M. Walsh, "Franklin and +Plato," <i>Open Court</i>, XX, 129 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-449_449" id="Footnote_I-449_449"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-449_449"><span class="label">[i-449]</span></a> See <i>Writings</i>, II, 95-6 (1728).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-450_450" id="Footnote_I-450_450"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-450_450"><span class="label">[i-450]</span></a> John Ray's <i>The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the +Creation</i> (London, 1827; first ed. 1691), 31-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-451_451" id="Footnote_I-451_451"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-451_451"><span class="label">[i-451]</span></a> <i>The Augustan Age</i>, 54-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-452_452" id="Footnote_I-452_452"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-452_452"><span class="label">[i-452]</span></a> <i>Selections from the Writings of Fénelon</i>, ed. by Mrs. Follen (Boston, +1861), 51-2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-453_453" id="Footnote_I-453_453"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-453_453"><span class="label">[i-453]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-454_454" id="Footnote_I-454_454"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-454_454"><span class="label">[i-454]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-455_455" id="Footnote_I-455_455"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-455_455"><span class="label">[i-455]</span></a> In Preface to <i>The Works of the British Poets</i>, ed. by R. Anderson +(London, 1795), 592. Since Franklin frequented Batson's in Cornhill, it +is possible that through Dr. Pemberton he might have met Sir R. Blackmore, +who was one of its best patrons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-456_456" id="Footnote_I-456_456"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-456_456"><span class="label">[i-456]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 611.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-457_457" id="Footnote_I-457_457"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-457_457"><span class="label">[i-457]</span></a> See Ray, <i>op. cit.</i>, 143: "I persuade myself, that the beautiful and +gracious Author of man's being and faculties, and all things else, delights +in the beauty of his creation, and is well pleased with the industry of man, +in adorning the earth with beautiful cities and castles...."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-458_458" id="Footnote_I-458_458"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-458_458"><span class="label">[i-458]</span></a> <i>The Relation of John Locke to English Deism</i>, 133.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-459_459" id="Footnote_I-459_459"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-459_459"><span class="label">[i-459]</span></a> See P. S. Wood, "Native Elements in English Neo-Classicism," +<i>Modern Philology</i>, XXIV, 201-8 (Nov., 1926).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-460_460" id="Footnote_I-460_460"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-460_460"><span class="label">[i-460]</span></a> See C. E. Jorgenson's "The Source of Benjamin Franklin's Dialogues +between Philocles and Horatio (1730)," <i>American Literature</i>, VI, +337-9 (Nov., 1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-461_461" id="Footnote_I-461_461"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-461_461"><span class="label">[i-461]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 203.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-462_462" id="Footnote_I-462_462"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-462_462"><span class="label">[i-462]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 467.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-463_463" id="Footnote_I-463_463"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-463_463"><span class="label">[i-463]</span></a> Facsimile reprint by W. Pepper (Philadelphia, 1931), 27 note.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-464_464" id="Footnote_I-464_464"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-464_464"><span class="label">[i-464]</span></a> See <i>Almanac</i> for 1753.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-465_465" id="Footnote_I-465_465"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-465_465"><span class="label">[i-465]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 288.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-466_466" id="Footnote_I-466_466"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-466_466"><span class="label">[i-466]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 429. See also II, 434-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-467_467" id="Footnote_I-467_467"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-467_467"><span class="label">[i-467]</span></a> See W. J. Campbell, <i>op. cit.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-468_468" id="Footnote_I-468_468"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-468_468"><span class="label">[i-468]</span></a> No. 570 (Nov. 15, 1739), No. 565 (Oct. 11, 1739), and No. 628 +(Dec. 25, 1740), for example, are loaded with tributes to the effective +preaching and contagious saintliness of this preacher of the Great Awakening.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-469_469" id="Footnote_I-469_469"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-469_469"><span class="label">[i-469]</span></a> No. 618 (Oct. 16, 1740). Franklin's <i>General Magazine and Historical +Chronicle</i> contains many Whitefield references.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-470_470" id="Footnote_I-470_470"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-470_470"><span class="label">[i-470]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, II, 316. In general, emotional Methodism was not responsive +to science as a basis for rationalistic deism, although to a considerable +extent Methodism and deism synchronized in their endeavor to relieve +social suffering. See U. Lee's able study, <i>The Historical Backgrounds of +Early Methodist Enthusiasm</i> (New York, 1931).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-471_471" id="Footnote_I-471_471"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-471_471"><span class="label">[i-471]</span></a> Rev. L. Tyerman, <i>Life of the Reverend George Whitefield</i> (London, +1876), I, 439.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-472_472" id="Footnote_I-472_472"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-472_472"><span class="label">[i-472]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 283-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-473_473" id="Footnote_I-473_473"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-473_473"><span class="label">[i-473]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 540-1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-474_474" id="Footnote_I-474_474"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-474_474"><span class="label">[i-474]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, II, 541.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-475_475" id="Footnote_I-475_475"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-475_475"><span class="label">[i-475]</span></a> See H. H. Clark's "An Historical Interpretation of Thomas Paine's +Religion," <i>University of California Chronicle</i>, XXXV, 56-87 (Jan., 1933), +and "Toward a Reinterpretation of Thomas Paine," <i>American Literature</i>, +V, 133-45 (May, 1933).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-476_476" id="Footnote_I-476_476"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-476_476"><span class="label">[i-476]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IX, 520.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-477_477" id="Footnote_I-477_477"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-477_477"><span class="label">[i-477]</span></a> <i>Ibid.</i>, VIII, 561. See also IX, 506.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-478_478" id="Footnote_I-478_478"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-478_478"><span class="label">[i-478]</span></a> Aug. 22, 1784; unpublished letter in W. S. Mason Collection. Also +see <i>Writings</i>, VIII, 113; IX, 476, 488, 621.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-479_479" id="Footnote_I-479_479"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-479_479"><span class="label">[i-479]</span></a> I. W. Riley, <i>American Thought from Puritanism to Pragmatism</i>, 76.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-480_480" id="Footnote_I-480_480"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-480_480"><span class="label">[i-480]</span></a> Parton, <i>op. cit.</i>, I, 546.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-481_481" id="Footnote_I-481_481"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-481_481"><span class="label">[i-481]</span></a> He admonished Deborah, his wife, that she "should go oftener to +Church" (<i>Writings</i>, IV, 202), and his daughter, Sarah, "Go constantly to +Church, whoever preaches" (<i>Ibid.</i>, IV, 287).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-482_482" id="Footnote_I-482_482"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-482_482"><span class="label">[i-482]</span></a> <i>Letters to Benjamin Franklin from His Family and Friends, 1751-1790</i> +(New York, 1859), 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-483_483" id="Footnote_I-483_483"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-483_483"><span class="label">[i-483]</span></a> Franklin's English friends, Dr. Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, Rev. +David Williams, Dr. John Fothergill, Peter Collinson, Sir Joseph Banks, +Jonathan Shipley, Lord Kames, Sir William Jones, et cetera, though not +all deists, found Newtonian science useful in augmenting their philosophies.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-484_484" id="Footnote_I-484_484"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-484_484"><span class="label">[i-484]</span></a> <i>A Discourse ...</i> (London, 1775), 33. For background material on +the history of this concept see L. E. Hicks, <i>A Critique of Design-Arguments</i> +(New York, 1883).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-485_485" id="Footnote_I-485_485"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-485_485"><span class="label">[i-485]</span></a> N. Meredith, <i>Considerations on the Utility of Conductors for Lightning +...</i> (London, 1789), 44-5. See especially the characteristic notice in +<i>Monthly Review ...</i>, XLII (London, 1770), 199-210, 298-308.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-486_486" id="Footnote_I-486_486"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-486_486"><span class="label">[i-486]</span></a> For references see B. Faÿ, <i>The Revolutionary Spirit in France and +America</i>; E. E. Hale and E. E. Hale, Jr., <i>Franklin in France</i>; L. Amiable, <i>Un +loge maçonnique d'avant 1789 ...</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-487_487" id="Footnote_I-487_487"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-487_487"><span class="label">[i-487]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, IX, 436.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-488_488" id="Footnote_I-488_488"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-488_488"><span class="label">[i-488]</span></a> W. T. Franklin ed. of Franklin's <i>Writings</i> (London, 1818), I, 433.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-489_489" id="Footnote_I-489_489"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-489_489"><span class="label">[i-489]</span></a> See similar expression in letter to Mme Brillon, cited in J. M. Stifler, +<i>The Religion of Benjamin Franklin</i>, 55-6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I-490_490" id="Footnote_I-490_490"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I-490_490"><span class="label">[i-490]</span></a> <i>Writings</i>, III, 135.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxlii" id="Page_cxlii">[cxlii]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHRONOLOGICAL_TABLE" id="CHRONOLOGICAL_TABLE"></a><i>CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE</i></h2> + + +<p class="hangcr">1706. Benjamin Franklin born in Boston, January 17 (January +6, 1705, O. S.).</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1714-16. After a year in Boston Grammar School is sent to +learn writing and arithmetic in school kept by George +Brownell, from which, after a year, he is taken to assist +his father, Josiah, a candlemaker.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1717. James Franklin returns from England, following apprenticeship +as printer.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1718. Benjamin is apprenticed to brother James.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1718-23. Period of assiduous reading in Anthony Collins, +Shaftesbury, Locke, Addison and Steele, Cotton Mather, +Bunyan, Defoe, etc.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1719. Writes and hawks ballads of the "Grub-Street" style, +"The Lighthouse Tragedy" and "The Taking of Teach +the Pirate."</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1721-23. Aids brother in publishing the <i>New England Courant</i>. +During 1722-23 in charge of paper after James is +declared objectionable by the authorities.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1722. His <i>Dogood Papers</i> printed anonymously in the <i>New +England Courant</i>.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1723. Breaks his indentures and leaves for New York; eventually +arrives in Philadelphia.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1723-24. Employed by Samuel Keimer, a printer in Philadelphia.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1724. Visits Cotton Mather and Governor Burnet (New York). +Meets James Ralph, Grub-Street pamphleteer, historian, +and poet in the Thomson tradition. Patronized by +Governor Keith. Leaves for London in November on +the <i>London-Hope</i> to buy type, etc., for printing shop to +be set up in his behalf by Keith. Upon arrival he and +Ralph take lodgings in Little Britain.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1725-26. Employed in Palmer's and Watts's printing houses.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxliii" id="Page_cxliii">[cxliii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1725. Publishes <i>A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure +and Pain</i>. One result of this is acquaintance with +Lyons, author of <i>The Infallibility of Human Judgement</i>. +Through him Franklin meets Bernard Mandeville and +Dr. Henry Pemberton, who is preparing a third edition +of Sir Isaac Newton's <i>Principia</i>. Is received by Sir Hans +Sloane in Bloomsbury Square. Conceives of setting up +a swimming school in London.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1726. On July 21, with Mr. Denham, merchant and Quaker, +leaves for Philadelphia on the <i>Berkshire</i>. Between July 22 +and October 11 writes <i>Journal of a Voyage from London +to Philadelphia</i>. Employed by Denham until latter's +death in 1727.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1727. Ill of pleurisy and composes his epitaph. After recovery +returns to Keimer's printing house. Forms his Junto +club. Employed in Burlington, New Jersey, on a job +of printing paper money.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1728. Forms partnership with Hugh Meredith. Writes <i>Articles +of Belief and Acts of Religion</i>, and <i>Rules for a Club</i>—his +Junto club "Constitution."</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1729. Buys Keimer's <i>The Universal Instructor in all Arts and +Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette</i> (begun December 24, +1728). Changes name to <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, first issue, +XL, September 25-October 2, 1729. (Published by +Franklin until 1748, by Franklin and David Hall from +1748 to 1766, after which Hall, until his death, and others +publish it until 1815.) Contributes to <i>American Weekly +Mercury</i> six papers of <i>The Busy-Body</i>, February 4, 1729-March +27, 1729. Writes and prints <i>A Modest Enquiry +into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency</i>.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1730. Appointed Public Printer by Pennsylvania Assembly +(incumbent until 1764). Partnership with Meredith dissolved. +Marries Deborah Read (Mrs. Rogers). Prints +in <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> his <i>Dialogues between Philocles +and Horatio</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxliv" id="Page_cxliv">[cxliv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1731. First public venture: founds the Philadelphia Library +Company, first subscription library in America. Begins +partnership with Thomas Whitemarsh, Charleston, +S. C. (1732, publishes <i>South Carolina Gazette</i>.) Begins +Masonic affiliations: enters St. John's Lodge in February. +William Franklin born.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1732. Begins <i>Poor Richard's Almanack</i> (for 1733). His son +Francis Folger Franklin born (dies of smallpox in 1736). +Elected junior grand warden of St. John's Lodge.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1733. Begins to study languages, French, Italian, Spanish, and +continues Latin.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1734. Elected grand master of Masons of Pennsylvania for +1734-35. Reprints Anderson's <i>Constitutions</i>, first Masonic +book printed in America.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1735. Writes and prints three pamphlets in defense of Rev. +Mr. Hemphill. Prints, in the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, <i>Protection +of Towns from Fire</i>. Secretary of St. John's +Lodge until 1738. Writes introduction for and prints +Logan's <i>Cato's Moral Distiches</i>, first classic translated +and printed in the colonies.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1736. Establishes the Union Fire Company, the first in Philadelphia. +Chosen clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1737. Appointed postmaster of Philadelphia (incumbent until +1753); also justice of the peace.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1739. Beginning of friendship with the Reverend George +Whitefield.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1740. Announces (November 13) <i>The General Magazine and +Historical Chronicle</i>.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1741. Six issues (January-June) of this magazine (the first +planned and the second issued in the colonies). With +J. Parker establishes a printing house in New York.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1742. Invents Franklin open stove.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1743. <i>A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the +British Plantations in America</i> (circular letter sent to his +friends).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxlv" id="Page_cxlv">[cxlv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1744. Establishes the American Philosophical Society and +becomes its first secretary. Daughter Sarah born. <i>An +Account of the New Invented Pennsylvanian Fire-places.</i> +Writes preface to and prints Logan's translation of +Cicero's <i>Cato Major</i>. Reprints Richardson's <i>Pamela</i>. +Father dies.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1746. <i>Reflections on Courtship and Marriage</i>, first of his writings +reprinted in Europe. Peter Collinson sends a Leyden +vial as gift to Library Company of Philadelphia. +Having witnessed Dr. Spence's experiments, Franklin +now begins his study of electricity.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1747. <i>Plain Truth: or, Serious Considerations on the Present +State of the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pennsylvania.</i></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1748. Withdraws from active service in his printing and bookselling +house (Franklin and Hall). <i>Advice to a Young +Tradesman.</i> Chosen member of the Council of Philadelphia.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1749. Appointed provincial grand master of colonial Masons +(through 1750). <i>Proposals Relating to the Education of +Youth in Pensilvania.</i> Founds academy which later develops +into University of Pennsylvania. Reprints Bolingbroke's +<i>On the Spirit of Patriotism</i>.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1750. Appointed as one of the commissioners to make treaty +with the Indians at Carlisle.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1751. <i>Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at +Philadelphia in America, By Mr. Benjamin Franklin, and +Communicated in several Letters to Mr. P. Collinson, of +London, F. R. S.</i> (London.) <i>Idea of the English School, +Sketch'd out for the Consideration of the Trustees of the +Philadelphia Academy.</i> Member of Assembly from +Philadelphia (incumbent until 1764). <i>Observations Concerning +the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, Etc.</i> +Aids Dr. Bond to establish Pennsylvania hospital.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1752. Collinson edition of Franklin's works translated into +French. Alleged kite experiment proves identity of +lightning and electricity. Invents lightning rod; in +September raises one over his own house. Mother dies. +Aids in establishing the first fire insurance company in +the colonies.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxlvi" id="Page_cxlvi">[cxlvi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1753. Appointed (jointly with William Hunter) deputy postmaster +general of North America Post, a position he held +until 1774. Makes ten-weeks' survey of roads and post +offices in northern colonies. Abbé Nollet attacks Franklin +in <i>Lettres sur l'électricité</i> (Paris). Beccaria defends +Franklin's electrical theories against Abbé Nollet. Receives +M. A. from Harvard and from Yale. Receives Sir +Godfrey Copley medal from the Royal Society.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1754. Proposes Albany Plan of Union. Second edition of +<i>Experiments and Observations on Electricity</i>.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1755. <i>An Act for the Better Ordering and Regulating such as are +Willing and Desirous to be United for Military Purposes +within the Province of Pennsylvania.</i> <i>A Dialogue Between +X, Y, & Z, concerning the Present State of Affairs in +Pennsylvania.</i> Aids General Braddock in getting supplies +and transportation.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1756. Supervises construction efforts in province of Pennsylvania +(a task begun in 1755). Chosen Fellow of the +Royal Society of London. Chosen a member of the +London Society of Arts. <i>Plan for Settling the Western +Colonies in North America, with Reasons for the Plan.</i> +M. D'Alibard's edition of Franklin's electrical experiments +(French translation). Receives M. A. from William +and Mary College.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1757. Appointed colonial agent for Province of Pennsylvania +(arrives in London July 26). <i>The Way to Wealth</i> (for +1758). (In 1889 Ford noted: "Seventy editions of it have +been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in +German, and nine in Italian. It has been translated into +Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish, Gaelic, Russian, +Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, Modern Greek +and Phonetic writing. It has been printed at least four +hundred times, and is today as popular as ever.")</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxlvii" id="Page_cxlvii">[cxlvii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1759. Receives Doctor of Laws degree from University of St. +Andrews. September 5, made burgess and guild-brother +of Edinburgh. <i>An Historical Review of the Constitution +and Government of Pennsylvania.</i> (See Ford, pp. 110-111, +where he suggests that this "must still be treated as from +Franklin's pen.") <i>Parable against Persecution.</i> Meets +Adam Smith, Hume, Lord Kames, etc., in home of Dr. +Robertson at Edinburgh. Makes many electrical experiments. +Chosen honorary member of Philosophical +Society of Edinburgh.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1760. Provincial grand master of Pennsylvania Masons. <i>The +Interest of Great Britain Considered with Regard to Her +Colonies.</i> Elected to society of Dr. Bray's Associates. +(Corresponding member until 1790.) Successful close +of his issue with the proprietaries.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1761. Tour of Holland and Belgium.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1762. Receives degree of Doctor of Civil Law from Oxford. +Leaves England in August, arrives in America in October.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1763. Travels through colonies to inspect and regulate post +offices.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1764. Appointed agent for Province of Pennsylvania to petition +king for change from proprietary to royal government. +Leaves for London in November. <i>Cool Thoughts on the +Present Situation of Our Public Affairs.</i> <i>A Narrative of +the Late Massacres in Lancaster County.</i> <i>Preface to the +Speech of Joseph Galloway, Esq.</i></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1765. Presents Grenville with resolution of Pennsylvania +Assembly against Stamp Act.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1766. Examined in House of Commons relative to repeal of the +Stamp Act. <i>Physical and Meteorological Observations.</i> +With Sir John Pringle visits Germany and Holland +(June-August). Chosen foreign member of the Royal +Society of Sciences, Göttingen.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1767. With Sir John Pringle visits France (August 28-October +8). Meets French Physiocrats. <i>Remarks and Facts +Concerning American Paper Money.</i></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1768. Preface to <i>Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania</i> (J. +Dickinson). <i>A Scheme for a New Alphabet and Reformed +Mode of Spelling.</i> <i>Causes of the American Discontents +before 1768.</i> <i>Art of Swimming.</i> Appointed London +agent for colony of Georgia.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxlviii" id="Page_cxlviii">[cxlviii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1769. Visits France (July-August). Appointed New Jersey +agent in London. Elected first president of the American +Philosophical Society.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1770. Appointed London agent for Massachusetts Assembly.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1771. Begins <i>Autobiography</i> (from 1706 to 1731) while visiting +the Bishop of St. Asaph at Twyford. Three-months' tour +of Ireland and Scotland. Entertained by Hume and Lord +Kames. Chosen corresponding member of Learned +Society of Sciences, Rotterdam.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1772. Chosen foreign member of Royal Academy of Sciences +of Paris.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1773. <i>Abridgement of the Book of Common Prayer</i> (with Sir +Francis Dashwood). <i>Rules by Which a Great Empire +May Be Reduced to a Small One.</i> M. Barbeu Dubourg's +edition of <i>Œuvres de M. Franklin</i>. Sends Hutchinson-Oliver +letters to Massachusetts.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1774. Examined by Wedderburn before the Privy Council +(January 29) in regard to the Hutchinson-Oliver correspondence. +Contributes notes to George Whately's +second edition of <i>Principles of Trade</i>. Dismissed as +deputy postmaster general of North America. Deborah +Franklin dies December 19.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1775. First postmaster general under Confederation. Returns +to America in May. Member of Philadelphia Committee +of Safety. Chosen a delegate to second Continental +Congress. <i>An Account of Negotiations in London +for Effecting a Reconciliation between Great Britain and +the American Colonies.</i> Appointed member of Committee +of Secret Correspondence.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1776. A commissioner to Canada. Presides over Constitutional +Convention of Pennsylvania. Appointed one of +committee to frame Declaration of Independence. In +September appointed one of three commissioners from +Congress to the French court. Leaves Philadelphia +October 27; reaches Paris December 21.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1777. Elected member of Loge des Neuf Sœurs. Chosen associate +member of Royal Medical Society of Paris.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cxlix" id="Page_cxlix">[cxlix]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1778. Assists at initiation of Voltaire in Loge des Neuf Sœurs. +Officiates at Masonic funeral service of Voltaire. Signs +commercial treaty and alliance for mutual defense with +France. <i>The Ephemera.</i> Altercation with Arthur Lee.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1779. Minister plenipotentiary to French court. <i>The Whistle.</i> +<i>Morals of Chess.</i> B. Vaughan edits Franklin's <i>Political, +Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces</i>.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1780. <i>Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout.</i></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1781. Chosen Fellow of American Academy of Arts and +Sciences: elected foreign member of Academy of Sciences, +Letters, and Arts of Padua, for work in natural +philosophy and politics. Appointed one of the peace +commissioners to negotiate treaty of peace between +England and United States.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1782. Elected Venerable of Loge des Neuf Sœurs.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1783. Signs treaty with Sweden. Prints <i>Constitutions of the +United States</i>. Elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal +Society of Edinburgh. Interest in balloons. Signs the +Treaty of Paris with John Jay and John Adams.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1784. With Le Roy, Bailly, Guillotin, Lavoisier, and others, +investigates Mesmer's animal magnetism (results in numerous +pamphlet reports). <i>Remarks Concerning the Savages +of North America. Advice to Such as Would Remove to +America.</i> Chosen member of Royal Academy of History, +Madrid. At Passy resumes work on <i>Autobiography</i>, +beyond 1731.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1785. <i>Maritime Observations.</i> <i>On the Causes and Cure of +Smoky Chimneys.</i> Signs treaty of amity and commerce +with Prussia. Resigns as minister to French Court, and +returns to Philadelphia. President of Council of Pennsylvania +(incumbent for three years). Associate member +of Academy of Sciences, Literature, and Arts of Lyons. +Councillor for Philadelphia until 1788. Member of +Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, +and Royal Society of Physics, National History and Arts +of Orleans, and honorary member of Manchester Literary +and Philosophical Society.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cl" id="Page_cl">[cl]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangcr">1786. Chosen corresponding member of Society of Agriculture +of Milan.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1787. President of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition +of Slavery (incumbent until death). Pennsylvania delegate +to Constitutional Convention. Chosen honorary +member of Medical Society of London. Aids in establishing +the Society for Political Enquiry; elected its first +president.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1788. At Philadelphia works on <i>Autobiography</i>, from 1731-1757.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1789. <i>Observations Relative to the Intentions of the Original +Founders of the Academy in Philadelphia</i> and several +papers in behalf of abolition of slavery. At Philadelphia +resumes <i>Autobiography</i>, from 1757 to 1759. Chosen member +of Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg.</p> + +<p class="hangcr">1790. Paper on the slave trade, <i>To the Editor of the Federal +Gazette</i>, March 23. Dies, April 17, in Philadelphia.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cli" id="Page_cli">[cli]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="SELECTED_BIBLIOGRAPHY" id="SELECTED_BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a><i>SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY</i></h2> + +<p class="center">Starred items are of primary importance.</p> + + +<h3><a name="I_WORKS" id="I_WORKS"></a>I. WORKS</h3> + +<p>Only the most useful and historically significant editions are +here listed. The student interested in other editions of Franklin's +works, the publication of his separate pamphlets, his contributions +to newspapers and periodicals, and his editorial +activities should consult P. L. Ford's <i>Franklin Bibliography</i>. +Many of these items are conveniently listed in <i>The Cambridge +History of American Literature</i>, I, 442 ff.</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia +in America, By Mr. Benjamin Franklin, and Communicated +in several Letters to P. Collinson, of London, F. R. S.</i> +London: 1751. (For various editions and translations of this +and the supplementary letters added to first edition, consult +Ford's <i>Bibliography</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces; ... Written +by Benj. Franklin, LL. D. and F. R. S.... Now first collected, +With Explanatory Plates, Notes, ...</i> [ed. by Benjamin +Vaughan]. London: 1779. ("The work is ably performed, +many pieces being for the first time printed as Franklin's; +and contains valuable notes. But what gives a special value +to this collection is that it is the only edition of Franklin's +writings [other than his scientific], which was printed during +his life time; was done with Franklin's knowledge and consent, +and contains an 'errata' made by him for it" [Ford, p. 161]. +Review in <i>Monthly Review</i>, LXII, 199-210, 298-308, describes +his electrical experiments as constituting a "<i>principia</i>" +of electricity. See also Smyth, VII, 410-13, for Franklin's +own opinion.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clii" id="Page_clii">[clii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Mémoires de la vie privée de Benjamin Franklin, écrits par luimême, +et adressés à son fils; suivis d'un précis historique de sa +vie politique, et de plusieurs pièces, relatives à ce père de la +liberté.</i> Paris: 1791. (First edition of Franklin's <i>Autobiography</i> +to the year 1731; translation attributed to Dr. Jacques +Gibelin. "The remainder of his life is a translation from Wilmer's +<i>Memoirs</i> of Franklin, with the most objectionable +statements omitted" [Ford, p. 183]. For a succinct history of +<i>Autobiography</i>, editions, printing, translation, and fortunes +of the MS see Bigelow's introduction to <i>Autobiography</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, LL. D. +F. R. S. &c.... Written by himself to a late period, and continued +to the time of his death, by his Grandson; William +Temple Franklin. Now first published from the original MSS....</i> +3 vols. London: 1818. (The standard collection, according +to A. H. Smyth, until Sparks's edition. Representative +review in <i>Analectic Magazine</i>, XI, 449-84, June, 1818.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>The Works of Benjamin Franklin; containing several political +and historical tracts not included in any former edition, and +many letters official and private not hitherto published; with +notes and a life of the author</i>, by Jared Sparks. 10 vols. Boston: +1836-1840. (Although Sparks took undesirable editorial +liberties with the MSS, rephrasing, emending, and deleting, +this edition still possesses value for its notes and inclusion of +pieces which Smyth does not include, but which <i>may</i> have +been written by Franklin. Includes many valuable letters to +Franklin. For reviews see <i>North American Review</i>, LIX, +446, and LXXXIII, 402.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Edited from his Manuscript, +with Notes and an Introduction</i>, by John Bigelow. +Philadelphia: 1868. (To quote Ford: "This is not only the +first appearance of the autobiography from Franklin's own +copy, but also the first publication in English of the four +parts, and the first publication of the very important 'outline' +autobiography. It is therefore the first edition of <i>the</i> autobiography" +[p. 199].)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cliii" id="Page_cliii">[cliii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>The Life of Benjamin Franklin, written by himself. Now first +edited from original manuscripts and from his printed correspondence +and other writings</i>, by John Bigelow. 3 vols. +Philadelphia: 1874. (Bigelow text of <i>Autobiography</i> and extracts +from Franklin's other works.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin including his private +as well as his official and scientific correspondence, and numerous +letters and documents now for the first time printed with many +others not included in any former collection, also the unmutilated +and correct version of his autobiography.</i> Comp. and ed. by +John Bigelow. 10 vols. New York: 1887-1889. (Corrects +many of Sparks's errors and adds "some six hundred new +pieces." For first time works are chronologically arranged.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*<i>The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, collected and edited with a +Life and Introduction</i>, by Albert Henry Smyth. 10 vols. New +York: 1905-1907. (The standard edition. It is unfortunate +that the editor has omitted pieces which are either too +Rabelaisian or too metaphysically radical, such as the <i>Dissertation</i> +of 1725, or are, in his mind, <i>probably</i> not written by +Franklin.)</p> + + +<h3><a name="II_COLLECTIONS_AND_REPRINTS" id="II_COLLECTIONS_AND_REPRINTS"></a>II. COLLECTIONS AND REPRINTS</h3> + +<p>No attempt has been made to include the learned journal +articles which reprint occasional letters not in Smyth. Letters +which aid in understanding Franklin's mind have been referred +to in the Introduction and Notes.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Chinard, Gilbert. <i>Les amitiés américaines de Madame d'Houdetot, +d'après sa correspondance inédite avec Benjamin Franklin +et Thomas Jefferson.</i> Paris: 1924.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Diller, Theodore. <i>Franklin's Contribution to Medicine.</i> Brooklyn: +1912. (Able collection of Franklin's letters bearing on +medicine. Franklin is described "as one of the greatest benefactors, +friends, and patrons of the medical profession as +well as a most substantial contributor to the science and art +of medicine.")</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_cliv" id="Page_cliv">[cliv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">[Franklin, Benjamin.] <i>A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, +Pleasure and Pain.</i> Reproduced from the first edition, with +a bibliographical note by Lawrence C. Wroth. The Facsimile +Text Society, New York: 1930. (Although A. H. +Smyth omitted this work from his <i>Writings of Benjamin +Franklin</i>, suggesting that "the work has no value," it is difficult +to see how a study of the <i>modus operandi</i> of Franklin's +mind could be thoroughly made without it. Parton in his +<i>Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin</i>, and I. W. Riley in his +<i>American Philosophy: The Early Schools</i> have reprinted it in +appendices.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Franklin, Benjamin. <i>Poor Richard's Almanack. Being the +Almanacks of 1733, 1749, 1756, 1757, 1758, first written under +the name of Richard Saunders.</i> With a foreword by Phillips +Russell. Garden City, N. Y.: 1928. ("First facsimile edition +of a group of the Almanacks to be published.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Franklin, Benjamin. <i>The Prefaces, Proverbs, and Poems of +Benjamin Franklin Originally Printed in Poor Richard's +Almanacs for 1733-1758.</i> Collected and ed. by P. L. Ford. +Brooklyn: 1890. (Best collection of its kind; in addition contains +account of popularity and function of almanacs in +colonial period.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Franklin, Benjamin. <i>Proposals Relating to the Education of +Youth in Pensilvania.</i> Facsimile reprint, with an introduction +by William Pepper. Philadelphia: 1931. (Franklin's notes +omitted in Smyth. <i>Proposals</i> also reprinted by the William +L. Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan: 1927; "though +not a facsimile reprint," it does include the notes. Thomas +Woody in his <i>Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin</i> [New +York: 1931] reprints it with the notes.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Franklin, Benjamin. <i>The Sayings of Poor Richard, 1733-1758.</i> +Condensed and ed. by T. H. Russell. N.p.: n.d. (Best aphorisms +chronologically arranged.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Goodman, N. G., ed. <i>The Ingenious Dr. Franklin; Selected +Scientific Letters of Benjamin Franklin.</i> Philadelphia: 1931. +(Includes several items not published in Smyth edition.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Letters to Benjamin Franklin, from his Family and Friends, +1751-1790.</i> [Ed. by William Duane.] New York: 1859.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Pepper, William. <i>The Medical Side of Benjamin Franklin.</i> +Philadelphia: 1911. (Essentially quotations from the A. H. +Smyth edition. Franklin is viewed as "an early and great +hygienist.")</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clv" id="Page_clv">[clv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Stifler, J. M., ed. "<i>My Dear Girl.</i>" <i>The Correspondence of +Benjamin Franklin with Polly Stevenson, Georgiana and +Catherine Shipley.</i> New York: 1927. (Engaging collection +showing Franklin's "capacity for lively and enduring friendship" +[p. vii]. Many of the letters <i>to</i> Franklin "printed now +for the first time." Contains several of Franklin's letters +hitherto unpublished.)</p> + + +<h3><a name="III_BIOGRAPHIES" id="III_BIOGRAPHIES"></a>III. BIOGRAPHIES</h3> + +<p class="hangbib">Becker, Carl. "Benjamin Franklin," in <i>Dictionary of American +Biography</i>. New York: 1931. VI, 585-98. (The most +authoritative brief biography.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Bruce, W. C. <i>Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed.</i> 2 vols. New +York: 1917. (In spite of occasional extravagant statements +and a conservative temperament preventing him from discussing +Franklin's religion with sympathetic and historical +insight, Mr. Bruce has provided a brilliant and perspicuous +survey. "Self-revealed" fails to do justice to Bruce's incisive +commentary.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Faÿ, Bernard. <i>Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times.</i> Boston: +1929. (A readable critical biography said to be based on "six +hundred to nine hundred unpublished letters." Would have +been more useful had it been given scholarly documentation. +Some new light on Franklin's Masonic activities and his +efforts during 1757-1762 to effect the growth of a British +empire. [Faÿ used the Franklin-Galloway correspondence in +the W. S. Mason and W. L. Clements collections.] Believes +that Franklin was a "follower of the seventeenth-century +English Pythagoreans": since this belief is largely undocumented, +one feels it curious that Pythagoreanism should bulk +larger than the pattern of thought provoked by Locke and +Newton. See very critical reviews by H. M. Jones in <i>American +Literature</i>, II, 306-12 [Nov., 1930], and W. C. Bruce, +<i>American Historical Review</i>, XXXV, 634 ff. [April, 1930]. +The latter concludes that "there is very little, indeed, in the +text of the book under review that makes any unquestionably +substantial addition to our pre-existing knowledge of Franklin, +or is marked by anything that can be termed freshness of +interpretation.")</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clvi" id="Page_clvi">[clvi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. <i>The Two Franklins: Fathers of American Democracy.</i> +Boston: 1933. (Charmingly spirited portrait of patriarchal +Franklin of Passy [reworking of materials in <i>Franklin, +the Apostle of Modern Times</i>]. Faÿ's habit of mingling +quotation, paraphrase, and intuition in use of Bache's +Diary suggests untrustworthy documentation. The second +Franklin is, of course, Benjamin Franklin Bache [1769-1798, +son of Sally Franklin and Richard Bache], editor of the republican +<i>Aurora General Advertiser</i>. For a judicial, unsympathetic +review see A. Guerard's in the <i>New York Herald Tribune +Books</i>, Oct. 22, 1933. J. A. Krout, in the <i>American Historical +Review</i>, XXXIX, 741-2 [July, 1934], observes that Faÿ +"fails to establish the elder Franklin's paternal relation to the +democratic forces of the 'revolutionary' decade after +1790.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Fisher, S. G. <i>The True Benjamin Franklin.</i> Philadelphia: 1899. +(Highly prejudiced interpretation with disproportionate attention +to Franklin's acknowledged shortcomings.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Ford, P. L. <i>The Many-Sided Franklin.</i> New York: 1899. (A +gracefully solid and inclusive standard work.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hale, E. E., and Hale, E. E., Jr. <i>Franklin in France. From Original +Documents, Most of Which Are Now Published for the +First Time.</i> 2 vols. Boston: 1887-1888. (Convenient collection +of letters to Franklin; authors had access to Stevens and +American Philosophical Society collections. Franklin letters +and documents here given later published in Smyth. Useful +chapters on Franklin's friends, his vogue in France, meetings +with Voltaire, his activities in science, his interest in balloons, +and investigation of Mesmerism. See reviews in <i>Dial</i>, VIII, +7, IX, 204; <i>Nation</i>, XLIV, 368; <i>Athenaeum</i>, II, 77 [1887]; +<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, LX, 318.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">McMaster, J. B. <i>Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters.</i> American +Men of Letters series. Boston: 1887. (Fullest account of +this aspect of the many-minded Franklin. See also MacLaurin +and Jorgenson items, pp. clxv, clxvi below.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clvii" id="Page_clvii">[clvii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">More, P. E. <i>Benjamin Franklin.</i> Riverside Biographical Series. +Boston: 1900. (Suggestive of a <i>précis</i> of Parton's <i>Life</i> with +judicial, if not historical, penetration. Stimulating notes, such +as the following: Franklin was "a great pagan, who lapsed +now and then into the pseudo-religious platitudes of the +eighteenth-century deists.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Morse, John Torrey, Jr. <i>Benjamin Franklin.</i> American Statesmen +series. Boston: 1889. (Compact account stressing his +political and diplomatic career.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Parton, James. <i>Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin.</i> 2 vols. +New York: 1864. (Although not all works ascribed to +Franklin by Parton are by his pen, and although new materials +have been added to the Franklin canon, he remains the +most encyclopedic and often the most penetrating of Franklin's +biographers. He deserves credit for printing in an +appendix Franklin's <i>Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, +Pleasure and Pain</i>. For reviews see <i>North American Review</i> +[July, 1864]; <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> [Sept., 1864]; <i>London Quarterly</i>, +XXIII, 483; <i>Littell's Living Age</i>, LXXXIV, 289.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Russell, Phillips. <i>Benjamin Franklin, the First Civilised American.</i> +New York: 1926. (The <i>esprit</i> and readableness of this +popular work do not offset its lack of precision, historical +scholarship, and taste.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Smyth, Albert H. "Life of Benjamin Franklin," in Vol. X, 141-510, +of <i>The Writings of Benjamin Franklin</i>. (Stimulating +survey.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Swift, Lindsay. <i>Benjamin Franklin.</i> Beacon Biographies of +Eminent Americans. Boston: 1910. (Brief series of biographical +"impressions" arranged chronologically.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Weems, Mason L. <i>The Life of Benjamin Franklin, with many +Choice Anecdotes and Admirable Sayings of this Great Man.</i> +Baltimore: 1815. (One would think it unfair to smile +at a writer who had the wit to describe Franklin as one who +"with such equal ease, could play the <i>Newton</i> or the <i>Chesterfield</i>, +and charm alike the lightnings and the ladies." Contains +some imaginative, though intuitive, remarks on Franklin's +religion.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clviii" id="Page_clviii">[clviii]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="IV_BIOGRAPHICAL_AND_CRITICAL_STUDIES" id="IV_BIOGRAPHICAL_AND_CRITICAL_STUDIES"></a>IV. BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES</h3> + +<p class="hangbib">Abbe, C. "Benjamin Franklin as Meteorologist," <i>Proceedings +of the American Philosophical Society</i>, XLV, 117-28 (1906). +("Worthy co-laborer" with Newton, Huygens, Descartes, +Boyle, and Gay-Lussac. He is "the first meteorologist of +America," "pioneer of the rational long-range forecasters.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Abbot, G. M. <i>A Short History of the Library Company of +Philadelphia: Compiled from the Minutes, together with some +personal reminiscences.</i> Philadelphia: 1913.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Amiable, L. <i>Une loge maçonnique d'avant 1789. La R.·. L.·. +Les Neuf Sœurs.</i> Paris: 1897. (Fullest account of Franklin's +activities in French Freemasonry.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Analectic Magazine</i>, XI, 449-84 (June, 1818). (Review of W. +T. Franklin's edition of Franklin's works. Complexion of +this eulogy suggested by: "His name is now exalted in Europe +above any others of the eighteenth century.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Angoff, Charles. <i>A Literary History of the American People.</i> +New York: 1931. II, 295-310. (It would be difficult to +match the debonair ignorance of this violently hostile essay.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">"A Poem on the Death of Franklin," <i>Proceedings of the New +Jersey Historical Society</i>, XV, 109 (Jan., 1930). (A typical +elegy based on theme suggested by Turgot's epigram on +Franklin.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bache, R. M. "Smoky Torches in Franklin's Honor," <i>Critic</i>, +XLVIII, 561-6 (June, 1906). (Charming in its caustic though +just view that "articles on Franklin have verged on superfluity.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bache, R. M. "The So-Called 'Franklin Prayer-Book,'" <i>Pennsylvania +Magazine of History and Biography</i>, XXI, 225-34 +(1897). (See Rev. John Wright's account of the same in <i>Early +Prayer Books of America</i> [St. Paul: 1896], pp. 386-99.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Biddison, P. "The Magazine Franklin Failed to Remember," +<i>American Literature</i>, IV, 177-80 (May, 1932). (Survey of the +Franklin-Webbe altercation concerning the inauguration of +Franklin's <i>General Magazine, and Historical Chronicle ...</i>, +1741.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clix" id="Page_clix">[clix]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bigelow, John. "Franklin as the Man," <i>Independent</i>, LX, 69-72 +(Jan. 11, 1906). (Stresses his tolerance, common sense, and +"constitutional unwillingness to dogmatize.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bleyer, W. G. <i>Main Currents in the History of American Journalism.</i> +Boston: 1927. (Chapters I-II contain excellent survey +of the <i>New England Courant</i>, and the <i>Pennsylvania +Gazette</i> during its formative years. Bibliography, pp. 431-41.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bloore, Stephen. "Joseph Breintnall, First Secretary of the +Library Company," <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and +Biography</i>, LIX, 42-56 (Jan., 1935). (Valuable notes on +Franklin's collaborator in <i>Busy-Body</i> series.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bloore, Stephen. "Samuel Keimer. A Foot-note to the Life of +Franklin," <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, +LIV, 255-87 (July, 1930). (Readers of the <i>Autobiography</i> +will appreciate this excellent study of one who figures prominently +in its pages.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Brett-James, N. G. <i>The Life of Peter Collinson.</i> London: [1917]. +(Many notes on Franklin-Collinson friendship. Collinson, it +is remembered, "started Franklin on his career as a researcher +in electricity.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Buckingham, J. T. <i>Specimens of Newspaper Literature; with +Personal Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Reminiscences.</i> 2 vols. +Boston: 1850. (Vol. I, 49-88, discusses <i>New England +Courant</i>. Identifies <i>Dogood Papers</i> as Franklin's.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bullen, H. L. "Benjamin Franklin and What Printing Did for +Him," <i>American Collector</i>, II, 284-91 (May, 1926).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Butler, Ruth L. <i>Doctor Franklin, Postmaster General.</i> Garden +City, N. Y.: 1928. (A sturdily documented study illustrating +that Franklin "furnished the most highly efficient administration +to the postal system during the colonial period.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Canby, H. S. "Benjamin Franklin," in <i>Classic Americans</i>. +New York: 1931, pp. 34-45. (Spirited estimate partly vitiated +by excessive emphasis on influence of Quakerism; Canby +observes that Franklin's mind represents "Quakerism conventionalized, +stylized, and Deicized.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Carey, Lewis J. <i>Franklin's Economic Views.</i> Garden City, N. Y.: +1928. (Excellent survey.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clx" id="Page_clx">[clx]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Cestre, Charles. "Franklin, homme représentatif," <i>Revue +Anglo-Américaine</i>, 409-23, 505-22 (June, August, 1928).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Choate, J. H. "Benjamin Franklin," in <i>Abraham Lincoln, and +Other Addresses in England</i>. New York: 1910, pp. 47-94. +(Sanely eulogistic biographical survey.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Condorcet, Marquis de. <i>Éloge de M. Franklin, lu à la séance +publique de l'Académie des Sciences, le 13 Nov., 1790 ...</i> +Paris: 1791. (Both a eulogy, and an interpretation of <i>why</i> +France, as representative of the Enlightenment, eulogized +the Philadelphia tradesman. By the most sublime of the +<i>philosophes</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Cook, E. C. <i>Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, 1704-1750.</i> +New York: 1912. (Trenchant analysis of Franklin's +indebtedness to Addison and Steele—especially in the <i>Dogood +Papers</i>—the character of the <i>New England Courant</i>, advertisements +of books in <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, etc. "Benjamin +Franklin was the only prominent man of the period who +deliberately attempted to spread the knowledge and love of +literature among his countrymen.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Crane, V. W. "Certain Writings of Benjamin Franklin on the +British Empire and the American Colonies," <i>Papers of the +Bibliographical Society</i>, XXVIII, Pt. 1, 1-27 (1934). (Newly +identified Franklin papers more than double existing canon. +He becomes "the chief agent of the American propaganda in +England, especially between 1765 and 1770." New canon +promises to "illuminate the development of Franklin's political +ideas." Very significant.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Cumston, C. G. "Benjamin Franklin from the Medical Viewpoint," +<i>New York Medical Journal</i>, LXXXIX, 3-12 (Jan. +2, 1909). (Useful survey.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Cutler, W. P., and Cutler, J. P. <i>Life, Journals and Correspondence +of Rev. Manasseh Cutler.</i> 2 vols. Cincinnati: 1888. +(Portrait of patriarchal Franklin at age of eighty-four.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Dickinson, A. D. "Benjamin Franklin, Bookman," <i>Bookman</i>, +LIII, 197-205 (May, 1921). (Brief account of Franklin imprints.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxi" id="Page_clxi">[clxi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Discours du Comte de Mirabeau. Dans la séance du 11 Juin, sur +la mort de Benjamin Francklin</i> [<i>sic</i>]. Imprimé par ordre de +l'Assemblée National. Paris: 1790.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Draper, J. W. "Franklin's Place in the Science of the Last +Century," <i>Harper's Magazine</i>, LXI, 265-75 (July, 1880). +(Franklin's discoveries "were only embellishments of his +life." Superficial.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Duniway, C. A. <i>The Development of Freedom of the Press in +Massachusetts.</i> Cambridge, Mass.: 1906. (Chapter VI includes +account of James Franklin and the <i>New England +Courant</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Eddy, G. S. "Dr. Benjamin Franklin's Library," <i>Proceedings +of the American Antiquarian Society</i>, <span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXXIV, 206-26 +(Oct., 1924). (This indefatigable scholar has ascertained the +titles of 1350 volumes in Franklin's library. This survey +article does not list the titles.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Eiselen, M. R. <i>Franklin's Political Theories.</i> Garden City, +N. Y.: 1928. (Thoughtful survey.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Eiselen, M. R. <i>The Rise of Pennsylvania Protectionism.</i> Philadelphia: +1932. (University of Pennsylvania dissertation. +Chapter I describes Franklin's holding to laissez faire in a +state dominantly protectionist.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Eliot, T. D. "The Relations Between Adam Smith and Benjamin +Franklin before 1776," <i>Political Science Quarterly</i>, +XXXIX, 67-96 (March, 1924). (Exhaustive documentary +data which fails to establish specific and incontrovertible +Franklin influence on Smith.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">"Excerpts from the Papers of Dr. Benjamin Rush," <i>Pennsylvania +Magazine of History and Biography</i>, XXIX, 15-30 +(Jan., 1905). (Includes "Conversations with Franklin," pp. +23-8: Franklin terms Latin and Greek the "quackery of +literature"; is alleged to have reprobated the Pennsylvania +Constitution of 1776, in that it placed "the Supreme power of +the State in the hands of a Single legislature." Other interesting +sidelights.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxii" id="Page_clxii">[clxii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Farrand, Max, ed. <i>The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787.</i> +3 vols. New Haven: 1911. (Records show Franklin as a +sober moderator: when rival factions tended to render the +convention impotent, he said, "When a broad table is to be +made, and the edges <of planks do not fit> the artist takes a +little from both, and makes a good joint.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Fauchet, Claude. <i>Éloge civique de Benjamin Franklin, prononcé, +le 21 Juillet 1790, dans la Rotonde, au nom de la +Commune de Paris.</i> Paris: 1790.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. "Franklin et Mirabeau collaborateurs," <i>Revue +de Littérature Comparée</i>, VIII, 5-28 (1928). (Franklin furnished +materials for Mirabeau's <i>Considerations on the Order of +Cincinnatus</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. "Learned Societies in Europe and America in +the Eighteenth Century," <i>American Historical Review</i>, +XXXVII, 255-66 (Jan., 1932). (Urges that like all learned societies +in the eighteenth century, Franklin's Junto and American +Philosophical Society "had Masonic leanings.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. "Le credo de Franklin," <i>Correspondant</i>, 570-8 +(Feb. 25, 1930).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. "Les débuts de Franklin en France," <i>Revue de +Paris</i>, 577-605 (Feb. 1, 1931).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. "Les dernières amours d'un philosophe," <i>Correspondant</i>, +381-96 (May 10, 1930).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. "Le triomphe de Franklin en France," <i>Revue de +Paris</i>, 872-96 (Feb. 15, 1931).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ford, P. L. "Franklin as Printer and Publisher," <i>Century +Magazine</i>, LVII, 803-17 (April, 1899).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ford, W. C. "Franklin and Chatham," <i>Independent</i>, LX, 94-7 +(Jan. 11, 1906).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ford, W. C. "Franklin's New England Courant," <i>Proceedings +of the Massachusetts Historical Society</i>, LVII, 336-53 (April, +1924).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ford, W. C. "One of Franklin's Friendships. From Hitherto +Unpublished Correspondence between Madame de Brillon +and Benjamin Franklin, 1776-1789," <i>Harper's Magazine</i>, +CXIII, 626-33 (Sept., 1906).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Foster, J. W. "Franklin as a Diplomat," <i>Independent</i>, LX, 84-9 +(Jan. 11, 1906).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxiii" id="Page_clxiii">[clxiii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Fox, R. H. <i>Dr. John Fothergill and His Friends; Chapters in +Eighteenth Century Life.</i> London: 1919. (Franklin and +Fothergill, "lovers of nature and keen students of physical +science," met in 1757. See also J. C. Lettsom, <i>Memoirs of +John Fothergill</i>, 4th ed., London: 1786.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Garrison, F. W. "Franklin and the Physiocrats," <i>Freeman</i>, +VIII, 154-6 (Oct. 24, 1923). (Transcended by Carey's +chapter in <i>Franklin's Economic Views</i>, but has quotation from +Dupont de Nemours [1769]: "Who does not know that the +English have today their Benjamin Franklin, who has adopted +the principles and the doctrines of our French economists?")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Goggio, E. "Benjamin Franklin and Italy," <i>Romanic Review</i>, +XIX, 302-8 (Oct., 1928). (Largely through the efforts of G. +Beccaria, "Benjamin Franklin was one of the first Americans +to gain eminence and popularity among the people of Italy.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Goode, G. B. "The Literary Labors of Benjamin Franklin," +<i>Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society</i>, XXVIII, +177-97 (1890).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Grandgent, C. H. "Benjamin Franklin the Reformer," in +<i>Prunes and Prisms, with Other Odds and Ends</i>. Cambridge, +Mass.: 1928, pp. 86-97. ("The principles advocated in his +unfinished exposition [on spelling reform] are those which +phoneticians now advocate.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Greene, S. A. "The Story of a Famous Book," <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, +XXVII, 207-12 (Feb., 1871). (A kind of <i>précis</i> of Bigelow's +Introduction to <i>Autobiography</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Griswold, A. W. "Three Puritans on Prosperity," <i>New England +Quarterly</i>, VII, 475-93 (Sept., 1934). (Cotton Mather, +Timothy Dwight, and Franklin. One wonders by what right +Franklin is dubbed the "soul of Puritanism.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Guedalla, Philip. "Dr. Franklin," in <i>Fathers of the Revolution</i>. +New York: 1926, pp. 215-34. (Chatty popular review of +"the first high-priest of the religion of efficiency.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Guillois, Antoine. <i>Le salon de Madame Helvétius.</i> Paris: 1894.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Gummere, R. M. "Socrates at the Printing Press. Benjamin +Franklin and the Classics," <i>Classical Weekly</i>, XXVI, 57-9 +(Dec. 5, 1932). (Survey of his references to the classics, with +occasional estimates of impact on his mind.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxiv" id="Page_clxiv">[clxiv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hale, E. E. "Ben Franklin's Ballads," <i>New England Magazine</i>, +<span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XVIII, 505-7 (1898). (Thinks "The Downfall of +Piracy," found in Ashton's <i>Real Sea-Songs</i>, is "one of the +two lost ballads" Franklin mentions in <i>Autobiography</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hale, E. E. "Franklin as Philosopher and Moralist," <i>Independent</i>, +LX, 89-93 (Jan. 11, 1906). (Does not go beyond terming +Franklin's philosophy common sense.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Harrison, Frederic. "Benjamin Franklin," in <i>Memories and +Thoughts</i>. New York: 1906, pp. 119-23. (Keen appraisal.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hart, C. H. "Benjamin Franklin in Allegory," <i>Century Magazine</i>, +XLI (<span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XIX), 197-204 (Dec., 1890). (The French +sanctify Franklin in allegory.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hart, C. H. "Who Was the Mother of Franklin's Son? An +Inquiry Demonstrating that She Was Deborah Read, Wife of +Benjamin Franklin," <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and +Biography</i>, XXXV, 308-14 (July, 1911). (Plausible circumstantial +evidence is offered.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hays, I. M. <i>The Chronology of Benjamin Franklin, Founder of +the American Philosophical Society.</i> Philadelphia: 1904.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hill, D. J. "A Missing Chapter of Franco-American History," +<i>American Historical Review</i>, XXI, 709-19 (July, 1916). +(Political interests of Masonic "Lodge of the Nine Sisters," +Paris, of which Franklin was an active member. Franklin described +as "creator of constitutionalism in Europe.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Houston, E. J. "Franklin as a Man of Science and an Inventor," +<i>Journal of the Franklin Institute</i>, CLXI, Nos. 4-5, 241-383 +(April-May, 1906).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hulbert, C. <i>Biographical Sketches of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, +General Washington, and Thomas Paine; with an Essay on +Atheism and Infidelity.</i> London: 1820. (Franklin and Washington +made almost saintly to contrast with Paine, "a notorious +Unbeliever." Quotes one who sees Franklin as "the +patriot of the world, the playmate of the lightning, the +philosopher of liberty.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jackson, M. K. <i>Outlines of the Literary History of Colonial +Pennsylvania.</i> Lancaster, Pa.: 1906. (Especially chapter III, +which surveys Franklin as man of letters.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxv" id="Page_clxv">[clxv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jernegan, M. W. "Benjamin Franklin's 'Electrical Kite' and +Lightning Rod," <i>New England Quarterly</i>, I, 180-96 (April, +1928). ("The question still remains however whether Franklin +flew his kite <i>before</i> he heard of the French experiments, +and thus discovered the identity of lightning and electricity +independently." Summarizes and supersedes: McAdie, A., +"The Date of Franklin's Kite Experiment," <i>Proceedings of +the American Antiquarian Society</i>, <span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXXIV, 188-205; +Rotch, A. L., "Did Benjamin Franklin Fly His Electrical +Kite before He Invented the Lightning Rod?" <i>Proceedings +of the American Antiquarian Society</i>, <span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XVIII, 115-23.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jordan, J. W. "Franklin as a Genealogist," <i>Pennsylvania Magazine +of History and Biography</i>, XXIII, 1-22 (April, 1899).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jorgenson, C. E. "A Brand Flung at Colonial Orthodoxy. +Samuel Keimer's 'Universal Instructor in All Arts and Sciences,'" +<i>Journalism Quarterly</i>, XII, 272-7 (Sept., 1935). +(Shows deistic tendencies.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jorgenson, C. E. "The New Science in the Almanacs of Ames +and Franklin," <i>New England Quarterly</i>, VIII, 555-61 (Dec., +1935). (Newtonianism and scientific deism diffused through +these popular almanacs.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jorgenson, C. E. "Sidelights on Benjamin Franklin's Principles +of Rhetoric," <i>Revue Anglo-Américaine</i>, 208-22 (Feb., 1934). +(Franklin's principles in general are consonant with the eighteenth-century +neoclassic ideals.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jorgenson, C. E. "The Source of Benjamin Franklin's Dialogues +between Philocles and Horatio (1730)," <i>American +Literature</i>, VI, 337-9 (Nov., 1934). (The source is Shaftesbury's +"The Moralists," in the <i>Characteristics</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Jusserand, J. J. "Franklin in France," in <i>Essays Offered to +Herbert Putnam ...</i> Ed. by W. W. Bishop and A. Keogh. +New Haven: 1929, pp. 226-47. (Delightful summary.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Kane, Hope F. "James Franklin Senior, Printer of Boston and +Newport," <i>American Collector</i>, III, 17-26 (Oct., 1926). (A +study of his <i>New England Courant</i> and his place in the development +of freedom of the press.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxvi" id="Page_clxvi">[clxvi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">King, M. R. "One Link in the First Newspaper Chain, <i>The +South Carolina Gazette," Journalism Quarterly</i>, IX, 257-68 +(Sept., 1932). (Franklin's partnership with Thomas Whitemarsh +in 1731 is here alleged to have begun the first American +newspaper "chain.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Kite, Elizabeth S. "Benjamin Franklin—Diplomat," <i>Catholic +World</i>, CXLII, 28-37 (Oct., 1935). (An intelligent and +appreciative brief survey of the subject, with a considerable +preface showing the extent to which Franklin's worldly +success grew out of his religious views.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Lees, F. "The Parisian Suburb of Passy: Its Architecture in +the Days of Franklin," <i>Architectural Record</i>, XII, 669-83 +(Dec., 1902). (Several good illustrations included.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Livingston, L. S. <i>Franklin and His Press at Passy; An Account of +the Books, Pamphlets, and Leaflets Printed There, including +the Long-Lost Bagatelles.</i> The Grolier Club, New York: +1914. (For additions to this work begun by L. S. Livingston, +see R. G. Adams, "The 'Passy-ports' and Their Press," +<i>American Collector</i>, IV, 177-80 [Aug., 1927], which includes +bibliography useful to study of the Passy imprints.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">MacDonald, William. "The Fame of Franklin," <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, +XCVI. 450-62 (Oct., 1905).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mackay, Constance D'A. <i>Franklin. A Play.</i> New York: 1922.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">MacLaurin, Lois M. <i>Franklin's Vocabulary.</i> Garden City, +N. Y.: 1928. (His "conservative ideas about linguistic innovations" +are to a notable degree achieved in his practices. +For example, of a vocabulary of 4062 words used in his +writings between 1722 and 1751, "only 19 were discovered to +be pure 'Americanisms.'")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">McMaster, J. B. "Franklin in France," <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, LX, +318-26 (Sept., 1887). (Good survey, based on Hale and Hale, +<i>Franklin in France</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Malone, Kemp. "Benjamin Franklin on Spelling Reform," +<i>American Speech</i>, I, 96-100 (Nov., 1925). (Franklin was the +"first American to tackle English phonetics scientifically.")</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxvii" id="Page_clxvii">[clxvii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mason, W. S. "Franklin and Galloway: Some Unpublished +Letters," <i>Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society</i>, +<span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXXIV, 227-58 (Oct., 1924). (Significant sidelights +cast on "the problems of Pennsylvania colonial history from +1757 to 1760." Excellent summary of Franklin's and Galloway's +victory over the Proprietors. Mr. Mason's collection +includes many valuable letters [Franklin-Galloway] between +1757 and 1772, not published in Smyth.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mathews, Mrs. L. K. "Benjamin Franklin's Plans for a Colonial +Union, 1750-1775," <i>American Political Science Review</i>, VIII, +393-412 (Aug., 1914).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Melville, Herman. <i>Israel Potter.</i> London: 1923. (Graphic +intuitive portrait of Franklin: he lives as a "household Plato," +"a practical Magian in linsey-woolsey," a "didactically waggish," +prudent courtier who "was everything but a poet.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Mémoires de l'Abbé Morellet, de l'Académie Française, sur le dixhuitième +siècle et sur la Révolution.</i> 2 vols. Paris: 1821. +(Especially II, 286-311. Franklin viewed as very emblem of +Liberty.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Montgomery, T. H. <i>A History of the University of Pennsylvania +from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770.</i> Philadelphia: 1900.</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Monthly Review; or Literary Journal: By Several Hands.</i> +London: 1770. XLII, 199-210, 298-308. ("The experiments +and observations of Dr. Franklin constitute the <i>principia</i> of +electricity, and form the basis of a system equally simple and +profound.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*More, P. E. "Benjamin Franklin," in <i>Shelburne Essays</i>, Fourth +Series. New York: 1906, pp. 129-55. (Provocative appraisal: +stresses Franklin's "contemporaneity," his tendency +to be oblivious to the past—a suggestive, if a moot point.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Morgan, W. <i>Memoirs of the Life of Rev. Richard Price.</i> London: +1815. (Notes on Franklin's relations with Price during +early 1760's; meetings at Royal Society and London Coffee-house.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mottay, F. <i>Benjamin Franklin et la philosophie pratique.</i> Paris: +1886. (Good model for citizens of a free nation and "le +véritable catechisme de l'homme vertueux." Also several +just remarks on his style which possesses "les mots épiques +d'un Corneille et les élégantes périphrases d'un Racine.")</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxviii" id="Page_clxviii">[clxviii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Moulton, C. W., ed. <i>Library of Literary Criticism of English +and American Authors</i>. Buffalo, N. Y.: 1901. IV, 79-106. +(Stimulating assembly of extracts which aids student in discovering +the history of Franklin's reputation.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mustard, W. P. "Poor Richard's Poetry," <i>Nation</i>, LXXXII, +239, 279 (March 22, April 5, 1906). (Indicates Franklin's +borrowings from Dryden, Pope, Prior, Gay, Swift, and +others.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Nichols, E. L. "Franklin as a Man of Science," <i>Independent</i>, +LX, 79-84 (Jan. 11, 1906). (Franklin's mind "turned ever +by preference to the utilitarian and away from the theoretical +and speculative aspects of things.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">"Notice sur Benjamin Franklin," in <i>Œuvres posthumes de +Cabanis</i>. Paris: 1825, pp. 219-74. (Representative in its +rapturous eulogy.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Oberholtzer, E. P. <i>The Literary History of Philadelphia.</i> Philadelphia: +1906. (Chap. II, "The Age of Franklin," written with +conservative bias, belabors Franklin who as a statesman "was +almost as wrong as Paine and Mirabeau." What Voltaire +was to France, Franklin was to his native city and state.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Oswald, J. C. <i>Benjamin Franklin in Oil and Bronze.</i> New +York: 1926. ("Probably the features and form of no man +who ever lived were delineated so frequently and in such a +variety of ways as were those of Benjamin Franklin." Best +survey of its kind, including many excellent reproductions.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Oswald, J. C. <i>Benjamin Franklin, Printer.</i> Garden City, N. Y.: +1917. (Fullest and ablest account of this phase of Franklin's +life.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Owen, E. D. "Where Did Benjamin Franklin Get the Idea for +His Academy?" <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and +Biography</i>, LVIII, 86-94 (Jan., 1934). (Inconclusive evidence +attributing it to Dr. Philip Doddridge.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxix" id="Page_clxix">[clxix]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Parker, Theodore. "Benjamin Franklin," in <i>Historic Americans</i>. +Ed. with notes by S. A. Eliot. Boston: 1908 [written in +1858]. (Franklin "thinks, investigates, theorizes, invents, +but never does he dream." Although Parker, an idealist and +reformer, exalts "the sharp outline of his [Franklin's] exact +idea," his humanitarianism, his combining the "rare excellence +of Socrates and Bacon" in making things "easy for all +to handle and comprehend," he concludes that Franklin is +"a saint devoted to the almighty dollar." There are few +more readable estimates.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Parrington, V. L. "Benjamin Franklin," in <i>The Colonial Mind, +1620-1800</i>. New York: 1927, pp. 164-78. (Emphasizes +Franklin's tendencies toward agrarian democracy; Parrington's +indifference to the genetic approach and his chronic +economic determinism lead him to slight the primary importance +of Franklin's religious and philosophic views in conditioning +his other activities.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Pennington, E. L. "The Work of the Bray Associates in +Pennsylvania," <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, +LVIII, 1-25 (Jan., 1934). (Franklin's humanitarian +interest in negro education. In 1758 he writes from London +urging school for instructing young Negroes in Philadelphia.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, XXV, 307-22, +516-26 (1901), XXVI, 81-90, 255-64 (1902). (Reprints +one of Dean Tucker's pamphlets with Franklin's annotations. +Casts light on Franklin's loyalty to the Crown, while +rebellious against Parliament.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Potamian, Brother, and Walsh, J. J. <i>Makers of Electricity.</i> +New York: 1909. ("Franklin and Some Contemporaries," +chapter II, pp. 68-132, by Brother Potamian, is an excellent +survey of Franklin's contributions to the science of electricity.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Powell, E. P. "A Study of Benjamin Franklin," <i>Arena</i>, VIII, +477-91 (Sept., 1893). (Fair survey of Franklin as a diplomatist.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Priestley, J. <i>The History and Present State of Electricity, with +Original Experiments.</i> London: 1767. (Many notes observing +Franklin's "truly philosophical greatness of mind." +Preface contains suggestive generalizations concerning function +of the natural philosopher: especially, he who experiments +in electricity discerns laws of nature, "that is, of the God of +nature himself.")</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxx" id="Page_clxx">[clxx]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Rava, Luigi. "La fortuna di Beniamino Franklin in Italia," +Prefazione al volume <i>Beniamino Franklin</i> di Lawrence Shaw +Mayo. Firenze: n.d.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Repplier, Emma. "Franklin's Trials as a Benefactor," <i>Lippincott's +Magazine</i>, LXXVII, 63-70 (Jan., 1906). (Concerning +those who during the Revolution wrote Franklin for favors +and places.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Riddell, W. R. "Benjamin Franklin and Colonial Money," +<i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, LIV, 52-64 +(Jan., 1930).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Riddell, W. R. "Benjamin Franklin's Mission to Canada and +the Causes of Its Failure," <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History +and Biography</i>, XLVIII, 111-58 (April, 1924).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Riley, I. W. <i>American Philosophy: The Early Schools.</i> New +York: 1907, pp. 229-65. (Conventional view of Franklin's +deism; with C. M. Walsh [see below], Riley overemphasizes +influence of Plato on Franklin's thought.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Riley, I. W. <i>American Thought from Puritanism to Pragmatism +and Beyond.</i> New York: 1915, pp. 68-77. (Graphic +glimpses of "most precocious of the American skeptics.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Rosengarten, J. G. "The American Philosophical Society," +reprinted from <i>Founders' Week Memorial Volume</i>. Philadelphia: +1908.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ross, E. D. "Benjamin Franklin as an Eighteenth-Century +Agriculture Leader," <i>Journal of Political Economy</i>, XXXVII, +52-72 (Feb., 1929). (No "rural sentimentalist," Franklin +experimented in agriculture, particularly during 1747-1755, +as a utilitarian idealist. Quotes one who suggests Franklin +was "half physiocratic before the rise of the physiocratic +school." Excellent and well-documented survey.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Sachse, J. F. <i>Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason.</i> Philadelphia: +1906. ("To write the history of Franklin as a +Freemason is virtually to chronicle the early Masonic history +of America." Soundly documented survey. Includes useful +chronological table of Franklin's Masonic activities.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxi" id="Page_clxxi">[clxxi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Sainte-Beuve, C. A. <i>Portraits of the Eighteenth Century.</i> Tr. by +K. P. Wormeley, with a critical introduction by E. Scherer. +New York: 1905. I, 311-75. (The two essays on Franklin +in <i>Causeries du lundi</i> are "here put together," though with +no important omissions from either. Brilliant portrait of the +"most gracious, smiling, and persuasive utilitarian," one +who assigned "no part to human imagination.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Seipp, Erika. <i>Benjamin Franklins Religion und Ethik.</i> Darmstadt: +1932. (Suggestive, though brief, view of Franklin's +deism and utilitarianism. Attempts to see his thought in +reference to various representative deists. This is not, however, +a "source" study.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Shepherd, W. R. <i>History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania.</i> +New York: 1896. (Franklin emerges as "a sort +of tribune to the people," a "mighty Goliath," a "plague" +in the eyes of the feudalistic rulers of Pennsylvania, "a huge +fief." Author relatively unsympathetic to Franklin.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Sherman, S. P. "Franklin and the Age of Enlightenment," in +<i>Americans</i>. New York: 1922, pp. 28-62. (Penetrating survey +and estimate.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Smith, William, D.D. <i>Eulogium on Benjamin Franklin.</i> Philadelphia: +1792. (One agrees with P. L. Ford, that this work +"forms a somewhat amusing contrast to the savageness +of the Doctor's earlier writings against Franklin." Bombastic +in its rhetoric and eulogy.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Smythe, J. H., Jr., comp. <i>The Amazing Benjamin Franklin.</i> +New York: 1929. (Anthology of brief, popular estimates. +If individual notes are trivial, the collection illustrates Franklin's +many-mindedness, a Renaissance versatility.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Sonneck, O. G. "Benjamin Franklin's Relation to Music," +<i>Music</i>, XIX, 1-14 (Nov., 1900).</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Steell, Willis. <i>Benjamin Franklin of Paris, 1776-1785.</i> New +York: 1928. (An undocumented, partly imaginative, popular +account.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Stifler, J. M. <i>The Religion of Benjamin Franklin.</i> New York: +1925. (Popular survey. Warm appreciation of Franklin's +<i>penchant</i> for projects of a humanitarian sort.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxii" id="Page_clxxii">[clxxii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Stuber, Henry. "Life of Franklin" [a biography meant as a +continuation of Franklin's <i>Autobiography</i>], in <i>Columbian +Magazine and Universal Asylum</i>, May, July, September, +October, November, 1790, and February, March, May, June, +1791.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Thorpe, F. N., ed. <i>Benjamin Franklin and the University of +Pennsylvania.</i> U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, +No. 2 (1892). Washington: 1893. (See especially +chapters I, II, written by Thorpe, which deal particularly +with Franklin's ideas of self and formal education.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Titus, Rev. Anson. "Boston When Ben Franklin Was a Boy," +<i>Proceedings of the Bostonian Society</i>, pp. 55-72 (1906). (Brief +suggestive view of the climate of opinion with regard to inoculation, +Newtonianism, and Lockian sensationalism.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Trent, W. P. "Benjamin Franklin," <i>McClure's Magazine</i>, VIII, +273-7 (Jan., 1897). ("The most complete representative of +his century that any nation can point to." Franklin "thoroughly +represents his age in its practicality, in its devotion to +science, in its intellectual curiosity, in its humanitarianism, in +its lack of spirituality, in its calm self-content—in short, in its +exaltation of prose and reason over poetry and faith." An +enthusiastic and wise account.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Trowbridge, John. "Franklin as a Scientist," <i>Publications of the +Colonial Society of Massachusetts</i>, XVIII (1917). (Excellent +appreciation of Franklin's capacity for inductive reasoning.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Tuckerman, H. T. "Character of Franklin," <i>North American +Review</i>, LXXXIII, 402-22 (Oct., 1856). (Praises disinterestedness +of Franklin as a scientist, as "one whom Bacon +would have hailed as a disciple," although he "is not adapted +to beguile us 'along the line of infinite desires.'")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Tudury, M. "Poor Richard," <i>Bookman</i>, LXIV, 581-4 (Jan., +1927). (Popular glance at "cynical patriarch of American +letters.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Typothetae Bulletin</i>, XXII, No. 15 (Jan. 11, 1926). (Issue devoted +to the printer Franklin.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Vicq d'Azyr, Félix. <i>Éloge de Franklin.</i> N.p.: 1791.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxiii" id="Page_clxxiii">[clxxiii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Victory, Beatrice M. <i>Benjamin Franklin and Germany.</i> Americana +Germanica series, No. 21. Press of the University of +Pennsylvania: 1915. (Sources reflecting Franklin's reputation +in Germany of particular interest.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Walsh, C. M. "Franklin and Plato," <i>Open Court</i>, XX, 129-33 +(March, 1906). (An attempt to interpret his <i>Articles of Belief</i>, +1728, in terms of the <i>Timaeus</i>, <i>Protagoras</i>, <i>Republic</i>, and +<i>Euthyphro</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Webster, Noah. <i>Dissertations on the English Language: With +Notes, Historical and Critical. To which is added, By Way of +Appendix, an Essay on a Reformed Mode of Spelling, with Dr. +Franklins Arguments on that Subject.</i> Boston: 1789. (Notable +remarks on Franklin's perspicuous and correct style +which is "plain and elegantly neat": he "writes for the child +as well as the philosopher.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Wendell, Barrett. <i>A Literary History of America.</i> New York: +1900. (Franklin estimate, pp. 92-103.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Wetzel, W. A. <i>Benjamin Franklin as an Economist.</i> Johns +Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, +Thirteenth Series, IX, 421-76. Baltimore: 1895. (Useful summary, +but superseded by Carey's <i>Franklin's Economic Views</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Wharton, A. H. "The American Philosophical Society," +<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, LXI, 611-24 (May, 1888).</p> + +<p>Bibliographical suggestions relating to Franklin's American +friends and contemporaries will be found following the brief but +scholarly studies in the <i>Dictionary of American Biography</i>. Of +these see especially John Adams (also G. Chinard, <i>Honest John +Adams</i>, Boston, 1933); Samuel Adams; Ethan Allen; Nathaniel +Ames; Joel Barlow (also V. C. Miller, <i>Joel Barlow: Revolutionist, +London, 1791-92</i>, Hamburg, 1932, and T. A. Zunder, <i>Early Days +of Joel Barlow</i>, New Haven, 1934); John Bartram; William Bartram +(also N. Fagin, <i>William Bartram</i>, Baltimore, 1933); Hugh H. +Brackenridge (also C. Newlin, <i>Brackenridge</i>, Princeton, 1933); +Cadwallader Colden; John Dickinson; Philip Freneau; Francis +Hopkinson; T. Jefferson; Cotton Mather; Jonathan Mayhew; +Thomas Paine; David Rittenhouse; Dr. Benjamin Rush (also +N. Goodman, <i>Rush</i>, Philadelphia, 1934); Rev. William Smith; +Ezra Stiles; John Trumbull; Noah Webster.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxiv" id="Page_clxxiv">[clxxiv]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="V_THE_AGE_OF_FRANKLIN" id="V_THE_AGE_OF_FRANKLIN"></a>V. THE AGE OF FRANKLIN</h3> + +<p class="hangbib">Adams, J. T. <i>Provincial Society, 1690-1763.</i> (Volume III of +<i>A History of American Life</i>, ed. Fox and Schlesinger.) New +York: 1927. (Contains useful "Critical Essay on Authorities" +consulted, pp. 324-56, which serves as a guide for further +study of many phases of the social history of the period.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Adams, R. G. <i>Political Ideas of the American Revolution.</i> +Durham, N. C.: 1922.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Andrews, C. M. <i>The Colonial Background of the American +Revolution.</i> New Haven: 1924. (Stresses economic factors +and the need of viewing the subject from the European angle; +profitably used as companion study to Beer's <i>British Colonial +Policy</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Baldwin, Alice M. <i>The New England Clergy and the American +Revolution.</i> Durham, N. C.: 1928. (Prior to 1763 the clergy +popularized "doctrines of natural right, the social contract, +and the right of resistance" and principles of American +constitutional law.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Beard, C. A. <i>The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy.</i> +New York: 1915. (Suggestive, if <i>other</i> factors are not +neglected. See C. H. Hull's review in <i>American Historical +Review</i>, XXII, 401-3.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Becker, Carl. <i>The Declaration of Independence; A Study in the +History of Political Ideas.</i> New York: 1922. (Excellent +survey of natural rights, and the extent to which this concept +was influenced by Newtonianism.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Becker, Carl. <i>The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century +Philosophers.</i> New Haven: 1932. (R. S. Crane observes, +after calling attention to certain obscurities and confusions: +"The description of the general temper of the 'philosophers,' +the characterization of the principal eighteenth-century +historians, much at least of the final chapter on the idea of +progress—these can be read with general approval for their +content and with a satisfaction in Becker's prose style that is +unalloyed by considerations of exegesis or terminology" +[<i>Philological Quarterly</i>, XIII, 104-6].)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxv" id="Page_clxxv">[clxxv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Beer, George L. <i>British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765.</i> New +York: 1933 [1907].</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bemis, S. F. <i>The Diplomacy of the American Revolution.</i> New +York; 1935. (Brilliant exposition of French, Spanish, Austrian, +and other diplomacy relative to the Revolution. +Should be supplemented by Frank Monaghan's <i>John Jay</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bloch, Léon. <i>La philosophie de Newton.</i> Paris: 1908. (A +comprehensive, standard exposition.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bosker, Aisso. <i>Literary Criticism in the Age of Johnson.</i> +Groningen: 1930. (Reviewed by N. Foerster in <i>Philological +Quarterly</i>, XI, 216-7.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Brasch, F. E. "The Royal Society of London and Its Influence +upon Scientific Thought in the American Colonies," <i>Scientific +Monthly</i>, XXXIII, 336-55, 448-69 (1931). (Useful survey.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Brinton, Crane. <i>A Decade of Revolutions, 1789-1799.</i> New +York: 1934. (Useful on the pattern of ideas associated with +the French Revolution; has a full and up-to-date "Bibliographical +Essay," pp. 293-322, with critical commentary.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bullock, C. J. <i>Essays on the Monetary History of the United +States.</i> New York: 1900. (Useful bibliography, pp. 275-88.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Burnett, E. C., ed. <i>Letters of Members of the Continental +Congress.</i> Washington, D. C.: 1921. (Seven volumes now +published include letters to 1784. Contain a mass of new +material of first importance, edited with notes, cross-references, +and introductions.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Burtt, E. A. <i>The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical +Science; A Historical and Critical Essay.</i> New York: +1925.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Bury, J. B. <i>The Idea of Progress.</i> New York: 1932 (new +edition). (Standard English work on the topic. See also +Jules Delvaille, <i>Essai sur l'histoire de l'idée de progrès</i> [Paris, +1910], a more encyclopedic book.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Channing, Edward. <i>A History of the United States.</i> New +York: 1912. (Volumes II-III.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxvi" id="Page_clxxvi">[clxxvi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Clark, H. H. "Factors to be Investigated in American Literary +History from 1787 to 1800," <i>English Journal</i>, XXIII, 481-7 +(June, 1934). (Suggests the genetic interrelations of +classical ideas; neoclassicism; the scientific spirit, rationalism, +and deism; primitivism and the idea of progress; physical +America and the frontier spirit; agrarianism and laissez faire; +Federalism versus Democracy, whether Jeffersonian or +French; sentimentalism and humanitarianism; Gothicism; and +conflicting currents of aesthetic theory.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Clark, H. H., ed. <i>Poems of Freneau.</i> New York: 1929. (F. +L. Pattee says of the Introduction, "No one has ever traced +out better the ramifications of French Revolution deism in +America and the effects of its clash with Puritanism" [<i>American +Literature</i>, II, 316-7]. Also see Clark's "Thomas +Paine's Theories of Rhetoric," <i>Transactions of the Wisconsin +Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters</i>, XXVIII, 307-39 +[1933], which discusses relationships between deism and +literary theory.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Clark, J. M., Viner, J., and others. <i>Adam Smith, 1776-1926.</i> +Chicago: 1928. (Brilliant essays on various aspects of +Smith's thought and influence. See especially Jacob Viner's +"Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire," pp. 116-55, which shows +the relations in Smith's mind between economics and +religion, between laissez faire and "the harmonious order of +nature" posited by the scientific deists.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Crane, R. S. "Anglican Apologetics and the Idea of Progress, +1699-1745," <i>Modern Philology</i>, XXXI, 273-306 (Feb., +1934), 349-82 (May, 1934). (Demonstrates in masterly +fashion how the idea of progress grew out of orthodox +defenses of revealed religion, current in Franklin's formative +years. Modifies the conventional view that the Church was +hostile to the idea of progress and that it derived exclusively +from the scientific spirit.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Davidson, P. G., Jr. "Whig Propagandists of the American +Revolution," <i>American Historical Review</i>, XXXIX, 442-53 +(April, 1934). (Also see <i>Revolutionary Propaganda in New +England, New York, and Pennsylvania, 1763-1776</i>. Unpublished +dissertation, University of Chicago, 1929.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">"Deism," in <i>The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious +Knowledge</i>, III, 391-7 (by Ernst Troeltsch).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxvii" id="Page_clxxvii">[clxxvii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">De la Fontainerie, F., tr. and ed. <i>French Liberalism and +Education in the Eighteenth Century: The Writings of La +Chalotais, Turgot, Diderot, and Condorcet on National Education.</i> +New York: 1932. (Convenient source book.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Dewey, D. R. <i>Financial History of the United States.</i> New +York: 1924 (9th ed.). (Bristles with bibliographical aids for +study of eighteenth century.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Draper, J. W. <i>Eighteenth Century English Aesthetics: A +Bibliography.</i> Heidelberg: 1931. (Source materials, pp. +61-128, for aesthetics of literature and drama: includes in +appendix, pp. 129-40, ablest secondary works to 1931. +An invaluable guide. See additions by R. S. Crane, <i>Modern +Philology</i>, XXIX, 251 ff. [1931], W. D. Templeman, <i>ibid.</i>, +XXX, 309-16, R. D. Havens, <i>Modern Language Notes</i>, +XLVII, 118-20 [1932].)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Drennon, Herbert. "Newtonianism: Its Method, Theology, +and Metaphysics," <i>Englische Studien</i>, LXVIII, 397-409 +(1933-1934). (Other parts of Mr. Drennon's brilliant +doctoral dissertation, <i>James Thomson and Newtonianism</i> +[University of Chicago, 1928], have been published in +<i>Publications of the Modern Language Association</i>, XLIX, 71-80, +March, 1934; in <i>Studies in Philology</i>, XXXI, 453-71, July, +1934; and in <i>Philological Quarterly</i>, XIV, 70-82, Jan., 1935.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ducros, Louis. <i>French Society in the Eighteenth Century.</i> Tr. +from the French by W. de Geijer; with a Foreword by J. A. +Higgs-Walker. London: 1927.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Duncan, C. S. <i>The New Science and English Literature in the +Classical Period.</i> Menasha, Wis.: 1913. (Scholarly.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Dunning, W. A. <i>A History of Political Theories from Luther +to Montesquieu.</i> New York: 1905, and <i>A History of Political +Theories from Rousseau to Spencer</i>. New York: 1920. +(Standard works.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Elton, Oliver. <i>The Augustan Age.</i> New York: 1899, and <i>A Survey +of English Literature, 1730-1780</i>. 2 vols. London: 1928. +(Acute on literary trends, though hardly adequate on ideas.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Evans, Charles. <i>American Bibliography.</i> Chicago: 1903-1934. +(Volumes I-XII, 1639-1799.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxviii" id="Page_clxxviii">[clxxviii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. <i>Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800.</i> Boston: +1935. (Stimulating conjectures vitiated by extravagant +and undocumented conclusions.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Faÿ, Bernard. <i>The Revolutionary Spirit in France and America.</i> +Tr. by R. Guthrie. New York: 1927. (Especially valuable +for notes on the vogue of Franklin in France. Highly +important comprehensive survey of French influence in +America, and the impetus our revolution gave to French +liberalism.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Fisher, S. G. <i>The Quaker Colonies. A Chronicle of the Proprietors +of the Delaware.</i> New Haven: 1921. (Useful bibliography, +pp. 231-4.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Fiske, John. <i>The Beginnings of New England, or the Puritan +Theocracy in Its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty.</i> +Boston: 1896 [1889]. (See also Perry Miller's <i>Orthodoxy in +Massachusetts, 1630-1650</i>. <i>A Genetic Study.</i> Cambridge, +Mass.: 1933.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Gettell, R. G. <i>History of American Political Thought.</i> New +York: 1928. (The standard comprehensive treatment of its +subject. Has good bibliographies.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Gide, Charles, and Rist, Charles. <i>A History of Economic +Doctrines from the Time of the Physiocrats to the Present +Day.</i> Authorized translation from the second revised and +augmented edition of 1913 under the direction of the late +Professor Wm. Smart, by R. Richards. Boston: 1915. +(Excellent survey of physiocracy.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Gierke, Otto. <i>Natural Law and the Theory of Society, 1500 to +1800.</i> With a Lecture on The Ideas of Natural Law and +Humanity, by Ernst Troeltsch. Tr. with an introduction +by E. Barker. 2 vols. Cambridge, England: 1934. +(A standard work, with excellent notes, especially valuable +on European backgrounds.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Gohdes, Clarence. "Ethan Allen and his <i>Magnum Opus</i>," +<i>Open Court</i>, XLIII, 128-51 (March, 1929). (Suggests the +eighteenth-century battle between revelation and reason, the +latter as buttressed by Lockian sensationalism and Newtonian +science.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxix" id="Page_clxxix">[clxxix]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Greene, E. B. <i>The Provincial Governor in the English Colonies +of North America.</i> Cambridge, Mass.: 1898. (Inveterate +divergence between provincial governor and provincial +assemblies foreshadowed the American Revolution.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Halévy, E. <i>The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism.</i> Tr. by +M. Morris, with a preface by A. D. Lindsay. London: +1928. (A comprehensive, authoritative work.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hansen, A. O. <i>Liberalism and American Education in the +Eighteenth Century.</i> With an introduction by E. H. Reisner. +New York: 1926. (A good bibliography of primary sources +and a poor bibliography of secondary sources, pp. 265-96. +Although this slights Franklin and deals especially with plans +following Franklin's death, it surveys educational ideals +with reference to the ideas of the Enlightenment, ideas latent +in Franklin's writings.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Haroutunian, Joseph. <i>Piety versus Moralism, the Passing of +the New England Theology.</i> New York: 1932. (An important +scholarly work arguing reluctantly that Puritanism +declined because it was theocentric and inadequate to the +social needs of the time. Has an excellent bibliography.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hefelbower, S. G. <i>The Relation of John Locke to English +Deism.</i> Chicago: 1918. (The relation between Locke and +the English deists is "not causal, nor do they mark different +stages of the same movement"; they are "related as coordinate +parts of the larger progressive movement of the age." +Stresses Locke's tolerance, rationalism, and natural religion.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Higgs, Henry. <i>The Physiocrats. Six Lectures on the French +Économistes of the Eighteenth Century.</i> London: 1897. +(Gide and Rist term this a "succinct account" of the physiocratic +system.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hildeburn, C. R. <i>Issues of the Pennsylvania Press. A Century +of Printing, 1685-1784.</i> 2 vols. Philadelphia: 1885-1886. +(A highly useful guide to what was being read in Pennsylvania +year by year.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Horton, W. M. <i>Theism and the Scientific Spirit.</i> New York: +1933. (Popular accounts of "Copernican world" and "God +in the Newtonian world" in chapters I-II.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxx" id="Page_clxxx">[clxxx]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Humphrey, Edward. <i>Nationalism and Religion in America, +1774-1789.</i> Boston: 1924.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jameson, J. F. <i>The American Revolution Considered as a Social +Movement.</i> Princeton, N. J.: 1926. (Brief and general, but +suggestive.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jones, H. M. <i>America and French Culture, 1750-1848.</i> Chapel +Hill, N. C.: 1927. (A monumental, elaborately documented +comprehensive work, containing an excellent bibliography.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Jones, H. M. "American Prose Style: 1700-1770," <i>Huntington +Library Bulletin</i>, No. 6, 115-51 (Nov., 1934). (Shows that +Puritan preachings inculcated the ideal of a simple, lucid, and +dignified style.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Kaye, F. B., ed. <i>The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, +Publick Benefits. With a Commentary Critical, Historical, and +Explanatory.</i> 2 vols. Oxford: 1924. (The introduction is +the most lucid and penetrating commentary on Mandeville +in relation to the pattern of ideas of his age. See L. I. Bredvold's +review in <i>Journal of English and Germanic Philology</i>, +XXIV, 586-9, Oct., 1925.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Koch, G. A. <i>Republican Religion: The American Revolution +and the Cult of Reason.</i> New York: 1933. ("A vast body of +facts about a host of obscure figures"—reviewed by H. H. +Clark in <i>Journal of Philosophy</i>, XXXI, 135-8. Contains an +elaborate bibliography.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Kraus, M. <i>Intercolonial Aspects of American Culture on the Eve +of the Revolution.</i> New York: 1928. (Scholarly.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Lecky, W. E. H. <i>A History of England in the Eighteenth Century.</i> +7 vols. New York: 1892-1893 (new ed.). (A standard +work, containing a finely documented treatment of the +political aspects of the American Revolution.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Leonard, S. A. <i>The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, +1700-1800.</i> Madison, Wis.: 1929. (Authoritative.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien. <i>History of Modern Philosophy in France.</i> +Chicago: 1899.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxi" id="Page_clxxxi">[clxxxi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Lincoln, C. H. <i>The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania, +1760-1776.</i> Philadelphia: 1901. (A highly important study +showing that local sectional strife which would have eventually +led to conflict synchronized with the strife between the +colony and England.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Lovejoy, A. O. "The Parallel of Deism and Classicism," +<i>Modern Philology</i>, XXIX, 281-99 (Feb., 1932). ("A systematic +statement of the rationalistic <i>preconceptions</i> which, +when applied in matters of religion terminated in Deism, +when applied in aesthetics produced Classicism. An illuminating +synthesis, done throughout with characteristic finesse +and discrimination" [<i>Philological Quarterly</i>, XII, 106, +April, 1933].)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">McIlwain, C. H. <i>The American Revolution: A Constitutional +Interpretation.</i> New York: 1923. (Offers defense of revolution +on English constitutional grounds.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Martin, Kingsley. <i>French Liberal Thought in the Eighteenth +Century: A Study of Political Ideas from Bayle to Condorcet.</i> +Boston: 1929. (Stimulating survey of ideology motivating +the French revolution, "a dramatic moment when feudalism, +clericalism and divine monarchy collapsed.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Merriam, C. E. <i>A History of American Political Theories.</i> New +York: 1924 [1903]. (Authoritative, brief treatment.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Monaghan, Frank. <i>John Jay, Defender of Liberty.</i> New York: +1935. (A brilliant biography and a fully documented study +of the activities and diplomacy of the Continental Congress. +Supplements S. F. Bemis; see above.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Moore, C. A. "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, +1700-1760," <i>Publications of the Modern Language Association</i>, +XXXI (<span class="txt90">N. S.</span> XXIV), 264-325 (June, 1916). (Penetrating +and brilliant survey of the growth of altruism, to be +supplemented by R. S. Crane's studies of earlier sources.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Morais, H. M. <i>Deism in Eighteenth Century America.</i> New +York: 1934. (If little space is given to the implications of +Deism in terms of political, economic, and literary theory, +and if the leaders of deistic thought, such as Franklin, +Jefferson, and Paine are too lightly dealt with, this work is +"substantial, precise, well-documented, modest, cautious, +and objective." Has a good bibliography. Reviewed by +H. H. Clark, <i>American Literature</i>, VI, 467-9, Jan., 1935. +See also Morais's "Deism in Revolutionary America, 1763-89," +<i>International Journal of Ethics</i>, XLII, 434-53, July, 1932.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxii" id="Page_clxxxii">[clxxxii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Morley, John. <i>Diderot and the Encyclopædists.</i> 2 vols. London: +1923. (A suggestive survey, parts of which have been +superseded by more recent studies.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mornet, Daniel. <i>French Thought in the Eighteenth Century.</i> Tr. +by L. M. Levin. New York: 1929. (Lucid and penetrating +survey; suggestive notes on the influence of speculation +motivated by science.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mornet, Daniel. <i>Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution +française (1715-1787).</i> Paris: 1933. (A brilliant work, concluding +that without the extraordinary diffusion of radical +ideas in all classes in France, the States-General in 1789 would +not have adopted revolutionary measures. See C. Brinton's +review, <i>American Historical Review</i>, XXXIX, 726-7, 1934.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Morse, W. N. "Lectures on Electricity in Colonial Times," +<i>New England Quarterly</i>, VII, 364-74 (June, 1934). (Presents +fourteen items on the vogue of electrical experiments, +1747-1765.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mott, F. L. <i>A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850.</i> +New York: 1930.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Mullett, C. F. <i>Fundamental Law and the American Revolution, +1760-1776.</i> New York: 1933. (A highly important scholarly +study, with excellent bibliography of relevant investigations +of recent date. Supplements B. F. Wright.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ornstein, Martha. <i>The Rôle of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth +Century.</i> New York: 1913. Reprinted, University of +Chicago Press: 1928. (Shows their radical influence. See +suggestive reviews in <i>American Historical Review</i>, XXXIV, +386-7, 1929; and <i>Times Literary Supplement</i> [London], 679, +Sept. 27, 1928.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Osgood, H. L. <i>The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century.</i> +4 vols. New York: 1924-1925. (Standard work on political +aspects.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Perkins, J. B. <i>France in the American Revolution.</i> Boston: +1911. (Includes able survey of Franklin's efforts in behalf of +colonies.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxiii" id="Page_clxxxiii">[clxxxiii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Richardson, L. N. <i>A History of Early American Magazines, +1741-1789.</i> New York: 1931. (An encyclopedic survey +indispensable to all students of the period. Enormously +documented.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Robertson, J. M. <i>A Short History of Free Thought, Ancient +and Modern.</i> 2 vols. London: 1915. (Third edition, +revised and expanded. An important survey, if somewhat +militantly partisan.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Roustan, Marius. <i>The Pioneers of the French Revolution.</i> Tr. +by F. Whyte, with an Introduction by H. J. Laski. Boston: +1926. (Thesis: "The spirit of the <i>philosophes</i> was the spirit +of the Revolution." Highly readable, but inferior to parallel +studies by Martin and Mornet in incisive analysis of patterns +of ideas. Stresses picturesque social aspects.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Schapiro, J. S. <i>Condorcet and the Rise of Liberalism in France.</i> +New York: 1934. (Condorcet is the "almost perfect expression +of the pioneer liberalism of the period"; he is viewed +as the "last of the encyclopedists and the most universal of +all." A lucid scholarly study, although hardly superseding +Alengry's <i>Condorcet</i>.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Schlesinger, A. M. "The American Revolution," in <i>New +Viewpoints in American History</i>. New York: 1922, pp. +160-83. (A brief but excellent interpretation, stressing +economic factors, and presenting a useful "Bibliographical +Note," pp. 181-3, including references to studies of political +and religious factors. See also studies of the latter by R. G. +Adams, Alice Baldwin, Carl Becker, B. F. Wright, C. F. +Mullett, C. H. Van Tyne, and Edward Humphrey.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Schneider, H. W. <i>The Puritan Mind.</i> New York: 1930. (An +acute scholarly study, with excellent bibliography. The +stress on ideas supplements and balances Parrington's tendency +to dismiss ideas as by-products of economic factors.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Smith, T. V. <i>The American Philosophy of Equality.</i> Chicago: +1927. (Chapter I includes discussion of "natural rights," +with recognition of the influence of European theorists.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxiv" id="Page_clxxxiv">[clxxxiv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Smyth, A. H. <i>The Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors, +1741-1850.</i> Philadelphia: 1892. (Brief descriptive +account, mostly superseded by the relevant sections in F. L. +Mott's and L. N. Richardson's histories.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Stephen, Leslie. <i>A History of English Thought in the Eighteenth +Century.</i> 2 vols. London: 1902 (3rd ed.). (As J. L. Laski +observes, it is "almost insolent to praise such work." In certain +aspects, however, it has been superseded by studies by +such men as R. S. Crane, A. O. Lovejoy, H. M. Jones, etc.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Stimson, Dorothy. <i>The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican +Theory of the Universe.</i> Hanover, N. H.: 1917.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Taylor, O. H. "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law," +<i>Quarterly Journal of Economics</i>, XLIV, 1-39 (Nov., 1929). +("The evolution of the idea of 'law' in economics" paralleling +"its evolution in the natural sciences" led to belief in an economic +mechanism which "was regarded as a wise device of the +Creator for causing individuals, while pursuing only their +own interests, to promote the prosperity of society, and for +causing the right adjustment to one another of supplies, +demands, prices, and incomes, to take place automatically, +in consequence of the free action of all individuals." The +author suggests that there is evident an incongruous dichotomy +between the mechanistic idea of the physiocrats and their +assumption that enlightened men "would be able to use +government as a scientific tool for carrying out purely +rationalistic measures in the common interest." See also +outline of his doctoral thesis on this subject. Harvard University +<i>Summaries of Theses</i> [1928], 102-6. An authoritative +study of an important subject.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Torrey, N. L. <i>Voltaire and the English Deists.</i> New Haven: +1930. (Shows Voltaire's great indebtedness to Newtonianism, +which he popularized in France, and to earlier deists than +Bolingbroke. Authoritative.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Turberville, A. S., ed. <i>Johnson's England. An Account of the +Life and Manners of His Age.</i> 2 vols. Oxford University +Press: 1933. (Although this collaborative work neglects +political, religious, economic, and aesthetic ideas, it embodies +readable and authoritative surveys of external aspects of +social history, viewed from many angles. Contains useful +bibliographies. See review by H. H. Clark, <i>American +Review</i>, II, No. 4 [Feb., 1934].)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxv" id="Page_clxxxv">[clxxxv]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Tyler, M. C. <i>A History of American Literature, 1607-1765</i> (2 +vols. New York: 1878), and <i>The Literary History of the +American Revolution</i> (2 vols. New York: 1897). (Somewhat +grandiloquent but very full survey, including Loyalists. +Excellent on literary aspects but partly superseded on ideas. +Contains excellent bibliography of primary sources.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Van Tyne, C. H. <i>The Causes of the War of Independence.</i> +Boston: 1922. (Brilliant both in interpretation and style, +and well balanced in considering economic, political, social, +religious, and philosophic factors.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Veitch, G. S. <i>The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform.</i> London: +1913. (Useful for English backgrounds.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Weld, C. R. <i>A History of the Royal Society with Memoirs of +the Presidents.</i> 2 vols. London: 1848.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Wendell, Barrett. <i>Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest.</i> Cambridge, +Mass.: 1926 [1891]. (A sympathetic study of one of +Franklin's masters, based on a deep knowledge of the +Puritan spirit.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Weulersse, Georges. <i>Le mouvement physiocratique en France</i> +(<i>de 1756 à 1770</i>). 2 vols. Paris: 1910. (The standard +treatment.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">White, A. D. <i>A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology +in Christendom.</i> 2 vols. New York: 1897. (Prominent +attention given to colonial eighteenth century.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Whitney, Lois. <i>Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English +Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century.</i> Baltimore: +1934. (An acute study of the history of an important idea, +especially as embodied in novels. Occasionally misleading +because Miss Whitney does not always pay necessary attention +to the major individuals' change of attitude, to their +genetic development. Contains no bibliography. See Bury, +above.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Williams, David. "The Influence of Rousseau on Political +Opinion, 1760-1795," <i>English Historical Review</i>, XLVIII, +414-30 (1933).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxvi" id="Page_clxxxvi">[clxxxvi]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Winsor, Justin, ed. <i>Narrative and Critical History of America.</i> +8 vols. Boston: [1884-] 1889. (Especially valuable for +bibliographical notes.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Wright, B. F. <i>American Interpretations of Natural Law. A +Study in the History of Political Thought.</i> Cambridge, Mass.: +1931. (An able outline of main trends, although it neglects +evidence both in eighteenth-century sermons and in legal +papers of colonial attorneys. Shows strong influence of +Grotius, Puffendorf, and Locke on Revolutionary theories. +Should be supplemented by C. F. Mullett's parallel book. +Reviewed by R. B. Morris, <i>American Historical Review</i>, +XXXVII, 561-2, April, 1932.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Wright, T. G. <i>Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620-1730.</i> +New Haven: 1920. (Valuable for its check lists of +colonial libraries, suggesting books current in Franklin's +formative years. The best treatment of its subject although +it neglects the literary and aesthetic theories of the period. +To be supplemented by books by C. F. Richardson, W. F. +Mitchell, and E. C. Cook.)</p> + +<p>Further background studies may be found in <i>The Cambridge +History of English Literature</i>, Cambridge and New York, +1912-1914, VIII-XI, and <i>The Cambridge History of American +Literature</i>, New York, 1917, Vol. I. See also the more up-to-date +bibliographies in P. Smith's <i>A History of Modern Culture</i>, +New York, 1934, II, 647-76; R. S. Crane's <i>A Collection of +English Poems, 1660-1800</i>, New York, 1932, pp. 1115-42; and +especially O. Shepard and P. S. Wood, <i>English Prose and +Poetry, 1660-1800</i>, Boston, 1934, pp. xxxiii-xxxviii and pp. 937-1067. +For bibliographical guides, see note following, p. clxxxviii.</p> + + +<h3><a name="VI_BIBLIOGRAPHIES_AND_CHECK_LISTS" id="VI_BIBLIOGRAPHIES_AND_CHECK_LISTS"></a>VI. BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND CHECK LISTS</h3> + +<p class="hangbib">Boggess, A. C., and Witmer, E. R. <i>Calendar of the Papers of +Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania.</i> +(Being the Appendix to the <i>Calendar of the +Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American +Philosophical Society</i>, edited by I. M. Hays.) Philadelphia: +1908. (This valuable work lists letters to Franklin, letters +from Franklin, and miscellaneous letters, with brief notes on +the topics discussed in each letter and place of publication in +cases where the letters have been published.)</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxvii" id="Page_clxxxvii">[clxxxvii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib"><i>Books Printed by Benjamin Franklin. Born Jan. 17, 1706.</i> New +York: 1906. (Lists best known imprints; useful although +eclipsed by Campbell.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*<i>The Cambridge History of American Literature.</i> New York: +1917. I, 442-52. (Lists of "Collected Works," "Separate +Works," and "Contributions to Periodicals" constitute a +convenient abridgment of Ford, but the list, "Biographical +and Critical," limited to two pages, is at best inadequately +suggestive.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Campbell, W. J. <i>The Collection of Franklin Imprints in the +Museum of the Curtis Publishing Company. With a Short-Title +Check List of All the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., +known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin.</i> Philadelphia: +1918.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Campbell, W. J. <i>A Short-Title Check List of All the Books, +Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., known to have been printed by +Benjamin Franklin.</i> Philadelphia: 1918.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Faÿ, B. <i>Benjamin Franklin bibliographie et étude sur les sources +historiques relatives à sa vie</i> (Vol. III of <i>Benjamin Franklin, +bourgeois d'Amérique et citoyen du monde</i>.) Paris: 1931. +(Faÿ, in <i>Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times</i>, pp. 517-33, +has furnished "only a summary bibliography," which, in spite +of its occasional inaccuracies and infelicities in form, contains +many useful items, American, English, and French; especially +valuable for notes on several manuscript collections. In +this French edition the bibliography is more detailed.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">*Ford, P. L. <i>Franklin Bibliography. A List of Books Written +by, or Relating to Benjamin Franklin.</i> Brooklyn, N. Y.: +1889. (The standard, time-honored work, unfortunately not +superseded.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Ford, W. C. <i>List of the Benjamin Franklin Papers in the Library +of Congress.</i> Washington, D. C.: 1905.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_clxxxviii" id="Page_clxxxviii">[clxxxviii]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Hays, I. M. <i>Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the +Library of the American Philosophical Society.</i> Vols. II-VI in +<i>The Record of the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary +of the Birth of Benjamin Franklin, under the Auspices of +the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for +Promoting Useful Knowledge, April 17 to 20, 1906</i>. Philadelphia: +1908. (A. H. Smyth purports to have printed in +his ten-volume edition all of Franklin's letters in this collection. +Valuable especially for letters addressed to Franklin.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">"List of Works in the New York Public Library by or Relating +to Benjamin Franklin," <i>Bulletin of New York Public Library</i>, +X, No. 1. New York: 1906, pp. 29-83.</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Rosengarten, J. G. "Some New Franklin Papers," <i>University +of Pennsylvania Alumni Register</i>, 1-7 (July, 1903). (A report +to the Board of Trustees saying "there are over five hundred +pieces of MS among the collection of Franklin papers +recently added to the Library of the University." These +range from 1731 to Franklin's latest correspondence. Only +a few of these pieces are described.)</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Stevens, Henry. <i>Benjamin Franklin's Life and Writings. A +Bibliographical Essay on the Stevens Collection of Books and +Manuscripts Relating to Doctor Franklin.</i> London: 1881. +(Pp. 21-40 contain a list of "Franklin's Printed Works.")</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Swift, Lindsay. "Catalogue of Works Relating to Benjamin +Franklin in the Boston Public Library," <i>Bulletin of the +Boston Public Library</i>, V, 217-31, 276-84, 420-33. Boston: +1883. (Including Dr. S. A. Green's collection, this was the +"immediate predecessor" to Ford.)</p> + +<p>For current articles the student should consult especially the +bibliographies in <i>Philological Quarterly</i>, <i>American Literature</i>, +<i>Publications of the Modern Language Association</i>, bibliographical +bulletins of the Modern Humanities Research Association, and +Grace G. Griffin's annual bibliography, <i>Writings on American +History</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center txt120">*</p> + +<p class="center txt120 bold"><a name="Selections_from" id="Selections_from"></a><i>Selections from</i></p> + +<h2>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</h2> + +<p class="center txt120">*</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">NOTE: Superior figures through the text refer to <a href="#NOTES">notes</a> in <a href="#Page_529">pp. 529</a> ff.</p> + + +<h3><a name="From_the_AUTOBIOGRAPHY" id="From_the_AUTOBIOGRAPHY"></a><i>From the</i> AUTOBIOGRAPHY<a name="FNanchor_1_513" id="FNanchor_1_513"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_513" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h3> + +<p class="date"> +<span class="smcap">Twyford</span>, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771.<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Son</span>, I have ever had a Pleasure in obtaining any little +Anecdotes of my Ancestors. You may remember the Enquiries +I made among the Remains of my Relations when you were +with me in England; and the journey I undertook for that purpose. +Now imagining it may be equally agreable to you to know +the Circumstances of <i>my</i> Life, many of which you are yet unacquainted +with; and expecting a Weeks uninterrupted Leisure +in my present Country Retirement, I sit down to write them for +you. To which I have besides some other Inducements. Having +emerg'd from the Poverty and Obscurity in which I was +born and bred, to a State of Affluence and some Degree of Reputation +in the World, and having gone so far thro' Life with a +considerable Share of Felicity, the conducing Means I made use +of, which, with the Blessing of God, so well succeeded, my Posterity +may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable +to their own Situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. That +Felicity, when I reflected on it, has induc'd me sometimes to +say, that were it offer'd to my Choice, I should have no Objection +to a Repetition of the same Life from its Beginning, only +asking the Advantages Authors have in a second Edition to correct +some Faults of the first. So would I if I might, besides corr[ecting] +the Faults, change some sinister Accidents and Events +of it for others more favourable, but tho' this were deny'd, I +should still accept the Offer. However, since such a Repetition +is not to be expected, the next Thing most like living one's Life +over again, seems to be a <i>Recollection</i> of that Life; and to make +that Recollection as durable as possible, the putting it down in +Writing. Hereby, too, I shall indulge the Inclination so natural +in old Men, to be talking of themselves and their own past +Actions, and I shall indulge it, without being troublesome to +others who thro' respect to Age might think themselves oblig'd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +to give me a Hearing, since this may be read or not as any one +pleases. And lastly (I may as well confess it, since my Denial of +it will be believ'd by no Body) perhaps I shall a good deal gratify +my own <i>Vanity</i>. Indeed I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory +Words, <i>Without vanity I may say</i>, &c. but some vain +thing immediately follow'd. Most People dislike Vanity in +others whatever share they have of it themselves, but I give it +fair Quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is +often productive of Good to the Possessor and to others that +are within his Sphere of Action: And therefore in many Cases it +would not be quite absurd if a Man were to thank God for his +Vanity among the other Comforts of Life.—</p> + +<p>And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all Humility +to acknowledge, that I owe the mention'd Happiness of my past +Life to his kind Providence, which led me to the Means I us'd +and gave them Success. My Belief of this, induces me to <i>hope</i>, +tho' I must not <i>presume</i>, that the same Goodness will still be exercis'd +towards me in continuing that Happiness, or in enabling +me to bear a fatal Reverse, which I may experience as others +have done, the Complexion of my future Fortune being known to +him only: in whose Power it is to bless to us even our Afflictions.</p> + +<p>The Notes one of my Uncles (who had the same kind of +Curiosity in collecting Family Anecdotes) once put into my +Hands, furnish'd me with several Particulars relating to our Ancestors. +From these Notes I learnt that the Family had liv'd in +the same Village, Ecton in Northamptonshire, for 300 Years, +and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the Time +when the Name <i>Franklin</i> that before was the name of an Order +of People, was assum'd by them for a Surname, when others +took surnames all over the kingdom)[,] on a Freehold of about +30 Acres, aided by the Smith's Business, which had continued +in the Family till his Time, the eldest son being always bred to +that Business[.] A Custom which he and my Father both followed +as to their eldest Sons.—When I search'd the Register at +Ecton, I found an Account of their Births, Marriages and +Burials, from the Year 1555 only, there being no Register kept +in that Parish at any time preceding.—By that Register I perceiv'd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +that I was the youngest Son of the youngest Son for 5 +Generations back. My Grandfather Thomas, who was born in +1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow Business +longer, when he went to live with his Son John, a Dyer at Banbury +in Oxfordshire, with whom my Father serv'd an Apprenticeship. +There my Grandfather died and lies buried. We saw +his Gravestone in 1758. His eldest Son Thomas liv'd in the +House at Ecton, and left it with the Land to his only Child, a +Daughter, who, with her Husband, one Fisher of Wellingborough +sold it to Mr. Isted, now Lord of the Manor there. My +Grandfather had 4 Sons that grew up, viz Thomas, John, Benjamin +and Josiah. I will give you what Account I can of them +at this distance from my Papers, and if these are not lost in my +Absence, you will among them find many more Particulars. +Thomas was bred a Smith under his Father, but being ingenious, +and encourag'd in Learning (as all his Brothers likewise were) +by an Esquire Palmer then the principal Gentleman in that Parish, +he qualify'd himself for the Business of Scrivener, became a +considerable Man in the County Affairs, was a chief Mover of all +publick Spirited Undertakings for the County or Town of +Northampton and his own village, of which many instances +were told us; and he was at Ecton much taken Notice of and +patroniz'd by the then Lord Halifax. He died in 1702, Jan. 6, +old Stile, just 4 Years to a Day before I was born. The Account +we receiv'd of his Life and Character from some old People at +Ecton, I remember struck you as something extraordinary, from +its Similarity to what you knew of mine. Had he died on the +same Day, you said one might have suppos'd a Transmigration.—John +was bred a Dyer, I believe of Woollens. Benjamin, +was bred a Silk Dyer, serving an Apprenticeship at London. +He was an ingenious Man, I remember him well, for when I was +a Boy he came over to my Father in Boston, and lived in the +House with us some Years. He lived to a great Age. His +Grandson Samuel Franklin now lives in Boston. He left behind +him two Quarto Volumes, MS of his own Poetry, consisting of +little occasional Pieces address'd to his Friends and Relations, +of which the following sent to me, is a Specimen. [Although<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +Franklin wrote in the margin "Here insert it," the poetry is not +given.] He had form'd a Shorthand of his own, which he taught +me, but, never practising it I have now forgot it. I was nam'd +after this Uncle, there being a particular Affection between him +and my Father. He was very pious, a great Attender of Sermons +of the best Preachers, which he took down in his Shorthand and +had with him many Volumes of them. He was also much of a +Politician, too much perhaps for his Station. There fell lately +into my Hands in London a Collection he had made of all the +principal Pamphlets relating to Publick Affairs from 1641 to +1717. Many of the Volumes are wanting, as appears by the +Numbering, but there still remains 8 Vols. Folio, and 24 in 4.<sup>to</sup> +and 8.<sup>vo</sup>.—A Dealer in old Books met with them, and knowing +me by my sometimes buying of him, he brought them to me. +It seems my Uncle must have left them here when he went to +America, which was above 50 years since. There are many of +his Notes in the Margins.—</p> + +<p>This obscure Family of ours was early in the Reformation, +and continu'd Protestants thro' the Reign of Queen Mary, when +they were sometimes in Danger of Trouble on Account of their +Zeal against Popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal +and secure it, it was fastened open with Tapes under and +within the Frame of a Joint Stool. When my Great Great Grandfather +read it [it] to his Family, he turn'd up the joint Stool upon +his Knees, turning over the Leaves then under the Tapes. One +of the Children stood at the Door to give Notice if he saw the +Apparitor coming, who was an Officer of the Spiritual Court. +In that Case the Stool was turn'd down again upon its feet, +when the Bible remain'd conceal'd under it as before. This +Anecdote I had from my Uncle Benjamin.—The Family continu'd +all of the Church of England till about the End of Charles +the 2<sup>ds</sup> Reign, when some of the Ministers that had been outed +for Nonconformity, holding Conventicles in Northamptonshire, +Benjamin and Josiah adher'd to them, and so continu'd all +their Lives. The rest of the Family remain'd with the Episcopal +Church.</p> + +<p>Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his Wife with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +three Children into New England, about 1682. The Conventicles +having been forbidden by Law, and frequently disturbed, +induced some considerable Men of his Acquaintance to remove +to that Country, and he was prevail'd with to accompany them +thither, where they expected to enjoy their Mode of Religion +with Freedom.—By the same Wife he had 4 Children more +born there, and by a second wife ten more, in all 17, of which I +remember 13 sitting at one time at his Table, who all grew up to +be Men and Women, and married. I was the youngest Son, and +the youngest Child but two, and was born in Boston, N. England. +My mother, the 2<sup>d</sup> wife was Abiah Folger, a daughter of +Peter Folger, one of the first Settlers of New England, of whom +honourable mention is made by Cotton Mather, in his Church +History of that Country, (entitled Magnalia Christi Americana) +as <i>a godly learned Englishman</i>, if I remember the Words rightly. +I have heard that he wrote sundry small occasional Pieces, but +only one of them was printed which I saw now many years +since. It was written in 1675, in the home-spun Verse of that +Time and People, and address'd to those then concern'd in the +Government there. It was in favour of Liberty of Conscience, +and in behalf of the Baptists, Quakers, and other Sectaries, that +had been under Persecution; ascribing the Indian Wars and +other Distresses, that had befallen the Country to that Persecution, +as so many Judgments of God, to punish so heinous an +Offense; and exhorting a Repeal of those uncharitable Laws. +The whole appear'd to me as written with a good deal of Decent +Plainness and manly Freedom. The six last concluding Lines I +remember, tho' I have forgotten the two first of the Stanza, but +the Purport of them was that his Censures proceeded from +Good will, and therefore he would be known as the Author,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Because to be a Libeller, (says he)<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I hate it with my Heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From<a name="FNanchor_A_491" id="FNanchor_A_491"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_491" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> Sherburne Town where now I dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">My Name I do put here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without Offense, your real Friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">It is Peter Folgier."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_491" id="Footnote_A_491"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_491"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> In MS Franklin notes, "In the Island of Nantucket."</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p> + +<p>My elder Brothers were all put Apprentices to different +Trades. I was put to the Grammar School at Eight Years of +Age, my Father intending to devote me as the Tithe of his Sons +to the Service of the Church. My early Readiness in learning to +read (which must have been very early, as I do not remember +when I could not read) and the Opinion of all his Friends that I +should certainly make a good Scholar, encourag'd him in this +Purpose of his. My Uncle Benjamin too approv'd of it, and +propos'd to give me all his Shorthand Volumes of Sermons I +suppose as a Stock to set up with, if I would learn his Character. +I continu'd however at the Grammar School not quite one Year, +tho' in that time I had risen gradually from the Middle of the +Class of that Year to be the Head of it, and farther was remov'd +into the next Class above it, in order to go with that into the +third at the End of the Year. But my Father in the mean time, +from a View of the Expence of a College Education which, having +so large a Family, he could not well afford, and the mean +Living many so educated were afterwards able to obtain, Reasons +that he gave to his Friends in my Hearing, altered his first +Intention, took me from the Grammar School, and sent me to a +School for Writing and Arithmetic kept by a then famous Man, +Mr. Geo. Brownell, very successful in his Profession generally, +and that by mild encouraging Methods. Under him I acquired +fair Writing pretty soon, but I fail'd in the Arithmetic, and +made no Progress in it.—At Ten Years old, I was taken home to +assist my Father in his Business, which was that of a Tallow +Chandler and Sope Boiler. A Business he was not bred to, but +had assumed on his Arrival in New England and on finding his +Dying Trade would not maintain his Family, being in little Request. +Accordingly I was employed in cutting Wick for the +Candles, filling the Dipping Mold, and the Molds for cast Candles, +attending the Shop, going of Errands, etc.—I dislik'd the +Trade and had a strong Inclination for the Sea; but my Father +declar'd against it; however, living near the Water, I was much +in and about it, learnt early to swim well, and to manage Boats, +and when in a Boat or Canoe with other Boys I was commonly +allow'd to govern, especially in any case of Difficulty; and upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +other Occasions I was generally a Leader among the Boys, and +sometimes led them into Scrapes, of w<sup>ch</sup> I will mention one +Instance, as it shows an early projecting public Spirit, tho' not +then justly conducted. There was a salt Marsh that bounded +part of the Mill Pond, on the Edge of which at Highwater, we +us'd to stand to fish for Min[n]ows. By much Trampling, we +had made it a mere Quagmire. My Proposal was to build a +Wharff there fit for us to stand upon, and I show'd my Comrades +a large Heap of Stones which were intended for a new +House near the Marsh, and which would very well suit our +Purpose. Accordingly in the Evening when the Workmen were +gone, I assembled a Number of my Playfellows; and working +with them diligently like so many Emmets, sometimes two or +three to a Stone, we brought them all away and built our little +Wharff.—The next Morning the Workmen were surpriz'd at +Missing the Stones; which were found in our Wharff; Enquiry +was made after the Removers; we were discovered and complain'd +of; several of us were corrected by our Fathers; and tho' +I pleaded the Usefulness of the Work, mine convinc'd me that +nothing was useful which was not honest.</p> + +<p>I think you may like to know something of his Person and +Character. He had an excellent Constitution of Body, was of +middle Stature, but well set and very strong. He was ingenious, +could draw prettily, was skill'd a little in Music and had a clear +pleasing Voice, so that when he play'd Psalm Tunes on his Violin +and sung withal as he sometimes did in an Evening after the +Business of the Day was over, it was extreamly agreable to hear. +He had a mechanical Genius too, and on occasion was very +handy in the Use of other Tradesmen's Tools. But his great +Excellence lay in a sound Understanding, and solid Judgment in +prudential Matters, both in private and publick Affairs. In the +latter indeed he was never employed, the numerous Family he +had to educate and the straitness of his Circumstances, keeping +him close to his Trade, but I remember well his being frequently +visited by leading People, who consulted him for his Opinion +in Affairs of the Town or of the Church he belong'd to and +show'd a good deal of Respect for his Judgment and advice. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +was also much consulted by private Persons about their affairs +when any Difficulty occurr'd, and frequently chosen an Arbitrator +between contending Parties.—At his Table he lik'd to have +as often as he could, some sensible Friend or Neighbour to converse +with, and always took care to start some ingenious or useful +Topic for Discourse, which might tend to improve the +Minds of his Children. By this means he turn'd our Attention +to what was good, just, and prudent in the Conduct of Life; and +little or no Notice was ever taken of what related to the Victuals +on the Table, whether it was well or ill drest, in or out of season, +of good or bad flavour, preferable or inferior to this or that +other thing of the kind; so that I was bro't up in such a perfect +Inattention to those Matters as to be quite Indifferent what kind +of Food was set before me, and so unobservant of it, that to this +Day, if I am ask'd I can scarce tell a few Hours after Dinner, +what I din'd upon. This has been a Convenience to me in +travelling, where my Companions have been sometimes very +unhappy for want of a suitable Gratification of their more delicate[,] +because better instructed[,] tastes and appetites.</p> + +<p>My Mother had likewise an excellent Constitution. She +suckled all her 10 Children. I never knew either my Father or +Mother to have any Sickness but that of which they dy'd he at +89, and she at 85 years of age. They lie buried together at Boston, +where I some years since placed a Marble Stone over their +Grave with this Inscription:</p> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">Josiah Franklin</span><br /> +And <span class="smcap">Abiah</span> his Wife<br /> +Lie here interred.<br /> +They lived lovingly together in Wedlock<br /> +Fifty-five Years.<br /> +Without an Estate or any gainful Employment,<br /> +By constant labour and Industry,<br /> +With God's blessing,<br /> +They maintained a large Family<br /> +Comfortably;<br /> +And brought up thirteen Children,<br /> +And seven Grandchildren<br /> +Reputably.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center"> +From this Instance, Reader,<br /> +Be encouraged to Diligence in thy Calling,<br /> +And Distrust not Providence.<br /> +He was a pious and prudent Man,<br /> +She a discreet and virtuous Woman.<br /> +Their youngest Son,<br /> +In filial Regard to their Memory,<br /> +Places this Stone.<br /> +J. F. born 1655—Died 1744—Ætat 89.<br /> +A. F. born 1667—Died 1752——85.</p> + + +<p>By my rambling Digressions I perceive myself to be grown +old. I us'd to write more methodically.—But one does not +dress for private Company as for a publick Ball. 'Tis perhaps +only Negligence.—</p> + +<p>To return. I continu'd thus employ'd in my Father's Business +for two Years, that is till I was 12 Years old; and my +Brother John, who was bred to that Business having left my +Father, married and set up for himself at Rhodeisland, there was +all Appearance that I was destin'd to supply his Place and be a +Tallow Chandler. But my Dislike to the Trade continuing, my +Father was under Apprehensions that if he did not find one for +me more agreable, I should break away and get to Sea, as his +Son Josiah had done to his great Vexation. He therefore sometimes +took me to walk with him, and see Joiners, Bricklayers, +Turners, Braziers, etc. at their Work, that he might observe my +Inclination, and endeavour to fix it on some Trade or other on +Land. It has ever since been a Pleasure to me to see good +Workmen handle their Tools; and it has been useful to me, having +learnt so much by it, as to be able to do little Jobs myself in +my House, when a Workman could not readily be got; and to +construct little Machines for my Experiments while the Intention +of making the Experiment was fresh and warm in my Mind. My +Father at last fix'd upon the Cutler's Trade, and my Uncle +Benjamin's Son Samuel who was bred to that Business in London[,] +being about that time establish'd in Boston, I was sent to +be with him some time on liking. But his Expectations of a Fee +with me displeasing my Father, I was taken home again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>From a Child I was fond of Reading, and all the little Money +that came into my Hands was ever laid out in Books. Pleas'd +with the Pilgrim's Progress, my first Collection was of John +Bunyan's Works, in separate little Volumes. I afterwards sold +them to enable me to buy R. Burton's Historical Collections; +they were small Chapmen's Books and cheap, 40 or 50 in all.—My +Father's little Library consisted chiefly of Books in polemic +Divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted, +that at a time when I had such a Thirst for Knowledge, more +proper Books had not fallen in my Way, since it was now resolv'd +I should not be a Clergyman. Plutarch's Lives there was, +in which I read abundantly, and I still think that time spent to +great ["Great" seems to have been deleted.] Advantage. There +was also a Book of Defoe's, called an Essay on Projects, and +another of Dr. Mather's, called Essays to do Good which perhaps +gave me a Turn of thinking that had an influence on some +of the principal future Events of my Life.</p> + +<p>This Bookish inclination at length determin'd my Father to +make me a Printer, tho' he had already one Son (James) of that +Profession. In 1717 my Brother James return'd from England +with a Press and Letters to set up his Business in Boston. I lik'd +it much better than that of my Father, but still had a Hankering +for the Sea.—To prevent the apprehended Effect of such an +Inclination, my Father was impatient to have me bound to my +Brother. I stood out some time, but at last was persuaded and +signed the Indentures, when I was yet but 12 Years old.—I was +to serve as an Apprentice till I was 21 Years of Age, only I was +to be allow'd Journeyman's Wages during the last Year. In a +little time I made great Proficiency in the Business, and became +a useful Hand to my Brother. I now had Access to better Books. +An Acquaintance with the Apprentices of Booksellers, enabled +me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return +soon and clean. Often I sat up in my Room reading the +greatest Part of the Night, when the Book was borrow'd in the +Evening and to be return'd early in the Morning[,] lest it should +be miss'd or wanted. And after some time an ingenious Tradesman +Mr. Matthew Adams who had a pretty Collection of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +Books, and who frequented our Printing House, took Notice of +me, invited me to his Library, and very kindly lent me such +Books as I chose to read. I now took a Fancy to Poetry, and +made some little Pieces. My Brother, thinking it might turn to +account encourag'd me, and put me on composing two occasional +Ballads. One was called The <i>Lighthouse Tragedy</i>, and +contained an Acc<sup>t</sup> of the drowning of Capt. Worthilake with +his Two Daughters; the other was a Sailor Song on the Taking +of <i>Teach</i> or Blackbeard the Pirate. They were wretched Stuff, +in the Grub-street Ballad Stile, and when they were printed he +sent me about the Town to sell them. The first sold wonderfully, +the Event being recent, having made a great Noise. This +flatter'd my Vanity. But my Father discourag'd me, by ridiculing +my Performances, and telling me Verse-makers were +generally Beggars; so I escap'd being a Poet, most probably a +very bad one. But as Prose Writing has been of great Use to +me in the Course of my Life, and was a principal Means of my +Advancement, I shall tell you how in such a Situation I acquir'd +what little Ability I have in that Way.</p> + +<p>There was another Bookish Lad in the Town, John Collins +by Name, with whom I was intimately acquainted. We sometimes +disputed, and very fond we were of Argument, and very +desirous of confuting one another. Which disputacious Turn, +by the way, is apt to become a very bad Habit, making People +often extreamly disagreeable in Company, by the Contradiction +that is necessary to bring it into Practice, and thence, besides +souring and spoiling the Conversation, is productive of Disgusts +and perhaps Enmities where you may have occasion for +Friendship. I had caught it by reading my Father's Books of +Dispute about Religion. Persons of good Sense, I have since observ'd, +seldom fall into it, except Lawyers, University Men, and +Men of all Sorts that have been bred at Edinborough. A Question +was once somehow or other started between Collins and +me, of the Propriety of educating the Female Sex in Learning, +and their Abilities for Study. He was of Opinion that it was +improper, and that they were naturally unequal to it. I took the +contrary Side, perhaps a little for Dispute['s] sake. He was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +naturally more eloquent, had a ready Plenty of Words, and +sometimes as I thought bore me down more by his Fluency than +by the Strength of his Reasons. As we parted without settling +the Point, and were not to see one another again for some time, +I sat down to put my Arguments in Writing, which I copied +fair and sent to him. He answer'd and I reply'd. Three of [or] four +Letters of a Side had pass'd, when my Father happen'd to find +my Papers, and read them. Without ent'ring into the Discussion, +he took occasion to talk to me about the Manner of my +Writing, observ'd that tho' I had the Advantage of my Antagonist +in correct Spelling and pointing (which I ow'd to the +Printing House) I fell far short in elegance of Expression, in +Method and in Perspicuity, of which he convinc'd me by several +Instances. I saw the Justice of his Remarks, and thence grew +more attentive to the <i>Manner</i> in writing, and determin'd to endeavour +at Improvement.—</p> + +<p>About this time I met with an odd Volume of the Spectator. +It was the Third. I had never before seen any of them. I +bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. +I thought the Writing excellent, and wish'd if possible to imitate +it. With that View, I took some of the Papers, and making +short Hints of the Sentiment in each Sentence, laid them by a +few Days, and then without looking at the Book, try'd to compleat +the Papers again, by expressing each hinted Sentiment at +length, and as fully as it had been express'd before, in any suitable +Words, that should come to hand.</p> + +<p>Then I compar'd my Spectator with the Original, discover'd +some of my Faults and corrected them. But I found I wanted a +Stock of Words or a Readiness in recollecting and using them, +which I thought I should have acquir'd before that time, if I had +gone on making Verses, since the continual Occasion for Words +of the same Import but of different Length, to suit the Measure, +or of different Sound for the Rhyme, would have laid me under +a constant Necessity of searching for Variety, and also have +tended to fix that Variety in my Mind, and make me Master of it. +Therefore I took some of the Tales and turn'd them into Verse: +And after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the Prose,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +turn'd them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my Collections +of Hints into Confusion, and after some Weeks, endeavour'd +to reduce them into the best Order, before I began to form +the full Sentences, and compleat the Paper. This was to teach +me Method in the Arrangement of Thoughts. By comparing +my work afterwards with the original, I discover'd many faults +and amended them; but I sometimes had the Pleasure of Fancying +that in certain Particulars of small Import, I had been lucky +enough to improve the Method or the Language and this encourag'd +me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable +English Writer, of which I was extreamly ambitious.</p> + +<p>My Time for these Exercises and for Reading, was at Night, +after Work or before it began in the Morning; or on Sundays, +when I contrived to be in the Printing House alone, evading as +much as I could the common Attendance on publick Worship, +which my Father used to exact of me when I was under his Care: +And which indeed I still thought a Duty; tho' I could not, as it +seemed to me, afford the Time to practise it.</p> + +<p>When about 16 Years of Age, I happen'd to meet with a +Book, written by one Tryon, recommending a Vegetable Diet. +I determined to go into it. My Brother being yet unmarried, did +not keep House, but boarded himself and his Apprentices in another +Family. My refusing to eat Flesh occasioned an Inconveniency, +and I was frequently chid for my singularity. I made +myself acquainted with Tryon's Manner of preparing some of +his Dishes, such as Boiling Potatoes or Rice, making Hasty +Pudding, and a few others, and then propos'd to my Brother, +that if he would give me Weekly half the Money he paid for my +Board I would board myself. He instantly agreed to it, and I +presently found that I could save half what he paid me. This +was an additional Fund for buying Books. But I had another +Advantage in it. My Brother and the rest going from the Printing +House to their Meals, I remain'd there alone, and dispatching +presently my light Repast, (which often was no more than a +Bisket or a Slice of Bread, a Handful of Raisins or a Tart from +the Pastry Cook's, and a Glass of Water) had the rest of the +Time till their Return, for Study, in which I made the greater<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +Progress from that greater Clearness of Head and quicker Apprehension +which usually attend Temperance in Eating and +Drinking. And now it was that being on some Occasion made +asham'd of my Ignorance in Figures, which I had twice failed in +Learning when at School, I took Cocker's Book of Arithmetick, +and went thro' the whole by myself with great Ease. I also read +Seller's and Sturmy's Books of Navigation, and became acquainted +with the little Geometry they contain, but never proceeded +far in that Science.—And I read about this Time Locke +on Human Understanding, and the Art of Thinking by Mess<sup>rs</sup> +du Port Royal.</p> + +<p>While I was intent on improving my Language, I met with an +English Grammar (I think it was Greenwood's) at the End of +which there were two little Sketches of the Arts of Rhetoric and +Logic, the latter finishing with a Specimen of a Dispute in the +Socratic Method. And soon after I procur'd Xenophon's +Memorable Things of Socrates, wherein there are many Instances +of the same Method. I was charm'd with it, adopted it, +dropt my abrupt Contradiction, and positive Argumentation, +and put on the humble Enquirer and Doubter. And being then, +from reading Shaftesbury and Collins, become a real Doubter in +many Points of our religious Doctrine, I found this Method +safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I +us'd it, therefore I took a Delight in it, practis'd it continually +and grew very artful and expert in drawing People even of superior +Knowledge into Concessions the Consequences of which +they did not foresee, entangling them in Difficulties out of which +they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining Victories +that neither myself nor my Cause always deserved.—I continu'd +this Method some few years, but gradually left it, retaining only +the Habit of expressing myself in Terms of modest Diffidence, +never using when I advance any thing that may possibly be disputed, +the Words, <i>Certainly</i>, <i>undoubtedly</i>; or any others that +give the Air of Positiveness to an Opinion; but rather say, I conceive, +or I apprehend a Thing to be so or so, It appears to me, or +I should think it so or so for such and such Reasons, or I imagine +it to be so, or it is so if I am not mistaken. This Habit I believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +has been of great Advantage to me, when I have had occasion +to inculcate my Opinions and persuade Men into Measures that +I have been from time to time engag'd in promoting.—And as +the chief Ends of Conversation are to <i>inform</i>, or to be <i>informed</i>, +to <i>please</i> or to <i>persuade</i>, I wish wellmeaning sensible Men would +not lessen their Power of doing Good by a Positive assuming +Manner that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create Opposition, +and to defeat every one of those Purposes for which Speech was +given us, to wit, giving or receiving Information, or Pleasure: +For if you would <i>inform</i>, a positive dogmatical Manner in advancing +your Sentiments, may provoke Contradiction and prevent +a candid Attention. If you wish Information and Improvement +from the Knowledge of others and yet at the same time +express yourself as firmly fix'd in your present Opinions, modest +sensible Men, who do not love Disputation, will probably leave +you undisturbed in the Possession of your Error; and by such a +Manner you can seldom hope to recommend yourself in <i>pleasing</i> +your Hearers, or to persuade those whose Concurrence you +desire.—Pope says, judiciously,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Men should be taught as if you taught them not,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And things unknown propos'd as things forgot,—</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>farther recommending it to us,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>To speak tho' sure, with seeming Diffidence.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And he might have coupled with this Line that which he has +coupled with another, I think less properly,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>For want of Modesty is want of Sense.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>If you ask why <i>less properly</i>, I must repeat the lines;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Immodest Words admit of <i>no</i> Defence;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>For</i> Want of Modesty is Want of Sense."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now is not <i>Want of Sense</i> (where a Man is so unfortunate as to +want it) some Apology for his <i>Want of Modesty?</i> and would not +the Lines stand more justly thus?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Immodest Words admit <i>but this</i> Defence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Want of Modesty is Want of Sense.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This however I should submit to better Judgments.—</p> + +<p>My Brother had in 1720 or 21, begun to print a Newspaper. +It was the second that appear'd in America, and was called <i>The +New England Courant</i>.<a name="FNanchor_2_514" id="FNanchor_2_514"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_514" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The only one before it, was <i>the Boston +News Letter</i>. I remember his being dissuaded by some of his +Friends from the Undertaking, as not likely to succeed, one +Newspaper being in their Judgment enough for America.—At +this time 1771 there are not less than five and twenty.—He +went on however with the Undertaking, and after having +work'd in composing the Types and printing off the Sheets, I +was employ'd to carry the Papers thro' the Streets to the Customers.—He +had some ingenious Men among his Friends who +amus'd themselves by writing little Pieces for this Paper, which +gain'd it Credit, and made it more in Demand; and these Gentlemen +often visited us.—Hearing their Conversations, and their +Accounts of the Approbation their Papers were receiv'd with, I +was excited to try my Hand among them. But being still a Boy, +and suspecting that my Brother would object to printing any +Thing of mine in his Paper if he knew it to be mine, I contriv'd +to disguise my Hand, and writing an anonymous Paper I put it +in at Night under the Door of the Printing House. It was found +in the Morning and communicated to his Writing Friends when +they call'd in as usual. They read it, commented on it in my +Hearing, and I had the exquisite Pleasure, of finding it met with +their Approbation, and that in their different Guesses at the +Author none were named but Men of some Character among us +for Learning and Ingenuity.—I suppose now that I was rather +lucky in my Judges: And that perhaps they were not really so +very good ones as I then esteem'd them. Encourag'd however +by this, I wrote and convey'd in the same Way to the Press +several more Papers, which were equally approv'd, and I kept +my Secret till my small Fund of Sense for such Performances +was pretty well exhausted, and then I discovered it; when I began +to be considered a little more by my Brother's Acquaintance, +and in a manner that did not quite please him, as he thought,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +probably with reason, that it tended to make me too vain. And +perhaps this might be one Occasion of the Differences that we +began to have about this Time. Tho' a Brother, he considered +himself as my Master, and me as his Apprentice; and accordingly +expected the same Services from me as he would from another; +while I thought he demean'd me too much in some he requir'd +of me, who from a Brother expected more Indulgence. Our +Disputes were often brought before our Father, and I fancy I +was either generally in the right, or else a better Pleader, because +the Judgment was generally in my favour: But my Brother was +passionate and had often beaten me, which I took extreamly +amiss; and thinking my Apprenticeship very tedious, I was continually +wishing for some Opportunity of shortening it, which +at length offered in a manner unexpected.<a name="FNanchor_B_492" id="FNanchor_B_492"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_492" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_492" id="Footnote_B_492"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_492"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> I fancy his harsh and tyrannical Treatment of me, might be a means of +impressing me with that Aversion to arbitrary Power that has stuck to me +thro' my whole life [<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + +<p>One of the Pieces in our Newspaper, on some political Point +which I have now forgotten, gave Offence to the Assembly. He +was taken up, censur'd and imprison'd for a Month by the +Speaker's Warrant, I suppose because he would not discover his +Author. I too was taken up and examin'd before the Council; +but tho' I did not give them any Satisfaction, they contented +themselves with admonishing me, and dismiss'd me; considering +me perhaps as an Apprentice who was bound to keep his Master's +Secrets. During my Brother's Confinement, which I resented +a good deal, notwithstanding our private Differences, I +had the Management of the Paper, and I made bold to give our +Rulers some Rubs in it, which my Brother took very kindly, +while others began to consider me in an unfavourable Light, as a +young Genius that had a Turn for Libelling and Satyr. My +Brother's Discharge was accompany'd with an Order of the +House, (a very odd one) <i>that James Franklin should no longer +print the Paper called the New England Courant</i>. There was a +Consultation held in our Printing House among his Friends +what he should do in this Case. Some propos'd to evade the +Order by changing the Name of the Paper; but my Brother seeing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +Inconveniences in that, it was finally concluded on as a better +Way, to let it be printed for the future under the Name of <i>Benjamin +Franklin</i>. And to avoid the Censure of the Assembly that +might fall on him, as still printing it by his Apprentice, the Contrivance +was, that my old Indenture should be return'd to me +with a full Discharge on the Back of it, to be shown on Occasion; +but to secure to him the Benefit of my Service I was to +sign new Indentures for the Remainder of the Term, w<sup>ch</sup> were +to be kept private. A very flimsy Scheme it was, but however it +was immediately executed, and the Paper went on accordingly +under my Name for several Months. At length a fresh Difference +arising between my Brother and me, I took upon me to +assert my Freedom, presuming that he would not venture to +produce the new Indentures. It was not fair in me to take this +Advantage, and this I therefore reckon one of the first Errata of +my life: But the Unfairness of it weighed little with me, when +under the Impressions of Resentment, for the Blows his Passion +too often urg'd him to bestow upon me. Tho' he was otherwise +not an ill-natur'd Man: Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.</p> + +<p>When he found I would leave him, he took care to prevent +my getting Employment in any other Printing-House of the +Town, by going round and speaking to every Master, who +accordingly refus'd to give me Work. I then thought of going +to New York as the nearest Place where there was a Printer: and +I was the rather inclin'd to leave Boston, when I reflected that I +had already made myself a little obnoxious to the governing +Party; and from the arbitrary Proceedings of the Assembly in +my Brother's Case it was likely I might if I stay'd soon bring myself +into Scrapes; and farther that my indiscrete Disputations +about Religion began to make me pointed at with Horror by +good People, as an Infidel or Atheist. I determin'd on the Point: +but my Father now siding with my Brother, I was sensible that +if I attempted to go openly, Means would be used to prevent me. +My Friend Collins therefore undertook to manage a little for +me. He agreed with the Captain of a New York Sloop for my +Passage, under the Notion of my being a young Acquaintance of +his that had got a naughty Girl with Child, whose Friends<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +would compel me to marry her, and therefore I could not appear +or come away publickly. So I sold some of my Books to raise a +little Money, Was taken on board privately, and as we had a fair +Wind[,] in three Days I found myself in New York near 300 +Miles from home, a Boy of but 17, without the least Recommendation +to or Knowledge of any Person in the Place, and +with very little Money in my Pocket.</p> + +<p>My Inclinations for the Sea, were by this time worne out, or I +might now have gratify'd them. But having a Trade, and supposing +myself a pretty good Workman, I offer'd my Service to +the Printer in the Place, old Mr W<sup>m</sup> Bradford, who had been +the first Printer in Pensilvania, but remov'd from thence upon +the Quarrel of Geo. Keith.—He could give me no Employment, +having little to do, and Help enough already: But, says he, my +Son at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal Hand, Aquila +Rose, by Death. If you go thither I believe he may employ +you.—Philadelphia was 100 Miles farther. I set out, however, in +a Boat for Amboy, leaving my Chest and Things to follow me +round by Sea. In crossing the Bay we met with a Squall that +tore our rotten Sails to pieces, prevented our getting into the +Kill, and drove us upon Long Island. In our Way a drunken +Dutchman, who was a Passenger too, fell overboard; when he +was sinking I reach'd thro' the Water to his shock Pate and +drew him up so that we got him in again. His ducking sober'd +him a little, and he went to sleep, taking first out of his Pocket a +Book which he desir'd I would dry for him. It prov'd to be my +old favourite Author Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in Dutch, +finely printed on good Paper with copper Cuts, a Dress better +than I had ever seen it wear in its own Language. I have since +found that it has been translated into most of the Languages of +Europe, and suppose it has been more generally read than any +other Book except perhaps the Bible. Honest John was the first +that I know of who mix'd Narration and Dialogue, a Method of +Writing very engaging to the Reader, who in the most interesting +Parts finds himself, as it were brought into the Company, +and present at the Discourse. Defoe in his Cruso, his Moll +Flanders, Religious Courtship, Family Instructor, and other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +Pieces, has imitated it with Success. And Richardson has done +the same in his Pamela, etc.—</p> + +<p>When we drew near the Island we found it was at a Place +where there could be no Landing, there being a great Surff on +the stony Beach. So we dropt Anchor and swung round towards +the Shore. Some People came down to the Water Edge +and hallow'd to us, as we did to them. But the Wind was so +high and the Surff so loud, that we could not hear so as to understand +each other. There were Canoes on the Shore, and we +made Signs and hallow'd that they should fetch us, but they +either did not understand us, or thought it impracticable. So +they went away, and Night coming on, we had no Remedy but +to wait till the Wind should abate, and in the mean time the +Boatman and I concluded to sleep if we could, and so crouded +into the Scuttle with the Dutchman who was still wet, and the +Spray beating over the Head of our Boat, leak'd thro' to us, so +that we were soon almost as wet as he. In this Manner we lay all +Night with very little Rest. But the Wind abating the next Day, +we made a Shift to reach Amboy before Night, having been 30 +Hours on the Water without Victuals, or any Drink but a Bottle +of filthy Rum: The Water we sail'd on being salt.—</p> + +<p>In the Evening I found myself very feverish, and went in to +Bed. But having read somewhere that cold Water drank plentifully +was good for a Fever, I follow'd the Prescription, sweat +plentifully most of the Night, my Fever left me, and in the +Morning crossing the Ferry, I proceeded on my Journey, on +foot, having 50 Miles to Burlington, where I was told I should find +Boats that would carry me the rest of the Way to Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>It rain'd very hard all the Day, I was thoroughly soak'd, and +by Noon a good deal tir'd, so I stopt at a poor Inn, where I staid +all Night, beginning now to wish I had never left home. I cut so +miserable a Figure too, that I found by the Questions ask'd me I +was suspected to be some runaway Servant, and in danger of +being taken up on that Suspicion. However I proceeded the +next Day, and got in the Evening to an Inn within 8 or 10 Miles +of Burlington, kept by one Dr Brown.—</p> + +<p>He ent[e]red into Conversation with me while I took some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +Refreshment, and finding I had read a little, became very sociable +and friendly. Our Acquaintance continu'd as long as he +liv'd. He had been, I imagine, an itinerant Doctor, for there +was no Town in England, or Country in Europe, of which he +could not give a very particular Account. He had some Letters, +and was ingenious, but much of an Unbeliever, and wickedly +undertook, some Years after to travesty the Bible in doggrel +Verse as Cotton had done Virgil. By this means he set many of +the Facts in a very ridiculous Light, and might have hurt weak +minds if his Work had been publish'd:—but it never was.—At +his House I lay that Night, and the next Morning reach'd Burlington.—But +had the Mortification to find that the regular +Boats were gone, a little before my coming, and no other expected +to go till Tuesday, this being Saturday. Wherefore I returned +to an old Woman in the Town of whom I had bought +Gingerbread to eat on the Water, and ask'd her Advice; she invited +me to lodge at her House till a Passage by Water should +offer: and being tired with my foot Travelling, I accepted the +Invitation. She understanding I was a Printer, would have had +me stay at that Town and follow my Business, being ignorant of +the Stock necessary to begin with. She was very hospitable, +gave me a Dinner of Ox Cheek with great Goodwill, accepting +only of a Pot of Ale in return. And I thought myself fix'd till +Tuesday should come. However walking in the Evening by +the Side of the River, a Boat came by, which I found was going +towards Philadelphia, with several People in her. They took +me in, and as there was no wind, we row'd all the Way; and +about Midnight not having yet seen the City, some of the Company +were confident we must have pass'd it, and would row no +farther, the others knew not where we were, so we put towards +the Shore, got into a Creek, landed near an old Fence[,] with +the Rails of which we made a Fire, the Night being cold, in +October, and there we remain'd till Daylight. Then one of the +Company knew the Place to be Cooper's Creek a little above +Philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got out of the Creek, +and arriv'd there about 8 or 9 o'Clock, on the Sunday morning, +and landed at the Market street Wharff.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>I have been the more particular in this Description of my +Journey, and shall be so of my first Entry into that City, that +you may in your Mind compare such unlikely Beginnings with +the Figure I have since made there. I was in my Working +Dress, my best Cloaths being to come round by Sea. I was +dirty from my Journey; my Pockets were stuff'd out with +Shirts and Stockings; I knew no Soul, nor where to look for +Lodging. I was fatigued with Travelling, Rowing and Want +of Rest. I was very hungry, and my whole Stock of Cash consisted +of a Dutch Dollar and about a Shilling in Copper. The +latter I gave the People of the Boat for my Passage, who at first +refus'd it on Acc<sup>t</sup> of my Rowing; but I insisted on their taking +it, a Man being sometimes more generous when he has but a +little Money than when he has plenty, perhaps thro' Fear of being +thought to have but little. Then I walk'd up the Street, gazing +about, till near the Market House I met a Boy with Bread. I +had made many a Meal on Bread, and inquiring where he got it, +I went immediately to the Baker's he directed me to in Second +Street; and ask'd for Bisket, intending such as we had in Boston, +but they it seems were not made in Philadelphia, then I ask'd for +a threepenny Loaf, and was told they had none such: so not +considering or knowing the Difference of Money and the +greater Cheapness nor the Names of his Bread, I bad[e] him give +me threepenny worth of any sort. He gave me accordingly +three great Puffy Rolls. I was surpriz'd at the Quantity, but +took it, and having no room in my Pockets, walk'd off, with a +Roll under each Arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up +Market Street as far as fourth Street, passing by the Door of Mr. +Read, my future Wife's Father, when she standing at the Door +saw me, and thought I made as I certainly did a most awkward +ridiculous Appearance. Then I turn'd and went down Chestnut +Street and part of Walnut Street, eating my Roll all the Way, +and coming round found myself again at Market Street Wharff, +near the Boat I came in, to which I went for a Draught of the +River Water, and being fill'd with one of my Rolls, gave the +other two to a Woman and her Child that came down the River +in the Boat with us and were waiting to go farther. Thus refresh'd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +I walk'd again, up the Street, which by this time had +many clean dress'd People in it who were all walking the same +Way; I join'd them, and thereby was led into the great Meeting +House of the Quakers near the Market. I sat down among them, +and after looking round awhile and hearing nothing said; being +very drowsy thro' Labour and want of Rest the preceding Night, +I fell fast asleep, and continu'd so till the Meeting broke up, +when one was kind enough to rouse me. This was therefore the +first House I was in or slept in, in Philadelphia.—</p> + +<p>Walking again down towards the River, and looking in the +Faces of People, I met a young Quaker Man whose Countenance +I lik'd, and accosting him requested he would tell me +where a Stranger could get Lodging. We were then near the +Sign of the Three Mariners. Here, says he, is one Place that entertains +Strangers, but it is not a reputable House; if thee wilt +walk with me, I'll show thee a better. He brought me to the +Crooked Billet in Water Street. Here I got a Dinner. And +while I was eating it, several sly Questions were ask'd me, as it +seem'd to be suspected from my youth and Appearance, that I +might be some Runaway. After Dinner my Sleepiness return'd: +and being shown to a Bed, I lay down without undressing, and +slept till Six in the Evening; was call'd to Supper; went to Bed +again very early and slept soundly till next Morning. Then I +made myself as tidy as I could, and went to Andrew Bradford +the Printer's. I found in the Shop the old Man his Father, whom +I had seen at New York, and who travelling on horseback had +got to Philadelphia before me. He introduc'd me to his Son, +who receiv'd me civilly, gave me a Breakfast, but told me he did +not at present want a Hand, being lately supply'd with one. But +there was another Printer in town lately set up, one Keimer, +who perhaps might employ me; if not, I should be welcome to +lodge at his House, and he would give me a little Work to do +now and then till fuller Business should offer.</p> + +<p>The old Gentleman said, he would go with me to the new +Printer: And when we found him, Neighbor, says Bradford, I +have brought to see you a young Man of your Business, perhaps +you may want such a One. He ask'd me a few Questions, put a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +Composing Stick in my Hand to see how I work'd, and then +said he would employ me soon, tho' he had just then nothing +for me to do. And taking old Bradford whom he had never seen +before, to be one of the Towns People that had a Good Will for +him, enter'd into a Conversation on his present Undertaking and +Prospects; while Bradford not discovering that he was the other +Printer's Father, on Keimer's saying he expected soon to get +the greatest Part of the Business into his own Hands, drew him +on by artful Questions and starting little Doubts, to explain all +his Views, what Interest he rely'd on, and in what manner he intended +to proceed.—I who stood by and heard all, saw immediately +that one of them was a crafty old Sophister, and the +other a mere Novice. Bradford left me with Keimer, who was +greatly surpriz'd when I told him who the old Man was.</p> + +<p>Keimer's Printing House I found, consisted of an old shatter'd +Press, and one small worn-out Fount of English, which he +was then using himself, composing in it an Elegy on Aquila Rose +before-mentioned, an ingenious young Man of excellent Character +much respected in the Town, Clerk of the Assembly, and a +pretty Poet. Keimer made Verses, too, but very indifferently. +He could not be said to write them, for his Manner was to compose +them in the Types directly out of his Head; so there being +no Copy, but one Pair of Cases, and the Elegy likely to require +all the Letter[s], no one could help him.—I endeavour'd to put +his Press (which he had not yet us'd, and of which he understood +nothing) into Order fit to be work'd with; and promising +to come and print off his Elegy as soon as he should have got it +ready, I return'd to Bradford's who gave me a little Job to do +for the present, [and] there I lodged and dieted. A few Days +after[,] Keimer sent for me to print off the Elegy. And now he +had got another Pair of Cases, and a Pamphlet to reprint, on +which he set me to work.—</p> + +<p>These two Printers I found poorly Qualified for their Business. +Bradford had not been bred to it, and was very illiterate; +and Keimer tho' something of a Scholar, was a mere Compositor, +knowing nothing of Presswork. He had been one of the +French Prophets and could act their enthusiastic Agitations. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +this time he did not profess any particular Religion, but something +of all on occasion; was very ignorant of the World, and +had, as I afterward found, a good deal of the Knave in his Composition. +He did not like my Lodging at Bradford's while I +work'd with him. He had a House indeed, but without Furniture, +so he could not lodge me: But he got me a Lodging at Mr. +Read's beforementioned, who was the Owner of his House. +And my Chest and Clothes being come by this time, I made +rather a more respectable Appearance in the Eyes of Miss Read +than I had done when she first happen'd to see me eating my +Roll in the Street.—</p> + +<p>I began now to have some Acquaintance among the young +People of the Town, that were Lovers of Reading with whom I +spent my Evenings very pleasantly and gaining Money by my +Industry and Frugality, I lived very agreably, forgetting Boston +as much as I could, and not desiring that any there should know +where I resided, except my Friend Collins who was in my Secret, +and kept it when I wrote to him. At length an Incident +happened that sent me back again much sooner than I had intended.—</p> + +<p>I had a Brother-in-law, Robert Holmes, Master of a Sloop, +that traded between Boston and Delaware. He being at New +Castle 40 Miles below Philadelphia, heard there of me, and +wrote me a Letter, mentioning the Concern of my Friends in +Boston at my abrupt Departure, assuring me of their Good will +to me, and that every thing would be accommodated to my +Mind if I would return, to which he exhorted me very earnestly. +I wrote an Answer to his Letter, thank'd him for his Advice, but +stated my Reasons for quitting Boston fully, and in such a Light +as to convince him I was not so wrong as he had apprehended. +Sir William Keith<a name="FNanchor_3_515" id="FNanchor_3_515"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_515" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Governor of the Province, was then at New +Castle, and Capt. Holmes happening to be in Company with +him when my Letter came to hand, spoke to him of me, and +show'd him the Letter. The Governor read it, and seem'd surpriz'd +when he was told my Age. He said I appear'd a young +Man of promising Parts, and therefore should be encouraged: +The Printers at Philadelphia were wretched ones, and if I would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +set up there, he made no doubt I should succeed; for his Part, he +would procure me the publick Business, and do me every other +Service in his Power. This my Brother-in-law afterwards told +me in Boston. But I knew as yet nothing of it; when one Day +Keimer and I being at Work together near the Window, we saw +the Governor and another Gentleman (which prov'd to be Col. +French, of New Castle) finely dress'd, come directly across the +Street to our House, and heard them at the Door. Keimer ran +down immediately, thinking it a Visit to him. But the Governor +enquir'd for me, came up, and with a Condescension and Politeness +I had been quite unus'd to, made me many Compliments, +desired to be acquainted with me, blam'd me kindly for +not having made myself known to him when I first came to the +Place, and would have me away with him to the Tavern where +he was going with Col. French to taste as he said some excellent +Madeira. I was not a little surpriz'd, and Keimer star'd like a +Pig poison'd. I went however with the Governor and Col. +French, to a Tavern [at] the Corner of Third Street, and over the +Madeira he propos'd my Setting up my Business, laid before me +the Probabilities of Success, and both he and Col. French, assur'd +me I should have their Interest and Influence in procuring +the Publick Business of both Governments. On my doubting +whether my Father would assist me in it, Sir William said he +would give me a Letter to him, in which he would state the Advantages, +and he did not doubt of prevailing with him. So it +was concluded I should return to Boston in the first Vessel with +the Governor's Letter recommending me to my Father. In the +mean time the Intention was to be kept secret, and I went on +working with Keimer as usual, the Governor sending for me +now and then to dine with him, a very great Honour I thought +it, and conversing with me in the most affable, familiar, and +friendly manner imaginable. About the End of April 1724 a +little Vessel offer'd for Boston. I took leave of Keimer as going +to see my Friends. The Governor gave me an ample Letter, +saying many flattering things of me to my Father, and strongly +recommending the Project of my setting up at Philadelphia, as a +Thing that must make my Fortune. We struck on a Shoal in going<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +down the Bay and sprung a Leak, we had a blustering time +at Sea, and were oblig'd to pump almost continually, at which I +took my Turn. We arriv'd safe however at Boston in about a +Fortnight.