Benjamin Franklin Part 86

20, 1735; printed in W. T. Franklin's edition, III, 238-9.]

[Footnote 16: Chosen Clerk of Pennsylvania General a.s.sembly in 1736.]

[Footnote 17: See their correspondence in L. Tyerman's _Life of the Rev.

George Whitefield_ (2 vols., London, 1876).]

[Footnote 18: J. Parton observes that this list may have been suggested by the word-catalogs in the _Gargantua_ (_Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin_, I, 221). This mildly Rabelaisian series is later elaborated into "The Drinker's Dictionary" found in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, No.

494, May 25, 1738; and reprinted by Parton, I, 222-5.]

[Footnote 19: When James Franklin was accused of mocking the clergy and unsettling the peace, he was refused license to print the _New England Courant_. So Benjamin, his apprenticeship indentures cancelled (though new ones were privately signed), became nominal editor. Consult C. A.

Duniway, _The Development of Freedom of the Press in Ma.s.sachusetts_, 97-103; W. G. Bleyer, _Main Currents in the History of American Journalism_, chaps. I-II.]

[Footnote 20: Rules for his famous Junto, begun in 1727.]

[Footnote 21: 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" (_Writings_, II, 92 note).]

[Footnote 22: When Samuel Keimer discovered that Franklin and Meredith were about to launch a newspaper, he began his _Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette_ (first issue, Dec. 28, 1728). Franklin and Joseph Breintnall wrote the _Busy-Body_ series for Bradford's _American Weekly Mercury_. 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 _Universal Instructor ..._, in which _Busy-Body_ is scourged with both prose and poetry.]

[Footnote 23: Franklin purchases Keimer's _Universal Instructor ..._, deleting the first half of the t.i.tle, which had appeared in small italic type.]

[Footnote 24: See _Autobiography_, _Writings_, I, 343.]

[Footnote 25: The use of scales suggests that Franklin probably knew Aristophanes' _The Frogs_. It is more likely, however that he was acquainted with the use of scales in contemporary witch trials. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ 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 _Popular Antiquities_ [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 (_ibid._, III, 22).]

[Footnote 26: In his 1734 issue of the _American Almanack_ 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.]

[Footnote 27: Compare Swift's _A Meditation upon a Broomstick_. 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.]

[Footnote 28: 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, _Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason_, 75.)]

[Footnote 29: Rev. George Whitefield, whom Franklin met in 1739.]

[Footnote 30: _M. T. Cicero's Cato Major or his Discourse of Old-Age: With Explanatory Notes._ Philadelphia. Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, 1744.]

[Footnote 31: "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, _Writings_, II, 283 note).]

[Footnote 32: Excellent note in _Writings_, II, 463-4. Abbe Raynal published _Polly Baker_ in his _Histoire ..._ as an authentic doc.u.ment.

Also Peter Annet printed this _jeu d'esprit_ in his _Social Bliss_ (1749). See N. L. Torrey, _Voltaire and the English Deists_, 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 _The Pennsylvania Gazette_ in vain for it. It is not there."]

[Footnote 33: See "Introduction" in Wm. Pepper's Facsimile Reprint of the _Proposals_ (Philadelphia, 1931), vii-xvii. Although A. H. Smyth prints "Authors quoted in this Paper," he does not print the copious doc.u.mentation Franklin included. The "Authors" listed are: Milton, Locke, Hutcheson, Obadiah Walker, M. Rollin, George Turnbull, "with some others."]

[Footnote 34: Printed as Appendix to Rev. R. Peters's _A Sermon on Education ..._, Philadelphia, Printed and Sold by B. Franklin and D.

Hall, 1751.]

[Footnote 35: Samuel Croxall's (d. 1752) _Fables of aesop and Others_, 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 nave, clear, and forcible English"

(_Dictionary of National Biography_, XIII, 246-8).]

[Footnote 36: A part of Johnson's _Elementa Philosophica_, printed by Franklin in 1752. See H. and C. Schneider, eds., _Samuel Johnson, President of King's College. His Career and Writings_. 4 vols., New York, 1929.]

