Benjamin Franklin Part 7

[Footnote i-86: These and others quoted in Woody, _op. cit._, 45-6 (reprinted from Sparks, _The Works of Benjamin Franklin_, II, 9-10).]

[Footnote i-87: _Writings_, II, 88.]

[Footnote i-88: _Ibid._, II, 89.]

[Footnote i-89: _Ibid._]

[Footnote i-90: _Ibid._, II, 90.]

[Footnote i-91: 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 _The Fable of the Bees_; "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 pa.s.sions?" which may tend to suggest that Franklin would gear philosophy to moral action rather than to arid metaphysics.]

[Footnote i-92: _Writings_, I, 312.]

[Footnote i-93: _Ibid._, I, 322.]

[Footnote i-94: Since writing this the editors have noted Morais's fragmentary use of the Company's catalogues in _Deism In Eighteenth Century America_. For popular accounts of the general character and function of the Company see L. Stockton, "The Old Philadelphia Library,"

_Our Continent_, Oct., 1882, 452-9; J. M. Read, Jr., "The Old Philadelphia Library," _Atlantic Monthly_, March, 1868, 299-312; B.

Samuel, "The Father of American Libraries," _Century Magazine_, May, 1883, 81-6. The ablest survey is G. M. Abbot's _A Short History of the Library Company of Philadelphia_. He lists, however, only the first books ordered in 1732 through Peter Collinson.]

[Footnote i-95: Cited in Abbot, _op. cit._, 5.]

[Footnote i-96: Photostat used as source is in the William Smith Mason Collection in Evanston, Ill.]

[Footnote i-97: "The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden, Vol. II, 1730-1742," _Collections of the New York Historical Society_ (New York, 1919), II, 146-7. See also A. M. Keys, _Cadwallader Colden: A Representative Eighteenth-Century Official_ (New York, 1906), 6-7.]

[Footnote i-98: _American Philosophy: The Early Schools_, 330.]

[Footnote i-99: _An Historical Account of the Origin and Formation of the American Philosophical Society_ (Philadelphia, 1914); J. G.

Rosengarten, in "The American Philosophical Society," tends to agree with Du Ponceau.]

[Footnote i-100: _Writings_, II, 229.]

[Footnote i-101: _The History of the Royal Society of London ..._ (2d ed., London, 1702), 61.]

[Footnote i-102: _Ibid._, 64.]

[Footnote i-103: _Writings_, II, 230.]

[Footnote i-104: 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 _how_ it comes to fall, and _why_ it breaks, are matters of speculation. 'Tis a pleasure indeed to know them, but we can preserve our china without it" (_Writings_, II, 434-5). We remember that even Sir Isaac Newton confessed that "the _cause_ of gravity is what I do not pretend to know" (_Works of Richard Bentley_, 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" (_ibid._, 212).]

[Footnote i-105: _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, XIII, 247-8 (1889).]

[Footnote i-106: Franklin was unable to prevail upon Johnson to accept the provostship of the Academy. In 1752 he printed Johnson's _Elementa Philosophica_ and suggested in _Idea of the English School_ 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, _Life and Correspondence of S. Johnson, D. D._, 2d ed., New York, 1874, 180-1). In the _Elementa Philosophica_ 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 ..." (_ibid._, xiii). The _Elementa_ 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 G.o.d. On the whole, the volume is a treatise on the glories of a natural religion (a religion of course which b.u.t.tresses rather than refutes scriptural religion).]

[Footnote i-107: Quoted in T. H. Montgomery's _A History of the University of Pennsylvania_, 396. Smith's educational principles may be partially seen in his "View of the Philosophy Schools" (1754) printed in H. W. Smith's _Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith_ (Philadelphia, 1879), I, 59 f. Although he conceived Nature as affording only "those fainter exhibitions of the Deity" (I, 156), he was a st.u.r.dy orthodox rationalist, tending toward, yet not embracing deism.

Emphasizing the princ.i.p.al 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 b.u.t.tresses scriptural revelation with the evidences of Deity through discovery by reason of the Workman in the Work. His _Discourses on Public Occasions in America_ (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, G.o.d has given intimations of his will to us, by appealing to our senses in the const.i.tution of our nature, and the const.i.tution and harmony of the material universe"

(_Discourses_, 44). The same t.i.tles 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"

(_ibid._, 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 _Proposals_, 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.]

[Footnote i-108: _Writings_, II, 388.]

[Footnote i-109: Montgomery, _op. cit._, 254 note.]

[Footnote i-110: _Writings_, II, 9-14.]

[Footnote i-111: _Writings_, X, 29.]

[Footnote i-112: _Ibid._, X, 31. Compare similar views in Benjamin Rush's "Observations upon the Study of the Latin and Greek Languages,"

in _Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical_ (Philadelphia, 1798), and Francis Hopkinson's "An Address to the American Philosophical Society,"

in _Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings_ (Philadelphia, 1792), I.]

[Footnote i-113: _Writings_, IV, 22.]

[Footnote i-114: _Ibid._, VI, 153.]

[Footnote i-115: Quoted in J. B. Bury's _The Idea of Progress_, 104. See also Lois Whitney's _Primitivism and the Idea of Progress_, especially chap. V.]

[Footnote i-116: Bury, _op. cit._, 96.]

[Footnote i-117: _Writings_, VIII, 451.]

[Footnote i-118: For example see _ibid._, IX, 74, 557.]

[Footnote i-119: See _Writings_, VIII, 454.]

[Footnote i-120: See R. M. Gummere, "Socrates at the Printing Press.

Benjamin Franklin and the Cla.s.sics," _Cla.s.sical Weekly_, XXVI, 57-9 (Dec. 5, 1932).]

[Footnote i-121: Several of the following arguments are included in C.

E. Jorgenson's "Sidelights on Benjamin Franklin's Principles of Rhetoric," _Revue Anglo-Americaine_, Feb., 1934, 208-22.]

[Footnote i-122: 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]" (_Writings_, 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, _op. cit._, II, 439); for other engaging estimates of Franklin as a man of letters consult C. W. Moulton, _Library of Literary Criticism ..._, IV, 79-106.]

[Footnote i-123: Franklin found in an appendix to Greenwood's _English Grammar_ and in the _Memorabilia_ 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 _Autobiography_ 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, a.s.suming 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."]

[Footnote i-124: 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 _Grace Abounding_. The best study of Defoe and Swift as literary theorists is W. Guckel and E. Gunther, _D.

Defoes und J. Swifts Belesenheit und literarische Kritik_ (Leipzig, 1925).]

[Footnote i-125: E. C. Cook, _Literary Influences in Colonial Newspapers, 1704-1750_, 15. This scholarly work shows the great influence in America of neocla.s.sical authors.]

[Footnote i-126: For a generous catalog of the devices borrowed see _ibid._, 15 f.]

[Footnote i-127: _Spectator_, No. 167.]

[Footnote i-128: For a fuller discussion of Franklin's view of the ancients, see section on "Franklin's Theories of Education," p. x.x.xii above.]