Classic Audiobook Collection - The Many-Sided Franklin by Paul Leicester Ford ~ Full Audiobook [biography]

Starting point is 00:00:00 the many cited franklin by paul lester ford chapter one part one family relations a man wrote franklin who makes boast of his ancestors doth but advertise his own insignificance for the pedigrees of great men are commonly known and elsewhere he advised let our fathers and grandfathers be valued for their goodness ourselves for our own clearly this objection extended to pride of birth alone and not to knowledge of one's forebears for franklin himself displayed not a little interest in his progenitors and when he went to england as the agent of his colony he devoted both time and travel to searching out the truth concerning them nor was he in fact wholly without conceit of family. In default of discovered greatness in his kindred, he expressed pleasure in an inference that the family name was derived from the old social order of small freeholders, and therefore that they were once the betters of the yeomen and feudatories. Still another fact, too, suggests that he was not wholly indifferent to the world's knowledge of his lineage, though his father questioned if they were entitled to use either of the Franklin

Starting point is 00:01:19 arms and added that, quote, our circumstances have been such that it hath hardly been worthwhile to concern ourselves much about these things any farther than to tickle the fancy a little, end quote. Benjamin did not hesitate to appropriate one of the Franklin coats of arms, while yet only a master printer, for as early as 1751, he advertised, quote, lost about five weeks since a silver seal with a coat of arms engraved, containing, two lion's heads, two doves and a dolphin. Whoever brings it to the post office shall have five shillings reward." And quote. Furthermore, in adopting this heraldic badge, he made objection

Starting point is 00:02:03 to its being cheapened by telling a soap-making relative that he would not have him put the Franklin arms on his cakes, although he did not mind a brother in the same business using the escutcheon as a bookplate. Franklin's inquiry into the history of the history. Franklin's inquiry into the of his family resulted in the discovery that they had dwelt on some thirty acres of their own land in the village of ecton in northamptonshire upward of three hundred years and that for many generations the eldest son had been village blacksmith a custom so established previous to the removal across the atlantic that the first immigrant bred up his eldest son to the trade in boston fate having other uses for benjamin carefully guarded him from bolshunders calling by making him the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations. Josiah Franklin came to New England about 1685 with Anne, his wife, and three children, a number which swelled to seven within the next four years, the mother dying in childbed in 1689. Less than six months later, the widow were married Abaya Folger, and to this union there were born ten children,

Starting point is 00:03:18 making in all 17. Writing of the large birth rate in the colonies, Franklin asserted that it was rare for more than half of each family to reach adult life, a statement not derived from personal experience for, quote, out of 17 children that our father had, 13 lived to grow up and settle in the world,

Starting point is 00:03:39 end quote. In common with other New England families of that day, the stock seemed to be weakened by this redundancy, Though Josiah was one of five brothers and the father of ten sons, there was not when the 18th century ended a single descendant of any of the 15 entitled to the so-name. Benjamin, the Tithe, or 10th of Josiah's sons, born January 6th, 1706, outlived them all. From his father, he derived a heritage difficult to measure, but two of his qualities were singled out by the son, as specially noted.

Starting point is 00:04:18 worthy, a sound understanding and solid judgment in prudential matters, both in private and public affairs, and a mechanical genius in being very handy in the use of other tradesmen's tools. It was indeed a lowly dwelling we were brought up in, wrote one of the children many years after, but we were fed plentifully, made comfortable with fire and clothing, had seldom any contention among us, but all was harmony, especially between the heads, and they were universally respected, and the most of the family in good reputation. This is still happier living than multitudes in joy. As this might indicate, Josiah Franklin, despite his struggle with poverty and his huge family, was a good parent to his youngest boy, giving heed to his moral, mental, and temporal beginnings.

Starting point is 00:05:10 After such brief term of school as he could afford the lad, he took him in his young, to his own shop, till Ben made obvious his dislike to the cutting of wicks, the hanging of dips, and the casting of soap. Taking pains, then, to discover his son's preferences, he finally apprenticed him as a printer's devil to his son James. When the brothers quarreled an appeal was made to the father, judgment, the apprentice says, was generally in my favor. And though Ben earned his own livelihood from the time that he was 12 years of age, and saw his father only three times after he was 16. Wherever he speaks of him,

Starting point is 00:05:48 it is with affection and respect. When he wrote to him, the letters began, honored father, and ended, I am your dutiful son, or I am your affectionate and dutiful son, while Josiah Franklin,

Starting point is 00:06:02 in turn, began his letters, loving son, and ended one with hearty love. More warmly still, the son spoke of his father and mother in a letter to his sister, whom he chided because you have mentioned nothing in your letter of our dear parents. Writing again during the final illness of his father,

Starting point is 00:06:23 Dear sister, I love you tenderly for the care of our father in his sickness. Josiah Franklin died in 1745, leaving an estate valued at $2,400. In Franklin's autobiography, there is only the barest mention of his mother, Abaya, and merely as the daughter of one of the first settlers of New England. Presumably this silence was due to the 18th century attitude toward women more than to any want of affection, for the two corresponded with regularity, even after the mother was, quote,

Starting point is 00:06:58 very weak and short of breath so that I cannot sit up to right, although I sleep well at nights and my cough is better, and I have a pretty good stomach to my victuals, end quote. And she had to beg her sick, son to, quote, please excuse my bad writing and indicting, for all tell me I am too old to write letters, end quote. To her, Franklin sent gifts of various kinds, including, quote, a moador, which pleased to accept towards Shea's hire, that you may ride warm to meetings this winter, and quote. Upon her death in 1752, he wrote his sister, Jane, quote, I received yours with the

Starting point is 00:07:40 affecting news of our dear mother's death. I thank you for your long continued care of her in her old age and sickness. Our distance made it impracticable for us to attend her, but you have supplied all. She has lived a good life as well as long one and is happy." Franklin paid for the stone which marked the grave of his parents and wrote for it an inscription which vouched that, quote, he was a pious and prudent man, she a discreet and virtuous woman. and quote. And though elsewhere he cites the conventional epitaph as the extreme form of falsehood, he was certainly justified in this inscription.

Starting point is 00:08:22 Honor thy father and mother, i.e., live so as to be an honor to them, though they are dead. He made poor Richard advise his readers, and for once preacher and practiser were united. Among the Chinese, he noted with approval, the most ancient and from long experienced the wisest of nations, honor does not descend, but assens. If a man from his learning, his wisdom, or his valor, 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 established 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

Starting point is 00:09:09 the public. Of his relations with the 16 brothers and sisters, it is impossible to deal with any fullness. Four of the brothers died young, and a fifth, taking to the sea, was so little an element in the family life that Benjamin remembered, quote, 13, some of us then very young, all at one table, when an entertainment was made at our house on the occasion of the return of our brother Josiah, who had been absent in the East Indies and unheard of for nine years. end quote. If this brother, who soon after was lost at sea, was apparently a small component in Franklin's life, he nonetheless influenced it materially, since from him the youngster imbibed a keen desire

Starting point is 00:09:55 to be a sailor, and his father's fear that he would run away was a potent motive for letting the boy leave the trade of soap-making. As already mentioned, Benjamin did not get on well with the half-brother to whom he was bound to learn printing. James Franklin, was only ten years older than his apprentice, and very quickly the boy made himself as expert as his brother, who, if we are to believe Franklin, turned jealous, and on occasion beat him with unnecessary severity, though in charging that his master was passionate, the printer's boy confessed that he himself was saucy and provoking. James Franklin was forbidden presently by the government to print his newspaper, the New England corand, and it was continued by a subterfuge in Benjamin's name,

Starting point is 00:10:43 the indenture being cancelled to make the trick a little less bare-faced. Availing himself of this technical release, Franklin left his brother's service, an act that he later acknowledged to be his first serious erratum, and one which set James Franklin to advertising for a likely lad for an apprentice, little wrecking how likely a lad he had lost. For a number of years,

Starting point is 00:11:07 the breach thus made continued to, to exist, though the mother urged reconciliation on them both. After James Franklin's death, a turn of fortune's wheel led Franklin to take the eldest son of this brother as an apprentice, and though he records that Jimmy Franklin, when with me was always dissatisfied and grumbling, yet from the moment the apprentice was over, he and I became good friends. He helped the boy to establish himself as a printer at New Haven and again at Newport, sent him occasional gifts of paper, printing ink, etc., and loaned him money to the extent of over 200 pounds to buy types and a stock of books and stationary. That the old grudge was forgotten is proved, too,

Starting point is 00:11:52 by Franklin's will, in which he left as much to the descendants of James Franklin as to the descendants of his other brothers and sisters. He seems indeed to have hated family broils or alienation, and when a sister once appealed to him to espouse her side of a disagreement, he replied, quote, if I were to set myself up as a judge between you and your brother's widow and children, how unqualified must I be at this distance to determine rightly, especially having heard but one side? They always treated me with friendly and affectionate regard. You have done the same. What can I say between you, but that I wish you were reconciled, and that I will love the side best that is most ready to forgive and oblige the other. You will be angry with me here

Starting point is 00:12:38 for putting you and them too much upon a footing, but I shall nevertheless be, dear sister, your truly affectionate brother." End quote. More direct aid was afforded his two other brothers, John and Peter, both of whom set out in life in their father's trade of soap and candle-making. Although Benjamin objected to their stamping the Franklin arms on their cakes of soap, he ordered quantities of their wares from them both, which his wife retailed in his bookshop in Philadelphia, and increased the sale by recurrent advertisements in Franklin's paper, which announced with each consignment,

Starting point is 00:13:16 just imported another parcel of super-fine crowned soap. It cleanses fine linens, muslins, laces, chintzes, cambricks, and, etc., with ease and expedition, which often suffer more from the long and hard rubbing of the washer through the ill qualities of the soap they use than the wearing it is excellent for the washing of scarlets or any other bright and curious colors that are apt to change by the use of common soap the sweetness of the flavor and the fine lather it immediately produces renders it pleasant for the use of barbers it is cut in exact and equal cakes neatly put up and sold at the new printing office at one shilling per cake neither brother however seems to have prospered in the business for when franklin became deputy postmaster general he made john postmaster of boston and peter postmaster of philadelphia of the former franklin says in his autobiography that quote he always loved me and quote and though there was some family joking about Peter's perpetual doctoring of himself so that, quote, he cures himself many times a day, end quote, Benjamin seems to have been fond of him also, showing evident grief when, quote, it pleased God to take from us my only remaining brother, end quote. He aided the two widows, establishing one in business, and continuing the other as post-mistress, thus making her, so far as is known, the first woman to hold public office.

Starting point is 00:14:47 in America. He that has neither fools nor beggars among his kindred is the son of thundergust, remarked poor Richard, and Franklin's sisters were no more prosperous in life than were his brothers. The eldest, Elizabeth, when over 80 years old, came to extreme poverty, and her relatives consulted the only successful member of the family as to whether her house and fine things should be sold. As having their own way, it's one of the greatest comforts of life to old people, Benjamin replied, I think their friends should endeavor to accommodate them in that, as well as in anything else. When they have long lived in a house, it becomes natural to them. They are almost as closely connected with it as the tortoise with his shell. They die if you

Starting point is 00:15:34 tear them out of it. Old folks and old trees, if you remove them, it is ten to one that you kill them. So let our good old sister be no more importuned on that head. We are growing old fast ourselves, and shall expect the same kind of indulgences. If we give them, we shall have a right to receive them in our turn. And as to her few fine things, I think she is in the right not to sell them, and for the reason she gives that they will fetch but little. When that little is spent, they would be of no further use to her, but perhaps the expectation of possessing them at her death may make that person tender and careful of her, and helpful to her, to the amount of ten times their value. If so, they are put to the best use they possibly can be. A small request was made in

Starting point is 00:16:22 Franklin's will to his sister Anne's children and grandchildren. Several of these drifted to London before the revolution and appealed to their uncle when he came to France for various kinds of assistance. One was, quote, obliged to work very hard and can but just get the common necessaries of life, and therefore has thoughts of going into a family as housekeeper, having lived in that station for several years, and gave great satisfaction. End quote. She sought his aid in securing the promotion of her son, then in the British Navy, a peculiar request considering Franklin's relations or lack of relations at the moment with the British government. Toward another Jonathan Williams, the uncle seems to have been well disposed. He took charge of his education while in London, made the young fellow his secretary for a time,

Starting point is 00:17:15 and finally was instrumental in having him made a commercial agent of the United States in France during the revolution, an appointment which caused first oblique censures and ultimately outspoken denunciations. Williams was accused of dishonesty, and his uncle promptly wrote, I have no desire to screen Mr. Williams on account of his being my nephew, if he is guilty of what you charge him with, I care not how soon he is deservedly punished, and the family purged of him. For I take it that a rogue living in a family is a greater disgrace to it than one hanged out of it. Fortunately, the nephew was able to clear himself, but the appointment had caused scandal and had been one source of the American divisions in Paris, as well as in the

Starting point is 00:18:01 Continental Congress. Another unfortunate result was that Williams later became embarrassed in some private ventures in France, and Franklin unjustifiably used the influence of his position to secure from the French government a surcease as regarding his creditors. Franklin's sister Sarah died shortly after marriage, quote, a loss without doubt regretted by all who knew her, for she was a good woman, end quote. Her husband, Josiah Davenport, encouraged by his brother-in-law, removed to Philadelphia and opened a bakery where he sold, Choice middling biscuit, varied by occasional offerings of Boston loaf sugar, choice pickled and spiced oysters in cags, end quote.

Starting point is 00:18:47 One of her sons on the death of Peter Franklin was appointed by his uncle, postmaster of Philadelphia, but he does not appear to have been competent and was soon superseded by another appointee and given a smaller office under the government. Of all his sisters, the youngest, Jane, was, so Franklin, said Franklin told her, ever my peculiar favorite, and he took pride in the news that she had grown a celebrated beauty. Evidently, it was not merely a fraternal view, for the girl was married at 15, the brother writing her upon the event that he had almost determined to send her a tea table, but, quote, when I considered the character of a good housewife was far preferable to that of being only a pretty gentle woman, I concluded to send you a spinning wheel, which I hope you will accept as a small token of my sincere love and affection." And in this monetary strain, the aged brother of twenty continued, quote,

Starting point is 00:19:45 Sister, farewell, and remember that modesty as it makes the most homely virtue amiable and charming, so the want of it infallibly renders the most perfect beauty, disagreeable, and odious. But when that brightest of female virtues shines among other perfections of body and mind in the same person, it makes the woman more lovely than an angel. excuse this freedom and use the same with me i am dear jenny your loving brother end quote a very large progeny resulted from this marriage in all of whom franklin took an interest my compliments to my new niece miss abaya and pray her to accept the enclosed piece of gold to cut her teeth it may afterwards buy nuts for them to crack he wrote of one arrival and gave material help to the children as they grew up aiding one to sell the soap he made, taking a second as an apprentice in his printing office, and afterward assisting in his establishment in that business,

Starting point is 00:20:46 endeavoring to get a government position for a third, and on the marriage of a fourth, sending a gift of, quote, 50 pounds, lawful money to be laid out in furniture as my sister shall think proper, end quote. From this niece, he received an exuberant acknowledgement, declaring that, quote, my heart has ever been, of the warmest gratitude for your frequent benefactions to the whole family. But your last kind, unexpected, as well as undeserved noble presence in particular to me, calls for a particular acknowledgement from me. Except then, dearest sir, my most sincere and hearty thanks,

Starting point is 00:21:25 with a promise that your kindness shall ever be gratefully remembered and your donation be made the best use of." Jane herself carried this admiration even to the point of veneration. yet when absent from her brother, she expressed her regret, quote, having had time to reflect and see my error, in that I suffered my diffidence, or the awe of your superiority, to prevent the familiarity I might have taken with you, and which your kindness to me might have convinced me would be acceptable,

Starting point is 00:21:55 end quote. With extreme reverence, she wrote to Franklin that, quote, it is not profanity to compare you to our blessed Savior, who employed much of his time while on earth, in doing good to the bodies as well as the souls of men, and I am sure I think the comparison just." This adoration is the more excusable when Franklin's services to her are weighed. Her husband's death left her a large family to rear, and but for Benjamin's constant

Starting point is 00:22:25 eking out of her means it would have fared hard with the widow. She told her brother that her happiness was derived from, quote, your bounty, without which I must have been distressed as much as many others, and assured him that she could not find expression suitable to acknowledge my gratitude, how I am by my dear brother enabled to live at ease in my old age. Myself and children have always been a tax upon you, she wrote to him, but your great and uncommon goodness has carried you cheerfully under it." End quote. Nora was Franklin's charity, an enforced one. you always tell me that you live comfortably, he chided, but I sometimes suspect that you may be too unwilling to acquaint me with any of your difficulties from an apprehension of giving me pain.

Starting point is 00:23:14 I wish you would let me know precisely your situation that I may better proportion my assistance to your wants. Lest you should be straightened during the present winter, I send you fifty dollars. And not satisfied that she acknowledged all her needs, he questioned other relatives. Quote, How has my poor sister gone through the winter? Tell me frankly whether she lives comfortably or is pinched. I am afraid she is too cautious of acquainting me with her difficulties, though I am always ready and willing to relieve her when I am acquainted with them.

Starting point is 00:23:47 End quote. Jane and Benjamin outlived all their brothers and sisters, and Franklin upon the death of one of the last, said to her, quote, Of these thirteen, there now remain but three. As our number diminishes, let our affection to each other rather increase, end quote. In one of her later letters, the sister recurred to this, writing, quote, You once told me, my dear brother, that as our number of brethren and sisters lessened,

Starting point is 00:24:15 the affection of those of us that remained should increase to each other. You and I are now left. My affection for you has always been so great. I see no room for increase, and you have manifested yours for me in such large measure that I have no reason to suspect its strength, end quote. Jane Micah Malone of Josiah Franklin's 17 children survived the famous son, and in his will Franklin left to her, a house and a lot I have in Unity Street, Boston, gave her the yearly sum of 50 pounds sterling, and left a small sum of money to her descendants. End of Chapter 1, Part 1. Chapter 1 Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libravox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Starting point is 00:25:10 Chapter 1 Family Relations, Part 2 He who takes a wife takes care, runs an aphorism that poor Richard thought fit to embody in his almanac, and Franklin, from his own experience, might have added with the humorous quirk he so often used, of his wife's relatives. when he took unto himself a helpmeat he brought to live with them her mother who henceforth conducted her trade at his printing shop making known to her customers through advertisements in her son-in-law's newspaper that quote the widow reed had removed from the upper end of high street to the new printing office near the market where she sold ointments for various ills end quote that might have been avoided by a better patronage of the franklin's crown soap. On the death of Mrs. Reed, he wrote his wife, quote, I condole with you most sincerely on the death of our good mother, being extremely sensible of the distress and affliction it must have thrown you into. Your comfort will be that no care was wanting on your part towards her,

Starting point is 00:26:20 and that she had lived as long as this life could afford her any rational enjoyment. It is, I am sure, a satisfaction to me that I cannot charge myself with having ever failed in one instance of duty and respect to her during the many years that she called me son." A brother and sister of his wife also lived for a time with Franklin, and he aided the former to get a government office. There was some friction, however, with another of her relatives. At first Franklin told him that his visits never had but one thing disagreeable in them, that is, they are always too short. But presently, Jimmy Reed endeavor to to get, quote, a small office from me, which I took amiss, end quote, and they ceased to be

Starting point is 00:27:08 on speaking terms, while the ill-feeling was deepened by Franklin's becoming the agent to enforce a business contract in which Reed proved to be delinquent, if not dishonest. Franklin's eldest son, William, was born out of wedlock, but so far as lay within the father's power, he repaired the wrong to which separated from the influence of both father and mother, the young fellow had let his hard-to-be-governed passion of youth lead him the boy was reared in franklin's home being openly acknowledged and treated as a son a friend who saw much of the family declared that his father is at the same time his friend his brother his intimate and easy companion end quote a sympathetic kindness for which william franklin thanked his father saying i am extremely obliged to you for your care in supplying me with money and shall ever have a grateful sense of that with the other numberless indulgences i have received from your paternal affection a pleasant glimpse of one parental indulgence is revealed by an advertisement in the father's newspaper quote strayed about two months ago from the northern liberties of this city a small bay mayor branded i w on the near shoulder and buttocks she being but little and bare

Starting point is 00:28:27 footed cannot be supposed to be gone far. Therefore, if any of the town boys find her and bring her to the subscriber, they shall, for their trouble, have the liberty to ride her when they please. From William Franklin, Philadelphia, June 17, 1742, end quote. As the lad grew up, the parent came to take positive pride in him, writing, Will is now 19 years of age, a tall proper youth, and much of a This opinion was echoed by William Strayhan, who declared, Your son, I really think, one of the prettiest young gentlemen I ever knew from America. Proving that Franklin's praise was not wholly due to the parental fondness satirized in poor Richard's lines, where yet was ever found the mother who'd change her booby for another.

Starting point is 00:29:19 As soon as William was old enough, Franklin obtained for him a commission in the provincial forces in which he served till peace cut off his prospect of advancement in that way. Through the same influence, he was then made postmaster of Philadelphia and next clerk of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, meantime having been entered as a student of law at the ends of court in London. When he accompanied his father to England in 1757 to complete his title to practice as a barrister, Franklin sought to bring about a marriage between him and Miss Mary's Stevenson, an English girl to whom he himself became much attached during this visit.

Starting point is 00:30:00 The son, however, chose otherwise, and finally, with his father's consent and approbation, he married, so Franklin states, a very agreeable West Indian lady. Meantime, William Franklin had secured the appointment as governor of New Jersey. A selection much disrelished at first by the province, and which it has been suggested, was given to the son in the hope of which, the father to the government's side. This, it is needless to say, it did not affect, but it at least served to seduce the son, and as the rift between the mother country and the colonies widened, the father accused him of having become a thorough government man.

Starting point is 00:30:41 When the English government removed Franklin from his postmaster generalship in 1774, he appealed to the son to resign his office, and on his refusal to resent the disgrace which his superiors had sought to inflict on the father, the latter wrote to him bitterly, quote, you who are a thorough courtier, see everything with government eyes, end quote. Williams' loyalty to the English government resulted not only in a complete break with his father and in his imprisonment by the Continental Congress as an active and dangerous Tory, but forced him eventually to leave America and take up his residence in England. On the conclusion of peace, a feeble attempt at a renewal of the old-time relation was made.

Starting point is 00:31:25 Franklin wrote his son, quote, I am glad to find you desire to revive the affectionate intercourse that formerly existed between us. It would be very agreeable to me. Indeed, nothing has hurt me so much and filled me with such keen sensations as to find myself deserted in my old age of my only son, and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against me, in a cause wherein my good fame, fortune, and life were all at stake." And quote. Yet, in expressing his sorrow thus strongly, the father added, quote,

Starting point is 00:32:00 I ought not to blame you for differing in sentiment with me in public affairs, and I should be glad to see you when convenient, and quote. The two met for a brief moment at Southampton in 1785 when Franklin was returning from France to America. but the endeavour to revive the old relation seems to have been unsuccessful they never made further attempts to see each other and in franklin's will drawn up three years after this meeting though he left his son certain property in nova scotia he stated quote the part he acted against me in the late war which is of public notoriety will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of end quote the affection which franklin no longer gave to his son he transferred to william's illegitimate child assuming from the first the relation of father to him under his superintendence the boy was placed at school near london and during the many years of franklin's stay in that city he had the lad often to visit him telling the father on one occasion quote temple has been at home with us during the christmas vacation from school he improves continually and more and more engages the father regard of all that are acquainted with him by his pleasing, sensible, manly behavior,"

Starting point is 00:33:21 end quote. At another time, in making up an account with William Franklin, and noting that the heaviest part is the maintenance and education of Temple, the grandfatherly pride expressed itself in this assertion, quote, but that his friends will not grudge when they see him, end quote. on Franklin's return to America in 1775 he brought the lad with him but the boy went to live with his father taking at the same time the family name in place of that of William Temple a change pleasing to at least one friend who wrote Franklin quote I rejoice to hear that he has the addition of Franklin which I always knew he had some right to and I hope will prove worthy the honorable appellation end quote Temple Franklin, as he was customarily called henceforth, returned soon to live with his grandfather in order to attend college. But the plan was interfered with by Franklin's being sent to France in 1776,

Starting point is 00:34:23 and his desire to have the boy go with him. Once in Paris, the young fellow became Franklin's private secretary, and there are frequent references to him in that capacity in Franklin's letters, as, for instance, quote, My grandson, whom you may remember when a sociable, boy at school, is my aminensis in writing the within letter." This employment roused sharp criticism both from Franklin's fellow commissioners and from members of Congress, based partly on the questionableness of giving the position to a relative, partly on the lad's youthfulness, and partly on the fact that he was the son of an open and avowed tory. Emotion was even offered in Congress that he should be dismissed, which so exasperated

Starting point is 00:35:09 Franklin that he declared warmly. Quote, 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. 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 son. Would they add my grandson? 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

Starting point is 00:36:00 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 behavior 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." End quote. A mere retention in this minor office did not content Franklin, and he lost no opportunity in endeavoring to secure his grandson political preferment. In 1783, he made personal appeals to each one

Starting point is 00:36:41 of the peace commissioners to have Temple-made secretary of the commission. He wrote to the Continental Congress, asking as a favor to me that the young gentleman should be made a secretary of legation or a charger. To reinforce this application, he wrote to members known to him making the same request, and Jefferson tells us that, quote, the doctor was extremely wounded by the inattention of Congress to his application for him. He expects something to be done as a reward for his services, end quote. Again, he used all his influence to have the grandson made secretary of the Federal Convention in 1787, and was keenly disappointed when that body selected someone else. No sooner was the national government organized than he applied to Washington

Starting point is 00:37:31 for some office for the young man, and seriously resented a refusal to gratify his wish. In the meantime, he had already, in effect, purchased and given to Temple, his father's farm in New Jersey, valued at four thousand pounds sterling, and in his will he left him other property, including his library, and made him his literary executor. In Franklin's paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, under date of December 13, 1736, appeared the following advertisement. "'Quote, understanding tis a current report that my son Francis, who died lately of the smallpox, had it by inoculation, and being desired to satisfy the public in that particular, inasmuch as some people are by that report, joined with others of the like kind, and perhaps equally groundless,

Starting point is 00:38:24 deterred from having that operation performed on their children, I do hereby sincerely declare that he was not inoculated, but received the distemper in the common way of infection. And I suppose the report could only arise from its being my known opinion, that inoculation was a safe and beneficial practice, and from my having said, among my acquaintance, that I intended to have my child inoculated, as soon as he should have recovered sufficient strength from a flux with which he had been long afflicted b franklin end quote the son thus referred to francis folger who died when he was only four years of age seems to have been his father's favorite

Starting point is 00:39:08 long after in referring to a grandson who was declared to be an uncommonly fine boy franklin said that the child quote brings often afresh to my mind the idea of my son frankie though now dead thirty-six years whom i have seldom since seen equaled in everything and whom to this day i cannot think of without a sigh end quote the last of franklin's three children was his daughter sarah born in seventeen forty three in whom her father took a un-concealed pride, assuring his mother that, quote, Your granddaughter is the greatest lover of her book and school of any child I ever knew, and is very dutiful to her mistress as well as to us, end quote. Half-jokingly, Franklin proposed a match when she was a child of six between her and the son of his friend, William Strayhan, and the offer being accepted in the same vein,

Starting point is 00:40:03 he frequently sent word of her progress to my son-in-law, quote, Please to acquaint him that his spouse grows finely, he requested, continuing, and will probably have an agreeable person, that with the best natural disposition in the world, she discovers daily the seeds and tokens of industry, economy, and, in short, of every female virtue, which her parents will endeavor to cultivate for him, end quote. Six years later, he said, quote, our daughter Sally is indeed a very good girl, affectionate, dutiful, and industrious, has one of the best hearts, and though not a wit, is, for one of her years, by no means deficient in understanding."

Starting point is 00:40:47 End quote. The imposed task of cultivating simple habits of frugality was not an altogether easy one, the girl's mother complaining that Sally had nothing fit to wear suitable for the Philadelphia Society into which she began to be drawn, while Sally herself wrote, to ask my papa if some things that i cannot get here tis some gloves both white and morning the last to be of the largest and he seems to have yielded to the double pressure for finery for the daughter presently thanked him and said that nothing was ever more admired than my new gown yet at no time did franklin encourage this desire for dress and when in seventeen seventy nine sarah asked him to send her some clothes from paris he wrote so reprovingly of her extravagance that she replied, But how could my dear Papa give me so severe a reprimand for wishing a little finery?

Starting point is 00:41:44 He would not, I am sure, if he knew how much I have felt it. You would have been the last person, I am sure, to have wished to see me dressed with singularity, though I never loved dressed so much as to wish to be particularly fine, yet I never will go out when I cannot appear so as to do credit to my family and husband. Even in death, Franklin consistently sought to teach her simplicity and economy, for in bequeathing to his daughter, the King of France's picture, set with four hundred and eight diamonds, which had been presented to him upon his leaving the French court, he requested that she would not form any of those diamonds into ornaments,

Starting point is 00:42:22 either for herself or daughters, and thereby introduce or countenance the expensive, vain, and useless fashion of wearing jewels in this country. throughout his whole life the father endeavoured to train his child in his own words so that she will in the true sense of the word be worth a great deal of money and consequently a great fortune to her husband the match with the strayhand boy never got further than the wishes of the parents and presently franklin was notified that his daughter had chosen richard boch a philadelphia merchant of whom franklin knew very little but of whom he hoped that quote his expectations are not great of any fortune to be had with our daughter before our death." And then explained, I can only say that if he proves a good husband to her and a good son to me, he shall find me as good a father as I can be.

Starting point is 00:43:17 But at present I suppose you would agree with me that we cannot do more than fit her out handsomely in clothes and furniture, not exceeding in the whole five hundred pounds of value. For the rest they must depend, as you and I did, on their own industry and care, as what remains in our hands will be barely sufficient for our support, and not enough for them when it comes to be divided at our decease. Having made this explanation, Franklin left the decision entirely to his wife, who gave her consent to the marriage. Yet the course of true love did not

Starting point is 00:43:51 run altogether smoothly, for Bach shortly became bankrupt in his business, upon which the father advised a postponement of the wedding. He was, however, by some influence, speedily won over, But the marriage was not favorably viewed by some, for William Franklin wrote that Mrs. Franklin became angry with our friends for not approving the match, and there even seems to have been some ill-feeling within the family over it. Once his daughter was wedded, the father was not wholly consistent in compelling the young people to depend entirely on themselves. He gave Bach two hundred pounds sterling towards setting him up in business, very quickly found a birth for him in the post office, which ever proved in Franklin's hands to have an elastic capacity as regarded his

Starting point is 00:44:37 relatives. Presently made him deputy postmaster general, and for many years let the couple live in his house in Philadelphia at no expense for rent. Furthermore, when Congress removed Bach from his office of Postmaster General, and he was compelled once more to start in business, Franklin, with questionable delicacy, considering his official position in France, exerted influence to secure him business from various French commercial houses. Mrs. Bach, according to Marlbois, took a prominent part in the revolution, quote, in exertions to rouse the zeal of the Pennsylvania ladies, and she made on this occasion such a happy use of the eloquence which you know she possesses that a large part of the American army was provided with shirts, bought with their money, and made with their own

Starting point is 00:45:27 hands, and quote. And the Frenchman continued, quote, if there are in Europe any women who need a model of attachment to domestic duties and love for their country, Mrs. Bach may be pointed out to them as such, end quote. The Marquis de Chasselloo echoed this praise by a reference which spoke of her as simple in her manners. Like her respectable father, she possesses his benevolence. She is said, furthermore to have much resembled Franklin, and was described by Manasseh Cutler in 1787, as a very gross and rather homely lady. On Franklin's final return to America, quote, My son-in-law came in a boat for us, we landed at Market Street Wharf, where we were received by a crowd of people with hussas, and accompanied with acclamations quite to my door. During the

Starting point is 00:46:21 few remaining years of his life, the box and he made one family, and the father took, told a friend that, quote, I too have got into my niche, after being kept out of it 24 years by foreign employments, and am again surrounded by my friends with a large family of grandchildren about my knees, an affectionate good daughter and son-in-law to take care of me, end quote. Of the Bach children, the eldest and his namesake was the most endeared to Franklin, and even before he had ever seen the boy, his frequent inquiries showed his interest in him, indeed his american correspondence quickly learned that they could write nothing which would please him more than news of the little kingbird or your young hercules as he was called

Starting point is 00:47:07 i came to town with betsy wrote william franklin to his father in order to stand for my young nephew he is not so fat and lusty as some children at his time are but he is altogether a pretty little fellow and improves in his looks every day mr banton stood as proxy for you and named Benjamin Franklin and my mother and Betsy were the godmother's. His wife's letters, too, constantly brought the sponsor, News of the Godchild. Franklin welcomed her news, telling her, I am much pleased with your little histories of our grandson, and happy in thinking how much amusement he must afford you, and confessing that they made me long to be at home to play with Ben. He rarely failed to send his love to the child,

Starting point is 00:47:54 and often some little things for Benny Boy, and once he complained that, You have so used me to have something pretty about the boy, that I am a little disappointed in finding nothing more of him than that he has gone up to Burlington. Pray give me in your next, as usual, a little of his history. At a dinner in London he reports that the chiefest toast of the day was Master Benjamin Bach, which the venerable old lady began in the tumbler of Mountain. the bishop's lady politely added, and that he may be as good a man as his grandfather.