—I had been absent Seven Months and my Friends +had heard nothing of me; for my Br. Holmes was not yet return'd; +and had not written about me. My unexpected Appearance +surpriz'd the Family; all were however very glad to see me +and made me Welcome, except my Brother. I went to see him +at his Printing-House: I was better dress'd than ever while in +his Service, having a genteel new Suit from Head to foot, a +Watch, and my Pockets lin'd with near Five Pounds Sterling in +Silver. He receiv'd me not very frankly, look'd me all over, and +turn'd to his Work again. The JourneyMen were inquisitive +where I had been, what sort of a Country it was, and how I lik'd +it? I prais'd it much, and the happy Life I led in it; expressing +strongly my Intention of returning to it; and one of them asking +what kind of Money we had there, I produc'd a handful of Silver +and spread it before them, which was a kind of Raree Show they +had not been us'd to, Paper being the Money of Boston. Then I +took an Opportunity of letting them see my Watch: and lastly, +(my Brother still grum and sullen) I gave them a Piece of Eight +to drink, and took my Leave.—This Visit of mine offended him +extreamly. For when my Mother some time after spoke to him +of a Reconciliation, and of her Wishes to see us on good Terms +together, and that we might live for the future as Brothers, he +said, I had insulted him in such a Manner before his People that +he could never forget or forgive it. In this however he was +mistaken.—</p> + +<p>My Father received the Governor's Letter with some apparent +Surprize; but said little of it to me for some Days; when Capt. +Holmes returning, he show'd it to him, ask'd if he knew Keith, +and what kind of a Man he was: Adding his Opinion that he must +be of small Discretion, to think of setting a Boy up in Business +who wanted yet 3 Years of being at Man's Estate. Holmes said +what he could in fav<sup>r</sup> of the Project; but my Father was clear in +the Impropriety of it; and at last gave a flat Denial to it. Then +he wrote a civil Letter to Sir William thanking him for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +Patronage he had so kindly offered me, but declining to assist +me as yet in Setting up, I being in his Opinion too young to be +trusted with the Management of a Business so important, and for +which the Preparation must be so expensive.—</p> + +<p>My Friend and Companion Collins, who was a Clerk at the +Post-Office, pleas'd with the Account I gave him of my new +Country, determin'd to go thither also: And while I waited for +my Fathers Determination, he set out before me by Land to +Rhodeisland, leaving his Books which were a pretty Collection +of Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy, to come with mine +and me to New York where he propos'd to wait for me. My +Father, tho' he did not approve Sir William's Proposition was +yet pleas'd that I had been able to obtain so advantageous a +Character from a Person of such Note where I had resided, and +that I had been so industrious and careful as to equip myself so +handsomely in so short a time: therefore seeing no Prospect of +an Accommodation between my Brother and me, he gave his +Consent to my Returning again to Philadelphia, advis'd me to +behave respectfully to the People there, endeavour to obtain the +general Esteem, and avoid lampooning and libelling to which +he thought I had too much Inclination; telling me, that by steady +Industry and a prudent Parsimony, I might save enough by the +time I was One and Twenty to set me up, and that if I came near +the Matter he would help me out with the rest. This was all I +could obtain, except some small Gifts as Tokens of his and my +Mother's Love, when I embark'd again for New-York, now +with their Approbation and their Blessing.—</p> + +<p>The Sloop putting in at Newport, Rhodeisland, I visited my +Brother John, who had been married and settled there some +Years. He received me very affectionately, for he always lov'd +me. A Friend of his, one Vernon, having some Money due to +him in Pensilvania, about 35 Pounds Currency, desired I would +receive it for him, and keep it till I had his Directions what to +remit it in. Accordingly he gave me an Order.—This afterwards +occasion'd me a good deal of Uneasiness. At Newport +we took in a Number of Passengers for New York: Among +which were two young Women, Companions, and a grave, sensible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +Matron-like Quaker-Woman with her Attendants.—I had +shown an obliging readiness to do her some little Services which +impress'd her I suppose with a degree of Good-will towards me.—Therefore +when she saw a daily growing Familiarity between +me and the two Young Women, which they appear'd to encourage, +she took me aside and said, Young Man, I am concern'd +for thee, as thou has no Friend with thee, and seems not to know +much of the World, or of the Snares Youth is expos'd to; depend +upon it those are very bad Women, I can see it in all their Actions, +and if thee art not upon thy Guard, they will draw thee +into some Danger: they are Strangers to thee, and I advise thee +in a friendly Concern for thy Welfare, to have no Acquaintance +with them. As I seem'd at first not to think so ill of them as she +did, she mention'd some Things she had observ'd and heard +that had escap'd my Notice; but now convinc'd me she was +right. I thank'd her for her kind Advice, and promis'd to follow +it.—When we arriv'd at New York, they told me where they +liv'd, and invited me to come and see them: but I avoided it. +And it was well I did: For the next Day, the Captain miss'd a +Silver Spoon and some other Things that had been taken out of +his Cabbin, and knowing that these were a Couple of Strumpets, +he got a Warrant to search their Lodgings, found the stolen +Goods, and had the Thieves punish'd. So tho' we had escap'd +a sunken Rock which we scrap'd upon in the Passage, I thought +this Escape of rather more Importance to me. At New York I +found my Friend Collins, who had arriv'd there some Time before +me. We had been intimate from Children, and had read the +same Books together: But he had the Advantage of more time +for reading, and Studying and a wonderful Genius for Mathematical +Learning in which he far outstript me. While I liv'd in +Boston most of my Hours of Leisure for Conversation were +spent with him, and he continu'd a sober as well as an industrious +Lad; was much respected for his Learning by several of the +Clergy and other Gentlemen, and seem'd to promise making a +good Figure in Life: but during my Absence he had acquir'd a +Habit of Sotting with Brandy; and I found by his own Account +and what I heard from others, that he had been drunk every day<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +since his Arrival at New York, and behav'd very oddly. He had +gam'd too and lost his Money, so that I was oblig'd to discharge +his Lodgings, and defray his Expenses to and at Philadelphia: +Which prov'd extreamly inconvenient to me. The then Governor +of N[ew] York, Burnet, Son of Bishop Burnet hearing from +the Captain that a young Man, one of his Passengers, had a great +many Books, desired he would bring me to see him. I waited +upon him accordingly, and should have taken Collins with me +but that he was not sober. The Gov<sup>r</sup> treated me with great +Civility, show'd me his Library, which was a very large one, and +we had a good deal of Conversation about Books and Authors. +This was the second Governor who had done me the Honour to +take Notice of me, which to a poor Boy like me was very pleasing.—We +proceeded to Philadelphia. I received on the Way +Vernon's Money, without which we could hardly have finish'd +our Journey. Collins wish'd to be employ'd in some Counting +House; but whether they discover'd his Dramming by his +Breath, or by his Behaviour, tho' he had some Recommendations, +he met with no Success in any Application, and continu'd +Lodging and Boarding at the same House with me and at my Expense. +Knowing I had that Money of Vernon's he was continually +borrowing of me, still promising Repayment as soon as he +should be in Business. At length he had got so much of it, that +I was distress'd to think what I should do, in case of being call'd +on to remit it. His Drinking continu'd, about which we sometimes +quarrel'd, for when a little intoxicated he was very fractious. +Once in a Boat on the Delaware with some other young +Men, he refused to row in his Turn: I will be row'd home, says he. +We will not row you, says I. You must or stay all Night on the +Water, says he, just as you please. The others said, Let us row; +what signifies it? But my Mind being soured with his other Conduct, +I continu'd to refuse. So he swore he would make me row, +or throw me overboard; and coming along stepping on the +Thwarts towards me, when he came up and struck at me I clapt +my Hand under his Crutch, and rising pitch'd him head-foremost +into the River. I knew he was a good Swimmer, and so +was under little Concern about him; but before he could get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +round to lay hold of the Boat, we had with a few Strokes pull'd +her out of his Reach. And ever when he drew near the Boat, we +ask'd if he would row, striking a few Strokes to slide her away +from him.—He was ready to die with Vexation, and obstinately +would not promise to row; however seeing him at last beginning +to tire, we lifted him in; and brought him home dripping wet in +the Evening. We hardly exchang'd a civil Word afterwards; +and a West India Captain who had a Commission to procure a +Tutor for the Sons of a Gentleman at Barbadoes, happening to +meet with him, agreed to carry him thither. He left me then, +promising to remit me the first Money he should receive in order +to discharge the Debt. But I never heard of him after. The +Breaking into this Money of Vernon's was one of the first great +Errata of my Life[.] And this Affair show'd that my Father was +not much out in his Judgment when he suppos'd me too Young +to manage Business of Importance. But Sir William, on reading +his Letter, said he was too prudent. There was great Difference +in Persons, and Discretion did not always accompany Years, +nor was Youth always without it. And since he will not set you +up, says he, I will do it myself. Give me an Inventory of the +Things necessary to be had from England, and I will send for +them. You shall repay me when you are able; I am resolv'd to +have a good Printer here, and I am sure you must succeed. This +was spoken with such an Appearance of Cordiality, that I had +not the least doubt of his meaning what he said. I had hitherto +kept the Proposition of my Setting up[,] a Secret in Philadelphia, +and I still kept it. Had it been known that I depended on the +Governor, probably some Friend that knew him better would +have advis'd me not to rely on him, as I afterwards heard it as his +known Character to be liberal of Promises which he never +meant to keep.—Yet unsolicited as he was by me, how could I +think his generous Offers insincere? I believ'd him one of the +best Men in the World.—</p> + +<p>I presented him an Inventory of a little Print[8] House, +amounting by my Computation to about 100£ Sterling. He +lik'd it, but ask'd me if my being on the Spot in England to +chuse the Types and see that every thing was good of the kind,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +might not be of some Advantage. Then, says he, when there, +you may make Acquaintances and establish Correspondencies +in the Bookselling and Stationary Way. I agreed that this might +be advantageous. Then, says he, get yourself ready to go with +Annis; which was the annual Ship, and the only one at that Time +usually passing between London and Philadelphia. But it would +be some Months before Annis sail'd, so I continu'd working +with Keimer, fretting about the Money Collins had got from me; +and in daily Apprehensions of being call'd upon by Vernon, +which however did not happen for some Years after.—</p> + +<p>I believe I have omitted mentioning that in my first Voyage +from Boston, being becalm'd off Block Island, our People set +about catching Cod and haul'd up a great many. Hitherto I had +stuck to my Resolution of not eating animal Food; and on this +Occasion, I consider'd with my Master Tryon, the taking every +Fish as a kind of unprovoked Murder, since none of them had or +ever could do us any Injury that might justify the Slaughter. All +this seem'd very reasonable.—But I had formerly been a great +Lover of Fish, and when this came hot out of the Frying Pan, it +smelt admirably well. I balanc'd some time between Principle +and Inclination: till I recollected, that when the Fish were +opened, I saw smaller Fish taken out of their Stomachs: Then +thought I, if you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat +you. So I din'd upon Cod very heartily and continu'd to eat +with other People, returning only now and then occasionally to +a vegetable Diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a <i>reasonable +Creature</i>, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for every +thing one has a mind to do.</p> + +<p>Keimer and I liv'd on a pretty good familiar Footing and +agreed tolerably well: for he suspected nothing of my Setting up. +He retain'd a great deal of his old Enthusiasms, and lov'd Argumentation. +We therefore had many Disputations. I used to +work him so with my Socratic Method, and had trepann'd him +so often by Questions apparently so distant from any Point we +had in hand, and yet by degrees led to the Point, and brought +him into Difficulties and Contradictions that at last he grew +ridiculously cautious, and would hardly answer me the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +common Question, without asking first, <i>What do you intend to +infer from that?</i> However it gave him so high an Opinion of my +Abilities in the Confuting Way, that he seriously propos'd my +being his Colleague in a Project he had of setting up a new Sect. +He was to preach the Doctrines, and I was to confound all +Opponents. When he came to explain with me upon the Doctrines, +I found several Conundrums which I objected to, unless +I might have my Way a little too, and introduce some of mine. +Keimer wore his Beard at full Length, because somewhere in the +Mosaic Law it is said, <i>thou shalt not mar the Corners of thy +beard</i>. He likewise kept the seventh day Sabbath; and these two +Points were Essentials with him. I dislik'd both, but agreed to +admit them upon Condition of his adopting the Doctrine of +using no animal Food. I doubt, says he, my Constitution will +not bear that. I assur'd him it would, and that he would be the +better for it. He was usually a great Glutton, and I promis'd +myself some Diversion in half-starving him. He agreed to try +the Practice if I would keep him Company. I did so and we +held it for three Months. We had our Victuals dress'd and +brought to us regularly by a Woman in the Neighbourhood, who +had from me a List of 40 Dishes to be prepar'd for us at different +times, in all which there was neither Fish Flesh nor Fowl, +and the whim suited me the better at this time from the Cheapness +of it, not costing us above 18<sup>d</sup> Sterling each, per Week. I +have since kept several Lents most strictly, leaving the common +Diet for that, and that for the common, abruptly, without the +least Inconvenience: So that I think there is little in the Advice +of making those Changes by easy Gradations. I went on +pleasantly, but Poor Keimer suffer'd grievously, tir'd of the +Project, long'd for the Flesh Pots of Egypt, and order'd a roast +Pig. He invited me and two Women Friends to dine with him, +but it being brought too soon upon the table, he could not resist +the Temptation, and ate it all up before we came.—</p> + +<p>I had made some Courtship during this time to Miss Read. I +had a great Respect and Affection for her, and had some Reason +to believe she had the same for me: but as I was about to take a +long Voyage, and we were both very young, only a little above<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +18, it was thought most prudent by her Mother to prevent our +going too far at present, as a Marriage if it was to take place +would be more convenient after my Return, when I should be as +I expected set up in my Business. Perhaps too she thought my +Expectations not so well founded as I imagined them to be.—</p> + +<p>My chief Acquaintances at this time were, Charles Osborne, +Joseph Watson, and James Ralph; all Lovers of Reading. The +two first were Clerks to an eminent Scrivener or Conveyancer in +the Town, Charles Brogden; the other was Clerk to a Merchant. +Watson was a pious sensible young Man, of great Integrity.—The +others rather more lax in their Principles of Religion, particularly +Ralph, who as well as Collins had been unsettled by +me, for which they both made me suffer.—Osborne was sensible, +candid, frank, sincere and affectionate to his Friends; but +in literary Matters too fond of Criticising. Ralph, was ingenious, +genteel in his Manners, and extreamly eloquent; I think I never +knew a prettier Talker. Both of them great Admirers of Poetry, +and began to try their Hands in little Pieces. Many pleasant +Walks we four had together on Sundays into the Woods near +Schuylkill, where we read to one another and conferr'd on what +we read. Ralph was inclin'd to pursue the Study of Poetry, not +doubting but he might become eminent in it and make his Fortune +by it, alledging that the best Poets must when they first +began to write, make as many Faults as he did.—Osborne +dissuaded him, assur'd him he had no Genius for Poetry, and +advis'd him to think of nothing beyond the Business he was +bred to; that in the mercantile way tho' he had no Stock, he might +by his Diligence and Punctuality recommend himself to Employment +as a Factor, and in time acquire wherewith to trade on his +own Account. I approv'd the amusing one's self with Poetry +now and then, so far as to improve one's Language, but no farther. +On this it was propos'd that we should each of us at our +next Meeting produce a Piece of our own Composing, in order +to improve by our mutual Observations, Criticisms and Corrections. +As Language and Expression was what we had in View, +we excluded all Considerations of Invention, by agreeing that +the Task should be a Version of the 18<sup>th</sup> Psalm, which describes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +the Descent of a Deity. When the Time of our Meeting +drew nigh, Ralph call'd on me first, and let me know his Piece +was ready. I told him I had been busy, and having little Inclination +had done nothing. He then show'd me his Piece for +my Opinion; and I much approv'd it, as it appear'd to me to have +great Merit. Now, says he, Osborne never will allow the least +Merit in any thing of mine, but makes 1000 Criticisms out of +mere Envy. He is not so jealous of you. I wish therefore you +would take this Piece, and produce it as yours. I will pretend +not to have had time, and so produce nothing: We shall then +see what he will say to it. It was agreed, and I immediately +transcrib'd it that it might appear in my own hand. We met. +Watson's Performance was read: there were some Beauties in it: +but many Defects. Osborne's was read: It was much better. +Ralph did it Justice, remark'd some Faults, but applauded the +Beauties. He himself had nothing to produce. I was backward, +seem'd desirous of being excused, had not had sufficient Time +to correct, etc. but no Excuse could be admitted, produce I must. +It was read and repeated; Watson and Osborne gave up the Contest; +and join'd in applauding it immoderately. Ralph only +made some Criticisms and propos'd some Amendments, but I +defended my Text. Osborne was against Ralph, and told him +he was no better a Critic than Poet; so he dropt the Argument. +As they two went home together, Osborne express'd himself +still more strongly in favour of what he thought my Production, +having restrain'd himself before as he said, lest I should think it +Flattery. But who would have imagin'd, says he, that Franklin +had been capable of such a Performance; such Painting, such +Force! such Fire! he has even improv'd the Original! In his common +Conversation, he seems to have no Choice of Words; he +hesitates and blunders; and yet, good God, how he writes!—When +we next met, Ralph discover'd the Trick we had plaid +him, and Osborne was a little laught at. This Transaction fix'd +Ralph in his Resolution of becoming a Poet. I did all I could to +dissuade him from it, but he continued scribbling Verses, till +<i>Pope</i> cur'd him. He became however a pretty good Prose +Writer. More of him hereafter. But as I may not have occasion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +again to mention the other two, I shall just remark here, that +Watson died in my Arms a few Years after, much lamented, being +the best of our Set. Osborne went to the West Indies, where +he became an eminent Lawyer and made Money, but died young. +He and I had made a serious Agreement, that the one who happen'd +first to die, should if possible make a friendly Visit to the +other, and acquaint him how he found things in that Separate +State. But he never fulfill'd his Promise.</p> + +<p>The Governor, seeming to like my Company, had me frequently +to his House; and his Setting me up was always mention'd +as a fix'd thing. I was to take with me Letters recommendatory +to a Number of his Friends, besides the Letter of +Credit to furnish me with the necessary Money for purchasing +the Press and Types, Paper, etc. For these Letters I was appointed +to call at different times, when they were to be ready, +but a future time was still named.—Thus we went on till the +Ship whose Departure too had been several times postponed +was on the Point of sailing. Then when I call'd to take my +Leave and receive the Letters, his Secretary, Dr. Bard, came out +to me and said the Governor was extreamly busy, in writing, but +would be down at Newcastle before the Ship, and there the +Letters would be delivered to me.</p> + +<p>Ralph, tho' married and having one Child, had determined to +accompany me in this Voyage. It was thought he intended to +establish a Correspondence, and obtain Goods to sell on Commission. +But I found afterwards, that thro' some Discontent +with his Wife's Relations, he purposed to leave her on their +Hands, and never return again.—Having taken leave of my +Friends, and interchang'd some Promises with Miss Read, I left +Philadelphia in the Ship, which anchor'd at Newcastle. The +Governor was there. But when I went to his Lodging, the +Secretary came to me from him with the civillest Message in the +World, that he could not then see me being engag'd in Business +of the utmost Importance, but should send the Letters to me on +board, wish'd me heartily a good Voyage and a speedy Return, +etc. I return'd on board, a little puzzled, but still not doubting.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>Mr. Andrew Hamilton, a famous Lawyer of Philadelphia, had +taken Passage in the same Ship for himself and Son: and with +Mr. Denham a Quaker Merchant, and Messrs. Onion and Russell[,] +Masters of an Iron Work in Maryland, had engag'd the +Great Cabin; so that Ralph and I were forc'd to take up with a +Birth in the Steerage: And none on board knowing us, were considered +as ordinary Persons.—But Mr. Hamilton and his Son (it +was James, since Governor) return'd from New Castle to +Philadelphia, the Father being recall'd by a great Fee to plead +for a seized Ship.—And just before we sail'd Col. French coming +on board, and showing me great Respect, I was more taken Notice +of, and with my Friend Ralph invited by the other Gentlemen +to come into the Cabin, there being now Room. Accordingly +we remov'd thither.</p> + +<p>Understanding that Col. French had brought on board the +Governor's Dispatches, I ask'd the Captain for those Letters +that were to be under my Care. He said all were put into the +Bag together; and he could not then come at them; but before +we landed in England, I should have an Opportunity of picking +them out. So I was satisfy'd for the present, and we proceeded +on our Voyage. We had a sociable Company in the Cabin, and +lived uncommonly well, having the Addition of all Mr. Hamilton's +Stores, who had laid in plentifully. In this Passage Mr. +Denham contracted a Friendship for me that continued during +his Life. The Voyage was otherwise not a pleasant one, as we +had a great deal of bad Weather.</p> + +<p>When we came into the Channel, the Captain kept his Word +with me, and gave me an Opportunity of examining the Bag for +the Governor's Letters. I found none upon which my Name +was put, as under my Care; I pick'd out 6 or 7 that by the Hand +writing I thought might be the promis'd Letters, especially as +one of them was directed to Basket the King's printer, and another +to some Stationer. We arriv'd in London the 24<sup>th</sup> of +December, 1724.—I waited upon the Stationer who came first in +my Way, delivering the Letter as from Gov. Keith. I don't +know such a Person, says he: but opening the Letter, O, this is +from Riddlesden; I have lately found him to be a compleat Rascal,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +and I will have nothing to do with him, nor receive any Letters +from him. So putting the Letter into my Hand, he turn'd +on his Heel and left me to serve some Customer. I was surprized +to find these were not the Governor's Letters. And after +recollecting and comparing Circumstances, I began to doubt his +Sincerity.—I found my Friend Denham, and opened the whole +Affair to him. He let me into Keith's Character, told me there +was not the least Probability that he had written any Letters for +me, that no one who knew him had the smallest Dependence on +him, and he laught at the Notion of the Governor's giving me a +Letter of Credit, having as he said no Credit to give.—On my +expressing some Concern about what I should do: He advis'd +me to endeavour getting some Employment in the Way of my +Business. Among the Printers here, says he, you will improve +yourself; and when you return to America, you will set up to +greater Advantage.—</p> + +<p>We both of us happen'd to know, as well as the Stationer, +that Riddlesden the Attorney, was a very Knave. He had half +ruin'd Miss Read's Father by acquiring his note he bound for +him. By his Letter it appear'd, there was a secret Scheme on foot +to the Prejudice of Hamilton, (suppos'd to be then coming over +with us,) and that Keith was concern'd in it with Riddlesden. +Denham, who was a Friend of Hamilton's, thought he ought to +be acquainted with it. So when he arriv'd in England, which was +soon after, partly from Resentment and Ill-Will to Keith and +Riddlesden, and partly from Good Will to him: I waited +on him, and gave him the Letter. He thank'd me cordially, the +Information being of Importance to him. And from that time +he became my Friend, greatly to my Advantage afterwards on +many Occasions.</p> + +<p>But what shall we think of a Governor's playing such pitiful +Tricks, and imposing so grossly on a poor ignorant Boy! It +was a Habit he had acquired. He wish'd to please every body; +and, having little to give, he gave Expectations. He was otherwise +an ingenious sensible Man, a pretty good Writer, and a +good Governor for the People, tho' not for his Constituents the +Proprietaries, whose Instructions he sometimes disregarded.—Several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +of our best Laws were of his Planning, and pass'd during +his Administration.—</p> + +<p>Ralph and I were inseparable Companions. We took Lodgings +together in Little Britain at 3/6 p[er] Week, as much as we +could then afford. He found some Relations, but they were +poor and unable to assist him. He now let me know his Intentions +of remaining in London, and that he never meant to return +to Philad<sup>a</sup>—He had brought no Money with him, the whole +he could muster having been expended in paying his Passage. +I had 15 Pistoles: So he borrowed occasionally of me, to subsist +while he was looking out for Business.—He first endeavoured +to get into the Playhouse, believing himself qualify'd for an +Actor; but Wilkes to whom he apply'd, advis'd him candidly +not to think of that Employment, as it was impossible he should +succeed in it.—Then he propos'd to Roberts, a Publisher in +Paternoster Row, to write for him a Weekly Paper like the +Spectator, on certain Conditions, which Roberts did not approve. +Then he endeavour'd to get Employm<sup>t</sup> as a Hackney +Writer to copy for the Stationers and Lawyers about the Temple: +but could find no Vacancy.—</p> + +<p>I immediately got into Work at Palmer's then a famous +Printing House in Bartholomew Close; and here I continu'd +near a Year. I was pretty diligent; but spent with Ralph a good +deal of my Earnings in going to Plays and other Places of +Amusement. We had together consum'd all my Pistoles, and +now just rubb'd on from hand to mouth. He seem'd quite to +forget his Wife and Child, and I by degrees my Engagements +w<sup>th</sup> Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more than one Letter, +and that was to let her know I was not likely soon to return. +This was another of the great Errata of my Life, which I should +wish to correct if I were to live it over again.—In fact, by our +Expences, I was constantly kept unable to pay my Passage.</p> + +<p>At Palmer's I was employ'd in composing for the second Edition +of Woollaston's [<i>sic</i>] Religion of Nature. Some of his +Reasonings not appearing to me well-founded, I wrote a little +metaphysical Piece, in which I made Remarks on them. It was +entitled, <i>A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +<i>pain</i>. I inscrib'd it to my Friend Ralph.—I printed a small Number. +It occasion'd my being more consider'd by Mr. Palmer, as +a young Man of some Ingenuity, tho' he seriously Expostulated +with me upon the Principles of my Pamphlet which to him appear'd +abominable. My printing this Pamphlet was another +Erratum.</p> + +<p>In our House there lodg'd a young Woman; a Millener, +who I think had a Shop in the Cloisters. She had been genteelly +bred, was sensible and lively, and of most pleasing Conversation. +Ralph read Plays to her in the Evenings, they grew +intimate, she took another Lodging, and he follow'd her. They +liv'd together some time, but he being still out of Business, and +her Income not sufficient to maintain them with her Child, he +took a Resolution of going from London, to try for a Country +School, which bethought himself well qualify'd to undertake, as +he wrote an excellent Hand, and was a Master of Arithmetic and +Accounts.—This however he deem'd a Business below him, +and confident of future better Fortune when he should be unwilling +to have it known that he once was so meanly employ'd, +he chang'd his Name, and did me the Honour to assume mine.—For +I soon after had a Letter from him, acquainting me, that he +was settled in a small Village in Berkshire, I think it was, where +he taught reading and writing to 10 or a dozen Boys at 6 pence +each p[er] Week, recommending Mrs. T. to my Care, and desiring +me to write to him directing for Mr. Franklin Schoolmaster +at such a Place. He continu'd to write frequently, sending me +large Specimens of an Epic Poem, which he was then composing, +and desiring my Remarks and Corrections.—These I gave him +from time to time, but endeavour'd rather to discourage his +Proceeding. One of Young's Satires was then just publish'd. +I copy'd and sent him a great Part of it, which set in a strong +Light the Folly of pursuing the Muses with any Hope of Advancement +by them. All was in vain. Sheets of the Poem continu'd +to come by every Post. In the mean time Mrs. T. having +on his Account lost her Friends and Business, was often in Distresses, +and us'd to send for me, and borrow what I could spare +to help her out of them. I grew fond of her Company, and being<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +at this time under no Religious Restraints, and presuming on +my Importance to her, I attempted Familiarities, (another Erratum) +which she repuls'd with a proper Resentment, and acquainted +him with my Behaviour. This made a Breach between +us, and when he return'd again to London, he let me know he +thought I had cancell'd all the Obligations he had been under +to me.—So I found I was never to expect his Repaying me what +I lent to him or advanc'd for him. This was however not then +of much Consequence, as he was totally unable: And in the Loss +of his Friendship I found myself reliev'd from a Burthen. I now +began to think of getting a little Money beforehand; and expecting +better Work, I left Palmer's to work at Watts's near Lincoln's +Inn Fields, a still greater Printing House. Here I continu'd +all the rest of my Stay in London.</p> + +<p>While I lodg'd in Little Britain I made an Acquaintance with +one Wilcox a Bookseller, whose Shop was at the next Door. +He had an immense Collection of second-hand Books. Circulating +Libraries were not then in Use; but we agreed that on certain +reasonable Terms which I have now forgotten, I might take, +read and return any of his Books. This I esteem'd a great Advantage, +and I made as much use of it as I could.—</p> + +<p>My Pamphlet by some means falling into the Hands of one +Lyons, a Surgeon, Author of a Book intitled <i>The Infallibility of +Human Judgment</i>, it occasioned an Acquaintance between us; he +took great Notice of me, call'd on me often, to converse on +those Subjects, carried me to the Horns a pale Alehouse in —— +Lane, Cheapside, and introduc'd me to Dr. Mandevil[l]e, Author +of the Fable of the Bees who had a Club there, of which he +was the Soul, being a most facetious entertaining Companion. +Lyons too introduced me to Dr. Pemberton, at Batson's Coffee +House, who promis'd to give me an Opportunity some time or +other of seeing Sir Isaac Newton, of which I was extreamly desirous; +but this never happened.</p> + +<p>I had brought over a few Curiosities among which the principal +was a Purse made of the Asbestos, which purifies by Fire. +Sir Hans Sloane heard of it, came to see me, and invited me to his +House in Bloomsbury Square; where he show'd me all his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +Curiosities, and persuaded me to let him add that to the Number, +for which he paid me handsomely.<a name="FNanchor_4_516" id="FNanchor_4_516"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_516" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>—</p> + +<p>At my first Admission into this Printing House, I took to +working at Press, imagining I felt a Want of the Bodily Exercise +I had been us'd to in America, where Presswork is mix'd +with Composing, I drank only Water, the other Workmen, +near 50 in Number, were great Guzzlers of Beer. On occasion I +carried up and down Stairs a large Form of Types in each hand, +when others carried but one in both Hands. They wonder'd to +see from this and several Instances that the water-American as +they call'd me was <i>stronger</i> than themselves who drank <i>strong</i> +beer. We had an Alehouse Boy who attended always in the +House to supply the Workmen. My Companion at the Press, +drank every day a Pint before Breakfast, a Pint at Breakfast with +his Bread and Cheese; a Pint between Breakfast and Dinner; a +Pint at Dinner; a Pint in the Afternoon about Six o'Clock, and +another when he had done his Day's-Work. I thought it a detestable +Custom.—But it was necessary, he suppos'd, to drink +<i>strong</i> Beer that he might be <i>strong</i> to labour. I endeavour'd to +convince him that the Bodily Strength afforded by Beer could +only be in proportion to the Grain or Flour of the Barley dissolved +in the Water of which it was made; that there was more +Flour in a Penny-worth of Bread, and therefore if he would eat +that with a Pint of Water, it would give him more Strength than +a Quart of Beer.—He drank on however, and had 4 or 5 Shillings +to pay out of his Wages every Saturday Night for that +muddling Liquor; an Expence I was free from.—And thus these +poor Devils keep themselves always under.</p> + +<p>Watts after some Weeks desiring to have me in the Composing-Room, +I left the Pressmen. A new <i>Bienvenu</i> or Sum for +Drink; being 5/, was demanded of me by the Compositors. I +thought it an Imposition, as I had paid below. The Master +thought so too, and forbad[e] my Paying it. I stood out two or +three Weeks, was accordingly considered as an Excommunicate, +and had so many little Pieces of private Mischief done me, by +mixing my Sorts, transposing my Pages, breaking my Matter, +etc. etc. and if I were ever so little out of the Room, and all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +ascrib'd to the Chapel Ghost, which they said ever haunted +those not regularly admitted, that notwithstanding the Master's +Protection, I found myself oblig'd to comply and pay the +Money; convinc'd of the Folly of being on ill Terms with those +one is to live with continually. I was now on a fair Footing with +them, and soon acquir'd considerable Influence. I propos'd +some reasonable Alterations in their Chapel<a name="FNanchor_C_493" id="FNanchor_C_493"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_493" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> Laws, and carried +them against all Opposition. From my Example a great Part of +them, left their muddling Breakfast of Beer and Bread and +Cheese, finding they could with me be supply'd from a neighbouring +House with a large Porringer of hot Water-gruel, +sprinkled with Pepper, crumb'd with Bread, and a Bit of Butter +in it, for the Price of a Pint of Beer, viz., three halfpence. This +was a more comfortable as well as cheaper Breakfast, and kept +their Heads clearer.—Those who continu'd sotting with Beer +all day, were often, by not paying, out of Credit at the Alehouse, +and us'd to make Interest with me to get Beer, <i>their Light</i>, as +they phras'd it, <i>being out</i>. I watch'd the Pay table on Saturday +Night, and collected what I stood engag'd for them, having to +pay some times near Thirty Shillings a Week on their Accounts.—This, +and my being esteem'd a pretty good Riggite, that is a +jocular verbal Satyrist, supported my Consequence in the Society.—My +constant Attendance, (I never making a St. Monday), +recommended me to the Master; and my uncommon Quickness +at Composing, occasion'd my being put upon all Work of Dispatch +which was generally better paid. So I went on now very +agreably.—</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_493" id="Footnote_C_493"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_493"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> A Printing House is always called a Chappel [<i>sic</i>], by the Workmen. +[<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + +<p>My Lodging in Little Britain being too remote, I found another +in Duke-street opposite to the Romish Chapel. It was +two pair of Stairs backwards at an Italian Warehouse. A Widow +Lady kept the House; she had a Daughter and a Maid Servant, +and a Journey-man who attended the Warehouse, but lodg'd +abroad. After sending to enquire my Character at the House +where I last lodg'd, she agreed to take me in at the same Rate 3/6 +p[er] Week, cheaper as she said from the Protection she expected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +in having a Man lodge in the House. She was a Widow, +an elderly Woman, had been bred a Protestant, being a Clergyman's +Daughter, but was converted to the Catholic Religion by +her Husband, whose Memory she much revered[;] had lived much +among People of Distinction, and knew a 1000 Anecdotes of +them as far back as the Times of Charles the Second. She was +lame in her Knees with the Gout, and therefore seldom stirr'd +out of her Room, so sometimes wanted Company; and hers was +so highly amusing [Franklin first wrote "agreable"; both it and +"amusing" are deleted in the MS.] to me; that I was sure to +spend an Evening with her whenever she desired it. Our Supper +was only half an Anchovy each, on a very little Strip of Bread +and Butter, and half a Pint of Ale between us. But the Entertainment +was in her Conversation. My always keeping good +Hours, and giving little Trouble in the Family, made her unwilling +to part with me; so that when I talk'd of a Lodging I had +heard of, nearer my Business, for 2/ a Week, which, intent as I +now was on saving Money, made some Difference; she bid me +not think of it, for she would abate me two Shillings a Week for +the future, so I remain'd with her at 1/6 as long as I staid in +London.—</p> + +<p>In a Garret of her House there lived a Maiden Lady of 70 in +the most retired Manner, of whom my Landlady gave me this +Account, that she was a Roman Catholic, had been sent abroad +when young and lodg'd in a Nunnery with an Intent of becoming +a Nun: but the Country not agreeing with her, she return'd +to England, where there being no Nunnery, she had vow'd to +lead the Life of a Nun as near as might be done in those Circumstances: +Accordingly she had given all her Estate to charitable +Uses, reserving only Twelve Pounds a Year to live on, and out +of this Sum she still gave a great deal in Charity, living herself +on Watergruel only, and using no Fire but to boil it.—She had +lived many Years in that Garret, being permitted to remain there +gratis by successive Catholic Tenants of the House below, as +they deem'd it a Blessing to have her there. A Priest visited her, +to confess her every Day. I have ask'd her, says my Landlady, +how she, as she liv'd, could possibly find so much Employment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +for a Confessor? O, says she, it is impossible to avoid <i>vain +Thoughts</i>. I was permitted once to visit her: She was chearful +and polite, and convers'd pleasantly. The Room was clean, but +had no other Furniture than a Matras, a Table with a Crucifix +and Book, a Stool, which she gave me to sit on, and a Picture +over the Chimney of St. <i>Veronica</i>, displaying her Handkerchief +with the miraculous Figure of Christ's bleeding Face on it, +which she explain'd to me with great Seriousness. She look'd +pale, but was never sick, and I give it as another Instance on +how small an Income Life and Health may be supported.</p> + +<p>At Watts's Printinghouse I contracted an Acquaintance with +an ingenious young Man, one Wygate, who having wealthy +Relations, had been better educated than most Printers, was a +tolerable Latinist, spoke French, and lov'd Reading. I taught +him and a Friend of his, to swim, at twice going into the River, +and they soon became good Swimmers. They introduc'd me to +some Gentlemen from the Country who went to Chelsea by +Water to see the College and Don Saltero's Curiosities.<a name="FNanchor_5_517" id="FNanchor_5_517"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_517" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> In our +Return, at the Request of the Company, whose Curiosity Wygate +had excited, I stript and leapt into the River, and swam from +near Chelsea to Blackfryars, performing on the Way many +Feats of Activity both upon and under Water, that surpriz'd +and pleas'd those to whom they were Novelties.—I had from a +Child been ever delighted with this Exercise, had studied and +practis'd all Thevenot's Motions and Positions, added some of +my own, aiming at the graceful and easy, as well as the Useful. +All these I took this Occasion of exhibiting to the Company, +and was much flatter'd by their Admiration.—And Wygate, who +was desirous of becoming a Master, grew more and more attach'd +to me, on that account, as well as from the Similarity of +our Studies. He at length propos'd to me travelling all over +Europe together, supporting ourselves everywhere by working +at our Business. I was once inclin'd to it. But mentioning it to +my good Friend Mr. Denham, with whom I often spent an +Hour, when I had Leisure. He dissuaded me from it, advising +me to think only of returning to Pensilvania, which he was now +about to do.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<p>I must record one Trait of this good Man's Character. He +had formerly been in Business at Bristol, but fail'd in Debt to a +Number of People, compounded and went to America. There, +by a close Application to Business as a Merchant, he acquir'd a +plentiful Fortune in a few Years. Returning to England in the +Ship with me, He invited his old Creditors to an Entertainment, +at which he thank'd them for the easy Composition they had +favour'd him with, and when they expected nothing but the +Treat, every Man at the first Remove, found under his Plate an +Order on a Banker for the full Amount of the unpaid Remainder +with Interest.</p> + +<p>He now told me he was about to return to Philadelphia, and +should carry over a great Quantity of Goods in order to open a +Store there: He propos'd to take me over as his Clerk, to keep +his Books (in which he would instruct me) copy his Letters, +and attend the Store. He added, that as soon as I should be acquainted +with mercantile Business he would promote me by +sending me with a Cargo of Flour and Bread etc to the West +Indies, and procure me Commissions from others; which would +be profitable, and if I manag'd well, would establish me handsomely. +The Thing pleas'd me, for I was grown tired of London, +remember'd with Pleasure the happy Months I had spent in +Pennsylvania, and wish'd again to see it. Therefore I immediately +agreed, on the Terms of Fifty Pounds a Year, Pensylvania +Money less indeed than my then present Gettings as a Compositor, +but affording a better Prospect.—</p> + +<p>I now took leave of Printing; as I thought for ever, and was +daily employ'd in my new Business; going about with Mr. Denham +among the Tradesmen, to purchase various Articles, and +seeing them pack'd up, doing Errands, calling upon Workmen +to dispatch, etc. and when all was on board, I had a few Days +Leisure. On one of these Days I was to my Surprise sent for by +a great Man I knew only by Name, a Sir William Wyndham and +I waited upon him. He had heard by some means or other of +my Swimming from Chelsey to Blackfryars, and of my teaching +Wygate and another young Man to swim in a few Hours. He +had two Sons about to set out on their Travels; he wish'd to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +have them first taught Swimming; and propos'd to gratify me +handsomely if I would teach them.—They were not yet come to +Town and my Stay was uncertain, so I could not undertake it. +But from this Incident I thought it likely, that if I were to remain +in England and open a Swimming School, I might get a +good deal of Money. And it struck me so strongly, that had +the Overture been sooner made me, probably I should not so +soon have returned to America.—After many Years, you and I +had something of more Importance to do with one of these Sons +of Sir William Wyndham, become Earl of Egremont, which I +shall mention in its Place.—[This promise Franklin did not fulfill.]</p> + +<p>Thus I spent about 18 Months in London. Most Part of the +Time, I work'd hard at my Business, and spent but little upon +myself except in seeing Plays, and in Books.—My Friend Ralph +had kept me poor. He owed me about 27 Pounds; which I was +now never likely to receive; a great Sum out of my small Earnings. +I lov'd him notwithstanding, for he had many amiable +Qualities.—Tho' I had by no means improv'd my Fortune. +But I had pick'd up some very ingenious Acquaintance whose +Conversation was of great Advantage to me, and I had read +considerably.</p> + +<p>We sail'd from Gravesend on the 23<sup>d</sup> of July 1726. For the +Incidents of the Voyage, I refer you to my Journal, where you +will find them all minutely related. Perhaps the most important +Part of that Journal is the <i>Plan</i> [This Plan is not found in the +<i>Journal</i> printed in <i>Writings</i>, II, 53-86.] to be found in it which I +formed at Sea, for regulating my future Conduct in Life. It is +the more remarkable, as being formed when I was so young, +and yet being pretty faithfully adhered to quite thro' to old Age.—We +landed in Philadelphia on the 11th of October, where I +found sundry Alterations. Keith was no longer Governor, being +superceded by Major Gordon: I met him walking the Streets as +a common Citizen. He seem'd a little asham'd at seeing me, but +pass'd without saying any thing. I should have been as much +asham'd at seeing Miss Read, had not her Fr<sup>ds</sup>, despairing with +Reason of my Return, after the Receipt of my Letter, persuaded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +her to marry another, one Rogers, a Potter, which was done in +my Absence. With him however she was never happy, and soon +parted from him, refusing to cohabit with him, or bear his +Name[,] it being now said that he had another Wife. He was a +worthless Fellow tho' an excellent Workman[,] which was the +Temptation to her Friends. He got into Debt, ran away in 1727 +or 28. and went to the West Indies, and died there. Keimer had +got a better House, a Shop well supply'd with Stationary[,] plenty +of new Types, a number of Hands tho' none good, and seem'd +to have a great deal of Business.</p> + +<p>Mr. Denham took a Store in Water Street, where we open'd +our Goods. I attended the Business diligently, studied Accounts, +and grew in a little Time expert at selling. We lodg'd +and boarded together, he counsell'd me as a Father, having a +sincere Regard for me: I respected and lov'd him: and we might +have gone on together very happily: But in the Beginning of +Feb<sup>y</sup> 172-6/7 when I had just pass'd my 21<sup>st</sup> Year, we both were +taken ill. My Distemper was a Pleurisy, which very nearly carried +me off:—I suffered a good deal, gave up the Point in my +own mind, and was rather disappointed when I found my Self +recovering; regretting in some degree that I must now some time +or other have all that disagreeable Work to do over again.—I +forget what his Distemper was. It held him a long time, and at +length carried him off. He left me a small Legacy in a nuncupative +Will, as a Token of his Kindness for me, and he left me once +more to the wide World. For the Store was taken into the Care +of his Executors, and my Employment under him ended:—My +Brother-in-law Holmes, being now at Philadelphia, advised my +Return to my Business. And Keimer tempted me with an Offer +of large Wages by the Year to come and take the Management of +his Printing-House, that he might better attend his Stationer's +Shop.—I had heard a bad Character of him in London, from his +Wife and her Friends, and was not fond of having any more to +do with him. I try'd for farther Employment as a Merchant's +Clerk; but not readily meeting with any, I clos'd again with +Keimer.—</p> + +<p>I found in <i>his</i> House these Hands; Hugh Meredith a Welsh-Pensilvanian,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +30 Years of Age, bred to Country Work: honest, +sensible, had a great deal of solid Observation, was something +of a Reader, but given to drink: Stephen Potts, a young Country +Man of full Age, bred to the Same:—of uncommon natural +Parts, and great Wit and Humour, but a little idle. These he +had agreed with at extream low Wages, p[er] Week, to be +rais'd a Shilling every 3 Months, as they would deserve by improving +in their Business, and the Expectation of these high +Wages to come on hereafter was what he had drawn them in +with. Meredith was to work at Press, Potts at Bookbinding, +which he by Agreement, was to teach them, tho' he knew neither +one nor t'other. John —— a wild Irishman brought up to no +Business, whose Service for 4 Years Keimer had purchas'd from +the Captain of a Ship. He too was to be made a Pressman. +George Webb, an Oxford Scholar, whose Time for 4 Years he +had likewise bought, intending him for a Compositor: of whom +more presently. And David Harry, a Country Boy, whom he +had taken Apprentice. I soon perceiv'd that the Intention of +engaging me at Wages so much higher than he had been us'd to +give, was to have these raw cheap Hands form'd thro' me, and +as soon as I had instructed them, then, they being all articled to +him, he should be able to do without me.—I went on however, +very chearfully; put his Printing House in Order, which had +been in great Confusion, and brought his Hands by degrees to +mind their Business and to do it better.</p> + +<p>It was an odd Thing to find an Oxford Scholar in the Situation +of a bought Servant. He was not more than 18 Years of +Age, and gave me this Account of himself; that he was born in +Gloucester, educated at a Grammar School there, had been distinguish'd +among the Scholars for some apparent Superiority in +performing his Part when they exhibited Plays; belong'd to the +Witty Club there, and had written some Pieces in Prose and +Verse which were printed in the Gloucester Newspapers.—Thence +he was sent to Oxford; where he continu'd about a Year, +but not well-satisfy'd, wishing of all things to see London and +become a Player. At length receiving his Quarterly Allowance +of 15 Guineas, instead of discharging his Debts, he walk'd out of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +Town, hid his Gown in a Furz Bush, and footed it to London, +where having no Friend to advise him, he fell into bad Company, +soon spent his Guineas, found no means of being introduc'd +among the Players, grew necessitous, pawn'd his Cloaths +and wanted Bread. Walking the Street very hungry, and not +knowing what to do with himself, a Crimp's Bill was put into +his Hand, offering immediate Entertainment and Encouragement +to such as would bind themselves to serve in America. He +went directly, sign'd the Indentures, was put into the Ship and +came over; never writing a Line to acquaint his Friends what +was become of him. He was lively, witty, good-natur'd, and +a pleasant Companion, but idle, thoughtless and imprudent to +the last Degree.</p> + +<p>John the Irishman soon ran away. With the rest I began to +live very agreably; for they all respected me, the more as they +found Keimer incapable of instructing them, and that from me +they learnt something daily. We never work'd on a Saturday, +that being Keimer's Sabbath. So I had two Days for Reading.—My +Acquaintance with ingenious People in the Town, increased. +Keimer himself treated me with great Civility, and apparent +Regard; and nothing now made me uneasy but my Debt +to Vernon, which I was yet unable to pay being hitherto but a +poor Oeconomist. He however kindly made no Demand of it.</p> + +<p>Our Printing-House often wanted Sorts, and there was no +Letter Founder in America. I had seen Types cast at James's in +London, but without much Attention to the Manner: However +I now contriv'd a Mould, made use of the Letters we had, as +Puncheons, struck the Matrices in Lead, and thus supply'd in a +pretty tolerable way all Deficiencies. I also engrav'd several +Things on occasion. I made the Ink, I was Warehouse-man +and every thing, in short quite a Factotum.—</p> + +<p>But however serviceable I might be, I found that my Services +became every Day of less Importance, as the other Hands improv'd +in the Business. And when Keimer paid my second +Quarter's Wages, he let me know that he felt them too heavy, +and thought I should make an Abatement. He grew by degrees +less civil, put on more of the Master, frequently found Fault,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +was captious and seem'd ready for an Out-breaking. I went on +nevertheless with a good deal of Patience, thinking that his incumber'd +Circumstances were partly the Cause. At length a +Trifle snapt our Connexion. For a great Noise happening near +the Courthouse, I put my Head out of the Window to see what +was the Matter. Keimer being in the Street look'd up and saw +me, call'd out to me in a loud voice and angry Tone to mind my +Business, adding some reproachful Words, that nettled me the +more for their Publicity, all the Neighbours who were looking +out on the same Occasion being Witnesses how I was treated. +He came up immediately into the Printing-House, continu'd the +Quarrel, high Words pass'd on both Sides, he gave me the +Quarter's Warning we had stipulated, expressing a Wish that he +had not been oblig'd to so long a Warning: I told him his Wish +was unnecessary for I would leave him that Instant; and so taking +my Hat walk'd out of Doors; desiring Meredith whom I saw +below to take care of some Things I left, and bring them to my +Lodging.—</p> + +<p>Meredith came accordingly in the Evening, when we talk'd +my Affair over. He had conceiv'd a great Regard for me, and +was very unwilling that I should leave the House while he remain'd +in it. He dissuaded me from returning to my native +Country which I began to think of. He reminded me that Keimer +was in debt for all he possess'd, that his Creditors began to +be uneasy, that he kept his Shop miserably, sold often without +Profit for ready Money, and often trusted without keeping Accounts. +That he must therefore fail; which would make a Vacancy +I might profit of.—I objected my Want of Money. He +then let me know, that his Father had a high Opinion of me, and +from some Discourse that had pass'd between them, he was sure +would advance Money to set us up, if I would enter into Partner +Ship with him. My Time, says he, will be out with Keimer in +the Spring. By that time we may have our Press and Types in +from London: I am sensible I am no Workman. If you like it, +Your Skill in the Business shall be set against the Stock I furnish; +and we will share the Profits equally.—The Proposal was agreable, +and I consented. His Father was in Town, and approv'd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +of it, the more as he saw I had great Influence with his Son, had +prevail'd on him to abstain long from Dramdrinking, and he +hop'd might break him of that wretched Habit entirely, when +we came to be so closely connected. I gave an Inventory to the +Father, who carry'd it to a Merchant; the Things were sent for; +the Secret was to be kept till they should arrive, and in the mean +time I was to get work if I could at the other Printing House. +But I found no Vacancy there, and so remain'd idle a few Days, +when Keimer, on a Prospect of being employ'd to print some +Paper-Money, in New Jersey, which would require Cuts and +various Types that I only could supply, and apprehending +Bradford might engage me and get the Jobb from him, sent me +a very civil Message, that old Friends should not part for a few +Words the Effect of sudden Passion, and wishing me to return. +Meredith persuaded me to comply, as it would give more Opportunity +for his Improvement under my daily Instructions.—So +I return'd, and we went on more smoothly than for some time +before. The New Jersey Jobb was obtained. I contriv'd a Copper-Plate +Press for it, the first that had been seen in the Country. +I cut several Ornaments and Checks for the Bills. We went together +to Burlington, where I executed the Whole to Satisfaction, +and he received so large a Sum for the Work, as to +be enabled thereby to keep his Head much longer above +Water.</p> + +<p>At Burlington I made an Acquaintance with many principal +People of the Province. Several of them had been appointed by +the Assembly a Committee to attend the Press, and take Care +that no more Bills were printed than the Law directed. They +were therefore by Turns constantly with us, and generally he +who attended brought with him a Friend or two for Company. +My Mind having been much more improv'd by Reading than +Keimer's, I suppose it was for that Reason my Conversation +seem'd to be more valu'd. They had me to their Houses, introduc'd +me to their Friends and show'd me much Civility, while +he, tho' the Master, was a little neglected. In truth he was an +odd Fish, ignorant of common Life, fond of rudely opposing receiv'd +Opinions, slovenly to extream dirtiness, enthusiastic in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +some Points of Religion, and a little Knavish withal. We continu'd +there near 3 Months, and by that time I could reckon +among my acquired Friends, Judge Allen, Samuel Bustill, the +Secretary of the Province, Isaac Pearson, Joseph Cooper and +several of the Smiths, Members of Assembly, and Isaac Decow +the Surveyor General. The latter was a shrewd sagacious old +Man, who told me that he began for himself when young by +wheeling Clay for the Brickmakers, learnt to write after he was +of Age, carry'd the Chain for Surveyors, who taught him Surveying, +and he had now by his Industry acquir'd a good Estate; +and says he, I foresee, that you will soon work this Man out of +his Business and make a Fortune in it at Philadelphia. He had +not then the least Intimation of my Intention to set up there or +any where. These Friends were afterwards of great use to me, +as I occasionally was to some of them. They all continued their +Regard for me as long as they lived.—</p> + +<p>Before I enter upon my public Appearance in Business it may +be well to let you know the then State of my Mind, with regard +to my Principles and Morals, that you may see how far those +influenc'd the future Events of my Life. My Parent's [<i>sic</i>] had +early given me religious Impressions, and brought me through +my Childhood piously in the Dissenting Way. But I was scarce +15 when, after doubting by turns of several Points as I found +them disputed in the different Books I read, I began to doubt of +Revelation it self. Some Books against Deism fell into my +Hands; they were said to be the Substance of Sermons preached +at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an Effect on +me quite contrary to what was intended by them: For the Arguments +of the Deists which were quoted to be refuted, appeared +to me much Stronger than the Refutations. In short I soon became +a thorough Deist. My Arguments perverted some others, +particularly Collins and Ralph: but each of them having afterwards +wrong'd me greatly without the least Compunction and +recollecting Keith's Conduct towards me, (who was another +Freethinker) and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, +which at Times gave me great Trouble, I began to suspect that +this Doctrine tho' it might be true, was not very useful.—My<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +London Pamphlet, which had for its Motto these Lines of +Dryden</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Whatever is, is right. Tho' purblind Man</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Sees but a Part of the Chain, the nearest Link,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>His Eyes not carrying to the equal Beam,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>That poises all, above.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And from the Attributes of God, his infinite Wisdom, Goodness +and Power concluded that nothing could possibly be +wrong in the World, and that Vice and Virtue were empty Distinctions, +no such Things existing: appear'd now not so clever a +Performance as I once thought it; and I doubted whether some +Error had not insinuated itself unperceiv'd, into my Argument, +so as to infect all that follow'd, as is common in metaphysical +Reasonings.—I grew convinc'd that <i>Truth</i>, <i>Sincerity</i> and <i>Integrity</i> +in Dealings between Man and Man, were of the utmost +Importance to the Felicity of Life, and I form'd written Resolutions, +(w<sup>ch</sup> still remain in my Journal Book) to practice them +everwhile I lived. Revelation had indeed no weight with me as +such; but I entertain'd an Opinion, that tho' certain Actions +might not be bad <i>because</i> they were forbidden by it, or good <i>because</i> +it commanded them; yet probably those Actions might be +forbidden <i>because</i> they were bad for us, or commanded <i>because</i> +they were beneficial to us, in their own Natures, all the Circumstances +of things considered. And this Persuasion, with the +kind hand of Providence, or some guardian Angel, or accidental +favourable Circumstances and Situations, or all together, preserved +me (thro' this dangerous Time of Youth and the hazardous +Situations I was sometimes in among Strangers, remote +from the Eye and Advice of my Father) without any <i>wilful</i> +gross Immorality or Injustice that might have been expected +from my Want of Religion. I say <i>wilful</i>, because the Instances I +have mentioned, had something of <i>Necessity</i> in them, from my +Youth, Inexperience, and the Knavery of others. I had therefore +a tolerable Character to begin the World with, I valued it +properly, and determin'd to preserve it.—</p> + +<p>We had not been long return'd to Philadelphia, before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +New Types arriv'd from London. We settled with Keimer, and +left him by his Consent before he heard of it.—We found a +House to hire near the Market, and took it. To lessen the Rent, +(which was then but 24£ a Year tho' I have since known it let +for 70) We took in Tho' Godfrey a Glazier and his Family, who +were to pay a considerable Part of it to us, and we to board with +them. We had scarce opened our Letters and put our Press in +Order, before George House, an Acquaintance of mine, brought +a Countryman to us, whom he had met in the Street enquiring +for a Printer. All our Cash was now expended in the Variety of +Particulars we had been obliged to procure and this Countryman's +Five Shillings being our first Fruits, and coming so seasonably, +gave me more Pleasure than any Crown I have since +earned; and from the Gratitude I felt towards House, has made +me often more ready, than perhaps I should otherwise have been +to assist young Beginners.</p> + +<p>There are Croakers in every Country always boding its Ruin. +Such a one then lived in Philadelphia, a Person of Note, an elderly +Man, with a wise Look, and very grave Manner of speaking. +His Name was Samuel Mickle. This Gentleman, a Stranger +to me, stopt one Day at my Door, and asked me if I was the +young Man who had lately opened a new Printing House: Being +answered in the Affirmative, he said he was sorry for me, because +it was an expensive Undertaking and the Expence would +be lost; for Philadelphia was a sinking Place, the People already +half Bankrupts or near being so; all Appearances to the contrary, +such as hew Buildings and the Rise of Rents being to his certain +Knowledge fallacious; for they were in fact among the Things +that would soon ruin us.—And he gave me such a Detail of +Misfortunes, now existing or that were soon to exist, that he left +me half melancholy. Had I known him before I engaged in this +Business, probably I never should have done it.—This Man +continued to live in this decaying Place; and to declaim in the +same Strain, refusing for many Years to buy a House there, because +all was going to Destruction, and at last I had the Pleasure +of seeing him give five times as much for one as he might have +bought it for, when he first began his Croaking.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>I should have mentioned before, that in the Autumn of the +proceeding Year I had formed most of my ingenious Acquaintance +into a Club of mutual Improvement, which we called the +Junto. We met on Friday Evenings. The Rules I drew up required +that every Member in his Turn should produce one or +more Queries on any Point of Morals, Politics or Natural +Philosophy, to be discussed by the Company, and once in three +Months produce and read an Essay of his own Writing on any +Subject he pleased. Our Debates were to be under the Direction +of a President and to be conducted in the sincere Spirit of Enquiry +after Truth, without Fondness for Dispute, or Desire of +Victory; and to prevent Warmth all Expressions of Positiveness +in Opinions or direct Contradiction, were after some time made +contraband and prohibited under small pecuniary Penalties.—The +first Members were Joseph Breintnal,<a name="FNanchor_6_518" id="FNanchor_6_518"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_518" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> a Copyer of Deeds +for the Scriveners; a good-natur'd friendly middle-ag'd Man, a +great Lover of Poetry, reading all he could meet with, and writing +some that was tolerable; very ingenious in many little Nicknackeries, +and of sensible Conversation. Thomas Godfrey,<a name="FNanchor_7_519" id="FNanchor_7_519"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_519" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> a +self-taught Mathematician, great in his Way, and afterwards Inventor +of what is now call'd Hadley's Quadrant. But he knew +little out of his way, and was not a pleasing Companion, as like +most Great Mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal +Precision in every thing said, or was forever denying or +distinguishing upon Trifles, to the Disturbance of all Conversation. +He soon left us. Nicholas Scull, a Surveyor, afterwards +Surveyor-General, who lov'd Books, and sometimes made a few +Verses. William Parsons,<a name="FNanchor_8_520" id="FNanchor_8_520"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_520" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> bred a Shoemaker, but loving Reading, +had acquir'd a considerable Share of Mathematics, which he +first studied with a View to Astrology that he afterwards laught +at. He also became Surveyor General. William Maugridge, a +Joiner, a most exquisite Mechanic and a solid sensible Man. +Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, and George Webb, I have Characteris'd +before. Robert Grace, a young Gentleman of some +Fortune, generous, lively and witty, a Lover of Punning and of +his Friends. And William Coleman, then a Merchant's Clerk, +about my Age, who had the coolest clearest Head, the best<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +Heart, and the exactest Morals, of almost any Man I ever met +with. He became afterwards a Merchant of great Note, and one +of our Provincial Judges. Our Friendship continued without +Interruption to his death upwards of 40 Years. And the club +continu'd almost as long[,] and was the best School of Philosophy, +and Politics that then existed in the Province; for our Queries +which were read the Week preceding their Discussion, put +us on reading with Attention upon the several Subjects, that we +might speak more to the purpose: and here too we acquired better +Habits of Conversation, every thing being studied in our +Rules which might prevent our disgusting each other. From +hence the long Continuance of the Club, which I shall have frequent +Occasion to speak farther of hereafter; But my giving this +Account of it here, is to show something of the Interest I had, +every one of these exerting themselves in recommending Business +to us.—Brientnal particularly procur'd us from the Quakers, +the Printing 40 Sheets of their History [William Sewel's], +the rest being to be done by Keimer: and upon this we work'd +exceeding hard, for the Price was low. It was a Folio, Pro +Patria Size, in Pica with Long Primer Notes. I compos'd of it a +Sheet a Day, and Meredith work'd it off at Press. It was often 11 +at Night and sometimes later, before I had finish'd my Distribution +for the next days Work: For the little Jobbs sent in by our +other Friends now and then put us back. But so determin'd I +was to continue doing a Sheet a Day of the Folio, that one Night +when having impos'd my Forms, I thought my Days Work +over, one of them by accident was broken and two Pages reduc'd +to pie, I immediately distributed and compos'd it over again before +I went to bed. And this Industry visible to our Neighbours +began to give us Character and Credit; particularly I was told, +that mention being made of the new Printing Office at the Merchants +every-night Club, the general Opinion was that it must +fail, there being already two Printers in the Place, Keimer and +Bradford; but Dr. Baird (whom you and I saw many Years +after at his native Place, St. Andrews in Scotland) gave a contrary +Opinion; for the Industry of that Franklin, says he, is +superior to any thing I ever saw of the kind: I see him still at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +work when I go home from Club; and he is at Work +again before his Neighbours are out of bed. This struck the +rest, and we soon after had Offers from one of them to Supply +us with Stationary. But as yet we did not chuse to engage in +Shop Business.</p> + +<p>I mention this Industry the more particularly and the more +freely, tho' it seems to be talking in my own Praise, that those of +my Posterity who shall read it, may know the Use of that Virtue, +when they see its Effects in my Favour throughout this +Relation.—</p> + +<p>George Webb, who had found a Friend that lent him wherewith +to purchase his Time of Keimer, now came to offer himself +as a Journeyman to us. We could not then imploy him, but I +foolishly let him know, as a Secret, that I soon intended to begin +a Newspaper, and might then have Work for him. My Hopes of +Success as I told him were founded on this, that the then only +Newspaper [the <i>American Weekly Mercury</i>], printed by Bradford +was a paltry thing, wretchedly manag'd, no way entertaining; +and yet was profitable to him.—I therefore thought a good +Paper could scarcely fail of good Encouragem<sup>t</sup>. I requested +Webb not to mention it, but he told it to Keimer, who immediately, +to be beforehand with me, published Proposals for Printing +one himself, on which Webb was to be employ'd.—I resented +this, and to counteract them, as I could not yet begin our +Paper, I wrote several Pieces of Entertainment for Bradford's +Paper, under the Title of the Busy Body which Brientnal continu'd +some Months. By this means the Attention of the Publick +was fix'd on that Paper, and Keimer's Proposals which we +burlesqu'd and ridicul'd, were disregarded. He began his Paper<a name="FNanchor_9_521" id="FNanchor_9_521"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_521" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +however, and after carrying it on three Quarters of a Year, with +at most only 90 Subscribers, he offer'd it to me for a Trifle, and I +having been ready some time to go on with it, took it in hand +directly, and it prov'd in a few years extreamly profitable to me.</p> + +<p>I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular Number, +though our Partnership still continu'd. The Reason may be, +that in fact the whole Management of the Business lay upon me. +Meredith was no Compositor, a poor Pressman, and seldom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +sober. My Friends lamented my Connection with him, but I +was to make the best of it.</p> + +<p>Our first Papers made a quite different Appearance from any +before in the Province, a better Type and better printed [In MS +is found: "Insert these Remarks, in a Note."]: but some spirited +Remarks of my Writing on the Dispute then going on between +Gov<sup>r</sup> Burnet and the Massachusetts Assembly, struck the principal +People, occasion'd the Paper and the Manager of it to be +much talk'd of, and in a few Weeks brought them all to be our +Subscribers. Their Example was follow'd by many, and our +Number went on growing continually.—This was one of the +first good Effects of my having learnt a little to scribble. Another +was, that the leading Men, seeing a News Paper now in the +hands of one who could also handle a Pen, thought it convenient +to oblige and encourage me. Bradford still printed the Votes and +Laws and other Publick Business. He had printed an Address of +the House to the Governor in a coarse blundering manner; We +reprinted it elegantly and correctly, and sent one to every Member. +They were sensible of the Difference, it strengthen'd the +Hands of our Friends in the House, and they voted us their +Printers for the Year ensuing.</p> + +<p>Among my Friends in the House I must not forget Mr. Hamilton +before mentioned, who was then returned from England +and had a Seat in it. He interested himself for me strongly in +that Instance, as he did in many others afterwards, continuing +his Patronage till his Death.<a name="FNanchor_D_494" id="FNanchor_D_494"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_494" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> M<sup>r</sup> Vernon about this time put me +in mind of the Debt I ow'd him: but did not press me. I wrote +him an ingenuous Letter of Acknowledgments, crav'd his Forbearance +a little longer which he allow'd me, and as soon as I +was able I paid the Principal with Interest and many Thanks.—So +that Erratum was in some degree corrected.—</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_494" id="Footnote_D_494"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_494"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> I got his Son once 500 £. [<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + +<p>But now another Difficulty came upon me, which I had never +the least Reason to expect. Mr. Meredith's Father, who was to +have paid for our Printing House according to the Expectations +given me, was able to advance only one Hundred Pounds, Currency, +which had been paid, and a Hundred more was due to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +Merchant; who grew impatient and su'd us all. We gave Bail, +but saw that if the Money could not be rais'd in time, the Suit +must come to a Judgment and Execution, and our hopeful Prospects +must with us be ruined, as the Press and Letters must be +sold for Payment, perhaps at half Price.—In this Distress two +true Friends whose Kindness I have never forgotten nor ever +shall forget while I can remember any thing, came to me separately[,] +unknown to each other, and without any Application +from me, offering each of them to advance me all the Money +that should be necessary to enable me to take the whole Business +upon myself if that should be practicable, but they did not like +my continuing the Partnership with Meredith, who as they said +was often seen drunk in the Streets, and playing at low Games in +Alehouses, much to our Discredit. These two Friends were +<i>William Coleman</i> and <i>Robert Grace</i>. I told them I could not propose +a Separation while any Prospect remain'd of the Merediths +fulfilling their Part of our Agreement. Because I thought myself +under great Obligations to them for what they had done +and would do if they could. But if they finally fail'd in their +Performance, and our Partnership must be dissolv'd, I should +then think myself at Liberty to accept the Assistance of my +Friends. Thus the matter rested for some time. When I said to +my Partner, perhaps your Father is dissatisfied at the Part you +have undertaken in this Affair of ours, and is unwilling to advance +for you and me what he would for you alone: If that is +the Case, tell me, and I will resign the whole to you and go +about my Business. No[,] says he, my Father has really been +disappointed and is really unable; and I am unwilling to distress +him farther. I see this is a Business I am not fit for. I was bred a +Farmer, and it was a Folly in me to come to Town and put my +Self at 30 Years of Age an Apprentice to learn a new Trade. +Many of our Welsh People are going to settle in North Carolina +where Land is cheap: I am inclin'd to go with them, and following +my old Employment. You may find Friends to assist you. +If you will take the Debts of the Company upon you, return to +my Father the hundred Pound he has advanc'd, pay my little +personal Debts, and give me Thirty Pounds and a new Saddle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +I will relinquish the Partnership and leave the whole in your +Hands. I agreed to this Proposal. It was drawn up in Writing, +sign'd and seal'd immediately. I gave him what he demanded +and he went soon after to Carolina; from whence he sent me +next Year two long Letters, containing the best Account that +had been given of that Country, the Climate, Soil, Husbandry, +etc. for in those Matters he was very judicious. I printed them +in the Papers, and they gave grate Satisfaction to the Publick.</p> + +<p>As soon as he was gone, I recurr'd to my two Friends; and +because I would not give an unkind Preference to either, I took +half what each had offered and I wanted, of one, and half of the +other; paid off the Company Debts, and went on with the Business +in my own Name, advertising that the Partnership was dissolved. +I think this was in or about the Year 1729 [July 14, 1730].—</p> + +<p>About this Time there was a Cry among the People for more +Paper-Money, only 15,000£ being extant in the Province and +that soon to be sunk. The wealthy Inhabitants oppos'd any +Addition, being against all Paper Currency, from an Apprehension +that it would depreciate as it had done in New England to +the Prejudice of all Creditors.—We had discuss'd this Point in +our Junto, where I was on the Side of an Addition, being persuaded +that the first small Sum struck in 1723 had done much +good, by increasing the Trade[,] Employment, and Number of +Inhabitants in the Province, since I now saw all the old Houses +inhabited, and many new ones building, where as I remember'd +well, that when I first walk'd about the Streets of Philadelphia, +eating my Roll, I saw most of the Houses in Walnut Street between +Second and Front Streets with Bills on their Doors, to be +let; and many likewise in Chesnut Street, and other Streets; +which made me then think the Inhabitants of the City were deserting +it, one after another.—Our Debates possess'd me so fully +of the Subject, that I wrote and printed an anonymous Pamphlet +on it, entituled, <i>The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency</i>. +It was well receiv'd by the common People in general; but the +Rich Men dislik'd it; for it increas'd and strengthen'd the Clamour +for more Money; and they happening to have no Writers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +among them that were able to answer it, their Opposition slacken'd, +and the Point was carried by a Majority in the House. My +Friends there, who conceiv'd I had been of some Service, +thought fit to reward me, by employing me in printing the +Money, a very profitable Jobb, and a great Help to me.—This +was another Advantage gain'd by my being able to write[.] The +Utility of this Currency became by Time and Experience so evident, +as never afterwards to be much disputed, so that it grew +soon to 55,000£ and in 1739 to 80,000£ since which it arose +during War to upwards of 350,000£. Trade, Building and Inhabitants +all the while increasing. Tho' I now think there are +Limits beyond which the Quantity may be hurtful.—</p> + +<p>I soon after obtain'd, thro' my Friend Hamilton, the Printing +of the New Castle Paper Money, another profitable Jobb, as I +then thought it; small Things appearing great to those in small +Circumstances. And these to me were really great Advantages, +as they were great Encouragements. He procured me also the +Printing of the Laws and Votes of that Government which continu'd +in my Hands as long as I follow'd the Business.—</p> + +<p>I now open'd a little Stationer's Shop. I had in it Blanks of all +Sorts[,] the correctest that ever appear'd among us, being assisted +in that by my Friend Brientnal; I had also Paper, Parchment, +Chapmen's Books, etc. One Whitema[r]sh[,] a Compositor I had +known in London, an excellent Workman now came to me and +work'd with me constantly and diligently, and I took an Apprentice +the Son of Aquila Rose. I began now gradually to pay +off the Debt I was under for the Printing-House. In order to +secure my Credit and Character as a Tradesman, I took care not +only to be in <i>Reality</i> Industrious and frugal, but to avoid all +<i>Appearances</i> of the Contrary. I drest plainly; I was seen at no +Places of idle Diversion; I never went out a fishing or Shooting; +a Book, indeed, sometimes debauch'd me from my Work; but +that was seldom, snug, and gave no Scandal: and to show that I +was not above my Business, I sometimes brought home the Paper +I purchas'd at the Stores, thro' the Streets on a Wheelbarrow. +Thus being esteem'd an industrious thriving young Man, +and paying duly for what I bought, the Merchants who imported<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +Stationary solicited my Custom, others propos'd supplying +me with Books, I went on swimmingly.—In the mean time +Keimer's Credit and Business declining daily, he was at last +forc'd to sell his Printing-house to satisfy his Creditors. He +went to Barbadoes, there lived some Years, in very poor Circumstances.</p> + +<p>His Apprentice David Harry, whom I had instructed while I +work'd with him, set up in his place at Philadelphia, having +bought his Materials. I was at first apprehensive of a powerful +Rival in Harry, as his Friends were very able, and had a good +deal of Interest. I therefore propos'd a Partnership to him; +which he, fortunately for me, rejected with Scorn. He was very +proud, dress'd like a Gentleman, liv'd expensively, took much +Diversion and Pleasure abroad, ran in debt, and neglected his +Business, upon which all Business left him; and finding nothing +to do, he follow'd Keimer to Barbadoes; taking the Printing-house +with him[.] There this Apprentice employ'd his former +Master as a Journeyman. They quarrel'd often, Harry went +continually behindhand, and at length was forc'd to sell his +Types, and return to his Country work in Pensilvania. The +Person that bought them, employ'd Keimer to use them, but in +a few years he died. There remain'd now no Competitor with +me at Philadelphia, but the old one, Bradford, who was rich and +easy, did a little Printing now and then by straggling Hands, but +was not very anxious about it. However, as he kept the Post +Office, it was imagined he had better Opportunities of obtaining +News, his Paper was thought a better Distributer of Advertisements +than mine, and therefore had many more, which was a +profitable thing to him and a Disadvantage to me. For tho' I +did indeed receive and send Papers by Post, yet the publick +Opinion was otherwise; for what I did send was by Bribing the +Riders who took them privately: Bradford being unkind +enough to forbid it: which occasion'd some Resentment on my +Part; and I thought so meanly of him for it, that when I afterwards +came into his Situation, I took care never to imitate it.</p> + +<p>I had hitherto continu'd to board with Godfrey who lived in +Part of my House with his Wife and Children, and had one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +Side of the Shop for his Glazier's Business, tho' he work'd little, +being always absorb'd in his Mathematics.—Mrs. Godfrey projected +a Match for me with a Relation's Daughter, took Opportunities +of bringing us often together, till a serious Courtship on +my Part ensu'd, the Girl being in herself very deserving. The +old Folks encourag'd me by continual Invitations to Supper, +and by leaving us together, till at length it was time to explain. +Mrs. Godfrey manag'd our little Treaty. I let her know that I +expected as much Money with their Daughter as would pay off +my Remaining Debt for the Printinghouse, which I believe was +not then above a Hundred Pounds. She brought me Word they +had no such Sum to spare. I said they might mortgage their +House in the Loan Office.—The Answer to this after some Days +was, that they did not approve the Match; that on Enquiry of +Bradford they had been inform'd the Printing Business was not +a profitable one, the Types would soon be worn out and more +wanted, that S. Keimer and D. Harry had fail'd one after the +other, and I should probably soon follow them; and therefore I +was forbidden the House, and the Daughter shut up.—Whether +this was a real Change of Sentiment, or only Artifice, on a Supposition +of our being too far engag'd in Affection to retract, and +therefore that we should steal a Marriage, which would leave +them at Liberty to give or with[h]old what they pleas'd, I know +not: But I suspected the latter, resented it, and went no more. +Mrs. Godfrey brought me afterwards some more favourable +Accounts of their Disposition, and would have drawn me on +again: But I declared absolutely my Resolution to have nothing +more to do with that Family. This was resented by the Godfreys, +we differ'd, and they removed, leaving me the whole +House, and I resolved to take no more Inmates. But this Affair +having turn'd my Thoughts to Marriage, I look'd round me, +and made Overtures of Acquaintance in other Places; but soon +found that the Business of a Printer being generally thought a +poor one, I was not to expect Money with a Wife unless with +such a one, as I should not otherwise think agreable.—In the +mean time, that hard-to-be-govern'd Passion of Youth, had hurried +me frequently into Intrigues with low Women that fell in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +my Way, which were attended with some Expence and great +Inconvenience, besides a continual Risque to my Health by a +Distemper which of all Things I dreaded, tho' by great good +Luck I escaped it.—</p> + +<p>A friendly Correspondence as Neighbours and old Acquaintances, +had continued between me and Mrs. Read's Family, who +all had a Regard for me from the time of my first Lodging in +their House. I was often invited there and consulted in their +Affairs, wherein I sometimes was of service.—I pity'd poor +Miss Read's unfortunate Situation, who was generally dejected, +seldom chearful, and avoided Company. I consider'd my Giddiness +and Inconstancy when in London as in a great degree the +Cause of her Unhappiness; tho' the Mother was good enough to +think the Fault more her own than mine, as she had prevented +our Marrying before I went thither, and persuaded the other +Match in my Absence. Our mutual Affection was revived, but +there were now great Objections to our Union. That Match was +indeed look'd upon as invalid, a preceding Wife being said to +be livin[g] in England; but this could not easily be prov'd, because +of the Distance[.] And tho' there was a Report of his +Death, it was not certain. The[n] tho' it should be true, he had +left many Debts which his Successor might be call'd [on] to pay. +We venture['d] however, over all these Difficulties, and I [took] +her to Wife Sept. 1. 1730.<a name="FNanchor_10_522" id="FNanchor_10_522"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_522" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> None of the Inconveniencies +happen[ed] that we had apprehended, she prov'd a good and +faithful Helpmate, assisted me much by attending the Shop, we +throve together, and have ever mutually endeavour'd to make +each other happy. Thus I corrected that great <i>Erratum</i> as wel[l] +as I could.</p> + +<p>About [th]is Time our Club meeting, not at a Tavern, but in +a little Room of Mr. Grace's set apart for that Purpose; a Proposition +was made by me that since our Books were often referr'd +to in our Disquisitions upon the Queries, it might be convenient +to us to have them all together where we met, that upon Occasion +they might be consulted; and by thus clubbing our Books +to a common Library, we should, while we lik'd to keep them +together, have each of us the Advantage of using the Books of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +all the other Members, which would be nearly as beneficial as if +each owned the whole. It was lik'd and agreed to, and we fill'd +one End of the Room with such Books as we could best spare. +The Number was not so great as we expected; and tho' they had +been of great Use, yet some Inconveniencies occurring for want +of due Care of them, the Collection after about a Year was +separated, and each took his Books home again.</p> + +<p>And now I sent on foot my first Project of a public Nature, +[th]at for a Subscription Library. [I] drew up the Proposals, got +them put into Form by our great Scrivener Brockden, and by +the help of my Friends in the Junto, procur'd Fifty Subscribers +of 40/ each to begin with and 10/ a Year for 50 Years, the Term +our Company was to continue. We afterwards obtain'd a Charter, +the Company being increas'd to 100. This was the Mother +of all the N American Subscription Libraries now so numerous, +is become a great thing itself, and continually increasing.—These +Libraries have improv'd the general Conversation of the +Americans, made the common Tradesmen and Farmers as intelligent +as most Gentlemen from other Countries, and perhaps +have contributed in some degree to the Stand so generally made +throughout the Colonies in Defence of their Privileges.—<a name="FNanchor_11_523" id="FNanchor_11_523"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_523" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>This library afforded me the means of improvement by constant +study, for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and +thus repair'd in some degree the loss of the learned education +my father once intended for me. Reading was the only amusement +I allow'd myself. I spent no time in taverns, games, or +frolicks of any kind; and my industry in my business continu'd +as indefatigable as it was necessary. I was indebted for my printing-house; +I had a young family coming on to be educated, and +I had to contend with for business two printers, who were +established in the place before me. My circumstances, however, +grew daily easier. My original habits of frugality continuing, +and my father having, among his instructions to me when a boy, +frequently repeated a proverb of Solomon, "Seest thou a man +diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings, he shall not +stand before mean men," I from thence considered industry as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +a means of obtaining wealth and distinction, which encourag'd +me, tho' I did not think that I should ever literally <i>stand before +kings</i>, which, however, has since happened; for I have stood +before <i>five</i>, and even had the honour of sitting down with one, +the King of Denmark, to dinner.</p> + +<p>We have an English proverb that says, "<i>He that would thrive, +must ask his wife</i>." It was lucky for me that I had one as much +dispos'd to industry and frugality as myself. She assisted me +chearfully in my business, folding and stitching pamphlets, +tending shop, purchasing old linen rags for the paper-makers, +etc., etc. We kept no idle servants, our table was plain and simple, +our furniture of the cheapest. For instance, my breakfast +was a long time bread and milk (no tea), and I ate it out of a +twopenny earthen porringer, with a pewter spoon. But mark +how luxury will enter families, and make a progress, in spite of +principle: being call'd one morning to breakfast, I found it in a +China bowl, with a spoon of silver! They had been bought for +me without my knowledge by my wife, and had cost her the +enormous sum of three-and-twenty shillings, for which she +had no other excuse or apology to make, but that she thought +<i>her</i> husband deserv'd a silver spoon and China bowl as well +as any of his neighbors. This was the first appearance of plate +and China in our house, which afterward, in a course of years, +as our wealth increas'd, augmented gradually to several hundred +pounds in value.</p> + +<p>I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian; and tho' +some of the dogmas of that persuasion, such as <i>the eternal decrees +of God</i>, <i>election</i>, <i>reprobation, etc.</i>, appeared to me unintelligible, +others doubtful, and I early absented myself from the public +assemblies of the sect, Sunday being my studying day, I +never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, +for instance, the existence of the Deity; that he made the world, +and govern'd it by his Providence; that the most acceptable +service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are +immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, +either here or hereafter. These I esteem'd the essentials +of every religion; and, being to be found in all the religions we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +had in our country, I respected them all, tho' with different degrees +of respect, as I found them more or less mix'd with other +articles, which, without any tendency to inspire, promote, or +confirm morality, serv'd principally to divide us, and make us +unfriendly to one another. This respect to all, with an opinion +that the worst had some good effects, induc'd me to avoid all +discourse that might tend to lessen the good opinion another +might have of his own religion; and as our province increas'd in +people, and new places of worship were continually wanted, +and generally erected by voluntary contribution, my mite for +such purpose, whatever might be the sect, was never refused.</p> + +<p>Tho' I seldom attended any public worship, I had still an +opinion of its propriety, and of its utility when rightly conducted, +and I regularly paid my annual subscription for the +support of the only Presbyterian minister or meeting we had in +Philadelphia. He us'd to visit me sometimes as a friend, and +admonish me to attend his administrations, and I was now and +then prevail'd on to do so, once for five Sundays successively. +Had he been in my opinion a good preacher, perhaps I might +have continued, notwithstanding the occasion I had for the +Sunday's leisure in my course of study; but his discourses were +chiefly either polemic arguments, or explications of the peculiar +doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, +and unedifying, since not a single moral principle was inculcated +or enforc'd, their aim seeming to be rather to make us +Presbyterians than good citizens.</p> + +<p>At length he took for his text that verse of the fourth chapter +of Philippians, "<i>Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, +honest, just, pure, lovely, or of good report, if there be any virtue, or +any praise, think on these things</i>." And I imagin'd, in a sermon +on such a text, we could not miss of having some morality. +But he confin'd himself to five points only, as meant by the +apostle, viz.: 1. Keeping holy the Sabbath day. 2. Being diligent +in reading the holy Scriptures. 3. Attending duly the publick +worship. 4. Partaking of the Sacrament. 5. Paying a due respect +to God's ministers. These might be all good things; but, +as they were not the kind of good things that I expected from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +that text, I despaired of ever meeting with them from any other, +was disgusted, and attended his preaching no more. I had some +years before compos'd a little Liturgy, or form of prayer, for +my own private use (viz., in 1728), entitled <i>Articles of Belief and +Acts of Religion</i>. I return'd to the use of this, and went no more +to the public assemblies. My conduct might be blameable, but +I leave it, without attempting further to excuse it; my present +purpose being to relate facts, and not to make apologies for +them.</p> + +<p>It was about this time I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project +of arriving at moral perfection. I wish'd to live without +committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either +natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. +As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did +not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. +But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty +than I had imagined. While my care was employ'd in guarding +against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took +the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too +strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative +conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, +was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the +contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and +established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, +uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived +the following method.</p> + +<p>In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met +with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, +as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the +same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined +to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean +the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or +passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I +propos'd to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more +names, with fewer ideas annex'd to each, than a few names with +more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all +that at that time occurr'd to me as necessary or desirable, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +annexed to each a short precept, which fully express'd the extent +I gave to its meaning.</p> + +<p>These names of virtues, with their precepts, were:</p> + +<div class="main"> +<p class="center">1. <span class="smcap">Temperance</span></p> + +<p>Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.</p> + +<p class="center">2. <span class="smcap">Silence</span></p> + +<p>Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid +trifling conversation.</p> + +<p class="center">3. <span class="smcap">Order</span></p> + +<p>Let all your things have their places; let each part of your +business have its time.</p> + +<p class="center">4. <span class="smcap">Resolution</span></p> + +<p>Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail +what you resolve.</p> + +<p class="center">5. <span class="smcap">Frugality</span></p> + +<p>Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; <i>i.e.</i>, +waste nothing.</p> + +<p class="center">6. <span class="smcap">Industry</span></p> + +<p>Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut +off all unnecessary actions.</p> + +<p class="center">7. <span class="smcap">Sincerity</span></p> + +<p>Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you +speak, speak accordingly.</p> + +<p class="center">8. <span class="smcap">Justice</span></p> + +<p>Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that +are your duty.</p> + +<p class="center">9. <span class="smcap">Moderation</span></p> + +<p>Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you +think they deserve.</p> + +<p class="center">10. <span class="smcap">Cleanliness</span></p> + +<p>Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">11. <span class="smcap">Tranquillity</span></p> + +<p>Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.</p> + +<p class="center">12. <span class="smcap">Chastity</span></p> + +<p>Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, +weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or +reputation.</p> + +<p class="center">13. <span class="smcap">Humility</span></p> + +<p>Imitate Jesus and Socrates.</p></div> + +<p>My intention being to acquire the <i>habitude</i> of all these virtues, +I judg'd it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting +the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, +when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and +so on, till I should have gone thro' the thirteen; and, as the +previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of +certain others, I arrang'd them with that view, as they stand +above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness +and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant +vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the +unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual +temptations. This being acquir'd and establish'd, Silence +would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at +the same time that I improv'd in virtue, and considering that in +conversation it was obtain'd rather by the use of the ears than of +the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting +into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me +acceptable to trifling company, I gave <i>Silence</i> the second place. +This and the next, <i>Order</i>, I expected would allow me more +time for attending to my project and my studies. <i>Resolution</i>, +once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavours to +obtain all the subsequent virtues; <i>Frugality</i> and Industry freeing +me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, +would make more easy the practice of Sincerity +and Justice, etc., etc. Conceiving then, that, agreeably to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +advice of Pythagoras in his <i>Golden Verses</i>, daily examination +would be necessary, I contrived the following method for conducting +that examination.</p> + +<p>I made a little book,<a name="FNanchor_12_524" id="FNanchor_12_524"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_524" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> in which I allotted a page for each of +the virtues. I rul'd each page with red ink, so as to have seven +columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column +with a letter for the day. I cross'd these columns with thirteen +red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter +of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, +I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon +examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon +that day.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Form of the Pages</i></p> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="80%" border="1" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" summary="Temperance Page"> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="8">TEMPERANCE.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="8"><span class="txt90">EAT NOT TO DULNESS.<br /> +DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION.</span></td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td>S.</td><td>M.</td><td>T.</td><td>W.</td><td>T.</td><td>F.</td><td>S.</td></tr> +<tr><td>T.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td>*</td><td>*</td><td> </td><td>*</td><td> </td><td>*</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>O.</td><td>* *</td><td>*</td><td>*</td><td> </td><td>*</td><td>*</td><td>*</td></tr> +<tr><td>R.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>*</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>*</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>F.</td><td> </td><td>*</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>*</td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>I.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>*</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>S.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>J.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>M.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>C.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>T.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>C.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>H.</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the +virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard +was to avoid every the least offence against <i>Temperance</i>, leaving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every +evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could +keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I suppos'd the habit +of that virtue so much strengthen'd, and its opposite weaken'd, +that I might venture-extending my attention to include the next, +and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding +thus to the last, I could go thro' a course compleat in +thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, +having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the +bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, +but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplish'd +the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, +the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress I +made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, +till in the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in +viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' daily examination.</p> + +<p>This my little book had for its motto these lines from Addison's +<i>Cato</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here will I hold. If there's a power above us<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(And that there is, all nature cries aloud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thro' all her works), He must delight in virtue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that which he delights in must be happy.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Another from Cicero,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>O vitæ Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque +vitiorum! Unus dies, bene et ex præceptis tuis actus, peccanti +immortalitati est anteponendus.</p></div> + +<p>Another from the Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of wisdom +or virtue:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches +and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her +paths are peace.—iii. 16, 17.</p></div> + +<p>And conceiving God to be the fountain of wisdom, I thought +it right and necessary to solicit his assistance for obtaining it; +to this end I formed the following little prayer, which was prefix'd +to my tables of examination, for daily use.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase +in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. +Strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. +Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in +my power for thy continual favours to me.</i></p></div> + +<p>I used also sometimes a little prayer which I took from +Thomson's <i>Poems</i>, viz.:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From every low pursuit; and fill my soul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The precept of <i>Order</i> requiring that <i>every part of my business +should have its allotted time</i>, one page in my little book contain'd +the following scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours +of a natural day.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" summary="Ordered Day"> + +<tr><td style="width: 40%;" align="center"><span class="smcap">The Morning</span>.<br /> +<i>Question.</i> What good shall I do this day?</td> +<td style="width: 15%;" align="center"><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="85" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></span> +<span style="float: left;"> 5<br /> 6<br /><br /><br /> 7</span><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketright.jpg" width="15" height="85" alt="bracket right" title="bracket right" /></span></td> +<td style="width: 45%;" align="left">Rise, wash, and address <i>Powerful Goodness!</i> Contrive day's business, +and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.</td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td> +<td align="center"><span style="float: left; padding-left: 10px;"> 8<br /> 9<br />10<br />11</span> +<span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketright.jpg" width="15" height="64px" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></span></td> +<td align="left">Work.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">Noon.</span></td> +<td align="center"><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="35px" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></span> +<span style="float: left;"> 12<br /> 1<br /></span><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketright.jpg" width="15" height="35px" alt="bracket right" title="bracket right" /></span></td> +<td align="left">Read, or overlook my accounts, and dine.</td></tr> + +<tr><td> </td> +<td align="center"><span style="float: left; padding-left: 20px;"> 2<br /> 3<br /> 4<br /> 5</span> +<span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketright.jpg" width="15" height="64px" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></span></td> +<td align="left">Work.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">Evening.</span><br /> +<i>Question.</i> What good have I done to-day?</td> +<td align="center"><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="64px" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></span> +<span style="float: left;"> 6<br /> 7<br /> 8<br /> 9</span><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketright.jpg" width="15" height="64px" alt="bracket right" title="bracket right" /></span></td> +<td align="left">Put things in their places. Supper. +Music or diversion, or conversation. +Examination of the day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center"><span class="smcap">Night.</span></td> +<td align="center"><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="115" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></span> +<span style="float: left;">10<br />11<br />12<br /> 1<br /> 2<br /> 3<br /> 4</span><span style="float: left;"><img src="images/bracketright.jpg" width="15" height="115" alt="bracket right" title="bracket right" /></span></td> +<td align="left">Sleep.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>I enter'd upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, +and continu'd it with occasional intermissions for some time. +I was surpris'd to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had +imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. +To avoid the trouble of renewing now and then my little book, +which, by scraping out the marks on the paper of old faults to +make room for new ones in a new course, became full of holes, +I transferr'd my tables and precepts to the ivory leaves of a memorandum +book, on which the lines were drawn with red ink, +that made a durable stain, and on those lines I mark'd my faults +with a black-lead pencil, which marks I could easily wipe out +with a wet sponge. After a while I went thro' one course only +in a year, and afterward only one in several years, till at length +I omitted them entirely, being employ'd in voyages and business +abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered; but I always +carried my little book with me.</p> + +<p>My scheme of <span class="smcap">Order</span> gave me the most trouble; and I found +that, tho' it might be practicable where a man's business was +such as to leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman +printer, for instance, it was not possible to be exactly observed +by a master, who must mix with the world, and often receive +people of business at their own hours. <i>Order</i>, too, with +regard to places for things, papers, etc., I found extreamly difficult +to acquire. I had not been early accustomed to it, and, having +an exceeding good memory, I was not so sensible of the +inconvenience attending want of method. This article, therefore, +cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed +me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and +had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up +the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that +respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +neighbour, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as +the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he +would turn the wheel; he turn'd, while the smith press'd the +broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone, which made +the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and +then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length +would take his ax as it was, without farther grinding. "No," +said the smith, "turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; +as yet, it is only speckled." "Yes," says the man, "<i>but I +think I like a speckled ax best</i>." And I believe this may have been +the case with many, who, having, for want of some such means +as I employ'd, found the difficulty of obtaining good and breaking +bad habits in other points of vice and virtue, have given up +the struggle, and concluded that "<i>a speckled ax was best</i>"; for +something, that pretended to be reason, was every now and +then suggesting to me that such extream nicety as I exacted of +myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, which, if it were +known, would make me ridiculous; that a perfect character +might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and +hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in +himself, to keep his friends in countenance.</p> + +<p>In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; +and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly +the want of it. But, on the whole, tho' I never arrived at the +perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short +of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man +than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as +those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved +copies, tho' they never reach the wish'd-for excellence of those +copies, their hand is mended by the endeavour, and is tolerable +while it continues fair and legible.</p> + +<p>It may be well my posterity should be informed that to this +little artifice, with the blessing of God, their ancestor ow'd the +constant felicity of his life, down to his 79th year in which this +is written. What reverses may attend the remainder is in the +hand of Providence; but, if they arrive, the reflection on past +happiness enjoy'd ought to help his bearing them with more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +resignation. To Temperance he ascribes his long-continued +health, and what is still left to him of a good constitution; to +Industry and Frugality, the early easiness of his circumstances +and acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge that enabled +him to be a useful citizen, and obtained for him some degree +of reputation among the learned; to Sincerity and Justice, +the confidence of his country, and the honorable employs it +conferred upon him; and to the joint influence of the whole mass +of the virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire +them, all that evenness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation, +which makes his company still sought for, and agreeable +even to his younger acquaintance. I hope, therefore, that +some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the +benefit.</p> + +<p>It will be remark'd that, tho' my scheme was not wholly +without religion, there was in it no mark of any of the distinguishing +tenets of any particular sect. I had purposely +avoided them; for, being fully persuaded of the utility and excellency +of my method, and that it might be serviceable to people +in all religions, and intending some time or other to publish it, +I would not have any thing in it that should prejudice any one, +of any sect, against it. I purposed writing a little comment on +each virtue, in which I would have shown the advantages of +possessing it, and the mischiefs attending its opposite vice; and +I should have called my book <span class="smcap">The Art of Virtue</span>,<a name="FNanchor_E_495" id="FNanchor_E_495"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_495" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> because +it would have shown the means and manner of obtaining virtue, +which would have distinguished it from the mere exhortation +to be good, that does not instruct and indicate the means, but is +like the apostle's man of verbal charity, who only, without +showing to the naked and hungry how or where they might +get clothes or victuals, exhorted them to be fed and clothed.—James +ii. 15, 16.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_495" id="Footnote_E_495"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_495"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Nothing so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue. [<i>Franklin's +note.</i>]</p></div> + +<p>But it so happened that my intention of writing and publishing +this comment was never fulfilled. I did, indeed, from time +to time, put down short hints of the sentiments, reasonings, etc.,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +to be made use of in it, some of which I have still by me; but the +necessary close attention to private business in the earlier part of +my life, and public business since, have occasioned my postponing +it; for, it being connected in my mind with <i>a great and extensive +project</i>, that required the whole man to execute, and which +an unforeseen succession of employs prevented my attending +to, it has hitherto remain'd unfinish'd.</p> + +<p>In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine, +that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, +but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of +man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one's interest +to be virtuous who wish'd to be happy even in this world; +and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the +world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, +who have need of honest instruments for the management of +their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavoured to convince +young persons that no qualities were so likely to make +a poor man's fortune as those of probity and integrity.</p> + +<p>My list of virtues contain'd at first but twelve; but a Quaker +friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought +proud; that my pride show'd itself frequently in conversation; +that I was not content with being in the right when discussing +any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he +convinc'd me by mentioning several instances; I determined +endeavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly +among the rest, and I added <i>Humility</i> to my list, giving an extensive +meaning to the word.</p> + +<p>I cannot boast of much success in acquiring the <i>reality</i> of this +virtue, but I had a good deal with regard to the <i>appearance</i> of it. +I made it a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments +of others, and all positive assertion of my own. I even +forbid myself, agreeably to the old laws of our Junto, the use of +every word or expression in the language that imported a fix'd +opinion, such as <i>certainly</i>, <i>undoubtedly</i>, etc., and I adopted, instead +of them, <i>I conceive</i>, <i>I apprehend</i>, or <i>I imagine</i> a thing to be +so or so; or it <i>so appears to me at present</i>. When another asserted +something that I thought an error, I deny'd myself the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +pleasure of contradicting him abruptly, and of showing immediately +some absurdity in his proposition; and in answering I began +by observing that in certain cases or circumstances his +opinion would be right, but in the present case there <i>appear'd</i> +or <i>seem'd</i> to me some difference, etc. I soon found the advantage +of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag'd +in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I +propos'd my opinions procur'd them a readier reception and +less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to +be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail'd with others to give +up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in +the right.</p> + +<p>And this mode, which I at first put on with some violence to +natural inclination, became at length so easy, and so habitual to +me, that perhaps for these fifty years past no one has ever heard +a dogmatical expression escape me. And to this habit (after my +character of integrity) I think it principally owing that I had +early so much weight with my fellow-citizens when I proposed +new institutions, or alterations in the old, and so much influence +in public councils when I became a member; for I was but a bad +speaker, never eloquent, subject to much hesitation in my +choice of words, hardly correct in language, and yet I generally +carried my points.</p> + +<p>In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so +hard to subdue as <i>pride</i>. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it +down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, +and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will +see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive +that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud +of my humility.<a name="FNanchor_13_525" id="FNanchor_13_525"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_525" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>...</p> + +<p>Having mentioned <i>a great and extensive project</i> which I had +conceiv'd, it seems proper that some account should be here +given of that project and its object. Its first rise in my mind +appears in the following little paper, accidentally preserv'd, viz.:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Observations</i> on my reading history, in Library, May 19th, +1731.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That the great affairs of the world, the wars, revolutions, +etc., are carried on and affected by parties.</p> + +<p>"That the view of these parties is their present general interest, +or what they take to be such.</p> + +<p>"That the different views of these different parties occasion +all confusion.</p> + +<p>"That while a party is carrying on a general design, each man +has his particular private interest in view.</p> + +<p>"That as soon as a party has gain'd its general point, each +member becomes intent upon his particular interest; which, +thwarting others, breaks that party into divisions, and occasions +more confusion.</p> + +<p>"That few in public affairs act from a meer view of the good +of their country, whatever they may pretend; and, tho' their +actings bring real good to their country, yet men primarily +considered that their own and their country's interest was +united, and did not act from a principle of benevolence.</p> + +<p>"That fewer still, in public affairs, act with a view to the +good of mankind.</p> + +<p>"There seems to me at present to be great occasion for raising +a United Party for Virtue, by forming the virtuous and good +men of all nations into a regular body, to be govern'd by suitable +good and wise rules, which good and wise men may probably +be more unanimous in their obedience to, than common +people are to common laws.</p> + +<p>"I at present think that whoever attempts this aright, and is +well qualified, can not fail of pleasing God, and of meeting with +success.</p> + +<p class="sig">B. F."</p></div> + +<p>Revolving this project in my mind, as to be undertaken hereafter, +when my circumstances should afford me the necessary +leisure, I put down from time to time, on pieces of paper, such +thoughts as occurr'd to me respecting it. Most of these are lost; +but I find one purporting to be the substance of an intended +creed, containing, as I thought, the essentials of every known +religion, and being free of every thing that might shock the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +professors of any religion. It is express'd in these words, +viz.:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"That there is one God, who made all things.</p> + +<p>"That he governs the world by his providence.</p> + +<p>"That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and +thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>"But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good +to man.</p> + +<p>"That the soul is immortal.</p> + +<p>"And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, +either here or hereafter."</p></div> + +<p>My ideas at that time were, that the sect should be begun and +spread at first among young and single men only; that each person +to be initiated should not only declare his assent to such +creed, but should have exercised himself with the thirteen +weeks' examination and practice of the virtues, as in the before-mention'd +model; that the existence of such a society should be +kept a secret, till it was become considerable, to prevent solicitations +for the admission of improper persons, but that the members +should each of them search among his acquaintance for ingenuous, +well-disposed youths, to whom, with prudent caution, +the scheme should be gradually communicated; that the members +should engage to afford their advice, assistance, and support +to each other in promoting one another's interests, business, and +advancement in life; that, for distinction, we should be call'd <i>The +Society of the Free and Easy</i>: free, as being, by the general practice +and habit of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice; and +particularly by the practice of industry and frugality, free from +debt, which exposes a man to confinement, and a species of slavery +to his creditors.</p> + +<p>This is as much as I can now recollect of the project, except +that I communicated it in part to two young men, who adopted +it with some enthusiasm; but my then narrow circumstances, and +the necessity I was under of sticking close to my business, occasion'd +my postponing the further prosecution of it at that time; +and my multifarious occupations, public and private, induc'd<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +me to continue postponing, so that it has been omitted till I +have no longer strength or activity left sufficient for such an +enterprise; tho' I am still of opinion that it was a practicable +scheme, and might have been very useful, by forming a great +number of good citizens; and I was not discourag'd by the +seeming magnitude of the undertaking, as I have always thought +that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and +accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good +plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that +would divert his attention, makes the execution of that same +plan his sole study and business.</p> + +<p>In 1732 I first publish'd my Almanack, under the name of +<i>Richard Saunders</i>; it was continu'd by me about twenty-five +years, commonly call'd <i>Poor Richard's Almanack</i>. I endeavour'd +to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came +to be in such demand, that I reap'd considerable profit from it, +vending annually near ten thousand.<a name="FNanchor_14_526" id="FNanchor_14_526"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_526" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> And observing that it +was generally read, scarce any neighborhood in the province +being without it, I consider'd it as a proper vehicle for conveying +instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely +any other books; I therefore filled all the little spaces that occurr'd +between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial +sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, +as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing +virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want, to act +always honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, <i>it is hard +for an empty sack to stand upright</i>.</p> + +<p>These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many ages +and nations, I assembled and form'd into a connected discourse +prefix'd to the Almanack of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old +man to the people attending an auction. The bringing all these +scatter'd counsels thus into a focus enabled them to make greater +impression. The piece, being universally approved, was copied +in all the newspapers of the Continent; reprinted in Britain on a +broad side, to be stuck up in houses; two translations were +made of it in French, and great numbers bought by the clergy +and gentry, to distribute gratis among their poor parishioners<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it discouraged useless expense +in foreign superfluities, some thought it had its share of influence +in producing that growing plenty of money which was +observable for several years after its publication.</p> + +<p>I considered my newspaper, also, as another means of communicating +instruction, and in that view frequently reprinted in +it extracts from the Spectator, and other moral writers; and +sometimes publish'd little pieces of my own, which had been +first compos'd for reading in our Junto. Of these are a Socratic +dialogue, tending to prove that, whatever might be his parts and +abilities, a vicious man could not properly be called a man of +sense; and a discourse on self-denial, showing that virtue was +not secure till its practice became a habitude, and was free from +the opposition of contrary inclinations. These may be found in +the papers about the beginning of 1735.<a name="FNanchor_15_527" id="FNanchor_15_527"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_527" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>In the conduct of my newspaper, I carefully excluded all +libelling and personal abuse, which is of late years become so +disgraceful to our country. Whenever I was solicited to insert +any thing of that kind, and the writers pleaded, as they generally +did, the liberty of the press, and that a newspaper was like a +stage-coach, in which any one who would pay had a right to a +place, my answer was, that I would print the piece separately if +desired, and the author might have as many copies as he pleased +to distribute himself, but that I would not take upon me to +spread his detraction; and that, having contracted with my subscribers +to furnish them with what might be either useful or +entertaining, I could not fill their papers with private altercation, +in which they had no concern, without doing them manifest +injustice. Now, many of our printers make no scruple of gratifying +the malice of individuals by false accusations of the fairest +characters among ourselves, augmenting animosity even to the +producing of duels; and are, moreover, so indiscreet as to print +scurrilous reflections on the government of neighboring states, +and even on the conduct of our best national allies, which may +be attended with the most pernicious consequences. These +things I mention as a caution to young printers, and that they +may be encouraged not to pollute their presses and disgrace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +their profession by such infamous practices, but refuse steadily, +as they may see by my example that such a course of conduct +will not, on the whole, be injurious to their interests.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I had begun in 1733 to study languages; I soon made myself +so much a master of the French as to be able to read the books +with ease. I then undertook the Italian. An acquaintance, who +was also learning it, us'd often to tempt me to play chess with +him. Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare +for study, I at length refus'd to play any more, unless on this +condition, that the victor in every game should have a right to +impose a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, +or in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquish'd was to perform +upon honour, before our next meeting. As we play'd +pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that language. I +afterwards with a little painstaking, acquir'd as much of the +Spanish as to read their books also.</p> + +<p>I have already mention'd that I had only one year's instruction +in a Latin school, and that when very young, after which I +neglected that language entirely. But, when I had attained an +acquaintance with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surpriz'd +to find, on looking over a Latin Testament, that I understood +so much more of that language than I had imagined, +which encouraged me to apply myself again to the study of it, +and I met with more success, as those preceding languages had +greatly smooth'd my way.</p> + +<p>From these circumstances, I have thought that there is some +inconsistency in our common mode of teaching languages. We +are told that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, having +acquir'd that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages +which are deriv'd from it; and yet we do not begin with +the Greek, in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true +that, if you can clamber and get to the top of a staircase without +using the steps, you will more easily gain them in descending; +but certainly, if you begin with the lowest you will with +more ease ascend to the top; and I would therefore offer it to +the consideration of those who superintend the education of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +youth, whether, since many of those who begin with the Latin +quit the same after spending some years without having made +any great proficiency, and what they have learnt becomes almost +useless, so that their time has been lost, it would not have been +better to have begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian, +etc.; for, tho', after spending the same time, they should quit +the study of languages and never arrive at the Latin, they +would, however, have acquired another tongue or two, that, +being in modern use, might be serviceable to them in common +life.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Our club, the Junto, was found so useful, and afforded such +satisfaction to the members, that several were desirous of introducing +their friends, which could not well be done without exceeding +what we had settled as a convenient number, viz., +twelve. We had from the beginning made it a rule to keep our +institution a secret, which was pretty well observ'd; the intention +was to avoid applications of improper persons for admittance, +some of whom, perhaps, we might find it difficult to refuse. +I was one of those who were against any addition to our +number, but, instead of it, made in writing a proposal, that every +member separately should endeavour to form a subordinate +club, with the same rules respecting queries, etc., and without +informing them of the connection with the Junto. The advantages +proposed were, the improvement of so many more young +citizens by the use of our institutions; our better acquaintance +with the general sentiments of the inhabitants on any occasion, +as the Junto member might propose what queries we should +desire, and was to report to the Junto what pass'd in his separate +club; the promotion of our particular interests in business by +more extensive recommendation, and the increase of our influence +in public affairs, and our power of doing good by spreading +thro' the several clubs the sentiments of the Junto.</p> + +<p>The project was approv'd, and every member undertook to +form his club, but they did not all succeed. Five or six only +were compleated, which were called by different names, as the +Vine, the Union, the Band, etc. They were useful to themselves,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +and afforded us a good deal of amusement, information, and +instruction, besides answering, in some considerable degree, our +views of influencing the public opinion on particular occasions, +of which I shall give some instances in course of time as they +happened.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs,<a name="FNanchor_16_528" id="FNanchor_16_528"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_528" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +beginning, however, with small matters. The city watch was +one of the first things that I conceiv'd to want regulation. It +was managed by the constables of the respective wards in turn; +the constable warned a number of housekeepers to attend him +for the night. Those who chose never to attend, paid him six +shillings a year to be excus'd, which was suppos'd to be for hiring +substitutes, but was, in reality, much more than was necessary +for that purpose, and made the constableship a place of +profit; and the constable, for a little drink, often got such ragamuffins +about him as a watch, that respectable housekeepers did +not choose to mix with. Walking the rounds, too, was often +neglected, and most of the nights spent in tippling. I thereupon +wrote a paper to be read in Junto, representing these irregularities, +but insisting more particularly on the inequality of this six-shilling +tax of the constables, respecting the circumstances of +those who paid it, since a poor widow housekeeper, all whose +property to be guarded by the watch did not perhaps exceed the +value of fifty pounds, paid as much as the wealthiest merchant, +who had thousands of pounds' worth of goods in his stores.</p> + +<p>On the whole, I proposed as a more effectual watch, the hiring +of proper men to serve constantly in that business; and as a more +equitable way of supporting the charge, the levying a tax that +should be proportion'd to the property. This idea, being approv'd +by the Junto, was communicated to the other clubs, but +as arising in each of them; and though the plan was not immediately +carried into execution, yet, by preparing the minds of people +for the change, it paved the way for the law obtained a few +years after, when the members of our clubs were grown into +more influence.</p> + +<p>About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read in Junto, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +it was afterward publish'd) on the different accidents and carelessnesses +by which houses were set on fire, with cautions +against them, and means proposed of avoiding them. This was +much spoken of as a useful piece, and gave rise to a project, +which soon followed it, of forming a company for the more +ready extinguishing of fires, and mutual assistance in removing +and securing of goods when in danger. Associates in this scheme +were presently found, amounting to thirty. Our articles of +agreement oblig'd every member to keep always in good order, +and fit for use, a certain number of leather buckets, with strong +bags and baskets (for packing and transporting of goods), +which were to be brought to every fire; and we agreed to meet +once a month and spend a social evening together, in discoursing +and communicating such ideas as occurred to us upon the +subject of fires, as might be useful in our conduct on such occasions.</p> + +<p>The utility of this institution soon appeared, and many more +desiring to be admitted than we thought convenient for one +company, they were advised to form another, which was accordingly +done; and this went on, one new company being formed +after another, till they became so numerous as to include most +of the inhabitants who were men of property; and now, at the +time of my writing this, tho' upward of fifty years since its +establishment, that which I first formed, called the Union Fire +Company, still subsists and flourishes, tho' the first members +are all deceas'd but myself and one, who is older by a year than +I am. The small fines that have been paid by members for absence +at the monthly meetings have been apply'd to the purchase +of fire-engines, ladders, fire-hooks, and other useful implements +for each company, so that I question whether there is a +city in the world better provided with the means of putting a +stop to beginning conflagrations; and, in fact, since these institutions, +the city has never lost by fire more than one or two houses +at a time, and the flames have often been extinguished before the +house in which they began has been half consumed.</p> + +<p>In 1739 arrived among us from Ireland the Reverend Mr. +Whitefield, who had made himself remarkable there as an itinerant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +preacher. He was at first permitted to preach in some of +our churches; but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refus'd +him their pulpits, and he was oblig'd to preach in the fields. +The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his +sermons were enormous, and it was matter of speculation to me, +who was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence +of his oratory on his hearers, and how much they admir'd +and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them, +by assuring them they were naturally <i>half beasts and half devils</i>. +It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of +our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about +religion, it seem'd as if all the world were growing religious, +so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without +hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the +course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, +and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I +had in my pocket a handful of copper money, three or four silver +dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began +to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of +his oratory made me asham'd of that, and determin'd me to give +the silver; and he finish'd so admirably, that I empty'd my pocket +wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all. At this sermon +there was also one of our club, who, being of my sentiments respecting +the building in Georgia and, suspecting a collection +might be intended, had, by precaution, emptied his pockets before +he came from home. Towards the conclusion of the discourse, +however, he felt a strong desire to give, and apply'd to a +neighbour, who stood near him, to borrow some money for the +purpose. The application was unfortunately [made] to perhaps +the only man in the company who had the firmness not to be +affected by the preacher. His answer was, "<i>At any other time, +Friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely; but not now, for +thee seems to be out of thy right senses</i>."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>He [Rev. Whitefield] us'd, indeed, sometimes to pray for my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +conversion, but never had the satisfaction of believing that his +prayers were heard. Ours was a mere civil friendship, sincere +on both sides, and lasted to his death.<a name="FNanchor_17_529" id="FNanchor_17_529"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_529" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>The following instance will show something of the terms on +which we stood. Upon one of his arrivals from England at +Boston, he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, +but knew not where he could lodge when there, as he understood +his old friend and host, Mr. Benezet was removed to Germantown. +My answer was, "You know my house, if you can make +shift with its scanty accommodations, you will be most heartily +welcome." He reply'd, that if I made that kind offer for Christ's +sake, I should not miss of a reward. And I returned, "<i>Don't let +me be mistaken, it was not for Christ's sake, but for your sake</i>." +One of our common acquaintance jocosely remark'd, that, +knowing it to be the custom of the saints, when they received any +favour, to shift the burden of the obligation from off their own +shoulders, and place it in heaven, I had contriv'd to fix it on +earth.</p> + +<p>The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, when he +consulted me about his Orphan House concern, and his purpose +of appropriating it to the establishment of a college.</p> + +<p>He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and +sentences so perfectly, that he might be heard and understood at +a great distance, especially as his auditories, however numerous, +observ'd the most exact silence. He preach'd one evening from +the top of the Court-house steps, which are in the middle of +Market-street, and on the west side of Second-street, which +crosses it at right angles. Both streets were fill'd with his hearers +to a considerable distance. Being among the hindmost in +Market-street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be +heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards the +river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front-street, +when some noise in that street obscur'd it. Imagining then a +semicircle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that +it were fill'd with auditors, to each of whom I allow'd two square +feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty +thousand. This reconcil'd me to the newspaper accounts of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +having preach'd to twenty-five thousand people in the fields, +and to the antient histories of generals haranguing whole armies, +of which I had some times doubted.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>I had, on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied with my +being established in Pennsylvania. There were, however, two +things that I regretted, there being no provision for defense, +nor for a compleat education of youth; no militia, nor any college. +I therefore, in 1743, drew up a proposal for establishing +an academy; and at that time, thinking the Reverend Mr. Peters, +who was out of employ, a fit person to superintend such an institution, +I communicated the project to him; but he, having +more profitable views in the service of the proprietaries, which +succeeded, declin'd the undertaking; and, not knowing another +at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the scheme lie a while +dormant. I succeeded better the next year, 1744, in proposing +and establishing a Philosophical Society. The paper I wrote for +that purpose will be found among my writings, when collected.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>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 +<i>Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania</i>. +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.</p> + +<p>In the introduction to these proposals, I stated their publication, +not as an act of mine, but of some <i>publick-spirited gentlemen</i>, +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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>In 1746, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr. Spence, who +was lately arrived from Scotland, and show'd me some electric +experiments. They were imperfectly perform'd, as he was not +very expert; but, being on a subject quite new to me, they equally +surpris'd and pleased me. Soon after my return to Philadelphia, +our library company receiv'd from Mr. P. Collinson, Fellow of +the Royal Society of London, a present of a glass tube, with +some account of the use of it in making such experiments. I +eagerly seized the opportunity of repeating what I had seen at +Boston; and, by much practice, acquir'd great readiness in performing +those, also, which we had an account of from England, +adding a number of new ones. I say much practice, for my +house was continually full, for some time, with people who +came to see these new wonders.</p> + +<p>To divide a little this incumbrance among my friends, I +caused a number of similar tubes to be blown at our glass-house, +with which they furnish'd themselves, so that we had at length +several performers. Among these, the principal was Mr. Kinnersley, +an ingenious neighbor, who, being out of business, I +encouraged to undertake showing the experiments for money, +and drew up for him two lectures, in which the experiments +were rang'd in such order, and accompanied with such explanations +in such method, as that the foregoing should assist in +comprehending the following. He procur'd an elegant apparatus +for the purpose, in which all the little machines that I had +roughly made for myself were nicely form'd by instrument-makers. +His lectures were well attended, and gave great satisfaction; +and after some time he went thro' the colonies, exhibiting +them in every capital town, and pick'd up some money. In the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +West India Islands, indeed, it was with difficulty the experiments +could be made, from the general moisture of the air.</p> + +<p>Oblig'd as we were to Mr. Collinson for his present of the +tube, etc., I thought it right he should be inform'd of our success +in using it, and wrote him several letters containing accounts +of our experiments. He got them read in the Royal Society, +where they were not at first thought worth so much notice +as to be printed in their Transactions. One paper, which I +wrote for Mr. Kinnersley, on the sameness of lightning with +electricity, I sent to Dr. Mitchel, an acquaintance of mine, and +one of the members also of that society, who wrote me word +that it had been read, but was laughed at by the connoisseurs. +The papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he thought +them of too much value to be stifled, and advis'd the printing +of them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to <i>Cave</i> for publication +in his Gentleman's Magazine; but he chose to print them +separately in a pamphlet, and Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. +Cave, it seems, judged rightly for his profit, for by the additions +that arrived afterward they swell'd, to a quarto volume, which +has had five editions, and cost him nothing for copy-money.</p> + +<p>It was, however, some time before those papers were much +taken notice of in England. A copy of them happening to fall +into the hands of the Count de Buffon, a philosopher deservedly +of great reputation in France, and, indeed, all over Europe, he +prevailed with M. Dalibard to translate them into French, and +they were printed at Paris. The publication offended the Abbé +Nollet, preceptor in Natural Philosophy to the royal family, and +an able experimenter, who had form'd and publish'd a theory of +electricity, which then had the general vogue. He could not at +first believe that such a work came from America, and said it +must have been fabricated by his enemies at Paris, to decry his +system. Afterwards, having been assur'd that there really existed +such a person as Franklin at Philadelphia, which he had +doubted, he wrote and published a volume of Letters, chiefly +address'd to me, defending his theory, and denying the verity +of my experiments, and of the positions deduc'd from them.</p> + +<p>I once purpos'd answering the abbé, and actually began the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +answer; but, on consideration that my writings contain'd a description +of experiments which any one might repeat and verify, +and if not to be verifi'd, could not be defended; or of observations +offer'd as conjectures, and not delivered dogmatically, +therefore not laying me under any obligation to defend them; +and reflecting that a dispute between two persons, writing in +different languages, might be lengthened greatly by mistranslations, +and thence misconceptions of one another's meaning, +much of one of the abbé's letters being founded on an error in +the translation, I concluded to let my papers shift for themselves, +believing it was better to spend what time I could spare +from public business in making new experiments, than in disputing +about those already made. I therefore never answered +M. Nollet, and the event gave me no cause to repent my silence; +for my friend M. le Roy, of the Royal Academy of Sciences, +took up my cause and refuted him; my book was translated into +the Italian, German, and Latin languages; and the doctrine it +contain'd was by degrees universally adopted by the philosophers +of Europe, in preference to that of the abbé; so that he +lived to see himself the last of his sect, except Monsieur B——, +of Paris, his <i>élève</i> and immediate disciple.</p> + +<p>What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity, +was the success of one of its proposed experiments, made by +Messrs. Dalibard and De Lor at Marly, for drawing lightning +from the clouds. This engag'd the public attention every where. +M. de Lor, who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy, +and lectur'd in that branch of science, undertook to repeat what +he called the <i>Philadelphia Experiments</i>; and, after they were performed +before the king and court, all the curious of Paris +flocked to see them. I will not swell this narrative with an account +of that capital experiment, nor of the infinite pleasure I +receiv'd in the success of a similar one I made soon after with a +kite at Philadelphia, as both are to be found in the histories of +electricity.</p> + +<p>Dr. Wright, an English physician, when at Paris, wrote to a +friend, who was of the Royal Society, an account of the high +esteem my experiments were in among the learned abroad, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +of their wonder that my writings had been so little noticed in +England. The Society, on this, resum'd the consideration of +the letters that had been read to them; and the celebrated Dr. +Watson drew up a summary account of them, and of all I had +afterwards sent to England on the subject, which he accompanied +with some praise of the writer. This summary was then +printed in their Transactions; and some members of the Society +in London, particularly the very ingenious Mr. Canton, having +verified the experiment of procuring lightning from the clouds +by a pointed rod, and acquainting them with the success, they +soon made me more than amends for the slight with which they +had before treated me. Without my having made any application +for that honour, they chose me a member, and voted that I +should be excus'd the customary payments, which would have +amounted to twenty-five guineas; and ever since have given me +their Transactions gratis. They also presented me with the gold +medal of Sir Godfrey Copley for the year 1753, the delivery of +which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of the president, +Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly honoured.</p> + + +<h3><a name="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_I" id="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_I"></a>DOGOOD PAPERS, NO. I</h3> + +<p class="center">(From Monday March 26. to Monday April 2. 1722.)</p> + +<p class="center"><i>To the Author of the</i> New-England Courant.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>It may not be improper in the first Place to inform your +Readers, that I intend once a Fortnight to present them, by the +Help of this Paper, with a short Epistle, which I presume will +add somewhat to their Entertainment.</p> + +<p>And since it is observed, that the Generality of People, now a +days, are unwilling either to commend or dispraise what they +read, until they are in some measure informed who or what the +Author of it is, whether he be <i>poor</i> or <i>rich</i>, <i>old</i> or <i>young</i>, a <i>Scollar</i> +or a <i>Leather Apron Man</i>, &c. and give their Opinion of the +Performance, according to the Knowledge which they have of +the Author's Circumstances, it may not be amiss to begin with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +a short Account of my past Life and present Condition, that the +Reader may not be at a Loss to judge whether or no my Lucubrations +are worth his reading.</p> + +<p>At the time of my Birth, my Parents were on Ship-board in +their Way from <i>London</i> to <i>N. England</i>. My Entrance into this +troublesome World was attended with the Death of my Father, +a Misfortune, which tho' I was not then capable of knowing, I +shall never be able to forget; for as he, poor Man, stood upon +the Deck rejoycing at my Birth, a merciless Wave entred the +Ship, and in one Moment carry'd him beyond Reprieve. Thus +was the <i>first</i> Day which I saw, the <i>last</i> that was seen by my +Father; and thus was my disconsolate Mother at once made both +a <i>Parent</i> and a <i>Widow</i>.</p> + +<p>When we arrived at <i>Boston</i> (which was not long after) I was +put to Nurse in a Country Place, at a small Distance from the +Town, where I went to School, and past my Infancy and Childhood +in Vanity and Idleness, until I was bound out Apprentice, +that I might no longer be a Charge to my Indigent Mother, who +was put to hard Shifts for a Living.</p> + +<p>My Master was a Country Minister, a pious good-natur'd +young Man, & a Batchelor: He labour'd with all his Might to +instil vertuous and godly Principles into my tender Soul, well +knowing that it was the most suitable Time to make deep and +lasting Impressions on the Mind, while it was yet untainted with +Vice, free and unbiass'd. He endeavour'd that I might be instructed +in all that Knowledge and Learning which is necessary +for our Sex, and deny'd me no Accomplishment that could +possibly be attained in a Country Place, such as all Sorts of +Needle-Work, Writing, Arithmetick, &c. and observing that I +took a more than ordinary Delight in reading ingenious Books, +he gave me the free Use of his Library, which tho' it was but +small, yet it was well chose, to inform the Understanding rightly +and enable the Mind to frame great and noble Ideas.</p> + +<p>Before I had liv'd quite two Years with this Reverend Gentleman, +my indulgent Mother departed this Life, leaving me as it +were by my self, having no Relation on Earth within my +Knowledge.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p> + +<p>I will not abuse your Patience with a tedious Recital of all the +frivolous Accidents of my Life, that happened from this Time +until I arrived to Years of Discretion, only inform you that I +liv'd a chearful Country Life, spending my leisure Time either +in some innocent Diversion with the neighbouring Females, or +in some shady Retirement, with the best of Company, <i>Books</i>. +Thus I past away the Time with a Mixture of Profit and Pleasure, +having no Affliction but what was imaginary and created in +my own Fancy; as nothing is more common with us Women, +than to be grieving for nothing, when we have nothing else to +grieve for.</p> + +<p>As I would not engross too much of your Paper at once, I will +defer the Remainder of my Story until my next Letter; in the +mean time desiring your Readers to exercise their Patience, and +bear with my Humours now and then, because I shall trouble +them but seldom. I am not insensible of the Impossibility of +pleasing all, but I would not willingly displease any; and for +those who will take Offence where none is intended, they are +beneath the Notice of</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Your Humble Servant</i>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Silinc Dogood</span>.</p> + +<p><i>As the Favour of Mrs. Dogood's Correspondence is acknowledged +by the Publisher of this Paper, lest any of her Letters should +miscarry, he desires they may for the future be deliver'd at his +Printing-House, or at the Blue Ball in Union-Street, and no +Questions shall be ask'd of the Bearer.</i></p> + + +<h3><a name="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_IV" id="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_IV"></a>DOGOOD PAPERS, NO. IV</h3> + +<p class="center">(From Monday May 7. to Monday May 14. 1722.)</p> + +<p class="center"><i>An sum etiam nunc vel Græcè loqui vel</i> Latinè docendus?<br /> +<span class="smcap lpad20">Cicero.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>To the Author of the</i> New-England Courant.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>Discoursing the other Day at Dinner with my Reverend +Boarder, formerly mention'd, (whom for Distinction sake we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +will call by the Name of <i>Clericus</i>,) concerning the Education of +Children, I ask'd his Advice about my young Son <i>William</i>, +whether or no I had best bestow upon him Academical Learning, +or (as our Phrase is) <i>bring him up at our College</i>: He perswaded +me to do it by all Means, using many weighty Arguments with +me, and answering all the Objections that I could form against +it; telling me withal, that he did not doubt but that the Lad +would take his Learning very well, and not idle away his Time +as too many there now-a-days do. These words of <i>Clericus</i> gave +me a Curiosity to inquire a little more strictly into the present +Circumstances of that famous Seminary of Learning; but the +Information which he gave me, was neither pleasant, nor such +as I expected.</p> + +<p>As soon as Dinner was over, I took a solitary Walk into my +Orchard, still ruminating on <i>Clericus's</i> Discourse with much +Consideration, until I came to my usual Place of Retirement +under the <i>Great Apple-Tree</i>; where having seated my self, and +carelessly laid my Head on a verdant Bank, I fell by Degrees into +a soft and undisturbed Slumber. My waking Thoughts remained +with me in my Sleep, and before I awak'd again, I +dreamt the following <span class="smcap">Dream</span>.</p> + +<p>I fancy'd I was travelling over pleasant and delightful Fields +and Meadows, and thro' many small Country Towns and +Villages; and as I pass'd along, all Places resounded with the +Fame of the Temple of <span class="smcap">Learning</span>: Every Peasant, who had +wherewithal, was preparing to send one of his Children at least +to this famous Place; and in this Case most of them consulted +their own Purses instead of their Childrens Capacities: So that +I observed, a great many, yea, the most part of those who were +travelling thither, were little better than Dunces and Blockheads. +Alas! Alas!</p> + +<p>At length I entred upon a spacious Plain, in the Midst of +which was erected a large and stately Edifice: It was to this that +a great Company of Youths from all Parts of the Country were +going; so stepping in among the Crowd, I passed on with them, +and presently arrived at the Gate.</p> + +<p>The Passage was Kept by two sturdy Porters named <i>Riches</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +and <i>Poverty</i>, and the latter obstinately refused to give Entrance +to any who had not first gain'd the Favour of the former; so that +I observed, many who came even to the very Gate, were obliged +to travel back again as ignorant as they came, for want of this +necessary Qualification. However, as a Spectator I gain'd Admittance, +and with the rest entred directly into the Temple.</p> + +<p>In the Middle of the great Hall stood a stately and magnificent +Throne, which was ascended to by two high and difficult Steps. +On the Top of it sat <span class="smcap">Learning</span> in awful State; she was +apparelled wholly in Black, and surrounded almost on every +Side with innumerable Volumes in all Languages. She seem'd +very busily employ'd in writing something on half a Sheet of +Paper, and upon Enquiry, I understood she was preparing a +Paper, call'd, <i>The New-England Courant</i>. On her Right Hand +sat <i>English</i>, with a pleasant smiling Countenance, and handsomely +attir'd; and on her left were seated several <i>Antique Figures</i> +with their Faces vail'd. I was considerably puzzl'd to guess +who they were, until one informed me, (who stood beside me,) +that those Figures on her left Hand were <i>Latin</i>, <i>Greek</i>, <i>Hebrew</i>, +&c. and that they were very much reserv'd, and seldom or never +unvail'd their Faces here, and then to few or none, tho' most of +those who have in this Place acquir'd so much Learning as to +distinguish them from <i>English</i>, pretended to an intimate Acquaintance +with them. I then enquir'd of him, what could be +the Reason why they continued vail'd, in this Place especially: +He pointed to the Foot of the Throne, where I saw <i>Idleness</i>, +attended with <i>Ignorance</i>, and these (he informed me) were they, +who first vail'd them, and still kept them so.</p> + +<p>Now I observed, that the whole Tribe who entred into the +Temple with me, began to climb the Throne; but the Work; +proving troublesome and difficult to most of them, they withdrew +their Hands from the Plow, and contented themselves to +sit at the Foot, with Madam <i>Idleness</i> and her Maid <i>Ignorance</i>, +until those who were assisted by Diligence and a docible Temper, +had well nigh got up the first Step: But the Time drawing +nigh in which they could no way avoid ascending, they were +fain to crave the Assistance of those who had got up before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +them, and who, for the Reward perhaps of a <i>Pint of Milk</i>, or a +<i>Piece of Plumb-Cake</i>, lent the Lubbers a helping Hand, and sat +them in the Eye of the World, upon a Level with themselves.</p> + +<p>The other Step being in the same Manner ascended, and the +usual Ceremonies at an End, every Beetle-Scull seem'd well +satisfy'd with his own Portion of Learning, tho' perhaps he was +<i>e'en just</i> as ignorant as ever. And now the Time of their Departure +being come, they march'd out of Doors to make Room +for another Company, who waited for Entrance: And I, having +seen all that was to be seen, quitted the Hall likewise, and went +to make my Observations on those who were just gone out +before me.</p> + +<p>Some I perceiv'd took to Merchandizing, others to Travelling, +some to one Thing, some to another, and some to Nothing; +and many of them from henceforth, for want of Patrimony, +liv'd as poor as church Mice, being unable to dig, and asham'd to +beg, and to live by their Wits it was impossible. But the most +Part of the Crowd went along a large beaten Path, which led to +a Temple at the further End of the Plain, call'd, <i>The Temple of +Theology</i>. The Business of those who were employ'd in this +Temple being laborious and painful, I wonder'd exceedingly to +see so many go towards it; but while I was pondering this Matter +in my Mind, I spy'd <i>Pecunia</i> behind a Curtain, beckoning to +them with her Hand, which Sight immediately satisfy'd me for +whose Sake it was, that a great Part of them (I will not say all) +travel'd that Road. In this Temple I saw nothing worth mentioning, +except the ambitious and fraudulent Contrivances of +<i>Plagius</i>, who (notwithstanding he had been severely reprehended +for such Practices before) was diligently transcribing +some eloquent Paragraphs out of <i>Tillotson's</i> Works, &c. to +embellish his own.</p> + +<p>Now I bethought my self in my Sleep, that it was Time to be +at Home, and as I fancy'd I was travelling back thither, I reflected +in my Mind on the extream Folly of those Parents, who, +blind to their Childrens Dulness, and insensible of the Solidity +of their Skulls, because they think their Purses can afford it, will +needs send them to the Temple of Learning, where, for want<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +of a suitable Genius, they learn little more than how to carry +themselves handsomely, and enter a Room genteely, (which +might as well be acquir'd at a Dancing-School,) and from +whence they return, after Abundance of Trouble and Charge, +as great Blockheads as ever, only more proud and self-conceited.</p> + +<p>While I was in the midst of these unpleasant Reflections, +<i>Clericus</i> (who with a Book in his Hand was walking under the +Trees) accidentally awak'd me; to him I related my Dream with +all its Particulars, and he, without much Study, presently interpreted +it, assuring me, <i>That it was a lively Representation of +<span class="smcap">Harvard College</span>, Etcetera.</i></p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad10"><i>I remain, Sir,</i></span><br /> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Your Humble Servant,</i></span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Silence Dogood.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_V" id="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_V"></a>DOGOOD PAPERS, NO. V</h3> + +<p class="center">(From Monday May 21. to Monday May 28. 1722.)</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Mulier Muliere magis congruet.</i>—<span class="smcap">Ter.</span></p> + +<p class="center"><i>To the Author of the</i> New-England Courant.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I shall here present your Readers with a Letter from one, who +informs me that I have begun at the wrong End of my Business, +and that I ought to begin at Home, and censure the Vices and +Follies of my own Sex, before I venture to meddle with your's: +Nevertheless, I am resolved to dedicate this Speculation to the +Fair Tribe, and endeavour to show, that Mr. <i>Ephraim</i> charges +Women with being particularly guilty of Pride, Idleness, &c. +wrongfully, inasmuch as the Men have not only as great a Share +in those Vices as the Women, but are likewise in a great Measure +the Cause of that which the Women are guilty of. I think it will +be best to produce my Antagonist, before I encounter him.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"><i>To Mrs.</i> <span class="smcap">Dogood.</span></p> + +<p><i>Madam</i>,</p> + +<p>My Design in troubling you with this Letter is, to desire you +would begin with your own Sex first: Let the first Volley of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +your Resentments be directed against <i>Female</i> Vice; let Female +Idleness, Ignorance and Folly, (which are Vices more peculiar +to your Sex than to our's,) be the Subject of your Satyrs, but +more especially Female Pride, which I think is intollerable. +Here is a large Field that wants Cultivation, and which I believe +you are able (if willing) to improve with Advantage; and when +you have once reformed the Women, you will find it a much easier +Task to reform the Men, because Women are the prime Causes +of a great many Male Enormities. This is all at present from</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Your Friendly Wellwisher,</i></span><br /> +Ephraim Censorious.</p></div> + +<p>After Thanks to my Correspondent for his Kindness in cutting +out Work for me, I must assure him, that I find it a very +difficult Matter to reprove Women separate from the Men; for +what Vice is there in which the Men have not as great a Share as +the Women? and in some have they not a far greater, as in +Drunkenness, Swearing, &c.? And if they have, then it follows, +that when a Vice is to be reproved, Men, who are most culpable, +deserve the most Reprehension, and certainly therefore, ought +to have it. But we will wave this point at present, and proceed +to a particular Consideration of what my Correspondent calls +<i>Female Vice</i>.</p> + +<p>As for Idleness, if I should <i>Quære</i>, Where are the greatest +Number of its Votaries to be found, with us or the Men? it +might I believe be easily and truly answer'd, <i>With the latter</i>. +For, notwithstanding the Men are commonly complaining how +hard they are forc'd to labour, only to maintain their Wives in +Pomp and Idleness, yet if you go among the Women, you will +learn, that <i>they have always more Work upon their Hands than +they are able to do</i>, and that <i>a Woman's Work is never done</i>, &c. +But however, Suppose we should grant for once, that we are +generally more idle than the Men, (without making any Allowance +for the <i>Weakness of the Sex</i>,) I desire to know whose Fault +it is? Are not the Men to blame for their Folly in maintaining +us in Idleness? Who is there that can be handsomely supported +in Affluence, Ease and Pleasure by another, that will chuse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +rather to earn his Bread by the Sweat of his own Brows? And +if a Man will be so fond and so foolish, as to labour hard himself +for a Livelihood, and suffer his Wife in the mean Time to sit in +Ease and Idleness, let him not blame her if she does so, for it +is in a great Measure his own Fault.</p> + +<p>And now for the Ignorance and Folly which he reproaches us +with, let us see (if we are Fools and Ignoramus's) whose is the +Fault, the Men's or our's. An ingenious Writer, having this +Subject in Hand, has the following Words, wherein he lays the +Fault wholly on the Men, for not allowing Women the Advantages +of Education.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I have (says he) often thought of it as one of the most +barbarous Customs in the World, considering us as a civiliz'd +and Christian Country, that we deny the Advantages of Learning +to Women. We reproach the Sex every Day with Folly and +Impertinence, while I am confident, had they the Advantages of +Education equal to us, they would be guilty of less than our +selves. One would wonder indeed how it should happen that +Women are conversible at all, since they are only beholding to +natural Parts for all their Knowledge. Their Youth is spent to +teach them to stitch and sow, or make Baubles. They are +taught to read indeed, and perhaps to write their Names, or so; +and that is the Heigth of a Womans Education. And I would +but ask any who slight the Sex for their Understanding, What +is a Man (a Gentleman, I mean) good for that is taught no more? +If Knowledge and Understanding had been useless Additions +to the Sex, God Almighty would never have given them +Capacities, for he made nothing Needless. What has the +Woman done to forfeit the Priviledge of being taught? Does +she plague us with her Pride and Impertinence? Why did we +not let her learn, that she might have had more Wit? Shall we +upraid Women with Folly, when 'tis only the Error of this inhumane +Custom that hindred them being made wiser."</p></div> + +<p>So much for Female Ignorance and Folly; and now let us a +little consider the Pride which my Correspondent thinks is +<i>intolerable</i>. By this Expression of his, one would think he is +some dejected Swain, tyranniz'd over by some cruel haughty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +Nymph, who (perhaps he thinks) has no more Reason to be +proud than himself. <i>Alas-a-day!</i> What shall we say in this +Case! Why truly, if Women are proud, it is certainly owing to +the Men still; for if they will be such <i>Simpletons</i> as to humble +themselves at their Feet, and fill their credulous Ears with extravagant +Praises of their Wit, Beauty, and other Accomplishments +(perhaps where there are none too,) and when Women +are by this Means perswaded that they are Something more than +humane, what Wonder is it, if they carry themselves haughtily, +and live extravagantly. Notwithstanding, I believe there are +more Instances of extravagant Pride to be found among Men +than among Women, and this Fault is certainly more hainous +in the former than in the latter.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, I conclude, that it will be impossible to lash +any Vice, of which the Men, are not equally guilty with the +Women, and consequently deserve an equal (if not a greater), +Share in the Censure. However, I exhort both to amend, where +both are culpable, otherwise they may expect to be severely +handled by</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="rpad12">Sir,</span><br /> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Your Humble Servant</i>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Silence Dogood.</span></p> + +<p>N. B. <i>Mrs.</i> Dogood <i>has lately left her Seat in the Country, and +come to Boston, where she intends to tarry for the Summer Season, +in order to compleat her Observations of the present reigning Vices +of the Town.</i></p> + + +<h3><a name="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_VII" id="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_VII"></a>DOGOOD PAPERS, NO. VII</h3> + +<p class="center">(From Monday June 18. to Monday June 25. 1722.)</p> + +<div class="poemheader"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Give me the Muse, whose generous Force,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>Impatient of the Reins,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Pursues an unattempted Course,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>Breaks all the Criticks Iron Chains.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i14"><span class="smcap">Watts.</span><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="center"><i>To the Author of the</i> New-England Courant.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>It has been the Complaint of many Ingenious Foreigners,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +who have travell'd amongst us, <i>That good Poetry is not to be +expected in</i> New-England. I am apt to Fancy, the Reason is, +not because our Countrymen are altogether void of a Poetical +Genius, nor yet because we have not those Advantages of Education +which other Countries have, but purely because we do +not afford that Praise and Encouragement which is merited, +when any thing extraordinary of this Kind is produc'd among +us: Upon which Consideration I have determined, when I meet +with a Good Piece of <i>New-England</i> Poetry, to give it a suitable +Encomium, and thereby endeavour to discover to the World +some of its Beautys, in order to encourage the Author to go on, +and bless the World with more, and more Excellent Productions.</p> + +<p>There has lately appear'd among us a most Excellent Piece of +Poetry, entituled, <i>An Elegy upon the much Lamented Death of +Mrs.</i> Mehitebell Kitel, <i>Wife of Mr.</i> John Kitel <i>of</i> Salem, <i>Etc.</i> +It may justly be said in its Praise, without Flattery to the Author, +that it is the most <i>Extraordinary</i> Piece that was ever wrote in +<i>New-England</i>. The Language is so soft and Easy, the Expression +so moving and pathetick, but above all, the Verse and +Numbers so Charming and Natural, that it is almost beyond +Comparison.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Muse <i>disdains<a name="FNanchor_F_496" id="FNanchor_F_496"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_496" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Those Links and Chains,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Measures and Rules of Vulgar Strains,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And o'er the Laws of Harmony a Sovereign Queen she reigns.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I find no English Author, Ancient or Modern, whose Elegies +may be compar'd with this, in respect to the Elegance of Stile, +or Smoothness of Rhime; and for the affecting Part, I will leave +your Readers to judge, if ever they read any Lines, that would +sooner make them <i>draw their Breath</i> and Sigh, if not shed Tears, +than these following.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Come let us mourn, for we have lost a</i><br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>Wife, a Daughter, and a Sister,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Who has lately taken Flight, and</i><br /></span> +<span class="i1"><i>greatly we have mist her.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_496" id="Footnote_F_496"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_496"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> Watts. [<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>In another place,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Some little Time <i>before she yielded up her Breath,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>She said, I ne'er shall hear one Sermon more on Earth.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>She kist her Husband</i> some little Time <i>before she expir'd,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Then lean'd her Head the Pillow on, just out of Breath and tir'd.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But the Threefold Appellation in the first Line</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">—<i>a Wife, a Daughter, and a Sister</i>,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>must not pass unobserved. That Line in the celebrated <i>Watts</i>,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Gunston</span>, <i>the Just, the Generous, and the Young</i>,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>is nothing Comparable to it. The latter only mentions three +Qualifications of <i>one</i> Person who was deceased, which therefore +could raise Grief and Compassion but for <i>One</i>. Whereas the +former, (<i>our most excellent Poet</i>) gives his Reader a Sort of an +Idea of the Death of <i>Three Persons</i>, viz.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">—<i>a Wife, a Daughter, and a Sister</i>,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>which is <i>Three Times</i> as great a Loss as the Death of <i>One</i>, and +consequently must raise <i>Three Times</i> as much Grief and Compassion +in the Reader.</p> + +<p>I should be very much straitened for Room, if I should +attempt to discover even half the Excellencies of this Elegy +which are obvious to me. Yet I cannot omit one Observation, +which is, that the Author has (to his Honour) invented a new +Species of Poetry, which wants a Name, and was never before +known. His muse scorns to be confin'd to the old Measures and +Limits, or to observe the dull Rules of Criticks;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Nor</i> Rapin <i>gives her Rules to fly, nor</i> Purcell <i>Notes to Sing.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i21"><span class="smcap">Watts.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Now 'tis Pity that such an Excellent Piece should not be +dignify'd with a particular Name; and seeing it cannot justly be +called, either <i>Epic</i>, <i>Sapphic</i>, <i>Lyric</i>, or <i>Pindaric</i>, nor any other +Name yet invented, I presume it may, (in Honour and Remembrance +of the Dead) be called the <span class="smcap">Kitelic</span>. Thus much in the +Praise of <i>Kitelic Poetry</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is certain, that those Elegies which are of our own +Growth, (and our Soil seldom produces any other sort of +Poetry) are by far the greatest part, wretchedly Dull and +Ridiculous. Now since it is imagin'd by many, that our Poets +are honest, well-meaning Fellows, who do their best, and that if +they had but some Instructions how to govern Fancy with Judgment, +they would make indifferent good Elegies; I shall here +subjoin a Receipt for that purpose, which was left me as a Legacy, +(among other valuable Rarities) by my Reverend Husband. +It is as follows,</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +A <span class="smcap">Receipt</span> <i>to make</i> a New-England<br /> +Funeral <span class="smcap">Elegy</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>For the Title of your Elegy. <i>Of these you may have enough +ready made to your Hands, but if you should chuse to make it your +self, you must be sure not to omit the words</i> Ætatis Suæ, <i>which will +Beautify it exceedingly.</i></p> + +<p>For the Subject of your Elegy. <i>Take one of your Neighbours +who has lately departed this Life; it is no great matter at what Age +the Party dy'd, but it will be best if he went away suddenly, being</i> +Kill'd, Drown'd, <i>or</i> Frose to Death.</p> + +<p><i>Having chose the Person, take all his Virtues, Excellencies, &c. +and if he have not enough, you may borrow some to make up a +sufficient Quantity: To these add his last Words, dying Expressions, +&c. if they are to be had; mix all these together, and be sure +you strain them well. Then season all with a Handful or two of +Melancholly Expressions, such as</i>, Dreadful, Deadly, cruel cold +Death, unhappy Fate, weeping Eyes, &c. <i>Have mixed all these +Ingredients well, put them into the empty Scull of some</i> young +Harvard; (<i>but in Case you have ne'er a One at Hand, you may use +your own</i>,) <i>there let them Ferment for the Space of a Fortnight, +and by that Time they will be incorporated into a Body, which take +out, and having prepared a sufficient Quantity of double Rhimes, +such as</i> Power, Flower; Quiver, Shiver; Grieve us, Leave us; +tell you, excel you; Expeditions, Physicians; Fatigue him, Intrigue +him; &c. <i>you must spread all upon Paper, and if you can +procure a Scrap of Latin to put at the End, it will garnish it</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +<i>mightily, then having affixed your Name at the Bottom, with a</i> +Mœstus Composuit, <i>you will have an Excellent Elegy</i>.</p> + +<p>N. B. <i>This Receipt will serve when a Female is the Subject of +your Elegy, provided you borrow a greater Quantity of Virtues, +Excellencies, &c.