[Footnote 37: Fenelon's Telemachus. Chevalier de Ramsay's _Travels of Cyrus_. 2 vols. London, 1727 (2d ed.).]

[Footnote 38: For Franklin's awareness of Rabelais, see C. E.

Jorgenson's "Benjamin Franklin and Rabelais," _Cla.s.sical Journal_, XXIX, 538-40 (April, 1934).]

[Footnote 39: First published in [Clarke, Wm.] _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.,_ Boston, 1755. See L. J. Carey's _Franklin's Economic Views_, 46-60, for able survey of Franklin's theory of population and its relation to Malthus and Adam Smith. Also see L. C.

Wroth, _An American Bookshelf_, 1755 (Philadelphia, 1934), 25-7.]

[Footnote 40: 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" (_Writings_, IV, 82-4; Sept. 27, 1760).]

[Footnote 41: On complaint of John Bartram and Cadwallader Colden, Franklin deleted the concluding paragraphs in subsequent editions.]

[Footnote 42: Read before the Royal Society on Dec. 21, 1752. It was printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 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.]

[Footnote 43: 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: _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 ..._ 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.]

[Footnote 44: Brackets in this letter are the result of A. H. Smyth's collation of two MSS.]

[Footnote 45: "These letters first appeared in _The London Chronicle_, February 6 and 8, 1766. They were published again in _The London Magazine_, February, 1766, and in _The Pennsylvania Chronicle_, January 16, 1769. They were republished in Almon's 'Remembrancer' in 1766." (A.

H. Smyth, Writings, III, 231 note.)

After the failure of his _Albany Plan_ (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 a.s.semble 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 _by a tax laid on the colonies by an act of Parliament_" (Parton, I, 340). The letters are a protest against this plan, a protest marking the first stages of the revolution.]

[Footnote 46: The second cousin and in 1758 the wife of William Greene, the second governor of the state of Rhode Island. See _Dictionary of American Biography_, VII, 576-7.]

[Footnote 47: Had made a tour inspecting post offices.]

[Footnote 48: Daughter of Samuel Ward, governor of Rhode Island.]

[Footnote 49: Franklin's daughter, born 1744.]

[Footnote 50: John Franklin died in Boston, January, 1756, age sixty-five.]

[Footnote 51: Daughter of John Franklin's second wife by a former marriage.]

[Footnote 52: See discussion (including bibliographical note) of Rev.

Wm. Smith in Introduction, section on "Franklin's Theories of Education."]

[Footnote 53: From an exact reprint made by W. S. Mason from a copy of _Poor Richard_ (1758) in his collection. Lindsay Swift, in _Benjamin Franklin_, notes: "It may safely be said that it is the American cla.s.sic _par excellence_, and shares with Mrs. Stowe's _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ the honour of having pa.s.sed 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 _Franklin Bibliography_, 53-111, will suggest the vogue of this cla.s.sic. See L. L. L.'s "The Way to Wealth: History and Editions," _Nation_, XCVI, 494-6 (May 15, 1913).

William Temple Franklin observes that _The Way to Wealth_ "is supposed to have greatly contributed to the formation of that _national character_ they [people of America] have since exhibited" (1818 ed. of Franklin's _Works_, III, 248).]

[Footnote 54: Stephen Potts and William Parsons were among the original members of the Junto (Writings, I, 299-300). See note on Parsons in _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, x.x.xIII, 340 (1909).]

[Footnote 55: Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782). See _Dictionary of National Biography_, XXVII, 232-4; A. F. Tytler's _Memoirs_ 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 _foundations of the future grandeur and stability of the British empire lie in America_; 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 _densest_ happiness I have met with in any part of my life ..." (_Writings_, IV, 3-7). In a letter (London, Nov., 1761) he praises Kames's _Introduction to the Art of Thinking_ and inquires "after your _Elements of Criticism_." He also tells Kames about his plans to write an _Art of Virtue_ (_ibid._, 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 pa.s.sage; hope of the future" (_ibid._, IV, 174).]