Starting point is 00:48:28 I said I hoped he would be much better. The bishop's still more complacent than the lady said, Will we compound the matter and be contented if he should not prove quite so good? When Franklin went to France in 1776, he took this grandson with him to give him a little French language and address, with some other ends in view, so soon as he was settled in time, Paris he sent him to finish his education at Geneva as, quote, I intend him for a Presbyterian

Starting point is 00:48:58 as well as a Republican, end quote. Here the boy remained four years and then returned to live with his grandfather, who wrote the mother, I have had a great deal of pleasure in Ben. He is a good honest lad, and will make, I think, a valuable man. He gains upon my affection daily, and we love him very much. Young Bach came to America with his grandf. father and by his aid was established as a printer, Franklin supplying all the equipment for the office, which he left him in his will, together with other property. In his behalf also, he asked Washington for some public office, an application which, by being refused, shared the same fate as that he had made for his other grandson. It was the common feeling of the time that Franklin had

Starting point is 00:49:44 used civil office to serve his family, more than to serve the public, and so there was sufficient prejudice to make exclusion of his relatives almost a policy with the new government. This discrimination in time led to ill-feeling, and eventually Benjamin Franklin Bach became the standard-bearer of the journalists who abused Washington. If Benjamin from this long intimacy was his favorite of the Bach children, Franklin was unquestionably fond of them all, though the rest were too young to have been more than play things to him. In writing of his home toward the end of his life, he described his pleasure in, quote, a dutiful and affectionate daughter who, together with her husband and six children, composed my family. The children are all promising, and even the youngest,

Starting point is 00:50:31 who is but four years old, contributes to my amusement, end quote. And only two years before his death, he noted, quote, the addition of a little good-natured girl whom I begin to love as well as the rest, end quote. Nor was the affection of the the grandfather unrecipricated, one of Franklin's callers, recording that Mrs. Bach Had three of her children about her, over whom she seemed to have no kind of command, but who appeared to be excessively fond of their grandpapa. Franklin himself tells a story of a child that is worth repeating as showing the grandsire's feeling.

Starting point is 00:51:09 His wife had written of Mrs. Bach's over severe punishment of one of the children, and the husband had replied. It was very prudently done of you not to interfere when his mother thought fit to correct him, which pleased me the more, as I feared from your fondness of him that he would be too much humoured and perhaps spoiled. There is a story of two little boys in the street, one was crying bitterly, the other came to him to ask what was the matter. I have been, says he, for a penny worth of vinegar, and I have broken the glass and

Starting point is 00:51:41 spilled the vinegar, and my mother will whip me. no she won't whip you says the other indeed she will says he what says the other hadn't you then got near a grandmother at seventeen years of age the runaway apprentice had left his family from that time he saw but little of them as agent for pennsylvania and as minister to france franklin was save for two short homecomings continuously in europe from seventeen fifty seven to seventeen eighty five and necessarily separated from his wife and except as already narrated from his children and grandchildren. Yet of all his kith and kin he was undoubtedly truly fond, not merely as relatives, but as companions, and not to one does he seem to have been lacking in interest and kindness. End of Chapter 1, Part 2.

Starting point is 00:52:42 Chapter 2 Part 1 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 2, Physique, Theories, and Appetites, Part 1. In his autobiography, Franklin relates that his father had an excellent constitution of body, was of middle stature, but well set and very strong, qualities all inherited by the son. From the maternal side, the boy derived likewise an excellent constitution, and he is that I never knew either my father or mother to have any sickness, but that of which they died, he at 89, and she at 85 years of age.

Starting point is 00:53:32 This heritage of soundness and strength was a large element in the success Franklin achieved. He himself took pride that in the printing office where he worked during his first London sojourn, on occasion I carried up and downstairs a large form of types in each hand when others carried but one in both hands. hands. After he set up as a printer for himself, he often worked till far into the night, a diligence which led a Philadelphian to remark that, quote, the industry of that Franklin is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind. I see him still at work when I go home from my club, and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed, end quote.

Starting point is 00:54:15 Even after the necessity for severe labor was over in his scheme of employment for the 24 hours of a natural day, he allotted for sleep only six hours, or those between ten and four. If his constitutional and muscular vigor enabled him thus to tax his body, it did not save him from the illnesses his parents had escaped. In 1727, so he states, when I was just past my 21st year, I was taken ill. My distemper was a pluracy which very nearly carried me off. I suffered a great deal, gave up the point in my mind, and was rather disappointed when I found myself recovering, regretting in some degree that I must now, some time or other, have all that disagreeable work to do over.

Starting point is 00:55:05 In 1735, he had a second attack of this complaint, and so serious a character that the left lung superated. Prior to these two seizures, too, he thought he had avoided an illness only by, quote, having read somewhere that cold water drank plentifully was good for a fever and when in the evening I found myself very feverish I followed the prescription sweat plentifully most of the night and the next morning was well again end quote this is the more interesting since for many years afterward the usual treatment for fevers involved the entire denial of water to the sufferer In another way, Franklin differed from his own generation in not dreading water.

Starting point is 00:55:51 Not merely did he approve of water internally, but externally as well. Swimming, he maintained, was one of the most healthful and agreeable exercises in the world, and if one did not know how to swim, a warm bath by cleansing and purifying the skin is found very salutary. I speak from my own experience, frequently repeated, and that of others, to whom I have recommended this." In the year 1778, when suffering from a cutaneous trouble, he says, I took a hot bath twice a week, two hours at a time, with the utmost benefit, and a subsequent neglect when he hardly bathed in those three months served to bring on a second attack.

Starting point is 00:56:36 In the last years of his life, when suffering from a complication of maladies, Cutler relates that he used a warm bath every day in a bathing vessel said to be a curiosity. It is copper in the form of a slipper. He sits in the heel and the legs go under the vamp. On the end step he has a place to fix his book, and here he sits and enjoys himself. About the time I left the city of Philadelphia, they chose him president of the executive council. His accepting the office is a sure sign of senility. But would it not be a capital subject for an historical painting, the doctor placed at the head of the council board in his bathing slipper?

Starting point is 00:57:18 End quote. As Franklin was in advance of his times in the use of water, so too he led the way in preaching the value of fresh air. In a letter to his friend Dr. Duborg, he said, quote, I greatly approve the epithet which you give in your letter of the 8th of June to the new method of treating the small part. which you call a tonic or bracing method, I will take occasion from it to mention a practice to which I have accustomed myself. You know the cold bath has long been in vogue here as a tonic, but the shock of the cold water has always appeared to me, generally speaking, as too violent, and I have found it much more agreeable to my constitution to bathe in another element.

Starting point is 00:58:03 I mean cold air. With this view, I rise almost every morning and sit in my my chamber without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season, either reading or writing. This practice is not in the least painful, but on the contrary, agreeable, and if I return to bed afterwards, before I dress myself, as sometimes happens, I make a supplement of my night's rest of one or two hours of the most pleasing sleep that can be imagined. I find no ill consequences whatever resulting from it, and that at least it does not injure my health if it does not in fact contribute much to its preservation. I shall therefore call it for the future a bracing or a tonic bath." End quote. This theory he is to be found advocating

Starting point is 00:58:52 constantly. Another means of preserving health to be attended to is the having a constant supply of fresh air in your bedchamber, he averred. It has been a great mistake, the sleeping in rooms exactly closed and in beds surrounded by curtains. No outward air that may come into you is so unwholesome as the unchanged air so often breathed of a closed chamber. Elsewhere he wrote, 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 harmful to those who are in health, and that We may then be cured of the arophobia that at present distresses weak minds and makes them choose to be stifled and poisoned rather than leave open the window of a bedchamber or put down the glass of a coach.

Starting point is 00:59:49 A most amusing glimpse of his proselytizing is given in John Adams' autobiography. During a journey in 1776, quote, at Brunswick, but one bed could be procured for Dr. Franklin and me, and a chamber. little larger than the bed, without a chimney and with only one small window. The window was open, and I who was an invalid and afraid of the air of night shut it close. Oh, says Franklin, don't shut the window, we shall be suffocated. I answered I was afraid of the evening air. Dr. Franklin replied, the air within this chamber will soon be, and indeed is now, worse than that without doors. Come, open the window, and come to bed, and I will convince you. you. I believe you are not acquainted with my theory of colds. Opening the window and leaping into

Starting point is 01:00:41 the bed, I said I had read his letters to Dr. Cooper, in which he had advanced that nobody ever got cold by going into a cold church or any other cold air, but the theory was so little consistent with my experience that I thought it a paradox. However, I had so much curiosity to hear his reasons that I would run the risk of a cold. The doctor then began to harangue upon air, and cold, and respiration, and perspiration, with which I was so much amused that I soon fell asleep, and left him in his philosophy together, but I believe they were equally sound and insensible within a few minutes after me, for the last words I heard were pronounced as if he were more than half asleep. I remember little of the lecture, except that the human body, by respiration and

Starting point is 01:01:28 perspiration, destroys a gallon of air in a minute, that two such persons as were now in that chamber would consume all the air in it in an hour or two, that by breathing over again the matter thrown off by the lungs and the skin, we should imbibe the real cause of colds, not from abroad, but from within." End quote. Even Franklin, however, could have a serfayette of air, and he described an experience on the frontier which his liking for fresh air brought upon him. As to our lodging, he related, it is on deal feather beds, in warm, blankets and much more comfortable than when we lodged at our inn the first night after we left home. For the woman being about to put very damp sheets on the bed, we desired her to air them first.

Starting point is 01:02:17 Half an hour afterwards she told us the bed was ready and the sheets well aired. I got into bed but jumped out immediately, finding them as cold as death and partly frozen. She had aired them indeed, but it was out upon the hedge. I was forced to wrap myself up in my great coat and woolen trousers. He that lives carnally won't live eternally, poor Richard assured his readers, and he reinforced this with the couplet. Against diseases here, the strongest fence is the defensive virtue, abstinence. Elsewhere, he makes his opinion more specific by declaring that a full belly is the mother of all evil,

Starting point is 01:02:59 and advises that, to lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals, for three good meals a day is bad living. This caution the proverb maker himself seems to have regarded early in life. At 16 years of age, he says, I happened 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 chide 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 proposed to my brother that if he would

Starting point is 01:03:50 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. such was franklin's enthusiasm for the theory that he became not merely a disciple but a propagandist of tryon and in entering samuel keimer's employment as a journeyman printer he so worked upon his employer who was a great glutton that 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 dressed and brought to us regularly by a woman in the neighborhood who had from me a list of forty dishes to be be prepared for us at different times, in all of which there was neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, and the whims suited me the better at this time from the cheapness of it, not costing us above 18 pence sterling each per week. I have since kept several lengths, most strictly, leaving the common diet for that, and that for the common, abruptly, without the

Starting point is 01:04:53 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 commerce suffered grievously, tired of the project, longed for the fleshpots of Egypt, and ordered 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 the whole before we came. Undoubtedly, as all this indicated, economy was quite a strong motive with Franklin as ebstemiousness, for he tells of his taking lodgings in London where 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, because of its greater economy. But though motives of thrift induced him to sup thus frugally, he seems to have had as well a special prejudice against the late suppers that the fashion of early dining then made customary. with little, sub with less, do better still, sleep supperless. He recommends, for,

Starting point is 01:05:59 eat few suppers and you'll need few medicines. In the same vein, he told a correspondent, 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

Starting point is 01:06:34 than instances of people who, after eating a hearty supper, are found dead a bed in the morning. He even carried his theory so far as to approve of a physician who prescribes abstinence for the cure of consumption. He must be clever because he thinks as we do. I saw few die of hunger, poor Richard affirmed.

Starting point is 01:06:55 Of eating, 100,000. This moderation, taught by maxim and example, was due to discretion rather than to desire, and though poor Richard insisted that all should eat to live and not live to eat, his double, as time wore on, failed to live up to his own good advice, and such temperance as he exercised was due to motives of economy rather than to control of appetite. the poor man he said must walk to get meat for his stomach the rich man to get a stomach for his meat and when opportunity or prosperity enabled him to gratify his appetite he had occasion often to reprove himself for his want of self-control as a trencherman his father trained him he states so that little or no notice was ever taken of what related to the victuals on the table whether it was well or ill-dressed in or out of season of good or bad flavor preferable or inferior to this or that thing of the kind, so that I was brought up in such a perfect

Starting point is 01:07:57 inattention to those matters as to be quite indifferent to what kind of food was set before me, and so unobservant of it that, to this day, if I am asked, I can scarcely tell in a few hours after dinner what I dined upon. Nonetheless, Franklin had a very positive relish for his food. He tells an amusing story of how he came first to abandon vegetarianism, when, on a voyage from Boston being becalmed off Block Island, our people set about catching cod and hauled up a good many, which Franklin deemed a kind of unprovoked murder. Quote, 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 balanced some time between principles and inclination, till

Starting point is 01:08:45 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 dined upon cod very heartily and continued to eat with other people returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet so convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do end quote this anecdote is not the only evidence that franklin thoroughly enjoyed the palatable things of life. In a voyage across the Atlantic in 1726, he states that the pilot brought on board about a peck of apples with him that seemed the most delicious I ever tasted in my life. The salt provisions we had been used to gave them a relish. On the frontier, 30 years later, he thanked his wife for a supplier provisions, telling her, quote, we have enjoyed your roast beef, and this day began on the roast veal. I agree that they are both the

Starting point is 01:09:50 best that ever were of the kind. Your citizens that have their dinner hot and hot know nothing of good eating. We find in it much greater perfection when the kitchen is fourscore miles from the dining room. The apples are extremely welcome and do bravely to eat after our salt pork. The minced pies are not yet come to hand. Again when in England he apparently craved certain American dishes, for his wife wrote him, quote, I have sent to you two barrels of of apples, which I hope will prove good. I could not get Sum Indy meal and buckwheat flour, but I shall by the next opportunity, end quote. Such shipments were evidently a yearly practice. For a twelve month before this, Franklin had written to his wife, quote, the buckwheat and Indian

Starting point is 01:10:38 meal are come safe and good. They will be a great refreshment to me this winter, for since I cannot be in America, everything that comes from Thence comforts me a little as being something like home. The dried peaches are excellent, those dried without their skins. The parcel in their skins are not so good. The apples are the best I ever had, and came with the least damage. The sturgeon, you mentioned, did not come, but that is not so material, end quote. Perhaps the frankest indication of Franklin's personal likings is afforded in his acknowledgement that many people are fond of accounts of old buildings and monuments, but for one, I confess that if I could

Starting point is 01:11:19 find in any Italian travels a receipt for making Parmesan cheese, it would give me more satisfaction than a transcript of any inscription from any old stone whatever. End of Chapter 2 Part 1 Chapter 2 Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. chapter two physique theories and appetites part two franklin began life equally temperate in the use of liquor he set so good an example to his beer-drinking fellow journeyman in london that they christened him the water american and poor richard has many a wise saw and maxim inculcating the evil of wine-bibing yet here again it seems to have been more a matter of prudence than of preference

Starting point is 01:12:20 at the time he adopted vegetarianism the lad wrote an essay for the new england currant on the vice of drunkenness the better to reclaim the good fellows who usually pay the devotions of the evening to bacchus but his disapproval was not extreme for the sage of sixteen maintained i doubt not but moderate drinking has been improved for the diffusion of knowledge among the ingenious part of mankind who wants the talent of a ready utterword in order to discover the conceptions of their minds in an entertaining and intelligible manner. Tis true, drinking does not improve our faculties, but 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 accomplished orators." So, too, he seems never to have been a total abstainer, when only 19 years of age he discussed a business matter at a tavern over the Madeira, and in time developed a decided predilection

Starting point is 01:13:26 for this particular wine, a taste reproved by a feminine friend who wrote to him when he was suffering from one of his attacks of the gout. Quote, I own I thought you much indisposed when I saw you in Craven Street, and I allow that I was conceited enough to think I could have prescribed better things than Madeira and Curacao. Not that I am an enemy to either in a healthy state, or in some diseases, but you appeared to me to have at the time you took them too much on your stomach of the nature of sour to take any more without being more injured than benefited, though taken with your usual moderation." To his friend Strayhan, Franklin laughingly confessed,

Starting point is 01:14:11 You will say, my advice smells of Madeira. You are right. This foolish letter is mere chit-chat between ourselves over the second bottle. Elsewhere, in speaking of finding some flies in a bottle of Madeira, which revived after months of imprisonment, he expressed the wish, if it were possible, quote, to invent a method of embalming drowned persons in such a manner that they may be recalled to life at any period, however distant, for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence, I should prefer to any ordinary death the being immersed in a cask of Madeira wine with a few friends till that time to be then recalled to life by the solar warmth of my dear country."

Starting point is 01:14:55 And quote. Nor was this particular beverage the only one for which Franklin showed a liking. As time wore on, the poor Richard, who advised his readers to drink water, put money in your pocket and leave the dry bellyache in the punch bowl, apparently recanted, for he printed in his almanac the following doggerel. bring a bowl of china here fill it with water cool and clear decanter with jamaica ripe and spoon of silver clean and bright sugar twice fined in pieces cut knife sieven glass in order put bring forth the fragrant fruit and then we're happy till the clock strikes ten franklin speaks of himself on one occasion as put in a good humor by a glass or two of champagne and presumably it was in another such moment when he composed the drinking song printed in facsimile. To a French

Starting point is 01:15:53 Abbe and intimate, he wrote, late in life, quote, My Christian brother, be kind and benevolent like God, and do not spoil his good work. He made wine to gladden the heart of men. Do not, therefore, when at table you see your neighbor pour wine into his glass, be eager to mingle water with it. Why would you drown truth? then offer water except to children tis a mistaken piece of politeness and often very inconvenient I give you this hint as a man of the world and I will finish as I began like a good Christian in making a religious observation of high importance taken from the Holy Scriptures I mean that the Apostle Paul counseled Timothy very seriously to put wine into

Starting point is 01:16:41 his water for the sake of his health but that not one of the apostles or Holy Fathers ever recommended putting water into wine, end quote. No one knew better than Franklin the results of undue, eating and drinking, but as he made Madame Gout say of himself, quote, you philosophers are sages in your maxims and fools in your conduct, end quote. Referring to an illness, he said, but as this speedy recovery is, as I am fully persuaded, owing to the extreme abstemiousness I have observed for some days, passed at home, I am not without apprehension that being to dine abroad this day, tomorrow, and next day, I may inadvertently bring it on again. At another time he took note of a week's

Starting point is 01:17:29 diet and health, and he chronicles that after dining at Dolly's, a famous London chop house, he felt symptoms of cold, fullness. Dinner the day following brought on a cold, in which he takes some pride because he had predicted it. Still continuing to eat, he the next morning recalls that he had a very bad night and a little soreness of throat. This induced him to diet, even to the foregoing of his dinner, and he ends his record with the words, Had a good night, and better. Another illness he blames to his having eaten a hearty supper, much cheese, and drank a good deal of champagne. Yet again, he dined and drank rather too freely at Madame Darcy's, with a resulting little pain in my great toe.

Starting point is 01:18:20 This lessening of his early austerity as to food and drink led in time to a corpulence over which Franklin joked not a little. In 1757 he described himself to a friend as a fat old fellow. In the Craven Street Gazette, he styles himself, Dr. Fat Sides, refers in the same sheet to the great person, so-called from his enormous size, and explains a non-attendance at church by the fact that the great person's broad-built bulk lay so long a bed that it was too late to dress. His increase of flesh, as he here suggested, brought with it a physical indolence. As early as 1749, Franklin confesses to a little natural indolence, and in speaking of a business matter which called for a journey, he wrote,

Starting point is 01:19:08 I am grown almost too lazy to undertake it. Fifteen years later, apropos of an intended visit, he told a friend, I love ease more than ever, and by daily using your horses, I can be of service to you and them by preventing their growing too fat and becoming restive. He was not his only accuser in this respect. John Adams, in 1778, said of him, quote, Franklin loves his ease, hates to offend, and self-ympathes. seldom gives any opinion till obliged to do it. But if he is left here alone, even with such a

Starting point is 01:19:43 secretary, and all maritime and commercial as well as political affairs and money matters are left in his hands, I am persuaded that France and America will both have reason to repent it. He is not only so indolent that business will be neglected, but you know that although he has as determined soul as any man, yet it is his constant policy never to say yes or no decidedly, but when he cannot avoid it. end quote in this opinion apparently franklin joined for he told a friend i find the various employments of merchant banker judge of admiralty consul etc etc besides my ministerial functions too multifarious and too heavy for my old shoulders and have therefore requested congress that i may be relieved for in this point i agree even with my enemies that another may easily be found who can better execute them franklin himself believed that he had become intellectually idle for my own part he says everything of difficult discussion and that requires close attention of mind and an application of long continuance grows rather irksome to me and where there is not some absolute necessity for it as in the settlement of accounts or the like I am apt to indulge the indolence usually attending age in postponing such business from time to time,

Starting point is 01:21:05 though continually resolving to do it. At first, Franklin combated his tendency to physical ease by forcing himself to take exercise. Dr. Fatsides made 469 turns in his dining room, he chronicled in the Craven Street Gazette, and that this was habitual is implied by an entry in John Adams' diary, where it is recorded that, quote, Dr. Franklin, upon my saying the other day that I fancied he did not exercise so much as he was wont, answered, yes, I walk a league every day in my chamber. I walk quick, and for an hour, so that I go a league.

Starting point is 01:21:43 I make a point of religion of it, end quote. Even so late as 1771, his sister, in writing to Mrs. Franklin, said, quote, we shall neither of us now attain to what my brother writes me of himself, that he has lately walked ten miles without resting, and is in fine health, which I am sure you and I join in blessing God for." About the same date, too, Franklin wrote his son concerning the dumbbell, quote, by the use of it I have in 40 swings quickened my pulse from 60 to 100 beats in a minute, counted by a second watch,

Starting point is 01:22:20 and I suppose the warmth generally increases with the quickness of the pulse, end quote. If Franklin did not live according to poor Richard's maxims, he at least illustrated some of them. Be temperate in wine, in eating, girls and sloth, or the gout will seize you and plague you both, his almanac for 1734 warned its patrons. As early as 1749, the disease was upon him, but in a mild form, and he was quickly able to tell his mother that, quote, my leg which you inquire after is now quite well." From this time, during the next 20 years, he had once in two or three years a slight fit of the gout, which generally terminated in a week or ten days. These attacks, like his first, were not serious, and in 1768 he wrote his wife, I have had but one touch of the gout,

Starting point is 01:23:13 and that a light one since I left you. It was just after my arrival here, so that this is the fourth winter I have been free. A year later he reiterated this, saying, I am now and have been all this winter in very good health, thanks to God. I only once felt little admonition as if a fit of the gout would attack me, but it did not. In 1770 he did not fare so well. As to myself, he said, I had, from Christmas till Easter, a disagreeable giddiness hanging about me, which, however, did not hinder me from being about and doing business. In the Easter holidays, being at a friend's house in the country, I was taken with a sore throat

Starting point is 01:23:56 and came home half strangled. From Monday till Friday I could swallow nothing but barley water and the like. On Friday came on a fit of the gout, from which I had been free five years. Immediately the inflammation and swelling in my throat disappeared, my foot swelled greatly, and I was confined about three weeks, since which I am perfectly well, the giddiness and every other disagreeable symptom have quite left me. Again in 1772 he explained his lack of news because, quote, being gouty of late, seldom going into the city, end quote. Evidently, the ailment was still of a mild form, for he told Mrs. Franklin, quote, I thank you for your advice about putting back a fit of the gout. I shall never attempt such a thing. Indeed, I have not much occasion to complain of the

Starting point is 01:24:47 out, having had but two slight fits since I last came to England." Upon his return to America in 1775, Franklin noted that, quote, I immediately entered the Congress where, and with the Committee of Safety, I sat a great part of that year in the next 10 or 12 hours a day without exercise, end quote. This served to bring on another attack, which is of special interest because of its relation to a bigger event. As is well known, Franklin was appointed one of the committee to prepare a declaration of independence on June 10th, yet 11 days later he wrote, quote, I am recovering from a severe fit of gout so that I know little of what has passed there in Congress, except that a declaration

Starting point is 01:25:33 of independence is preparing, end quote. Sent to Canada a little later in this same year, the travel and exposure so told upon him that he, quote, sat down to write to a few friends by the way of farewell, for I begin to apprehend that I have undertaken a fatigue that at my time of life may prove too much for me. I find I grow daily more feeble. Some symptoms of the gout now appear, which makes me think my indisposition has been a smothered fit of that disorder,

Starting point is 01:26:05 which my constitution wanted strength to form completely, end quote. He himself believed that he owed his life to the care given him by his traveling companion, John Carroll, a Catholic priest, and how he later rewarded the kindness is told elsewhere. Late in 1776, Franklin sailed for Europe as commissioner to the Court of France, and scarcely had he entered upon his duties when his chronic malady came upon him. One of his fellow commissioners was forced to apologize to the French foreign office because, quote, the treaty with the Farmers General has been retarded on account of Dr. Franklin's illness, end quote. And Franklin cautioned a correspondence, quote, don't be proud of this long

Starting point is 01:26:50 letter, a fit of the gout which has confined me five days and made me refuse to receive company, has given me a little time to trifle, end quote. In 1779, another seizure further interfered with his diplomatic duties. Quote, a severe fit of the gout, with, too much business at the same time necessary to be done. He gives as his difficulties, but says elsewhere, I don't complain much, even of the gout, which has harassed me, because they say that is not so much a disease as a remedy. And he jokingly ends, there seems, however, some incongruity in a plenipotentiary who can neither stand nor go, end quote. From this time Franklin's gout seriously interfered with his ministerial duties. In going to court,

Starting point is 01:27:38 1780, he records in his diary that he was, quote, much fatigued by the going twice up and down the palace stairs from the tenderness of my feet and weakness of my knees, therefore did not go the rounds, end quote. And a year later he noted, quote, went to court and performed the round of levies, though with much pain and difficulty through the tenderness and feebleness of my feet and knees." Another twelve months forced him to apologize, quote, for not having paid my devours at Versailles, because, since my last

Starting point is 01:28:14 severe fit of the gout, my legs have continued so weak that I am hardly able to keep pace with the ministers who walk fast, especially in going up and downstairs, end quote. From that time he was always represented at court by his grandson. Franklin's treatment of his goutesons, was decidedly original quote I forgot to acquaint you he told his friend dr. Small that I had

Starting point is 01:28:40 treated it my gout a little cavalierly in its last two accesses finding one night that my foot gave me more pain after it was covered warm in bed I put it out of bed naked and perceiving it easier I let it remain longer than I at first designed and at length fell asleep leaving it there till morning the pain did not return and I grew well. Next winter, having a second attack, I repeated the experiment, not with such immediate success in diminishing the gout, but constantly with the effect of rendering it less painful, so that it permitted me to sleep every night. I should mention that it was my son who gave me the first intimation of this practice. He being in the old opinion that the gout was

Starting point is 01:29:26 to be drawn out by transpiration, and having heard me say that perspiration was carried on more copiously when the body was naked than when clothed, he put his foot out of bed to increase that discharge and found ease by it, which he thought a confirmation of the doctrine. But this method requires to be confirmed by more experiments before one can conscientiously recommend it. End quote.

Starting point is 01:29:51 If the gout was Franklin's chronic disorder, it by no means saved him from other maladies of the flesh. In 1755, he wrote a relative, quote, I have been ill these eight days, confined to my room and bed most of the time, but am now getting better, end quote. Soon after his arrival in England in 1757, he was seized with an intermittent fever, quote, got from making experiments over stagnant waters, which continued to harass me by frequent relapses, and quote.

Starting point is 01:30:24 No sooner was he well from this then, quote, I had a violent cold and something of a fever, and it was not long before I had another severe cold, which continued longer than the first, attended by great pain in my head, the top of which was very hot, and when the pain went off, very sore and tender. These fits of pain continued sometimes longer than at others, seldom less than twelve hours, and once thirty-six hours. I was now and then a little delirious, they cupped me on the back of the head, which seemed to ease me for the present. I took a great deal of bark both in substance and infusion, and too soon, thinking myself well, I ventured out twice to do a little business and forward the service I am engaged in, and both times

Starting point is 01:31:11 got fresh cold and fell down again. My good doctor, Father Gill, grew very angry with me for acting contrary to his cautions and directions, and obliged me to promise more observance for the future. I took so much bark in various ways that I began to abhor it. I durstead not take a vomit for fear of my head, but at last I was seized one morning with a vomiting and purging, the latter of which continued the greater part of the day, and I believe was a kind of crisis to the distemper, carrying it clear off, for ever since I feel quite lightsome, and am gathering strength, so I hope my seasoning is over, and that I shall enjoy better health during the rest of my stay in England."

Starting point is 01:31:55 And quote. Clearly, Franklin had forgotten poor Richard's admonition. to be not sick too late nor well too soon. As early as 1755, his eyesight was more or less affected, and four years later he was wearing glasses, for he, quote, could not find a woman friend at the oratorio in the foundling hospital, though I looked with all the eyes I had, not accepting even those I carried in my pocket, end quote. In 1776, he complains that, quote,

Starting point is 01:32:28 my eyes will now hardly serve me to write by night, and quote. And from this time on he was compelled to use the double spectacles, which he invented for his own benefit, the upper half of the lens being curved for distant vision, and the lower half for reading. With his waxing flesh came a certain clumsiness of body, which resulted in 1763, while on a journey, in a bad fall, from which he had barely recovered when he repeated the accident, and, quote, put my shoulder out. It is well reduced again, but is still affected with constant, though not very acute, pain. I am not yet able to travel rough roads, and must lie by a while as I can neither hold reins nor whip with my right hand till it grows stronger, end quote. If travel was

Starting point is 01:33:16 responsible for this first mishap, it served Franklin in better part upon other occasions. Quote, I wrote you that I have been very ill lately. I am now nearly well again, but feeble. he chronicled in 1766. Quote, "'Tomorrow I set out with my friend, Dr. Pringle, now Sir John, on a journey to Piermont, where he goes to drink the waters,

Starting point is 01:33:39 but I hope more for the air and the exercise, having been used, as you know, to have a journey once a year, the want of which last year has, I believe, hurt me, so that, though I was not quite to say sick, I was often ailing last winter and throughout the spring,'

Starting point is 01:33:55 and quote. In this hope, he was not disappointed, for upon his return, he informed a correspondent, quote, I have only time to assure you that I have been extremely hearty and well ever since my return from France, the complaints I had before I went on that tour being entirely dissipated, and fresh strength and activity, the effects of exercise and change of air, have taken place, end quote. The beneficial results, however, were by no means lasting, for very quickly he was, quote, meditating a journey somewhere, perhaps to Bath or Bristol, as I begin to find a little giddiness in my head,

Starting point is 01:34:34 a token that I want the exercise I have yearly been accustomed to. I was, he records at this time, sometimes vexed with an itching on the back, which I observed particularly after eating freely of beef, and sometimes after long confinement at writing with little exercise, I have felt sudden pungent pains in the flesh of different parts of the body, which I was told was scurbutic. A journey used to free me of them. My constitution, he observed, and too great confinement to business during the winter seemed to require the air and exercise of a long journey once a year, which I have now practiced for more than twenty years past." End of chapter 2, Part 2. Chapter 2, Part 3 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford.

Starting point is 01:35:30 This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Fry, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 2, Physique, Theories, and Appetites, Part 3. During a trip to Ireland in 1773, quote, after a plentiful dinner of fish the first day of my arrival, and quote, quote, Franklin was taken sick, and though not invalidated, he did not altogether recover for four or five weeks. Quote, on my return, I first observed a kind of scab or scurf on my head about the bigness of a shilling. Finding it did not heal, but rather increased, I mentioned it to my friend, Sir J. P., who advised a mercurial water to wash it, and some physic. It slowly left that place, but appeared in other parts of my head. he also advised my abstaining from salt meats and cheese which advice i did not much follow often forgetting it end quote a forgetfulness of poor richard as well for the almanac maker had counselled cheese and salt meat should be sparingly eat

Starting point is 01:36:39 this skin disease was increased by his voyage to america in seventeen seventy five during which he necessarily ate more salt meat than usual the diet and his sedentary life in Congress brought on frequent giddiness. He suffered much from a number of large boils, and apprehended dropsy. In his passage to France in 1776, quote, I lived chiefly on salt beef, the fowls being too hard from my teeth. But being poorly nourished, I was very weak at my arrival, boils continued to vex me, and the scurf extending over the small of my back, on my sides, my legs, and my arms, besides what continued under my hair, I applied to a physician who ordered me Mr. Belosto's pills and an infusion of a root called blank. I took the infusion a while, but it being disagreeable and finding no effect, I omitted it.