</i></p></div> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad10"><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</span><br /> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Your Servant</i>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Silence Dogood</span>.</p> + +<p><i>P.S.</i> I shall make no other Answer to <i>Hypercarpus's</i> Criticism +on my last Letter than this, <i>Mater me genuit, peperit mox +filia matrem</i>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_XII" id="DOGOOD_PAPERS_NO_XII"></a>DOGOOD PAPERS, NO. XII</h3> + +<p class="center">(From Monday September 3. to Monday September 10. 1722.)</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Quod est in corde sobrii, est in ore ebrii.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><i>To the Author of the</i> New-England Courant.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>It is no unprofitable tho' unpleasant Pursuit, diligently to +inspect and consider the Manners & Conversation of Men, who, +insensible of the greatest Enjoyments of humane Life, abandon +themselves to Vice from a false Notion of <i>Pleasure</i> and <i>good +Fellowship</i>. A true and natural Representation of any Enormity, +is often the best Argument against it and Means of removing it, +when the most severe Reprehensions alone, are found ineffectual.</p> + +<p>I would in this Letter improve the little Observation I have +made on the Vice of <i>Drunkeness</i>, the better to reclaim the <i>good +Fellows</i> who usually pay the Devotions of the Evening to +<i>Bacchus</i>.</p> + +<p>I doubt not but <i>moderate Drinking</i> has been improv'd for the +Diffusion of Knowledge among the ingenious Part of Mankind, +who want the Talent of a ready Utterance, in order to discover +the Conceptions of their Minds in an entertaining and intelligible +Manner. 'Tis true, drinking does not <i>improve</i> our Faculties, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +it enables us to use them; and therefore I conclude, that much +Study and Experience, and a little Liquor, are of absolute +Necessity for some Tempers, in order to make them accomplish'd +Orators. <i>Dic. Ponder</i> discovers an excellent Judgment +when he is inspir'd with a Glass or two of <i>Claret</i>, but he passes +for a Fool among those of small Observation, who never saw +him the better for Drink. And here it will not be improper to +observe, That the moderate Use of Liquor, and a well plac'd +and well regulated Anger, often produce this same Effect; and +some who cannot ordinarily talk but in broken Sentences and +false Grammar, do in the Heat of Passion express themselves +with as much Eloquence as Warmth. Hence it is that my own +Sex are generally the most eloquent, because the most passionate. +"It has been said in the Praise of some Men," (says an +ingenious Author,) "that they could talk whole Hours together +upon any thing; but it must be owned to the Honour of the +other Sex, that there are many among them who can talk whole +Hours together upon Nothing. I have known a Woman +branch out into a long extempore Dissertation on the Edging of +a Petticoat, and chide her Servant for breaking a China Cup, in +all the Figures of Rhetorick."</p> + +<p>But after all it must be consider'd, that no Pleasure can give +Satisfaction or prove advantageous to a <i>reasonable Mind</i>, which +is not attended with the <i>Restraints of Reason</i>. Enjoyment is not +to be found by Excess in any sensual Gratification; but on the +contrary, the immoderate Cravings of the Voluptuary, are always +succeeded with Loathing and a palled Apetite. What +Pleasure can the Drunkard have in the Reflection, that, while +in his Cups, he retain'd only the Shape of a Man, and acted the +Part of a Beast; or that from reasonable Discourse a few Minutes +before, he descended to Impertinence and Nonsense?</p> + +<p>I cannot pretend to account for the different Effects of Liquor +on Persons of different Dispositions, who are guilty of Excess +in the Use of it. 'Tis strange to see Men of a regular Conversation +become rakish and profane when intoxicated with Drink, +and yet more surprizing to observe, that some who appear to +be the most profligate Wretches when sober, become mighty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +religious in their Cups, and will then, and at no other Time address +their Maker, but when they are destitute of Reason, and +actually affronting him. Some shrink in the Wetting, and others +swell to such an unusual Bulk in their Imaginations, that they +can in an Instant understand all Arts and Sciences, by the liberal +Education of a little vivyfying <i>Punch</i>, or a sufficient Quantity +of other exhilerating Liquor.</p> + +<p>And as the Effects of Liquor are various, so are the Characters +given to its Devourers. It argues some Shame in the Drunkards +themselves, in that they have invented numberless Words and +Phrases to cover their Folly, whose proper Significations are +harmless, or have no Signification at all. They are seldom +known to be <i>drunk</i>, tho they are very often <i>boozey</i>, <i>cogey</i>, <i>tipsey</i>, +<i>fox'd</i>, <i>merry</i>, <i>mellow</i>, <i>fuddl'd</i>, <i>groatable</i>, <i>Confoundedly cut</i>, <i>See +two Moons</i>, are <i>Among the Philistines</i>, <i>In a very good Humour</i>, +<i>See the Sun</i>, or, <i>The Sun has shone upon them</i>; they <i>Clip the King's +English</i>, are <i>Almost froze</i>, <i>Feavourish</i>, <i>In their Altitudes</i>, <i>Pretty +well enter'd</i>, &c.<a name="FNanchor_18_530" id="FNanchor_18_530"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_530" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> In short, every Day produces some new +Word or Phrase which might be added to the Vocabulary of +the <i>Tiplers</i>: But I have chose to mention these few, because if +at any Time a Man of Sobriety and Temperance happens to <i>cut +himself confoundedly</i>, or is <i>almoss froze</i>, or <i>feavourish</i>, or accidentally +<i>sees the Sun</i>, &c. he may escape the Imputation of being +<i>drunk</i>, when his Misfortune comes to be related.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad10"><i>I am</i> <span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</span><br /> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Your Humble Servant</i>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Silence Dogood</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="EDITORIAL_PREFACE_TO_THE_NEW_ENGLAND_COURANT" id="EDITORIAL_PREFACE_TO_THE_NEW_ENGLAND_COURANT"></a>EDITORIAL PREFACE<br /> +TO THE NEW ENGLAND COURANT</h3> + +<p class="center">(<i>From Monday, February 4, to Monday, February 11, 1723</i>)</p> + +<p>The late Publisher of this Paper,<a name="FNanchor_19_531" id="FNanchor_19_531"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_531" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> finding so many Inconveniences +would arise by his carrying the Manuscripts and +publick News to be supervis'd by the Secretary, as to render his +carrying it on unprofitable, has intirely dropt the Undertaking.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +The present Publisher having receiv'd the following Piece, desires +the Readers to accept of it as a Preface to what they may +hereafter meet with in this Paper.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Non ego mordaci distrinxi Carmine quenquam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nulla vonenato Litera onista Joco est.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Long has the Press groaned in bringing forth an hateful, but +numerous Brood of Party Pamphlets, malicious Scribbles, and +Billinsgate Ribaldry. The Rancour and bitterness it has unhappily +infused into Men's minds, and to what a Degree it has +sowred and leaven'd the Tempers of Persons formerly esteemed +some of the most sweet and affable, is too well known here, to +need any further Proof or Representation of the Matter.</p> + +<p>No generous and impartial Person then can blame the present +Undertaking, which is designed purely for the Diversion and +Merriment of the Reader. Pieces of Pleasancy and Mirth have +a secret Charm in them to allay the Heats and Tumours of our +Spirits, and to make a Man forget his restless Resentments. +They have a strange Power to tune the harsh Disorders of the +Soul, and reduce us to a serene and placid State of Mind.</p> + +<p>The main Design of this Weekly Paper will be to entertain +the Town with the most comical and diverting Incidents of +Humane Life, which in so large a Place as <i>Boston</i> will not fail +of a universal Exemplification: Nor shall we be wanting to fill +up these Papers with a grateful Interspersion of more serious +Morals which may be drawn from the most ludicrous and odd +Parts of Life.</p> + +<p>As for the Author, that is the next Question. But tho' we +profess ourselves ready to oblige the ingenious and courteous +Reader with most Sorts of Intelligence, yet here we beg a Reserve. +Nor will it be of any Manner of Advantage either to +them or to the Writers, that their names should be published; +and therefore in this Matter we desire the Favour of you to +suffer us to hold our Tongues: Which tho' at this Time of Day +it may sound like a very uncommon Request, yet it proceeds +from the very Hearts of your Humble Servants.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> + +<p>By this Time the Reader perceives that more than one are +engaged in the present Undertaking. Yet is there one Person, +an Inhabitant of this Town of <i>Boston</i>, whom we honour as a +Doctor in the Chair, or a perpetual Dictator.</p> + +<p>The Society had design'd to present the Publick with his +Effigies, but that the Limner, to whom he was presented for a +Draught of his Countenance, descryed (and this he is ready to +offer upon Oath) Nineteen Features in his Face, more than +ever he beheld in any Humane Visage before; which so raised +the Price of his Picture, that our Master himself forbid the Extravagance +of coming up to it. And then besides, the Limner +objected a Schism in his face, which splits it from his Forehead +in a strait Line down to his chin, in such sort, that Mr. Painter +protests it is a double Face, and he'll have <i>Four Pounds</i> for the +Pourtraiture. However, tho' this double Face has spoilt us of a +pretty Picture, yet we all rejoiced to see old <i>Janus</i> in our Company.</p> + +<p>There is no Man in <i>Boston</i> better qualified than old <i>Janus</i> for +a <i>Couranteer</i>, or if you please, an <i>Observator</i>, being a Man of +such remarkable <i>Opticks</i>, as to look two ways at once.</p> + +<p>As for his Morals, he is a chearly Christian, as the Country +Phrase expresses it. A Man of good Temper, courteous Deportment, +sound Judgment; a mortal Hater of Nonsense, Foppery, +Formality, and endless Ceremony.</p> + +<p>As for his club, they aim at no greater Happiness or Honour, +than the Publick be made to know, that it is the utmost of their +Ambition to attend upon and do all imaginable good Offices to +good old <i>Janus</i> the Couranteer, who is and always will be the +Readers humble Servant.</p> + +<p>P.S. Gentle Readers, we design never to let a Paper pass +without a Latin Motto if we can possibly pick one up, which +carries a Charm in it to the Vulgar, and the learned admire the +pleasure of Construing. We should have obliged the World +with a Greek scrap or two, but the Printer has no Types, and +therefore we intreat the candid Reader not to impute the defect +to our Ignorance, for our Doctor can say all the <i>Greek</i> Letters +by heart.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="A_DISSERTATION_ON_LIBERTY" id="A_DISSERTATION_ON_LIBERTY"></a>A DISSERTATION ON LIBERTY<br /> +AND NECESSITY,<br /> +PLEASURE AND PAIN</h3> + +<p class="center">To Mr. J. R.<br /> +[London, 1725]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I have here, according to your Request, given you my <i>present</i> +Thoughts of the <i>general State of Things</i> in the Universe. Such as +they are, you have them, and are welcome to 'em; and if they +yield you any Pleasure or Satisfaction, I shall think my Trouble +sufficiently compensated. I know my Scheme will be liable to +many Objections from a less discerning Reader than your self; +but it is not design'd for those who can't understand it. I need +not give you any Caution to distinguish the hypothetical Parts +of the Argument from the conclusive: You will easily perceive +what I design for Demonstration, and what for Probability only. +The whole I leave entirely to you, and shall value my self more +or less on this account, in proportion to your Esteem and Approbation.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="section center">Sect. I. <i>Of</i> Liberty <i>and</i> Necessity</p> + +<p>I. <i>There is said to be a</i> First Mover, <i>who is called</i> <span class="smcap">God</span>, +<i>Maker of the Universe.</i></p> + +<p>II. <i>He is said to be all-wise, all-good, all powerful.</i></p> + +<p>These two Propositions being allow'd and asserted by People +of almost every Sect and Opinion; I have here suppos'd them +granted, and laid them down as the Foundation of my Argument; +What follows then, being a Chain of Consequences truly +drawn from them, will stand or fall as they are true or false.</p> + +<p>III. <i>If He is all-good, whatsoever He doth must be good.</i></p> + +<p>IV. <i>If He is all-wise, whatsoever He doth must be wise.</i></p> + +<p>The Truth of these Propositions, with relation to the two +first, I think may be justly call'd evident; since, either that infinite +Goodness will act what is ill, or infinite Wisdom what is, +not wise, is too glaring a Contradiction not to be perceiv'd by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +any Man of common Sense, and deny'd as soon as understood.</p> + +<p>V. <i>If He is all-powerful, there can be nothing either existing or +acting in the Universe</i> against <i>or</i> without <i>his Consent, and what +He consents to must be good, because He is good, therefore</i> Evil +<i>doth not exist.</i></p> + +<p><i>Unde Malum?</i> has been long a Question, and many of the +Learned have perplex'd themselves and Readers to little Purpose +in Answer to it. That there are both Things and Actions to +which we give the Name of <i>Evil</i>, is not here deny'd, as <i>Pain</i>, +<i>Sickness</i>, <i>Want</i>, <i>Theft</i>, <i>Murder</i>, &c. but that these and the like +are not in reality <i>Evils</i>, <i>Ills</i>, or <i>Defects</i> in the Order of the +Universe, is demonstrated in the next Section, as well as by +this and the following Proposition. Indeed, to suppose any +Thing to exist or be done, <i>contrary</i> to the Will of the Almighty, +is to suppose him not almighty; or that Something (the Cause +of <i>Evil</i>) is more mighty than the Almighty; an Inconsistence +that I think no One will defend: And to deny any Thing or +Action, which he consents to the existence of, to be good, is +entirely to destroy his two Attributes of <i>Wisdom</i> and <i>Goodness</i>.</p> + +<p><i>There is nothing done in the Universe</i>, say the Philosophers, +<i>but what God either does, or</i> permits <i>to be done</i>. This, as He is +Almighty, is certainly true: But what need of this Distinction +between <i>doing</i> and <i>permitting</i>? Why, first they take it for granted +that many Things in the Universe exist in such a Manner as is +not for the best, and that many Actions are done which ought +not to be done, or would be better undone; these Things or +Actions they cannot ascribe to God as His, because they have +already attributed to Him infinite Wisdom and Goodness; Here +then is the Use of the Word <i>Permit</i>; He <i>permits</i> them to be done, +<i>say they</i>. But we will reason thus: If God permits an Action to +be done, it is because he wants either <i>Power</i> or <i>Inclination</i> to +hinder it; in saying he wants <i>Power</i>, we deny Him to be <i>almighty</i>; +and if we say He wants <i>Inclination</i> or <i>Will</i>, it must be, +either because He is not Good, or the Action is not <i>evil</i>, (for +all Evil is contrary to the Essence of <i>Infinite Goodness</i>.) The +former is inconsistent with his before-given Attribute of Goodness, +therefore the latter must be true.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> + +<p>It will be said, perhaps, that <i>God permits evil Actions to be +done, for</i> wise <i>Ends and Purposes</i>. But this Objection destroys +itself; for whatever an infinitely good God hath wise Ends in +suffering to <i>be</i>, must be good, is thereby made good, and cannot +be otherwise.</p> + +<p>VI. <i>If a Creature is made by God, it must depend upon God, and +receive all its Power from Him, with which Power the Creature +can do nothing contrary to the Will of God, because God is Almighty; +what is not contrary to His Will, must be agreeable to it; +what is agreeable to it, must be good, because He is Good; therefore +a Creature can do nothing but what is good.</i></p> + +<p>This Proposition is much to the same Purpose with the +former, but more particular; and its Conclusion is as just and +evident. Tho' a Creature may do many Actions which by his +Fellow Creatures will be nam'd <i>Evil</i>, and which will naturally +and necessarily cause or bring upon the Doer, certain <i>Pains</i> +(which will likewise be call'd <i>Punishments</i>;) yet this Proposition +proves, that he cannot act what will be in itself really Ill, or displeasing +to God. And that the painful Consequences of his evil +Actions (<i>so call'd</i>) are not, as indeed they ought not to be, <i>Punishments</i> +or Unhappinesses, will be shewn hereafter.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the late learned Author of <i>The Religion of +Nature</i>, (which I send you herewith) has given us a Rule or +Scheme, whereby to discover which of our Actions ought to be +esteem'd and denominated <i>good</i>, and which <i>evil</i>; It is in short +this, "Every Action which is done according to <i>Truth</i>, is good; +and every Action contrary to Truth, is evil: To act according +to Truth is to use and esteem every Thing as what it is, &c. +Thus if <i>A</i> steals a Horse from <i>B</i>, and rides away upon him, he +uses him not as what he is in Truth, <i>viz.</i> the Property of another, +but as his own, which is contrary to Truth, and therefore <i>evil</i>." +But, as this Gentleman himself says, (Sect. I. Prop. VI.) "In +order to judge rightly what any Thing is, it must be consider'd, +not only what it is in one Respect, but also what it may be in +any other Respect; and the whole Description of the Thing +ought to be taken in: So in this Case it ought to be consider'd, +that <i>A</i> is naturally a <i>covetous</i> Being, feeling an Uneasiness in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +want of <i>B's</i> Horse, which produces an Inclination for stealing +him, stronger than his Fear of Punishment for so doing. This is +<i>Truth</i> likewise, and <i>A</i> acts according to it when he steals the +Horse. Besides, if it is prov'd to be a <i>Truth</i>, that <i>A</i> has not Power +over his own Actions, it will be indisputable that he acts according +to Truth, and impossible he should do otherwise.</p> + +<p>I would not be understood by this to encourage or defend +Theft; 'tis only for the sake of the Argument, and will certainly +have no <i>ill Effect</i>. The Order and Course of Things will not be +affected by Reasoning of this Kind; and 'tis as just and necessary, +and as much according to Truth, for <i>B</i> to dislike and punish the +Theft of his Horse, as it is for <i>A</i> to steal him.</p> + +<p>VII. <i>If the Creature is thus limited in his Actions, being able to +do only such Things as God would have him to do, and not being +able to refuse doing what God would have done; then he can have +no such Thing as Liberty, Free-will or Power to do or refrain an +Action.</i></p> + +<p>By <i>Liberty</i> is sometimes understood the Absence of Opposition; +and in this Sense, indeed, all our Actions may be said to be +the Effects of our Liberty: But it is a Liberty of the same Nature +with the Fall of a heavy Body to the Ground; it has Liberty to +fall, that is, it meets with nothing to hinder its Fall, but at the +same Time it is necessitated to fall, and has no Power or Liberty +to remain suspended.</p> + +<p>But let us take the Argument in another View, and suppose +ourselves to be, in the common sense of the Word, <i>Free Agents</i>. +As Man is a Part of this great Machine, the Universe, his regular +Acting is requisite to the regular moving of the whole. Among +the many Things which lie before him to be done, he may, as +he is at Liberty and his Choice influenc'd by nothing, (for so it +must be, or he is not at Liberty) chuse any one, and refuse the +rest. Now there is every Moment something <i>best</i> to be done, +which is alone then <i>good</i>, and with respect to which, every Thing +else is at that Time <i>evil</i>. In order to know which is best to be +done, and which not, it is requisite that we should have at one +View all the intricate Consequences of every Action with respect +to the general Order and Scheme of the Universe, both present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +and future; but they are innumerable and incomprehensible by +any Thing but Omniscience. As we cannot know these, we have +but as one Chance to ten thousand, to hit on the right Action; +we should then be perpetually blundering about in the Dark, +and putting the Scheme in Disorder; for every wrong Action of +a Part, is a Defect or Blemish in the Order of the Whole. Is it +not necessary then, that our Actions should be over-rul'd and +govern'd by an all-wise Providence?—How exact and regular +is every Thing in the <i>natural</i> World! How wisely in every Part +contriv'd! We cannot here find the least Defect! Those who +have study'd the mere animal and vegetable Creation, demonstrate +that nothing can be more harmonious and beautiful! +All the heavenly Bodies, the Stars and Planets, are regulated with +the utmost Wisdom! And can we suppose less Care to be taken +in the Order of the <i>moral</i> than in the <i>natural</i> System? It is as +if an ingenious Artificer, having fram'd a curious Machine or +Clock, and put its many intricate Wheels and Powers in such a +Dependance on one another, that the whole might move in +the most exact Order and Regularity, had nevertheless plac'd +in it several other Wheels endu'd with an independent <i>Self-Motion</i>, +but ignorant of the general Interest of the Clock; and +these would every now and then be moving wrong, disordering +the true Movement, and making continual Work for the Mender: +which might better be prevented, by depriving them of that +Power of Self-Motion, and placing them in a Dependance on the +regular Part of the Clock.</p> + +<p>VIII. <i>If there is no such Thing as Free-Will in Creatures, there +can be neither Merit nor Demerit in Creatures.</i></p> + +<p>IX. <i>And therefore every Creature must be equally esteem'd by the +Creator.</i></p> + +<p>These Propositions appear to be the necessary Consequences +of the former. And certainly no Reason can be given, why the +Creator should prefer in his Esteem one Part of His Works to +another, if with equal Wisdom and Goodness he design'd and +created them all, since all Ill or Defect, as contrary to his Nature, +is excluded by his Power. We will sum up the Argument thus, +When the Creator first design'd the Universe, either it was His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +Will and Intention that all Things should exist and be in the +Manner they are at this Time; or it was his Will they should <i>be</i> +otherwise, <i>i.e.</i> in a different Manner: To say it was His Will +Things should be otherwise than they are, is to say Somewhat +hath contradicted His Will, and broken His Measures, which is +impossible because inconsistent with his Power; therefore we +must allow that all Things exist now in a Manner agreeable to +His Will, and in consequence of that are all equally Good, and +therefore equally esteem'd by Him.</p> + +<p>I proceed now to shew, that as all the Works of the Creator +are equally esteem'd by Him, so they are, as in Justice they ought +to be, equally us'd.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="section center">Sect. II. <i>Of</i> Pleasure <i>and</i> Pain.</p> + +<p>I. <i>When a Creature is form'd and endu'd with Life, 'tis suppos'd +to receive a Capacity of the Sensation of</i> Uneasiness <i>or</i> Pain.</p> + +<p>It is this distinguishes Life and Consciousness from unactive +unconscious Matter. To know or be sensible of Suffering or +being acted upon is <i>to live</i>; and whatsoever is not so, among +created Things, is properly and truly <i>dead</i>.</p> + +<p>All <i>Pain</i> and <i>Uneasiness</i> proceeds at first from and is caus'd +by Somewhat without and distinct from the Mind itself. The +Soul must first be acted upon before it can re-act. In the Beginning +of Infancy it is as if it were not; it is not conscious of +its own Existence, till it has receiv'd the first Sensation of <i>Pain</i>; +then, and not before, it begins to feel itself, is rous'd, and put +into Action; then it discovers its Powers and Faculties, and +exerts them to expel the Uneasiness. Thus is the Machine set +on work; this is Life. We are first mov'd by <i>Pain</i>, and the whole +succeeding Course of our Lives is but one continu'd Series of +Action with a View to be freed from it. As fast as we have excluded +one Uneasiness another appears, otherwise the Motion +would cease. If a continual Weight is not apply'd, the Clock +will stop. And as soon as the Avenues of Uneasiness to the +Soul are choak'd up or cut off, we are dead, we think and act +no more.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<p>II. <i>This Uneasiness, whenever felt, produces</i> Desire <i>to be freed +from it, great in exact proportion to the Uneasiness.</i></p> + +<p>Thus is <i>Uneasiness</i> the first Spring and Cause of all Action; +for till we are uneasy in Rest, we can have no Desire to move, +and without Desire of moving there can be no voluntary Motion. +The Experience of every Man who has observ'd his own +Actions will evince the Truth of this; and I think nothing need +be said to prove that the <i>Desire</i> will be equal to the <i>Uneasiness</i>, +for the very Thing implies as much: It is not <i>Uneasiness</i> unless +we desire to be freed from it, nor a great <i>Uneasiness</i> unless the +consequent Desire is great.</p> + +<p>I might here observe, how necessary a Thing in the Order +and Design of the Universe this <i>Pain</i> or <i>Uneasiness</i> is, and how +beautiful in its Place! Let us but suppose it just now banish'd +the World entirely, and consider the Consequence of it: All the +Animal Creation would immediately stand stock still, exactly in +the Posture they were in the Moment Uneasiness departed; not +a Limb, not a Finger would henceforth move; we should all be +reduc'd to the Condition of Statues, dull and unactive: Here I +should continue to sit motionless with the Pen in my Hand +thus———and neither leave my Seat nor write one Letter +more. This may appear odd at first View, but a little Consideration +will make it evident; for 'tis impossible to assign any other +Cause for the voluntary Motion of an Animal than its <i>uneasiness</i> +in Rest. What a different Appearance then would the Face of +Nature make, without it! How necessary is it! And how unlikely +that the Inhabitants of the World ever were, or that the +Creator ever design'd they should be, exempt from it!</p> + +<p>I would likewise observe here, that the VIIIth Proposition +in the preceding Section, viz. <i>That there is neither Merit nor +Demerit</i>, &c. is here again demonstrated, as infallibly, tho' in +another manner: For since <i>Freedom from Uneasiness</i> is the End +of all our Actions, how is it possible for us to do any Thing +disinterested?—How can any Action be meritorious of Praise or +Dispraise, Reward or Punishment, when the natural Principle +of <i>Self-Love</i> is the only and the irresistible Motive to it?</p> + +<p>III. <i>This</i> Desire <i>is always fulfill'd or satisfy'd</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the <i>Design</i> or <i>End</i> of it, tho' not in the <i>Manner</i>: The first +is requisite, the latter not. To exemplify this, let us make a +Supposition; A Person is confin'd in a House which appears to +be in imminent Danger of Falling, this, as soon as perceiv'd, +creates a violent <i>Uneasiness</i>, and that instantly produces an equal +strong <i>Desire</i>, the <i>End</i> of which is <i>freedom from the Uneasiness</i>, +and the <i>Manner</i> or Way propos'd to gain this <i>End</i>, is <i>to get out +of the House</i>. Now if he is convinc'd by any Means, that he is +mistaken, and the House is not likely to fall, he is immediately +freed from his <i>Uneasiness</i>, and the <i>End</i> of his Desire is attain'd +as well as if it had been in the <i>Manner</i> desir'd, viz. <i>leaving the +House</i>.</p> + +<p>All our different Desires and Passions proceed from and are +reducible to this one Point, <i>Uneasiness</i>, tho' the Means we propose +to ourselves for expelling of it are infinite. One proposes +<i>Fame</i>, another <i>Wealth</i>, a third <i>Power</i>, &c. as the Means to gain +this <i>End</i>; but tho' these are never attain'd, if the Uneasiness be +remov'd by some other Means, the <i>Desire</i> is satisfy'd. Now +during the Course of Life we are ourselves continually removing +successive Uneasinesses as they arise, and the <i>last</i> we suffer is +remov'd by the <i>sweet Sleep</i> of Death.</p> + +<p>IV. <i>The fulfilling or Satisfaction of this</i> Desire, <i>produces the +Sensation of</i> Pleasure, <i>great or small in exact proportion to the</i> +Desire.</p> + +<p><i>Pleasure</i> is that Satisfaction which arises in the Mind upon, +and is caus'd by, the accomplishment of our <i>Desires</i>, and by no +other Means at all; and those Desires being above shewn to be +caus'd by our <i>Pains</i> or <i>Uneasinesses</i>, it follows that <i>Pleasure</i> is +wholly caus'd by <i>Pain</i>, and by no other Thing at all.</p> + +<p>V. <i>Therefore the Sensation of</i> Pleasure <i>is equal, or in exact proportion +to the Sensation of</i> Pain.</p> + +<p>As the <i>Desire</i> of being freed from Uneasiness is equal to the +<i>Uneasiness</i>, and the <i>Pleasure</i> of satisfying that Desire equal to +the <i>Desire</i>, the <i>Pleasure</i> thereby produc'd must necessarily be +equal to the <i>Uneasiness</i> or <i>Pain</i> which produces it: of three +Lines, <i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, and <i>C</i>, if <i>A</i> is equal to <i>B</i>, and <i>B</i> to <i>C</i>, <i>C</i> must be +equal to <i>A</i>. And as our <i>Uneasinesses</i> are always remov'd by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +some Means or other, it follows that <i>Pleasure</i> and <i>Pain</i> are in +their Nature inseparable: So many Degrees as one Scale of the +Ballance descends, so many exactly the other ascends; and one +cannot rise or fall without the Fall or Rise of the other: 'Tis +impossible to taste of <i>Pleasure</i>, without feeling its preceding +proportionate <i>Pain</i>; or to be sensible of <i>Pain</i>, without having +its necessary Consequent <i>Pleasure</i>: The <i>highest Pleasure</i> is only +Consciousness of Freedom from the <i>deepest Pain</i>, and Pain is +not Pain to us unless we ourselves are sensible of it. They go +Hand in Hand; they cannot be divided.</p> + +<p>You have a View of the whole Argument in a few familiar +Examples: The <i>Pain</i> of Abstinence from Food, as it is greater +or less, produces a greater or less <i>Desire</i> of Eating, the Accomplishment +of this <i>Desire</i> produces a greater or less <i>Pleasure</i> proportionate +to it. The <i>Pain</i> of Confinement causes the <i>Desire</i> of +Liberty, which accomplish'd, yields a <i>Pleasure</i> equal to that +<i>Pain</i> of Confinement. The <i>Pain</i> of Labour and Fatigue causes +the <i>Pleasure</i> of Rest, equal to that <i>Pain</i>. The <i>Pain</i> of Absence +from Friends, produces the <i>Pleasure</i> of Meeting in exact proportion. +<i>&c.</i></p> + +<p>This is the <i>fixt Nature</i> of Pleasure and Pain, and will always +be found to be so by those who examine it.</p> + +<p>One of the most common Arguments for the future Existence +of the Soul, is taken from the generally suppos'd Inequality of +Pain and Pleasure in the present; and this, notwithstanding the +Difficulty by outward Appearances to make a Judgment of +another's Happiness, has been look'd upon as almost unanswerable: +but since <i>Pain</i> naturally and infallibly produces a <i>Pleasure</i> +in proportion to it, every individual Creature must, in any State +of <i>Life</i>, have an equal Quantity of each, so that there is not, on +that Account, any Occasion for a future Adjustment.</p> + +<p>Thus are all the Works of the Creator <i>equally</i> us'd by him; +And no Condition of Life or Being is in itself better or preferable +to another: The Monarch is not more happy than the +Slave, nor the Beggar more miserable than <i>Crœsus</i>. Suppose +<i>A</i>, <i>B</i>, and <i>C</i>, three distinct Beings; <i>A</i> and <i>B</i>, animate, capable of +<i>Pleasure</i> and <i>Pain</i>, <i>C</i> an inanimate Piece of Matter, insensible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +of either. <i>A</i> receives ten Degrees of <i>Pain</i>, which are necessarily +succeeded by ten Degrees of <i>Pleasure</i>: <i>B</i> receives fifteen of +<i>Pain</i>, and the consequent equal Number of <i>Pleasure</i>: <i>C</i> all the +while lies unconcern'd, and as he has not suffer'd the former, has +no right to the latter. What can be more equal and just than +this? When the Accounts come to be adjusted, <i>A</i> has no Reason +to complain that his Portion of <i>Pleasure</i> was five Degrees less +than that of <i>B</i>, for his Portion of <i>Pain</i> was five Degrees less +likewise: Nor has <i>B</i> any Reason to boast that his <i>Pleasure</i> was +five Degrees greater than that of <i>A</i>, for his <i>Pain</i> was proportionate: +They are then both on the same Foot with <i>C</i>, that is, +they are neither Gainers nor Losers.</p> + +<p>It will possibly be objected here, that even common Experience +shews us, there is not in Fact this Equality: "Some we +see hearty, brisk and chearful perpetually, while others are +constantly burden'd with a heavy Load of Maladies and Misfortunes, +remaining for Years perhaps in Poverty, Disgrace, or +Pain, and die at last without any Appearance of Recompence." +Now tho' 'tis not necessary, when a Proposition is demonstrated +to be a general Truth, to shew in what manner it agrees +with the particular Circumstances of Persons, and indeed ought +not to be requir'd; yet, as this is a common Objection, some +Notice may be taken of it: And here let it be observ'd, that we +cannot be proper Judges of the good or bad Fortune of Others; +we are apt to imagine, that what would give us a great Uneasiness +or a great Satisfaction, has the same Effect upon others: we +think, for Instance, those unhappy, who must depend upon +Charity for a mean Subsistence, who go in Rags, fare hardly, +and are despis'd and scorn'd by all; not considering that Custom +renders all these Things easy, familiar, and even pleasant. When +we see Riches, Grandeur and a chearful Countenance, we easily +imagine Happiness accompanies them, when oftentimes 'tis +quite otherwise: Nor is a constantly sorrowful Look, attended +with continual Complaints, an infallible Indication of Unhappiness. +In short, we can judge by nothing but Appearances, and +they are very apt to deceive us. Some put on a gay chearful +Outside, and appear to the World perfectly at Ease, tho' even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +then, some inward Sting, some secret Pain imbitters all their +Joys, and makes the Ballance even: Others appear continually +dejected and full of Sorrow; but even Grief itself is sometimes +<i>pleasant</i>, and Tears are not always without their Sweetness: +Besides, Some take a Satisfaction in being thought unhappy, +(as others take a Pride in being thought humble,) these will +paint their Misfortunes to others in the strongest Colours, and +leave no Means unus'd to make you think them throughly +miserable; so great a Pleasure it is to them <i>to be pitied</i>. Others +retain the Form and outside Shew of Sorrow, long after the +Thing itself, with its Cause, is remov'd from the Mind; it is a +Habit they have acquir'd and cannot leave. These, with many +others that might be given, are Reasons why we cannot make +a true Estimate of the <i>Equality</i> of the Happiness and Unhappiness +of others; and unless we could, Matter of Fact cannot be +opposed to this Hypothesis. Indeed, we are sometimes apt to +think, that the Uneasinesses we ourselves have had, outweigh +our Pleasures; but the Reason is this, the Mind takes no Account +of the latter, they flip away un-remark'd, when the former leave +more lasting Impressions on the Memory. But suppose we pass +the greatest part of Life in Pain and Sorrow, suppose we die +by Torments and <i>think no more</i>, 'tis no Diminution to the Truth +of what is here advanc'd; for the <i>Pain</i>, tho' exquisite, is not so +to the <i>last</i> Moments of Life, the Senses are soon benumm'd, and +render'd incapable of transmitting it so sharply to the Soul as +at first; She perceives it cannot hold long, and 'tis an <i>exquisite +Pleasure</i> to behold the immediate Approaches of Rest. This +makes an Equivalent tho' Annihilation should follow: For the +Quantity of <i>Pleasure</i> and <i>Pain</i> is not to be measur'd by its +Duration, any more than the Quantity of Matter by its Extension; +and as one cubic Inch may be made to contain, by Condensation, +as much Matter as would fill ten thousand cubic +Feet, being more expanded, so one single Moment of <i>Pleasure</i> +may outweigh and compensate an Age of <i>Pain</i>.</p> + +<p>It was owing to their Ignorance of the Nature of Pleasure +and Pain that the Antient Heathens believ'd the idle Fable of +their <i>Elizium</i>, that State of uninterrupted Ease and Happiness!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +The Thing is intirely impossible in Nature! Are not the Pleasures +of the Spring made such by the Disagreeableness of the +Winter? Is not the Pleasure of fair Weather owing to the Unpleasantness +of foul? Certainly. Were it then always Spring, +were the Fields always green and nourishing, and the Weather +constantly serene and fair, the Pleasure would pall and die upon +our Hands; it would cease to be Pleasure to us, when it is not +usher'd in by Uneasiness. Could the Philosopher visit, in +reality, every Star and Planet with as much Ease and Swiftness +as he can now visit their Ideas, and pass from one to another +of them in the Imagination; it would be a <i>Pleasure</i> I grant; +but it would be only in proportion to the <i>Desire</i> of accomplishing +it, and that would be no greater than the <i>Uneasiness</i> suffer'd +in the Want of it. The Accomplishment of a long and +difficult Journey yields a great <i>Pleasure</i>; but if we could take a +Trip to the Moon and back again, as frequently and with as much +Ease as we can go and come from Market, the Satisfaction would +be just the same.</p> + +<p>The <i>Immateriality</i> of the Soul has been frequently made use +of as an Argument for its <i>Immortality</i>; but let us consider, that +tho' it should be allow'd to be immaterial, and consequently its +Parts incapable of Separation or Destruction by any Thing material, +yet by Experience we find, that it is not incapable of Cessation +of <i>Thought</i>, which is its Action. When the Body is but +a little indispos'd it has an evident Effect upon the Mind; and a +right Disposition of the Organs is requisite to a right Manner of +Thinking. In a sound Sleep sometimes, or in a Swoon, we cease +to think at all; tho' the Soul is not therefore then annihilated, +but <i>exists</i> all the while tho' it does not <i>act</i>; and may not this +probably be the Case after Death? All our Ideas are first admitted +by the Senses and imprinted on the Brain, increasing +in Number by Observation and Experience; there they become +the Subjects of the Soul's Action. The Soul is a mere Power or +Faculty of <i>contemplating</i> on, and <i>comparing</i> those Ideas when it +has them; hence springs Reason: But as it can <i>think</i> on nothing +but Ideas, it must have them before it can <i>think</i> at all. Therefore +as it may exist before it has receiv'd any Ideas, it may exist before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +it <i>thinks</i>. To remember a Thing, is to have the Idea of it +still plainly imprinted on the Brain, which the Soul can turn to +and contemplate on Occasion. To forget a Thing, is to have +the Idea of it defac'd and destroy'd by some Accident, or the +crouding in and imprinting of great variety of other Ideas upon +it, so that the Soul cannot find out its Traces and distinguish +it. When we have thus lost the Idea of any one Thing, we can +<i>think</i> no more, or <i>cease to think</i>, on that Thing; and as we can +lose the Idea of one Thing, so we may of ten, twenty, a hundred, +&c. and even of all Things, because they are not in their Nature +permanent; and often during Life we see that some Men, (by +an Accident or Distemper affecting the Brain,) lose the greatest +Part of their Ideas, and remember very little of their past Actions +and Circumstances. Now upon <i>Death</i>, and the Destruction +of the Body, the Ideas contain'd in the Brain, (which are +alone the Subjects of the Soul's Action) being then likewise +necessarily destroy'd, the Soul, tho' incapable of Destruction +itself, must then necessarily <i>cease to think</i> or <i>act</i>, having nothing +left to think or act upon. It is reduc'd to its first unconscious +State before it receiv'd any Ideas. And to cease to <i>think</i> is but +little different from <i>ceasing to be</i>.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, 'tis not impossible that this same <i>Faculty</i> of +contemplating Ideas may be hereafter united to a new Body, +and receive a new Set of Ideas; but that will no way concern us +who are now living; for the Identity will be lost, it is no longer +that same <i>Self</i> but a new Being.</p> + +<p>I shall here subjoin a short Recapitulation of the Whole, that +it may with all its Parts be comprehended at one View.</p> + +<p>1. <i>It is suppos'd that God the Maker and Governour of the +Universe, is infinitely wise, good, and powerful.</i></p> + +<p>2. <i>In consequence of His Infinite Wisdom and Goodness, it is +asserted, that whatever He doth must be infinitely wise and good;</i></p> + +<p>3. <i>Unless He be interrupted, and His Measures broken by +some other Being, which is impossible because He is Almighty.</i></p> + +<p>4. <i>In consequence of His infinite Power, it is asserted, that +nothing can exist or be done in the Universe which is not agreeable +to His Will, and therefore good.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<p>5. <i>Evil is hereby excluded, with all Merit and Demerit; and +likewise all preference in the Esteem of God, of one Part of the +Creation to another.</i> This is the Summary of the first Part.</p> + +<p>Now our common Notions of Justice will tell us, that if all +created Things are equally esteem'd by the Creator, they ought +to be equally us'd by Him; and that they are therefore equally +us'd, we might embrace for Truth upon the Credit, and as the +true Consequence of the foregoing Argument. Nevertheless we +proceed to confirm it, by shewing <i>how</i> they are equally us'd, +and that in the following Manner.</p> + +<p>1. <i>A Creature when endu'd with Life or Consciousness, is made +capable of Uneasiness or Pain.</i></p> + +<p>2. <i>This Pain produces Desire to be freed from it, in exact +proportion to itself.</i></p> + +<p>3. <i>The Accomplishment of this Desire produces an equal +Pleasure.</i></p> + +<p>4. <i>Pleasure is consequently equal to Pain.</i></p> + +<p>From these Propositions it is observ'd,</p> + +<p>1. <i>That every Creature hath as much Pleasure as Pain.</i></p> + +<p>2. <i>That Life is not preferable to Insensibility; for Pleasure and +Pain destroy one another: That Being which has ten Degrees of +Pain subtracted from ten of Pleasure, has nothing remaining, and +is upon an equality with that Being which is insensible of both.</i></p> + +<p>3. <i>As the first Part proves that all Things must be equally us'd +by the Creator because equally esteem'd; so this second Part demonstrates +that they are equally esteem'd because equally us'd.</i></p> + +<p>4. <i>Since every Action is the Effect of Self-Uneasiness, the +Distinction of Virtue and Vice is excluded; and</i> Prop. VIII. <i>in</i> +Sect. I. <i>again demonstrated.</i></p> + +<p>5. <i>No State of Life can be happier than the present, because +Pleasure and Pain are inseparable.</i></p> + +<p>Thus both Parts of this Argument agree with and confirm +one another, and the Demonstration is reciprocal.</p> + +<p>I am sensible that the Doctrine here advanc'd, if it were to +be publish'd, would meet with but an indifferent Reception. +Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd: Whatever +sooths our Pride, and tends to exalt our Species above the rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +of the Creation, we are pleas'd with and easily believe, when +ungrateful Truths shall be with the utmost Indignation rejected. +"What! bring ourselves down to an Equality with the Beasts +of the Field! with the <i>meanest</i> part of the Creation! 'Tis insufferable!" +But, (to use a Piece of <i>common</i> Sense) our <i>Geese</i> +are but <i>Geese</i> tho' we may think 'em <i>Swans</i>, and Truth will be +Truth tho' it sometimes prove mortifying and distasteful.</p> + + +<h3><a name="RULES_FOR_A_CLUB" id="RULES_FOR_A_CLUB"></a>RULES FOR A CLUB<br /> +ESTABLISHED FOR MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT<a name="FNanchor_20_532" id="FNanchor_20_532"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_532" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[1728]</p> + +<p>Previous Question, To Be Answered At Every Meeting</p> + +<p>Have you read over these queries this morning, in order to +consider what you might have to offer the Junto touching any +one of them? viz.</p> + +<p>1. Have you met with any thing in the author you last read, +remarkable, or suitable to be communicated to the Junto? particularly +in history, morality, poetry, physic, travels, mechanic +arts, or other parts of knowledge.</p> + +<p>2. What new story have you lately heard agreeable for telling +in conversation?</p> + +<p>3. Hath any citizen in your knowledge failed in his business +lately, and what have you heard of the cause?</p> + +<p>4. Have you lately heard of any citizen's thriving well, and +by what means?</p> + +<p>5. Have you lately heard how any present rich man, here or +elsewhere, got his estate?</p> + +<p>6. Do you know of a fellow citizen, who has lately done a +worthy action, deserving praise and imitation; or who has lately +committed an error, proper for us to be warned against and +avoid?</p> + +<p>7. What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately +observed or heard; of imprudence, of passion, or of any other +vice or folly?</p> + +<p>8. What happy effects of temperance, of prudence, of moderation, +or of any other virtue?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p> + +<p>9. Have you or any of your acquaintance been lately sick or +wounded? If so, what remedies were used, and what were their +effects?</p> + +<p>10. Whom do you know that are shortly going voyages or +journeys, if one should have occasion to send by them?</p> + +<p>11. Do you think of any thing at present, in which the Junto +may be serviceable to <i>mankind</i>, to their country, to their friends, +or to themselves?</p> + +<p>12. Hath any deserving stranger arrived in town since last +meeting, that you have heard of? And what have you heard +or observed of his character or merits? And whether, think you, +it lies in the power of the Junto to oblige him, or encourage him +as he deserves?</p> + +<p>13. Do you know of any deserving young beginner lately +set up, whom it lies in the power of the Junto any way to encourage?</p> + +<p>14. Have you lately observed any defect in the laws of your +<i>country</i>, of which it would be proper to move the legislature for +an amendment? Or do you know of any beneficial law that is +wanting?</p> + +<p>15. Have you lately observed any encroachment on the just +liberties of the people?</p> + +<p>16. Hath any body attacked your reputation lately? And +what can the Junto do towards securing it?</p> + +<p>17. Is there any man whose friendship you want, and which +the Junto, or any of them, can procure for you?</p> + +<p>18. Have you lately heard any member's character attacked, +and how have you defended it?</p> + +<p>19. Hath any man injured you, from whom it is in the power +of the Junto to procure redress?</p> + +<p>20. In what manner can the Junto, or any of them, assist +you in any of your honourable designs?</p> + +<p>21. Have you any weighty affair on hand, in which you +think the advice of the Junto may be of service?</p> + +<p>22. What benefits have you lately received from any man +not present?</p> + +<p>23. Is there any difficulty in matters of opinion, of justice,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +and injustice, which you would gladly have discussed at this +time?</p> + +<p>24. Do you see any thing amiss in the present customs or +proceedings of the Junto, which might be amended?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Any person to be qualified [as a member of the Junto], to +stand up, and lay his hand upon his breast, and be asked these +questions, viz.</p> + +<p>1. Have you any particular disrespect to any present members? +<i>Answer.</i> I have not.</p> + +<p>2. Do you sincerely declare, that you love mankind in general, +of what profession or religion soever? <i>Answer.</i> I do.</p> + +<p>3. Do you think any person ought to be harmed in his body, +name, or goods, for mere speculative opinions, or his external +way of worship? <i>Answer.</i> No.</p> + +<p>4. Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you endeavour +impartially to find and receive it yourself, and communicate it +to others? <i>Answer.</i> Yes.</p> + + +<h3><a name="ARTICLES_OF_BELIEF_AND_ACTS_OF_RELIGION" id="ARTICLES_OF_BELIEF_AND_ACTS_OF_RELIGION"></a>ARTICLES OF BELIEF AND ACTS OF RELIGION</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">In Two Parts</span><a name="FNanchor_21_533" id="FNanchor_21_533"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_533" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></h4> + +<div class="poemheader"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here will I hold. If there is a Pow'r above us,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(And that there is, all Nature cries aloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thro' all her Works) He must delight in Virtue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And that which he delights in must be Happy.<br /></span> +<span class="i14">—<span class="smcap">Cato.</span><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Part</span> I</h4> + +<p class="center">Philad<sup>a</sup>, <span class="smcap">Nov. 20: 1728</span></p> + +<p class="section center">FIRST PRINCIPLES</p> + +<p>I believe there is one supreme, most perfect Being, Author +and Father of the Gods themselves. For I believe that Man is +not the most perfect Being but one, rather that as there are +many Degrees of Beings his Inferiors, so there are many Degrees +of Beings superior to him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>Also, when I stretch my Imagination thro' and beyond our +System of Planets, beyond the visible fix'd Stars themselves, +into that Space that is every Way infinite, and conceive it fill'd +with Suns like ours, each with a Chorus of Worlds forever moving +round him, then this little Ball on which we move, seems, +even in my narrow Imagination, to be almost Nothing, and myself +less than nothing, and of no sort of Consequence.</p> + +<p>When I think thus, I imagine it great Vanity in me to suppose, +that the <i>Supremely Perfect</i> does in the least regard such an inconsiderable +Nothing as Man. More especially, since it is impossible +for me to have any positive clear idea of that which is +infinite and incomprehensible, I cannot conceive otherwise than +that he <i>the Infinite Father</i> expects or requires no Worship or +Praise from us, but that he is even infinitely above it.</p> + +<p>But, since there is in all Men something like a natural principle, +which inclines them to <span class="txt90">DEVOTION</span>, or the Worship of some +unseen Power;</p> + +<p>And since Men are endued with Reason superior to all other +Animals, that we are in our World acquainted with;</p> + +<p>Therefore I think it seems required of me, and my Duty as +a Man, to pay Divine Regards to <span class="smcap">Something</span>.</p> + +<p>I conceive then, that the <span class="smcap">Infinite</span> has created many beings +or Gods, vastly superior to Man, who can better conceive his +Perfections than we, and return him a more rational and glorious +Praise.</p> + +<p>As, among Men, the Praise of the Ignorant or of Children is +not regarded by the ingenious Painter or Architect, who is +rather honour'd and pleas'd with the approbation of Wise Men +& Artists.</p> + +<p>It may be that these created Gods are immortal; or it may be +that after many Ages, they are changed, and others Supply their +Places.</p> + +<p>Howbeit, I conceive that each of these is exceeding wise and +good, and very powerful; and that Each has made for himself +one glorious Sun, attended with a beautiful and admirable System +of Planets.</p> + +<p>It is that particular Wise and good God, who is the author<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +and owner of our System, that I propose for the object of my +praise and adoration.</p> + +<p>For I conceive that he has in himself some of those Passions +he has planted in us, and that, since he has given us Reason +whereby we are capable of observing his Wisdom in the Creation, +he is not above caring for us, being pleas'd with our Praise, +and offended when we slight Him, or neglect his Glory.</p> + +<p>I conceive for many Reasons, that he is a <i>good Being</i>; and as +I should be happy to have so wise, good, and powerful a Being +my Friend, let me consider in what manner I shall make myself +most acceptable to him.</p> + +<p>Next to the Praise resulting from and due to his Wisdom, I +believe he is pleas'd and delights in the Happiness of those he +has created; and since without Virtue Man can have no Happiness +in this World, I firmly believe he delights to see me Virtuous, +because he is pleased when he sees Me Happy.</p> + +<p>And since he has created many Things, which seem purely +design'd for the Delight of Man, I believe he is not offended, +when he sees his Children solace themselves in any manner of +pleasant exercises and Innocent Delights; and I think no Pleasure +innocent, that is to Man hurtful.</p> + +<p>I <i>love</i> him therefore for his Goodness, and I <i>adore</i> him for his +Wisdom.</p> + +<p>Let me then not fail to praise my God continually, for it is +his Due, and it is all I can return for his many Favours and great +Goodness to me; and let me resolve to be virtuous, that I may +be happy, that I may please Him, who is delighted to see me +happy. Amen!</p> + + +<p class="section center">ADORATION</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Prel.</span> Being mindful that before I address the Deity, my +soul ought to be calm and serene, free from Passion and Perturbation, +or otherwise elevated with Rational Joy and Pleasure, +I ought to use a Countenance that expresses a filial Respect, +mixed w<sup>th</sup> a kind of Smiling, that Signifies inward Joy, and Satisfaction, +and Admiration.</p> + +<p>O wise God, my good Father!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thou beholdest the sincerity of my Heart and of my Devotion; +Grant me a Continuance of thy Favour!</p> + +<p>1. O Creator, O Father! I believe that thou art Good, and +that thou art <i>pleas'd with the pleasure</i> of thy children.—Praised +be thy name for Ever!</p> + +<p>2. By thy Power hast thou made the glorious Sun, with his +attending Worlds; from the energy of thy mighty Will, they +first received [their prodigious] motion, and by thy Wisdom +hast thou prescribed the wondrous Laws, by which they move.—Praised +be thy name for Ever!</p> + +<p>3. By thy Wisdom hast thou formed all Things. Thou hast +created Man, bestowing Life and Reason, and placed him in +Dignity superior to thy other earthly Creatures.—Praised be +thy name for Ever!</p> + +<p>4. Thy Wisdom, thy Power, and thy Goodness are everywhere +clearly seen; in the air and in the water, in the Heaven +and on the Earth; Thou providest for the various winged Fowl, +and the innumerable Inhabitants of the Water; thou givest Cold +and Heat, Rain and Sunshine, in their Season, & to the Fruits +of the Earth Increase.—Praised be thy name for Ever!</p> + +<p>5. Thou abhorrest in thy Creatures Treachery and Deceit, +Malice, Revenge, [<i>Intemperance</i>,] and every other hurtful Vice; +but Thou art a Lover of Justice and Sincerity, of Friendship +and Benevolence, and every Virtue. Thou art my Friend, my +Father, and my Benefactor.—Praised be thy name, O God, for +Ever! Amen!</p> + +<p>[After this, it will not be improper to read part of some such +Book as Ray's <i>Wisdom of God in the Creation</i>, or <i>Blackmore on +the Creation</i>, or the Archbishop of Cambray's <i>Demonstration of +the Being of a God</i>, &c., or else spend some Minutes in a serious +Silence, contemplating on those Subjects.]</p> + +<p>Then sing</p> + + +<p class="section center">MILTON'S HYMN TO THE CREATOR</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"These are thy Glorious Works, Parent of Good!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Almighty, Thine this Universal Frame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus wondrous fair! Thyself how wondrous then!<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Speak ye who best can tell, Ye Sons of Light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Angels, for ye behold him, and with Songs<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Choral Symphonies, Day without Night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Circle his Throne rejoicing you in Heav'n,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On Earth join all ye creatures to extol<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Him first, him last, him midst, and without End.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">"Fairest of Stars, last in the Train of Night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If rather Thou belongst not to the Dawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sure Pledge of Day! thou crown'st the smiling Morn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With thy bright Circlet, Praise him in thy Sphere<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Day arises, that sweet Hour of Prime.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou Sun, of this great World, both Eye and Soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Acknowledge him thy greater; Sound his Praise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thy eternal Course; both when thou climb'st,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And when high Noon hast gain'd, and when thou fall'st.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moon! that now meet'st the orient sun, now fly'st,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the fixed Stars, fixed in their orb that flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And ye five other wandering Fires, that move<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In mystic Dance not without Song; resound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Praise, that out of Darkness called up Light.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Air! and ye Elements! the eldest Birth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Nature's womb, that in Quaternion run<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Perpetual Circle, multiform, and mix<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And nourish all things, let your ceaseless Change<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Vary to our great Maker still new Praise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye mists and Exhalations, that now rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Hill or steaming lake, dusky or grey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the Sun paint your fleecy skirts with Gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In honour to the World's Great Author rise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whether to deck with Clouds the uncolor'd sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or wet the thirsty Earth w<sup>th</sup> falling show'rs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rising or falling still advance his Praise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Praise, ye Winds! that from 4 quarters blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Breathe soft or Loud; and wave your Tops, ye Pines!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With every Plant, in sign of worship wave.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fountains! and ye that warble, as ye flow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Melodious Murmurs, warbling tune his Praise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Join voices all ye living souls, ye Birds!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That singing, up to Heaven's high gate ascend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bear on your wings, & in your Note his Praise;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ye that in Waters glide! and ye that walk<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The Earth! and stately tread or lowly creep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Witness <i>if I be silent</i>, Ev'n or Morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Hill, or Valley, Fountain, or Fresh Shade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made Vocal by my Song, and taught his Praise."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>[Here follows the Reading of some Book, or part of a Book, +Discoursing on and exciting to Moral Virtue.]</p> + +<p class="section center">PETITION</p> + +<p>Inasmuch as by Reason of our Ignorance We cannot be certain +that many Things, which we often hear mentioned in the +Petitions of Men to the Deity, would prove real Goods, if they +were in our Possession, and as I have reason to hope and believe +that the Goodness of my Heavenly Father will not withold +from me a suitable share of Temporal Blessings, if by a Virtuous +and holy Life I conciliate his Favour and Kindness, Therefore +I presume not to ask such things, but rather humbly and +with a Sincere Heart, express my earnest desires that he would +graciously assist my Continual Endeavours and Resolutions of +eschewing Vice and embracing Virtue; which Kind of Supplications +will <i>at least be thus far beneficial, as they remind me</i> in +a solemn manner of my Extensive duty.</p> + +<p>That I may be preserved from Atheism & Infidelity, Impiety, +and Profaneness, and, in my Addresses to Thee, carefully avoid +Irreverence and ostentation, Formality and odious Hypocrisy,—Help +me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may be loyal to my Prince, and faithful to my country, +careful for its good, valiant in its defence, and obedient to its +Laws, abhorring Treason as much as Tyranny,—Help me, O +Father!</p> + +<p>That I may to those above me be dutiful, humble, and submissive; +avoiding Pride, Disrespect, and Contumacy,—Help +me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may to those below me be gracious, Condescending, +and Forgiving, using Clemency, protecting <i>innocent Distress</i>, +avoiding Cruelty, Harshness, and Oppression, Insolence, and +unreasonable Severity,—Help me, O Father!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></p> + +<p>That I may refrain from Censure, Calumny and Detraction; +that I may avoid and abhor Deceit and Envy, Fraud, Flattery, +and Hatred, Malice, Lying, and Ingratitude,—Help me, O +Father!</p> + +<p>That I may be sincere in Friendship, faithful in trust, and +Impartial in Judgment, watchful against Pride, and against +Anger (that momentary Madness),—Help me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may be just in all my Dealings, temperate in my Pleasures, +full of Candour and Ingenuity, Humanity and Benevolence,—Help +me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may be grateful to my Benefactors, and generous to +my Friends, exercising Charity and Liberality to the Poor, and +Pity to the Miserable,—Help me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may avoid Avarice and Ambition, Jealousie, and Intemperance, +Falsehood, Luxury, and Lasciviousness,—Help me, +O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may possess Integrity and Evenness of Mind, Resolution +in Difficulties, and Fortitude under Affliction; that I may +be punctual in performing my promises, Peaceable and prudent +in my Behaviour,—Help me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may have Tenderness for the Weak, and reverent +Respect for the Ancient; that I may be Kind to my Neighbours, +good-natured to my Companions, and hospitable to Strangers,—Help +me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may be averse to Talebearing, Backbiting, Detraction, +Slander, & Craft, and overreaching, abhor Extortion, Perjury, +and every Kind of wickedness,—Help me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may be honest and open-hearted, gentle, merciful, +and good, cheerful in spirit, rejoicing in the Good of others,—Help +me, O Father!</p> + +<p>That I may have a constant Regard to Honour and Probity, +that I may possess a perfect innocence and a good Conscience, +and at length become truly Virtuous and Magnanimous,—Help +me, good God; help me, O Father!<a name="FNanchor_G_497" id="FNanchor_G_497"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_497" class="fnanchor">[G]</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p>And, forasmuch as ingratitude is one of the most odious of +vices, let me not be unmindful gratefully to acknowledge the +favours I receive from Heaven.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_497" id="Footnote_G_497"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_497"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> At this point the original MS ends. The subsequent paragraph, including +the "Thanks," is found only in William Temple Franklin's transcript, +now in the Library of Congress. [<i>Smyth's note.</i>]</p></div> + + +<p class="section center">THANKS</p> + +<p>For peace and liberty, for food and raiment, for corn, and +wine, and milk, and every kind of healthful nourishment,—Good +God, I thank thee!</p> + +<p>For the common benefits of air and light; for useful fire and +delicious water,—Good God, I thank thee!</p> + +<p>For knowledge, and literature, and every useful art, for my +friends and their prosperity, and for the fewness of my enemies,—Good +God, I thank thee!</p> + +<p>For all thy innumerable benefits; for life, and reason, and the +use of speech; for health, and joy, and every pleasant hour,—My +good God, I thank thee!</p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_1" id="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_1"></a>THE BUSY-BODY, NO. 1<a name="FNanchor_22_534" id="FNanchor_22_534"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_534" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">Tuesday, February 4th, 1728/9</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Andrew Bradford</span>,</p> + +<p>I design this to acquaint you, that I, who have long been one +of your Courteous Readers, have lately entertain'd some +Thoughts of setting up for an Author mySelf; not out of the +least Vanity, I assure you, or Desire of showing my Parts, but +purely for the Good of my Country.</p> + +<p>I have often observ'd with Concern that your Mercury is not +always equally entertaining. The Delay of Ships expected in, +and want of fresh Advices from Europe, make it frequently very +Dull; and I find the Freezing of our River has the same Effect on +News as on Trade. With more Concern have I continually +observ'd the growing Vices and Follies of my Country-folk; +and, tho' Reformation is properly the concern of every Man; +that is, Every one ought to mend One; yet 'tis too true in this +Case, that what is every Body's Business is nobody's Business; +and the Business is done accordingly. I therefore, upon mature +Deliberation, think fit to take Nobody's Business wholly into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +my own Hands; and, out of Zeal for the Publick Good, design +to erect mySelf into a Kind of <i>Censor Morum</i>; proposing, with +your Allowance, to make Use of the <i>Weekly Mercury</i> as a +Vehicle in which my Remonstrances shall be convey'd to the +World.</p> + +<p>I am sensible I have in this Particular undertaken a very unthankful +Office, and expect little besides my Labour for my +Pains. Nay, 'tis probable I may displease a great Number of +your Readers, who will not very well like to pay 10s. a Year for +being told of their Faults. But, as most People delight in Censure +when they themselves are not the Objects of it, if any are +offended at my publickly exposing their private Vices, I promise +they shall have the Satisfaction, in a very little Time, of seeing +their good Friends and Neighbours in the same Circumstances.</p> + +<p>However, let the Fair Sex be assur'd that I shall always treat +them and their Affairs with the utmost Decency and Respect. +I intend now and then to dedicate a Chapter wholly to their +Service; and if my Lectures any Way contribute to the Embellishment +of their Minds and brightning of their Understandings, +without offending their Modesty, I doubt not of having their +Favour and Encouragement.</p> + +<p>'Tis certain, that no Country in the World produces naturally +finer Spirits than ours; Men of Genius for every kind of Science, +and capable of acquiring to Perfection every Qualification that +is in Esteem among Mankind. But as few here have the Advantage +of good Books, for want of which, good Conversation is +still more scarce, it would doubtless have been very acceptable +to your Readers, if, instead of an old out-of-date Article from +Muscovy or Hungary, you had entertained them with some +well-chosen Extract from a good Author. This I shall sometimes +do, when I happen to have nothing of my own to say that +I think of more Consequence. Sometimes I propose to deliver +Lectures of Morality or Philosophy, and (because I am naturally +enclin'd to be meddling with Things that don't concern me) +perhaps I may sometimes talk Politicks. And if I can by any +means furnish out a Weekly Entertainment for the Publick that +will give a rational Diversion, and at the same Time be instructive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +to the Readers, I shall think my Leisure Hours well employ'd: +And if you publish this, I hereby invite all ingenious +Gentlemen and others (that approve of such an Undertaking) +to my Assistance and Correspondence.</p> + +<p>'Tis like by this Time, you have a Curiosity to be acquainted +with my Name and Character. As I do not aim at publick Praise, +I design to remain concealed; and there are such Numbers of +our Family and Relations at this Time in the Country, that tho' +I've sign'd my Name at full Length, I am not under the least +Apprehension of being distinguish'd and discover'd by it. My +Character, indeed, I would favour you with, but that I am +cautious of praising mySelf, lest I should be told my Trumpeter's +dead: And I cannot find in my Heart at present, to say +any Thing to my own Disadvantage.</p> + +<p>It is very common with Authors, in their first Performances, +to talk to their Readers thus; "If this meets with a <span class="txt90 txt90">SUITABLE</span> +Reception; Or, If this should meet with <span class="txt90">DUE</span> Encouragement, +I shall hereafter publish, &c." This only manifests the Value +they put on their own Writings, since they think to frighten the +Publick into their Applause, by threatning, that unless you +approve what they have already wrote, they intend never to +write again; when perhaps it mayn't be a Pin Matter whether +they ever do or no. As I have not observ'd the Criticks to be +more favourable on this Account, I shall always avoid saying +any Thing of the Kind; and conclude with telling you, that, if +you send me a Bottle of Ink and a Quire of Paper by the Bearer, +you may depend on hearing further from, Sir, your most humble +Servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">The Busy-Body.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_2" id="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_2"></a>THE BUSY-BODY, NO. 2</h3> + +<p class="center">Tuesday, February 11, 1728/9</p> + +<div class="poemheader"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All fools have still an itching to deride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fain would be upon the laughing side.<br /></span> +<span class="i14">—<span class="smcap">Pope.</span><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Monsieur de la Rochefoucault tells us somewhere in his +Memoirs, that the Prince of Condé delighted much in ridicule,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +and used frequently to shut himself up for half a day together +in his chamber, with a gentleman that was his favorite, purposely +to divert himself with examining what was the foible or ridiculous +side of every noted person in the court. That gentleman +said afterwards in some company, that he thought nothing was +more ridiculous in anybody, than this same humour in the +Prince; and I am somewhat inclined to be of this opinion. The +general tendency there is among us to this embellishment, which I +fear has too often grossly imposed upon my loving countrymen +instead of wit, and the applause it meets with from a rising generation, +fill me with fearful apprehensions for the future reputation +of my country. A young man of modesty (which is the +most certain indication of large capacities) is hereby discouraged +from attempting to make any figure in life; his apprehensions of +being out-laughed will force him to continue in a restless obscurity, +without having an opportunity of knowing his own +merit himself or discovering it to the world, rather than venture +to oppose himself in a place where a pun or a sneer shall pass for +wit, noise for reason, and the strength of the argument be judged +by that of the lungs.</p> + +<p>Among these witty gentlemen let us take a view of Ridentius. +What a contemptible figure does he make with his train of paltry +admirers! This wight shall give himself an hour's diversion +with the cock of a man's hat, the heels of his shoes, an unguarded +expression in his discourse, or even some personal defect; and +the height of his low ambition is to put some one of the company +to the blush, who perhaps must pay an equal share of the +reckoning with himself. If such a fellow makes laughing the +sole end and purpose of his life; if it is necessary to his constitution, +or if he has a great desire of growing suddenly fat, let +him eat; let him give public notice where any dull stupid rogue +may get a quart of four-penny for being laughed at; but it is +barbarously unhandsome, when friends meet for the benefit of +conversation and a proper relaxation from business, that one +should be the butt of the company, and four men made merry at +the cost of the fifth.</p> + +<p>How different from this character is that of the good-natured,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +gay Eugenius, who never spoke yet but with a design to divert +and please, and who was never yet baulked in his intention. +Eugenius takes more delight in applying the wit of his friends, +than in being admired himself; and if any one of the company is +so unfortunate as to be touched a little too nearly, he will make +use of some ingenious artifice to turn the edge of ridicule another +way, choosing rather to make himself a public jest, than +be at the pain of seeing his friend in confusion.</p> + +<p>Among the tribe of laughers, I reckon the petty gentlemen +that write satires, and carry them about in their pockets, reading +them themselves in all company they happen into; taking an +advantage of the ill taste of the town to make themselves famous +for a pack of paltry, low nonsense, for which they deserve to be +kicked rather than admired, by all who have the least tincture of +politeness. These I take to be the most incorrigible of all my +readers; nay, I expect they will be squibbing at the Busy-Body +himself. However, the only favour he begs of them is this, that +if they cannot control their overbearing itch of scribbling, let +him be attacked in downright biting lyrics; for there is no satire +he dreads half so much as an attempt towards a panegyric.</p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_3" id="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_3"></a>THE BUSY-BODY, NO. 3</h3> + +<p class="center">Tuesday, February 18th, 1728/9</p> + +<div class="poemheader"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Non vultus instantis Tyranni<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Mente quatit solidâ,—neque Auster,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dux inquieti turbidus Adriæ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nec fulminantis magna Jovis manus.<br /></span> +<span class="i14">—<span class="smcap">Hor.</span><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>It is said that the Persians, in their ancient Constitution, had +publick Schools in which Virtue was taught as a Liberal Art or +Science; and it is certainly of more Consequence to a Man, that +he has learnt to govern his Passions; in spite of Temptation to +be just in his Dealings, to be Temperate in his Pleasures, to +support himself with Fortitude under his Misfortunes, to behave +with Prudence in all Affairs, and in every Circumstance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +Life; I say, it is of much more real Advantage to him to be thus +qualified, than to be a Master of all the Arts and Sciences in the +World beside.</p> + +<p>Virtue alone is sufficient to make a Man Great, Glorious, and +Happy. He that is acquainted with Cato, as I am, cannot help +thinking as I do now, and will acknowledge he deserves the +Name, without being honour'd by it. Cato is a Man whom +Fortune has plac'd in the most obscure Part of the Country. +His Circumstances are such, as only put him above Necessity, +without affording him many Superfluities; Yet who is greater +than Cato? I happened but the other Day to be at a House in +Town, where, among others, were met Men of the most Note +in this Place. Cato had Business with some of them, and knock'd +at the Door. The most trifling Actions of a Man, in my Opinion, +as well as the smallest Features and Lineaments of the Face, +give a nice Observer some Notion of his Mind. Methought he +rapp'd in such a peculiar Manner, as seem'd of itself to express +there was One, who deserv'd as well as desir'd Admission. He +appear'd in the plainest Country Garb; his Great Coat was +coarse, and looked old and threadbare; his Linnen was home-spun; +his Beard perhaps of Seven Days' Growth; his Shoes +thick and heavy; and every Part of his Dress corresponding. +Why was this Man receiv'd with such concurring Respect from +every Person in the Room, even from those who had never +known him or seen him before? It was not an exquisite Form of +Person, or Grandeur of Dress, that struck us with Admiration.</p> + +<p>I believe long Habits of Virtue have a sensible Effect on the +Countenance. There was something in the Air of his Face, that +manifested the true Greatness of his Mind, which likewise appear'd +in all he said, and in every Part of his Behaviour, obliging +us to regard him with a Kind of Veneration. His Aspect is +sweetened with Humanity and Benevolence, and at the same +Time enboldned with Resolution, equally free from a diffident +Bashfulness and an unbecoming Assurance. The Consciousness +of his own innate Worth and unshaken Integrity renders him +calm and undaunted in the Presence of the most Great and +Powerful, and upon the most extraordinary Occasions. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +strict Justice and known Impartiality make him the Arbitrator +and Decider of all Differences, that arise for many Miles around +him, without putting his Neighbours to the Charge, Perplexity, +and Uncertainty of Law-Suits. He always speaks the Thing he +means, which he is never afraid or asham'd to do, because he +knows he always means well, and therefore is never oblig'd to +blush, and feel the Confusion of finding himself detected in the +Meanness of a Falsehood. He never contrives Ill against his +Neighbour, and therefore is never seen with a lowring, suspicious +Aspect. A mixture of Innocence and Wisdom makes him ever +seriously chearful. His generous Hospitality to Strangers, according +to his Ability; his Goodness, his Charity, his Courage in +the Cause of the Oppressed, his Fidelity in Friendship, his +Humility, his Honesty and Sincerity, his Moderation, and his +Loyalty to the Government; his Piety, his Temperance, his Love +to Mankind, his Magnanimity, his Publick-Spiritedness, and in +fine, his consummate Virtue, make him justly deserve to be +esteem'd the Glory of his Country.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Brave do never shun the Light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Just are their Thoughts, and open are their Tempers;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Freely without Disguise they love and hate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Still are they found in the fair Face of Day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Heaven and Men are Judges of their Actions."<br /></span> +<span class="i18">—<span class="smcap">Rowe.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Who would not rather chuse, if it were in his Choice, to merit +the above Character, than be the richest, the most learned, or +the most powerful Man in the Province without it?</p> + +<p>Almost every Man has a strong natural Desire of being valu'd +and esteem'd by the rest of his Species, but I am concern'd and +griev'd to see how few fall into the Right and only infallible +Method of becoming so. That laudable Ambition is too commonly +misapply'd, and often ill employ'd. Some to make themselves +considerable pursue Learning, others grasp at Wealth; +some aim at being thought witty; and others are only careful to +make the most of an handsome Person; But what is Wit, or +Wealth, or Form, or Learning, when compar'd with Virtue?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +'Tis true, we love the handsome, we applaud the Learned, and +we fear the Rich and Powerful; but we even Worship and adore +the Virtuous. Nor is it strange; since Men of Virtue are so rare, +so very rare to be found. If we were as industrious to become +Good as to make ourselves Great, we should become really +Great by being Good, and the Number of valuable Men would +be much increased; but it is a Grand Mistake to think of being +Great without Goodness; and I pronounce it as certain, that +there was never yet a truly Great Man, that was not at the same +Time truly Virtuous.</p> + +<p>O Cretico! thou sowre Philosopher! Thou cunning Statesman! +Thou art crafty, but far from being Wise. When wilt +thou be esteem'd, regarded, and belov'd like Cato? When wilt +thou, among thy Creatures, meet with that unfeign'd respect +and warm Good-will, that all Men have for him? Wilt thou +never understand, that the cringing, mean, submissive Deportment +of thy Dependents, is (like the worship paid by Indians to +the Devil) rather thro' Fear of the Harm thou may'st do to +them, than out of Gratitude for the Favours they have receiv'd of +thee? Thou art not wholly void of Virtue; there are many good +Things in thee, and many good Actions reported of thee. Be +advised by thy Friend. Neglect those musty Authors; let them +be cover'd with Dust, and moulder on their proper Shelves; and +do thou apply thyself to a Study much more profitable, The +knowledge of Mankind and of thySelf.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>This is to give Notice, that the Busy-Body strictly forbids +all Persons, from this Time forward, of what Age, Sex, Rank, +Quality, Degree, or Denomination soever, on any Pretence, to +enquire who is the Author of this Paper, on Pain of his Displeasure, +(his own near and Dear Relations only excepted).</p> + +<p>'Tis to be observ'd, that if any bad Characters happen to be +drawn in the Course of these Papers, they mean no particular +Person, if they are not particularly apply'd.</p> + +<p>Likewise, that the Author is no Party-man, but a general +Meddler.</p> + +<p>N. B. Cretico lives in a neighbouring Province.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_4" id="THE_BUSY-BODY_NO_4"></a>THE BUSY-BODY, NO. 4</h3> + +<p class="center">Tuesday, February 25, 1728/9.</p> + +<p class="center">Ne quid nimis.</p> + +<p>In my first Paper I invited the Learned and the Ingenious to +join with me in this Undertaking, and I now repeat that Invitation. +I would have such Gentlemen take this Opportunity (by +trying their Talent in Writing) of diverting themselves and their +Friends, and improving the Taste of the Town. And because I +would encourage all Wit of our own Growth and Produce, I +hereby promise, that whoever shall send me a little Essay on +some moral or other Subject, that is fit for publick View in this +Manner, (and not basely borrow'd from any other Author,) I +shall receive it with Candour, and take care to place it to the +best Advantage. It will be hard if we cannot muster up in the +whole Country a sufficient Stock of Sense to supply the <i>Busy-Body</i> +at least for a Twelvemonth.</p> + +<p>For my own Part, I have already profess'd, that I have the +Good of my Country wholly at Heart in this Design, without +the least sinister View; my chief Purpose being to inculcate the +noble Principles of Virtue, and depreciate Vice of every kind. +But, as I know the Mob hate Instruction, and the Generality +would never read beyond the first Line of my Lectures, if they +were actually fill'd with nothing but wholesome Precepts and +Advice, I must therefore sometimes humor them in their own +Way. There are a Set of Great Names in the Province, who are +the common Objects of Popular Dislike. If I can now and then +overcome my Reluctance, and prevail with myself to satyrize a +little one of these Gentlemen, the Expectation of meeting with +such a Gratification will induce many to read me through, who +would otherwise proceed immediately to the Foreign News. As +I am very well assured the greatest Men among us have a sincere +Love for their Country, notwithstanding its Ingratitude, and +the Insinuations of the Envious and Malicious to the contrary, so +I doubt not but they will chearfully tolerate me in the Liberty I +design to take for the End above mentioned.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + +<p>As yet I have but few Correspondents, tho' they begin now +to increase. The following Letter, left for me at the Printer's, is +one of the first I have receiv'd, which I regard the more for that +it comes from one of the Fair Sex, and because I have myself +oftentimes suffer'd under the Grievance therein complain'd of.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="section center">"TO THE BUSY-BODY</p> + +<p>"<i>Sir</i>,</p> + +<p>"You having set yourself up for a <i>Censuror Morum</i>, (as I +think you call it), which is said to mean a Reformer of <i>Manners</i>, +I know no Person more proper to be apply'd to for Redress in +all the Grievances we suffer from Want of <i>Manners</i>, in some +People. You must know I am a single Woman, and keep a Shop +in this Town for a Livelyhood. There is a certain Neighbour of +mine, who is really agreeable Company enough, and with whom +I have had an Intimacy of some Time standing; but of late she +makes her visits so excessively often, and stays so very long +every Visit, that I am tir'd out of all Patience. I have no Manner +of Time at all to myself; and you, who seem to be a wise Man, +must needs be sensible that every Person has little Secrets and +Privacies, that are not proper to be expos'd even to the nearest +Friend. Now I cannot do the least Thing in the World, but +she must know all about it; and it is a Wonder I have found an +Opportunity to write you this Letter. My Misfortune is, that I +respect her very well, and know not how to disoblige her so +much as to tell her I should be glad to have less other Company; +for if I should once hint such a Thing, I am afraid she would resent +it so as never to darken my Door again.</p> + +<p>"But alas, Sir, I have not yet told you half my Affliction. She +has two Children, that are just big enough to run about and do +pretty Mischief; these are continually along with Mamma, either +in my Room or Shop, if I have ever so many Customers or +People with me about Business. Sometimes they pull the +Goods off my low Shelves down to the Ground, and perhaps +where one of them has just been making Water. My Friend +takes up the Stuff, and cries, 'Eh! thou little wicked mischievous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +Rogue! But, however, it has done no great Damage; 'tis only +wet a little;' and so puts it up upon the Shelf again. Sometimes +they get to my Cask of Nails behind the Counter, and divert +themselves, to my great Vexation, with mixing my Ten-penny, +and Eight-penny, and Four-penny, together. I endeavour to +conceal my Uneasiness as much as possible, and with a grave +Look go to Sorting them out. She cries, 'Don't thee trouble +thyself, Neighbour: Let them play a little; I'll put all to rights +myself before I go.' But Things are never so put to rights, but +that I find a great deal of Work to do after they are gone. Thus, +Sir, I have all the Trouble and Pesterment of Children, without +the Pleasure of—calling them my own; and they are now so +us'd to being here, that they will be content nowhere else. If +she would have been so kind as to have moderated her Visits to +ten times a Day, and stay'd but half an hour at a Time, I should +have been contented, and I believe never have given you this +Trouble. But this very Morning they have so tormented me, +that I could bear no longer; for, while the Mother was asking me +twenty impertinent Questions, the youngest got to my Nails, +and with great Delight rattled them by handfuls all over the +Floor; and the other, at the same Time, made such a terrible Din +upon my Counter with a Hammer, that I grew half distracted. +I was just then about to make myself a new Suit of Pinners; but +in the Fret and Confusion I cut it quite out of all Manner of +Shape, and utterly spoil'd a Piece of the first Muslin.</p> + +<p>"Pray, Sir, tell me what I shall do; and talk a little against +such unreasonable Visiting in your next Paper; tho' I would not +have her affronted with me for a great Deal, for sincerely I love +her and her Children, as well, I think, as a Neighbour can, and +she buys a great many Things in a Year at my Shop. But I +would beg her to consider, that she uses me unmercifully, Tho' +I believe it is only for want of Thought. But I have twenty +Things more to tell you besides all this: There is a handsome +Gentleman, that has a Mind (I don't question) to make love to +me, but he can't get the least Opportunity to—O dear! here +she comes again; I must conclude, yours, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig">"<span class="smcap">Patience.</span>"</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> + +<p>Indeed, 'tis well enough, as it happens, that she is come to +shorten this Complaint, which I think is full long enough already, +and probably would otherwise have been as long again. +However, I must confess, I cannot help pitying my Correspondent's +Case; and, in her Behalf, exhort the Visitor to remember +and consider the Words of the Wise Man, "Withdraw +thy Foot from the House of thy Neighbour, lest he grow weary +of thee, and so hate thee." It is, I believe, a nice thing, and very +difficult, to regulate our Visits in such a Manner, as never to give +Offence by coming too seldom, or too often, or departing too +abruptly, or staying too long. However, in my Opinion, it is +safest for most People in a general way, who are unwilling to disoblige, +to visit seldom, and tarry but a little while in a Place, +notwithstanding pressing invitations, which are many times insincere. +And tho' more of your Company should be really +desir'd, yet in this Case, too much Reservedness is a Fault more +easily excus'd than the Contrary.</p> + +<p>Men are subjected to various Inconveniences meerly through +lack of a small Share of Courage, which is a Quality very necessary +in the common Occurrences of Life, as well as in a Battle. +How many Impertinences do we daily suffer with great Uneasiness, +because we have not Courage enough to discover our Dislike? +And why may not a Man use the Boldness and Freedom of +telling his Friends, that their long Visits sometimes incommode +him? On this Occasion, it may be entertaining to some of my +Readers, if I acquaint them with the <i>Turkish</i> Manner of entertaining +Visitors, which I have from an Author of unquestionable Veracity; +who assures us, that even the Turks are not so +ignorant of Civility and the Arts of Endearment, but that they +can practise them with as much Exactness as any other Nation, +whenever they have a Mind to shew themselves obliging.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"When you visit a Person of Quality," (says he) "and have +talk'd over your Business, or the Complements, or whatever +Concern brought you thither, he makes a Sign to have Things +serv'd in for the Entertainment, which is generally, a little +Sweetmeat, a Dish of Sherbet, and another of Coffee; all which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +are immediately brought in by the Servants, and tender'd to +all the Guests in Order, with the greatest Care and Awfulness +imaginable. At last comes the finishing Part of your Entertainment, +which is, Perfuming the Beards of the Company; a Ceremony +which is perform'd in this Manner. They have for the +Purpose a small Silver Chaffing-Dish, cover'd with a Lid full of +Holes, and fixed upon a handsome Plate. In this they put some +fresh Coals, and upon them a piece of <i>Lignum Aloes</i>, and shutting +it up, the smoak immediately ascends with a grateful Odour +thro' the Holes of the Cover. This smoak is held under every +one's Chin, and offer'd as it were a Sacrifice to his Beard. The +bristly Idol soon receives the Reverence done to it, and so +greedily takes in and incorporates the gummy Steam, that it retains +the Savour of it, and may serve for a Nosegay a good while +after.</p> + +<p>"This Ceremony may perhaps seem ridiculous at first hearing, +but it passes among the <i>Turks</i> for a high Gratification. And I +will say this in its Vindication, that its Design is very wise and +useful. For it is understood to give a civil Dismission to the +Visitants, intimating to them, that the Master of the House has +Business to do, or some other Avocation, that permits them to +go away as soon as they please, and the sooner after this Ceremony +the better. By this Means you may, at any Time, without +Offence, deliver yourself from being detain'd from your Affairs +by tedious and unseasonable Visits; and from being constrain'd +to use that Piece of Hypocrisy, so common in the World, of +pressing those to stay longer with you, whom perhaps in your +Heart you wish a great Way off for having troubled you so long +already."</p></div> + +<p>Thus far my Author. For my own Part, I have taken such a +Fancy to this Turkish Custom, that for the future I shall put +something like it in Practice. I have provided a Bottle of right +French Brandy for the Men, and Citron-Water for the Ladies. +After I have treated with a Dram, and presented a Pinch of my +best Snuff, I expect all Company will retire, and leave me to pursue +my Studies for the Good of the Publick.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p class="section center">ADVERTISEMENT</p> + +<p>I give Notice, that I am now actually compiling, and design +to publish in a short Time, the true History of the Rise, Growth, +and Progress of the renowned Tiff-Club. All Persons who are +acquainted with any Facts, Circumstances, Characters, Transactions, +&c. which will be requisite to the Perfecting and Embellishment +of the said Work, are desired to communicate the same +to the Author, and direct their Letters to be left with the Printer +hereof.</p> + +<p>The Letter, sign'd "<i>Would-be-Something</i>," is come to hand.</p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_THE_PENNSYLVANIA_GAZETTE" id="PREFACE_TO_THE_PENNSYLVANIA_GAZETTE"></a>PREFACE TO THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE</h3> + +<p class="center">October 2, 1729</p> + +<p>The Pennsylvania Gazette being now to be carry'd on by +other Hands, the Reader may expect some Account of the +Method we design to proceed in.<a name="FNanchor_23_535" id="FNanchor_23_535"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_535" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>Upon a view of Chambers's great Dictionaries, from whence +were taken the Materials of the <i>Universal Instructor in all Arts +and Sciences</i>, which usually made the First Part of this Paper, we +find that besides their containing many Things abstruse or insignificant +to us, it will probably be fifty Years before the Whole +can be gone thro' in this Manner of Publication. There are likewise +in those Books continual References from Things under +one Letter of the Alphabet to those under another, which relate +to the same Subject, and are necessary to explain and compleat +it; these taken in their Turn may perhaps be Ten Years distant; +and since it is likely that they who desire to acquaint themselves +with any particular Art or Science, would gladly have the whole +before them in much less time, we believe our Readers will not +think such a Method of communicating Knowledge to be a +proper One.</p> + +<p>However, tho' we do not intend to continue the Publication +of those Dictionaries in a regular Alphabetical Method, as has +hitherto been done; yet as several Things exhibited from them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +in the Course of these Papers, have been entertaining to such of +the Curious, who never had and cannot have the Advantage of +good Libraries; and as there are many Things still behind, which +being in this Manner made generally known, may perhaps become +of considerable Use, by giving such Hints to the excellent +natural Genius's of our Country, as may contribute either to +the Improvement of our present Manufactures, or towards the +Invention of new Ones; we propose from Time to Time to communicate +such particular Parts as appear to be of the most +general Consequence.</p> + +<p>As to the "Religious Courtship," Part of which has been +retal'd to the Publick in these Papers, the Reader may be inform'd, +that the whole Book will probably in a little Time be +printed and bound up by itself; and those who approve of it, +will doubtless be better pleas'd to have it entire, than in this +broken interrupted Manner.</p> + +<p>There are many who have long desired to see a good News-Paper +in Pennsylvania; and we hope those Gentlemen who are +able, will contribute towards the making This such. We ask +Assistance, because we are fully sensible, that to publish a good +News-Paper is not so easy an Undertaking as many People +imagine it to be. The Author of a Gazette (in the Opinion of +the Learned) ought to be qualified with an extensive Acquaintance +with Languages, a great Easiness and Command of Writing +and Relating Things clearly and intelligibly, and in few Words; +he should be able to speak of War both by Land and Sea; be +well acquainted with Geography, with the History of the Time, +with the several Interests of Princes and States, the Secrets of +Courts, and the Manners and Customs of all Nations. Men thus +accomplish'd are very rare in this remote Part of the World; +and it would be well if the Writer of these Papers could make +up among his Friends what is wanting in himself.</p> + +<p>Upon the Whole, we may assure the Publick, that as far as +the Encouragement we meet with will enable us, no Care and +Pains shall be omitted, that may make the Pennsylvania Gazette +as agreeable and useful an Entertainment as the Nature of the +Thing will allow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="A_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_PHILOCLES_AND_HORATIO" id="A_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_PHILOCLES_AND_HORATIO"></a>A DIALOGUE<br /> +BETWEEN PHILOCLES AND HORATIO,<br /> +MEETING ACCIDENTALLY IN THE FIELDS,<br /> +CONCERNING VIRTUE AND PLEASURE</h3> + +<p class="center"> +[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, June 23, 1730.]<a name="FNanchor_24_536" id="FNanchor_24_536"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_536" class="fnanchor">[24]</a><br /> +</p> + +<p><i>Philocles.</i> My friend <i>Horatio</i>! I am very glad to see you; +prithee, how came such a Man as you alone? and musing too? +What Misfortune in your Pleasures has sent you to Philosophy +for Relief?</p> + +<p><i>Horatio.</i> You guess very right, my dear <i>Philocles</i>! We +Pleasure-hunters are never without 'em; and yet, so enchanting +is the Game! we can't quit the Chace. How calm and undisturbed +is your Life! How free from present Embarrassments +and future Cares! I know you love me, and look with Compassion +upon my Conduct; Shew me then the Path which leads up +to that constant and invariable Good, which I have heard you so +beautifully describe, and which you seem so fully to possess.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> There are few Men in the World I value more than you, +<i>Horatio</i>! for amidst all your Foibles and painful Pursuits of +Pleasure, I have oft observed in you an honest Heart, and a +Mind strongly bent towards Virtue. I wish, from my Soul, I +could assist you in acting steadily the Part of a reasonable Creature; +for, if you would not think it a Paradox, I should tell you +I love you better than you do yourself.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> A Paradox indeed! Better than I do myself! When I +love my dear self so well, that I love every Thing else for my +own sake.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> He only loves himself well, who rightly and judiciously +loves himself.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> What do you mean by that, <i>Philocles</i>! You Men of +Reason and Virtue are always dealing in Mysteries, tho' you +laugh at 'em when the Church makes 'em. I think he loves himself +very well and very judiciously too, as you call it, who allows +himself to do whatever he pleases.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> What, though it be to the Ruin and Destruction of that +very Self which he loves so well! That Man alone loves himself +rightly, who procures the greatest possible Good to himself +thro' the whole of his Existence; and so pursues Pleasure as not +to give for it more than 'tis worth.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> That depends all upon Opinion. Who shall judge what +the Pleasure is worth? Supposing a pleasing Form of the fair +Kind strikes me so much, that I can enjoy nothing without the +Enjoyment of that one Object. Or, that Pleasure in general is so +favorite a Mistress, that I will take her as Men do their Wives, for +better, for worse; mind no Consequences, nor regarding what's +to come. Why should I not do it?</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> Suppose, <i>Horatio</i>, that a Friend of yours entred into the +World about Two-and-Twenty, with a healthful vigorous Body, +and a fair plentiful Estate of about Five Hundred Pounds a +Year; and yet, before he had reached Thirty, should, by following +his Pleasures, and not, as you say, duly regarding Consequences, +have run out of his Estate, and disabled his Body to +that Degree, that he had neither the Means nor Capacity of +Enjoyment left, nor any Thing else to do but wisely shoot himself +through the Head to be at rest; what would you say to this +unfortunate Man's Conduct? Is it wrong by Opinion or Fancy +only? Or is there really a Right and Wrong in the Case? Is not +one Opinion of Life and Action juster than another? Or, one +Sort of Conduct preferable to another? Or, does that miserable +Son of Pleasure appear as reasonable and lovely a Being in your +Eyes, as a Man who, by prudently and rightly gratifying his +natural Passions, had preserved his Body in full Health, and his +Estate entire, and enjoy'd both to a good old Age, and then died +with a thankful Heart for the good Things he had received, and +with an entire Submission to the Will of Him who first called +him into Being? Say, <i>Horatio</i>! are these Men equally wise and +happy? And is every Thing to be measured by mere Fancy and +Opinion, without considering whether that Fancy or Opinion +be right?</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> Hardly so neither, I think; yet sure the wise and good +Author of Nature could never make us to plague us. He could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +never give us Passions, on purpose to subdue and conquer 'em; +nor produce this Self of mine, or any other self, only that it +may be denied; for that is denying the Works of the great Creator +himself. Self-denial, then, which is what I suppose you mean +by Prudence, seems to me not only absurd, but very dishonourable +to that Supreme Wisdom and Goodness, which is supposed +to make so ridiculous and Contradictious a Creature, that +must be always fighting with himself in order to be at rest, and +undergo voluntary Hardships in order to be happy: Are we +created sick, only to be commanded to be Sound? Are we born +under one Law, our Passions, and yet bound to another, that of +Reason? Answer me, <i>Philocles</i>, for I am warmly concerned for +the Honour of Nature, the Mother of us all.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> I find, Horatio, my two Characters have affrighted you; +so that you decline the Trial of what is Good, by reason: And +had rather make a bold Attack upon Providence; the usual Way +of you Gentlemen of Fashion, who, when by living in Defiance +of the eternal Rules of Reason, you have plunged yourselves into +a thousand Difficulties, endeavour to make yourselves easy by +throwing the Burden upon Nature. You are, <i>Horatio</i>, in a very +miserable Condition indeed; for you say you can't be happy if +you controul your Passions; and you feel yourself miserable by +an unrestrained Gratification of 'em; so that here's Evil, irremediable +Evil, either way.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> That is very true, at least it appears so to me: Pray, +what have you to say, <i>Philocles</i>! in Honour of Nature or Providence; +methinks I'm in Pain for her: How do you rescue her? +poor Lady!</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> This, my dear <i>Horatio</i>, I have to say; that what you +find Fault with and clamour against, as the most terrible Evil in +the World, Self-denial; is really the greatest Good, and the highest +Self-gratification: If indeed, you use the Word in the Sense +of some weak sour Moralists, and much weaker Divines, you'll +have just Reason to laugh at it; but if you take it, as understood +by Philosophers and Men of Sense, you will presently see her +Charms, and fly to her Embraces, notwithstanding her demure +Looks, as absolutely necessary to produce even your own darling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +sole Good, Pleasure: For, Self-denial is never a Duty, or a +reasonable Action, but as 'tis a natural Means of procuring more +Pleasure than you can taste without it so that this grave, Saint-like +Guide to Happiness, as rough and dreadful as she has been +made to appear, is in truth the kindest and most beautiful Mistress +in the World.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> Prithee, <i>Philocles</i>! do not wrap yourself in Allegory +and Metaphor. Why do you teaze me thus? I long to be satisfied, +what this Philosophical Self-denial is, the Necessity and +Reason of it; I'm impatient, and all on Fire; explain, therefore, +in your beautiful, natural easy Way of Reasoning, what I'm +to understand by this grave Lady of yours, with so forbidding, +downcast Looks, and yet so absolutely necessary to my Pleasures. +I stand ready to embrace her; for you know, Pleasure I +court under all Shapes and Forms.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> Attend then, and you'll see the Reason of this Philosophical +Self-denial. There can be no absolute Perfection in +any Creature; because every Creature is derived, and dependent: +No created Being can be All-wise, All-good, and All-powerful, +because his Powers and Capacities are finite and limited; consequently +whatever is created must, in its own Nature, be subject +to Error, Irregularity, Excess, and Disorder. All intelligent, +rational Agents find in themselves a Power of judging what +kind of Beings they are; what Actions are proper to preserve +'em, and what Consequences will generally attend them, what +Pleasures they are form'd for, and to what Degree their Natures +are capable of receiving them. All we have to do then, <i>Horatio</i>, +is to consider, when we are surpriz'd with a new Object, and passionately +desire to enjoy it, whether the gratifying that Passion +be consistent with the gratifying other Passions and Appetites, +equal if not more necessary to us. And whether it consists with +our Happiness To-morrow, next Week, or next Year; for, as we +all wish to live, we are obliged by Reason to take as much Care +for our future, as our present Happiness, and not build one upon +the Ruins of t'other. But, if thro' the Strength and Power of a +present Passion, and thro' want of attending to Consequences, +we have err'd and exceeded the Bounds which Nature or Reason<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +have set us; we are then, for our own Sakes, to refrain, or deny +ourselves a present momentary Pleasure for a future, constant +and durable one: So that this Philosophical Self-denial is only +refusing to do an Action which you strongly desire; because 'tis +inconsistent with your Health, Fortunes, or Circumstances in +the World; or, in other Words, because 'twould cost you more +than 'twas worth. You would lose by it, as a Man of Pleasure. +Thus you see, <i>Horatio</i>! that Self-denial is not only the most +reasonable, but the most pleasant Thing in the World.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> We are just coming into Town, so that we can't pursue +this Argument any farther at present; you have said a great deal +for Nature, Providence, and Reason: Happy are they who can +follow such divine Guides.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> <i>Horatio!</i> good Night; I wish you wise in your Pleasures.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> I wish, <i>Philocles</i>! I could be as wise in my Pleasures as +you are pleasantly Wise; your Wisdom is agreeable, your Virtue +is amiable, and your Philosophy the highest Luxury. Adieu! +thou enchanting Reasoner!</p> + + +<h3><a name="A_SECOND_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_PHILOCLES_AND_HORATIO" id="A_SECOND_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_PHILOCLES_AND_HORATIO"></a>A SECOND DIALOGUE<br /> +BETWEEN PHILOCLES AND HORATIO,<br /> +CONCERNING VIRTUE AND PLEASURE</h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, July 9, 1730.]</p> + +<p><i>Philocles.</i> Dear <i>Horatio</i>! where hast thou been these three or +four Months? What new Adventures have you fallen upon +since I met you in these delightful, all-inspiring Fields, and +wondred how such a Pleasure-hunter as you could bear being +alone?</p> + +<p><i>Horatio.</i> O <i>Philocles</i>, thou best of Friends, because a Friend +to Reason and Virtue, I am very glad to see you. Don't you +remember, I told you then, that some Misfortunes in my Pleasures +had sent me to Philosophy for Relief? But now I do +assure you, I can, without a Sigh, leave other Pleasures for +those of Philosophy; I can hear the Word <i>Reason</i> mentioned,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +and Virtue praised, without Laughing. Don't I bid fair for Conversion, +think you?</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> Very fair, <i>Horatio</i>! for I remember the Time when +Reason, Virtue, and Pleasure, were the same Thing with you: +When you counted nothing Good but what pleas'd, nor any +thing Reasonable but what you got by; When you made a Jest +of a Mind, and the Pleasures of Reflection, and elegantly plac'd +your sole Happiness, like the rest of the Animal Creation, in the +Gratifications of Sense.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> I did so: But in our last Conversation, when walking +upon the Brow of this Hill, and looking down on that broad, +rapid River, and yon widely-extended beautifully-varied Plain, +you taught me another Doctrine: You shewed me, that Self-denial, +which above all Things I abhorred, was really the greatest +Good, and the highest Self-gratification, and absolutely +necessary to produce even my own darling sole Good, Pleasure.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> True: I told you that Self-denial was never a Duty but +when it was a natural Means of procuring more Pleasure than +we could taste without it: That as we all strongly desire to live, +and to live only to enjoy, we should take as much Care about +our future as our present Happiness; and not build one upon the +Ruins of 'tother: That we should look to the End, and regard +Consequences: and if, thro' want of Attention we had err'd, and +exceeded the Bounds which Nature had set us, we were then +obliged, for our own Sakes, to refrain or deny ourselves a present +momentary Pleasure for a future, constant, and durable Good.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> You have shewn, <i>Philocles</i>, that Self-denial, which +weak or interested Men have rendred the most forbidding, is +really the most delightful and amiable, the most reasonable and +pleasant Thing in the World. In a Word, if I understand you +aright, Self-denial is, in Truth, Self-recognising, Self-acknowledging, +or Self-owning. But now, my Friend! you are to perform +another Promise; and shew me the Path which leads up to +that constant, durable, and invariable Good, which I have heard +you so beautifully describe, and which you seem so fully to +possess: Is not this Good of yours a mere Chimera? Can any +Thing be constant in a World which is eternally changing! and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +which appears to exist by an everlasting Revolution of one +Thing into another, and where every Thing without us, and +every Thing within us, is in perpetual Motion? What is this +constant, durable Good, then, of yours? Prithee, satisfy my +Soul, for I'm all on Fire, and impatient to enjoy her. Produce +this eternal blooming Goddess with never-fading Charms, and +see, whether I won't embrace her with as much Eagerness and +Rapture as you.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> You seem enthusiastically warm, <i>Horatio</i>; I will wait +till you are cool enough to attend to the sober, dispassionate +Voice of Reason.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> You mistake me, my dear <i>Philocles</i>! my Warmth is +not so great as to run away with my Reason: it is only just raised +enough to open my Faculties, and fit them to receive those +eternal Truths, and that durable Good, which you so triumphantly +boasted of. Begin, then; I'm prepared.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> I will. I believe, <i>Horatio</i>! with all your Skepticism +about you, you will allow that Good to be constant which is +never absent from you, and that to be durable, which never +Ends but with your Being.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> Yes, go on.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> That can never be the Good of a Creature, which when +present, the Creature may be miserable, and when absent, is +certainly so.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> I think not; but pray explain what you mean; for I am +not much used to this abstract Way of Reasoning.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> I mean all the Pleasures of Sense. The Good of Man +cannot consist in the mere Pleasures of Sense; because, when +any one of those Objects which you love is absent, or can't be +come at, you are certainly miserable: and if the Faculty be impair'd, +though the Object be present, you can't enjoy it. So that +this sensual Good depends upon a thousand Things without +and within you, and all out of your Power. Can this then be +the Good of Man? Say, <i>Horatio</i>! what think you, Is not this a +chequer'd, fleeting, fantastical Good? Can that, in any propriety +of Speech, be called the Good of Man which even, while he is +tasting, he may be miserable; and which when he cannot taste,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +he is necessarily so? Can that be our Good, which costs us a +great deal of Pains to obtain; which cloys in possessing; for +which we must wait the Return of Appetite before we can enjoy +again? Or, is that our Good, which we can come at without +Difficulty; which is heightened by Possession, which never ends +in Weariness and Disappointment; and which, the more we +enjoy, the better qualified we are to enjoy on?</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> The latter, I think; but why do you torment me thus? +<i>Philocles</i>! shew me this Good immediately.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> I have shewed you what 'tis not; it is not sensual, but +'tis rational and moral Good. It is doing all the Good we can to +others, by Acts of Humanity, Friendship, Generosity, and +Benevolence: This is that constant and durable Good, which +will afford Contentment and Satisfaction always alike, without +Variation or Diminution. I speak to your Experience now, +<i>Horatio</i>! Did you ever find yourself weary of relieving the +Miserable? or of raising the Distressed into Life or Happiness? +Or rather, don't you find the Pleasure grow upon you by Repetition, +and that 'tis greater in the Reflection than in the Act itself? +Is there a Pleasure upon Earth to be compared with that +which arises from the Sense of making others happy? Can this +Pleasure ever be absent, or ever end but with your Being? Does +it not always accompany you? Doth not it lie down and rise +with you? live as long as you live? give you Consolation in the +Article of Death, and remain with you in that gloomy Hour, +when all other Things are going to forsake you, or you them?</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> How glowingly you paint, <i>Philocles</i>! Methinks <i>Horatio</i> +is amongst the Enthusiasts. I feel the Passion: I am enchantingly +convinced; but I don't know why: Overborn by +something stronger than Reason. Sure some Divinity speaks +within me; but prithee, <i>Philocles</i>, give me cooly the Cause, why +this rational and moral Good so infinitely excels the meer natural +or sensual.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> I think, <i>Horatio</i>! that I have clearly shewn you the +Difference between merely natural or sensual Good, and rational +or moral Good. Natural or sensual Pleasure continues no +longer than the Action itself; but this divine or moral Pleasure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +continues when the Action is over, and swells and grows upon +your Hand by Reflection: The one is inconstant, unsatisfying, +of short Duration, and attended with numberless Ills; the other +is constant, yields full Satisfaction, is durable, and no Evils preceding, +accompanying, or following it. But, if you enquire +farther into the Cause of this Difference, and would know why +the moral Pleasures are greater than the sensual; perhaps the +Reason is the same as in all other Creatures, That their Happiness +or chief Good consists in acting up to their chief Faculty, +or that Faculty which distinguishes them from all Creatures of a +different Species. The chief Faculty in a Man is his Reason; and +consequently his chief Good; or that which may be justly called +his Good, consists not merely in Action, but in reasonable +Action. By reasonable Actions, we understand those Actions +which are preservative of the human Kind, and naturally tend +to produce real and unmixed Happiness; and these Actions, by +way of Distinction, we call Actions morally Good.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> You speak very clearly, <i>Philocles</i>! but, that no Difficulty +may remain upon my Mind, pray tell me what is the real +Difference between natural Good and Ill, and moral Good and +Ill? for I know several People who use the Terms without Ideas.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> That may be: The Difference lies only in this; that +natural Good and Ill is Pleasure and Pain: Moral Good and Ill is +Pleasure or Pain produced with Intention and Design; for 'tis +the Intention only that makes the Agent morally Good or Bad.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> But may not a Man, with a very good Intention, do an +ill Action?</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> Yes, but, then he errs in his Judgment, tho' his Design +be good. If his Error is inevitable, or such as, all Things considered, +he could not help, he is inculpable: But if it arose through +want of Diligence in forming his Judgment about the Nature of +human Actions, he is immoral and culpable.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> I find, then, that in order to please ourselves rightly, +or to do good to others morally, we should take great Care of +our Opinions.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> Nothing concerns you more; for, as the Happiness or +real Good of Men consists in right Action, and right Action cannot<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +be produced without right Opinion, it behoves us, above all +Things in this World, to take Care that our Opinions of Things +be according to the Nature of Things. The Foundation of all +Virtue and Happiness is Thinking rightly. He who sees an Action +is right, that is, naturally tending to Good, and does it because +of that Tendency, he only is a moral Man; and he alone is +capable of that constant, durable, and invariable Good, which +has been the Subject of this Conversation.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> How, my dear philosophical Guide, shall I be able to +know, and determine certainly, what is Right and Wrong in +Life?</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> As easily as you distinguish a Circle from a Square, or +Light from Darkness. Look, <i>Horatio</i>, into the sacred Book of +Nature; read your own Nature, and view the Relation which +other Men stand in to you, and you to them; and you'll immediately +see what constitutes human Happiness, and consequently +what is Right.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> We are just coming into Town, and can say no more at +present. You are my good Genius, <i>Philocles</i>. You have shewed +me what is good. You have redeemed me from the Slavery and +Misery of Folly and Vice, and made me a free and happy Being.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> Then I am the happiest Man in the World. Be steady, +<i>Horatio</i>! Never depart from Reason and Virtue.</p> + +<p><i>Hor.</i> Sooner will I lose my Existence. Good Night, <i>Philocles</i>.</p> + +<p><i>Phil.</i> Adieu! dear <i>Horatio</i>!</p> + + +<h3><a name="A_WITCH_TRIAL_AT_MOUNT_HOLLY" id="A_WITCH_TRIAL_AT_MOUNT_HOLLY"></a>A WITCH TRIAL AT MOUNT HOLLY</h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, Oct. 22, 1730.]</p> + +<p>"Saturday last, at Mount-Holly, about 8 Miles from this +Place [Burlington, N. J.] near 300 People were gathered together +to see an Experiment or two tried on some Persons accused of +Witchcraft. It seems the Accused had been charged with making +their Neighbours' Sheep dance in an uncommon Manner, +and with causing Hogs to speak and sing Psalms, etc., to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +great Terror and Amazement of the king's good and peaceable +Subjects in this Province; and the Accusers, being very positive +that if the Accused were weighed in Scales against a Bible, the +Bible would prove too heavy for them; or that, if they were +bound and put into the River they would swim; the said Accused, +desirous to make Innocence appear, voluntarily offered +to undergo the said Trials if 2 of the most violent of their Accusers +would be tried with them. Accordingly the Time and +Place was agreed on and advertised about the Country; The +Accusers were 1 Man and 1 Woman: and the Accused the same. +The Parties being met and the People got together, a grand +Consultation was held, before they proceeded to Trial; in which +it was agreed to use the Scales first; and a Committee of Men +were appointed to search the Men, and a Committee of Women +to search the Women, to see if they had any Thing of Weight +about them, particularly Pins. After the Scrutiny was over a +huge great Bible belonging to the Justice of the Place was provided, +and a Lane through the Populace was made from the +Justice's House to the Scales, which were fixed on a Gallows +erected for that Purpose opposite to the House, that the Justice's +Wife and the rest of the Ladies might see the Trial without coming +amongst the Mob, and after the Manner of Moorfields a +large Ring was also made. Then came out of the House a grave, +tall Man carrying the Holy Writ before the supposed Wizard +etc., (as solemnly as the Sword-bearer of London before the +Lord Mayor) the Wizard was first put in the Scale, and over him +was read a Chapter out of the Books of Moses, and then the +Bible was put in the other Scale, (which, being kept down before) +was immediately let go; but, to the great Surprize of the +Spectators, Flesh and Bones came down plump, and outweighed +that great good Book by abundance.<a name="FNanchor_25_537" id="FNanchor_25_537"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_537" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> After the same Manner +the others were served, and their Lumps of Mortality severally +were too heavy for Moses and all the Prophets and Apostles. +This being over, the Accusers and the rest of the Mob, not satisfied +with this Experiment, would have the Trial by Water. +Accordingly a most solemn Procession was made to the Millpond, +where both Accused and Accusers being stripped (saving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +only to the Women their Shifts) were bound Hand and Foot +and severally placed in the Water, lengthways, from the Side +of a Barge or Flat, having for Security only a Rope about the +Middle of each, which was held by some in the Flat. The +accused man being thin and spare with some Difficulty began +to sink at last; but the rest, every one of them, swam very light +upon the Water. A Sailor in the Flat jump'd out upon the +Back of the Man accused thinking to drive him down to the +Bottom; but the Person bound, without any Help, came up +some time before the other. The Woman Accuser being told +that she did not sink, would be duck'd a second Time; when +she swam again as light as before. Upon which she declared, +That she believed the Accused had bewitched her to make her +so light, and that she would be duck'd again a Hundred Times +but she would duck the Devil out of her. The Accused Man, +being surpriz'd at his own Swimming, was not so confident of +his Innocence as before, but said, 'If I am a Witch, it is more +than I know.' The more thinking Part of the Spectators were +of Opinion that any Person so bound and placed in the Water +(unless they were mere Skin and Bones) would swim, till their +Breath was gone, and their Lungs fill'd with Water. But it +being the general Belief of the Populace that the Women's +shifts and the Garters with which they were bound help'd to +support them, it is said they are to be tried again the next warm +Weather, naked."</p> + + +<h3><a name="AN_APOLOGY_FOR_PRINTERS" id="AN_APOLOGY_FOR_PRINTERS"></a>AN APOLOGY FOR PRINTERS</h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, June 10, 1731.]</p> + +<p>Being frequently censur'd and condemn'd by different Persons +for printing Things which they say ought not to be printed, +I have sometimes thought it might be necessary to make a standing +Apology for my self, and publish it once a Year, to be read +upon all Occasions of that Nature. Much Business has hitherto +hindered the execution of this Design; but having very lately +given extraordinary Offence by printing an Advertisement with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +a certain N. B. at the End of it, I find an Apology more particularly +requisite at this Juncture, tho' it happens when I have not +yet Leisure to write such a Thing in the proper Form, and can +only in a loose manner throw those Considerations together +which should have been the Substance of it.</p> + +<p>I request all who are angry with me on the Account of printing +things they don't like, calmly to consider these following +Particulars.</p> + +<p>1. That the Opinions of Men are almost as various as their +Faces; an Observation general enough to become a common +Proverb, <i>So many Men so many Minds.</i></p> + +<p>2. That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Mens +Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote +some, or oppose others.</p> + +<p>3. That hence arises the peculiar Unhappiness of that Business, +which other Callings are no way liable to; they who follow +Printing being scarce able to do any thing in their way of getting +a Living, which shall not probably give Offence to some, and +perhaps to many; whereas the Smith, the Shoemaker, the Carpenter, +or the Man of any other Trade, may work indifferently +for People of all Persuasions, without offending any of them: +and the Merchant may buy and sell with Jews, Turks, Hereticks +and Infidels of all sorts, and get Money by every one of them, +without giving Offence to the most orthodox, of any sort; or +suffering the least Censure or Ill will on the Account from any +Man whatever.</p> + +<p>4. That it is as unreasonable in any one Man or Set of Men +to expect to be pleas'd with every thing that is printed, as to +think that nobody ought to be pleas'd but themselves.</p> + +<p>5. Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ +in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage +of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error +have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: +Hence they chearfully serve all contending Writers that pay +them well, without regarding on which side they are of the +Question in Dispute.</p> + +<p>6. Being thus continually employ'd in serving both Parties,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +Printers naturally acquire a vast Unconcernedness as to the +right or wrong Opinions contain'd in what they print; regarding +it only as the Matter of their daily labour: They print things full +of Spleen and Animosity, with the utmost Calmness and Indifference, +and without the least Ill-will to the Persons reflected +on; who nevertheless unjustly think the Printer as much their +Enemy as the Author, and join both together in their Resentment.</p> + +<p>7. That it is unreasonable to imagine Printers approve of +every thing they print, and to censure them on any particular +thing accordingly; since in the way of their Business they print +such great variety of things opposite and contradictory. It is +likewise as unreasonable what some assert, "That Printers ought +not to print any Thing but what they approve;" since if all of +that Business should make such a Resolution, and abide by it, +an End would thereby be put to Free Writing, and the World +would afterwards have nothing to read but what happen'd to +be the Opinions of Printers.</p> + +<p>8. That if all Printers were determin'd not to print any thing +till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be +very little printed.</p> + +<p>9. That if they sometimes print vicious or silly things not +worth reading, it may not be because they approve such things +themselves, but because the People are so viciously and corruptly +educated that good things are not encouraged. I have +known a very numerous Impression of Robin Hood's Songs go +off in this Province at 2s. per Book, in less than a Twelvemonth; +when a small Quantity of David's Psalms (an excellent Version) +have lain upon my Hands above twice the Time.</p> + +<p>10. That notwithstanding what might be urg'd in behalf of +a Man's being allow'd to do in the Way of his Business whatever +he is paid for, yet Printers do continually discourage the Printing +of great Numbers of bad things, and stifle them in the Birth. +I my self have constantly refused to print anything that might +countenance Vice, or promote Immorality; tho' by complying +in such Cases with the corrupt Taste of the Majority I might +have got much Money. I have also always refus'd to print such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +things as might do real Injury to any Person, how much soever +I have been solicited, and tempted with Offers of Great Pay; +and how much soever I have by refusing got the Ill-will of those +who would have employ'd me. I have hitherto fallen under the +Resentment of large Bodies of Men, for refusing absolutely to +print any of their Party or Personal Reflections. In this Manner +I have made my self many Enemies, and the constant Fatigue +of denying is almost insupportable. But the Publick being unacquainted +with all this, whenever the poor Printer happens +either through Ignorance or much Persuasion, to do any thing +that is generally thought worthy of Blame, he meets with no +more Friendship or Favour on the above Account, than if there +were no Merit in't at all. Thus, as Waller says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Poets lose half the Praise they would have got<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Were it but known what they discreetly blot;<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Yet are censur'd for every bad Line found in their Works with +the utmost Severity.</p> + +<p>I come now to the Particular Case of the N. B. above mention'd, +about which there has been more Clamour against me, +than ever before on any other Account.—In the Hurry of other +Business an Advertisement was brought to me to be printed; +it signified that such a Ship lying at such a Wharff, would sail +for Barbadoes in such a Time, and that Freighters and Passengers +might agree with the Captain at such a Place; so far is +what's common: But at the Bottom this odd Thing was added, +"N. B. No Sea Hens nor Black Gowns will be admitted on any +Terms." I printed it, and receiv'd my Money; and the Advertisement +was stuck up round the Town as usual. I had not so +much Curiosity at that time as to enquire the Meaning of it, nor +did I in the least imagine it would give so much Offence. Several +good Men are very angry with me on this Occasion; they +are pleas'd to say I have too much Sense to do such things ignorantly; +that if they were Printers they would not have done +such a thing on any Consideration; that it could proceed from +nothing but my abundant Malice against Religion and the +Clergy. They therefore declare they will not take any more of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> +my Papers, nor have any farther Dealings with me; but will +hinder me of all the Custom they can. All this is very hard!</p> + +<p>I believe it had been better if I had refused to print the said +Advertisement. However, 'tis done, and cannot be revok'd. I +have only the following few Particulars to offer, some of them +in my behalf, by way of Mitigation, and some not much to the +Purpose; but I desire none of them may be read when the Reader +is not in a very good Humour.</p> + +<p>1. That I really did it without the least Malice, and imagin'd +the N. B. was plac'd there only to make the Advertisement +star'd at, and more generally read.</p> + +<p>2. That I never saw the Word Sea-Hens before in my Life; +nor have I yet ask'd the meaning of it; and tho' I had certainly +known that Black Gowns in that place signified the Clergy of +the Church of England, yet I have that confidence in the generous +good Temper of such of them as I know, as to be well +satisfied such a trifling mention of their Habit gives them no Disturbance.</p> + +<p>3. That most of the Clergy in this and the neighbouring +Provinces, are my Customers, and some of them my very good +Friends; and I must be very malicious indeed, or very stupid, to +print this thing for a small Profit, if I had thought it would +have given them just Cause of Offence.</p> + +<p>4. That if I had much Malice against the Clergy, and withal +much Sense; 'tis strange I never write or talk against the Clergy +myself. Some have observed that 'tis a fruitful Topic, and the +easiest to be witty upon of all others; yet I appeal to the Publick +that I am never guilty this way, and to all my Acquaintances +as to my Conversation.</p> + +<p>5. That if a Man of Sense had Malice enough to desire to +injure the Clergy, this is the foolishest Thing he could possibly +contrive for that Purpose.</p> + +<p>6. That I got Five Shillings by it.</p> + +<p>7. That none who are angry with me would have given me +so much to let it alone.</p> + +<p>8. That if all the People of different Opinions in this Province +would engage to give me as much for not printing things<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +they don't like, as I can get by printing them, I should probably +live a very easy Life; and if all Printers were everywhere so dealt +by, there would be very little printed.</p> + +<p>9. That I am oblig'd to all who take my Paper, and am +willing to think they do it out of meer Friendship. I only +desire they would think the same when I deal with them. I +thank those who leave off, that they have taken it so long. But +I beg they would not endeavour to dissuade others, for that +will look like Malice.</p> + +<p>10. That 'tis impossible any Man should know what he +would do if he was a Printer.</p> + +<p>11. That notwithstanding the Rashness and Inexperience of +Youth, which is most likely to be prevail'd with to do things +that ought not to be done; yet I have avoided printing such +Things as usually give Offence either to Church or State, more +than any Printer that has followed the Business in this Province +before.</p> + +<p>12. And lastly, That I have printed above a Thousand Advertisements +which made not the least mention of <i>Sea-Hens</i> or +<i>Black Gowns</i>, and this being the first Offence, I have the more +Reason to expect Forgiveness.</p> + +<p>I take leave to conclude with an old Fable, which some of +my Readers have heard before, and some have not.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A certain well-meaning Man and his Son, were travelling +towards a Market Town, with an Ass which they had to sell. +The Road was bad; and the old Man therefore rid, but the Son +went a-foot. The first Passenger they met, asked the Father if +he was not ashamed to ride by himself, and suffer the poor Lad +to wade along thro' the Mire; this induced him to take up his +Son behind him: He had not travelled far, when he met others, +who said, they are two unmerciful Lubbers to get both on the +Back of that poor Ass, in such a deep Road. Upon this the old +Man gets off, and let his Son ride alone. The next they met +called the Lad a graceless, rascally young Jackanapes, to ride in +that Manner thro' the Dirt, while his aged Father trudged along +on Foot; and they said the old Man was a Fool, for suffering it. +He then bid his Son come down, and walk with him, and they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +travell'd on leading the Ass by the Halter; 'till they met another +Company, who called them a Couple of senseless Blockheads, +for going both on Foot in such a dirty Way, when they had +an empty Ass with them, which they might ride upon. The +old Man could bear no longer; My Son, said he, it grieves me +much that we cannot please all these People. Let me throw the +Ass over the next Bridge, and be no further troubled with him."</p></div> + +<p>Had the old Man been seen acting this last Resolution, he +would probably have been called a Fool for troubling himself +about the different Opinions of all that were pleas'd to find +Fault with him: Therefore, tho' I have a Temper almost as +complying as his, I intend not to imitate him in this last Particular. +I consider the Variety of Humors among Men, and +despair of pleasing every Body; yet I shall not therefore leave +off Printing. I shall continue my Business. I shall not burn +my Press and melt my Letters.</p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1733" id="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1733"></a>PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD, 1733</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Courteous Reader</span>,</p> + +<p>I might in this place attempt to gain thy Favour, by declaring +that I write Almanacks with no other View than that of the +publick Good; but in this I should not be sincere; and Men are +now adays too wise to be deceiv'd by Pretences how specious +soever. The plain Truth of the Matter is, I am excessive poor, +and my Wife, good Woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud; she +cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning in her Shift of Tow, while +I do nothing but gaze at the Stars; and has threatned more than +once to burn all my Books and Rattling-Traps (as she calls my +Instruments) if I do not make some profitable Use of them for +the Good of my Family. The Printer has offer'd me some considerable +share of the Profits, and I have thus begun to comply +with my Dame's Desire.</p> + +<p>Indeed this Motive would have had Force enough to have +made me publish an Almanack many Years since, had it not +been overpowered by my Regard for my good Friend and +Fellow Student Mr. <i>Titan Leeds</i>, whose Interest I was extreamly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +unwilling to hurt: But this Obstacle (I am far from speaking it +with Pleasure) is soon to be removed, since inexorable Death, +who was never known to respect Merit, has already prepared +the mortal Dart, the fatal Sister has already extended her destroying +Shears, and that ingenious Man must soon be taken +from us. He dies, by my Calculation made at his Request, on +Oct. 17. 1733. 3 h. 29 m. P. M. at the very instant of the ☌ +of ☉ and ☿: By his own Calculation he will survive till the +26th of the same Month.<a name="FNanchor_26_538" id="FNanchor_26_538"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_538" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> This small Difference between us +we have disputed whenever we have met these 9 Years past; +but at length he is inclinable to agree with my Judgment: Which +of us is most exact, a little Time will now determine. As therefore +these Provinces may not longer expect to see any of his +Performances after this Year, I think my self free to take up +the Task, and request a share of the publick Encouragement; +which I am the more apt to hope for on this Account, that the +Buyer of my Almanack may consider himself, not only as purchasing +an useful Utensil, but as performing an Act of Charity, +to his poor <i>Friend and Servant</i></p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">R. Saunders.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="A_MEDITATION_ON_A_QUART_MUGG" id="A_MEDITATION_ON_A_QUART_MUGG"></a>A MEDITATION ON A QUART MUGG<a name="FNanchor_27_539" id="FNanchor_27_539"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_539" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, July 19, 1733.]</p> + +<p>Wretched, miserable, and unhappy Mug! I pity thy luckless +Lot, I commiserate thy Misfortunes, thy Griefs fill me with +Compassion, and because of thee are Tears made frequently to +burst from my Eyes.</p> + +<p>How often have I seen him compell'd to hold up his Handle +at the Bar, for no other Crime than that of being empty; then +snatch'd away by a surly Officer, and plung'd suddenly into a +Tub of cold Water: Sad Spectacle, and Emblem of human Penury, +oppress'd by arbitrary Power! How often is he hurry'd +down into a dismal Vault, sent up fully laden in a cold Sweat, +and by a rude Hand thrust into the Fire! How often have I seen +it obliged to undergo the Indignities of a dirty Wench; to have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +melting Candles dropt on its naked Sides, and sometimes in its +Mouth, to risque being broken into a thousand Pieces, for +Actions which itself was not guilty of! How often is he forced +into the Company of boisterous Sots, who lay all their nonsence, +Noise, profane Swearing, Cursing, and Quarreling, on the +harmless Mug, which speaks not a Word! They overset him, +maim him, and sometimes turn him to Arms offensive or defensive, +as they please; when of himself he would not be of +either Party, but would as willingly stand still. Alas! what +Power, or Place, is provided, where this poor Mug, this unpitied +Slave, can have Redress of his Wrongs and Sufferings? Or +where shall he have a Word of Praise bestow'd on him for his +Well doings, and faithful Services? If he prove of a large size, +his Owner curses him, and says he will devour more than he'll +earn: If his Size be small, those whom his Master appoints him +to serve will curse him as much, and perhaps threaten him with +the Inquisition of the Standard. Poor Mug, unfortunate is thy +Condition! Of thy self thou wouldst do no Harm, but much +Harm is done with thee! Thou art accused of many Mischiefs; +thou art said to administer Drunkenness, Poison, and broken +Heads: But none praise thee for the good Things thou yieldest! +Shouldest thou produce double Beer, nappy Ale, stallcop Cyder, +or Cyder mull'd, fine Punch, or cordial Tiff; yet for all these +shouldst thou not be prais'd, but the rich Liquors themselves, +which tho' within thee, will be said to be foreign to thee! And +yet, so unhappy is thy Destiny, thou must bear all their Faults +and Abominations! Hast thou been industriously serving thy +Employers with Tiff or Punch, and instantly they dispatch thee +for Cyder, then must thou be abused for smelling of Rum. +Hast thou been steaming their Noses gratefully, with mull'd +Cyder or butter'd Ale, and then offerest to refresh their Palates +with the best of Beer, they will curse thee for thy Greasiness. +And how, alas! can thy Service be rendered more tolerable to +thee? If thou submittest thyself to a Scouring in the Kitchen, +what must thou undergo from sharp Sand, hot Ashes, and a +coarse Dishclout; besides the Danger of having thy Lips rudely +torn, thy Countenance disfigured, thy Arms dismantled, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +thy whole Frame shatter'd, with violent Concussions in an Iron +Pot or Brass Kettle! And yet, O Mug! if these Dangers thou +escapest, with little Injury, thou must at last untimely fall, be +broken to Pieces, and cast away, never more to be recollected +and form'd into a Quart Mug. Whether by the Fire, or in a +Battle, or choak'd with a Dishclout, or by a Stroke against a +Stone, thy Dissolution happens; 'tis all alike to thy avaritious +Owner; he grieves not for thee, but for the Shilling with which +he purchased thee! If thy Bottom Part should chance to survive, +it may be preserv'd to hold bits of Candles, or Blacking for +Shoes, or Salve for kibed Heels; but all thy other Members will +be for ever buried in some miry Hole; or less carefully disposed +of, so that little Children, who have not yet arrived to Acts of +Cruelty, may gather them up to furnish out their Baby Houses: +Or, being cast upon the Dunghill, they will therewith be +carted into Meadow Grounds; where, being spread abroad and +discovered, they must be thrown to the Heap of Stones, Bones +and Rubbish; or being left until the Mower finds them with his +Scythe, they will with bitter Curses be tossed over the Hedge; +and so serve for unlucky Boys to throw at Birds and Dogs; +until by Length of Time and numerous Casualties, they shall be +press'd into their Mother Earth, and be converted to their +original Principles.</p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1734" id="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1734"></a>PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD, 1734</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Courteous Readers</span>,</p> + +<p>Your kind and charitable Assistance last Year, in purchasing +so large an Impression of my Almanacks, has made my Circumstances +much more easy in the World, and requires my grateful +Acknowledgment. My Wife has been enabled to get a Pot of +her own, and is no longer oblig'd to borrow one from a Neighbour; +nor have we ever since been without something of our +own to put in it. She has also got a pair of Shoes, two new +Shifts, and a new warm Petticoat; and for my part, I have +bought a second-hand Coat, so good, that I am now not +asham'd to go to Town or be seen there. These Things have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +render'd her Temper so much more pacifick than it us'd to be, +that I may say, I have slept more, and more quietly within this +last Year, than in the three foregoing Years put together. +Accept my hearty Thanks therefor, and my sincere Wishes for +your Health and Prosperity.</p> + +<p>In the Preface to my last Almanack, I foretold the Death of +my dear old Friend and Fellow-Student, the learned and ingenious +Mr. <i>Titan Leeds</i>, which was to be on the 17th of +<i>October</i>, 1733, 3 h. 29 m. P. M. at the very Instant of the ☌ of ☉ +and ☿. By his own Calculation he was to survive till the 26th +of the same Month, and expire in the Time of the Eclipse, near +11 o'clock A. M. At which of these Times he died, or whether +he be really yet dead, I cannot at this present Writing positively +assure my Readers; forasmuch as a Disorder in my own Family +demanded my Presence, and would not permit me as I had +intended, to be with him in his last Moments, to receive his last +Embrace, to close his Eyes, and do the Duty of a Friend in performing +the last Offices to the Departed. Therefore it is that I +cannot positively affirm whether he be dead or not; for the +Stars only show to the Skilful, what will happen in the natural +and universal Chain of Causes and Effects; but 'tis well known, +that the Events which would otherwise certainly happen at +certain Times in the Course of Nature are sometimes set aside +or postpon'd for wise and good Reasons by the immediate +particular Dispositions of Providence; which particular Dispositions +the Stars can by no Means discover or foreshow. There is +however (and I cannot speak it without Sorrow) there is the +strongest Probability that my dear Friend is <i>no more</i>; for there +appears in his Name, as I am assured, an Almanack for the Year +1734, in which I am treated in a very gross and unhandsome +Manner; in which I am called <i>a false Predicter, an Ignorant, a +conceited Scribler, a Fool, and a Lyar</i>. Mr. <i>Leeds</i> was too well +bred to use any Man so indecently and so scurrilously, and +moreover his Esteem and Affection for me was extraordinary: +So that it is to be feared that Pamphlet may be only a Contrivance +of somebody or other, who hopes perhaps to sell two +or three Year's Almanacks still, by the sole Force and Virtue<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +of Mr. <i>Leeds's</i> Name; but certainly, to put Words into the +Mouth of a Gentleman and a Man of Letters, against his Friend, +which the meanest and most scandalous of the People might be +asham'd to utter even in a drunken Quarrel, is an unpardonable +Injury to his Memory, and an Imposition upon the Publick.</p> + +<p>Mr. <i>Leeds</i> was not only profoundly skilful in the useful +Science he profess'd, but he was a Man of <i>exemplary Sobriety</i>, a +most <i>sincere Friend</i>, and an <i>exact Performer of his Word</i>. These +valuable Qualifications, with many others so much endear'd +him to me, that although it should be so, that, contrary to all +Probability, contrary to my Prediction and his own, he might +possibly be yet alive, yet my Loss of Honour as a Prognosticator, +cannot afford me so much Mortification, as his Life, Health +and Safety would give me Joy and Satisfaction.</p> + +<p>I am, <i>Courteous and Kind Reader</i></p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Your poor Friend and Servant</i>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">R. Saunders.</span></p> + +<p>Octob. 30. 1733.</p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1735" id="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1735"></a>PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD, 1735</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Courteous Reader</span>,</p> + +<p>This is the third Time of my appearing in print, hitherto +very much to my own Satisfaction, and, I have reason to hope, +to the Satisfaction of the Publick also; for the Publick is generous, +and has been very charitable and good to me. I should +be ungrateful then, if I did not take every Opportunity of expressing +my Gratitude; for <i>ingratum si dixeris, omnia dixeris</i>: I +therefore return the Publick my most humble and hearty +Thanks.</p> + +<p>Whatever may be the Musick of the Spheres, how great soever +the Harmony of the Stars, 'tis certain there is no Harmony +among the Stargazers; but they are perpetually growling and +snarling at one another like strange Curs, or like some Men at +their Wives: I had resolved to keep the Peace on my own part, +and affront none of them; and I shall persist in that Resolution: +But having receiv'd much Abuse from <i>Titan Leeds</i> deceas'd +(<i>Titan Leeds</i> when living would not have us'd me so!) I say,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +having receiv'd much Abuse from the Ghost of <i>Titan Leeds</i>, +who pretends to be still living, and to write Almanacks in +Spight of me and my Predictions, I cannot help saying, that +tho' I take it patiently, I take it very unkindly. And whatever +he may pretend, 'tis undoubtedly true that he is really defunct +and dead. First because the Stars are seldom disappointed, +never but in the Case of wise Men, <i>sapiens dominabitur astris</i>, +and they foreshow'd his Death at the Time I predicted it. +Secondly, 'Twas requisite and necessary he should die punctually +at that Time, for the Honour of Astrology, the Art +professed both by him and his Father before him. Thirdly, +'Tis plain to every one that reads his last two Almanacks (for +1734 and 35) that they are not written with that <i>Life</i> his Performances +use to be written with; the Wit is low and flat, the +little Hints dull and spiritless, nothing smart in them but +<i>Hudibras's</i> Verses against Astrology at the Heads of the Months +in the last, which no Astrologer but a <i>dead one</i> would have +inserted, and no Man <i>living</i> would or could write such Stuff as +the rest. But lastly I convince him in his own Words, that he is +dead (<i>ex ore suo condemnatus est</i>) for in his Preface to his +Almanack for 1734, he says "<i>Saunders adds another</i> <span class="smcap">gross +Falshood</span> <i>in his Almanack, viz. that by my own Calculation +I shall survive until the 26th of the said Month October 1733, +which is as untrue as the former</i>." Now if it be, as Leeds says, +<i>untrue</i> and a <i>gross Falshood</i> that he surviv'd till the 26th of +October 1733, then it is certainly <i>true</i> that he died <i>before</i> that +Time: And if he died before that Time, he is dead now, to all +Intents and Purposes, any thing he may say to the contrary +notwithstanding. And at what Time before the 26th is it so +likely he should die, as at the Time by me predicted, <i>viz.</i> the +17th of October aforesaid? But if some People will walk and +be troublesome after Death, it may perhaps be born with a +little, because it cannot well be avoided unless one would be at +the Pains and Expence of laying them in the <i>Red Sea</i>; however, +they should not presume too much upon the Liberty allow'd +them; I know Confinement must needs be mighty irksome to +the free Spirit of an Astronomer, and I am too compassionate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +to proceed suddenly to Extremities with it; nevertheless, tho' +I resolve with Reluctance, I shall not long defer, if it does not +speedily learn to treat its living Friends with better Manners,</p> + +<p>I am, <i>Courteous Reader, your obliged Friend and Servant</i></p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">R. Saunders</span>.</p> + +<p>Octob. 30. 1734</p> + + +<h3><a name="HINTS_FOR_THOSE_THAT_WOULD_BE_RICH" id="HINTS_FOR_THOSE_THAT_WOULD_BE_RICH"></a>HINTS FOR THOSE THAT WOULD BE RICH</h3> + +<p class="center">[October, 1736—From <i>Poor Richard</i>, 1737]</p> + +<p>The Use of Money is all the Advantage there is in having +Money.</p> + +<p>For £6 a Year you may have the Use of £100 if you are a +Man of known Prudence and Honesty.</p> + +<p>He that spends a Groat a day idly, spends idly above £6 a +year, which is the Price of using £100.</p> + +<p>He that wastes idly a Groat's worth of his Time per Day, +one Day with another, wastes the Privilege of using £100 +each Day.</p> + +<p>He that idly loses 5s. worth of time, loses 5s. and might as +prudently throw 5s. in the River.</p> + +<p>He that loses 5s. not only loses that Sum, but all the Advantage +that might be made by turning it in Dealing, which, +by the time that a young Man becomes old, amounts to a comfortable +Bag of Money.</p> + +<p><i>Again</i>, He that sells upon Credit, asks a Price for what he +sells equivalent to the Principal and Interest of his Money for +the Time he is like to be kept out of it: therefore He that buys +upon Credit, pays Interest for what he buys. And he that pays +ready Money, might let that Money out to Use; so that He that +possesses any Thing he has bought, pays Interest for the Use +of it.</p> + +<p><i>Consider then</i> when you are tempted to buy any unnecessary +Householdstuff, or any superfluous thing, whether you will be +willing to pay <i>Interest, and Interest upon Interest</i> for it as long +as you live; and more if it grows worse by using.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Yet, in buying goods, 'tis best to pay Ready Money, because</i>, +He that sells upon Credit, expects to lose <i>5 per Cent</i> by bad +Debts; therefore he charges, on all he sells upon Credit, an +Advance that shall make up for that Deficiency.</p> + +<p>Those who pay for what they buy upon Credit, pay their +Share of this Advance.</p> + +<p>He that pays ready Money, escapes or may escape that +Charge.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Penny sav'd is Twopence clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A Pin a Day is a Groat a Year.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOSIAH_FRANKLIN" id="TO_JOSIAH_FRANKLIN"></a>TO JOSIAH FRANKLIN<a name="FNanchor_28_540" id="FNanchor_28_540"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_540" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, April 13, 1738.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Honoured Father</span>,</p> + +<p>I have your favours of the 21st of March, in which you both +seem concerned lest I have imbibed some erroneous opinions. +Doubtless I have my share; and when the natural weakness and +imperfection of human understanding is considered, the unavoidable +influence of education, custom, books, and company +upon our ways of thinking, I imagine a man must have a good +deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who +affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects +are false. And perhaps the same may be justly said of every +sect, church, and society of men, when they assume to themselves +that infallibility, which they deny to the Pope and +councils.</p> + +<p>I think opinions should be judged of by their influences and +effects; and, if a man holds none that tend to make him less +virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded he holds none +that are dangerous; which I hope is the case with me.</p> + +<p>I am sorry you should have any uneasiness on my account; +and if it were a thing possible for one to alter his opinions in +order to please another, I know none whom I ought more willingly +to oblige in that respect than yourselves. But, since it is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +no more in a man's power to <i>think</i> than to <i>look</i> like another, +methinks all that should be expected from me is to keep my +mind open to conviction, to hear patiently and examine attentively, +whatever is offered me for that end; and, if after all I +continue in the same errors, I believe your usual charity will +induce you to rather pity and excuse, than blame me. In the +mean time your care and concern for me is what I am very +thankful for.</p> + +<p>My mother grieves, that one of her sons is an Arian, another +an Arminian. What an Arminian or an Arian is, I cannot say +that I very well know. The truth is, I make such distinctions +very little my study. I think vital religion has always suffered, +when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue; and the Scriptures +assure me, that at the last day we shall not be examined +what we <i>thought</i>, but what we <i>did</i>; and our recommendation +will not be, that we said, <i>Lord! Lord!</i> but that we did good to +our fellow creatures. See Matt. xxv.</p> + +<p>As to the freemasons, I know no way of giving my mother a +better account of them than she seems to have at present, since +it is not allowed that women should be admitted into that +secret society. She has, I must confess, on that account some +reason to be displeased with it; but for any thing else, I must +entreat her to suspend her judgment till she is better informed, +unless she will believe me, when I assure her that they are in +general a very harmless sort of people, and have no principles +or practices that are inconsistent with religion and good +manners.</p> + +<p>We have had great rains here lately, which, with the thawing +of snow on the mountains back of our country, have made +vast floods in our rivers, and, by carrying away bridges, boats, +&c., made travelling almost impracticable for a week past; so +that our post has entirely missed making one trip.</p> + +<p>I hear nothing of Dr. Crook, nor can I learn any such person +has ever been here.</p> + +<p>I hope my sister Jenny's child is by this time recovered. I +am your dutiful son.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1739" id="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1739"></a>PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD, 1739</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kind Reader</span>,</p> + +<p>Encouraged by thy former Generosity, I once more present +thee with an Almanack, which is the 7th of my Publication. +While thou art putting Pence in my Pocket, and furnishing my +Cottage with necessaries, <i>Poor Dick</i> is not unmindful to do +something for thy Benefit. The Stars are watch'd as narrowly +as old <i>Bess</i> watch'd her Daughter, that thou mayst be acquainted +with their Motions, and told a Tale of their Influences and +Effects, which may do thee more good than a Dream of last +Year's Snow.</p> + +<p>Ignorant Men wonder how we Astrologers foretell the +Weather so exactly, unless we deal with the old black Devil. +Alas! 'tis as easy as ****** For Instance; The Stargazer peeps at +the Heavens thro' a long Glass: He sees perhaps <span class="smcap">Taurus</span>, or +the great Bull, in a mighty Chafe, stamping on the Floor of his +House, swinging his Tail about, stretching out his Neck, and +opening wide his Mouth. 'Tis natural from these Appearances +to judge that this furious Bull is puffing, blowing and roaring. +Distance being consider'd and Time allow'd for all this to +come down, there you have Wind and Thunder. He spies perhaps +<span class="smcap">Virgo</span> (or the Virgin;) she turns her Head round as it +were to see if any body observ'd her; then crouching down +gently, with her Hands on her Knees, she looks wistfully for a +while right forward. He judges rightly what she's about: And +having calculated the Distance and allow'd Time for its Falling, +finds that next Spring we shall have a fine <i>April</i> shower. What +can be more natural and easy than this? I might instance the +like in many other particulars; but this may be sufficient to +prevent our being taken for Conjurors. O the wonderful +Knowledge to be found in the Stars! Even the smallest Things +are written there, if you had but Skill to read: When my +Brother J-m-n erected a Scheme to know which was best for +his sick Horse, to sup a new-laid Egg, or a little Broth, he found +that the Stars plainly gave their Verdict for Broth, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +Horse having sup'd his Broth;—Now, what do you think became +of that Horse? You shall know in my next.</p> + +<p>Besides the usual Things expected in an Almanack, I hope +the profess'd Teachers of Mankind will excuse my scattering +here and there some instructive Hints in Matters of Morality +and Religion. And be not thou disturbed, O grave and sober +Reader, if among the many serious Sentences in my Book, thou +findest me trifling now and then, and talking idly. In all the +Dishes I have hitherto cook'd for thee, there is solid Meat +enough for thy Money. There are Scraps from the Table of +Wisdom, that will if well digested, yield strong Nourishment to +thy Mind. But squeamish Stomachs cannot eat without Pickles; +which, 'tis true are good for nothing else, but they provoke an +Appetite. The Vain Youth that reads my Almanack for the +sake of an idle Joke, will perhaps meet with a serious Reflection, +that he may ever after be the better for.</p> + +<p>Some People observing the great Yearly Demand for my +Almanack, imagine I must by this Time have become rich, and +consequently ought to call myself <i>Poor Dick</i> no longer. But, +the Case is this,</p> + +<p>When I first begun to publish, the Printer made a fair Agreement +with me for my Copies, by Virtue of which he runs away +with the greatest Part of the Profit.—However, much good +may't do him; I do not grudge it him; he is a Man I have a great +Regard for, and I wish his Profit ten times greater than it is. +For I am, dear Reader, his, as well as thy</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Affectionate Friend</i></span><br /> +<span class="smcap">R. Saunders</span>.</p> + + +<h3><big><a name="A_PROPOSAL" id="A_PROPOSAL"></a>A PROPOSAL</big></h3> + +<h3>FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE<br /> +BRITISH PLANTATIONS IN AMERICA</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, May 14, 1743.</p> + +<p>The English are possessed of a long tract of continent, from +Nova Scotia to Georgia, extending north and south through +different climates, having different soils, producing different<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +plants, mines, and minerals, and capable of different improvements, +manufactures, &c.</p> + +<p>The first drudgery of settling new colonies, which confines +the attention of people to mere necessaries, is now pretty well +over; and there are many in every province in circumstances +that set them at ease, and afford leisure to cultivate the finer +arts and improve the common stock of knowledge. To such of +these who are men of speculation, many hints must from time +to time arise, many observations occur, which if well examined, +pursued, and improved, might produce discoveries to the +advantage of some or all of the British plantations, or to the +benefit of mankind in general.</p> + +<p>But as from the extent of the country such persons are widely +separated, and seldom can see and converse or be acquainted +with each other, so that many useful particulars remain uncommunicated, +die with the discoverers, and are lost to mankind; +it is, to remedy this inconvenience for the future, proposed,</p> + +<p>That one society be formed of <i>virtuosi</i> or ingenious men, +residing in the several colonies, to be called <i>The American +Philosophical Society</i>, who are to maintain a constant correspondence.</p> + +<p>That Philadelphia, being the city nearest the centre of the +continent colonies, communicating with all of them northward +and southward by post, and with all the islands by sea, and +having the advantage of a good growing library, be the centre +of the Society.</p> + +<p>That at Philadelphia there be always at least seven members, +viz. a physician, a botanist, a mathematician, a chemist, a mechanician, +a geographer, and a general natural philosopher, besides +a president, treasurer, and secretary.</p> + +<p>That these members meet once a month, or oftener, at their +own expense, to communicate to each other their observations +and experiments, to receive, read, and consider such letters, +communications, or queries as shall be sent from distant members; +to direct the dispersing of copies of such communications +as are valuable, to other distant members, in order to procure +their sentiments thereupon.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> + +<p>That the subjects of the correspondence be: all new-discovered +plants, herbs, trees, roots, their virtues, uses, &c.; +methods of propagating them, and making such as are useful, +but particular to some plantations, more general; improvements +of vegetable juices, as ciders, wines, &c.; new methods of curing +or preventing diseases; all new-discovered fossils in different +countries, as mines, minerals, and quarries; new and useful +improvements in any branch of mathematics; new discoveries in +chemistry, such as improvements in distillation, brewing, and +assaying of ores; new mechanical inventions for saving labour, +as mills and carriages, and for raising and conveying of water, +draining of meadows, &c.; all new arts, trades, and manufactures, +that may be proposed or thought of; surveys, maps, and +charts of particular parts of the sea-coasts or inland countries; +course and junction of rivers and great roads, situation of lakes +and mountains, nature of the soil and productions; new methods +of improving the breed of useful animals; introducing other +sorts from foreign countries; new improvements in planting, +gardening, and clearing land; and all philosophical experiments +that let light into the nature of things, tend to increase the power +of man over matter, and multiply the conveniences or pleasures +of life.</p> + +<p>That a correspondence, already begun by some intended +members, shall be kept up by this Society with the <span class="smcap">Royal +Society</span> of London, and with the <span class="smcap">Dublin Society</span>.</p> + +<p>That every member shall have abstracts sent him quarterly, +of every thing valuable communicated to the Society's Secretary +at Philadelphia; free of all charge except the yearly +payment hereafter mentioned.</p> + +<p>That, by permission of the postmaster-general, such communications +pass between the Secretary of the Society and the +members, postage-free.</p> + +<p>That, for defraying the expense of such experiments as the +Society shall judge proper to cause to be made, and other contingent +charges for the common good, every member send a +piece of eight per annum to the treasurer, at Philadelphia, to +form a common stock, to be disbursed by order of the President<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +with the consent of the majority of the members that can conveniently +be consulted thereupon, to such persons and places +where and by whom the experiments are to be made, and otherwise +as there shall be occasion; of which disbursements an exact +account shall be kept, and communicated yearly to every +member.</p> + +<p>That, at the first meetings of the members at Philadelphia, +such rules be formed for regulating their meetings and transactions +for the general benefit, as shall be convenient and +necessary; to be afterwards changed and improved as there +shall be occasion, wherein due regard is to be had to the advice +of distant members.</p> + +<p>That, at the end of every year, collections be made and +printed, of such experiments, discoveries, and improvements, as +may be thought of public advantage; and that every member +have a copy sent him.</p> + +<p>That the business and duty of the Secretary be to receive all +letters intended for the Society, and lay them before the President +and members at their meetings; to abstract, correct, and +methodize such papers as require it, and as he shall be directed +to do by the President, after they have been considered, debated, +and digested in the Society; to enter copies thereof in the +Society's books, and make out copies for distant members; to +answer their letters by direction of the President, and keep +records of all material transactions of the Society.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin, the writer of this Proposal, offers himself +to serve the Society as their secretary, till they shall be provided +with one more capable.</p> + + +<h3><a name="SHAVERS_AND_TRIMMERS" id="SHAVERS_AND_TRIMMERS"></a>SHAVERS AND TRIMMERS</h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, June 23, 1743.]</p> + +<p>Alexander Miller, Peruke-maker, in <i>Second-street, Philadelphia</i>, +takes Opportunity to acquaint his Customers, that he +intends to leave off the Shaving Business after the 22d of +<i>August</i> next.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p> + +<p class="section center"><span class="smcap">To Mr. Franklin</span></p> + +<p><i>Sir</i>,</p> + +<p>It is a common Observation among the People of <i>Great +Britain</i> and <i>Ireland</i>, that the Barbers are reverenced by the lower +Classes of the Inhabitants of those Kingdoms, and in the more +remote Parts of those Dominions, as the sole Oracles of Wisdom +and Politicks. This at first View seems to be owing to the +odd Bent of Mind and peculiar Humour of the People of those +Nations: But if we carry this Observation into other Parts, we +shall find the same Passion equally prevalent throughout the +whole civilized World; and discover in every little Market-Town +and Village the 'Squire, the Exciseman, and even the +Parson himself, listening with as much Attention to a Barber's +News, as they would to the profound Revelations of a Chancellor +of the Exchequer, or principal Secretary of State.</p> + +<p>Antiquity likewise will furnish us with many Confirmations +of the Truth of what I have here asserted. Among the old +<i>Romans</i> the Barbers were understood to be exactly of the same +Complection I have here described. I shall not trouble your +Readers with a Multitude of Examples taken from Antiquity. I +shall only quote one Passage in <i>Horace</i>, which may serve to +illustrate the Whole, and is as follows.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Strenuus et fortis, causisq; Philippus agendis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clarus, ab officiis octavam circiter horam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dum redit: atq; foro nimium distare carinas<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jam grandis natu queritur, conspexit, ut aiunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Adrasum quendam vacuâ tonsoris in umbrâ.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cultello proprios purgantem leniter ungues.<br /></span> +<span class="i12">Hor. Epist. Lib. I. 7.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>By which we may understand, that the <i>Tonsoris Umbra, or</i> +Barber's Shop, was the common Rendezvous of every idle +Fellow, who had no more to do than to pair his Nails, talk +Politicks, and see, and to be seen.</p> + +<p>But to return to the Point in Question. If we would know +why the Barbers are so eminent for their Skill in Politicks, it +will be necessary to lay aside the Appellation of Barber, and +confine ourselves to that of Shaver and Trimmer, which will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +naturally lead us to consider the near Relation which subsists +between Shaving, Trimming and Politicks, from whence we +shall discover that Shaving and Trimming is not the Province +of the Mechanic alone, but that there are their several Shavers +and Trimmers at Court, the Bar, in Church and State.</p> + +<p>And first, Shaving or Trimming, in a strict mechanical Sense +of the Word, signifies a cutting, sheering, lopping off, and +fleecing us of those Excrescencies of Hair, Nails, Flesh, &c., +which burthen and disguise our natural Endowments. And is +not the same practised over the whole World, by Men of every +Rank and Station? Does not the corrupt Minister lop off our +Privileges and fleece us of our Money? Do not the Gentlemen +of the long Robe find means to cut off those Excrescencies of +the Nation, Highwaymen, Thieves and Robbers? And to +look into the Church, who has been more notorious for shaving +and fleecing, than that Apostle of Apostles, that Preacher of +Preachers, the Rev. Mr. G. W.?<a name="FNanchor_29_541" id="FNanchor_29_541"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_541" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> But I forbear making farther +mention of this spiritual Shaver and Trimmer, lest I should +affect the Minds of my Readers as deeply as his Preaching has +affected their Pockets.</p> + +<p>The second Species of Shavers and Trimmers are those who, +according to the <i>English</i> Phrase, <i>make the best of a bad Market</i>: +Such as cover (what is called by an eminent Preacher) <i>their poor +Dust</i> in tinsel Cloaths and gaudy Plumes of Feathers. A Star, +and Garter, for Instance, adds Grace, Dignity and Lustre to a +gross corpulent Body; and a competent Share of religious +Horror thrown into the Countenance, with proper Distortions +of the Face, and the Addition of a lank Head of Hair, or a long +Wig and Band, commands a most profound Respect to Insolence +and Ignorance. The Pageantry of the Church of <i>Rome</i> +is too well known for me to instance: It will not however be +amiss to observe, that his Holiness the Pope, when he has a +Mind to fleece his Flock of a good round Sum, sets off the +Matter with Briefs, Pardons, Indulgencies, &c. &c. &c.</p> + +<p>The Third and last Kind of Shavers and Trimmers are those +who (in Scripture Language) are carried away with every +Wind of Doctrine. The Vicars of Bray, and those who exchange<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +their Principles with the Times, may justly be referred +to this Class. But the most odious Shavers and Trimmers of +this Kind, are a certain set of Females, called (by the polite +World) <span class="smcap">Jilts</span>. I cannot give my Readers a more perfect Idea +of these than by quoting the following Lines of the Poet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fatally fair they are, and in their Smiles<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Graces, little Loves, and young Desires inhabit:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they are false luxurious in their Appetites,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the Heav'n they hope for, is Variety.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One Lover to another still succeeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Another and another after that,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the last Fool is welcome as the former;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Till having lov'd his Hour out, he gives his Place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And mingles with the Herd that went before him.<br /></span> +<span class="i12"><i>Rowe's Fair Penitent.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Lastly, I cannot but congratulate my Neighbours on the +little Favour which is shown to Shavers and Trimmers by the +People of this Province. The Business is at so low an Ebb, +that the worthy Gentleman whose Advertisement I have chosen +for the Motto of my Paper, acquaints us he will leave it off +after the 22d of <i>August</i> next. I am of Opinion that all possible +Encouragement ought to be given to Examples of this Kind, +since it is owing to this that so perfect an Understanding is +cultivated among ourselves, and the Chain of Friendship is +brightened and perpetuated with our good Allies, the <i>Indians</i>. +The Antipathy which these sage Naturalists bear to Shaving +and Trimming, is well known.</p> + +<p class="sig"><i>I am, Yours, &c.</i></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_THE_PUBLICK" id="TO_THE_PUBLICK"></a>TO THE PUBLICK</h3> + +<div class="poemheader"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">* * * Causis Philippus agendis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clarus, * * *<br /></span> +<span class="i8">S. P. D.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, June 30, 1743.]</p> + +<p>My Paper on Shavers and Trimmers, in the last <i>Gazette</i>, being +generally condemn'd, I at first imputed it to the Want of Taste<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +and Relish for Pieces of that Force and Beauty, which none but +University-bred Gentlemen can <i>produce</i>: But upon Advice of +Friends, whose Judgment I could depend on, I examined <i>myself</i> +and to my Shame must confess, that I found myself to be an +uncircumcised Jew, whose Excrescencies of Hair, Nails, Flesh, +&c. did burthen and disguise my Natural Endowments; but +having my Hair and Nails since lopp'd off and shorn, and my +fleshly Excrescencies circumcised, I now appear in my wonted +Lustre, and expect a speedy Admission among the <i>Levites</i>, +which I have already the Honour of among the Poets and Natural +Philosophers. I have one Thing more to add, which is, +That I had no real Animosity against the Person whose Advertisement +I made the Motto of my Paper; but (as may appear to +all who have been Big with Pieces of this Kind) what I had +long on my Mind, I at last unburden'd myself of. O! these +<span class="txt90">JILTS</span> still run in my Mind.</p> + +<p>N. B. The Publick perhaps may suppose this Confession +forced upon me; but if they <i>repair</i> to the P—— Pe in Second-street, +they may see Me, or the Original hereof under my own +Hand, and be convinced that this is genuine.</p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_LOGANS_TRANSLATION_OF_CATO_MAJOR" id="PREFACE_TO_LOGANS_TRANSLATION_OF_CATO_MAJOR"></a>PREFACE TO LOGAN'S TRANSLATION OF<br /> +"CATO MAJOR"<a name="FNanchor_30_542" id="FNanchor_30_542"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_542" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">The Printer to the Reader</p> + +<p>This Version of Cicero's Tract <i>de Senectute</i>, was made Ten +Years since, by the Honourable and Learned Mr. Logan, of this +City; undertaken partly for his own Amusement, (being then +in his 60th Year, which is said to be nearly the Age of the +Author when he wrote it) but principally for the Entertainment +of a Neighbour then in his grand Climacteric; and the Notes +were drawn up solely on that Neighbour's Account, who was +not so well acquainted as himself with the Roman History and +Language: Some other Friends, however, (among whom I had +the Honour to be ranked) obtained Copies of it in MS. And, +as I believed it to be in itself equal at least, if not far preferable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +to any other Translation of the same Piece extant in our Language, +besides the Advantage it has of so many valuable Notes, +which at the same time they clear up the Text, are highly instructive +and entertaining; I resolved to give it an Impression, +being confident that the Publick would not unfavourably receive +it.</p> + +<p>A certain Freed-man of <i>Cicero's</i> is reported to have said of a +medicinal Well, discovered in his Time, wonderful for the +Virtue of its Waters in restoring Sight to the Aged, That it was +a Gift of the bountiful Gods to Men, to the end that all might +now have the Pleasure of reading his Master's Works. As that +Well, if still in being, is at too great a Distance for our Use, I +have, <i>Gentle Reader</i>, as thou seest, printed this Piece of <i>Cicero's</i> +in a large and fair Character, that those who begin to think on +the Subject of Old Age, (which seldom happens till their Sight +is somewhat impair'd by its Approaches) may not, in Reading, +by the <i>Pain</i> small Letters give the Eyes, feel the <i>Pleasure</i> of the +Mind in the least allayed.</p> + +<p>I shall add to these few Lines my hearty Wish, that this first +Translation of a <i>Classic</i> in this <i>Western World</i>, may be followed +with many others, performed with equal Judgment and Success; +and be a happy Omen, that <i>Philadelphia</i> shall become the Seat +of the <i>American</i> Muses.</p> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, Febr. 29. 1743/4.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOHN_FRANKLIN_AT_BOSTON" id="TO_JOHN_FRANKLIN_AT_BOSTON"></a>TO JOHN FRANKLIN, AT BOSTON<a name="FNanchor_31_543" id="FNanchor_31_543"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_543" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia [March 10], 1745.</p> + +<p>—Our people are extremely impatient to hear of your success +at Cape Breton. My shop is filled with thirty inquirers at the +coming in of every post. Some wonder the place is not yet +taken. I tell them I shall be glad to hear that news three months +hence. Fortified towns are hard nuts to crack; and your teeth +have not been accustomed to it. Taking strong places is a particular +trade, which you have taken up without serving an +apprenticeship to it. Armies and veterans need skilful engineers +to direct them in their attack. Have you any? But some seem<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +to think forts are as easy taken as snuff. Father Moody's prayers +look tolerably modest. You have a fast and prayer day for that +purpose; in which I compute five hundred thousand petitions +were offered up to the same effect in New England, which +added to the petitions of every family morning and evening, +multiplied by the number of days since January 25th, make +forty-five millions of prayers; which, set against the prayers +of a few priests in the garrison, to the Virgin Mary, give a vast +balance in your favour.</p> + +<p>If you do not succeed, I fear I shall have but an indifferent +opinion of Presbyterian prayers in such cases, as long as I live. +Indeed, in attacking strong towns I should have more dependence +on <i>works</i>, than on <i>faith</i>; for, like the kingdom of heaven, +they are to be taken by force and violence; and in a French +garrison I suppose there are devils of that kind, that they are +not to be cast out by prayers and fasting, unless it be by their +own fasting for want of provisions. I believe there is Scripture +in what I have wrote, but I cannot adorn the margin with quotations, +having a bad memory, and no Concordance at hand; +besides no more time than to subscribe myself, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1746" id="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1746"></a>PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD, 1746</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who is <i>Poor Richard</i>? People oft enquire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where lives? What is he? never yet the nigher.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Somewhat to ease your Curiositee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Take these slight Sketches of my Dame and me.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Thanks to kind Readers and a careful Wife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With plenty bless'd, I lead an easy Life;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My business Writing; less to drain the Mead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or crown the barren Hill with useful Shade;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the smooth Glebe to see the Plowshare worn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fill the Granary with needful Corn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Press nectareous Cyder from my loaded Trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Print the sweet Butter, turn the Drying Cheese.