Benjamin Franklin Part 88

[Footnote 93: 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 (_Writings_, VII, 166; Smyth note).]

[Footnote 94: _Arcana imperii detecta: or, divers select cases in Government_, London, 1701. [A trans. of _Disquisitiones politicae_ by Mark Zuirius Boxhorn.] (A. H. Smyth note, _Writings_, VII, 169.)]

[Footnote 95: Franklin writes to William Carmichael (Pa.s.sy, 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" (_Writings_, 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 _Pennsylvania Gazette_, Dec. 4, 1735. Also see M. K. Jackson, _op.

cit_; 75; and L. S. Livingston, _Franklin and His Press at Pa.s.sy_ (New York, 1914), 30. Compare Wm. Bartram's similar description of Ephemera in his _Travels_ ed. by M. Van Doren (An American Bookshelf), New York, 1928, 88-9. See H. H. Clark's Introduction to _Poems of Freneau_ (New York, 1929), xlvii-lviii, for provocative discussion of the degree to which naturalism may motivate an obsession with transience, mutability, and death.]

[Footnote 96: On Oct. 22, 1779, Bache wrote to Franklin explaining that Lee and Izard objected to his employing William Temple Franklin, his grandson.]

[Footnote 97: Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769-1798), son of Richard Bache, Franklin's son-in-law. See B. Fa, _The Two Franklins: Fathers of American Democracy_ (Boston, 1933). See _The Diary of B. F. B. Aug. 1, 1782, to Sept. 14, 1785. Trans. from the French by William Duane_, 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 "aerostatic globes," who takes M. Charles's course in natural philosophy. Franklin had Didot, the master type founder, come to Pa.s.sy to teach Ben how "to cast printing types." On July 12, 1785, he records the patriarch's exodus from Pa.s.sy: "A mournful silence reigned around him and was only interrupted by sobs."]

[Footnote 98: Barbeu Dubourg (June 28, Paris) wrote to Franklin, "sending Franklin's ma.n.u.script on 'The Morals of Chess,' of which he has retained a copy; expects to have it printed shortly in _le Journal de Paris_; hopes to follow it with a few reflections of his own on the subject." (_Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society_, III, 102.) [XIV, 218.] Brackets in selection indicate Smyth's collation of incomplete MS copy and printed version.]

[Footnote 99: _The Parable against Persecution._]

[Footnote 100: Consult _Benjamin Franklin's Story of the Whistle, with an Introductory Note_ by L. S. Livingston, and _A Bibliography to 1820_ (Cambridge, Ma.s.s., 1922).]

[Footnote 101: Matthew Arnold in _Sweetness and Light_ 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 _Proposed Version_: "After all, there is a stretch of humanity beyond Franklin's victorious good sense!"]

[Footnote 102: Two days before, he wrote to Richard Price: "We make daily great Improvements in _Natural_, there is one I wish to see in _Moral_ Philosophy; the Discovery of a Plan, that would induce and oblige Nations to settle their Disputes without first Cutting one another's Throats" (_Writings_, VIII, 9). One remembers Franklin's cla.s.sic utterance (in a letter to David Hartley, Pa.s.sy, Feb. 2, 1780): "There hardly ever existed such a thing as a bad Peace, or, a good War"

(_ibid._, VIII, 5; also see VIII, 506). An interesting comment on Franklin's devotion to peace may be found in _A Project of Universal and Perpetual Peace_. Written by Pierre-Andre Gargaz, a former Galley-Slave, and printed by Benjamin Franklin at Pa.s.sy in the Year 1782. Here reprinted, together with an English Version, Introduction, and Typographical Note by George Simpson Eddy, New York, 1922.]

[Footnote 103: 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?" (_Portraits of the Eighteenth Century, Historic and Literary_, 366.)]

[Footnote 104: 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, _op. cit._, II, 333-4.]

[Footnote 105: _Essay on the Population of England_, 2d ed., 1780.]

[Footnote 106: London Coffee House.]

[Footnote 107: Madame Helvetius. Consult A. Guillois, _Le salon de Madame Helvetius_ (Paris, 1894).]

[Footnote 108: Georgiana Shipley (in a letter, May 6, 1781) acknowledges his _Dialogue with the Gout_ and this piece. See _Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society_, III, 371 (XXII, 8). This delightful letter is printed in Sparks, IX, 25; Bigelow, VII, 230; and Stifler, "_My Dear Girl_" ...

(New York, 1927). Smyth brackets a pa.s.sage, not in the MS draft, which is printed in the W. T. Franklin edition.]

[Footnote 109: 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.]

[Footnote 110: For Hartley's letter see _Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society_, III, 398 (XXII, 162), Sept. 26, 1781. From Pa.s.sy (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"

(_Writings_, VIII, 361).]