Starting point is 01:37:36 I continued to take the pills, but finding my teeth loosening and that I had lost three, I desisted the use of them. I found that bathing stopped the progress of the disorder. I therefore took the hot bath twice a week, two hours at a time, till this last summer. It always made me feel comfortable as I rubbed off the softened scurf in the warm water, and I otherwise enjoyed exceeding good health. I stated my case to Dr. Ingenhouse, and desired him to show it to Sir J. P. and obtain his advice. They sent me from London some medicine, but Dr. Ingenhaus proposed to come over soon, and the affair not pressing, I resolved to omit taking the medicine till his arrival. In July, 17770,

Starting point is 01:38:22 78, the disorder began to diminish at first slowly, but afterwards rapidly, and by the beginning of October it had quitted entirely my legs, feet, thighs, and arms, and my belly. A very little was left on my sides, more on the small of my back, but the whole daily diminishing." The disobedience to the orders and advice of his various doctors, already recorded, make Franklin's views on the profession worth glancing at, and possibly, possibly his reason for the neglect is to be found in his declaration that, quote, there are more old drunkards than old doctors, end quote. He is the best physician that knows the worthlessness of the most medicines, asserted poor Richard,

Starting point is 01:39:08 for many dishes, many diseases, many medicines, few cures. And even these few cures, the almanac maker was apparently not willing to give to the profession, for he claims that, quote, God heals and the doctor takes the fees, end quote. In one of Franklin's Squibs, he quotes with evident approval, the, quote, Italian epitaph upon a poor fool that killed himself with quacking, I was well, I would be better, I took the physic and died, end quote. And that this really represented his opinion of most drugs is shown in another instance. Jefferson relates an incident, which occurred during a discussion in the Continental Congress over a partial suspension of the Non-Importation Association. quote i was sitting by dr franklin and observed to him that i thought we should accept books that we ought not to exclude science even coming from an enemy he thought so too and i proposed the exception which was agreed to soon after it occurred that medicine should be accepted and i suggested that also to the doctor as to that said he i will tell you a story when i was in london in such a year there was a weekly club of physicians of which

Starting point is 01:40:23 Sir John Pringle was president, and I was invited by my friend Dr. Fothergill to attend when convenient. Their rule was to propose a thesis one week and discuss it the next. I happened there when the question to be considered was whether physicians had, on the whole, done most good or harm. The young members, particularly, having discussed it very learnedly and eloquently till the subject was exhausted, one of them observed to Sir John Pringle that although it was not usual for the president to take part in a debate, yet they were desirous to know his opinion on the question. He said they must first tell him whether, under the appellation of physicians, they meant to include old women. If they did, he thought they had done more good than harm, otherwise more harm than good.

Starting point is 01:41:11 End quote. Yet during all his life, Franklin's closest friends were, for the most part, medical men. In Philadelphia, Thomas Bond, Phineas Bond, John Bard, Thomas Cadwallader, and John Jones, in London, Sir John Pringle, Sir William Watson, John Fothergill, William Hewson, and Edward Bancroft, and on the continent, Barbou Dubourg, Eganhaus, and Giotin, were among his greatest intimates and co-workers. Upon one occasion, in writing to his honored father and mother, he told them, quote, I apprehend I am too busy in prescribing and meddling in the doctor's sphere when any of you complain of ales in your letters. But as I always employ a physician myself when any disorder arises in my family, I submit implicitly to his orders in everything, so I hope you consider my advice when I give any,

Starting point is 01:42:06 only as a mark of my goodwill, and put no more of it in practice than happens to agree with what your doctor directs." He refers also as an object-like. to Lord Chatham, of whom, quote, it is said that his constitution is totally destroyed and gone, partly through the violence of the disease, and partly by his own continual quacking with it, end quote. During the last year of his life, too, he drew up a plan for a medical school. In another way, Franklin proved that his girds at physicians and medicine did not wholly represent his real opinion. In 1751, his autobiography states, quote, Dr. Thomas Bond, a particular friend of mine, conceived the idea of establishing a hospital

Starting point is 01:42:53 in Philadelphia. But the proposal, being a novelty in America, and at first not well understood, he met with but small success. At length he came to me, with the compliment, that he found there was no such thing as carrying a public-spirited project through without my being concerned in it. I inquired into the nature and probable utility of his scheme, and receiving from him a very satisfactory explanation, I not only subscribed to it myself, but engaged heartily in the design of procuring subscriptions from others. Previously, however, to the solicitation, I endeavored to prepare the minds of the people by writing on the subject in the newspapers, which was my usual custom in these cases, but which he had omitted, end quote. Not content with these newspaper

Starting point is 01:43:42 articles, Franklin later drew up and published in pamphlet form, quote, some account of the Pennsylvania Hospital, end quote, from which it is learned that his subscription was 25 pounds, and that for a number of years he was one of the Board of Governors. He also succeeded in obtaining a grant of funds from the Assembly by a shrewd bit of management, and long after, he declared, quote, I do not remember any of my political maneuvers, the success of which gave me at the time more pleasure, or wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily excused myself for having made use of cunning, end quote. Nothing perhaps better showed his attitude toward all quacks than a service he rendered in 1784. Mesmer, after being discredited in Vienna, chiefly at the hands of Franklin's

Starting point is 01:44:31 friend Ingenhaus, came to Paris in 1778 and began the practice of his pretended cural, but with very slight success, Franklin himself then happening to be the moment's fashion. In time, however, his seances became, in the words of one writer, the Affair du Bon Ton, while another declared that, quote, all the world wished to be magnetized, end quote. Such was the craze that a mere deputy of Mesmer is said to have cleared 100,000 pounds within six months, and the frenzy became so serious that the government finally interfered. A commission was appointed, made up of the four leading physicians of the faculty of Paris, to which five members of the Royal Academy were added, of whom franklin was named first and such well-known men and scientists as la roy de bourri gaotin and lavoisier associated with him

Starting point is 01:45:26 after investigation they made a report which in jefferson's words gave the compound of fraud and folly its death-wound mesmer's thesis that in mankind there was but one nature one distemper and one remedy end quote received humorous though destructive treatment at the hands of these scientists The Commission recognizing the action of the imagination upon the animal frame and the consequent nervous influence over disease were able to repeat all mesmer's alleged cures, not by his methods, but by simply making his patients believe that they were employing his methods. More destructive still, they pointed out that there was nothing new in the alleged science, all mesmer's experiences and processes having been practiced fully a century before he claimed their discovery. The bubble was pricked and mesmer disappeared, to die long after, quite forgotten. Another charlatan with whom Franklin came in contact about this time was the pretended Count Cagliostro, who later was to win a notoriety as great as mesmer's, in connection with the diamond necklace affair, but who at this time was still an obscure doctor. He was recommended to Franklin by his friend Briand during an illness, but whether he ever

Starting point is 01:46:43 treated him with his secret remedy for the gravel is not known. The tendency to form gravel or stone, for which Franklin needed medical aid, was probably inherited, for his father Josiah had died of the trouble, and his brother John had been a long-sufferer from it. With Franklin, it seems to have first developed in 1783, when his grandson Temple notified Vergen that, quote, My grandfather's gravel has now turned into the gout, which prevents his appearing at court today as he intended, end quote. And Franklin apologized to the minister because, quote, being now disabled by the stone, which in the easiest carriage gives me pain, I find I can no longer pay my devours personally at Versailles, which I hope will be excused, and quote.

Starting point is 01:47:32 A little later he wrote to John Jay, quote, it is true, as you have heard, that I have the stone, but not that I had thoughts of being cut for it. It is as yet very tolerable. It is, as yet, very tolerable. It gives me no pain but when in a carriage on the pavement or when I make some sudden quick movement. If I can prevent its growing larger, which I hope to do by abstemious living and gentle exercise, I can go on pretty comfortably with it to the end of my journey, which can now be at no great distance. I am cheerful, enjoy the company of my friends, sleep well, have sufficient appetite, and my stomach performs well its functions. The latter is very material to the preservation of health.

Starting point is 01:48:12 i therefore take no drugs lest i should disorder it you may judge that my disease is not very grievous since i am more afraid of the medicines than of the malady end quote as this extract indicates franklin took his suffering cheerily as to myself he told one friend i continue as hardy as at my age could be expected and as cheerful as ever you knew me and to another he expressed the hope that he might live as long as i have done and to another he expressed the hope that he might live as long as i have done and with as much health, who continue as hardy as a book, with a hand still steady, as they may see by this writing. To still a third, he wrote, For my own part, I do not find that I grow any older, being arrived at seventy, and considering that by traveling farther in the same road, I should probably be led to the grave, I stopped short, turned about, and walked back again, which done these four years you may now call me 66. Advise these old friends of my, of ours to follow my example.

Starting point is 01:49:14 Keep up your spirits, and that will keep up your bodies. You will no more stoop under the weight of age than if you had swallowed a hand spike. His manner of attaining such a frame of mind was simple. One means of becoming content with one's situation is the

Starting point is 01:49:30 comparing it with a worse. Thus, when I consider how many terrible diseases the human body is liable to, I comfort myself that only three incurable ones have fallen to my share. viz, the gout, the stone, and old age, and these have not yet deprived me of my natural cheerfulness, my delight in books, and enjoyment of social conversation." An amusing assistant to the Royal Commission in giving a quietus to mesmerism was the invention

Starting point is 01:49:59 just at the time that craze was highest, of a balloon, with a consequent shifting of interest by the fickle Paris public. Franklin himself followed the experiments of Montgoflié, the inventor, with the closest detention, not merely because of his scientific interest, but as well because of a personal one. The progress made in the management of balloons, he told a correspondent, has been rapid. Yet I fear it will hardly become a common carriage in my time, though being easiest of all of watchures, it would be extremely convenient to me, now that my malady forbids the use of old ones over a pavement. The pain all motion gave Franklin at one time threatened to call his continuance in france even after congress had consented to his return for his french friends insisted that he could not bear the journey and the sufferer himself hesitated the difficulty was finally overcome by the kindness of marie antoinette

Starting point is 01:50:57 when i was at passeau franklin recorded i could not bear a wheel-carriage and being discouraged from my project of descending the seine in a boat by the difficulties and tediousness of its navigation in so dry a season I accepted the offer of one of the king's litters, carried by large mules. I found the motion did not much incommode me. It was one of the queens, carried by two very large mules, which walked steadily and easily, so that I bore the motion very well. I came to have de Grasse in a litter, he wrote a friend from Portsmouth, and hither in the packet-boat, and instead of being hurt by the journey or voyage, I really find myself very much better, not having suffered so little for the time these two years

Starting point is 01:51:44 passed. I was not in the least inconvenienced by the voyage, but my children and my friend Mr. Veyard were very sick. In this connection, it is interesting to note that Franklin was apparently never a victim to sea sickness in any of his eight ocean crossings. His voyage to America appears to have benefited him, as much as travel always did. He accepted public offices and fulfilled their duties, and he seemed indeed to take pride in what strength yet remained to him, for in showing a friend a book, quote, so large that it was with but the greatest difficulty the doctor was able to raise it from the low shelf and lift it onto the table, with that senile ambition common to old people, he insisted on doing it himself,

Starting point is 01:52:28 and would permit no person to assist him merely to show us how much strength he had remaining, and quote. Yet evidences of his physical disabilities were not wanting. As president of Pennsylvania, he had to be carried to the state house in a litter, and in the federal convention he had all his speeches read by his colleague James Wilson, it being inconvenient to the doctor to remain on his feet. In 1788, a material change occurred in his health, of which he sent word to Idenhouse. quote, you may remember the cutaneous malady I formerly complained of, and for which you and Dr. Pringle favored me with prescriptions and advice. It vexed me near 14 years, and was, at the beginning of this year as bad as ever, covering almost my whole body, except my face and hands.

Starting point is 01:53:20 When a fit of the gout came on, without very much pain, but a swelling in both feet, which at last appeared also in both knees and then in my hands. As these swellings, in increased and extended, the other malady diminished, and at length disappeared entirely. Those swellings have some time since begun to fall, and are now almost gone. Perhaps the cutaneous disease may return, or perhaps it is worn out. I may hereafter let you know what happens. I am, on the whole, much weaker than when it began to leave me." End quote.

Starting point is 01:53:55 Another twelve-month, quote, found me very ill with a severe fit of the stone, which followed a fall I had on the stone steps that lead into my garden, whereby I was much bruised and my wrists sprained, so as to render me incapable of writing for several weeks." From the consequences of this fall the doctor did not recover, and henceforth was obliged to spend the most of his time in bed. Of his health, he wrote, late in 1789, quote, I can give you no good account. I have a long time been afflicted with almost constant and grievous pain. to combat which I have been obliged to have recourse to opium,

Starting point is 01:54:34 which indeed has afforded me some ease from time to time, but then it has taken away my appetite, and so impeded my digestion, that I am become totally emaciated, and little remains of me but a skeleton covered with a skin, end quote. His friends urged him to have an operation performed, but he refused, and John Adams stated, quote, on the question, for example, whether to be cut for the stone,

Starting point is 01:55:00 the young, with a longer prospect of years, think these overbalanced the pain of the operation. Dr. Franklin, at the age of 80, thought his residuum of life not worth that price. I should have thought with him, even taking the stone out of the scale, end quote. In April 1790, Franklin was seized with the illness which terminated his life, an account of which was drawn up by his attending Dr. John Jones. Quote, The stone, with which he had been afflicted for several years, had for the last twelve months confined him chiefly to his bed, and during the extremely painful paroxysms he was obliged to take large doses of laudanum to mitigate his tortures.

Starting point is 01:55:43 Still in the intervals of pain, he not only amused himself with reading and conversing cheerfully with his family and a few friends who visited him, but was often employed in doing business of a public as well as private nature, with various persons who waited on him for that perfect. purpose, and in every instance displayed not only that readiness and disposition of doing good, which was the distinguishing characteristic of his life, but the fullest and clearest possession of his uncommon mental abilities, and not infrequently indulged himself in those judeous and entertaining anecdotes, which were the delight of all who heard him. About sixteen days before his death, he was seized with a feverish indisposition, without any particular symptoms attending it till the third or fourth day when he complained of a pain in the left

Starting point is 01:56:31 breast, which increased till it became extremely acute, attended with a cough and laborious breathing. During this state, when the severity of his pain drew forth a groan of complaint, he would observe that he was afraid he did not bear them as he ought, acknowledged his grateful sense of the many blessings he had received from that supreme being, who had raised him from small and low beginnings to such high rank and consideration among men, and made no doubt but his present afflictions were kindly intended to wean him from a world in which he was no longer fit to act the part assigned him. In this frame of body and mind he continued till five days before his death, when his pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him and his family were flattering

Starting point is 01:57:18 themselves with the hopes of his recovery, when an impostimation which had formed itself in his lungs suddenly burst and discharged a great quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had sufficient strength to do it. But as that failed, the organs of respiration became gradually oppressed, a calm, lethargic state succeeded, and on the 17th of April 1790, about 11 o'clock at night, he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of 84 years and three months." And quote. According to John Adams, quote, it was the opinion of his own physician, Dr. Jones.

Starting point is 01:58:00 He fell a sacrifice at last, not to the stone, but to his own theory, having caught a violent cold, which finally choked him, by sitting for some hours at a window with the cold air blowing upon him. End quote. Nine men and ten are suicides, asserted poor Richard. End of Chapter 2, Part 3. Chapter 3 Part 1 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 3, Education, Part 1.

Starting point is 01:58:47 If the commonly accepted use of the term education as a synonym for the word schooling were adopted in the case of Franklin, there would be little need to consider this side of his personal. I was put to the grammar school at eight years of age, he states, and remained there not quite one year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be the head of it, and further was removed 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 meantime, from a view of the expense 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. George Brownell, very successful in his profession generally, and that by mild encouraging methods. Under him I acquired fair writing pretty

Starting point is 01:59:57 soon, but I failed in the arithmetic and made no progress in it. Thus began and ended all the regular tuition Franklin ever received, but slight as it was, he never forgot its benefits, and in his will was the clause, quote, I was born in Boston, New England, and owe my first instructions in literature to the free grammar schools established there. I therefore give one hundred pounds sterling to my executors to be by them, paid over to the managers or directors of the free schools in my native town of Boston, to be by them put out to interest, and so continued at interest forever, which interest annually shall be laid out in silver medals,

Starting point is 02:00:40 and given as honorary rewards annually by the directors of the said free schools belonging to the said town in such manner as to the discretion of the selectmen of the said town shall seem meet." End quote. The doors of wisdom are never shut, affirmed poor Richard, and if Franklin was a pupil for only two years, he seemed never to have ceased to be a student. The same proverb maker asserted that God helps them, that helped themselves, and by continuous self-culture, his creator became almost encyclopedic in his knowledge, and one of the best-informed and most learned men of his generation. As early as 1756, John Adams had

Starting point is 02:01:24 heard of, quote, Mr. Franklin of Philadelphia, a prodigious genius cultivated with prodigious industry, end quote. Franklin advised, read much, but not too many books, but as he himself said, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. And during his whole life, he was an omnivorous devourer of books. In his autobiography, he mentions, quote, my early readiness in learning to read, which must have been very early, as I did not remember when I could not read." The taste was the more remarkable when the literature at his command is considered. From the inventory of his father's property, it was learned that Josiah Franklin died possessed of two large Bibles, a concordance, Willard's complete body of divinity, as dull

Starting point is 02:02:15 a folio of nearly a thousand pages as was probably ever printed, written by the clergyman who married Josiah and Abaya Franklin, and a post. parcel of small books, more fully described by Franklin, who said, quote, My father's little library consisted of books in polemic divinity, most of which I read, and have since often regretted that, at the time when I had such a thirst for knowledge, more proper books had not fallen in my way, end quote. Yet even in this parcel of Dryas dust theology, the boy found some things to enjoy. Quote, Plutarch's lives there was, in which I read abundantly, and I still think that time spent to great advantage. There was also a book

Starting point is 02:02:59 of Dr. Foes called an essay on Projects, and another of Dr. Mathers 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. This little tractate made so great an impression on the youthful mind that full 70 years after reading it, Franklin wrote to the author's son, Quote, 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 Essays to Do Good,

Starting point is 02:03:36 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 doer of good 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." End quote. Whatever might be the posity of his father's library, the boy had a natural bent for reading and could not be kept from books. From a child, he declared, I was fond of reading, and all the little money that

Starting point is 02:04:18 came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased 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 Chapman's books, and cheap, 40 or 50 in all, end quote. The taste was no doubt whetted by the influence of his uncle Benjamin, who lived for a time in Boston, and who took not a little interest in the intellectual development of his namesake. Before the boy was five years of age, his uncle began sending him monetary poems, acrostics, and letters of advice. He was not merely a confirmed scribbler, but a book collector as well, and many years after his death, Franklin became possessed of part of his library

Starting point is 02:05:06 by a curious chance. Yesterday, a very odd accident happened, he wrote, which I must mention to you as it relates to your grandfather. A person that deals with a person that deals with a person that deals in old books, of whom I sometimes buy, acquainted me that he had a curious collection of pamphlets bound in eight volumes folio, and 24 volumes quarto and octavo, which he thought from the subjects I might like to have, and that he would sell them cheap. I desired to see them, and he brought them to me. On examining, I found that they contained all the principal pamphlets and papers on public affairs that had been printed here from the restoration down to 1715. In one of the blank leaves at the beginning of each volume, the collector had written the titles of the pieces contained in it and the price they cost him.

Starting point is 02:05:57 Also notes in the margin of many of the pieces, and the collector, I find, from the handwriting and various other circumstances, was my uncle Benjamin. Wherefore, I the more readily agreed to buy them. I suppose he parted with them when he left England and came to Boston, which was about the year 1716 or 1717, now more than 50 years since. In whose hands they have been all this time I know not. The oddity is that the bookseller, who could suspect nothing of any relation between me and the collector, should happen to make me the offer of them.

Starting point is 02:06:33 It was this bookish inclination which at length determined my father to make me a printer, Franklin states, and one of the incidental advantages of the trade to him was that 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

Starting point is 02:06:58 when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted. And after some time an ingenious tradesman, Mr. Matthew Adams, who had a pretty collection of books and who frequented our printing house, took notice of me, invited me to his,

Starting point is 02:07:15 library and very kindly lent me such books as I chose to read." Another advantage which the apprenticeship brought the lad was some money to spend. As already told, Franklin, when he became a vegetarian, agreed with his brother, quote, 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." In this way, the boy amassed a considerable library. Though he sold some of his books to raise a little bunny,

Starting point is 02:07:54 as a preliminary to becoming a runaway apprentice, those that were left were in sufficient number to secure him notice from an important personage. Quote, the then-governor of New York, Burnett, son of Bishop Burnett, hearing from the captain that a young man, one of his passengers, had a great many books, desired that he would bring me to see him.

Starting point is 02:08:15 The governor treated me with great civility, showed 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 honor to take notice of me, which to a poor boy like me was very pleasing." This bookishness brought a broadening and cultivation that made the boy sensitive to his previous failure in arithmetic, and quote, now it was that being on some occasion made ashamed of my ignorance and figures

Starting point is 02:08:47 which I had failed in learning when at school, I took Cocker's book of arithmetic and went through the whole by myself with great ease. I also read Sellers and Shermy's books of navigation and became acquainted with the little geometry they contained, but never proceeded far in that science, end quote. Henceforth Franklin seems to have been a good accountant, and to have have taken a special enjoyment in the problems offered by mathematics. Although he acknowledged that they were merely D'Fecille nougé, incapable of any useful application, he confessed to the late learned Mr. Logan that, quote,

Starting point is 02:09:25 in my younger days, having once some leisure, which I still think I might have employed more usefully, I had amused myself in making magic squares, and at length had acquired such a knack at it that I could fill the cells of any magic square of reasonable size, with a series of numbers, as fast as I could write them, disposed in such a manner as that the sums of every row, horizontal, perpendicular, or diagonal, should be equal. But not being satisfied with these, which I looked on as common and easy things, I had imposed on myself

Starting point is 02:09:56 more difficult tasks, and succeeded in making other magic squares with a variety of properties and much more curious, end quote. What is more, when Logan called his attention to a square of even greater complexity, quote, not being willing to be outdone, even in the size of my square, I went home and made that evening a magical square of 16, end quote, which Franklin deemed to be the most magically magical of any magic square ever made by any magician. In this, the properties were, quote, and here in the text are shown the two magic squares described. One, that every straight row, horizontal or vertical, of eight numbers added together, makes 260, and half each row, half 260.

Starting point is 02:10:46 2. That the bent row of eight numbers ascending and descending diagonally, viz, from 16 ascending to 10 and from 23 descending to 17, and every one of its parallel bent rows of eight numbers makes 260. Also, the bent row from 52 descending to 54 and from 43 ascending to 45, and every one of its parallel bent rows of eight numbers makes 260. Also, the bent row from 45 to 43 descending to the left and from 23 to 17 descending to the right, and every one of its parallel bent rows of eight numbers makes 260. Also, the bent row from 52 to 54 descending to the right and from 10 to 16 descending to the left,

Starting point is 02:11:36 and every one of its parallel bent rows of H numbers makes 260. Also, the parallel bent rows next to the above mentioned, which are shortened to three numbers ascending and three descending, etc., as from 53 to 4 ascending, and from 29 to 44 descending, make with the two corner numbers 260. Also the two numbers 14-61 ascending and 3619 descending, with the lower four numbers situated like them, viz, 51, descending, and 32-47 ascending, makes 260.

Starting point is 02:12:16 And lastly, the four corner numbers with the four middle numbers make 260. End quote. Not contented with this, he composed also a magic circle consisting of eight concentric circles and eight radial rows, filled with a series of numbers from 12 to 75, inclusive, so disposed as that the number of each circle or each radial row being added to the central number 12, they make exactly 360. The brief time spent by Franklin in London as a journeyman printer was very important to him in an intellectual sense because of an opportunity it afforded him.

Starting point is 02:12:55 quote while i lodged 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 esteemed a great advantage and i made as much use of it as i could end quote in this arrangement probably lay the germ of one of franklin's worthiest undertakings upon his return to philadelphia after his london's sojourn he quote formed most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement called the junto of a half-debating and half-social character which was the best school of philosophy morality and politics that then existed in the province for our queries which were read the week preceding their discussion put us upon reading with attention upon the several subjects, that we might speak more to the purpose, and here, too, we acquired better habits of conversation, everything being studied in our rules which might prevent our disgusting each other. About 1730, a proposition was made by me, that since our books were often referred to in our disquisitions upon the queries, it might be convenient to us to have them altogether where we met, that upon occasion they might be

Starting point is 02:14:24 consulted, and by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we should, while we liked to keep them together, have each of us the advantage of using the books of all the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole. It was liked and agreed to, and we filled one end of the room with such books as we could best spare. The number was not so great as we expected, and though they had been of great use, yet some inconveniences occurred, for want of due care of them, the collection after about a year, was separated, and each took his books home again. And now I set on foot my first project of a public nature, that for a subscription library. I drew up the proposals, got them put into form by our great scrivener, Brockton,

Starting point is 02:15:12 and, by the help of my friends in the Junto, procured 50 subscribers of 40 shillings each to begin with, and 10 shillings a year for 50 years the term our company was to continue. We afterwards obtained a charter, the company being increased to 100. This was the mother of all the North American subscription libraries, now so numerous. It has become a great thing itself, and continually increasing. These libraries have improved, 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

Starting point is 02:15:53 so generally made throughout the colonies in defense of their privileges." After the library was well started, Franklin continued to work for it in many ways. He aided it to obtain books from Europe, served as secretary for several years, and was for long a director. But the institution amply repaid his trouble, for in his own words, quote, this library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study for which I set apart an hour or two each day, and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me. Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself, end quote. In the last year of his life, the library company outgrew its quarters, and he was asked,

Starting point is 02:16:41 by the then Board of Trustees in recognition of the fact that the people of Philadelphia were, quote, indebted to Dr. Franklin for the first idea, as well as execution of the plan of a public library, end quote, to write an inscription to be placed in the new building, which should, quote, perpetuate a grateful remembrance of it, end quote. Franklin accordingly prepared a draft, but carefully omitted any mention of himself in the proposed inscription, and he even wrote it at first without the words cheerfully, and at the instance of one of them. However, in compliance with the urging of the members, he added them, though, quote, he still thinks it would be better without them, end quote. The committee accepted his essay,

Starting point is 02:17:31 but inserted a line properly commemorating his share. As Franklin was instrumental in founding a circulating library, that those not possessing books might obtain the use of them, so he made his own collection of books serve a similar purpose. But he seems to have been as heedless a lender of books as the proverbial borrower is, and recurrent advertisements in his paper show his lapses of memory, and his attempt to jog the equally forgetful minds of those he had obliged. Quote, the person that borrowed B. Franklin's Law Book of this province is hereby desired to return it, he having forgot to whom he lent it. Quote, Lent's some time since a book entitled Campbell's Vitruvius Britannico's,

Starting point is 02:18:17 the person who has it is desired to return it to the printer hereof, also the first volume of Clarendon's history. Quote, Lent above 12 month ago, the second volume of select trials for murders, robberies, rapes, sodomy, coining, frauds, and other offenses at the Sessions House in the old Bailey, which, not being returned to the owner, he desires the property. person who has the book in possession to send it to the printer of this paper. Quote, Lent to Captain Lowry and left by him in the hands of some of his acquaintance in Philadelphia, the second volume of state trials wrote on the title page, William Shaw. The person who has it

Starting point is 02:19:00 is requested to bring it to the printer hereof. Quote, Lent and forgot to whom Woods Institutes of the Laws of England, Folio. The person that has it is desired to return to turn it to the printer hereof. Quote, Lent but forgot to whom, the second volume of Pamela, also the first volume of the Turkish spy. The persons that have them are desired to send them to the post office. End quotes.

Starting point is 02:19:28 Franklin's counsel to a woman friend probably gives his own system of reading. Quote, I would advise you, he said, to read with a pen in your hand, and enter in a little book short hints of what you find that is curious, or that be useful, for this will be the best method of imprinting such particulars in your memory, where they will be ready, either for practice on some future occasion, if they are matters of utility, or at least to adorn and improve your conversation, if they are rather points of curiosity. And as many of the terms of science are such as you cannot have met with them in your common reading, and may therefore be unacquainted with, I think it would be well for you to have

Starting point is 02:20:07 a good dictionary at hand, to consult immediately when you meet with a word, you do not comprehend the precise meaning of. This may at first seem troublesome and interrupting, but it is a trouble that will daily diminish, as you will daily find less and less occasion for your dictionary, as you become more acquainted with the terms, and in the meantime you will read with more satisfaction, because with more understanding. When any point occurs in which you would be glad to have farther information than your book affords you, I beg you would not in the least apprehend that I should think it a trouble to receive and answer your questions. It will be a pleasure and no trouble.

Starting point is 02:20:46 For though I may not be able, out of my own little stock of knowledge, to afford you what you require, I can easily direct you to the books where it may most readily be found." End quote. His own experience served to teach Franklin that a strong mind needs no schooling to develop it, and that a poor mind is not strengthened by study. poor Richard made merry over the many witty men whose brains cannot fill their bellies and over those who would live by their wits but break for want of stock a learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one he asserted and claimed that

Starting point is 02:21:26 of learned fools i have seen ten times ten of unlearned wise men i have seen a hundred yet franklin was far from showing the usual contempt of the self-taught man for an academic education. On his settling in Philadelphia, he found, quote, two things which I regretted, and one of these was, there being no provision

Starting point is 02:21:48 for the complete education of youth. I, therefore, in 1743, drew up a proposal for establishing an academy, end quote. But the country then being engaged in a war, he let the scheme lie

Starting point is 02:22:01 for a time dormant. Peace made, he resumed the project in good earnest, quote, the first step was to associate in the design a number of active friends. The next was to write and publish a pamphlet entitled proposals relating to the education of youth in Pennsylvania, end quote. In this he outlined what presumably was his ideal of an education. There was to be a house in a high and dry situation, not far from a river, having a garden, orchard, meadow, and a

Starting point is 02:22:34 field or two, a library and an equipment of scientific apparatus, the scholars were to live plainly and temperately, and to be, quote, frequently exercised in running, leaping, wrestling, and swimming. As to their studies, it would be well if they could be taught everything that is useful and everything that is ornamental. But art is long and their time is short. It is therefore proposed that they learn those things that are likely to be most useful and most ornamental, regard being had for the several professions for which they are intended." Franklin's own predilection went no further than to procure the means of a good English education, and he particularly insisted in his pamphlet that the rector of the school should be a correct,

Starting point is 02:23:22 pure speaker, and writer of English. A number of my friends to whom I communicated the proposal concurred with me in these ideas, but other persons of wealth and learning, whose subscription and countenance we should need, being of opinion that it ought to include the learned languages, I submitted my judgment to theirs, retaining, however, a strong prepossession in favor of my first plan, and resolving to preserve as much of it as I could, and to nourish the English school by every means in my power."

Starting point is 02:23:54 End quote. In eight of this, he published in 1751, a scheme of an English school, and as president of the trustees did what he could to prevent his purpose from being stifled by an undue regard for classical learning. But though, in the words of a contemporary, Franklin was the soul of the whole project, he could not prevent the whaning of one or the waxing of the other. The Reverend William Smith, who became rector by Franklin's choice and influence, gave him no aid in his fight against the dead languages, and allowed the English school to lapse. As if this were not a sufficient miscarriage of Franklin's hopes, the Academy, as it grew into a college, became an organ of politics and a hotbed from which issued many of the pamphlet and newspaper attacks

Starting point is 02:24:41 on its chief founder and the party with which he was associated, the rector himself being the most active in the paper war. With far more bitterness than was usual with Franklin, he wrote of these attacks. Quote, before I left Philadelphia, everything to be done in the Academy, me was privately preconcerted in a cabal without my knowledge or participation and accordingly carried into execution. The schemes of public parties made it seem requisite to lessen my influence wherever it could be lessened. The trustees had reaped 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 me,

Starting point is 02:25:24 they laid me aside. I wish success to the schools, nevertheless, and am sorry to hear that the whole number of scholars does not at present exceed 140." End of Chapter 3, Part 1. Chapter 3, Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libravox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 3, Education, Part 2. After the Revolution, when the old local contests were dead and buried, Franklin, upon his return to America, received an address of welcome from the institution he had been so largely instrumental in founding,

Starting point is 02:26:18 now become the University of Pennsylvania, and was promptly elected president of the trustees, the same position he had held almost 50 years before. His views on the subject of ancient and modern learning had not changed, however, and almost the last paper ever penned by him was one entitled, observations relative to the intentions of the original founders of the Academy in Philadelphia, which is a plea for an English rather than a classical education, and which, in his usual happy manner, he brought to an end with an anecdote to point his argument. There is in mankind, he wrote, an unaccountable prejudice in favor of ancient customs and habitudes,

Starting point is 02:27:01 which inclines to the continuance of them after the circumstances which formerly made them useful ceased to exist a multitude of instances might be given but it may suffice to mention one hats were once thought a useful part of a dress they kept the head warm and screened it from the violent impression of the sun's rays and from the rain snow hail etc gradually however as the wearing of wigs and hair nicely dressed prevailed. The putting on of hats was disused by genteel people, lest the curious arrangements of the curls and powdering should be disordered, and umbrellas began to supply their place. Yet still, our considering the hat as a part of the dress continues so far to prevail that a man of fashion is not thought dressed without having one, or something like one, about him, which he carries under his arm. So that there are a multitude of the politer people in all the courts in capital cities of Europe, who have never, nor their fathers before them, worn a hat otherwise

Starting point is 02:28:07 than as a chaperre, though the utility of such a mode of wearing it is by no means apparent, and it is attended not only with some expense, but with a degree of constant trouble. The still prevailing custom of having schools for teaching generally our children in these days, the Latin and Greek languages, I consider, therefore, in no other light than as the school. the chaper bra of modern literature. The Philadelphia Academy was only the principal of Franklin's endeavors to foster education, and he gave time and money in aid of several institutions. With others, he labored to make education commoner by establishing an English school

Starting point is 02:28:49 at Reading, York, Easton, Lancaster, Hanover, and Skipak. He was a member of the Society for the Education of the Germans in Pennsylvania. In 1760, he became one of what were termed Dr. Bray's associates, having for an object the founding of schools for the education of Negroes and Indians, and he served for a time as chairman of the society. After the revolution, he outlined in a letter to Washington a scheme for the improvement of free Negroes, which included a committee of education that was to superintend the school instruction of the children of free blacks. It is amusing to note that once he was made to contribute to an educational scheme of which he disapproved.