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some Books we read, tho' few there are that hit<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The happy Point where Wisdom joins with Wit;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That set fair Virtue naked to our View,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And teach us what is <i>decent</i>, what is <i>true</i>.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Friend sincere, and honest Man, with Joy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Treating or treated oft our Time employ.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Table next, Meals temperate; and our Door<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Op'ning spontaneous to the bashful Poor.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Free from the bitter Rage of Party Zeal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All those we love who seek the publick Weal.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor blindly follow Superstitious Love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which cheats deluded Mankind o'er and o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not over righteous, quite beyond the Rule,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conscience perplext by every canting Tool.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet when Folly hides the dubious Line,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Good and Bad the blended Colours join:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rush indiscreetly down the dangerous Steep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And plunge uncertain in the darksome Deep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cautious, if right; if wrong resolv'd to part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Inmate Snake that folds about the Heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Observe the <i>Mean</i>, the <i>Motive</i>, and the <i>End</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mending ourselves, or striving still to mend.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Souls sincere, our Purpose fair and free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without Vain Glory or Hypocrisy:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thankful if well; if ill, we kiss the Rod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resign with Hope, and put our Trust in God.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3><a name="THE_SPEECH_OF_POLLY_BAKER" id="THE_SPEECH_OF_POLLY_BAKER"></a>THE SPEECH OF POLLY BAKER<a name="FNanchor_32_544" id="FNanchor_32_544"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_544" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[Printed in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, April, 1747.]</p> + +<p>The Speech of Miss Polly Baker before a Court of Judicature, +at Connecticut near Boston in New England; where she was +prosecuted the fifth time, for having a Bastard Child: Which +influenced the Court to dispense with her Punishment, and +which induced one of her Judges to marry her the next Day—by +whom she had fifteen Children.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"May it please the honourable bench to indulge me in a few +words: I am a poor, unhappy woman, who have no money to +fee lawyers to plead for me, being hard put to it to get a living. I +shall not trouble your honours with long speeches; for I have +not the presumption to expect that you may, by any means, be +prevailed on to deviate in your Sentence from the law, in my +favour. All I humbly hope is, that your honours would charitably +move the governor's goodness on my behalf, that my fine +may be remitted. This is the fifth time, gentlemen, that I have +been dragg'd before your court on the same account; twice I +have paid heavy fines, and twice have been brought to publick +punishment, for want of money to pay those fines. This may +have been agreeable to the laws, and I don't dispute it; but since +laws are sometimes unreasonable in themselves, and therefore +repealed; and others bear too hard on the subject in particular +circumstances, and therefore there is left a power somewhere +to dispense with the execution of them; I take the liberty to say, +that I think this law, by which I am punished, both unreasonable +in itself, and particularly severe with regard to me, who have +always lived an inoffensive life in the neighbourhood where I +was born, and defy my enemies (if I have any) to say I ever +wrong'd any man, woman, or child. Abstracted from the law, +I cannot conceive (may it please your honours) what the nature +of my offense is. I have brought five fine children into the +world, at the risque of my life; I have maintain'd them well by +my own industry, without burthening the township, and would +have done it better, if it had not been for the heavy charges +and fines I have paid. Can it be a crime (in the nature of things, +I mean) to add to the king's subjects, in a new country, that +really wants people? I own it, I should think it rather a praiseworthy +than a punishable action. I have debauched no other +woman's husband, nor enticed any other youth; these things I +never was charg'd with; nor has any one the least cause of +complaint against me, unless, perhaps, the ministers of justice, +because I have had children without being married, by which +they have missed a wedding fee. But can this be a fault of mine? +I appeal to your honours. You are pleased to allow I don't +want sense; but I must be stupified to the last degree, not to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +prefer the honourable state of wedlock to the condition I have +lived in. I always was, and still am willing to enter into it; +and doubt not my behaving well in it, having all the industry, +frugality, fertility, and skill in economy appertaining to a good +wife's character. I defy any one to say I ever refused an offer of +that sort: on the contrary, I readily consented to the only +proposal of marriage that ever was made me, which was when +I was a virgin, but too easily confiding in the person's sincerity +that made it, I unhappily lost my honour by trusting to his; +for he got me with child, and then forsook me.</p> + +<p>"That very person, you all know, he is now become a magistrate +of this country; and I had hopes he would have appeared +this day on the bench, and have endeavoured to moderate the +Court in my favour; then I should have scorn'd to have mentioned +it; but I must now complain of it, as unjust and unequal, +that my betrayer and undoer, the first cause of all my faults +and miscarriages (if they must be deemed such), should be +advanced to honour and power in this government that punishes +my misfortunes with stripes and infamy. I should be told, 'tis +like, that were there no act of Assembly in the case, the precepts +of religion are violated by my transgressions. If mine is a +religious offense, leave it to religious punishments. You have +already excluded me from the comforts of your church communion. +Is not that sufficient? You believe I have offended +heaven, and must suffer eternal fire: Will not that be sufficient? +What need is there then of your additional fines and whipping? +I own I do not think as you do, for, if I thought what you call +a sin was really such, I could not presumptuously commit it. +But, how can it be believed that heaven is angry at my having +children, when to the little done by me towards it, God has +been pleased to add his divine skill and admirable workmanship +in the formation of their bodies, and crowned the whole by +furnishing them with rational and immortal souls?</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, gentlemen, if I talk a little extravagantly on +these matters; I am no divine, but if you, gentlemen, must be +making laws, do not turn natural and useful actions into crimes +by your prohibitions. But take into your wise consideration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +the great and growing number of batchelors in the country, +many of whom, from the mean fear of the expences of a family, +have never sincerely and honourably courted a woman in their +lives; and by their manner of living leave unproduced (which is +little better than murder) hundreds of their posterity to the +thousandth generation. Is not this a greater offense against the +publick good than mine? Compel them, then, by law, either to +marriage, or to pay double the fine of fornication every year. +What must poor young women do, whom customs and nature +forbid to solicit the men, and who cannot force themselves upon +husbands, when the laws take no care to provide them any, +and yet severely punish them if they do their duty without +them; the duty of the first and great command of nature and +nature's God, <i>encrease and multiply</i>; a duty, from the steady +performance of which nothing has been able to deter me, but +for its sake I have hazarded the loss of the publick esteem, and +have frequently endured publick disgrace and punishment; +and therefore ought, in my humble opinion, instead of a whipping, +to have a statue erected to my memory."</p></div> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1747" id="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_1747"></a>PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD, 1747</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Courteous Reader</span>,</p> + +<p>This is the 15th Time I have entertain'd thee with my annual +Productions; I hope to thy Profit as well as mine. For besides +the astronomical Calculations, and other Things usually contain'd +in Almanacks, which have their daily Use indeed while +the Year continues, but then become of no Value, I have constantly +interspers'd <i>moral</i> Sentences, <i>prudent</i> Maxims, and <i>wise</i> +Sayings, many of them containing <i>much good Sense</i> in <i>very few</i> +Words, and therefore apt to leave <i>strong</i> and <i>lasting</i> Impressions +on the Memory of young Persons, whereby they may +receive Benefit as long as they live, when both Almanack and +Almanack-maker have been long thrown by and forgotten. If +I now and then insert a Joke or two, that seem to have little in +them, my Apology <i>is</i> that such may have their Use, since perhaps +for their Sake light airy Minds peruse the rest, and so are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +struck by somewhat of more Weight and Moment. The +Verses on the Heads of the Months are also generally design'd +to have the same Tendency. I need not tell thee that not +many of them are of my own Making. If thou hast any Judgment +in Poetry, thou wilt easily discern the Workman from the +Bungler. I know as well as thee, that I am no <i>Poet born</i>; and it +is a Trade I never learnt, nor indeed could learn. <i>If I make +Verses, 'tis in Spight—of Nature and my Stars, I write.</i> Why +then should I give my Readers <i>bad Lines</i> of my own, when +<i>good Ones</i> of other People's are so plenty? 'Tis methinks a +poor Excuse for the bad Entertainment of Guests, that the Food +we set before them, tho' coarse and ordinary, <i>is of one's own +Raising, off one's own Plantation</i>, &c. when there is Plenty of +what is ten times better, to be had in the Market.—On the contrary, +I assure ye, my Friends, that I have procur'd the best I +could for ye, and <i>much Good may't do ye....</i></p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4"><i>I am thy poor Friend, to serve thee</i>,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">R. Saunders.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_PETER_COLLINSON_194" id="TO_PETER_COLLINSON_194"></a>TO PETER COLLINSON</h3> + +<p class="date">Philad<sup>a</sup> Aug<sup>t</sup> 14, 1747.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span></p> + +<p>I have lately written two long Letters to you on the Subject +of Electricity, one by the Governor's Vessel, the other per +Mesnard. On some further Experiments since I have observ'd a +Phenomenon or two, that I cannot at present account for on the +Principle laid down in those Letters, and am therefore become +a little diffident of my Hypothesis, and asham'd that I have +express'd myself in so positive a manner. In going on with these +Experiments how many pretty Systems do we build which we +soon find ourselves oblig'd to destroy! If there is no other Use +discover'd of Electricity this however is something considerable, +that it may <i>help to make a vain man humble</i>.</p> + +<p>I must now request that you would not Expose those Letters; +or if you communicate them to any Friends you would at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +least conceal my Name. I have not Time to add but that I am, +Sir,</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your obliged and most hum<sup>e</sup> Serv<sup>t</sup></span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_IMPROVED_1748" id="PREFACE_TO_POOR_RICHARD_IMPROVED_1748"></a>PREFACE TO POOR RICHARD IMPROVED, 1748</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kind Reader</span></p> + +<p>The favourable Reception my annual Labours have met +with from the Publick these 15 Years past, has engaged me in +Gratitude to endeavour some Improvements of my Almanack. +And since my Friend <i>Taylor</i> is no more, whose <i>Ephemerides</i> +so long and so agreeably serv'd and entertain'd these Provinces, +I have taken the Liberty to imitate his well-known Method, and +give two Pages for each Month; which affords me Room for +several valuable Additions, as will best appear on Inspection +and Comparison with former Almanacks. Yet I have not so +far follow'd his Method, as not to continue my own when I +thought it preferable; and thus my Book is increas'd to a Size +beyond his, and contains much more Matter.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hail Night serene! thro' Thee where'er we turn<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our wond'ring Eyes, Heav'n's Lamps profusely burn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Stars unnumber'd all the Sky adorn.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lo!—what's that I see appear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It seems far off a pointed flame;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Earthwards too the shining Meteor came:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How swift it climbs th' etherial Space!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now it traverses each Sphere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And seems some knowing Mind, familiar to the Place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dame, hand my Glass, the longest, strait prepare;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis He—'tis <span class="smcap">Taylor's</span> Soul, that travels there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O stay! thou happy Spirit, stay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lead me on thro' all th' unbeaten Wilds of Day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Planets in pure Streams of Ether driven,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swim thro' the blue Expanse of Heav'n.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There let me, thy Companion, stray<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From Orb to Orb, and now behold<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Unnumber'd Suns, all Seas of molten Gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And trace each Comet's wandring Way.—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Souse down into Prose again, my Muse; for Poetry's no more +thy Element, than Air is that of the Flying-Fish; whose Flights, +like thine, are therefore always short and heavy.—</p> + + +<h3><a name="ADVICE_TO_A_YOUNG_TRADESMAN" id="ADVICE_TO_A_YOUNG_TRADESMAN"></a>ADVICE TO A YOUNG TRADESMAN</h3> + +<p class="center">[1748]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">To my Friend</span>, A. B.:</p> + +<p>As you have desired it of me, I write the following hints, +which have been of service to me, and may, if observed, be so +to you.</p> + +<p>Remember, that <i>time</i> is money. He that can earn ten shillings +a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of +that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or +idleness, ought not to reckon <i>that</i> the only expense; he has +really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.</p> + +<p>Remember, that <i>credit</i> is money. If a man lets his money +lie in my hands after it is due, he gives me the interest, or so +much as I can make of it during that time. This amounts to a +considerable sum where a man has good and large credit, and +makes good use of it.</p> + +<p>Remember, that money is of the prolific, generating nature. +Money can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and +so on. Five shillings turned is six, turned again it is seven and +three-pence, and so on till it becomes an hundred pounds. The +more there is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that +the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a breeding +sow, destroys all her offspring to the thousandth generation. +He that murders a crown, destroys all that it might have produced, +even scores of pounds.</p> + +<p>Remember, that six pounds a year is but a groat a day. For +this little sum (which may be daily wasted either in time or +expense unperceived) a man of credit may, on his own security, +have the constant possession and use of an hundred pounds.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +So much in stock, briskly turned by an industrious man, produces +great advantage.</p> + +<p>Remember this saying, <i>The good paymaster is lord of another +man's purse</i>. He that is known to pay punctually and exactly +to the time he promises, may at any time, and on any occasion, +raise all the money his friends can spare. This is sometimes of +great use. After industry and frugality, nothing contributes +more to the raising of a young man in the world than punctuality +and justice in all his dealings; therefore never keep +borrowed money an hour beyond the time you promised, lest +a disappointment shut up your friend's purse for ever.</p> + +<p>The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be +regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or +nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him easy six months +longer; but, if he sees you at a billiard-table, or hears your voice +at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his +money the next day; demands it, before he can receive it, in a +lump.</p> + +<p>It shows, besides, that you are mindful of what you owe; it +makes you appear a careful as well as an honest man, and that +still increases your credit.</p> + +<p>Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of +living accordingly. It is a mistake that many people who have +credit fall into. To prevent this, keep an exact account for some +time, both of your expenses and your income. If you take the +pains at first to mention particulars, it will have this good +effect: you will discover how wonderfully small, trifling expenses +mount up to large sums, and will discern what might +have been, and may for the future be saved, without occasioning +any great inconvenience.</p> + +<p>In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the +way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, <i>industry</i> and +<i>frugality</i>; that is, waste neither <i>time</i> nor <i>money</i>, but make the +best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will +do, and with them every thing. He that gets all he can honestly, +and saves all he gets (necessary expenses excepted), will certainly +become <i>rich</i>, if that Being who governs the world, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +whom all should look for a blessing on their honest endeavours, +doth not, in his wise providence, otherwise determine.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">An Old Tradesman.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_GEORGE_WHITEFIELD" id="TO_GEORGE_WHITEFIELD"></a>TO GEORGE WHITEFIELD</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, July 6, 1749.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span></p> + +<p>Since your being in England, I have received two of your +favours and a box of books to be disposed of. It gives me +great pleasure to hear of your welfare and that you purpose +soon to return to America.</p> + +<p>We have no news here worth writing to you. The affair of +the building remains in <i>statu quo</i>, there having been no new +application to the Assembly about it, or anything done in +consequence of the former.</p> + +<p>I have received no money on your account from Mr. Thanklin, +or from Boston. Mrs. Read and your other friends here, in +general, are well, and will rejoice to see you again.</p> + +<p>I am glad to hear that you have frequent opportunities of +preaching among the great. If you can gain them to a good and +exemplary life, wonderful changes will follow in the manners of +the lower ranks; for <i>ad exemplum regis</i>, etc. On this principle, +Confucius, the famous Eastern reformer, proceeded. When he +saw his country sunk in vice, and wickedness of all kinds +triumphant, he applied himself first to the grandees; and +having, by his doctrine, won <i>them</i> to the cause of virtue, the +commons followed in multitudes. The mode has a wonderful +influence on mankind; and there are numbers who, perhaps, +fear less the being in hell, than out of the fashion. Our most +western reformations began with the ignorant mob; and when +numbers of them were gained, interest and party views drew +in the wise and great. Where both methods can be used, reformations +are likely to be more speedy. O that some method +could be found to make them lasting! He who discovers that +will, in my opinion, deserve more, ten thousand times, than +the inventor of the longitude.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p> + +<p>My wife and family join in the most cordial salutations to you +and good Mrs. Whitefield.</p> + +<p>I am, dear Sir, your very affectionate friend, and most +obliged humble Servant</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Benjamin Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="PROPOSALS_RELATING_TO_THE_EDUCATION_OF_YOUTH_IN_PENSILVANIA" id="PROPOSALS_RELATING_TO_THE_EDUCATION_OF_YOUTH_IN_PENSILVANIA"></a>PROPOSALS RELATING TO THE EDUCATION OF<br /> +YOUTH IN PENSILVANIA</h3> + +<p class="center">PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED IN THE YEAR, MDCCXLIX<a name="FNanchor_33_545" id="FNanchor_33_545"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_545" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p class="center">"Advertisement to the Reader.</p> + +<p>"It has long been regretted as a Misfortune to the Youth of +this Province, that we have no <span class="smcap">Academy</span>, in which they +might receive the Accomplishments of a regular Education. +The following Paper of Hints towards forming a Plan for that +Purpose, is so far approv'd by some publick-spirited Gentlemen, +to whom it has been privately communicated, that they +have directed a Number of Copies to be made by the Press, +and properly distributed, in order to obtain the Sentiments and +Advice of Men of Learning, Understanding, and Experience in +these Matters; and have determined to use their Interest and +best Endeavours, to have the Scheme, when compleated, +carried gradually into Execution; in which they have Reason +to believe they shall have the hearty Concurrence and Assistance +of many who are Wellwishers to their Country. Those +who incline to favour the Design with their Advice, either as +to the Parts of Learning to be taught, the Order of Study, the +Method of Teaching, the Œconomy of the School, or any other +Matter of Importance to the Success of the Undertaking, are +desired to communicate their Sentiments as soon as may be, by +Letter directed to <span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>, <i>Printer</i>, in <span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>."</p> + +<p class="section center">PROPOSALS</p> + +<p>The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise +Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both +of private Families and of Commonwealths. Almost all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their +Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such +Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age +with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, +and to their Country.</p> + +<p>Many of the first Settlers of these Provinces were Men who +had received a good Education in <i>Europe</i>, and to their Wisdom +and good Management we owe much of our present Prosperity. +But their Hands were full, and they could not do all +Things. The present Race are not thought to be generally of +equal Ability: For though the <i>American</i> Youth are allow'd not +to want Capacity; yet the best Capacities require Cultivation, +it being truly with them, as with the best Ground, which +unless well tilled and sowed with profitable Seed, produces +only ranker Weeds.</p> + +<p>That we may obtain the Advantages arising from an Increase +of Knowledge, and prevent as much as may be the mischievous +Consequences that would attend a general Ignorance among us, +the following <i>Hints</i> are offered towards forming a Plan for the +Education of the Youth of <i>Pennsylvania</i>, viz.</p> + +<p>It is propos'd,</p> + +<p>That some Persons of Leisure and publick Spirit apply for a +<span class="smcap">Charter</span>, by which they may be incorporated, with Power +to erect an <span class="smcap">Academy</span> for the Education of Youth, to govern +the same, provide Masters, make Rules, receive Donations, +purchase Lands, etc., and to add to their Number, from Time +to Time such other Persons as they shall judge suitable.</p> + +<p>That the Members of the Corporation make it their Pleasure, +and in some Degree their Business, to visit the Academy +often, encourage and countenance the Youth, countenance +and assist the Masters, and by all Means in their Power advance +the Usefulness and Reputation of the Design; that they look +on the Students as in some Sort their Children, treat them +with Familiarity and Affection, and, when they have behav'd +well, and gone through their Studies, and are to enter the +World, zealously unite, and make all the Interest that can be +made to establish them, whether in Business, Offices, Marriages,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +or any other Thing for their Advantage, preferably to all other +Persons whatsoever even of equal Merit.</p> + +<p>And if Men may, and frequently do, catch such a Taste for +cultivating Flowers, for Planting, Grafting, Inoculating, and +the like, as to despise all other Amusements for their Sake, why +may not we expect they should acquire a Relish for that <i>more +useful</i> Culture of young Minds. <i>Thompson</i> says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Tis Joy to see the human Blossoms blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When infant Reason grows apace, and calls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the kind Hand of an assiduous Care.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Delightful Task! to rear the tender Thought,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To teach the young Idea how to shoot;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To pour the fresh Instruction o'er the Mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To breathe th' enliv'ning Spirit, and to fix<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The generous Purpose in the glowing Breast."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>That a House be provided for the <span class="smcap">Academy</span>, if not in the +Town, not many Miles from it; the Situation high and dry, and +if it may be, not far from a River, having a Garden, Orchard, +Meadow, and a Field or two.</p> + +<p>That the House be furnished with a Library (if in the Country, +if in the Town, the Town Libraries may serve) with Maps +of all Countries, Globes, some mathematical Instruments, an +Apparatus for Experiments in Natural Philosophy, and for +Mechanics; Prints, of all Kinds, Prospects, Buildings, Machines, +&c.</p> + +<p>That the Rector be a Man of good Understanding, good +Morals, diligent and patient, learn'd in the Languages and +Sciences, and a correct pure Speaker and Writer of the <i>English</i> +Tongue; to have such Tutors under him as shall be necessary.</p> + +<p>That the boarding Scholars diet together, plainly, temperately, +and frugally.</p> + +<p>That, to keep them in Health, and to strengthen and render +active their Bodies, they be frequently exercis'd in Running, +Leaping, Wrestling, and Swimming, &c.</p> + +<p>That they have peculiar Habits to distinguish them from +other Youth, if the Academy be in or near the Town; for this,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +among other Reasons, that their Behaviour may be the better +observed.</p> + +<p>As to their <span class="smcap">Studies</span>, it would be well if they could be +taught <i>every Thing</i> that is useful, and <i>every Thing</i> that is ornamental: +But Art is long, and their Time is short. It is therefore +propos'd that they learn those Things that are likely to be +<i>most useful</i> and <i>most ornamental</i>. Regard being had to the +several Professions for which they are intended.</p> + +<p>All should be taught to write a <i>fair Hand</i>, and swift, as that +is useful to All. And with it may be learnt something of +<i>Drawing</i>, by Imitation of Prints, and some of the first Principles +of Perspective.</p> + +<p><i>Arithmetick</i>, <i>Accounts</i>, and some of the first Principles of +<i>Geometry</i> and <i>Astronomy</i>.</p> + +<p>The <i>English</i> Language might be taught by Grammar; in +which some of our best Writers, as <i>Tillotson</i>, <i>Addison</i>, <i>Pope</i>, +<i>Algernoon Sidney</i>, <i>Cato's Letters</i>, &c.; should be Classicks: the +<i>Stiles</i> principally to be cultivated, being the <i>clear</i> and the +<i>concise</i>. Reading should also be taught, and pronouncing, +properly, distinctly, emphatically; not with an even Tone, +which <i>under-does</i>, nor a theatrical, which <i>over-does</i> Nature.</p> + +<p>To form their Stile they should be put on Writing Letters +to each other, making Abstracts of what they read; or writing +the same Things in their own Words; telling or writing Stories +lately read, in their own Expressions. All to be revis'd and +corrected by the Tutor, who should give his Reasons, and +explain the Force and Import of Words, &c.</p> + +<p>To form their Pronunciation, they may be put on making +Declamations, repeating Speeches, delivering Orations, &c.; +The Tutor assisting at the Rehearsals, teaching, advising, +correcting their Accent, &c.</p> + +<p>But if History be made a constant Part of their Reading, +such as the Translations of the <i>Greek</i> and <i>Roman</i> Historians, +and the modern Histories of ancient <i>Greece</i> and <i>Rome</i>, &c. may +not almost all Kinds of useful Knowledge be that Way introduc'd +to Advantage, and with Pleasure to the Student? As</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Geography</span>, by reading with Maps, and being required<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +to point out the Places <i>where</i> the greatest Actions were done, to +give their old and new Names, with the Bounds, Situation, +Extent of the Countries concern'd, &c.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Chronology</span>, by the Help of <i>Helvicus</i> or some other +Writer of the Kind, who will enable them to tell <i>when</i> those +Events happened; what Princes were Cotemporaries, what +States or famous Men flourish'd about that Time, &c. The +several principal Epochas to be first well fix'd in their Memories.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Antient Customs</span>, religious and civil, being frequently +mentioned in History, will give Occasion for explaining them; +in which the Prints of Medals, Basso-Relievos, and antient +Monuments will greatly assist.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Morality</span>, by descanting and making continual Observations +on the Causes of the Rise or Fall of any Man's Character, +Fortune, Power &c. mention'd in History; the Advantages of +Temperance, Order, Frugality, Industry, Perseverance &c., &c. +Indeed the general natural Tendency of Reading good History +must be, to fix in the Minds of Youth deep Impressions of the +Beauty and Usefulness of Virtue of all Kinds, Publick Spirit, +Fortitude, &c.</p> + +<p><i>History</i> will show the wonderful Effects of <span class="smcap">Oratory</span>, in +governing, turning and leading great Bodies of Mankind, +Armies, Cities, Nations. When the Minds of Youth are struck +with Admiration at this, then is the Time to give them the +Principles of that Art, which they will study with Taste and +Application. Then they may be made acquainted with the best +Models among the antients, their Beauties being particularly +pointed out to them. Modern Political Oratory being chiefly +performed by the Pen and Press, its Advantages over the +Antient in some Respects are to be shown; as that its Effects +are more extensive, more lasting, &c.</p> + +<p><i>History</i> will also afford frequent Opportunities of showing +the Necessity of a <i>Publick Religion</i>, from its Usefulness to the +Publick; the Advantage of a Religious Character among +private Persons; the Mischiefs of Superstition, &c. and the +Excellency of the <span class="smcap">Christian Religion</span> above all others antient +or modern.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>History</i> will also give Occasion to expatiate on the Advantage +of Civil Orders and Constitutions; how Men and their +Properties are protected by joining in Societies and establishing +Government; their Industry encouraged and rewarded, Arts +invented, and Life made more comfortable: The Advantages +of <i>Liberty</i>, Mischiefs of <i>Licentiousness</i>, Benefits arising from +good Laws and a due Execution of Justice, &c. Thus may +the first Principles of sound <i>Politicks</i> be fix'd in the Minds of +Youth.</p> + +<p>On <i>Historical</i> Occasions, Questions of Right and Wrong, +Justice and Injustice, will naturally arise, and may be put to +Youth, which they may debate in Conversation and in Writing. +When they ardently desire Victory, for the Sake of the Praise +attending it, they will begin to feel the Want, and be sensible +of the Use of <i>Logic</i>, or the Art of Reasoning to <i>discover</i> Truth, +and of Arguing to <i>defend</i> it, and <i>convince</i> Adversaries. This +would be the Time to acquaint them with the Principles of +that Art. Grotius, Puffendorff, and some other Writers of the +same Kind, may be used on these Occasions to decide their +Disputes. Publick Disputes warm the Imagination, whet the +Industry, and strengthen the natural Abilities.</p> + +<p>When Youth are told, that the Great Men whose Lives and +Actions they read in History, spoke two of the best Languages +that ever were, the most expressive, copious, beautiful; and that +the finest Writings, the most correct Compositions, the most +perfect Productions of human Wit and Wisdom, are in those +Languages, which have endured Ages, and will endure while +there are Men; that no Translation can do them Justice, or +give the Pleasure found in Reading the Originals; that those +Languages contain all Science; that one of them is become almost +universal, being the Language of Learned Men in all +Countries; that to understand them is a distinguishing Ornament, +&c. they may be thereby made desirous of learning those +Languages, and their Industry sharpen'd in the Acquisition of +them. All intended for Divinity, should be taught the <i>Latin</i> +and <i>Greek</i>; for Physick, the <i>Latin</i>, <i>Greek</i>, and <i>French</i>; for Law, +the <i>Latin</i> and <i>French</i>; Merchants, the <i>French</i>, <i>German</i>, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +<i>Spanish</i>: And though all should not be compell'd to learn +<i>Latin</i>, <i>Greek</i>, or the modern foreign Languages; yet none that +have an ardent Desire to learn them should be refused; their +<i>English</i>, Arithmetick and other Studies absolutely necessary, +being at the same Time not neglected.</p> + +<p>If the new <i>Universal History</i> were also read, it would give a +<i>connected</i> Idea of human Affairs, so far as it goes, which should +be follow'd by the best modern Histories, particularly of our +Mother Country; then of these Colonies; which should be +accompanied with Observations on their Rise, Encrease, Use +to <i>Great Britain</i>, Encouragements, Discouragements, etc. the +Means to make them flourish, secure their Liberties, &c.</p> + +<p>With the History of Men, Times, and Nations, should be +read at proper Hours or Days, some of the best <i>Histories of +Nature</i>, which would not only be delightful to Youth, and +furnish them with Matter for their Letters, &c. as well as other +History; but afterwards of great Use to them, whether they are +Merchants, Handicrafts, or Divines; enabling the first the better +to understand many Commodities, Drugs, &c; the second to +improve his Trade or Handicraft by new Mixtures, Materials, +&c., and the last to adorn his Discourses by beautiful Comparisons, +and strengthen them by new Proofs of Divine +Providence. The Conversation of all will be improved by it, +as Occasions frequently occur of making Natural Observations, +which are instructive, agreeable, and entertaining in +almost all Companies. <i>Natural History</i> will also afford Opportunities +of introducing many Observations, relating to the +Preservation of Health, which may be afterwards of great Use. +<i>Arbuthnot</i> on Air and <i>Aliment</i>, <i>Sanctorius</i> on Perspiration, +<i>Lemery</i> on Foods, and some others, may now be read, and a +very little Explanation will make them sufficiently intelligible +to Youth.</p> + +<p>While they are reading Natural History, might not a little +<i>Gardening</i>, <i>Planting</i>, <i>Grafting</i>, <i>Inoculating</i>, etc., be taught and +practised; and now and then Excursions made to the neighbouring +Plantations of the best Farmers, their Methods observ'd +and reason'd upon for the Information of Youth? The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +Improvement of Agriculture being useful to all, and Skill in +it no Disparagement to any.</p> + +<p>The History of <i>Commerce</i>, of the Invention of Arts, Rise of +Manufactures, Progress of Trade, Change of its Seats, with the +Reasons, Causes, &c., may also be made entertaining to Youth, +and will be useful to all. And this, with the Accounts in other +History of the prodigious Force and Effect of Engines and +Machines used in War, will naturally introduce a Desire to be +instructed in <i>Mechanicks</i>, and to be inform'd of the Principles +of that Art by which weak Men perform such Wonders, +Labour is sav'd, Manufactures expedited, &c. This will be the +Time to show them Prints of antient and modern Machines, to +explain them, to let them be copied, and to give Lectures in +Mechanical Philosophy.</p> + +<p>With the whole should be constantly inculcated and cultivated, +that <i>Benignity of Mind</i>, which shows itself in <i>searching +for</i> and <i>seizing</i> every Opportunity <i>to serve</i> and <i>to oblige</i>; and is +the Foundation of what is called <span class="smcap">Good Breeding</span>; highly useful +to the Possessor, and most agreeable to all.</p> + +<p>The Idea of what is <i>true Merit</i> should also be often presented +to Youth, explain'd and impress'd on their <i>Minds</i>, as +consisting in an <i>Inclination</i> join'd with an <i>Ability</i> to serve Mankind, +one's Country, Friends and Family; which <i>Ability</i> is +(with the Blessing of God) to be acquir'd or greatly encreas'd +by <i>true Learning</i>; and should indeed be the great <i>Aim</i> and +<i>End</i> of all Learning.</p> + + +<h3><a name="IDEA_OF_THE_ENGLISH_SCHOOL" id="IDEA_OF_THE_ENGLISH_SCHOOL"></a>IDEA OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL</h3> + +<p class="center">Sketch'd out for the Consideration of the Trustees of +the Philadelphia Academy [1751]<a name="FNanchor_34_546" id="FNanchor_34_546"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_546" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>It is expected that every Scholar to be admitted into this +School, be at least able to pronounce and divide the Syllables +in Reading, and to write a legible Hand. None to be receiv'd +that are under <span class="lpad2">Years of Age.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> + +<p class="section center">FIRST OR LOWEST CLASS</p> + +<p>Let the first Class learn the <i>English Grammar</i> Rules, and at +the same time let particular Care be taken to improve them in +<i>Orthography</i>. Perhaps the latter is best done by <i>Pairing</i> the +Scholars, two of those nearest equal in their Spelling to be put +together; let these strive for Victory, each propounding Ten +Words every Day to the other to be spelt. He that spells truly +most of the other's Words, is Victor for that Day; he that is +Victor most Days in a Month, to obtain a Prize, a pretty neat +Book of some Kind useful in their future Studies. This Method +fixes the Attention of Children extreamly to the Orthography +of Words, and makes them good Spellers very early. 'Tis a +Shame for a Man to be so ignorant of this little Art, in his own +Language, as to be perpetually confounding Words of like +Sound and different Significations; the Consciousness of which +Defect, makes some Men, otherwise of good Learning and Understanding, +averse to Writing even a common Letter.</p> + +<p>Let the Pieces read by the Scholars in this Class be short, +such as <i>Croxall's</i> Fables,<a name="FNanchor_35_547" id="FNanchor_35_547"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_547" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> and little Stories. In giving the Lesson, +let it be read to them; let the Meaning of the difficult Words +in it be explained to them, and let them con it over by themselves +before they are called to read to the Master, or Usher; +who is to take particular Care that they do not read too fast, +and that they duly observe the Stops and Pauses. A Vocabulary +of the most usual difficult Words might be formed for their +Use, with Explanations; and they might daily get a few of those +Words and Explanations by Heart, which would a little exercise +their Memories; or at least they might write a Number of them +in a small Book for the Purpose, which would help to fix the +Meaning of those Words in their Minds, and at the same Time +furnish every one with a little Dictionary for his future Use.</p> + +<p class="section center">THE SECOND CLASS</p> + +<p>to be taught Reading with Attention, and with proper Modulations +of the Voice, according to the Sentiments and Subject.</p> + +<p>Some short Pieces, not exceeding the Length of a <i>Spectator</i>,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +to be given this Class as Lessons (and some of the easier +<i>Spectators</i> would be very suitable for the Purpose.) These +Lessons might be given over Night as Tasks, the Scholars to +study them against the Morning. Let it then be required of +them to give an Account, first of the Parts of Speech, and Construction +of one or two Sentences; this will oblige them to recur +frequently to their Grammar, and fix its principal Rules in their +Memory. Next of the <i>Intention</i> of the Writer, or the <i>Scope</i> of +the Piece; the Meaning of each Sentence, and of every uncommon +Word. This would early acquaint them with the Meaning +and Force of Words, and give them that most necessary Habit, +of Reading with Attention.</p> + +<p>The Master then to read the Piece with the proper Modulations +of Voice, due Emphasis, and suitable Action, where +Action is required; and put the Youth on imitating his Manner.</p> + +<p>Where the Author has us'd an Expression not the best, let it +be pointed out; and let his Beauties be particularly remarked +to the Youth.</p> + +<p>Let the Lessons for Reading be varied, that the Youth may +be made acquainted with good Stiles of all Kinds in Prose and +Verse, and the proper Manner of reading each Kind. Sometimes +a well-told Story, a Piece of a Sermon, a General's Speech to his +Soldiers, a Speech in a Tragedy, some Part of a Comedy, an +Ode, a Satyr, a Letter, Blank Verse, Hudibrastick, Heroic, etc. +But let such Lessons for Reading be chosen, as contain some +useful Instruction, whereby the Understandings or Morals of +the Youth, may at the same Time be improv'd.</p> + +<p>It is requir'd that they should first study and understand the +Lessons, before they are put upon reading them properly, to +which End each Boy should have an <i>English</i> Dictionary, to +help him over Difficulties. When our Boys read <i>English</i> to +us, we are apt to imagine <i>they</i> understand what <i>they</i> read, because +<i>we</i> do, and because 'tis their Mother Tongue. But they +often read as Parrots speak, knowing little or nothing of the +Meaning. And it is impossible a Reader should give the due +Modulation to his Voice, and pronounce properly, unless his +Understanding goes before his Tongue, and makes him Master<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +of the Sentiment. Accustoming Boys to read aloud what they +do not first understand, is the Cause of those even set Tones so +common among Readers, which when they have once got a +Habit of using, they find so difficult to correct: By which Means, +among Fifty Readers, we scarcely find a good One. For want +of good Reading, Pieces publish'd with a View to influence the +Minds of Men for their own or the publick Benefit, lose Half +their Force. Were there but one good Reader in a Neighbourhood, +a publick Orator might be heard throughout a Nation +with the same Advantages, and have the same Effect on his +Audience, as if they stood within the Reach of his Voice.</p> + +<p class="section center">THE THIRD CLASS</p> + +<p>to be taught Speaking properly and gracefully, which is near of +Kin to good Reading, and naturally follows it in the Studies +of Youth. Let the Scholars of this Class begin with learning the +Elements of Rhetoric from some short System, so as to be able +to give an Account of the most usual Tropes and Figures. Let +all their bad Habits of Speaking, all Offences against good +Grammar, all corrupt or foreign Accents, and all improper +Phrases, be pointed out to them. Short Speeches from the +<i>Roman</i>, or other History, or from our <i>Parliamentary Debates</i>, +might be got by heart, and deliver'd with the proper Action, &c. +Speeches and Scenes in our best Tragedies and Comedies (avoiding +every Thing that could injure the Morals of Youth) might +likewise be got by Rote, and the Boys exercis'd in delivering +or acting them; great Care being taken to form their Manner +after the truest Models.</p> + +<p>For their farther Improvement, and a little to vary their +Studies, let them now begin to read <i>History</i>, after having got +by Heart a short Table of the principal Epochas in Chronology. +They may begin with <i>Rollin's Antient and Roman Histories</i>, and +proceed at proper Hours as they go thro' the subsequent Classes, +with the best Histories of our own Nation and Colonies. Let +Emulation be excited among the Boys by giving, Weekly, little +Prizes, or other small Encouragements to those who are able to +give the best Account of what they have read, as to Times,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +Places, Names of Persons, &c. This will make them read with +Attention, and imprint the History well in their Memories. In +remarking on the History, the Master will have fine Opportunities +of instilling Instruction of various Kinds, and improving +the Morals as well as the Understandings of Youth.</p> + +<p>The Natural and Mechanic History contain'd in the <i>Spectacle +de la Nature</i>, might also be begun in this Class, and continued +thro' the subsequent Classes by other Books of the same Kind: +For next to the Knowledge of <i>Duty</i>, this Kind of Knowledge is +certainly the most useful, as well as the most entertaining. The +Merchant may thereby be enabled better to understand many +Commodities in Trade; the Handicraftsman to improve his +Business by new Instruments, Mixtures and Materials; and frequently +Hints are given of new Manufactures, or new Methods +of improving Land, that may be set on foot greatly to the Advantage +of a Country.</p> + +<p class="section center">THE FOURTH CLASS</p> + +<p>to be taught Composition. Writing one's own Language well, +is the next necessary Accomplishment after good Speaking. +'Tis the Writing-Master's Business to take Care that the Boys +make fair Characters, and place them straight and even in the +Lines: But to <i>form their Stile</i>, and even to take Care that the +Stops and Capitals are properly disposed, is the Part of the +<i>English</i> Master. The Boys should be put on Writing Letters +to each other on any common Occurrences, and on various +Subjects, imaginary Business, &c., containing little Stories, Accounts +of their late Reading, what Parts of Authors please them, +and why; Letters of Congratulation, of Compliment, of Request, +of Thanks, of Recommendation, of Admonition, of Consolation, +of Expostulation, Excuse, &c. In these they should be +taught to express themselves clearly, concisely, and naturally, +without affected Words or high-flown Phrases. All their Letters +to pass through the Master's Hand, who is to point out the +Faults, advise the Corrections, and commend what he finds +right. Some of the best Letters published in our own Language, +as <i>Sir William Temple's</i>, those of <i>Pope</i>, and his Friends, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +some others, might be set before the Youth as Models, their +Beauties pointed out and explained by the Master, the Letters +themselves transcrib'd by the Scholar.</p> + +<p>Dr. Johnson's <i>Ethices Elementa</i>,<a name="FNanchor_36_548" id="FNanchor_36_548"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_548" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> or First Principles of Morality, +may now be read by the Scholars, and explain'd by the +Master, to lay a solid Foundation of Virtue and Piety in their +Minds. And as this Class continues the Reading of History, +let them now at proper Hours receive some farther Instruction +in Chronology, and in that Part of Geography (from the Mathematical +Master), which is necessary to understand the Maps and +Globes. They should also be acquainted with the modern +Names of the Places they find mention'd in antient Writers. +The Exercises of good Reading, and proper Speaking, still continued +at suitable Times.</p> + +<p class="section center">FIFTH CLASS</p> + +<p>To improve the Youth in <i>Composition</i>, they may now, besides +continuing to write Letters, begin to write little Essays in +Prose, and sometimes in Verse, not to make them Poets, but +for this Reason, that nothing acquaints a Lad so speedily with +Variety of Expression, as the Necessity of finding such Words +and Phrases as will suit with the Measure, Sound, and Rhime +of Verse, and at the same time well express the Sentiment. +These Essays should all pass under the Master's Eye, who will +point out their Faults, and put the Writer on correcting them. +Where the Judgment is not ripe enough for forming new Essays, +let the Sentiments of a <i>Spectator</i> be given, and requir'd to be +cloath'd in a Scholar's own Words; or the Circumstances of +some good Story, the Scholar to find Expression. Let them be +put sometimes on abridging a Paragraph of a diffuse Author, +sometimes on dilating or amplifying what is wrote more closely. +And now let Dr. Johnson's <i>Noetica</i>, or First Principles of +Human Knowledge, containing a Logic, or Art of Reasoning, +&c. be read by the Youth, and the Difficulties that may occur +to them be explained by the Master. The Reading of History, +and the Exercises of good Reading and just Speaking, still +continued.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span></p> + +<p class="section center">SIXTH CLASS</p> + +<p>In this Class, besides continuing the Studies of the preceding, +in History, Rhetoric, Logic, Moral and Natural Philosophy, the +best <i>English</i> Authors may be read and explain'd; as <i>Tillotson</i>, +<i>Milton</i>, <i>Locke</i>, <i>Addison</i>, <i>Pope</i>, <i>Swift</i>, the higher Papers in the +<i>Spectator</i> and <i>Guardian</i>, the best Translations of <i>Homer</i>, <i>Virgil</i>, +and <i>Horace</i>, of <i>Telemachus</i>, <i>Travels of Cyrus</i>, &c.<a name="FNanchor_37_549" id="FNanchor_37_549"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_549" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>Once a Year let there be publick Exercises in the Hall, the +Trustees and Citizens present. Then let fine gilt Books be given +as Prizes to such Boys as distinguish themselves and excel the +others in any Branch of Learning, making three Degrees of +Comparison; giving the best Prize to him that performs best; +a less valuable One to him that comes up next to the best; and +another to the third. Commendations, Encouragement and +Advice to the rest; keeping up their Hopes, that by Industry +they may excel another Time. The Names of those that obtain +the Prizes to be yearly printed in a List.</p> + +<p>The Hours of each Day are to be divided and dispos'd in such +a Manner, as that some Classes may be with the Writing-Master, +improving their Hands, others with the Mathematical Master, +learning Arithmetick, Accompts, Geography, Use of the Globes, +Drawing, Mechanicks, &c.; while the rest are in the <i>English</i> +School, under the <i>English</i> Master's Care.</p> + +<p>Thus instructed, Youth will come out of this School fitted +for learning any Business, Calling or Profession, except such +wherein Languages are required; and tho' unacquainted with +any antient or foreign Tongue, they will be Masters of their own, +which is of more immediate and general Use; and withal will +have attain'd many other valuable Accomplishments; the Time +usually spent in acquiring those Languages, often without Success, +being here employ'd in laying such a Foundation of Knowledge +and Ability, as, properly improv'd, may qualify them to +pass thro' and execute the several Offices of civil Life, with Advantage +and Reputation to themselves and Country.</p> + +<p class="sig">B.F.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_CADWALLADER_COLDEN_ESQ_AT_NEW_YORK" id="TO_CADWALLADER_COLDEN_ESQ_AT_NEW_YORK"></a>TO C[ADWALLADER] C[OLDEN] ESQ. AT NEW YORK</h3> + +<p class="center">Communicated to Mr. Collinson</p> + +<p class="date">[Philadelphia] 1751.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I inclose you answers, such as my present hurry of business +will permit me to make, to the principal queries contained in +yours of the 28th instant, and beg leave to refer you to the +latter piece in the printed collection of my papers, for farther +explanation of the difference between what are called <i>electrics +per se</i>, and <i>non-electrics</i>. When you have had time to read and +consider these papers, I will endeavour to make any new experiments +you shall propose, that you think may afford farther +light or satisfaction to either of us; and shall be much obliged +to you for such remarks, objections, &c., as may occur to you.</p> + +<p>I forget whether I wrote you that I have melted brass pins and +steel needles, inverted the poles of the magnetic needle, given a +magnetism and polarity to needles that had none, and fired dry +gunpowder by the electric spark. I have five bottles that contain +8 or 9 gallons each, two of which charg'd, are sufficient for +those purposes: but I can charge and discharge them altogether. +There are no bounds (but what expence and labour give) to the +force man may raise and use in the electrical way: for bottle +may be added to bottle <i>in infinitum</i>, and all united and discharged +together as one, the force and effect proportioned to their number +and size. The greatest known effects of common lightning +may, I think, without much difficulty, be exceeded in this way, +which a few years since could not have been believed, and even +now may seem to many a little extravagant to suppose. So we +are got beyond the skill of <i>Rabelais's</i> devils of two years old, +who, he humorously says, had only learnt to thunder and lighten +a little round the head of a cabbage.<a name="FNanchor_38_550" id="FNanchor_38_550"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_550" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad10">I am, with sincere respect,</span><br /> +<span class="rpad4">Your most obliged humble servant,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="EXPORTING_OF_FELONS_TO_THE_COLONIES" id="EXPORTING_OF_FELONS_TO_THE_COLONIES"></a>EXPORTING OF FELONS TO THE COLONIES</h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, May 9, 1751.]</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">To the Printers of the Gazette</span></p> + +<p>By a Passage in one of your late Papers, I understand that +the Government at home will not suffer our mistaken Assemblies +to make any Law for preventing or discouraging the Importation +of Convicts from Great Britain, for this kind Reason, +'<i>That such Laws are against the Publick Utility, as they tend +to prevent the</i> <span class="smcap">Improvement</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Well Peopling</span> <i>of the Colonies</i>.'</p> + +<p>Such a tender <i>parental</i> Concern in our <i>Mother Country</i> for +the <i>Welfare</i> of her <i>Children</i>, calls aloud for the highest <i>Returns</i> +of Gratitude and Duty. This every one must be sensible of: +But 'tis said, that in our present Circumstances it is absolutely +impossible for us to make <i>such</i> as are adequate to the Favour. +I own it; but nevertheless let us do our Endeavour. 'Tis something +to show a grateful Disposition.</p> + +<p>In some of the uninhabited Parts of these Provinces, there +are Numbers of these venomous Reptiles we call <span class="smcap">Rattle-Snakes</span>; +Felons-convict from the Beginning of the World: +These, whenever we meet with them, we put to Death, by +Virtue of an old Law, <i>Thou shalt bruise his Head</i>. But as this is +a sanguinary Law, and may seem too cruel; and as however +mischievous those Creatures are with us, they may possibly +change their Natures, if they were to change the Climate; I +would humbly propose, that this general Sentence of <i>Death</i> be +changed for <i>Transportation</i>.</p> + +<p>In the Spring of the Year, when they first creep out of their +Holes, they are feeble, heavy, slow, and easily taken; and if a +small Bounty were allow'd <i>per</i> Head, some Thousands might +be collected annually, and <i>transported</i> to <i>Britain</i>. There I would +propose to have them carefully distributed in <i>St. James's Park</i>, +in the <i>Spring-Gardens</i> and other Places of Pleasure about <i>London</i>; +in the Gardens of all the Nobility and Gentry throughout<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +the Nation; but particularly in the Gardens of the <i>Prime Ministers</i>, +the <i>Lords of Trade</i> and <i>Members of Parliament</i>; for to them +we are <i>most particularly</i> obliged.</p> + +<p>There is no human Scheme so perfect, but some Inconveniencies +may be objected to it: Yet when the Conveniencies +far exceed, the Scheme is judg'd rational, and fit to be executed. +Thus Inconveniencies have been objected to that <i>good</i> and <i>wise</i> +Act of Parliament, by virtue of which all the <i>Newgates</i> and +<i>Dungeons</i> in <i>Britain</i> are emptied into the Colonies. It has been +said, that these Thieves and Villains introduc'd among us, spoil +the Morals of Youth in the Neighbourhoods that entertain +them, and perpetrate many horrid Crimes: But let not <i>private +Interests</i> obstruct <i>publick</i> Utility. Our <i>Mother</i> knows what is +best for us. What is a little <i>Housebreaking</i>, <i>Shoplifting</i>, or <i>Highway +Robbing</i>; what is a <i>Son</i> now and then <i>corrupted</i> and <i>hang'd</i>, +a Daughter <i>debauch'd</i> and <i>pox'd</i>, a Wife <i>stabb'd</i>, a Husband's +<i>Throat cut</i>, or a Child's <i>Brains beat out</i> with an Axe, compar'd +with this '<span class="smcap">Improvement</span> and <span class="smcap">well Peopling</span> of the Colonies!'</p> + +<p>Thus it may perhaps be objected to my Scheme, that the +<i>Rattle-Snake</i> is a mischievous Creature, and that his changing +his Nature with the Clime is a mere Supposition, not yet confirm'd +by sufficient Facts. What then? Is not Example more +prevalent than Precept? And may not the honest rough British +Gentry, by a Familiarity with these Reptiles, learn to <i>creep</i>, and +to <i>insinuate</i>, and to <i>slaver</i>, and to <i>wriggle</i> into Place (and perhaps +to <i>poison</i> such as stand in their Way) Qualities of no small +Advantage to Courtiers! In comparison of which '<span class="smcap">Improvement</span> +and <span class="smcap">Publick Utility</span>,' what is a <i>Child</i> now and then kill'd +by their venomous Bite, ... or even a favourite <i>Lap Dog</i>?</p> + +<p>I would only add, that this exporting of Felons to the Colonies, +may be consider'd as a <i>Trade</i>, as well as in the Light of a +<i>Favour</i>. Now all Commerce implies Returns: Justice requires +them: There can be no Trade without them. And <i>Rattle-Snakes</i> +seem the most <i>suitable Returns</i> for the <i>Human Serpents</i> sent us +by our <i>Mother</i> Country. In this, however, as in every other +Branch of Trade, she will have the Advantage of us. She will +reap <i>equal</i> Benefits without equal Risque of the Inconveniencies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +and Dangers. For the <i>Rattle-Snake</i> gives Warning before he +attempts his Mischief; which the Convict does not. I am</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Yours</i>, &c.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Americanus.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="OBSERVATIONS" id="OBSERVATIONS"></a>OBSERVATIONS</h3> + +<p class="section center">CONCERNING THE INCREASE OF MANKIND, PEOPLING +OF COUNTRIES, ETC.</p> + +<p class="center">Written in Pensilvania, 1751<a name="FNanchor_39_551" id="FNanchor_39_551"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_551" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>1. Tables of the Proportion of Marriages to Births, of Deaths +to Births, of Marriages to the Numbers of Inhabitants, &c., +form'd on Observaions [<i>sic</i>] made upon the Bills of Mortality, +Christnings, &c., of populous Cities, will not suit Countries; +nor will Tables form'd on Observations made on full-settled +old Countries, as <i>Europe</i>, suit new Countries, as <i>America</i>.</p> + +<p>2. For People increase in Proportion to the Number of +Marriages, and that is greater in Proportion to the Ease and +Convenience of supporting a Family. When families can be +easily supported, more Persons marry, and earlier in Life.</p> + +<p>3. In Cities, where all Trades, Occupations, and Offices are +full, many delay marrying till they can see how to bear the +Charges of a Family; which Charges are greater in Cities, as +Luxury is more common: many live single during Life, and +continue Servants to Families, Journeymen to Trades; &c. +hence Cities do not by natural Generation supply themselves +with Inhabitants; the Deaths are more than the Births.</p> + +<p>4. In Countries full settled, the Case must be nearly the +same; all Lands being occupied and improved to the Heighth; +those who cannot get Land, must Labour for others that have +it; when Labourers are plenty, their Wages will be low; by low +Wages a family is supported with Difficulty; this Difficulty deters +many from Marriage, who therefore long continue Servants +and single. Only as the Cities take Supplies of People from the +Country, and thereby make a little more Room in the Country; +Marriage is a little more encourag'd there, and the Births exceed +the Deaths.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p> + +<p>5. <i>Europe</i> is generally full settled with Husbandmen, Manufacturers, +&c., and therefore cannot now much increase in +People: <i>America</i> is chiefly occupied by Indians, who subsist +mostly by Hunting. But as the Hunter, of all Men, requires +the greatest Quantity of Land from whence to draw his Subsistence, +(the Husbandman subsisting on much less, the Gardner +on still less, and the Manufacturer requiring least of all), the +<i>Europeans</i> found <i>America</i> as fully settled as it well could be by +Hunters; yet these, having large Tracks, were easily prevail'd on +to part with Portions of Territory to the new Comers, who did +not much interfere with the Natives in Hunting, and furnish'd +them with many Things they wanted.</p> + +<p>6. Land being thus plenty in <i>America</i>, and so cheap as that +a labouring man, that understands Husbandry, can in a short +Time save Money enough to purchase a Piece of new Land +sufficient for a Plantation, whereon he may subsist a Family, +such are not afraid to marry; for, if they even look far enough +forward to consider how their Children, when grown up, are +to be provided for, they see that more Land is to be had at rates +equally easy, all Circumstances considered.</p> + +<p>7. Hence Marriages in <i>America</i> are more general, and more +generally early, than in <i>Europe</i>. And if it is reckoned there, +that there is but one Marriage per Annum among 100 persons, +perhaps we may here reckon two; and if in <i>Europe</i> they have +but 4 Births to a Marriage (many of their Marriages being late), +we may here reckon 8, of which if one half grow up, and our +Marriages are made, reckoning one with another at 20 Years of +Age, our People must at least be doubled every 20 Years.</p> + +<p>8. But notwithstanding this Increase, so vast is the Territory +of <i>North America</i>, that it will require many Ages to settle it +fully; and, till it is fully settled, Labour will never be cheap here, +where no Man continues long a Labourer for others, but gets +a Plantation of his own, no Man continues long a Journeyman +to a Trade, but goes among those new Settlers, and sets up for +himself, &c. Hence Labour is no cheaper now in <i>Pennsylvania</i>, +than it was 30 Years ago, tho' so many Thousand labouring +People have been imported.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p> + +<p>9. The Danger therefore of these Colonies interfering with +their Mother Country in Trades that depend on Labour, Manufactures, +&c., is too remote to require the attention of <i>Great Britain</i>.</p> + +<p>10. But in Proportion to the Increase of the Colonies, a vast +Demand is growing for British Manufactures, a glorious Market +wholly in the Power of <i>Britain</i>, in which Foreigners cannot interfere, +which will increase in a short Time even beyond her +Power of supplying, tho' her whole Trade should be to her +Colonies: Therefore <i>Britain</i> should not too much restrain Manufactures +in her Colonies. A wise and good Mother will not do +it. To distress, is to weaken, and weakening the Children +weakens the whole Family.</p> + +<p>11. Besides if the Manufactures of <i>Britain</i> (by reason of the +<i>American</i> Demands) should rise too high in Price, Foreigners +who can sell cheaper will drive her Merchants out of Foreign +Markets; Foreign Manufactures will thereby be encouraged and +increased, and consequently foreign Nations, perhaps her Rivals +in Power, grow more populous and more powerful; while her +own Colonies, kept too low, are unable to assist her, or add +to her Strength.</p> + +<p>12. 'Tis an ill-grounded Opinion that by the Labour of +slaves, <i>America</i> may possibly vie in Cheapness of Manufactures +with <i>Britain</i>. The Labour of Slaves can never be so cheap here +as the Labour of working Men is in <i>Britain</i>. Any one may compute +it. Interest of Money is in the Colonies from 6 to 10 per +Cent. Slaves one with another cost 30£ Sterling per Head. +Reckon then the Interest of the first Purchase of a Slave, the +Insurance or Risque on his Life, his Cloathing and Diet, Expences +in his Sickness and Loss of Time, Loss by his Neglect +of Business (Neglect is natural to the Man who is not to be +benefited by his own Care or Diligence), Expence of a Driver +to keep him at Work, and his Pilfering from Time to Time, +almost every Slave being <i>by Nature</i> a Thief, and compare the +whole Amount with the Wages of a Manufacturer of Iron or +Wood in <i>England</i>, you will see that Labour is much cheaper +there than it ever can be by Negroes here. Why then will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +<i>Americans</i> purchase Slaves? Because Slaves may be kept as +long as a <i>Man</i> pleases, or has Occasion for their Labour; while +hired Men are continually leaving their masters (often in the +midst of his Business,) and setting up for themselves.—Sec. 8.</p> + +<p>13. As the Increase of People depends on the Encouragement +of Marriages, the following Things must diminish a Nation, +viz. 1. <i>The being conquered</i>; for the Conquerors will engross +as many Offices, and exact as much Tribute or Profit on +the Labour of the conquered, as will maintain them in their new +Establishment, and this diminishing the Subsistence of the Natives, +discourages their Marriages, and so gradually diminishes +them, while the foreigners increase. 2. <i>Loss of Territory.</i> Thus, +the <i>Britons</i> being driven into <i>Wales</i>, and crowded together in +a barren Country insufficient to support such great Numbers, +diminished 'till the People bore a Proportion to the Produce, +while the <i>Saxons</i> increas'd on their abandoned lands; till the +Island became full of <i>English</i>. And, were the <i>English</i> now driven +into <i>Wales</i> by some foreign Nation, there would in a few Years, +be no more Englishmen in <i>Britain</i>, than there are now people +in <i>Wales</i>. 3. <i>Loss of Trade.</i> Manufactures exported, draw Subsistence +from Foreign Countries for Numbers; who are thereby +enabled to marry and raise Families. If the Nation be deprived +of any Branch of Trade, and no new Employment is found for +the People occupy'd in that Branch, it will also be soon deprived +of so many People. 4. <i>Loss of Food.</i> Suppose a Nation has a +Fishery, which not only employs great Numbers, but makes +the Food and Subsistence of the People cheaper. If another +Nation becomes Master of the Seas, and prevents the Fishery, +the People will diminish in Proportion as the Loss of Employ +and Dearness of Provision, makes it more difficult to subsist +a Family. 5. <i>Bad Government and insecure Property.</i> People not +only leave such a Country, and settling Abroad incorporate +with other Nations, lose their native Language, and become +Foreigners, but, the Industry of those that remain being discourag'd, +the Quantity of Subsistence in the Country is lessen'd, +and the Support of a Family becomes more difficult. So heavy +Taxes tend to diminish a People. 6. <i>The Introduction of Slaves.</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +The Negroes brought into the <i>English</i> Sugar <i>Islands</i> have +greatly diminish'd the Whites there; the Poor are by this Means +deprived of Employment, while a few Families acquire vast +Estates; which they spend on Foreign Luxuries, and educating +their Children in the Habit of those Luxuries; the same Income +is needed for the Support of one that might have maintain'd 100. +The Whites who have Slaves, not labouring, are enfeebled, and +therefore not so generally prolific; the Slaves being work'd too +hard, and ill fed, their Constitutions are broken, and the Deaths +among them are more than the Births; so that a continual Supply +is needed from <i>Africa</i>. The Northern Colonies, having few +Slaves, increase in Whites. Slaves also pejorate<a name="FNanchor_40_552" id="FNanchor_40_552"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_552" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> the Families +that use them; the white Children become proud, disgusted with +Labour, and being educated in Idleness, are rendered unfit to +get a Living by Industry.</p> + +<p>14. Hence the Prince that acquires new Territory, if he finds +it vacant, or removes the Natives to give his own People Room; +the Legislator that makes effectual Laws for promoting of +Trade, increasing Employment, improving Land by more or +better Tillage, providing more Food by Fisheries; securing +Property, &c. and the Man that invents new Trades, Arts, or +Manufactures, or new Improvements in Husbandry, may be +properly called <i>Fathers</i> of their Nation, as they are the Cause +of the Generation of Multitudes, by the Encouragement they +afford to Marriage.</p> + +<p>15. As to Privileges granted to the married, (such as the <i>Jus +trium Liberorum</i> among the <i>Romans</i>,) they may hasten the filling +of a Country that has been thinned by War or Pestilence, or +that has otherwise vacant Territory; but cannot increase a +People beyond the Means provided for their Subsistence.</p> + +<p>16. Foreign Luxuries and needless Manufactures, imported +and used in a Nation, do, by the same Reasoning, increase the +People of the Nation that furnishes them, and diminish the +People of the Nation that uses them. Laws, therefore, that prevent +such Importations, and on the contrary promote the Exportation +of Manufactures to be consumed in Foreign Countries, +may be called (with Respect to the People that make them)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +<i>generative Laws</i>, as, by increasing Subsistence they encourage +Marriage. Such Laws likewise strengthen a Country, doubly, +by increasing its own People and diminishing its Neighbours.</p> + +<p>17. Some <i>European</i> Nations prudently refuse to consume the +Manufactures of <i>East-India</i>:—They should likewise forbid +them to their Colonies; for the Gain to the Merchant is not to +be compar'd with the Loss, by this Means, of People to the +Nation.</p> + +<p>18. Home Luxury in the Great increases the Nation's Manufacturers +employ'd by it, who are many, and only tends to +diminish the Families that indulge in it, who are few. The +greater the common fashionable Expence of any Rank of People, +the more cautious they are of Marriage. Therefore Luxury +should never be suffer'd to become common.</p> + +<p>19. The great Increase of Offspring in particular Families +is not always owing to greater Fecundity of Nature, but sometimes +to Examples of Industry in the Heads, and industrious +Education; by which the Children are enabled to provide better +for themselves, and their marrying early is encouraged from +the Prospect of good Subsistence.</p> + +<p>20. If there be a Sect, therefore, in our Nation, that regard +Frugality and Industry as religious Duties, and educate their +Children therein, more than others commonly do; such Sect +must consequently increase more by natural Generation, than +any other sect in <i>Britain</i>.</p> + +<p>21. The Importation of Foreigners into a Country, that has +as many Inhabitants as the present Employments and Provisions +for Subsistence will bear, will be in the End no Increase of +People; unless the New Comers have more Industry and Frugality +than the Natives, and then they will provide more Subsistence, +and increase in the Country; but they will gradually +eat the Natives out. Nor is it necessary to bring in Foreigners +to fill up any occasional Vacancy in a Country; for such Vacancy +(if the Laws are good, sec. 14, 16,) will soon be filled +by natural Generation. Who can now find the Vacancy made +in <i>Sweden</i>, <i>France</i>, or other Warlike Nations, by the Plague of +Heroism, 40 years ago; in <i>France</i>, by the Expulsion of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +Protestants, in <i>England</i>, by the Settlement of her Colonies; +or in <i>Guinea</i>, by 100 Years Exportation of Slaves, that has +blacken'd half <i>America</i>? The thinness of Inhabitants in <i>Spain</i> is +owing to National Pride and Idleness, and other Causes, rather +than to the Expulsion of the Moors, or to the making of new +Settlements.</p> + +<p>22. There is, in short, no Bound to the prolific Nature of +Plants or Animals, but what is made by their crowding and +interfering with each other's means of Subsistence. Was the +Face of the Earth vacant of other Plants, it might be gradually +sowed and overspread with one Kind only; as, for Instance, +with Fennel; and were it empty of other Inhabitants, it might +in a few Ages be replenish'd from one Nation only; as, for +Instance, with <i>Englishmen</i>. Thus there are suppos'd to be now +upwards of One Million <i>English</i> Souls in <i>North-America</i>, (tho' +'tis thought scarce 80,000 have been brought over Sea,) and +yet perhaps there is not one the fewer in <i>Britain</i>, but rather +many more, on Account of the Employment the Colonies afford +to Manufacturers at Home. This Million doubling, suppose but +once in 25 Years, will, in another Century, be more than the +People of <i>England</i>, and the greatest Number of <i>Englishmen</i> +will be on this Side the Water. What an Accession of Power +to the <i>British</i> Empire by Sea as well as Land! What Increase +of Trade and Navigation! What Numbers of Ships and Seamen! +We have been here but little more than 100 years, and +yet the Force of our Privateers in the late War, united, was +greater, both in Men and Guns, than that of the whole <i>British</i> +Navy in Queen <i>Elizabeth's</i> Time. How important an Affair +then to <i>Britain</i> is the present Treaty for settling the Bounds +between her Colonies and the <i>French</i>, and how careful should +she be to secure Room enough, since on the Room depends so +much the Increase of her People.</p> + +<p>23. In fine, a Nation well regulated is like a Polypus; take +away a Limb, its Place is soon supply'd; cut it in two, and each +deficient Part shall speedily grow out of the Part remaining. +Thus if you have Room and Subsistence enough, as you may +by dividing, make ten Polypes out of one, you may of one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +make ten Nations, equally populous and powerful; or rather +increase a Nation ten fold in Numbers and Strength.<a name="FNanchor_41_553" id="FNanchor_41_553"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_553" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>And since Detachments of <i>English</i> from <i>Britain</i>, sent to +<i>America</i>, will have their Places at Home so soon supply'd and +increase so largely here; why should the <i>Palatine Boors</i> be +suffered to swarm into our Settlements and, by herding together, +establish their Language and Manners, to the Exclusion +of ours? Why should <i>Pennsylvania</i>, founded by the <i>English</i>, +become a Colony of <i>Aliens</i>, who will shortly be so numerous +as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will +never adopt our Language or Customs any more than they can +acquire our Complexion?</p> + +<p>24. Which leads me to add one Remark, that the Number +of purely white People in the World is proportionably very +small. All <i>Africa</i> is black or tawny; <i>Asia</i> chiefly tawny; <i>America</i> +(exclusive of the new Comers) wholly so. And in <i>Europe</i>, +the <i>Spaniards</i>, <i>Italians</i>, <i>French</i>, <i>Russians</i>, and <i>Swedes</i>, are generally +of what we call a swarthy Complexion; as are the <i>Germans</i> +also, the <i>Saxons</i> only excepted, who, with the <i>English</i>, make the +principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I +could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, +as I may call it, <i>Scouring</i> our Planet, by <i>clearing America</i> of +Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter +Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in <i>Mars</i> or <i>Venus</i>, why should +we, in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People? Why +increase the Sons of <i>Africa</i>, by planting them in <i>America</i>, where +we have so fair an Opportunity, by excluding all Blacks and +Tawneys, of increasing the lovely White and Red? But perhaps +I am partial to the Complexion of my Country, for such Kind +of Partiality is natural to Mankind.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_PETER_COLLINSON_223" id="TO_PETER_COLLINSON_223"></a>TO PETER COLLINSON<a name="FNanchor_42_554" id="FNanchor_42_554"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_554" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">Electrical Kite</p> + +<p class="date">[Philadelphia] Oct. 19, 1752.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>As frequent mention is made in public papers from <i>Europe</i> +of the success of the <i>Philadelphia</i> experiment for drawing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +electric fire from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected +on high buildings, &c., it may be agreeable to the curious to be +informed, that the same experiment has succeeded in <i>Philadelphia</i>, +though made in a different and more easy manner, which +is as follows:</p> + +<p>Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arms so +long as to reach to the four corners of a large thin silk handkerchief +when extended; tie the corners of the handkerchief to the +extremities of the cross, so you have the body of a kite; which +being properly accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will +rise in the air, like those made of paper; but this being of silk, +is fitter to bear the wet and wind of a thunder-gust without +tearing. To the top of the upright stick of the cross is to be +fixed a very sharp-pointed wire, rising a foot or more above +the wood. To the end of the twine, next the hand, is to be tied +a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key may be +fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-gust appears +to be coming on, and the person who holds the string must +stand within a door or window, or under some cover, so that +the silk ribbon may not be wet; and care must be taken that the +twine does not touch the frame of the door or window. As +soon as any of the thunder-clouds come over the kite, the +pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and the kite, +with all the twine, will be electrified, and the loose filaments of +the twine will stand out every way, and be attracted by an approaching +finger. And when the rain has wet the kite and twine, +so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it +stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your +knuckle. At this key the phial may be charged; and from electric +fire thus obtained, spirits may be kindled, and all the other electric +experiments be performed, which are usually done by the help +of a rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness of the +electric matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p>[<span class="smcap">Note.</span>—The <i>Almanack</i> for 1753 which follows is an exact facsimile +of the copy in the W. S. Mason Collection, here reproduced through the +kindness of Mr. Mason. See note <a name="FNanchor_43_555" id="FNanchor_43_555"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_555" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> + +<div class="main"> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center txt150"><a name="POOR_RICHARD_IMPROVED_1753" id="POOR_RICHARD_IMPROVED_1753"></a> +Poor <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Richard</em></span> improved:</p> + +<p class="center bt" style="line-height: 2em;"> +<br /> +<span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt">BEING AN</em></span><br /> +<span class="txt300"><em class="gesperrt"><b>ALMANACK</b></em></span><br /> +<span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt">AND</em></span><br /> +<span class="txt200"><em class="gesperrt4"><i>EPHEMERIS</i></em></span><br /> +<span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt">OF THE</em></span><br /> +<span class="txt150"><span class="smcap">Motions</span> of the SUN and MOON;</span><br /> +<span class="txt110"><em class="gesperrt">THE TRUE</em></span><br /> +<span class="txt120"><span class="smcap">Places</span> and <span class="smcap">Aspects</span> of the <span class="smcap">Planets</span>;</span><br /> +<span class="txt110"><em class="gesperrt">THE</em></span><br /> +<span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt"><i>RISING</i></em> and <em class="gesperrt"><i>SETTING</i></em> of the <em class="gesperrt"><i>SUN</i></em>;</span><br /> +<span class="txt110"><em class="gesperrt">AND THE</em></span><br /> +<span class="txt130">Rising, Setting <i>and</i> Southing <i>of the</i> Moon,</span><br /> +<span class="txt110"><em class="gesperrt">FOR THE</em></span><br /> +<span class="txt150"><span class="smcap">Year</span> of our <em class="gesperrt"><b>LORD</b> 1753</em>:</span><br /> +<span class="txt130">Being the First after <span class="smcap">Leap-Year</span>.</span><br /></p> + +<p class="center" style="margin-bottom: 0;">Containing also,</p> + +<p class="hang bb" style="margin-left: .5em; margin-right: .5em;">The Lunations, Conjunctions, Eclipses, Judgment +of the Weather, Rising and Setting of the +Planets, Length of Days and Nights, Fairs, Courts, +Roads, &c. Together with useful Tables, chronological +Observations, and entertaining Remarks.</p> + +<p class="hang bb txt90" style="margin-left: .5em; margin-right: .5em;">Fitted to the Latitude of Forty Degrees, and a Meridian of near +fire Hours West from <i>London</i>; but may, without sensible Error, +serve all the <span class="smcap">Northern Colonies</span>.</p> + +<p class="center bb"> +By <span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt"><i>RICHARD SAUNDERS</i></em></span>, Philom.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="center bt"> +<span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt"><i>PHILADELPHIA</i></em>:</span><br /> +Printed and Sold by <span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>, and <span class="smcap">D. Hall</span>.<br /></p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb">The Anatomy of Man's Body as govern'd by the<br /> +Twelve Constellations.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Anatomy of Man's Body"> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">♈ The Head and Face.</td></tr> +<tr class="fixed"><td class="tdc">♊<br />Arms</td> +<td align="center" rowspan="5"><img src="images/richardsanatomy.jpg" width="325" height="396" alt="" title="" /></td> +<td class="tdc">♉<br />Neck</td></tr> +<tr class="fixed"><td class="tdc">♌<br />Heart</td><td class="tdc">♋<br />Breast</td></tr> +<tr class="fixed"><td class="tdc">♎<br />Reins</td><td class="tdc">♍<br />Bowels</td></tr> +<tr class="fixed"><td class="tdc">♐<br />Thighs</td><td class="tdc">♏<br />Secrets</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdc">♒<br />Legs</td><td class="tdc">♑<br />Knees</td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="3">♓ The Feet.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p class="center"><i>To know where the Sign is.</i></p> + +<p class="bb"><span class="lpad1">First</span> Find the Day of the Month, and against the Day +you have the Sign or Place of the Moon in the 5th Column. +Then finding the Sign here, it shews the Part of +the Body it governs.<br /><br /></p> + +<p class="center"><i>The Names and Characters of the Seven Planets.</i></p> + +<p class="center bb"> +<span class="rpad1">☉ Sol,</span> <span class="rpad1">♄ Saturn,</span> +<span class="rpad1">♃ Jupiter,</span> <span class="rpad1">♂ Mars,</span> <span class="rpad1">♀ Venus,</span><br /> +<span class="rpad1">☿ Mercury,</span> <span class="rpad1">☽ Luna,</span> <span class="rpad1">☊ Dragons Head and ☋ Tail.</span><br /> +<br /></p> + + +<div class="center bb"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="The Five Aspects"> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="3"><i>The Five Aspects.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">☌ Conjunction,</td><td align="left">☍ Opposition,</td><td align="left">✱ Sextile,</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">△ Trine,</td><td align="left">□ Quartile.</td><td align="left"> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bb"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="The Five Aspects"> +<tr><td class="tdc" colspan="6"><i>Common Notes for the Year 1753. N. S.</i></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Golden Number</td><td align="right">6</td><td class="tdc" rowspan="2"><img src="images/bracketright.jpg" width="15" height="35" alt="right bracket" title="right bracket" /></td> +<td class="tdc" rowspan="2"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="35" alt="left bracket" title="left bracket" /></td><td align="left">Dominical Letter</td><td align="right">G</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">Epact</td><td align="right">25</td><td align="left">Cycle of the Sun</td><td align="right">26</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Courteous Reader,</em></span></p> + +<p class="cap txt90"><em class="gesperrt">This</em> is the twentieth Time of my addressing thee in this +Manner, and I have reason to flatter myself my Labours have +not been unacceptable to the Publick. I am particularly +pleas'd to understand that my <i>Predictions of the Weather</i> give such +general Satisfaction; and indeed, such Care is taken in the Calculations, +on which those Predictions are founded, that I could almost +venture to say, there's not a single One of them, promising <i>Snow</i>, +<i>Rain</i>, <i>Hail</i>, <i>Heat</i>, <i>Frost</i>, <i>Fogs</i>, <i>Wind</i>, or <i>Thunder</i>, but what comes +to pass <i>punctually</i> and <i>precisely</i> on the very Day, in some Place or +other on this little <i>diminutive</i> Globe of ours; (and when you consider +the vast Distance of the Stars from whence we take our Aim, you +must allow it no small Degree of Exactness to hit any Part of it) I +say on this Globe; for tho' in other Matters I confine the Usefulness +of my <i>Ephemeris</i> to the <i>Northern Colonies</i>, yet in that important +Matter of the Weather, which is of such <i>general Concern</i>, I would +have it more extensively useful, and therefore take in both Hemispheres, +and all Latitudes from <i>Hudson's Bay</i> to <i>Cape Horn</i>.</p> + +<p class="txt90">You will find this Almanack in my former Method, only conformable +to the <i>New-Stile</i> established by the Act of Parliament, +which I gave you in my last at length; the new Act since made for +Amendment of that first Act, not affecting us in the least, being +intended only to regulate some Corporation Matters in <i>England</i>, before +unprovided for. I have only added a Column in the second Page +of each Month, containing the Days of the <i>Old Stile</i> opposite to +their corresponding Days in the <i>New</i>, which may, in many Cases, +be of Use; and so conclude (believing you will excuse a short Preface, +when it is to make Room for something better)</p> + +<p class="sig txt90"> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Thy Friend and Servant</i>,</span><br /> +<em class="gesperrt">R. SAUNDERS.</em><br /></p> + +<p class="bb"> </p> + + +<p class="center"><span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt">HYMN</em></span> <i>to the</i> <span class="smcap">Creator</span>, <i>from</i> Psalm CIV.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<p class="cap"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Awake</em></span>, my Soul! with Joy thy God adore;<br /> +<span class="nowrap">Declare his Greatness; celebrate his Pow'r;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who, cloath'd with Honour, and with Glory crown'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shines forth, and cheers his Universe around.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who with a radiant Veil of heavenly Light<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Himself conceals from all created Sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who rais'd the spacious Firmament on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And spread the azure Curtain of the Sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose awful Throne Heav'n's starry Arch sustains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose Presence not Heav'n's vast Expanse restrains.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose Ways unsearchable no Eye can find,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Clouds his Chariot, and his Wings the Wind<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom Hosts of mighty Angels own their Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flaming Seraphim fulfil his Word.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose Pow'r of old the solid Earth did found,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-pois'd, self-center'd, and with Strength girt round;<br /></span> +<span class="i21">From</span></p></div></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From her appointed Sphere forbid to fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or rush unbalanc'd thro' the trackless Sky.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To reas'ning Man the sov'reign Rule assign'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Delegate o'er each inferior Kind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Too soon to fall from that distinguish'd Place,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Honours stain'd with Guilt and foul Disgrace.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He saw the Pride of Earth's aspiring Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in his Fury gave the dreadful Word:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Straight o'er her peopled Plains his Floods were pour'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And o'er the Mountains the proud Billows roar'd.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Athwart the Face of Earth the Deluge sweeps,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whelms the impious Nations in the Deeps:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again God spake——and at his pow'rful Call<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The raging Floods asswage, the Waters fall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Tempests hear his Voice, and straight obey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And at his Thunder's Roar they haste away:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From off the lofty Mountains they subside,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gently thro' the winding Vallies glide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till in the spacious Caverns of the Deep<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They sink together, and in Silence sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There he hath stretch'd abroad their liquid Plains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there Omnipotence their Rage restrains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That Earth no more her Ruins may deplore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And guilty Mortals dread their Wrath no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">He bids the living Fountains burst the Ground,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bounteous spread their Silver Streams around:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Down from the Hills they draw their shining Train,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Diffusing Health and Beauty o'er the Plain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There the fair Flocks allay the Summer's Rage,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And panting Savages their Flame asswage.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On their sweet winding Banks th' aerial Race<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In artless Numbers warble forth his Praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or chant the harmless Raptures of their Loves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cheer the Plains, and wake the vocal Groves.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forth from his Treasures in the Skies he pours<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His precious Blessings in refreshing Show'rs.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each dying Plant with Joy new Life receives,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thankful Nature smiles, and Earth revives.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The fruitful Fields with Verdure he bespreads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Table of the Race that haunts the Meads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bids each Forest, and each flow'ry Plain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Send forth their native Physic for the Swain.<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Thus<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus doth the various Bounty of the Earth<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Support each Species crowding into Birth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In purple Streams she bids her Vintage flow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Olives on her Hills luxuriant grow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One with its generous Juice to cheer the Heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And one illustrious Beauty to impart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Bread of all Heav'n's precious Gifts the chief<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From desolating Want the sure Relief.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which with new Life the feeble Limbs inspires,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the Man with Health and Courage fires.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Cloud-topt Hills with waving Woods are crown'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which wide extend their sacred Shades around,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There <i>Lebanon</i>'s proud Cedars nod their Heads;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There <i>Bashan</i>'s lofty Oaks extend their Shades:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pointed Firs rise tow'ring to the Clouds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Life and warbling Numbers fill the Woods.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor gentle Shades alone, nor verdant Plains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor fair enamell'd Meads, nor flow'ry Lawns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But e'en rude Rocks and dreary Desarts yield<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Retreats for the wild Wand'rers of the Field.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy Pow'r with Life and Sense all Nature fills,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each Element with varied Being swells,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Race after Race arising view the Light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then silent pass away, and sink in Night.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Gift of Life thus boundlesly bestow'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Proclaims th' exhaustless Hand, the Hand of God.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Nor less thy Glory in the etherial Spheres,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor less thy ruling Providence appears.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There from on high the gentle Moon by Night<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In solemn Silence sheds her Silver Light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thence the glorious Sun pours forth his Beams,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thence copious spreads around his quick'ning Streams.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each various Orb enjoys the golden Day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Worlds of Life hang on his chearful Ray.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus Light and Darkness their fix'd Course maintain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still the kind Vicissitudes remain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For when pale Night her sable Curtain spreads,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wraps all Nature in her awful Shades,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft Slumbers gently seal each mortal Eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stretch'd at their Ease the weary Lab'rers lie.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The restless Soul 'midst Life's vain Tumults tost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Forgets her Woes, and ev'ry Care is lost.<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Then<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">JANUARY.</em> <i>I Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="bb"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then from their Dens the rav'nous Monsters creep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whilst in their Folds the harmless Bestial sleep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The furious Lion roams in quest of Prey,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To gorge his Hunger till the Dawn of Day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His hideous Roar with Terror shakes the Wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As from his Maker's Hand he asks his Food.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again the Sun his Morning Beams displays,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fires the eastern Mountain with his Rays.<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Before<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="January Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="left"> </td><td class="br" align="left"> </td><td class="br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="br" align="left" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ri.</span></td> +<td class="br" align="left" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="br" align="left" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td align="left"><span class="nowrap">Aspects, &c.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="left">2</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Circumcision.</em></span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">7</td><td class="bt br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♐</td><td class="bt br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">☽ with ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="left">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Clouds and</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="left">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cold, with</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">♃ rise 4 23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="left">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>snow;</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="center"><i>Tis against</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="left">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days inc. 4 m.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>some</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="left">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Epiphany.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 4 44</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="left">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">1 p. Epiph.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">22</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>Mens</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="left">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>wind and</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="center"><i>Principle to pay</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="left">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>falling</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="center"><i>Interest, and</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="left">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days inc. 10 m.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="center"><i>seems against</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="left">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>weather,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">♃ s. 11 6 <span class="lpad1"><i>others</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="left">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 5 42</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="left">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>very cold,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br">6</td> +<td align="left">Sirius so. 10 52</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="left">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">2 p. Epiph.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♄ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>Interest</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="left">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day incr. 18 m.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">7 *s so. 7 42</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="left">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>wintry</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="left">♃ so. 10 39</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="left">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>weather;</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 4 36</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="left">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>but grows more</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♃ <span class="lpad1">to</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="left">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 9 36 long.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♒ <span class="lpad1"><i>pay</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="left">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>moderate,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">△ ♃ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>the</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="left">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">3 p. Epiph.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="center"><i>Principal.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="left">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>followed by</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="left">♀ sets 8 2</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="left">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds, wind</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="center"><i>Philosophy as</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="left">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="center"><i>well as Foppery</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="left">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Conv. St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Paul.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♂ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>often</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="left">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day incr. 38 m.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="center"><i>changes Fashion.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="left">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cold, with</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 4 48</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="left">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">4 p. Epiph.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sou. 6 47</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="left">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>snow or</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">Sirius sou. 9 44</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="left">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">K. Char. behead.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄ & ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td><td class="br" align="left">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain.</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">13</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ☿</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">January</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXXI</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"></td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">8 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">at noon.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♐</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♐</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♒</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td> +<td class="bt" align="left" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">10 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">4 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"></td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♑ 0</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">19</td><td align="right" colspan="2">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">12 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">♓ 5</td> +<td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td><td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">11</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♒ 3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">13</td><td align="right" colspan="2">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left" colspan="2">31</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">10</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-231.jpg" width="99%" alt="January Woodcut Illustration" title="January Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center">D.</td><td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ rise</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td><td class="br" align="center">T.</td> +<td class="br" align="right" rowspan="4"><span class="nowrap">O S</span><br /> + <span class="nowrap">l t </span><br /> + <span class="nowrap">d i </span><br /> + <span class="nowrap"> l </span><br /> + <span class="nowrap"> e.</span></td> +<td align="left" rowspan="31" style="vertical-align: top;"> +<p class="cap"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">The</em></span> Greatness of that Power, which +has been exerted in the Creation, though +every Object in Nature shews it, will best appear +by considering a little the <span class="txt90"><em class="gesperrt">GREAT</em></span> Works, +properly so called, of Nature; the Sun, and Planets, +and the fixed Stars. The Sun and Moon, +the most conspicuous to us of all the celestial Bodies, +are the only ones mentioned in the sacred +Text: But the Invention of that noblest +of Instruments the Telescope, and the Sagacity +of the Astronomers of later Ages, whose +Observations have improved and corrected those +of the foregoing, afford us a very different Idea +of the Solar System, from what the single +Consideration of those two most conspicuous +Bodies gives us. As this may probably fall into +the Hands of some, who have not Leisure or +Opportunities of reading Books of Astronomy, +the following brief View of our System, and +of the Immensity of the Creation, according +to the Theory of the Moderns, may not be +unacceptable.</p> + +<p>It is proper, in the first Place, just to mention, +That the real Magnitudes, Distances, +Orbits, and other Affections of the Bodies of +our System are determined by what Astronomers +call their Parallaxes, and by their Elongations +from the Sun, and their apparent Magnitudes, +and other analogical Methods, which +would take up by far too much Time to explain +here; by which it is possible to determine</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="bt" align="left"><span class="nowrap">9 M</span></td><td class="bt br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets.</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="center">Jan.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Morn.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">M</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="right">(deter-)mine <span class="u">their</span></td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">FEBRUARY.</em> +<i>II Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="bb"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Before him fly the Horrors of the Night;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He looks upon the World—and all is Light.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then the lone Wand'rers of the dreary Waste<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Affrighted to their Holds return in Haste,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Man give up the World, his native Reign,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who then resumes his Pow'r, and rules the Plain.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">How various are thy Works, Creator wise!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How to the Sight Beauties on Beauties rise!<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Where<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="February Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> </td><td class="br" align="right"> </td> +<td class="br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td align="left"><span class="nowrap">Aspects, &c.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">Days 10 h. long.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">7</td><td class="bt br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♃ sou. 9 28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Purification <i>V. M.</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 4 20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="center"><i>Setting too good</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">5 p. Epiph.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="center"><i>an Example</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and wind,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">13</td> +<td align="left">☿ rise 5 34</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>with</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♀ ☌ ♄ ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>falling</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">♀ sets 8 2 <span class="lpad1"><i>is a</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days incr. 1 6</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">20</td> +<td align="center"><i>Kind of Slander</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>weather,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="center"><i>seldom forgiven;</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then fair</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="center"><i>'tis</i> Scandalum</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">6 p. Epiph.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="center">Magnatum.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and cold;</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">□ ♃ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>A great</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>changeable</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 3 49</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Valentine.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">☽ W. ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>Talker</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days inc. 1 22</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">□ ♂ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>may be</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and like for</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sets 1 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain, or snow,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">♃ sou. 8 21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Septuagesima.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♓ <span class="lpad1"><i>no Fool,</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then follows</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="left">Sirius sou. 8 21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 10 46 long.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 4 5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clear and cold</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="left">♀ sets 9 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>weather; but</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">✱ ☉ ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>but he</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>soon changes to</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="center"><i>is one that</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. Matthias.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">△ ☉ ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>relies</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Sexagesima.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="center"><i>on him.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>snow</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">♄ rises 3 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>or cold rain.</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day inc. 1 56 m.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="10"> </td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="10"> </td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">February</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXVIII</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">3 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">12 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♒</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♓</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td> +<td class="bt" align="left" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">3 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">7 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td><td align="right" colspan="2">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">♈ 6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♒ 0</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">9 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">8</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♓ 4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">14</td><td align="right" colspan="2">0</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">28</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">7</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-233.jpg" width="99%" alt="February Woodcut Illustration" title="February Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="February Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center">D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ rise</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="29" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>their Magnitudes and Distances, when +those Distances are not too great to yield a +Parallax. Astronomers, for Example, know +certainly the Distance of the Moon from the +Earth, <i>viz.</i> 240 thousand Miles, because the +Moon yields a very sensible Parallax; and they +know, that the Sun's Distance from the Earth +is very probably, at least, ten thousand Times +the Diameter or Thickness of the Earth, +which is about eight thousand Miles, and +brings the whole Distance to about eighty +Millions of Miles. It is, I say, hardly to be +doubted, that the Distance from the Sun to +the Earth is, at least, eighty Millions of +Miles; but it is not certainly known, whether +it is not a great deal more. In the Year +1761, the Distance of all the Planets from the +Sun will be determined to a great Degree of +Exactness by Observations on a Transit of the +Planet <i>Venus</i> over the Face of the Sun, which +is to happen the 6th of <i>May</i>, O.S. in that Year. +But, according to the present Theory, the +Sun, to appear of the Magnitude he does to +our Eyes at the Distance of eighty Millions of +Miles, must be a Body a great many hundred +thousand Times larger than the Earth, so that +if his Centre were placed where that of the +Earth is, his outward Surface would extend +one hundred and forty thousand Miles higher +than the Orbit of the Moon, his Diameter or +Thickness being seven hundred and sixty thousand Miles, whereas +that of the Earth is but about eight thousand. This amazing World</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">10</td><td class="bt br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="center">Feb.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Morn</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">of</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">MARCH.</em> +<i>III Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="bb"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where Goodness worthy of a God bestows<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His Gifts on all, and without Bounds o'erflows;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Wisdom bright appears, and Pow'r divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where Infinitude itself doth shine;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where Excellence invisible's exprest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in his glorious Works the God appears confest.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">With Life thy Hand hath stock'd this earthly Plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor less the spacious Empire of the Main.<br /></span> +<span class="i21">There<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="March Sun Chart"> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> </td><td class="br" align="right"> </td> +<td class="br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris.</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">David.</em></span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">6</td><td class="bt br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♒</td><td class="bt br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">✱ ♀ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>When</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Cool and</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="left">7 *s set 12 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>windy,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Reason</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Shrove Sunday.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♃ sou. 7 25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then snow</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">♀ sets 9 28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Shrove Tuesday.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="center"><i>preaches, if you</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Ash Wednesday.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♄ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>won't</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 11 28 long</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>hear her</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>follow'd by sharp</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">13</td> +<td align="left">♂ ri. 3 50 <span class="lpad1"><i>she'll</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>nipping weather;</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="left">△ ♄ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>box your</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">1st in Lent.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">Sirius so. 7 6.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day inc. 2 28 m.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">☍ ♄ ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>Ears.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>now fine and</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♃</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Ember Week.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 2 4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>pleasant for</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">♃ set 2 9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>the season;</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">Sirius set 11 51</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Patrick.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 3 43</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">2d in Lent.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">7 *s set 11 4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ☿ <span class="lpad1">Equal</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 12 long.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♈ <span class="lpad1">Day and</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">□ ♄ ☿ <span class="lpad1">Night.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♂ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>It is not</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>high winds</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">□ ♃ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Leisure</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days inc. 3 h.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">12</td> +<td align="left">♀ sets 9 57</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Annunciation.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="left">□ ☉ ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>that is</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>with rain and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>not</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cold, but</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="left">□ ☉ ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>used.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>grows</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 1 17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>more</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">12</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>moderate.</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="left">Sirius set 11 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 12 30 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">♃ sets 1 15</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">March</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXXI</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">11 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">10 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♓</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♈</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♓</td> +<td class="bt" align="left" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">1 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">at noon.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">♉ 4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">15</td><td align="right" colspan="2">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">7 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♒ 2</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">25</td><td align="right" colspan="2">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">6</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♈ 2</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♈ 6</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">31</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">6</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">16</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-235.jpg" width="99%" alt="March Woodcut Illustration" title="March Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="March Moon Chart"> + +<tr><td class="br" align="center">D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ rise</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="32" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>of Fire turns once round in about twenty-five +Days. This is known by a Number of dusky +Spots, which appear upon the Sun's Face, so +as to be seen sometimes with the naked Eye, +when he shines through a thin Cloud or Mist; +but are always observable with the Help of a +Telescope, with a dark Glass for the Security +of the Eye. These Spots could not be visible +at the Distance of the Sun, if they were not +as large as the whole Earth; but such of them +as appear of a considerable Breadth, as they often +do, must be still vastly larger. They never +continue long to make the same Appearance; +but are always rising and vanishing again. +They are probably Exhalations floating +in the Sun's Atmosphere at some Distance from +his Body, or Masses of Cynder fallen from +that Atmosphere upon his Surface.</p> + +<p>This glorious Luminary, the Centre of our +System, has six opaque Globes, commonly +called the Planets, going round him at different +Distances, and in different Periods, but all +from West to East, as follows.</p> + +<p>1. <i>Mercury</i>, a Body considerably inferior in +Size to the Earth, performs his Course in about +three Months, which is his Year, at the +Distance of thirty Millions of Miles from the +Sun. The Heat of the Sun in <i>Mercury</i> (if +there be no Provision made for mitigating it) +must be such, as, if it were the same on the +Earth, would keep all the Waters upon it +constantly boiling; And the Brightness of the</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">9 M</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">12</td><td class="bt br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets.</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">Mar.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">Sun's</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">APRIL.</em> +<i>IV Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There the tall Ships the rolling Billows sweep,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bound triumphant o'er th' unfathom'd Deep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There great Leviathan in regal Pride,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The scaly Nations crouding by his Side,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far in the dark Recesses of the Main<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er Nature's Wastes extends his boundless Reign.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Round the dark Bottoms of the Mountains roves,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hoary Deep swells dreadful as he moves.<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Now<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="April Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">4th in Lent.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">6</td><td class="bt br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♓</td><td class="bt br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♂ rise 3 22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Rain, and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="center"><i>The Good-will</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>mild</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">13</td> +<td align="center"><i>of the Governed</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>weather,</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>will be</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days inc. 3 32 m.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">✱ ☉ ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>starv'd,</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>grows windy</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">22</td> +<td align="left">♀ sets 10 26 <span class="lpad1"><i>if</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and cool, then</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>not fed</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">5th in Lent.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">20</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sets 9 50 <span class="lpad1"><i>by</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>warm and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>the</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>springing,</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="center"><i>good Deeds of</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 12 56 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="center"><i>the Governors.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>follow'd</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 12 21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>by clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sets 9 30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and rain,</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="left">♃ set 12 26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Palm Sunday.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">Sirius set 10 2</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then fair and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 2 55</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>pleasant again;</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">♀ sets 10 37</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 13 16 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="center"><i>Paintings and</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Maund. Thursday</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♉ <span class="lpad1"><i>Fightings</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Good Friday.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="center"><i>are best</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>now rain</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">7 *s set 9 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Easter-day.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. George.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">Sirius sets 9 33</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and cool,</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="center"><i>seen at a</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. Mark.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">△ ☉ ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Pr. Will. b. 1721</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">20</td> +<td align="center"><i>distance.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 13 38 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 11 20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">1 past Easter.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="left">✱ ☉ ♃</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and wind.</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♃ sets 11 37</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">April</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXX</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">2 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">5 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♈</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♒</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♈</td><td class="bt" align="left" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">2 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">8 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">♊ 3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♉ 4</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"></td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">6 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td align="right" colspan="2">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">6</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♉ 3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">30</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">6</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♓ 1</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">19</td><td align="right" colspan="2">4</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-237.jpg" width="99%" alt="April Woodcut Illustration" title="April Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="April Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center">D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ rise</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="31" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>Sun's Light must be such as would be quite intolerable +to Eyes like ours. But it does not +follow, that <i>Mercury</i> is therefore uninhabitable; +since it can be no Difficulty for the Divine +Power and Wisdom to accommodate the +Inhabitants to the Place they are to inhabit; +as the Cold we see Frogs and Fishes bear very +well, would soon deprive any of our Species of +Life. To an Eye such as ours, the Sun, seen +from this Planet, would appear seven times as +large as he does to us. He is always so near +the Sun, that we have no Opportunity of discovering +whether he turns round upon his own +Axis, or not, and consequently cannot determine +what Length the Days and Nights in +<i>Mercury</i> are. He is seen sometimes with Telescopes +horned like the Moon, and sometimes +like a Half moon, but never fully illuminated, +because that Side of the Planet, on which the +Sun shines, is never turned full towards us, except +when he is so near the Sun, as to be lost +in the Brightness of his Beams. His enlightned +Side is always towards the Sun, which +shews, that he only shines with the borrowed +Light of the Sun. That this Planet revolves +round the Sun in an Orbit nearer to him, than +that of the Earth, is plain, because he is never +seen opposite to the Sun, but always in the +West, when he is seen at Sun-setting, and in +the East, when he is seen at Sun-rising; and +that never beyond the Distance of twenty-eight +degrees from the Sun (a Degree is about</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">10</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets.</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">Apr.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">twice</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">MAY.</em> +<i>V Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now views the awful Throne of antient Night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then mounts exulting to the Realms of Light;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now launches to the Deep, now stems the Shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An Ocean scarce contains the wild Uproar.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whate'er of Life replenishes the Flood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or walks the Earth, or warbles thro' the Wood,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Nature's various Wants to thee complains,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Hand, which gave the Life, the Life sustains.<br /></span> +<span class="i21">To<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="May Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Philip & Jacob.</em></span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">6</td><td class="bt br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♈</td><td class="bt br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♂ rise 2 30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Rain and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">♀ set 10 28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day inc. 4 40</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="left">☽ w ☿ ✱ ♄ ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>gusts</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="center"><i>If you would</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>in some</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>reap</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">2 past Easter.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Praise</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>places, with</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>you</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>thunder,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">7 *s set 7 56</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 14 4 long.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="center"><i>must sow the</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then fine</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">Sirius set 8 27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>growing</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♂ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Seeds,</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>weather,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 10 28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">3 past Easter.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♃ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Gentle</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>pleasant,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">♃ set 10 49</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>with</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 2 3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day inc. 5 6</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="center"><i>Words and</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>wind and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">♀ set 9 46</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>flying</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="center"><i>useful Deeds.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="center"><i>Ignorance leads</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">4 past Easter.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♊ ☌ ☽ ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>follow'd</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">22</td> +<td align="center"><i>Men into a</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 14 28 long.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="center"><i>Party, and</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>by heat,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="center"><i>Shame keeps</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="center"><i>them from getting</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="center"><i>out again.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>thunder,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">22</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Rogation Sunday</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 9 26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day inc. 5 26</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">♃ set 10 6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">K. Cha. resto.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 1 32</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>pleasant.</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">13</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Haste</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Ascension Day.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="center"><i>makes Waste.</i></td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">May</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXXI</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">2 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">10 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♓</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♊</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">2 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">0</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">12 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">6 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">6</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♊ 2</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">31</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">5</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">3</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-239.jpg" width="99%" alt="May Woodcut Illustration" title="May Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="May Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ rise</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="32" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>twice the apparent Breadth of the Moon.) +The same Considerations prove, that the next +Planet, <i>viz.</i></p> + +<p>2. <i>Venus</i> revolves round the Sun in an Orbit +including that of <i>Mercury</i> within it: For she +is always seen in the Neighbourhood of the +Sun, and never appears in the West when the +Sun is in the East, nor contrariwise; nor ever +removes above forty-eight Degrees from him. +When she is on one Side of her Orbit, she it our +Morning- and on the other, our Evening Star. +This Planet turns round upon its own Axis in +twenty-three Hours, as the Earth does in +twenty-four. <i>Venus</i> performs her annual Revolution +round the Sun in two hundred twenty-four +Days, at the Distance of about fifty-nine +Millions of Miles from the Sun. She is +nearly of the Size of the Earth. She appears +through a Telescope exactly as the Moon does +to the naked Eye, partly enlightened, and +partly dark, and with the same Inequalities on +her Face as on that of the Moon. Some +Astronomers fancy they have seen a Satellite +or Moon near <i>Venus</i>, like that belonging to +the Earth: But it is not yet certain whether +they have deceived themselves or not.</p> + +<p>3. The Earth, which we inhabit, possesses +the next Place in the Solar System, and, at +the Distance of about eighty Millions of Miles, +as above, performs her yearly Revolution +round the Sun in about three hundred sixty-five +Days, and at the same time, as a Bowl upon a</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">10</td><td class="bt br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets.</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">May</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Morn</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">Bowling-</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">JUNE.</em> +<i>VI Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">To each th' appointed Sustenance bestows,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To each the noxious and the healthful shows.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou spread'st thy Bounty—meagre Famine flies:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hid'st thy Face—their vital Vigour dies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy pow'ful Word again restores their Breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Renew'd Creation triumphs over Death.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Th' Almighty o'er his Works casts down his Eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And views their various Excellence with joy;<br /></span> +<span class="i21">His<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="June Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"><i>Clouds and</i></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">7</td><td class="bt br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♊</td><td class="bt br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♀ set 8 17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>like for</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>Many</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">6 past Easter.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>have</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain, with</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="center"><i>quarrel'd about</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 14 44 long.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="center"><i>Religion, that</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>wind and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">☿ rise 3 28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>thunder;</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="center"><i>never practis'd</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days inc 5 36</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>it.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>flying</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="center">Sudden Power</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Whitsunday.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">□ ♄ ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>is apt to</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Barnabas.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="center"><i>be insolent</i>, Sudden</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds, warm</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="left">♄ ri. 8 13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Ember Week.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">♃ set 9 8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 14 50</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 12 52</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and inclin'd</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="center">Liberty <i>saucy;</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>to rain,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♄ ✱ ♂ ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Trinity Sunday</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="center"><i>that behaves best</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days inc. 5 40</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">☌ ♀ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>which</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>with wind</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">12</td> +<td align="center"><i>has grown gradually.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♂ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center">Corp Christ.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♋</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">K. Geo. Acces.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="center"><i>He that best</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>thunder,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="center"><i>understands the</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">John</em></span> Baptist.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">12</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♂ ☍ ☉ ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="center"><i>World, least</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cooler,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">♃ set 8 32 <span class="lpad1"><i>likes</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>but soon</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">♄ rise 7 8 <span class="lpad1"><i>it.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 14 50</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♀ ☍ ♄ ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>grows hot again.</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 12 14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Peter.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="10">King <span class="txt120"><em class="gesperrt">GEORGE</em></span>'s 27th Year begins the 22d Day</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">June</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXX</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9" rowspan="2" style="vertical-align: bottom;">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">at noon</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">6 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">at noon.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♊</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♓</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♊</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td> +<td class="bt" align="left" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">4 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">9 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♈ 1</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">23</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♊ 1</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">5 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">4</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♋ 1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td><td align="right" colspan="2">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">30</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">3</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♋ 1</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-241.jpg" width="99%" alt="June Woodcut Illustration" title="June Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="June Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ set.</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="31" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>Bowling-green not only proceeds forward, but +likewise turns round upon its own Axis, so +does the Earth turn once round upon its Axis +as it goes along, every twenty-four Hours. It +is astonishing, and even frightful to think, that +this vast and cumbrous Globe of Earth and +Sea, which is almost twenty-five thousand +Miles in Circumference, has received such an +Impulse from the Almighty Arm, as has carried +it constantly for above these five thousand +Years, that we know of, round the Sun at +the Rate of at least fifty thousand Miles every +Hour, which it must absolutely do, to go round +the Sun in a Year at the Distance of eighty +Millions of Miles from him. So that, if an +Angel were to come from some other World, +and to place himself near the Earth's Way, +he would see it pass by him with a Swiftness, +to which that of a Cannon Ball is but as one +to one hundred, and would be left behind by +it no less than the above Number of Miles in +the Space of one Hour. There is no more +Reason to doubt, that the Earth goes in this +Manner round the Sun, than there would be +for a Passenger in a Ship on smooth Water, +who saw the Objects upon Land continually +passing by, to doubt whether the Vessel he +was in, or the Shore, was in Motion. We see +the Sun continually changes his Place with respect +to the fixed Stars, and must own it to be +highly improbable that this Change of Place +is owing to any Change in the whole Heavens,</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2">sets.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">A.</td><td class="bt br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">3</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Morn</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">June</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">M</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">which,</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">JULY.</em> +<i>VII Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His Works with Rev'rence own his pow'rful Hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And humble Nature waits his dread Command,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He looks upon the Earth—her Pillars shake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from her Centre her Foundations quake.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Hills he touches—Clouds of Smoke arise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sulph'rous Streams mount heavy to the Skies.<br /></span> +<span class="i1">Whilst Life informs this Frame, that Life shall be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(O First and Greatest!) sacred all to Thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Thy<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="July Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">2 past Trin.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">7</td><td class="bt br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♋</td><td class="bt br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">☽ with ♃</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 2 m.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ☿ <span class="lpad1">Anger</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="center"><i>is never without</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="center"><i>a Reason, but</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>wind,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="center"><i>seldom with a</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 6</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then hot,</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="center"><i>good One.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 7</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 6 m.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="left">♀ rise 2 27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 8</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">3 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="center"><i>He that is of</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 9</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>follow'd by</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">□ ♃ ♂ ☌ ♃ ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="center"><i>Opinion Money</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>thunder-gusts</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="center"><i>will do every</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">20</td> +<td align="left">♄ sou. 10 42</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>in many</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>Thing,</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 14 m.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 11 38</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">4 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="center"><i>may well be</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>places, then</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="center"><i>suspected of</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>more</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">20</td> +<td align="left">♀ rise 2 3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>settled and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>doing</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec 20 m.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♀ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>every</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>somewhat</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 12 6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cooler; but</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">△ ♄ ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>Thing</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">5 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♌ <span class="lpad1"><i>for</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>grows hot</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>Money.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Dog Days begin</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="center"><i>An ill Wound,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">James.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="center"><i>but not an ill</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>again, and</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>Name,</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 14 16 long.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">□ ☉ ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>may be</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>thunder</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">♄ sou. 9 30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">6 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>healed.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>follows with</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 10 58</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain.</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ☿</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">July</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXXI</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">at noon.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">6 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♈</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♊</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td><td class="bt" align="right" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">6 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">1 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"></td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♌ 1</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">2 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">1</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♌ 0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♉ 2</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">31</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">0</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-243.jpg" width="99%" alt="July Woodcut Illustration" title="July Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="July Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sets</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="32" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>which, considering the Distance of the starry +Heavens, would require a Motion infinitely +more rapid than that above ascribed to the +Earth. As for the common Objection against +the Earth's Motion, that we are not sensible +of it, and that a Stone thrown up from the +Earth ought not to fall down upon the same +Place again; it is answered at once by the above +Comparison of a Ship, from which (as +has been often found by Experiment) a Ball +fired directly up in the Air, does not fall behind +the Ship, let her Motion be ever so swift, +but, partaking of the Ship's Motion, is carried +forward in the Air, and falls down again +upon the Deck. And as to the Objections +taken from some Scripture Expressions, which +seem to contradict the Theory of the Earth's +Motion, it is plain, from innumerable Instances, +that Revelation was not given to Mankind +to make them Philosophers or deep Reasoners, +but to improve them in Virtue and +Piety; and that it was therefore proper it +should be expressed in a Manner accommodated +to common Capacities and popular Opinions +in all Points merely speculative, and +which were not to have any direct Influence +upon the Hearts and Lives of Men. The +Truth of the Matter is, that the Demonstrations +given by the incomparable Sir <i>Isaac +Newton</i>, have established the Doctrine of the +Motion of the Earth and other Planets, and +the Comets round the Sun, and of the</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">A.</td><td class="bt br" align="left">38</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">3</td><td class="bt br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">July</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rise</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">secondary</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">AUGUST.</em> +<i>VIII Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thy Praise my Morning Song, my daily Theme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Ev'ning Subject, and my Midnight Dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Grief oppresses, and when Pain assails;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When all the Man, and all the Stoic fails;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When fierce Tentation's stormy Billows roll;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When Guilt and Horror overwhelm my Soul;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With outward Ills contending Passions join'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To shake frail Virtue, and unhinge the Mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i21">When<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="August Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">Lammas Day.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">7</td><td class="bt br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♍</td><td class="bt br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♀ rise 1 40</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>More temperate</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="center"><i>When out of Favour,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 46 m.</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="center"><i>none know</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then</i></td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="center"><i>thee; when in,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">7 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="center"><i>thou dost not</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds, with</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">22</td> +<td align="left">△ ♂ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>know</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 10 55</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 13 54 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="center"><i>thyself.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. Lawrence.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="center"><i>A lean Award</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>thunder;</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">☿ sets 7 54</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">8 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">♄ sou. 8 30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>sultry weather,</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">♃ rises 3 32</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds, and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 10 25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Assum. V. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Mary.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 10 25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain;</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="center"><i>is better than a</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 1 18</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">♀ rise 1 37</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then more</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="center"><i>fat Judgment.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">9 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="center"><i>God, Parents,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 13 26 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="center"><i>and Instructors,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>temperate,</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>can</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clear</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♍ △ ☉ ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and fair;</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">22</td> +<td align="center"><i>never be</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Barthol.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 9 52</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>flying</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>requited.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">10 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♃</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 1 42</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">♄ sou. 7 36</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">♃ rise 2 54</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>perhaps</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 13 h. long</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">△ ♂ ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain.</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 9 54</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">August</em></span> hath <span class="smcap txt90">XXXI</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">9 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♌</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♌</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♊</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♍</td> +<td class="bt" align="right" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">9 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">10 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"></td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">♋ 4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">29 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">29</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♍ 0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">31</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">28</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-245.jpg" width="99%" alt="August Woodcut Illustration" title="August Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="August Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ set</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="32" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>secondary Planets or Satellites round their Primaries, +in such a Manner, as leaves no Room +for any, but such as do not understand them, +to hesitate about it. The Sun's apparent Rising +and Setting is therefore owing to the +Earth's turning round upon its own Axis; and +his apparent Change of Place among the fixed +Stars, to our real Change of Situation round +the Sun. The different Seasons of the Year, +with all their delightful Varieties, are owing +to the most simple Contrivance that can be +imagined, <i>viz.</i> The Inclination of the Earth's +Axis to the Plane of the Ecliptic. Any Person +who has not an Opportunity of seeing an +Orrery, may easily represent this by an Apple +or any other round Body with a Wire thrust +through the Middle of it, and carried round +a Table having a Candle placed on the Middle; +if the lower End of the Wire be made +to touch the Table all the Way round, and to +lean a little, the upper End still pointing towards +the same Side of the Room, by turning +the Skewer round, as it is carried along, it +will be easy to understand how the Earth's +Turning once round upon her own Axis, makes +a Day and a Night; and by carrying the Apple +round the Table, it will be easy to shew +how the Sun (represented by the Candle) must +seem to change Place with regard to the fixed +Stars; and by observing how differently the +Light of the Candle enlightens the different +Parts of the Apple as the Wire points toward</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left"><span class="nowrap">8 A.</span></td><td class="bt br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="bt" align="left"><span class="nowrap">2 A.</span></td><td class="bt br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">Aug.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets.</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left"><span class="nowrap">7 A.</span></td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">(to-)ward <span class="u">it</span></td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">SEPTEMBER.</em> +<i>IX Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When Nature sinks; when Death's dark Shades arise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And this World's Glories vanish from these Eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then may the Thought of Thee be ever near,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To calm the Tumult, and compose the Fear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In all my Woes thy Favour my Defence;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Safe in thy Mercy, not my Innocence,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And through what future Scenes thy Hand may guide<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My wond'ring Soul, and thro' what States untry'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i21">What<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="September Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">Dog Days end</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">32</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">6</td><td class="bt br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♏</td><td class="bt br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">✱ ♀ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>He that</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">11 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♂ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>builds</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 3</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">♀ rises 1 51</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 4</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="center"><i>before he counts</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 5</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 22</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>the</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 6</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>like for</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="center"><i>Cost, acts foolishly;</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain; then</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 9 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 8</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Nativ. V. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Mary.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="center"><i>and he</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right"> 9</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">12 past Trin</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="center"><i>that counts before</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>wind,</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="center"><i>he builds,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 12 32 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="center"><i>finds he did not</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 2 22</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">20</td> +<td align="left">♄ set 11 16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>fair and</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 8 40</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Holy Rood.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">♃ ri. 2 11 <span class="lpad1"><i>count</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>pleasant</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="left">☌ ♃ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>wisely.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">13 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♂ rise 9 11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 12 16 long.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">22</td> +<td align="left">♀ rise 2 14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>for some</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Ember Week.</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">18</td> +<td align="center">Patience <i>in</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>days;</i></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="center"><i>Market, is</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Matthew.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="center"><i>worth Pounds</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♎ □ ☉ ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">14 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ♃ & ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>in a</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>with wind</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">△ ☉ <span class="lpad1"><i>Year.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">☽ w. ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Danger</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 7 52 <span class="lpad1"><i>is</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days decr. 3 h.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">♄ set 10 21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>towards the end.</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">♃ rise 1 30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Michael.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">♂ r. 8 32 <span class="lpad1"><i>Sauce</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 13 h. long</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">26</td> +<td align="center"><i>for Prayers.</i></td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">September</em></span> hath <span class="txt90">XXX</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">8 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">at noon.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♍</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♌</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♋</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♍</td> +<td class="bt" align="right" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">4 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">9 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">♌ 6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">14</td><td align="right" colspan="2">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">28 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♊ 0</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">28</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♎ 0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">13</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">30</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">28</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td align="right" colspan="2">1</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-247.jpg" width="99%" alt="September Woodcut Illustration" title="September Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="September Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ set</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="31" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>it, or from it, the Cause of the Difference +of the Seasons, of the Length of the +Days and Nights, of the Sun's shining more +directly or more obliquely upon different Parts +of the Earth, and of the Heat of Summer, +and Cold of Winter, may be made plain to +any Capacity. That the Earth is of a round, +or nearly round Figure, is plain from the Shadow +it casts upon the Face of the Moon in a +partial Eclipse of the Moon, which is always +round, and never of any other Figure. It is +also manifest from what it always observed at +Sea, <i>viz.</i> That a Ship, as it approaches, first +shews its Masts and Sails, and by Degrees its +lower Parts, till it becomes all visible; and, +as it goes off, its Hulk is first lost, and then +its Sails and upper Parts, till it be quite hid +by the Convexity or Roundness of the Surface +of the Ocean.</p> + +<p>As the Earth is carried round the Sun once +in a Year, so is the Moon carried round the +Earth once in about twenty-seven Days, accompanying +her in her whole Revolution, at +the above-mentioned Distance of two hundred +and forty thousand Miles, and keeping always +the same Face towards the Earth. That +the Moon goes round the Earth, as her Centre, +is evident to the Eye. For, when she is +between the Sun and the Earth, she is invisible +to us, her dark Side being turned toward +us. When she goes a little Way forward in +her Revolution, so as to come from between</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">9</td><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">3</td><td class="bt br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">6</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">Sept.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left"><span class="nowrap">7 A.</span></td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">0</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">us</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">OCTOBER.</em> +<i>X Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What distant Seats soe'er I may explore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When frail Mortality shall be no more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If aught of meek or contrite in thy Sight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall fit me for the Realms of Bliss and Light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be this the Bliss of all my future Days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To view thy Glories, and to sing thy Praise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the dread Hour, ordain'd of old, shall come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which brings on stubborn Guilt its righteous Doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i21">When<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="October Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"><i>Moderate</i></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">6</td><td class="bt br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♐</td><td class="bt br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="bt" align="center"><i>If you have</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and pleasant,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">♀ rise 3 45</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 11 32 long.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>no</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>but</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="center"><i>Honey in your</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>soon turns</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 7 20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 3 26</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">✱ ☉ ♃ □ ♂ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">16 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">□ ♄ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>Pot,</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>to rain,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">△ ♂ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>have</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>with high</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="center"><i>some in your</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>wind, and</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="center"><i>Mouth.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cool,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="center"><i>A Pair of</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 3 40</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">♄ sets 9 33</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then more</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♃ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>good</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">17 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">7 *s rise 6 46</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>settled</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>Ears</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 11 h. long.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="left">♃ rises 12 42</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and fair,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">Sirius ri. 12 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Luke.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">♂ rises 7 20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>warm,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">♀ rises 3 23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day dec. 4 h.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>will</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">18 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="center"><i>drain dry an</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">K Geo. II. cro.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>hundred</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and flying</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">24</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♏ ☌ ☽ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>clouds,</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♄ ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Crispin.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">✱ ☉ ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>Tongues.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 10 32 long.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">♄ set 8 40</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Simon</em></span> and <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Jude.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">Sirius ri. 11 20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cold</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">△ ♂ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain, and wind.</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♄ □ ♄ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain.</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">13</td> +<td align="left">♃ rise 11 55</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">October</em></span> hath xxxi Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">11 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">4 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♎</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♌</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♊</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♌</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♍</td> +<td class="bt" align="right" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">10 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">5 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">♍ 4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♎ 2</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td align="right" colspan="2">0</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">28 Deg.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">28</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td class="br" align="right">29</td><td align="right" colspan="2">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">31</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">28</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">♏ 4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♏ 7</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">2</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-249.jpg" width="99%" alt="October Woodcut Illustration" title="October Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="October Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sets</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="32" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>us and the Sun, we see a small Part of her +Body enlightned, and so on still more and more, +till she comes to be in Opposition to the Sun, +and then we see all that Side of her which the +Sun shines upon, when we say she is full; +though the Sun does not, in Reality, enlighten +any more of her Body at Full than at new +Moon; only her enlightened Side is turned towards +us in the one Case, and from us in the +other. This whole Matter may be made very +plain to any Capacity in the same Manner +as is above directed with regard to the Earth's +Revolution round the Sun, by carrying a smaller +Apple or Ball to represent the Moon round +the first, which represents the Earth, and observing +how the Light of the Candle shining +upon the little Ball must appear to a Fly or +other Insect placed upon the large one. Whenever +the Moon happens to come exactly between +the Earth and the Sun, she stops the +Light of the Sun, and then we say, the Sun +is eclipsed; and according as the Moon happens +to cover a Part or the Whole of the Sun's +Face, we call the Eclipse partial or total. +Sometimes a total Eclipse of the Sun happens +when the Moon is at her greatest Distance from +the Earth (for she does not go round the Earth +in an exact Circle, as neither do any of the rest +of the primary or secondary Planets round their +Centers) and then, as all Objects appear smaller +according to their Distance, she does not +cover the whole Face of the Sun, but a part</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">9</td><td class="bt br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="bt" align="left"><span class="nowrap">4 A.