[Footnote 111: Excellent summary of the effect of this hoax may be found in L. S. Livingston, _Franklin and His Press at Pa.s.sy_, 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? _Elle nous dit bien des verites!_ 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" (_ibid._, 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 advertis.e.m.e.nts, etc.,) was, that, by transmitting it to England, it might actually be taken for what it purported to be" (_Writings_, VIII, 437). To Charles W. F. Dumas, Franklin writes (Pa.s.sy, 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 _Form_ may perhaps not be genuine, but the _substance_ 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"

(_ibid._, 448). Brackets are Franklin's.]

[Footnote 112: William Cowper. See _Correspondence of William Cowper_, ed. by Thomas Wright, I, 479, for his note that Thornton, a merchant, had sent Franklin his poems.]

[Footnote 113: Henri-Leonard-Jean-Baptiste Bertin (1719-1792).]

[Footnote 114: President of the Royal Society (1743-1820). See _Dictionary of National Biography_, III, 129-33.]

[Footnote 115: Dr. Pierre-Marie-Auguste Broussonet (1761-1807) met Sir Joseph Banks in 1782.]

[Footnote 116: A. H. Smyth believes that this was "written in September, 1782" (_Writings_, VIII, 603 note). It was often translated and may well have drawn many immigrants to the colonies.]

[Footnote 117: Probably written after signing of the peace treaty.

Compare his letter to Richard Oswald, Pa.s.sy, Nov. 26, 1782 (_Writings_, VIII, 621-7); and his _The Retort Courteous_ (_ibid._, X, 105-16).]

[Footnote 118: Sir Charles Blagden (1748-1820), physician and physicist, friend to Sir Joseph Banks, F. R. S., in 1772. (_Dictionary of National Biography_, V, 155-6.)]

[Footnote 119: B. Fa in "Franklin et Mirabeau collaborateurs" (see Bibliography) shows that Franklin furnished information for _Considerations on the Order of Cincinnatus ..._ (London ed., 1785).

Mirabeau thunders, "Must we then own, with the enemies of freedom, that the n.o.ble 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, _op.

cit._, 73.) The members of the order will in time become "Gothic tyrants" (_ibid._, 14). He warns America against paralleling the decadence of Rome (_ibid._, 25), suggesting a Rousseauistic equalitarianism. Other references to Franklin's antipathy for the Order are _Writings_, IX, 222, 269-70. Smyth observes that "pa.s.sages in brackets are not found in the draft in Library of Congress."]

[Footnote 120: 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...."]

[Footnote 121: Son of Cotton Mather. Died June 27, 1785.]

[Footnote 122: 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 _Dictionary of National Biography_, LVIII, 158-9.]

[Footnote 123: See _Writings_, IX, 264. Sparks (II, 383-426) reprints George Whately's _Principles of Trade_. Elision marks indicate that parts of this letter are omitted.]

[Footnote 124: A. H. Smyth quotes W. T. Franklin, who observes that the book was Paley's _Moral Philosophy_ (_Writings_, IX, 488 note).]

[Footnote 125: A. H. Smyth thinks _The Retort Courteous_ (_ibid._, IX, 489 note).]

[Footnote 126: At Rancocas, New Jersey.]

[Footnote 127: 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 _The Age of Reason_ was written before 1781 (this M. C. Conway in his _Life of Paine_ admits), it is not implausible that Franklin's letter was directed to Paine. ("An Historical Interpretation of Thomas Paine's Religion," _University of California Chronicle_, x.x.xV, 84, 1933.)]

[Footnote 128: Since Franklin was acquainted with John Ray's _Wisdom of G.o.d ..._, 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 _Religion of Nature Delineated_, 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.]

[Footnote 129: His speech (delivered June 11, 1787) _On the Proportion of Representation and Votes_ (_Writings_, 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.]

[Footnote 130: Compare _Writings_, 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.]

[Footnote 131: Clergyman of Boston and friend of Mrs. Mecom, Franklin's sister. Elision marks indicate that parts of this letter are omitted.]

[Footnote 132: Charles Carroll (1737-1832). He had accompanied Franklin on his Canada commission. See _Dictionary of American Biography_, III, 522-3.]

[Footnote 133: Compare _Writings_, IX, 636-9.]

[Footnote 134: Compare _Writings_, X, 60-3, 127-9.]

[Footnote 135: 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 const.i.tution for that country. The mischiefs and troubles it suffers in the operation, however, give me great concern"

(_Writings_, X, 50). He confesses (Nov. 13, 1789) to Jean Baptiste Le Roy: "The voice of _Philosophy_ I apprehend can hardly be heard among those tumults" (_ibid._, 69).]

[Footnote 136: 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 _Literary Diary_, ed. by F. B. Dexter (3 vols., New York, 1901), and I. M. Calder (ed.), _Letters and Papers of Ezra Stiles_ (New Haven, 1933). Also see Abiel Holmes's _Life of Ezra Stiles_ (Boston, 1798).]