Starting point is 02:29:35 Whitefield, the itinerant preacher, was inspired by a sight of the miserable situation of the new colonists in Georgia, with the idea of building an orphan house there, in which the helpless children might be supported and educated. Quote, I did not disprove of the design, but as Georgia was then destitute of materials and workmen, and it was proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been better to have built the house here and brought the children to it. This I advised, but he was resolute in his first project, rejected my counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons,

Starting point is 02:30:18 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 giving the coppers another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that and determined me to give the silver and he finished so admirably that i emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish gold and all end quote an interesting educational view he held was on women's training and won far in advance not merely of his time but even of to-day having established a printer in south carolina on a profit-sharing agreement his decease threatened a loss to franklin but the business was continued by his widow who being born and bred in holland where as i have been informed the knowledge of accounts makes a part of female education she not only sent me as clear a state as she was as she was born and bred in holland where as i have been informed the knowledge of accounts makes a part of female education she not only sent me as she had sent me as she was could find of the transactions passed, but continued to account with the greatest regularity and exactness every quarter afterwards, and managed the business with such success that she

Starting point is 02:31:35 not only brought up reputably a family of children, but at the expiration of the term, was able to purchase of me the printing-house, and establish her son in it. I mentioned this affair chiefly for the sake of recommending that branch of education for our young females, as likely to be of more use to them and their children. children in case of widowhood than either music or dancing by preserving them from losses by imposition of crafty men and enabling them to continue perhaps a profitable mercantile house with established correspondence till a son is grown up fit to undertake and go on with it to the lasting advantage and enriching of the family end quote franklin put more stress on this practical

Starting point is 02:32:20 training for women than he did on even the elements of education Though he told his wife that he wished his daughter, Sally, would be a little more careful of her spelling. Of one correspondent, he asked, quote, Why do you never write to me? I used to love to read your letters, and I regret your long silence. They were seasoned with good sense and friendship, and even your spelling pleased me. Polly knows, I think, the worst spelling the best, end quote. So when Jane Meekam asked him to pray forgive the very bad spelling,

Starting point is 02:32:53 and every other defect, and don't let it mortify you that such a scrawl came from your sister, he answered, You need not be concerned in writing to me about your bad spelling, for in my opinion, as our alphabet now stands, bad spelling, or what is so-called, is generally the best, as conforming to the sound of the letters and of the words. Then, as usual, to reinforce his own opinion, he goes on with a story. Quote, a gentleman received a letter, in which for,

Starting point is 02:33:23 these words not finding brown at home I delivered your message to his Y F the gentleman finding it bad spelling and therefore not very intelligible called his lady to help him read it between them they picked out the meaning of all but the Y F which they could not understand the lady proposed calling her chambermaid because Betty says she has the best knack at reading bad spelling of anyone I know Betty came in and and was surprised that neither sir nor madam could tell what Y-F was. Why, she says Y-F spells wife. What else can it spell?

Starting point is 02:34:02 And indeed it is a much better as well as shorter method of spelling wife than W-I-F-E, which in reality spells W. I think, his sister replied, Sir and Madam were very deficient in sagacity that they could not find out Y-F as well as Betty, but sometimes the Bettys have the brightest understanding. end quote. As this would suggest, Franklin early became a spelling reformer and went so far as to prepare a new alphabet, thinking a reformation not only necessary but practicable, though he foresaw that it must come gradually, if at all. And as one step toward making clear the absurdity of English spelling, he drew up his petition of the letter Z, in which he complains, quote, that he is not only actually placed at the tail of the alphabet,

Starting point is 02:34:55 when he had as much right as any other to be at the head, but is by this injustice of his enemies totally excluded from the word wise, and his place injuriously filled by a little hissing a crooked serpentine venomous letter called S, when it must be evident to your worship and to all the world that WISE does not spell wise but wice. Your petitioner therefore prays that the alphabet may by your censorial authority be, reversed, and that in consideration of his long-suffering and patience he may be placed at the head of it, and S may be turned out of the word wise, and the petitioner employed instead of him." As his attitude toward the classics suggests, Franklin did not set high value on college

Starting point is 02:35:45 training. One of Mrs. Dugood's letters, contributed by the printer's apprentice to his brother's newspaper, shortly after his father had reached the decision not to send his son to Harvard, discusses that Temple of Learning and the New England tendency of every peasant who had the wherewithal to send one of his children at least to this famous place, in which, as most of them consulted their own purses instead of their children's capacities, I observed a great many, yea, the most part of those who were traveling thither, were little better than dunces and blockheads, so that after graduation, many of them from henceforth for want of patrimony lived as poor as church mice, being unable to dig and ashamed to beg, and to live by their wits it was impossible, end quote.

Starting point is 02:36:33 62 years after this was written, in the little account of the American Indians, Franklin told a story evidently intended to illustrate his averment that, quote, most of the learning in use is of no great use. and to show the difference between book knowledge and real knowledge, at an Indian treaty in 1744, he relates, quote, after the principal business was settled, the commissioners from Virginia acquainted the Indians by a speech that there was at Williamsburg a college

Starting point is 02:37:03 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. We are convinced, the Indians replied, 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

Starting point is 02:37:28 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 as yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formally 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

Starting point is 02:37:52 woods, unable to bear cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, nor 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 obliged by your kind offer, though 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 men of them." End quote. In a more concrete form, too, Franklin testified to the slight value he placed upon college training. He saw to it that both his son William and his nephew James were properly taught, but he sent neither to a university.

Starting point is 02:38:42 When William Franklin put his son into the Pennsylvania College, the grandfather did not hesitate to withdraw him that he might take him to France, thus ending his further education. So, too, with his other grandson, though having a choice of all the universities of Europe, he gave him only an ordinary education at a school in Geneva. Joke as Franklin would, however, at Mr. who explains English by Greek, and at the man who was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages, so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on. One of the compliments which especially pleased him was the recognition of his contributions to science by the colleges. When Yale and Harvard both gave him the degree of Master of Arts, he was proud that, quote,

Starting point is 02:39:29 without studying at any college, I came to partake of their honors, end quote. And when the universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Oxford in succession conferred on him the degrees of LLD, or D.C.L. He was heedful to advertise the new honors on the title pages of his books. Franklin's disapproval of the dead languages was not akin to that of the Fox for the Grapes. Though the boy had only one year at the Boston Grammar School, most of the do-good letters were headed by a quotation from Cicero, Seneca, Terrence, or some unlawful. other Latin author of repute. In the years following, however, he seems to have paid more attention to other tongues and allowed his knowledge of Latin to grow rusty. He says in his autobiography,

Starting point is 02:40:19 quote, 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, used 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 refused to play any more, unless on this condition, that the victor in every game should have the right to impose a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations, etc., which tasks the vanquished was to perform on honor before our next meeting. As we played pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that language. I, afterwards, with a little painstaking, acquired as much of the Spanish as to read their

Starting point is 02:41:08 books also. But when I had attained an acquaintance with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surprised to find on looking over a Latin testament that I understood more of that language than I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply myself again to the study of it, and I met with the more success, as those preceding languages had greatly smoothed my way. From these circumstances, I have thought there was some inconsistency in our common mode of teaching languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first with Latin, and having acquired that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages which are derived from it, and yet we do not begin with the Greek in order more easily to acquire the Latin. It is true that if we can clamour and

Starting point is 02:41:55 get to the top of the staircase without using the steps, we shall more easily gain them in descending. But certainly if we begin with the lowest, we shall with more ease ascend to the top, and I would therefore offer it to the consideration of those who superintend the education of our 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 learned becomes almost useless, so that their time has been lost, would it not have been better to have begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian, etc. For Lowe, after spending the same time,

Starting point is 02:42:34 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. End quote. In thus acquiring languages, Franklin was far from learning to speak or even to write them. During his first trip to France in 1767, he was compelled to rely on an interpreter in his social intercourse,

Starting point is 02:43:01 and it was probably on this visit that his lack of facility in French occasioned an amusing incident. Franklin attended one of the meetings of the French Academy, and not being able to understand the speaker, yet not choosing to show it, he adopted a subterfuge of watching a friend, Madame de Beaufleur, and applauding whenever she gave evidence of approval. Unfortunately, the lady liked best certain Ulyle, logistic remarks on the visitor, and thus Franklin clapped his own praises the loudest.

Starting point is 02:43:33 On his being sent to France in 1776, as a commissioner from America, he set himself to learn to speak and write French, but he was now a man of 70, and it did not come easily to him. The British ambassador, who kept close watch on his proceedings, reported to his government an end and interview of Franklin with the Duke de Chorcell, quote, it is very possible that Madame de Belgioso was desired to act as interpreter, as Franklin does not speak French with any facility, end quote. After he had had 18 months of French life,

Starting point is 02:44:09 his fellow diplomat, John Adams, said, quote, Dr. Franklin is reported to speak French very well, but I find, upon attending to him, that he does not speak it grammatically, and, indeed, upon inquiring, he confesses that he is wholly inattentive to the grammar. His pronunciation, too, upon which the French gentleman and ladies compliment him, and which he seems to think is pretty well, I am sure, is very far from being exact." End quote.

Starting point is 02:44:40 So, too, John Baines, who was in Paris in 1783, notes that Franklin could not make out much of a certain Frenchman who was being presented to him, he having rather an obscure mode of expressing himself. Norah was the minister a better Frenchman with pen than with tongue, though he sought the aid of his French friends in an endeavor to improve himself, and wrote out exercises for them to correct with an apology because, quote, I am conscious that I have written here a great deal of very bad French. It may disgust you who write that charming language with so much purity and elegance. If you can finally decipher my awkward and unfit expressions, you will perhaps have at least the kind of pleasure that one has in solving enigmas or discovering secrets."

Starting point is 02:45:29 His chief teacher was Madame Brion, and the character of her task can be judged by one letter in which she told her pupil that he must say, quote, plus de not thane 10 years Ponséa not de one chose

Starting point is 02:45:48 to have permission not to be permit Pettetre Maddresser not I'm addresser

Starting point is 02:45:59 end quote But in pointing out the inaccuracies She made little of them What you call your bad French Often gives a spice To your narration

Starting point is 02:46:10 by the construction of your sentences, and by the words which you invent, she told him. And if your French is not very pure, it is at least very clear. Writing of his attempted amendment of a bagatelle, she said, quote, your correctings of the French, believe me, have spoiled your work. Leave your works as they are, false of words that tell something, and laugh at grammarians who, for purity, weaken all your phrases. If I had a good enough mind, I should write a terrible, terrible diatribe against those who dare to touch you up were it the Abbe de la roche.

Starting point is 02:46:46 Finally he sent her a draft and when it was returned she had nothing but praise. Quote, bravo, bravissimo, the letter from Monsieur de Renéval contains nothing to correct and Mr. Franklin only sent it to me for excess of self-love, end quote. Yet even such a testimony did not make Franklin trustful of his French and after his return to America, he felt it necessary to excuse it to his correspondence. Quote, I have just been writing a French letter to Mademoiselle Chalmond, he informed one, but it costs me too much time to write in that language, and after all, tis very bad French, and I therefore write to you in English, which I think you will as easily understand.

Starting point is 02:47:31 If not, my cher ami Sophie, can interpret it for you, end quote. As instance by his purchase of his Uncle Benjamin's books, Franklin made the most of his years in London, from 1757 to 1775, to collect books, though he was no bibliomaniac, and indeed satirized the class in the stanza, quote, polio, who values nothing that's within,

Starting point is 02:47:57 buys books as men hunt beavers for their skin, end quote. When the time came for his return to America, he expressed amazement at the number of volumes which had accumulated. In going to France, a twelve months later, he left his library in the hands of his daughter, and when, a few weeks after his sailing, the British threatened to capture Philadelphia, quote, your library we sent out of town, well packed in boxes, end quote. A year after, when the British Army gained possession of the city,

Starting point is 02:48:30 a similar precaution was not taken, and this resulted in the loss of a number of his books. in the following manner. Quote, when Major Andre was with the British Army in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, he was quartered at the house of Dr. Franklin, who had left in it much furniture and also his library. When the enemy were about to evacuate the city,

Starting point is 02:48:53 Monsieur de Cimichier, a well-known Italian gentleman, attached to science and the fine arts, and well acquainted with André, waited upon him to take leave and to solicit his interest in their prevention, if any irregularities should ensue upon their leaving the city. He found the major in the library, busily employed in packing up some books and placing them among his own baggage. Monsieur de Cimichier said he was shocked at the procedure and told him in order

Starting point is 02:49:21 that he might make the inference of the strictly just and honorable conduct of the Hessian, General Knifehausen, with respect to General Calwalder's house and property, which had been in his possession. He, General K, had sent for the agent of General Cadwallader, and given him an inventory, which he had caused his steward to make out upon their obtaining possession, desired him to observe that all was left as they had found it, even to some wine in the cellar, every bottle of which was left, and he also paid the agent rent for the time he had been in the house. But the recital of German General's honesty made no impression on the major as he carried off the books. end quote. Though separated from his library while in France, Franklin did not lack for books,

Starting point is 02:50:10 and one of the indictments Madame Goutt brought against him was that, quote, 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, end quote. Yet his public and social duties robbed him of many hours, and Jefferson records that, quote, Dr. Franklin used to say that when he was young and had time to read, he had not books, and now when he had become old and had books, he had no time. It was during his stay in France that he gave a public testimony to the value he set upon books. A town in Massachusetts named itself Franklin, and its minister, the Reverend

Starting point is 02:50:59 Nathaniel Emmons, a connection of Franklin, wrote to him and asked, he would not, as a sort of sponsorial present, give the town a bell for its church, to be placed in a steeple they purposed to erect. Quote, I have advised the sparing themselves the expense of a steeple, the utilitarian wrote a friend, whom he requested to select books to the value of 25 pounds, and these obtained, he sent them in lieu of a bell. Apparently, the substitute was satisfactory, for the minister preached a sermon on the gift, and when it was printed, the dedicatory page ran, quote, to his excellency, Benjamin Franklin, president of the state of Pennsylvania, the ornament of genius, the patron of science, and the boast of man, this discourse is

Starting point is 02:51:47 inscribed, with the greatest deference, humility, and gratitude by his obliged and most humble servant, the author, end quote. Upon his final return to America, he brought with him 18 large boxes of books, and his collection had now become of such a size that in rebuilding his house, he was forced to enlarge very much his library room. The Reverend Manessa Cutler has left a description of the old man and his books, which gives a pleasant glimpse of them both. Quote, after it was dark we went into the house, and the doctor invited me into his library, which is likewise his study. It is a very large chamber and high studded, The walls were covered with bookshelves, filled with books, besides there are four large alcoves extending two-thirds of the length of the chamber, filled in the same manner.

Starting point is 02:52:41 I presume this is the largest, and by far the best private library in America. He showed us his long artificial arm and hand for taking down and putting books up on high shelves, which are out of reach, and his great armed chair with rockers, and the large fan placed over it, with which he fain. himself, keeps off the flies, etc., while he sits reading, with only a small motion of his foot, and many other curiosities and inventions, all his own, but of lesser note. Over his mantle tree, he has a prodigious number of metals, busts, and casts, and casts, in wax or plaster of Paris, which are the effigies of the most noted characters in Europe. But what the doctor wished principally to show to me was a huge volume on botany, and which, indeed,

Starting point is 02:53:29 afforded me the greatest pleasure of any one thing in his library. It was a single volume, but so large that it was with great difficulty that the doctor was able to raise it from a low shelf and lift it onto the table, but with that senile ambition common to old people, he insisted on doing it himself, and would permit no person to assist him, merely to show us how much strength he had remaining. It contained the whole lineus systema vegetabelia, with large cut of every plant and colored from nature. It was a feast to me, and the doctor seemed to enjoy it as well as myself. 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

Starting point is 02:54:17 were swallowed up with politics. This was a favorable circumstance to me, for almost the whole of his conversation was addressed to me, and I was highly delighted with the extensive knowledge he appeared to have of every subject the brightness of his memory and clearness and vivacity of all his mental faculties." His library was his chief resource in the last years of his life, when his malady kept him within doors, and for the most part confined to his bed. In the intervals of pain, he amused himself with reading and writing, his grandson states, and another witness chronicles that, quote, when able to be out of bed, he passed nearly all his son, time in his office, reading and writing, and in conversation with his friends.

Starting point is 02:55:03 And when the boys were playing and very noisy, in the lot in front of the office, he would open the window and call to them, Boys, boys, can't you play without making so much noise? I am reading, and it disturbs me very much. I have heard the servants in his family say he never used a hasty or angry word to anyone, end quote. Some men grow mad by studying much to know. but who grows mad by studying good to grow asked poor richard and the same epigram-maker asserted he that lives well is learned enough end of chapter three part two

Starting point is 02:55:48 chapter four part one of the many-sided franklin by paul lester ford this librivox recording is in the public domain read by michel fry baton rouge louisiana chapter four religion part one On January 6th, 1706, the very day Franklin was born, he was baptized in the old South Church in Boston. If trustworthy tradition be given credence, he was carried thither through the deep snow by his mother, and this act, which now would be held little short of murder, was no less perilous then, as is proved by the fearful death rate among the mothers and children of New England. But the Calvinistic faith of the Puritans maintained that the physical danger of either matricide or infanticide was as nothing compared with the spiritual risk of the babe dying unbaptized, and so convention decreed that both parent and offspring should be exposed without loss of time rather than doom the little one to eternal damnation. The strain of religious austerity that such a proceeding implied was a heritage. This obscure family of ours, Franklin writes of his English progenitors, was, quote, early in the Reformation and continued Protestants through the reign of Queen Mary,

Starting point is 02:57:13 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 cover of a joint stool. When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family, he turned to, turned 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 turned down again upon its feet,

Starting point is 02:57:47 when the Bible remained concealed under it, as before, end quote. The family continued Church of England folk, with the exception of Franklin's father and uncle, who were led to change their faith during the reign of King's, Charles II, by the obvious tendency of the court toward Romanism and the severity of the parliamentary laws against the independent sectaries. When some of the ministers that had been outed for non-conformity holding conventicles in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah adhered to them, and so continued all their lives,

Starting point is 02:58:22 end quote. Just prior to the death of Charles, or immediately after the accession of James, when affairs look so hopeless for the Puritans. Some considerable men of Josiah Franklin's acquaintance planned a removal to New England, and he was prevailed with to accompany them thither, where they expected to enjoy their mode of religion with freedom." Josiah Franklin, shortly after his arrival in America, became a member of the Old South Church, and his chief distinction appears to have been in the affairs of this church. Sewell states that upon occasion he moved to the same.

Starting point is 02:59:00 prayer at meeting, or pitch the tune, and the son records in his autobiography that he, quote, was skilled a little in music and had a clear, pleasing voice, so that when he played 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 extremely agreeable to hear, end quote. Nor did the two services on Sunday and the Thursday lecture satisfy the religious side of his nature, for he held devotional meetings in his own home. The ambition of every self-respecting New England family at that time was to produce at least one clergyman, and Josiah planned to devote Benjamin, quote, as the tithe of his sons

Starting point is 02:59:44 to the service of the church, end quote, an intention stimulated by Franklin's early bookishness. Quote, my uncle Benjamin too approved of it, and having been a great attender of sermons of the best preachers, which he took down, he proposed to give me all his shorthand volumes of sermons, I suppose as a stock to set up with if I would learn his character." But as already mentioned, the expense and the probable mean living finally led the parent to change his determination. Yet clearly the mean living was not the absolute deterrent, for at 16 years of age, in his description of Harvard College, the boy recounting the shifts of the graduates for a livelihood, described how the greater, quote,

Starting point is 03:00:31 crowd went along a large beaten path which led to a temple at the further end of the plain, called the Temple of Theology. The business of those who were employed in this temple, being laborious and painful, I wondered exceedingly to see how so many go towards it. But while I was pondering this matter in my mind, I spied pecuniia behind a curtain, beckoning to them with her hand, which sight immediately satisfied me for whose sake it was that a greater part of them, I will not say all, traveled that road, end quote. Apparently too, Franklin later in life did not approve of even

Starting point is 03:01:10 the mean living of the New England clergy, for he declared, apropos of the Test Act of Massachusetts, quote, 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 it, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, it is a sign I apprehend of its being a bad one."

Starting point is 03:01:49 He did not, however, believe in his theory strongly enough to apply it within the family circle, For Franklin wrote to the father of the boy he had selected for his son-in-law, "'Tell me whether George is to be a church or Presbyterian parson. I know you are a Presbyterian yourself, but then I think you have more sense than to stick him into a priesthood that admits of no promotion. If he was a dull lad, it might not be amiss, but George has parts, and ought to aim at his mitre,' end quote. The story of Franklin's objecting to his father's long prayers,

Starting point is 03:02:25 and suggesting that he make a wholesome grace over the pork barrel shows how early the lad revolted from the faith of his father. Quote, my parents had early given me religious impressions, he states, and brought me through my childhood piously in the dissenting way. But I was scarce fifteen, when after doubting by turns of several points, as I found them disputing in the different books I read, I began to doubt of revelation itself. Some books against deism fell into my hands. They were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle's lectures.

Starting point is 03:03:01 It happened 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 be much stronger than the refutation. In short, I soon became a thorough deist, end quote. No sooner was the boy, by his apprenticeship, made free from his parents' direct control, then he devoted his Sundays to reading, quote, evading as much as I could the common attendance on public worship,

Starting point is 03:03:30 which my father used to exact of me when I was under his care, end quote. This, and, quote, my indiscreet disputations about religion, began to make me pointed at with horror by the good people as an infidel and atheist, end quote. Such of you Franklin always resented and showed indignation at the lack of public discrimination, concerning the words, quote, because I think they are diametrically opposite and not near of kin, as Mr. Whitefield seems to suppose, where in his journal he tells us, M.B. was a deist. I had almost said an atheist. That is chalk. I had almost said charcoal,

Starting point is 03:04:13 end quote. Suspicion of atheism and failure to attend church were enough to destroy the reputation of anyone in New England in 1720, but Franklin did worse. The mathers who then dominated Massachusetts intellectually, though firm believers in witches, had with curious contradiction, come out in favor of the palliative for the smallpox which Lady Mary Wortley Montague had brought to England from Turkey. Those opposed to inoculation found in James Franklin's New England corinth, a ready mouthpiece for all their views, and as the controversy grew, it took on a personal quality. The Mathers were attacked, were ridiculed, and even their ungainly writings were burlesked. The Reverend gentlemen, unused to such irreverent treatment, lost their dignity and replied in kind.

Starting point is 03:05:06 The corinth, according to Cotton Mather, was a, quote, notorious, scandalous newspaper, full freighted with nonsense, unmannaliness, raillery, profaneness, immorality, arrogance, calumnies, lies, contradictions, and whatnot, all tending to quarrels and divisions, and to debaunch and corrupt the minds and manners of New England, end quote. This was echoed in no minor key by increased Mather, who declared the paper a, quote, wicked liable because the printer in one of his vile currents, insinuates that if the ministers of God approve of a thing, it is a sign it is of the devil, which is a horrid thing to be related, and he doth frequently abuse the ministers of religion

Starting point is 03:05:53 and many other worthy persons in a manner which is intolerable. For these and such like reasons, I signified to the printer that I would have no more of their wicked corrants. I who have known what New England was from the beginning cannot but be troubled to see the degeneracy of this place. I can well remember when the civil government would have taken a severe course to repress such a cursed liable, which, if not taken, I am afraid some awful judgment will come upon this land, and the wrath of God will arise, and there will be no remedy. I cannot but pity, poor Franklin, who though but a young man, it may be speedily he must appear before the judgment's seat of God, and what answer will he give for printing things so evil and abominable?

Starting point is 03:06:40 end quote. Thus whipped by the clergy, the civil government took action against the corinant and eventually issued an order that James Franklin should cease to print it. True to the letter of the order and disobedience to the spirit, the printer continued to issue the paper, but with the name of his brother Benjamin as the publisher in place of his own. The paper, too, continued the attacks on the clergy and religious knaves, though in a mock letter of reproof to itself, it was warned not to, quote, cast injurious reflections on the reverend and faithful ministers of the gospel, end quote.

Starting point is 03:07:20 If frowned upon by church and state, the paper prospered, soon came to exceed in circulation and advertising patronage its rivals, and dared even to raise its price. Fortunately for Franklin, his quarrels with his brother presently terminated his connection with the corant, and drove him from boston where the bad reputation he had acquired would probably henceforth have prevented his advancement in tolerant philadelphia he was free to think and act as he pleased and one incident during the first day he passed in the city seemed to typify the difference between voluntary and enforced religion for having avoided church going in boston on his arrival in the city of brotherly love he relates that quote i walked again up the street which by this time had many clean-dressed people in it, who were all walking the same way. I joined them, and thereby was led into a great meeting-house of the Quakers near Market Street.

Starting point is 03:08:20 I sat down among them, and after looking round a while and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labor and want to rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep, and continued 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, end quote. During his first brief visit to London, Franklin made friends of a number of deists, such as Lyon and Mandeville, both of whom had written books then thought highly irreligious. Franklin himself followed their example. While working as a journeyman printer, he was employed in composing for the second edition of

Starting point is 03:09:03 Williston's Religion of Nature. The book was an absolutely inoffensive one, and the six editions and ten thousand copies sold of it probably did as little harm as any book ever printed. But to the young doubter, fresh from his controversies with the Boston ministers, it was an irritation to leave unanswered the a priori positions and circular reasonings based thereon concerning good and evil, truth and falsehood, pleasure and pain. So, in spare hours, he wrote and put into type a little tractate, and amadverting on some of the clerical author's arguments and practically denying a future life or rewards the existence of natural religion and of the theological distinction between man and beast. This dissertation on, quote, liberty and necessity, pleasure and pain, end quote, has since been known as his wicked tract, and Franklin lived. to term it an erratum and to destroy almost all of the hundred copies he had printed upon his return to philadelphia franklin regularly paid my subscription for the support of the only presbyterian minister or meeting and quote in that city yet while quote i had still an opinion of its propriety and its utility i seldom attended any public worship end quote for this conduct his clergyman reproved him

Starting point is 03:10:32 and urged Franklin to attend his administrations, and quote, I was now and then prevailed 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 polemical arguments or explications of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedified, since not a single moral principle was inculcated or enforced. Their aim seemed to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens, end quote.

Starting point is 03:11:13 Finally, a special sermon so disgusted Franklin that he attended his preaching no more. Quote, I had some years before composed a little liturgy or form of prayer for my own private use, Viz in 1728, entitled Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion. I returned to the use of this and went no more to the public assemblies." So long as this clergyman was the sole minister of the sect in Philadelphia, Franklin continued to absent himself from church. But, quote, about the year 1734, there arrived among us from Ireland, a young Presbyterian preacher named Hemphill,

Starting point is 03:11:55 who delivered with a good voice, apparently extempore, most excellent discourses, which drew together consider numbers of different persuasions who joined in admiring him. Among the rest I became one of his constant hearers, his sermons pleasing me, as they had little of the dogmatical kind, but inculcated strongly the practice of virtue, or what in the religious style are called good works." The Reverend Jedediah Andrews, the old clergyman, did not agree with Franklin. Having first taken Mr. Hemphill for his assistant, as his popularity grew. He came to believe it nothing but a dreadful plot laid by Satan to root Christianity

Starting point is 03:12:37 out of the world, and charged that the eloquent preacher drew about him only free thinkers, deists, and nothings. Through his influence, the newcomer was arraigned for heterodoxy before a synod, and quote, never was there such a trial known in the American world, end quote. Mr. Hemphill had preached that the gospel was a revival of the laws of nature, that the Lord's supper promoted a good life, but was not a communion with Christ. He prayed for mankind and not for the church, and perhaps worst of all, in the eyes of his accuser, had preached sermons in which he had made no mention of original sin. Franklin, who had become a zealous partisan, quote, contributed all I could to raise a party in his favor, and we combated for him a while with some

Starting point is 03:13:27 hopes of success. There was much scribbling pro and con upon the occasion, and finding that, though an eloquent preacher, he was but a poor writer, I lend him my pen, and wrote for him two or three pamphlets and one piece in the Gazette, end quote. These defended Hemp Hill because, quote, in all his discourses he enforced Christian charity and the necessity of a good life, end quote. But how little in accord Franklin was with his own church is shown. by his assertions that, quote, good works put men in God's way and reconcile God to them,

Starting point is 03:14:03 end quote, and that, quote, original sin was as ridiculous as imputed righteousness, end quote. A reply was quickly forthcoming, which dwelt on the pamphleteer's false and abusive criminations, his outrageous Billingsgate language,

Starting point is 03:14:20 and horrid profaneness, end quote. As was foreordained, the eloquent clergyman was brought in guilty and silenced, but he continued to preach as an independent until he was caught using another man's sermons. Quote, this detection gave many of our party disgust, who accordingly abandoned his cause. I stuck by him, however, as I rather approved his giving us good sermons composed by others

Starting point is 03:14:45 than bad ones of his own manufacture, though the latter was the practice of our common preachers. He afterwards acknowledged to me that none of those he preached were his own, and I quitted the congregation, never joining it after, though I continued many years my subscriptions for the support of its minister." End quote. His disgust may have been the direct cause of poor Richard's remark that, quote, many have quarreled about religion that never practiced it, end quote. Franklin's opinion of church disputes is given in no uncertain key. Quote, each party abuses the other, the profane and the infidel believe both sides and enjoy the

Starting point is 03:15:26 fray, the reputation of religion in general suffers, and its enemies are ready to say, not what was said in the primitive times. Behold how these Christians love one another, but mark how these Christians hate one another. Indeed, when religious people quarrel about religion or hungry people about their victuals, it looks as if they had not much of either among them, end quote. End of chapter four, part one. Chapter 4 Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford This Liebervox recording is in the public domain

Starting point is 03:16:09 Read by Michelle Fry Baton Rouge, Louisiana Chapter 4 Religion Part 2 Thoroughly out of humor with the faith of his father Franklin now took a pew in the Episcopalian Christ Church and there his family henceforth worshipped there a son and daughter were baptized, and there he and his wife, with two of their children, were eventually buried. Though Franklin rarely attended the service, he concerned himself in the

Starting point is 03:16:39 material interests of the church. In 1737, he subscribed to a fund for finishing the new building, in 1751 to one to build a steeple and purchase a chime of bells, and twice he was appointed by the vestry, one of the managers of lotteries, for raising a fortune. fund for this purpose. Probably the most amusing relic of his relations with this church was an advertisement in his own paper, anent his wife's prayer book. Quote, taken out of a pew in the church some months since, a common prayer book bound in red, guilt, and lettered D.F. on each corner. The person who took it is desired to open it and read the Eighth Commandment, and afterwards return it into the same pew again, upon which no further notice will be taken."

Starting point is 03:17:30 However, Franklin, the private citizen of Tolerent Pennsylvania, might be left free to think and act as he chose. When he became an officeholder of the colony, his freedom was curtailed, for he was called upon to sign an oath, or a test, before he was allowed to serve the public. By this he was required to, quote, solemnly promised and declare that our hearts upon poor detest and renounce as impious and heretical that damnable doctrine and position that princes, excommunicated and deprived by the Pope or any other authority of the Sea of Rome, may be deposed or murdered by their subjects, end quote.

Starting point is 03:18:12 To, quote, solemnly and sincerely profess and testify that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, there is no transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, end quote, and, quote, the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other saint or the sacrifice of the Mass, as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are superstitious and idolatrous, and quote, and that, quote,

Starting point is 03:18:43 each of us for himself do solemnly and sincerely profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ his eternal son, the true God, and in the Holy Spirit, one God, blessed forever more. And we do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures to be by divine inspiration, end quote. Although the office holder

Starting point is 03:19:05 subscribed over and over again to this oath, it was clearly from necessity and not from choice, and time did not lessen his dislike of it. This was shown in 1776 when the colonial charter was abrogated and a convention set about the framing of a new government.