</span></td><td class="bt br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">7</td><td class="bt br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">Oct.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left"><span class="nowrap">6 A.</span></td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Morn.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">of</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">NOVEMBER.</em> +<i>XI Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When Storms of Fire on Sinners shall be pour'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all th' Obdurate in thy Wrath devour'd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May I then hope to find a lowly Place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stand the meanest or th' etherial Race;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Swift at thy Word to wing the liquid Sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on thy humblest Messages to fly.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Howe'er thy blissful Sight may raise my Soul,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While vast Eternity's long Ages roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i21">Perfection<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="November Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">All Saints.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">6</td><td class="bt br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♂ rise 6 13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 4 32</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="center"><i>Serving God is</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Clouds</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="center"><i>Doing Good to</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">20 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="center"><i>Man, but Praying</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Powder Plot.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">13</td> +<td align="center"><i>is thought</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 10 10 long.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">♀ rise 4 2 <span class="lpad1"><i>an</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and threatens</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="center"><i>easier Service,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cold</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">□ ☉ ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>and</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>rain or snow.</i></td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="center"><i>therefore more</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">K. Geo. II. b.1683</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="left">Sirius ri. 10 27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">21 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>generally</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">57</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">✱ ♃ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>pleasant</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">♄ sets 7 35 <span class="lpad1"><i>chosen.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 5 h.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♃ ri. 11 4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and suita-</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sou. 12 4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>to the</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">☍ ☉ ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>Nothing</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>season,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">☽ w ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>humbler</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">22 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">♂ sou. 11 51</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>but follow'd</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">Sirius rises 9 51</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Day 9 38 long.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">♀ rise 4 29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>by cold</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♐ <span class="lpad1"><i>than</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cloudy,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♀ △ ♃ ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 5 16</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">47</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="center">Ambition, <i>when</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>weather,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">46</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="center"><i>it is about to</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">23 past Trin.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sou. 11 26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>with snow</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ☿ ✱ ♄ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>or rain</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 5 24</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">♄ sets 6 37</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and wind.</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">♃ rises 9 57</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Andrew.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="center"><i>climb.</i></td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">November</em></span> hath <span class="txt90">XXX</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">8 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♏</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♌</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♎</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♏</td><td class="bt" align="right" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">7 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">0</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">8 aft.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">23</td><td align="right" colspan="2">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"> </td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">♐ 2</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">27 Deg</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">27</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♐ 1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td align="right" colspan="2">0</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">30</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">26</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">♏ 6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">5</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-251.jpg" width="99%" alt="November Woodcut Illustration" title="November Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="November Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sets</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="31" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>of his Body is seen round the Moon like a +shining Ring. But, if the Moon happens to +come between the Earth and Sun, when +she is at her least Distance from the Earth, she +appears then so large as to cover the whole +Face of the Sun, and makes, for some Minutes, +a Darkness equal to that of Twilight. +When the Earth comes exactly between the +Sun and the Moon, she darkens a Part of the +Whole of the Moon's Face, and makes an +Eclipse of the Moon. The Earth being a +Body about thirty or forty Times larger than +the Moon, casts a Shadow large enough to +eclipse the Moon, if her Diameter were three +Times greater than it is, whereas the Shadow +of the Moon can never eclipse the whole Face +of the Earth together. If the Moon revolved +round the Earth in the same Plane as the +Earth goes round the Sun, there would be +constantly an Eclipse of the Sun every New, +and of the Moon every full Moon. But to +prevent this Inconvenience, the Author of +Nature has ordered Matters so, that the +Course of the Moon round the Earth is sometimes +above and sometimes below that of the +Earth round the Sun, so that their Shadows +generally miss one another. These Motions +are so exactly regulated, that Astronomers +can foretel Eclipses to Minutes at an hundred +Years Distance, than which there is not a more +remarkable Instance either of human Sagacity, +or of the Truth of that Expression of</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">10</td><td class="bt br" align="right">45</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">29</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">8</td><td class="bt br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">Nov.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">32</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">33</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">56</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">48</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">51</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Morn.</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">34</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right" colspan="8">Scripture</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center bb"><span class="txt150"><em class="gesperrt4">DECEMBER.</em> +<i>XII Month.</i></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Perfection on Perfection tow'ring high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glory on Glory rais'd, and Joy on Joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each Pow'r improving in the bright'ning Mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To humble Virtues, lofty Knowledge join'd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be this my highest Aim, howe'er I soar,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before thy Footstool prostrate to adore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My brightest Crown before thy Feet to lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My Pride to serve, my Glory to obey.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center txt120"><em class="gesperrt4"><i>END</i></em></p> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="December Sun Chart"> +<tr><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td><td class="bt br" align="left"> </td> +<td class="bt br" align="left"><span class="nowrap">Remark. days, &c.</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ ris</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☉ set</span></td> +<td class="bt br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ pl.</span></td> +<td class="bt" align="left">Aspects, &c.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td><td class="bt br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="bt br" align="left">Day 9 24 long.</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">7</td><td class="bt br" align="right">19</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">4</td><td class="bt br" align="right">41</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">♒</td><td class="bt br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="bt" align="center"><i>The discontented</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Advent Sunday.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">41</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td align="left">♂ sou. 10 32</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>Cold and</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="center"><i>Man finds no</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days dec. 5 30.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td align="left">♈</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="center"><i>easy Chair.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>raw, then</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">15</td> +<td align="left">Sirius rise 8 41</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 9 18 long.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">27</td> +<td align="left">☌ ♄ ☿ □ ♃ ♀</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>more pleasant,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td align="left">♉</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">♀ rises 5 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Concep. V. M.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♂ △ ☉ ♃</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">2d in Advent.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">37</td> +<td align="left">♊</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sou. 10 28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left"> </td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="center"><i>Virtue and a</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 9 12 long.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">♋</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="center"><i>Trade, are</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>frost and</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">19</td> +<td align="left">♃ rise 9 1</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. Lucy.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td align="left">♌</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">Sirius rise 8 7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days decr. 5 40</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♃ <span class="lpad1"><i>a</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>flying clouds,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♍</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">□ ♃ ♂ <span class="lpad1"><i>Child's</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">3d in Advent.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">16</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sou. 9 56</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>then more</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">♂ sou. 9 14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>moderate</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">14</td> +<td align="left">♀ rises 5 23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Ember Week.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">28</td> +<td align="center"><i>best Portion.</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>and clear,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♏</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="center"><i>Gifts much</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Thomas.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">25</td> +<td align="left">☉ in ♑ Shor. D</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 9 10 long.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♐</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☽ ♀ ☌ ♄ ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="left">4th in Advent.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">21</td> +<td align="left">Sirius rises 7 23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>but windy,</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♑</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">☽ with ♄ & ☿</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td class="br" align="left"><span class="txt120"><em class="gesperrt">CHRIST</em></span> born.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ☿ <span class="lpad1"><i>expected,</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Stephen.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="center"><i>are paid,</i></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td class="br" align="left">St. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">John.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♒</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td align="left">♃ rise 7 51</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="left"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Innocents.</em></span></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">23</td> +<td align="left">7 *s sou. 9 0</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Days 9 10 long.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">35</td> +<td align="left">♓</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">☌ ☉ ♄ <span class="lpad1"><i>not</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td><td class="br" align="right">G</td> +<td class="br" align="center"><i>cold and cloudy.</i></td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">17</td> +<td align="left">△ ♃ ♀ <span class="lpad1"><i>given.</i></span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="left">Silvester.</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right" colspan="2">29</td> +<td align="left">Sirius rise 6 48</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Planet Places"> + +<tr><td class="bb wide" align="center" colspan="14"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">December</em></span> hath <span class="txt90">XXXI</span> Days.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td class="br" align="center">H.</td> +<td align="center" colspan="9">Planets Places.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">First Q.</td> +<td align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">4 aft.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">D.</td><td class="bt br" align="center">☉</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♄</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♃</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♂</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♀</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">☿</td><td class="bt" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ <sup>s</sup>L.</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Full ●</td> +<td align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">8 mor.</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt br" align="center">♐</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♑</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♌</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center">♉</td><td class="bt br" align="center">♏</td> +<td class="bt br" align="center"> </td><td class="bt" align="right" colspan="2"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Last Q.</td> +<td align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">5 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">20</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">New ☽</td> +<td align="right">24</td><td class="br" align="right">10 mor.</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">19</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">S.</td><td align="right">1</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="left" colspan="5"></td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" rowspan="3"><img src="images/bracketleft.jpg" width="15" height="50" alt="bracket left" title="bracket left" /></td> +<td align="left">12</td><td align="right">♎</td><td class="br" align="right">25 Deg</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td class="br" align="right">17</td><td class="br" align="right">♐ 1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td align="right" colspan="2">2</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">☊</td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">22</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">24</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">22</td><td class="br" align="right">♑ 1</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">N.</td><td align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td> +<td align="left" colspan="2">31</td><td class="br" align="right"><span class="rpad2">23</span></td> +<td class="br" align="right">27</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td class="br" align="right">18</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td align="right" colspan="2">5</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<div class="center bt"> +<img src="images/illus-253.jpg" width="99%" alt="December Woodcut Illustration" title="December Woodcut Illustration" /> +</div> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="November Moon Chart"> +<tr><td class="br" align="center"> D.</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sets</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2"><span class="nowrap">☽ sou:</span></td> +<td class="br" align="center">T.</td><td class="br" align="center"> </td> +<td class="left" rowspan="32" style="vertical-align: top;"><p>Scripture, "That the Works of God are all +made in Number, Weight and Measure." +It is certain, by Observations made with good +Telescopes, that, though the Face of the +Moon is covered with innumerable Inequalities +like the Mountains upon the Earth, there +is no great Collection of Waters upon it, like +our Oceans; nor is there any Reason, from +her Appearance through those Instruments, +to suppose she has any such Appendage belonging +to her as our Atmosphere of Air. If the +Moon is inhabited (as she may for any Thing +we know) those who live on one Side or Hemisphere +never can see our World, and those +who live on the other can never lose Sight of +it, except when the Earth comes between them +and the Sun, as she keeps always one Side +turned towards us. Those who live about the +middle Parts of the Hemisphere that looks towards +the Earth, must see it always directly +over their Heads with much the same Appearances +as the Moon makes to us, sometimes +horned, sometimes half, and sometimes +wholly illuminated, but of a vastly greater +Bulk than the Moon appears to us. It +seems highly probable, that the Attraction of +the Moon acting more strongly upon the Fluid +than the solid Parts of our Terraqueous Globe +is the Cause of our Tides, as they answer so +exactly to her Motions and Distances from us, +and other Circumstances. To enter upon that +Theory, however, would be beside my present +Purpose.</p> + +<p class="center">[<i>Remainder in our next.</i>]</p></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="bt br" align="right">1</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">11</td><td class="bt br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="bt" align="left">5</td><td class="bt br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="bt br" align="right">8</td><td class="bt br" align="right">20</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">3</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">22</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">38</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">23</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">5</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">6</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">25</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">7</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">54</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">26</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">0</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">43</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">9</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">40</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">rises</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">29</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">Dec.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">13</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">14</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">15</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">50</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">16</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">5</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">17</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">2</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">18</td> +<td align="left">M.</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">9</td><td class="br" align="right">7</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">19</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">44</td> +<td class="br" align="right">10</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">8</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">36</td> +<td class="br" align="right">11</td><td class="br" align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td class="br" align="right">12</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">22</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">10</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td> +<td class="br" align="right">1</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">23</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">Moon</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td> +<td class="br" align="right">2</td><td class="br" align="right">12</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">24</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">sets</td> +<td align="left">A.</td><td class="br" align="right">4</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">13</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">25</td> +<td class="br" align="center" colspan="2">A.</td> +<td align="left">12</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td class="br" align="right">3</td><td class="br" align="right">14</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">26</td> +<td align="left">6</td><td class="br" align="right">59</td> +<td align="left">1</td><td class="br" align="right">42</td> +<td class="br" align="right">4</td><td class="br" align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td align="left">7</td><td class="br" align="right">58</td> +<td align="left">2</td><td class="br" align="right">27</td> +<td class="br" align="right">5</td><td class="br" align="right">16</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">28</td> +<td align="left">8</td><td class="br" align="right">53</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">11</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">29</td> +<td align="left">9</td><td class="br" align="right">52</td> +<td align="left">3</td><td class="br" align="right">55</td> +<td class="br" align="right">6</td><td class="br" align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">30</td> +<td align="left">10</td><td class="br" align="right">49</td> +<td align="left">4</td><td class="br" align="right">39</td> +<td class="br" align="right">7</td><td class="br" align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="br" align="right">31</td> +<td align="left">11</td><td class="br" align="right">45</td> +<td align="left">5</td><td class="br" align="right">21</td> +<td class="br" align="right">8</td><td class="br" align="right">20</td></tr> +</table></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center txt150"><em class="gesperrt">ECLIPSES</em>, 1753.</p> + +<p class="cap">This Year there will be four Eclipses, two of +the <i>Sun</i>, and two of the <i>Moon</i>.</p> + +<p>The First Eclipse will be of the <i>Moon</i>, on <i>Tuesday</i>, +the 17th Day of <i>April</i>, about Two a Clock in the +Afternoon, and therefore it cannot be seen here; but in +<i>London</i> the Moon will rise five Digits eclipsed.</p> + +<p>The Second will be of the <i>Sun</i>, on <i>Thursday</i>, the 3d +of <i>May</i>, about Two a Clock in the Morning, therefore +invisible.</p> + +<p>The Third Eclipse will be of the <i>Moon</i>, on <i>Friday</i>, +the 12th Day of <i>October</i>, in the Morning, when, if the +Air be clear, the Moon will be seen eclipsed almost six +Digits; it begins at 26 min. after Two, and ends at +56 min. past Four, so that the whole Duration is two +Hours and thirty Minutes.</p> + +<p class="center">The <span class="txt130"><em class="gesperrt">TYPE</em>.</span></p> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Eclipse Chart"> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">North.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">East.</td> +<td align="center"><img src="images/illus-254.jpg" width="325" height="305" alt="Eclipse Phases" title="Eclipse Phases" /></td> +<td align="left">West.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">South.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>The Fourth is a <i>Solar</i> Eclipse on <i>Friday</i>, the 26th of +<i>October</i>, about Five a Clock in the Morning, invisible +here.</p> + +<p>On <i>Sunday</i>, the 6th Day of <i>May</i>, in the Morning, +the Planet <i>Mercury</i> may be seen to make a black Spot</p> + +<p class="praright">in</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p>in the <i>Sun</i>'s Body, according to the following Calculation.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Mercury Calculations"> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"> </td> +<td align="right">D.</td><td align="right">h.</td><td align="right">m.</td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2">Middle Time of the true ☌ 1753, <i>May</i></td> +<td align="right">5</td><td align="right">15</td><td align="right">43</td> +<td align="right">P. M</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Equation of Time, add</td> +<td align="right">4</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2">Apparent Time of the true ☌</td> +<td align="right">5</td><td align="right">15</td><td align="right">47</td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2">Mean Anomaly of the <i>Sun</i>,</td> +<td align="right">10</td><td align="right">6</td><td align="right">21</td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2">Mean Anomaly of <i>Mercury</i>,</td> +<td align="right">10</td><td align="right">19</td><td align="right">47</td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left">Dist. of the</td><td align="left">☉ from the ⊖</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">Log. 5,004518</td><td align="right"> </td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">☿ from the ☉</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">4,656557</td><td align="right"> </td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left"> </td><td align="left">☿ from the ⊖</td> +<td align="right" colspan="2">4,745839</td><td align="right"> </td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2">Geocentrick Longitude ☉ and ☿</td> +<td align="right">♉</td><td align="right">15°</td><td align="right">53'</td> +<td align="right">0"</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Geocentrick Latitude,</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td align="right">19</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2">Anomaly of Commutation,</td> +<td align="right">6</td><td align="right">0</td><td align="right">0</td> +<td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Inclination, or Heliocentrick Lat. of ☿ S.A.</td> +<td align="right">4</td><td align="right">3</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Elongation to fix Hours before the true ☌</td> +<td align="right">23</td><td align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Difference of Latitude in fix Hours,</td> +<td align="right">4</td><td align="right">18</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Angle of the visible Way,</td> +<td align="right">10</td><td align="right">25</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Nearest Approach of their Centers,</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td align="right">15</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="5">Motion from the Middle to the true ☌</td> +<td align="right">35</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Latitude of ☿ at the Middle,</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Motion of Half the visible Way,</td> +<td align="right">15</td><td align="right">24</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Motion of Half Duration,</td> +<td align="right">15</td><td align="right">9</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Diff. of Lat. between the Mid. Begin. & End,</td> +<td align="right">2</td><td align="right">47</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Geocentrick Latitude at the Beginning, S. A.</td> +<td align="right">0</td><td align="right">17</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Geocentrick Latitude at the End, S. A.</td> +<td align="right">5</td><td align="right">51</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Time from the true ☌ to the Middle,</td> +<td align="right">9</td><td align="right">4</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Time of Half Duration,</td> +<td align="right">3</td><td align="right">53</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">The Arch of the ☉'s Perimeter at the Begin.</td> +<td align="right">1</td><td align="right">2</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">The Arch of the ☉'s Perimeter at the End,</td> +<td align="right">21</td><td align="right">48</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Apparent Semidiameter of the <i>Sun</i>,</td> +<td align="right">15</td><td align="right">45</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="4">Apparent Semidiameter of ☿</td> +<td align="right">0</td><td align="right">6</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><i>Mercury</i> enters the Sun's Disk, <i>May</i></td> +<td align="right">5,</td><td align="right">11</td><td align="right">44</td><td align="right">P.M.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Middle or nearest Approach of the Centers,</td> +<td align="right">15</td><td align="right">37</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">True Conjunction,</td> +<td align="right">15</td><td align="right">46</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3"><i>Mercury</i> emerges out of the Disk,</td> +<td align="right">19</td><td align="right">31</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align="left" colspan="3">Total Duration of this Eclipse,</td> +<td align="right">7</td><td align="right">47</td><td align="right"> </td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>The astronomical Time when <i>Mercury</i> goes off the +<i>Sun</i>'s Disk, being reduced to common Time, is <i>May</i> the +6th, at 31 min. after Seven in the Morning. The <i>Sun</i> +rises at 1 min. past Five, and if you get up betimes, +and put on your Spectacles, you will see <i>Mercury</i> rise</p> + +<p class="praright">in</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p>in the <i>Sun</i>, and will appear like a small black Patch in +a Lady's Face.</p> + +<p class="center">The <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Type</em></span> of this Eclipse at Sun-rising.</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="99%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Eclipse Chart"> +<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">North.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">East.</td> +<td align="center"><img src="images/illus-256.jpg" width="250" alt="Eclipse Phases" title="Eclipse Phases" /></td> +<td align="left">West.</td></tr> + +<tr><td align="center" colspan="3">South.</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p class="bb">Dr. <i>Halley</i> puts this Conjunction an Hour forwarder than by this +Calculation.</p> + +<p class="cap">This is to give Notice to all Persons that shall have Occasion +of transporting themselves, Goods, Wares, or Merchandize +from Philadelphia to New-York, or from the latter to +the former, That by <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Joseph Borden</em></span>, junior, there is a Stage-boat, +well fitted and kept for that Purpose, Nicholas George, Master, +and, if Wind and Weather permit, will attend at the Crooked +Billet Wharff, in Philadelphia, every Monday and Tuesday in every +Week, and proceed up to Borden-Town (not Burlington) on Wednesday, +and on Thursday Morning a Stage-waggon, with a choice +good Awning, kept by Joseph Richards, will be ready to receive them, +and proceed directly to John Cluck's, opposite the City of Perth-Amboy, +who keeps a House of good Entertainment; and on Friday +a Stage-boat, with a large commodious Cabbin, kept by Daniel +Obryant, will be ready to receive them, and proceed directly to New-York, +and give her Attendance at the Whitehall Slip, near the Half +Moon Battery. If People be ready at the Stage Days and Places, +'tis believed they may pass quicker by Twenty-four Hours than any +other Way as our Land Carriage is ten Miles shorter than by Way +of Burlington, and our Waggon does not fail to go thro' in a Day. We +expect to give better Satisfaction this Year than last, by reason we +are more acquainted with the Nature of the Business, and have more +convenient Boats, Waggons and Stages, and will endeavour to use +People in the best Manner we are capable of; and hope all good People +will give it the Encouragement it deserves, and us, as the Promoters +of such a publick Good. <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Joseph Borden</em></span>, junior, <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Joseph +Richards</em></span>, and <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Daniel Obryant</em></span>.</p> + +<p>N. B. Joseph Borden's Shallop, Charles Vandyke, Master, will +also be at Philadelphia every Friday and Saturday in every Week; +enquire for him at the Queen's Head; he proceeds to Borden-Town +(not Burlington) on Sunday, and the Stage-waggon also proceeds to +Amboy every Monday in every Week.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center wide"><i>Mayor's Courts for the City</i></p> + +<p class="cap bb">Are held quarterly at <i>Annapolis</i>, viz. The last tuesday +in <i>January</i>, <i>April</i>, <i>July</i> and <i>October</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>How to secure Houses</i>, &c. <i>from</i> <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Lightning</em></span>.</p> + +<p class="cap bb">It has pleased God in his Goodness to Mankind, at length to +discover to them the Means of securing their Habitations and +other Buildings from Mischief by Thunder and Lightning. The +Method is this: Provide a small Iron Rod (it may be made of +the Rod-iron used by the Nailers) but of such a Length, that one +End being three or four Feet in the moist Ground, the other may +be six or eight Feet above the highest Part of the Building. To +the upper End of the Rod fasten about a Foot of Brass Wire, the +Size of a common Knitting-needle, sharpened to a fine Point; the +Rod may be secured to the House by a few small Staples. If the +House or Barn be long, there may be a Rod and Point at each End, +and a middling Wire along the Ridge from one to the other. A +House thus furnished will not be damaged by Lightning, it being attracted +by the Points, and passing thro the Metal into the Ground +without hurting any Thing. Vessels also, having a sharp pointed Rod +fix'd on the Top of their Masts, with a Wire from the Foot of the +Rod reaching down, round one of the Shrouds, to the Water, will +not be hurt by Lightning.</p> + +<p class="center txt120 wide"><span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Quakers</em></span> <i>General Meetings are kept</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap bb">At Philadelphia, the 3d Sunday in March. At Chester-River, +the 2d Sunday in April. At Duck-Creek, +the 3d Sunday in April. At Salem, the 4th +Sunday in April. At West River on Whitsunday. At +Little Egg-Harbour, the 3d Sunday in May. At Flushing, +the last Sunday in May, and last in Nov. At Setacket, +the 1st Sunday in June. At New-town, (Long-Island) +the last Sunday in June. At Newport, the 2d +Friday in June. At Westbury, the last Sunday in August, +and last in February. At Philadelphia, the 3d Sunday +in September. At Nottingham, the last Monday in +September. At Cecil, the 1st Saturday in October. +At Choptank the 2d Saturday in October. At Little-Creek, +the 3d Sunday in October. At Shrewsbury the +4th Sunday in October. At Matinicok the last Sunday +in October.</p> + +<p class="center wide"><span class="txt110"><em class="gesperrt4"><i>FAIRS</i></em></span> <i>are kept</i>,</p> + +<p>At Noxonton April 29, and October 21. Cohansie May 5, and +October 27. Wilmington May 9, and November 4. Salem May +12, and October 31. Newcastle May 14, and Nov. 14. Chester May +16, and Oct. 16. Bristol May 19, and Nov. 9. Burlington May 21, +and Nov. 12. Philadelphia May 27, and November 27. Lancaster +June 12, and Nov. 12. Marcus-Hook Oct. 10. Annapolis May 12, +and Oct. 10. Charlestown May 3, and Oct. 29.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center txt110"><i>Supreme</i> <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">Courts</em></span> <i>in</i> Pennsylvania, <i>are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap">At <i>Philadelphia</i>, the tenth Day of <i>April</i>, and the +twenty-fourth Day of <i>September</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Courts of Quarter Sessions, are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">At <i>Philadelphia</i>, the 1st Monday in <i>March</i>, <i>June</i>, +<i>September</i> and <i>December</i>. At <i>Newtown</i>, for <i>Bucks</i> +County, on the 11th Day following (inclusive) in every +of the Months aforesaid. At <i>Chester</i>, the last Tuesday +in <i>May</i>, <i>August</i>, <i>November</i> and <i>February</i>. At <i>Lancaster</i>, +the 1st Tuesday in each. At York, the last Tuesday in +April, July, October and January. At Cumberland, the +Tuesdays preceding York Courts. At <i>Reading</i>, for <i>Berks</i> +County, the Tuesd. next after <i>Lancaster</i> Co. At <i>Easton</i>, +for <i>Northampton</i> County, the Tuesd. next aft. <i>Bucks</i> Co.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Courts of Common Pleas, are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">At <i>Philadelphia</i>, the 1st Wednesday after the Quarter-Sessions +in <i>March</i>, <i>June</i>, <i>Sept.</i> and <i>Decem.</i> At <i>Newtown</i>, +the 9th Day following (inclusive) in every of the +Months aforesaid. At <i>Chester</i>, the last Tuesday in <i>May</i> +<i>August</i>, <i>Novem.</i> and <i>Febr.</i> At <i>Lancaster</i>, the 1st Tuesd. +in the Months aforesaid. At <i>Sussex</i>, the 1st, at <i>Kent</i>, the +2d, and at <i>Newcastle</i>, the 3d Tuesday in the same Months.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Mayor's Courts in</i> Philadelphia, <i>are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">The first Tuesday in <i>January</i>, <i>April</i>, <i>July</i>, and the +last Tuesday in <i>October</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Supreme Courts in</i> New-Jersey, <i>are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">At <i>Amboy</i>, the 3d tuesday in <i>March</i>, and the 2d tuesday +in <i>August</i>. At <i>Burlington</i>, the 2d tuesday +in <i>May</i>, and the 1st tuesday in <i>November</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Courts for Trial of Causes brought to issue in +the Supreme Court, are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">For <i>Salem</i> and <i>Cape May</i> Counties the 3d, for <i>Gloucester</i> +the 4th tuesday in <i>April</i>. For <i>Hunterdon</i>, the +1st tuesday in <i>May</i>. For <i>Somerset</i> the 2d, For <i>Bergen</i> +the 4th tuesday in <i>October</i>. For <i>Essex</i>, the next tuesd. +following. For <i>Monmouth</i>, the next tuesday after that.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>General Sessions and County Courts, are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">In <i>Bergen</i> County, the 1st tuesday in <i>January</i> and +<i>October</i>, and the 2d tuesday in <i>June</i>. In <i>Essex</i> the +2d tuesday in <i>January</i> and <i>May</i>, the 3d tuesday in +<i>June</i>, and 4th in <i>September</i>. In <i>Middlesex</i> the 3d tuesdays +in <i>January</i>, <i>April</i> and <i>July</i>, and the 2d tuesday +in <i>October</i>. In <i>Somerset</i>, the first tuesdays in <i>January</i>,</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p><i>April</i> and <i>October</i>, and the 2d tuesdays in <i>June</i>. In +<i>Monmouth</i>, the 4th tuesdays in <i>January</i>, <i>April</i> and <i>July</i>, +and 3d in <i>October</i>. In <i>Hunterdon</i>, the first tuesdays in +<i>February</i> and <i>August</i>, the 3d in <i>May</i>, and 4th in <i>October</i>. +In <i>Burlington</i>, the 1st tuesdays in <i>May</i> and <i>November</i>, +and the 2d in <i>February</i> and <i>August</i>. In <i>Gloucester</i>, +the 2d tuesday in <i>June</i>, 3d in <i>September</i>, and 4th +in <i>December</i> and <i>March</i>. In <i>Salem</i>, the 1st tuesday in +<i>June</i>, 3d in <i>February</i> and <i>August</i>, and 4th in <i>November</i>. +In <i>Cape-May</i>, the 1st tuesday in <i>February</i> and <i>August</i>, +the 3d in <i>May</i>, and the 4th tuesday in <i>October</i>. For +the Borough-town of <i>Trenton</i>, the 1st tuesday in <i>March</i>, +1st in <i>June</i>, 1st in <i>September</i>, and the 1st in <i>December</i>.</p> + +<p class="center txt110"><i>Supreme Courts in</i> New-York, <i>are held</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">At <i>New-York</i>, the 3d tuesday in <i>April</i>, last in <i>July</i>, +and 3d in <i>October</i> and <i>January</i>. At <i>Richmond</i>, the +2d tuesday in <i>April</i>. At <i>Orange</i>, 1st tuesday in <i>June</i>. At +<i>Dutchess</i>, the 2d tuesday in <i>June</i>. At <i>Ulster</i>, the thursday +following. At <i>Albany</i>, the 4th tuesday in <i>June</i>. At <i>Queen's</i> +County the 1st, at <i>Suffolk</i> the 2d, at <i>King's</i> County the +3d, and at <i>West Chester</i> the 4th tuesday in <i>September</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Courts of Sessions and Common Pleas</i>,</p> + +<p class="cap2">At <i>New-York</i>, the 1st tuesday in <i>May</i>, <i>August</i>, <i>November</i> +and <i>February</i>. At <i>Albany</i> the 1st tuesday +in <i>June</i> and <i>October</i>, and 3d tuesday in <i>January</i>. At +<i>West Chester</i>, the 4th tuesday in <i>May</i> and <i>October</i>. In +<i>Ulster</i>, the 1st tuesdays in <i>May</i>, and 3d in <i>Sept.</i> In <i>Richmond</i>, +the 3d tuesday in <i>March</i>, and 4th in <i>September</i>. +In <i>King's</i>, the 3d tuesday in <i>April</i> and <i>October</i>. In +<i>Queen's</i>, the 3d tuesday in <i>May</i> and <i>September</i>. In <i>Suffolk</i>, +the last tuesday in <i>March</i>, and first in <i>October</i>. In +<i>Orange</i>, the last tuesday in <i>April</i> and <i>October</i>. In +<i>Dutchess</i> County, the 3d tuesday in <i>May</i> and <i>October</i>.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Provincial Courts in</i> Maryland,</p> + +<p class="cap2">Two in a Year held at <i>Annapolis</i>, viz. The 2d tuesday +in <i>April</i> and <i>September</i>.</p> + +<p>County Courts. At <i>Talbot</i>, <i>Baltimore</i>, <i>Worcester</i>, and +<i>St. Mary's</i>, the 1st tuesday in <i>March</i>, <i>June</i>, <i>August</i> and +<i>November</i>. At <i>Dorchester</i>, <i>Cæcil</i>, <i>Ann-Arundel</i>, and +<i>Charles</i> Counties, the 2d tuesday in the same Months; +at <i>Kent</i>, <i>Calvert</i>, <i>Frederick</i>, and <i>Somerset</i>, the 3d tuesday +in the same Months; at <i>Queen Anne</i>'s and <i>Prince +George</i>'s the 4th tuesday in the same Months.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span></p> + +<div class="bbox"> +<p class="center txt130"><em class="gesperrt4">ROADS</em> Northeastward.</p> + +<p class="cap">From <i>Philadelphia</i> to <i>Bristol</i> 20, to <i>Trenton</i> 10, to +<i>Prince-Town</i> 12, to <i>Kingston</i> 3, to <i>Brunswick</i> 12, +to <i>Amboy</i> 12, to the <i>Narrows</i> 18, to <i>Flat-Bush</i> 5, to +<i>New-York</i> 5, to <i>Kingsbridge</i> 18, to <i>East-Chester</i> 6, to +<i>Newrochell</i> 4, to <i>Rye</i> 4, to <i>Horseneck</i> 7, to <i>Stanford</i> 7, +to <i>Norwalk</i> 10, to <i>Fairfield</i> 12, to <i>Stratford</i> 8, to <i>Milford</i> +4, to <i>Newhaven</i> 10, to <i>Branford</i> 10, to <i>Gilford</i> 12, +to <i>Killingsworth</i> 10, to <i>Seabrook</i> 10, to <i>New-London</i> 18, +to <i>Stonington</i> 15, to <i>Pemberton</i> 10, to <i>Darby</i> 3, to <i>Frenchtown</i> +24, to <i>Providence</i> 20, to <i>Woodcock's</i> 15, to <i>Billend's</i> +10, to <i>White's</i> 7, to <i>Dedham</i> 6, to <i>Boston</i> 10, to <i>Lyn</i> 9, to +<i>Salem</i> 8, to <i>Ipswich</i> 14, to <i>Newberry</i> 11, to <i>Hampton</i> 9, to +<i>Portsmouth</i> 13, to <i>York</i> 9, to <i>Wells</i> 14, to <i>Kennebunk</i> 6, to +<i>Biddeford</i> 14, to <i>Scarborough</i> 7, to <i>Falmouth</i> 13, to <i>Yarmouth</i> +10, to <i>Brunswick</i> 15, to <i>Richmond</i> 16, to <i>Taconick</i> +<i>Falls</i> 33, to <i>Norridgewock</i> 31. In all 600 Miles.</p> + +<p class="center txt130"><em class="gesperrt4">ROADS</em> Southwestward.</p> + +<p class="cap bb">From <i>Philadelphia</i> to <i>Darby</i> 7, to <i>Chester</i> 9, to <i>Brandewyne</i> +14, to <i>Newcastle</i> 6, to <i>Elk River</i> 17, to <i>N. +East</i> 7, to <i>Sasquehanna</i> 9, to <i>Gunpowder Ferry</i> 25, to <i>Petapsco +Ferry</i> 20, to <i>Annapolis</i> 30, to <i>Queen Ann's Ferry</i> +13, to <i>Upper Marlborough</i> 9, to <i>Port Tobacco</i> 30, to <i>Hoe's +Ferry</i> 10, to <i>Southern's Ferry</i> 30, to <i>Arnold's Ferry</i> 36, to +<i>Clayborn's Ferry</i> 22, to <i>Freneaux</i> 12, to <i>Williamsburg</i> 16, +to <i>Hog-Island</i> 7, to <i>Isle of Wight Court-House</i> 18, to +<i>Nansemond Court-House</i> 20, to <i>Bennet's Creek-Bridge</i> 30, +to <i>Edenton</i> 30, over the <i>Sound to Bell's Ferry</i> 8, to +<i>Bath-Town</i>, on <i>Pamlico-River</i> 45, to <i>Grave's Ferry</i>, on +<i>Neu's River</i> 32, to <i>Whitlock River</i> 20, to <i>New-River +Ferry</i> 30, to <i>Newtown</i>, on <i>Cape-Fear River</i>, 45, to +<i>Lockwood's Folly</i> 15, to <i>Shallot River</i> 8, to the Eastern +End of <i>Long-Bay</i> 22, to the Western End of <i>Long-Bay</i> +25, to <i>George-Town</i>, <i>Wynyaw</i>, 30, to <i>Santee Ferry</i> 12, +to <i>Jonah Collins's</i> 18, to <i>Hobcaw Ferry</i>, against <i>Charles +Town</i>, 30. In all 767 Miles.</p> + +<p class="cap">Bibles, Common-Prayers, Testaments, Spelling-books, +Psalters, Primmers, Copy-books for Children, and +all Sorts of Stationary, to be sold by <span class="smcap"><em class="gesperrt">David Hall</em></span>, at +the <i>New-Printing-Office</i>, in <i>Market-street, Philadelphia</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOSEPH_HUEY" id="TO_JOSEPH_HUEY"></a>TO JOSEPH HUEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, June 6, 1753.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I received your kind Letter of the 2d inst., and am glad to +hear that you increase in Strength; I hope you will continue +mending, 'till you recover your former Health and firmness. +Let me know whether you still use the Cold Bath, and what +Effect it has.</p> + +<p>As to the Kindness you mention, I wish it could have been +of more Service to you. But if it had, the only Thanks I should +desire is, that you would always be equally ready to serve any +other Person that may need your Assistance, and so let good +Offices go round, for Mankind are all of a Family.</p> + +<p>For my own Part, when I am employed in serving others, +I do not look upon myself as conferring Favours, but as paying +Debts. In my Travels, and since my Settlement, I have received +much Kindness from Men, to whom I shall never have any +Opportunity of making the least direct Return. And numberless +Mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited +by our Services. Those Kindnesses from Men, I can therefore +only Return on their Fellow Men; and I can only shew my Gratitude +for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his +other Children and my Brethren. For I do not think that +Thanks and Compliments, tho' repeated weekly, can discharge +our real Obligations to each other, and much less those to our +Creator. You will see in this my Notion of good Works, that +I am far from expecting [(as you suppose) that I shall ever]<a name="FNanchor_44_556" id="FNanchor_44_556"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_556" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> +to merit Heaven by them. By Heaven we understand a State +of Happiness, infinite in Degree, and eternal in Duration: I can +do nothing to deserve such rewards: He that for giving a +Draught of Water to a thirsty Person, should expect to be paid +with a good Plantation, would be modest in his Demands, +compar'd with those who think they deserve Heaven for the +little good they do on Earth. Even the mix'd imperfect Pleasures +we enjoy in this World, are rather from God's Goodness +than our Merit; how much more such Happiness of Heaven.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +For my own part I have not the Vanity to think I deserve it, +the Folly to expect it, nor the Ambition to desire it; but content +myself in submitting to the Will and Disposal of that God who +made me, who has hitherto preserv'd and bless'd me, and in +whose Fatherly Goodness I may well confide, that he will never +make me miserable, and that even the Afflictions I may at any +time suffer shall tend to my Benefit.</p> + +<p>The Faith you mention has doubtless its use in the World. +I do not desire to see it diminished, nor would I endeavour to +lessen it in any Man. But I wish it were more productive of +good Works, than I have generally seen it: I mean real good +Works, Works of Kindness, Charity, Mercy, and Publick +Spirit; not Holiday-keeping, Sermon-Reading or Hearing; performing +Church Ceremonies, or making long Prayers, filled +with Flatteries and Compliments, despis'd even by wise Men, +and much less capable of pleasing the Deity. The worship of +God is a Duty; the hearing and reading of Sermons may be +useful; but, if Men rest in Hearing and Praying, as too many do, +it is as if a Tree should Value itself on being water'd and putting +forth Leaves, tho' it never produc'd any Fruit.</p> + +<p>Your great Master tho't much less of these outward Appearances +and Professions than many of his modern Disciples. He +prefer'd the <i>Doers</i> of the Word, to the meer <i>Hearers</i>; the Son +that seemingly refus'd to obey his Father, and yet perform'd +his Commands; to him that profess'd his Readiness, but neglected +the Work; the heretical but charitable Samaritan, to the +uncharitable tho' orthodox Priest and sanctified Levite; & those +who gave Food to the hungry, Drink to the Thirsty, Raiment +to the Naked, Entertainment to the Stranger, and Relief to the +Sick, tho' they never heard of his Name, he declares shall in the +last Day be accepted, when those who cry Lord! Lord! who +value themselves on their Faith, tho' great enough to perform +Miracles, but have neglected good Works, shall be rejected. +He profess'd, that he came not to call the Righteous but Sinners +to repentance; which imply'd his modest Opinion, that there +were some in his Time so good, that they need not hear even +him for Improvement; but now-a-days we have scarce a little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +Parson, that does not think it the Duty of every Man within his +Reach to sit under his petty Ministrations; and that whoever +omits them [offends God. I wish to such more humility, and +to you health and happiness, being your friend and servant,]</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="THREE_LETTERS_TO_GOVERNOR_SHIRLEY" id="THREE_LETTERS_TO_GOVERNOR_SHIRLEY"></a>THREE LETTERS TO GOVERNOR SHIRLEY<a name="FNanchor_45_557" id="FNanchor_45_557"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_557" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></h3> + +<p class="section center"><span class="smcap">Letter I</span></p> + +<p class="center">Concerning the Voice of the People in Choosing the Rulers +by Whom Taxes are Imposed</p> + +<p class="date">Tuesday Morning [December 17, 1754].</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I return you the loose sheets of the plan, with thanks to your +Excellency for communicating them.</p> + +<p>I apprehend, that excluding the <i>people</i> of the colonies from +all share in the choice of the grand council will give extreme +dissatisfaction, as well as the taxing them by act of Parliament, +where they have no representative. It is very possible, that this +general government might be as well and faithfully administered +without the people, as with them; but where heavy burthens +have been laid on them, it has been found useful to make it, +as much as possible, their own act; for they bear better when +they have, or think they have some share in the direction; and +when any public measures are generally grievous, or even distasteful +to the people, the wheels of government move more +heavily.</p> + +<p class="section center"><span class="smcap">Letter II</span></p> + +<p class="center">On the Imposition of Direct Taxes upon the Colonies without +Their Consent</p> + +<p class="date">Wednesday Morning [December 18, 1754].</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I mentioned it yesterday to your Excellency as my opinion, +that excluding the <i>people</i> of the colonies from all share in the +choice of the grand council, would probably give extreme dissatisfaction,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +as well as the taxing them by act of Parliament, where +they have no representative. In matters of general concern to +the people, and especially where burthens are to be laid upon +them, it is of use to consider, as well what they will be apt to +think and say, as what they ought to think; I shall therefore, +as your Excellency requires it of me, briefly mention what of +either kind occurs to me on this occasion.</p> + +<p>First they will say, and perhaps with justice, that the body +of the people in the colonies are as loyal, and as firmly attached +to the present constitution, and reigning family, as any subjects +in the king's dominions.</p> + +<p>That there is no reason to doubt the readiness and willingness +of the representatives they may choose, to grant from time to +time such supplies for the defence of the country, as shall be +judged necessary, so far as their abilities will allow.</p> + +<p>That the people in the colonies, who are to feel the immediate +mischiefs of invasion and conquest by an enemy in the loss of +their estates, lives and liberties, are likely to be better judges of +the quantity of forces necessary to be raised and maintained, +forts to be built and supported, and of their own abilities to +bear the expence, than the parliament of England at so great a +distance.</p> + +<p>That governors often come to the colonies merely to make +fortunes, with which they intend to return to Britain; are not +always men of the best abilities or integrity; have many of them +no estates here, nor any natural connexions with us, that should +make them heartily concerned for our welfare; and might possibly +be fond of raising and keeping up more forces than necessary, +from the profits accruing to themselves, and to make +provision for their friends and dependants.</p> + +<p>That the counsellors in most of the colonies being appointed +by the crown, on the recommendation of governors, are often +of small estates, frequently dependant on the governors for +offices, and therefore too much under influence.</p> + +<p>That there is therefore great reason to be jealous of a power +in such governors and councils, to raise such sums as they shall +judge necessary, by draft on the lords of the treasury, to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +afterwards laid on the colonies by act of parliament, and paid +by the people here; since they might abuse it by projecting useless +expeditions, harassing the people, and taking them from +their labour to execute such projects, merely to create offices +and employments, and gratify their dependants, and divide +profits.</p> + +<p>That the parliament of England is at a great distance, subject +to be misinformed and misled by such Governors and Councils, +whose united interests might probably secure them against the +effect of any complaint from hence.</p> + +<p>That it is supposed an undoubted right of Englishmen, not +to be taxed but by their own consent given through their representatives.</p> + +<p>That the colonies have no representatives in parliament.</p> + +<p>That to propose taxing them by parliament, and refuse them +the liberty of choosing a representative council, to meet in the +colonies, and consider and judge of the necessity of any general +tax, and the quantum, shews suspicion of their loyalty to the +crown, or of their regard for their country, or of their common +sense and understanding, which they have not deserved.</p> + +<p>That compelling the colonies to pay money without their +consent, would be rather like raising contributions in an enemy's +country, than taxing of Englishmen for their own public benefit.</p> + +<p>That it would be treating them as a conquered people, and +not as true British subjects.</p> + +<p>That a tax laid by the representatives of the colonies might +easily be lessened as the occasions should lessen, but being once +laid by parliament under the influence of the representations +made by Governors, would probably be kept up and continued +for the benefit of Governors, to the grievous burthen and discouragement +of the colonies, and prevention of their growth +and increase.</p> + +<p>That a power in Governors to march the inhabitants from +one end of the British and French colonies to the other, being +a country of at least 1500 square miles, without the approbation +or the consent of their representatives first obtained, such expeditions +might be grievous and ruinous to the people, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +would put them on footing with the subjects of France in +Canada, that now groan under such oppression from their +Governor, who for two years past has harassed them with long +and destructive marches to Ohio.</p> + +<p>That if the colonies in a body may be well governed by governors +and councils appointed by the crown, without representatives, +particular colonies may as well or better be so governed; +a tax may be laid upon them all by act of parliament for +support of government, and their assemblies may be dismissed +as an useless part of the constitution.</p> + +<p>That the powers proposed by the Albany Plan of Union, to +be vested in a grand council representative of the people, even +with regard to military matters, are not so great as those the +colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut are entrusted with +by their charters, and have never abused; for by this plan, the +president-general is appointed by the crown, and controls all +by his negative; but in those governments, the people choose +the Governor, and yet allow him no negative.</p> + +<p>That the British colonies bordering on the French are properly +frontiers of the British empire; and the frontiers of an +empire are properly defended at the joint expence of the body +of the people in such empire: It would now be thought hard +by act of parliament to oblige the Cinque Ports or seacoasts of +Britain to maintain the whole navy, because they are more immediately +defended by it, not allowing them at the same time +a vote in choosing members of the parliament; and if the frontiers +in America bear the expence of their own defence, it seems +hard to allow them no share in voting the money, judging of +the necessity and sum, or advising the measures.</p> + +<p>That besides the taxes necessary for the defence of the frontiers, +the colonies pay yearly great sums to the mother-country +unnoticed: For taxes paid in Britain by the land-holder or artificer, +must enter into and increase the price of the produce of +land and of manufactures made of it; and great part of this is +paid by consumers in the colonies, who thereby pay a considerable +part of the British taxes.</p> + +<p>We are restrained in our trade with foreign nations, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +where we could be supplied with any manufacture cheaper from +them, but must buy the same dearer from Britain; the difference +of price is a clear tax to Britain.</p> + +<p>We are obliged to carry a great part of our produce directly +to Britain; and where the duties laid upon it lessen its price to +the planter, or it sells for less than it would in foreign markets; +the difference is a tax paid to Britain.</p> + +<p>Some manufactures we could make, but are forbidden, and +must take them of British merchants; the whole price is a tax +paid to Britain.</p> + +<p>By our greatly increasing the demand and consumption of +British manufactures, their price is considerably raised of late +years; the advantage is clear profit to Britain, and enables its +people better to pay great taxes; and much of it being paid by +us, is clear tax to Britain.</p> + +<p>In short, as we are not suffered to regulate our trade, and +restrain the importation and consumption of British superfluities +(as Britain can the consumption of foreign superfluities) our +whole wealth centers finally amongst the merchants and inhabitants +of Britain, and if we make them richer, and enable +them better to pay their taxes, it is nearly the same as being +taxed ourselves, and equally beneficial to the crown.</p> + +<p>These kind of secondary taxes, however, we do not complain +of, though we have no share in the laying, or disposing of them; +but to pay immediate heavy taxes, in the laying, appropriation, +and disposition of which we have no part, and which perhaps +we may know to be as unnecessary, as grievous, must seem hard +measure to Englishmen, who cannot conceive, that by hazarding +their lives and fortunes, in subduing and settling new countries, +extending the dominion, and increasing the commerce of the +mother nation, they have forfeited the native rights of Britons, +which they think ought rather to be given to them, as due to +such merit, if they had been before in a state of slavery.</p> + +<p>These, and such kind of things as these, I apprehend, will be +thought and said by the people, if the proposed alteration of the +Albany plan should take place. Then the administration of the +board of governors and councils so appointed, not having any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +representative body of the people to approve and unite in its +measures, and conciliate the minds of the people to them, will +probably become suspected and odious; dangerous animosities +and feuds will arise between the governors and governed; and +every thing go into confusion.</p> + +<p>Perhaps I am too apprehensive in this matter; but having +freely given my opinion and reasons, your Excellency can judge +better than I whether there be any weight in them, and the +shortness of the time allowed me, will, I hope, in some degree +excuse the imperfections of this scrawl.</p> + +<p>With the greatest respect, and fidelity, I have the honour to +be,</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p class="section center"><span class="smcap">Letter III</span></p> + +<p class="center">On the Subject of Uniting the Colonies More Intimately with +Great Britain, by Allowing Them Representatives in Parliament</p> + +<p class="date">Boston, Dec. 22, 1754.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>Since the conversation your Excellency was pleased to honour +me with, on the subject of <i>uniting the colonies</i> more intimately +with Great Britain, by allowing them <i>representatives in parliament</i>, +I have something further considered that matter, and am +of opinion, that such a union would be very acceptable to the +colonies, provided they had a reasonable number of representatives +allowed them; and that all the old acts of Parliament restraining +the trade or cramping the manufactures of the colonies +be at the same time repealed, and the British subjects <i>on this side +the water</i> put, in those respects, on the same footing with those +in Great Britain, till the new Parliament, representing the whole, +shall think it for the interest of the whole to reënact some or +all of them. It is not that I imagine so many representatives +will be allowed the colonies, as to have any great weight by +their numbers; but I think there might be sufficient to occasion +those laws to be better and more impartially considered, and +perhaps to overcome the interest of a petty corporation, or of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +any particular set of artificers or traders in England, who heretofore +seem, in some instances, to have been more regarded than +all the colonies, or than was consistent with the general interest, +or best national good. I think too, that the government of the +colonies by a parliament, in which they are fairly represented, +would be vastly more agreeable to the people, than the method +lately attempted to be introduced by royal instructions, as well +as more agreeable to the nature of an English constitution, and +to English liberty; and that such laws as now seem to bear hard +on the colonies, would (when judged by such a Parliament for +the best interest of the whole) be more cheerfully submitted to, +and more easily executed.</p> + +<p>I should hope too, that by such a union, the people of Great +Britain, and the people of the colonies, would learn to consider +themselves, as not belonging to a different community with +different interests, but to one community with one interest; +which I imagine would contribute to strengthen the whole, and +greatly lessen the danger of future separations.</p> + +<p>It is, I suppose, agreed to be the general interest of any state, +that its people be numerous and rich; men enough to fight in +its defence, and enough to pay sufficient taxes to defray the +charge; for these circumstances tend to the security of the state, +and its protection from foreign power: But it seems not of so +much importance, whether the fighting be done by John or +Thomas, or the tax paid by William or Charles. The iron manufacture +employs and enriches British subjects, but is it of any +importance to the state, whether the manufacturers live at Birmingham, +or Sheffield, or both, since they are still within its +bounds, and their wealth and persons still at its command? +Could the Goodwin Sands be laid dry by banks, and land equal +to a large country thereby gained to England, and presently +filled with English inhabitants, would it be right to deprive such +inhabitants of the common privileges enjoyed by other Englishmen, +the right of vending their produce in the same ports, or of +making their own shoes, because a merchant or a shoemaker, +living on the old land, might fancy it more for his advantage to +trade or make shoes for them? Would this be right, even if the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +land were gained at the expence of the state? And would it +not seem less right, if the charge and labour of gaining the additional +territory to Britain had been borne by the settlers themselves? +And would not the hardship appear yet greater, if the +people of the new country should be allowed no representatives +in the parliament enacting such impositions?</p> + +<p>Now I look on the colonies as so many counties gained to +Great Britain, and more advantageous to it than if they had +been gained out of the seas around its coasts, and joined to its +land: For being in different climates, they afford greater variety +of produce, and being separated by the ocean, they increase +much more its shipping and seamen; and since they are all included +in the British empire, which has only extended itself by +their means; and the strength and wealth of the parts are the +strength and wealth of the whole; what imports it to the general +state, whether a merchant, a smith, or a hatter, grow rich in +Old or New England? And if, through increase of people, two +smiths are wanted for one employed before, why may not the +<i>new</i> smith be allowed to live and thrive in the <i>new</i> country, as +well as the <i>old</i> one in the <i>old</i>? In fine, why should the countenance +of a state be <i>partially</i> afforded to its people, unless it be +most in favour of those who have most merit? And if there be +any difference, those who have most contributed to enlarge +Britain's empire and commerce, increase her strength, her +wealth, and the numbers of her people, at the risk of their own +lives and private fortunes in new and strange countries, methinks +ought rather to expect some preference. With the greatest +respect and esteem, I have the honour to be</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_270" id="TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_270"></a>TO MISS CATHERINE RAY<a name="FNanchor_46_558" id="FNanchor_46_558"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_558" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> [AT BLOCK ISLAND]</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, March 4, 1755.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Katy</span>:—</p> + +<p>Your kind letter of January 20th is but just come to hand, +and I take this first opportunity of acknowledging the favour. +It gives me great pleasure to hear, that you got home safe and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +well that day. I thought too much was hazarded, when I saw +you put off to sea in that very little skiff, tossed by every wave. +But the call was strong and just, a sick parent. I stood on the +shore, and looked after you, till I could no longer distinguish +you, even with my glass; then returned to your sister's, praying +for your safe passage. Towards evening all agreed that you +must certainly be arrived before that time, the weather having +been so favourable; which made me more easy and cheerful, +for I had been truly concerned for you.</p> + +<p>I left New England slowly, and with great reluctance.<a name="FNanchor_47_559" id="FNanchor_47_559"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_559" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> Short +day's journeys, and loitering visits on the road, for three or four +weeks, manifested my unwillingness to quit a country, in which +I drew my first breath, spent my earliest and most pleasant days, +and had now received so many fresh marks of the people's +goodness and benevolence, in the kind and affectionate treatment +I had everywhere met with. I almost forgot I had a <i>home</i>, till +I was more than halfway towards it; till I had, one by one, parted +with all my New England friends, and was got into the western +borders of Connecticut, among mere strangers. Then, like an +old man, who, having buried all he loved in this world, begins +to think of heaven, I began to think of and wish for home; and, +as I drew nearer, I found the attraction stronger and stronger. +My diligence and speed increased with my impatience. I drove +on violently, and made such long stretches, that a very few days +brought me to my own house, and to the arms of my good old +wife and children, where I remain, thanks to God, at present +well and happy.</p> + +<p>Persons subject to the <i>hyp</i> complain of the northeast wind, +as increasing their malady. But since you promised to send me +kisses in that wind, and I find you as good as your word, it is +to me the gayest wind that blows, and gives me the best spirits. +I write this during a northeast storm of snow, the greatest we +have had this winter. Your favours come mixed with the snowy +fleeces, which are pure as your virgin innocence, white as your +lovely bosom, and—as cold. But let it warm towards some +worthy young man, and may Heaven bless you both with every +kind of happiness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p> + +<p>I desired Miss Anna Ward<a name="FNanchor_48_560" id="FNanchor_48_560"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_560" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> to send you over a little book I +left with her, for your amusement in that lonely island. My +respects to your good father, and mother, and sister. Let me +often hear of your welfare, since it is not likely I shall ever +again have the pleasure of seeing you. Accept mine, and my +wife's sincere thanks for the many civilities I receive from you +and your relations; and do me the justice to believe me, dear +girl, your affectionate, faithful friend, and humble servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. My respectful compliments to your good brother Ward, +and sister; and to the agreeable family of the Wards at Newport, +when you see them. Adieu.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_PETER_COLLINSON_272" id="TO_PETER_COLLINSON_272"></a>TO PETER COLLINSON</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, Aug. 25, 1755.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,—</p> + +<p>As you have my former papers on Whirlwinds, &c., I now +send you an account of one which I had lately an opportunity +of seeing and examining myself.</p> + +<p>Being in <i>Maryland</i>, riding with Colonel <i>Tasker</i>, and some +other gentlemen to his country-seat, where I and my son were +entertained by that amiable and worthy man with great hospitality +and kindness, we saw in the vale below us, a small +whirlwind beginning in the road, and shewing itself by the dust +it raised and contained. It appeared in the form of a sugar-loaf, +spinning on its point, moving up the hill towards us, and enlarging +as it came forward. When it passed by us, its smaller +part near the ground, appeared no bigger than a common barrel, +but widening upwards, it seemed, at 40 or 50 feet high, to be 20 +or 30 feet in diameter. The rest of the company stood looking +after it, but my curiosity being stronger, I followed it, riding +close by its side, and observed its licking up, in its progress, all +the dust that was under its smaller part. As it is a common +opinion that a shot, fired through a water-spout, will break it, +I tried to break this little whirlwind, by striking my whip frequently +through it, but without any effect. Soon after, it quitted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +the road and took into the woods, growing every moment larger +and stronger, raising, instead of dust, the old dry leaves with +which the ground was thick covered, and making a great noise +with them and the branches of the trees, bending some tall +trees round in a circle swiftly and very surprizingly, though the +progressive motion of the whirl was not so swift but that a man +on foot might have kept pace with it; but the circular motion +was amazingly rapid. By the leaves it was now filled with, I +could plainly perceive that the current of air they were driven +by, moved upwards in a spiral line; and when I saw the trunks +and bodies of large trees invelop'd in the passing whirl, which +continued intire after it had left them I no longer wondered that +my whip had no effect on it in its smaller state. I accompanied it +about three quarters of a mile, till some limbs of dead trees, +broken off by the whirl, flying about and falling near me, made +me more apprehensive of danger; and then I stopped, looking at +the top of it as it went on, which was visible, by means of the +leaves contained in it, for a very great height above the trees. +Many of the leaves, as they got loose from the upper and widest +part, were scattered in the wind; but so great was their height in +the air, that they appeared no bigger than flies. My son, who +was by this time come up with me, followed the whirlwind till +it left the woods, and crossed an old tobacco-field, where, finding +neither dust nor leaves to take up, it gradually became invisible +below as it went away over that field. The course of the general +wind then blowing was along with us as we travelled, and the +progressive motion of the whirlwind was in a direction nearly +opposite, though it did not keep a strait line, nor was its progressive +motion uniform, it making little sallies on either hand as it +went, proceeding sometimes faster and sometimes slower, and +seeming sometimes for a few seconds almost stationary, then +starting forward pretty fast again. When we rejoined the company, +they were admiring the vast height of the leaves now +brought by the common wind, over our heads. These leaves +accompanied us as we travelled, some falling now and then +round about us, and some not reaching the ground till we had +gone near three miles from the place where we first saw the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +whirlwind begin. Upon my asking Colonel <i>Tasker</i> if such +whirlwinds were common in <i>Maryland</i>, he answered pleasantly, +"No, not at all common; but we got this on purpose to treat Mr. +Franklin." And a very high treat it was, to</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad20">Dear Sir,</span><br /> +<span class="rpad4">Your affectionate friend and humble servant,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. F[ranklin]</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_274" id="TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_274"></a>TO MISS CATHERINE RAY</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, Sept. 11, 1755.</p> + +<p>Begone, business, for an hour, at least, and let me chat a +little with my Katy.</p> + +<p>I have now before me, my dear girl, three of your favours, +viz. of March the 3d, March the 30th, and May the 1st. The +first I received just before I set out on a long journey, and the +others while I was on that journey, which held me near six +weeks. Since my return, I have been in such a perpetual hurry +of public affairs of various kinds, as renders it impracticable +for me to keep up my private correspondences, even those that +afforded me the greatest pleasure.</p> + +<p>You ask in your last, how I do, and what I am doing, and +whether everybody loves me yet, and why I make them do so.</p> + +<p>In regard to the first, I can say, thanks to God, that I do not +remember I was ever better. I still relish all the pleasures of life, +that a temperate man can in reason desire, and through favour +I have them all in my power. This happy situation shall continue +as long as God pleases, who knows what is best for his +creatures, and I hope will enable me to bear with patience and +dutiful submission any change he may think fit to make that is +less agreeable. As to the second question, I must confess (but +don't you be jealous), that many more people love me now, than +ever did before; for since I saw you I have been enabled to do +some general services to the country, and to the army, for +which both have thanked and praised me, and say they love me. +They say so, as you used to do; and if I were to ask any favours +of them, they would, perhaps, as readily refuse me; so that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +find little real advantage in being beloved, but it pleases my +humour.</p> + +<p>Now it is near four months since I have been favoured with a +single line from you; but I will not be angry with you, because +it is my fault. I ran in debt to you three or four letters; and as I +did not pay, you would not trust me any more, and you had +some reason. But, believe me, I am honest; and, tho' I should +never make equal returns, you shall see I will keep fair accounts. +Equal returns I can never make, tho' I should write to you by +every post; for the pleasure I receive from one of yours is more +than you can have from two of mine. The small news, the +domestic occurrences among our friends, the natural pictures +you draw of persons, the sensible observations and reflections +you make, and the easy, chatty manner in which you express +every thing, all contribute to heighten the pleasure; and the +more as they remind me of those hours and miles, that we talked +away so agreeably, even in a winter journey, a wrong road, and +a soaking shower.</p> + +<p>I long to hear whether you have continued ever since in that +monastery [Block Island]; or have broke into the world again, +doing pretty mischief; how the lady Wards do, and how many +of them are married, or about it; what is become of Mr. B— and +Mr. L—, and what the state of your heart is at this instant? But +that, perhaps, I ought not to know; and, therefore, I will not +conjure, as you sometimes say I do. If I could conjure, it should +be to know what was that <i>oddest question about me that ever was +thought of</i>, which you tell me a lady had just sent to ask you.</p> + +<p>I commend your prudent resolutions, in the article of granting +favours to lovers. But, if I were courting you, I could not +hardly approve such conduct. I should even be malicious enough +to say you were too <i>knowing</i>, and tell you the old story of the +Girl and the Miller. I enclose you the songs you write for, and +with them your Spanish letter with a translation. I honour that +honest Spaniard for loving you. It showed the goodness of his +taste and judgement. But you must forget him, and bless some +worthy young Englishman.</p> + +<p>You have spun a long thread, five thousand and twenty-two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +yards. It will reach almost from Rhode Island hither. I wish I +had hold of one end of it, to pull you to me. But you would +break it rather than come. The cords of love and friendship are +longer and stronger, and in times past have drawn me farther; +even back from England to Philadelphia. I guess that some of +the same kind will one day draw you out of that Island.</p> + +<p>I was extremely pleased with the turf you sent me. The Irish +people, who have seen it, say it is the right sort; but I cannot +learn that we have any thing like it here. The cheeses, particularly +one of them, were excellent. All our friends have tasted it, +and all agree that it exceeds any English cheese they ever tasted. +Mrs. Franklin was very proud, that a young lady should have so +much regard for her old husband, as to send him such a present. +We talk of you every time it comes to table. She is sure you +are a sensible girl, and a notable housewife, and talks of bequeathing +me to you as a legacy; but I ought to wish you a +better, and hope she will live these hundred years; for we are +grown old together, and if she has any faults, I am so used to +'em that I don't perceive 'em; as the song says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Some faults we have all, and so has my Joan,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">But then they're exceedingly small;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, now I am used, they are like my own,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I scarcely can see 'em at all,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">My dear friends,<br /></span> +<span class="i1">I scarcely can see 'em at all."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Indeed, I begin to think she has none, as I think of you. And +since she is willing I should love you, as much as you are willing +to be loved by me, let us join in wishing the old lady a long life +and a happy.</p> + +<p>With her respectful compliments to you, to your good +mother and sisters, present mine, though unknown; and believe +me to be, dear girl, your affectionate friend and humble servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. Sally<a name="FNanchor_49_561" id="FNanchor_49_561"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_561" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> says, "Papa, my love to Miss Katy."—If it was +not quite unreasonable, I should desire you to write to me every +post, whether you hear from me or not. As to your spelling,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +don't let those laughing girls put you out of conceit with it. +It is the best in the world, for every letter of it stands for something.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_277" id="TO_MISS_CATHERINE_RAY_277"></a>TO MISS CATHERINE RAY</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, Oct. 16, 1755.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Katy</span></p> + +<p>Your Favour of the 28th of June came to hand but the 28th of +September, just 3 Months after it was written. I had, two +Weeks before, wrote you a long Chat, and sent it to the Care +of your Brother Ward. I hear you are now in Boston, gay and +lovely as usual. Let me give you some fatherly Advice. Kill +no more Pigeons than you can eat—Be a good Girl and dont +forget your Catechism.—Go constantly to Meeting—or church—till +you get a good Husband,—then stay at home, & nurse +the Children, and live like a Christian—Spend your spare +Hours, in sober Whisk, Prayers, or learning to cypher—You +must practise <i>addition</i> to your Husband's Estate, by Industry +and Frugality; <i>subtraction</i> of all unnecessary Expenses; <i>Multiplication</i> +(I would gladly have taught you that myself, but you +thought it was time enough, & wou'dn't learn) he will soon +make you a Mistress of it. As to <i>Division</i>, I say with Brother +Paul, <i>Let there be no Division among ye</i>. But as your good Sister +Hubbard (my love to her) is well acquainted with <i>The Rule of +Two</i>, I hope you will become an expert in the <i>Rule of Three</i>; +that when I have again the pleasure of seeing you, I may find +you like my Grape Vine, surrounded with Clusters, plump, +juicy, blushing, pretty little rogues, like their Mama. Adieu. +The Bell rings, and I must go among the Grave ones, and talk +Politicks.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your affectionate Friend</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. The Plums came safe, and were so sweet from the +Cause you mentioned, that I could scarce taste the Sugar.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MRS_JANE_MECOM_278" id="TO_MRS_JANE_MECOM_278"></a>TO MRS. JANE MECOM</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, February 12, 1756.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sister</span>,</p> + +<p>I condole with you on the loss of our dear brother.<a name="FNanchor_50_562" id="FNanchor_50_562"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_562" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> As our +number grows less, let us love one another proportionably +more.</p> + +<p>I am just returned from my military expedition, and now my +time is taken up in the Assembly. Providence seems to require +various duties of me. I know not what will be next; but I find, +the more I seek for leisure and retirement from business, the +more I am engaged in it. Benny, I understand, inclines to leave +Antigua. He may be in the right. I have no objections. My +love to brother and to your children. I am, dearest sister, your +affectionate brother,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_E_HUBBARD" id="TO_MISS_E_HUBBARD"></a>TO MISS E. HUBBARD<a name="FNanchor_51_563" id="FNanchor_51_563"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_563" class="fnanchor">[51]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, February 23, 1756.</p> + +<p>—I condole with you. We have lost a most dear and valuable +relation. But it is the will of God and nature, that these mortal +bodies be laid aside, when the soul is to enter into real life. This +is rather an embryo state, a preparation for living. A man is not +completely born until he be dead. Why then should we grieve, +that a new child is born among the immortals, a new member +added to their happy society?</p> + +<p>We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us, while they +can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquiring knowledge, or in +doing good to our fellow creatures, is a kind and benevolent +act of God. When they become unfit for these purposes, and +afford us pain instead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an +incumbrance, and answer none of the intentions for which they +were given, it is equally kind and benevolent, that a way is provided +by which we may get rid of them. Death is that way. We +ourselves, in some cases, prudently choose a partial death. A +mangled painful limb, which cannot be restored, we willingly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +cut off. He who plucks out a tooth, parts with it freely, since +the pain goes with it; and he, who quits the whole body, parts +at once with all pains and possibilities of pains and diseases +which it was liable to, or capable of making him suffer.</p> + +<p>Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party of pleasure, +which is to last for ever. His chair was ready first, and he is gone +before us. We could not all conveniently start together; and +why should you and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to +follow, and know where to find him?</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad12">Adieu.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_REV_GEORGE_WHITEFIELD" id="TO_REV_GEORGE_WHITEFIELD"></a>TO REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD</h3> + +<p class="date">New York, July 2, 1756.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:</p> + +<p>I received your Favour of the 24th of February with great +Pleasure, as it inform'd me of your Welfare, and express'd your +continu'd Regard for me. I thank you for the Pamphlet you +enclos'd to me. As we had just observ'd a Provincial Fast on +the same Occasion, I thought it very seasonable to be publish'd +in Pennsylvania, and accordingly reprinted it immediately.</p> + +<p>You mention your frequent wish that you were a Chaplain to +an American Army. I sometimes wish that you and I were +jointly employ'd by the Crown, to settle a Colony on the Ohio. +I imagine we could do it effectually, and without putting the +Nation to much expence. But I fear we shall never be called upon +for such a Service. What a glorious Thing it would be, to settle +in that fine Country a large strong Body of Religious and Industrious +People! What a Security to the other Colonies; and +Advantage to Britain, by Increasing her People, Territory, +Strength and Commerce. Might it not greatly facilitate the +Introduction of pure Religion among the Heathen, if we could, +by such a Colony, show them a better Sample of Christians than +they commonly see in our Indian Traders, the most vicious and +abandoned Wretches of our Nation?... Life, like a dramatic +Piece, should not only be conducted with Regularity, but methinks +it should finish handsomely. Being now in the last Act,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +I begin to cast about for something fit to end with. Or if mine +be more properly compar'd to an Epigram, as some of its few +Lines are but barely tolerable, I am very desirous of concluding +with a bright Point. In such an Enterprise I could spend the +Remainder of Life with Pleasure; and I firmly believe God would +bless us with Success, if we undertook it with a sincere Regard +to his Honour, the Service of our gracious King, and (which is +the same thing) the Publick Good.</p> + +<p>I thank you cordially for your generous Benefaction to the +German School. They go on pretty well, and will do better, +when Mr. Smith,<a name="FNanchor_52_564" id="FNanchor_52_564"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_564" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> who has at present the principal Care of +them, shall learn to mind Party-writing and Party Politicks less, +and his proper Business more; which I hope time will bring +about.</p> + +<p>I thank you for your good Wishes and Prayers, and am, with +the greatest Esteem and Affection, Dear Sir</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your most obedient humble Servant</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<div style="float: left;"> +<p>My best Respects to<br /> +<span class="lpad1">Mrs. Whitefield</span></p></div> + +<p><span style="font-size: 300%">}</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_WAY_TO_WEALTH" id="THE_WAY_TO_WEALTH"></a>THE WAY TO WEALTH</h3> + +<p class="center">Preface to <i>Poor Richard Improved</i>: 1758.<a name="FNanchor_53_565" id="FNanchor_53_565"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_565" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Courteous Reader</span>,</p> + +<p>I have heard that nothing gives an Author so great Pleasure, +as to find his Works respectfully quoted by other learned +Authors. This Pleasure I have seldom enjoyed; for tho' I have +been, if I may say it without Vanity, an <i>eminent Author</i> of +Almanacks annually now a full Quarter of a Century, my +Brother Authors in the same Way, for what Reason I know not, +have ever been very sparing in their Applauses; and no other +Author has taken the least Notice of me, so that did not my +Writings produce me some solid <i>Pudding</i>, the great Deficiency +of <i>Praise</i> would have quite discouraged me.</p> + +<p>I concluded at length, that the People were the best Judges of +my Merit; for they buy my Works; and besides, in my Rambles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +where I am not personally known, I have frequently heard one +or other of my Adages repeated, with, <i>as Poor Richard says</i>, at +the End on't; this gave me some Satisfaction, as it showed not +only that my Instructions were regarded, but discovered likewise +some Respect for my Authority; and I own, that to encourage +the Practice of remembering and repeating those wise +Sentences, I have sometimes <i>quoted myself</i> with great Gravity.</p> + +<p>Judge then how much I must have been gratified by an Incident +I am going to relate to you. I stopt my Horse lately where +a great Number of People were collected at a Vendue of Merchant +Goods. The Hour of Sale not being come, they were conversing +on the Badness of the Times, and one of the Company +call'd to a plain clean old Man, with white Locks, <i>Pray, Father</i> +Abraham, <i>what think you of the Times? Won't these heavy Taxes +quite ruin the Country? How shall we ever be able to pay them? +What would you advise us to?</i>——Father <i>Abraham</i> stood up, and +reply'd, If you'd have my Advice, I'll give it you in short, for a +<i>Word to the Wise is enough</i>, and <i>many Words won't fill a Bushel</i>, +as <i>Poor Richard says</i>. They join'd in desiring him to speak his +Mind, and gathering round him, he proceeded as follows;</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Friends, says he, and Neighbours, the Taxes are indeed very +heavy, and if those laid on by the Government were the only +Ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but +we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. +We are taxed twice as much by our <i>Idleness</i>, three times as much +by our <i>Pride</i>, and four times as much by our <i>Folly</i>, and from +these Taxes the Commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by +allowing an Abatement. However let us hearken to good Advice, +and something may be done for us; <i>God helps them that help +themselves</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, in his Almanack of 1733.</p> + +<p>It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its +People one tenth Part of their <i>Time</i>, to be employed in its Service. +But <i>Idleness</i> taxes many of us much more, if we reckon all +that is spent in absolute <i>Sloth</i>, or doing of nothing, with that +which is spent in idle Employments or Amusements, that amount +to nothing. <i>Sloth</i>, by bringing on Diseases, absolutely shortens +Life. <i>Sloth, like Rust, consumes faster than Labour wears, while the</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +<i>used Key is always bright</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says. But <i>dost thou +love Life, then do not squander Time, for that's the Stuff Life is +made of</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says.—How much more than is necessary +do we spend in Sleep! forgetting that <i>The sleeping Fox +catches no Poultry</i>, and that <i>there will be sleeping enough in the +Grave</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says. If Time be of all Things the most +precious, <i>wasting Time</i> must be, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>the greatest +Prodigality</i>, since, as he elsewhere tells us, <i>Lost Time is never +found again</i>; and what we call <i>Time-enough, always proves little +enough</i>: Let us then up and be doing, and doing to the Purpose; +so by Diligence shall we do more with less Perplexity. <i>Sloth +makes all Things difficult, but Industry all easy</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> +says; and <i>He that riseth late, must trot all Day, and shall scarce +overtake his Business at Night</i>. While <i>Laziness travels so slowly, +that Poverty soon overtakes him</i>, as we read in <i>Poor Richard</i>, who +adds, <i>Drive thy Business, let not that drive thee</i>; and <i>Early to Bed, +and early to rise, makes a Man healthy, wealthy and wise</i>.</p> + +<p>So what signifies <i>wishing</i> and <i>hoping</i> for better Times. We +may make these Times better if we bestir ourselves. <i>Industry +need not wish</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, and <i>He that lives upon Hope +will die fasting</i>. <i>There are no Gains, without Pains</i>; then <i>Help +Hands, for I have no Lands</i>, or if I have, they are smartly taxed. +And, as <i>Poor Richard</i> likewise observes, <i>He that hath a Trade +hath an Estate</i>, and <i>He that hath a Calling, hath an Office of +Profit and Honour</i>; but then the <i>Trade</i> must be worked at, and +the <i>Calling</i> well followed, or neither the <i>Estate</i>, nor the <i>Office</i>, +will enable us to pay our Taxes.—If we are industrious we shall +never starve; for, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>At the working Man's +House</i> Hunger <i>looks in, but dares not enter</i>. Nor will the Bailiff +or the Constable enter, for <i>Industry pays Debts, while Despair +encreaseth them</i>, says <i>Poor Richard</i>.—What though you have +found no Treasure, nor has any rich Relation left you a Legacy, +<i>Diligence is the Mother of Good luck</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>and +God gives all Things to Industry</i>. Then <i>plough deep, while Sluggards +sleep, and you shall have Corn to sell and to keep</i>, says <i>Poor +Dick</i>. Work while it is called To-day, for you know not how +much you may be hindered To-morrow, which makes <i>Poor</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +<i>Richard</i> say, <i>One To-day is worth two To-morrows</i>; and farther, +<i>Have you somewhat to do To-morrow, do it To-day</i>. If you were +a Servant, would you not be ashamed that a good Master should +catch you idle? Are you then your own Master, <i>be ashamed to +catch yourself idle</i>, as <i>Poor Dick</i> says. When there is so much to +be done for yourself, your Family, your Country, and your +gracious King, be up by Peep of Day; <i>Let not the Sun look down +and say, Inglorious here he lies</i>. Handle your Tools without +Mittens; remember that <i>the Cat in Gloves catches no Mice</i>, as +<i>Poor Richard</i> says. 'Tis true there is much to be done, and perhaps +you are weak handed, but stick to it steadily, and you will +see great Effects, for <i>constant Dropping wears away Stones</i>, and +by <i>Diligence and Patience the Mouse ate in two the Cable</i>; and +<i>little Strokes fell great Oaks</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says in his Almanack, +the Year I cannot just now remember.</p> + +<p>Methinks I hear some of you say, <i>Must a Man afford himself +no Leisure?</i>—I will tell thee, my Friend, what <i>Poor Richard</i> +says, <i>Employ thy Time well if thou meanest to gain Leisure</i>; and +<i>since thou art not sure of a Minute, throw not away an Hour</i>. Leisure, +is Time for doing something useful; this Leisure the diligent +Man will obtain, but the lazy Man never; so that, as <i>Poor +Richard</i> says, a <i>Life of Leisure and a Life of Laziness are two +Things</i>. Do you imagine that Sloth will afford you more Comfort +than Labour? No, for as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>Trouble springs +from Idleness, and grievous Toil from needless Ease</i>. <i>Many without +Labour, would live by their</i> <span class="smcap">Wits</span> <i>only, but they break for want +of Stock.</i> Whereas Industry gives Comfort, and Plenty, and +Respect: <i>Fly Pleasures, and they'll follow you</i>. <i>The diligent +Spinner has a large Shift</i>; and <i>now I have a Sheep and a Cow, every +Body bids me Good morrow</i>; all which is well said by <i>Poor Richard</i>.</p> + +<p>But with our Industry, we must likewise be <i>steady</i>, <i>settled</i> +and <i>careful</i>, and oversee our own Affairs <i>with our own Eyes</i>, and +not trust too much to others; for, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>I never saw an oft removed Tree,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Nor yet an oft removed Family,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>That throve so well as those that settled be.</i><br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>And again, <i>Three Removes is as bad as a Fire</i>; and again, <i>Keep +thy Shop, and thy Shop will keep thee</i>; and again, <i>If you would +have your Business done, go; If not, send</i>. And again,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>He that by the Plough would thrive,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Himself must either hold or drive.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And again, <i>The Eye of a Master will do more Work than both +his Hands</i>; and again, <i>Want of Care does us more Damage than +Want of Knowledge</i>; and again, <i>Not to oversee Workmen, is to +leave them your Purse open</i>. Trusting too much to others Care +is the Ruin of many; for, as the <i>Almanack</i> says, <i>In the Affairs of +this World, Men are saved, not by Faith, but by the Want of it</i>; +but a Man's own Care is profitable; for, saith <i>Poor Dick</i>, <i>Learning +is to the Studious</i>, and <i>Riches to the Careful</i>, as well as <i>Power +to the Bold</i>, and <i>Heaven to the Virtuous</i>. And farther, <i>If you +would have a faithful Servant, and one that you like, serve yourself</i>. +And again, he adviseth to Circumspection and Care, even in +the smallest Matters, because sometimes <i>a little Neglect may +breed great Mischief</i>; adding, <i>For want of a Nail the Shoe was +lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and for want of a Horse +the Rider was lost</i>, being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all +for want of Care about a Horse shoe Nail.</p> + +<p>So much for Industry, my Friends, and Attention to one's +own Business; but to these we must add <i>Frugality</i>, if we would +make our <i>Industry</i> more certainly successful. A Man may, if +he knows not how to save as he gets, <i>keep his Nose all his Life +to the Grindstone</i>, and die not worth a <i>Groat</i> at last. <i>A fat Kitchen +makes a lean Will</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says; and,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Many Estates are spent in the Getting,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Since Women for Tea forsook Spinning and Knitting,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And Men for Punch forsook Hewing and Splitting.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><i>If you would be wealthy</i>, says he, in another Almanack, <i>think of +Saving as well as of Getting</i>: <i>The</i> Indies <i>have not made</i> Spain +<i>rich, because her</i> Outgoes <i>are greater than her</i> Incomes. Away +then with your expensive Follies, and you will not have so much +Cause to complain of hard Times, heavy Taxes, and chargeable +Families; for, as <i>Poor Dick</i> says,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Women and Wine, Game and Deceit,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Make the Wealth small, and the Wants great.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And farther, <i>What maintains one Vice, would bring up two Children</i>. +You may think perhaps, That a <i>little</i> Tea, or a <i>little</i> Punch +now and then, Diet a <i>little</i> more costly, Clothes a <i>little</i> finer, +and a <i>little</i> Entertainment now and then, can be no <i>great</i> Matter; +but remember what <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>Many</i> a Little <i>makes a +Mickle</i>; and farther, <i>Beware of</i> little <i>Expences</i>; <i>a small Leak +will sink a great Ship</i>; and again, <i>Who Dainties love, shall Beggars +prove</i>; and moreover, <i>Fools make Feasts, and wise Men eat them</i>.</p> + +<p>Here you are all got together at this Vendue of <i>Fineries</i> and +<i>Knicknacks</i>. You call them <i>Goods</i>, but if you do not take Care, +they will prove <i>Evils</i> to some of you. You expect they will be +sold <i>cheap</i>, and perhaps they may for less than they cost; but if +you have no Occasion for them, they must be <i>dear</i> to you. Remember +what <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>Buy what thou hast no Need of, +and ere long thou shalt sell thy Necessaries</i>. And again, <i>At a great +Pennyworth pause a while</i>: He means, that perhaps the Cheapness +is <i>apparent</i> only, and not <i>real</i>; or the Bargain, by straitning +thee in thy Business, may do thee more Harm than Good. For +in another Place he says, <i>Many have been ruined by buying good +Pennyworths</i>. Again, <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>'Tis foolish to lay out +Money in a Purchase of Repentance</i>; and yet this Folly is practised +every Day at Vendues, for want of minding the Almanack. +<i>Wise Men</i>, as <i>Poor Dick</i> says, <i>learn by others Harms, Fools +scarcely by their own</i>; but <i>Felix quem faciunt aliena Pericula +cautum</i>. Many a one, for the Sake of Finery on the Back, have +gone with a hungry Belly, and half starved their Families; +<i>Silks and Sattins, Scarlet and Velvets</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>put +out the Kitchen Fire</i>. These are not the <i>Necessaries</i> of Life; they +can scarcely be called the <i>Conveniencies</i>, and yet only because +they look pretty, how many <i>want</i> to <i>have</i> them. The <i>artificial</i> +Wants of Mankind thus become more numerous than the <i>natural</i>; +and, as <i>Poor Dick</i> says, <i>For one</i> poor <i>Person, there are an +hundred</i> indigent. By these, and other Extravagancies, the Genteel +are reduced to Poverty, and forced to borrow of those +whom they formerly despised, but who through <i>Industry</i> and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +<i>Frugality</i> have maintained their Standing; in which Case it +appears plainly, that a <i>Ploughman on his Legs is higher than a +Gentleman on his Knees</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says. Perhaps they +have had a small Estate left them which they knew not the +Getting of; they think <i>'tis Day, and will never be Night</i>; that a +little to be spent out of <i>so much</i>, is not worth minding; (<i>a Child +and a Fool</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>imagine</i> Twenty Shillings <i>and +Twenty Years can never be spent</i>) but, <i>always taking out of, the +Meal-tub, and never putting in, soon comes to the Bottom</i>; then, as +<i>Poor Dick</i> says, <i>When the Well's dry, they know the Worth of +Water</i>. But this they might have known before, if they had +taken his Advice; <i>If you would know the Value of Money, go and +try to borrow some</i>; for, <i>he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing</i>; +and indeed so does he that lends to such People, when he goes +<i>to get it in again</i>.—<i>Poor Dick</i> farther advises, and says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Fond</i> Pride of Dress <i>is sure a very Curse;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>E'er</i> Fancy <i>you consult, consult your Purse.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And again, <i>Pride is as loud a Beggar as Want, and a great deal +more saucy</i>. When you have bought one fine Thing you must +buy ten more, that your Appearance may be all of a Piece; but +<i>Poor Dick</i> says, <i>'Tis easier to</i> suppress <i>the first Desire, than to</i> +satisfy <i>all that follow it</i>. And 'tis as truly Folly for the Poor to +ape the Rich, as for the Frog to swell, in order to equal the Ox.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Great Estates may venture more,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>But little Boats should keep near Shore.</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>'Tis however a Folly soon punished; for <i>Pride that dines on +Vanity sups on Contempt</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says. And in another +Place, <i>Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty, and +supped with Infamy</i>. And after all, of what Use is this <i>Pride of +Appearance</i>, for which so much is risked, so much is suffered? +It cannot promote Health, or ease Pain; it makes no Increase of +Merit in the Person, it creates Envy, it hastens Misfortune.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>What is a Butterfly? At best</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>He's but a Caterpillar drest.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The gaudy Fop's his Picture just,</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as <i>Poor Richard</i> says.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p> + +<p>But what Madness must it be to <i>run in Debt</i> for these Superfluities! +We are offered, by the Terms of this Vendue, <i>Six +Months Credit</i>; and that perhaps has induced some of us to +attend it, because we cannot spare the ready Money, and hope +now to be fine without it. But, ah, think what you do when +you run in Debt; <i>You give to another, Power over your Liberty</i>. +If you cannot pay at the Time, you will be ashamed to see your +Creditor; you will be in Fear when you speak to him; you will +make poor pitiful sneaking Excuses, and by Degrees come to +lose your Veracity, and sink into base downright lying; for, as +<i>Poor Richard</i> says, <i>The second Vice is Lying, the first is running +in Debt</i>. And again, to the same Purpose, <i>Lying rides upon +Debt's Back</i>. Whereas a freeborn <i>Englishman</i> ought not to be +ashamed or afraid to see or speak to any Man living. But Poverty +often deprives a Man of all Spirit and Virtue: <i>'Tis hard for +an empty Bag to stand upright</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> truly says. What +would you think of that Prince, or that Government, who +should issue an Edict forbidding you to dress like a Gentleman +or a Gentlewoman, on Pain of Imprisonment or Servitude? +Would you not say, that you are free, have a Right to dress as +you please, and that such an Edict would be a Breach of your +Privileges, and such a Government tyrannical? And yet you +are about to put yourself under that Tyranny when you run in +Debt for such Dress! Your Creditor has Authority at his +Pleasure to deprive you of your Liberty, by confining you in +Goal [<i>sic</i>] for Life, or to sell you for a Servant, if you should not be +able to pay him! When you have got your Bargain, you may, +perhaps, think little of Payment; but <i>Creditors</i>, <i>Poor Richard</i> +tells us, <i>have better Memories than Debtors</i>; and in another Place +says, <i>Creditors are a superstitious Sect, great Observers of set +Days and Times</i>. The Day comes round before you are aware, +and the Demand is made before you are prepared to satisfy it. +Or if you bear your Debt in Mind, the Term which at first +seemed so long, will, as it lessens, appear extreamly short. <i>Time</i> +will seem to have added Wings to his Heels as well as Shoulders. +<i>Those have a short Lent</i>, saith <i>Poor Richard</i>, <i>who owe Money to +be paid at Easter</i>. Then since, as he says, <i>The Borrower is a</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +<i>Slave to the Lender, and the Debtor to the Creditor</i>, disdain the +Chain, preserve your Freedom; and maintain your Independency: +Be <i>industrious</i> and <i>free</i>; be <i>frugal</i> and <i>free</i>. At present, +perhaps, you may think yourself in thriving Circumstances, +and that you can bear a little Extravangance [<i>sic</i>] without Injury; +but,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>For Age and Want, save while you may;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>No Morning Sun lasts a whole Day,</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as <i>Poor Richard</i> says—Gain may be temporary and uncertain, +but ever while you live, Expence is constant and certain; and +<i>'tis easier to build two Chimnies than to keep one in Fuel</i>, as <i>Poor +Richard</i> says. So <i>rather go to Bed supperless than rise in Debt</i>.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Get what you can, and what you get hold;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>'Tis the Stone that will turn all your Lead into Gold,</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as <i>Poor Richard</i> says. And when you have got the Philosopher's +Stone, sure you will no longer complain of bad Times, or the +Difficulty of paying Taxes.</p> + +<p>This Doctrine, my Friends, is <i>Reason</i> and <i>Wisdom</i>; but after +all, do not depend too much upon your own <i>Industry</i>, and <i>Frugality</i>, +and <i>Prudence</i>, though excellent Things, for they may all +be blasted without the Blessing of Heaven; and therefore ask +that Blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable to those that at +present seem to want it, but comfort and help them. Remember +<i>Job</i> suffered, and was afterwards prosperous.</p> + +<p>And now to conclude, <i>Experience keeps a dear School, but +Fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that</i>; for it is true, <i>we +may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> +says: However, remember this, <i>They that won't be counselled, +can't be helped</i>, as <i>Poor Richard</i> says: And farther, That <i>if you +will not hear Reason, she'll surely rap your Knuckles</i>."</p></div> + +<p>Thus the old Gentleman ended his Harangue. The People +heard it, and approved the Doctrine and immediately practised +the contrary, just as if it had been a common Sermon; for the +Vendue opened, and they began to buy extravagantly, notwithstanding +all his Cautions, and their own Fear of Taxes.—I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +found the good Man had thoroughly studied my Almanacks, +and digested all I had dropt on those Topicks during the Course +of Five-and-twenty Years. The frequent Mention he made of +me must have tired any one else, but my Vanity was wonderfully +delighted with it, though I was conscious that not a tenth +Part of the Wisdom was my own which he ascribed to me, but +rather the <i>Gleanings</i> I had made of the Sense of all Ages and +Nations. However, I resolved to be the better for the Echo of +it; and though I had at first determined to buy Stuff for a new +Coat, I went away resolved to wear my old One a little longer. +<i>Reader</i>, if thou wilt do the same, thy Profit will be as great as +mine.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad10"><i>I am, as ever,</i></span><br /> +<span class="rpad4"><i>Thine to serve thee,</i></span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Richard Saunders.</span></p> + +<p><i>July 7, 1757.</i></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_HUGH_ROBERTS" id="TO_HUGH_ROBERTS"></a>TO HUGH ROBERTS</h3> + +<p class="date">London, September 16, 1758.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p>Your kind letter of June 1st gave me great pleasure. I thank +you for the concern you express about my health, which at +present seems tolerably confirmed by my late journey into different +parts of the kingdom, that have been highly entertaining +as well as useful to me. Your visits to my little family in my +absence are very obliging, and I hope you will be so good as +to continue them. Your remark on the thistle and the Scotch +motto made us very merry, as well as your string of puns. You +will allow me to claim a little merit or demerit in the last, as +having had some hand in making you a punster; but the wit of +the first is keen, and all your own.</p> + +<p>Two of the former members of the Junto you tell me are departed +this life, Potts and Parsons.<a name="FNanchor_54_566" id="FNanchor_54_566"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_566" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> Odd characters both of them. +Parsons a wise man, that often acted foolishly; Potts a wit, that +seldom acted wisely. If <i>enough</i> were the means to make a man +happy, one had always the <i>means</i> of happiness, without ever +enjoying the <i>thing</i>; the other had always the <i>thing</i>, without ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +possessing the <i>means</i>. Parsons, even in his prosperity, always +fretting; Potts, in the midst of his poverty, ever laughing. It +seems, then, that happiness in this life rather depends on internals +than externals; and that, besides the natural effects of +wisdom and virtue, vice and folly, there is such a thing as a +happy or an unhappy constitution. They were both our friends, +and loved us. So, peace to their shades. They had their virtues +as well as their foibles; they were both honest men, and that +alone, as the world goes, is one of the greatest of characters. +They were old acquaintances, in whose company I formerly +enjoyed a great deal of pleasure, and I cannot think of losing +them, without concern and regret.</p> + +<p>I shall, as you suppose, look on every opportunity you give +me of doing you service, as a favour, because it will afford me +pleasure. I know how to make you ample returns for such +favours, by giving you the pleasure of building me a house. +You may do it without losing any of your own time; it will only +take some part of that you now spend in other folks' business. +It is only jumping out of their waters into mine.</p> + +<p>I am grieved for our friend Syng's loss. You and I, who +esteem him, and have valuable sons ourselves, can sympathize +with him sincerely. I hope yours is perfectly recovered, for your +sake as well as for his own. I wish he may be, in every respect, +as good and as useful as his father. I need not wish him more; +and can only add, that I am, with great esteem, dear friend, +yours affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p>P.S. I rejoice to hear of the prosperity of the Hospital, and +send the wafers. I do not quite like your absenting yourself +from that good old club, the Junto. Your more frequent presence +might be a means of keeping them from being all engaged +in measures not the best for public welfare. I exhort you, therefore, +to return to your duty; and, as the Indians say, to confirm +my words, I send you a Birmingham tile. I thought the neatness +of the figures would please you.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MRS_JANE_MECOM_291" id="TO_MRS_JANE_MECOM_291"></a>TO MRS. JANE MECOM</h3> + +<p class="date">London, September 16, 1758.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sister</span>,</p> + +<p>I received your favour of June 17. I wonder you have had +no letter from me since my being in England. I have wrote you +at least two, and I think a third before this, and what was next +to waiting on you in person, sent you my picture. In June last +I sent Benny a trunk of books, and wrote to him; I hope they +are come to hand, and that he meets with encouragement in his +business. I congratulate you on the conquest of Cape Breton, +and hope as your people took it by praying, the first time, you +will now pray that it may never be given up again, which you +then forgot. Billy is well, but in the country. I left him at Tunbridge +Wells, where we spent a fortnight, and he is now gone +with some company to see Portsmouth. We have been together +over a great part of England this summer, and among other +places, visited the town our father was born in, and found some +relations in that part of the country still living.</p> + +<p>Our cousin Jane Franklin, daughter of our uncle John, died +about a year ago. We saw her husband, Robert Page, who gave +us some old letters to his wife, from uncle Benjamin. In one of +them, dated Boston, July 4, 1723, he writes that your uncle +Josiah has a daughter Jane, about twelve years old, a good-humoured +child. So keep up to your character, and don't be +angry when you have no letters. In a little book he sent her, +called "None but Christ," he wrote an acrostick on her name, +which for namesake's sake, as well as the good advice it contains, +I transcribe and send you, viz.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"Illuminated from on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shining brightly in your sphere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne'er faint, but keep a steady eye,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Expecting endless pleasures there.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"><br class="noshow" /> +<span class="i0q">"Flee vice as you'd a serpent flee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Raise <i>faith</i> and <i>hope</i> three stories higher,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And let Christ's endless love to thee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne'er cease to make thy love aspire.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Kindness of heart by words express,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let your obedience be sincere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In prayer and praise your God address,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor cease, till he can cease to hear."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>After professing truly that I had a great esteem and veneration +for the pious author, permit me a little to play the commentator +and critic on these lines. The meaning of <i>three stories +higher</i> seems somewhat obscure. You are to understand, then, +that <i>faith</i>, <i>hope</i>, and <i>charity</i> have been called the three steps of +Jacob's ladder, reaching from earth to heaven; our author calls +them <i>stories</i>, likening religion to a building, and these are the +three stories of the Christian edifice. Thus improvement in +religion is called <i>building up</i> and <i>edification</i>. <i>Faith</i> is then the +ground floor, <i>hope</i> is up one pair of stairs. My dear beloved +Jenny, don't delight so much to dwell in those lower rooms, +but get as fast as you can into the garret, for in truth the best +room in the house is <i>charity</i>. For my part, I wish the house +was turned upside down; 'tis so difficult (when one is fat) to go +up stairs; and not only so, but I imagine <i>hope</i> and <i>faith</i> may be +more firmly built upon <i>charity</i>, than <i>charity</i> upon <i>faith</i> and +<i>hope</i>. However that may be, I think it the better reading to +say—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Raise faith and hope one story higher."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Correct it boldly, and I'll support the alteration; for, when you +are up two stories already, if you raise your building three +stories higher you will make five in all, which is two more than +there should be, you expose your upper rooms more to the +winds and storms; and, besides, I am afraid the foundation will +hardly bear them, unless indeed you build with such light stuff +as straw and stubble, and that, you know, won't stand fire. +Again, where the author says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Kindness of heart by words express,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>strike out <i>words</i>, and put in <i>deeds</i>. The world is too full of +compliments already. They are the rank growth of every soil, +and choak the good plants of benevolence, and beneficence;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +nor do I pretend to be the first in this comparison of words and +actions to plants; you may remember an ancient poet, whose +works we have all studied and copied at school long ago.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"A man of words and not of deeds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is like a garden full of weeds."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>'Tis a pity that good works, among some sorts of people, are +so little valued, and good words admired in their stead: I mean +seemingly pious discourses, instead of humane benevolent actions. +Those they almost put out of countenance, by calling +morality <i>rotten morality</i>, righteousness <i>ragged righteousness</i>, and +even filthy rags—and when you mention virtue, pucker up their +noses as if they smelt a stink; at the same time that they eagerly +snuff up an empty canting harangue, as if it was a posey of the +choicest flowers: So they have inverted the good old verse, and +say now</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"A man of deeds and not of words<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is like a garden full of ——"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I have forgot the rhyme, but remember 'tis something the very +reverse of perfume. So much by way of commentary.</p> + +<p>My wife will let you see my letter, containing an account of +our travels, which I would have you read to sister Dowse, and +give my love to her. I have no thoughts of returning till next +year, and then may possibly have the pleasure of seeing you and +yours; taking Boston in my way home. My love to brother and +all your children, concludes at this time from, dear Jenny, your +affectionate brother,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_LORD_KAMES_293" id="TO_LORD_KAMES_293"></a>TO LORD KAMES<a name="FNanchor_55_567" id="FNanchor_55_567"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_567" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">London, May 3, 1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Lord</span>,</p> + +<p>I have endeavoured to comply with your request in writing +something on the present situation of our affairs in America, +in order to give more correct notions of the British interest with +regard to the colonies, than those I found many sensible men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +possessed of. Inclosed you have the production, such as it is. +I wish it may in any degree be of service to the public. I shall +at least hope this from it, for my own part, that you will consider +it as a letter from me to you, and take its length as some +excuse for being so long a-coming.<a name="FNanchor_56_568" id="FNanchor_56_568"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_568" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p>I am now reading with great pleasure and improvement your +excellent work, <i>The Principles of Equity</i>. It will be of the greatest +advantage to the Judges in our colonies, not only in those +which have Courts of Chancery, but also in those which, having +no such courts, are obliged to mix equity with the common law. +It will be of more service to the colony Judges, as few of them +have been bred to the law. I have sent a book to a particular +friend, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania.</p> + +<p>I will shortly send you a copy of the Chapter you are pleased +to mention in so obliging a manner; and shall be extremely +obliged in receiving a copy of the collection of <i>Maxims for the +Conduct of Life</i>, which you are preparing for the use of your +children. I purpose likewise a little work for the benefit of +youth, to be called <i>The Art of Virtue</i>.<a name="FNanchor_57_569" id="FNanchor_57_569"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_569" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> From the title I think +you will hardly conjecture what the nature of such a book +may be. I must therefore explain it a little. Many people lead +bad lives that would gladly lead good ones, but know not <i>how</i> +to make the change. They have frequently <i>resolved</i> and <i>endeavoured</i> +it; but in vain, because their endeavours have not +been properly conducted. To expect people to be good, to be +just, to be temperate, &c., without <i>shewing</i> them <i>how</i> they should +<i>become</i> so, seems like the ineffectual charity mentioned by the +Apostle, which consisted in saying to the hungry, the cold, and +the naked, "Be ye fed, be ye warmed, be ye clothed," without +shewing them how they should get food, fire, or clothing.</p> + +<p>Most people have naturally <i>some</i> virtues, but none have +naturally <i>all</i> the virtues. To <i>acquire</i> those that are wanting, and +secure what we acquire, as well as those we have naturally, is +the subject of <i>an art</i>. It is as properly an art as painting, navigation, +or architecture. If a man would become a painter, +navigator, or architect, it is not enough that he is <i>advised</i> to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +one, that he is <i>convinced</i> by the arguments of his adviser, that +it would be for his advantage to be one, and that he resolves to +be one, but he must also be taught the principles of the art, +be shewn all the methods of working, and how to acquire the +habits of using properly all the instruments; and thus regularly +and gradually he arrives, by practice, at some perfection in the +art. If he does not proceed thus, he is apt to meet with difficulties +that discourage him, and make him drop the pursuit.</p> + +<p>My <i>Art of Virtue</i> has also its instruments, and teaches the +manner of using them. Christians are directed to have faith in +Christ, as the effectual means of obtaining the change they desire. +It may, when sufficiently strong, be effectual with many: +for a full opinion, that a Teacher is infinitely wise, good, and +powerful, and that he will certainly reward and punish the +obedient and disobedient, must give great weight to his precepts, +and make them much more attended to by his disciples. +But many have this faith in so weak a degree, that it does not +produce the effect. Our <i>Art of Virtue</i> may, therefore, be of +great service to those whose faith is unhappily not so strong, +and may come in aid of its weakness. Such as are naturally well +disposed, and have been so carefully educated, as that good +habits have been early established, and bad ones prevented, +have less need of this art; but all may be more or less benefited +by it. It is, in short, to be adapted for universal use. I imagine +what I have now been writing will seem to savour of great +presumption: I must therefore speedily finish my little piece, +and communicate the manuscript to you, that you may judge +whether it is possible to make good such pretensions. I shall +at the same time hope for the benefit of your corrections. +I am, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_295" id="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_295"></a>TO MISS MARY STEVENSON<a name="FNanchor_58_570" id="FNanchor_58_570"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_570" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Craven Street, June 11, 1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Polly:</span></p> + +<p>'Tis a very sensible Question you ask, how the Air can affect +the Barometer, when its Opening appears covered with Wood?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +If indeed it was so closely covered as to admit of no Communication +of the outward Air to the Surface of the Mercury, the +Change of Weight in the Air could not possibly affect it. But +the least Crevice is sufficient for the Purpose; a Pinhole will do +the Business. And if you could look behind the Frame to which +your Barometer is fixed, you would certainly find some small +Opening.</p> + +<p>There are indeed some Barometers in which the Body of +Mercury at the lower End is contain'd in a close Leather Bag, +and so the Air cannot come into immediate Contact with the +Mercury; yet the same Effect is produc'd. For, the Leather +being flexible, when the Bag is press'd by any additional Weight +of Air, it contracts, and the Mercury is forced up into the Tube; +when the Air becomes lighter, and its Pressure less, the Weight +of the Mercury prevails, and it descends again into the Bag.</p> + +<p>Your Observation on what you have lately read concerning +Insects is very just and solid. Superficial Minds are apt to despise +those who make that Part of the Creation their Study, as +mere Triflers; but certainly the World has been much oblig'd +to them. Under the Care and Management of Man, the Labours +of the little Silkworm afford Employment and Subsistence to +Thousands of Families, and become an immense Article of +Commerce. The Bee, too, yields us its delicious Honey, and +its Wax useful to a Multitude of Purposes. Another Insect, it is +said, produces the Cochineal, from whence we have our rich +Scarlet Dye. The Usefulness of the Cantharides, or Spanish +Flies, in Medicine, is known to all, and Thousands owe their +Lives to that Knowledge. By human Industry and Observation, +other Properties of other Insects may possibly be hereafter +discovered, and of equal Utility. A thorough Acquaintance +with the Nature of these little Creatures may also enable +Mankind to prevent the Increase of such as are noxious, or secure +us against the Mischiefs they occasion. These Things +doubtless your Books make mention of: I can only add a particular +late Instance which I had from a Swedish Gentleman of +good Credit. In the green Timber, intended for Ship-building<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +at the King's Yards in that Country, a kind of Worms were +found, which every year became more numerous and more +pernicious, so that the Ships were greatly damag'd before they +came into Use. The King sent Linnæus, the great Naturalist, +from Stockholm, to enquire into the Affair, and see if the Mischief +was capable of any Remedy. He found, on Examination, +that the Worm was produced from a small Egg, deposited in the +little Roughnesses on the Surface of the Wood, by a particular +kind of Fly or Beetle; from whence the Worm, as soon as it +was hatched, began to eat into the Substance of the Wood, and +after some time came out again a Fly of the Parent kind, and +so the Species increased. The season in which this Fly laid its +Eggs, Linnæus knew to be about a Fortnight (I think) in the +Month of May, and at no other time of the Year. He therefore +advis'd, that, some Days before that Season, all the green Timber +should be thrown into the Water, and kept under Water +till the Season was over. Which being done by the King's +Order, the Flies missing their usual Nest, could not increase; +and the Species was either destroy'd or went elsewhere; and the +Wood was effectually preserved; for, after the first Year, it +became too dry and hard for their purpose.</p> + +<p>There is, however, a prudent Moderation to be used in Studies +of this kind. The Knowledge of Nature may be ornamental, +and it may be useful; but if, to attain an Eminence in that, we +neglect the Knowledge and Practice of essential Duties, we deserve +Reprehension. For there is no Rank in Natural Knowledge +of equal Dignity and Importance with that of being a good +Parent, a good Child, a good Husband or Wife, a good Neighbour +or Friend, a good Subject or Citizen, that is, in short, a +good Christian. Nicholas Gimcrack, therefore, who neglected +the Care of his Family, to pursue Butterflies, was a just Object +of Ridicule, and we must give him up as fair Game to the +satyrist.</p> + +<p>Adieu, my dear Friend, and believe me ever</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Yours affectionately,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MRS_DEBORAH_FRANKLIN" id="TO_MRS_DEBORAH_FRANKLIN"></a>TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN</h3> + +<p class="date">London, June 27, 1760.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Child,</span></p> + +<p>I wrote a Line to you by the Pacquet, to let you know we +were well, and I promis'd to write you fully by Capt. Budden, +and answer all your Letters, which I accordingly now sit down +to do. I am concern'd that so much Trouble should be given +you by idle Reports concerning me. Be satisfied, my dear, +that while I have my Senses, and God vouchsafes me his Protection, +I shall do nothing unworthy the Character of an honest +Man, and one that loves his Family.</p> + +<p>I have not yet seen Mr. Beatty, nor do I know where to +write to him. He forwarded your Letter to me from Ireland. +The Paragraph of your Letter inserted in the Papers, related +to the Negro School. I gave it to the Gentlemen concern'd, +as it was a Testimony in favour of their pious Design. But I +did not expect they would have printed it with your Name. +They have since chosen [me] one of the Society, and I am at +present Chairman for the current year. I enclose you an Account +of their Proceedings.<a name="FNanchor_59_571" id="FNanchor_59_571"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_571" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p>I did not receive the <i>Prospect of Quebec</i>, which you mention +that you sent me. Peter continues with me, and behaves as well +as I can expect, in a Country where there are many Occasions +of spoiling Servants, if they are ever so good. He has as few +Faults as most of them, and I see with only one Eye, and hear +only with one Ear; so we rub on pretty comfortably. King, +that you enquire after, is not with us. He ran away from our +House, near two Years ago, while we were absent in the Country; +But was soon found in Suffolk, where he had been taken in the +Service of a Lady, that was very fond of the Merit of making +him a Christian, and contributing to his Education and Improvement. +As he was of little Use, and often in Mischief, +Billy consented to her keeping him while we stay in England. +So the Lady sent him to School, has him taught to read and +write, to play on the Violin and French Horn, with some other +Accomplishments more useful in a Servant. Whether she will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +finally be willing to part with him, or persuade Billy to sell him +to her, I know not. In the mean time he is no Expence to us. +The dried Venison was very acceptable, and I thank you for it. +We have had it constantly shav'd to eat with our Bread and +Butter for Breakfast, and this Week saw the last of it. The +Bacon still holds out, for we are choice of it. Some Rashers of +it, yesterday relish'd a Dish of Green Pease. Mrs. Stevenson +thinks there was never any in England so good. The smok'd +Beef was also excellent.</p> + +<p>The Accounts you give me of the Marriages of our friends +are very agreeable. I love to hear of every thing that tends to +increase the Number of good People. You cannot conceive +how shamefully the Mode here is a single Life. One can scarce +be in the Company of a Dozen Men of Circumstance and Fortune, +but what it is odds that you find on enquiry eleven of +them are single. The great Complaint is the excessive Expensiveness +of English Wives.</p> + +<p>I am extreamly concern'd with you at the Misfortune of our +Friend Mr. Griffith. How could it possibly happen? 'Twas a +terrible Fire that of Boston. I shall contribute here towards +the Relief of the Sufferers. Our Relations have escap'd I believe +generally; but some of my particular Friends must have +suffer'd greatly.</p> + +<p>I think you will not complain this Year, as you did the last, +of being so long without a Letter. I have wrote to you very +frequently; and shall not be so much out of the Way of writing +this Summer as I was the last. I hope our friend Bartram is +safely return'd to his Family. Remember me to him in the +kindest Manner.</p> + +<p>Poor David Edwards died this Day Week, of a Consumption. +I had a Letter from a Friend of his, acquainting me that +he had been long ill, and incapable of doing his Business, and +was at Board in the Country. I fear'd he might be in Straits, as +he never was prudent enough to lay up any thing. So I wrote +to him immediately, that, if he had occasion, he might draw on +me for Five Guineas. But he died before my Letter got to +hand. I hear the Woman, at whose House he long lodg'd and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +boarded, has buried him and taken all he left, which could not +be much, and there are some small Debts unpaid. He maintained +a good Character at Bury, where he lived some years, and was +well respected, to my Knowledge, by some Persons of Note +there. I wrote to you before, that we saw him at Bury, when +we went thro' Suffolk into Norfolk, the Year before last. I +hope his good Father, my old Friend, continues well.</p> + +<p>Give my Duty to Mother, and Love to my dear Sally. Remember +me affectionately to all Enquiring Friends, and believe +me ever, my dearest Debby, your loving Husband,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JARED_INGERSOLL" id="TO_JARED_INGERSOLL"></a>TO JARED INGERSOLL<a name="FNanchor_60_572" id="FNanchor_60_572"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_572" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, December 11, 1762.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir:—</span></p> + +<p>I thank you for your kind congratulations. It gives me +pleasure to hear from an old friend; it will give me much more +pleasure to see him. I hope, therefore, nothing will prevent +the journey you propose for next summer and the favour you +intend me of a visit. I believe I must make a journey early +in the spring to Virginia, but purpose being back again before +the hot weather. You will be kind enough to let me know +beforehand what time you expect to be here, that I may not +be out of the way, for that would mortify me exceedingly.</p> + +<p>I should be glad to know what it is that distinguishes Connecticut +religion from common religion. Communicate, if you +please, some of these particulars that you think will amuse me +as a virtuoso. When I travelled in Flanders, I thought of your +excessively strict observation of Sunday; and that a man could +hardly travel on that day among you upon his lawful occasions +without hazard of punishment; while, where I was, every one +travelled, if he pleased, or diverted himself in any other way; +and in the afternoon both high and low went to the play or the +opera, where there was plenty of singing, fiddling and dancing. +I looked around for God's judgments, but saw no signs of +them. The cities were well built and full of inhabitants, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +markets filled with plenty, the people well favoured and well +clothed, the fields well tilled, the cattle fat and strong, the fences, +houses, and windows all in repair, and no Old Tenor anywhere +in the country; which would almost make one suspect that the +Deity is not so angry at that offence as a New England Justice.</p> + +<p>I left our friend Mr. Jackson<a name="FNanchor_61_573" id="FNanchor_61_573"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_573" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> well, and I had the great pleasure +of finding my little family well when I came home, and my +friends as cordial and more numerous than ever. May every +prosperity attend you and yours. I am, dear friend, yours +affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_301" id="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_301"></a>TO MISS MARY STEVENSON</h3> + +<p class="date">Philad<sup>a</sup>, March 25, 1763.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Polley</span>,</p> + +<p>Your pleasing Favour of Nov. 11 is now before me. It found +me as you suppos'd it would, happy with my American Friends +and Family about me; and it made me more happy in showing +me that I am not yet forgotten by the dear Friends I left in +England. And indeed, why should I fear they will ever forget +me, when I feel so strongly that I shall ever remember them!</p> + +<p>I sympathise with you sincerely in your Grief at the Separation +from your old Friend, Miss Pitt. The Reflection that she +is going to be more happy, when she leaves you, might comfort +you, if the Case was likely to be so circumstanc'd; but when +the Country and Company she has been educated in, and those +she is removing to, are compared, one cannot possibly expect it. +I sympathize no less with you in your Joys. But it is not merely +on your Account, that I rejoice at the Recovery of your dear +Dolly's Health. I love that dear good Girl myself, and I love +her other Friends. I am, therefore, made happy by what must +contribute so much to the Happiness of them all. Remember +me to her, and to every one of that worthy and amiable Family, +most affectionately.</p> + +<p>Remember me in the same manner to your and my good +Doctor and Mrs. Hawkesworth.<a name="FNanchor_62_574" id="FNanchor_62_574"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_574" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> You have lately, you tell +me, had the Pleasure of spending three Days with them at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +Mr. Stanley's. It was a sweet Society! I too, once partook of +that same Pleasure, and can therefore feel what you must have +felt. Remember me also to Mr. and Mrs. Stanley,<a name="FNanchor_63_575" id="FNanchor_63_575"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_575" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> and to Miss +Arlond.</p> + +<p>Of all the enviable Things England has, I envy it most its +People. Why should that petty Island, which compar'd to +America, is but like a stepping-Stone in a Brook, scarce enough +of it above Water to keep one's Shoes dry; why, I say, should +that little Island enjoy in almost every Neighbourhood, more +sensible, virtuous, and elegant Minds, than we can collect in +ranging 100 Leagues of our vast forests? But 'tis said the Arts +delight to travel Westward. You have effectually defended us +in this glorious War, and in time you will improve us. After +the first Cares for the Necessaries of Life are over, we shall come +to think of the Embellishments. Already some of our young +Geniuses begin to lisp Attempts at Painting, Poetry, and Musick. +We have a young Painter now studying at Rome.<a name="FNanchor_64_576" id="FNanchor_64_576"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_576" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> +Some specimens of our Poetry I send you, which if Dr. Hawkesworth's +fine Taste cannot approve, his good Heart will at least +excuse. The Manuscript Piece is by a young Friend of mine, +and was occasion'd by the Loss of one of his Friends, who +lately made a Voyage to Antigua to settle some Affairs, previous +to an intended Marriage with an amiable young Lady here, but +unfortunately died there. I send it to you, because the Author +is a great Admirer of Mr. Stanley's musical Compositions, and +has adapted this Piece to an Air in the 6th <i>Concerto</i> of that +Gentleman, the sweetly solemn Movement of which he is quite +in Raptures with. He has attempted to compose a <i>Recitativo</i> +for it, but not being able to satisfy himself in the Bass, wishes +I could get it supply'd. If Mr. Stanley would condescend to do +that for him, thro' your Intercession, he would esteem it as one +of the highest Honours, and it would make him excessively +happy. You will say that a <i>Recitativo</i> can be but a poor Specimen +of our Music. 'Tis the best and all I have at present, but +you may see better hereafter.</p> + +<p>I hope Mr. Ralph's<a name="FNanchor_65_577" id="FNanchor_65_577"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_577" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> Affairs are mended since you wrote. +I know he had some Expectations, when I came away, from a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +Hand that would help him. He has Merit, and one would think +ought not to be so unfortunate.</p> + +<p>I do not wonder at the behaviour you mention of Dr. Smith +towards me, for I have long since known him thoroughly. I +made that Man my Enemy by doing him too much Kindness. +'Tis the honestest Way of acquiring an Enemy. And, since 'tis +convenient to have at least one Enemy, who by his Readiness +to revile one on all Occasions, may make one careful of one's +Conduct, I shall keep him an Enemy for that purpose; and shall +observe your good Mother's Advice, never again to receive him +as a Friend. She once admir'd the benevolent Spirit breath'd +in his Sermons. She will now see the Justness of the Lines your +Laureat Whitehead addresses to his Poets, and which I now +address to her.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"Full many a peevish, envious, slanderous Elf<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is, in his Works, Benevolence itself.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For all Mankind, unknown, his Bosom heaves;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He only injures those, with whom he lives.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Read then the Man;—does <i>Truth</i> his Actions guide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Exempt from <i>Petulance</i>, exempt from <i>Pride</i>?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To social Duties does his Heart attend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As Son, as Father, Husband, Brother, <i>Friend</i>?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Do those, who know him, love him?</i> If they do,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You've <i>my</i> Permission: you may love him too."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nothing can please me more than to see your philosophical +Improvements when you have Leisure to communicate them +to me. I still owe you a long Letter on that Subject, which I +shall pay. I am vex'd with Mr. James, that he has been so +dilatory in Mr. Maddison's <i>Armonica</i>. I was unlucky in both +the Workmen, that I permitted to undertake making those +Instruments. The first was fanciful, and never could work to +the purpose, because he was ever conceiving some new Improvement, +that answer'd no End. The other I doubt is absolutely idle. +I have recommended a Number to him from hence, +but must stop my hand.</p> + +<p>Adieu, my dear Polly, and believe me as ever, with the sincerest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +Esteem and Regard, your truly affectionate Friend and +humble Servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. My love to Mrs. Tickell and Mrs. Rooke, and to Pitty, +when you write to her. Mrs. Franklin and Sally desire to be +affectionately remember'd to you. I find the printed Poetry I +intended to enclose will be too bulky to send per the Packet. +I shall send it by a Ship, that goes shortly from hence.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOHN_FOTHERGILL_MD" id="TO_JOHN_FOTHERGILL_MD"></a>TO JOHN FOTHERGILL, M.D.<a name="FNanchor_66_578" id="FNanchor_66_578"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_578" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">March 14, 1764.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Doctor</span>,—</p> + +<p>I received your favour of the 10th of December. It was a +great deal for one to write whose time was so little his own. +By the way, when do you intend to live?—<i>i.e.</i>, to enjoy life. +When will you retire to your villa, give yourself repose, delight +in viewing the operations of nature in the vegetable creation, +assist her in her works, get your ingenious friends at times about +you, make them happy with your conversation, and enjoy +theirs: or, if alone, amuse yourself with your books and elegant +collections?</p> + +<p>To be hurried about perpetually from one sick chamber to +another is not living. Do you please yourself with the fancy +that you are doing good? You are mistaken. Half the lives you +save are not worth saving, as being useless, and almost all the +other half ought not to be saved, as being mischievous. Does +your conscience never hint to you the impiety of being in constant +warfare against the plans of Providence? Disease was +intended as the punishment of intemperence, sloth, and other +vices, and the example of that punishment was intended to promote +and strengthen the opposite virtues. But here you step +in officiously with your Art, disappoint those wise intentions +of nature, and make men safe in their excesses, whereby you +seem to me to be of just the same service to society as some favourite +first minister who out of the great benevolence of his +heart should procure pardons of all criminals that applied to +him; only think of the consequences.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> + +<p>You tell me the Quakers are charged on your side of the +water with being, by their aggressions, the cause of the war. +Would you believe it that they are charged here, not with offending +the Indians and thereby provoking the war, but with +gaining their friendship by presents, supplying them privately +with arms and ammunition, and engaging them to fall upon +and murder the poor white people on the frontiers? Would +you think it possible that thousands even here should be made +to believe this, and many hundreds of them be raised in arms, +not only to kill some converted Indians, supposed to be under +the Quakers' protection, but to punish the Quakers who were +supposed to give that protection? Would you think these +people audacious enough to avow such designs in a public declaration +sent to the Governor? Would you imagine that innocent +Quakers, men of fortune and character, should think it +necessary to fly for safety out of Philadelphia into the Jersies, +fearing the violence of such armed mobs, and confiding little +in the power or inclination of the government to protect them? +And would you imagine that strong suspicions now prevail +that those mobs, after committing so barbarous murders hitherto +unpunished, are privately tampered with to be made instruments +of government to awe the Assembly into proprietary +measures? And yet all this has happened within a few weeks +past.</p> + +<p>More wonders. You know that I don't love the proprietary +and that he does not love me. Our totally different tempers +forbid it. You might therefore expect that the late new appointments +of one of his family would find me ready for opposition. +And yet when his nephew arrived, our Governor, I considered +government as government, and paid him all respect, gave him +on all occasions my best advice, promoted in the Assembly a +ready compliance with every thing he proposed or recommended, +and when those daring rioters, encouraged by general +approbation of the populace, treated his proclamation with contempt, +I drew my pen in the cause; wrote a pamphlet (that I +have sent you) to render the rioters unpopular; promoted an +association to support the authority of the Government and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +defend the Governor by taking arms, signed it first myself and +was followed by several hundreds, who took arms accordingly. +The Governor offered me the command of them, but I chose +to carry a musket and strengthen his authority by setting an +example of obedience to his order. And would you think it, +this proprietary Governor did me the honour, in an alarm, to +run to my house at midnight, with his counsellors at his heels, +for advice, and made it his head-quarters for some time. And +within four and twenty hours, your old friend was a common +soldier, a counsellor, a kind of dictator, an ambassador to the +country mob, and on his returning home, nobody again. All +this has happened in a few weeks.</p> + +<p>More wonders! The Assembly received a Governor of the +Proprietary family with open arms, addressed him with sincere +expressions of kindness and respect, opened their purses to them, +and presented him with six hundred pounds; made a Riot Act +and prepared a Militia Bill immediately, at his instance, granted +supplies, and did everything that he requested, and promised +themselves great happiness under his administration. But suddenly +his dropping all inquiries after the murderers, and his +answering the disputes of the rioters privately and refusing +the presence of the Assembly who were equally concerned in the +matters contained in their remonstrance, brings him under suspicion; +his insulting the Assembly without the least provocation +by charging them with disloyalty and with making an infringement +on the King's prerogatives, only because they had presumed +to name in a bill offered for his assent a trifling officer +(somewhat like one of your toll-gatherers at a turnpike) without +consulting him, and his refusing several of their bills or +proposing amendments needless disgusting.</p> + +<p>These things bring him and his government into sudden +contempt. All regard for him in the Assembly is lost. All hopes +of happiness under a Proprietary Government are at an end. +It has now scarce authority enough to keep the common peace, +and was another to come, I question, though a dozen men were +sufficient, whether one could find so many in Philadelphia +willing to rescue him or his Attorney General, I won't say from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +hanging, but from any common insult. All this too happened +in a few weeks.</p> + +<p>In fine, everything seems in this country, once the land of +peace and order, to be running fast into anarchy and confusion. +But we hope there is virtue enough in your great nation to support +a good Prince in the execution of a good government and +the exercise of his just prerogatives against all the attempts of +unreasonable faction. I have been already too long. Adieu, +my dear friend, and believe me ever, yours affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_SARAH_FRANKLIN" id="TO_SARAH_FRANKLIN"></a>TO SARAH FRANKLIN</h3> + +<p class="date">Reedy Island, 7 at night, November 8, 1764.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Sally</span>,</p> + +<p>We got down here at sunset, having taken in more live stock +at Newcastle, with some other things we wanted. Our good +friends, Mr. Galloway, Mr. Wharton, and Mr. James, came +with me in the ship from Chester to Newcastle and went +ashore there. It was kind to favour me with their good company +as far as they could. The affectionate leave taken of me by so +many friends at Chester was very endearing. God bless them +and all Pennsylvania.</p> + +<p>My dear child, the natural prudence and goodness of heart +God has blest you with make it less necessary for me to be +particular in giving you advice. I shall therefore only say, that +the more attentively dutiful and tender you are towards your +good mamma, the more you will recommend yourself to me. +But why should I mention <i>me</i>, when you have so much higher +a promise in the commandments, that such conduct will recommend +you to the favour of God. You know I have many +enemies, all indeed on the public account, (for I cannot recollect +that I have in a private capacity given just cause of offence to +any one whatever,) yet they are enemies, and very bitter ones; +and you must expect their enmity will extend in some degree to +you, so that your slightest indiscretions will be magnified into +crimes, in order the more sensibly to wound and afflict me. +It is therefore the more necessary for you to be extremely circumspect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +in all your behaviour, that no advantage may be given +to their malevolence.</p> + +<p>Go constantly to church, whoever preaches. The act of devotion +in the Common Prayer Book is your principal business +there, and if properly attended to, will do more towards amending +the heart than sermons generally can do. For they were +composed by men of much greater piety and wisdom, than our +common composers of sermons can pretend to be; and therefore +I wish you would never miss the prayer days; yet I do not mean +you should despise sermons, even of the preachers you dislike, +for the discourse is often much better than the man, as sweet +and clear waters come through very dirty earth. I am the more +particular on this head, as you seemed to express a little before +I came away some inclination to leave our church, which I would +not have you do.</p> + +<p>For the rest, I would only recommend to you in my absence, +to acquire those useful accomplishments, arithmetic and bookkeeping. +This you might do with ease, if you would resolve +not to see company on the hours you set apart for those studies.</p> + +<p>We expect to be at sea to-morrow, if this wind holds; after +which I shall have no opportunity of writing to you, till I arrive +(if it please God I do arrive) in England. I pray that his +blessing may attend you, which is worth more than a thousand +of mine, though they are never wanting. Give my love to your +brother and sister,<a name="FNanchor_67_579" id="FNanchor_67_579"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_579" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> as I cannot write to them, and remember +me affectionately to the young ladies your friends, and to our +good neighbours. I am, my dear child, your affectionate father,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><i>From</i> <a name="A_NARRATIVE_OF_THE_LATE_MASSACRES" id="A_NARRATIVE_OF_THE_LATE_MASSACRES"></a>A NARRATIVE OF THE LATE MASSACRES</h3> + +<p class="center">IN LANCASTER COUNTY, OF A NUMBER OF INDIANS, FRIENDS OF +THIS PROVINCE, BY PERSONS UNKNOWN. WITH SOME +OBSERVATIONS ON THE SAME.<a name="FNanchor_68_580" id="FNanchor_68_580"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_580" class="fnanchor">[68]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[1764]</p> + +<p>... On <i>Wednesday</i>, the 14th of <i>December</i>, 1763, Fifty-seven +Men, from some of our Frontier Townships, who had projected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +the Destruction of this little Commonwealth, came, all well +mounted, and armed with Firelocks, Hangers and Hatchets, +having travelled through the Country in the Night, to <i>Conestogoe</i> +Manor. There they surrounded the small Village of <i>Indian</i> +Huts, and just at Break of Day broke into them all at once. +Only three Men, two Women, and a young Boy, were found +at home, the rest being out among the neighbouring White +People, some to sell the Baskets, Brooms and Bowls they manufactured, +and others on other Occasions. These poor defenceless +Creatures were immediately fired upon, stabbed, and +hatcheted to Death! The good <i>Shehaes</i>, among the rest, cut +to Pieces in his Bed. All of them were scalped and otherwise +horribly mangled. Then their Huts were set on Fire, and most +of them burnt down. When the Troop, pleased with their own +Conduct and Bravery, but enraged that any of the poor <i>Indians</i> +had escaped the Massacre, rode off, and in small Parties, by different +Roads, went home.</p> + +<p>The universal Concern of the neighbouring White People +on hearing of this Event, and the Lamentations of the younger +<i>Indians</i>, when they returned and saw the Desolation, and the +butchered half-burnt Bodies of their murdered Parents and +other Relations, cannot well be expressed.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Notwithstanding this Proclamation [by the Governor], those +cruel men again assembled themselves, and hearing that the +remaining fourteen <i>Indians</i> were in the Workhouse at <i>Lancaster</i>, +they suddenly appeared in that Town, on the 27th of <i>December</i>. +Fifty of them, armed as before, dismounting, went directly to +the Workhouse, and by Violence broke open the Door, and +entered with the utmost Fury in their Countenances. When +the poor Wretches saw they had <i>no Protection</i> nigh, nor could +possibly escape, and being without the least Weapon for Defence, +they divided into their little Families, the Children clinging +to the Parents; they fell on their Knees, protested their +Innocence, declared their Love to the <i>English</i>, and that, in their +whole Lives, they had never done them Injury; and in this +Posture they all received the Hatchet! Men, Women and little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +Children were every one inhumanly murdered!—in cold +Blood!</p> + +<p>The barbarous Men who committed the atrocious Fact, in +defiance of Government, of all Laws human and divine, and to +the eternal Disgrace of their Country and Colour, then mounted +their Horses, huzza'd in Triumph, as if they had gained a Victory, +and rode off—<i>unmolested</i>!</p> + +<p>The Bodies of the Murdered were then brought out and exposed +in the Street, till a Hole could be made in the Earth to +receive and cover them.</p> + +<p>But the Wickedness cannot be covered, the Guilt will lie +on the whole Land, till Justice is done on the Murderers. <span class="smcap">The +Blood of the Innocent will cry to Heaven for Vengeance.</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>If an <i>Indian</i> injures me, does it follow that I may revenge +that Injury on all <i>Indians</i>? It is well known, that <i>Indians</i> are +of different Tribes, Nations and Languages, as well as the White +People. In <i>Europe</i> if the <i>French</i>, who are White People, should +injure the <i>Dutch</i>, are they to revenge it on the <i>English</i>, because +they too are White People? The only Crime of these poor +Wretches seems to have been, that they had a reddish-brown +Skin, and black Hair; and some People of that Sort, it seems, had +murdered some of our Relations. If it be right to kill Men for +such a Reason, then, should any Man, with a freckled Face and +red Hair, kill a Wife or Child of mine, it would be right for me +to revenge it, by killing all the freckled red-haired Men, Women +and Children, I could afterwards anywhere meet with.</p> + +<p>But it seems these People think they have a better Justification; +nothing less than the <i>Word of God</i>. With the Scriptures in +their Hands and Mouths, they can set at nought that express +Command, <i>Thou shalt do no Murder</i>; and justify their Wickedness +by the Command given <i>Joshua</i> to destroy the Heathen. +Horrid Perversion of Scripture and of Religion! To father the +worst of Crimes on the God of Peace and Love! Even the <i>Jews</i>, +to whom that particular Commission was directed, spared the +<i>Gibeonites</i>, on Account of their Faith once given. The Faith<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +of this Government has been frequently given to those <i>Indians</i>; +but that did not avail them with People who despise Government.</p> + +<p>We pretend to be <i>Christians</i>, and, from the superior Light we +enjoy, ought to exceed <i>Heathens</i>, <i>Turks</i>, <i>Saracens</i>, <i>Moors</i>, <i>Negroes</i> +and <i>Indians</i>, in the Knowledge and Practice of what is +right. I will endeavour to show, by a few Examples from Books +and History, the Sense those People have had of such Actions.</p> + +<p>Homer wrote his Poem, called the <i>Odyssey</i>, some Hundred +Years before the Birth of Christ. He frequently speaks of what +he calls not only <i>the Duties</i>, but <i>the Sacred Rites of Hospitality</i>, +(exercised towards Strangers, while in our House or Territory) +as including, besides all the common Circumstances of Entertainment, +full Safety and Protection of Person, from all Danger +of Life, from all Injuries, and even Insults. The Rites of Hospitality +were called <i>sacred</i>, because the Stranger, the Poor, and +the Weak, when they applied for Protection and Relief, were, +from the Religion of those Times, supposed to be sent by the +Deity to try the Goodness of Men, and that he would avenge +the Injuries they might receive, where they ought to have been +protected. These Sentiments therefore influenced the Manners +of all Ranks of People, even the meanest; for we find that when +<i>Ulysses</i> came, as a poor Stranger, to the Hut of Eumæus, the +Swineherd, and his great Dogs ran out to tear the ragged Man, +<i>Eumæus</i> drave them away with Stones; and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"'Unhappy Stranger!' (thus the faithful Swain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Began, with Accent gracious and humane,)<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'What Sorrow had been mine, if at <i>my</i> Gate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy rev'rend Age had met a shameful Fate!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But enter this my homely Roof, and see<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Woods not void of Hospitality.'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He said, and seconding the kind Request,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With friendly Step precedes the unknown Guest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A shaggy Goat's soft Hide beneath him spread,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with fresh Rushes heap'd an ample Bed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Joy touch'd the Hero's tender Soul, to find<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So just Reception from a Heart so kind:<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And [']Oh, ye Gods! with all your Blessings grace'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">(He thus broke forth) 'this Friend of human Race![']<br /></span> +<span class="i1">The Swain reply'd. [']It never was our guise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To slight the Poor, or aught humane despise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For Jove unfolds the hospitable Door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis Jove that sends the Stranger and the Poor.[']"<a name="FNanchor_69_581" id="FNanchor_69_581"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_581" class="fnanchor">[69]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These Heathen People thought, that after a Breach of the +Rites of Hospitality, a Curse from Heaven would attend them +in every thing they did, and even their honest Industry in their +Callings would fail of Success. Thus when <i>Ulysses</i> tells <i>Eumæus</i>, +who doubted the Truth of what he related, "If I deceive you +in this, I should deserve Death, and I consent that you should +put me to Death," <i>Eumæus</i> rejects the Proposal, as what would +be attended with both Infamy and Misfortune, saying ironically,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"Doubtless, O Guest! great Laud and Praise were mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If, after social Rites and Gifts bestow'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I stain'd my Hospitable Hearth with Blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How would the Gods my righteous Toils succeed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bless the Hand that made a Stranger bleed?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No more."—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Even an open Enemy, in the Heat of Battle, throwing down +his Arms, submitting to his Foe, and asking Life and Protection, +was supposed to acquire an immediate Right to that Protection. +Thus one describes his being saved, when his Party was defeated;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"We turn'd to Flight; the gath'ring Vengeance spread<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On all Parts round, and Heaps on Heaps lie dead.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The radiant Helmet from my Brows unlac'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And lo, on Earth my Shield and Javelin cast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I meet the Monarch with a Suppliant's Face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Approach his Chariot, and his Knees embrace.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He heard, he sav'd, he plac'd me at his Side;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My State he pity'd, and my Tears he dry'd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Restrain'd the Rage the vengeful Foe express'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And turn'd the deadly Weapons from my Breast.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pious to guard the Hospitable Rite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fearing Jove, whom Mercy's Works delight."<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The Suitors of <i>Penelope</i> are by the same ancient Poet described +as a sett of lawless Men, who were <i>regardless of the sacred +Rites of Hospitality</i>. And therefore when the Queen was informed +they were slain, and that by <i>Ulysses</i>, she, not believing +that <i>Ulysses</i> was returned, says,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"Ah no! some God the Suitors Deaths decreed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some God descends, and by his Hand they bleed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blind, to contemn the Stranger's righteous Cause,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And violate all hospitable Laws!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">... The Powers they defy'd;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But Heav'n is just, and by a God they dy'd."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Now I am about to mention something of <i>Indians</i>, I beg that +I may not be understood as framing Apologies for <i>all Indians</i>. +I am far from desiring to lessen the laudable Spirit of Resentment +in my Countrymen against those now at War with us, +so far as it is justified by their Perfidy and Inhumanity. I would +only observe, that the <i>Six Nations</i>, as a Body, have kept Faith +with the <i>English</i> ever since we knew them, now near an Hundred +Years; and that the governing Part of those People have +had Notions of Honour, whatever may be the Case with the +Rum-debauched, Trader-corrupted Vagabonds and Thieves on +the <i>Sasquehannah</i> and <i>Ohio</i>, at present in Arms against us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Unhappy People! to have lived in such Times, and by such +Neighbours! We have seen, that they would have been safer +among the ancient <i>Heathens</i>, with whom the Rites of Hospitality +were <i>sacred</i>. They would have been considered as +<i>Guests</i> of the Publick, and the Religion of the Country would +have operated in their Favour. But our Frontier People call +themselves <i>Christians</i>! They would have been safer, if they had +submitted to the <i>Turks</i>; for ever since <i>Mahomet's</i> Reproof to +<i>Khaled</i>, even the cruel <i>Turks</i> never kill Prisoners in cold Blood. +These were not even Prisoners. But what is the Example of +<i>Turks</i> to Scripture <i>Christians</i>? They would have been safer, +though they had been taken in actual War against the <i>Saracens</i>, +if they had once drank Water with them. These were not taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +in War against us, and have drank with us, and we with them, for +Fourscore Years. But shall we compare <i>Saracens</i> to <i>Christians</i>?</p> + +<p>They would have been safer among the <i>Moors</i> in <i>Spain</i>, +though they had been Murderers of Sons; if Faith had once been +pledged to them, and a Promise of Protection given. But these +have had the Faith of the <i>English</i> given to them many Times by +the Government, and, in Reliance on that Faith, they lived among +us, and gave us the Opportunity of murdering them. However, +what was honourable in <i>Moors</i>, may not be a Rule to us; for +we are <i>Christians</i>! They would have been safer it seems among +<i>Popish Spaniards</i>, even if Enemies, and delivered into their +Hands by a Tempest. These were not Enemies; they were born +among us, and yet we have killed them all. But shall we imitate +<i>idolatrous Papists</i>, we that are <i>enlightened Protestants</i>? They +would have even been safer among the <i>Negroes</i> of <i>Africa</i>, where +at least one manly Soul would have been found, with Sense, +Spirit and Humanity enough, to stand in their Defence. But +shall <i>Whitemen</i> and <i>Christians</i> act like a <i>Pagan Negroe</i>? In +short it appears, that they would have been safe in any Part of +the known World, except in the Neighbourhood of the +<span class="smcap">Christian white Savages</span> of <i>Peckstang</i> and <i>Donesgall</i>!</p> + +<p>O, ye unhappy Perpetrators of this horrid Wickedness! reflect +a Moment on the Mischief ye have done, the Disgrace ye +have brought on your Country, on your Religion, and your +Bible, on your Families and Children! Think on the Destruction +of your captivated Country-folks (now among the wild +<i>Indians</i>) which probably may follow, in Resentment of your +Barbarity! Think on the Wrath of the United <i>Five Nations</i>, +hitherto our Friends, but now provoked by your murdering one +of their Tribes, in Danger of becoming our bitter Enemies. +Think of the mild and good Government you have so audaciously +insulted; the Laws of your King, your Country, and +your God, that you have broken; the infamous Death that +hangs over your Heads; for Justice, though slow, will come +at last. All good People everywhere detest your Actions. You +have imbrued your Hands in innocent Blood; how will you make +them clean? The dying Shrieks and Groans of the Murdered,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +will often sound in your Ears: Their Spectres will sometimes +attend you, and affright even your innocent Children! Fly +where you will, your Consciences will go with you. Talking +in your Sleep shall betray you, in the Delirium of a Fever you +yourselves shall make your own Wickedness known.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Let us rouze ourselves, for Shame, and redeem the Honour +of our Province from the Contempt of its Neighbours; let all +good Men join heartily and unanimously in Support of the Laws, +and in strengthening the Hands of Government; that <span class="smcap">Justice</span> +may be done, the Wicked punished, and the Innocent protected; +otherwise we can, as a People, expect no Blessing from Heaven; +there will be no Security for our Persons or Properties; Anarchy +and Confusion will prevail over all; and Violence without Judgment, +dispose of every Thing.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + + +<h3><a name="TO_THE_EDITOR_OF_A_NEWSPAPER" id="TO_THE_EDITOR_OF_A_NEWSPAPER"></a>TO THE EDITOR OF A NEWSPAPER</h3> + +<p class="date">Monday, May 20, [1765].</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>In your Paper of Wednesday last, an ingenious Correspondent +that calls himself <span class="smcap">The Spectator</span>, and dates from <i>Pimlico</i>, +under the Guise of Good Will to the News-writers, whom he +calls an "useful Body of Men in this great City," has, in my +Opinion, artfully attempted to turn them & their Works into +Ridicule, wherein if he could succeed, great Injury might be +done to the Public as well as to those good People.</p> + +<p>Supposing, Sir, that the "<i>We hears</i>" they give us of this & +t'other intended Voyage or Tour of this & t'other great Personage, +were mere Inventions, yet they at least offer us an +innocent Amusement while we read, and useful Matter of +Conversation when we are dispos'd to converse.</p> + +<p>Englishmen, Sir, are too apt to be silent when they have +nothing to say; too apt to be sullen when they are silent; and, +when they are sullen, to hang themselves. But, by these <i>We +hears</i>, we are supplied with abundant funds of Discourse, we +discuss the Motives for such Voyages, the Probability of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +being undertaken, and the Practicability of their Execution. +Here we display our Judgment in Politics, our Knowledge of +the Interests of Princes, and our Skill in Geography, and (if we +have it) show our Dexterity moreover in Argumentation. In +the mean time, the tedious Hour is kill'd, we go home pleas'd +with the Applauses we have receiv'd from others, or at least +with those we secretly give to ourselves: We sleep soundly, & +live on, to the Comfort of our Families. But, Sir, I beg leave +to say, that all the Articles of News that seem improbable are +not mere Inventions. Some of them, I can assure you on the +Faith of a Traveller, are serious Truths. And here, quitting Mr. +Spectator of Pimlico, give me leave to instance the various +numberless Accounts the Newswriters have given us, with so +much honest Zeal for the welfare of <i>Poor Old England</i>, of the +establishing Manufactures in the Colonies to the Prejudice of +those of this Kingdom. It is objected by superficial Readers, +who yet pretend to some Knowledge of those Countries, that +such Establishments are not only improbable, but impossible, +for that their Sheep have but little Wooll, not in the whole +sufficient for a Pair of Stockings a Year to each Inhabitant; and +that, from the Universal Dearness of Labour among them, the +Working of Iron and other Materials, except in some few coarse +Instances, is impracticable to any Advantage.</p> + +<p>Dear Sir, do not let us suffer ourselves to be amus'd with such +groundless Objections. The very Tails of the American Sheep +are so laden with Wooll, that each has a little Car or Waggon on +four little Wheels, to support & keep it from trailing on the +Ground.<a name="FNanchor_70_582" id="FNanchor_70_582"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_582" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> Would they caulk their Ships, would they fill their +Beds, would they even litter their Horses with Wooll, if it were +not both plenty and cheap? And what signifies Dearness of +Labour, when an English Shilling passes for five and Twenty? +Their engaging 300 Silk Throwsters here in one Week, for New +York, was treated as a Fable, because, forsooth, they have "no +Silk there to throw." Those, who made this Objection, perhaps +did not know, that at the same time the Agents from the King of +Spain were at Quebec to contract for 1000 Pieces of Cannon to +be made there for the Fortification of Mexico, and at N York<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +engaging the annual Supply of woven Floor-Carpets for their +West India Houses, other Agents from the Emperor of China +were at Boston treating about an Exchange of raw Silk for +Wooll, to be carried in Chinese Junks through the Straits of +Magellan.</p> + +<p>And yet all this is as certainly true, as the Account said to be +from Quebec, in all the Papers of last Week, that the Inhabitants +of Canada are making Preparations for a Cod and Whale +Fishery this "Summer in the upper Lakes." Ignorant People +may object that the upper Lakes are fresh, and that Cod and +Whale are Salt Water Fish: But let them know, Sir, that Cod, +like other Fish when attack'd by their Enemies, fly into any +Water where they can be safest; that Whales, when they have a +mind to eat Cod, pursue them wherever they fly; and that the +grand Leap of the Whale in that Chase up the Fall of Niagara +is esteemed, by all who have seen it, as one of the finest Spectacles +in Nature. Really, Sir, the World is grown too incredulous. +It is like the Pendulum ever swinging from one Extream +to another. Formerly every thing printed was believed, because +it was in print. Now Things seem to be disbelieved for just the +very same Reason. Wise Men wonder at the present Growth +of Infidelity. They should have consider'd, when they taught +People to doubt the Authority of Newspapers and the Truth of +Predictions in Almanacks, that the next Step might be a Disbelief +in the well vouch'd Accts of Ghosts Witches, and +Doubts even of the Truths of the Creed!</p> + +<p>Thus much I thought it necessary to say in favour of an +honest Set of Writers, whose comfortable Living depends on +collecting & supplying the Printers with News at the small +Price of Sixpence an Article, and who always show their Regard +to Truth, by contradicting in a subsequent Article such as are +wrong,—for another Sixpence,—to the great Satisfaction & +Improvement of us Coffee-house Students in History & Politics, +and the infinite Advantage of all future Livies, Rapins, +Robertsons, Humes, and McAulays, who may be sincerely +inclin'd to furnish the World with that <i>rara Avis</i>, a true History. +I am, Sir, your humble Servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">A Traveller</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_LORD_KAMES_318" id="TO_LORD_KAMES_318"></a>TO LORD KAMES</h3> + +<p class="date">Craven Street, London, June 2, 1765.