Starting point is 03:19:24 Of this body, Franklin was president, and he threw all his influence in favor of doing away with every test, and in theory succeeded, for the Declaration of Rights adopted, declared, quote, that all men have a natural and unalienable right to worship Almighty God, according to the dictates of their own consciences and understanding, and that no man ought or of right can be compelled to attend any religious worship, or erect or support any place of worship, or maintain any ministry, contrary to or against his own free will and consent, nor can any man who acknowledges the being of a God be justly deprived or abridged of any civil right as a citizen on account

Starting point is 03:20:07 of his religious sentiments or peculiar mode of religious worship, and that no authority can or ought to be vested in or assumed by any power whatever that shall in any case interfere with or in any manner control, the right of conscience in the free exercise of religious worship." When it came to reducing this theory to practice, however, Franklin could not bring the convention to make its liberality concrete, and it decreed that however free its citizens might be in their belief, before they could serve as lawmakers, they must swear, quote, I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, the rewarder of the good, Punisher of the wicked, and I do acknowledge the scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration, end quote.

Starting point is 03:21:01 Concerning this, Franklin wrote to the Reverend of Dr. Price, quote, I agreed with you in sentiments concerning the Old Testament, and thought the clause in our constitution which required the members of assembly to declare their belief that the whole of it was given by divine inspiration had better have been omitted, that I had had had had been omitted, that I had had had, opposed the clause but being overpowered by numbers and fearing more might in future times be grafted on it I prevailed to have the additional clause that quote no further or more extended profession of faith should ever be exacted and quote I observed to you too that the evil of it was the less as no inhabitant nor any officer of government except the members of assembly was obliged to make that declaration so much for that letter to which I may now add that there are several things in the Old Testament impossible to be given by divine inspiration such as

Starting point is 03:21:59 the approbation ascribed to the angel of the Lord of that abominably wicked and detestable action of Jail the wife of Heber the Kenite if the rest of the book were like that I should rather suppose it given by inspiration from another quarter and renounce the whole end quote in leaving the Presbyterian and allying himself with the Episcopalian Church, it is not to be inferred that Franklin became, in any sense of the word, a sectarian, and this fact was so well recognized by his fellow townsmen that, in a dispute over a vacancy in a board of trustees, constituted of one from each sect, the mutual jealousy of the differing religions was

Starting point is 03:22:40 finally ended by the nomination of Franklin, quote, with the observation that I was merely an honest man and of no sect at all, which prevailed with them to choose me, end quote. His actual attitude toward churches he described as follows. Quote, I had been religiously educated as a Presbyterian, and though some of the dogmas of that persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation, etc., 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 governed

Starting point is 03:23:26 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 esteemed the essentials of every religion, and being to be found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them all, though with different degrees of respect, as I found them more or less mixed with other articles, which without any tendency to inspire, promote or confirm morality, served 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,

Starting point is 03:24:09 induced me to avoid all discourse that might tend to lessen the good opinion another might have of his own religion, and as our province increased in people and new places of worship were continually wanted and generally erected by voluntary contribution, my might for such purpose, whatever might be the sect, was never refused." End quote. So, too, writing of a particular sect, Franklin said, quote, I do not desire it to be diminished, nor would I endeavor to lessen it in any man. But I wish it were more productive of good works than I have

Starting point is 03:24:43 generally seen it. I mean real good works, works of kindness, charity, mercy, and public spirit. Not holiday keeping, sermon reading or hearing, performing church ceremonies, are making long prayers filled with flatteries and compliments, despised 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 in being watered and putting forth leaves, though it never produced any fruit." As already indicated, Franklin was no sabbatarian, and during his early life set apart that day for study and writing. Later, when in France, he adopted the custom of the country and observed

Starting point is 03:25:36 it as a fete day, on which he entertained friends, went to the play. or opera, amused himself with chess or cards, and made merry in other ways, to the no small scandalizing of the more puritanical Americans who saw or heard of the conduct of their commissioner and minister. He himself had no sympathy with the New England Sunday, and long before he went to France he had written to a Connecticut friend, quote, when I traveled 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, everyone traveled, if he pleased.

Starting point is 03:26:18 I 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 markets filled with plenty, the people well-favored and well-clothed. The fields were tilled, the cattle fat and strong, the fences, houses, and windows all in repair, and no old tenor, i.e. paper money, anywhere in the country, which would almost make one suspect that the deity is not so angry at that offense as a New England justice, end quote. As can readily be conceived, Franklin's non-attendance

Starting point is 03:27:04 at church and his general disrespect for doctrinal religion were a sore twerick. trial to his Puritan family, and several of them argued and remonstrated with him on the error of his ways. To his father and mother, he replied, quote, 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.

Starting point is 03:27:47 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. 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. 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 no more in a man's power to think than to look

Starting point is 03:28:31 like another, methinks all that should be expected for 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 meantime, your care and concern for me is what I am very thankful for. My mother grieves that one of her sons is an Aryan, another and are many. What an Armenian or an Aryan 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,

Starting point is 03:29:17 and the scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined what we thought, but what we did, and our recommendation will not be that we said, Lord, Lord, but that we did good to our fellow creatures. see Matthew 25 End quote In much the same vein he answered a chiding letter from his favorite sister Quote There are some things in your New England doctrine and worship

Starting point is 03:29:43 He told her which I do not agree with But I do not therefore condemn them Or desire to shake your belief or practice of them We may dislike things that are nevertheless right in themselves I would only have you make me the same allowance and have a better opinion both of morality and your brother. When you judge of others, if you can perceive the fruit to be good, don't terrify yourself that the tree may be evil,

Starting point is 03:30:09 but be assured it is not so, for you know who has said, men do not gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles, end quote. All through life, Franklin preached this religion of works and not of doctrine. In one of his letters, he imagines a man at the gates of heaven, and applying for entrance on the ground that he was a Presbyterian. What is that, demands St. Peter, and when he is told, says,

Starting point is 03:30:35 We don't have any here. So in succession the applicant mentions different religions, but each time is rebuffed with the information that there are none of that persuasion in heaven. Finally the man sees his wife through the gate, and claims that if she is there, so he should be, for they were of the same religion on earth. Oh, said St. Peter, why didn't you say you were? a Christian to begin with. Another tale which Franklin wrote for a French abbé, though an apparent contradiction, in truth, had the same moral. Quote, an officer named Montresor,

Starting point is 03:31:10 a worthy man, was very ill. The curate of his parish, thinking him likely to die, advised him to make his peace with God that he might be received into paradise. I have not much uneasiness on the subject, said Montresor, for I had a vision last night which had has perfectly tranquilized my mind. What vision have you had? said the good priest. I was, replied Montresor, at the gates of Paradise, with a crowd of people who wished to enter, and St. Peter inquired of everyone what religion he was of.

Starting point is 03:31:43 One answered, I am a Roman Catholic. Well, said St. Peter, enter, and take your place there among the Catholics. Another said he was of the Church of England. Well, said the saint, enter, and place yourself there among the Anglicans. A third said he was a Quaker. Enter, said St. Peter, and take your place among the Quakers. At length my turn being come, he asked of what religion I was. Alas, said I, poor Jacques Montresor has none. Tis a pity, said the saint, I know not where to place you, but enter nevertheless and place yourself where you can." End quote. As this would indicate, Franklin had that rarest

Starting point is 03:32:25 kind of tolerance, which tolerates the opinions of others, and though he laughingly asserted that orthodoxy is my doxy, and heterodoxy is your doxy, his whole life was one contradiction of the epigram, for the faith or lack of faith in his circle of friends, ranged from that of the most doctrinal of ministers to the most radical of free thinkers. For such rigid Puritans as the Reverend Dr. Cooper and Mather of Boston, for the enthusiast Whitefield, for the Anglican Bishop of St. Asaph, and for the Abbez de la Roche and Morley, he showed as much affection and respect as he did for Hume, Lord Le Despensier, Thomas Payne, and others closer in accord with his own views. Nor was it ever a one-sided regard. No man in Pennsylvania exercised

Starting point is 03:33:15 such influence over the Quakers. Massachusetts made him her agent in Great Britain, and he served her faithfully even to the defending of her religious intolerance against English criticism. In France, the Papal Nuncio consulted him frequently and followed his advice in the changes the Revolutionary War made possible or necessary in the Catholic Church of America. Absolutely unsectarian as he was, Franklin apparently was trusted by all sects, and he seemed to never be. to have refused a service that he could render any one of them. Some few special incidents are worth noting as throwing light on the attitude of the man. In 1739, the Reverend George Whitefield, the itinerant, came to America, and, quote,

Starting point is 03:34:02 was at first permitted to preach in some of the churches, but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him in their pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields. It being found in convenience to assemble in the open air, subject to its inclemencies, the building of a house to meet in was no sooner proposed and persons appointed to receive contributions, but sufficient sums were soon received to procure the ground and erect the building, which was 100 feet long and 70 broad, about the size of Westminster Hall, end quote. Of this building, Franklin was made a trustee, and undoubtedly he was largely responsible for the liberalism. which dedicated it to, quote,

Starting point is 03:34:45 the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people of Philadelphia, the design not being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in general, so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service, end quote.

Starting point is 03:35:08 Franklin relates that Whitefield, quote, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but he never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard. Ours was a mere civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasting to his death, end quote. He adds an incident which, quote, will show something of the terms on which we stood, end quote. Having asked Whitefield to make his home with him while in Philadelphia, quote, he replied that if I made that kind offer for Christ's sake, I should not miss of the reward. And I returned, don't let me be mistaken, it was not for Christ's sake, but for your own sake.

Starting point is 03:35:50 One of our common acquaintance jocously remarked that, knowing it to be the custom of the saints, when they received any favor, to shift the burden of the obligation from off their own shoulders, and place it in heaven, I had contrived to fix it on earth. a would-be service on behalf of episcopacy had if anything even less religious feeling in it in seventeen seventy lord le dispenser one of king george's privy counsellors was made joint postmaster-general of great britain despite these public offices he was best known to his own generation as the abbots of the famous monks of medmanham a club the purposes and meetings of which modelled upon those of the ancients were at once the most libertine and the most impious known to modern times, no immorality or blasphemy being too gross for their orgies. The Baron, apparently thinking his own reformation, either impossible or too great a task, undertook the reformation of the Book of Common Prayer.

Starting point is 03:36:52 As Postmaster General for America, Franklin was thrown into close relations with his chief, and becoming a friend as well, visited Lord Le Despenser at his country home. His host begged his aid in the revision of the prayer book, asking Franklin to take as his share, quote, the catechism and the reading and singing psalms. These I abridged by retaining of the catechism only the two questions, What is your duty to God? What is your duty to your neighbor? With answers.

Starting point is 03:37:24 The Psalms were much contracted by leaving out the repetitions of which I found more than I could have imagined, and the imprecations which appeared not to suit well the Christian doctrine of forgiveness of injuries and doing good to enemies. The book was printed for Wilkie in St. Paul's Churchyard, but never much noticed. Some were given away, very few sold, and I suppose the bulk became waste paper, end quote. The Anglican Church did not take kindly to an improvement from such a source, but in America, where the book was known as Franklin's Prayer Book, It attracted attention, and when, after the separation, the Episcopal Church in this country set to work to frame a ritual, the clergyman who prepared the proposed prayer book, studied this

Starting point is 03:38:10 abridgment with care, and adopted certain ideas from it. End of Chapter 4, Part 2 Chapter 4 Part 3 of the Many-Cited Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libervox recording is in the public domain. read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 4, Religion, Part 3. A traveling companion in Franklin's Journey to Canada in 1776 was the Reverend John Carroll of Maryland, the Continental Congress having requested him to go with their commissioners, in the hope that,

Starting point is 03:38:56 as a Roman Catholic priest, he would exercise particular influence with the French Canadians. No such result was attained, but he and, Franklin formed a warm friendship, which was made the more lasting by Carol's attention when the exposure and fatigue of the trip broke down Franklin's health. The service in time was rewarded, for when Franklin was applied to by the Papal Nuncio at Paris, to name the man best fitted to be the first Roman Catholic bishop in America, he named Carol, who received the appointment. With this same nuncio was partly transacted an affair, which well illustrates not merely how little value Franklin placed upon forms and creeds, but how little he appreciated the value set upon them

Starting point is 03:39:40 by others. Two young American clergymen wrote to him in 1784 that the Archbishop of Canterbury had refused to ordain them ministers of the Episcopal Church unless they would first take the oath of allegiance to Great Britain and besought his assistance. In his endeavor to help them, Franklin asked the nuncio if he would not ordain them, but was told, quote, the thing is impossible, unless the gentlemen become Catholics, and quote. Franklin therefore advised them first that they become Presbyterians, and next, if that did not suit them, that they ordained themselves. And as usual, he ends his advice with an argument and a story

Starting point is 03:40:21 to illustrate the absurdity of Americans looking to Great Britain for ordination. Quote, if the British islands were sunk in the sea, and the surface of this globe has suffered greater changes, You would probably take some such method as this, and if they persist in denying your ordination, it is the same thing. A hundred years hence, when people are more enlightened, it will be wondered at that men in America, qualified by their learning and piety to pray for and instruct their neighbors, should not be permitted to do it till they had made a voyage of six thousand miles out and home

Starting point is 03:40:56 to ask leave of a cross old gentleman at Canterbury, who seems, by your account, to have as little regard for the souls of the people of Maryland, as King Williams, Attorney General Seymour, had for those of Virginia. The Reverend Commissary Blair, who projected the College of that province, and was in England to solicit benefactions and a charter, relates that the Queen, in the King's absence, having ordered Seymour to draw up the charter, which was to be given with two thousand pounds in money, he opposed the grant, saying that the nation was engaged in an expensive war, that the money was wanted for better purposes, and he did not see the least.

Starting point is 03:41:33 occasion for a college in Virginia. Blair represented to him that its intention was to educate and qualify young men to be ministers of the gospel, much wanted there, and begged Mr. Attorney would consider that the people of Virginia had souls to be saved as well as the people of England. Souls, said he, Damn your souls! Make tobacco. End quote. A friendship begun in London was that with Thomas Payne, and when the yet unknown man emigrated to America, he carried letters of recommendation from Franklin to various Philadelphians. Their relations upon Franklin's return to America in 1775 were intimate enough to have the public believe for a time that common sense was really from Franklin's pen and only pretendedly written by Payne. And though the crude style of the

Starting point is 03:42:26 pamphlet should have prevented the rumor from gaining currency, Franklin was in a manner concerned, for he had read over the manuscript and had suggested changes to it. Ten years later, Payne also submitted to him the first draft of the age of reason, and the advice Franklin gave him is worthy of full quotation. Quote, I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular providence, though you allow a general providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion.

Starting point is 03:42:59 For, without the belief of a providence that takes, cognizance of, guards and guides and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you may seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion that, though your reasons are subtle 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 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 advantage of virtue and the disadvantages of vice and possessing a strength

Starting point is 03:44:01 of resolution sufficient to enable you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of inexperienced, in considerate 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 habitual, 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 distinguished authors. For among us it is not necessary,

Starting point is 03:44:49 as among the hottentots, that a youth, to be raised in the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother. I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the top but to burn this peace before it is seen by any other person whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you and perhaps a great deal of regret and repentance if men are so wicked with religion what would they be if without it end quote certainly paine later had good reasons to appreciate the shrewdness and good sense of this advice for as poor richard had long before declared quote talking against religion is unchaining the tiger. The beast let loose may worry his deliverer." Franklin, however, drew a great distinction between a man who attacked the religion of others and a man who merely declared his own honest convictions. Quote, remember me affectionately to good Dr. Price and the honest heretic Dr. Priestley,

Starting point is 03:45:53 he once requested of a correspondent, adding, I do not call him honest by way of distinction, for I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude, or they would not venture to own their heresy, and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of the other virtues, as that would give advantage to their enemies, and they have not, like orthodox sinners, such a number of friends to excuse or justify them. Do not, however, mistake me. It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. On the contrary, it is his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic."

Starting point is 03:46:35 Franklin's belief in the value of religion was illustrated in the Federal Convention of 1787. At a certain stage of the discussion, the differences of opinion which had developed were apparently irreconcilable and threatened to put an end to the gathering. He thereupon made his famous motion for prayers, and when it was voted down, he endorsed on the manuscript in either surprise or indignation, quote, the convention except three or four persons thought prayers unnecessary end quote as already mentioned franklin as early as 1728 had composed his own prayer book and in his scheme of employment for the 24 hours of a natural day he began his day quote rise wash and address powerful goodness end quote poor richard too told his readers they ought to work as if you were to live a hundred years pray as if you were to live a hundred years pray as if you were to to die tomorrow.

Starting point is 03:47:35 Less seriously, Franklin wrote, apropos of a New England clergyman's prayer against a French garrison, quote, Father Moody's prayers look tolerably modest. You have a fast and prayer day for that purpose in which I compute 500,000 petitions were offered up to the same effect in New England, which added to the petitions of every family, morning and evening,

Starting point is 03:47:56 multiplied by the number of days since January 25th, makes 45 millions of prayers, which, set a against the prayers of a few priests in a garrison to the Virgin Mary, give a vast balance in your favor." Franklin was able to joke thus because he himself placed works far above worship, and he made poor Richard remark, quote, serving God is doing good to man, but praying is thought an easier serving, and therefore most generally chosen, end quote. Yet he did not think that the most altruistic life entitled one to immortality. For my own part, he wrote, quote,

Starting point is 03:48:36 When I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, 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,

Starting point is 03:48:54 which is infinitely above being benefited by our services. These kindnesses from men I can therefore only return on their fellow men, and i can only show my gratitude for those mercies from god by our readiness to help his other children and my brethren for i do not think that thanks and compliments though repeated weekly can discharge our real obligations to each other and much less those to our creator you will see in this my motion of good works that i am far from expecting as you suppose that i shall ever merit heaven by them by heaven we understand a state of happiness infinite in degree and eternal eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such reward. 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 compared to those who think they deserve heaven for the little good they do on earth. Even the mixed imperfect pleasures we enjoy in this world are rather from God's goodness than our merit. How much

Starting point is 03:49:57 more such happiness in heaven? For my own part, I have not the vanity to think I desire to 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 hitherto preserved and blessed me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may confide, that he will never make me miserable, and that even the afflictions I may at any time suffer shall tend to my benefit." End quote. This conviction is constantly reiterated in his writings, when Whitefield expressed a hope for his eternal as well as his temporal happiness, Franklin wrote back, quote,

Starting point is 03:50:38 I have myself no doubt that I shall enjoy as much of both as is proper for me. That being, who gave me existence, and through almost three score years, has been continually showering his favors upon me, whose very chastisements have been blessings to me, can I doubt that he loves me? And if he loves me, can I doubt that he will go on to take care of me, not only here, but hereafter. This to some may seem presumption, but to me it appears the best grounded hope, hope of the future built on experience of the past, end quote. He even found in the evil of the world further reason for his faith. Quote, I find in this life there are many troubles, but it appears to me also that there are many more pleasures. This is why I love to live.

Starting point is 03:51:27 One must not blame providence inconsiderately. Reflect on how many many, of our duties even she has made to be pleasures naturally and has had the further kindness to give the name of sin to several so that we may enjoy them with more relish." Franklin expressed this same opinion with some bitterness in a letter which touched upon the Revolutionary War and the power by which a single man, George III, in England who happened to love blood and to hate Americans, should have been permitted to destroy, quote, near 100,000 human human human.

Starting point is 03:52:01 creatures. 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 and extent of his crimes, of giving equivalent punishment to a wicked man in this life, the more I am convinced of a future state, in which all that here appears to be wrong shall be set right, all that is crooked, made straight. In this faith let you and me, my dear friend, comfort ourselves. It is the only comfort in the present dark scene of things that is allowed us." But he was too much of a scientist to base his belief solely on such abstractions, and his chief argument has a touch of modernity that is very striking.

Starting point is 03:52:47 Quote, you see, I have some reason to wish that in a future state I may not only be as well as I was, but a little better, and I hope it, for I too, with your poet, trust in God. and when I observe that there is great frugality as well as wisdom in his works, since he has been evidently sparing both of labor and materials, for by the various inventions of propagation, he has provided for the continual people in 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 employed in new compositions, he has prevented the necessity of creating new matter, so that the earth, water, air, and perhaps fire, which being

Starting point is 03:53:35 compounded from 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 inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new addition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected." End quote.

Starting point is 03:54:20 not quite six weeks before his death, at the request of a friend, he wrote out what he had come to believe. Quote, 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 endeavor in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the creator of the universe, that he governs it by his providence, that he ought to be worshipped. The most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. 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 points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of

Starting point is 03:55:19 morals and his religion as he left them to us the best the world ever saw or is like 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 though 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 of knowing the truth with less trouble I see no harm how in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed, especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government or the world, with any peculiar mark of displeasure. I shall only add, respecting myself, that having experienced the goodness of that being in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness." End quote.

Starting point is 03:56:25 This was written while Franklin was suffering almost constant physical torture, which he endured, so an eyewitness tells us, quote, with that calm fortitude which characterized him through life, no repining, no peevish expression ever escaped him during a confinement of two years in which I believe, if every moment of ease could be added together, it would not amount to two whole months. Even when the intervals from pain were so short that his words were frequently interrupted, I have known him to hold a discourse in a sublime strain of piety. It is natural for us to wish that an attention to some ceremonies had accompanied that religion of the heart, which I am convinced Dr. Franklin always possessed.

Starting point is 03:57:10 But let us who feel the benefit of them continue to practice them, without thinking lightly of that piety, which could support pain without a murmur, and meet death without terror." In a letter of condolence which Franklin wrote to a relative on the death of his brother, he said, quote, 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.

Starting point is 03:57:42 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 society? 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.

Starting point is 03:58:06 When they become unfit for these purposes and afford us pain instead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an encumbrance, 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 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 disease which it was liable to or capable of making him suffer our friend and we were invited abroad on a party of pleasure which is to last forever 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

Starting point is 03:59:10 Adieu. End quote. End of chapter four on religion. Chapter 5 Part 1 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 5, Printer and Publisher, Part 1. Virtue and a Trade are a Child's Best Portion,

Starting point is 03:59:47 said poor Richard, and he not merely claimed, he that hath a trade hath an estate, but he that hath a trade has an office of profit and honor. Through all Franklin's life, he never missed an opportunity to praise the workman, be his calling what it might, and nowhere did he show more pride than in his own particular handicraft.

Starting point is 04:00:09 Printing was not a family mystery, as it was then termed of the Franklin's, they having hitherto been blacksmiths, dyers, or soap-makers. But Josiah, with ten boys to place in the world, had to seek other crafts, and James Franklin was sent to London, presumptively to his uncle Benjamin, and their apprentice to a printer. His time-out, he purchased a press and types, and returning to Boston in March 1717,

Starting point is 04:00:38 established his printing house in Queen Street, near the prison, otherwise described as over against Mr. Mills's school. Thanks to his English training, probably, he was a good workman, and the issues of his press rank among the best of American printing of his time. From the first he seems to have prospered, and within a year needed an apprentice, who was easily found in his brother Benjamin, though not so easily bound, for the lad had a hankering for the sea, and so objected to being apprenticed to the more humdrum life, of printer's devil. I stood out some time, he relates, but, quote, at last was persuaded to sign the indentures when I was but twelve years old. I was to serve as an apprentice till I was twenty-one years of age, only I was to be allowed journeyman's wages during the last year. In a little time I made great proficiency in the business and became a very useful hand to my brother, end quote. It was certainly good fortune which secured him the instruct.

Starting point is 04:01:42 of a master printer of London training instead of some slovenly self-taught colonial for as poor Richard remarked quote learn of the skillful he that teaches himself hath a fool for his master end quote it is to be questioned if the first years of the apprenticeship were of any particular value to Benjamin save on their mechanical side for the product of James Franklin's press is a dreary lot of gone nothingness a few of the New England's service of the day, Stoddard's treatise on conversion, Stone's short catechism, a prefatory letter about Somity in defense of church singing, which many Puritans still held to be unholy, an allegory styled the Isle of Man or legal proceedings in Manshire against sin, cares, English liberties, sundry pamphlets on the local politics of the moment, such as a letter from one in the country to his friend in Boston, news from the moon, a friendly check from a kind relation to the chief cannoneer, and a word of comfort to a melancholy country. Two or three tracts on inoculation,

Starting point is 04:02:55 and one aimed half at the Boston clergy and half at the fair sex entitled, Hooped Petticoats arraigned by the light of nature and the law of God, were the chief output of the new printer during the years his brother served him. In 1719, a more interesting job was undertaken for the postmaster of Boston employed James Franklin to print for him the Boston Gazette, the third paper issued in America. The contract was a short one for the appointment of a new official led to other changes, and the printer, having supplied his office with what was needful for a newspaper and trained his men in the work, found himself left in the lurch. partly in retaliation and partly to utilize this experience and material james franklin though quote dissuaded by some of his friends from the undertaking as not likely to succeed one newspaper being in their judgment enough for america on august seventh seventeen twenty one issued the first number of the new england corin which he promised should be quote published once a fortnight and out of mere kindness to my brother writers, I intend now and then to be, like them, very, very dull, for I have a strong fancy

Starting point is 04:04:15 that unless I am sometimes flat and low, this paper will not be very grateful to them." The dullness was to be only one feature of the new venture, however, for, quote, the publisher earnestly desires his friends may favor him from time to time, with some short pieces, serious, sarcastic, ludicrous, or otherwise a music. or sometimes professedly dull to accommodate some of his acquaintance, that this corinth may be of the more universal use, end quote. This prospectus was taken in bad part by the already established journals, and one irate rival addressed an open letter to, quote, Jack Dullman, end quote,

Starting point is 04:05:01 taking him to task for his, quote, very, very frothy, fulsome account of himself, end quote. A reproof the printer acknowledged in a joking poem, which still more deeply stirred the objector, and led him to reply to what he termed, quote, Franklin's hobbling verse, end quote. Which came not, quote, from Parnassus, but as a little before the composure you had been raking in the dunghill, it's more probable the corrupt streams got into your brains and your dull cold skull precipitated them into ribaldry, end quote. in his appeal for subscribers quote the undertaker of the corinth end quote pledged himself that nothing should be inserted reflecting on the clergy as such of whatever denomination nor relating to the affairs of government and no trespass against decency or good manners as already told however the currant was quickly breaking lances with the most prominent of the boston clergy and within a twelvemonth of its beginning it printed an article which by implication threw discredit on the civil authorities for this scandalous liable james franklin was by order of the council taken into custody publicly censured and imprisoned for four weeks moreover an attempt was made to pass a resolve that quote

Starting point is 04:06:27 no such weekly paper be hereafter printed or published without the same being first perused and allowed by the secretary but this was rejected as too extreme the reproof and punishment were ineffectual and the authorities complained that the corinth continued boldly reflecting on his majesty's government and on the administration of it in this province the ministry churches and the college and it very often contains paragraphs that tend to fill the reader's minds with vanity to the dishonor of God and the service of good men, end quote. Finally, a particular issue of the journal had so strong a tendency to, quote, mock religion and bring it into contempt, and so profanely abused the Bible, and so injuriously reflected on the reverend and faithful ministers of the gospel and his majesty's government, end quote, that James Franklin was strictly forbidden to print or publish the or, quote, any pamphlet or paper of like nature except it be first supervised by the

Starting point is 04:07:33 secretary of this province, end quote. This inhibition brought the prentice, whose share at first had been to carry the papers through the streets to the customers, more to the fore. In the trial of James Franklin, Benjamin was, quote, taken up and examined before the council, but though I did not give them any satisfaction, they contended themselves by admonishing me and dismissed me, considering me perhaps as an apprentice who was bound to keep his master's secrets." Upon his brother's imprisonment, Franklin, though but sixteen, assumed the management of the paper,

Starting point is 04:08:11 and when the order was issued that James Franklin should no longer print the corinth, quote, there was a consultation held in our printing-house among his friends what he should do in this case. Some proposed to evade the order by changing the name of the paper, but my brother, seeing inconveniences in that, it was finally concluded on as a better way, to let it be printed for the future under the name of Benjamin Franklin, 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 returned to me, with a full discharge on the back of it, to be shown on

Starting point is 04:08:51 occasion, but to secure to him the benefit of my service, I was to sign new indentures for the remainder of the term which were to be kept private. A very flimsy scheme it was. However, it was immediately executed, and the paper went on accordingly under my name for several months, end quote. United as the brothers might be in their fight with church and state, there was serious disagreement between them, and quote, 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

Starting point is 04:09:39 little with me, when under the impressions of resentment for the blows his passion too often urged him to bestow upon me, though he was otherwise not an ill-natured man, perhaps I was too saucy and provoking. 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 refused to give me work." End quote. Failing to secure employment in Boston, Franklin became the runaway printess so frequently advertised for that time. Quote, sneaking on board a sloop in three days, I found myself in New York near three miles from home, a boy of but seventeen, without the least recommendation to, or knowledge of any

Starting point is 04:10:28 person in the place, and with very little money in my pocket." However, quote, at the working man's house, hunger looks in, but does not enter, end quote. And, quote, having a trade and supposing myself a pretty good workman, I offered my services to the printer in the place, old Mr. William Bradford, and quote. from him he obtained no direct aid but he was told of a possible place in philadelphia and at once set out for that city here he obtained a job from samuel keimer one of the two printers of the place and worked with him till a more ambitious opening offered by chance a letter of the lad was shown to the governor of pennsylvania sir william keith from it he inferred that franklin was quote a young man of promising parts and their should be encouraged, for the printers at Philadelphia were wretched ones, end quote. He advised, therefore, that the newcomer should start in business on his own account, making no doubt I should succeed, and hinted that he would procure me the public business

Starting point is 04:11:37 and do me every other service in his power. Keith came to the printing office to see the young journeyman, which made his master stare like a pig poisoned, and took him off to a tavern where, quote, over the Madeira, he proposed my setting up my business," end quote, and was so eager to bring it to pass that he wrote a letter to Josiah Franklin, recommending him to advance his son the necessary money. The father, however, with more prudence, or possibly from lack of the means, disapproved of the scheme. Sir William, despite this damper, still stuck to his suggestion and offered to loan Franklin the needed funds. Quote, give me an inventory of the things necessary to be

Starting point is 04:12:20 had from England, he told the young fellow, and I will send for them, end quote. When made out, it amounted to about 100 pounds sterling, and at the governor's suggestion it was decided that Franklin should go to London to make the purchase because of the advantage of, quote, my being on the spot to choose the types and to see that everything was good of the kind, end quote. Never dreaming of bad faith, Franklin got him aboard ship, and on Christmas Eve of 1720, reached London. It proved a sorry holiday time to him, for here it was that he first learned that he had been deceived with false promises and hopes, and that the governor's name would not have procured him the necessary credit to purchase the outfit, even had he fulfilled his word.

Starting point is 04:13:08 It was a bitter disappointment to the lad, whom poor Richard had not yet taught that, quote, experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn at no other, end quote. Once again Franklin had proof of the value of a trade for, quote, I immediately got into work at Palmer's, then a famous printing house in Bartholomew close, and here I continued near a year, end quote, lodging meantime in Little Britain at three shillings and sixpence a week. It was in this establishment that Franklin set up and printed for himself his, quote, wicked tract, end quote, and however much he may have later thought it an erratum, the pamphlet is typographically anything but that, and as a piece of bookmaking, shows him already a most admirable brother

Starting point is 04:13:57 of the type. Leaving Palmer's, in the hope of bettering himself, Franklin went to Watts, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, a still greater printing house, and, quote, here I continued all the rest of my stay in London. At first I took to working at press, imagining I, I felt a wanted bodily exercise I had been used to in America, where press work is mixed with composing. Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the composing room, I left the pressman. A new bienvenu, or sum for drink, being five shillings, was demanded of me by the compositors. I thought it an imposition, as I had paid below. The master thought so, too, and forbade me paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, was accordingly considered as an excommunicate, and had so many

Starting point is 04:14:47 little pieces of private mischief done me by mixing my sorts, transposing my pages, breaking my matter, etc., etc., if I were ever so little out of the room, and all ascribed to the chapel ghost, which they said ever haunted those not regularly admitted, that, notwithstanding the master's protection, I found myself obliged to comply and pay the money, convinced of the folly of being on ill terms with those wanted to live with continually. I was now on a fair footing with them, and soon acquired considerable influence. I proposed some reasonable alterations in their chapel laws, and carried them against all opposition. My constant attendance, I never making a saint-munday, recommended me to the master, and my uncommon quickness that composing occasioned by being put

Starting point is 04:15:37 upon all work of dispatch, which was generally better paid. So I went on now very agreeably." End quote. At the end of 18 months, a good business offer from a Philadelphia merchant, who had come to London to purchase goods, tempted Franklin into leaving the printing office, and England,

Starting point is 04:15:56 and in less than two years from the time he had sailed, he once more landed at Philadelphia. Only three months later, his employer sickened and died, and for a third time he was without, a livelihood but his London training had taught him much of his trade and to that extent he was the richer and throwing up his job at Watts establishment Franklin quote took leave of printing as I suppose forever acting on this conclusion I tried for farther employment as a merchants clerk end quote not succeeding at Chimer's lack of a skilled workman and Franklin's lack of work brought the two together his old employer quote tempted me

Starting point is 04:16:37 with an offer of large wages by the year to come and take his printing house that he might better attend to his stationer's shop." And Franklin closed again with him. Franklin found in Kimer's employ a number of green hands whom, quote, he had agreed with at extreme low wages per week to be raised a shilling every three 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. I soon perceived that the intention of engaging me at wages so much higher than he had been

Starting point is 04:17:15 used to give was to have these raw cheap hands formed through me, and as soon as I had instructed them, then they being all articleed to him, he should be able to do without me. I went on, however, very cheerfully, 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. Our printing-house often wanted sorts, and there was no letter-founder in America. I had seen types cast at James in London, but without much attention to the matter. However, I now contrived a mold, made use of the letters we had as puncheons, struck the matrices in lead, and thus supplied in a pretty tolerable way all deficiencies.

Starting point is 04:18:02 I also engraved several things on occasion. I made the ink. I was warehouseman and everything, and in short, quite a fact totem. But however serviceable I might be, I found that my services became every day of less importance, as the other hands improved in the business, and when Chimer paid my second quarter's wages,

Starting point is 04:18:23 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, was captious, and seemed ready for an outbreaking. I went on, nevertheless, with a good deal of patience, thinking that his encumbered circumstances were partly the cause. At length, a trifle snapped our connections, for a great noise happening near the courthouse, I put my head out of the window to see what was the matter.

Starting point is 04:18:56 Kimer, being in the street, looked up and saw me, called 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 neighbors who were looking out on the same occasion, being witnesses how I was treated. He came up immediately into the printing-house, continued the quarrel, high words passed on both sides, he gave me the quarter's warning we had stipulated, expressing a wish that he had not been obliged to so long a warning. I told him that his wish was unnecessary, for I would leave him that in the end of the matter, instant, and so taking my hat walked out of the doors."

Starting point is 04:19:36 One of Comer's workman, Hugh Meredith, came to Franklin in the evening and suggested that when his time was out they should form a partnership, his father to advance the money needed to obtain a press and types. Quote, this proposal was agreeable, and I consented. I gave an inventory to the father, Franklin continues, who carried it to a merchant. The things were sent for, the secret was to be kept till they should arrive, and in the meantime I was to get work, if I could, at the other printing-house. But I found no vacancy there, and so remained idle a few days, when Kimer, on a prospect

Starting point is 04:20:15 of being employed 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 job 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 instruction, so I returned, and we went on more smoothly than for some time before. The New Jersey job was obtained. I contrived 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

Starting point is 04:21:00 Burlington, where I executed the whole dissatisfaction, and he received so large a sum for the work as to be enabled thereby to keep his head much longer above water." It was in the summer of 1728 that the firm of B. Franklin and H. Meredith set up their new printing office near the market, and quote, 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, inquiring 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 the gratitude I felt

Starting point is 04:21:51 toward Howes has made me often more ready than perhaps I should otherwise have been to a young beginners." Another friend helped them by procuring from the Quakers, quote, the printing 40 sheets of their history, the rest being to be done by Kimer, and upon this we worked exceedingly hard, for the price was low. It was a folio, pro-patria's size, in PICA,

Starting point is 04:22:17 with long primer notes. I composed of it a sheet a day, and Meredith worked it off at press. It was often 11 at night, and some times later, before I had finished my distribution for the next day's work, for the little jobs sent in by our other friends now and then put us back. But so determined I was to continue doing a sheet a day of the folio, that one night, when having imposed my forms, I thought my day's work over,

Starting point is 04:22:44 one of them by accident was broken and two pages reduced to pie. I immediately distributed and composed it over again before I went to bed, end quote. Franklin was not the kind of man to depend on his friends for work, or even to sit still and let work come to him. The public printing, always a profitable matter, was in the hands of Andrew Bradford, and in December 1728, he printed the usual speech of the governor at the meeting of the assembly, quote, in a coarse blundering manner. We reprinted it elegantly and correctly, and sent one to every member. They were sensible of the difference. it strengthened the hands of our friends in the house, and they voted us their printers for the year ensuing, end quote. A little later, for a timely pamphlet of his own writing, on a projected issue of paper money, his friends in the assembly, quote, thought fit to reward me by employing me in printing the money,

Starting point is 04:23:45 a very profitable job and a great help to me, end quote. In 1732, influenced securing him the printing of an issue of paper money for a debtor, Delaware, another profitable job, as well as of the, quote, laws and votes of that government, which continued in my hands as long as I followed the business, end quote. So too he obtained the public printing of New Jersey. The first book published by the young firm was an impression of Watts' Psalms of David, a writer for whom Franklin had the greatest admiration, so much, in fact that in his last hours, he repeated several of Watts' lyric poems, and discanted upon their sublimity.

Starting point is 04:24:28 Apparently, the people of Pennsylvania did not share this liking, for when Franklin some time after was criticized for printing a particular broadside, in his defense, he urged that if printers occasionally, quote, put forth vicious and silly things not worth reading, they did so, not because they liked such things themselves, but because the people were so viciously educated that good things were not encouraged, end quote. For instance, quote, an impression of the Psalms of David had been upon my shelves for above two years, end quote. Yet he had known a large impression of Robin Hood's songs to go off in a 12-month. Even before Franklin had printed this first volume, an inception of far more importance was in his thoughts, being a project to start a newspaper, a germ, probably, of his experience with the New England corinth. But he had not yet learned from, poor Richard that, quote, three can keep a secret if two are dead, end quote. And so he confided his scheme before it was well matured to one of his former fellow workman,

Starting point is 04:25:36 George Webb. By this means, Kimer heard of the project, quote, immediately to be beforehand with me, published proposals for printing one himself, end quote. And late in 1728, issued the first number of the universal instructor of all arts and sciences, or the Pennsylvania Gazette, and quote. Despite its formidable title, its publisher claimed that it had attained the gigantic circulation of 250 copies by its 13th issue,

Starting point is 04:26:09 which meant a profit to him of at least 60 pounds a year. But already Franklin's old master was feeling the competition of the new firm, and when number 27 of the paper was due, there was a week's delay in its publication, which Mr. Kimer presently explained to the public was occasioned by the fact that he had been, quote, awakened when fast asleep in bed, about eleven at night, overtired with the labor of the day,

Starting point is 04:26:35 and taken away from my dwelling by a writ and summons, it being basely and confidently given out, that I was that very night about to run away, though there was not the least color or ground for such a vile report, end quote. Clearly this was not altogether a novel experience, for he style himself, quote, the shuttlecock of fortune, the very but for villainy to shoot at, or the continued mark for slander and her imps to spit their venom upon, end quote, and marvels that, quote, a person of strict sincerity, refined justice, and universal love to the whole creation, should for a series of near 20 years be the constant butt of slander, as to be three times ruined as a master printer to be nine times in prison, one of which was six years together,

Starting point is 04:27:27 and often reduced to the most wretched circumstances, hunted as a partridge upon the mountains, and persecuted with the most abominable lies the devil himself could invent, or malice utter." End quote. Released by the forbearance of his creditors, Kimer struggled along with his paper until No. 39 was reached, when he sold it to Franklin and Meredith. for a small price, having then only 90 subscribers. Under the new management, the absurd title was curtailed to the Pennsylvania Gazette, and the paper otherwise improved. With the fourth issue, Franklin announced that, quote, instead of publishing a whole sheet once a week as the first

Starting point is 04:28:10 undertaker engaged to do in his proposals, we shall continue to publish a half-sheet twice a week, which amounts to the same thing, only it is easier to us, and we think it will be. be more acceptable to our readers inasmuch as their entertainment will by this means become more frequent end quote this made it the first semi-weekly ever issued in america but the printers were in advance of their public and after issuing a few numbers they changed it back to a weekly this ends chapter five part one chapter five part two of the many-sided franklin by paul lester ford this Libravox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 5, Printer and Publisher, Part 2.

Starting point is 04:29:08 Franklin's editorial share in the paper is described elsewhere, but one phrase is more properly mentioned in considering him as a printer. Everyone who has had to do with publishing in any shape has learned, as Cartagena remarked, that, quote, unto those three things which the ancients held impossible, there should be added this fourth, to find a book printed without erratos." End quote. But few have learned to turn them to so good an account as Franklin, and his explanations and apologies are among the most entertaining contributions to the paper. In one case, his papers were wrought off with a bad transposition. But, quote, the judicious reader will easily distinguish accidental errors from the blunders of ignorance, and more readily

Starting point is 04:29:55 excuse the former, which sometimes happen unavoidably, end quote. On another occasion, when Franklin had gone to New Jersey to print the paper currency of the colony, he availed himself of the popular liking for more money by the announcement that, quote, the printer hopes the irregular publication of this paper will be excused a few times by his town readers on consideration of his being at Burlington, with the press, laboring for the public good to make money more plentiful." Again, he addresses a letter to himself under a feigned name, with the motto, Pinterum est arar.

Starting point is 04:30:34 Quote, sir, as your last paper was reading in some company where I was present, these words were taken notice of in the article concerning Governor Belcher, after which his excellency, with the gentleman trading to New England, died elegantly at Pontax. The word died should doubtless have been dined, Pontax being a noted tavern and eating house in London for gentlemen of condition, but this omission of the letter N in that word gave us as much entertainment as any part of your paper. One took the opportunity of telling us that in a certain edition of the Bible, the printer had where David says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made,

Starting point is 04:31:14 omitted the letter E in the last word, so that it was, I am fearfully and wonderfully. mad, which occasioned an ignorant preacher who took that text to harangue his audience for half an hour on the subject of spiritual madness. Another related to us that when the company of stationers in England had the printing of the Bible in their hands, the word not was left out in the Seventh Commandment, and the whole edition was printed off with thou shalt commit adultery instead of thou shalt not, etc. This material erratum induced the crown to take the patent from them, which is now held by the king's printer. The spectator's remark upon this story is that he doubts many of our modern gentlemen have this faulty addition by him, and are not made sensible of the mistake. A third person in the company acquainted

Starting point is 04:32:06 us with an unlucky fault that went through the whole impression of common prayer books. In the funeral service, where these words are, we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, etc. The printer had omitted the sea in changed, and it read thus. We shall all be hanged, etc. And lastly, a mistake of your brother news printer was mentioned in the speech of James Prouse written the night before he was to have been executed. Instead of I die a Protestant, he has put it, I died a Protestant. Upon the whole, you come off with the more favorable censure, because your paper is most commonly very correct, and yet you were never known. known to triumph upon it by publicly ridiculing and exposing the continual blunders of your contemporary.

Starting point is 04:32:55 Which observation was concluded by a good old gentleman in company, with this general just remark, that whoever accustoms himself to pass over in silence the faults of his neighbors shall meet with much better quarter from the world when he happens to fall into a mistake himself, for the satirical and censorious, whose hand is against every man, shall upon such occasion, have every man's hand against him." It was not in his paper only that Franklin, the editor, blamed Franklin the printer, for in poor Richard, after mentioning a few faults in a previous year's issue,

Starting point is 04:33:33 which he declared were Mr. Pinter's faults, he continued, quote, These and some others of alike kind, let the readers forgive or rebuke him for, as to their wisdom and goodness shall seem meet, for in such cases the loss and damage is chiefly to the reader, who, if he does not take my sense at first reading, tisides he never gets it, for ten to one he does not read my works a second time." In the hands of its new manager, the Gazette Throve. It quickly secured the largest circulation of any paper in America

Starting point is 04:34:10 being distributed from Virginia to New York. It led, too, in advertising patronage, and this resulted in an almost continuous enlargement of its size. Franklin himself was a born advertiser, not merely of what he had to sell, but of anything which could be made the excuse for an advertisement, and some issues of his paper contain as many as seven of his own. From a couple can be gleaned some of the difficulties under which the publisher labored. Quote, this present paper number 303 finishes the fifth year, since the printer hereof undertook the Gazette, no more need be said to my generous subscribers to remind them that every one of those who are above a 12-month in a rear has it in his power to contribute considerably toward the happiness of his most obliged humble

Starting point is 04:35:00 servant be franklin end quote quote this Gazette number 564 begins the 11th year since its first publication and whereas some persons have taken it from the beginning and others for seven or eight years without paying me one farthing, I do hereby give notice to all who are upwards of one year in arrears, that if they do not make speedy payment, I shall discontinued the papers to them, and take some proper method of recovering my money, be Franklin, end quote. To this advertisement was added an NB to the effect that, quote, no new subscriber will be taken in for the future without payment for the first half year advanced, which so far as known is the first instance of the now universal system of prepayments.

Starting point is 04:35:50 Yet, despite these delinquencies, the Gazette was for its time a wonderfully profitable paper. When his second partner, David Hall, eventually bought Franklin out and there was a final settlement, the statement shows the profits from 1748 to 1766 to have been over 12,000 pounds for subscriptions, and over 4,000 pounds for advertisements, Pennsylvania currency. And though this account was settled at the time, as late as 1785, Franklin still had, quote, an old account to settle as regards a particular article of some importance about which we are not agreed.

Starting point is 04:36:29 It was the value of the copyright in an established newspaper, of each of which from 8,000 to 10,000 were printed, end quote. And he asks a printer friend to arbitrate the matter, because, quote, though I never deferred and never should if that good honest man had continued in being, to prevent all dispute on the above points with his son, it is that I now request your decision, which I doubt not will be satisfactory to us both, end quote. So far as can be learned, Franklin was never compensated in this matter, though the paper continued to be printed until 1821, making it the longest-lived paper ever issued in this country.

Starting point is 04:37:08 The Pennsylvania Gazette was apparently not sufficient outlet for the active and energetic printer. For three years after he became its publisher, he began the issue of a paper in German, designed to supply the palatinates and other Germans who were then emigrating in such numbers to Pennsylvania, and from this time he printed many pamphlets in German. Before this enlargement and success were achieved, Franklin had separated from Meredith. In his autobiography, he remarks, quote, I perceive that I am apt to speak in the singular number, though our partnership still continued. The reason may be that, in fact, the whole management of the business lay upon me.

Starting point is 04:37:50 Meredith was no compositor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober. My friends lamented my connection with him, but I was to make the best of it. 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 merchant, who grew impatient, and sued us all. We gave bail, but saw that if the money could not be raised in time, the suit must soon 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, Franklin relates, two true friends whose kindness I have never forgotten,

Starting point is 04:38:45 nor ever shall forget while I can remember anything, 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, end quote. Meredith, who was, quote, often seen drunk in the streets and playing at low games in the alehouses,

Starting point is 04:39:09 end quote, had ceased to take an interest in his work, and it was finally agreed that if Franklin would assume the debts, return Meredith's father the hundred pounds he had advanced, and pay Meredith a small sum, he would relinquish the partnership, and on these terms Franklin became sole owner of the printing office. Though the bulk of the issues of Franklin's press are of little moment, there can be no doubt that as a whole they contain more of genuine merit than those of any other printer of the same or previous periods in the colonies, the amount of doctrinal and polemic theology being a minimum, and bearing a less proportion to the whole mass than can be found in the books of contemporary American printers.

Starting point is 04:39:51 In the earliest years of the venture, he took the risk of printing two little volumes of American poetry, as well as reprinting other verses of European origin. In 1741, he published the earliest American medical treatise, Kolden's essay on the Iliac Passion, and four years later, the second Caldwater's essay on the West India Dry Gripes. From his press came the first two pamphlets against slavery. In 1744, he reprinted Richardson's Pamela, the first novel printed in America. Despite his personal disregard of the classics,

Starting point is 04:40:29 As early as 1735, he printed James Logan's translation of Cato's Moral Distich, the first Latin work to be both translated and printed in America, which he prefaced by the remark, quote, In most places that I am acquainted with, so great is the present corruption of manners that a printer shall find much more profit in such things as flatter and encourage vice than in such as tend to promote its contrary. It would be thought a piece of a piece of hippoccurrence,

Starting point is 04:40:59 and pharisiacal ostentation in me, if I should say, that I print these distiches more with the view to the good of others than my own private advantage, and indeed I cannot say it, for I confess, I have so great confidence in the common virtue and good sense of the people of this and the neighboring provinces that I expect to sell a very good impression, end quote. apparently in this he was not disappointed and nine years later he published a second translation of logan's believing it to be quote in itself equal at least if not far preferable to any other translation of the same piece extant in our language which he printed quote 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 impaired by its approach may not in reading, by the pain's small letters give the eyes, feel the pleasure of the mind and the least allayed." This particular book Franklin always considered the finest product of his press, and so

Starting point is 04:42:07 proud was he of it that he sent 500 copies to London, where they were put into the hands of Mr. Beckett for sale, without much profit, as it would appear. For nearly forty years later, Franklin wrote to ask if he could obtain a copy, and can't mentioned that he never had an account of their being sold. His greatest publishing success, poor Richard's Almanac, and his greatest publishing failure, the general magazine, are treated elsewhere. In all these new departures, Franklin was something more than a mere printer, and he offered Calden to print, quote, Your Peace on Gravitation, at my own expense and risk, adding, quote, if I can be the means of communicating anything valuable to the world,

Starting point is 04:42:53 I do not always think of gaining, nor even of saving by my business, but a piece of that kind, as it must excite the curiosity of all the learned, can hardly fail of bearing its own expense, end quote. A Scotch journeyman, David Hall, whom Franklin took into his employment in 1743, was admitted to a partnership five years later. he quote took off my hands all the care of the printing office paying me punctually my share of the profits end quote and franklin in congratulating a friend on a return to your beloved retirement wrote with evident pleasure that he too was quote taking the proper measures for obtaining leisure to enjoy life and my friends more than hitherto having put my printing-house under the care of my partner david hall absolutely left off book-selling and removed to a more quiet part of the town where I am settling my old accounts and hope soon to be quite master of my own time.

Starting point is 04:43:57 This partnership continued 18 years successfully for us both, end quote, at the end of which time Hall became the purchaser of the outfit. This did not mean that Franklin Houldy retired from his connection with printing, for long before this he had established a number of printing offices in other towns. For instance, in 1733, quote, I sent one of my journeymen to Charleston, South Carolina, where a printer was wanting. I furnished him with the press and letters on the agreement of partnership by which I was to receive one-third of the profits of the business, paying one-third of the expense, and quote. The partnership in Carolina, having succeeded, quote, I was encouraged to engage in others and to promote several of my workmen who had behaved one. well by establishing them with printing houses in different colonies on the same terms as that in Carolina." One of these was James Parker, whom he established in New York, and by 1743 he had, quote,

Starting point is 04:45:01 three printing houses in three different colonies and purpose to set up a fourth if I can meet with the proper person to manage it, having all the materials ready for that purpose, end quote. Five years later he sent an outfit to Antigua in the West Indies under the charge of a journeyman who had, quote, worked with me here and in my printing house in New York three or four years, end quote. He was also interested in a printing office in Kingston, Jamaica, and as already noted, he took two of his nephews as apprentices, and when they were trained, helped them to establish themselves as printers. quote, most of them did well, being enabled at the end of our term six years to purchase the types of me and go on working for themselves, by which means several families were raised. Partnerships often finish in quarrels, but I was happy in this that mine were all carried on and ended amicably, end quote. Nor did his retirement from active printing lessen his interest in his trade, and every possible improvement in the art received attention from me.

Starting point is 04:46:09 him. In 1753, for instance, he suggested that his London agent should, quote, persuade your pressmaker to go out of his road a little, end quote, in making a press in order to include certain improvements that Franklin had invented, since with these it, quote, never gravels, the hollow face of the ribs keeps the oil better, and the cramps, bearing on the larger surface, do not wear, as in the common method. Of this, I have had many years experience. end quote. When Cadwallader Colden conceived the idea of stereotyping and wrote to Franklin about it, the new invention received his prompt attention, he conducted a series of experiments designed to test its value, and it is supposed that he communicated the idea to Dido when

Starting point is 04:46:58 in France. On a somewhat kindred subject, he wrote to John Walter, who afterward became famous as a founder of the London Times, that he had read his introduction to logography, which he thought extremely ingenious, and, quote, I like much the idea of cementing the letters instead of casting words of syllables, which I formally attempted and succeeded in having invented a mold and method by which I could, in a few minutes, form a matrix, adjust it to any word in any font at pleasure, and proceed to cast from it, end quote. Though this scheme of Walters proved a failure, it was another step toward the modern system of stereotyping. As the printer was interested in shortening the processes of composition, so he was interested in typography,

Starting point is 04:47:49 and a friendship that he quickly formed in England was with John Baskerville, the famous typemaker. When a critic told Franklin that the founder's letters, quote, would be the means of blinding all the readers in the nation, end quote, Franklin endeavored without success to, quote, support your character against the charge, end quote, by argument. Not succeeding in this, when the fault finder again called upon him, quote, mischievously bent to try his judgment, I stepped into my closet, tore off the top of Mr. Carlson's specimen,

Starting point is 04:48:26 and produced it to him as yours, brought with me from Birmingham, saying I had been examining it since he spoke to me, and could not for my life perceive the disproportion he mentioned, desiring him to point it out to me. He readily undertook it, and went over the several fonts, showing me everywhere what he thought instances of that disproportion, and declared that he could not then read the specimen without feeling very strongly the pain he had mentioned to me. I spared him that time, the confusion of being told that these were the types he had been reading all his life with so much ease to his eyes, the types his adored Newton is printed with, on which he has poured not a little, nay, the very types

Starting point is 04:49:09 his own book is printed with, for he himself is an author, and yet never discovered this painful disproportion in them till he thought they were yours." Furthermore, Franklin endeavored to get him orders from America by distributing specimens of his letters among printers. Interest in good type meant interest in good printing and Franklin followed the improvements in books with closeness. While minister in France, he noted that, quote, a strong emulation exists at present between Paris and Madrid with regard to beautiful printing. Here a Monsieur de de de de laun has a passion for the art, and besides having procured the best types, he has much improved the press. The utmost care is taken of his press work.

Starting point is 04:49:59 his ink is black and his paper fine and white he has executed several charming additions but the salist and the don quixote of madrid are thought to excel them diddo however improves every day and by his zeal and indefatigable application bids fair to carry the art to a high pitch of perfection i will send you a sample of his work when i have an opportunity franklin was not however too much of a printer ever to forget the reader and in the last years of his life he made some criticisms on his craft which are as true to-day as when he wrote them by a fancy of printers he complained they have suppressed the capitalizing of all substantives with the idea of showing the character to greater advantage those letters prominent above the line disturbing its even regular appearance which he very properly remarked was again an appearance at the expense of the reader and any one who has read eighteen century books before the invention of that pretended improvement had been made, will agree with him. Furthermore, quote, from fondness

Starting point is 04:51:16 for an even and uniform appearance of characters in the line, the printers have of late banished also the italic types, in which words of importance to be attended to in the sense of the sentence, and words on which an emphasis should be put in reading used to be printed.

Starting point is 04:51:33 And lately, another fancy has induced some printers to use the short, round, s, instead of the long one, which formerly served well to distinguish a word readily by its varied appearance. Certainly the omitting this prominent letter makes the line appear more even, but renders it less immediately legible, as the pairing all men's noses might smooth and level their faces, but would render their physiognomies less distinguishable. Add to all these improvements backwards, another modern fancy, that gray

Starting point is 04:52:05 printing is more beautiful than black, hence the English new books are printed in so dimly, a character as to be read with difficulty by old eyes unless in a very strong light and with good glasses whoever compares a volume of the gentleman's magazine printed between the years seventeen thirty one of those printed in the last ten years will be convinced of the much greater degree of prepiscuity given by black ink than by grey lord chesterfield pleasantly remarked this difference to falconer the printer of the dublin journal who will was vainly making encomiums on his own paper as the most complete of any in the world but mr faulkiner said my lord don't you think it might be still farther improved by using paper and ink not quite so near of a colour for all these reasons i cannot but wish that our american printers would in their editions avoid these fancied improvements and thereby render their works more agreeable to foreigners in europe to the great advantage of our books

Starting point is 04:53:10 selling commerce, end quote. He was equally severe on another book-making fault of the time. One can scarce see a new book, he wrote, quote, without observing the excessive artifices made use of to puff up the paper of verses into a pamphlet, a pamphlet into an octavo, and an octave into a quarto, with scab boardings, white lines, sparse titles of chapters, and exorbitant margins, to such a degree that the selling of paper seems now the object, and printing on it only the pretense. I enclose the copy of a page in a late comedy. Between every two lines there is a white space equal to another line. You have a law, I think, against butcher's blowing veal to make it look fatter. Why not one against booksellers blowing books to make them look bigger? End quote.

Starting point is 04:54:04 Franklin always credited his knowledge of good bookmaking to his experience in one Watts printing house, and it is stated that, quote, at every entertainment which he gave his workman during the life of Watts, the health of his old friend and master was one of the toasts, end quote. When, too, he went to England in 1757 as agent for his colony. One of the first things he did was to seek out his old employer, and it is related that with him he went to the composing room where he had formerly worked, voluntary contributed the bienvenu, or some for drink, he had once so persistently refused, and proposed the toast, success to printing. A London printer with whom an even greater friendship existed was William Strayhan. The acquaintance

Starting point is 04:54:52 started merely as a business connection in 1743, but with Franklin's next visit to London, it quickly became a personal one, and ripened to such a degree that the two men agreed upon a marriage between their children. Strayhan used his utmost influence to get Franklin to settle in England permanently, not merely proposing, quote, several advantageous schemes to me, end quote, but writing urgently to his wife. In time, Strahan became printer to the king and eventually was elected to Parliament. In this body, he was an adherent of the government, voting for most of the measures of which America complained, and this drew from Franklin the letter which was to become so famous, written in a moment of bitterness

Starting point is 04:55:37 upon hearing of the Battle of Bunker Hill, but which expressed merely the moment's heat, and so was never sent to his friend. Even through the revolution, a frank and affectionate correspondence was maintained, differ as they might in opinion, and a satiric description Franklin gave of the condition of England at the end of the war is well worthy of quotation. Alluding to the general scramble there for office or money, he said, quote, to speak in our old style, brother type. These may be good for the chapel, but they are bad for the master, as they create constant quarrels that hinder the business. For example, here are two months that your government has been employed in getting its form to press, which is not yet fit to

Starting point is 04:56:23 work on, every page of it being squabbled, and the whole ready to fall into pie. The fonts, too, must be very scanty or strangely out of sorts, since your compositors can't find either upper or lower-case letters sufficient to set the word administration, but are forced to be continually turning for them. However, to return to common, though perhaps too saucy language, do not despair. You have still one resource left, and that is not a bad one, since it may reunite the empire. We have some remains of affection for you, and shall always be ready to receive and take care of you in case of distress. So, if you have not sense in virtue enough to govern yourselves, even dissolve your present old crazy constitution and send members to Congress."

Starting point is 04:57:10 With even greater cleverness of metaphor, Franklin later told him, quote, I remember you're observing once to me as we sat together in the House of Commons that no two journeyman printers within your knowledge had met with such success in the world as ourselves. You were then at the head of your profession, and soon afterwards became a member of Parliament. I was an agent for a few provinces, and now act for them all. But we have risen by different modes. I, as a Republican printer, always like to form well-plained down, being averse to those overbearing letters that hold their heads so high as to hinder

Starting point is 04:57:49 their neighbors from appearing. You, as a monarchist, chose to work upon crown paper and found it profitable, while I worked upon pro-patria, often indeed called foolscap, with no less advantage. Both our heaps hold out very well, and we seem likely to make a pretty good day's work of it. With regard to public affairs, to continue in the same style, it seems to me that the compositors in your chapel do not cast off their copy well, nor perfectly understand imposing. Their forms, too, are continually pestered by the outs and doubles that are not easy to be corrected. And I think they are wrong in laying aside some faces, and particularly certain heads.

Starting point is 04:58:32 headpieces that would have been both useful and ornamental." Nothing proved better the printer's attachment for his calling than an amusement during his diplomatic service in France. In his own home he set up a press and types, all of which he and his servants cast, and with them occasionally printed little bagatelles and skits of both his friend's writing and his own, usually in very small editions. These printing materials consisting of a great variety of fonts He brought with him on his return to America

Starting point is 04:59:06 And used them to establish his grandson Benjamin Franklin Bosch Quote in business as a printer The original occupation of his grandfather Explaining to a friend I am too old to follow printing again myself But loving the business I have brought up my grandson Benjamin to it And have built and furnished a printing house for him

Starting point is 04:59:29 which he now manages under my eye, end quote. Despite the many honors that had come to him, to the last he held himself to be first and foremost a printer, and began his will, quote, I, Benjamin Franklin, printer, late minister plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Court of France, and now president of the state of Pennsylvania,

Starting point is 04:59:53 end quote. It was at his own request that the printers of the city, with their journeymen and apprentices were given a prominent position in his funeral procession. This ends chapter 5, part 2. Chapter 6, part 1 of the many-sided Franklin

Starting point is 05:00:21 by Paul Lester Ford. This Libravox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 6, writer and journalist, Part 1 Franklin's grandfather on maternal side and his uncle were both confirmed scribblers of rhyme, and therefore it was seemingly preordained by heritage and by example that he should write. At seven years of age the boy sent a

Starting point is 05:00:51 poem to his uncle Benjamin, and the recipient wrote back, "'Tis time for me to throw aside my pen, when hanging sleeves, read, write, and rhyme like men, this forward spring foretells a plenteous crop, for if the bud bear grain, what will the top? If first-year shoots such noble clusters send, what laden bows in Gettylike may we expect in the end? He was thirteen years of age and a printer's apprentice before any further evidence of his writing is to be found, and his ambition was still to be a rhymester.

Starting point is 05:01:28 Quote, I now took a fancy to write poetry and made some little pieces, he relates in his autobiography, and his printer brother, thinking it might turn to account, encouraged me and put me on composing occasional ballads. One was called the Lighthouse Tragedy and contained an account of the drowning of Captain Worthleck with his two daughters.

Starting point is 05:01:50 The other was a sailor's song on the taking of Teach, or Blackbeard the Pirate. They were wretched stuff in the Grub Street ballad style, and when they were printed he sent me about the town to sell them, and quote. Recently, what is supposed to be an original of his poem on Teach has been unearthed, and a stanza deserves quotation, as an example of his earliest writing now extant. Quote, Will you hear of a bloody battle lately fought upon the seas? It will make your ears to rattle,

Starting point is 05:02:23 and your admiration cease. Have you heard of Teach the Rover and his knavery on the main? How of gold he was a lover? How he loved all ill-got-gain. How he loved all ill-got-gain. end quote. Whatever their merit, Franklin scored a success in his first essay in letters. The ballads sold well, one in fact wonderfully, which, quote, flattered my vanity, but my father discouraged me by ridiculing my performances and telling me verse makers were generally beggars. So I escaped being a poet, most probably a very bad one, end quote. Laughed out of poetry, the lad turned to prose, and here again his father's criticism influenced him. Having engaged in an argument on the propriety of educating the female sex in learning and their abilities for study, with a friend who was naturally more eloquent

Starting point is 05:03:16 and had already plenty of words, Franklin was worsted, so he thought, more by his fluency than by the strength of his reasons. Accordingly, quote, I sat down to put my arguments in writing, which I copied fair and sent to him. He answered, and I replied, and I replied, three or four letters of a side had passed when my father happened to find my papers and read them without entering into the discussion he took occasion to talk to me about the manner of my writing observed that though i had the advantage of my antagonist in correct spelling and pointing which i owed to the printing-house i fell far short in elegance of expression in method and in perpiscuity of which he convinced me of several instances i saw the justice of his remarks and thence grew more attentive to the manner in writing, and determined to endeavor at improvement, end quote. Quote, about this time I met with an odd volume of the spectator. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it.

Starting point is 05:04:21 I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this 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, tried to complete the papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found that I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time, if I had gone on making verses, since the continued occasion for words of the same import,

Starting point is 05:05:06 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 turned them into verse, and after a time when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collection of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order before I began to form the full sentences and complete the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered 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.

Starting point is 05:06:00 or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly, in time, come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious. 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." It was undoubtedly this admiration for the spectator, which inspired his next contributions to literature. for it is from that series clearly that the young author took his model. On a March night in the year 1722, when the lad was 16 years of age, he slipped a paper under the door of what James Franklin advertised as his printing house over against Mr. Sheaf's school near the prison,

Starting point is 05:06:50 and then stole away. The next day, as the apprentice stood at his type case, he could hear his brother consulting with the ingenious men among his friends who amused themselves by writing little pieces for the paper, as to who could be the author of the sheets with the humble signature of Silence Doogood. And it is easy to imagine his pride when he heard the essay praised by them,

Starting point is 05:07:14 when the piece appeared in all the glory of type in the New England Courant, and when his eye met the notice in the same issue, that, quote, as the favor of Mrs. Doogood's correspondence is acknowledged by the publisher of this paper, lest any of her letters should miss. carry. He desires they may be delivered at his printing office or at the blue balls in Union

Starting point is 05:07:35 Street, and no question will be asked of the bearer." End quote. In the piece thus printed, Mrs. Dugood introduced herself to readers in due form, and announced that she, quote, intends 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, end quote. And she was as good as, her word, for to the number of 14 letters, the pseudo-wido widow gossips on female training and vices, pride,

Starting point is 05:08:07 college learning, hypocrites, widows, matchmakers, religion, drinking, etc. Until, quote, my small fund of sense for such performances was pretty well exhausted. When unable longer to contain the secret, I discovered it,

Starting point is 05:08:24 end quote. This made the lad, quote, considered a little more by my brother's acquaintance, which did not quite please him, as he thought, probably with reason that it tended to make me too vain." Very quickly, as already recounted, the anonymous contributor was acting as both publisher and editor of the Courant, and in these capacities he seemed to have satisfied James Franklin better, for while the last named was in prison, quote, I made bold to give our rulers some rubs in

Starting point is 05:08:57 which my brother took very kindly, end quote. He was at this time barely 17, and thus presumptively the youngest American editor. The wandering life of the runaway apprentice gave slight opportunity for the cultivation of his pen talent, and, save for his little wicked tract, the succeeding years were lean ones in production. But once Franklin was established in Philadelphia as a printer,

Starting point is 05:09:23 the tendency to write, redeveloped, and proved of real service. to him. In the first year of the new firm, he wrote a little pamphlet on the local question entitled The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency, and the opposition, happening to have no writers among them that were able to answer it, the party in favor of an issue of paper money carried their point in the assembly. Quote, my friends there who conceived that I had been of some service thought fit to reward me by employing me in printing the money, a very profitable job and a great help to me. This was another advantage gained by my being able to write."