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Lord</span>,</p> + +<p>... In my passage to America I read your excellent work, the +<i>Elements of Criticism</i>, in which I found great entertainment: +much to admire and nothing to reprove. I only wished you had +examined more fully the subject of Music, and demonstrated, +that the pleasure which artists feel in hearing much of that composed +in the modern taste, is not the natural pleasure arising +from melody or harmony of sounds, but of the same kind with +the pleasure we feel on seeing the surprising feats of tumblers +and rope-dancers, who execute difficult things. For my part I +take this to be really the case, and suppose it is the reason why +those, who being unpractised in music, and therefore unacquainted +with those difficulties have little or no pleasure in +hearing this music. Many pieces of it are mere compositions of +tricks. I have sometimes, at a concert, attended by a common +audience, placed myself so as to see all their faces, and observed +no signs of pleasure in them during the performance of a great +part that was admired by the performers themselves; while a +plain old <i>Scottish tune</i>, which they disdained, and could scarcely +be prevailed on to play, gave manifest and general delight.</p> + +<p>Give me leave on this occasion to extend a little the sense of +your position, that "Melody and Harmony are separately agreeable, +and in union delightful," and to give it as my opinion, that +the reason why the Scotch tunes have lived so long, and will +probably live for ever (if they escape being stifled in modern +affected ornament), is merely this, that they are really compositions +of melody and harmony united, or rather that their melody +is harmony. I mean the simple tunes sung by a single voice. +As this will appear paradoxical, I must explain my meaning. In +common acceptation, indeed, only an agreeable <i>succession</i> of +sounds is called <i>Melody</i>, and only the <i>co-existence</i> of agreeing +sounds, <i>Harmony</i>. But, since the memory is capable of retaining +for some moments a perfect idea of the pitch of a past sound, +so as to compare with it the pitch of a succeeding sound, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +judge truly of their agreement or disagreement, there may and +does arise from thence a sense of harmony between the present +and past sounds, equally pleasing with that between two +present sounds.</p> + +<p>Now the construction of the old Scotch tunes is this, that +almost every succeeding <i>emphatical</i> note is a third, a fifth, an +octave, or in short some note that is in concord with the preceding +note. Thirds are chiefly used, which are very pleasing concords. +I use the word <i>emphatical</i> to distinguish those notes +which have a stress laid on them in singing the tune, from the +lighter connecting notes, that serve merely, like grammar +articles, to tack the others together.</p> + +<p>That we have a most perfect idea of a sound just past, I might +appeal to all acquainted with music, who know how easy it is to +repeat a sound in the same pitch with one just heard. In tuning +an instrument, a good ear can as easily determine that two +strings are in unison by sounding them separately, as by sounding +them together; their disagreement is also as easily, I believe +I may say more easily and better distinguished, when sounded +separately; for when sounded together, though you know by the +beating that one is higher than the other, you cannot tell which +it is. [I have ascribed to memory the ability of comparing the +pitch of a present tone with that of one past. But, if there should +be, as possibly there may be, something in the ear, similar to +what we find in the eye, that ability would not be entirely owing +to memory. Possibly the vibrations given to the auditory +nerves by a particular sound may actually continue some time +after the cause of those vibrations is past, and the agreement +or disagreement of a subsequent sound become by comparison +with them more discernible. For the impression made on the +visual nerves by a luminous object will continue for twenty +or thirty seconds. Sitting in a room, look earnestly at the +middle of a window a little while when the day is bright, and +then shut your eyes; the figure of the window will still remain +in the eye, and so distinct that you may count the panes.</p> + +<p>A remarkable circumstance attending this experiment, is, that +the impression of forms is better retained than that of colors;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +for after the eyes are shut, when you first discern the image of +the window, the panes appear dark, and the cross bars of the +sashes, with the window frames and walls, appear white or +bright; but, if you still add to the darkness in the eyes by covering +them with your hand, the reverse instantly takes place, the +panes appear luminous and the cross bars dark. And by removing +the hand they are again reversed. This I know not how to +account for. Nor for the following; that, after looking long +through green spectacles, the white paper of a book will on first +taking them off appear to have a blush of red; and, after long +looking through red glasses, a greenish cast; this seems to intimate +a relation between green and red not yet explained.]</p> + +<p>Farther, when we consider by whom these ancient tunes +were composed, and how they were first performed, we shall +see that such harmonical succession of sounds was natural and +even necessary in their construction. They were composed by +the minstrels of those days to be played on the harp accompanied +by the voice. The harp was strung with wire, [which +gives a sound of long continuance,] and had no contrivance, like +that in the modern harpsichord, by which the sound of the preceding +could be stoppt, the moment a succeeding note began. +To avoid <i>actual</i> discord, it was therefore necessary that the succeeding +emphatic note should be a chord with the preceding, as +their sounds must exist at the same time. Hence arose that +beauty in those tunes that has so long pleased, and will please +for ever, though men scarce know why. That they were originally +composed for the harp, and of the most simple kind, I +mean a harp without any half notes but those in the natural +scale, and with no more than two octaves of strings, from +C to C, I conjecture from another circumstance, which is, that +not one of those tunes, really ancient, has a single artificial half +note in it, and that in tunes where it was most convenient for +the voice to use the middle notes of the harp, and place the +key in F, there the B, which if used should be a B flat, is +always omitted by passing over it with a third. The connoisseurs +in modern music will say, I have no taste; but I cannot +help adding, that I believe our ancestors, in hearing a good song,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +distinctly articulated, sung to one of those tunes, and accompanied +by the harp, felt more real pleasure than is communicated +by the generality of modern operas, exclusive of that +arising from the scenery and dancing. Most tunes of late composition, +not having this natural harmony united with their +melody, have recourse to the artificial harmony of a bass, and +other accompanying parts. This support, in my opinion, the +old tunes do not need, and are rather confused than aided by it. +Whoever has heard James Oswald play them on his violoncello, +will be less inclined to dispute this with me. I have more than +once seen tears of pleasure in the eyes of his auditors; and yet, +I think, even <i>his</i> playing those tunes would please more, if he +gave them less modern ornament. My son, when we parted, +desired me to present his Affectionate respects to you, Lady +Kames, and your amiable children: be so good with those, to +accept mine, and believe me, with sincerest esteem, my dear +Lord, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. I do promise myself the pleasure of seeing you and my +other friends in Scotland, before I return to America.</p> + + +<h3><a name="LETTER_CONCERNING_THE_GRATITUDE_OF_AMERICA" id="LETTER_CONCERNING_THE_GRATITUDE_OF_AMERICA"></a>LETTER<br /> +CONCERNING THE GRATITUDE OF AMERICA<a name="FNanchor_71_583" id="FNanchor_71_583"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_583" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">AND THE PROBABILITY AND EFFECTS OF A UNION WITH GREAT +BRITAIN; AND CONCERNING THE REPEAL OR SUSPENSION +OF THE STAMP ACT</p> + +<p class="date">[London,] January 6, 1766.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I have attentively perused the paper you sent me, and am of +opinion, that the measure it proposes, of an union with the +colonies, is a wise one; but I doubt it will hardly be thought so +here, till it is too late to attempt it. The time has been, when +the colonies would have esteemed it a great advantage, as well +as honour to be permitted to send members to Parliament; and +would have asked for that privilege, if they could have had the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +least hopes of obtaining it. The time is now come when they +are indifferent about it, and will probably not ask it, though they +might accept it if offered them; and the time will come, when they +will certainly refuse it. But if such an union were now established +(which methinks it highly imports this country to establish) +it would probably subsist as long as Britain shall continue +a nation. This people, however, is too proud, and too much +despises the Americans, to bear the thought of admitting them +to such an equitable participation in the government of the +whole.</p> + +<p>Then the next best thing seems to be, leaving them in the +quiet enjoyment of their respective constitutions; and when +money is wanted for any public service, in which they ought +to bear a part, calling upon them by requisitorial letters from +the crown (according to the long-established custom) to grant +such aids as their loyalty shall dictate, and their abilities permit. +The very sensible and benevolent author of that paper seems +not to have known, that such a constitutional custom subsists, +and has always hitherto been practised in America; or he would +not have expressed himself in this manner; "It is evident, +beyond a doubt, to the intelligent and impartial, that after the +very extraordinary efforts, which were effectually made by Great +Britain in the late war to save the colonists from destruction, +and attended of necessity with an enormous load of debts in +consequence, that the same colonists, now firmly secured from +foreign enemies, should be somehow induced to contribute +some proportion towards the exigencies of state in future." +This looks as if he conceived the war had been carried on at +the sole expense of Great Britain, and the colonies only reaped +the benefit, without hitherto sharing the burden, and were +therefore now indebted to Britain on that account. And this is +the same kind of argument that is used by those, who would fix +on the colonies the heavy charge of unreasonableness and ingratitude, +which I think your friend did not intend.</p> + +<p>Please to acquaint him, then, that the fact is not so; that, every +year during the war, requisitions were made by the crown on +the colonies for raising money and men; that accordingly they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> +made more extraordinary efforts, in proportion to their abilities, +than Britain did; that they raised, paid, and clothed, for +five or six years, near twenty-five thousand men, besides providing +for other services, as building forts, equipping guardships, +paying transports, &c. And that this was more than their +fair proportion is not merely an opinion of mine, but was the +judgment of government here, in full knowledge of all the +facts; for the then ministry, to make the burthen more equal, +recommended the case to Parliament, and obtained a reimbursement +to the Americans of about two hundred thousand +pounds sterling every year; which amounted only to about two +fifths of their expense; and great part of the rest lies still a load +of debt upon them; heavy taxes on all their estates, real and +personal, being laid by acts of their assemblies to discharge it, +and yet will not discharge it in many years.</p> + +<p>While, then, these burdens continue; while Britain restrains +the colonies in every branch of commerce and manufactures +that she thinks interferes with her own; while she drains the +colonies, by her trade with them, of all the cash they can procure +by every art and industry in any part of the world, and thus +keeps them always in her debt; (for they can make no law to +discourage the importation of your to <i>them</i> ruinous superfluities, +as <i>you</i> do the superfluities of France; since such a law +would immediately be reported against by your Board of +Trade, and repealed by the crown;) I say, while these circumstances +continue, and while there subsists the established +method of royal requisitions for raising money on them by +their own assemblies on every proper occasion; can it be necessary +or prudent to distress and vex them by taxes laid here, in +a Parliament wherein they have no representative, and in a +manner which they look upon to be unconstitutional and subversive +of their most valuable rights? And are they to be +thought unreasonable and ungrateful if they oppose such taxes?</p> + +<p>Wherewith, they say, shall we show our loyalty to our +gracious King, if our money is to be given by others, without +asking our consent? And, if the Parliament has a right thus to +take from us a penny in the pound, where is the line drawn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +that bounds that right, and what shall hinder their calling, +whenever they please, for the other nineteen shillings and +eleven pence? Have we then any thing that we can call our own? +It is more than probable, that bringing representatives from the +colonies to sit and act here as members of Parliament, thus +uniting and consolidating your dominions, would in a little +time remove these objections and difficulties, and make the +future government of the colonies easy; but, till some such +thing is done, I apprehend no taxes, laid there by Parliament +here, will ever be collected, but such as must be stained with +blood; and I am sure the profit of such taxes will never answer +the expense of collecting them, and that the respect and affection +of the Americans to this country will in the struggle be totally +lost, perhaps never to be recovered; and therewith all the commercial +and political advantages, that might have attended the +continuance of this respect and this affection.</p> + +<p>In my own private judgment, I think an immediate repeal of +the Stamp Act would be the best measure for this country; but +a suspension of it for three years, the best for that. The repeal +would fill them with joy and gratitude, reëstablish their respect +and veneration for Parliament, restore at once their ancient and +natural love for this country, and their regard for every thing +that comes from it; hence the trade would be renewed in all its +branches; they would again indulge in all the expensive superfluities +you supply them with, and their own new-assumed +home industry would languish. But the suspension, though it +might continue their fears and anxieties, would at the same time +keep up their resolutions of industry and frugality; which in two +or three years would grow into habits, to their lasting advantage. +However, as the repeal will probably not be now agreed +to, from what I think a mistaken opinion, that the honour and +dignity of government is better supported by persisting in a +wrong measure once entered into, than by rectifying an error +as soon as it is discovered; we must allow the next best thing +for the advantage of both countries, is the suspension; for, +as to executing the act by force, it is madness, and will be ruin +to the whole.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span></p> + +<p>The rest of your friend's reasonings and propositions appear +to me truly just and judicious. I will therefore only add, that +I am as desirous of his acquaintance and intimacy, as he was of +my opinion.</p> + +<p>I am, with much esteem,</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your obliged friend,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_LORD_KAMES_325" id="TO_LORD_KAMES_325"></a>TO LORD KAMES</h3> + +<p class="date">London, April 11, 1767.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Lord</span>,—</p> + +<p>I received your obliging favour of January the 19th. You +have kindly relieved me from the pain I had long been under. +You are goodness itself. I ought to have answered yours of +December 25, 1765. I never received a letter that contained +sentiments more suitable to my own. It found me under much +agitation of mind on the very important subject it treated. It +fortified me greatly in the judgment I was inclined to form +(though contrary to the general vogue) on the then delicate +and critical situation of affairs between Great Britain and her +Colonies, and on that weighty point, their <i>Union</i>. You guessed +aright in supposing that I would not be a <i>mute in that play</i>. +I was extremely busy, attending Members of both Houses, +informing, explaining, consulting, disputing, in a continual +hurry from morning to night, till the affair was happily ended. +During the course of it, being called before the House of Commons, +I spoke my mind pretty freely. Inclosed I send you the +imperfect account that was taken of that examination. You +will there see how entirely we agree, except in a point of fact, +of which you could not but be misinformed; the papers at that +time being full of mistaken assertions, that the colonies had +been the cause of the war, and had ungratefully refused to bear +any part of the expence of it.</p> + +<p>I send it you now, because I apprehend some late incidents +are likely to revive the contest between the two countries. +I fear it will be a mischievous one. It becomes a matter of great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +importance that clear ideas should be formed on solid principles, +both in Britain and America, of the true political relation +between them, and the mutual duties belonging to that relation. +Till this is done, they will be often jarring. I know none whose +knowledge, sagacity and impartiality qualify him so thoroughly +for such a service, as yours do you. I wish therefore you would +consider it. You may thereby be the happy instrument of +great good to the nation, and of preventing much mischief and +bloodshed. I am fully persuaded with you, that a <i>Consolidating +Union</i>, by a fair and equal representation of all the parts of this +empire in Parliament, is the only firm basis on which its political +grandeur and prosperity can be founded. Ireland once wished +it, but now rejects it. The time has been, when the colonies +might have been pleased with it: they are now <i>indifferent</i> about +it; and if it is much longer delayed, they too will <i>refuse</i> it. But +the pride of this people cannot bear the thought of it, and therefore +it will be delayed. Every man in England seems to consider +himself as a piece of a sovereign over America; seems to +jostle himself into the throne with the King, and talks of <i>our +subjects in the Colonies</i>. The Parliament cannot well and wisely +make laws suited to the Colonies, without being properly and +truly informed of their circumstances, abilities, temper, &c. +This it cannot be, without representatives from thence: and yet +it is fond of this power, and averse to the only means of acquiring +the necessary knowledge for exercising it; which is desiring +to be <i>omnipotent</i>, without being <i>omniscient</i>.</p> + +<p>I have mentioned that the contest is likely to be revived. It is +on this occasion. In the same session with the stamp act, an act +was passed to regulate the quartering of soldiers in America; +when the bill was first brought in, it contained a clause, empowering +the officers to quarter their soldiers in private houses: +this we warmly opposed, and got it omitted. The bill passed, +however, with a clause, that empty houses, barns, &c., should +be hired for them, and that the respective provinces where they +were should pay the expence and furnish firing, bedding, drink, +and some other articles to the soldiers <i>gratis</i>. There is no way +for any province to do this, but by the Assembly's making a law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +to raise the money. The Pennsylvanian Assembly has made such +a law: the New York Assembly has refused to do it: and now all +the talk here is of sending a force to compel them.</p> + +<p>The reasons given by the Assembly to the Governor, for the +refusal, are, that they understand the act to mean the furnishing +such things to soldiers, only while on their march through the +country, and not to great bodies of soldiers, to be fixt as at +present, in the province; the burthen in the latter case being +greater than the inhabitants can bear: That it would put it in +the power of the Captain-General to oppress the province at +pleasure, &c. But there is supposed to be another reason at +bottom, which they intimate, though they do not plainly express +it; to wit, that it is of the nature of an <i>internal tax</i> laid on +them by Parliament, which has no right so to do. Their refusal +is here called <i>Rebellion</i>, and punishment is thought of.</p> + +<p>Now waving that point of right, and supposing the Legislatures +in America subordinate to the Legislature of Great Britain, +one might conceive, I think, a power in the superior Legislature +to forbid the inferior Legislatures making particular laws; but +to enjoin it to make a particular law contrary to its own judgment, +seems improper; an Assembly or Parliament not being an +<i>executive</i> officer of Government, whose duty it is, in law-making, +to obey orders, but a <i>deliberative</i> body, who are to consider +what comes before them, its propriety, practicability, or possibility, +and to determine accordingly: The very nature of a +Parliament seems to be destroyed, by supposing it may be +bound, and compelled by a law of a superior Parliament, to +make a law contrary to its own judgment.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the act of Parliament in question has not, as in other +acts, when a duty is enjoined, directed a penalty on neglect or +refusal, and a mode of recovering that penalty. It seems, therefore, +to the people in America as a mere requisition, which they +are at liberty to comply with or not, as it may suit or not suit +the different circumstances of different provinces. Pennsylvania +has therefore voluntarily complied. New York, as I said before, +has refused. The Ministry that made the act, and all their +adherents, call for vengeance. The present Ministry are perplext,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +and the measures they will finally take on the occasion, +are yet unknown. But sure I am, that, if <i>Force</i> is used, great +mischief will ensue; the affections of the people of America to +this country will be alienated; your commerce will be diminished; +and a total separation of interests be the final consequence.</p> + +<p>It is a common, but mistaken notion here, that the Colonies +were planted at the expence of Parliament, and that therefore +the Parliament has a right to tax them, &c. The truth is, they +were planted at the expence of private adventurers, who went +over there to settle, with leave of the King, given by charter. +On receiving this leave, and those charters, the adventurers +voluntarily engaged to remain the King's subjects, though in a +foreign country; a country which had not been conquered by +either King or Parliament, but was possessed by a free people.</p> + +<p>When our planters arrived, they purchased the lands of the +natives, without putting King or Parliament to any expence. +Parliament had no hand in their settlement, was never so much +as consulted about their constitution, and took no kind of notice +of them, till many years after they were established. I except +only the two modern Colonies, or rather attempts to make +Colonies, (for they succeed but poorly, and as yet hardly deserve +the name of Colonies), I mean Georgia and Nova Scotia, +which have hitherto been little better than Parliamentary jobs. +Thus all the colonies acknowledge the King as their sovereign; +his Governors there represent his person: Laws are made by +their Assemblies or little Parliaments, with the Governor's assent, +subject still to the King's pleasure to confirm or annul +them: Suits arising in the Colonies, and differences between +Colony and Colony, are determined by the King in Council. +In this view, they seem so many separate little states, subject to +the same Prince. The <i>sovereignty of the</i> King is therefore easily +understood. But nothing is more common here than to talk +of the <i>sovereignty</i> of <span class="smcap">Parliament</span>, and the <i>sovereignty of</i> +<span class="smcap">this Nation</span> over the Colonies; a kind of sovereignty, the +idea of which is not so clear, nor does it clearly appear on what +foundation it is established. On the other hand, it seems necessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +for the common good of the empire, that a power be lodged +somewhere, to regulate its general commerce: this can be placed +nowhere so properly as in the Parliament of Great Britain; and +therefore, though that power has in some instances been executed +with great partiality to Britain, and prejudice to the +Colonies, they have nevertheless always submitted to it. Custom-houses +are established in all of them, by virtue of laws +made here, and the duties constantly paid, except by a few +smugglers, such as are here and in all countries; but internal +taxes laid on them by Parliament, are still and ever will be +objected to, for the reasons that you will see in the mentioned +Examination.</p> + +<p>Upon the whole, I have lived so great a part of my life in +Britain, and have formed so many friendships in it, that I love +it, and sincerely wish it prosperity; and therefore wish to see +that Union, on which alone I think it can be secured and established. +As to America, the advantages of such a union to her +are not so apparent. She may suffer at present under the arbitrary +power of this country; she may suffer for a while in a +separation from it; but these are temporary evils that she will +outgrow. Scotland and Ireland are differently circumstanced. +Confined by the sea, they can scarcely increase in numbers, +wealth and strength, so as to overbalance England. But America, +an immense territory, favoured by Nature with all advantages +of climate, soil, great navigable rivers, and lakes, &c. must +become a great country, populous and mighty; and will, in a less +time than is generally conceived, be able to shake off any +shackles that may be imposed on her, and perhaps place them +on the imposers. In the mean time, every act of oppression will +sour their tempers, lessen greatly, if not annihilate the profits of +your commerce with them, and hasten their final revolt; for the +seeds of liberty are universally found there, and nothing can +eradicate them. And yet, there remains among that people, so +much respect, veneration and affection for Britain, that, if cultivated +prudently, with kind usage, and tenderness for their +privileges, they might be easily governed still for ages, without +force, or any considerable expence. But I do not see here a sufficient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +quantity of the wisdom, that is necessary to produce such +a conduct, and I lament the want of it.</p> + +<p>I borrowed at Millar's the new edition of your <i>Principles of +Equity</i>, and have read with great pleasure the preliminary discourse +on the Principles of Morality. I have never before met +with any thing so satisfactory on the subject. While reading it, +I made a few remarks as I went along. They are not of much +importance, but I send you the paper.</p> + +<p>I know the lady you mention; having, when in England before, +met her once or twice at Lord Bath's. I remember I then +entertained the same opinion of her that you express. On the +strength of your kind recommendation, I purpose soon to wait +on her.</p> + +<p>This is unexpectedly grown a long letter. The visit to Scotland, +and the <i>Art of Virtue</i>, we will talk of hereafter. It is now +time to say, that I am, with increasing esteem and affection, my +dear friend, yours ever,<a name="FNanchor_72_584" id="FNanchor_72_584"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_584" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_330" id="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_330"></a>TO MISS MARY STEVENSON</h3> + +<p class="date">Paris, Sept. 14, 1767.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Polly</span>,</p> + +<p>I am always pleas'd with a Letter from you, and I flatter myself +you may be sometimes pleas'd in receiving one from me, +tho' it should be of little Importance, such as this, which is to +consist of a few occasional Remarks made here, and in my +Journey hither.</p> + +<p>Soon after I left you in that agreable Society at Bromley, I +took the Resolution of making a Trip with Sir John Pringle<a name="FNanchor_73_585" id="FNanchor_73_585"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_585" class="fnanchor">[73]</a> +into France. We set out the 28th past. All the way to Dover +we were furnished with PostChaises, hung so as to lean forward, +the Top coming down over one's Eyes, like a Hood, as if +to prevent one's seeing the Country; which being one of my +great Pleasures, I was engag'd in perpetual Disputes with the +Innkeepers, Hostlers, and Postilions, about getting the Straps +taken up a Hole or two before, and let down as much behind,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +they insisting that the Chaise leaning forward was an Ease to the +Horses, and that the contrary would kill them. I suppose the +chaise leaning forward looks to them like a Willingness to go +forward, and that its hanging back shows a Reluctance. They +added other Reasons, that were no Reasons at all, and made me, +as upon a 100 other Occasions, almost wish that Mankind had +never been endow'd with a reasoning Faculty, since they know +so little how to make use of it, and so often mislead themselves +by it, and that they had been furnish'd with a good sensible +Instinct instead of it.</p> + +<p>At Dover, the next Morning, we embark'd for Calais with a +Number of Passengers, who had never been before at sea. +They would previously make a hearty Breakfast, because, if the +Wind should fail, we might not get over till Supper time. +Doubtless they thought that when they had paid for their +Breakfast, they had a Right to it, and that, when they had swallowed +it they were sure of it. But they had scarce been out half +an Hour, before the Sea laid Claim to it, and they were oblig'd +to deliver it up. So it seems there are Uncertainties, even beyond +those between the Cup and the Lip. If ever you go to Sea, +take my Advice, and live sparingly a Day or two beforehand. +The Sickness, if any, will be lighter and sooner over. We got to +Calais that Evening.</p> + +<p>Various Impositions we suffer'd from Boatmen, Porters, &c. +on both Sides the Water. I know not which are most rapacious, +the English or French, but the latter have, with their Knavery, +the most Politeness.</p> + +<p>The Roads we found equally good with ours in England, in +some Places pav'd with smooth Stone, like our new Streets, for +many Miles together, and Rows of Trees on each Side, and +yet there are no Turnpikes. But then the poor Peasants complain'd +to us grievously, that they were oblig'd to work upon +the Roads full two Months in the Year, without being paid for +their Labour. Whether this is Truth, or whether, like Englishmen, +they grumble Cause or no Cause, I have not yet been able +fully to inform myself.</p> + +<p>The Women we saw at Calais, on the Road, at Bouloigne,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +and in the Inns and Villages, were generally of dark Complexions; +but arriving at Abbeville we found a sudden Change, a +Multitude of both Women and Men in that Place appearing remarkably +fair. Whether this is owing to a small Colony of +Spinners, Wool-combers, and Weavers, brought hither from +Holland with the Woollen Manufacture about 60 Years ago; or +to their being less expos'd to the Sun, than in other Places, their +Business keeping them much within Doors, I know not. Perhaps +as in some other Cases, different Causes may club in producing +the Effect, but the Effect itself is certain. Never was I in +a Place of greater Industry, Wheels and Looms going in every +House.</p> + +<p>As soon as we left Abbeville, the Swarthiness return'd. I +speak generally, for here are some fair Women at Paris, who I +think are not whiten'd by Art. As to Rouge, they don't pretend +to imitate Nature in laying it on. There is no gradual Diminution +of the Colour, from the full Bloom in the Middle of the +Cheek to the faint Tint near the Sides, nor does it show itself +differently in different Faces. I have not had the Honour of +being at any Lady's Toylette to see how it is laid on, but I fancy +I can tell you how it is or may be done. Cut a Hole of 3 Inches +Diameter in a Piece of Paper; place it on the Side of your Face in +such a Manner as that the Top of the Hole may be just under +your Eye; then with a Brush dipt in the Colour, paint Face and +Paper together; so when the Paper is taken off there will remain +a round Patch of Red exactly the Form of the Hole. This is the +Mode, from the Actresses on the Stage upwards thro' all Ranks +of Ladies to the Princesses of the Blood, but it stops there, the +Queen not using it, having in the Serenity, Complacence, and +Benignity that shine so eminently in, or rather through her +Countenance, sufficient Beauty, tho' now an old Woman, to do +extreamly well without it.</p> + +<p>You see I speak of the Queen as if I had seen her, and so I +have; for you must know I have been at Court. We went to +Versailles last Sunday, and had the Honour of being presented +to the King; he spoke to both of us very graciously and chearfully, +is a handsome Man, has a very lively Look, and appears<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +younger than he is. In the Evening we were at the <i>Grand Couvert</i>, +where the Family sup in Publick. The Form of their Sitting +at the Table was this: The table was as you see half a Hollow +Square, the Service Gold. When either made a Sign for +Drink, the Word was given by one of the Waiters; <i>A boire pour +le Roy</i>, or, <i>A boire pour la Reine</i>. Then two persons within the +Square approach'd, one with Wine[,] the other with Water in +<i>Caraffes</i>; each drank a little Glass of what he brought, and then +put both the <i>Caraffes</i> with a Glass on a Salver, and presented it. +Their Distance from each other was such, as that other Chairs +might have been plac'd between any two of them. An Officer +of the Court brought us up thro' the Crowd of Spectators, and +plac'd Sir John so as to stand between the King and Madame +Adelaide, and me between the Queen and Madame Victoire. +The King talk'd a good deal to Sir John, asking many Questions +about our Royal Family; and did me too the Honour of taking +some Notice of me; that's saying enough, for I would not have +you think me so much pleas'd with this King and Queen, as to +have a Whit less regard than I us'd to have for ours. No +Frenchman shall go beyond me in thinking my own King and +Queen the very best in the World, and the most amiable.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-333.jpg" width="500" height="263" alt="Table Seating Diagram" title="Table Seating Diagram" /> +</div> + +<p>Versailles has had infinite Sums laid out in building it and +supplying it with Water. Some say the Expences exceeded 80 +Millions Sterling. The Range of Building is immense; the Garden-Front<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +most magnificent, all of hewn Stone; the Number of +Statues, Figures, Urns, &c., in Marble and Bronze of exquisite +Workmanship, is beyond Conception. But the Waterworks are +out of Repair, and so is great Part of the Front next the Town, +looking with its shabby half-Brick Walls, and broken Windows, +not much better than the Houses in Durham Yard. There is, +in short, both at Versailles and Paris, a prodigious Mixture of +Magnificence and Negligence, with every kind of Elegance except +that of Cleanliness, and what we call <i>Tidyness</i>. Tho' I +must do Paris the Justice to say, that in two Points of Cleanliness +they exceed us. The Water they drink, tho' from the River, +they render as pure as that of the best Spring, by filtring it thro' +Cisterns fill'd with Sand; and the Streets by constant Sweeping +are fit to walk in, tho' there is no pav'd footPath. Accordingly, +many well-dress'd People are constantly seen walking in them. +The Crowds of Coaches and Chairs for this Reason is not so +great. Men, as well as Women, carry Umbrellas in their Hands, +which they extend in case of Rain or two [<i>sic</i>] much sun; and a +Man with an Umbrella not taking up more than 3 foot square, +or 9 square feet of the Street, when, if in a Coach, he would +take up 240 square feet, you can easily conceive that tho' the +Streets here are narrower they may be much less encumber'd. +They are extreamly well pav'd, and the Stones, being generally +Cubes, when worn on one Side, may be turn'd and become +new.</p> + +<p>The Civilities we everywhere receive give us the strongest +Impressions of the French Politeness. It seems to be a Point +settled here universally, that Strangers are to be treated with +Respect; and one has just the same Deference shewn one here +by being a Stranger, as in England by being a Lady. The Customhouse +Officers at Port St. Denis, as we enter'd Paris, were +about to seize 2 doz of excellent Bordeaux Wine given us at +Boulogne, and which we brought with us; but, as soon as they +found we were Strangers, it was immediately remitted on that +Account. At the Church of Notre Dame, where we went to see +a magnificent Illumination, with Figures, &c., for the deceas'd +Dauphiness, we found an immense Crowd, who were kept out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +by Guards; but, the Officer being told that we were Strangers +from England, he immediately admitted us, accompanied and +show'd us every thing. Why don't we practise this Urbanity +to Frenchmen? Why should they be allowed to outdo us in +any thing?</p> + +<p>Here is an Exhibition of Paintings like ours in London, to +which Multitudes flock daily. I am not Connoisseur enough to +judge which has most Merit. Every Night, Sundays not excepted +here are Plays or Operas; and tho' the Weather has been +hot, and the Houses full, one is not incommoded by the Heat +so much as with us in Winter. They must have some Way of +changing the Air, that we are not acquainted with. I shall enquire +into it.</p> + +<p>Travelling is one Way of lengthening Life, at least in Appearance. +It is but about a Fortnight since we left London, but the +Variety of Scenes we have gone through makes it seem equal to +Six Months living in one Place. Perhaps I have suffered a +greater Change, too, in my own Person, than I could have done +in Six Years at home. I had not been here Six Days, before my +Taylor and Perruquier had transform'd me into a Frenchman. +Only think what a Figure I make in a little Bag-Wig and naked +Ears! They told me I was become 20 Years younger, and look'd +very galante;</p> + +<p>So being in Paris where the Mode is to be sacredly follow'd +I was once very near making Love to my Friend's Wife.</p> + +<p>This Letter shall cost you a Shilling, and you may consider it +cheap, when you reflect, that it has cost me at least 50 Guineas +to get into the Situation, that enables me to write it. Besides, I +might, if I had staied at home, have won perhaps two Shillings +of you at Cribbidge. By the Way, now I mention Cards, let me +tell you that Quadrille is quite out of Fashion here, and English +Whisk all the Mode at Paris and the Court.</p> + +<p>And pray look upon it as no small Matter, that surrounded as +I am by the Glories of this World, and Amusements of all Sorts, +I remember you and Dolly and all the dear good Folks at +Bromley. 'Tis true, I can't help it, but must and ever shall remember +you all with Pleasure.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span></p> + +<p>Need I add, that I am particularly, my dear good Friend, +yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="ON_THE_LABOURING_POOR" id="ON_THE_LABOURING_POOR"></a>ON THE LABOURING POOR</h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, April, 1768.]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I have met with much invective in the papers, for these two +years past, against the hard-heartedness of the rich, and much +complaint of the great oppressions suffered in this country by +the labouring poor. Will you admit a word or two on the other +side of the question? I do not propose to be an advocate for +oppression or oppressors. But when I see that the poor are, by +such writings, exasperated against the rich, and excited to insurrections, +by which much mischief is done, and some forfeit their +lives, I could wish the true state of things were better understood, +the poor not made by these busy writers more uneasy +and unhappy than their situation subjects them to be, and the +nation not brought into disrepute among foreigners, by public +groundless accusations of ourselves, as if the rich in England +had no compassion for the poor, and Englishmen wanted common +humanity.</p> + +<p>In justice, then to this country, give me leave to remark, that +the condition of the poor here is, by far, the best in Europe, for +that, except in England and her American colonies, there is not +in any country of the known world, not even in Scotland or +Ireland, a provision by law to enforce a support of the poor. +Everywhere else necessity reduces to beggary. This law was +not made by the poor. The legislators were men of fortune. +By that act they voluntarily subjected their own estates, and the +estates of all others, to the payment of a tax for the maintenance +of the poor, incumbering those estates with a kind of rent-charge +for that purpose, whereby the poor are vested with an +inheritance, as it were, in all the estates of the rich. I wish they +were benefited by this generous provision in any degree equal +to the good intention, with which it was made, and is continued:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +But I fear the giving mankind a dependance on any thing for +support, in age or sickness, besides industry and frugality during +youth and health, tends to flatter our natural indolence, to encourage +idleness and prodigality, and thereby to promote and +increase poverty, the very evil it was intended to cure; thus +multiplying beggars instead of diminishing them.</p> + +<p>Besides this tax, which the rich in England have subjected +themselves to, in behalf of the poor, amounting in some places +to five or six shillings in the pound, of the annual income, they +have, by donations and subscriptions, erected numerous schools +in various parts of the kingdom, for educating gratis the children +of the poor in reading and writing, and in many of those schools +the children are also fed and cloathed. They have erected hospitals +at an immense expence for the reception and cure of the +sick, the lame, the wounded, and the insane poor, for lying-in +women, and deserted children. They are also continually contributing +towards making up losses occasioned by fire, by +storms, or by floods, and to relieve the poor in severe seasons +of frost, in times of scarcity, &c., in which benevolent and +charitable contributions no nation exceeds us. Surely, there is +some gratitude due for so many instances of goodness.</p> + +<p>Add to this all the laws made to discourage foreign manufactures, +by laying heavy duties on them, or totally prohibiting +them, whereby the rich are obliged to pay much higher prices +for what they wear and consume, than if the trade was open: +These are so many laws for the support of our labouring poor, +made by the rich, and continued at their expence; all the difference +of price, between our own and foreign commodities, being +so much given by our rich to our poor; who would indeed be +enabled by it to get by degrees above poverty, if they did not, +as too generally they do, consider every encrease of wages, only +as something that enables them to drink more and work less; +so that their distress in sickness, age, or times of scarcity, continues +to be the same as if such laws had never been made in +their favour.</p> + +<p>Much malignant censure have some writers bestowed upon +the rich for their luxury and expensive living, while the poor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +are starving, &c.; not considering that what the rich expend, +the labouring poor receive in payment for their labour. It may +seem a paradox if I should assert, that our labouring poor do in +every year receive <i>the whole revenue of the nation</i>; I mean not +only the public revenue, but also the revenue or clear income +of all private estates, or a sum equivalent to the whole.</p> + +<p>In support of this position I reason thus. The rich do not +work for one another. Their habitations, furniture, cloathing, +carriages, food, ornaments, and every thing in short, that they +or their families use and consume, is the work or produce of the +labouring poor, who are, and must be continually, paid for +their labour in producing the same. In these payments the +revenues of private estates are expended, for most people live +up to their incomes. In cloathing or provision for troops, in +arms, ammunition, ships, tents, carriages, &c., &c., (every particular +the produce of labour,) much of the public revenue is +expended. The pay of officers, civil and military, and of the +private soldiers and sailors, requires the rest; and they spend +that also in paying for what is produced by the labouring poor.</p> + +<p>I allow that some estates may increase by the owners spending +less than their income; but then I conceive that other estates do +at the same time diminish by the owners spending more than +their income, so that when the enriched want to buy more land, +they easily find lands in the hands of the impoverished, whose +necessities oblige them to sell; and thus this difference is equalled. +I allow also, that part of the expence of the rich is in foreign produce +or manufactures, for producing which the labouring poor +of other nations must be paid; but then I say, we must first pay +our own labouring poor for an equal quantity of our manufactures +or produce, to exchange for those foreign productions, or +we must pay for them in money, which money, not being the +natural produce of our country, must first be purchased from +abroad, by sending out its value in the produce or manufactures +of this country, for which manufactures our labouring poor are +to be paid. And indeed, if we did not export more than we import, +we could have no money at all. I allow farther, that there +are middle men, who make a profit, and even get estates, by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +purchasing the labour of the poor, and selling it at advanced +prices to the rich; but then they cannot enjoy that profit, or the +income of estates, but by spending them in employing and paying +our labouring poor, in some shape or other, for the products +of industry. Even beggars, pensioners, hospitals, and all that +are supported by charity, spend their incomes in the same manner. +So that finally, as I said at first, <i>our labouring poor receive +annually the whole of the clear revenues of the nation</i>, and from us +they can have no more.</p> + +<p>If it be said that their wages are too low, and that they ought +to be better paid for their labour, I heartily wish any means +could be fallen upon to do it, consistent with their interest and +happiness; but, as the cheapness of other things is owing to the +plenty of those things, so the cheapness of labour is in most +cases owing to the multitude of labourers, and to their under-working +one another in order to obtain employment. How is +this to be remedied? A law might be made to raise their wages; +but, if our manufactures are too dear, they will not vend abroad, +and all that part of employment will fail, unless by fighting and +conquering we compel other nations to buy our goods, whether +they will or no, which some have been mad enough at times to +propose.</p> + +<p>Among ourselves, unless we give our working people less +employment, how can we, for what they do, pay them higher +than we do? Out of what fund is the additional price of labour +to be paid, when all our present incomes are, as it were, mortgaged +to them? Should they get higher wages, would that make +them less poor, if, in consequence, they worked fewer days of +the week proportionably? I have said, a law might be made to +raise their wages; but I doubt much whether it could be executed +to any purpose, unless another law, now indeed almost obsolete, +could at the same time be revived and enforced; a law, I +mean, that many have often heard and repeated, but few have +ever duly considered. <span class="smcap">Six</span> <i>days shalt thou labour</i>. This is as +positive a part of the commandment, as that which says, <i>The</i> +<span class="smcap">SEVENTH</span> <i>day thou shalt rest</i>. But we remember well to observe +the indulgent part, and never think of the other. <i>Saint</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +<i>Monday</i> is generally as duly kept by our working people as +<i>Sunday</i>; the only difference is, that, instead of employing their +time cheaply at church, they are wasting it expensively at the +alehouse.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">I am, Sir, &c.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Medius</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_DUPONT_DE_NEMOURS" id="TO_DUPONT_DE_NEMOURS"></a>TO DUPONT DE NEMOURS<a name="FNanchor_74_586" id="FNanchor_74_586"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_586" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">London, July 28, 1768.</p> + +<p>I received your obliging letter of the 10th May, with the most +acceptable present of your <i>Physiocratie</i>, which I have read with +great pleasure, and received from it a great deal of instruction. +There is such a freedom from local and national prejudices and +partialities, so much benevolence to mankind in general, so +much goodness mixt with the wisdom, in the principles of your +new philosophy, that I am perfectly charmed with them, and +wish I could have stayed in France for some time, to have +studied in your school, that I might by conversing with its +founders have made myself quite a master of that philosophy.... +I had, before I went into your country, seen some letters +of yours to Dr. Templeman, that gave me a high opinion of the +doctrines you are engaged in cultivating and of your personal +talents and abilities, which made me greatly desirous of seeing +you. Since I had not that good fortune, the next best thing is +the advantage you are so good to offer me of your correspondence, +which I shall ever highly value, and endeavour to cultivate +with all the diligence I am capable of.</p> + +<p>I am sorry to find that that wisdom which sees the welfare of +the parts in the prosperity of the whole, seems yet not to be +known in this country.... We are so far from conceiving that +what is best for mankind, or even for Europe in general, may be +best for us, that we are even studying to establish and extend a +separate interest of Britain, to the prejudice of even Ireland and +our colonies.... It is from your philosophy only that the +maxims of a contrary and more happy conduct are to be drawn, +which I therefore sincerely wish may grow and increase till it +becomes the governing philosophy of the human species, as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +must be that of superior beings in better worlds. I will take the +liberty of sending you a little fragment that has some tincture +of it, which, on that account, I hope may be acceptable.</p> + +<p>Be so good as to present my sincere respect to that venerable +apostle, Dr. Quesnay, and to the illustrious Ami des Hommes +(of whose civilities to me at Paris I retain a grateful remembrance), +and believe me to be, with real and very great esteem +Sir,</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your obliged and most obedient humble servant</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOHN_ALLEYNE" id="TO_JOHN_ALLEYNE"></a>TO JOHN ALLEYNE<a name="FNanchor_75_587" id="FNanchor_75_587"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_587" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Craven Street, [August 9, 1768].</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span></p> + +<p>You made an Apology to me for not acquaint<sup>g</sup> me sooner +with your Marriage. I ought now to make an Apology to you +for delaying so long the Answer to your Letter. It was mislaid +or hid among my Papers and much Business put it out of my +Mind, or prevented my looking for it and writing when I +thought of it. So this Account between us if you please may +stand balanced. I assure you it gave me great Pleasure to hear +you were married, and into a Family of Reputation. This I learnt +from the Public Papers. The Character you give me of your +Bride (as it includes every Qualification that in the married +State conduces to mutual Happiness) is an Addition to that +Pleasure. Had you consulted me, as a Friend, on the Occasion, +Youth on both sides I should not have thought any Objection. +Indeed, from the matches that have fallen under my Observation, +I am rather inclin'd to think, that early ones stand the best +Chance for Happiness. The Tempers and habits of young +People are not yet become so stiff and uncomplying, as when +more advanced in Life; they form more easily to each other, and +hence many Occasions of Disgust are removed. And if Youth +has less of that Prudence, that is necessary to conduct a Family, +yet the Parents and elder Friends of young married Persons are +generally at hand to afford their Advice, which amply supplies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +that Defect; and, by early Marriage, Youth is sooner form'd to +regular and useful Life; and possibly some of those Accidents, +Habits or Connections, that might have injured either the Constitution, +or the Reputation, or both, are thereby happily prevented.</p> + +<p>Particular Circumstances of particular Persons may possibly +sometimes make it prudent to delay entering into that State; but +in general, when Nature has render'd our Bodies fit for it, the +Presumption is in Nature's Favour, that she has not judg'd +amiss in making us desire it. Late Marriages are often attended, +too, with this further Inconvenience, that there is not the same +Chance the parents shall live to see their offspring educated. +"<i>Late Children</i>," says the Spanish Proverb, "<i>are early Orphans</i>." +A melancholy Reflection to those, whose Case it may be! With +us in America, Marriages are generally in the Morning of Life; +our Children are therefore educated and settled in the World +by Noon; and thus, our Business being done, we have an Afternoon +and Evening of chearful Leisure to ourselves; such as +your Friend at present enjoys. By these early Marriages we +are blest with more Children; and from the Mode among us, +founded in Nature, of every Mother suckling and nursing her +own Child, more of them are raised. Thence the swift Progress +of Population among us, unparallel'd in Europe.</p> + +<p>In fine, I am glad you are married, and congratulate you most +cordially upon it. You are now more in the way of becoming +a useful Citizen; and you have escap'd the unnatural State of +Celibacy for Life, the Fate of many here, who never intended +it, but who, having too long postpon'd the Change of their +Condition, find at length, that 'tis too late to think of it, and +so live all their Lives in a Situation that greatly lessens a Man's +Value. An odd Volume of a Set of Books you know is not +worth its proportion of the Set, and what think you of the Usefulness +of an odd Half of a Pair of Scissors? It cannot well cut +any thing. It may possibly serve to scrape a Trencher.</p> + +<p>Pray make my Compliments and best Wishes acceptable to +your Spouse. I am old and heavy and grow a little indolent, or +I should ere this have presented them in Person. I shall make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +but small Use of the old Man's Privilege, that of giving Advice +to younger Friends. Treat your Wife always with Respect; it +will procure Respect to you, not from her only but from all +that observe it. Never use a slighting Expression to her, even +in jest, for Slights in Jest, after frequent bandyings, are apt to +end in angry earnest. Be studious in your Profession, and you +will be learned. Be industrious and frugal, and you will be rich. +Be sober and temperate, and you will be healthy. Be in general +virtuous, and you will be happy. At least, you will, by such +Conduct, stand the best Chance for such Consequences. I +pray God to bless you both; being ever your affectionate Friend,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_THE_PRINTER_OF_THE_LONDON_CHRONICLE" id="TO_THE_PRINTER_OF_THE_LONDON_CHRONICLE"></a>TO THE PRINTER OF THE LONDON<br /> +CHRONICLE<a name="FNanchor_76_588" id="FNanchor_76_588"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_588" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">August 18, 1768.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Queries</span>, <i>recommended to the Consideration of those Gentlemen +who are for vigorous measures with the Americans.</i></p> + +<p>1. Have the Colonists <i>refused</i> to answer any reasonable requisitions +made to their <i>Assemblies</i> by the mother country?</p> + +<p>2. If they have <i>not refused</i> to grant reasonable aids in the way, +which they think consistent with <i>liberty</i>, why must they be +stripped of their property without their own <i>consent</i>, and in a +way, which they think <i>inconsistent</i> with liberty?</p> + +<p>3. What is it for a people to be <i>enslaved</i> and <i>tributary</i>, if this +be not, viz. to be <i>forced</i> to give up their property at the arbitrary +pleasure of persons, to whose authority they have not <i>submitted</i> +themselves, nor <i>chosen</i> for the purpose of imposing taxes upon +them? Wherein consisted the impropriety of King Charles's +demanding ship money by his sole authority, but in its being an +exercise of power by the King, which the people had not <i>given</i> +the King? Have the people of America, as the people of Britain, +by sending representatives, <i>consented</i> to a power in the British +parliament to tax them?</p> + +<p>4. Has not the British parliament, by repealing the stamp act,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +acknowledged that they judged it <i>improper</i>? Is there any difference +between the stamp act, and the act obliging the Americans +to pay <i>whatever we please</i>, for articles which they <i>cannot do without</i>, +as glass and paper? Is there any difference as to justice between +our treatment of the colonists, and the tyranny of the +Carthaginians over their conquered Sardinians, when they +obliged them to take all their corn from them, and at whatever +price they pleased to set upon it?</p> + +<p>5. If that be true, what is commonly said, viz. That the +mother country gains <i>two millions</i> a year by the colonies, would +it not have been wiser to have gone on quietly in the <i>happy way</i> +we were in, till our gains by those rising and flourishing countries +should amount to <i>three</i>, <i>four</i> or <i>five</i> millions a year, than +by these new fashioned vigorous measures to kill the goose +which lays the golden eggs? Would it not have been better +policy, instead of <i>taxing</i> our colonists, to have done whatever +we could to <i>enrich</i> them; and encourage them to take off our +articles of <i>luxury</i>, on which we may put our own price, and +thus draw them into paying us a <i>voluntary</i> tax; than deluge them +in blood, thin their countries, impoverish and distress them, +interrupt their commerce, force them on bankruptcy, by which +our merchants must be ruined, or tempt them to emigrations, +or alliances with our enemies?</p> + +<p>6. The late war could not have been <i>carried on</i> without +America, nor without Scotland? Have we treated America and +Scotland in such a manner as is likely in future wars to encourage +their zeal for the common cause? Or is England alone to be +the Drawcansir of the world, and to bully not only their enemies, +but her <i>friends</i>?</p> + +<p>7. Are not the subjects of Britain concerned to check a ministry, +who, by this rage of heaping taxes on taxes, are only +drawing into their own hands more and more wealth and +power, while they are hurting the <i>commercial</i> interest of the +empire in general, at the same time that, amidst profound <i>peace</i>, +the national debt and burden on the public continue undiminished?</p> + +<p class="sig">N. M. C. N. P. C. H.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="POSITIONS_TO_BE_EXAMINED_CONCERNING_NATIONAL_WEALTH" id="POSITIONS_TO_BE_EXAMINED_CONCERNING_NATIONAL_WEALTH"></a>POSITIONS TO BE EXAMINED, CONCERNING<br /> +NATIONAL WEALTH</h3> + +<p class="date">Dated April 4, 1769.</p> + +<p>1. All food or subsistence for mankind arises from the earth +or waters.</p> + +<p>2. Necessaries of life, that are not food, and all other conveniences, +have their values estimated by the proportion of food +consumed while we are employed in procuring them.</p> + +<p>3. A small people, with a large territory, may subsist on the +productions of nature, with no other labour than that of gathering +the vegetables and catching the animals.</p> + +<p>4. A large people, with a small territory, finds these insufficient, +and, to subsist, must labour the earth, to make it produce +greater quantities of vegetable food, suitable for the nourishment +of men, and of the animals they intend to eat.</p> + +<p>5. From this labour arises a <i>great increase</i> of vegetable and +animal food, and of materials for clothing, as flax, wool, silk, +&c. The superfluity of these is wealth. With this wealth we +pay for the labour employed in building our houses, cities, &c., +which are therefore only subsistence thus metamorphosed.</p> + +<p>6. <i>Manufactures</i> are only <i>another shape</i> into which so much +provisions and subsistence are turned, as were equal in value to +the manufactures produced. This appears from hence, that the +manufacturer does not, in fact, obtain from the employer, for +his labour, <i>more</i> than a mere subsistence, including raiment, +fuel, and shelter; all which derive their value from the provisions +consumed in procuring them.</p> + +<p>7. The produce of the earth, thus converted into manufactures, +may be more easily carried to distant markets than before +such conversion.</p> + +<p>8. <i>Fair commerce</i> is, where equal values are exchanged for +equal, the expense of transport included. Thus, if it costs A in +England as much labour and charge to raise a bushel of wheat, +as it costs B in France to produce four gallons of wine, then are +four gallons of wine the fair exchange for a bushel of wheat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +A and B meeting at half distance with their commodities to +make the exchange. The advantage of this fair commerce is, +that each party increases the number of his enjoyments, having, +instead of wheat alone, or wine alone, the use of both wheat and +wine.</p> + +<p>9. Where the labour and expense of producing both commodities +are known to both parties, bargains will generally be +fair and equal. Where they are known to one party only, bargains +will often be unequal, knowledge taking its advantage of +ignorance.</p> + +<p>10. Thus, he that carries one thousand bushels of wheat +abroad to sell, may not probably obtain so great a profit thereon, +as if he had first turned the wheat into manufactures, by subsisting +therewith the workmen while producing those manufactures; +since there are many expediting and facilitating methods +of working, not generally known; and strangers to the +manufactures, though they know pretty well the expense of +raising wheat, are unacquainted with those short methods of +working, and, thence being apt to suppose more labour employed +in the manufactures than there really is, are more easily +imposed on in their value, and induced to allow more for them +than they are honestly worth.</p> + +<p>11. Thus the advantage of having manufactures in a country +does not consist, as is commonly supposed, in their highly advancing +the value of rough materials, of which they are formed; +since, though six pennyworth of flax may be worth twenty +shillings, when worked into lace, yet the very cause of its being +worth twenty shillings is, that, besides the flax, it has cost nineteen +shillings and sixpence in subsistence to the manufacturer. +But the advantage of manufactures is, that under their shape +provisions may be more easily carried to a foreign market; and, +by their means, our traders may more easily cheat strangers. +Few, where it is not made, are judges of the value of lace. The +importer may demand forty, and perhaps get thirty, shillings +for that which cost him but twenty.</p> + +<p>12. Finally, there seem to be but three ways for a nation to +acquire wealth. The first is by <i>war</i>, as the Romans did, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +plundering their conquered neighbours. This is <i>robbery</i>. The +second by <i>commerce</i>, which is generally <i>cheating</i>. The third by +<i>agriculture</i>, the only <i>honest way</i>, wherein man receives a real +increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual +miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favour, as a +reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_347" id="TO_MISS_MARY_STEVENSON_347"></a>TO MISS MARY STEVENSON</h3> + +<p class="date">Saturday Evening, Sept<sup>r</sup> 2, 1769.</p> + +<p>Just come home from a Venison Feast, where I have drank +more than a Philosopher ought, I find my dear Polly's chearful, +chatty Letter that exhilerates me more than all the Wine.</p> + +<p>Your good Mother says there is no Occasion for any Intercession +of mine in your behalf. She is sensible that she is more +in fault than her Daughter. She received an affectionate, tender +Letter from you, and she has not answered it, tho' she intended +to do it; but her Head, not her Heart, has been bad, and unfitted +her for Writing. She owns, that she is not so good a Subject as +you are, and that she is more unwilling to pay Tribute to Cesar, +and has less Objection to Smuggling; but 'tis not, she says, mere +Selfishness or Avarice; 'tis rather an honest Resentment at the +Waste of those Taxes in Pensions, Salaries, Perquisites, Contracts, +and other Emoluments for the Benefit of People she does +not love, and who do not deserve such Advantages, because—I +suppose—because they are not of her Party.</p> + +<p>Present my Respects to your good Landlord and his Family. +I honour them for their conscientious Aversion to illicit Trading. +There are those in the World, who would not wrong a +Neighbour, but make no Scruple of cheating the King. The +Reverse, however, does not hold; for whoever scruples cheating +the King, will certainly not wrong his Neighbour.</p> + +<p>You ought not to wish yourself an Enthusiast. They have, +indeed, their imaginary Satisfactions and Pleasures, but these +are often ballanc'd by imaginary Pains and Mortifications. You +can continue to be a good Girl, and thereby lay a solid Foundation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +for expected future Happiness, without the Enthusiasm +that may perhaps be necessary to some others. As those Beings, +who have a good sensible Instinct, have no need of Reason, so +those, who have Reason to regulate their Actions, have no +Occasion for Enthusiasm. However, there are certain Circumstances +in Life, sometimes, wherein 'tis perhaps best not to +hearken to Reason. For instance; possibly, if the Truth were +known, I have Reason to be jealous of this same insinuating, +handsome young Physician;<a name="FNanchor_77_589" id="FNanchor_77_589"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_589" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> but, as it flatters more my Vanity, +and therefore gives me more Pleasure, to suppose you were in +Spirits on acc<sup>t</sup> of my safe Return, I shall turn a deaf Ear to +Reason in this Case, as I have done with Success in twenty +others. But I am sure you will always give me Reason enough +to continue ever your affectionate Friend,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p>P.S. Our Love to Mrs. Tickell. We all long for your Return. +Your Dolly was well last Tuesday; the Girls were there +on a Visit to her; I mean at Bromley. Adieu. No time now to +give you any acc<sup>t</sup> of my French Journey.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_348" id="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_348"></a>TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">London, Sept. 19: 1772.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span></p> + +<p>In the Affair of so much Importance to you, wherein you ask +my Advice, I cannot for want of sufficient Premises, advise you +<i>what</i> to determine, but if you please I will tell you <i>how</i>. When +those difficult Cases occur, they are difficult, chiefly because +while we have them under Consideration, all the Reasons <i>pro</i> +and <i>con</i> are not present to the Mind at the same time; but sometimes +one Set present themselves, and at other times another, +the first being out of Sight. Hence the various Purposes or Inclinations +that alternately prevail, and the Uncertainty that +perplexes us.</p> + +<p>To get over this, my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper +by a Line into two Columns; writing over the one <i>Pro</i>, and over<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +the other <i>Con</i>. Then during three or four Days Consideration, +I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different +Motives, that at different Times occur to me, <i>for</i> or <i>against</i> the +Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, +I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I +find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both +out. If I find a Reason <i>pro</i> equal to some two Reasons <i>con</i>, I +strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons <i>con</i>, equal to +some three Reasons <i>pro</i>, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding +I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or +two of farther Consideration, nothing new that is of Importance +occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly. +And, tho' the Weight of Reasons cannot be taken with the Precision +of Algebraic Quantities, yet, when each is thus considered, +separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before +me, I think I can judge better, and am less liable to make a rash +Step; and in fact I have found great Advantage from this kind +of Equation, in what may be called <i>Moral</i> or <i>Prudential Algebra</i>.</p> + +<p>Wishing sincerely that you may determine for the best, I am +ever, my dear Friend, yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_349" id="TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_349"></a>TO MISS GEORGIANA SHIPLEY<a name="FNanchor_78_590" id="FNanchor_78_590"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_590" class="fnanchor">[78]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">London, September 26, 1772.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss,</span></p> + +<p>I lament with you most sincerely the unfortunate end of poor +<span class="smcap">Mungo</span>. Few squirrels were better accomplished; for he had had +a good education, had travelled far, and seen much of the world. +As he had the honour of being, for his virtues, your favourite, +he should not go, like common skuggs, without an elegy or an +epitaph. Let us give him one in the monumental style and +measure, which, being neither prose nor verse, is perhaps the +properest for grief; since to use common language would look +as if we were not affected, and to make rhymes would seem +trifling in sorrow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span></p> + +<p class="section center">EPITAPH.</p> + +<p class="center"> +Alas! poor <span class="smcap">Mungo</span>!<br /> +Happy wert thou, hadst thou known<br /> +Thy own felicity.<br /> +Remote from the fierce bald eagle,<br /> +Tyrant of thy native woods,<br /> +Thou hadst nought to fear from his piercing talons,<br /> +Nor from the murdering gun<br /> +Of the thoughtless sportsman.<br /> +Safe in thy wired castle,<br /> +<span class="smcap">Grimalkin</span> never could annoy thee.<br /> +Daily wert thou fed with the choicest viands,<br /> +By the fair hand of an indulgent mistress;<br /> +But, discontented,<br /> +Thou wouldst have more freedom.</p> + +<p class="center"> +Too soon, alas! didst thou obtain it;<br /> +And wandering,<br /> +Thou art fallen by the fangs of wanton, cruel <span class="smcap">Ranger!</span></p> + +<p class="center">Learn hence,<br /> +Ye who blindly seek more liberty,<br /> +Whether subjects, sons, squirrels or daughters,<br /> +That apparent restraint may be real protection;<br /> +Yielding peace and plenty<br /> +With security.</p> + +<p>You see, my dear Miss, how much more decent and proper +this broken style is, than if we were to say, by way of epitaph,</p> + + +<p class="center">Here <span class="smcap">Skugg</span><br /> +Lies snug,<br /> +As a bug<br /> +In a rug.</p> + + +<p>and yet, perhaps, there are people in the world of so little feeling +as to think that this would be a good-enough epitaph for poor +Mungo.</p> + +<p>If you wish it, I shall procure another to succeed him; but +perhaps you will now choose some other amusement.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></p> + +<p>Remember me affectionately to all the good family, and believe +me ever,</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Your affectionate friend,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_PETER_FRANKLIN" id="TO_PETER_FRANKLIN"></a>TO PETER FRANKLIN</h3> + +<p class="date"> +[No date.]<a name="FNanchor_79_591" id="FNanchor_79_591"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_591" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Brother,</span></p> + +<p>I like your ballad, and think it well adapted for your purpose +of discountenancing expensive foppery, and encouraging industry +and frugality. If you can get it generally sung in your +country, it may probably have a good deal of the effect you +hope and expect from it. But as you aimed at making it general, +I wonder you chose so uncommon a measure in poetry, that +none of the tunes in common use will suit it. Had you fitted it +to an old one, well known, it must have spread much faster than +I doubt it will do from the best new tune we can get compos'd +for it. I think too, that if you had given it to some country girl +in the heart of the <i>Massachusetts</i>, who has never heard any other +than psalm tunes, or <i>Chevy Chace</i>, the <i>Children in the Wood</i>, the +<i>Spanish Lady</i>, and such old simple ditties, but has naturally a +good ear, she might more probably have made a pleasing popular +tune for you, than any of our masters here, and more proper +for your purpose, which would best be answered, if every word +could as it is sung be understood by all that hear it, and if the +emphasis you intend for particular words could be given by +the singer as well as by the reader; much of the force and impression +of the song depending on those circumstances. I will however +get it as well done for you as I can.</p> + +<p>Do not imagine that I mean to depreciate the skill of our composers +of music here; they are admirable at pleasing <i>practised</i> +ears, and know how to delight <i>one another</i>; but, in composing +for songs, the reigning taste seems to be quite out of nature, or +rather the reverse of nature, and yet like a torrent, hurries them +all away with it; one or two perhaps only excepted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span></p> + +<p>You, in the spirit of some ancient legislators, would influence +the manners of your country by the united powers of poetry +and music. By what I can learn of <i>their</i> songs, the music was +simple, conformed itself to the usual pronunciation of words, +as to measure, cadence or emphasis, &c., never disguised and +confounded the language by making a long syllable short, or a +short one long, when sung; their singing was only a more pleasing, +because a melodious manner of speaking; it was capable of +all the graces of prose oratory, while it added the pleasure of +harmony. A modern song, on the contrary, neglects all the +proprieties and beauties of common speech, and in their place +introduces its <i>defects</i> and <i>absurdities</i> as so many graces. I am +afraid you will hardly take my word for this, and therefore I +must endeavour to support it by proof. Here is the first song I +lay my hand on. It happens to be a composition of one of our +greatest masters, the ever-famous <i>Handel</i>. It is not one of his +juvenile performances, before his taste could be improved and +formed: It appeared when his reputation was at the highest, is +greatly admired by all his admirers, and is really excellent in its +kind. It is called, "<i>The additional</i> Favourite <i>Song in</i> Judas Maccabeus." +Now I reckon among the defects and improprieties +of common speech, the following, viz.</p> + +<p>1. <i>Wrong placing the accent or emphasis</i>, by laying it on words +of no importance, or on wrong syllables.</p> + +<p>2. <i>Drawling</i>; or extending the sound of words or syllables +beyond their natural length.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Stuttering</i>; or making many syllables of one.</p> + +<p>4. <i>Unintelligibleness</i>; the result of the three foregoing united.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Tautology</i>; and</p> + +<p>6. <i>Screaming</i>, without cause.</p> + +<p>For the <i>wrong placing of the accent, or emphasis</i>, see it on the +word <i>their</i> instead of being on the word <i>vain</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-352.jpg" width="500" height="105" alt="with their ... vain my-ste-rious art." title="with their ... vain my-ste-rious art." /> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span></p> + +<p>And on the word <i>from</i>, and the wrong syllable <i>like</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-353a.jpg" width="500" height="99" alt="God-like wis-dom from ... a-bove." title="God-like wis-dom from ... a-bove." /> +</div> + +<p>For the <i>drawling</i>, see the last syllable of the word <i>wounded</i>. +And in the syllable <i>wis</i>, and the word <i>from</i>, and syllable <i>bove</i>.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-353b.jpg" width="500" height="198" alt="Nor can heal the wound-ed heart. + +God-like wis-dom from a-bove." title="Nor can heal the wound-ed heart. + +God-like wis-dom from a-bove." /> +</div> + +<p>For the <i>stuttering</i>, see the words <i>ne'er relieve</i>, in</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-353c.jpg" width="500" height="107" alt="Ma-gic charms can ne'er . . re-lieve you." title="Ma-gic charms can ne'er . . re-lieve you." /> +</div> + +<p>Here are four syllables made of one, and eight of three; but this +is moderate. I have seen in another song, that I cannot now find, +seventeen syllables made of three, and sixteen of one. The latter +I remember was the word <i>charms</i>; viz. <i>cha, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, +a, a, a, a, a, a, arms</i>. Stammering with a witness!</p> + +<p>For the <i>unintelligibleness</i>; give this whole song to any taught +singer, and let her sing it to any company that have never heard +it; you shall find they will not understand three words in ten. +It is therefore that at the oratorios and operas one sees with +books in their hands all those who desire to understand what +they hear sung by even our best performers.</p> + +<p>For the <i>Tautology</i>; you have, <i>with their vain mysterious art</i>, +twice repeated; <i>magic charms can ne'er relieve you</i>, three times.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +<i>Nor can heal the wounded heart</i>, three times. <i>Godlike wisdom from +above</i>, twice; and, <i>this alone can ne'er deceive you</i>, two or three +times. But this is reasonable when compared with <i>the Monster +Polypheme, the Monster Polypheme</i>, a hundred times over and +over, in his admired <i>Acis and Galatea</i>.</p> + +<p>As to the <i>screaming</i>, perhaps I cannot find a fair instance in +this song; but whoever has frequented our operas will remember +many. And yet here methinks the words <i>no</i> and <i>e'er</i>, when sung +to these notes, have a little of the air of <i>screaming</i>, and would +actually be screamed by some singers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus-354.jpg" width="500" height="105" alt="No ma-gic charms can e'er re-lieve you." title="No ma-gic charms can e'er re-lieve you." /> +</div> + +<p>I send you inclosed the song with its music at length. Read +the words without the repetitions. Observe how few they are, +and what a shower of notes attend them: You will then perhaps +be inclined to think with me, that though the words might +be the principal part of an ancient song, they are of small importance +in a modern one; they are in short only a <i>pretence for +singing</i>.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad10">I am, as ever,</span><br /> +<span class="rpad4">Your affectionate brother,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. I might have mentioned <i>inarticulation</i> among the defects +in common speech that are assumed as beauties in modern +singing. But as that seems more the fault of the singer than of +the composer, I omitted it in what related merely to the composition. +The fine singer, in the present mode, stifles all the hard +consonants, and polishes away all the rougher parts of words +that serve to distinguish them one from another; so that you +hear nothing but an admirable pipe, and understand no more of +the song, than you would from its tune played on any other +instrument. If ever it was the ambition of musicians to make +instruments that should imitate the human voice, that ambition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +seems now reversed, the voice aiming to be like an instrument. +Thus wigs were first made to imitate a good natural head of hair; +but when they became fashionable, though in unnatural forms, +we have seen natural hair dressed to look like wigs.</p> + + +<h3><a name="ON_THE_PRICE_OF_CORN_AND_MANAGEMENT_OF_THE_POOR" id="ON_THE_PRICE_OF_CORN_AND_MANAGEMENT_OF_THE_POOR"></a>ON THE PRICE OF CORN,<br /> +AND MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR<a name="FNanchor_80_592" id="FNanchor_80_592"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_592" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">TO THE PUBLIC</p> + +<p>I am one of that class of people, that feeds you all, and at +present is abused by you all; in short I am a <i>farmer</i>.</p> + +<p>By your newspapers we are told, that God had sent a very +short harvest to some other countries of Europe. I thought this +might be in favour of Old England; and that now we should +get a good price for our grain, which would bring millions +among us, and make us flow in money; that to be sure is scarce +enough.</p> + +<p>But the wisdom of government forbade the exportation.</p> + +<p>"Well," says I, "then we must be content with the market +price at home."</p> + +<p>"No;" say my lords the mob, "you sha'nt have that. Bring +your corn to market if you dare; we'll sell it for you for less +money, or take it for nothing."</p> + +<p>Being thus attacked by both ends <i>of the constitution</i>, the head +and tail <i>of government</i>, what am I to do?</p> + +<p>Must I keep my corn in the barn, to feed and increase the +breed of rats? Be it so; they cannot be less thankful than those +I have been used to feed.</p> + +<p>Are we farmers the only people to be grudged the profits of +our honest labour? And why? One of the late scribblers against +us gives a bill of fare of the provisions at my daughter's +wedding, and proclaims to all the world, that we had the insolence +to eat beef and pudding! Has he not read the precept in +the good Book, <i>Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that +treadeth out the corn</i>; or does he think us less worthy of good +living than our oxen?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span></p> + +<p>"O, but the manufacturers! the manufacturers! they are to +be favoured, and they must have bread at a cheap rate!"</p> + +<p>Hark ye, Mr. Oaf, the farmers live spendidly, you say. And +pray, would you have them hoard the money they get? Their +fine clothes and furniture, do they make them themselves, or +for one another, and so keep the money among them? Or do +they employ these your darling manufacturers, and so scatter it +again all over the nation?</p> + +<p>The wool would produce me a better price, if it were suffered +to go to foreign markets; but that, Messieurs the Public, your +laws will not permit. It must be kept all at home, that our <i>dear</i> +manufacturers may have it the cheaper. And then, having yourselves +thus lessened our encouragement for raising sheep, you +curse us for the scarcity of mutton!</p> + +<p>I have heard my grandfather say, that the farmers submitted +to the prohibition on the exportation of wool, being made to +expect and believe, that, when the manufacturer bought his +wool cheaper, they should also have their cloth cheaper. But +the deuce a bit. It has been growing dearer and dearer from +that day to this. How so? Why, truly, the cloth is exported; +and that keeps up the price.</p> + +<p>Now, if it be a good principle, that the exportation of a commodity +is to be restrained, that so our people at home may have +it the cheaper, stick to that principle, and go thorough-stitch +with it. Prohibit the exportation of your cloth, your leather, +and shoes, your iron ware, and your manufactures of all sorts, to +make them all cheaper at home. And cheap enough they will be, +I will warrant you; till people leave off making them.</p> + +<p>Some folks seem to think they ought never to be easy till +England becomes another Lubberland, where it is fancied that +streets are paved with penny-rolls, the houses tiled with pancakes, +and chickens, ready roasted, cry, "Come eat me."</p> + +<p>I say, when you are sure you have got a good principle, stick +to it, and carry it through. I hear it is said, that though it was +<i>necessary and right</i> for the ministry to advise a prohibition of +the exportation of corn, yet it was <i>contrary to law</i>; and also, that +though it was <i>contrary to law</i> for the mob to obstruct wagons,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +yet it was <i>necessary and right</i>. Just the same thing to a tittle. +Now they tell me, an act of indemnity ought to pass in favour of +the ministry, to secure them from the consequences of having +acted illegally. If so, pass another in favour of the mob. Others +say, some of the mob ought to be hanged, by way of example. +If so,—but I say no more than I have said before, <i>when you are +sure that you have a good principle, go through with it</i>.</p> + +<p>You say, poor labourers cannot afford to buy bread at a high +price, unless they had higher wages. Possibly. But how shall +we farmers be able to afford our labourers higher wages, if you +will not allow us to get, when we might have it, a higher price +for our corn?</p> + +<p>By all that I can learn, we should at least have had a guinea a +quarter more, if the exportation had been allowed. And this +money England would have got from foreigners.</p> + +<p>But, it seems, we farmers must take so much less, that the +poor may have it so much cheaper.</p> + +<p>This operates, then, as a tax for the maintenance of the poor. +A very good thing you will say. But I ask, Why a partial tax? +why laid on us farmers only? If it be a good thing, pray, Messieurs +the Public, take your share of it, by indemnifying us a +little out of your public treasury. In doing a good thing, there +is both honour and pleasure; you are welcome to your share of +both.</p> + +<p>For my own part, I am not so well satisfied of the goodness of +this thing. I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in +opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to +the poor, is, not making them easy <i>in</i> poverty, but leading or +driving them <i>out</i> of it. In my youth, I travelled much, and I observed +in different countries, that the more public provisions +were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, +and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less +was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became +richer. There is no country in the world where so many +provisions are established for them; so many hospitals to receive +them when they are sick or lame, founded and maintained +by voluntary charities; so many almshouses for the aged of both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +sexes, together with a solemn general law made by the rich to +subject their estates to a heavy tax for the support of the poor. +Under all these obligations, are our poor modest, humble, and +thankful? And do they use their best endeavours to maintain +themselves, and lighten our shoulders of this burthen? On the +contrary, I affirm, that there is no country in the world in which +the poor are more idle, dissolute, drunken, and insolent. The +day you passed that act, you took away from before their eyes +the greatest of all inducements to industry, frugality, and sobriety, +by giving them a dependence on somewhat else than a +careful accumulation during youth and health, for support in +age or sickness.</p> + +<p>In short, you offered a premium for the encouragement of +idleness, and you should not now wonder, that it has had its +effect in the increase of poverty. Repeal that law, and you will +soon see a change in their manners. <i>Saint Monday</i> and <i>Saint +Tuesday</i> will soon cease to be holidays. <span class="smcap">Six</span> <i>days shalt thou +labour</i>, though one of the old commandments long treated as out +of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry +will increase, and with it plenty among the lower people; +their circumstances will mend, and more will be done for their +happiness by inuring them to provide for themselves, than +could be done by dividing all your estates among them.</p> + +<p>Excuse me, Messieurs the Public, if, upon this <i>interesting</i> subject, +I put you to the trouble of reading a little of <i>my</i> nonsense. +I am sure I have lately read a great deal of <i>yours</i>, and therefore +from you (at least from those of you who are writers) I deserve +a little indulgence.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">I am yours, &c.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Arator</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="AN_EDICT_BY_THE_KING_OF_PRUSSIA" id="AN_EDICT_BY_THE_KING_OF_PRUSSIA"></a>AN EDICT BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA<a name="FNanchor_81_593" id="FNanchor_81_593"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_593" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, October, 1773.]</p> + +<p class="date"> +Dantzic, Sept. 5, [1773].</p> + +<p>We have long wondered here at the supineness of the English +nation, under the Prussian impositions upon its trade entering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +our port. We did not, till lately, know the claims, ancient and +modern, that hang over that nation; and therefore could not suspect +that it might submit to those impositions from a sense of +duty or from principles of equity. The following Edict, just +made publick, may, if serious, throw some light upon this matter.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Frederic</span>, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, &c., &c., +&c., to all present and to come, (<i>à tous présens et à venir</i>,) +Health. The peace now enjoyed throughout our dominions, +having afforded us leisure to apply ourselves to the regulation of +commerce, the improvement of our finances, and at the same +time the easing our domestic subjects in their taxes: For these +causes, and other good considerations us thereunto moving, we +hereby make known, that, after having deliberated these affairs +in our council, present our dear brothers, and other great officers +of the state, members of the same, we, of our certain knowledge, +full power, and authority royal, have made and issued this present +Edict, viz.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Whereas it is well known to all the world, that the first German +settlements made in the Island of Britain, were by colonies +of people, subject to our renowned ducal ancestors, and drawn +from their dominions, under the conduct of Hengist, Horsa, +Hella, Uff, Cerdicus, Ida, and others; and that the said colonies +have nourished under the protection of our august house for +ages past; have never been emancipated therefrom; and yet have +hitherto yielded little profit to the same: And whereas we ourself +have in the last war fought for and defended the said +colonies, against the power of France, and thereby enabled them +to make conquests from the said power in America, for which +we have not yet received adequate compensation: And whereas +it is just and expedient that a revenue should be raised from the +said colonies in Britain, towards our indemnification; and that +those who are descendants of our ancient subjects, and thence +still owe us due obedience, should contribute to the replenishing +of our royal coffers as they must have done, had their ancestors +remained in the territories now to us appertaining: We do +therefore hereby ordain, and command, that, from and after the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +date of these presents, there shall be levied and paid to our officers +of the <i>customs</i>, on all goods, wares, and merchandizes, and +on all grain and other produce of the earth, exported from the +said Island of Britain, and on all goods of whatever kind imported +into the same, a duty of four and a half per cent <i>ad valorem</i>, +for the use of us and our successors. And that the said +duty may more effectually be collected, we do hereby ordain, +that all ships or vessels bound from Great Britain to any other +part of the world, or from any other part of the world to Great +Britain, shall in their respective voyages touch at our port of +Koningsberg, there to be unladen, searched, and charged with +the said duties.</p> + +<p>"And whereas there hath been from time to time discovered +in the said island of Great Britain, by our colonists there, many +mines or beds of iron-stone; and sundry subjects, of our ancient +dominion, skilful in converting the said stone into metal, have in +time past transported themselves thither, carrying with them and +communicating that art; and the inhabitants of the said island, +presuming that they had a natural right to make the best use they +could of the natural productions of their country for their own +benefit, have not only built furnaces for smelting the said stone +into iron, but have erected plating-forges, slitting-mills, and +steel-furnaces, for the more convenient manufacturing of the +same; thereby endangering a diminution of the said manufacture +in our ancient dominion;—we do therefore hereby farther ordain, +that, from and after the date hereof, no mill or other engine +for slitting or rolling of iron, or any plating-forge to work with +a tilt-hammer, or any furnace for making steel, shall be erected +or continued in the said island of Great Britain: And the Lord +Lieutenant of every county in the said island is hereby commanded, +on information of any such erection within his county, +to order and by force to cause the same to be abated and destroyed; +as he shall answer the neglect thereof to us at his peril. +But we are nevertheless graciously pleased to permit the inhabitants +of the said island to transport their iron into Prussia, there +to be manufactured, and to them returned; they paying our +Prussian subjects for the workmanship, with all the costs of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +commission, freight, and risk, coming and returning; any thing +herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>"We do not, however, think fit to extend this our indulgence +to the article of wool; but, meaning to encourage, not only the +manufacturing of woollen cloth, but also the raising of wool, in +our ancient dominions, and to prevent both, as much as may be, +in our said island, we do hereby absolutely forbid the transportation +of wool from thence, even to the mother country, Prussia; +and that those islanders may be farther and more effectually restrained +in making any advantage of their own wool in the way +of manufacture, we command that none shall be carried out of +one county into another; nor shall any worsted, bay, or woollen +yarn, cloth, says, bays, kerseys, serges, frizes, druggets, cloth-serges, +shalloons, or any other drapery stuffs, or woollen manufactures +whatsoever, made up or mixed with wool in any of the +said counties, be carried into any other county, or be waterborne +even across the smallest river or creek, on penalty of forfeiture +of the same, together with the boats, carriages, horses, +&c., that shall be employed in removing them. Nevertheless, +our loving subjects there are hereby permitted (if they think +proper) to use all their wool as manure for the improvement of +their lands.</p> + +<p>"And whereas the art and mystery of making hats hath arrived +at great perfection in Prussia, and the making of hats +by our remoter subjects ought to be as much as possible restrained: +And forasmuch as the islanders before mentioned, +being in possession of wool, beaver and other furs, have presumptuously +conceived they had a right to make some advantage +thereof, by manufacturing the same into hats, to the prejudice +of our domestic manufacture: We do therefore hereby +strictly command and ordain, that no hats or felts whatsoever, +dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be loaded or put +into or upon any vessel, cart, carriage, or horse, to be transported +or conveyed out of one county in the said island into another +county, or to any other place whatsoever, by any person +or persons whatsoever; on pain of forfeiting the same, with a +penalty of five hundred pounds sterling for every offence. Nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +shall any hat-maker, in any of the said counties, employ more +than two apprentices, on penalty of five pounds sterling per +month; we intending hereby, that such hatmakers, being so restrained, +both in the production and sale of their commodity, +may find no advantage in continuing their business. But, lest +the said islanders should suffer inconveniency by the want of +hats, we are farther graciously pleased to permit them to send +their beaver furs to Prussia; and we also permit hats made thereof +to be exported from Prussia to Britain; the people thus favoured +to pay all costs and charges of manufacturing, interest, +commission to our merchants, insurance and freight going and +returning, as in the case of iron.</p> + +<p>"And, lastly, being willing farther to favour our said colonies +in Britain, we do hereby also ordain and command, that all the +<i>thieves</i>, highway and street robbers, house-breakers, forgerers, +murderers, s—d—tes, and villains of every denomination, who +have forfeited their lives to the law in Prussia; but whom we, in +our great clemency, do not think fit here to hang, shall be emptied +out of our gaols into the said island of Great Britain, for the +better peopling of that country.</p> + +<p>"We flatter ourselves, that these our royal regulations and +commands will be thought just and reasonable by our much-favoured +colonists in England; the said regulations being copied +from their statutes of 10 and 11 William III. c. 10, 5 Geo. II, c. +22, 23, Geo. II. c. 29, 4 Geo. I. c. 11, and from other equitable +laws made by their parliaments; or from instructions given by +their Princes; or from resolutions of both Houses, entered into +for the good government of their <i>own colonies in Ireland and +America</i>.</p> + +<p>"And all persons in the said island are hereby cautioned: not +to oppose in any wise the execution of this our Edict, or any +part thereof, such opposition being high treason; of which all +who are suspected shall be transported in fetters from Britain to +Prussia, there to be tried and executed according to the Prussian +law.</p> + +<p class="sig">"Such is our pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Given at Potsdam, this twenty-fifth day of the month of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +August, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, and +in the thirty-third year of our reign.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad10">"By the King, in his Council.</span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Rechtmaessig</span>, <i>Sec.</i>"</p></div> + +<p>Some take this Edict to be merely one of the King's <i>Jeux +d'Esprit</i>: others suppose it serious, and that he means a quarrel +with England; but all here think the assertion it concludes with, +"that these regulations are copied from acts of the English parliament +respecting their colonies," a very injurious one; it being +impossible to believe, that a people distinguished for their love +of liberty, a nation so wise, so liberal in its sentiments, so just +and equitable towards its neighbours, should, from mean and +injudicious views of petty immediate profit, treat its own children +in a manner so arbitrary and tyrannical!</p> + + +<h3><a name="RULES_BY_WHICH_A_GREAT_EMPIRE_MAY_BE_REDUCED_TO_A_SMALL_ONE" id="RULES_BY_WHICH_A_GREAT_EMPIRE_MAY_BE_REDUCED_TO_A_SMALL_ONE"></a>RULES BY WHICH A GREAT EMPIRE MAY BE<br /> +REDUCED TO A SMALL ONE</h3> + +<p class="center">Presented to a late Minister, when he entered +upon his Administration</p> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, Sept., 1773.]</p> + +<p>An ancient Sage boasted, that, tho' he could not fiddle, he +knew how to make a <i>great city</i> of <i>a little one</i>. The science that I, +a modern simpleton, am about to communicate, is the very +reverse.</p> + +<p>I address myself to all ministers who have the management of +extensive dominions, which from their very greatness are become +troublesome to govern, because the multiplicity of their +affairs leaves no time for <i>fiddling</i>.</p> + +<p>I. In the first place, gentlemen, you are to consider, that a +great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the +edges. Turn your attention, therefore, first to your <i>remotest</i> +provinces; that, as you get rid of them, the next may follow in +order.</p> + +<p>II. That the possibility of this separation may always exist, +take special care the provinces are never incorporated with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +mother country; that they do not enjoy the same common rights, +the same privileges in commerce; and that they are governed by +<i>severer</i> laws, all of <i>your enacting</i>, without allowing them any +share in the choice of the legislators. By carefully making and +preserving such distinctions, you will (to keep to my simile of +the cake) act like a wise ginger-bread-baker, who, to facilitate +a division, cuts his dough half through in those places where, +when baked, he would have it <i>broken to pieces</i>.</p> + +<p>III. Those remote provinces have perhaps been acquired, +purchased, or conquered, at the <i>sole expence</i> of the settlers, or +their ancestors, without the aid of the mother country. If this +should happen to increase her <i>strength</i>, by their growing numbers, +ready to join in her wars; her <i>commerce</i>, by their growing +demand for her manufactures; or her <i>naval power</i>, by greater +employment for her ships and seamen, they may probably suppose +some merit in this, and that it entitles them to some favour; +you are therefore to <i>forget it all</i>, <i>or resent it</i>, as if they had done +you injury. If they happen to be zealous whigs, friends of liberty, +nurtured in revolution principles, <i>remember all that</i> to their +prejudice, and resolve to punish it; for such principles, after a +revolution is thoroughly established, are of <i>no more use</i>; they +are even <i>odious</i> and <i>abominable</i>.</p> + +<p>IV. However peaceably your colonies have submitted to +your government, shewn their affection to your interests, and +patiently borne their grievances; you are to <i>suppose</i> them always +inclined to revolt, and treat them accordingly. Quarter troops +among them, who by their insolence may <i>provoke</i> the rising of +mobs, and by their bullets and bayonets <i>suppress</i> them. By this +means, like the husband who uses his wife ill <i>from suspicion</i>, you +may in time convert your <i>suspicions</i> into <i>realities</i>.</p> + +<p>V. Remote provinces must have <i>Governors</i> and <i>Judges</i>, to +represent the Royal Person, and execute everywhere the delegated +parts of his office and authority. You ministers know, +that much of the strength of government depends on the <i>opinion</i> +of the people; and much of that opinion on the <i>choice of rulers</i> +placed immediately over them. If you send them wise and good +men for governors, who study the interest of the colonists, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +advance their prosperity, they will think their King wise and +good, and that he wishes the welfare of his subjects. If you send +them learned and upright men for Judges, they will think him a +lover of justice. This may attach your provinces more to his +government. You are therefore to be careful whom you recommend +for those offices. If you can find prodigals, who have +ruined their fortunes, broken gamesters or stockjobbers, these +may do well as <i>governors</i>; for they will probably be rapacious, +and provoke the people by their extortions. Wrangling proctors +and pettifogging lawyers, too, are not amiss; for they will +be for ever disputing and quarrelling with their little parliaments. +If withal they should be ignorant, wrong-headed, and insolent, +so much the better. Attornies' clerks and Newgate solicitors +will do for <i>Chief Justices</i>, especially if they hold their places <i>during +your pleasure</i>; and all will contribute to impress those ideas +of your government, that are proper for a people <i>you would +wish to renounce it</i>.</p> + +<p>VI. To confirm these impressions, and strike them deeper, +whenever the injured come to the capital with complaints of maladministration, +oppression, or injustice, punish such suitors +with long delay, enormous expence, and a final judgment in +favour of the oppressor. This will have an admirable effect +every way. The trouble of future complaints will be prevented, +and Governors and Judges will be encouraged to farther acts of +oppression and injustice; and thence the people may become +more disaffected, and at length desperate.</p> + +<p>VII. When such Governors have crammed their coffers, and +made themselves so odious to the people that they can no longer +remain among them, with safety to their persons, <i>recall and reward</i> +them with pensions. You may make them <i>baronets</i> too, if +that respectable order should not think fit to resent it. All will +contribute to encourage new governors in the same practice, +and make the supreme government, <i>detestable</i>.</p> + +<p>VIII. If, when you are engaged in war, your colonies should +vie in liberal aids of men and money against the common enemy, +upon your simple requisition, and give far beyond their abilities, +reflect that a penny taken from them by your power is more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> +honourable to you, than a pound presented by their benevolence; +despise therefore their voluntary grants; and resolve to +harass them with novel taxes. They will probably complain to +your parliaments, that they are taxed by a body in which they +have no representative, and that this is contrary to common +right. They will petition for redress. Let the Parliaments flout +their claims, reject their petitions, refuse even to suffer the reading +of them, and treat the petitioners with the utmost contempt. +Nothing can have a better effect in producing the alienation proposed; +for though many can forgive injuries, <i>none ever forgave +contempt</i>.</p> + +<p>IX. In laying these taxes, never regard the heavy burthens +those remote people already undergo, in defending their own +frontiers, supporting their own provincial governments, making +new roads, building bridges, churches, and other public edifices, +which in old countries have been done to your hands by your +ancestors, but which occasion constant calls and demands on the +purses of a new people. Forget the <i>restraints</i> you lay on their +trade for <i>your own</i> benefit, and the advantage a <i>monopoly</i> of this +trade gives your exacting merchants. Think nothing of the +wealth those merchants and your manufacturers acquire by the +colony commerce; their encreased ability thereby to pay +taxes at home; their accumulating, in the price of their commodities, +most of those taxes, and so levying them from their +consuming customers; all this, and the employment and support +of thousands of your poor by the colonists, you are <i>intirely to +forget</i>. But remember to make your arbitrary tax more grievous +to your provinces, by public declarations importing that your +power of taxing them has <i>no limits</i>; so that when you take from +them without their consent one shilling in the pound, you have +a clear right to the other nineteen. This will probably weaken +every idea of <i>security in their property</i>, and convince them, that +under such a government they <i>have nothing they can call their +own</i>; which can scarce fail of producing the <i>happiest consequences</i>!</p> + +<p>X. Possibly, indeed, some of them might still comfort themselves, +and say, "Though we have no property, we have yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +<i>something</i> left that is valuable; we have constitutional <i>liberty</i>, +both of person and of conscience. This King, these Lords, and +these Commons, who it seems are too remote from us to know +us, and feel for us, cannot take from us our <i>Habeas Corpus</i> right, +or our right of trial <i>by a jury of our neighbours</i>; they cannot deprive +us of the exercise of our religion, alter our ecclesiastical +constitution, and compel us to be Papists, if they please, or +Mahometans." To annihilate this comfort, begin by laws to +perplex their commerce with infinite regulations, impossible to +be remembered and observed; ordain seizures of their property +for every failure; take away the trial of such property by Jury, +and give it to arbitrary Judges of your own appointing, and of +the lowest characters in the country, whose salaries and emoluments +are to arise out of the duties or condemnations, and whose +appointments are <i>during pleasure</i>. Then let there be a formal +declaration of both Houses, that opposition to your edicts is +<i>treason</i>, and that any person suspected of treason in the provinces +may, according to some obsolete law, be seized and sent to +the metropolis of the empire for trial; and pass an act, that those +there charged with certain other offences, shall be sent away in +chains from their friends and country to be tried in the same +manner for felony. Then erect a new Court of Inquisition +among them, accompanied by an armed force, with instructions +to transport all such suspected persons; to be ruined by the expence, +if they bring over evidences to prove their innocence, or +be found guilty and hanged, if they cannot afford it. And, lest +the people should think you cannot possibly go any farther, pass +another solemn declaratory act, "that King, Lords, Commons +had, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority +to make statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the unrepresented +provinces <span class="txt90">IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER</span>." This will +include <i>spiritual</i> with temporal, and, taken together, must operate +wonderfully to your purpose; by convincing them, that +they are at present under a power something like that spoken of +in the scriptures, which can not only <i>kill their bodies</i>, but <i>damn +their souls</i> to all eternity, by compelling them, if it pleases, <i>to +worship the Devil</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span></p> + +<p>XI. To make your taxes more odious, and more likely to +procure resistance, send from the capital a board of officers to +superintend the collection, composed of the most <i>indiscreet</i>, <i>ill-bred</i>, +and <i>insolent</i> you can find. Let these have large salaries out +of the extorted revenue, and live in open, grating luxury upon +the sweat and blood of the industrious; whom they are to worry +continually with groundless and expensive prosecutions before +the abovementioned arbitrary revenue Judges; <i>all at the cost of +the party prosecuted</i>, tho' acquitted, because <i>the King is to pay +no costs</i>. Let these men, <i>by your order</i>, be exempted from all the +common taxes and burthens of the province, though they and +their property are protected by its laws. If any revenue officers +are <i>suspected</i> of the least tenderness for the people, discard them. +If others are justly complained of, protect and reward them. If +any of the under officers behave so as to provoke the people to +drub them, promote those to better offices: this will encourage +others to procure for themselves such profitable drubbings, by +multiplying and enlarging such provocations, and <i>all will +work towards the end you aim at</i>.</p> + +<p>XII. Another way to make your tax odious, is to misapply +the produce of it. If it was originally appropriated for the <i>defence</i> +of the provinces, the better support of government, and +the administration of justice, where it may be <i>necessary</i>, then apply +none of it to that <i>defence</i>, but bestow it where it is <i>not necessary</i>, +in augmented salaries or pensions to every governor, who +has distinguished himself by his enmity to the people, and by +calumniating them to their sovereign. This will make them pay +it more unwillingly, and be more apt to quarrel with those that +collect it and those that imposed it, who will quarrel again with +them, and all shall contribute to your <i>main purpose</i>, of making +them <i>weary of your government</i>.</p> + +<p>XIII. If the people of any province have been accustomed to +support their own Governors and Judges to satisfaction, you +are to apprehend that such Governors and Judges may be thereby +influenced to treat the people kindly, and to do them justice. +This is another reason for applying part of that revenue in larger +salaries to such Governors and Judges, given, as their commissions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +are, <i>during your pleasure</i> only; forbidding them to take any +salaries from their provinces; that thus the people may no longer +hope any kindness from their Governors, or (in Crown cases) +any justice from their Judges. And, as the money thus misapplied +in one province is extorted from all, probably <i>all will +resent the misapplication</i>.</p> + +<p>XIV. If the parliaments of your provinces should dare to +claim rights, or complain of your administration, order them to +be harassed with <i>repeated dissolutions</i>. If the same men are continually +returned by new elections, adjourn their meetings to +some country village, where they cannot be accommodated, and +there keep them <i>during pleasure</i>; for this, you know, is your +<span class="txt90">PREROGATIVE</span>; and an excellent one it is, as you may manage it to +promote discontents among the people, diminish their respect, +and <i>increase their disaffection</i>.</p> + +<p>XV. Convert the brave, honest officers of your <i>navy</i> into +pimping tide-waiters and colony officers of the <i>customs</i>. Let +those, who in time of war fought gallantly in defence of the commerce +of their countrymen, in peace be taught to prey upon it. +Let them learn to be corrupted by great and real smugglers; but +(to shew their diligence) scour with armed boats every bay, +harbour, river, creek, cove, or nook throughout the coast of +your colonies; stop and detain every coaster, every wood-boat, +every fisherman, tumble their cargoes and even their ballast inside +out and upside down; and, if a penn'orth of pins is found unentered, +let the whole be seized and confiscated. Thus shall the +trade of your colonists suffer more from their friends in time of +peace, than it did from their enemies in war. Then let these +boats crews land upon every farm in their way, rob the orchards, +steal the pigs and the poultry, and insult the inhabitants. If the +injured and exasperated farmers, unable to procure other justice, +should attack the aggressors, drub them, and burn their boats; +you are to call this <i>high treason and rebellion</i>, order fleets and +armies into their country, and threaten to carry all the offenders +three thousand miles to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. <i>O! +this will work admirably!</i></p> + +<p>XVI. If you are told of discontents in your colonies, never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +believe that they are general, or that you have given occasion +for them; therefore do not think of applying any remedy, or of +changing any offensive measure. Redress no grievance, lest +they should be encouraged to demand the redress of some other +grievance. Grant no request that is just and reasonable, lest they +should make another that is unreasonable. Take all your informations +of the state of the colonies from your Governors and +officers in enmity with them. Encourage and reward these <i>leasing-makers</i>; +secrete their lying accusations, lest they should be +confuted; but act upon them as the clearest evidence; and believe +nothing you hear from the friends of the people: suppose all +<i>their</i> complaints to be invented and promoted by a few factious +demagogues, whom if you could catch and hang, all would be +quiet. Catch and hang a few of them accordingly; and the <i>blood +of the Martyrs</i> shall <i>work miracles</i> in favour of your purpose.</p> + +<p>XVII. If you see <i>rival nations</i> rejoicing at the prospect of +your disunion with your provinces, and endeavouring to promote +it; if they translate, publish, and applaud all the complaints +of your discontented colonists, at the same time privately stimulating +you to severer measures, let not that <i>alarm</i> or offend you. +Why should it, since you all mean <i>the same thing</i>?</p> + +<p>XVIII. If any colony should at their own charge erect a +fortress to secure their port against the fleets of a foreign enemy, +get your Governor to betray that fortress into your hands. +Never think of paying what it cost the country, for that would +look, at least, like some regard for justice; but turn it into a citadel +to awe the inhabitants and curb their commerce. If they +should have lodged in such fortress the very arms they bought +and used to aid you in your conquests, seize them all; it will provoke +like <i>ingratitude</i> added to <i>robbery</i>. One admirable effect of +these operations will be, to discourage every other colony from +erecting such defences, and so your enemies may more easily +invade them; to the great disgrace of your government, and of +course <i>the furtherance of your project</i>.</p> + +<p>XIX. Send armies into their country under pretence of protecting +the inhabitants; but, instead of garrisoning the forts on +their frontiers with those troops, to prevent incursions, demolish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +those forts, and order the troops into the heart of the country, +that the savages may be encouraged to attack the frontiers, and +that the troops may be protected by the inhabitants. This will +seem to proceed from your ill will or your ignorance, and contribute +farther to produce and strengthen an opinion among +them, <i>that you are no longer fit to govern them</i>.</p> + +<p>XX. Lastly, invest the General of your army in the provinces, +with great and unconstitutional powers, and free him from the +controul of even your own Civil Governors. Let him have +troops enow under his command, with all the fortresses in his +possession; and who knows but (like some provincial Generals +in the Roman empire, and encouraged by the universal discontent +you have produced) he may take it into his head to set up +for himself? If he should, and you have carefully practised these +few <i>excellent rules</i> of mine, take my word for it, all the provinces +will immediately join him; and you will that day (if you have not +done it sooner) get rid of the trouble of governing them, and +all the <i>plagues</i> attending their <i>commerce</i> and connection from +henceforth and for ever.</p> + +<p class="sig">Q. E. D.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_WILLIAM_FRANKLIN" id="TO_WILLIAM_FRANKLIN"></a>TO WILLIAM FRANKLIN</h3> + +<p class="date">London, October 6, 1773.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Son,</span></p> + +<p>I wrote to you the 1st of last month, since which I have received +yours of July 29, from New York. I know not what letters +of mine Governor H[utchinson] could mean, as advising +the people to insist on their independency. But whatever they +were, I suppose he has sent copies of them hither, having heard +some whisperings about them. I shall however, be able at any +time to justify every thing I have written; the purport being uniformly +this, that they should carefully avoid all tumults and every +violent measure, and content themselves with verbally keeping +up their claims, and holding forth their rights whenever +occasion requires; secure, that, from the growing importance of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +America, those claims will ere long be attended to and acknowledged.</p> + +<p>From a long and thorough consideration of the subject, I am +indeed of opinion, that the parliament has no right to make any +law whatever, binding on the colonies; that the king, and not +the king, lords, and commons collectively, is their sovereign; +and that the king, with their respective parliaments, is their only +legislator. I know your sentiments differ from mine on these +subjects. You are a thorough government man, which I do not +wonder at, nor do I aim at converting you. I only wish you to +act uprightly and steadily, avoiding that duplicity, which in +Hutchinson, adds contempt to indignation. If you can promote +the prosperity of your people, and leave them happier than you +found them, whatever your political principles are, your memory +will be honoured.</p> + +<p>I have written two pieces here lately for the <i>Public Advertiser</i>, +on American affairs, designed to expose the conduct of this +country towards the colonies in a short, comprehensive, and +striking view, and stated, therefore, in out-of-the-way forms, as +most likely to take the general attention. The first was called +"<i>Rules by which a Great Empire may be reduced to a small one</i>;" +the second, "<i>An Edict of the King of Prussia</i>." I sent you one of +the first, but could not get enough of the second to spare you +one, though my clerk went the next morning to the printer's, +and wherever they were sold. They were all gone but two. In +my own mind I preferred the first, as a composition for the +quantity and variety of the matter contained, and a kind of spirited +ending of each paragraph. But I find that others here +generally prefer the second.</p> + +<p>I am not suspected as the author, except by one or two friends; +and have heard the latter spoken of in the highest terms, as the +keenest and severest piece that has appeared here for a long +time. Lord Mansfield, I hear, said of it, that it <i>was very</i> <span class="txt90">ABLE</span> +<i>and very</i> <span class="txt90">ARTFUL</span> <i>indeed</i>; and would do mischief by giving +here a bad impression of the measures of government; and in the +colonies, by encouraging them in their contumacy. It is reprinted +in the <i>Chronicle</i>, where you will see it, but stripped of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +the capitaling and italicing, that intimate the allusions and mark +the emphasis of written discourses, to bring them as near as possible +to those spoken: printing such a piece all in one even small +character, seems to me like repeating one of Whitefield's sermons +in the monotony of a schoolboy.</p> + +<p>What made it the more noticed here was, that people in reading +it were, as the phrase is, <i>taken in</i>, till they had got half +through it, and imagined it a real edict, to which mistake I suppose +the King of Prussia's <i>character</i> must have contributed. I +was down at Lord Le Despencer's when the post brought that +day's papers. Mr. Whitehead was there, too, (Paul Whitehead, +the author of "Manners,") who runs early through all the papers, +and tells the company what he finds remarkable. He had +them in another room, and we were chatting in the breakfast +parlour, when he came running in to us, out of breath, with the +paper in his hand. Here! says he, here's news for ye! <i>Here's +the King of Prussia, claiming a right to this kingdom!</i> All stared, +and I as much as anybody; and he went on to read it. When +he had read two or three paragraphs, a gentleman present said, +<i>Damn his impudence, I dare say, we shall hear by next post that +he is upon his march with one hundred thousand men to back this</i>. +Whitehead, who is very shrewd, soon after began to smoke it, +and looking in my face said, <i>I'll be hanged if this is not some of +your American jokes upon us</i>. The reading went on, and ended +with abundance of laughing, and a general verdict that it was +a fair hit: and the piece was cut out of the paper and preserved +in my Lord's collection.</p> + +<p>I do not wonder that Hutchinson should be dejected. It must +be an uncomfortable thing to live among people who he is conscious +universally detest him. Yet I fancy he will not have leave +to come home, both because they know not well what to do +with him, and because they do not very well like his conduct. +I am ever your affectionate father,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="PREFACE_TO_AN_ABRIDGMENT_OF_THE_BOOK_OF_COMMON_PRAYER" id="PREFACE_TO_AN_ABRIDGMENT_OF_THE_BOOK_OF_COMMON_PRAYER"></a>PREFACE TO "AN ABRIDGMENT<br /> +OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER"<a name="FNanchor_82_594" id="FNanchor_82_594"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_594" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[1773]</p> + +<p>The editor of the following abridgment of the Liturgy of +the Church of England thinks it but decent and respectful to +all, more particularly to the reverend body of clergy, who adorn +the Protestant religion by their good works, preaching, and +example, that he should humbly offer some reason for such an +undertaking. He addresses himself to the serious and discerning. +He professes himself to be a Protestant of the Church of +England, and holds in the highest veneration the doctrines of +Jesus Christ. He is a sincere lover of social worship, deeply +sensible of its usefulness to society; and he aims at doing some +service to religion, by proposing such abbreviations and omissions +in the forms of our Liturgy (retaining everything he thinks +essential) as might, if adopted, procure a more general attendance. +For, besides the differing sentiments of many pious and +well-disposed persons in some speculative points, who in general +have a good opinion of our Church, it has often been observed +and complained of, that the Morning and Evening Service, +as practised in England and elsewhere, are so long, and filled +with so many repetitions, that the continued attention suitable +to so serious a duty becomes impracticable, the mind wanders, +and the fervency of devotion is slackened. Also the propriety +of saying the same prayer more than once in the same service +is doubted, as the service is thereby lengthened without apparent +necessity; our Lord having given us a short prayer as an +example, and censured the heathen for thinking to be heard +because of much speaking.</p> + +<p>Moreover, many pious and devout persons, whose age or infirmities +will not suffer them to remain for hours in a cold +church, especially in the winter season, are obliged to forego the +comfort and edification they would receive by their attendance +at divine service. These, by shortening the time, would be relieved, +and the younger sort, who have had some principles of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +religion instilled into them, and who have been educated in a +belief of the necessity of adoring their Maker, would probably +more frequently, as well as cheerfully, attend divine service, if +they were not detained so long at any one time. Also many well +disposed tradesmen, shopkeepers, artificers, and others, whose +habitations are not remote from churches, could, and would, +more frequently at least, find [time to attend divine service on +other than Sundays, if the prayers were reduced to a much +narrower compass.</p> + +<p>Formerly there were three services performed at different +times of the day, which three services are now usually joined in +one. This may suit the convenience of the person who officiates, +but it is too often inconvenient and tiresome to the congregation. +If this abridgment, therefore, should ever meet with +acceptance, the well-disposed clergy who are laudably desirous +to encourage the <i>frequency</i> of divine service, may promote so +great and good a purpose by repeating it three times on a Sunday, +without so much fatigue to themselves as at present. Suppose, +at nine o'clock, at eleven, and at one in the evening; and +by preaching no more sermons than usual of a moderate length; +and thereby accommodate a greater number of people with +convenient hours.</p> + +<p>These were general reasons for wishing and proposing an +abridgment. In attempting it we do not presume to dictate even +to a single Christian. We are sensible there is a proper authority +in the rulers of the Church for ordering such matters; and whenever +the time shall come when it may be thought not unreasonable +to revise our Liturgy, there is no doubt but every suitable +improvement will be made, under the care and direction of so +much learning, wisdom, and piety, in one body of men collected. +Such a work as this must then be much better executed. +In the meantime this humble performance may serve to show +the practicability of shortening the service near one half, +without the omission of what is essentially necessary; and we +hope, moreover, that the book may be occasionally of some use +to families, or private assemblies of Christians.</p> + +<p>To give now some account of particulars. We have presumed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +upon this plan of abridgment to omit the First Lesson, +which is taken from the Old Testament, and retain only the +Second from the New Testament, which, we apprehend, is more +suitable to teach the so-much-to-be-revered doctrine of Christ, +and of more immediate importance to Christians;] although the +Old Testament is allowed by all to be an accurate and concise +history, and, as such, may more properly be read at home.</p> + +<p>[We do not conceive it necessary for Christians to make use +of more than one creed. Therefore, in this abridgment are +omitted the Nicene Creed and that of St. Athanasius. Of the +Apostle's Creed we have retained the parts that are most intelligible +and most essential. And as the <i>Father</i>, <i>Son</i>, and <i>Holy +Ghost</i> are there confessedly and avowedly a part of the belief, +it does not appear necessary, after so solemn a confession, to +repeat again, in the Litany, the <i>Son</i> and <i>Holy Ghost</i>, as that part +of the service is otherwise very prolix.</p> + +<p>The Psalms being a collection of odes written by different +persons, it hath happened that many of them are on the same +subjects and repeat the same sentiments—such as those that +complain of enemies and persecutors, call upon God for protection, +express a confidence therein, and thank him for it when +afforded. A very great part of the book consists of repetitions +of this kind, which may therefore well bear abridgment. Other +parts are merely historical, repeating the mention of facts more +fully narrated in the preceding books, and which, relating to the +ancestors of the Jews, were more interesting to them than to us. +Other parts are <i>local</i>, and allude to places of which we have no +knowledge, and therefore do not affect us. Others are <i>personal</i>, +relating to the particular circumstances of David or Solomon, +as kings, and can therefore seldom be rehearsed with any propriety +by private Christians. Others imprecate, in the most +bitter terms, the vengeance of God on our adversaries, contrary +to the spirit of Christianity, which commands us to love our +enemies, and to pray for those that hate us and despitefully use +us. For these reasons it is to be wished that the same liberty +were by the governors of our Church allowed to the minister +with regard to the <i>reading Psalms</i>, as is taken by the clerk with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> +regard to those that are to be sung, in directing the parts that +he may judge most suitable to be read at the time, from the +present circumstances of the congregation, or the tenor of his +sermon, by saying, "Let us <i>read</i>" such and such parts of the +Psalms named. Until this is done our abridgment, it is hoped, +will be found to contain what may be most generally proper to +be joined in by an assembly of Christian people. The Psalms are +still apportioned to the days of the month, as heretofore, though +the several parts for each day are generally a full third shorter.</p> + +<p>We humbly suppose the same service contained in this abridgment +might properly serve for all the saints' days, fasts, and +feasts, reading only the Epistle and Gospel appropriated to each +day of the month.</p> + +<p>The Communion is greatly abridged, on account of its great +length; nevertheless, it is hoped and believed that all those parts +are retained which are material and necessary.</p> + +<p>Infant Baptism in Churches being performed during divine +service, would greatly add to the length of that service, if it +were not abridged. We have ventured, therefore, to leave out +the less material parts.</p> + +<p>The Catechism, as a compendium of systematic theology, +which learned divines have written folio volumes to explain, and +which, therefore, it may be presumed, they thought scarce intelligible +without such expositions, is, perhaps, taken altogether, +not so well adapted to the capacities of children as might be +wished. Only those plain answers, therefore, which express our +duty towards God, and our duty towards our neighbor, are +retained here. The rest is recommended to their reading and +serious consideration, when more years shall have ripened their +understanding.]</p> + +<p>The Confirmation is here shortened.</p> + +<p>The Commination, and all cursing of mankind, is, we think, +best omitted in this abridgment.</p> + +<p>The form of solemnization of Matrimony is often abbreviated +by the officiating minister at his discretion. We have selected +what appears to us the material parts, and which we humbly +hope, will be deemed sufficient.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span></p> + +<p>The long prayers in the service for the Visitation of the Sick +seem not so proper, when the afflicted person is very weak and +in distress.</p> + +<p>The Order for the Burial of the Dead is very solemn and +moving; nevertheless, to preserve the health and lives of the +living, it appeared to us that this service ought particularly to +be shortened. For numbers standing in the open air with their +hats off, often in tempestuous weather, during the celebration, +its great length is not only inconvenient, but may be dangerous +to the attendants. We hope, therefore, that our abridgment of +it will be approved by the rational and prudent.</p> + +<p>The Thanksgiving of women after childbirth being, when +read, part of the service of the day, we have also, in some +measure, abridged that.</p> + +<p>Having thus stated very briefly our motives and reasons, and +our manner of proceeding in the prosecution of this work, we +hope to be believed, when we declare the rectitude of our intentions. +We mean not to lessen or prevent the practice of religion, +but to honour and promote it. We acknowledge the excellency +of our present Liturgy, and, though we have shortened it, we +have not presumed to alter a word in the remaining text; not +even to substitute <i>who</i> for <i>which</i> in the Lord's Prayer, and elsewhere, +although it would be more correct. We respect the +characters of bishops and other dignitaries of our Church, and, +with regard to the inferior clergy we wish that they were more +equally provided for, than by that odious and vexatious as well +as unjust method of gathering tithes in kind, which creates animosities +and litigations, to the interruption of the good harmony +and respect which might otherwise subsist between the rectors +and their parishioners.</p> + +<p>And thus, conscious of upright meaning, we submit this +abridgment to the serious consideration of the prudent and +dispassionate, and not to enthusiasts and bigots; being convinced +in our own breasts, that this shortened method, or one of the +same kind better executed, would further religion, increase +unanimity, and occasion a more frequent attendance on the +worship of God.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="A_PARABLE_AGAINST_PERSECUTION" id="A_PARABLE_AGAINST_PERSECUTION"></a>A PARABLE AGAINST PERSECUTION<a name="FNanchor_83_595" id="FNanchor_83_595"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_595" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></h3> + +<p>1. And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat +in the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun.</p> + +<p>2. And behold a man, bent with age, coming from the way +of the wilderness, leaning on a staff.</p> + +<p>3. And Abraham arose and met him, and said unto him, +Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night, and +thou shalt arise early in the morning, and go on thy way.</p> + +<p>4. But the man said, Nay, for I will abide under this tree.</p> + +<p>5. And Abraham pressed him greatly; so he turned, and they +went into the tent; and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and +they did eat.</p> + +<p>6. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he +said unto him, Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high +God, Creator of heaven and earth?</p> + +<p>7. And the man answered and said, I do not worship thy +God, neither do I call upon his name; for I have made to myself +a god, which abideth always in mine house, and provideth me +with all things.</p> + +<p>8. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man, and he +arose and fell upon him, and drove him forth with blows into +the wilderness.</p> + +<p>9. And God called unto Abraham, saying, Abraham, where +is the stranger?</p> + +<p>10. And Abraham answered and said, Lord, he would not +worship thee, neither would he call upon thy name; therefore +have I driven him out from before my face into the wilderness.</p> + +<p>11. And God said, Have I borne with him these hundred and +ninety and eight years, and nourished him, and cloathed him, +notwithstanding his rebellion against me; and couldst not thou, +who art thyself a sinner, bear with him one night?</p> + +<p>12. And Abraham said, Let not the anger of the Lord wax +hot against his servant; lo, I have sinned; lo, I have sinned; +forgive me, I pray thee.</p> + +<p>13. And Abraham arose, and went forth into the wilderness, +and sought diligently for the man, and found him, and returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> +with him to the tent; and when he had entreated him kindly, +he sent him away on the morrow with gifts.</p> + +<p>14. And God spake again unto Abraham, saying, For this thy +sin shall thy seed be afflicted four hundred years in a strange land;</p> + +<p>15. But for thy repentance will I deliver them; and they shall +come forth with power, and with gladness of heart, and with +much substance.</p> + + +<h3><a name="A_PARABLE_ON_BROTHERLY_LOVE" id="A_PARABLE_ON_BROTHERLY_LOVE"></a>A PARABLE ON BROTHERLY LOVE<a name="FNanchor_84_596" id="FNanchor_84_596"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_596" class="fnanchor">[84]</a></h3> + +<p>1. In those days there was no worker of iron in all the land. +And the merchants of Midian passed by with their camels, bearing +spices, and myrrh, and balm, and wares of iron.</p> + +<p>2. And Reuben bought an axe of the Ishmaelite merchants, +which he prized highly, for there was none in his father's house.</p> + +<p>3. And Simeon said unto Reuben his brother, "Lend me, I +pray thee, thine axe." But he refused, and would not.</p> + +<p>4. And Levi also said unto him, "My brother, lend me, I +pray thee, thine axe;" and he refused him also.</p> + +<p>5. Then came Judah unto Reuben, and entreated him, saying, +"Lo, thou lovest me, and I have always loved thee; do not refuse +me the use of thine axe."</p> + +<p>6. But Reuben turned from him, and refused him likewise.</p> + +<p>7. Now it came to pass, that Reuben hewed timber on the +bank of the river, and his axe fell therein, and he could by no +means find it.</p> + +<p>8. But Simeon, Levi, and Judah had sent a messenger after +the Ishmaelites with money, and had bought for themselves each +an axe.</p> + +<p>9. Then came Reuben unto Simeon, and said, "Lo, I have +lost mine axe, and my work is unfinished; lend me thine, I pray +thee."</p> + +<p>10. And Simeon answered him, saying, "Thou wouldest not +lend me thine axe, therefore will I not lend thee mine."</p> + +<p>11. Then went he unto Levi, and said unto him, "My brother, +thou knowest my loss and my necessity; lend me, I pray thee, +thine axe."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p> + +<p>12. And Levi reproached him, saying, "Thou wouldest not +lend me thine axe when I desired it, but I will be better than +thou, and will lend thee mine."</p> + +<p>13. And Reuben was grieved at the rebuke of Levi and being +ashamed, turned from him, and took not the axe, but sought his +brother Judah.</p> + +<p>14. And as he drew near, Judah beheld his countenance as it +were covered with grief and shame; and he prevented him, saying, +"My brother, I know thy loss; but why should it trouble +thee? Lo, have I not an axe that will serve both thee and me? +Take it, I pray thee, and use it as thine own."</p> + +<p>15. And Reuben fell on his neck, and kissed him, with tears, +saying, "Thy kindness is great, but thy goodness in forgiving +me is greater. Thou are indeed my brother, and whilst I live, +will I surely love thee."</p> + +<p>16. And Judah said, "Let us also love our other brethren; +behold, are we not all of one blood?"</p> + +<p>17. And Joseph saw these things, and reported them to his +father Jacob.</p> + +<p>18. And Jacob said, "Reuben did wrong, but he repented. +Simeon also did wrong; and Levi was not altogether blameless.</p> + +<p>19. "But the heart of Judah is princely. Judah hath the soul +of a king. His father's children shall bow down before him, and +he shall rule over his brethren."</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_WILLIAM_STRAHAN" id="TO_WILLIAM_STRAHAN"></a>TO WILLIAM STRAHAN<a name="FNanchor_85_597" id="FNanchor_85_597"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_597" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philad<sup>a</sup> July 5, 1775.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. Strahan</span>,</p> + +<p>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</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Yours,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_382" id="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_382"></a>TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, July 7, 1775.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p>The Congress met at a time when all minds were so exasperated +by the perfidy of General Gage, and his attack on the +country people, that propositions of attempting an accommodation +were not much relished; and it has been with difficulty that +we have carried another humble petition to the crown, to give +Britain one more chance, one opportunity more, of recovering +the friendship of the colonies; which, however, I think she has +not sense enough to embrace, and so I conclude she has lost +them for ever.</p> + +<p>She has begun to burn our seaport towns; secure, I suppose, +that we shall never be able to return the outrage in kind. She +may doubtless destroy them all; but, if she wishes to recover our +commerce, are these the probable means? She must certainly be +distracted; for no tradesman out of Bedlam ever thought of +encreasing the number of his customers, by knocking them on +the head; or of enabling them to pay their debts, by burning +their houses. If she wishes to have us subjects, and that we +should submit to her as our compound sovereign, she is now +giving us such miserable specimens of her government, that we +shall ever detest and avoid it, as a complication of robbery, +murder, famine, fire, and pestilence.</p> + +<p>You will have heard, before this reaches you, of the treacherous +conduct [of General Gage] to the remaining people in +Boston, in detaining their <i>goods</i>, after stipulating to let them go +out with their <i>effects</i>, on pretence that merchants' goods were +not effects; the defeat of a great body of his troops by the country +people at Lexington; some other small advantages gained in +skirmishes with their troops; and the action at Bunker's Hill, in +which they were twice repulsed, and the third time gained a dear +victory. Enough has happened, one would think, to convince +your ministers, that the Americans will fight, and that this is a +harder nut to crack than they imagined.</p> + +<p>We have not yet applied to any foreign power for assistance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +nor offered our commerce for their friendship. Perhaps we +never may; yet it is natural to think of it, if we are pressed. We +have now an army on our establishment, which still holds yours +besieged. My time was never more fully employed. In the +morning at six, I am at the Committee of Safety, appointed by +the Assembly to put the province in a state of defence; which +committee holds till near nine, when I am at the Congress, and +that sits till after four in the afternoon. Both these bodies proceed +with the greatest unanimity, and their meetings are well +attended. It will scarce be credited in Britain, that men can be +as diligent with us from zeal for the public good, as with you +for thousands per annum. Such is the difference between uncorrupted +new states, and corrupted old ones.</p> + +<p>Great frugality and great industry are now become fashionable +here. Gentlemen, who used to entertain with two or three +courses, pride themselves now in treating with simple beef and +pudding. By these means, and the stoppage of our consumptive +trade with Britain, we shall be better able to pay our voluntary +taxes for the support of our troops. Our savings in the article +of trade amount to near five millions sterling per annum.</p> + +<p>I shall communicate your letter to Mr. Winthrop; but the +camp is at Cambridge, and he has as little leisure for philosophy +as myself. Believe me ever with sincere esteem, my dear friend, +yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_A_FRIEND_IN_ENGLAND" id="TO_A_FRIEND_IN_ENGLAND"></a>TO A FRIEND IN ENGLAND<a name="FNanchor_86_598" id="FNanchor_86_598"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_598" class="fnanchor">[86]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, Oct. 3, 1775.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I wish as ardently as you can do for peace, and should rejoice +exceedingly in coöperating with you to that end. But every ship +from Britain brings some intelligence of new measures that tend +more and more to exasperate; and it seems to me, that until you +have found by dear experience the reducing us by force impracticable, +you will think of nothing fair and reasonable.</p> + +<p>We have as yet resolved only on defensive measures. If you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +would recall your forces and stay at home, we should meditate +nothing to injure you. A little time so given for cooling on +both sides would have excellent effects. But you will goad and +provoke us. You despise us too much; and you are insensible +of the Italian adage, that there is no <i>little enemy</i>. I am persuaded +that the body of the British people are our friends; but they are +changeable, and by your lying Gazettes may soon be made our +enemies. Our respect for them will proportionably diminish, +and I see clearly we are on the high road to mutual Enmity[,] +hatred and detestation. A separation of course will be inevitable. +'Tis a million of pities so fair a plan as we have hitherto been +engaged in, for increasing strength and empire with <i>public felicity</i>, +should be destroyed by the mangling hands of a few blundering +ministers. It will not be destroyed; God will protect and prosper +it, you will only exclude yourselves from any share in it. We +hear, that more ships and troops are coming out. We know, +that you may do us a great deal of mischief, and are determined +to bear it patiently as long as we can. But, if you flatter yourselves +with beating us into submission, you know neither the +people nor the country. The Congress are still sitting, and will +wait the result of their <i>last</i> petition. Yours, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_LORD_HOWE" id="TO_LORD_HOWE"></a>TO LORD HOWE</h3> + +<p class="date"> +Philadelphia, July 30th,<a name="FNanchor_87_599" id="FNanchor_87_599"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_599" class="fnanchor">[87]</a> 1776.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Lord</span>,</p> + +<p>I receiv'd safe the Letters your Lordship so kindly forwarded +to me, and beg you to accept my thanks.</p> + +<p>The official dispatches, to which you refer me, contain nothing +more than what we had seen in the Act of Parliament, viz. Offers +of Pardon upon Submission, which I was sorry to find, as it +must give your Lordship Pain to be sent upon so fruitless a +Business.</p> + +<p>Directing Pardons to be offered to the Colonies, who are the +very Parties injured, expresses indeed that Opinion of our Ignorance, +Baseness, and Insensibility, which your uninform'd and +proud Nation has long been pleased to entertain of us; but it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +can have no other effect than that of increasing our Resentments. +It is impossible we should think of Submission to a Government, +that has with the most wanton Barbarity and Cruelty +burnt our defenceless Towns in the midst of Winter, excited the +Savages to massacre our Peacefull Farmers, and our Slaves to +murder their Masters, and is even now bringing foreign Mercenaries +to deluge our Settlements with Blood. These atrocious +Injuries have extinguished every remaining Spark of Affection +for that Parent Country we once held so dear; but, were it possible +for <i>us</i> to forget and forgive them, it is not possible for <i>you</i> +(I mean the British Nation) to forgive the People you have so +heavily injured. You can never confide again in those as Fellow +Subjects, and permit them to enjoy equal Freedom, to whom +you know you have given such just Cause of lasting Enmity. +And this must impel you, were we again under your Government, +to endeavour the breaking our Spirit by the severest +Tyranny, and obstructing, by every Means in your Power, our +growing Strength and Prosperity.</p> + +<p>But your Lordship mentions "the King's paternal solicitude +for promoting the Establishment of lasting <i>Peace</i> and Union +with the Colonies." If by Peace is here meant a Peace to be +entered into between Britain and America, as distinct States now +at War, and his Majesty has given your Lordship Powers to +treat with us of such a Peace, I may venture to say, though without +Authority, that I think a Treaty for that purpose not yet quite +impracticable, before we enter into foreign Alliances. But I am +persuaded you have no such Powers. Your nation, though, by +punishing those American Governors, who have fomented the +Discord, rebuilding our burnt Towns, and repairing as far as +possible the mischiefs done us, might yet recover a great Share +of our Regard, and the greatest Part of our growing Commerce, +with all the Advantage of that additional Strength to be derived +from a Friendship with us; but I know too well her abounding +Pride and deficient Wisdom, to believe she will ever take such +salutary Measures. Her Fondness for Conquest, as a warlike +Nation, her lust of Dominion, as an ambitious one, and her +wish for a gainful Monopoly, as a commercial One, (none of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +them legitimate Causes of War,) will all join to hide from her +Eyes every view of her true Interests, and continually goad her +on in those ruinous distant Expeditions, so destructive both of +Lives and Treasure, that must prove as pernicious to her in the +End, as the Crusades formerly were to most of the Nations in +Europe.</p> + +<p>I have not the Vanity, my Lord, to think of intimidating by +thus predicting the Effects of this War; for I know it will in +England have the Fate of all my former Predictions, not to be +believed till the Event shall verify it.</p> + +<p>Long did I endeavour, with unfeigned and unwearied Zeal, +to preserve from breaking that fine and noble China Vase, the +British Empire; for I knew, that, being once broken, the separate +Parts could not retain even their Shares of the Strength and +Value that existed in the Whole, and that a perfect Reunion of +those Parts could scarce ever be hoped for. Your Lordship may +possibly remember the tears of Joy that wet my Cheek, when, +at your good Sister's in London, you once gave me Expectations +that a Reconciliation might soon take Place. I had the Misfortune +to find those Expectations disappointed, and to be treated +as the Cause of the Mischief I was laboring to prevent. My +Consolation under that groundless and malevolent Treatment +was, that I retained the Friendship of many wise and good Men +in that country, and, among the rest, some Share in the Regard +of Lord Howe.</p> + +<p>The well-founded Esteem, and, permit me to say, Affection, +which I shall always have for your Lordship, makes it Painful +to me to see you engaged in conducting a War, the great +Ground of which, as expressed in your Letter, is "the necessity +of preventing the American trade from passing into foreign +Channels." To me it seems, that neither the Obtaining or +Retaining of any trade, how valuable soever, is an Object for +which men may justly spill each other's Blood; that the true and +sure Means of extending and securing Commerce is the goodness +and Cheapness of Commodities; and that the profit of no +trade can ever be equal to the Expence of compelling it, and of +holding it, by Fleets and Armies.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span></p> + +<p>I consider this War against us, therefore, as both unjust and +unwise; and I am persuaded, that cool, dispassionate Posterity +will condemn to Infamy those who advised it; and that even +Success will not save from some Degree of Dishonor those, who +voluntarily engaged to Conduct it. I know your great motive +in coming hither was the hope of being Instrumental in a Reconciliation; +and I believe, when you find <i>that</i> to be impossible +on any Terms given you to propose, you will relinquish so +odious a Command, and return to a more honourable private +Station.</p> + +<p>With the greatest and most sincere Respect, I have the Honour +to be, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient humble Servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_SALE_OF_THE_HESSIANS" id="THE_SALE_OF_THE_HESSIANS"></a>THE SALE OF THE HESSIANS<a name="FNanchor_88_600" id="FNanchor_88_600"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_600" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">FROM THE COUNT DE SCHAUMBERGH TO THE BARON HOHENDORF, +COMMANDING THE HESSIAN TROOPS IN AMERICA</p> + +<p class="date">Rome, February 18, 1777.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Monsieur Le Baron</span>:—</p> + +<p>On my return from Naples, I received at Rome your letter +of the 27th December of last year. I have learned with unspeakable +pleasure the courage our troops exhibited at Trenton, and +you cannot imagine my joy on being told that of the 1,950 Hessians +engaged in the fight, but 345 escaped. There were just +1,605 men killed, and I cannot sufficiently commend your prudence +in sending an exact list of the dead to my minister in London. +This precaution was the more necessary, as the report sent +to the English ministry does not give but 1,455 dead. This +would make 483,450 florins instead of 643,500 which I am entitled +to demand under our convention. You will comprehend +the prejudice which such an error would work in my finances, +and I do not doubt you will take the necessary pains to prove +that Lord North's list is false and yours correct.</p> + +<p>The court of London objects that there were a hundred +wounded who ought not to be included in the list, nor paid for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +as dead; but I trust you will not overlook my instructions to +you on quitting Cassel, and that you will not have tried by +human succor to recall the life of the unfortunates whose days +could not be lengthened but by the loss of a leg or an arm. That +would be making them a pernicious present, and I am sure they +would rather die than live in a condition no longer fit for my +service. I do not mean by this that you should assassinate them; +we should be humane, my dear Baron, but you may insinuate +to the surgeons with entire propriety that a crippled man is a +reproach to their profession, and that there is no wiser course +than to let every one of them die when he ceases to be fit to +fight.</p> + +<p>I am about to send to you some new recruits. Don't economize +them. Remember glory before all things. Glory is true +wealth. There is nothing degrades the soldier like the love of +money. He must care only for honour and reputation, but this +reputation must be acquired in the midst of dangers. A battle +gained without costing the conqueror any blood is an inglorious +success, while the conquered cover themselves with glory by +perishing with their arms in their hands. Do you remember +that of the 300 Lacedæmonians who defended the defile of +Thermopylae, not one returned? How happy should I be could +I say the same of my brave Hessians!</p> + +<p>It is true that their king, Leonidas, perished with them: but +things have changed, and it is no longer the custom for princes +of the empire to go and fight in America for a cause with which +they have no concern. And besides, to whom should they pay +the thirty guineas per man if I did not stay in Europe to receive +them? Then, it is necessary also that I be ready to send recruits +to replace the men you lose. For this purpose I must return to +Hesse. It is true, grown men are becoming scarce there, but I +will send you boys. Besides, the scarcer the commodity the +higher the price. I am assured that the women and little girls +have begun to till our lands, and they get on not badly. You +did right to send back to Europe that Dr. Crumerus who was +so successful in curing dysentery. Don't bother with a man who +is subject to looseness of the bowels. That disease makes bad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +soldiers. One coward will do more mischief in an engagement +than ten brave men will do good. Better that they burst in their +barracks than fly in a battle, and tarnish the glory of our arms. +Besides, you know that they pay me as killed for all who die +from disease, and I don't get a farthing for runaways. My trip +to Italy, which has cost me enormously, makes it desirable that +there should be a great mortality among them. You will therefore +promise promotion to all who expose themselves; you will +exhort them to seek glory in the midst of dangers; you will say +to Major Maundorff that I am not at all content with his saving +the 345 men who escaped the massacre of Trenton. Through +the whole campaign he has not had ten men killed in consequence +of his orders. Finally, let it be your principal object to +prolong the war and avoid a decisive engagement on either side, +for I have made arrangements for a grand Italian opera, and I +do not wish to be obliged to give it up. Meantime I pray God, +my dear Baron de Hohendorf, to have you in his holy and +gracious keeping.</p> + + +<h3><a name="MODEL_OF_A_LETTER_OF_RECOMMENDATION" id="MODEL_OF_A_LETTER_OF_RECOMMENDATION"></a>MODEL OF A LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION<a name="FNanchor_89_601" id="FNanchor_89_601"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_601" class="fnanchor">[89]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Paris, April 2, 1777.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>:—</p> + +<p>The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to +give him a Letter of Recommendation, tho' I know nothing of +him, not even his Name. This may seem extraordinary, but I +assure you it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed one +unknown Person brings another equally unknown, to recommend +him; and sometimes they recommend one another! As to +this Gentleman, I must refer you to himself for his Character +and Merits, with which he is certainly better acquainted than I +can possibly be. I recommend him however to those Civilities, +which every Stranger, of whom one knows no Harm, has a +Right to; and I request you will do him all the good Offices, +and show him all the Favour that, on further Acquaintance, you +shall find him to deserve. I have the Honour to be, etc.</p> + +<p class="sig">[B. F.]</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash_390" id="TO_mdashmdashmdashmdashmdashmdash_390"></a>TO ———————</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Oct. 4, 1777.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I am much obliged by your communication of the letter from +England. I am of your opinion, that it is not proper for publication +here. Our friend's expressions concerning Mr. Wilson, will +be thought too angry to be made use of by one philosopher +when speaking of another, and on a philosophical question. He +seems as much heated about this <i>one point</i>, as the Jansenists and +Molinists were about the <i>five</i>. As to my writing any thing on +the subject, which you seem to desire, I think it not necessary, +especially as I have nothing to add to what I have already said +upon it in a paper read to the committee, who ordered the +conductors at Purfleet; which paper is printed in the last French +edition of my writings.</p> + +<p>I have never entered into any controversy in defence of my +philosophical opinions; I leave them to take their chance in the +world. If they are <i>right</i>, truth and experience will support them; +if <i>wrong</i>, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are +apt to sour one's temper, and disturb one's quiet. I have no +private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, +having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by +any of them. The King's changing his <i>pointed</i> conductors for +<i>blunt</i> ones is, therefore, a matter of small importance to me. If +I had a wish about it, it would be that he had rejected them +altogether as ineffectual. For it is only since he thought himself +and family safe from the thunder of Heaven, that he dared +to use his own thunder in destroying his innocent subjects.<a name="FNanchor_90_602" id="FNanchor_90_602"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_602" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> +I am, Sir, yours, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_390" id="TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_390"></a>TO DAVID HARTLEY<a name="FNanchor_91_603" id="FNanchor_91_603"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_603" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Oct. 14, 1777.</p> + +<p><i>Dear Sir</i>,</p> + +<p>I received duly your letter of May 2, 1777, including a copy +of one you had sent me the year before, which never came to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +hand, and which it seems has been the case with some I wrote +to you from America. Filled tho' our letters have always been +with sentiments of good will to both countries, and earnest desires +of preventing their ruin and promoting their mutual felicity, +I have been apprehensive, that, if it were known that a correspondence +subsisted between us, it might be attended with +inconvenience to you. I have therefore been backward in writing, +not caring to trust the post, and not well knowing whom +else to trust with my letters. But being now assured of a safe +conveyance, I venture to write to you, especially as I think the +subject such an one as you may receive a letter upon without +censure.</p> + +<p>Happy should I have been, if the honest warnings I gave, of +the fatal separation of interests, as well as of affections, that must +attend the measures commenced while I was in England, had +been attended to, and the horrid mischief of this abominable war +been thereby prevented. I should still be happy in any successful +endeavours for restoring peace, consistent with the liberties, the +safety, and honour of America. As to our submitting to the +government of Great Britain, it is vain to think of it. She has +given us, by her numberless barbarities in the prosecution of the +war, and in the treatment of prisoners, by her malice in bribing +slaves to murder their masters, and savages to massacre the +families of farmers, with her baseness in rewarding the unfaithfulness +of servants, and debauching the virtue of honest seamen, +intrusted with our property, so deep an impression of her depravity, +that we never again can trust her in the management +of our affairs and interests. It is now impossible to persuade +our people, as I long endeavoured, that the war was merely +ministerial, and that the nation bore still a good will to us. The +infinite number of addresses printed in your gazettes, all approving +this conduct of your government towards us, and encouraging +our destruction by every possible means, the great majority +in Parliament constantly manifesting the same sentiments, and +the popular public rejoicings on occasion of any news of the +slaughter of an innocent and virtuous people, fighting only in +defence of their just rights; these, together with the recommendations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +of the same measures by even your celebrated moralists +and divines, in their writings and sermons, that are cited approved +and applauded in your great national assemblies; all join +in convincing us, that you are no longer the magnanimous and +enlightened nation, we once esteemed you, and that you are +unfit and unworthy to govern us, as not being able to govern +your own passions.</p> + +<p>But, as I have said, I should be nevertheless happy in seeing +peace restored. For tho', if my friends and the friends of liberty +and virtue, who still remain in England, could be drawn out of +it, a continuance of this war to the ruin of the rest would give +me less concern, I cannot, as that removal is impossible, but +wish for peace for their sakes, as well as for the sake of humanity, +and preventing further carnage.</p> + +<p>This wish of mine, ineffective as it may be, induces me to +mention to you, that, between nations long exasperated against +each other in war, some act of generosity and kindness towards +prisoners on one side has softened resentment, and abated animosity +on the other, so as to bring on an accommodation. You +in England, if you wish for peace, have at present the opportunity +of trying this means, with regard to the prisoners now in +your goals [<i>sic</i>]. They complain of very severe treatment. They +are far from their friends and families, and winter is coming on, +in which they must suffer extremely, if continued in their present +situation; fed scantily on bad provisions, without warm lodging, +clothes, or fire, and not suffered to invite or receive visits from +their friends, or even from the humane and charitable of their +enemies.</p> + +<p>I can assure you, from my own certain knowledge, that your +people, prisoners in America, have been treated with great kindness; +they have been served with the same rations of wholesome +provisions with our own troops, comfortable lodgings have +been provided for them, and they have been allowed large +bounds of villages in a healthy air, to walk and amuse themselves +with on their parole. Where you have thought fit to employ +contractors to supply your people, these contractors have been +protected and aided in their operations. Some considerable act<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +of kindness towards our people would take off the reproach of +inhumanity in that respect from the nation, and leave it where +it ought with more certainty to lay, on the conductors of your +war in America. This I hint to you, out of some remaining good +will to a nation I once sincerely loved. But, as things are, and +in my present temper of mind, not being over fond of receiving +obligations, I shall content myself with proposing, that your +government would allow us to send or employ a commissary +to take some care of those unfortunate people. Perhaps on your +representations this might speedily be obtained in England, +though it was refused most inhumanly at New York.</p> + +<p>If you could have leisure to visit the goals [<i>sic</i>] in which they +are confined, and should be desirous of knowing the truth relative +to the treatment they receive, I wish you would take the trouble +of distributing among the most necessitous according to their +wants, two or three hundred pounds, for which your drafts on +me here shall be punctually honour'd. You could then be able +to speak with some certainty to the point in Parliament, and this +might be attended with good effect.</p> + +<p>If you cannot obtain for us permission to send a commissary, +possibly you may find a trusty, humane, discreet person at +Plymouth, and another at Portsmouth, who would undertake +to communicate what relief we may be able to afford those unhappy, +brave men, martyrs to the cause of liberty. [Your King +will not reward you for taking this trouble, but God will.] I +shall not mention the good will of America; you have what is +better, the applause of your own good conscience. Our captains +have set at liberty above 200 of your people, made prisoners by +our armed vessels and brought into France, besides a great number +dismissed at sea on your coasts, to whom vessels were given +to carry them in: But you have not returned us a man in exchange. +If we had sold your people to the Moors at Sallee, as +you have many of ours to the African and East India Companies, +could you have complained?</p> + +<p>In revising what I have written, I found too much warmth +in it, and was about to strike out some parts. Yet I let them go, +as they will afford you this one reflection; "If a man naturally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span> +cool, and render'd still cooler by old age, is so warmed by our +treatment of his country, how much must those people in general +be exasperated against us? And why are we making inveterate +enemies by our barbarity, not only of the present inhabitants +of a great country, but of their infinitely more numerous +posterity; who will in future ages detest the name of <i>Englishman</i>, +as much as the children in Holland now do those of <i>Alva</i> and +<i>Spaniard</i>." This will certainly happen, unless your conduct is +speedily changed, and the national resentment falls where it +ought to [fall] heavily, on your ministry, [or perhaps rather on +the King, whose will they only execute].</p> + +<p>With the greatest esteem and affection, and best wishes for +your prosperity, I have the honour to be, dear Sir, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="A_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_BRITAIN_FRANCE_SPAIN_HOLLAND_SAXONY_AND_AMERICA" id="A_DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_BRITAIN_FRANCE_SPAIN_HOLLAND_SAXONY_AND_AMERICA"></a>A DIALOGUE BETWEEN BRITAIN, FRANCE,<br /> +SPAIN, HOLLAND, SAXONY AND AMERICA <a name="FNanchor_92_604" id="FNanchor_92_604"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_604" class="fnanchor">[92]</a></h3> + +<p><i>Britain.</i> Sister of Spain, I have a Favour to ask of you. My +Subjects in America are disobedient, and I am about to chastize +them; I beg you will not furnish them with any Arms or +Ammunition.</p> + +<p><i>Spain.</i> Have you forgotten, then, that when my Subjects in +the Low Countries rebelled against me, you not only furnish'd +them with military Stores, but join'd them with an Army and +a Fleet? I wonder how you can have the Impudence to ask such +a Favour of me, or the Folly to expect it!</p> + +<p><i>Britain.</i> You, my dear Sister of France, will surely not refuse +me this Favour.</p> + +<p><i>France.</i> Did you not assist my Rebel Hugenots with a Fleet +and an Army at Rochelle? And have you not lately aided privately +and sneakingly my Rebel Subjects in Corsica? And do +you not at this Instant keep their Chief, pension'd, and ready +to head a fresh Revolt there, whenever you can find or make +an Opportunity? Dear Sister, you must be a little silly!</p> + +<p><i>Britain.</i> Honest Holland! You see it is remembered that I +was once your Friend; you will therefore be mine on this Occasion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span> +I know, indeed, you are accustom'd to smuggle with these +Rebels of mine. I will wink at that; sell 'em as much Tea as +you please, to enervate the Rascals, since they will not take it +of me; but for God's sake don't supply them with any Arms!</p> + +<p><i>Holland.</i> 'Tis true you assisted me against Philip, my Tyrant +of Spain, but have I not assisted you against one of your Tyrants;<a name="FNanchor_H_498" id="FNanchor_H_498"></a><a href="#Footnote_H_498" class="fnanchor">[H]</a> +and enabled you to expell him? Surely that Accompt, +as we Merchants say, is <i>ballanced</i>, and I am nothing in your Debt. +I have indeed some Complaints against <i>you</i>, for endeavouring +to starve me by your <i>Navigation Acts</i>; but, being peaceably +dispos'd, I do not quarrel with you for that. I shall only go on +quietly with my own Business. Trade is my Profession: 't is all +I have to subsist on. And, let me tell you, I shall make no +scruple (on the prospect of a good Market for that Commodity) +even to send my ships to Hell and supply the Devil with Brimstone. +For you must know, I can insure in London against the +Burning of my Sails.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_H_498" id="Footnote_H_498"></a><a href="#FNanchor_H_498"><span class="label">[H]</span></a> James 2d. [<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + +<p><i>America to Britain.</i> Why, you old bloodthirsty Bully! You +who have been everywhere vaunting your own Prowess, and +defaming the Americans as poltroons! You who have boasted +of being able to march over all their Bellies with a single Regiment! +You who by Fraud have possessed yourself of their +strongest Fortress, and all the arms they had stored up in it! +You who have a disciplin'd Army in their Country, intrench'd +to the Teeth, and provided with every thing! Do <i>you</i> run about +begging all Europe not to supply those poor People with a little +Powder and Shot? Do you mean, then, to fall upon them naked +and unarm'd, and butcher them in cold Blood? Is this your +Courage? Is this your Magnanimity?</p> + +<p><i>Britain.</i> Oh! you wicked—Whig—Presbyterian—Serpent! +Have you the Impudence to appear before me after all your +Disobedience? Surrender immediately all your Liberties and +Properties into my Hands, or I will cut you to Pieces. Was it +for this that I planted your country at so great an Expence? +That I protected you in your Infancy, and defended you against +all your Enemies?</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span></p><p><i>America.</i> I shall not surrender my Liberty and Property, but +with my Life. It is not true, that my Country was planted at +your expence. Your own Records refute that Falshood to your +Face. Nor did you ever afford me a Man or a Shilling to defend +me against the Indians, the only Enemies I had upon my own +Account. But, when you have quarrell'd with all Europe, and +drawn me with you into all your Broils, then you value yourself +upon protecting me from the Enemies you have made for me. +I have no natural Cause of Difference with Spain, France, or +Holland, and yet by turns I have join'd with you in Wars against +them all. You would not suffer me to make or keep a separate +Peace with any of them, tho' I might easily have done it to great +Advantage. Does your protecting me in those Wars give you +a Right to fleece me? If so, as I fought for you, as well as you +for me, it gives me a proportionable Right to fleece you. What +think you of an American Law to make a Monopoly of you and +your Commerce, as you have done by your Laws of me and +mine? Content yourself with that Monopoly if you are Wise, +and learn Justice if you would be respected!</p> + +<p><i>Britain.</i> You impudent b——h! Am not I your Mother +Country? Is that not a sufficient Title to your Respect and +Obedience?</p> + +<p><i>Saxony.</i> <i>Mother country!</i> Hah, hah, he! What Respect have +<i>you</i> the front to claim as a Mother Country? You know that +<i>I</i> am <i>your</i> Mother Country, and yet you pay me none. Nay, it +is but the other day, that you hired Ruffians<a name="FNanchor_I_499" id="FNanchor_I_499"></a><a href="#Footnote_I_499" class="fnanchor">[I]</a> to rob me on the +Highway,<a name="FNanchor_J_500" id="FNanchor_J_500"></a><a href="#Footnote_J_500" class="fnanchor">[J]</a> and burn my House!<a name="FNanchor_K_501" id="FNanchor_K_501"></a><a href="#Footnote_K_501" class="fnanchor">[K]</a> For shame! Hide your Face +and hold your Tongue. If you continue this Conduct, you will +make yourself the Contempt of Europe!</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_I_499" id="Footnote_I_499"></a><a href="#FNanchor_I_499"><span class="label">[I]</span></a> Prussians.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_J_500" id="Footnote_J_500"></a><a href="#FNanchor_J_500"><span class="label">[J]</span></a> They enter'd and rais'd Contributions in Saxony.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_K_501" id="Footnote_K_501"></a><a href="#FNanchor_K_501"><span class="label">[K]</span></a> And they burnt the fine Suburbs of Dresden, the Capital of Saxony. +[<i>Franklin's notes.</i>]</p></div> + +<p><i>Britain.</i> O Lord! Where are my friends?</p> + +<p><i>France, Spain, Holland, and Saxony, all together.</i> Friends! +Believe us, you have none, nor ever will have any, 'till you mend +your Manners. How can we, who are your Neighbours, have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span> +any regard for you, or expect any Equity from you, should your +Power increase, when we see how basely and unjustly you have +us'd both your <i>own Mother and your own Children</i>?</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_CHARLES_DE_WEISSENSTEIN" id="TO_CHARLES_DE_WEISSENSTEIN"></a>TO CHARLES DE WEISSENSTEIN<a name="FNanchor_93_605" id="FNanchor_93_605"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_605" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, July 1, 1778.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I received your letter, dated at Brussels the 16th past. My +vanity might possibly be nattered by your expressions of compliment +to my understanding, if your <i>proposals</i> did not more +clearly manifest a mean opinion of it.</p> + +<p>You conjure me, in the name of the omniscient and just God, +before whom I must appear, and by my hopes of future fame, +to consider if some expedient cannot be found to put a stop to +the desolation of America, and prevent the miseries of a general +war. As I am conscious of having taken every step in my power +to prevent the breach, and no one to widen it, I can appear +cheerfully before that God, fearing nothing from his justice in +this particular, though I have much occasion for his mercy in +many others. As to my future fame, I am content to rest it on +my past and present conduct, without seeking an addition to it +in the crooked, dark paths, you propose to me, where I should +most certainly lose it. This your solemn address would therefore +have been more properly made to your sovereign and his +venal Parliament. He and they, who wickedly began, and madly +continue, a war for the desolation of America, are alone accountable +for the consequences.</p> + +<p>You endeavour to impress me with a bad opinion of French +faith; but the instances of their friendly endeavours to serve a +race of weak princes, who, by their own imprudence, defeated +every attempt to promote their interest, weigh but little with +me, when I consider the steady friendship of France to the +Thirteen United States of Switzerland, which has now continued +inviolate two hundred years. You tell me, that she will certainly +cheat us, and that she despises us already. I do not believe that +she will cheat us, and I am not certain that she despises us; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +I see clearly that you are endeavouring to cheat us by your conciliatory +bills; that you actually despised our understandings, +when you flattered yourselves those artifices would succeed; and +that not only France, but all Europe, yourselves included, most +certainly and for ever would despise us, if we were weak enough +to accept your insidious propositions.</p> + +<p>Our expectations of the future grandeur of America are not so +magnificent, and therefore not so vain or visionary, as you represent +them to be. The body of our people are not merchants, +but humble husbandmen, who delight in the cultivation of their +lands, which, from their fertility and the variety of our climates, +are capable of furnishing all the necessaries and conveniences of +life without external commerce; and we have too much land to +have the least temptation to extend our territory by conquest +from peaceable neighbours, as well as too much justice to think +of it. Our militia, you find by experience, are sufficient to defend +our lands from invasion; and the commerce with us will +be defended by all the nations who find an advantage in it. We, +therefore, have not the occasion you imagine, of fleets or standing +armies, but may leave those expensive machines to be maintained +for the pomp of princes, and the wealth of ancient states. +We propose, if possible, to live in peace with all mankind; and +after you have been convinced, to your cost, that there is nothing +to be got by attacking us, we have reason to hope, that no other +power will judge it prudent to quarrel with us, lest they divert +us from our own quiet industry, and turn us into corsairs preying +upon theirs. The weight therefore of an independent empire, +which you seem certain of our inability to bear, will not +be so great as you imagine. The expense of our civil government +we have always borne, and can easily bear, because it is +small. A virtuous and laborious people may be cheaply governed. +Determining, as we do, to have no offices of profit, nor +any sinecures or useless appointments, so common in ancient or +corrupted states, we can govern ourselves a year, for the sum +you pay in a single department, or for what one jobbing contractor, +by the favour of a minister, can cheat you out of in a +single article.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p> + +<p>You think we flatter ourselves, and are deceived into an +opinion that England <i>must</i> acknowledge our independency. +We, on the other hand, think you flatter yourselves in imagining +such an acknowledgment a vast boon, which we strongly desire, +and which you may gain some great advantage by granting or +withholding. We have never asked it of you; we only tell you, +that you can have no treaty with us but as an independent state; +and you may please yourselves and your children with the rattle +of your right to govern us, as long as you have done with that +of your King's being King of France, without giving us the +least concern, if you do not attempt to exercise it. That this +pretended right is indisputable, as you say, we utterly deny. +Your Parliament never had a right to govern us, and your King +has forfeited it by his bloody tyranny. But I thank you for +letting me know a little of your mind, that, even if the Parliament +should acknowledge our independency, the act would not +be binding to posterity, and that your nation would resume and +prosecute the claim as soon as they found it convenient from +the influence of your passions, and your present malice against +us. We suspected before, that you would not be actually bound +by your conciliatory acts, longer than till they had served their +purpose of inducing us to disband our forces; but we were not +certain, that you were knaves by principle, and that we ought +not to have the least confidence in your offers, promises, or +treaties, though confirmed by Parliament.</p> + +<p>I now indeed recollect my being informed, long since, when +in England, that a certain very great personage, then young, +studied much a certain book, called <i>Arcana Imperii</i>.<a name="FNanchor_94_606" id="FNanchor_94_606"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_606" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> I had the +curiosity to procure the book and read it. There are sensible +and good things in it, but some bad ones; for, if I remember +rightly, a particular king is applauded for his politically exciting +a rebellion among his subjects, at a time when they had not +strength to support it, that he might, in subduing them, take +away their privileges, which were troublesome to him; and a +question is formally stated and discussed, <i>Whether a prince, who, +to appease a revolt, makes promises of indemnity to the revolters, +is obliged to fulfil those promises.</i> Honest and good men would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +say, Ay; but this politician says, as you say, No. And he gives +this pretty reason, that, though it was right to make the promises, +because otherwise the revolt would not be suppressed, yet +it would be wrong to keep them, because revolters ought to be +punished to deter from future revolts.</p> + +<p>If these are the principles of your nation, no confidence can +be placed in you; it is in vain to treat with you; and the wars can +only end in being reduced to an utter inability of continuing +them.