Starting point is 05:10:03 Once again within this first year, Franklin's ability to use his pen was to profit him. When Kimer stole his project of a newspaper and forestalled him, in resentment the would-be editor wrote several pieces of entertainment for Bradford's paper. This latter, according to Franklin, had hitherto been a paltry thing, wretchedly managed. no way entertaining, and yet was profitable. But now, thanks to the letters of the busybody, which were much the same style as those of Mrs. Dugood, the attention of the public was fixed on that paper,

Starting point is 05:10:40 and Keimer's proposals, which were burlesked and ridiculed, were disregarded. The new paper languished, and within a year, as already told, was purchased by Mr. Franklin. Mr. Keimer, by way of filling his columns, rather than of entertaining his readers, had begun reprinting Chambers' great cyclopedia and Defoe's religious courtship.

Starting point is 05:11:03 But Franklin was too instinctively a journalist to continue such padding. The first, he told his subscribers in his inaugural, contained too many things, abstruse and insignificant, and, moreover, would take perhaps ten years to finish. As for the second, it would shortly be printed in book form, and at the service of those who approve it. His paper, thus cleared of uncurrent and stale matter, the new editor said about filling it with news that should be both interesting and timely. Quote, our country correspondence, the Gazette requested, are desired to acquaint us as soon as they can conveniently, with every remarkable accident, occurrence, etc., fit for public notice that may happen within their knowledge in order to make this paper more universally intelligent, end quote.

Starting point is 05:11:53 having made his appeal for local events franklin spread a broader dragnet and the paper assured its patrons that quote the publishers of this paper meeting with considerable encouragement are determined to continue it and to that end have taken measures to settle a general correspondence to procure the best and earliest intelligence from all parts we shall from time to time have all the noted public prints from great britain new england new york maryland and jamaica besides what news may be collected from private letters and informations and we doubt not of continuing to give our customers all the satisfaction they expect from a performance of this nature end quote try as franklin might to make his paper a good news sheet it was not always easy and occasionally the gazette gives voice to the editories difficulties. One issue, for instance, informed its readers, quote, after a long dearth of news, we have, by the late ships, received English papers to the 12th of November. The war, though it creates a more general appetite for news, does we find in this distant part of the world very much disconcert us newswriters. During the peace, ships were constantly dropping in at some port or brother of this continent, and we had fresh advices almost every week from Europe. But now, by

Starting point is 05:13:19 their waiting for convoy and other hindrances and delays, we are sometimes months without having a syllable. The consequence is that a series of newspapers come to hand in a lump together, and being each of us ambitious to give our readers the freshest intelligence, we crowd all the latest events into our first paper and are obliged to fill up succeeding ones with articles of prior date, or else omit them entirely as being anticipated and stale, and entertain you with matters of another nature. Hence the chain of occurrences is broken or inverted, and much of the news rendered thereby unintelligible. Hence, you have tedious accounts of the raising of armies, the motion of fleets, or the siege of cities, after you have been some weeks acquainted with the taking of those cities,

Starting point is 05:14:09 and the beating of those fleets and armies, or perhaps you were never to be a few weeks, or perhaps you were never told at all by what steps those great events were brought about. Such a confused method must make any writing of an historical nature less entertaining and instructive to the intelligent reader. We propose, therefore, to avoid it for the future in this paper, as much as may be, and doubt not, but that for the sake of a clear and regular account of the affairs in Europe, our readers will excuse us if we happen now and then to be a week or two later than others with some particular articles." End quote. Measureed by its contemporaries, there is no doubt that Franklin succeeded in making the Gazette

Starting point is 05:14:51 a newspaper. Thefts, murders, rapes, etc. were described with a detail that might be termed modern, but for this very example that the new journalism is not new. Real pains were taken to chronicle local events, and though the results seem mean, eager, it was far better done than by its rivals, and nothing proved this more than the fact that they stole from its columns.

Starting point is 05:15:16 Quote, when Mr. Bradford publishes after us, the Gazette told one plagiary, and has occasion to take an article or two out of the Gazette, which he is always welcome to do, he has desired not to date his paper a day before ours, as last week in the case of the letter containing Kelsey's speech, etc. Less distant readers should imagine we take from him. which we always carefully avoid, end quote. Nor was this the only amusement Franklin made out of his rival's columns, and one of his jokes was peculiarly typical.

Starting point is 05:15:50 Quote, as you sometimes take upon you to correct the public, he made a pretended correspondent, memory, write to his paper. You ought, in your turn, patiently to receive public correction. My quarrel against you is, your practice of publishing under the notion of news,

Starting point is 05:16:08 old transactions, which I suppose you hope we have forgot. For instance, in your number 669, you tell us from London of July 20th that the losses of our merchants are laid before the Congress of Soissons by Mr. Stanhope, etc., and that Admiral Hobson died the 8th of May last. Whereas, tis certain, there has been no Congress at Soissons nor anywhere else these three years at least, nor could Admiral Hobson possibly die in May last, unless he made a resurrection since his death in 1728. And in your number 670, among other articles of equal antiquity, you tell us the long story of a murder and robbery perpetrated on the person of Mr. Nathan Bostock, which I have read word for word, not less than four years since, in your own paper. Are these your freshest advices, foreign and domestic? I insist that you insert this in your next, and let us see how you justify yourself."

Starting point is 05:17:09 Still affecting to treat the matter seriously, Franklin replied, quote, I need not say more in vindication of myself against this charge than that the letter is evidently wrong-directed, and should have been to the publisher of the Mercury, inasmuch as the number of my paper is not yet amounted to 669, nor are those old articles anywhere to be found in the Gazette, but in the mercury of the last two weeks, end quote. These guards bespoke strained relations with his fellow editor, and there was little love lost between them.

Starting point is 05:17:43 The Bradford's charged upon one occasion that Franklin had been awarded the printing of the New Jersey Colony money for a higher sum than was asked by another printer, and added, quote, It's no matter, it's the country's money, and if the public can't afford to pay well, who can. It's proper to serve a friend when there is an opportunity, end quote. There were other charges, too, of one sort and another, and counter charges in the Gazette, with the advantage generally

Starting point is 05:18:11 in Franklin's favor, but which did little credit to either of the disputants. Later in life, Franklin came to realize this fact, for from Paris he wrote of American journalism to a friend. quote you do well to avoid being concerned in the pieces of personal abuse so scandalously common in our newspapers that i am afraid to lend any of them here until i have examined and laid aside such as would disgrace us and subject us among strangers to a reflection like that used by a gentleman in a coffee-house to two quarrellers who after a mutually free use of the words rogue villain rascal scandal etc seemed to if they would refer the dispute to him. I know nothing of you or your affairs, said he.

Starting point is 05:18:59 I only perceive that you know one another. The conductor of a newspaper should, methinks, consider himself as in some degree the guardian of his country's reputation, and refuse to insert such writing as may hurt it. If people will print their abuses of one another, let them do it in little pamphlets and distribute them where they think proper.

Starting point is 05:19:21 It is absurd to trouble all the world with them, and unjust to subscribers in distant places to stuff their paper with matters so unprofitable and so disagreeable." Even more severe was his ironical account of the supremest court of judicature in Pennsylvania, viz, the court of the press. This court, he wrote, may receive and promulgate accusations of all kinds against all persons and characters with or without inquiry or hearing at the court's discretion, It is established for the benefit of about one citizen in 500 who can procure pen, ink, and paper with a press, a few types, and a huge pair of blacking balls, and who, if you make the least complaint of his conduct, jobs 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 enemy to the liberty of the press, end quote.

Starting point is 05:20:20 this 500th part of the citizens have the privilege of accusing and abusing the other 499 parts at their pleasure in practice this court quote is not governed by any of the rules of common courts of law the accused is allowed no grand jury nor is the name of the accuser made known to him nor has he an opportunity of confronting the witnesses against him nor is there any petty jury of his peers its privilege of flow from what is termed the liberty of the press, end quote, which Franklin deemed to be akin to, quote, the liberty of the press that felons have by the common law of England, before a conviction, that is, to be pressed to death or hanged, end quote. And he argues that if this so-called liberty consists in the power of, quote, affronting, calumniating, and defaming one another,

Starting point is 05:21:14 I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law, and shall cheerfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself. Failing this, 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 liberty of the cudgel to go with it, Paris Pasou. Thus, my fellow citizens, if the impudent writer attacks your reputation, dearer to you perhaps than your love. 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,

Starting point is 05:22:02 you may in like manner waylay him in the night, attack him behind, and give him a good drubbing. Thus far goes my project as to private resentment and retribution. But if the public should ever happen to be affronted as it ought to be, with the conduct of such writers, I would not advise proceeding immediately to these extremities, but that we should, in moderation, content ourselves with tarring and feathering and tossing them in a blanket. 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 press, and that of the cudgel, and by an explicit law, mark their extent and limits, and at the

Starting point is 05:22:48 same time that they secure the person of a citizen from assaults, they would likewise provide for the security of his reputation." End quote. Long after Franklin had severed his interest in his own paper, he took pride that, quote, I lately heard a remark that on examination of the Pennsylvania Gazette for 50 years from its commencement, it appeared that during that long period, scarce one libelous piece had ever appeared in it. This generally chased conduct. 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.

Starting point is 05:23:34 The excesses some of our papers have been guilty of in this particular have set this state in a bad light abroad, for I have seen a European newspaper in which the editor, who had been charged with frequently calumniating the Americans, just to, himself by saying that he had published nothing disgraceful to us which he had not taken from our own printed papers. Franklin's share in the Gazette was far more than gathering news. The editorial was a yet unknown feature of journalism, but he often added to his items, little comments, or explanations. When there was an empty column, he wrote an essay, letter, poem, or anything else to fill it. For Stalling modern journalism, he asked a question, and then proceeded to answer it at length.

Starting point is 05:24:21 So, too, he propounded questions in casuistry and riddles to his readers, and for one of the latter he offered that, quote, Who in good verse explains me clear shall have this gazette free one year, end quote. Finally, he composed the annual carrier's address that ushered in each new year. End of chapter six, part one of three. Chapter 6 Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Batonridge, Louisiana.

Starting point is 05:25:06 Chapter 6, Writer and Journalist, Part 2. Having made a success of his newspaper, the editor's ambition expanded, and he conceived the scheme of establishing a magazine. Imprudently, he confided the idea to a friend before he was quite ready to begin, and as with his project of a newspaper, another publisher heard of the plan, and hastened to issue a prospectus of just such a periodical. Instead of letting this interfere, Franklin, while charging a breach of confidence, continued his preparations, and after a war of words in the press between the two editors, the controversy

Starting point is 05:25:45 settled into a race as to which magazine should first appear. On February 13, 1741, the American magazine was issued, and on the 16th the general magazine was for sale, Franklin, thus losing by three days, the honor of having edited and published the first monthly in America. Neither publication succeeded, the earliest in the field dying with its third number, with its publisher not far from bankruptcy, and the second, after a six-month struggle, ceased to appear, leaving nothing but a long account on the wrong side of the printer's ledger. these years of editorship were busy ones for franklin and kept his quill too well employed to let it produce much besides what was required for his periodicals from seventeen twenty nine to seventeen fifty seven the few pieces he wrote which did not appear in one of these publications were with one exception noted elsewhere wholly pamphlets of occasion such as his proposals for education and his account of the pennsylvania hospital

Starting point is 05:26:52 but if he produced nothing that can be ranked as literature while his paper magazine and almanac made such drafts on his time his work in them was teaching him all there was to be learned of pencraft an inch of space or a column or a page needed to be filled the printer left his type-case and wrote something of exactly the right length it is to be questioned if any man of letters ever served so long and so difficult an apprenticeship as did franklin in his almost forty years of editorial work, and there is small wonder that every year marked a gain to him in style and facility. When he took farewell of journalism, words had become to him a plastic medium which he could model to any shape his fancy chose. In a generation which considered Johnson's Latinized English as the acme of fine writing, he wrote a style which has scarcely been equaled for its combination of simplicity and clearness. a query which he wrote gives his own standard quote how shall we judge the goodness of a writing or what qualities should a writing have to be good and perfect in its kind

Starting point is 05:28:05 answer to be good it ought to have a tendency to benefit the reader by improving his virtue or his knowledge but not regarding the intention of the author the method should be just that is should proceed regularly from things known to things unknown 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. But taking the query otherwise, an ill man may write an ill thing well, that is, having an ill

Starting point is 05:29:03 design, he may use the properest style and arguments, considering who are to be readers, to attain his ends. In this sense, that is best wrote, which is best adapted for obtaining the end of the writer, end quote. Far more than a good style went to make up Franklin's success as a writer. Poor Richard had distinct literary ease. He was never at a loss for an aphorism, simile, or a story to illustrate or strengthen an argument, could take another man's idea and improve upon it, could refute a whole argument by a dozen words scribbled in the margin,

Starting point is 05:29:40 and imitate other and bygone styles of writing at will. On this facility he drew heavily as he stepped into public life, and some examples of his work will show at once his methods and his versatility. In 1760, the columnists had reason to dread a termination of the French and Dindian War before the British success had made certain the retention of Canada. Instead of keeping to traditional lines and repeating in a pamphlet or a squib, the argument that had become by repetition both Hagnet and partisan, Franklin made his appeal in such a way as to avoid both. Quote, I met lately with an old quarto book on a stall, he wrote to an editor of the London Chronicle, translated, so he goes on to tell, from the Spanish,

Starting point is 05:30:29 and a certain chapter of this book is so apropos to our present situation, only changing Spain for France, that I think it well worth general attention and observation, as it discovers the arts of our enemies, and may therefore help in some degree, to put us on our guard against them." Having thus convinced the reader that whatever follows is untinctured by contemporary bias, he pretendedly transcribes from the book a chapter on the means of disposing the enemy to peace.

Starting point is 05:31:00 And by putting every reason for ending the war into the mouth of an enemy of England, he successfully makes each of them seem inimical to that country. But this masterpiece of turning an opponent's own guns on him, could only succeed if the hoax were well enough done to carry conviction of its genuineness to each reader an excerpt will illustrate how far the writer was able to accomplish this wars with whatever prudence undertaken and conducted do not always succeed many things out of man's power to govern such as dearth of provision tempests pestilence and the like oftentimes interfering and totally overthrowing the best design so that those enemies, England and Holland, of our monarchy, though apparently at first the weaker, may by disastrous events of war on our part become the stronger, and though not in such degree as to endanger the body of this great kingdom, yet by their greater power of shipping and aptness

Starting point is 05:32:02 in sea affairs, to be able to cut off, if I may so speak, some of its smaller limbs and members that are remote therefrom, and not easily defended, to which are islands and colonies in the Indies. Thereby, however, depriving the body of its wanted nourishment, so that it must thenceforth languish and grow weak, if those parts are not recovered, which possibly may, by continuance of war, be found unlikely to be done. And the enemy, puffed up with their successes, and hoping still for more, may not be disposed to peace on such terms as would be suitable to the honor of your majesty, and to the welfare of your state and subjects, in such case the following means may have good effect."

Starting point is 05:32:48 A still cleverer imposition was something he wrote in 1773. The stock argument of the English writers who maintained that Parliament possessed supreme authority over America was that the colonists, had they remained in Great Britain, would have been absolutely subject to its laws, and that immigration had not changed. this condition. To show the utter absurdity of the claim, Franklin drafted what purported to be an edict of the Prussian king, which began in due form, Frederick, by the grace of God, king of Prussia, etc, etc., etc., and then continued, quote, whereas it is well known to all the world that the first German settlements made in the

Starting point is 05:33:32 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, Ufa, Serticus, Ida, and others, and that the said colonies have flourished 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 ourselves 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 an expedient that a revenue should be raised from the said colonies in

Starting point is 05:34:18 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. do, therefore, hereby ordain and command, that from and after the date of these presents, there shall be levied and paid to our officers of the customs, on all goods, wares, and merchandises, 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 percent ad valorem for the use of us and our successors."

Starting point is 05:35:04 end quote. The edict, its author affirmed, was written in out-of-the-way form as most likely to take the general attention, and in this it was an entire success. It was printed in the public advertiser, and Franklin wrote a friend that he could not send him one, because, quote, though my clerk went the next morning to the printers, and wherever they were sold, the addition of the paper had been exhausted, end quote. In consequence, the piece was reprinted by request in a subsequent issue, and was generally reprinted in other papers and in the magazines. I am not suspected as the author, the Kozner told her correspondent, except by one or two friends, and we 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 was

Starting point is 05:35:58 very able and very artful indeed, 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. What made it the more noticed here was that people in reading it were, as the phrase is, taken in, till they had got half through it, and imagined it a real edict to which mistake, I suppose, the King of Prussia's character must have contributed. Of this, he relates an incident which must have delighted him. quote i was down at lord le despensiers 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 you here's the king of prussia claiming a-pourler claiming a-pourler when he came running in to us out of breath with the paper in his hand here says he here's the king of prussia claiming a-pressed claiming a right to this kingdom. 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,

Starting point is 05:37:09 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. Whitehead, who was very shrewd, soon after began to smoke it, and looking into my face, said, I'll be hanged if this is not some of your American jokes upon us. The reading went on and ended with abundance of laughing, and the general verdict was that it was a fair hit, and the piece was cut out of the paper and preserved in my lord's collection." End quote. Another incident which occurred at Lord Le Despenziers, serves to show still another quality of his skill, as well as his facility with his pen. Dr. Franklin told me, John Adams relates, that before his return to America from England, in 17,

Starting point is 05:37:58 he was in company with a number of English nobleman when the conversation turned upon fables, those of Isop, Lafontein, Gay, Moore, and etc. Some one of the company observed that he thought the subject was exhausted. He did not believe that any man could now find an animal, beast, bird, or fish, that he could work into a new fable with any success. And the whole company appeared to applaud the idea, except Franklin, who was silent. the gentleman insisted on his opinion he said with submission to their lordships he believed the subject was inexhaustible and that many new and instructive fables might be made out of such materials can you think of any one at present if your lordship will furnish me a pen ink and a paper i believe i can furnish your lordship with one in a few minutes the paper was brought and he sat down and wrote quote once upon a time an eagle scaling round a farmer's barn and despying a hare, darted down upon him like a sunbeam, seized him in his claws, and remounted with him in the air. He soon found that he had a creature

Starting point is 05:39:10 of more courage and strength than a hair, for which, notwithstanding the keenness of his eyesight, he had mistaken a cat. The snarling and scrambling of the prey was very inconvenient, and what was worse, she had disengaged herself from his talons, grasped his body with her four limbs, so as to stop his breath, and seized fast hold of his throat with her teeth. Pray, said the eagle, let go your hold, and I will release you. Very fine, said the cat, I have no fancy to fall from this height and be crushed to death. You have taken me up, and you shall stoop and let me down. The eagle thought it necessary to stoop accordingly. End quote. The moral was so applicable to England and America that the fable was allowed to be

Starting point is 05:39:58 original and highly applauded. Perhaps the ablest of all his quips was a letter designed to increase the odium of the small German princes who sold their troops to Great Britain during the revolution. This purported to be written by one of the potentates to his officer in command in America. Quote, you cannot imagine my joy, the ruler declared, that of the 1950 Hesians engaged in the fight at Trenton, 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.

Starting point is 05:40:46 This would make 483,450 Florence, instead of 643,500 Florence, which I am entitled to demand under our creditors. Convention. You will comprehend the prejudice which such an error would make in my finances, and I do not doubt that you will take the necessary pains to prove that Lord North's list is false and yours correct. The Court of London objects that there were 100 wounded who ought not to be included in the list, nor paid for as dead, but I trust you will not overlook my instructions to you on quitting Cassell, and that you will not have tried by human sucker to recall to life, the unfortunates, whose days could not be lengthened but by the loss of a leg or an arm. I do not mean by this that you should assassinate them. We should be humane, my dear Baron,

Starting point is 05:41:38 but you may insinuate to the surgeons with either propriety that a crippled man is a reproach to their profession." Then Franklin makes the writer continue. Quote, I'm about to send you some new recruits. Don't economize them. You did write to send back to Europe that Dr. Cremmerers who was so successful in curing dysentery. Don't bother with the man who is subject to looseness of the bowels. That disease makes bad soldiers. One coward will do more mischief in an engagement than ten brave men will do good. Better that they burst in their barracks, then 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,

Starting point is 05:42:27 which has caused 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 to seek glory in the midst of dangers. You will say to Major Mondorf that I am not at all content with his saving the three hundred and forty-five men who escaped the massacre at 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." A greater imposition still was something he did in 1782, in an endeavor to make Europe

Starting point is 05:43:17 appreciate the horrors of another British mode of warfare. On his private press at Passy, he struck off a fictitious newspaper, purporting to be a supplement of the Boston Chronicle, filled with certain evidence which he wished to get before the public. Chief of these was an account of the capture of a large quantity of scalps from the Indians in English pay, which had been made up in eight packs, cured, dried, hooped, and painted, preparatory to sending them as a gift to George III. With them was an invoice of each package, of which the following are examined. examples. Quote. Number four, containing 102 of farmers, mixed of the several marks above,

Starting point is 05:44:02 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 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 gray heads among them all, which makes the service more essential. Number five, containing 88 scalps of women, hair long, braided in the Indian fashion to show they were mothers, hoops blue, skins yellow ground with little red tadpoles to represent by way of triumph the tears of grief occasion to their relations. A black scalping knife or a hatchet

Starting point is 05:44:50 at the bottom to mark their being killed with these instruments. Seventeen others, hair very gray, black hoops, plain brown color, no mark but the short club or castet to show they were knocked down dead or had their brains beat out, end quote. After this gruesome description in the paper, almost as if to show the literary versatility of the man, comes a pretended letter from John Paul Jones to the British minister at the Hague. in a moment of temper the diplomat had termed the naval officer a pirate and it was too good a chance for franklin not to seize upon quote a pirate the englishman was told is defined to be hostas humane generis 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

Starting point is 05:45:48 an enemy to and at war with one whole quarter of the world a pirate makes war for the sake of rapine this is not the kind of war i am engaged in against england ours is a war in defense of liberty the most just of all wars and of our properties 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 rapine of course a piratical war and those who approve of it and are engaged in it more justly deserve the name of pirates which you bestow on me." Following this letter came a number of minor paragraphs and even advertisements, all intended

Starting point is 05:46:33 to give verisimilitude. In closed, I send you a few copies of a paper, Franklin wrote to a friend, 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 invoices. Make any use of them you may think proper to shame your anglo-mains, but do not let it be known through what hand they come." End quote. For once the fraud was too well done, and Franklin overreached himself by the very ability of his felicit.

Starting point is 05:47:19 against the ambassador. Have you seen in the papers an excellent letter by Paul Jones to Sir Joseph York? asked Horace Walpole of a correspondent. El no di bien de verity. I doubt poor Joseph cannot answer them. Dr. Franklin himself, I should think, was the author. It is certainly from a first-rate pen and not a common man of war, end quote. This was the judgment, however, of a skilled critic,

Starting point is 05:47:49 and the supplement was generally accepted as genuine. It was not his contemporaries alone whom Franklin deceived by the cleverness of his art. While acting as agent in London for a number of the colonies, he was compelled, if he wished their interests, to receive the slightest attention, to dance attendance at the levees, but he put his disgust at a system of business based on personal influence and corruption into one of the severest pieces of irony he ever penned. quote it is now more than one hundred and seventy years since the translation of our common english bible he began a paper which he entitled proposed new version of the bible

Starting point is 05:48:30 the language in that time is much changed he continues 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, end quote. Then followed seven paraphrased verses, which, without the least change of substance,

Starting point is 05:49:15 were by a mere change of words, made to become a savage satire on the monarchical system of government. Yet such was the skill with which it was written that the editor to whom it was sent printed it in good faith as a genuine proposal, and it has since been frequently cited as a serious endeavor of its author. Thus, one of his recent biographers devotes three pages to abuse of the travesty, writing, quote, When age and experience should have taught him better, he made a paraphrase of a chapter of Job. In no book, it is safe to say, is the force and beauty of the

Starting point is 05:49:51 English tongue so finally shown as in King James Bible. But on Franklin, that force and beauty were wholly lost. The language he pronounced obsolete, the style he thought not agreeable, and he was for a new rendering in which the turn of phrase and manner of expression should be modern. The plan is beneath criticism. Were such a piece of folly ever begun, there would remember, but one other depth of folly to which it would be possible to go down. Franklin proposed to fit out the kingdom of heaven with lords, nobles, a ministry, and levy days. It would, on the same principle, be proper to make another version suitable for republics, nor would he have hesitated to make such a version. The Bible was to him in no sense a book for spiritual guidance, hence

Starting point is 05:50:39 it was that the first chapter of Job taught him nothing but a lesson in politics." something Matthew Arnold wrote is still more amusing. I remember the relief with which, after long feeling the sway of Franklin's imperturbable common sense, I came upon a project of his for a new version of the book of Job to replace the old version, the style of which, says Franklin, has become obsolete and thence less agreeable. I give, he continues, a few verses which may serve as a sample of the kind of version I would recommend. We all recollect the famous verse in our translation. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for naught? Franklin makes this. Does your majesty imagine that Job's good conduct

Starting point is 05:51:29 is the effect of mere personal attachment and affection? I well remember how when first I read that, I drew a deep breath of relief and said to myself, after all, there is a stretch of humanity beyond Franklin's victorious good sense. The lover of literary curiosities may be almost sorry that Franklin's proposal never got any further." End of Chapter 6, Part 2. Chapter 6, Part 3 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Starting point is 05:52:15 Chapter 6. Writer and Journalist, Part 3. It is a pity that Franklin could not read both these judgments, for no one would have enjoyed such literary curiosities more, and that he should have successfully deceived biographers and critics is only a further monument to his cleverness in letters. Franklin attempted a far more difficult piece of biblical revision, however, than a paraphrase of Job, by rewriting the Lord's Prayer. His draft, which has been strangely overlooked by his editors and biographers, though imperfect, gives reasons for each suggested change, too long to be included here, though most interesting. The text of the prayer, as far as extant, was, quote, Heavenly Father, may all revere thee, and become thy dutiful children and faithful subjects,

Starting point is 05:53:08 may the laws be obeyed on earth as perfectly as they are in heaven. provide for us this day as thou hast hitherto daily done, forgive us our trespasses, and enable us likewise to forgive those that offend us. Keep us out of temptation." How far Franklin deemed the style of the Bible, obsolete and unagreable, is shown by another literary joke. He found in a book of Jeremy Taylor's a parable teaching the toleration he was so constantly advocating, and was so charmed with the moral, quote, well worth being made known to all mankind, end quote, that he rewrote it in scripture language and printing off a few copies, kept one laid in his Bible.

Starting point is 05:53:52 In time he came to know what he called Genesis 51, so well as to need no text, and one of his pleasures was, quote, reading it by heart out of my Bible, and obtaining the remarks of the scripturians upon it, which were sometimes very diverting. end quote. This amusement was finally ended by one of his friends, Lord Cames, who had persuaded Franklin to give him a copy, printing it, without my consent, in his history of man, and so giving it general circulation. It must not be supposed from this accenting of his sleight of pen that Franklin spent his time in literary leisure domain. From the time he retired from active printing and journalism he was a prolific scribbler both of newspaper articles and of pamphlets on all subjects he was interested in which owed their influence to force of argument rather than to their form or turn of phrase poor richard said

Starting point is 05:54:49 a they say has wit for what for writing no for writing not but his creator was a living denial of the lines for judged by the product his pen seems never to have been idle he not merely wrote himself but utilized the writings of others. During his long and bitter contests in Pennsylvania politics, he wrote many squibs and pamphlets of a strongly partisan nature, and he was charged by an opponent with having encumbered the minutes of the assembly with, quote, a load of scurrilous messages of your own drawing, and long reports put together from law books, old histories, and journals, end quote. In his service as agent in England from 1764, to 1775, he caused every important American pamphlet to be republished in London, usually adding a preface of his own. In Paris, he was instrumental in starting a periodical that should

Starting point is 05:55:47 disseminate news of the revolution untinctured by British prejudice. He saw to it that certain periodicals employed writers friendly to the American cause and encouraged other men to write. His long experience had taught him the value of the press, and in every contest in which he took a share, he used it to its fullest extent. The ancient Romans and Greek orators, he remarked, could only speak to a number of citizens capable of being assembled within the reach of their voice. Their writings had little effect, because the bulk of the people could not read. Now, by the press, we can speak to nations, and good books and well-written pamphlets have

Starting point is 05:56:27 great and general influence. The facility with which the same truths may be repeatedly enforced by placing them daily in different lights in newspapers, which are everywhere red, gives a great chance of establishing them. And we now find that it is not only right to strike while the iron is hot, but that it may be very practical to heat it by continually striking, end quote. Unquestionably, his best work, in a literary sense, were what he himself termed Bagotel's, being little esthered, written during his years in France, and never destined for publication, but solely for the amusement of the little circle of intimates he drew about him, and in some cases composed for the entertainment of a single invalid, of whom he was particularly fond. In this way were produced the whistle, the ephemera, the morals of chess, the dialogue with the gout, and the handsome and deformed leg,

Starting point is 05:57:24 each of which, in its own way, has rarely been excelled in its combination of the two elements which go to make the best literature, wisdom of thought and charm of form. One peculiarity of this pen activity was his endeavor to avoid being the draftsman of public papers. In his long political service, he could not help but prepare one occasionally, yet whenever possible he left it for others to do, and though he was unquestionably the foremost writer of his country during his lifetime, not one really famous document was framed by him. his reasons for this policy were given to thomas jefferson under circumstances that made them peculiarly interesting quote when the declaration of independence was under the consideration of congress there were two or three unlucky expressions in it which gave offence to some members the words scotch and other foreign auxiliaries excited the ire of a gentleman or two of that country severe strictures on the conduct of the british king in negativing are repeated

Starting point is 05:58:28 repeals of the law which permitted the importation of slaves, was disapproved by some southern gentlemen whose reflections were not yet matured to the full abhorrence of that traffic. Although the offensive expressions were immediately yielded, these gentlemen continued their depredations on other parts of the instrument. I was sitting by Dr. Franklin, who perceived that I was not insensible to these mutilations. I have made it a rule, said he, whenever in my power to avoid becoming the draftsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from an incident which I will relate to you. When I was a journeyman printer, one of my companions, an apprentice Hatter, having served

Starting point is 05:59:13 out his time, was about to open shop for himself. His first concern was to have a handsome signboard with a proper inscription. He composed it in these words. John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sell hats for ready money, with the figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed it to thought the word hatter, totalogous, because, followed by the words, makes hats, would show he was a hatter. It was struck out. The next observed that the word makes might as well be omitted,

Starting point is 05:59:51 because his customers would not care who made the hats. If good, and to their mind, they would buy, by whom so ever made. He struck it out. A third said he thought words for ready money were useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell on credit. Everyone who purchased expected to pay. They reported with, and the inscription now stood, John Thompson sells hats.

Starting point is 06:00:17 Sales hats, says his next friend, why, nobody will expect you to give them away. What then is the use of that word? It was stricken out, and hats followed it, the rather as there was one painted on the board. So the inscription was reduced ultimately to John Thompson with the figure of a hat subjoined. End quote.

Starting point is 06:00:40 In objecting to submit his writings to criticism of this kind, Franklin's sense of humor was too strong not to get amusement out of the author's undue valuation of his own work. I have of late fancied myself to write better than I ever did. He told a friend who jocously asserted, that his judgment was on the decline, and farther that when anything of mine is abridged in the papers or magazines, I concede that the abridger has left out the very best and brightest parts. These, my friend, are much stronger proofs, and put me in mind of Gil Blass's patron,

Starting point is 06:01:15 the homily maker, end quote. More seriously, he complained of a London editor, who, for party reasons, made corrections and omissions in one of his pieces. He hath drawn the teeth and pared the nails of my paper, so that it can neither scratch nor bite, Franklin grumbled. It seems only to paw and mumble. Yet he welcomed true criticism, and in reply to such a one from David Hume, he wrote, quote, I thank you for your friendly admonition relating to some unusual words in the pamphlet. It will be of service to me. The pejoric and the colonize, since they are not in common use here, I give up as bad, for certainly in writings intended for persuasion and for

Starting point is 06:01:59 general information, one cannot be too clear, and every expression in the least obscure is a fault. The unshakable, too, though clear, I give up as rather low. The introducing new words, where we are already possessed of old ones sufficiently expressive, I confess must be generally wrong, as it tends to change the language. Yet, at the same time, I cannot but, but wish the usage of our tongue permitted making new words when we want them by composition of old ones whose meanings are already well understood the german allows of it it is a common practice with their writers many of our present english words were originally so made and many of the latin words in point of clearness such compound words would have the advantage of any we can borrow from the ancient or from foreign languages for instance the word inaccessible though long and use among us is not yet, I dare say, so universally understood by our people, as the word uncommutable would be which we are not allowed to write. But I hope with you that we shall always, in America, make the best English of this island

Starting point is 06:03:09 our standard, and I believe it will be so. I assure you it often gives me pleasure to reflect how greatly the audience, if I may so term it, of a good English writer, will, in another century or two be increased by the English, of English people in our colonies." This shrewd estimate of the future value of an American public to British writers, he discussed more at length in a letter to his friend Strayhand, the publisher. By the way, he informed him, the rapid growth and extension of the English language in America must become greatly advantageous to the booksellers and holders of copyrights in England.