</p> + +<p>One main drift of your letter seems to be, to impress me with +an idea of your own impartiality, by just censures of your ministers +and measures, and to draw from me propositions of peace, +or approbations of those you have enclosed to me which you +intimate may by your means be conveyed to the King directly, +without the intervention of those ministers. You would have +me give them to, or drop them for, a stranger, whom I may find +next Monday in the church of Notre Dame, to be known by a +rose in his hat. You yourself, Sir, are quite unknown to me; +you have not trusted me with your true name. Our taking the +least step towards a treaty with England through you, might, +if you are an enemy, be made use of to ruin us with our new and +good friends. I may be indiscreet enough in many things; but +certainly, if I were disposed to make propositions (which I cannot +do, having none committed to me to make), I should never +think of delivering them to the Lord knows who, to be carried +to the Lord knows where, to serve no one knows what purposes. +Being at this time one of the most remarkable figures in Paris, +even my appearance in the church of Notre Dame, where I cannot +have any conceivable business, and especially being seen to +leave or drop any letter to any person there, would be a matter +of some speculation, and might, from the suspicions it must +naturally give, have very mischievous consequences to our +credit here.</p> + +<p>The very proposing of a correspondence so to be managed, +in a manner not necessary where fair dealing is intended, gives +just reason to suppose you intend the contrary. Besides, as your +court has sent Commissioners to treat with the Congress, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +all the powers that could be given them by the crown under the +act of Parliament, what good purpose can be served by privately +obtaining propositions from us? Before those Commissioners +went, we might have treated in virtue of our general powers, +(with the knowledge, advice, and approbation of our friends), +upon any propositions made to us. But, under the present +circumstances, for us to make propositions, while a treaty is +supposed to be actually on foot with the Congress, would be +extremely improper, highly presumptuous with regard to +our constituents, and answer no good end whatever.</p> + +<p>I write this letter to you, notwithstanding; (which I think I +can convey in a less mysterious manner, and guess it may come +to your hands;) I write it because I would let you know our +sense of your procedure, which appears as insidious as that of +your conciliatory bills. Your true way to obtain peace, if your +ministers desire it, is, to propose openly to the Congress fair +and equal terms, and you may possibly come sooner to such a +resolution, when you find, that personal flatteries, general cajolings, +and panegyrics on our <i>virtue</i> and <i>wisdom</i> are not likely to +have the effect you seem to expect; the persuading us to act +basely and foolishly, in betraying our country and posterity +into the hands of our most bitter enemies, giving up or selling +our arms and warlike stores, dismissing our ships of war and +troops, and putting those enemies in possession of our forts and +ports.</p> + +<p>This proposition of delivering ourselves, bound and gagged, +ready for hanging, without even a right to complain, and without +a friend to be found afterwards among all mankind, you +would have us embrace upon the faith of an act of Parliament! +Good God! an act of your Parliament! This demonstrates that +you do not yet know us, and that you fancy we do not know +you; but it is not merely this flimsy faith, that we are to act upon; +you offer us <i>hope</i>, the hope of <span class="smcap">Places</span>, <span class="smcap">Pensions</span>, and +<span class="smcap">Peerages</span>. These, judging from yourselves, you think are +motives irresistible. This offer to corrupt us, Sir, is with me +your credential, and convinces me that you are not a private +volunteer in your application. It bears the stamp of British<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +court character. It is even the signature of your King. But +think for a moment in what light it must be viewed in America. +By <span class="smcap">Places</span>, you mean places among us, for you take care by +a special article to secure your own to yourselves. We must +then pay the salaries in order to enrich ourselves with these +places. But you will give us <span class="smcap">Pensions</span>, probably to be paid +too out of your expected American revenue, and which none of +us can accept without deserving, and perhaps obtaining, a +<span class="smcap">Sus</span>-<i>pension</i>. <span class="smcap">Peerages</span>! alas! Sir, our long observation of +the vast servile majority of your peers, voting constantly for +every measure proposed by a minister, however weak or wicked, +leaves us small respect for that title. We consider it as a sort of +<i>tar-and-feather</i> honour, or a mixture of foulness and folly, which +every man among us, who should accept it from your King, +would be obliged to renounce, or exchange for that conferred +by the mobs of their own country, or wear it with everlasting +infamy. I am, Sir, your humble Servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_EPHEMERA" id="THE_EPHEMERA"></a>THE EPHEMERA<a name="FNanchor_95_607" id="FNanchor_95_607"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_607" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></h3> + +<p class="center"><i>An Emblem of Human Life</i></p> + +<p class="center">[1778]</p> + +<p>You may remember, my dear friend, that when we lately +spent that happy day in the delightful garden and sweet society +of the Moulin Joly, I stopt a little in one of our walks, and staid +some time behind the company. We had been shown numberless +skeletons of a kind of little fly, called an ephemera, whose +successive generations, we were told, were bred and expired +within the day. I happened to see a living company of them on +a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in conversation. You know +I understand all the inferior animal tongues: my too great application +to the study of them is the best excuse I can give for the +little progress I have made in your charming language. I listened +through curiosity to the discourse of these little creatures; but +as they, in their national vivacity, spoke three or four together,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +I could make but little of their conversation. I found, however, +by some broken expressions that I heard now and then, they +were disputing warmly on the merit of two foreign musicians, +one a <i>cousin</i>, the other a <i>moscheto</i>; in which dispute they spent +their time, seemingly as regardless of the shortness of life as if +they had been sure of living a month. Happy people! thought +I, you live certainly under a wise, just, and mild government, +since you have no public grievances to complain of, nor any +subject of contention but the perfections and imperfections of +foreign music. I turned my head from them to an old grey-headed +one, who was single on another leaf, and talking to himself. +Being amused with his soliloquy, I put it down in writing, +in hopes it will likewise amuse her to whom I am so much indebted +for the most pleasing of all amusements, her delicious +company and heavenly harmony.</p> + +<p>"It was," said he, "the opinion of learned philosophers of our +race, who lived and flourished long before my time, that this +vast world, the Moulin Joly, could not itself subsist more than +eighteen hours; and I think there was some foundation for that +opinion, since, by the apparent motion of the great luminary +that gives life to all nature, and which in my time has evidently +declined considerably towards the ocean at the end of our earth, +it must then finish its course, be extinguished in the waters that +surround us, and leave the world in cold and darkness, necessarily +producing universal death and destruction. I have lived +seven of those hours, a great age, being no less than four hundred +and twenty minutes of time. How very few of us continue +so long! I have seen generations born, flourish, and expire. My +present friends are the children and grandchildren of the friends +of my youth, who are now, alas, no more! And I must soon +follow them; for, by the course of nature, though still in health, +I cannot expect to live above seven or eight minutes longer. +What now avails all my toil and labor, in amassing honey-dew +on this leaf, which I cannot live to enjoy! What the political +struggles I have been engaged in, for the good of my compatriot +inhabitants of this bush, or my philosophical studies for +the benefit of our race in general! for, in politics, what can laws<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +do without morals? Our present race of ephemeræ will in a +course of minutes become corrupt, like those of other and older +bushes, and consequently as wretched. And in philosophy how +small our progress! Alas! art is long, and life is short! My +friends would comfort me with the idea of a name, they say, I +shall leave behind me; and they tell me I have lived long enough +to nature and to glory. But what will fame be to an ephemera +who no longer exists? And what will become of all history in +the eighteenth hour, when the world itself, even the whole +Moulin Joly, shall come to its end, and be buried in universal +ruin?"</p> + +<p>To me, after all my eager pursuits, no solid pleasures now +remain, but the reflection of a long life spent in meaning well, +the sensible conversation of a few good lady ephemeræ, and +now and then a kind smile and a tune from the ever amiable +<i>Brillante</i>.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_RICHARD_BACHE" id="TO_RICHARD_BACHE"></a>TO RICHARD BACHE</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, June 2, 1779.</p> + +<p>—I am very easy about the efforts Messrs. Lee and Izard are +using, as you tell me, to injure me on that side of the water. I +trust in the justice of the Congress, that they will listen to no +accusations against me, that I have not first been acquainted +with, and had an opportunity of answering. I know those +gentlemen have plenty of ill will to me, though I have never +done to either of them the smallest injury, or given the least just +cause of offence. But my too great reputation, and the general +good will this people have for me, and the respect they show +me, and even the compliments they make me, all grieve those +unhappy gentlemen; unhappy indeed in their tempers, and in +the dark, uncomfortable passions of jealousy, anger, suspicion, +envy, and malice. It is enough for good minds to be affected at +other people's misfortunes; but they, that are vexed at everybody's +good luck, can never be happy. I take no other revenge +of such enemies, than to let them remain in the miserable situation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +in which their malignant natures have placed them, by +endeavouring to support an estimable character; and thus, by +continuing the reputation the world has hitherto indulged me +with, I shall continue them in their present state of damnation; +and I am not disposed to reverse my conduct for the alleviation +of their torments.</p> + +<p>I am surprised to hear, that my grandson, Temple Franklin, +being with me, should be an objection against me, and that there +is a cabal for removing him.<a name="FNanchor_96_608" id="FNanchor_96_608"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_608" class="fnanchor">[96]</a> Methinks it is rather some merit, +that I have rescued a valuable young man from the danger of +being a Tory, and fixed him in honest republican Whig principles; +as I think, from the integrity of his disposition, his industry, +his early sagacity, and uncommon abilities for business, +he may in time become of great service to his country. It is +enough that I have lost my <i>son</i>; would they add my <i>grandson</i>? +An old man of seventy, I undertook a winter voyage at the +command of the Congress, and for the public service, with no +other attendant to take care of me. I am continued here in a +foreign country, where, if I am sick, his filial attention comforts +me, and, if I die, I have a child to close my eyes and take care of +my remains. His dutiful behaviour towards me, and his diligence +and fidelity in business, are both pleasing and useful to +me. His conduct, as my private secretary, has been unexceptionable, +and I am confident the Congress will never think of +separating us.</p> + +<p>I have had a great deal of pleasure in Ben too.<a name="FNanchor_97_609" id="FNanchor_97_609"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_609" class="fnanchor">[97]</a> He is a good, +honest lad, and will make, I think, a valuable man. He had +made as much proficiency in his learning, as the boarding school +he was at could well afford him; and, after some consideration +where to find a better for him, I at length fixed on sending him +to Geneva. I had a good opportunity by a gentleman of that +city; who had a place for him in his chaise, and has a son about +the same age at the same school. He promised to take care of +him, and enclosed I send you the letters I have since received +relating to him and from him. He went very cheerfully, and I +understand is very happy. I miss his company on Sundays at +dinner. But, if I live, and I can find a little leisure, I shall make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +the journey next spring to see him, and to see at the same time +<i>the old thirteen United States</i> of Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Thanks be to God, I continue well and hearty. Undoubtedly +I grow older, but I think the last ten years have made no great +difference. I have sometimes the gout, but they say that is not +so much a disease as a remedy. God bless you. I am your +affectionate father,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="MORALS_OF_CHESS" id="MORALS_OF_CHESS"></a>MORALS OF CHESS<a name="FNanchor_98_610" id="FNanchor_98_610"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_610" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[1779]</p> + +<p>[Playing at chess is the most ancient and most universal game +known among men; for its original is beyond the memory of +history, and it has, for numberless ages, been the amusement of +all the civilised nations of Asia, the Persians, the Indians, and +the Chinese. Europe has had it above a thousand years; the +Spaniards have spread it over their part of America; and it has +lately begun to make its appearance in the United States. It is +so interesting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to induce +engaging in it; and thence it is seldom played for money. Those +therefore who have leisure for such diversions, cannot find one +that is more innocent: and the following piece, written with a +view to correct (among a few young friends) some little improprieties +in the practice of it, shows at the same time that it +may, in its effects on the mind, be not merely innocent, but advantageous, +to the vanquished as well as the victor.]</p> + +<p>The Game of Chess is not merely an idle Amusement. Several +very valuable qualities of the Mind, useful in the course of human +Life, are to be acquir'd or strengthened by it, so as to become +habits, ready on all occasions. For Life is a kind of Chess, +in which we often have Points to gain, & Competitors or Adversaries +to contend with; and in which there is a vast variety of +good and ill Events, that are in some degree the Effects of +Prudence or the want of it. By playing at Chess, then, we may +learn,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span></p> + +<p>I. <i>Foresight</i>, which looks a little into futurity, and considers +the Consequences that may attend an action; for it is continually +occurring to the Player, "If I move this piece, what will be the +advantages or disadvantages of my new situation? What Use +can my Adversary make of it to annoy me? What other moves +can I make to support it, and to defend myself from his attacks?"</p> + +<p>II. <i>Circumspection</i>, which surveys the whole Chessboard, or +scene of action; the relations of the several pieces and situations, +the Dangers they are respectively exposed to, the several possibilities +of their aiding each other, the probabilities that the +Adversary may make this or that move, and attack this or the +other Piece, and what different Means can be used to avoid his +stroke, or turn its consequences against him.</p> + +<p>III. <i>Caution</i>, not to make our moves too hastily. This habit +is best acquired, by observing strictly the laws of the Game; +such as, <i>If you touch a Piece, you must move it somewhere; if you +set it down, you must let it stand</i>. And it is therefore best that +these rules should be observed, as the Game becomes thereby +more the image of human Life, and particularly of War; in +which, if you have incautiously put yourself into a bad and +dangerous position, you cannot obtain your Enemy's Leave to +withdraw your Troops, and place them more securely, but you +must abide all the consequences of your rashness.</p> + +<p>And <i>lastly</i>, we learn by Chess the habit of not being discouraged +by present appearances in the state of our affairs, the +habit of hoping for a favourable Change, and that of persevering +in the search of resources. The Game is so full of Events, there +is such a variety of turns in it, the Fortune of it is so subject to +sudden Vicissitudes, and one so frequently, after long contemplation, +discovers the means of extricating one's self from a +supposed insurmountable Difficulty, that one is encouraged to +continue the Contest to the last, in hopes of Victory from our +own skill, or at least [of getting a stale mate] from the Negligence +of our Adversary. And whoever considers, what in Chess he +often sees instances of, that [particular pieces of] success is [are] +apt to produce Presumption, & its consequent Inattention, +by which more is afterwards lost than was gain'd by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +preceding Advantage, while misfortunes produce more care +and attention, by which the loss may be recovered, will learn +not to be too much discouraged by any present success of +his Adversary, nor to despair of final good fortune upon every +little Check he receives in the pursuit of it.</p> + +<p>That we may therefore be induced more frequently to chuse +this beneficial amusement, in preference to others which are not +attended with the same advantages, every Circumstance that +may increase the pleasure of it should be regarded; and every +action or word that is unfair, disrespectful, or that in any way +may give uneasiness, should be avoided, as contrary to the +immediate intention of both the Players, which is to pass the +Time agreably.</p> + +<p>Therefore, first, if it is agreed to play according to the strict +rules, then those rules are to be exactly observed by both +parties, and should not be insisted on for one side, while deviated +from by the other—for this is not equitable.</p> + +<p>Secondly, if it is agreed not to observe the rules exactly, but +one party demands indulgencies, he should then be as willing +to allow them to the other.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, no false move should ever be made to extricate yourself +out of difficulty, or to gain an advantage. There can be no +pleasure in playing with a person once detected in such unfair +practice.</p> + +<p>Fourthly, if your adversary is long in playing, you ought not +to hurry him, or express any uneasiness at his delay. You should +not sing, nor whistle, nor look at your watch, nor take up a +book to read, nor make a tapping with your feet on the floor, or +with your fingers on the table, nor do any thing that may disturb +his attention. For all these things displease; and they do not +show your skill in playing, but your craftiness or your rudeness.</p> + +<p>Fifthly, you ought not to endeavour to amuse and deceive +your adversary, by pretending to have made bad moves, and +saying that you have now lost the game, in order to make him +secure and careless, and inattentive to your schemes: for this is +fraud and deceit, not skill in the game.</p> + +<p>Sixthly, you must not, when you have gained a victory, use<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> +any triumphing or insulting expression, nor show too much +pleasure; but endeavour to console your adversary, and make +him less dissatisfied with himself, by every kind of civil expression +that may be used with truth, such as, "you understand the +game better than I, but you are a little inattentive;" or, "you +play too fast;" or, "you had the best of the game, but something +happened to divert your thoughts, and that turned it in +my favour."</p> + +<p>Seventhly, if you are a spectator while others play, observe +the most perfect silence. For, if you give advice, you offend +both parties, him against whom you give it, because it may +cause the loss of his game, him in whose favour you give it, +because, though it be good, and he follows it, he loses the +pleasure he might have had, if you had permitted him to think +until it had occurred to himself. Even after a move or moves, +you must not, by replacing the pieces, show how they might +have been placed better; for that displeases, and may occasion +disputes and doubts about their true situation. All talking to +the players lessens or diverts their attention, and is therefore +unpleasing. Nor should you give the least hint to either party, +by any kind of noise or motion. If you do, you are unworthy +to be a spectator. If you have a mind to exercise or show your +judgment, do it in playing your own game, when you have an +opportunity, not in criticizing, or meddling with, or counselling +the play of others.</p> + +<p>Lastly, if the game is not to be played rigorously, according +to the rules above mentioned, then moderate your desire of +victory over your adversary, and be pleased with one over +yourself. Snatch not eagerly at every advantage offered by his +unskilfulness or inattention; but point out to him kindly, that +by such a move he places or leaves a piece in danger and unsupported; +that by another he will put his king in a perilous +situation, &c. By this generous civility (so opposite to the +unfairness above forbidden) you may, indeed, happen to lose +the game to your opponent; but you will win what is better, +his esteem, his respect, and his affection, together with the silent +approbation and good-will of impartial spectators.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_BENJAMIN_VAUGHAN_410" id="TO_BENJAMIN_VAUGHAN_410"></a>TO BENJAMIN VAUGHAN</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Nov. 9, 1779.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span></p> + +<p>I have received several kind Letters from you, which I have +not regularly answered. They gave me however great Pleasure, +as they acquainted me with your Welfare, and that of your +Family and other Friends; and I hope you will continue writing +to me as often as you can do it conveniently.</p> + +<p>I thank you much for the great Care and Pains you have +taken in regulating and correcting the Edition of those Papers. +Your Friendship for me appears in almost every Page; and if +the Preservation of any of them should prove of Use to the +Publick, it is to you that the Publick will owe the Obligation. +In looking them over, I have noted some Faults of Impression +that hurt the Sense, and some other little Matters, which you will +find all in a Sheet under the title of <i>Errata</i>. You can best judge +whether it may be worth while to add any of them to the Errata +already printed, or whether it may not be as well to reserve the +whole for Correction in another Edition, if such should ever +be. Inclos'd I send a more perfect copy of the <i>Chapter</i>.<a name="FNanchor_99_611" id="FNanchor_99_611"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_611" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + +<p>If I should ever recover the Pieces that were in the Hands of +my Son, and those I left among my Papers in America, I think +there may be enough to make three more such Volumes, of +which a great part would be more interesting.</p> + +<p>As to the <i>Time</i> of publishing, of which you ask my Opinion +I am not furnish'd with any Reasons, or Ideas of Reasons, on +which to form any Opinion. Naturally I should suppose the +Bookseller to be from Experience the best Judge, and I should +be for leaving it to him.</p> + +<p>I did not write the Pamphlet you mention. I know nothing +of it. I suppose it is the same, concerning which Dr. Priestley +formerly asked me the same Question. That for which he +took it was intitled, <i>A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, +Pleasure and Pain</i>, with these Lines in the Title Page.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"Whatever is, is right. But purblind Man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sees but a part o' the Chain, the nearest Link;<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +<span class="i0">His Eye not carrying to that equal Beam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That poises all above."<br /></span> +<span class="i14"><span class="smcap">Dryden.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center"><i>London, Printed M. D. C. C. X. X. V.</i></p> + +<p>It was addressed to Mr. J. R., that is, James Ralph, then a +youth of about my age, and my intimate friend; afterwards a +political writer and historian. The purport of it was to prove +the doctrine of fate, from the supposed attributes of God; in +some such manner as this: that in erecting and governing the +world, as he was infinitely wise, he knew what would be best; +infinitely good, he must be disposed, and infinitely powerful, +he must be able to execute it: consequently all is right. There +were only an hundred copies printed, of which I gave a few to +friends, and afterwards disliking the piece, as conceiving it +might have an ill tendency, I burnt the rest, except one copy, +the margin of which was filled with manuscript notes by Lyons, +author of the Infallibility of Human Judgment, who was at that +time another of my acquaintance in London. I was not nineteen +years of age when it was written. In 1730, I wrote a piece on +the other side of the question, which began with laying for its +foundation this fact: "That almost all men in all ages and +countries, have at times made use of prayer." Thence I reasoned, +that if all things are ordained, prayer must among +the rest be ordained. But as prayer can produce no change in +things that are ordained, praying must then be useless and an +absurdity. God would therefore not ordain praying if everything +else was ordained. But praying exists, therefore all things +are not ordained, etc. This pamphlet was never printed, and +the manuscript has been long lost. The great uncertainty I +found in metaphysical reasonings disgusted me, and I quitted +that kind of reading and study for others more satisfactory.</p> + +<p>I return the Manuscripts you were so obliging as to send me; +I am concern'd at your having no other copys, I hope these +will get safe to your hands. I do not remember the Duke de +Chaulnes showing me the Letter you mention. I have received +Dr. Crawford's book, but not your Abstract, which I +wait for as you desire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></p> + +<p>I send you also M. Dupont's <i>Table Economique</i>, which I think +an excellent Thing, as it contains in a clear Method all the principles +of that new sect, called here <i>les Économistes</i>.</p> + +<p>Poor Henley's dying in that manner is inconceivable to me. +Is any Reason given to account for it, besides insanity?</p> + +<p>Remember me affectionately to all your good Family, and +believe me, with great Esteem, my dear Friend, yours, most +sincerely,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_WHISTLE" id="THE_WHISTLE"></a>THE WHISTLE<a name="FNanchor_100_612" id="FNanchor_100_612"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_612" class="fnanchor">[100]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">TO MADAME BRILLON</p> + +<p class="date">Passy, November 10, 1779.</p> + +<p>I received my dear friend's two letters, one for Wednesday +and one for Saturday. This is again Wednesday. I do not deserve +one for to-day, because I have not answered the former. +But, indolent as I am, and averse to writing, the fear of having +no more of your pleasing epistles, if I do not contribute to the +correspondence, obliges me to take up my pen; and as Mr. B. +has kindly sent me word, that he sets out to-morrow to see you, +instead of spending this Wednesday evening as I have done its +namesakes, in your delightful company, I sit down to spend it +in thinking of you, in writing to you, and in reading over and +over again your letters.</p> + +<p>I am charmed with your description of Paradise, and with +your plan of living there; and I approve much of your conclusion, +that, in the mean time, we should draw all the good we +can from this world. In my opinion, we might all draw more +good from it than we do, and suffer less evil, if we would take +care not to give too much for <i>whistles</i>. For to me it seems, that +most of the unhappy people we meet with, are become so by +neglect of that caution.</p> + +<p>You ask what I mean? You love stories, and will excuse my +telling one of myself.</p> + +<p>When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, +filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +where they sold toys for children; and, being charmed with the +sound of a <i>whistle</i>, that I met by the way in the hands of another +boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I +then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much +pleased with my <i>whistle</i>, but disturbing all the family. My +brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I +had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it +was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have +bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much +for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave +me more chagrin than the <i>whistle</i> gave me pleasure.</p> + +<p>This however was afterwards of use to me, the impression +continuing on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to +buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, <i>Don't give too +much for the whistle</i>; and I saved my money.</p> + +<p>As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions +of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who <i>gave too +much for the whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>When I saw one too ambitious of court favour, sacrificing +his time in attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, +and perhaps his friends, to attain it, I have said to myself, +<i>This man gives too much for his whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing +himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and +ruining them by that neglect, <i>He pays, indeed</i>, said I, <i>too much +for his whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable +living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem +of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for +the sake of accumulating wealth, <i>Poor man</i>, said I, <i>you pay too +much for your whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable +improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal +sensations, and ruining his health in their pursuit, <i>Mistaken man</i>, +said I, <i>you are providing pain for yourself, instead of pleasure; you +give too much for your whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he +contracts debts, and ends his career in a prison, <i>Alas!</i> say I, <i>he +has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured +brute of a husband, <i>What a pity</i>, say I, <i>that she should +pay so much for a whistle</i>!</p> + +<p>In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind +are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of +the value of things, and by their <i>giving too much for their whistles</i>.</p> + +<p>Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, when +I consider, that, with all this wisdom of which I am boasting, +there are certain things in the world so tempting, for example, +the apples of King John, which happily are not to be bought; +for if they were put to sale by auction, I might very easily be led +to ruin myself in the purchase, and find that I had once more +given too much for the <i>whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours very sincerely +and with unalterable affection,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_LORDS_PRAYER" id="THE_LORDS_PRAYER"></a>THE LORD'S PRAYER</h3> + +<p class="center">[1779?]</p> + +<p class="section center"><span class="smcap">Old Version</span></p> + +<p> +1. Our Father which art in Heaven,<br /> +<br /> +2. Hallowed be thy Name.<br /> +<br /> +3. Thy Kingdom come.<br /> +<br /> +4. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.<br /> +<br /> +5. Give us this Day our daily Bread.<br /> +<br /> +6. Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And lead us not into Temptation, but deliver us from Evil.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="section center"><span class="smcap">New Version by B. F.</span></p> + +<p> +1. Heavenly Father,<br /> +<br /> +2. May all revere thee,<br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span>3. And become thy dutiful Children and faithful Subjects.<br /> +<br /> +4. May thy Laws be obeyed on Earth as perfectly as they are in<br /> +Heaven.<br /> +<br /> +5. Provide for us this Day as thou hast hitherto daily done.<br /> +<br /> +6. Forgive us our Trespasses and enable us likewise to forgive<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">those that offend us.</span><br /> +<br /> +7. Keep us out of Temptation, and deliver us from Evil.—<br /> +</p> + +<p class="section center"><i>Reasons for the Change of Expression</i></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Old Version. <i>Our Father which art in Heaven.</i></p> + +<p class="hangbib">New V.—<i>Heavenly Father</i>, is more concise, equally expressive, +and better modern English.—</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Old V.—<i>Hallowed be thy Name.</i> This seems to relate to an +Observance among the Jews not to pronounce the proper or +peculiar Name of God, they deeming it a Profanation so to +do. We have in our Language no <i>proper Name</i> for God; the +Word <i>God</i> being a common or general Name, expressing all +chief Objects of Worship, true or false. The Word <i>hallowed</i> +is almost obsolete. People now have but an imperfect Conception +of the Meaning of the Petition. It is therefore proposed +to change the expression into</p> + +<p class="hangbib">New V.—<i>May all revere thee.</i></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Old V.—<i>Thy Kingdom come.</i> This Petition seems suited to the +then Condition of the Jewish Nation. Originally their State +was a Theocracy. God was their King. Dissatisfied with +that kind of Government, they desired a visible earthly King +in the manner of the Nations round them. They had such +Kings accordingly; but their Offerings were <i>due</i> to God on +many Occasions by the Jewish Law, which when People +could not pay, or had forgotten as Debtors are apt to do, it +was proper to pray that those Debts might be forgiven. Our +Liturgy uses neither the <i>Debtors</i> of Matthew, nor the <i>indebted</i> +of Luke, but instead of them speaks of <i>those that trespass +against us</i>. Perhaps the Considering it as a Christian Duty to +forgive Debtors, was by the Compilers thought an inconvenient +Idea in a trading Nation.—There seems however +something presumptuous in this Mode of Expression, which +has the Air of proposing ourselves as an Example of Goodness +fit for God to imitate. <i>We hope you will at least be as good as +we are</i>; you see we forgive one another, and therefore we pray +that you would forgive us. Some have considered it in another +sense, <i>Forgive us as we forgive others</i>; i.e. If we do not +forgive others we pray that thou wouldst not forgive us. But +this being a kind of conditional <i>Imprecation</i> against ourselves, +seems improper in such a Prayer; and therefore it may be better +to say humbly & modestly</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">New V.—<i>Forgive us our Trespasses, and enable us likewise to forgive +those that offend us.</i> This instead of assuming that we +have already in & of ourselves the Grace of Forgiveness, +acknowledges our Dependance on God, the Fountain of +Mercy for any Share we may have in it, praying that he would +communicate of it to us.—</p> + +<p class="hangbib">Old V.—<i>And lead us not into Temptation.</i> The Jews had a Notion, +that God sometimes tempted, or directed or permitted +the Tempting of People. Thus it was said he tempted Pharaoh; +directed Satan to tempt Job; and a false Prophet to +tempt Ahab, &c. Under this Persuasion it was natural for +them to pray that he would not put them to such severe Trials. +We now suppose that Temptation, so far as it is supernatural, +comes from the Devil only, and this Petition continued conveys +a Suspicion which in our present Conception seems +unworthy of God, therefore might be altered to</p> + +<p class="hangbib">New V.—<i>Keep us out of Temptation.</i> Happiness was not increas'd +by the Change, and they had reason to wish and pray +for a Return of the Theocracy, or Government of God. +Christians in these Times have other Ideas when they speak +of the Kingdom of God, such as are perhaps more adequately +express'd by</p> + +<p class="hangbib">New V.—<i>And become thy dutiful Children & faithful Subjects.</i></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Old V.—<i>Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.</i></p> + +<p class="hangbib">New V.—<i>May thy Laws be obeyed on Earth as perfectly as they +are in Heaven.</i></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Old V.—<i>Give us this Day our daily Bread.</i> Give us what is <i>ours</i>, +seems to put us in a Claim of Right, and to contain too little of +the grateful Acknowledgment and Sense of Dependance that +becomes Creatures who live on the daily Bounty of their +Creator. Therefore it is changed to</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span></p> + +<p class="hangbib">New V.—<i>Provide for us this Day, as thou hast hitherto daily +done.</i></p> + +<p class="hangbib">Old V.—<i>Forgive us our Debts as we forgive our Debtors.</i> Matthew.</p> + +<p class="hangbib" style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Forgive us our Sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted +to us.</i> Luke.</p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_LEVEE" id="THE_LEVEE"></a>THE LEVÉE</h3> + +<p class="center">[1779?]</p> + +<p>In the first chapter of Job we have an account of a transaction +said to have arisen in the court, or at the <i>levée</i>, of the best of all +possible princes, or of governments by a single person, viz. that +of God himself.</p> + +<p>At this <i>levée</i>, in which the sons of God were assembled, Satan +also appeared.</p> + +<p>It is probable the writer of that ancient book took his idea of +this <i>levée</i> from those of the eastern monarchs of the age he lived +in.</p> + +<p>It is to this day usual at the <i>levées</i> of princes, to have persons +assembled who are enemies to each other, who seek to obtain +favor by whispering calumny and detraction, and thereby ruining +those that distinguish themselves by their virtue and merit. +And kings frequently ask a familiar question or two, of every +one in the circle, merely to show their benignity. These circumstances +are particularly exemplified in this relation.</p> + +<p>If a modern king, for instance, finds a person in the circle who +has not lately been there, he naturally asks him how he has +passed his time since he last had the pleasure of seeing him? the +gentleman perhaps replies that he has been in the country to +view his estates, and visit some friends. Thus Satan being asked +whence he cometh? answers, "From going to and fro in the +earth, and walking up and down in it." And being further asked, +whether he had considered the uprightness and fidelity of the +prince's servant Job, he immediately displays all the malignance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> +of the designing courtier, by answering with another question: +"Doth Job serve God for naught? Hast thou not given him immense +wealth, and protected him in the possession of it? Deprive +him of that, and he will curse thee to thy face." In modern +phrase, Take away his places and his pensions, and your Majesty +will soon find him in the opposition.</p> + +<p>This whisper against Job had its effect. He was delivered into +the power of his adversary, who deprived him of his fortune, +destroyed his family, and completely ruined him.</p> + +<p>The book of Job is called by divines a sacred poem, and, with +the rest of the Holy Scriptures, is understood to be written for +our instruction.</p> + +<p>What then is the instruction to be gathered from this supposed +transaction?</p> + +<p>Trust not a single person with the government of your state. +For if the Deity himself, being the monarch may for a time give +way to calumny, and suffer it to operate the destruction of the +best of subjects; what mischief may you not expect from such +power in a mere man, though the best of men, from whom the +truth is often industriously hidden, and to whom falsehood is +often presented in its place, by artful, interested, and malicious +courtiers?</p> + +<p>And be cautious in trusting him even with limited powers, +lest sooner or later he sap and destroy those limits, and render +himself absolute.</p> + +<p>For by the disposal of places, he attaches to himself all the +placeholders, with their numerous connexions, and also all the +expecters and hopers of places, which will form a strong party +in promoting his views. By various political engagements for +the interest of neighbouring states or princes, he procures their +aid in establishing his own personal power. So that, through the +hopes of emolument in one part of his subjects, and the fear of +his resentment in the other, all opposition falls before him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="PROPOSED_NEW_VERSION_OF_THE_BIBLE" id="PROPOSED_NEW_VERSION_OF_THE_BIBLE"></a>PROPOSED NEW VERSION OF THE BIBLE<a name="FNanchor_101_613" id="FNanchor_101_613"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_613" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[1779?]</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">To the Printer of***</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir,</span></p> + +<p>It is now more than one hundred and seventy years since the +translation of our common English Bible. The language in that +time is much changed, and the style, being obsolete, and thence +less agreeable, is perhaps one reason why the reading of that excellent +book is of late so much neglected. I have therefore +thought it would be well to procure a new version, in which, +preserving the sense, the turn of phrase and manner of expression +should be modern. I do not pretend to have the necessary +abilities for such a work myself; I throw out the hint for the consideration +of the learned; and only venture to send you a few +verses of the first chapter of Job, which may serve as a sample of +the kind of version I would recommend.</p> + +<p class="sig">A. B.</p> + +<p class="section center">PART OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF JOB MODERNIZED</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Bible Verses"> + +<tr><td class="tdc" style="width: 50%"><span class="smcap">Old Text</span></td> + +<td class="tdc" style="width: 50%"><span class="smcap">New Version</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td class="parallell"> +Verse 6. Now there was a +day when the sons of God +came to present themselves before +the Lord, and Satan came +also amongst them.</td> + +<td class="parallelr"> +Verse 6. And it being <i>levée</i> +day in heaven, all God's nobility +came to court, to present +themselves before him; +and Satan also appeared in the +circle, as one of the ministry.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="parallell"> +7. And the Lord said unto +Satan, Whence comest thou? +Then Satan answered the Lord, +and said, From going to and +fro in the earth, and from +walking up and down in it.</td> + +<td class="parallelr"> +7. And God said to Satan, +You have been some time absent; +where were you? And +Satan answered[,] I have been +at my country-seat, and in +different places visiting my +friends.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="parallell"> +8. And the Lord said unto +Satan, Hast thou considered +my servant Job, that there is +none like him in the earth, a +perfect and an upright man, +one that feareth God, and +escheweth evil?</td> + +<td class="parallelr"> +8. And God said, Well, +what think you of Lord Job? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span>You see he is my best friend, +a perfectly honest man, full +of respect for me, and avoiding +every thing that might offend +me.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="parallell"> +9. Then Satan answered the +Lord, and said, Doth Job fear +God for naught?</td> + +<td class="parallelr"> +9. And Satan answered, +Does your Majesty imagine +that his good conduct is the +effect of mere personal attachment +and affection?</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="parallell"> +10. Hast thou not made an +hedge about his house, and +about all that he hath on every +side? Thou hast blessed the +work of his hands, and his +substance is increased in the +land.</td> + +<td class="parallelr"> +10. Have you not protected +him, and heaped your benefits +upon him, till he is grown +enormously rich?</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="parallell"> +11. But put forth thine +hand now, and touch all that +he hath, and he will curse thee +to thy face.</td> + +<td class="parallelr"> +11. Try him;—only withdraw +your favor, turn him out +of his places, and withhold his +pensions, and you will soon +find him in the opposition.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_420" id="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_420"></a>TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Feb. 8, 1780.</p> + +<p>Dear Sir,</p> + +<p>Your kind Letter of September 27 came to hand but very +lately, the Bearer having staied long in Holland. I always rejoice +to hear of your being still employ'd in experimental Researches +into Nature, and of the Success you meet with. The +rapid Progress <i>true</i> Science now makes, occasions my regretting +sometimes that I was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine +the Height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the +Power of Man over Matter. We may perhaps learn to deprive +large Masses of their Gravity, and give them absolute Levity, +for the sake of easy Transport. Agriculture may diminish its +Labour and double its Produce; all Diseases may by sure means +be prevented or cured, not excepting even that of Old Age, and +our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span>antediluvian +Standard. O that moral Science were in as fair a way of Improvement, +that Men would cease to be Wolves to one another, +and that human Beings would at length learn what they now improperly +call Humanity!<a name="FNanchor_102_614" id="FNanchor_102_614"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_614" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> + +<p>I am glad my little Paper on the <i>Aurora Borealis</i> pleased. If +it should occasion further Enquiry, and so produce a better +Hypothesis, it will not be wholly useless. I am ever, with the +greatest and most sincere Esteem, dear Sir, yours very affectionately</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_GEORGE_WASHINGTON" id="TO_GEORGE_WASHINGTON"></a>TO GEORGE WASHINGTON</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, March 5, 1780.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir,</span></p> + +<p>I have received but lately the Letter your Excellency did me +the honour of writing to me in Recommendation of the Marquis +de la Fayette. His modesty detained it long in his own +Hands. We became acquainted, however, from the time of his +Arrival at Paris; and his Zeal for the Honour of our Country, +his Activity in our Affairs here, and his firm Attachment to our +Cause and to you, impress'd me with the same Regard and Esteem +for him that your Excellency's Letter would have done, +had it been immediately delivered to me.</p> + +<p>Should peace arrive after another Campaign or two, and +afford us a little Leisure, I should be happy to see your Excellency +in Europe, and to accompany you, if my Age and Strength +would permit, in visiting some of its ancient and most famous +Kingdoms. You would, on this side of the Sea, enjoy the great +Reputation you have acquir'd, pure and free from those little +Shades that the Jealousy and Envy of a Man's Countrymen and +Cotemporaries are ever endeavouring to cast over living Merit. +Here you would know, and enjoy, what Posterity will say of +Washington. For 1000 Leagues have nearly the same Effect +with 1000 Years. The feeble Voice of those grovelling Passions +cannot extend so far either in Time or Distance. At present I +enjoy that Pleasure for you, as I frequently hear the old Generals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> +of this martial Country, (who study the Maps of America, and +mark upon them all your Operations,) speak with sincere +Approbation and great Applause of your conduct; and join in +giving you the Character of one of the greatest Captains of the +Age.</p> + +<p>I must soon quit the Scene, but you may live to see our Country +nourish, as it will amazingly and rapidly after the War is +over. Like a Field of young Indian Corn, which long Fair +weather and Sunshine had enfeebled and discolored, and which +in that weak State, by a Thunder Gust, of violent Wind, Hail, +and Rain, seem'd to be threaten'd with absolute Destruction; +yet the Storm being past, it recovers fresh Verdure, shoots up +with double Vigour, and delights the Eye, not of its Owner only, +but of every observing Traveller.<a name="FNanchor_103_615" id="FNanchor_103_615"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_615" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p>The best Wishes that can be form'd for your Health, Honour, +and Happiness, ever attend you from your Excellency's most +obedient and most humble servant</p> + +<p class="sig">B. F.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_422" id="TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_422"></a>TO MISS GEORGIANA SHIPLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Oct. 8, 1780.</p> + +<p>It is long, very long, my dear Friend, since I had the great +Pleasure of hearing from you, and receiving any of your very +pleasing Letters. But it is my fault. I have long omitted my +Part of the Correspondence. Those who love to receive Letters +should write Letters. I wish I could safely promise an Amendment +of that Fault. But, besides the Indolence attending Age, +and growing upon us with it, my Time is engross'd by too +much Business; and I have too many Inducements to postpone +doing, what I feel I ought to do for my own Sake, and what I +can never resolve to omit entirely.</p> + +<p>Your Translations from Horace, as far as I can judge of +Poetry and Translations, are very good. That of the <i>Quò, quò +ruitis?</i> is so suitable to the Times, that the Conclusion, (in your +Version,) seems to threaten like a Prophecy; and methinks there +is at least some Appearance of Danger that it may be fulfilled. +I am unhappily an Enemy, yet I think there has been enough of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +Blood spilt, and I wish what is left in the Veins of that once +lov'd People, may be spared by a Peace solid and everlasting.</p> + +<p>It is a great while since I have heard any thing of the <i>good +Bishop</i>. Strange, that so simple a Character should sufficiently +distinguish one of that sacred Body! <i>Donnez-moi de ses Nouvelles.</i> +I have been some time flatter'd with the Expectation of +seeing the Countenance of that most honoured and ever beloved +Friend, delineated by your Pencil. The Portrait is said to have +been long on the way, but is not yet arriv'd; nor can I hear where +it is.</p> + +<p>Indolent as I have confess'd myself to be, I could not, you +see, miss this good and safe Opportunity of sending you a few +Lines, with my best Wishes for your Happiness, and that of the +whole dear and amiable Family in whose sweet Society I have +spent so many happy Hours. Mr. Jones<a name="FNanchor_104_616" id="FNanchor_104_616"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_616" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> tells me, he shall +have a Pleasure in being the Bearer of my Letter, of which I +make no doubt. I learn from him, that to your Drawing, and +Music, and Painting, and Poetry, and Latin, you have added a +Proficiency in Chess, so that you are, as the French say, <i>tout +plein de talens</i>. May they and you fall to the Lot of one, that +shall duly value them, and love you as much as I do. Adieu.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. F[ranklin].</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_RICHARD_PRICE" id="TO_RICHARD_PRICE"></a>TO RICHARD PRICE</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Oct. 9, 1780.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span></p> + +<p>Besides the Pleasure of their Company, I had the great Satisfaction +of hearing by your two valuable Friends, and learning +from your Letter, that you enjoy a good State of Health. May +God continue it, as well for the Good of Mankind as for your +Comfort. I thank you much for the second Edition of your excellent +Pamphlet.<a name="FNanchor_105_617" id="FNanchor_105_617"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_617" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> I forwarded that you sent to Mr. Dana, he +being in Holland. I wish also to see the Piece you have written +(as Mr. Jones tells me) on Toleration. I do not expect that your +new Parliament will be either wiser or honester than the last. +All Projects to procure an honest one, by Place Bills, &c., appear +to me vain and Impracticable. The true Cure, I imagine, is to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +be found only in rendring all Places unprofitable, and the King +too poor to give Bribes and Pensions. Till this is done, which +can only be by a Revolution (and I think you have not Virtue +enough left to procure one), your Nation will always be plundered, +and obliged to pay by Taxes the Plunderers for Plundering +and Ruining. Liberty and Virtue therefore join in the call, +<span class="smcap">Come out of Her, my People</span>!</p> + +<p>I am fully of your Opinion respecting religious Tests; but, +tho' the People of Massachusetts have not in their new Constitution +kept quite clear of them, yet, if we consider what that +People were 100 Years ago, we must allow they have gone great +Lengths in Liberality of Sentiment on religious Subjects; and +we may hope for greater Degrees of Perfection, when their Constitution, +some years hence, shall be revised. If Christian +Preachers had continued to teach as Christ and his Apostles did, +without Salaries, and as the Quakers now do, I imagine Tests +would never have existed; for I think they were invented, not so +much to secure Religion itself, as the Emoluments of it. When +a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, +when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to +support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of +the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. +But I shall be out of my Depth, if I wade any deeper in Theology, +and I will not trouble you with Politicks, nor with News +which are almost as uncertain; but conclude with a heartfelt +Wish to embrace you once more, and enjoy your sweet Society +in Peace, among our honest, worthy, ingenious Friends at the +<i>London</i><a name="FNanchor_106_618" id="FNanchor_106_618"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_618" class="fnanchor">[106]</a> Adieu,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_FRANKLIN_AND_THE_GOUT" id="DIALOGUE_BETWEEN_FRANKLIN_AND_THE_GOUT"></a>DIALOGUE BETWEEN FRANKLIN AND THE GOUT</h3> + +<p class="date">Midnight, October 22, 1780.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Eh! Oh! Eh! What have I done to merit these +cruel sufferings?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and +too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Who is it that accuses me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> It is I, even I, the Gout.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> What! my enemy in person?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> No, not your enemy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> I repeat it; my enemy; for you would not only +torment my body to death, but ruin my good name; you reproach +me as a glutton and a tippler; now all the world, that +knows me, will allow that I am neither the one nor the other.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> The world may think as it pleases; it is always very +complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very +well know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man, +who takes a reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much +for another, who never takes any.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> I take—Eh! Oh!—as much exercise—Eh!—as +I can, Madam Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that +account, it would seem, Madam Gout, as if you might spare me +a little, seeing it is not altogether my own fault.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Not a jot; your rhetoric and your politeness are +thrown away; your apology avails nothing. If your situation in +life is a sedentary one, your amusements, your recreations, at +least, should be active. You ought to walk or ride; or, if the +weather prevents that play at billiards. But let us examine your +course of life. While the mornings are long, and you have leisure +to go abroad, what do you do? Why, instead of gaining an +appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, you amuse yourself, +with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which commonly are +not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inordinate breakfast, four +dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two buttered toasts, with +slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the most easily +digested. Immediately afterward you sit down to write at your +desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. +Thus the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise. +But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your +sedentary condition. But what is your practice after dinner? +Walking in the beautiful gardens of those friends, with whom +you have dined, would be the choice of men of sense; yours is +to be fixed down to chess, where you are found engaged for two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span> +or three hours! This is your perpetual recreation, which is the +least eligible of any for a sedentary man, because, instead of +accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid attention it requires +helps to retard the circulation and obstruct internal secretions. +Wrapt in the speculations of this wretched game, you +destroy your constitution. What can be expected from such a +course of living, but a body replete with stagnant humours, +ready to fall a prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the +Gout, did not occasionally bring you relief by agitating those +humours, and so purifying or dissipating them? If it was in +some nook or alley in Paris, deprived of walks, that you played +awhile at chess after dinner, this might be excusable; but the +same taste prevails with you in Passy, Auteuil, Montmartre, or +Sanoy, places where there are the finest gardens and walks, a +pure air, beautiful women, and most agreeable and instructive +conversation; all which you might enjoy by frequenting the +walks. But these are rejected for this abominable game of chess. +Fie, then Mr. Franklin! But amidst my instructions, I had almost +forgot to administer my wholesome corrections; so take +that twinge,—and that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Oh! Eh! Oh! Ohhh! As much instruction as you +please, Madam Gout, and as many reproaches; but pray, Madam, +a truce with your corrections!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> No, Sir, no,—I will not abate a particle of what is so +much for your good,—therefore—</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Oh! Ehhh!—It is not fair to say I take no exercise, +when I do very often, going out to dine and returning in +my carriage.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most slight and +insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a carriage suspended +on springs. By observing the degree of heat obtained by different +kinds of motion, we may form an estimate of the quantity +of exercise given by each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to +walk in winter with cold feet, in an hour's time you will be in a +glow all over; ride on horseback, the same effect will scarcely be +perceived by four hours' round trotting; but if you loll in a carriage, +such as you have mentioned, you may travel all day, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span> +gladly enter the last inn to warm your feet by a fire. Flatter yourself +then no longer, that half an hour's airing in your carriage +deserves the name of exercise. Providence has appointed few +to roll in carriages, while he has given to all a pair of legs, which +are machines infinitely more commodious and serviceable. Be +grateful, then, and make a proper use of yours. Would you +know how they forward the circulation of your fluids, in the +very action of transporting you from place to place; observe +when you walk, that all your weight is alternately thrown from +one leg to the other; this occasions a great pressure on the vessels +of the foot, and repels their contents; when relieved, by the +weight being thrown on the other foot, the vessels of the first +are allowed to replenish, and, by a return of this weight, this repulsion +again succeeds; thus accelerating the circulation of the +blood. The heat produced in any given time, depends on the +degree of this acceleration; the fluids are shaken, the humours +attenuated, the secretions facilitated, and all goes well; the +cheeks are ruddy, and health is established. Behold your fair +friend at Auteuil;<a name="FNanchor_107_619" id="FNanchor_107_619"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_619" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> a lady who received from bounteous nature +more really useful science, than half a dozen such pretenders to +philosophy as you have been able to extract from all your books. +When she honours you with a visit, it is on foot. She walks all +hours of the day, and leaves indolence, and its concomitant +maladies, to be endured by her horses. In this see at once the +preservative of her health and personal charms. But when you +go to Auteuil, you must have your carriage, though it is no +further from Passy to Auteuil than from Auteuil to Passy.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Your reasonings grow very tiresome.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> I stand corrected. I will be silent and continue my +office; take that, and that.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Oh! Ohh! Talk on, I pray you!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> No, no; I have a good number of twinges for you to-night, +and you may be sure of some more to-morrow.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> What, with such a fever! I shall go distracted. +Oh! Eh! Can no one bear it for me?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Ask that of your horses; they have served you faithfully.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> How can you so cruelly sport with my torments?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Sport! I am very serious. I have here a list of +offences against your own health distinctly written, and can +justify every stroke inflicted on you.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Read it then.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> It is too long a detail; but I will briefly mention some +particulars.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Proceed. I am all attention.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Do you remember how often you have promised +yourself, the following morning, a walk in the grove of Boulogne, +in the garden de la Muette, or in your own garden, and +have violated your promise, alleging, at one time, it was too +cold, at another too warm, too windy, too moist, or what else +you pleased; when in truth it was too nothing, but your insuperable +love of ease?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> That I confess may have happened occasionally, +probably ten times in a year.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Your confession is very far short of the truth; the +gross amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Is it possible?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> So possible, that it is fact; you may rely on the accuracy +of my statement. You know M. Brillon's gardens, and what +fine walks they contain; you know the handsome flight of an +hundred steps, which lead from the terrace above to the lawn +below. You have been in the practice of visiting this amiable +family twice a week, after dinner, and it is a maxim of your own, +that "a man may take as much exercise in walking a mile, up and +down stairs, as in ten on level ground." What an opportunity +was here for you to have had exercise in both these ways! Did +you embrace it, and how often?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> I cannot immediately answer that question.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> I will do it for you; not once.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Not once?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Even so. During the summer you went there at six +o'clock. You found the charming lady, with her lovely children +and friends, eager to walk with you, and entertain you with their +agreeable conversation; and what has been your choice? Why<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> +to sit on the terrace, satisfying yourself with the fine prospect, +and passing your eye over the beauties of the garden below, +without taking one step to descend and walk about in them. On +the contrary, you call for tea and the chess-board; and lo! you +are occupied in your seat till nine o'clock, and that besides two +hours' play after dinner; and then, instead of walking home, +which would have bestirred you a little, you step into your carriage. +How absurd to suppose that all this carelessness can be +reconcilable with health, without my interposition!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> I am convinced now of the justness of poor +Richard's remark, that "Our debts and our sins are always +greater than we think for."</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> So it is. You philosophers are sages in your maxims, +and fools in your conduct.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> But do you charge among my crimes, that I return +in a carriage from Mr. Brillon's?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Certainly; for, having been seated all the while, you +cannot object the fatigue of the day, and cannot want therefore +the relief of a carriage.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> What then would you have me do with my carriage?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Burn it if you choose; you would at least get heat out +of it once in this way; or, if you dislike that proposal, here's another +for you; observe the poor peasants, who work in the +vineyards and grounds about the villages of Passy, Auteuil, +Chaillot, &c.; you may find every day, among these deserving +creatures, four or five old men and women, bent and perhaps +crippled by weight of years, and too long and too great labour. +After a most fatiguing day, these people have to trudge a mile or +two to their smoky huts. Order your coachman to set them +down. This is an act that will be good for your soul; and, at the +same time, after your visit to the Brillons, if you return on foot, +that will be good for your body.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Ah! how tiresome you are!</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> Well, then, to my office; it should not be forgotten +that I am your physician. There.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Ohhh! what a devil of a physician!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> How ungrateful you are to say so! Is it not I who, in +the character of your physician, have saved you from the palsy, +dropsy, and apoplexy? one or other of which would have done +for you long ago, but for me.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> I submit, and thank you for the past, but entreat +the discontinuance of your visits for the future; for, in my mind, +one had better die than be cured so dolefully. Permit me just to +hint, that I have also not been unfriendly to <i>you</i>. I never feed +physician or quack of any kind, to enter the list against you; if +then you do not leave me to my repose, it may be said you are +ungrateful too.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> I can scarcely acknowledge that as any objection. As +to quacks, I despise them; they may kill you indeed, but cannot +injure me. And, as to regular physicians, they are at last convinced +that the gout, in such a subject as you are, is no disease, +but a remedy; and wherefore cure a remedy?—but to our business,—there.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin.</span> Oh! oh!—for Heaven's sake leave me! and I +promise faithfully never more to play at chess, but to take exercise daily, +and live temperately.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gout.</span> I know you too well. You promise fair; but, after a +few months of good health, you will return to your old habits; +your fine promises will be forgotten like the forms of last year's +clouds. Let us then finish the account, and I will go. But I leave +you with an assurance of visiting you again at a proper time +and place; for my object is your good, and you are sensible now +that I am your <i>real friend</i>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_HANDSOME_AND_DEFORMED_LEG" id="THE_HANDSOME_AND_DEFORMED_LEG"></a>THE HANDSOME AND DEFORMED LEG<a name="FNanchor_108_620" id="FNanchor_108_620"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_620" class="fnanchor">[108]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[1780?]</p> + +<p>There are two Sorts of People in the World, who with equal +Degrees of Health, & Wealth, and the other Comforts of Life, +become, the one happy, and the other miserable. This arises +very much from the different Views in which they consider +Things, Persons, and Events; and the Effect of those different +Views upon their own Minds.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span></p> + +<p>In whatever Situation Men can be plac'd, they may find Conveniencies +& Inconveniencies: In whatever Company; they may +find Persons & Conversation more or less pleasing. At whatever +Table, they may meet with Meats & Drinks of better and +worse Taste, Dishes better & worse dress'd: In whatever Climate +they will find good and bad Weather: Under whatever +Government, they may find good & bad Laws, and good & +bad Administration of those Laws. In every Poem or Work of +Genius they may see Faults and Beauties. In almost every Face +& every Person, they may discover fine Features & Defects, +good & bad Qualities.</p> + +<p>Under these Circumstances, the two Sorts of People above +mention'd fix their Attention, those who are to be happy, on the +Conveniencies of Things, the pleasant Parts of Conversation, +the well-dress'd Dishes, the Goodness of the Wines, the fine +Weather; &c., and enjoy all with Chearfulness. Those who are +to be unhappy, think & speak only of the contraries. Hence +they are continually discontented themselves, and by their Remarks +sour the Pleasures of Society, offend personally many +People, and make themselves everywhere disagreable. If this +Turn of Mind was founded in Nature, such unhappy Persons +would be the more to be pitied. But as the Disposition to criticise, +& be disgusted, is perhaps taken up originally by Imitation, +and is unawares grown into a Habit, which tho' at present strong +may nevertheless be cured when those who have it are convinc'd +of its bad Effects on their Felicity; I hope this little Admonition +may be of Service to them, and put them on changing a Habit, +which tho' in the Exercise it is chiefly an Act of Imagination yet +has serious Consequences in Life, as it brings on real Griefs and +Misfortunes. For as many are offended by, & nobody well loves +this Sort of People, no one shows them more than the most common +[civility and respect, and scarcely that; and this frequently +puts them out of humour, and draws them into disputes and +contentions. If they aim at obtaining some advantage in rank or +fortune, nobody wishes them success, or will stir a step, or speak +a word, to favour their pretensions. If they incur public censure +or disgrace, no one will defend or excuse, and many join to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> +aggravate their misconduct, and render them completely odious. +If these people will not change this bad habit, and condescend to +be pleased with what is pleasing, without fretting themselves +and others about the contraries, it is good for others to avoid an +acquaintance with them; which is always disagreeable, and sometimes +very inconvenient, especially when one finds one's self +entangled in their quarrels.</p> + +<p>An old philosophical friend of mine was grown, from experience, +very cautious in this particular, and carefully avoided any +intimacy with such people. He had, like other philosophers, a +thermometer to show him the heat of the weather, and a barometer +to mark when it was likely to prove good or bad; but, +there being no instrument invented to discover, at first sight, this +unpleasing disposition in a person, he for that purpose made use +of his legs; one of which was remarkably handsome, the other, +by some accident, crooked and] deformed. If a Stranger, at the +first interview, regarded his ugly Leg more than his handsome +one, he doubted him. If he spoke of it, & took no notice of the +handsome Leg, that was sufficient to determine my Philosopher +to have no further Acquaintance with him. Every body has not +this two-legged Instrument, but every one with a little Attention, +may observe Signs of that carping, fault-finding Disposition, +& take the same Resolution of avoiding the Acquaintance +of those infected with it. I therefore advise those critical, querulous, +discontented, unhappy People, that if they wish to be respected +and belov'd by others, & happy in themselves they +should <i>leave off looking at the ugly Leg</i>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_432" id="TO_MISS_GEORGIANA_SHIPLEY_432"></a>TO MISS GEORGIANA SHIPLEY<a name="FNanchor_109_621" id="FNanchor_109_621"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_621" class="fnanchor">[109]</a></h3> + +<p>... Must now be next its End, as I have compleated my 75th +Year I could wish to see my dear Friends of your Family once +more before I withdraw, but I see no Prospect of enjoying +that Felicity. Let me at least have that of hearing from you a +little oftener.</p> + +<p>I do not understand the Coldness you mention of the Nights +in the Desert. I never before heard of such an Observation. If<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +you have learnt what was the Degree of cold and how it was +observed, and what Difference between the Night and the Day, +you will oblige me by communicating it. I like to see that you +retain a Taste for Philosophical Enquiries.</p> + +<p>I rec<sup>d</sup> also your very kind Letter by Mad<sup>e</sup> —— [<i>illegible in +MS</i>], with whom and the Princess, her Mother, I am much +pleased; tho' I have not seen them so often as I wished, living as +I do out of Paris.</p> + +<p>I am glad to hear that you all pass'd the summer so agreably +in Wales, and I felicitate you as the French say, on the Increase +of your Brother's Family.</p> + +<p>Accept my Thanks for your Friendly Verses and good Wishes. +How many Talents you possess! Painting, Poetry, Languages, +etc., etc. All valuable, but your good Heart is worth +the whole.</p> + +<p>Your mention of the Summer House brings fresh to my mind +all the Pleasures I enjoyed in the sweet Retreat at Twyford: the +Hours of agreable and instructive Conversation with the amiable +Family at Table; with its Father alone; the delightful Walks +in the Gardens and neighbouring Grounds. Pleasures past and +gone forever! Since I have had your Father's Picture I am +grown more covetous of the rest; every time I look at your second +Drawing I have regretted that you have not given to your +Juno the Face of Anna Maria, to Venus that of Emily or Betsey, +and to Cupid that of Emily's Child, as it would have cost you +but little more Trouble. I must, however, beg that you will +make me up a compleat Set of your little Profiles, which are +more easily done. You formerly obliged me with that of the +Father, an excellent one. Let me also have that of the good +Mother, and of all the Children. It will help me to fancy myself +among you, and to enjoy more perfectly in Idea, the Pleasure of +your Society. My little Fellow-Traveller, the sprightly Hetty, +with whose sensible Prattle I was so much entertained, why +does she not write to me? If Paris affords any thing that any of +you wish to have, mention it. You will oblige me. It affords +everything but <i>Peace</i>! Ah! when shall we again enjoy that +Blessing!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span></p> + +<p>Next to seeing our Friends is the Pleasure of hearing from +them, and learning how they live. Your Accounts of your Journies +and how you pass your Summers please me much. I flatter +myself you will like to know something of the same kind relating +to me. I inhabit, a clean, well-built Village situate on a Hill, in a +fine Air, with a beautiful Prospect, about 2 Miles [<i>Incomplete.</i>]</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_434" id="TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_434"></a>TO DAVID HARTLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, December 15, 1781.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Friend,</span></p> + +<p>I received your favour of September 26th,<a name="FNanchor_110_622" id="FNanchor_110_622"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_622" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> containing your +very judicious proposition of securing the spectators in the +opera and play houses from the danger of fire. I communicated +it where I thought it might be useful. You will see by the enclosed, +that the subject has been under consideration here. Your +concern for the security of life, even the lives of your enemies, +does honour to your heart and your humanity. But what are +the lives of a few idle haunters of play houses, compared with +the many thousands of worthy men, and honest industrious +families, butchered and destroyed by this devilish war? Oh +that we could find some happy invention to stop the spreading +of the flames, and put an end to so horrid a conflagration! Adieu, +I am ever yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="SUPPLEMENT_TO_THE_BOSTON_INDEPENDENT_CHRONICLE" id="SUPPLEMENT_TO_THE_BOSTON_INDEPENDENT_CHRONICLE"></a>SUPPLEMENT TO THE BOSTON<br /> +INDEPENDENT CHRONICLE<a name="FNanchor_111_623" id="FNanchor_111_623"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_623" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">Numb. 705</p> + +<p class="date">Boston, March 12, 1782.</p> + +<p class="center">Extract of a Letter from Captain Gerrish, of the New England +Militia, dated Albany, March 7.</p> + +<p>The Peltry taken in the Expedition [see the Account of the +Expedition to Oswegatchie, on the River St. Laurence, in our +Paper of the 1st Instant,] will, as you see, amount to a good +deal of Money. The Possession of this Booty at first gave us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +Pleasure; but we were struck with Horror to find among the +Packages 8 large ones, containing <span class="txt90">SCALPS</span> of our unhappy +Country-folks, taken in the three last Years by the Senneka +Indians from the Inhabitants of the Frontiers of New York, +New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, and sent by them as a +Present to Col. Haldimand, governor of Canada, in order to be +by him transmitted to England. They were accompanied by +the following curious Letter to that Gentleman.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="date">"Teoga, Jan. 3d, 1782.</p> + +<p>"May it please your Excellency,</p> + +<p>"At the Request of the Senneka chiefs, I send herewith to +your Excellency, under the Care of James Boyd, eight Packs of +Scalps, cured, dried, hooped, and painted, with all the Indian +triumphal Marks, of which the following is Invoice and Explanation.</p> + +<p>"No. 1. Containing 43 Scalps of Congress Soldiers, killed +in different Skirmishes; these are Stretched on black Hoops, +4 Inches diameter; the Inside of the Skin painted red, with a +small black Spot to note their being killed with Bullets. Also +62 of Farmers killed in their Houses; the Hoops red; the Skin +painted brown, and marked with a Hoe; a black Circle all round, +to denote their being surprised in the Night; and a black Hatchet +in the Middle, signifying their being killed with that Weapon.</p> + +<p>"No. 2. Containing 98 of Farmers killed in their Houses; +Hoops red; Figure of a Hoe, to mark their Profession; great +white Circle and Sun, to show they were surprised in the Daytime; +a little red Foot, to show they stood upon their Defence, +and died fighting for their Lives and Families.</p> + +<p>"No. 3. Containing 97 of Farmers; Hoops green, to shew +they were killed in their Fields; a large white Circle with a little +round Mark on it for the Sun, to shew that it was in the Daytime; +black Bullet-mark on some, Hatchet on others.</p> + +<p>"No. 4. Containing 102 of Farmers, mixed of the several +Marks above; only 18 marked with a little yellow Flame, to +denote their being of Prisoners burnt alive, after being scalped, +their Nails pulled out by the Roots, and other Torments; one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +of these latter supposed to be a rebel Clergyman, his Band being +fixed to the Hoop of his Scalp. Most of the Farmers appear by +the Hair to have been young or middle-aged Men; there being +but 67 very grey Heads among them all; which makes the Service +more essential.</p> + +<p>"No. 5. Containing 88 Scalps of Women; hair long, braided +in the Indian Fashion, to shew they were Mothers; Hoops blue; +Skin yellow Ground, with little red Tadpoles, to represent, by +way of Triumph, the Tears of Grief occasioned to their Relations; +a black scalping-Knife or Hatchet at the Bottom, to mark +their being killed with those Instruments. 17 others, Hair very +grey; black Hoops; plain brown Colour; no Mark, but the short +Club or <i>Casse-tête</i>, to shew they were knocked down dead, or +had their Brains beat out.</p> + +<p>"No. 6. Containing 193 Boys' Scalps, of various Ages; small +green Hoops; whitish Ground on the Skin, with red Tears in +the Middle, and black Bullet-marks, Knife, Hatchet, or Club, +as their Deaths happened.</p> + +<p>"No. 7. 211 Girls' Scalps, big and little; small yellow Hoops; +white Ground, Tears; Hatchet, Club, scalping-Knife, &c.</p> + +<p>"No. 8. This Package is a Mixture of all the Varieties abovementioned; +to the number of 122; with a Box of Birch Bark, +containing 29 little Infants' Scalps of various Sizes; small white +Hoops; white Ground; no Tears; and only a little black Knife +in the Middle, to shew they were ript out of their Mothers' +Bellies.</p> + +<p>"With these Packs, the Chiefs send to your Excellency the +following Speech, delivered by Conejogatchie in Council, +interpreted by the elder Moore, the Trader, and taken down by +me in Writing.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Father,</p> + +<p>We send you herewith many Scalps, that you may see we +are not idle Friends.</p> + +<p class="sig"><i>A blue Belt.</i></p> + +<p>Father,</p> + +<p>We wish you to send these Scalps over the Water to the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +King, that he may regard them and be refreshed; and that he +may see our faithfulness in destroying his Enemies, and be convinced +that his Presents have not been made to ungrateful +people.</p> + +<p class="sig"><i>A blue and white Belt with red Tassels.</i></p> + +<p>Father,</p> + +<p>Attend to what I am now going to say; it is a Matter of much +Weight. The great King's Enemies are many, and they grow +fast in Number. They were formerly like young Panthers; they +could neither bite nor scratch; we could play with them safely; +we feared nothing they could do to us. But now their Bodies +are become big as the Elk, and strong as the Buffalo; they have +also got great and sharp Claws. They have driven us out of +our Country for taking part in your Quarrel. We expect the +great King will give us another Country, that our Children may +live after us, and be his Friends and Children, as we are. Say +this for us to the great King. To enforce it, we give this Belt.</p> + +<p class="sig"><i>A great white Belt with blue Tassels.</i></p> + +<p>Father,</p> + +<p>We have only to say farther, that your Traders exact more +than ever for their Goods; and our hunting is lessened by the +War, so that we have fewer Skins to give for them. This ruins +us. Think of some Remedy. We are poor; and you have +Plenty of every Thing. We know you will send us Powder +and Guns, and Knives and Hatchets; but we also want Shirts +and Blankets.</p> + +<p class="sig"><i>A little white Belt.</i></p> + +<p>"I do not doubt but that your Excellency will think it proper +to give some farther Encouragement to those honest People. +The high Prices they complain of are the necessary Effect of the +War. Whatever Presents may be sent for them, through my +Hands, shall be distributed with Prudence and Fidelity. I have +the Honour of being your Excellency's most obedient</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">"And most humble Servant,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">James Craufurd</span>."</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was at first proposed to bury these Scalps; but Lieutenant +Fitzgerald, who, you know, has got Leave of Absence to go to +Ireland on his private Affairs, said he thought it better they +should proceed to their Destination; and if they were given to +him, he would undertake to carry them to England, and hang +them all up in some dark Night on the Trees in St. James's Park, +where they could be seen from the King and Queen's Palaces +in the Morning; for that the Sight of them might perhaps strike +Muley Ishmael (as he called him) with some Compunction of +Conscience. They were accordingly delivered to Fitz, and he +has brought them safe hither. To-morrow they go with his +Baggage in a Waggon for Boston, and will probably be there in +a few Days after this Letter.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">I am, &c.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Samuel Gerrish.</span></p></div> + +<p class="section date">Boston, March 20.</p> + +<p>Monday last arrived here Lieutenant Fitzgerald above mentioned, +and Yesterday the Waggon with the Scalps. Thousands +of People are flocking to see them this Morning, and all Mouths +are full of Execrations. Fixing them to the Trees is not approved. +It is now proposed to make them up in decent little +Packets, seal and direct them; one to the King, containing a +Sample of every Sort for his Museum; one to the Queen, with +some of Women and little Children; the Rest to be distributed +among both Houses of Parliament; a double Quantity to the +Bishops.</p> + + +<p class="section">[The following part appeared in a second edition from which +certain advertisements which had been published in the first +edition were omitted.]</p> + +<p class="section"><span class="smcap">Mr. Willis,</span></p> + +<p>Please to insert in your useful Paper the following Copy of +a Letter from Commodore Jones, directed</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="section center">TO SIR JOSEPH YORK, AMBASSADOR FROM THE KING OF ENGLAND +TO THE STATES-GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES</p> + +<p class="date">"Ipswich, New England, March 7, 1781.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Sir,</span></p> + +<p>"I have lately seen a memorial, said to have been presented +by your Excellency to their High Mightinesses the States-general, +in which you are pleased to qualify me with the title of +<i>pirate</i>.</p> + +<p>"A pirate is defined to be <i>hostis humani generis</i> [an enemy to +all mankind]. It happens, Sir, that I am an enemy to no part of +mankind, except your nation, the English; which nation at the +same time comes much more within the definition, being actually +an enemy to, and at war with, one whole quarter of the +world, America, considerable part of Asia and Africa, a great +part of Europe, and in a fair way of being at war with the rest.</p> + +<p>"A pirate makes war for the sake of <i>rapine</i>. This is not the +kind of war I am engaged in against England. Ours is a war in +defence of <i>liberty</i> ... the most just of all wars; and of our <i>properties</i>, +which your nation would have taken from us, without +our consent, in violation of our rights, and by an armed force. +Yours, therefore is a war of <i>rapine</i>; of course, a piratical war; +and those who approve of it, and are engaged in it, more justly +deserve the name of <i>pirates</i>, which you bestow on me. It is, +indeed, a war that coincides with the general spirit of your nation. +Your common people in their ale-houses sing the twenty-four +songs of Robin Hood, and applaud his deer-stealing and +his robberies on the highway: those, who have just learning +enough to read, are delighted with your histories of the pirates +and of the buccaniers; and even your scholars in the universities +study Quintus Curtius, and are taught to admire Alexander for +what they call 'his conquests in the Indies.' Severe laws and the +hangmen keep down the effects of this spirit somewhat among +yourselves (though in your little Island you have nevertheless +more highway robberies than there are in all the rest of Europe +put together); but a foreign war gives it full scope. It is then +that, with infinite pleasure, it lets itself loose to strip of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +property honest merchants, employed in the innocent and useful +occupation of supplying the mutual wants of mankind. +Hence, having lately no war with your ancient enemies, rather +than be without a war, you chose to make one upon your +friends. In this your piratical war with America, the mariners +of your fleets and the owners of your privateers were animated +against us by the act of your Parliament, which repealed the law +of God, 'Thou shalt not steal,' by declaring it lawful for them +to rob us of all our property that they could meet with on the +ocean. This act, too, had a retrospect, and, going beyond bulls +of pardon, declared that all the robberies you <i>had committed</i> +previous to the act should be <i>deemed just and lawful</i>. Your +soldiers, too, were promised the plunder of our cities; and your +officers were flattered with the division of our lands. You had +even the baseness to corrupt our servants, the sailors employed +by us, and encourage them to rob their masters and bring to you +the ships and goods they were entrusted with. Is there any +society of pirates on the sea or land, who, in declaring wrong +to be right, and right wrong, have less authority than your +parliament? Do any of them more justly than your parliament +deserve the <i>title</i> you bestow on me?</p> + +<p>"You will tell me that we forfeited all our estates by our refusal +to pay the taxes your nation would have imposed on us +without the consent of our colony parliaments. Have you then +forgotten the incontestable principle, which was the foundation +of Hambden's glorious lawsuit with Charles the first, that 'what +an English king has no right to demand, an English subject has +a right to refuse'? But you cannot so soon have forgotten the +instructions of your late honorable father, who, being himself +a sound Whig, taught you certainly the principles of the Revolution, +and that, 'if subjects might in some cases forfeit their +property, kings also might forfeit their title, and all claim to the +allegiance of their subjects.' I must then suppose you well +acquainted with those Whig principles; on which permit me, +Sir, to ask a few questions.</p> + +<p>"Is not protection as justly due from a king to his people, as +obedience from the people to their king?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If then a king declares his people to be out of his protection:</p> + +<p>"If he violates and deprives them of their constitutional +rights:</p> + +<p>"If he wages war against them:</p> + +<p>"If he plunders their merchants, ravages their coasts, burns +their towns, and destroys their lives:</p> + +<p>"If he hires foreign mercenaries to help him in their destruction:</p> + +<p>"If he engages savages to murder their defenceless farmers, +women, and children:</p> + +<p>"If he cruelly forces such of his subjects as fall into his hands, +to bear arms against their country, and become executioners of +their friends and brethren:</p> + +<p>"If he sells others of them into bondage, in Africa and the +East Indies:</p> + +<p>"If he excites domestic insurrections among their servants, +and encourages servants to murder their masters:—</p> + +<p>"Does not so atrocious a conduct towards his subjects dissolve +their allegiance?</p> + +<p>"If not, please to say how or by what means it can possibly +be dissolved?</p> + +<p>"All this horrible wickedness and barbarity has been and +daily is practised by the King, <i>your master</i>, (as you call him in +your memorial,) upon the Americans, whom he is still pleased +to claim as his subjects.</p> + +<p>"During these six years past, he has destroyed not less than +forty thousand of those subjects, by battles on land or sea, or +by starving them, or poisoning them to death, in the unwholesome +air, with the unwholesome food of his prisons. And he +has wasted the lives of at least an equal number of his own soldiers +and sailors: many of whom have been <i>forced</i> into this +odious service, and <i>dragged</i> from their families and friends, by +the outrageous violence of his illegal press-gangs. You are a +gentleman of letters, and have read history: do you recollect +any instance of any tyrant, since the beginning of the world, +who, in the course of so few years, had done so much mischief, +by murdering so many of his own people? Let us view one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span> +the worst and blackest of them, Nero. He put to death a few +of his courtiers, placemen, and pensioners, and among the rest +his <i>tutor</i>. Had George the Third done the same, and no more, +his crime, though detestable, as an act of lawless power, might +have been as useful to his nation, as that of Nero was hurtful to +Rome; considering the different characters and merits of the +sufferers. Nero indeed wished that the people of Rome had but +one neck, that he might behead them all by one stroke; but this +was a simple wish. George is carrying the wish as fast as he can +into execution; and, by continuing in his present course a few +years longer, will have destroyed more of the British people +than Nero could have found inhabitants in Rome. Hence the +expression of Milton, in speaking of Charles the First, that he +was '<i>Nerone Neronior</i>,' is still more applicable to George the +third. Like Nero, and all other tyrants, while they lived, he indeed +has his flatterers, his addressers, his applauders. Pensions, +places, and hopes of preferment can bribe even bishops to approve +his conduct: but when those fulsome, purchased addresses +and panegyrics are sunk and lost in oblivion or contempt, impartial +history will step forth, speak honest truth, and rank him +among public calamities. The only difference will be, that +plagues, pestilences, and famines are of this world, and arise +from the nature of things; but voluntary malice, mischief, and +murder, are from hell; and this King will, therefore, stand foremost +in the list of diabolical, bloody, and execrable tyrants. +His base-bought parliaments too, who sell him their souls, and +extort from the people the money with which they aid his +destructive purposes, as they share his guilt, will share his +infamy,—parliaments, who, to please him, have repeatedly, by +different votes year after year, dipped their hands in human +blood, insomuch that methinks I see it dried and caked so thick +upon them, that, if they could wash it off in the Thames, which +flows under their windows, the whole river would run red to +the ocean.</p> + +<p>"One is provoked by enormous wickedness: but one is +ashamed and humiliated at the view of human baseness. It +afflicts me, therefore, to see a gentleman of Sir Joseph York's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span> +education and talents, for the sake of a red riband and a paltry +stipend, mean enough to style such a monster <i>his master</i>, wear +his livery, and hold himself ready at his command even to cut +the throats of fellow subjects. This makes it impossible for me +to end my letter with the civility of a compliment, and obliges +me to subscribe myself simply,</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad1">"<span class="smcap">John Paul Jones</span>,</span><br /> +"Whom you are pleased to style a <i>pirate</i>."</p></div> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOHN_THORNTON" id="TO_JOHN_THORNTON"></a>TO JOHN THORNTON</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, May 8, 1782.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir,</span></p> + +<p>I received the letter you did me the honour of writing to me, +and am much obliged by your kind present of a book. The +relish for reading of poetry had long since left me, but there is +something so new in the manner, so easy, and yet so correct in +the language, so clear in the expression, yet concise, and so just +in the sentiments, that I have read the whole with great pleasure, +and some of the pieces more than once. I beg you to accept my +thankful acknowledgments, and to present my respects to the +author.<a name="FNanchor_112_624" id="FNanchor_112_624"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_624" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>I shall take care to forward the letters to America, and shall +be glad of any other opportunity of doing what may be agreeable +to you, being with great respect for your character,—Your +most obedient humble servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_443" id="TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_443"></a>TO JOSEPH PRIESTLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy near Paris, June 7, 1782.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span></p> + +<p>I received your kind Letter of the 7th of April, also one of +the 3d of May. I have always great Pleasure in hearing from +you, in learning that you are well, and that you continue your +Experiments. I should rejoice much, if I could once more recover<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span> +the Leisure to search with you into the Works of Nature; +I mean the <i>inanimate</i>, not the <i>animate</i> or moral part of them, +the more I discover'd of the former, the more I admir'd them; +the more I know of the latter, the more I am disgusted with +them. Men I find to be a Sort of Beings very badly constructed, +as they are generally more easily provok'd than reconcil'd, +more disposed to do Mischief to each other than to make +Reparation, much more easily deceiv'd than undeceiv'd, and +having more Pride and even Pleasure in killing than in begetting +one another; for without a Blush they assemble in great armies +at NoonDay to destroy, and when they have kill'd as many as +they can, they exaggerate the Number to augment the fancied +Glory; but they creep into Corners, or cover themselves with +the Darkness of night, when they mean to beget, as being +asham'd of a virtuous Action. A virtuous Action it would be, +and a vicious one the killing of them, if the Species were really +worth producing or preserving; but of this I begin to doubt.</p> + +<p>I know you have no such Doubts, because, in your zeal for +their welfare, you are taking a great deal of pains to save their +Souls. Perhaps as you grow older, you may look upon this as +a hopeless Project, or an idle Amusement, repent of having +murdered in mephitic air so many honest, harmless mice, and +wish that to prevent mischief, you had used Boys and Girls +instead of them. In what Light we are viewed by superior +Beings, may be gathered from a Piece of late West India News, +which possibly has not yet reached you. A young Angel of +Distinction being sent down to this world on some Business, +for the first time, had an old courier-spirit assigned him as a +Guide. They arriv'd over the Seas of Martinico, in the middle +of the long Day of obstinate Fight between the Fleets of Rodney +and De Grasse. When, thro' the Clouds of smoke, he saw +the Fire of the Guns, the Decks covered with mangled Limbs, +and Bodies dead or dying; the ships sinking, burning, or blown +into the Air; and the Quantity of Pain, Misery, and Destruction, +the Crews yet alive were thus with so much Eagerness dealing +round to one another; he turn'd angrily to his Guide, and said, +"You blundering Blockhead, you are ignorant of your Business;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span> +you undertook to conduct me to the Earth, and you have +brought me into Hell!" "No, Sir," says the Guide, "I have +made no mistake; this is really the Earth, and these are men. +Devils never treat one another in this cruel manner; they have +more Sense, and more of what Men (vainly) call <i>Humanity</i>."</p> + +<p>But to be serious, my dear old Friend, I love you as much as +ever, and I love all the honest Souls that meet at the London +Coffee House. I only wonder how it happen'd, that they and +my other Friends in England came to be such good Creatures +in the midst of so perverse a Generation. I long to see them +and you once more, and I labour for Peace with more Earnestness, +that I may again be happy in your sweet society.</p> + +<p>I show'd your letter to the Duke de Larochefoucault, who +thinks with me, the new Experiments you have made are extremely +curious; and he has given me thereupon a Note, which +I inclose, and I request you would furnish me with the answer +desired.</p> + +<p>Yesterday the Count du Nord was at the Academy of +Sciences, when sundry Experiments were exhibited for his +Entertainment; among them, one by M. Lavoisier, to show that +the strongest Fire we yet know, is made in a Charcoal blown +upon with dephlogisticated air. In a Heat so produced, he +melted Platina presently, the Fire being much more powerful +than that of the strongest burning mirror. Adieu, and believe +me ever, yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JONATHAN_SHIPLEY_445" id="TO_JONATHAN_SHIPLEY_445"></a>TO JONATHAN SHIPLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, June 10, 1782.</p> + +<p>I received and read the Letter from my dear and much respected +Friend with infinite Pleasure. After so long a Silence, +and the long Continuance of its unfortunate Causes, a Line +from you was a Prognostic of happier Times approaching, +when we may converse and communicate freely, without +Danger from the malevolence of Men enrag'd by the ill success +of their distracted Projects.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span></p> + +<p>I long with you for the Return of Peace, on the general +Principles of Humanity. The Hope of being able to pass a few +more of my last Days happily in the sweet Conversations and +Company I once enjoy'd at Twyford, is a particular Motive +that adds Strength to the general Wish, and quickens my Industry +to procure that best of Blessings. After much Occasion +to consider the Folly and Mischiefs of a State of Warfare, and +the little or no Advantage obtain'd even by those Nations, who +have conducted it with the most Success, I have been apt to +think, that there has never been, nor ever will be, any such +thing as a <i>good</i> War, or a <i>bad</i> Peace.</p> + +<p>You ask if I still relish my old Studies. I relish them, but I +cannot pursue them. My Time is engross'd unhappily with +other Concerns. I requested of the Congress last Year my +Discharge from this publick Station, that I might enjoy a little +Leisure in the Evening of a long Life of Business; but it was +refus'd me, and I have been obliged to drudge on a little longer.</p> + +<p>You are happy as your Years come on, in having that dear +and most amiable Family about you. Four Daughters! how +rich! I have but one, and she, necessarily detain'd from me at +1000 leagues distance. I feel the Want of that tender Care of +me, which might be expected from a Daughter, and would give +the World for one. Your Shades are all plac'd in a Row over +my Fireplace, so that I not only have you always in my Mind, +but constantly before my Eyes.</p> + +<p>The Cause of Liberty and America has been greatly oblig'd +to you. I hope you will live long to see that Country flourish +under its new Constitution, which I am sure will give you +great Pleasure. Will you permit me to express another Hope, +that, now your Friends are in Power, they will take the first +Opportunity of showing the sense they ought to have of your +Virtues and your Merit?</p> + +<p>Please to make my best Respects acceptable to Mrs. Shipley, +and embrace for me tenderly all our dear Children. With the +utmost Esteem, Respect, and Veneration, I am ever, my dear +Friend, yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JAMES_HUTTON" id="TO_JAMES_HUTTON"></a>TO JAMES HUTTON</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, July 7, 1782.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Old and Dear Friend,</span></p> + +<p>A Letter written by you to M. Berlin,<a name="FNanchor_113_625" id="FNanchor_113_625"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_625" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> <i>Ministre d'Etat</i>, +containing an Account of the abominable Murders committed +by some of the frontier People on the poor Moravian Indians, +has given me infinite Pain and Vexation. The Dispensations of +Providence in this World puzzle my weak Reason. I cannot +comprehend why cruel Men should have been permitted thus +to destroy their Fellow Creatures. Some of the Indians may +be suppos'd to have committed Sins, but one cannot think the +little Children had committed any worthy of Death. Why has +a single Man in England, who happens to love Blood and to +hate Americans, been permitted to gratify that bad Temper by +hiring German Murderers, and joining them with his own, to +destroy in a continued Course of bloody Years near 100,000 +human Creatures, many of them possessed of useful Talents, +Virtues and Abilities to which he has no Pretension! It is he +who has furnished the Savages with Hatchets and Scalping +Knives, and engages them to fall upon our defenceless Farmers, +and murder them with their Wives and Children, paying for +their Scalps, of which the account kept in America already +amounts, as I have heard, to near <i>two Thousand</i>!</p> + +<p>Perhaps the people of the frontiers, exasperated by the +Cruelties of the Indians, have been induced to kill all Indians +that fall into their Hands without Distinction; so that even +these horrid Murders of our poor Moravians may be laid to his +Charge. And yet this Man lives, enjoys all the good Things +this World can afford, and is surrounded by Flatterers, who +keep even his Conscience quiet by telling him he is the best of +Princes! I wonder at this, but I cannot therefore part with the +comfortable Belief of a Divine Providence; and the more I see +the Impossibility, from the number & extent of his Crimes, of +giving equivalent Punishment to a wicked Man in this Life, the +more I am convinc'd of a future State, in which all that here +appears to be wrong shall be set right, all that is crooked made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span> +straight. In this Faith let you & I, my dear Friend, comfort +ourselves; it is the only Comfort, in the present dark Scene of +Things, that is allow'd us.</p> + +<p>I shall not fail to write to the Government of America, urging +that effectual Care may be taken to protect & save the Remainder +of those unhappy People.</p> + +<p>Since writing the above, I have received a Philadelphia Paper, +containing some Account of the same horrid Transaction, a +little different, and some Circumstances alledged as Excuses or +Palliations, but extreamly weak & insufficient. I send it to you +inclos'd. With great and sincere Esteem, I am ever, my dear +Friend, yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_SIR_JOSEPH_BANKS_448" id="TO_SIR_JOSEPH_BANKS_448"></a>TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS<a name="FNanchor_114_626" id="FNanchor_114_626"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_626" class="fnanchor">[114]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Sept. 9, 1782.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span></p> + +<p>I have just received the very kind friendly Letter you were +so good as to write to me by Dr. Broussonnet.<a name="FNanchor_115_627" id="FNanchor_115_627"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_627" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> Be assured, +that I long earnestly for a Return of those peaceful Times, when +I could sit down in sweet Society with my English philosophic +Friends, communicating to each other new Discoveries, and +proposing Improvements of old ones; all tending to extend the +Power of Man over Matter, avert or diminish the Evils he is +subject to, or augment the Number of his Enjoyments. Much +more happy should I be thus employ'd in your most desirable +Company, than in that of all the Grandees of the Earth projecting +Plans of Mischief, however necessary they may be supposed +for obtaining greater Good.</p> + +<p>I am glad to learn by the D<sup>r</sup> that your great Work goes on. +I admire your Magnanimity in the Undertaking, and the Perseverance +with which you have prosecuted it.</p> + +<p>I join with you most perfectly in the charming Wish you so +well express, "that such Measures may be taken by both Parties +as may tend to the Elevation of both, rather than the Destruction +of either." If any thing has happened endangering one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span> +them, my Comfort is, that I endeavour'd earnestly to prevent +it, and gave honest, faithful Advice, which, if it had been regarded, +would have been effectual. And still, if proper Means +are us'd to produce, not only a Peace, but what is much more +interesting, a thorough Reconciliation, a few Years may heal +the Wounds that have been made in our Happiness, and produce +a Degree of Prosperity of which at present we can hardly form +a Conception. With great and sincere Esteem and Respect, I +am, dear Sir, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="INFORMATION_TO_THOSE_WHO_WOULD_REMOVE_TO_AMERICA" id="INFORMATION_TO_THOSE_WHO_WOULD_REMOVE_TO_AMERICA"></a>INFORMATION<br /> +TO THOSE WHO WOULD REMOVE TO AMERICA<a name="FNanchor_116_628" id="FNanchor_116_628"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_628" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[1782?]</p> + +<p>Many Persons in Europe, having directly or by Letters, express'd +to the Writer of this, who is well acquainted with North +America, their Desire of transporting and establishing themselves +in that Country; but who appear to have formed, thro' +Ignorance, mistaken Ideas and Expectations of what is to be +obtained there; he thinks it may be useful, and prevent inconvenient, +expensive, and fruitless Removals and Voyages of +improper Persons, if he gives some clearer and truer Notions +of that part of the World, than appear to have hitherto prevailed.</p> + +<p>He finds it is imagined by Numbers, that the Inhabitants of +North America are rich, capable of rewarding, and dispos'd to +reward, all sorts of Ingenuity; that they are at the same time +ignorant of all the Sciences, and, consequently, that Strangers, +possessing Talents in the Belles-Lettres, fine Arts, &c., must be +highly esteemed, and so well paid, as to become easily rich +themselves; that there are also abundance of profitable Offices +to be disposed of, which the Natives are not qualified to fill; +and that, having few Persons of Family among them, Strangers +of Birth must be greatly respected, and of course easily obtain +the best of those Offices, which will make all their Fortunes; +that the Governments too, to encourage Emigrations from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span> +Europe, not only pay the Expence of personal Transportation, +but give Lands gratis to Strangers, with Negroes to work for +them, Utensils of Husbandry, and Stocks of Cattle. These are +all wild Imaginations; and those who go to America with Expectations +founded upon them will surely find themselves disappointed.</p> + +<p>The Truth is, that though there are in that Country few +People so miserable as the Poor of Europe, there are also very +few that in Europe would be called rich; it is rather a general +happy Mediocrity that prevails. There are few great Proprietors +of the Soil, and few Tenants; most People cultivate their own +Lands, or follow some Handicraft or Merchandise; very few +rich enough to live idly upon their Rents or Incomes, or to pay +the high Prices given in Europe for Paintings, Statues, Architecture, +and the other Works of Art, that are more curious than +useful. Hence the natural Geniuses, that have arisen in America +with such Talents, have uniformly quitted that Country for +Europe, where they can be more suitably rewarded. It is true, +that Letters and Mathematical Knowledge are in Esteem there, +but they are at the same time more common than is apprehended; +there being already existing nine Colleges or Universities, +viz. four in New England, and one in each of the Provinces +of New York, New Jersey, Pensilvania, Maryland, and +Virginia, all furnish'd with learned Professors; besides a number +of smaller Academies; these educate many of their Youth in the +Languages, and those Sciences that qualify men for the Professions +of Divinity, Law, or Physick. Strangers indeed are by +no means excluded from exercising those Professions; and the +quick Increase of Inhabitants everywhere gives them a Chance +of Employ, which they have in common with the Natives. Of +civil Offices, or Employments, there are few; no superfluous +Ones, as in Europe; and it is a Rule establish'd in some of the +States, that no Office should be so profitable as to make it +desirable. The 36th Article of the Constitution of Pennsilvania, +runs expressly in these Words; "As every Freeman, to preserve +his Independence, (if he has not a sufficient Estate) ought to +have some Profession, Calling, Trade, or Farm, whereby he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span> +may honestly subsist, there can be no Necessity for, nor Use in, +establishing Offices of Profit, the usual Effects of which are +Dependance and Servility, unbecoming Freemen, in the Possessors +and Expectants; Faction, Contention, Corruption, and +Disorder among the People. Wherefore, whenever an Office, +thro' Increase of Fees or otherwise, becomes so profitable, as to +occasion many to apply for it, the Profits ought to be lessened +by the Legislature."</p> + +<p>These Ideas prevailing more or less in all the United States, +it cannot be worth any Man's while, who has a means of Living +at home, to expatriate himself, in hopes of obtaining a profitable +civil Office in America; and, as to military Offices, they are at +an End with the War, the Armies being disbanded. Much less +is it adviseable for a Person to go thither, who has no other +Quality to recommend him but his Birth. In Europe it has +indeed its Value; but it is a Commodity that cannot be carried +to a worse Market than that of America, where people do not +inquire concerning a Stranger, <i>What is he?</i> but, <i>What can he do?</i> +If he has any useful Art, he is welcome; and if he exercises it, +and behaves well, he will be respected by all that know him; but +a mere Man of Quality, who, on that Account, wants to live +upon the Public, by some Office or Salary, will be despis'd and +disregarded. The Husbandman is in honor there, and even the +Mechanic, because their Employments are useful. The People +have a saying, that God Almighty is himself a Mechanic, the +greatest in the Universe; and he is respected and admired more +for the Variety, Ingenuity, and Utility of his Handyworks, than +for the Antiquity of his Family. They are pleas'd with the +Observation of a Negro, and frequently mention it, that <i>Boccarorra</i> +(meaning the White men) <i>make de black man workee, +make de Horse workee, make de Ox workee, make ebery ting +workee; only de Hog. He, de hog, no workee; he eat, he drink, he +walk about, he go to sleep when he please, he libb like a Gentleman</i>. +According to these Opinions of the Americans, one of them +would think himself more oblig'd to a Genealogist, who could +prove for him that his Ancestors and Relations for ten Generations +had been Ploughmen, Smiths, Carpenters, Turners,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span> +Weavers, Tanners, or even Shoemakers, and consequently that +they were useful Members of Society; than if he could only +prove that they were Gentlemen, doing nothing of Value, but +living idly on the Labour of others, mere <i>fruges consumere nati</i>,<a name="FNanchor_L_502" id="FNanchor_L_502"></a><a href="#Footnote_L_502" class="fnanchor">[L]</a> +and otherwise <i>good for nothing</i>, till by their Death their Estates, +like the Carcass of the Negro's Gentleman-Hog, come to be +<i>cut up</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_L_502" id="Footnote_L_502"></a><a href="#FNanchor_L_502"><span class="label">[L]</span></a> "... born merely to eat up the corn."—<span class="smcap">Watts.</span> [<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + +<p>With regard to Encouragements for Strangers from Government, +they are really only what are derived from good Laws +and Liberty. Strangers are welcome, because there is room +enough for them all, and therefore the old Inhabitants are not +jealous of them; the Laws protect them sufficiently, so that they +have no need of the Patronage of Great Men; and every one +will enjoy securely the Profits of his Industry. But, if he does +not bring a Fortune with him, he must work and be industrious +to live. One or two Years' residence gives him all the Rights of +a Citizen; but the government does not at present, whatever it +may have done in former times, hire People to become Settlers, +by Paying their Passages, giving Land, Negroes, Utensils, +Stock, or any other kind of Emolument whatsoever. In short, +America is the Land of Labour, and by no means what the +English call <i>Lubberland</i>, and the French <i>Pays de Cocagne</i>, where +the streets are said to be pav'd with half-peck Loaves, the +Houses til'd with Pancakes, and where the Fowls fly about +ready roasted, crying, <i>Come eat me!</i></p> + +<p>Who then are the kind of Persons to whom an Emigration to +America may be advantageous? And what are the Advantages +they may reasonably expect?</p> + +<p>Land being cheap in that Country, from the vast Forests still +void of Inhabitants, and not likely to be occupied in an Age to +come, insomuch that the Propriety of an hundred Acres of +fertile Soil full of Wood may be obtained near the Frontiers, in +many Places, for Eight or Ten Guineas, hearty young Labouring +Men, who understand the Husbandry of Corn and Cattle, +which is nearly the same in that Country as in Europe, may +easily establish themselves there. A little Money sav'd of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span> +good Wages they receive there, while they work for others, +enables them to buy the Land and begin their Plantation, in +which they are assisted by the Good-Will of their Neighbours, +and some Credit. Multitudes of poor People from England, +Ireland, Scotland, and Germany, have by this means in a few +years become wealthy Farmers, who, in their own Countries, +where all the Lands are fully occupied, and the Wages of Labour +low, could never have emerged from the poor Condition +wherein they were born.</p> + +<p>From the salubrity of the Air, the healthiness of the Climate, +the plenty of good Provisions, and the Encouragement to early +Marriages by the certainty of Subsistence in cultivating the +Earth, the Increase of Inhabitants by natural Generation is very +rapid in America, and becomes still more so by the Accession +of Strangers; hence there is a continual Demand for more Artisans +of all the necessary and useful kinds, to supply those Cultivators +of the Earth with Houses, and with Furniture and +Utensils of the grosser sorts, which cannot so well be brought +from Europe. Tolerably good Workmen in any of those mechanic +Arts are sure to find Employ, and to be well paid for +their Work, there being no Restraints preventing Strangers +from exercising any Art they understand, nor any Permission +necessary. If they are poor, they begin first as Servants or +Journeymen; and if they are sober, industrious, and frugal, they +soon become Masters, establish themselves in Business, marry, +raise Families, and become respectable Citizens.</p> + +<p>Also, Persons of moderate Fortunes and Capitals, who, +having a Number of Children to provide for, are desirous of +bringing them up to Industry, and to secure Estates for their +Posterity, have Opportunities of doing it in America, which +Europe does not afford. There they may be taught and practise +profitable mechanic Arts, without incurring Disgrace on +that Account, but on the contrary acquiring Respect by such +Abilities. There small Capitals laid out in Lands, which daily +become more valuable by the Increase of People, afford a solid +Prospect of ample Fortunes thereafter for those Children. The +writer of this has known several Instances of large Tracts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span> +Land, bought, on what was then the Frontier of Pensilvania, +for Ten Pounds per hundred Acres, which after 20 years, when +the Settlements had been extended far beyond them, sold +readily, without any Improvement made upon them, for three +Pounds per Acre. The Acre in America is the same with the +English Acre, or the Acre of Normandy.</p> + +<p>Those, who desire to understand the State of Government +in America, would do well to read the Constitutions of the several +States, and the Articles of Confederation that bind the +whole together for general Purposes, under the Direction of +one Assembly, called the Congress. These Constitutions have +been printed, by order of Congress, in America; two Editions +of them have also been printed in London; and a good Translation +of them into French has lately been published at Paris.</p> + +<p>Several of the Princes of Europe having of late years, from +an Opinion of Advantage to arise by producing all Commodities +and Manufactures within their own Dominions, so as to diminish +or render useless their Importations, have endeavoured to +entice Workmen from other Countries by high Salaries, Privileges, +&c. Many Persons, pretending to be skilled in various +great Manufactures, imagining that America must be in Want +of them, and that the Congress would probably be dispos'd to +imitate the Princes above mentioned, have proposed to go +over, on Condition of having their Passages paid, Lands given, +Salaries appointed, exclusive Privileges for Terms of years, &c. +Such Persons, on reading the Articles of Confederation, will +find, that the Congress have no Power committed to them, or +Money put into their Hands, for such purposes; and that if any +such Encouragement is given, it must be by the Government +of some separate State. This, however, has rarely been done in +America; and, when it has been done, it has rarely succeeded, so +as to establish a Manufacture, which the Country was not yet +so ripe for as to encourage private Persons to set it up; Labour +being generally too dear there, and Hands difficult to be kept +together, every one desiring to be a Master, and the Cheapness +of Lands inclining many to leave Trades for Agriculture. Some +indeed have met with Success, and are carried on to Advantage;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span> +but they are generally such as require only a few Hands, or +wherein great Part of the Work is performed by Machines. +Things that are bulky, and of so small Value as not well to bear +the Expence of Freight, may often be made cheaper in the +Country than they can be imported; and the Manufacture of +such Things will be profitable wherever there is a sufficient +Demand. The Farmers in America produce indeed a good deal +of Wool and Flax; and none is exported, it is all work'd up; but +it is in the Way of domestic Manufacture, for the Use of the +Family. The buying up Quantities of Wool and Flax, with +the Design to employ Spinners, Weavers, &c., and form great +Establishments, producing Quantities of Linen and Woollen +Goods for Sale, has been several times attempted in different +Provinces; but those Projects have generally failed, goods of +equal Value being imported cheaper. And when the Governments +have been solicited to support such Schemes by Encouragements, +in Money, or by imposing Duties on Importation of +such Goods, it has been generally refused, on this Principle, +that, if the Country is ripe for the Manufacture, it may be carried +on by private Persons to Advantage; and if not, it is a Folly to +think of forcing Nature. Great Establishments of Manufacture +require great Numbers of Poor to do the Work for small Wages; +these Poor are to be found in Europe, but will not be found in +America, till the Lands are all taken up and cultivated, and the +Excess of People, who cannot get Land, want Employment. +The Manufacture of Silk, they say, is natural in France, as that +of Cloth in England, because each Country produces in Plenty +the first Material; but if England will have a Manufacture of Silk +as well as that of Cloth, and France one of Cloth as well as that +of Silk, these unnatural Operations must be supported by mutual +Prohibitions, or high Duties on the Importation of each +other's Goods; by which means the Workmen are enabled to +tax the home Consumer by greater Prices, while the higher +Wages they receive makes them neither happier nor richer, +since they only drink more and work less. Therefore the Governments +in America do nothing to encourage such Projects. +The People, by this Means, are not impos'd on, either by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span> +Merchant or Mechanic. If the Merchant demands too much +Profit on imported Shoes, they buy of the Shoemaker; and if +he asks too high a Price, they take them of the Merchant; thus +the two Professions are checks on each other. The Shoemaker, +however, has, on the whole, a considerable Profit upon his +Labour in America, beyond what he had in Europe, as he can +add to his Price a Sum nearly equal to all the Expences of Freight +and Commission, Risque or Insurance, &c., necessarily charged +by the Merchant. And the Case is the same with the Workmen +in every other Mechanic Art. Hence it is, that Artisans generally +live better and more easily in America than in Europe; and such +as are good Œconomists make a comfortable Provision for Age, +and for their Children. Such may, therefore, remove with Advantage +to America.</p> + +<p>In the long-settled Countries of Europe, all Arts, Trades, +Professions, Farms, &c., are so full, that it is difficult for a poor +Man, who has Children, to place them where they may gain, or +learn to gain, a decent Livelihood. The Artisans, who fear +creating future Rivals in Business, refuse to take Apprentices, +but upon Conditions of Money, Maintenance, or the like, which +the Parents are unable to comply with. Hence the Youth are +dragg'd up in Ignorance of every gainful Art, and oblig'd to +become Soldiers, or Servants, or Thieves, for a Subsistence. In +America, the rapid Increase of Inhabitants takes away that Fear +of Rivalship, and Artisans willingly receive Apprentices from +the hope of Profit by their Labour, during the Remainder of +the Time stipulated, after they shall be instructed. Hence it is +easy for poor Families to get their Children instructed; for the +Artisans are so desirous of Apprentices, that many of them will +even give Money to the Parents, to have Boys from Ten to +Fifteen Years of Age bound Apprentices to them till the Age of +Twenty-one; and many poor Parents have, by that means, on +their Arrival in the Country, raised Money enough to buy Land +sufficient to establish themselves, and to subsist the rest of their +Family by Agriculture. These Contracts for Apprentices are +made before a Magistrate, who regulates the Agreement according +to Reason and Justice, and, having in view the Formation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span> +of a future useful Citizen, obliges the Master to engage by a +written Indenture, not only that, during the time of Service +stipulated, the Apprentice shall be duly provided with Meat, +Drink, Apparel, washing, and Lodging, and, at its Expiration, +with a compleat new Suit of Cloaths, but also that he shall be +taught to read, write, and cast Accompts; and that he shall be +well instructed in the Art or Profession of his Master, or some +other, by which he may afterwards gain a Livelihood, and be +able in his turn to raise a Family. A Copy of this Indenture is +given to the Apprentice or his Friends, and the Magistrate keeps +a Record of it, to which recourse may be had, in case of Failure +by the Master in any Point of Performance. This desire among +the Masters, to have more Hands employ'd in working for +them, induces them to pay the Passages of young Persons, of +both Sexes, who, on their Arrival, agree to serve them one, +two, three, or four Years; those, who have already learnt a +Trade, agreeing for a shorter Term, in proportion to their +Skill, and the consequent immediate Value of their Service; and +those, who have none, agreeing for a longer Term, in consideration +of being taught an Art their Poverty would not permit +them to acquire in their own Country.</p> + +<p>The almost general Mediocrity of Fortune that prevails in +America obliging its People to follow some Business for subsistence, +those Vices, that arise usually from Idleness, are in a +great measure prevented. Industry and constant Employment +are great preservatives of the Morals and Virtue of a Nation. +Hence bad Examples to Youth are more rare in America, which +must be a comfortable Consideration to Parents. To this may +be truly added, that serious Religion, under its various Denominations, +is not only tolerated, but respected and practised. +Atheism is unknown there; Infidelity rare and secret; so that +persons may live to a great Age in that Country, without having +their Piety shocked by meeting with either an Atheist or an +Infidel. And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his +Approbation of the mutual Forbearance and Kindness with which +the different Sects treat each other, by the remarkable Prosperity +with which He has been pleased to favour the whole Country.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="APOLOGUE" id="APOLOGUE"></a>APOLOGUE<a name="FNanchor_117_629" id="FNanchor_117_629"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_629" class="fnanchor">[117]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[1783?]</p> + +<p>Lion, king of a certain forest, had among his subjects a body +of faithful dogs, in principle and affection strongly attached to +his person and government, but through whose assistance he +had extended his dominions, and had become the terror of his +enemies.</p> + +<p>Lion, however, influenced by evil counsellors, took an aversion +to the dogs, condemned them unheard, and ordered his +tigers, leopards, and panthers to attack and destroy them.</p> + +<p>The dogs petitioned humbly, but their petitions were rejected +haughtily; and they were forced to defend themselves, which +they did with bravery.</p> + +<p>A few among them, of a mongrel race, derived from a mixture +with wolves and foxes, corrupted by royal promises of great +rewards, deserted the honest dogs and joined their enemies.</p> + +<p>The dogs were finally victorious: a treaty of peace was made, +in which Lion acknowledged them to be free, and disclaimed all +future authority over them.</p> + +<p>The mongrels not being permitted to return among them, +claimed of the royalists the reward that had been promised.</p> + +<p>A council of the beasts was held to consider their demand.</p> + +<p>The wolves and the foxes agreed unanimously that the demand +was just, that royal promises ought to be kept, and that +every loyal subject should contribute freely to enable his majesty +to fulfil them.</p> + +<p>The horse alone, with a boldness and freedom that became +the nobleness of his nature, delivered a contrary opinion.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The King," said he, "has been misled, by bad ministers, to +war unjustly upon his faithful subjects. Royal promises, when +made to encourage us to act for the public good, should indeed +be honourably acquitted; but if to encourage us to betray and +destroy each other, they are wicked and void from the beginning. +The advisers of such promises, and those who murdered +in consequence of them, instead of being recompensed, should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span> +be severely punished. Consider how greatly our common +strength is already diminished by our loss of the dogs. If you +enable the King to reward those fratricides, you will establish +a precedent that may justify a future tyrant to make like promises; +and every example of such an unnatural brute rewarded +will give them additional weight. Horses and bulls, as well as +dogs, may thus be divided against their own kind, and civil wars +produced at pleasure, till we are so weakened that neither liberty +nor safety is any longer to be found in the forest, and nothing +remains but abject submission to the will of a despot, who may +devour us as he pleases."</p></div> + +<p>The council had sense enough to resolve—that the demand +be rejected.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_SIR_JOSEPH_BANKS_459" id="TO_SIR_JOSEPH_BANKS_459"></a>TO SIR JOSEPH BANKS</h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, July 27, 1783.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span></p> + +<p>I received your very kind letter by Dr. Blagden,<a name="FNanchor_118_630" id="FNanchor_118_630"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_630" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> and esteem +myself much honoured by your friendly Remembrance. I have +been too much and too closely engaged in public Affairs, since +his being here, to enjoy all the Benefit of his Conversation you +were so good as to intend me. I hope soon to have more Leisure, +and to spend a part of it in those Studies, that are much more +agreable to me than political Operations.</p> + +<p>I join with you most cordially in rejoicing at the return of +Peace. I hope it will be lasting, and that Mankind will at length, +as they call themselves reasonable Creatures, have Reason and +Sense enough to settle their Differences without cutting +Throats; for, in my opinion, <i>there never was a good War, or a +bad Peace</i>. What vast additions to the Conveniences and Comforts +of Living might Mankind have acquired, if the Money +spent in Wars had been employed in Works of public utility! +What an extension of Agriculture, even to the Tops of our +Mountains: what Rivers rendered navigable, or joined by +Canals: what Bridges, Aqueducts, new Roads, and other public +Works, Edifices, and Improvements, rendering England a compleat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span> +Paradise, might have been obtained by spending those +Millions in doing good, which in the last War have been spent +in doing Mischief; in bringing Misery into thousands of Families, +and destroying the Lives of so many thousands of working +people, who might have performed the useful labour!</p> + +<p>I am pleased with the late astronomical Discoveries made by +our Society [the Royal—Eds.]. Furnished as all Europe now +is with Academies of Science, with nice Instruments and the +Spirit of Experiment, the progress of human knowledge will +be rapid, and discoveries made, of which we have at present +no Conception. I begin to be almost sorry I was born so +soon, since I cannot have the happiness of knowing what will +be known 100 years hence.</p> + +<p>I wish continued success to the Labours of the Royal Society, +and that you may long adorn their Chair; being, with the highest +esteem, dear Sir, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p>P.S. Dr. Blagden will acquaint you with the experiment of +a vast Globe sent up into the Air, much talked of here, and +which, if prosecuted, may furnish means of new knowledge.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_MRS_SARAH_BACHE" id="TO_MRS_SARAH_BACHE"></a>TO MRS. SARAH BACHE<a name="FNanchor_119_631" id="FNanchor_119_631"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_631" class="fnanchor">[119]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, Jan. 26, 1784.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Child,</span></p> + +<p>Your Care in sending me the Newspapers is very agreable +to me. I received by Capt. Barney those relating to the <i>Cincinnati</i>. +My Opinion of the Institution cannot be of much Importance; +I only wonder that, when the united Wisdom of our +Nation had, in the Articles of Confederation, manifested their +Dislike of establishing Ranks of Nobility, by Authority either +of the Congress or of any particular State, a Number of private +Persons should think proper to distinguish themselves and +their Posterity, from their fellow Citizens, and form an Order +of <i>hereditary Knights</i>, in direct Opposition to the solemnly declared +Sense of their Country! I imagine it must be likewise +contrary to the Good Sense of most of those drawn into it by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span> +the Persuasion of its Projectors, who have been too much struck +with the Ribbands and Crosses they have seen among them +hanging to the Buttonholes of Foreign Officers. And I suppose +those, who disapprove of it, have not hitherto given it much +Opposition, from a Principle somewhat like that of your good +Mother, relating to punctilious Persons, who are always exacting +little Observances of Respect; that, "<i>if People can be pleased with +small Matters, it is a pity but they should have them</i>."</p> + +<p>In this View, perhaps, I should not myself, if my Advice had +been ask'd, have objected to their wearing their Ribband and +Badge according to their Fancy, tho' I certainly should to the +entailing it as an Honour on their Posterity. For Honour, +worthily obtain'd (as for Example that of our Officers), is in its +Nature a <i>personal</i> Thing, and incommunicable to any but those +who had some Share in obtaining it. Thus among the Chinese, +the most ancient, and from long Experience the wisest of Nations, +honour does not <i>descend</i>, but <i>ascends</i>. If a man from his +Learning, his Wisdom, or his Valour, is promoted by the Emperor +to the Rank of Mandarin, his Parents are immediately +entitled to all the same Ceremonies of Respect from the People, +that are establish'd as due to the Mandarin himself; on the supposition +that it must have been owing to the Education, Instruction, +and good Example afforded him by his Parents, that +he was rendered capable of serving the Publick.</p> + +<p>This <i>ascending</i> Honour is therefore useful to the State, as it +encourages Parents to give their Children a good and virtuous +Education. But the <i>descending Honour</i>, to Posterity who could +have no Share in obtaining it, is not only groundless and absurd, +but often hurtful to that Posterity, since it is apt to make them +proud, disdaining to be employ'd in useful Arts, and thence +falling into Poverty, and all the Meannesses, Servility, and +Wretchedness attending it; which is the present case with much +of what is called the <i>Noblesse</i> in Europe. Or if, to keep up the +Dignity of the Family, Estates are entailed entire on the Eldest +male heir, another Pest to Industry and Improvement of the +Country is introduc'd, which will be followed by all the odious +mixture of pride and Beggary, and idleness, that have half depopulated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span> +[and <i>decultivated</i>] Spain; occasioning continual Extinction +of Families by the Discouragements of Marriage [and +neglect in the improvement of estates].</p> + +<p>I wish, therefore, that the Cincinnati, if they must go on with +their Project, would direct the Badges of their Order to be +worn by their Parents, instead of handing them down to their +Children. It would be a good Precedent, and might have good +Effects. It would also be a kind of Obedience to the Fourth +Commandment, in which God enjoins us to <i>honour</i> our Father +and Mother, but has nowhere directed us to honour our Children. +And certainly no mode of honouring those immediate +Authors of our Being can be more effectual, than that of doing +praiseworthy Actions, which reflect Honour on those who gave +us our Education; or more becoming, than that of manifesting, +by some public Expression or Token, that it is to their Instruction +and Example we ascribe the Merit of those Actions.</p> + +<p>But the Absurdity of <i>descending Honours</i> is not a mere Matter +of philosophical Opinion; it is capable of mathematical Demonstration. +A Man's Son, for instance, is but half of his Family, +the other half belonging to the Family of his Wife. His Son, +too, marrying into another Family, his Share in the Grandson +is but a fourth; in the Great Grandson, by the same Process, it +is but an Eighth; in the next Generation a Sixteenth; the next a +Thirty-second; the next a Sixty-fourth; the next an Hundred +and twenty-eighth; the next a Two hundred and Fifty-sixth; and +the next a Five hundred and twelfth; thus in nine Generations, +which will not require more than 300 years (no very great Antiquity +for a Family), our present Chevalier of the Order of +Cincinnatus's Share in the then existing Knight, will be but a +512th part; which, allowing the present certain Fidelity of +American Wives to be insur'd down through all those Nine +Generations, is so small a Consideration, that methinks no +reasonable Man would hazard for the sake of it the disagreable +Consequences of the Jealousy, Envy, and Ill will of his Countrymen.</p> + +<p>Let us go back with our Calculation from this young Noble, +the 512th part of the present Knight, thro' his nine Generations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span> +till we return to the year of the Institution. He must have had +a Father and Mother, they are two. Each of them had a father +and Mother, they are four. Those of the next preceding Generation +will be eight, the next Sixteen, the next thirty-two, the +next sixty-four, the next One hundred and Twenty-eight, the +next Two hundred and fifty-six, and the ninth in this Retrocession +Five hundred and twelve, who must be now existing, and +all contribute their Proportion of this future <i>Chevalier de Cincinnatus</i>. +These, with the rest, make together as follows:</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" summary=""> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">2</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">4</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">8</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">16</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">32</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">64</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">128</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">256</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">512</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="center">____</td></tr> +<tr><td class="rpad1" align="left">Total</td><td align="right">1022</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>One Thousand and Twenty-two Men and Women, contributors +to the formation of one Knight. And, if we are to have a Thousand +of these future knights, there must be now and hereafter +existing One million and Twenty-two Thousand Fathers and +Mothers, who are to contribute to their Production, unless a +Part of the Number are employ'd in making more Knights than +One. Let us strike off then the 22,000, on the Supposition of +this double Employ, and then consider whether, after a reasonable +Estimation of the Number of Rogues, and Fools, and +Royalists and Scoundrels and Prostitutes, that are mix'd with, +and help to make up necessarily their Million of Predecessors, +Posterity will have much reason to boast of the noble Blood of +the then existing Set of Chevaliers de Cincinnatus. [The future +genealogists, too, of these Chevaliers, in proving the lineal +descent of their honour through so many generations (even +supposing honour capable in its nature of descending), will +only prove the small share of this honour, which can be justly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span> +claimed by any one of them; since the above simple process in +arithmetic makes it quite plain and clear that, in proportion as +the antiquity of the family shall augment, the right to the honour +of the ancestor will diminish; and a few generations more would +reduce it to something so small as to be very near an absolute +nullity.] I hope, therefore, that the Order will drop this part +of their project, and content themselves, as the Knights of the +Garter, Bath, Thistle, St. Louis, and other Orders of Europe +do, with a Life Enjoyment of their little Badge and Ribband, +and let the Distinction die with those who have merited it. This +I imagine will give no offence. For my own part, I shall think +it a Convenience, when I go into a Company where there may +be Faces unknown to me, if I discover, by this Badge, the Persons +who merit some particular Expression of my Respect; and +it will save modest Virtue the Trouble of calling for our Regard, +by awkward roundabout Intimations of having been heretofore +employ'd in the Continental Service.</p> + +<p>The Gentleman, who made the Voyage to France to provide +the Ribands and Medals, has executed his Commission. To me +they seem tolerably done; but all such Things are criticis'd. +Some find Fault with the Latin, as wanting classic Elegance and +Correctness; and, since our Nine Universities were not able to +furnish better Latin, it was pity, they say, that the Mottos had +not been in English. Others object to the Title, as not properly +assumable by any but Gen. Washington, [and a few others] who +serv'd without Pay. Others object to the <i>Bald Eagle</i> as looking +too much like a <i>Dindon</i>, or Turkey. For my own part, I wish +the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the Representative of our +Country; he is a Bird of bad moral Character; he does not get +his living honestly; you may have seen him perch'd on some +dead Tree, near the River where, too lazy to fish for himself, +he watches the Labour of the Fishing-Hawk; and, when that +diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his +Nest for the support of his Mate and young ones, the Bald +Eagle pursues him, and takes it from him. With all this Injustice +he is never in good Case; but, like those among Men who +live by Sharping and Robbing, he is generally poor, and often<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span> +very lousy. Besides, he is a rank Coward; the little <i>King Bird</i>, +not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him +out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem +for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have +driven all the <i>Kingbirds</i> from our Country; though exactly fit +for that Order of Knights, which the French call <i>Chevaliers +d'Industrie</i>.</p> + +<p>I am, on this account, not displeas'd that the Figure is not +known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turk'y. For in +Truth, the Turk'y is in comparison a much more respectable +Bird, and withal a true original Native of America. Eagles have +been found in all Countries, but the Turk'y was peculiar to +ours; the first of the Species seen in Europe being brought to +France by the Jesuits from Canada, and serv'd up at the Wedding +Table of Charles the Ninth. He is, [though a little vain +and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that,] a Bird +of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of +the British Guards, who should presume to invade his Farm +Yard with a <i>red</i> Coat on.</p> + +<p>I shall not enter into the Criticisms made upon their Latin. +The gallant officers of America may [not have the merit of +being] be no great scholars, but they undoubtedly merit much, +[as brave soldiers,] from their Country, which should therefore +not leave them merely to <i>Fame</i> for their "<i>Virtutis Premium</i>," +which is one of their Latin Mottos. Their "<i>Esto perpetua</i>," +another, is an excellent Wish, if they meant it for their Country; +bad, if intended for their Order. The States should not only +restore to them the <i>Omnia</i> of their first Motto, which many of +them have left and lost, but pay them justly, and reward them +generously. They should not be suffered to remain, with [all] +their new-created Chivalry, <i>entirely</i> in the Situation of the Gentleman +in the Story, which their <i>omnia reliquit</i> reminds me of. +You know every thing makes me recollect some Story. He +had built a very fine House, and thereby much impair'd his +Fortune. He had a Pride, however, in showing it to his Acquaintance. +One of them, after viewing it all, remark'd a +Motto over the Door, "<span class="smcap">Ōia Vanitas</span>." "What," says he,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span> +"is the Meaning of this <span class="smcap">Ōia</span>? it is a word I don't understand." +"I will tell you," said the Gentleman; "I had a mind to have the +Motto cut on a Piece of smooth Marble, but there was not room +for it between the Ornaments, to be put in Characters large +enough to be read. I therefore made use of a Contraction +antiently very common in Latin Manuscripts, by which the +<i>m</i>'s and <i>n</i>'s in Words are omitted, and the Omission noted by +a little Dash above, which you may see there; so that the Word +is <i>omnia</i>, <span class="txt90">OMNIA VANITAS</span>." "O," says his Friend, "I now comprehend +the Meaning of your motto, it relates to your Edifice; +and signifies, that, if you have abridged your <i>Omnia</i>, you have, +nevertheless, left your <span class="txt90">VANITAS</span> legible at full length." I am, as +ever, your affectionate father,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="AN_ECONOMICAL_PROJECT" id="AN_ECONOMICAL_PROJECT"></a>AN ECONOMICAL PROJECT</h3> + +<p class="center">TO THE AUTHORS OF THE JOURNAL OF PARIS</p> + +<p class="date">[March 20, 1784?<a name="FNanchor_120_632" id="FNanchor_120_632"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_632" class="fnanchor">[120]</a>]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Messieurs</span>,</p> + +<p>You often entertain us with accounts of new discoveries. +Permit me to communicate to the public, through your paper, +one that has lately been made by myself, and which I conceive +may be of great utility.</p> + +<p>I was the other evening in a grand company, where the new +lamp of Messrs. Quinquet and Lange was introduced, and +much admired for its splendour; but a general inquiry was +made, whether the oil it consumed was not in proportion to +the light it afforded, in which case there would be no saving +in the use of it. No one present could satisfy us in that point, +which all agreed ought to be known, it being a very desirable +thing to lessen, if possible, the expense of lighting our apartments, +when every other article of family expense was so much +augmented.</p> + +<p>I was pleased to see this general concern for economy, for I +love economy exceedingly.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span></p> + +<p>I went home, and to bed, three or four hours after midnight, +with my head full of the subject. An accidental sudden noise +waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to +find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a +number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing +my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I +got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, +when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence +he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic +having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the +shutters.</p> + +<p>I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that +it was but six o'clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary +that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the +almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising +on that day. I looked forward, too, and found he was to rise +still earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at +no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight +o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs +of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical +part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when +they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure +them, <i>that he gives light as soon as he rises</i>. I am convinced of +this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of +any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having repeated +this observation the three following mornings, I found always +precisely the same result.</p> + +<p>Yet it so happens, that when I speak of this discovery to +others, I can easily perceive by their countenances, though they +forbear expressing it in words, that they do not quite believe +me. One, indeed, who is a learned natural philosopher, has +assured me that I must certainly be mistaken as to the circumstance +of the light coming into my room; for it being well +known, as he says, that there could be no light abroad at that +hour, it follows that none could enter from without; and that +of consequence, my windows being accidentally left open, instead +of letting in the light, had only served to let out the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span> +darkness; and he used many ingenious arguments to show me +how I might, by that means, have been deceived. I owned that +he puzzled me a little, but he did not satisfy me; and the subsequent +observations I made, as above mentioned, confirmed me +in my first opinion.</p> + +<p>This event has given rise in my mind to several serious and +important reflections. I considered that, if I had not been +awakened so early in the morning, I should have slept six hours +longer by the light of the sun, and in exchange have lived six +hours the following night by candle-light; and, the latter being +a much more expensive light than the former, my love of +economy induced me to muster up what little arithmetic I was +master of, and to make some calculations, which I shall give +you, after observing that utility is, in my opinion the test of +value in matters of invention, and that a discovery which can +be applied to no use, or is not good for something, is good for +nothing.</p> + +<p>I took for the basis of my calculation the supposition that +there are one hundred thousand families in Paris, and that these +families consume in the night half a pound of bougies, or +candles, per hour. I think this is a moderate allowance, taking +one family with another; for though I believe some consume +less, I know that many consume a great deal more. Then +estimating seven hours per day as a medium quantity between +the time of the sun's rising and ours, he rising during the six +following months from six to eight hours before noon, and +there being seven hours of course per night in which we burn +candles, the account will stand thus;—</p> + +<p>In the six months between the 20th of March and the 20th of +September, there are</p> + +<div class="center"> +<table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Candle Cost"> +<tr><td class="econd"> +Nights</td><td class="econn">183</td></tr> +<tr><td class="econd"> +Hours of each night in which we burn candles.</td><td class="econn">7</td></tr> +<tr><td class="econd"> </td><td class="econn">_____</td></tr> +<tr><td class="econd"> +Multiplication gives for the total number of +hours</td><td class="econn">1,281</td></tr> +<tr><td class="econd"> +These 1,281 hours multiplied by 100,000, the +number of inhabitants, give</td><td class="econn">128,100,000<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span></td></tr> +<tr><td class="econd"> +One hundred twenty-eight millions and one +hundred thousand hours, spent at Paris by +candle-light, which, at half a pound of wax +and tallow per hour, gives the weight of</td><td class="econn">64,050,000</td></tr> +<tr><td class="econd"> +Sixty-four millions and fifty thousand of pounds, +which, estimating the whole at the medium +price of thirty sols the pound, makes the sum +of ninety-six millions and seventy-five thousand +livres tournois</td><td class="econn">96,075,000</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>An immense sum! that the city of Paris might save every +year, by the economy of using sunshine instead of candles.</p> + +<p>If it should be said, that people are apt to be obstinately +attached to old customs, and that it will be difficult to induce +them to rise before noon, consequently my discovery can be +of little use; I answer, <i>Nil desperandum</i>. I believe all who have +common sense, as soon as they have learnt from this paper +that it is daylight when the sun rises, will contrive to rise with +him; and, to compel the rest, I would propose the following +regulations;</p> + +<p>First. Let a tax be laid of a louis per window, on every +window that is provided with shutters to keep out the light of +the sun.</p> + +<p>Second. Let the same salutary operation of police be made +use of, to prevent our burning candles, that inclined us last +winter to be more economical in burning wood; that is, let +guards be placed in the shops of the wax and tallow chandlers, +and no family be permitted to be supplied with more than one +pound of candles per week.</p> + +<p>Third. Let guards also be posted to stop all the coaches, &c. +that would pass the streets after sun-set, except those of physicians, +surgeons, and midwives.</p> + +<p>Fourth. Every morning, as soon as the sun rises, let all the +bells in every church be set ringing; and if that is not sufficient, +let cannon be fired in every street, to wake the sluggards effectually, +and make them open their eyes to see their true +interest.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span></p> + +<p>All the difficulty will be in the first two or three days; after +which the reformation will be as natural and easy as the present +irregularity; for, <i>ce n'est que le premier pas qui coûte</i>. Oblige a +man to rise at four in the morning, and it is more than probable +he will go willingly to bed at eight in the evening; and, having +had eight hours sleep, he will rise more willingly at four in the +morning following. But this sum of ninety-six millions and +seventy-five thousand livres is not the whole of what may be +saved by my economical project. You may observe, that I +have calculated upon only one half of the year, and much may +be saved in the other, though the days are shorter. Besides, the +immense stock of wax and tallow left unconsumed during the +summer, will probably make candles much cheaper for the +ensuing winter, and continue them cheaper as long as the +proposed reformation shall be supported.</p> + +<p>For the great benefit of this discovery, thus freely communicated +and bestowed by me on the public, I demand neither +place, pension, exclusive privilege, nor any other reward whatever. +I expect only to have the honour of it. And yet I know +there are little, envious minds, who will, as usual, deny me +this, and say, that my invention was known to the ancients, and +perhaps they may bring passages out of the old books in proof +of it. I will not dispute with these people, that the ancients +knew not the sun would rise at certain hours; they possibly +had, as we have, almanacs that predicted it; but it does not +follow thence, that they knew <i>he gave light as soon as he rose</i>. +This is what I claim as my discovery. If the ancients knew it, +it might have been long since forgotten; for it certainly was +unknown to the moderns, at least to the Parisians, which to +prove, I need use but one plain simple argument. They are as well +instructed, judicious, and prudent a people as exist anywhere +in the world, all professing, like myself, to be lovers of economy; +and, from the many heavy taxes required from them by +the necessities of the state, have surely an abundant reason to +be economical. I say it is impossible that so sensible a people, +under such circumstances, should have lived so long by the +smoky, unwholesome, and enormously expensive light of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span> +candles, if they had really known, that they might have had as +much pure light of the sun for nothing. I am, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">A Subscriber</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_SAMUEL_MATHER" id="TO_SAMUEL_MATHER"></a>TO SAMUEL MATHER<a name="FNanchor_121_633" id="FNanchor_121_633"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_633" class="fnanchor">[121]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, May 12, 1784.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rev<sup>d</sup> Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I received your kind letter, with your excellent advice to the +people of the United States, which I read with great pleasure, +and hope it will be duly regarded. Such writings, though they +may be lightly passed over by many readers, yet, if they make +a deep impression on one active mind in a hundred, the effects +may be considerable. Permit me to mention one little instance, +which, though it relates to myself, will not be quite uninteresting +to you. When I was a boy, I met with a book, entitled "<i>Essays +to do Good</i>," which I think was written by your father. It had +been so little regarded by a former possessor, that several leaves +of it were torn out; but the remainder gave me such a turn of +thinking, as to have an influence on my conduct through life; +for I have always set a greater value on the character of a <i>doer +of good</i>, than on any other kind of reputation; and if I have +been, as you seem to think, a useful citizen, the public owes the +advantage of it to that book.</p> + +<p>You mention your being in your 78<sup>th</sup> year; I am in my 79<sup>th</sup>; +we are grown old together. It is now more than 60 years since +I left Boston, but I remember well both your father and grandfather, +having heard them both in the pulpit, and seen them in +their houses. The last time I saw your father was in the beginning +of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. +He received me in his library, and on my taking leave +showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow +passage, which was crossed by a beam over head. We were +still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and +I turning partly towards him, when he said hastily, "<i>Stoop, +stoop!</i>" I did not understand him, till I felt my head hit against +the beam. He was a man that never missed any occasion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span> +giving instruction, and upon this he said to me, "<i>You are young, +and have the world before you</i>; <span class="txt90">STOOP</span> <i>as you go through it, and +you will miss many hard thumps</i>." This advice, thus beat into +my head, has frequently been of use to me; and I often think +of it, when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon +people by their carrying their heads too high.</p> + +<p>I long much to see again my native place, and to lay my +bones there. I left it in 1723; I visited it in 1733, 1743, 1753, +and 1763. In 1773 I was in England; in 1775 I had a sight of +it, but could not enter, it being in possession of the enemy. I +did hope to have been there in 1783, but could not obtain +my dismission from this employment here; and now I fear I +shall never have that happiness. My best wishes however attend +my dear country. <i>Esto perpetua.</i> It is now blest with an excellent +constitution; may it last for ever!</p> + +<p>This powerful monarchy continues its friendship for the +United States. It is a friendship of the utmost importance to +our security, and should be carefully cultivated. Britain has +not yet well digested the loss of its dominion over us, and has +still at times some flattering hopes of recovering it. Accidents +may increase those hopes, and encourage dangerous attempts. +A breach between us and France would infallibly bring the +English again upon our backs; and yet we have some wild +heads among our countrymen, who are endeavouring to weaken +that connexion! Let us preserve our reputation by performing +our engagements; our credit by fulfilling our contracts; and +friends by gratitude and kindness; for we know not how soon +we may again have occasion for all of them. With great and +sincere esteem, I have the honour to be, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_BENJAMIN_VAUGHAN_472" id="TO_BENJAMIN_VAUGHAN_472"></a>TO BENJAMIN VAUGHAN<a name="FNanchor_122_634" id="FNanchor_122_634"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_634" class="fnanchor">[122]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, July 26th, 1784.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p>I have received several Letters from you lately, dated June +16, June 30, and July 13. I thank you for the Information<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span> +respecting the Proceedings of your West India Merchants, or +rather Planters. The Restraints what ever they may be upon +our Commerce with your Islands, will prejudice their Inhabitants, +I apprehend, more than us.</p> + +<p>It is wonderful how preposterously the affairs of this world +are managed. Naturally one would imagine, that the interest +of a few individuals should give way to general interest; but +individuals manage their affairs with so much more application, +industry, and address, than the public do theirs, that general +interest most commonly gives way to particular. We assemble +parliaments and councils, to have the benefit of their collected +wisdom; but we necessarily have, at the same time, the inconvenience +of their collected passions, prejudices, and private +interest. By the help of these, artful men overpower their +wisdom, and dupe its possessors; and if we may judge by the +acts, <i>arrêts</i>, and edicts, all the world over, for regulating commerce, +an assembly of great men is the greatest fool upon earth.</p> + +<p>I have received Cook's <i>Voyages</i>, which you put Mr. Oswald +in the way of sending to me. By some Mistake the first Volume +was omitted, and instead of it a Duplicate sent of the third. If +there is a good Print of Cook, I should be glad to have it, +being personally acquainted with him. I thank you for the +Pamphlets by Mr. Estlin. Every thing you send me gives me +Pleasure; to receive your Account would give me more than +all.</p> + +<p>I am told, that the little Pamphlet of <i>Advice to such as would +remove to America</i>, is reprinted in London, with my Name to +it, which I would rather had been omitted; but wish to see a +Copy, when you have an Opportunity of sending it.</p> + +<p>Mr. H. has long continued here in Expectation of Instructions +for making a Treaty of Commerce, but they do not come, +and I begin to suspect none are intended; tho' perhaps the +Delay is only occasioned by the over great Burthen of Business +at present on the Shoulders of your Ministers. We do not press +the Matter, but are content to wait till they can see their Interest +respecting America more clearly, being certain that we can shift +as well as you without a Treaty.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Conjectures I sent you concerning the cold of last +Winter still appear to me probable. The moderate Season in +Russia and Canada, do not weaken them. I think our Frost +here began about the 24th of December; in America, the 12 +of January. I thank you for recommending to me Mr. Arbuthnot; +I have had Pleasure in his Conversation. I wish much to +see the new Pieces you had in hand. I congratulate you on the +Return of your Wedding-day, and wish for your Sake and +Mrs. Vaughan's, that you may see a great many of them, all as +happy as the first.</p> + +<p>I like the young stranger very much. He seems sensible, +ingenious, and modest, has a good deal of Instruction, and +makes judicious Observations. He will probably distinguish +himself advantageously. I have not yet heard from Mr. Nairne.</p> + +<p>Dr. Price's Pamphlet of Advice to America is a good one, +and will do Good. You ask, "what Remedy I have for the +growing Luxury of my Country, which gives so much <i>Offence</i> +to all <i>English travellers</i> without exception." I answer, that I +think it exaggerated, and that Travellers are no good Judges +whether our Luxury is growing or diminishing. Our People +are hospitable, and have indeed too much Pride in displaying +upon their Tables before Strangers the Plenty and Variety that +our Country affords. They have the Vanity, too, of sometimes +borrowing one another's Plate to entertain more splendidly. +Strangers being invited from House to House, and +meeting every Day with a Feast, imagine what they see is the +ordinary Way of living of all the Families where they dine; +when perhaps each Family lives a Week after upon the Remains +of the Dinner given. It is, I own, a Folly in our People to give +<i>such Offence</i> to <i>English Travellers</i>. The first part of the Proverb +is thereby verified, that <i>Fools make Feasts</i>. I wish in this Case +the other were as true, <i>and wise Men eat them</i>. These Travellers +might, one would think, find some Fault they could more +decently reproach us with, than that of our excessive Civility +to them as Strangers.</p> + +<p>I have not, indeed yet thought of a Remedy for Luxury. I +am not sure, that in a great State it is capable of a Remedy. Nor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span> +that the Evil is in itself always so great as it is represented. +Suppose we include in the Definition of Luxury all unnecessary +Expence, and then let us consider whether Laws to prevent +such Expence are possible to be executed in a great Country, +and whether, if they could be executed, our People generally +would be happier, or even richer. Is not the Hope of one day +being able to purchase and enjoy Luxuries a great Spur to +Labour and Industry? May not Luxury, therefore, produce +more than it consumes, if without such a Spur People would +be, as they are naturally enough inclined to be, lazy and indolent? +To this purpose I remember a Circumstance. The Skipper +of a Shallop, employed between Cape May and Philadelphia, had +done us some small Service, for which he refused Pay. My +Wife, understanding that he had a Daughter, sent her as a +Present a new-fashioned Cap. Three Years After, this Skipper +being at my House with an old Farmer of Cape May, his Passenger, +he mentioned the Cap, and how much his Daughter +had been pleased with it. "But," says he, "it proved a dear +Cap to our Congregation." "How so?" "When my Daughter +appeared in it at Meeting, it was so much admired, that all the +Girls resolved to get such Caps from Philadelphia; and my +Wife and I computed, that the whole could not have cost less +than a hundred Pound." "True," says the Farmer, "but you +do not tell all the Story. I think the Cap was nevertheless an +Advantage to us, for it was the first thing that put our Girls +upon Knitting worsted Mittens for Sale at Philadelphia, that +they might have wherewithal to buy Caps and Ribbands there; +and you know that that Industry has continued, and is likely +to continue and increase to a much greater Value, and answer +better Purposes." Upon the whole, I was more reconciled to +this little Piece of Luxury, since not only the Girls were made +happier by having fine Caps, but the Philadelphians by the +Supply of warm Mittens.</p> + +<p>In our Commercial Towns upon the Seacoast, Fortunes will +occasionally be made. Some of those who grow rich will be +prudent, live within Bounds, and preserve what they have gained +for their Posterity; others, fond of showing their Wealth, will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span> +be extravagant and ruin themselves. Laws cannot prevent this; +and perhaps it is not always an evil to the Publick. A Shilling +spent idly by a Fool, may be picked up by a Wiser Person, +who knows better what to do with it. It is therefore not lost. +A vain, silly Fellow builds a fine House, furnishes it richly, +lives in it expensively, and in few years ruins himself; but the +Masons, Carpenters, Smiths, and other honest Tradesmen have +been by his Employ assisted in maintaining and raising their +Families; the Farmer has been paid for his labour, and encouraged, +and the Estate is now in better Hands. In some +Cases, indeed, certain Modes of Luxury may be a publick Evil, +in the same Manner as it is a Private one. If there be a Nation, +for Instance, that exports its Beef and Linnen, to pay for its +Importation of Claret and Porter, while a great Part of its +People live upon Potatoes, and wear no Shirts, wherein does +it differ from the Sot, who lets his Family starve, and sells his +Clothes to buy Drink? Our American Commerce is, I confess, +a little in this way. We sell our Victuals to your Islands for +Rum and Sugar; the substantial Necessaries of Life for Superfluities. +But we have Plenty, and live well nevertheless, tho' +by being soberer, we might be richer.</p> + +<p>By the by, here is just issued an <i>arrêt</i> of Council taking off +all the Duties upon the exportation of Brandies, which, it is +said, will render them cheaper in America than your Rum; +in which case there is no doubt but they will be preferr'd, and +we shall be better able to bear your Restrictions on our Commerce. +There are Views here, by augmenting their Settlements, +of being able to supply the growing People of America with +the Sugar that may be wanted there. On the whole, I guess +England will get as little by the Commercial War she has begun +with us, as she did by the Military. But to return to Luxury.</p> + +<p>The vast Quantity of Forest Lands we have yet to clear, and +put in order for Cultivation, will for a long time keep the Body +of our Nation laborious and frugal. Forming an Opinion of +our People and their Manners by what is seen among the Inhabitants +of the Seaports, is judging from an improper Sample. +The People of the Trading Towns may be rich and luxurious,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span> +while the Country possesses all the Virtues, that tend to private +Happiness and publick Prosperity. Those Towns are not much +regarded by the Country; they are hardly considered as an +essential Part of the States; and the Experience of the last War +has shown, that their being in the Possession of the Enemy did +not necessarily draw on the Subjection of the Country, which +bravely continued to maintain its Freedom and Independence +notwithstanding.</p> + +<p>It has been computed by some Political Arithmetician, that, +if every Man and Woman would work for four Hours each +Day on something useful, that Labour would produce sufficient +to procure all the Necessaries and Comforts of Life, Want and +Misery would be banished out of the World, and the rest of the +24 hours might be Leisure and Pleasure.</p> + +<p>What occasions then so much Want and Misery? It is the +Employment of Men and Women in Works, that produce +neither the Necessaries nor Conveniences of Life, who, with +those who do nothing, consume the Necessaries raised by the +Laborious. To explain this.</p> + +<p>The first Elements of Wealth are obtained by Labour, from +the Earth and Waters. I have Land, and raise Corn. With this, +if I feed a Family that does nothing, my Corn will be consum'd, +and at the end of the Year I shall be no richer than I was at the +beginning. But if, while I feed them, I employ them, some in +Spinning, others in hewing Timber and sawing Boards, others +in making Bricks, &c. for Building, the Value of my Corn will +be arrested and remain with me, and at the end of the Year we +may all be better clothed and better lodged. And if, instead of +employing a Man I feed in making Bricks, I employ him in +fiddling for me, the Corn he eats is gone, and no Part of his +Manufacture remains to augment the Wealth and Convenience +of the family; I shall therefore be the poorer for this fiddling +Man, unless the rest of my Family work more, or eat less, to +make up the Deficiency he occasions.</p> + +<p>Look round the World and see the Millions employ'd in +doing nothing, or in something that amounts to nothing, when +the Necessaries and Conveniences of Life are in question.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span> +What is the Bulk of Commerce, for which we fight and destroy +each other, but the Toil of Millions for Superfluities, to the +great Hazard and Loss of many Lives by the constant Dangers +of the Sea? How much labour is spent in Building and fitting +great Ships, to go to China and Arabia for Tea and Coffee, to +the West Indies for Sugar, to America for Tobacco! These +things cannot be called the Necessaries of Life, for our Ancestors +lived very comfortably without them.</p> + +<p>A Question may be asked; Could all these People, now employed +in raising, making, or carrying Superfluities, be subsisted +by raising Necessaries? I think they might. The World +is large, and a great Part of it still uncultivated. Many +hundred Millions of Acres in Asia, Africa, and America are +still Forest, and a great Deal even in Europe. On 100 Acres of +this Forest a Man might become a substantial Farmer, and +100,000 Men, employed in clearing each his 100 Acres, would +hardly brighten a Spot big enough to be Visible from the Moon, +unless with Herschell's Telescope; so vast are the Regions still +in Wood unimproved.</p> + +<p>'Tis however, some Comfort to reflect, that, upon the whole, +the Quantity of Industry and Prudence among Mankind exceeds +the Quantity of Idleness and Folly. Hence the Increase +of good Buildings, Farms cultivated, and populous Cities +filled with Wealth, all over Europe, which a few Ages since +were only to be found on the Coasts of the Mediterranean; and +this, notwithstanding the mad Wars continually raging, by +which are often destroyed in one year the Works of many +Years' Peace. So that we may hope the Luxury of a few Merchants +on the Seacoast will not be the Ruin of America.</p> + +<p>One reflection more, and I well end this long, rambling +Letter. Almost all the Parts of our Bodies require some Expence. +The Feet demand Shoes; the Legs, Stockings; the rest +of the Body, Clothing; and the Belly, a good deal of Victuals. +<i>Our</i> Eyes, tho' exceedingly useful, ask, when reasonable, only +the cheap Assistance of Spectacles, which could not much +impair our Finances. But <i>the Eyes of other People</i> are the Eyes +that ruin us. If all but myself were blind, I should want neither<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span> +fine Clothes, fine Houses, nor fine Furniture. Adieu, my dear +Friend, I am</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Yours ever</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. This will be delivered to you by my Grandson. I am +persuaded you will afford him your Civilities and Counsels. +Please to accept a little Present of Books, I send by him, curious +for the Beauty of the Impression.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_GEORGE_WHATELY" id="TO_GEORGE_WHATELY"></a>TO GEORGE WHATELY<a name="FNanchor_123_635" id="FNanchor_123_635"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_635" class="fnanchor">[123]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Passy, May 23, 1785.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Old Friend</span>,</p> + +<p>... I must agree with you, that the Gout is bad, and that the +Stone is worse. I am happy in not having them both together, +and I join in your Prayer, that you may live till you die without +either. But I doubt the Author of the Epitaph you send me was +a little mistaken, when he, speaking of the World, says, that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i9">"he ne'er car'd a pin<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What they said or may say of the Mortal within."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It is so natural to wish to be well spoken of, whether alive or +dead, that I imagine he could not be quite exempt from that +Desire; and that at least he wish'd to be thought a Wit, or he +would not have given himself the Trouble of writing so good +an Epitaph to leave behind him. Was it not as worthy of his +Care, that the World should say he was an honest and a good +Man? I like better the concluding Sentiment in the old Song, +call'd <i>The Old Man's Wish</i>, wherein, after wishing for a warm +House in a country Town, an easy Horse, some good old +authors, ingenious and cheerful Companions, a Pudding on +Sundays, with stout Ale, and a bottle of Burgundy, &c., &c., +in separate Stanzas, each ending with this burthen,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"May I govern my Passions with an absolute sway,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grow wiser and better as my Strength wears away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Without Gout or Stone, by a gentle Decay;"<br /></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>he adds,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"With a Courage undaunted may I face my last day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, when I am gone, may the better Sort say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'In the Morning when sober, in the Evening when mellow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He's gone, and has not left behind him his Fellow;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For he governed his Passions, &c."'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But what signifies our Wishing? Things happen, after all, as +they will happen. I have sung that <i>wishing Song</i> a thousand +times, when I was young, and now find, at Fourscore, that the +three Contraries have befallen me, being subject to the Gout +and the Stone, and not being yet Master of all my Passions. Like +the proud Girl in my Country, who wished and resolv'd not to +marry a Parson, nor a Presbyterian, nor an Irishman; and at +length found herself married to an Irish Presbyterian Parson.</p> + +<p>You see I have some reason to wish, that, in a future State, +I may not only be <i>as well as I was</i>, but a little better. And I +hope it; for I, too, with your Poet, <i>trust in God</i>. And when I +observe, that there is great Frugality, as well as Wisdom, in his +Works, since he has been evidently sparing both of Labour and +Materials; for by the various wonderful Inventions of Propagation, +he has provided for the continual peopling his World with +Plants and Animals, without being at the Trouble of repeated +new Creations; and by the natural Reduction of compound +Substances to their original Elements, capable of being employ'd +in new Compositions, he has prevented the Necessity of creating +new Matter; so that the Earth, Water, Air, and perhaps +Fire, which being compounded form Wood, do, when the +Wood is dissolved, return, and again become Air, Earth, Fire, +and Water; I say, that, when I see nothing annihilated, and not +even a Drop of Water wasted, I cannot suspect the Annihilation +of Souls, or believe, that he will suffer the daily Waste of Millions +of Minds ready made that now exist, and put himself to +the continual Trouble of making new ones. Thus finding myself +to exist in the World, I believe I shall, in some Shape or +other, always exist; and, with all the inconveniencies human Life +is liable to, I shall not object to a new Edition of mine; hoping, +however, that the <i>Errata</i> of the last may be corrected.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span></p> + +<p>... Adieu, my dear Friend, and believe me ever yours very +affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JOHN_BARD_AND_MRS_BARD" id="TO_JOHN_BARD_AND_MRS_BARD"></a>TO JOHN BARD AND MRS. BARD</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, November 14, 1785.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friends</span>,</p> + +<p>I received your kind letter, which gave me great pleasure, as +it informed me of your welfare. Your friendly congratulations +are very obliging. I had on my return some right, as you observe, +to expect repose; and it was my intention to avoid all +public business. But I had not firmness enough to resist the +unanimous desire of my country folks; and I find myself harnessed +again in their service for another year. They engrossed +the prime of my life. They have eaten my flesh, and seem +resolved now to pick my bones. You are right in supposing, +that I interest myself in every thing that affects you and yours, +sympathizing in your afflictions, and rejoicing in your felicities; +for our friendship is ancient, and was never obscured by the +least cloud.</p> + +<p>I thank you for your civilities to my grandson, and am ever, +with sincere and great esteem and regard, my dear friends, yours +most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_JONATHAN_SHIPLEY_481" id="TO_JONATHAN_SHIPLEY_481"></a>TO JONATHAN SHIPLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, Feb. 24<sup>th</sup>, 1786.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p>I received lately your kind letter of Nov. 27th. My Reception +here was, as you have heard, very honourable indeed; but +I was betray'd by it, and by some Remains of Ambition, from +which I had imagined myself free, to accept of the Chair of +Government for the State of Pennsylvania, when the proper +thing for me was Repose and a private Life. I hope, however, +to be able to bear the Fatigue for one Year, and then to retire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have much regretted our having so little Opportunity for +Conversation when we last met. You could have given me +Informations and Counsels that I wanted, but we were scarce +a Minute together without being broke in upon. I am to thank +you, however, for the Pleasure I had after our Parting, in reading +the new Book<a name="FNanchor_124_636" id="FNanchor_124_636"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_636" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> you gave me, which I think generally well +written and likely to do good; tho' the Reading Time of most +People is of late so taken up with News Papers and little +periodical Pamphlets, that few now-a-days venture to attempt +reading a Quarto Volume. I have admir'd to see, that, in the +last Century, a Folio, <i>Burton on Melancholly</i>, went through Six +Editions in about Twenty Years. We have, I believe, more +Readers now, but not of such large Books.</p> + +<p>You seem desirous of knowing what Progress we make here +in improving our Governments. We are, I think, in the right +Road of Improvement, for we are making Experiments. I do +not oppose all that seem wrong, for the Multitude are more +effectually set right by Experience, than kept from going wrong +by Reasoning with them. And I think we are daily more and +more enlightened; so that I have no doubt of our obtaining in +a few Years as much public Felicity, as good Government is +capable of affording.</p> + +<p>Your NewsPapers are fill'd with fictitious Accounts of +Anarchy, Confusion, Distresses, and Miseries, we are suppos'd +to be involv'd in, as Consequences of the Revolution; and the +few remaining Friends of the old Government among us take +pains to magnify every little Inconvenience a Change in the +Course of Commerce may have occasion'd. To obviate the +Complaints they endeavour to excite, was written the enclos'd +little Piece,<a name="FNanchor_125_637" id="FNanchor_125_637"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_637" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> from which you may form a truer Idea of our +Situation, than your own public Prints would give you. And +I can assure you, that the great Body of our Nation find themselves +happy in the Change, and have not the smallest Inclination +to return to the Domination of Britain. There could not +be a stronger Proof of the general Approbation of the Measures, +that promoted the Change, and of the Change itself, than has +been given by the Assembly and Council of this State, in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span> +nearly unanimous Choice for their Governor, of one who had +been so much concern'd in those Measures, the Assembly being +themselves the unbrib'd Choice of the People, and therefore +may be truly suppos'd of the same Sentiments. I say nearly +unanimous, because, of between 70 and 80 Votes, there were +only my own and one other in the negative.</p> + +<p>As to my Domestic Circumstances, of which you kindly +desire to hear something, they are at present as happy as I +could wish them. I am surrounded by my Offspring, a Dutiful +and Affectionate Daughter in my House, with Six Grandchildren, +the eldest of which you have seen, who is now at a College in +the next Street, finishing the learned Part of his Education; the +others promising, both for Parts and good Dispositions. What +their Conduct may be, when they grow up and enter the important +Scenes of Life, I shall not live to <i>see</i>, and I cannot +<i>foresee</i>. I therefore enjoy among them the present Hour, and +leave the future to Providence.</p> + +<p>He that raises a large Family does, indeed, while he lives to +observe them, <i>stand</i>, as Watts says, <i>a broader Mark for Sorrow</i>; +but then he stands a broader Mark for Pleasure too. When we +launch our little Fleet of Barques into the Ocean, bound to +different Ports, we hope for each a prosperous Voyage; but +contrary Winds, hidden Shoals, Storms, and Enemies come in +for a Share in the Disposition of Events; and though these +occasion a Mixture of Disappointment, yet, considering the +Risque where we can make no Insurance, we should think ourselves +happy if some return with Success. My Son's Son, +Temple Franklin, whom you have also seen, having had a fine +Farm of 600 Acres<a name="FNanchor_126_638" id="FNanchor_126_638"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_638" class="fnanchor">[126]</a> convey'd to him by his Father when we +were at Southampton, has drop'd for the present his Views of +acting in the political Line, and applies himself ardently to the +Study and Practice of Agriculture. This is much more agreable +to me, who esteem it the most useful, the most independent, +and therefore the noblest of Employments. His Lands are on +navigable water, communicating with the Delaware, and but +about 16 Miles from this City. He has associated to himself a +very skillful English Farmer lately arrived here, who is to instruct<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span> +him in the Business, and partakes for a Term of the +Profits; so that there is a great apparent Probability of their +Success.</p> + +<p>You will kindly expect a Word or two concerning myself. +My Health and Spirits continue, Thanks to God, as when you +saw me. The only complaint I then had, does not grow worse, +and is tolerable. I still have Enjoyment in the Company of my +Friends; and, being easy in my Circumstances, have many +Reasons to like Living. But the Course of Nature must soon +put a period to my present Mode of Existence. This I shall +submit to with less Regret, as, having seen during a long Life +a good deal of this World, I feel a growing Curiosity to be +acquainted with some other; and can chearfully, with filial Confidence, +resign my Spirit to the conduct of that great and good +Parent of Mankind, who created it, and who has so graciously +protected and prospered me from my Birth to the present Hour. +Wherever I am, I hope always to retain the pleasing remembrance +of your Friendship, being with sincere and great Esteem, +my dear Friend, yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + +<p>P.S. We all join in Respects to Mrs. Shipley, and best +wishes for the whole amiable Family.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_mdashmdashmdashmdashmdash_484" id="TO_mdashmdashmdashmdashmdash_484"></a>TO ————————<a name="FNanchor_127_639" id="FNanchor_127_639"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_639" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Phila. July 3, 1786 [?].</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I have read your Manuscript with some Attention. By the +Argument it contains against the Doctrines of a particular +Providence, tho' you allow a general Providence, you strike at +the Foundation of all Religion. For without the Belief of a +Providence, that takes Cognizance of, guards, and guides, and +may favour particular Persons, there is no Motive to Worship +a Deity, to fear its Displeasure, or to pray for its Protection. +I will not enter into any Discussion of your Principles, tho' you +seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my Opinion,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span> +that, though your Reasonings are subtile, and may prevail with +some Readers, you will not succeed so as to change the general +Sentiments of Mankind on that Subject, and the Consequence of +printing this Piece will be, a great deal of Odium drawn upon +yourself, Mischief to you, and no Benefit to others. He that +spits against the Wind, spits in his own Face.<a name="FNanchor_128_640" id="FNanchor_128_640"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_640" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p> + +<p>But, were you to succeed, do you imagine any Good would +be done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous +Life, without the Assistance afforded by Religion; you having a +clear Perception of the Advantages of Virtue, and the Disadvantages +of Vice, and possessing a Strength of Resolution +sufficient to enable you to resist common Temptations. But +think how great a Proportion of Mankind consists of weak and +ignorant Men and Women, and of inexperienc'd, and inconsiderate +Youth of both Sexes, who have need of the Motives of +Religion to restrain them from Vice, to support their Virtue, +and retain them in the Practice of it till it becomes <i>habitual</i>, +which is the great Point for its Security. And perhaps you are +indebted to her originally, that is, to your Religious Education, +for the Habits of Virtue upon which you now justly value yourself. +You might easily display your excellent Talents of +reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a +Rank with our most distinguish'd Authors. For among us it +is not necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a Youth, to be +receiv'd into the Company of men, should prove his Manhood +by beating his Mother.</p> + +<p>I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the +Tyger, but to burn this Piece before it is seen by any other +Person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of Mortification +from the Enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps +a good deal of Regret and Repentance. If men are so +wicked as we now see them <i>with religion</i>, what would they be +<i>if without it</i>. I intend this Letter itself as a <i>Proof</i> of my Friendship, +and therefore add no <i>Professions</i> to it; but subscribe +simply yours,</p> + +<p class="sig">B. F.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="SPEECH_IN_THE_CONVENTION_ON_THE_SUBJECT_OF_SALARIES" id="SPEECH_IN_THE_CONVENTION_ON_THE_SUBJECT_OF_SALARIES"></a>SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION;<br /> +ON THE SUBJECT OF SALARIES<a name="FNanchor_129_641" id="FNanchor_129_641"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_641" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></h3> + +<p class="center">[Delivered June 2, 1787]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>It is with Reluctance that I rise to express a Disapprobation +of any one Article of the Plan, for which we are so much obliged +to the honourable Gentleman who laid it before us. From its +first Reading, I have borne a good Will to it, and, in general, +wish'd it Success. In this Particular of Salaries to the Executive +Branch, I happen to differ; and, as my Opinion may appear +new and chimerical, it is only from a Persuasion that it is right, +and from a Sense of Duty, that I hazard it. The Committee will +judge of my Reasons when they have heard them, and their +judgment may possibly change mine. I think I see Inconveniences +in the Appointment of Salaries; I see none in refusing +them, but on the contrary great Advantages.</p> + +<p>Sir, there are two Passions which have a powerful Influence +in the Affairs of Men. These are <i>Ambition</i> and <i>Avarice</i>, the Love +of Power and the Love of Money. Separately, each of these has +great Force in prompting Men to Action; but when united in +View of the same Object, they have in many Minds the most +violent Effects. Place before the Eyes of such Men a Post of +<i>Honour</i>, that shall at the same time be a Place of <i>Profit</i>, and +they will move Heaven and Earth to obtain it. The vast Number +of such Places it is that renders the British Government so +tempestuous. The Struggles for them are the true Source of +all those Factions which are perpetually dividing the Nation, +distracting its Councils, hurrying it sometimes into fruitless +and mischievous Wars, and often compelling a Submission +to dishonourable Terms of Peace.</p> + +<p>And of what kind are the men that will strive for this profitable +Preëminence, thro' all the Bustle of Cabal, the Heat of +Contention, the infinite mutual Abuse of Parties, tearing to +Pieces the best of Characters? It will not be the wise and +moderate, the Lovers of Peace and good Order, the men fittest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span> +for the Trust. It will be the Bold and the Violent, the men of +strong Passions and indefatigable Activity in their selfish Pursuits. +These will thrust themselves into your Government, and +be your Rulers. And these, too, will be mistaken in the expected +Happiness of their Situation; for their vanquish'd competitors, +of the same Spirit, and from the same Motives, will perpetually +be endeavouring to distress their Administration, thwart their +Measures, and render them odious to the People.</p> + +<p>Besides these Evils, Sir, tho' we may set out in the Beginning +with moderate Salaries, we shall find, that such will not be of +long Continuance. Reasons will never be wanting for propos'd +Augmentations, and there will always be a Party for giving +more to the Rulers, that the Rulers may be able in Return to +give more to them. Hence, as all History informs us, there has +been in every State and Kingdom a constant kind of Warfare +between the Governing and the Governed; the one striving to +obtain more for its Support, and the other to pay less. And this +has alone occasion'd great Convulsions, actual Civil Wars, ending +either in dethroning of the Princes or enslaving of the +People. Generally, indeed, the Ruling Power carries its Point, +and we see the Revenues of Princes constantly increasing, and +we see that they are never satisfied, but always in want of more. +The more the People are discontented with the Oppression of +Taxes, the greater Need the Prince has of Money to distribute +among his Partisans, and pay the Troops that are to suppress +all Resistance, and enable him to plunder at Pleasure. There is +scarce a King in a hundred, who would not, if he could, follow +the Example of Pharaoh,—get first all the People's Money, then +all their Lands, and then make them and their Children Servants +for ever. It will be said, that we do not propose to establish +Kings. I know it. But there is a natural Inclination in Mankind +to kingly Government. It sometimes relieves them from Aristocratic +Domination. They had rather have one Tyrant than +500. It gives more of the Appearance of Equality among Citizens; +and that they like. I am apprehensive, therefore,—perhaps +too apprehensive,—that the Government of these States may +in future times end in a Monarchy. But this Catastrophe, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[488]</a></span> +think, may be long delay'd, if in our propos'd System we do +not sow the Seeds of Contention, Faction, and Tumult, by +making our Posts of Honour Places of Profit. If we do, I fear, +that, tho' we employ at first a Number and not a single Person, +the Number will in time be set aside; it will only nourish the +Fœtus of a King (as the honourable Gentleman from Virg<sup>a</sup> very +aptly express'd it), and a King will the sooner be set over us.</p> + +<p>It may be imagined by some, that this is an Utopian Idea, and +that we can never find Men to serve us in the Executive Department, +without paying them well for their Services. I conceive +this to be a Mistake. Some existing Facts present themselves to +me, which incline me to a contrary Opinion. The High Sheriff +of a County in England is an honourable Office, but it is not a +profitable one. It is rather expensive, and therefore not sought +for. But yet it is executed, and well executed, and usually by +some of the principal Gentlemen of the County. In France, +the Office of Counsellor, or Member of their judiciary Parliaments, +is more honourable. It is therefore purchas'd at a High +Price; there are indeed Fees on the Law Proceedings, which are +divided among them, but these Fees do not amount to more +than three per cent on the Sum paid for the Place. Therefore, +as legal Interest is there at five per cent, they in fact pay two +per cent for being allow'd to do the Judiciary Business of the +Nation, which is at the same time entirely exempt from the +Burthen of paying them any Salaries for their Services. I do +not, however, mean to recommend this as an eligible Mode for +our judiciary Department. I only bring the Instance to show, +that the Pleasure of doing Good and serving their Country, +and the Respect such Conduct entitles them to, are sufficient +Motives with some Minds, to give up a great Portion of their +Time to the Public, without the mean Inducement of pecuniary +Satisfaction.</p> + +<p>Another Instance is that of a respectable Society, who have +made the Experiment, and practis'd it with Success, now more +than a hundred years. I mean the Quakers. It is an establish'd +Rule with them that they are not to go to law, but in their Controversies +they must apply to their Monthly, Quarterly, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span> +Yearly Meetings. Committees of these sit with Patience to hear +the Parties, and spend much time in composing their Differences. +In doing this, they are supported by a Sense of Duty, +and the Respect paid to Usefulness. It is honourable to be so +employ'd, but it was never made profitable by Salaries, Fees, or +Perquisites. And indeed, in all Cases of public Service, the less +the Profit the greater the Honour.</p> + +<p>To bring the Matter nearer home, have we not seen the +greatest and most important of our Offices, that of General of +our Armies, executed for Eight Years together, without the +smallest Salary, by a patriot whom I will not now offend by +any other Praise; and this, thro' Fatigues and Distresses, in +common with the other brave Men, his military Friends and +Companions, and the constant Anxieties peculiar to his Station? +And shall we doubt finding three or four Men in all the United +States, with public Spirit enough to bear sitting in peaceful +Council, for perhaps an equal Term, merely to preside over our +civil Concerns, and see that our Laws are duly executed? Sir, I +have a better opinion of our Country. I think we shall never +be without a sufficient Number of wise and good Men to undertake, +and execute well and faithfully, the Office in question.</p> + +<p>Sir, the Saving of the Salaries, that may at first be propos'd, +is not an object with me. The subsequent Mischiefs of proposing +them are what I apprehend. And therefore it is that I +move the Amendment. If it is not seconded or accepted, I must +be contented with the Satisfaction of having delivered my +Opinion frankly, and done my Duty.</p> + + +<h3><a name="MOTION_FOR_PRAYERS_IN_THE_CONVENTION" id="MOTION_FOR_PRAYERS_IN_THE_CONVENTION"></a>MOTION FOR PRAYERS IN THE CONVENTION</h3> + +<p class="center">[Motion made June 28, 1787]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President,</span></p> + +<p>The small Progress we have made, after 4 or 5 Weeks' close +Attendance and continual Reasonings with each other, our +different Sentiments on almost every Question, several of the +last producing as many <i>Noes</i> as <i>Ayes</i>, is, methinks, a melancholy +Proof of the Imperfection of the Human Understanding. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[490]</a></span> +indeed seem to <i>feel</i> our own want of political Wisdom, since we +have been running all about in Search of it. We have gone back +to ancient History for Models of Government, and examin'd the +different Forms of those Republics, which, having been orig[i]nally +form'd with the Seeds of their own Dissolution, now no +longer exist; and we have view'd modern States all round Europe, +but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our Circumstances.</p> + +<p>In this Situation of this Assembly, groping, as it were, in the +dark to find Political Truth, and scarce able to distinguish it +when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have +not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of +Lights to illuminate our Understandings? In the Beginning of +the Contest with Britain, when we were sensible of Danger, we +had daily Prayers in this Room for the Divine Protection. Our +Prayers, Sir, were heard;—and they were graciously answered. +All of us, who were engag'd in the Struggle, must have observed +frequent Instances of a superintending Providence in our Favour. +To that kind Providence we owe this happy Opportunity +of Consulting in Peace on the Means of establishing our future +national Felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful +Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need its assistance? I +have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing +proofs I see of this Truth, <i>that</i> <span class="smcap">God</span> <i>governs in the Affairs +of Men</i>. And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the Ground without +His Notice, is it probable that an Empire can rise without His +Aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that +"except the Lord build the House, they labour in vain that +build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe, that, without +his concurring Aid, we shall succeed in this political Building +no better than the Builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our +little, partial, local Interests, our Projects will be confounded, +and we ourselves shall become a Reproach and a Bye-word +down to future Ages. And, what is worse, Mankind may hereafter, +from this unfortunate Instance, despair of establishing +Government by human Wisdom, and leave it to Chance, War, +and Conquest.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span></p> + +<p>I therefore beg leave to move,</p> + +<p>That henceforth Prayers, imploring the Assistance of Heaven +and its Blessing on our Deliberations, be held in this Assembly +every morning before we proceed to Business; and that one or +more of the Clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that +Service.<a name="FNanchor_M_503" id="FNanchor_M_503"></a><a href="#Footnote_M_503" class="fnanchor">[M]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_M_503" id="Footnote_M_503"></a><a href="#FNanchor_M_503"><span class="label">[M]</span></a> "The convention, except three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary!" +[<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + + +<h3><a name="SPEECH_IN_THE_CONVENTION" id="SPEECH_IN_THE_CONVENTION"></a>SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION</h3> + +<p class="center">At the Conclusion of its Deliberations<a name="FNanchor_130_642" id="FNanchor_130_642"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_642" class="fnanchor">[130]</a></p> + +<p class="center">[September 17, 1787]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President,</span></p> + +<p>I confess, that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution +at present; but, Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it; for, +having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being +obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change +my opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought +right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that, the older +I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others. +Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves +in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ +from them, it is so far error. Steele, a Protestant, in a dedication, +tells the Pope, that the only difference between our two +churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrine, is, +the Romish Church is <i>infallible</i>, and the Church of England is +<i>never in the wrong</i>. But, though many private Persons think almost +as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their Sect, +few express it so naturally as a certain French Lady, who, in a +little dispute with her sister, said, "But I meet with nobody but +myself that is <i>always</i> in the right." "<i>Je ne trouve que moi qui aie +toujours raison.</i>"</p> + +<p>In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all +its faults,—if they are such; because I think a general Government +necessary for us, and there is no <i>form</i> of government but +what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span> +I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a +course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms +have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted +as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. +I doubt, too, whether any other Convention we can obtain, may +be able to make a better constitution; for, when you assemble a +number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, +you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, +their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and +their selfish views. From such an assembly can a <i>perfect</i> production +be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this +system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think +it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence +to hear, that our councils are confounded like those of the +builders of Babel, and that our States are on the point of separation, +only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one +another's throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution, +because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is +not the best. The opinions I have had of its <i>errors</i> I sacrifice to +the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them +abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall +die. If every one of us, in returning to our Constituents, were +to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavour to gain +Partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally +received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects and +great advantages resulting naturally in our favour among foreign +nations, as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent +unanimity. Much of the strength and efficiency of any +government, in procuring and securing happiness to the people, +depends on <i>opinion</i>, on the general opinion of the goodness of +that government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its +governors. I hope, therefore, for our own sakes, as a part of +the people, and for the sake of our posterity, that we shall act +heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution, +wherever our Influence may extend, and turn our future +thoughts and endeavours to the means of having it <i>well administered</i>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish, that every +member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, +would with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, +and, to make <i>manifest</i> our <i>unanimity</i>, put his name to +this Instrument.</p> + +<p>[Then the motion was made for adding the last formula, viz. +"Done in convention by the Unanimous Consent," &c.; which +was agreed to and added accordingly.]</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_THE_EDITORS_OF_THE_PENNSYLVANIA_GAZETTE" id="TO_THE_EDITORS_OF_THE_PENNSYLVANIA_GAZETTE"></a>TO THE EDITORS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>On the Abuse of the Press</i></p> + +<p class="center">[1788]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Messrs. Hall and Sellers,</span></p> + +<p>I lately heard a remark, that on examination of <i>The Pennsylvania +Gazette</i> for fifty years, from its commencement, it appeared, +that, during that long period, scarce one libellous piece +had ever appeared in it. This generally chaste conduct of your +paper is much to its reputation; for it has long been the opinion +of sober, judicious people, that nothing is more likely to endanger +the liberty of the press, than the abuse of that liberty, +by employing it in personal accusation, detraction, and calumny. +The excesses some of our papers have been guilty of in this +particular, have set this State in a bad light abroad, as appears by +the following letter, which I wish you to publish, not merely to +show your own disapprobation of the practice, but as a caution +to others of the profession throughout the United States. For +I have seen a European newspaper, in which the editor, who had +been charged with frequently calumniating the Americans, justifies +himself by saying, "that he had published nothing disgraceful +to us, which he had not taken from our own printed +papers." I am, &c.</p> + +<p class="sig">A. B.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="date">"New York, March 30, 1788.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Friend,</span></p> + +<p>"My Gout has at length left me, after five Months' painful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span> +Confinement. It afforded me, however, the Leisure to read, or +hear read, all the Packets of your various Newspapers, which +you so kindly sent for my Amusement.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. W. has partaken of it; she likes to read the Advertisements; +but she remarks some kind of Inconsistency in the announcing +so many Diversions for almost every Evening of the +Week, and such Quantities to be sold of expensive Superfluities, +Fineries, and Luxuries <i>just imported</i>, in a Country, that at the +same time fills its Papers with Complaints of <i>Hard Times</i>, and +Want of Money. I tell her, that such Complaints are common +to all Times and all Countries, and were made even in Solomon's +Time; when, as we are told, Silver was as plenty in Jerusalem +as the Stones in the Street; and yet, even then, there were +People who grumbled, so as to incur this Censure from that +knowing Prince. '<i>Say not thou that the former Times were +better than these; for thou dost not enquire rightly concerning that +matter.</i>'</p> + +<p>"But the Inconsistence that strikes me the most is, that between +the Name of your City, Philadelphia, (<i>Brotherly Love</i>,) +and the Spirit of Rancour, Malice, and <i>Hatred</i> that breathes in +its Newspapers. For I learn from those Papers, that your State +is divided into Parties, that each Party ascribes all the public +Operations of the other to vicious Motives; that they do not +even suspect one another of the smallest Degree of Honesty; +that the anti-federalists are such, merely from the Fear of losing +Power, Places, or Emoluments, which they have in Possession +or in Expectation; that the Federalists are a set of <i>Conspirators</i>, +who aim at establishing a Tyranny over the Persons and Property +of their Countrymen, and to live in Splendor on the +Plunder of the People. I learn, too, that your Justices of the +Peace, tho' chosen by their Neighbours, make a villainous Trade +of their Office, and promote Discord to augment Fees, and +fleece their Electors; and that this would not be mended by placing +the Choice in the Executive Council, who, with interested +or party Views, are continually making as improper Appointments; +witness a '<i>petty Fidler, Sycophant, and Scoundrel</i>,' appointed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span> +Judge of the Admiralty; '<i>an old Woman and Fomenter +of Sedition</i>' to be another of the Judges, and '<i>a Jeffries</i>' Chief +Justice, &c., &c.; with '<i>two Harpies</i>' the Comptroller and Naval +Officers, to prey upon the Merchants and deprive them of their +Property by Force of Arms, &c.</p> + +<p>"I am inform'd also by these Papers, that your General +Assembly, tho' the annual choice of the People, shows no Regard +to their Rights, but from sinister Views or Ignorance +makes Laws in direct Violation of the Constitution, to divest +the Inhabitants of their Property and give it to Strangers and +Intruders; and that the Council, either fearing the Resentment +of their Constituents, or plotting to enslave them, had projected +to disarm them, and given Orders for that purpose; and finally, +that your President, the unanimous joint choice of the Council +and Assembly, is '<i>an old Rogue</i>,' who gave his Assent to the +federal Constitution merely to avoid refunding Money he had +purloin'd from the United States.</p> + +<p>"There is, indeed, a good deal of manifest <i>Inconsistency</i> in all +this, and yet a Stranger, seeing it in your own Prints, tho' he +does not believe it all, may probably believe enough of it to +conclude, that Pennsylvania is peopled by a Set of the most +unprincipled, wicked, rascally, and quarrelsome Scoundrels +upon the Face of the Globe. I have sometimes, indeed, suspected, +that those Papers are the Manufacture of foreign Enemies +among you, who write with a view of disgracing your +Country, and making you appear contemptible and detestable +all the World over; but then I wonder at the Indiscretion of +your Printers in publishing such Writings! There is, however, +one of your <i>Inconsistencies</i> that consoles me a little, which is, +that tho' <i>living</i>, you give one another the characters of Devils; +<i>dead</i>, you are all Angels! It is delightful, when any of you die, +to read what good Husbands, good Fathers, good Friends, +good Citizens, and good Christians you were, concluding with +a Scrap of Poetry that places you, with certainty, every one in +Heaven. So that I think Pennsylvania a good country <i>to dye in</i>, +though a very bad one to <i>live in</i>."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span></p></div> + + +<h3><a name="TO_REV_JOHN_LATHROP" id="TO_REV_JOHN_LATHROP"></a>TO REV. JOHN LATHROP<a name="FNanchor_131_643" id="FNanchor_131_643"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_643" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philad<sup>a</sup>, May 31, 1788.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reverend Sir,</span></p> + +<p>... I have been long impressed with the same sentiments you +so well express, of the growing felicity of mankind, from the +improvements in philosophy, morals, politics, and even the +conveniences of common living, by the invention and acquisition +of new and useful utensils and instruments, that I have +sometimes almost wished it had been my destiny to be born +two or three centuries hence. For invention and improvement +are prolific, and beget more of their kind. The present progress +is rapid. Many of great importance, now unthought of, will +before that period be produced; and then I might not only enjoy +their advantages, but have my curiosity gratified in knowing +what they are to be. I see a little absurdity in what I have just +written, but it is to a friend, who will wink and let it pass, while +I mention one reason more for such a wish, which is, that, if +the art of physic shall be improved in proportion with other +arts, we may then be able to avoid diseases, and live as long as +the patriarchs in Genesis; to which I suppose we should make +little objection....</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_THE_EDITOR_OF_THE_FEDERAL_GAZETTE" id="TO_THE_EDITOR_OF_THE_FEDERAL_GAZETTE"></a>TO THE EDITOR OF THE FEDERAL GAZETTE</h3> + +<p class="center">A COMPARISON OF THE CONDUCT OF THE ANCIENT JEWS AND OF +THE ANTI-FEDERALISTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</p> + +<p class="center">[1788?]</p> + +<p>A zealous Advocate for the propos'd Federal Constitution, +in a certain public Assembly, said, that "the Repugnance of a +great part of Mankind to good Government was such, that he +believed, that, if an angel from Heaven was to bring down a +Constitution form'd there for our Use, it would nevertheless +meet with violent Opposition." He was reprov'd for the suppos'd +Extravagance of the Sentiment; and he did not justify it. +Probably it might not have immediately occur'd to him, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span> +the Experiment had been try'd, and that the Event was recorded +in the most faithful of all Histories, the Holy Bible; otherwise +he might, as it seems to me, have supported his Opinion by that +unexceptionable Authority.</p> + +<p>The Supreme Being had been pleased to nourish up a single +Family, by continued Acts of his attentive Providence, till it +became a great People; and, having rescued them from Bondage +by many Miracles, performed by his Servant Moses, he personally +deliver'd to that chosen Servant, in the presence of the +whole Nation, a Constitution and Code of Laws for their Observance; +accompanied and sanction'd with Promises of great +Rewards, and Threats of severe Punishments, as the Consequence +of their Obedience or Disobedience.</p> + +<p>This Constitution, tho' the Deity himself was to be at its +Head (and it is therefore call'd by Political Writers a <i>Theocracy</i>), +could not be carried into Execution but by the Means of his +Ministers; Aaron and his Sons were therefore commission'd to +be, with Moses, the first establish'd Ministry of the new Government.</p> + +<p>One would have thought, that this Appointment of Men, +who had distinguish'd themselves in procuring the Liberty of +their Nation, and had hazarded their Lives in openly opposing +the Will of a powerful Monarch, who would have retain'd that +Nation in Slavery, might have been an Appointment acceptable +to a grateful People; and that a Constitution fram'd for them +by the Deity himself might, on that Account, have been secure +of a universal welcome Reception. Yet there were in every one +of the <i>thirteen Tribes</i> some discontented, restless Spirits, who +were continually exciting them to reject the propos'd new Government, +and this from various Motives.</p> + +<p>Many still retained an Affection for Egypt, the Land of their +Nativity; and these, whenever they felt any Inconvenience or +Hardship, tho' the natural and unavoidable Effect of their +Change of Situation, exclaim'd against their Leaders as the +Authors of their Trouble; and were not only for returning into +Egypt, but for stoning their deliverers.<a name="FNanchor_N_504" id="FNanchor_N_504"></a><a href="#Footnote_N_504" class="fnanchor">[N]</a> Those inclin'd to idolatry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span> +were displeas'd that their <i>Golden Calf</i> was destroy'd. Many +of the Chiefs thought the new Constitution might be injurious +to their particular Interests, that the <i>profitable Places</i> would be +<i>engrossed by the Families and Friends of Moses and Aaron</i>, and +others equally well-born excluded.<a name="FNanchor_O_505" id="FNanchor_O_505"></a><a href="#Footnote_O_505" class="fnanchor">[O]</a> In Josephus and the Talmud, +we learn some Particulars, not so fully narrated in the +Scripture. We are there told, "That Corah was ambitious of +the Priesthood, and offended that it was conferred on Aaron; +and this, as he said, by the Authority of Moses only, <i>without the +Consent of the People</i>. He accus'd Moses of having, by various +Artifices, fraudulently obtain'd the Government, and depriv'd +the People of their Liberties; and of <i>conspiring</i> with Aaron to +perpetuate the Tyranny in their Family. Thus, tho' Corah's +real Motive was the Supplanting of Aaron, he persuaded the +People that he meant only the <i>Public Good</i>, and they, moved by +his Insinuations, began to cry out, 'Let us maintain the Common +Liberty of our <i>respective Tribes</i>; we have freed ourselves from +the Slavery impos'd on us by the Egyptians, and shall we now +suffer ourselves to be made Slaves by Moses? If we must have +a Master, it were better to return to Pharaoh, who at least fed +us with Bread and Onions, than to serve this new Tyrant, who +by his Operations has brought us into Danger of Famine.' Then +they called in question the <i>Reality of his Conference</i> with God; +and objected the <i>Privacy of the Meetings</i>, and the <i>preventing any +of the People from being present</i> at the Colloquies, or even approaching +the Place, as Grounds of great Suspicion. They +accused Moses also of <i>Peculation</i>; as embezzling part of the +Golden Spoons and the Silver Chargers, that the Princes had +offer'd at the Dedication of the Altar,<a name="FNanchor_P_506" id="FNanchor_P_506"></a><a href="#Footnote_P_506" class="fnanchor">[P]</a> and the Offerings of +Gold by the common People,<a name="FNanchor_Q_507" id="FNanchor_Q_507"></a><a href="#Footnote_Q_507" class="fnanchor">[Q]</a> as well as most of the Poll-Tax;<a name="FNanchor_R_508" id="FNanchor_R_508"></a><a href="#Footnote_R_508" class="fnanchor">[R]</a> +and Aaron they accus'd of pocketing much of the Gold of which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span> +he pretended to have made a molten Calf. Besides <i>Peculation</i>, +they charg'd Moses with <i>Ambition</i>; to gratify which Passion he +had, they said, deceiv'd the People, by promising to bring them +<i>to</i> a land flowing with Milk and Honey; instead of doing which, +he had brought them <i>from</i> such a Land; and that he thought +light of all this mischief, provided he could make himself an +<i>absolute Prince</i>.<a name="FNanchor_S_509" id="FNanchor_S_509"></a><a href="#Footnote_S_509" class="fnanchor">[S]</a> That, to support the new Dignity with Splendor +in his Family, the partial Poll-Tax already levied and given +to Aaron<a name="FNanchor_T_510" id="FNanchor_T_510"></a><a href="#Footnote_T_510" class="fnanchor">[T]</a> was to be follow'd by a general one,<a name="FNanchor_U_511" id="FNanchor_U_511"></a><a href="#Footnote_U_511" class="fnanchor">[U]</a> which would +probably be augmented from time to time, if he were suffered +to go on promulgating new Laws, on pretence of new occasional +Revelations of the divine Will, till their whole Fortunes were +devour'd by that Aristocracy."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_N_504" id="Footnote_N_504"></a><a href="#FNanchor_N_504"><span class="label">[N]</span></a> Numbers, ch. xiv. [<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_O_505" id="Footnote_O_505"></a><a href="#FNanchor_O_505"><span class="label">[O]</span></a> Numbers, ch. xiv, verse 3. "And they gathered themselves together +against Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, 'Ye take too much upon you, +seeing all the congregation are holy, <i>every one of them</i>; wherefore, then, lift +ye up yourselves above the congregation?'"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_P_506" id="Footnote_P_506"></a><a href="#FNanchor_P_506"><span class="label">[P]</span></a> Numbers, ch. vii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_Q_507" id="Footnote_Q_507"></a><a href="#FNanchor_Q_507"><span class="label">[Q]</span></a> Exodus, ch. xxxv, verse 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_R_508" id="Footnote_R_508"></a><a href="#FNanchor_R_508"><span class="label">[R]</span></a> Numbers, ch. iii, and Exodus, ch. xxx. [<i>Franklin's notes.</i>]</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_S_509" id="Footnote_S_509"></a><a href="#FNanchor_S_509"><span class="label">[S]</span></a> Numbers, ch. xvi, verse 13. "Is it a small thing that thou hast brought +us up out of a land that floweth with milk and honey, to kill us in the +wilderness, except thou make thyself altogether a prince over us?"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_T_510" id="Footnote_T_510"></a><a href="#FNanchor_T_510"><span class="label">[T]</span></a> Numbers, ch. iii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_U_511" id="Footnote_U_511"></a><a href="#FNanchor_U_511"><span class="label">[U]</span></a> Exodus, ch. xxx.</p></div> + +<p>Moses deny'd the Charge of Peculation; and his Accusers +were destitute of Proofs to support it; tho' <i>Facts</i>, if real, are in +their Nature capable of Proof. "I have not," said he (with holy +Confidence in the Presence of his God), "I have not taken from +this People the value of an Ass, nor done them any other Injury." +But his Enemies had made the Charge, and with some +Success among the Populace; for no kind of Accusation is so +readily made, or easily believ'd, by Knaves as the Accusation +of Knavery.</p> + +<p>In fine, no less than two hundred and fifty of the principal +Men, "famous in the Congregation, Men of Renown,"<a name="FNanchor_V_512" id="FNanchor_V_512"></a><a href="#Footnote_V_512" class="fnanchor">[V]</a> heading +and exciting the Mob, worked them up to such a pitch of +Frenzy, that they called out, "Stone 'em, stone 'em, and thereby +<i>secure our Liberties</i>; and let us chuse other Captains, that may +lead us back into Egypt, in case we do not succeed in reducing +the Canaanites!"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_V_512" id="Footnote_V_512"></a><a href="#FNanchor_V_512"><span class="label">[V]</span></a> Numbers, ch. xvi. [<i>Franklin's notes.</i>]</p></div> + +<p>On the whole, it appears, that the Israelites were a People +jealous of their newly-acquired Liberty, which Jealousy was in +itself no Fault; but, when they suffer'd it to be work'd upon by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span> +artful Men, pretending Public Good, with nothing really in +view but private Interest, they were led to oppose the Establishment +of the <i>New Constitution</i>, whereby they brought upon +themselves much Inconvenience and Misfortune. It appears +further, from the same inestimable History, that, when after +many Ages that Constitution was become old and much abus'd, +and an Amendment of it was propos'd, the populace, as they +had accus'd Moses of the Ambition of making himself a <i>Prince</i>, +and cried out, "Stone him, stone him;" so, excited by their High +Priests and <span class="smcap">Scribes</span>, they exclaim'd against the Messiah, that he +aim'd at becoming King of the Jews, and cry'd out, "<i>Crucify +him, Crucify him</i>." From all which we may gather, that popular +Opposition to a public Measure is no Proof of its Impropriety, +even tho' the Opposition be excited and headed by Men of Distinction.</p> + +<p>To conclude, I beg I may not be understood to infer, that +our General Convention was divinely inspired, when it form'd +the new federal Constitution, merely because that Constitution +has been unreasonably and vehemently opposed; yet I must own +I have so much Faith in the general Government of the world +by <i>Providence</i>, that I can hardly conceive a Transaction of such +momentous Importance to the Welfare of Millions now existing, +and to exist in the Posterity of a great Nation, should be suffered +to pass without being in some degree influenc'd, guided, and +governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent +Ruler, in whom all inferior Spirits live, and move, and have +their Being.</p> + +<p class="sig">B. F.</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_CHARLES_CARROLL" id="TO_CHARLES_CARROLL"></a>TO CHARLES CARROLL<a name="FNanchor_132_644" id="FNanchor_132_644"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_644" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philadelphia, May 25, 1789.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Friend,</span></p> + +<p>I am glad to see by the papers, that our grand machine has +at length begun to work. I pray God to bless and guide its +operations. If any form of government is capable of making a +nation happy, ours I think bids fair now for producing that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span> +effect. But, after all, much depends upon the people who are to +be governed. We have been guarding against an evil that old +States are most liable to, <i>excess of power</i> in the rulers; but our +present danger seems to be <i>defect of obedience</i> in the subjects.<a name="FNanchor_133_645" id="FNanchor_133_645"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_645" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> +There is hope, however, from the enlightened state of this age +and country, we may guard effectually against that evil as well +as the rest.</p> + +<p>My grandson, William Temple Franklin, will have the honour +of presenting this line. He accompanied me to France, and +remained with me during my mission. I beg leave to recommend +him to your notice, and that you would believe me, my +dear friend, yours most affectionately,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="AN_ACCOUNT_OF_THE_SUPREMEST_COURT" id="AN_ACCOUNT_OF_THE_SUPREMEST_COURT"></a>AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUPREMEST COURT OF<br /> +JUDICATURE IN PENNSYLVANIA, VIZ.<br /> +THE COURT OF THE PRESS</h3> + +<p class="center">[From the <i>Federal Gazette</i>, September 12, 1789.]</p> + +<p class="section center"><i>Power of this Court.</i></p> + +<p>It may receive and promulgate accusations of all kinds, against +all persons and characters among the citizens of the State, and +even against all inferior courts; and may judge, sentence, and +condemn to infamy, not only private individuals, but public +bodies, &c., with or without inquiry or hearing, <i>at the court's +discretion</i>.</p> + +<p class="section center"><i>In whose Favour and for whose Emolument this Court is established.</i></p> + +<p>In favour of about one citizen in five hundred, who, by education +or practice in scribbling, has acquired a tolerable style as +to grammar and construction, so as to bear printing; or who is +possessed of a press and a few types. This five hundredth part +of the citizens have the privilege of accusing and abusing the +other four hundred and ninety-nine parts at their pleasure; or +they may hire out their pens and press to others for that purpose.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span></p> + +<p class="section center"><i>Practice of the Court.</i></p> + +<p>It is not governed by any of the rules of common courts of +law. The accused is allowed no grand jury to judge of the truth +of the accusation before it is publicly made, nor is the Name of +the Accuser made known to him, nor has he an Opportunity of +confronting the Witnesses against him; for they are kept in the +dark, as in the Spanish Court of Inquisition. Nor is there any +petty Jury of his Peers, sworn to try the Truth of the Charges. +The Proceedings are also sometimes so rapid, that an honest, +good Citizen may find himself suddenly and unexpectedly accus'd, +and in the same Morning judg'd and condemn'd, and +sentence pronounc'd against him, that he is a <i>Rogue</i> and a <i>Villain</i>. +Yet, if an officer of this court receives the slightest check +for misconduct in this his office, he claims immediately the +rights of a free citizen by the constitution, and demands to +know his accuser, to confront the witnesses, and to have a fair +trial by a jury of his peers.</p> + +<p class="section center"><i>The Foundation of its Authority.</i></p> + +<p>It is said to be founded on an Article of the Constitution of +the State, which establishes <i>the Liberty of the Press</i>; a Liberty +which every Pennsylvanian would fight and die for; tho' few +of us, I believe, have distinct Ideas of its Nature and Extent. It +seems indeed somewhat like the <i>Liberty of the Press</i> that Felons +have, by the Common Law of England, before Conviction, that +is, to be <i>press'd</i> to death or hanged. If by the <i>Liberty of the +Press</i> were understood merely the Liberty of discussing the +Propriety of Public Measures and political opinions, let us have +as much of it as you please: But if it means the Liberty of affronting, +calumniating, and defaming one another, I, for my part, +own myself willing to part With my Share of it when our Legislators +shall please so to alter the Law, and shall cheerfully consent +to exchange my <i>Liberty</i> of Abusing others for the <i>Privilege</i> +of not being abus'd myself.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span></p> + +<p class="section center"><i>By whom this Court is commissioned or constituted.</i></p> + +<p>It is not by any Commission from the Supreme Executive +Council, who might previously judge of the Abilities, Integrity, +Knowledge, &c. of the Persons to be appointed to this great +Trust, of deciding upon the Characters and good Fame of the +Citizens; for this Court is above that Council, and may <i>accuse</i>, +<i>judge</i>, and <i>condemn</i> it, at pleasure. Nor is it hereditary, as in the +Court of <i>dernier Resort</i>, in the Peerage of England. But any +Man who can procure Pen, Ink, and Paper, with a Press, and a +huge pair of <span class="smcap">Blacking</span> Balls, may commissionate himself; and +his court is immediately established in the plenary Possession +and exercise of its rights. For, if you make the least complaint +of the <i>judge's</i> conduct, he daubs his blacking balls in your face +wherever he meets you; and, besides tearing your private character +to flitters, marks you out for the odium of the public, as +an <i>enemy to the liberty of the press</i>.</p> + +<p class="section center"><i>Of the natural Support of these Courts.</i></p> + +<p>Their support is founded in the depravity of such minds, as +have not been mended by religion, nor improved by good education;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"There is a Lust in Man no Charm can tame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of loudly publishing his Neighbour's Shame."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Hence;</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"On Eagle's Wings immortal Scandals fly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While virtuous Actions are but born and die."<br /></span> +<span class="i14"><span class="smcap">Dryden.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Whoever feels pain in hearing a good character of his neighbour, +will feel a pleasure in the reverse. And of those who, +despairing to rise into distinction by their virtues, are happy if +others can be depressed to a level with themselves, there are a +number sufficient in every great town to maintain one of these +courts by their subscriptions. A shrewd observer once said, +that, in walking the streets in a slippery morning, one might see +where the good-natured people lived by the ashes thrown on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span> +the ice before their doors; probably he would have formed a +different conjecture of the temper of those whom he might find +engaged in such a subscription.</p> + +<p class="section center"><i>Of the Checks proper to be established against the Abuse of Power +in these Courts.</i></p> + +<p>Hitherto there are none. But since so much has been written +and published on the federal Constitution, and the necessity of +checks in all other parts of good government has been so clearly +and learnedly explained, I find myself so far enlightened as to +suspect some check may be proper in this part also; but I have +been at a loss to imagine any that may not be construed an infringement +of the sacred <i>liberty of the press</i>. At length, however, +I think I have found one that, instead of diminishing general +liberty, shall augment it; which is, by restoring to the people a +species of liberty, of which they have been deprived by our +laws, I mean the <i>liberty of the cudgel</i>. In the rude state of society +prior to the existence of laws, if one man gave another ill language, +the affronted person would return it by a box on the ear, +and, if repeated, by a good drubbing; and this without offending +against any law. But now the right of making such returns is +denied, and they are punished as breaches of the peace; while +the right of abusing seems to remain in full force, the laws made +against it being rendered ineffectual by the <i>liberty of the press</i>.</p> + +<p>My proposal then is, to leave the liberty of the press untouched, +to be exercised in its full extent, force, and vigor; but +to permit the <i>liberty of the cudgel</i> to go with it <i>pari passu</i>. Thus, +my fellow-citizens, if an impudent writer attacks your reputation, +dearer to you perhaps than your life, and puts his name +to the charge, you may go to him as openly and break his head. +If he conceals himself behind the printer, and you can nevertheless +discover who he is, you may in like manner way-lay him in +the night, attack him behind, and give him a good drubbing. +Thus far goes my project as to <i>private</i> resentment and retribution. +But if the public should ever happen to be affronted, <i>as it +ought to be</i>, with the conduct of such writers, I would not advise +proceeding immediately to these extremities; but that we should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span> +in moderation content ourselves with tarring and feathering, and +tossing them in a blanket.</p> + +<p>If, however, it should be thought that this proposal of mine may +disturb the public peace, I would then humbly recommend to +our legislators to take up the consideration of both liberties, that +of the <i>press</i>, and that of the <i>cudgel</i>, and by an explicit law mark +their extent and limits; and, at the same time that they secure the +person of a citizen from <i>assaults</i>, they would likewise provide +for the security of his <i>reputation</i>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="AN_ADDRESS_TO_THE_PUBLIC" id="AN_ADDRESS_TO_THE_PUBLIC"></a>AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC</h3> + +<p class="center">From the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition +of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes +Unlawfully Held in Bondage.<a name="FNanchor_134_646" id="FNanchor_134_646"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_646" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + +<p>It is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of humanity, +that, in prosecuting the design of our association, our +endeavours have proved successful, far beyond our most sanguine +expectations.</p> + +<p>Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that +luminous and benign spirit of liberty, which is diffusing itself +throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance +of the divine blessing on our labours, we have ventured to make +an important addition to our original plan, and do therefore +earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel +the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the +exalted pleasure of beneficence.</p> + +<p>Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, +that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, +may sometimes open a source of serious evils.</p> + +<p>The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, +too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the +human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also +fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections +of his heart. Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the +will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power +of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span> +over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion +of fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme +labour, age, and disease.</p> + +<p>Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune +to himself, and prejudicial to society.</p> + +<p>Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be +hoped, will become a branch of our national policy; but, as far +as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that +attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and +which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and +abilities.</p> + +<p>To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored +to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty, +to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them +with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other +circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated +for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines +of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we +conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness +of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures.</p> + +<p>A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution without +considerable pecuniary resources, beyond the present ordinary +funds of the Society. We hope much from the generosity of +enlightened and benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive +any donations or subscriptions for this purpose, which may be +made to our treasurer, James Starr, or to James Pemberton, +chairman of our committee of correspondence.</p> + +<p class="sig"> +<span class="rpad4">Signed, by order of the Society,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>, <i>President</i>.</p> + +<p>Philadelphia, 9th of<br /> +<span class="lpad1">November, 1789.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_506" id="TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_506"></a>TO DAVID HARTLEY</h3> + +<p class="date">Philad<sup>a</sup>, Dec<sup>r</sup> 4, 1789.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">My Very Dear Friend</span>,</p> + +<p>I received your Favor of August last. Your kind Condolences +on the painful State of my Health are very obliging. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span> +am thankful to God, however, that, among the numerous Ills +human Life is subject to, one only of any Importance is fallen to +my Lot; and that so late as almost to insure that it can be but of +short Duration.</p> + +<p>The Convulsions in France are attended with some disagreable +Circumstances; but if by the Struggle she obtains and secures +for the Nation its future Liberty, and a good Constitution, +a few Years' Enjoyment of those Blessings will amply repair all +the Damages their Acquisition may have occasioned.<a name="FNanchor_135_647" id="FNanchor_135_647"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_647" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> God +grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge +of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the +Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its +Surface, and say, "This is my Country."</p> + +<p>Your Wishes for a cordial and perpetual Friendship between +Britain and her ancient Colonies are manifested continually in +every one of your Letters to me; something of my Disposition +on the same Subject may appear to you in casting your Eye over +the enclosed Paper. I do not by this Opportunity send you any +of our Gazettes, because the Postage from Liverpool would be +more than they are worth. I can now only add my best Wishes +of every kind of Felicity for the three amiable Hartleys, to whom +I have the honor of being an affectionate friend and most obedient +humble servant,</p> + +<p class="sig">[<span class="smcap">B. Franklin.</span>]</p> + + +<h3><a name="TO_EZRA_STILES" id="TO_EZRA_STILES"></a>TO EZRA STILES<a name="FNanchor_136_648" id="FNanchor_136_648"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_648" class="fnanchor">[136]</a></h3> + +<p class="date">Philad<sup>a</sup>, March 9, 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reverend and Dear Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>I received your kind Letter of Jan'y 28, and am glad you have +at length received the portrait of Gov'r Yale from his Family, +and deposited it in the College Library. He was a great and +good Man, and had the Merit of doing infinite Service to your +Country by his Munificence to that Institution. The Honour +you propose doing me by placing mine in the same Room with +his, is much too great for my Deserts; but you always had a +Partiality for me, and to that it must be ascribed. I am however<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span> +too much obliged to Yale College, the first learned Society that +took Notice of me and adorned me with its Honours, to refuse +a Request that comes from it thro' so esteemed a Friend. But +I do not think any one of the Portraits you mention, as in my +Possession, worthy of the Place and Company you propose to +place it in. You have an excellent Artist lately arrived. If he +will undertake to make one for you, I shall cheerfully pay the +Expence; but he must not delay setting about it, or I may slip +thro' his fingers, for I am now in my eighty-fifth year, and very +infirm.</p> + +<p>I send with this a very learned Work, as it seems to me, on +the antient Samaritan Coins, lately printed in Spain, and at +least curious for the Beauty of the Impression. Please to accept +it for your College Library. I have subscribed for the Encyclopædia +now printing here, with the Intention of presenting it to +the College. I shall probably depart before the Work is finished, +but shall leave Directions for its Continuance to the End. With +this you will receive some of the first numbers.</p> + +<p>You desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first +time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your +Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few Words to gratify +it. Here is my Creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. +That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to +be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we render to +him is doing good to his other Children. That the soul of Man +is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting +its Conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental +Principles of all sound Religion, and I regard them as +you do in whatever Sect I meet with them.</p> + +<p>As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly +desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as +he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to +see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, +and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, +some Doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do not +dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless +to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span> +of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm, however, +in its being believed, if that Belief has the good Consequence, +as probably it has, of making his Doctrines more +respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive, +that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the Unbelievers +in his Government of the World with any peculiar +Marks of his Displeasure.</p> + +<p>I shall only add, respecting myself, that, having experienced +the Goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously +thro' a long life, I have no doubt of its Continuance in the next, +though without the smallest Conceit of meriting such Goodness. +My Sentiments on this Head you will see in the Copy of +an old Letter enclosed, which I wrote in answer to one from a +zealous Religionist, whom I had relieved in a paralytic case by +electricity, and who, being afraid I should grow proud upon it, +sent me his serious though rather impertinent Caution. I send +you also the Copy of another Letter, which will shew something +of my Disposition relating to Religion. With great and sincere +Esteem and Affection, I am, Your obliged old Friend and most +obedient humble Servant</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">B. Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>P.S. Had not your College some Present of Books from the +King of France? Please to let me know, if you had an Expectation +given you of more, and the Nature of that Expectation? I +have a Reason for the Enquiry.</p> + +<p>I confide, that you will not expose me to Criticism and censure +by publishing any part of this Communication to you. I +have ever let others enjoy their religious Sentiments, without +reflecting on them for those that appeared to me unsupportable +and even absurd. All Sects here, and we have a great Variety, +have experienced my good will in assisting them with Subscriptions +for building their new Places of Worship; and, as I +have never opposed any of their Doctrines, I hope to go out of +the World in Peace with them all.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="ON_THE_SLAVE-TRADE" id="ON_THE_SLAVE-TRADE"></a>ON THE SLAVE-TRADE</h3> + +<p class="center">TO THE EDITOR OF THE FEDERAL GAZETTE<a name="FNanchor_137_649" id="FNanchor_137_649"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_649" class="fnanchor">[137]</a></p> + +<p class="date">March 23d, 1790.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,</p> + +<p>Reading last night in your excellent Paper the speech of Mr. +Jackson in Congress against their meddling with the Affair of +Slavery, or attempting to mend the Condition of the Slaves, it +put me in mind of a similar One made about 100 Years since by +Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, a member of the Divan of Algiers, which +may be seen in Martin's Account of his Consulship, anno 1687. +It was against granting the Petition of the Sect called <i>Erika</i>, or +Purists, who pray'd for the Abolition of Piracy and Slavery as +being unjust. Mr. Jackson does not quote it; perhaps he has not +seen it. If, therefore, some of its Reasonings are to be found in +his eloquent Speech, it may only show that men's Interests and +Intellects operate and are operated on with surprising similarity +in all Countries and Climates, when under similar Circumstances. +The African's Speech, as translated, is as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="section center"><i>"Allah Bismillah, &c. God is great, and Mahomet is his Prophet.</i></p> + +<p>"Have these <i>Erika</i> considered the Consequences of granting +their Petition? If we cease our Cruises against the Christians, +how shall we be furnished with the Commodities their Countries +produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear +to make Slaves of their People, who in this hot Climate are to +cultivate our Lands? Who are to perform the common Labours +of our City, and in our Families? Must we not then be our own +Slaves? And is there not more Compassion and more Favour +due to us as Mussulmen, than to these Christian Dogs? We +have now above 50,000 Slaves in and near Algiers. This Number, +if not kept up by fresh Supplies, will soon diminish, and +be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and plundering +the Infidel Ships, and making Slaves of the Seamen and Passengers, +our Lands will become of no Value for want of Cultivation; +the Rents of Houses in the City will sink one half; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span> +the Revenues of Government arising from its Share of Prizes +be totally destroy'd! And for what? To gratify the whims of +a whimsical Sect, who would have us, not only forbear making +more Slaves, but even to manumit those we have.</p> + +<p>"But who is to indemnify their Masters for the Loss? Will +the State do it? Is our Treasury sufficient? Will the <i>Erika</i> do +it? Can they do it? Or would they, to do what they think Justice +to the Slaves, do a greater Injustice to the Owners? And if +we set our Slaves free, what is to be done with them? Few of +them will return to their Countries; they know too well the +greater Hardships they must there be subject to; they will not +embrace our holy Religion; they will not adopt our Manners; +our People will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with +them. Must we maintain them as Beggars in our Streets, or +suffer our Properties to be the Prey of their Pillage? For Men +long accustom'd to Slavery will not work for a Livelihood when +not compell'd. And what is there so pitiable in their present +Condition? Were they not Slaves in their own Countries?</p> + +<p>"Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian states govern'd +by Despots, who hold all their Subjects in Slavery, without +Exception? Even England treats its Sailors as Slaves; for they +are, whenever the Government pleases, seiz'd, and confin'd in +Ships of War, condemn'd not only to work, but to fight, for +small Wages, or a mere Subsistence, not better than our Slaves +are allow'd by us. Is their Condition then made worse by their +falling into our Hands? No; they have only exchanged one +Slavery for another, and I may say a better; for here they are +brought into a Land where the Sun of Islamism gives forth its +Light, and shines in full Splendor, and they have an Opportunity +of making themselves acquainted with the true Doctrine, +and thereby saving their immortal Souls. Those who remain +at home have not that Happiness. Sending the Slaves home +then would be sending them out of Light into Darkness.</p> + +<p>"I repeat the Question, What is to be done with them? I +have heard it suggested, that they may be planted in the Wilderness, +where there is plenty of Land for them to subsist on, and +where they may flourish as a free State; but they are, I doubt,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span> +too little dispos'd to labour without Compulsion, as well as too +ignorant to establish a good government, and the wild Arabs +would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them. While +serving us, we take care to provide them with every thing, and +they are treated with Humanity. The Labourers in their own +Country are, as I am well informed, worse fed, lodged, and +cloathed. The Condition of most of them is therefore already +mended, and requires no further Improvement. Here their Lives +are in Safety. They are not liable to be impress'd for Soldiers, +and forc'd to cut one another's Christian Throats, as in the +Wars of their own Countries. If some of the religious mad +Bigots, who now teaze us with their silly Petitions, have in a +Fit of blind Zeal freed their Slaves, it was not Generosity, it was +not Humanity, that mov'd them to the Action; it was from the +conscious Burthen of a Load of Sins, and Hope, from the supposed +Merits of so good a Work, to be excus'd Damnation.</p> + +<p>"How grossly are they mistaken in imagining Slavery to be +disallow'd by the Alcoran! Are not the two Precepts, to quote +no more, '<i>Masters, treat your Slaves with kindness; Slaves, serve +your Masters with Cheerfulness and Fidelity</i>,' clear Proofs to +the contrary? Nor can the Plundering of Infidels be in that +sacred Book forbidden, since it is well known from it, that God +has given the World, and all that it contains, to his faithful Mussulmen, +who are to enjoy it of Right as fast as they conquer it. +Let us then hear no more of this detestable Proposition, the +Manumission of Christian Slaves, the Adoption of which would, +by depreciating our Lands and Houses, and thereby depriving +so many good Citizens of their Properties, create universal Discontent, +and provoke Insurrections, to the endangering of +Government and producing general Confusion. I have therefore +no doubt, but this wise Council will prefer the Comfort +and Happiness of a whole Nation of true Believers to the Whim +of a few <i>Erika</i>, and dismiss their Petition."</p></div> + +<p>The Result was, as Martin tells us, that the Divan came to +this Resolution; "The Doctrine, that Plundering and Enslaving +the Christians is unjust, is at best <i>problematical</i>, but that it is the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span> +Interest of this State to continue the Practice, is clear; therefore +let the Petition be rejected."</p> + +<p>And it was rejected accordingly.</p> + +<p>And since like Motives are apt to produce in the Minds of +Men like Opinions and Resolutions, may we not, Mr. Brown, +venture to predict, from this Account, that the Petitions to the +Parliament of England for abolishing the Slave-Trade, to say +nothing of other Legislatures, and the Debates upon them, will +have a similar Conclusion? I am, Sir, your constant Reader +and humble Servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Historicus.</span></p> + + +<h3><a name="REMARKS_CONCERNING_THE_SAVAGES_OF_NORTH_AMERICA" id="REMARKS_CONCERNING_THE_SAVAGES_OF_NORTH_AMERICA"></a>REMARKS CONCERNING THE SAVAGES<br /> +OF NORTH AMERICA<a name="FNanchor_138_650" id="FNanchor_138_650"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_650" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></h3> + +<p>Savages we call them, because their Manners differ from ours, +which we think the Perfection of Civility; they think the same +of theirs.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, if we could examine the Manners of different +Nations with Impartiality, we should find no People so rude, +as to be without any Rules of Politeness; nor any so polite, as +not to have some Remains of Rudeness.</p> + +<p>The Indian Men, when young, are Hunters and Warriors; +when old, Counsellors; for all their Government is by Counsel +of the Sages; there is no Force, there are no Prisons, no Officers +to compel Obedience, or inflict Punishment. Hence they generally +study Oratory, the best Speaker having the most Influence. +The Indian Women till the Ground, dress the Food, +nurse and bring up the Children, and preserve and hand down +to Posterity the Memory of public Transactions. These Employments +of Men and Women are accounted natural and +honourable. Having few artificial Wants, they have abundance +of Leisure for Improvement by Conversation. Our laborious +Manner of Life, compared with theirs, they esteem slavish and +base; and the Learning, on which we value ourselves, they +regard as frivolous and useless. An Instance of this occurred +at the Treaty of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, <i>anno</i> 1744, between<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span> +the Government of Virginia and the Six Nations. After the +principal Business was settled, the Commissioners from Virginia +acquainted the Indians by a Speech, that there was at +Williamsburg a College, with a Fund for Educating Indian +youth; and that, if the Six Nations would send down half a +dozen of their young Lads to that College, the Government +would take care that they should be well provided for, and instructed +in all the Learning of the White People. It is one of +the Indian Rules of Politeness not to answer a public Proposition +the same day that it is made; they think it would be treating +it as a light matter, and that they show it Respect by taking +time to consider it, as of a Matter important. They therefore +deferr'd their Answer till the Day following; when their Speaker +began, by expressing their deep Sense of the kindness of the +Virginia Government, in making them that Offer; "for we +know," says he, "that you highly esteem the kind of Learning +taught in those Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young +Men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are +convinc'd, therefore, that you mean to do us Good by your +Proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, +must know that different Nations have different Conceptions +of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas +of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. +We have had some Experience of it; Several of our young +People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern +Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but, +when they came back to us, they were bad Runners, ignorant +of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either +Cold or Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a +Deer, or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were +therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, nor Counsellors; +they were totally good for nothing. We are however not the +less oblig'd by your kind Offer, tho' we decline accepting it; +and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of +Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take great +Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and +make <i>Men</i> of them."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span></p> + +<p>Having frequent Occasions to hold public Councils, they +have acquired great Order and Decency in conducting them. +The old Men sit in the foremost Ranks, the Warriors in the +next, and the Women and Children in the hindmost. The +Business of the Women is to take exact Notice of what passes, +imprint it in their Memories (for they have no Writing), and +communicate it to their Children. They are the Records of the +Council, and they preserve Traditions of the Stipulations in +Treaties 100 Years back; which, when we compare with our +Writings, we always find exact. He that would speak, rises. +The rest observe a profound Silence. When he has finish'd and +sits down, they leave him 5 or 6 Minutes to recollect, that, if he +has omitted any thing he intended to say, or has any thing to +add, he may rise again and deliver it. To interrupt another, +even in common Conversation, is reckon'd highly indecent. +How different this is from the conduct of a polite British House +of Commons, where scarce a day passes without some Confusion, +that makes the Speaker hoarse in calling to <i>Order</i>; and +how different from the Mode of Conversation in many polite +Companies of Europe, where, if you do not deliver your Sentence +with great Rapidity, you are cut off in the middle of it by +the Impatient Loquacity of those you converse with, and never +suffer'd to finish it!</p> + +<p>The Politeness of these Savages in Conversation is indeed +carried to Excess, since it does not permit them to contradict +or deny the Truth of what is asserted in their Presence. By this +means they indeed avoid Disputes; but then it becomes difficult +to know their Minds, or what Impression you make upon them. +The Missionaries who have attempted to convert them to +Christianity, all complain of this as one of the great Difficulties +of their Mission. The Indians hear with Patience the Truths of +the Gospel explain'd to them, and give their usual Tokens of +Assent and Approbation; you would think they were convinc'd. +No such matter. It is mere Civility.</p> + +<p>A Swedish Minister, having assembled the chiefs of the Susquehanah +Indians, made a Sermon to them, acquainting them +with the principal historical Facts on which our Religion is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span> +founded; such as the Fall of our first Parents by eating an +Apple, the coming of Christ to repair the Mischief, his Miracles +and Suffering, &c. When he had finished, an Indian Orator +stood up to thank him. "What you have told us," says he, "is +all very good. It is indeed bad to eat Apples. It is better to +make them all into Cyder. We are much oblig'd by your kindness +in coming so far, to tell us these Things which you have +heard from your Mothers. In return, I will tell you some of +those we have heard from ours. In the Beginning, our Fathers +had only the Flesh of Animals to subsist on; and if their Hunting +was unsuccessful, they were starving. Two of our young +Hunters, having kill'd a Deer, made a Fire in the Woods to +broil some Part of it. When they were about to satisfy their +Hunger, they beheld a beautiful young Woman descend from +the Clouds, and seat herself on that Hill, which you see yonder +among the Blue Mountains. They said to each other, it is a +Spirit that has smelt our broiling Venison, and wishes to eat of +it; let us offer some to her. They presented her with the Tongue; +she was pleas'd with the Taste of it, and said, 'Your kindness +shall be rewarded; come to this Place after thirteen Moons, and +you shall find something that will be of great Benefit in nourishing +you and your Children to the latest Generation.' They did +so, and, to their Surprise, found Plants they had never seen +before; but which, from that ancient time, have been constantly +cultivated among us, to our great Advantage. Where her right +Hand had touched the Ground, they found Maize; where her +left hand had touch'd it, they found Kidney-Beans; and where +her Backside had sat on it, they found Tobacco." The good +Missionary, disgusted with this idle Tale, said, "What I delivered +to you were sacred Truths; but what you tell me is mere +Fable, Fiction, and Falshood." The Indian, offended, reply'd, +"My brother, it seems your Friends have not done you Justice +in your Education; they have not well instructed you in the +Rules of Common Civility. You saw that we, who understand +and practise those Rules, believ'd all your stories; why do you +refuse to believe ours?"</p> + +<p>When any of them come into our Towns, our People are apt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span> +to crowd round them, gaze upon them, and incommode them, +where they desire to be private; this they esteem great Rudeness, +and the Effect of the Want of Instruction in the Rules of +Civility and good Manners. "We have," say they, "as much +Curiosity as you, and when you come into our Towns, we wish +for Opportunities of looking at you; but for this purpose we +hide ourselves behind Bushes, where you are to pass, and never +intrude ourselves into your Company."</p> + +<p>Their Manner of entring one another's village has likewise its +Rules. It is reckon'd uncivil in travelling Strangers to enter a +Village abruptly, without giving Notice of their Approach. +Therefore, as soon as they arrive within hearing, they stop and +hollow, remaining there till invited to enter. Two old Men +usually come out to them, and lead them in. There is in every +Village a vacant Dwelling, called <i>the Strangers' House</i>. Here +they are plac'd, while the old Men go round from Hut to Hut, +acquainting the Inhabitants, that Strangers are arriv'd, who are +probably hungry and weary; and every one sends them what he +can spare of Victuals, and Skins to repose on. When the +Strangers are refresh'd, Pipes and Tobacco are brought; and +then, but not before. Conversation begins, with Enquiries who +they are, whither bound, what News, &c.; and it usually ends +with offers of Service, if the Strangers have occasion of Guides, +or any Necessaries for continuing their Journey; and nothing is +exacted for the Entertainment.</p> + +<p>The same Hospitality, esteem'd among them as a principal +Virtue, is practis'd by private Persons; of which Conrad Weiser, +our Interpreter, gave me the following Instance. He had been +naturaliz'd among the Six Nations, and spoke well the Mohock +Language. In going thro' the Indian Country, to carry a +Message from our Governor to the Council at Onondaga, he +call'd at the Habitation of Canassatego, an old Acquaintance, +who embrac'd him, spread Furs for him to sit on, plac'd before +him some boil'd Beans and Venison, and mix'd some Rum and +Water for his Drink. When he was well refresh'd, and had lit +his Pipe, Canassatego began to converse with him; ask'd how +he had far'd the many Years since they had seen each other;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span> +whence he then came; what occasion'd the Journey, &c. Conrad +answered all his Questions; and when the Discourse began +to flag, the Indian, to continue it, said, "Conrad, you have lived +long among the white People, and know something of their +Customs; I have been sometimes at Albany, and have observed, +that once in Seven Days they shut up their Shops, and assemble +all in the great House; tell me what it is for? What do they do +there?" "They meet there," says Conrad, "to hear and learn +<i>good Things</i>." "I do not doubt," says the Indian, "that they +tell you so; they have told me the same; but I doubt the Truth +of what they say, and I will tell you my Reasons. I went lately +to Albany to sell my Skins and buy Blankets, Knives, Powder, +Rum, &c. You know I us'd generally to deal with Hans +Hanson; but I was a little inclin'd this time to try some other +Merchant. However, I call'd first upon Hans, and asked him +what he would give for Beaver. He said he could not give any +more than four Shillings a Pound; 'but,' says he, 'I cannot talk +on Business now; this is the Day when we meet together to +learn <i>Good Things</i>, and I am going to the Meeting.' So I +thought to myself, 'Since we cannot do any Business to-day, I +may as well go to the meeting too,' and I went with him. There +stood up a Man in Black, and began to talk to the People very +angrily. I did not understand what he said; but, perceiving that +he look'd much at me and at Hanson, I imagin'd he was angry +at seeing me there; so I went out, sat down near the House, +struck Fire, and lit my Pipe, waiting till the Meeting should +break up. I thought too, that the Man had mention'd something +of Beaver, and I suspected it might be the Subject of their +Meeting. So, when they came out, I accosted my Merchant. +'Well, Hans,' says I, 'I hope you have agreed to give more than +four Shillings a Pound.' 'No,' says he, 'I cannot give so much; +I cannot give more than three shillings and sixpence.' I then +spoke to several other Dealers, but they all sung the same song,—Three +and sixpence,—Three and sixpence. This made it +clear to me, that my Suspicion was right; and, that whatever +they pretended of meeting to learn <i>good Things</i>, the real purpose +was to consult how to cheat Indians in the Price of Beaver.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span> +Consider but a little, Conrad, and you must be of my Opinion. +If they met so often to learn <i>good Things</i>, they would certainly +have learnt some before this time. But they are still ignorant. +You know our Practice. If a white Man, in travelling thro' our +Country, enters one of our Cabins, we all treat him as I treat +you; we dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, we give +him Meat and Drink, that he may allay his Thirst and Hunger; +and we spread soft Furs for him to rest and sleep on; we demand +nothing in return. But, if I go into a white Man's House at +Albany, and ask for Victuals and Drink, they say, 'Where is +your Money?' and if I have none, they say, 'Get out, you Indian +Dog.' You see they have not yet learned those little <i>Good +Things</i>, that we need no Meetings to be instructed in, because +our Mothers taught them to us when we were Children; and +therefore it is impossible their Meetings should be, as they say, +for any such purpose, or have any such Effect; they are only to +contrive <i>the Cheating of Indians in the Price of Beaver</i>."</p> + +<p class="txt90"><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—It is remarkable that in all Ages and Countries Hospitality has +been allow'd as the Virtue of those whom the civiliz'd were pleas'd to call +Barbarians. The Greeks celebrated the Scythians for it. The Saracens +possess'd it eminently, and it is to this day the reigning Virtue of the wild +Arabs. St. Paul, too, in the Relation of his Voyage and Shipwreck on the +Island of Melita says the Barbarous People shewed us no little kindness; +for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present +Rain, and because of the Cold. [<i>Franklin's note.</i>]</p> + + +<h3><a name="AN_ARABIAN_TALE" id="AN_ARABIAN_TALE"></a>AN ARABIAN TALE<a name="FNanchor_139_651" id="FNanchor_139_651"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_651" class="fnanchor">[139]</a></h3> + +<p>Albumazar, the good magician, retired in his old age to +the top of the lofty mountain Calabut; avoided the society of +men, but was visited nightly by genii and spirits of the first +rank, who loved him, and amused him with their instructive +conversation.</p> + +<p>Belubel, the strong, came one evening to see Albumazar; his +height was seven leagues, and his wings when spread might +overshadow a kingdom. He laid himself gently down between +the long ridges of Elluem; the tops of the trees in the valley +were his couch; his head rested on Calabut as on a pillow, and +his face shone on the tent of Albumazar.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span></p> + +<p>The magician spoke to him with rapturous piety of the wisdom +and goodness of the Most High; but expressed his wonder +at the existence of evil in the world, which he said he could not +account for by all the efforts of his reason.</p> + +<p>"Value not thyself, my friend," said Belubel, "on that quality +which thou callest reason. If thou knewest its origin and its +weakness, it would rather be matter of humiliation."</p> + +<p>"Tell me then," said Albumazar, "what I do not know; inform +my ignorance, and enlighten my understanding." "Contemplate," +said Albumazar [<i>sic.</i> Belubel], "the scale of beings, from +an elephant down to an oyster. Thou seest a gradual diminution +of faculties and powers, so small in each step that the difference +is scarce perceptible. There is no gap, but the gradation is +complete. Men in general do not know, but thou knowest, +that in ascending from an elephant to the infinitely Great, Good, +and Wise, there is also a long gradation of beings, who possess +powers and faculties of which thou canst yet have no conception."</p> + + +<h3><a name="A_PETITION_OF_THE_LEFT_HAND" id="A_PETITION_OF_THE_LEFT_HAND"></a>A PETITION OF THE LEFT HAND</h3> + +<p class="center">TO THOSE WHO HAVE THE SUPERINTENDENCY OF EDUCATION</p> + +<p class="center">[Date unknown]</p> + +<p>I address myself to all the friends of youth, and conjure them +to direct their compassionate regards to my unhappy fate, in +order to remove the prejudices of which I am the victim. There +are twin sisters of us; and the two eyes of man do not more +resemble, nor are capable of being upon better terms with each +other, than my sister and myself, were it not for the partiality +of our parents, who make the most injurious distinctions between +us. From my infancy, I have been led to consider my +sister as a being of a more elevated rank. I was suffered to grow +up without the least instruction, while nothing was spared in +her education. She had masters to teach her writing, drawing, +music, and other accomplishments; but if by chance I touched +a pencil, a pen, or a needle, I was bitterly rebuked; and more +than once I have been beaten for being awkward, and wanting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span> +a graceful manner. It is true, my sister associated me with her +upon some occasions; but she always made a point of taking +the lead, calling upon me only from necessity, or to figure by +her side.</p> + +<p>But conceive not, Sirs, that my complaints are instigated +merely by vanity. No; my uneasiness is occasioned by an +object much more serious. It is the practice in our family, that +the whole business of providing for its subsistence falls upon +my sister and myself. If any indisposition should attack my +sister,—and I mention it in confidence upon this occasion, that +she is subject to the gout, the rheumatism, and cramp, without +making mention of other accidents,—what would be the fate of +our poor family? Must not the regret of our parents be excessive, +at having placed so great a difference between sisters who +are so perfectly equal? Alas! we must perish from distress; for +it would not be in my power even to scrawl a suppliant petition +for relief, having been obliged to employ the hand of another +in transcribing the request which I have now the honour to +prefer to you.</p> + +<p>Condescend, Sirs, to make my parents sensible of the injustice +of an exclusive tenderness, and of the necessity of distributing +their care and affection among all their children +equally. I am, with a profound respect, Sirs, your obedient +servant,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">The Left Hand</span>.</p> + + +<h3><a name="SOME_GOOD_WHIG_PRINCIPLES" id="SOME_GOOD_WHIG_PRINCIPLES"></a>SOME GOOD WHIG PRINCIPLES</h3> + +<p class="center">[Date unknown]</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Declaration</span> of those <span class="smcap">Rights</span> of the Commonalty of +Great Britain, <i>without which they cannot be</i> <span class="txt90">FREE</span>.</p> + +<p>It is declared,</p> + +<p>First, That the government of this realm, and the making of +laws for the same, ought to be lodged in the hands of King, +Lords of Parliament, and Representatives of <i>the whole body</i> of +the freemen of this realm.</p> + +<p>Secondly, That <i>every man</i> of the commonalty (excepting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span> +infants, insane persons, and criminals) is, of common right, and +by the laws of God, a <i>freeman</i>, and entitled to the free enjoyment +of <i>liberty</i>.</p> + +<p>Thirdly, That liberty, or freedom, consists in having <i>an +actual share</i> in the appointment of those who frame the laws, +and who are to be the guardians of every man's life, property, +and peace; for the <i>all</i> of one man is as dear to him as the <i>all</i> of +another; and the poor man has an <i>equal</i> right, but <i>more</i> need, +to have representatives in the legislature than the rich one.</p> + +<p>Fourthly, That they who have <i>no</i> voice nor vote in the electing +of representatives, <i>do not enjoy</i> liberty; but are absolutely +<i>enslaved</i> to those who <i>have</i> votes, and to their representatives; +for to be enslaved is to have governors whom <i>other men have +set over us</i>, and be subject to laws <i>made by the representatives of +others</i>, without having had representatives of our own to give +consent in <i>our</i> behalf.</p> + +<p>Fifthly, That a <i>very great majority</i> of the commonalty of this +realm are denied the privilege of voting for representatives in +Parliament; and, consequently, they are enslaved to a <i>small +number</i>, who do now enjoy the privilege exclusively to themselves; +but who, it may be presumed, are far from wishing to +continue in the exclusive possession of a privilege, by which +their fellow-subjects are deprived of <i>common right</i>, of <i>justice</i>, of +<i>liberty</i>; and which, if not communicated to all, must speedily +cause <i>the certain overthrow of our happy constitution</i>, and enslave +us <i>all</i>.</p> + +<p>And, sixthly and lastly, We also say and do assert, that it is +<i>the right</i> of the commonalty of this realm to elect a <i>new</i> House +of Commons once in <i>every year</i>, according to the ancient and +sacred laws of the land; because, whenever a Parliament continues +in being for <i>a longer term</i>, very great numbers of the +commonalty, who have arrived at years of manhood since the +last election, and <i>therefore</i> have a right to be actually represented +in the House of Commons, are then <i>unjustly deprived</i> of that +right.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span></p> + + +<h3><a name="THE_ART_OF_PROCURING_PLEASANT_DREAMS" id="THE_ART_OF_PROCURING_PLEASANT_DREAMS"></a>THE ART OF PROCURING PLEASANT DREAMS</h3> + +<p class="center">INSCRIBED TO MISS [SHIPLEY], BEING WRITTEN AT HER +REQUEST<a name="FNanchor_140_652" id="FNanchor_140_652"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_652" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> + +<p>As a great part of our life is spent in sleep during which we +have sometimes pleasant and sometimes painful dreams, it becomes +of some consequence to obtain the one kind and avoid +the other; for whether real or imaginary, pain is pain and +pleasure is pleasure. If we can sleep without dreaming, it is +well that painful dreams are avoided. If while we sleep we can +have any pleasing dream, it is, as the French say, <i>autant de +gagné</i>, so much added to the pleasure of life.</p> + +<p>To this end it is, in the first place, necessary to be careful in +preserving health, by due exercise and great temperance; for, +in sickness, the imagination is disturbed, and disagreeable, +sometimes terrible, ideas are apt to present themselves. Exercise +should precede meals, not immediately follow them; the first +promotes, the latter, unless moderate, obstructs digestion. If, +after exercise, we feed sparingly, the digestion will be easy and +good, the body lightsome, the temper cheerful, and all the +animal functions performed agreeably. Sleep, when it follows, +will be natural and undisturbed; while indolence, with full feeding, +occasions nightmares and horrors inexpressible; we fall +from precipices, are assaulted by wild beasts, murderers, and +demons, and experience every variety of distress. Observe, +however, that the quantities of food and exercise are relative +things; those who move much may, and indeed ought to eat +more; those who use little exercise should eat little. In general, +mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eat about twice +as much as nature requires. Suppers are not bad, if we have +not dined; but restless nights naturally follow hearty suppers +after full dinners. Indeed, as there is a difference in constitutions, +some rest well after these meals; it costs them only a +frightful dream and an apoplexy, after which they sleep till +doomsday. Nothing is more common in the newspapers, than +instances of people who, after eating a hearty supper, are found +dead abed in the morning.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another means of preserving health, to be attended to, is the +having a constant supply of fresh air in your bed-chamber. It +has been a great mistake, the sleeping in rooms exactly closed, +and in beds surrounded by curtains. No outward air that may +come in to you is so unwholesome as the unchanged air, often +breathed, of a close chamber. As boiling water does not grow +hotter by longer boiling, if the particles that receive greater heat +can escape; so living bodies do not putrefy, if the particles, so +fast as they become putrid, can be thrown off. Nature expels +them by the pores of the skin and the lungs, and in a free, open +air they are carried off; but in a close room we receive them +again and again, though they become more and more corrupt. +A number of persons crowded into a small room thus spoil the +air in a few minutes, and even render it mortal, as in the Black +Hole at Calcutta. A single person is said to spoil only a gallon +of air per minute, and therefore requires a longer time to spoil +a chamber-full; but it is done, however, in proportion, and +many putrid disorders hence have their origin. It is recorded +of Methusalem, who, being the longest liver, may be supposed +to have best preserved his health, that he slept always in the +open air; for, when he had lived five hundred years, an angel +said to him; "Arise, Methusalem, and build thee an house, for +thou shalt live yet five hundred years longer." But Methusalem +answered, and said, "If I am to live but five hundred years +longer, it is not worth while to build me an house; I will sleep +in the air, as I have been used to do." Physicians, after having +for ages contended that the sick should not be indulged with +fresh air, have at length discovered that it may do them good. +It is therefore to be hoped, that they may in time discover likewise, +that it is not hurtful to those who are in health, and that +we may be then cured of the <i>aërophobia</i>, that at present distresses +weak minds, and makes them choose to be stifled and poisoned, +rather than leave open the window of a bed-chamber, or put +down the glass of a coach.</p> + +<p>Confined air, when saturated with perspirable matter, will +not receive more; and that matter must remain in our bodies, +and occasion diseases; but it gives some previous notice of its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span> +being about to be hurtful, by producing certain uneasiness, +slight indeed at first, which as with regard to the lungs is a +trifling sensation, and to the pores of the skin a kind of restlessness, +which is difficult to describe, and few that feel it know the +cause of it. But we may recollect, that sometimes on waking in +the night, we have, if warmly covered, found it difficult to get +asleep again. We turn often without finding repose in any position. +This fidgettiness (to use a vulgar expression for want of +a better) is occasioned wholly by an uneasiness in the skin, +owing to the retention of the perspirable matter—the bed-clothes +having received their quantity, and, being saturated, +refusing to take any more. To become sensible of this by an +experiment, let a person keep his position in the bed, but throw +off the bed-clothes, and suffer fresh air to approach the part +uncovered of his body; he will then feel that part suddenly refreshed; +for the air will immediately relieve the skin, by receiving, +licking up, and carrying off, the load of perspirable matter +that incommoded it. For every portion of cool air that approaches +the warm skin, in receiving its part of that vapour, +receives therewith a degree of heat that rarefies and renders it +lighter, when it will be pushed away with its burthen, by cooler +and therefore heavier fresh air, which for a moment supplies its +place, and then, being likewise changed and warmed, gives way +to a succeeding quantity. This is the order of nature, to prevent +animals being infected by their own perspiration. He will now +be sensible of the difference between the part exposed to the air +and that which, remaining sunk in the bed, denies the air access: +for this part now manifests its uneasiness more distinctly by the +comparison, and the seat of the uneasiness is more plainly perceived +than when the whole surface of the body was affected +by it.</p> + +<p>Here, then, is one great and general cause of unpleasing +dreams. For when the body is uneasy, the mind will be disturbed +by it, and disagreeable ideas of various kinds will in +sleep be the natural consequences. The remedies, preventive +and curative, follow:</p> + +<p>1. By eating moderately (as before advised for health's sake)<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span> +less perspirable matter is produced in a given time; hence the +bed-clothes receive it longer before they are saturated, and we +may therefore sleep longer before we are made uneasy by their +refusing to receive any more.</p> + +<p>2. By using thinner and more porous bed-clothes, which will +suffer the perspirable matter more easily to pass through them, +we are less incommoded, such being longer tolerable.</p> + +<p>3. When you are awakened by this uneasiness, and find you +cannot easily sleep again, get out of bed, beat up and turn your +pillow, shake the bed-clothes well, with at least twenty shakes, +then throw the bed open and leave it to cool; in the meanwhile, +continuing undrest, walk about your chamber till your skin has +had time to discharge its load, which it will do sooner as the +air may be dried and colder. When you begin to feel the cold +air unpleasant, then return to your bed, and you will soon fall +asleep, and your sleep will be sweet and pleasant. All the scenes +presented to your fancy will be too of the pleasing kind. I am +often as agreeably entertained with them, as by the scenery of +an opera. If you happen to be too indolent to get out of bed, +you may, instead of it, lift up your bed-clothes with one arm +and leg, so as to draw in a good deal of fresh air, and by letting +them fall force it out again. This, repeated twenty times, will +so clear them of the perspirable matter they have imbibed, as to +permit your sleeping well for some time afterwards. But this +latter method is not equal to the former.</p> + +<p>Those who do not love trouble, and can afford to have two +beds, will find great luxury in rising, when they wake in a hot +bed, and going into the cool one. Such shifting of beds would +also be of great service to persons ill of a fever, as it refreshes +and frequently procures sleep. A very large bed, that will admit +a removal so distant from the first situation as to be cool and +sweet, may in a degree answer the same end.</p> + +<p>One or two observations more will conclude this little piece. +Care must be taken, when you lie down, to dispose your pillow +so as to suit your manner of placing your head, and to be perfectly +easy; then place your limbs so as not to bear inconveniently +hard upon one another, as, for instance, the joints of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span> +your ankles; for, though a bad position may at first give but +little pain and be hardly noticed, yet a continuance will render +it less tolerable, and the uneasiness may come on while you are +asleep, and disturb your imagination. These are the rules of the +art. But, though they will generally prove effectual in producing +the end intended, there is a case in which the most punctual +observance of them will be totally fruitless. I need not mention +the case to you, my dear friend, but my account of the art would +be imperfect without it. The case is, when the person who +desires to have pleasant dreams has not taken care to preserve, +what is necessary above all things,</p> + +<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">A Good Conscience.</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="NOTES" id="NOTES"></a><i>NOTES</i></h2> + + +<p>References are to Franklin's <i>Writings</i>, edited by A. H. Smyth, 10 vols., +1905-1907.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_513" id="Footnote_1_513"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_513"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> In addition to John Bigelow's "Historical Sketch of the Fortunes +and Misfortunes of the Autograph Manuscript of Franklin's Memoirs of +His Own Life," see Franklin's references to the <i>Autobiography</i>, in <i>Writings</i>, +IX, 550-51, 559, 665, 675, 688; X, 50.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_514" id="Footnote_2_514"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_514"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The <i>New England Courant</i>, begun Aug. 21, 1721 (fourth American +newspaper), was preceded by <i>Boston News-Letter</i>, April 24, 1704, <i>Boston +Gazette</i>, Dec. 21, 1719, <i>American Weekly Mercury</i>, Dec. 22, 1719 (Philadelphia).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_515" id="Footnote_3_515"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_515"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Sir Wm. Keith (1680-1749), governor of Pennsylvania 1717-1726. +He was dismissed by the Proprietaries in 1726; after casting his lot with +the provincial assembly, he became "a tribune of the people" (<i>Dictionary +of American Biography</i>, X, 292-3). It is not improbable that Franklin's +antipathy for the Proprietaries was quickened by his contacts with Keith +(even though he was the victim of the governor's gulling). See note 65 +for "James Ralph."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_516" id="Footnote_4_516"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_516"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), botanist and physician, friend of Sydenham, +Newton, Ray, and Boyle, made President of the Royal Society in +1727 (until 1741). See <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, LII, 379-80, and +Franklin's letter to Sir Hans Sloane (London, June 2, 1725) in <i>Writings</i>, +II, 52-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_517" id="Footnote_5_517"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_517"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Sir Hans Sloane contributed curiosities to Don Saltero's place, +Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. Steele dedicated a <i>Tatler</i> to this collector of +gimcracks who wrote of his oddities:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"Monsters of all sorts here are seen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange things in nature as they grew so;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some relicks of the Sheba queen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fragments of the fam'd Bob Crusoe."<br /></span> +</div></div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_518" id="Footnote_6_518"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_518"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See note 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_519" id="Footnote_7_519"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_519"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> For an account of this sturdy colonial who learned Latin in order +to read Newton's <i>Principia</i>, see E. P. Oberholtzer's <i>A Literary History of +Philadelphia</i>, 57 ff.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_520" id="Footnote_8_520"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_520"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> James Parton's <i>Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin</i>, I, 154-67 +(chap. XIII) contains a good account of this junto of friends.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_521" id="Footnote_9_521"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_521"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See C. E. Jorgenson's "A Brand Flung at Colonial Orthodoxy" (in +Bibliography, p. clxv above), for the deistic patterns of thought found in +Keimer's newspaper.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_522" id="Footnote_10_522"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_522"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Consult C. H. Hart, "Who Was the Mother of Franklin's Son? An +Inquiry Demonstrating that She Was Deborah Read, Wife of Benjamin +Franklin." (See Bibliography, p. clxiv above.) Also see <i>Who Was the +Mother of Franklin's Son? An Historical Conundrum, hitherto given up, +now partly answered by Paul Leicester Ford</i>. With an afterword by John +Clyde Oswald (New Rochelle, N. Y.: 1932).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_523" id="Footnote_11_523"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_523"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> End of reprint of the original MS in the Henry E. Huntington +Library. The selections that follow are from <i>Writings</i>, in which A. H. +Smyth reprints the Bigelow transcript with indifferent accuracy. "Continuation +of the Account of my Life, begun at Passy, near Paris, 1784." +Abel James and Benjamin Vaughan urge Franklin to continue his life +beyond 1730 (see <i>Writings</i>, I, 313-20). Vaughan promises that when +finished "it will be worth all Plutarch's Lives put together" (p. 318).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_524" id="Footnote_12_524"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_524"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Dated July 1, 1733.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_525" id="Footnote_13_525"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_525"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> "Thus far written at Passy, 1784." He continues his <i>Autobiography</i> +in Philadelphia in August, 1788.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_526" id="Footnote_14_526"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_526"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Consult C. E. Jorgenson's "The New Science in the Almanacs +of Ames and Franklin" (see Bibliography, p. clxv, above).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_527" id="Footnote_15_527"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_527"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> "Self-Denial Not the Essence of Virtue," <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, +No. 324, Feb. 18, 1735; printed in W. T. Franklin's edition, III, 233-5. +"On True Happiness," <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, No. 363, Nov. 20, 1735; +printed in W. T. Franklin's edition, III, 238-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_528" id="Footnote_16_528"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_528"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Chosen Clerk of Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1736.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_529" id="Footnote_17_529"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_529"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See their correspondence in L. Tyerman's <i>Life of the Rev. George +Whitefield</i> (2 vols., London, 1876).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_530" id="Footnote_18_530"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_530"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> J. Parton observes that this list may have been suggested by the +word-catalogs in the <i>Gargantua</i> (<i>Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin</i>, I, +221). This mildly Rabelaisian series is later elaborated into "The Drinker's +Dictionary" found in the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, No. 494, May 25, 1738; +and reprinted by Parton, I, 222-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_531" id="Footnote_19_531"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_531"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> When James Franklin was accused of mocking the clergy and +unsettling the peace, he was refused license to print the <i>New England +Courant</i>. So Benjamin, his apprenticeship indentures cancelled (though +new ones were privately signed), became nominal editor. Consult C. A. +Duniway, <i>The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts</i>, +97-103; W. G. Bleyer, <i>Main Currents in the History of American Journalism</i>, +chaps. I-II.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_532" id="Footnote_20_532"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_532"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Rules for his famous Junto, begun in 1727.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_533" id="Footnote_21_533"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_533"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> No Part II has ever been found. A. H. Smyth suggests that this +creed and liturgy was "Franklin's daily companion to the end of his life" +(<i>Writings</i>, II, 92 note).</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_534" id="Footnote_22_534"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_534"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> When Samuel Keimer discovered that Franklin and Meredith were +about to launch a newspaper, he began his <i>Universal Instructor in all Arts +and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette</i> (first issue, Dec. 28, 1728). Franklin +and Joseph Breintnall wrote the <i>Busy-Body</i> series for Bradford's <i>American +Weekly Mercury</i>. Nos. I-V and VIII are by Franklin. See S. Bloore's +"Joseph Breintnall, First Secretary of the Library Company" (in Bibliography). +That Keimer became infuriated, one can see in issues X, XII, +and XVI of the <i>Universal Instructor ...</i>, in which <i>Busy-Body</i> is scourged +with both prose and poetry.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_535" id="Footnote_23_535"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_535"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Franklin purchases Keimer's <i>Universal Instructor ...</i>, deleting the +first half of the title, which had appeared in small italic type.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_536" id="Footnote_24_536"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_536"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> See <i>Autobiography</i>, <i>Writings</i>, I, 343.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_537" id="Footnote_25_537"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_537"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The use of scales suggests that Franklin probably knew Aristophanes' +<i>The Frogs</i>. It is more likely, however that he was acquainted with +the use of scales in contemporary witch trials. In the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> +for Jan., 1731, there is an account of a witch trial at "Burlington, in +Pensilvania," in the course of which scales and the Bible were used. (See +Brand's <i>Popular Antiquities</i> [H. Ellis, ed., London, 1888], III, 35.) In the +same magazine for Feb., 1759, is an account of a similar trial which took +place in England (<i>ibid.</i>, III, 22).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_538" id="Footnote_26_538"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_538"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> In his 1734 issue of the <i>American Almanack</i> Leeds observed that +the account of his death was grossly exaggerated. Doubtless Franklin had +read (Swift's) Bickerstaff's predictions of the death of Partridge.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_539" id="Footnote_27_539"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_539"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Compare Swift's <i>A Meditation upon a Broomstick</i>. Mug and +broomstick are alike obliged to undergo the indignities of a "dirty wench." +But more conclusively, the rhetoric and the ethical application to human +affairs suggest Franklin's indebtedness to Swift.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_540" id="Footnote_28_540"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_540"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> His parents' response is learned from a letter (not in Smyth) to his +father: "Hon. Father, I received your kind letter of the 4th of May in +answer to mine of April 13th. I wrote that of mine with design to remove +or lessen the uneasiness you and my Mother appear'd to be under on +account of my Principles, and it gave me great Pleasure when she declar'd +in her next to me that she approved of my Letter and was satisfy'd with +me." (Cited in J. F. Sachse, <i>Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason</i>, 75.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_541" id="Footnote_29_541"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_541"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Rev. George Whitefield, whom Franklin met in 1739.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_542" id="Footnote_30_542"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_542"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> <i>M. T. Cicero's Cato Major or his Discourse of Old-Age: With +Explanatory Notes.</i> Philadelphia. Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, 1744.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_543" id="Footnote_31_543"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_543"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> "This letter is undated, but from Franklin's ecclesiastical mathematics +it would appear to have been written on the tenth of March" (A. H. +Smyth, <i>Writings</i>, II, 283 note).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_544" id="Footnote_32_544"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_544"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Excellent note in <i>Writings</i>, II, 463-4. Abbé Raynal published <i>Polly +Baker</i> in his <i>Histoire ...</i> as an authentic document. Also Peter Annet +printed this <i>jeu d'esprit</i> in his <i>Social Bliss</i> (1749). See N. L. Torrey, <i>Voltaire +and the English Deists</i>, 187. A. H. Smyth confesses: "The mystery +surrounding the authorship and first publication of the 'Speech' remains +an impenetrable mystery. The style is altogether Franklinian, and the +story seems unquestionably to have been written by him, but I have +searched <i>The Pennsylvania Gazette</i> in vain for it. It is not there."</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_545" id="Footnote_33_545"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_545"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> See "Introduction" in Wm. Pepper's Facsimile Reprint of the +<i>Proposals</i> (Philadelphia, 1931), vii-xvii. Although A. H. Smyth prints +"Authors quoted in this Paper," he does not print the copious documentation +Franklin included. The "Authors" listed are: Milton, Locke, +Hutcheson, Obadiah Walker, M. Rollin, George Turnbull, "with some +others."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_546" id="Footnote_34_546"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_546"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Printed as Appendix to Rev. R. Peters's <i>A Sermon on Education ...</i>, +Philadelphia, Printed and Sold by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1751.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_547" id="Footnote_35_547"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_547"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Samuel Croxall's (d. 1752) <i>Fables of Æsop and Others</i>, 1722. "The +remarkable popularity of these fables, of which editions are still published, +is to be accounted for by their admirable style. They are excellent examples +of naïve, clear, and forcible English" (<i>Dictionary of National +Biography</i>, XIII, 246-8).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_548" id="Footnote_36_548"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_548"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> A part of Johnson's <i>Elementa Philosophica</i>, printed by Franklin in +1752. See H. and C. Schneider, eds., <i>Samuel Johnson, President of King's +College. His Career and Writings</i>. 4 vols., New York, 1929.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_549" id="Footnote_37_549"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_549"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Fénelon's Telemachus. Chevalier de Ramsay's <i>Travels of Cyrus</i>. 2 +vols. London, 1727 (2d ed.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_550" id="Footnote_38_550"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_550"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> For Franklin's awareness of Rabelais, see C. E. Jorgenson's "Benjamin +Franklin and Rabelais," <i>Classical Journal</i>, XXIX, 538-40 (April, +1934).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_551" id="Footnote_39_551"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_551"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> First published in [Clarke, Wm.] <i>Observations on the Late and +present Conduct of the French, with Regard to their Encroachments upon the +British Colonies in North America.... To which is added, wrote by another +Hand; Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, +Etc.,</i> Boston, 1755. See L. J. Carey's <i>Franklin's Economic Views</i>, +46-60, for able survey of Franklin's theory of population and its relation +to Malthus and Adam Smith. Also see L. C. Wroth, <i>An American Bookshelf</i>, +1755 (Philadelphia, 1934), 25-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_552" id="Footnote_40_552"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_552"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Hume having objected to the use of "pejorate" and "colonize," +Franklin yields to him. "Since they are not in common use here [England], +I give up as bad; for certainly in writings intended for persuasion and for +general information, one cannot be too clear; and every expression in the +least obscure is a fault" (<i>Writings</i>, IV, 82-4; Sept. 27, 1760).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_553" id="Footnote_41_553"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_553"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> On complaint of John Bartram and Cadwallader Colden, Franklin +deleted the concluding paragraphs in subsequent editions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_554" id="Footnote_42_554"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_554"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Read before the Royal Society on Dec. 21, 1752. It was printed +in the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, December, 1752. Essentially because of his +identification of electricity with lightning. Franklin in 1753 received the +Copley medal and was in 1756 elected F. R. S.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_555" id="Footnote_43_555"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_555"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Mr. George S. Eddy has compiled a "Catalogue of Pamphlets, +Once a Part of the Library of Benjamin Franklin, and now owned by the +Historical Society of Pennsylvania," which one of the editors was permitted +to use in MS form in the W. S. Mason Collection. One of the +pamphlets is: <i>An Hymn to the Creator of the World, The Thoughts taken +chiefly from Psal. CIV. To which is added in Prose An Idea of the Creator +From His Works ...</i> London, MDCCL. James Burgh. If most of the +material in this issue (it is equally true of many of the other issues) is +"borrowed," it none the less shows toward what ideas Franklin was sympathetic. +Almanac makers on the whole were not characterized by a vast +display of originality.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_556" id="Footnote_44_556"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_556"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Brackets in this letter are the result of A. H. Smyth's collation of +two MSS.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_557" id="Footnote_45_557"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_557"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> "These letters first appeared in <i>The London Chronicle</i>, February 6 +and 8, 1766. They were published again in <i>The London Magazine</i>, February, +1766, and in <i>The Pennsylvania Chronicle</i>, January 16, 1769. They +were republished in Almon's 'Remembrancer' in 1766." (A. H. Smyth, +Writings, III, 231 note.) +</p><p> +After the failure of his <i>Albany Plan</i> (for text see Writings, III, 197-226), +Franklin, visiting Governor Shirley in Boston, was shown an English +plan: it "was, that the governors of all the colonies, each attended by one +or two members of his council, should assemble at some central town, +and there concert measures of defense, raise troops, order the construction +of forts, and draw on the British treasury for the whole expense; the +treasury to be afterwards reimbursed <i>by a tax laid on the colonies by an act +of Parliament</i>" (Parton, I, 340). The letters are a protest against this +plan, a protest marking the first stages of the revolution.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_558" id="Footnote_46_558"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_558"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> The second cousin and in 1758 the wife of William Greene, the +second governor of the state of Rhode Island. See <i>Dictionary of American +Biography</i>, VII, 576-7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_559" id="Footnote_47_559"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_559"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Had made a tour inspecting post offices.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_560" id="Footnote_48_560"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_560"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Daughter of Samuel Ward, governor of Rhode Island.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_561" id="Footnote_49_561"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_561"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Franklin's daughter, born 1744.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_562" id="Footnote_50_562"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_562"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> John Franklin died in Boston, January, 1756, age sixty-five.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_563" id="Footnote_51_563"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_563"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Daughter of John Franklin's second wife by a former marriage.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_564" id="Footnote_52_564"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_564"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> See discussion (including bibliographical note) of Rev. Wm. Smith +in Introduction, section on "Franklin's Theories of Education."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_565" id="Footnote_53_565"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_565"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> From an exact reprint made by W. S. Mason from a copy of <i>Poor +Richard</i> (1758) in his collection. Lindsay Swift, in <i>Benjamin Franklin</i>, +notes: "It may safely be said that it is the American classic <i>par excellence</i>, +and shares with Mrs. Stowe's <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> the honour of having +passed by translation into more other tongues than anything else thus far +bearing the stamp of our national spirit" (pp. 33-4). A glance at Ford's +<i>Franklin Bibliography</i>, 53-111, will suggest the vogue of this classic. See +L. L. L.'s "The Way to Wealth: History and Editions," <i>Nation</i>, XCVI, +494-6 (May 15, 1913). +</p><p> +William Temple Franklin observes that <i>The Way to Wealth</i> "is +supposed to have greatly contributed to the formation of that <i>national +character</i> they [people of America] have since exhibited" (1818 ed. of +Franklin's <i>Works</i>, III, 248).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_566" id="Footnote_54_566"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_566"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Stephen Potts and William Parsons were among the original members +of the Junto (<i>Writings</i>, I, 299-300). See note on Parsons in <i>Pennsylvania +Magazine of History and Biography</i>, XXXIII, 340 (1909).</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_567" id="Footnote_55_567"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_567"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782). See <i>Dictionary of National +Biography</i>, XXVII, 232-4; A. F. Tytler's <i>Memoirs</i> of Lord Kames, 3 vols., +Edinburgh, 1814 (2d ed.). Franklin writes an interesting letter to Kames +(London, Jan. 3, 1760) affirming that he rejoices "on the reduction of +Canada; and this is not merely as I am a colonist, but as I am a Briton. +I have long been of opinion, that the <i>foundations of the future grandeur and +stability of the British empire lie in America</i>; and though, like other foundations, +they are low and little seen, they are, nevertheless, broad and +strong enough to support the greatest political structure human wisdom +ever yet erected." Concerning his recent visit to Kames in Scotland he +writes, "On the whole, I must say, I think the time we spent there, was +six weeks of the <i>densest</i> happiness I have met with in any part of my +life ..." (<i>Writings</i>, IV, 3-7). In a letter (London, Nov., 1761) he praises +Kames's <i>Introduction to the Art of Thinking</i> and inquires "after your <i>Elements +of Criticism</i>." He also tells Kames about his plans to write an <i>Art +of Virtue</i> (<i>ibid.</i>, IV, 120-3). From Portsmouth, Aug. 17, 1762, he sends +his farewell: "I am going from the old world to the new; and I fancy I +feel like those, who are leaving this world for the next: grief at the parting; +fear of the passage; hope of the future" (<i>ibid.</i>, IV, 174).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_568" id="Footnote_56_568"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_568"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>The Interest of Great Britain Considered?</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_569" id="Footnote_57_569"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_569"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> If ever written, not extant.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_570" id="Footnote_58_570"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_570"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Daughter of Mrs. Margaret Stevenson, Franklin's landlady at Number +Seven, Craven Street, Strand, London. Miss Mary later married Dr. +Hewson (see note 77, below).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_571" id="Footnote_59_571"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_571"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Dr. Thomas Bray's philanthropic schemes for education of Negroes +is here referred to. See E. L. Pennington's "The Work of the Bray Associates +in Pennsylvania" for Franklin's connection with this work. Mr. +Wm. Strahan wished to prevail on Franklin to remove permanently to +England. Franklin writes to Deborah, March 5, 1760 (<i>Writings</i>, IV, 9-10), +offering two reasons for his veto of Strahan's plan: "One, my Affection +to Pensilvania, and long established Friendships and other connections +there: The other, your invincible Aversion to Crossing the Seas." The +remainder of the letter indicates, however, that he was not dead to the +hope that his wife would relent.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_572" id="Footnote_60_572"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_572"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> For Franklin's friendship with Ingersoll consult L. H. Gipson's +<i>Jared Ingersoll</i>. <i>A Study of American Loyalism in Relation to British +Colonial Government</i> (New Haven, 1920).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_573" id="Footnote_61_573"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_573"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Richard ("Omniscient") Jackson (d. 1787), member of Parliament, +friend of the colonial cause. See <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, XXIX, +104-5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_574" id="Footnote_62_574"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_574"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> John Hawkesworth (1715?-1773). From 1752 to 1754 he edited +the <i>Adventurer</i>, aided by Johnson, Bathurst, and Wharton. Edited Swift's +writings in 1755, Swift's letters in 1766, and Cook's, Byron's, Carteret's, +and Wallis's <i>Voyages</i> in 1773. (<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, XXV, +203-5.)</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_575" id="Footnote_63_575"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_575"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> John Stanley (1714-1786). Blind organist who composed the +music for Hawkesworth's oratorio, <i>Zimri</i> (1760); and for his <i>The Fall of +Egypt</i> (1774). (<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, LIV, 74-5.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_576" id="Footnote_64_576"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_576"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Benjamin West (1738-1820).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_577" id="Footnote_65_577"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_577"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> James Ralph (d. 1762); see <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, XLVII, +221-4. His <i>Night: A Poem</i> (London, 1728), dedicated to the Earl of +Chesterfield, is a jejune imitation of Thomson's <i>Seasons</i>. He professes +himself "a bigotted Admirer of the Antients, and all their Performances" +(p. 197) in <i>The Touch-Stone ...</i> (London, 1728): "My Design was, to +animadvert upon the Standard Entertainments of the present Age, in +Comparison with those of Antiquity" (p. 237). He aided Fielding in +bringing out <i>The Champion</i> (1741 ff.). Hallam characterized his <i>History +of England</i> (1744-1746) as one of the best accounts of the time of +Charles II. Succinct survey of Ralph in M. K. Jackson's <i>Outlines of the +Literary History of Colonial Pennsylvania</i>, 37-42.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_578" id="Footnote_66_578"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_578"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> John Fothergill (1712-1780). See <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i> +XX, 66-8. See J. C. Lettsom's <i>Memoirs of John Fothergill</i> (4th ed., London, +1786) for a full treatment of his friendship with Franklin. J. J. +Abraham's <i>Lettsom, His Life, Times, Friends and Descendants</i> (London, +1933, chap. XVIII), contains an account of the "conciliation negotiations" +between Hyde and Dartmouth (representing Lord North) and Barclay +and Fothergill (representing Franklin and the colonial cause). Only +George III could not be persuaded. Also see R. H. Fox, <i>Dr. John Fothergill +and His Friends ...</i> (London, 1919). +</p><p> +For Franklin's quarrel with the Proprietors see <i>Cool Thoughts on the +Present Situation of Our Public Affairs</i> (April 12, 1764, <i>Writings</i>, IV, +226-41). A month later he writes to Wm. Strahan: "Our petty publick +affairs here are in the greatest confusion, and will never, in my opinion, be +composed, while the Proprietary Government subsists" (<i>ibid.</i>, IV, 246).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_579" id="Footnote_67_579"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_579"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> His son William Franklin (1731-1813), governor of New Jersey, +and wife. See <i>Dictionary of American Biography</i>, VI, 600-1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_580" id="Footnote_68_580"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_580"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> The barbarities of the "Paxton boys" virtually "threatened a civil +war, which Franklin and others averted. This episode marks the beginnings +of the predominance of the Ulster Scotch and other Calvinists in +Pennsylvania affairs, replacing the old Quaker supremacy." (A. Nevins, +<i>The American States During and After the Revolution</i>, 1775-1789, New +York, 1924, 12.) This uprising, suggests Mr. Nevins, may be viewed +as a fragment of that "struggle between East and West, Tidewater and +Uplands" which "cut in the later Colonial period across the alignment +between people and Crown" (<i>ibid.</i>, 11).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_581" id="Footnote_69_581"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_581"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Pope's translation. Franklin omits lines not essential to the +thought in a particular sequence.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_582" id="Footnote_70_582"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_582"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> From Herodotus refracted through Rabelais? See C. E. Jorgenson's +"Benjamin Franklin and Rabelais."</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_583" id="Footnote_71_583"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_583"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> For Franklin's activities in behalf of the repeal of the Stamp Act +see especially <i>The Examination of Dr. B. F. Etc. in the British House of +Commons, Relative to the Repeal of the American Stamp Act, in 1766</i> (<i>Writings</i>, +IV, 412-48).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_584" id="Footnote_72_584"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_584"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> A. F. Tytler, in <i>Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Honourable +Henry Home of Kames ...</i> (2d ed., Edinburgh, 1814, II, 99, 112), suggests +that this letter never reached its destination, but "was in all probability +intercepted." Brackets in excerpt from letter to Lord Kames, June +2, 1765, pp. 318-21 above, are the result of Smyth's collation of Tytler's +and Sparks's versions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_585" id="Footnote_73_585"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_585"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Sir John Pringle (1707-1782). Physician (student of Albinus and +Boerhaave) whose "great work in life was the reform of military medicine +and sanitation" (<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, XLVI, 386-8). From +1772 to 1778 he was President of the Royal Society. In 1778 he was +made one of the eight foreign members of the Academy of Sciences at +Paris. Since Pringle was physician to the queen, Parton thinks it probable +that he was used by Franklin "to forward to the king such papers and +documents as tended to show how loyal to his person and his throne were +the vast majority of the American colonists" (<i>op. cit.</i>, I, 506). George III, +having sided with Dr. Wilson who championed <i>blunt</i> lightning rods, asked +Pringle to use his influence to have the Royal Society rescind its opinion in +favor of <i>pointed</i> ones. Pringle's answer "was to the effect that duty as +well as inclination would always induce him to execute his majesty's +wishes to the utmost of his power: but 'Sire,' said he, 'I cannot reverse the +laws and operations of nature'" (<i>ibid.</i>, II, 217 note).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_586" id="Footnote_74_586"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_586"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> The full title of Dupont de Nemours's work is <i>Physiocratie, ou +constitution naturelle du gouvernement le plus avantageux au genre humain</i>. +2 vols. Leyden and Paris, 1767, 1768. Peter Templeman (1711-1769) was +Secretary of the London Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce +and in 1762 corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at +Paris (<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, LVI, 53-4). "Ami des hommes" +is the Marquis de Mirabeau (1715-1789) who wrote <i>L'Ami des hommes, +ou traité de la population</i>. [1756] 5th ed., Hamburg, 1760, 4 vols. +The "crowning work" of the Physiocrats is François Quesnay's <i>Tableau +économique</i>. Published by the British Economic Association, London, 1894. +</p><p> +Dupont's letter of May 10, 1768, to which Franklin's is an answer, is +printed in <i>Writings</i>, V, 153-4. From London (Oct. 2, 1770) Franklin +writes to Dupont: "Would to God I could take with me [to America] +Messrs. du Pont, du Bourg, and some other French Friends with their +good Ladies! I might then, by mixing them with my Friends in Philadelphia, +form a little happy Society that would prevent my ever wishing +again to visit Europe" (<i>Writings</i>, V, 282). Elision marks in letter of July +28 are Franklin's own.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_587" id="Footnote_75_587"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_587"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> John Alleyne. See his The <i>Legal Degrees of Marriage Stated and +Considered ...</i>, London, 1774. The second edition (London, 1775) +includes Franklin's letter to Alleyne, Appendix, pp. 1-2.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_588" id="Footnote_76_588"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_588"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Compare <i>To the Printer of the London Public Advertiser</i> (August +25, 1768; <i>Writings</i>, V, 162-5): "And what are we to gain by this war, by +which our trade and manufactures are to be ruined, our strength divided +and diminished, our debt increased, and our reputation, as a generous +nation, and lovers of liberty, given up and lost? Why, we are to convert +millions of the King's loyal subjects into rebels, for the sake of establishing +a new claimed power in P—— to tax a distant people, whose abilities and +circumstances they cannot be acquainted with, who have a constitutional +power of taxing themselves; who have never refused to give us voluntarily +more than we can ever expect to wrest from them by force; and by +our trade with whom we gain millions a year!" (<i>Ibid.</i>, 164-5.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_589" id="Footnote_77_589"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_589"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> William Hewson (1739-1774). He was married to Miss Stevenson +in 1770. Hewson received the Copley medal in 1769 and was made a +Fellow of the Royal Society in 1770. (<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, +XXVI, 312-3.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_590" id="Footnote_78_590"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_590"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Daughter of Jonathan Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, who wrote <i>A +Speech Intended to have been Spoken on the Bill for Altering the Charters +of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay</i>. New York. Ed. 1774. (Cf. <i>Writings</i>, +I, 164-6.) Urging that "the true art of government consists in <span class="txt90">NOT +GOVERNING TOO MUCH</span>" (cited in Parton, <i>op. cit.</i>, I, 549), Shipley +lent sanction to colonial resistance. Franklin writes to Thomas Cushing +(London, Oct. 6, 1774): "The Bishop of St. Asaph's intended speech, +several Copies of which I send you, and of which many Thousands have +been printed and distributed here has had an extraordinary Effect, in +changing the Sentiments of Multitudes with regard to America" (<i>Writings</i>, +VI, 250). +</p><p> +Mungo was a "fine large grey Squirrel" which Deborah sent to her +husband (<i>ibid.</i>, VI, 16).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_591" id="Footnote_79_591"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_591"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Printed in <i>Experiments and Observations on Electricity</i>. London, +1769.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_592" id="Footnote_80_592"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_592"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> Printed in <i>Éphémérides du Citoyen</i> (edited by Dupont after 1767), +periodical of the French Physiocrats; and in the <i>London Chronicle</i> in 1766.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_593" id="Footnote_81_593"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_593"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> J. Parton observes that this brilliant illustration of Franklin's use of +Swiftian hoax and irony "was the nine-days' talk of the kingdom" (<i>op. +cit.</i>, I, 518).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_594" id="Footnote_82_594"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_594"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> See R. M. Bache, in Bibliography. In addition, article in New +York <i>Times</i>, Dec. 3, 1896, and notes in E. P. Buckley's "The Library of a +Philadelphia Antiquarian," <i>Magazine of American History</i>, XXIV, 388-98 +(1890). Mr. Buckley reviews the making of the prayer book; "Column +after column of the calendar disappeared with a single stroke of the pen—nearly +the whole of the Exhortation, a portion of the Confession, all the +Absolution, nearly all the Venite, exultemus Domino. Likewise, the +Te Deum, and all the Canticle. Of the Creed all he retained was the +following: 'I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and +Earth, and in Jesus Christ His Son our Lord. I believe in the Holy Ghost, +the forgiveness of sins, and the life everlasting, Amen'" (<i>ibid.</i>, 393). +Franklin collaborated with Lord Le Despencer in this work. For Franklin's +own comments see <i>Writings</i>, IX, 358-9, 556. Smyth brackets parts +of the <i>Preface</i> found in an incomplete MS draft.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_595" id="Footnote_83_595"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_595"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Date unknown. For history of this hoax see <i>Writings</i>, I, 179-81, and +L. S. Livingston, <i>Benjamin Franklin's Parable against Persecution. With +an Account of the Early Editions</i> (Cambridge, Mass., 1916).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_596" id="Footnote_84_596"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_596"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> Date unknown.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_597" id="Footnote_85_597"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_597"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> This letter was never sent.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_598" id="Footnote_86_598"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_598"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> A. H. Smyth thinks that the friend might have been David Hartley.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_599" id="Footnote_87_599"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_599"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> A photostat in the W. S. Mason Collection from the Huntington +Library gives the date as July 20, 1776.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_600" id="Footnote_88_600"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_600"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Time and place of first publication unknown. For an interesting +discussion of this piece, see M. C. Tyler's <i>Literary History of the American +Revolution</i>, II, 367-80. "A British magazine of 1786, says that there was +then a transfer made at the Bank of England of £471,000 to Mr. Van +Otten on account of the Landgrave of Hesse, for so much due for Hessian +soldiers lost in the American war, at £30 a head, thus making the total +number lost to be 15,700 men." (Cited in J. F. Watson, <i>Annals of Philadelphia +and Pennsylvania</i>, Philadelphia, 1857, II, 294.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_601" id="Footnote_89_601"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_601"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> He writes to M. Lith (April 6, 1777); "If I were to practise giving +Letters of Recommendation to Persons of whose Character I knew no +more than I do of yours, my Recommendations would soon be of no +Authority at all" (<i>Writings</i>, VII, 39); and to George Washington (June +13, 1777), apropos of foreign applicants for American posts: "I promise +nothing" (VII, 59). In another letter (Oct. 7, 1777) he admitted that +"the Numbers we refuse" are "incredible" (VII, 66). Elsewhere he confesses +that "These Applications are my perpetual Torment" (VII, 81). +Consult E. Repplier, "Franklin's Trials as a Benefactor" (in Bibliography).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_602" id="Footnote_90_602"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_602"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> This controversy evoked the following verse: +</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0q">"While you, great George, for safety hunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sharp conductors change for blunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The Empire's out of joint.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Franklin a wiser course pursues,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all your thunder fearless views,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By keeping to the <i>point</i>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>(Cited in Parton, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 217.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_603" id="Footnote_91_603"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_603"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> Son of the philosopher, David Hartley. Hartley the younger +(1732-1813) met Franklin about 1759. A Lord Rockingham man, he +opposed the war with the colonies. He and Franklin drew up the Peace +Treaty of 1783. See <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, XXV, 68-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_604" id="Footnote_92_604"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_604"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> A. H. Smyth thinks that this dialogue was "written soon after +Franklin's arrival in France" (<i>Writings</i>, VII, 82 note).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_605" id="Footnote_93_605"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_605"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> A Charles de Weissenstein included in his letter from Brussels, June +16, 1778, a "Plan of Reconciliation," plans for a future American government: +he wished to have a secret conference with Franklin (<i>Writings</i>, +VII, 166; Smyth note).</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_606" id="Footnote_94_606"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_606"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> <i>Arcana imperii detecta: or, divers select cases in Government</i>, London, +1701. [A trans. of <i>Disquisitiones politicae</i> by Mark Zuirius Boxhorn.] +(A. H. Smyth note, <i>Writings</i>, VII, 169.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_607" id="Footnote_95_607"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_607"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> Franklin writes to William Carmichael (Passy, June 17, 1780): +"The Moulin Joli is a little island in the Seine about two leagues hence, +part of the country-seat of another friend [Claude-Henri Watelet], where +we visit every summer, and spend a day in the pleasing society of the +ingenious, learned, and very polite persons who inhabit it. At the time +when the letter was written, all conversations at Paris were filled with +disputes about the music of Gluck and Picini, a German and Italian +musician, who divided the town into violent parties. A friend of this lady +[Madame Brillon] having obtained a copy of it, under a promise not to give +another, did not observe that promise; so that many have been taken, +and it is become as public as such a thing can well be, that is not printed; +but I could not dream of its being heard of at Madrid! The thought was +partly taken from a little piece of some unknown writer, which I met with +fifty years since in a newspaper, and which the sight of the Ephemera +brought to my recollection" (<i>Writings</i>, VIII, 100). A. H. Smyth observes +that it is generally thought that the Ephemera is a reworking of an essay +on "Human Vanity" which appeared in the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>, Dec. 4, +1735. Also see M. K. Jackson, <i>op. cit</i>; 75; and L. S. Livingston, <i>Franklin +and His Press at Passy</i> (New York, 1914), 30. Compare Wm. Bartram's +similar description of Ephemera in his <i>Travels</i> ed. by M. Van Doren (An +American Bookshelf), New York, 1928, 88-9. See H. H. Clark's Introduction +to <i>Poems of Freneau</i> (New York, 1929), xlvii-lviii, for provocative +discussion of the degree to which naturalism may motivate an obsession +with transience, mutability, and death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_608" id="Footnote_96_608"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_608"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> On Oct. 22, 1779, Bache wrote to Franklin explaining that Lee and +Izard objected to his employing William Temple Franklin, his grandson.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_609" id="Footnote_97_609"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_609"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769-1798), son of Richard Bache, +Franklin's son-in-law. See B. Faÿ, <i>The Two Franklins: Fathers of American +Democracy</i> (Boston, 1933). See <i>The Diary of B. F. B. Aug. 1, 1782, +to Sept. 14, 1785. Trans. from the French by William Duane</i>, 1865 (in W. S. +Mason Collection). A charming self-portrait of a precocious lad who is +grief-stricken when rain prevents him from going to the mountains to +witness M. du Villard's experiments, who follows avidly the ascensions +of "aërostatic globes," who takes M. Charles's course in natural philosophy. +Franklin had Didot, the master type founder, come to Passy to +teach Ben how "to cast printing types." On July 12, 1785, he records the +patriarch's exodus from Passy: "A mournful silence reigned around him +and was only interrupted by sobs."</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_610" id="Footnote_98_610"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_610"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> Barbeu Dubourg (June 28, Paris) wrote to Franklin, "sending +Franklin's manuscript on 'The Morals of Chess,' of which he has retained +a copy; expects to have it printed shortly in <i>le Journal de Paris</i>; hopes to +follow it with a few reflections of his own on the subject." (<i>Calendar of +the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical +Society</i>, III, 102.) [XIV, 218.] Brackets in selection indicate Smyth's +collation of incomplete MS copy and printed version.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_611" id="Footnote_99_611"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_611"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> <i>The Parable against Persecution.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_612" id="Footnote_100_612"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_612"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> Consult <i>Benjamin Franklin's Story of the Whistle, with an Introductory +Note</i> by L. S. Livingston, and <i>A Bibliography to 1820</i> (Cambridge, +Mass., 1922).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_613" id="Footnote_101_613"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_613"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> Matthew Arnold in <i>Sweetness and Light</i> appraises Franklin as +"a man the most considerable, ... whom America has yet produced." +Missing the irony of Franklin's burlesque, however, Arnold exclaimed +after reading the <i>Proposed Version</i>: "After all, there is a stretch of humanity +beyond Franklin's victorious good sense!"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_614" id="Footnote_102_614"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_614"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> Two days before, he wrote to Richard Price: "We make daily +great Improvements in <i>Natural</i>, there is one I wish to see in <i>Moral</i> +Philosophy; the Discovery of a Plan, that would induce and oblige Nations +to settle their Disputes without first Cutting one another's Throats" +(<i>Writings</i>, VIII, 9). One remembers Franklin's classic utterance (in a +letter to David Hartley, Passy, Feb. 2, 1780): "There hardly ever existed +such a thing as a bad Peace, or, a good War" (<i>ibid.</i>, VIII, 5; also see VIII, +506). An interesting comment on Franklin's devotion to peace may be +found in <i>A Project of Universal and Perpetual Peace</i>. Written by Pierre-André +Gargaz, a former Galley-Slave, and printed by Benjamin Franklin +at Passy in the Year 1782. Here reprinted, together with an English Version, +Introduction, and Typographical Note by George Simpson Eddy, +New York, 1922.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_615" id="Footnote_103_615"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_615"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> Sainte-Beuve asks, "Is not that a comparison which, by the sweetness +of its inspiration and the breadth of its imagery, recalls the Homeric +comparisons of the Odyssey?" (<i>Portraits of the Eighteenth Century, +Historic and Literary</i>, 366.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_616" id="Footnote_104_616"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_616"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> The famous Orientalist, later Sir William Jones. Married Georgiana +Shipley. In 1779 Jones attempted unofficially to bring about a reconciliation +between the colonies and England. See Parton, <i>op. cit.</i>, II, 333-4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_617" id="Footnote_105_617"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_617"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Essay on the Population of England</i>, 2d ed., 1780.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_618" id="Footnote_106_618"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_618"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> London Coffee House.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_619" id="Footnote_107_619"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_619"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> Madame Helvétius. Consult A. Guillois, <i>Le salon de Madame +Helvétius</i> (Paris, 1894).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_620" id="Footnote_108_620"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_620"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> Georgiana Shipley (in a letter, May 6, 1781) acknowledges his +<i>Dialogue with the Gout</i> and this piece. See <i>Calendar of the Papers of +Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society</i>, III, +371 (XXII, 8). This delightful letter is printed in Sparks, IX, 25; Bigelow, +VII, 230; and Stifler, "<i>My Dear Girl</i>" ... (New York, 1927). Smyth +brackets a passage, not in the MS draft, which is printed in the W. T. +Franklin edition.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[541]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_621" id="Footnote_109_621"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_621"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Date uncertain. A. H. Smyth notes that since Miss Shipley replied +May 6, 1781 (cf. note 108), it was probably written between January +and May, 1781. MS incomplete at both beginning and end.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_622" id="Footnote_110_622"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_622"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> For Hartley's letter see <i>Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin +in the Library of the American Philosophical Society</i>, III, 398 (XXII, +162), Sept. 26, 1781. From Passy (Jan. 15, 1782) Franklin writes to +Hartley: "Whatever may be the Fate of our poor Countries, let you and I +die as we have lived, in Peace with each other" (<i>Writings</i>, VIII, 361).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_623" id="Footnote_111_623"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_623"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> Excellent summary of the effect of this hoax may be found in L. S. +Livingston, <i>Franklin and His Press at Passy</i>, 59-67. Walpole wrote to +the Countess of Ossory, Oct. 1, 1782; "Have you seen in the papers an +excellent letter of Paul Jones to Sir Joseph York? <i>Elle nous dit bien des +verités!</i> I doubt poor Sir Joseph cannot answer them! Dr. Franklin himself, +I should think, was the author. It is certainly written by a first-rate +pen, and not by a common man-of-war" (<i>ibid.</i>, 62). A. H. Smyth +quotes Wm. Temple Franklin's note: "The deception intended by this +supposed 'Supplement,' (which was very accurately imitated with respect +to printing, paper, the insertion of advertisements, etc.,) was, that, by +transmitting it to England, it might actually be taken for what it purported +to be" (<i>Writings</i>, VIII, 437). To Charles W. F. Dumas, Franklin writes +(Passy, May 3, 1782): "Enclosed I send you a few copies of a paper that +places in a striking light, the English barbarities in America, particularly +those committed by the savages at their instigation. The <i>Form</i> may perhaps +not be genuine, but the <i>substance</i> is truth; the number of our people +of all kinds and ages, murdered and scalped by them being known to +exceed that of the invoice. Make any use of them you may think proper +to shame your Anglomanes, but do not let it be known through what +hands they come" (<i>ibid.</i>, 448). Brackets are Franklin's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_624" id="Footnote_112_624"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_624"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> William Cowper. See <i>Correspondence of William Cowper</i>, ed. by +Thomas Wright, I, 479, for his note that Thornton, a merchant, had sent +Franklin his poems.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_625" id="Footnote_113_625"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_625"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Henri-Léonard-Jean-Baptiste Bertin (1719-1792).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_626" id="Footnote_114_626"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_626"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> President of the Royal Society (1743-1820). See <i>Dictionary of +National Biography</i>, III, 129-33.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_627" id="Footnote_115_627"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_627"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> Dr. Pierre-Marie-Auguste Broussonet (1761-1807) met Sir +Joseph Banks in 1782.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_628" id="Footnote_116_628"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_628"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> A. H. Smyth believes that this was "written in September, 1782" +(<i>Writings</i>, VIII, 603 note). It was often translated and may well have +drawn many immigrants to the colonies.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_629" id="Footnote_117_629"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_629"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> Probably written after signing of the peace treaty. Compare his +letter to Richard Oswald, Passy, Nov. 26, 1782 (<i>Writings</i>, VIII, 621-7); +and his <i>The Retort Courteous</i> (<i>ibid.</i>, X, 105-16).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_630" id="Footnote_118_630"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_630"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> Sir Charles Blagden (1748-1820), physician and physicist, friend +to Sir Joseph Banks, F. R. S., in 1772. (<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, +V, 155-6.)</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[542]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_631" id="Footnote_119_631"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_631"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> B. Faÿ in "Franklin et Mirabeau collaborateurs" (see Bibliography) +shows that Franklin furnished information for <i>Considerations on +the Order of Cincinnatus ...</i> (London ed., 1785). Mirabeau thunders, +"Must we then own, with the enemies of freedom, that the noble ideas of +Sidney, Locke, Rousseau, and others, who have indulged dreams of +political happiness, may be the object of a sublime theory, but cannot +possibly be reduced into practice?" (Mirabeau, <i>op. cit.</i>, 73.) The members +of the order will in time become "Gothic tyrants" (<i>ibid.</i>, 14). He warns +America against paralleling the decadence of Rome (<i>ibid.</i>, 25), suggesting +a Rousseauistic equalitarianism. Other references to Franklin's antipathy +for the Order are <i>Writings</i>, IX, 222, 269-70. Smyth observes that "passages +in brackets are not found in the draft in Library of Congress."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_632" id="Footnote_120_632"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_632"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> The Quinquet lamp was invented in 1784. A. H. Smyth suggests +that March 20, 1784, is the exact date of composition, from Franklin's +sentence, "In the six months between the 20th of March and the 20th +of September...."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_633" id="Footnote_121_633"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_633"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> Son of Cotton Mather. Died June 27, 1785.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_634" id="Footnote_122_634"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_634"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> Benjamin Vaughan (1751-1835), unitarian, pro-colonial, and a +Lord Shelburne man. He edited the first collective edition of Franklin's +works in London (1779). See <i>Dictionary of National Biography</i>, LVIII, +158-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_635" id="Footnote_123_635"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_635"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> See <i>Writings</i>, IX, 264. Sparks (II, 383-426) reprints George +Whately's <i>Principles of Trade</i>. Elision marks indicate that parts of this +letter are omitted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_636" id="Footnote_124_636"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_636"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> A. H. Smyth quotes W. T. Franklin, who observes that the book +was Paley's <i>Moral Philosophy</i> (<i>Writings</i>, IX, 488 note).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_637" id="Footnote_125_637"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_637"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> A. H. Smyth thinks <i>The Retort Courteous</i> (<i>ibid.</i>, IX, 489 note).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_638" id="Footnote_126_638"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_638"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> At Rancocas, New Jersey.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_639" id="Footnote_127_639"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_639"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> Sparks (X, 281-2) prints this letter as to Thomas Paine. Smyth, +suggesting that Paine's "deistical writings" were not done before 1786, +denies that Paine is the correspondent. H. H. Clark has argued shrewdly +(and with evidence) that since part of <i>The Age of Reason</i> was written before +1781 (this M. C. Conway in his <i>Life of Paine</i> admits), it is not implausible +that Franklin's letter was directed to Paine. ("An Historical Interpretation +of Thomas Paine's Religion," <i>University of California Chronicle</i>, XXXV, +84, 1933.)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_640" id="Footnote_128_640"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_640"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> Since Franklin was acquainted with John Ray's <i>Wisdom of God +...</i>, it is not improbable that he was acquainted with his aphorisms published +in 1670 (Cambridge), in which this wit occurs. It is also found in +Wollaston's <i>Religion of Nature Delineated</i>, but as in Ray, in crude form: +"It is as when a man spits at heaven, and the spittle falls back upon his +own face" (1725 ed., 132). Remembering that Franklin helped set up this +piece while working for Samuel Palmer in 1725, his use of it may not be +wholly fortuitous.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[543]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_641" id="Footnote_129_641"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_641"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> His speech (delivered June 11, 1787) <i>On the Proportion of Representation +and Votes</i> (<i>Writings</i>, IX, 595-9) shows how with gift for compromise +he helped to bring together the large and small states through his +dual scheme of equal and proportional representation in the Senate and +House.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_642" id="Footnote_130_642"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_642"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> Compare <i>Writings</i>, IX, 659. He observes to Dupont de Nemours +(June 9, 1788), "The wisest must agree to some unreasonable things, that +reasonable ones of more consequence may be obtained." Brackets are +Franklin's.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_643" id="Footnote_131_643"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_643"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> Clergyman of Boston and friend of Mrs. Mecom, Franklin's +sister. Elision marks indicate that parts of this letter are omitted.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_644" id="Footnote_132_644"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_644"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> Charles Carroll (1737-1832). He had accompanied Franklin on +his Canada commission. See <i>Dictionary of American Biography</i>, III, +522-3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_645" id="Footnote_133_645"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_645"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> Compare <i>Writings</i>, IX, 636-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_646" id="Footnote_134_646"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_646"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> Compare <i>Writings</i>, X, 60-3, 127-9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_647" id="Footnote_135_647"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_647"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> He writes (Nov. 2, 1789) to Benjamin Vaughan: "The revolution +in France is truly surprising. I sincerely wish it may end in establishing +a good constitution for that country. The mischiefs and troubles it +suffers in the operation, however, give me great concern" (<i>Writings</i>, X, +50). He confesses (Nov. 13, 1789) to Jean Baptiste Le Roy: "The voice +of <i>Philosophy</i> I apprehend can hardly be heard among those tumults" +(<i>ibid.</i>, 69).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_648" id="Footnote_136_648"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_648"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> Rev. Ezra Stiles (1727-1795), member of the American Philosophical +Society (1768), theologian and Newtonian scientist, President +of Yale (1778-1795). For the activities of this versatile clergyman, see +his <i>Literary Diary</i>, ed. by F. B. Dexter (3 vols., New York, 1901), and +I. M. Calder (ed.), <i>Letters and Papers of Ezra Stiles</i> (New Haven, 1933). +Also see Abiel Holmes's <i>Life of Ezra Stiles</i> (Boston, 1798).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_649" id="Footnote_137_649"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_649"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> Dr. Stuber's note, cited in <i>Writings</i>, X, 86-7: "Dr. Franklin's +name, as President of the Abolition Society, was signed to the memorial +presented to the House of Representatives of the United States, on the +12th of February, 1789, praying them to exert the full extent of power +vested in them by the Constitution, in discouraging the traffic of the human +species. This was his last public act. In the debates to which this memorial +gave rise, several attempts were made to justify the trade. In the <i>Federal +Gazette</i> of March 25th, 1790, there appeared an essay, signed <i>Historicus</i>, +written by Dr. Franklin, in which he communicated a Speech, said to +have been delivered in the Divan of Algiers, in 1687, in opposition to the +prayer of the petition of a sect called <i>Erika</i>, or Purists, for the abolition of +piracy and slavery. This pretended African speech was an excellent parody +of one delivered by Mr. Jackson, of Georgia. All the arguments, urged in +favour of negro slavery, are applied with equal force to justify the plundering +and enslaving of Europeans. It affords, at the same time, a demonstration +of the futility of the arguments in defence of the slave-trade, and +of the strength of mind and ingenuity of the author, at his advanced period +of life. It furnishes, too, a no less convincing proof of his power of imitating +the style of other times and nations, than his <i>Parable against Persecution</i>. +And as the latter led many persons to search the Scriptures with a +view to find it, so the former caused many persons to search the bookstores +and libraries for the work from which it was said to be extracted." +According to the <i>Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography</i>, XX, +50, the memorial was presented in 1790.</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[544]</a></span></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_650" id="Footnote_138_650"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_650"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> Date of composition uncertain. Printed as pamphlet in 1784.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_651" id="Footnote_139_651"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_651"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> Date unknown.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_652" id="Footnote_140_652"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_652"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> A. H. Smyth dates this piece as during the summer of 1786 (<i>Writings</i>, +X, 131-2 note). Sparks and Bigelow had conjecturedly dated it +1772.</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="tr"> +<h4><a name="Transcribers_Notes" id="Transcribers_Notes"></a>Transcriber's Notes:</h4> + +<p>5. Minor punctuation corrections have been made without comment and + include missing or misplaced periods, opening or closing quotation + marks and parentheses, apostrophes, hypens, etc., however no + punctuation has been added, a specific example being on:</p> + + <p>p. 281, In the speech of "Father Abraham", p. 281-288, added closing + quote at end of speech to match opening quote at beginning, however + intervening paragraphs are without quote punctuation in the original + and have been retained so in this e-text.</p> + +<p>6. Minor spacing corrections have been made as follows:</p> + +<ul><li> p. v, Contents, page numbers have been right justified in a column.</li> +<li> p. 13, "some how" to "somehow" (was once somehow or other)</li> +<li> p. 21 "De foe" to "Defoe" (Defoe in his Cruso)</li> +<li> p. 206, replaced blank space with double emdash, (are under ---- Years of Age)</li> +<li> p. 410, "TitlePage" to "Title Page" (Lines in the Title Page)</li></ul> + + +<p>7. p. 3, In "Selections from BENJAMIN FRANKLIN", moved note about the + "Notes" section from the bottom to the top of selection, above the + header, as it pertains to ALL remaining pages.</p> + +<p>8. <a name="SPELLING_CORRECTIONS" id="SPELLING_CORRECTIONS"></a>SPELLING CORRECTIONS: (not otherwise marked by editor)</p> + +<ul><li> p. xxxix, "strengthned" to "strengthened" (14) (strengthened by long prescription)</li> +<li> p. ci, "transfererd" to "transferred" (1) (transferred from the Penn Charter) (in Footnote i-327)</li> +<li> *p. 9, "Wharf" to "Wharff" (My proposal was to build a Wharff)</li> +<li> p. 16, "Shaftsbury" to "Shaftesbury" (33) (reading Shaftesbury and Collins)</li> +<li> p. 67, "preceeding" to "preceding" (16) (a preceding Wife)</li> +<li> p. 184, "hear" to "here" (I have here described)</li> +<li> *p. 266, "harrassed" to "harassed" (past has harassed them)</li> +<li> *p. 369, "harrassed" to "harassed" (order them to be harassed)</li> +<li> p. 347, "exhilirates" to "exhilerates" (exhilerates me more)</li> +<li> p. 451, "Univers" to "Universe" (greatest in the Universe;)</li></ul> + + +<p> *Correction made because word occurs correctly or alternately spelled + elsewhere in the SAME document.</p> + +<p>9. <a name="WORD_VARIATIONS" id="WORD_VARIATIONS"></a>WORD VARIATIONS: (found to be valid spellings in W. E. D.)</p> + +<ul><li> "abovementioned" (1) and "above-mentioned" (1)</li> +<li> "abridgment" (15) and "abridgement" (2)</li> +<li> "agreable" (11) and "agreeable" (26)</li> +<li> "ale-house" (1) and "alehouse" (1)</li> +<li> "Algernon Sidney" (1) and "Algernoon Sidney" (1)</li> +<li> "allege" (7) and "alledge" (2)</li> +<li> "Almanac" (10) and "Almanack" (38)</li> +<li> "antient" (15) and "ancient" (50)</li> +<li> "apetite" (1) and "appetite" (7)</li> +<li> "arithmetic" (9) and "arithmetick" (5)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "balance" (13) and "ballance" (5)</li> +<li> "beforementioned" (1) and "before-mentioned" (1)</li> +<li> "bias" (4) and "biass" (2)</li> +<li> "Boulogne" (2) and "Bouloigne" (1)</li> +<li> "boundlessly" (1) and "boundlesly" (1)</li> +<li> "Brientnal" (3) (in Autobiography), "Breintnal" (1) (in Introduction)</li> +<li> and "Breintnall" (3) (in footnotes)</li> +<li> "Broussonet" (1) and "Broussonnet" (1)</li> +<li> "burden" (7) and "burthen" (12)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Cabin" (5) and "Cabbin" (2)</li> +<li> "Caesar" (1) and "Cesar" (1)</li> +<li> "characteris'd" (1) and "characterized" (1)</li> +<li> "chearfulness" (1) and "cheerfulness" (1)</li> +<li> "Chelsea" (2) and "Chelsey" (1)</li> +<li> "Chesnut Street" (1) and "Chestnut Street" (1)</li> +<li> "chuse" (8) and "choose" (7)</li> +<li> "Classics" (2) and "Classicks" (1)</li> +<li> "Clothes" (4) and "Cloaths" (4)</li> +<li> "Coffee House" (2) and "Coffee-house" (2)</li> +<li> "compleat" (10) and "complete" (11)</li> +<li> "control" (3) and "controul" (4)</li> +<li> "courthouse" (1) and "court-house" (1)</li> +<li> "croud" (3) and "crowd" (12)</li> +<li> "Curiositee" (1) and "Curiosity" (8)</li> +<li> "Customhouse" (1) and "Custom-house" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "d'Alibard" (2) and "Dalibared" (2)</li> +<li> "dependence" (5) and "dependance" (6)</li> +<li> "disagreable" (3) and "disagreeable" (5)</li> +<li> "drove" (3) and "drave" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Edinborough" (1) and "Edinburgh" (9)</li> +<li> "Eliptic" (1) and "Eliptick" (1)</li> +<li> "Encyclopædia" (4) and "Encyclopedia" (2)</li> +<li> "Encyclopædists" (2) and "Encyclopedists" (1)</li> +<li> "enlightened" (2) and "enlightned" (2)</li> +<li> "enter" (7) and "entre" (5)</li> +<li> "entitled" (8) and "entituled" (Old Fr. Sp.) (2)</li> +<li> "expel" (1) and "expell" (1)</li> +<li> "Expence" (22) and "Expense" (3)</li> +<li> "extreme" (21) and "extream" (26)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Falsehood" (2) and "Falshood" (4)</li> +<li> "Favor" (1) and "Favour" (26)</li> +<li> "fixt" (3) and "fixed" (14)</li> +<li> "Folger" (1) and "Folgier" (1) (Peter ----)</li> +<li> "foretell" (1) and "fortel" (1)</li> +<li> "Free-will" (1) and "Free-Will" (1)</li> +<li> "froze" (2) and "Frose" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Good-Will" (1), "Good-will" (3), and "Goodwill" (1)</li> +<li> "Governor" (47) and "Governour" (1)</li> +<li> "Grub-Street" (1) and "Grub-street" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Hawksworth" (1) and "Hawkesworth" (4)</li> +<li> "hainous" (1) and "heinous" (1)</li> +<li> "height" (6), "heigth" (1), and "heighth" (1)</li> +<li> "hindered" (2) and "hindred" (1)</li> +<li> "home-spun" (1) and "homespun" (1)</li> +<li> "Humor" (1) and "Humour" (5)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Ill-will" (2) and "Ill-Will" (1)</li> +<li> "Increase" (114) and "Encrease" (8)</li> +<li> "indiscrete" (1) and "indiscreet" (3)</li> +<li> "intolerable" (2) and "intollerable" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Jealousy" (3) and "Jealousie" (1)</li> +<li> "Job" (12) and "Jobb" (4) (as in work)</li> +<li> "Joli" (1) and "Joly" (3) (Moulin ----)</li> +<li> "Journey-man" (1),"Journeyman('s)" (3) and JourneyMen (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Knicknacks" (1) and "Nicknack" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Labors" (1) and "Labours" (5)</li> +<li> "land-holder" (1) and "Land-holder" (1)</li> +<li> "Latinè" (1) and "Latine" (1)</li> +<li> "laught" (3) and "laughed" (3)</li> +<li> "Linnaeus" (1) and "Linnæus" (2) (a Naturalist)</li> +<li> "Livlihood" (4) and "Livelyhood" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Mama" (1) and "Mamma" (1)</li> +<li> "mankind" (35) and "man-kind" (1) (in quoted material)</li> +<li> "Mathmatics" (4) and "Mathmaticks" (1)</li> +<li> "Mechanic" (7) and "Mechanick" (4)</li> +<li> "melancholy" (4) and "melancholly" (2)</li> +<li> "Merchandise" (1) and "Merchandize" (2)</li> +<li> "middle-ag'd" (1) and "middle-aged" (1)</li> +<li> "music" (7) and "musick" (4)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> *"natural" (193) and "naturall" (1) (in Bacon Quote)</li> +<li> "Negro" (3) and "Negroe" (11)</li> +<li> "Neighbor" (1) and "Neighbour" (11)</li> +<li> "News-Paper" (2) and "NewsPapers" (1)</li> +<li> "News-writers" (1) and "Newswriters" (1)</li> +<li> "nonsense" (5) and "nonsence" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> *"obtain" (28) and "obteyn" (1) (in Mather quote)</li> +<li> "Offence" (14) and "Offense" (2)</li> +<li> "Optics" (1) and "Opticks" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "partial" (7) and "partiall" (1)</li> +<li> "Penny-worth" (1) and "Pennyworth(s)" (1)</li> +<li> "Pennsylvania" (159) and "Pensilvania" (15) and "Pensylvania" (1)</li> +<li> "persuaded" (16) and "perswaded" (2)</li> +<li> "Physic" (1) and "Physick" (2)</li> +<li> "Polly" (9) and "Polley" (1) (---- Stevenson)</li> +<li> "Portrait" (9) and "Pourtrait" (1)</li> +<li> "possest" (1) and "possessed" (10)</li> +<li> "printing-house" (2), "Printing-house" (2), "Printing-House" (7) and</li> +<li> "Printinghouse" (2)</li> +<li> "Priviledge" (1) and "Privilege" (3)</li> +<li> "Public" (22) and "Publick" (43)</li> +<li> *"Puffendorf" (3) and "Puffendorff" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "rejoicing" (5) and "rejoycing" (1)</li> +<li> "rendered" (7) and "rendred" (1)</li> +<li> "rendering" (3) and "rendring" (1)</li> +<li> "Rhetoric" (6) and "Rhetorick" (1)</li> +<li> "rhime" (3) and "rhyme" (3)</li> +<li> "Rhode Island" (4) and "Rhodeisland" (3)</li> +<li> "Ribands" (1) and "Ribbands" (4)</li> +<li> "Rochefoucauld" (2), "Rochefoucault" (1) and "Larochefoucault" (1)</li> +<li> "role" (5) and rôle (2)</li> +<li> "rouse" (1) and "rouze" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "satirize" (1) and "satyrize" (1)</li> +<li> "Scolar" (7) and "Scollar" (1)</li> +<li> "seacoasts" (1) and "sea-coasts" (1)</li> +<li> "Silinc" (1) and "Silence" (4) (---- Dogood)</li> +<li> "smoke" (3) and "smoak" (2)</li> +<li> "soured" (1) and "sowred" (1)</li> +<li> "staied" (2) and "stayed" (2)</li> +<li> "straight" (4) and "strait" (8)</li> +<li> "subtle" (1) and "subtile" (1)</li> +<li> "sunset" (1) and "sun-set" (1)</li> +<li> "surprise" (11) and "surprize" (16)</li> +<li> "Surveyor-General" (1) and "Surveyor General" (2)</li> +<li> "Susquehannah" (1), "Susquehanah" (1) and "Sasquehannah" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "threatened" (5) and "threatned" (1)</li> +<li> "tiger" (1) and "tyger" (1)</li> +<li> "to-day" (6) (in text) and "today" (5)</li> +<li> "topic" (2) and "topick" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Une loge" (1) and "Un loge" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "virtuous" (19) and "vertuous" (1)</li> + +<li class="listsec"> "Watergruel" (1) and "Water-gruel" (1)</li> +<li> "wellmeaning (1) and "well-meaning" (1)</li> +<li> "wondered" (4) and "wondred" (1)</li> +<li> "Wool" (3) and "Wooll" (4)</li> +</ul> + +<p> (* found within directly quoted material)</p> + +<p>10. Several instances of mixed case words appear in the text as follows: + footPath, JourneyMen, mySelf, thySelf, etc., and have been retained.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Benjamin Franklin, by +Frank Luther Mott and Chester E. Jorgenson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENJAMIN FRANKLIN *** + +***** This file should be named 35508-h.htm or 35508-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/5/0/35508/ + +Produced by Mark C. 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