Starting point is 06:03:52 A vast audience is assembling there for English authors, ancient, present, and future, our people doubling every twenty years. And this will demand large and, of course, profitable impressions of your most valuable books. I would, therefore, if I possess such rights, entail them, if such a thing be practicable, upon my posterity, for their worth will be continually augmenting. This may look a little like advice, and yet I have drunk no Madeira these six six years. months." What Franklin did not conceive was that the American authors and publishers would in time reverse the process and profit by the English reader. Yet had it been possible for him to entail the

Starting point is 06:04:36 copyright of poor Richard and his autobiography on his own descendants, they would have been made rich by the wide sale of these two books in Anglo-Saxon countries. The autobiography, the most famous of all his writings, is of peculiar interest, not merely as a story of his life, but because it is his only real endeavor to write a book. It was begun in 1771, during a visit with his friend Bishop Shipley at Twyford, and, as originally planned, was merely a letter to his son, William Franklin, that he might, quote, learn the circumstances of my life. Other occupations compelled him to lay it aside when it had been brought down only to 1730. Left in Philadelphia with his papers, when Franklin sailed for France, the manuscript in the turmoil of the revolution was actually thrown into the street, whereby good chance it was found by an old friend who was so charmed by a reading that he begged Franklin to complete it.

Starting point is 06:05:36 In compliance with the wish, a few pages were added in 1784, which mark a complete change of plan. For the alienation from his son had meantime come, and so the work was no longer a person. communication meant for one eye only, but was now written with publication in mind. Accordingly, its author sought to ingraft a second book on the story of his life. From the year 1732, Franklin, quote, had had in mind a little work for the benefit of youth to be called the Art of Virtue, which he described to Lord Caimes as follows, quote. From the title, I think he 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,

Starting point is 06:06:24 but do not know how to make the change. They have frequently resolved and endeavored it, but in vain, because their endeavors have not been properly conducted. To expect people to be good, to be just, to be temperate, etc., without showing them how they should become so, seems like the ineffectual charity mentioned by the apostle, which consists in saying to the hungry, the cold and the naked, be ye fed, be ye warmed, be ye clothed, without showing them how they should get food, fire, and clothing." End quote. In resuming the autobiography, therefore, quote, to shorten the work, as well as for other reasons, I omit all facts that might not have a tendency to benefit the young reader by showing him from my example and my success in emerging from poverty

Starting point is 06:07:13 and acquiring some degree of wealth, power, and reputation, the advantages of certain modes of conduct, which I observed, and avoiding the errors which were prejudicial to me, end quote. It was this motive which induced Franklin to write, with extraordinary frankness, of the mistakes of his youth, and every erratum which he told in the autobiography was described, not because he took any pleasure in cataloguing his own failings, but in the hope that it might be of benefit.

Starting point is 06:07:43 it in saving others from similar slips. In the next few years, Franklin, urged by his friends, worked at the book, but his time was heavily mortgaged to the public, and when at last leisure came, he found that the gout and stone were faster workers than the man, and they wrote finis to the real life, when that on paper had passed over only a little more than half its story. To judge Franklin from the literary standpoint is neither easy nor quite fair. It is not to be denied that as a philosopher, as a statesman, and as a friend, he owed much of his success to his ability as a writer. His letters charmed all, and made his correspondence eagerly sought. His political arguments were the joy of his party and the dread of his opponents.

Starting point is 06:08:32 His scientific discoveries were explained in language at once so simple and so clear that ploughboy and exquisite could follow his thought or his experiment to its conclusion. yet he was never a literary man in the true and common meaning of the term omitting his uncompleted autobiography and his scientific writings there is hardly a line of his pen which was not privately or anonymously written to exert a transient influence fill an empty column or please a friend the larger part of his work was not only done in haste but never revised or even proofread yet this self-educated boy and busy practical man gave to American literature the most popular autobiography ever written, a series of political and social satires that can bear comparison with those of the greatest satirists, a private correspondence as readable as Walpoles or Chesterfields, and the collection of poor Richard's epigrams has been oftener printed and translated than any other production of an American pen.

Starting point is 06:09:36 If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing, advised the almanac maker, and his original did both. Yet Franklin himself asserted, quote, He that can compose himself is wiser than he that composes books, end quote. End of chapter six. Chapter 7, Part 1 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 7 Relations with the Fair Sex, Part 1

Starting point is 06:10:23 At 14 years of age, so Franklin relates, he engaged in a controversy with another boy on, quote, the propriety of educating the female sex in learning and their ability for study, end quote, his opponent maintaining that it was improper and that they were naturally unequal to it. while benjamin took the contrary side perhaps a little for dispute's sake two years later when composing the letters of mrs dougood he wrote one in defence of women in reply to a request of ephraim censorious that the author of those essays should quote Let the first volley of your resentment be directed against female vice.

Starting point is 06:11:06 Let female idleness, ignorance, and folly be the subject of your satires, but more especially female pride, which I think is intolerable." End quote. I find it a very difficult matter, the embryo philosopher replied, to reprove women separate from the men, for what vice is there in which the men have not as great a share as women? Moreover, he argued, such faults as the sex have are chiefly due to men. Idleness, quote, if a man will be so fond and so foolish as to labor hard himself for a livelihood

Starting point is 06:11:44 and suffer his wife in the meantime 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, end quote. Ignorance and folly. The fault is wholly on the fault. the men, for not allowing women the advantages of education. Pride, truly, if women are proud, it is certainly owing to the men still, for if they will be such simpletons as to humble themselves at their feet and fill their credulous ears with extravagant praises of their wit, beauty, and other accomplishments, what wonder is it if they carry themselves haughtily and live

Starting point is 06:12:24 extravagantly?" End quote. As befitted her pen name, Mrs. is due good devoted much space to the consideration of feminine affairs. One of her letters treats of the lamentable condition of widows and suggests for their benefit a mutual insurance that shall give to every married woman 500 pounds on the death of her husband. Another discusses the sad lot of the maid, who, being puffed up in her younger years with a numerous train of humble servants, had the vanity to think that her extraordinary wit and beauty could continually recommend her to the esteem of the gallants, but has seen her rejected swains, to all appearances in a dying condition, recover their health and marry, and who, disappointed in and neglected by

Starting point is 06:13:13 her former adorers, and with no new offers appearing, begs the writer to form a project for the relief of all those penitent mortals of the fair sex that are like to be punished with their virginity until old age, for the pride and insolence of their youth. showing no favor to her own condition the widow suggests a friendly society that shall pay to each member when the age of thirty is attained five hundred pounds which some she deems sufficient to fit each with a husband but she adds that this premium shall be subject to the condition that quote no woman who after claiming and receiving has had the good fortune to marry shall entertain any company with encomiums on her husband above the space of one hour at a time." A third article, picturing Boston at night, describes still another class of feminine unfortunates, of whom the 16-year-old lad

Starting point is 06:14:12 might better have been ignorant. One has but to read Fielding, or Smollett, to know that the 18th century was a poor school for the learning of moral purity, and the runaway prentice, separated from home and parents, had fewer influences than most to save him from adopting the view,

Starting point is 06:14:30 view of the times that human appetites were given to man for his enjoyment and that their gratification was a venial fault at most. In the years of wandering which followed his leaving Boston, he himself frankly confesses that his hard-to-be-governed passion of youth hurried him frequently into intrigues with low women that fell in his way. And he probably had his own transgressions in mind when, a few years later in a newspaper essay, he bespoke a charitable judgment of such weakness, arguing in behalf of the abstract offender that, quote, your youth, your inexperience, the weakness of your reason, and the violence of your passions all plead strongly for you, end quote. As he grew in years and wisdom, Franklin set himself to conquer his own nature in this

Starting point is 06:15:21 failing, as in others, but struggle as he would, his physique was stronger than his will. through all his life he never succeeded in bringing himself to his own standard and poor richard could speak wittingly when he asserted that quote the proof of gold is fire the proof of woman gold the proof of man a woman and quote yet though this incontinence was a matter of common knowledge and was recurrently used as a subject of attack in political campaigns his own generation both men and women deemed him a moral man whose friendship was a honor, and it is unfair to judge him by standards that did not exist at the time he lived, or to hold his other virtues in disrespect, because he lacked this one. The roving period of his journeyman life over, no sooner was he settled in Philadelphia than he looked about in search of a help meet. For, according to poor Richard, quote, a man without a wife is but half a man, end quote. A view enlarged upon by Franklin when he wrote a young friend,

Starting point is 06:16:25 quote, it is the man and woman united that make the complete human being. Separate, she wants his force of body and strength of reason, he, her softness, sensibility, and acute discernment. Together they are more likely to succeed in the world. A single man has not nearly the value he would have in the state of union. He is an incomplete animal. He resembles the odd half of a pair of scissors. If you get a prudent, healthy wife, your industry in your profession with her good economy will be a fortune sufficient end quote in the same vein and almost in the same words even to his somewhat questionable comparison of matrimony to a pair of scissors he told another quote the married state is after all our jokes the happiest because comfortable to our natures men and woman have each of them qualities and tempers which in the other is deficient and which in union contribute to our natures men and women have each of them qualities and tempers which in the other is deficient and which in union contribute to to the common felicity. Single and separate they are not the complete human being. They are like the

Starting point is 06:17:29 odd halves of scissors. They cannot answer the end of their formation, end quote. Favorably as the young printer thought of the institution of wedlock, he allowed little sentiment to enter into his own suits. He had leased the upper part of his printing office to a family of the name of Godfrey in turn boarding with them, and in womanly fashion, quote, Mrs. Godfrey, projected a match for me with a relations daughter, took opportunities of bringing us often together till a serious courtship, on my part ensued, the girl being in herself very deserving. The old folks encouraged me by continual invitations to supper, and by leaving us together, till at length it was time to explain. Mrs. Godfrey managed our little treaty. I let her know

Starting point is 06:18:18 that I expected as much money with their daughter as would pay off my remaining debt for the printing-house, which I believe was then above a hundred pounds. She brought me word that 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. Whether this was a real change of sentiment or only artifice on a supposition of our being too far engaged in affection to retract, and therefore that we should steal a marriage, which would leave them at liberty to give or withhold what they pleased, I know not. But I suspected the latter, resented it, and went no more. Mrs. Godfrey brought me afterwards

Starting point is 06:19:01 some more favorable 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 Godfrey's. We differed, and they removed, leaving me the whole house, and I resolved to take no more inmates." End quote. This affair, Franklin continues calmly, having turned my thoughts to marriage, I looked around 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 agreeable."

Starting point is 06:19:41 His empty rooms, too, no doubt, were a persuasive, for though poor Richard advised that one never take a wife till you have a house and a fire to put her in. He also maintained that a house without a woman and firelight is like a body without soul and spirit. Disappointed in his several courtships, he turned to one whom he had already wooed and won. Over four years before these abortive attempts, on the day of his first arrival in Philadelphia,

Starting point is 06:20:13 the runaway apprentice, quote, unkempt and unwashed from the journey, and with three great puffy rolls, one under each arm and eating a third, had walked up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the door of Mr. Reed, 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, end quote. Presently, after he had secured work with Kimer,

Starting point is 06:20:42 he took lodgings at Mr. Reed's, and propinquity thus favoring, he made some courtship during this time to misread. Quote, I had, he states, 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 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.

Starting point is 06:21:15 When I should be, as I expected, set up a moment. in my business. Perhaps, too, she thought my expectations not so well-founded as I imagined them to be." End quote. Once in London, Franklin says, quote, I forgot by degrees my engagements with Miss Reed, to whom I never wrote more than one letter, and that was to let her know I was not likely soon to return, end quote. This was, as he candidly owned when older, quote, another of the great errata of my life, which I would wish to correct if I were to live it over again." He acknowledged, too, that when, 18 months later, he returned and established himself in Philadelphia, quote, I should have been ashamed at seeing Miss Reed, had not her friends, despairing with reason

Starting point is 06:22:03 of my return after the receipt of my letter, persuaded 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, and it being now said that he had another wife. He was a worthless fellow, though an excellent workman, which was the temptation to her friends. He got into debt, ran away in 1727 or 1728, went to the West Indies, and died there, end quote. Despite Franklin's ill-treatment of them, there was no rupture, and, quote, a friendly correspondence as neighbors and old acquaintances had continued between me and Mr. Reed's family, who all had a regard for me from the time of my first lodging in their house.

Starting point is 06:22:54 I was often invited there and consulted in their affairs, wherein I sometimes was of service, end quote. Thus drawn into the family circle, quote, I pitied poor Miss Reed's unfortunate situation, who was generally dejected, seldom cheerful and avoided company. I considered my giddiness and inconstancy when in London, as in a great degree the cause of her unhappiness, though 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.

Starting point is 06:23:34 The match was indeed looked upon as invalid, a preceding wife being said to be living in England, but this could not easily be proved because of the distance, and though there was a report of his death, it was not certain. Then, though it should be true, he had left many debts, which his successor might be called upon to pay, end quote. An escape from these difficulties was found in the common law marriage, and Franklin took her to wife, September 1, 1730. Quote,

Starting point is 06:24:05 None of the inconveniences happened that we apprehended. She proved a good and true, faithful helpmate, assisted me much by attending shop, we throve together and have ever mutually endeavored to make each other happy. Thus I corrected that great erotum as well as I could, end quote. Long years after Mrs. Franklin's death, her husband bore testimony to the age she had been to him, telling a young girl, quote, frugality is an enriching virtue, a virtue I never could acquire myself, but I was once lucky enough to find it in a wife, who thereby became a fortune to me. Do you possess it? If you do, and I were 20 years younger,

Starting point is 06:24:47 I would give your father one thousand guineas for you. I know you would be worth more to me as a manager, but I am covetous and love good bargains, end quote. When a prudent wife, the printer said, and if she does not bring a fortune, she will help to make one. Industry, frugality, and prudent economy in a wife are to the tradesmen in their effect. a fortune." When his daughter married a shopkeeper, the father advised her that she could be as serviceable to her husband in keeping shop, quote, as your mother was to me, for you are not deficient in capacity, and I hope are not too proud, end quote.

Starting point is 06:25:29 Elsewhere, he wrote, quote, we have an English proverb that says, he that would thrive must ask his wife. It was lucky for me that I had one as much disposed to industry and frugality as myself. She assisted me cheerfully 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,

Starting point is 06:26:04 and I ate it out of a two-penny earthen porringer with a pewter spoon. But mark how luxury will enter families and make a progress, in spite of principle. Being called 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 it 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 her husband deserved 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 increased augmented gradually to several hundred pounds in value

Starting point is 06:26:49 in stamp act times the husband took comfort in the recollection a quote that i had once been clothed from head to foot in woolen and linen of my wife's manufacture that i never was prouder of my dress in my life and that she and her daughter my do it again if it was necessary." There can be no question that Deborah Franklin was far more to her husband than a good helpmeet for a very great affection developed between the two. In an absence, Franklin declared that, quote, 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 inclination. I drove on violently and made such long stretches that a very few days,

Starting point is 06:27:34 brought me to my own house and to the arms of my good old wife." When in England he told her, You may think, perhaps, that I can find many amusements here to pass the time agreeably. It is true, the regard and friendship I meet with from persons of worth, and the conversation of ingenious men give me no small pleasure. But at this time of life, domestic comforts afford the most solid satisfaction, and my uneasiness at being absent from my family and longing desire to be with them make me often sigh in the midst of cheerful company." Again he wrote,

Starting point is 06:28:14 My dear love, I hoped to have been on the sea in my return by this time, but find I must stay a few weeks longer, perhaps for the summer ships. Thanks to God, I continue well and hearty, and I hope to find you so, when I have the happiness once more of seeing you." One form in which this love expressed itself was in the gifts they made each other during the years they were separated. How Mrs. Franklin sent her husband,

Starting point is 06:28:41 apples, buckwheat, and other American goodies has already been recorded, and he made ample return for them. Busy as the colony agent was in his sojourns in London, he found time to select and ship remembrances of many kinds to his wife. thus he notified her that i sent my dear a newest fashioned white hat and cloak and sundry little things which i hope will get safe to hand i now send her a pair of buckles made of french paste stones which are next in lustre to diamonds and quote again he informed her i have ordered two large print common prayer-books to be bound on purpose for you and goody smith and that the largeness of the print may not make them too bulky, the christening's, matrimonies, and everything else that you and she have not

Starting point is 06:29:32 immediate and constant occasion for are to be omitted. So you will both of you be reprieved from the use of spectacles in church a little longer, end quote. Of another gift, he wrote, My poor cousin Walker in Buckinghamshire is a lacemaker. She was ambitious of presenting you and Sally with some netting of her work, but as I knew she could not afford it, I chose to pay for it at her usual price, three, six per yard. It goes also in the box, end quote. He even noted the fashions and to help her to be in style, quote, sent a striped cotton and silk gown for you, of a manufacturer now much the mode here. There is another for Sally. People line them with some old silk gown and they look very handsome. Of one present, he said, quote,

Starting point is 06:30:23 I also forgot among the china to mention a large fine job. for beer to stand in the cooler. I fell in love with it at first sight, for I thought it looked like a fat, jolly dame, clean and tidy, with a neat blue and white calico gown on, good-natured and lovely, and put me in mind of somebody." End quote. As they send each other numerous gifts, so too they wrote each other frequently, and Franklin boasted that, quote, I think nobody ever had more faithful correspondence than I have in Mr. Hughes and you. It is impossible to give you. It is impossible to get or keep out of your debts." And quote.

Starting point is 06:31:00 Nor was he himself neglectful, for he once told her, quote, I know you love to have a line from me by every packet, so I write, though I have little to say, end quote. Despite this care, the irregularities of the males produced chidings that bespoke her eagerness for news of him. Quote, April 7, this day is complete five months since you left your own house. I did receive a letter from the capes. since that not one line i do suppose that you did write by the packet but that is not arrived yet end quote and again she complained quote i have been very much distressed about you as i did not get any letter nor one word from you nor did i hear one word from anybody that you wrote to

Starting point is 06:31:46 so i must submit and endeavor to submit to what i am to bear end quote their correspondence too never failed to express strong affectionate affectionate franklin usually began his quote my dear child or my dear love and concluded i am ever my dear debby your affectionate husband varied at times with, I am dear girl, your loving husband, a formula which was so customary that he ended thus one letter which had taken her to task for not writing, in a post-script, he added, quote, I have scratched out the loving words, being written in haste by mistake, when I forgot I was angry, end quote. In return, her letters opened, my dear child, and even my dearest dear child, and were signed, I am, my dear child, your affectionate wife, which was, which was, my dear child, which were, was occasionally modified in orthography to, I am your affectionate wife. Quote, I sat down to confab a little with my dear child, she began one missive, and she ended another, adieu, my dear child, and take care of yourself for mammy's sake, as well as your one. Yet a third begged he would, quote, tell me how your poor arms was, and how you was on your voyage, and how you are and everything is with you, which I want very much to know. and quote and she told him that she joined with him quote in sincere thanks to god for your

Starting point is 06:33:12 preservation and safe arrival and what reason have you and i to be thankful for many mercies we have received end of chapter seven part one chapter seven part two of the many-sided franklin by paul lester ford this labor box recording is in the public domain read by michel fry Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 7 Relations with the Fair Sex, Part 2. One element of discord there was, for which Mrs. Franklin can hardly be blamed. Although she allowed her husband to bring his illegitimate son into their home and helped to rear him, she conceived so strong a dislike for him that on one occasion she termed him the greatest villain on earth, and expressed her feeling, so an eyewitness reports with invectives in the foulest terms I ever heard from a gentlewoman.

Starting point is 06:34:17 This led, presently, when the son was old enough, to his father arranging for him to live elsewhere. In time, the relations became more friendly. Mrs. Franklin went to visit William, and the father was able to write to his wife. I am very glad you go sometimes to Burlington. The harmony in our family and among our children gives me great pleasure. So, too, his son told him that he and his wife were on a visit to my mother, and his letters to her were subscribed, Your ever-dutiful son. When she died, he followed the body as chief mourner, and that this was not a mere form was shown by his letter to his father, in which he speaks of her tenderly as my poor old mother.

Starting point is 06:35:01 Franklin has been criticized for leaving his wife in America during his two long agencies in Great Britain, but if blame there is, Mrs. Franklin should bear it, her dread of the passage being the real bar. In his first visit to London, his friend William Strayan, quote, was very urgent with me to stay in England, and prevail with you to remove hither with Sally. He proposed several advantageous schemes to me, which appeared reasonably founded. I gave him, however, two reasons why I could not think of removing hither, one, my affection to Pennsylvania and long-established friendships and other connections there,

Starting point is 06:35:41 the other, your invincible aversion to crossing the seas, end quote. Strayhan was not discouraged, but wrote to Mrs. Franklin himself, urging that the removal would open up a far greater career to her husband. For my own part, he went on, I never saw a man who was in every respect so perfectly agreeable to me. some are amiable in one view some in another he in all now madam as i know the ladies here consider him in exactly the same light i do upon my word i think you should come over with all convenience speed to look after your interest not but that i think him as faithful to his joan as any man breathing but who knows what repeated and strong temptation may in time and while he is at so great a distance from you accomplish i know you will object to the length of the voyage and the danger of the seas, but truly this is more terrible in apprehension than in reality. Of all the ways of traveling, it is the easiest and most expeditious,

Starting point is 06:36:45 and as for the danger, there has not a soul been lost between Philadelphia and this, in my memory, and I believe not one ship taken by the enemy." End quote. But Mrs. Franklin was not to be induced, and her spouse understood this so well that he told her. her that Strayhan, quote, offered to lay me a considerable wager that a letter he has wrote to you will bring you immediately over hither. But I tell him I will not pick his pocket, for I am sure there is no inducement strong enough to prevail with you to cross the seas, end quote. After his second visit to England, he assured his friend that nothing would prevent his return, quote, if I can as I hope I can, prevail with Mrs. F. to accompany me, end quote.

Starting point is 06:37:32 It is perhaps fortunate that this dread on his wife's part existed, not merely because it anchored Franklin to American soil, but also because Mrs. Franklin would have been more of a drag on her husband's public and social life in Great Britain than she was in Philadelphia, and would have but furnished one more example of the American diplomat, united to a help meet wholly unfit for the duties of the station. Her pet name for her husband, Pappy, was so universally known that it was a favorite political joke of his antagonists. As her spelling bespoke, she was a woman wholly lacking in cultivation, and still worse, an eyewitness speaks of her turbulent temper. Even in Philadelphia, she was not received socially, and this seems to have made her jealous of Franklin's public career,

Starting point is 06:38:22 one instance of which is related by a Mr. Fisher who had appealed to Franklin for aid. As I was coming down from my chamber this afternoon, a gentlewoman was sitting on one of the lowest stairs, which were but narrow, and there not being room enough to pass, she arose up and threw herself upon the floor and sat there. Mr. Schumene and his wife greatly entreated her to arise and take a chair, but in vain she would keep her seat and kept it, I think. the longer for their entreaty. This gentlewoman, whom, though I had seen before, I did not know, appeared to be Mrs. Franklin. She assumed the airs of extraordinary freedom and great humility, lamented heavily the misfortunes of those who are unhappily infected with a too tender or benevolent disposition, said she believed all the world claimed a privilege of troubling her, Pappy, so she usually calls Mr. Franklin, with their calamities and distress, giving us a general history,

Starting point is 06:39:22 have many such wretches and their impertinent applications to him. Mr. Franklin's moral character is good, and he and Mrs. Franklin live irreproachably as man and wife." Yet none of these defects seems really to have troubled Franklin. You can bear with your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife, he asked on one occasion, and he seems himself to have taken his own advice. Two, keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards. Some years after his marriage, he wrote a song which gives a pleasant glimpse of his feelings for his wife, quote, my plain country Joan, a song. Of their Chloe's and Phyllisies, poets may prate, I sing my plain country Joan. These twelve years my wife, still the joy of my life,

Starting point is 06:40:15 blessed day that I made her my own. Not a word of her face, of her shape, of her air, or of flames or of darts, shall hear. I beauty admire, but virtue I prize, that fades not in seventy year. Some faults have we all, and so has my Joan, but then they're exceedingly small, and now I'm grown used to them, so like my own, I scarcely can see them at all. Were the finest young princess, with millions in purse, to be had in exchange for my Joan, I could not get better wife, might get a worse, so I'll stick to my dearest old Joan. To a girl he wrote in the same vein, quote, 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 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 them that I don't perceive them."

Starting point is 06:41:26 After Franklin's departure from Philadelphia on his second agency to England, his wife had a paralytic stroke, which greatly affected her memory and understanding, so that William Franklin advised that she has some clever body to take care of her, for she becomes every day more and more unfit to be left alone. And, as already noted, Franklin arranged that his daughter and her husband should live with her. In the letter announcing her death, his son gives a pathetic glimpse of her last months. She told me when I took leave of her on my removal to Amboy that she never expected to see you unless you returned this winter, for that she was sure she should not live till next summer. I heartily wish you had happened to have come over in the fall,

Starting point is 06:42:15 as I think her disappointment in that respect prayed a good deal on her spirits. end quote. There are three faithful friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money, said poor Richard, and he declared that a good wife lost is God's gift lost. The young girl to whom Deborah Franklin bequeathed her husband was Catherine Ray, whose acquaintance he made in one of his visits to New England, and with whom a regular correspondence was henceforth maintained. Nor was this merely a compliment paid by,

Starting point is 06:42:50 the philosopher, for it gave him genuine pleasure. Begone business, for an hour at least, and let me chat a little with my Katie. He began one of his letters, and then continued, Now it is near four months since I have been favored 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 though I should never make equal returns, you shall see I will keep fair accounts.

Starting point is 06:43:26 Equal returns I can never make, though I should write to you by every post, for the pleasure I received 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 everything, 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." In time, Miss Ray married William Green of Rhode Island, who later was governor of the state, and in Franklin's journey to New England in 1763, he visited the couple at their home in Warwick. You have spun a long thread. Five thousand and twenty-two yards, he once told her.

Starting point is 06:44:21 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." End quote. Even in the years in Paris, so full of work and diversion, he found time to think of her, writing on one occasion, my dear old friend, Don't be offended at the word old. I don't mean to call you an old woman. It relates only to the age of our friendship, which on my part has always been a sincerely affectionate one, and I flatter myself the same on yours, end quote.

Starting point is 06:44:56 Friendships are the same type were those of the daughters of Jonathan Shipley, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Georgiana, being the favorite. On the outbreak of the revolution, the intercourse was for a time suspended, but as soon as Franklin was settled in Paris, he found means to steal a letter to her, which met with the most eager of responses. Quotes, After near two years had passed without my hearing anything from you, she replied, and while I looked upon the renewal of our correspondence as a very unlikely event,

Starting point is 06:45:29 it is easier to conceive than express the joy I felt at receiving your last kind letter. How good you were to send me your direction! But I fear I must not make use of it as often as I could wish, since my father says that it will be prudent not to write in the present situation of affairs. I am not of an age to be so very prudent, and the only thought that occurred to me was your suspecting that my silence proceeded from other motives. I could not support the idea of you believing that I love and esteem you less than I did some few years ago. I therefore write this once without my father's knowledge. You are the first man that ever received a private letter from me, and in this instance I feel that my intentions justify my conduct. But I must entreat that you will take no notice of my writing when next I have the happiness of hearing from you. I must once more repeat nobody knows of this scroll, a word to the wise, as poor Richard says." Franklin grieved that the war should prevent their seeing each other, and begged that since he said, he was denied the enjoyment of that felicity to, quote,

Starting point is 06:46:42 let me have at least that of hearing from you a little oftener, end quote. And he complained that it is long, very long, my dear friend, since I had the great pleasure of hearing from you and receiving any of your pleasing letters, end quote. This was due, Georgiana informed him to the great difficulty in conveying my letters safe, end quote. Yet, despite parents and British frigates, she succeeded, in sending him an occasional missive, in one of which the girl asserted,

Starting point is 06:47:13 Did my family know of my writing, my letter would scarce contain the very many things they would desire me to say for them? They continued to admire and love you as much as they did formerly, nor can any time or event in the least change their sentiments. Strange, she exclaimed, that I should be under the necessity of concealing from the world a correspondence which it is the pride and glory of my heart to maintain." Still another young girl friendship was that with Mary Stevenson, with whose mother Franklin lodged during his many years in London. As already recorded, he endeavored to bring about

Starting point is 06:47:52 a match between her and his son, and though the attempt failed, he styled her, my dearest child, asking, why should I not call you so, since I love you with all the tenderness of a fire? mother. Merely to afford her a few hours of pleasure, he wrote his charming Craven Street Gazette, a jacous court circular intended to inform the girl, who has styled her majesty, of the doings of the household while she was away on a visit, and from this one excerpt is worth making as it concerns a woman. Quote, Dr. Fat Sides made 469 turns in his dining room as the exact distance of a visit to the lovely lady barwell whom he did not find at home. So there was no struggle for and against a kiss, and he sat down to dream in the easy

Starting point is 06:48:42 chair that he had it without any trouble." In graver vein he wrote Miss Stevenson long letters, in which she was treated with absolute intellectual equality. Yet, right as he would of scientific subjects, as was inevitable, the little sense of sex was present, for he ended one, quote, after writing six folio pages of philosophy to a young girl, is it necessary to finish such a letter with a compliment? Is not such a letter of itself a compliment? End quote.

Starting point is 06:49:16 Miss Stevenson, in time, married Dr. Hewson, but this brought no change in the friendship. And in 1782, Franklin noted that, quote, In looking forward, twenty-five years seem a long period, but in looking back, How short? Could you imagine that it is now full a quarter of a century since we were first acquainted? It was in 1757. During the greatest part of the time I lived in the same house with my dear deceased friend, your mother. Of course, you and I conversed with each other much and often. It is to all our honors that in all that time we never had among us the smallest misunderstanding. Our friendship has been all clear sunshine without the least class.

Starting point is 06:50:00 in its hemisphere. Let me conclude by saying to you what I have had two frequent occasions to say to my other remaining old friends. The fewer we become, the more let us love one another." After the peace was concluded with England, Miss Hewson and her children at Franklin's urging, came to France and stayed several months with him at Passy as his guests, and after their departure he complained, quote, I have found it very trist, breakfasting along. and sitting alone and without any tea in the evening and quote again at his urging they removed to Philadelphia and Mrs. Hewson was much with him in the last years of his life and even in his final sickness and death which she described in a long letter to an

Starting point is 06:50:50 English friend speaking of him as that venerable kind friend whose knowledge enlightened our minds and whose philanthropy warmed our hearts and quote In France, social custom prevented the same intimacy with young girls, and so his feminine friendships in that country were of a very different type. i now and then hear of your life and glorious achievements in the political way his sister informed him as well as in the favour of the ladies since you have rubbed off the mechanic rust and commenced complete courtier who jonathan williams writes me claim from you the tribute of an embrace and it seems you do not complain of the tax as a very great penance end quote the account you have had of the vogue i am in here has some truth it," Franklin answered. Perhaps few strangers in France have had the good fortune to be so universally popular, but the story you allude to, mentioning mechanic rust, is totally without foundation. But one is not to expect being always in fashion. I hope, however, to preserve, while I stay,

Starting point is 06:51:59 the regard you mention of the French ladies, for their society and conversation when I have time to enjoy them, are extremely agreeable." End quote. And he gives us another glimpse of this favor by jokingly writing to an English woman. You are too early, hussy, as well as too saucy in calling me rebel. You should wait for the event, which will determine whether it is rebellion or only a revolution. Here the ladies are more civil. They call us Lesin-sur-Gens, a character that usually pleases them, and methinks all other women who smart or have smarted under the tyranny of a bad husband

Starting point is 06:52:39 ought to be fixed in revolution principles and act accordingly." One of the most admiring of these French ladies was the Countess de Houdetot, better known to history through the confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Her salon was one of the most famous of Paris, and when his health permitted, Franklin was a fairly regular attendant. In addition, he visited her at least twice in her country home at San Juan, the first visit being made the occasion of a fete, of which a description has been preserved. Upon his arrival he was handed from his carriage by the Countess and welcomed with a verse of her own composition, beginning, quote,

Starting point is 06:53:22 "'Hum du eros and de sage,' end quote. At dinner with each glass of wine, other verses in his honor were recited or sung by each of the guests, and the meal being over, the company went to the garden, where Franklin, at the request of his hostess, planted a Virginia locust tree, and the countess repeated another verse of her own writing, which was afterward cut in a marble pillar that was placed near the tree. When the hour of departure came, Franklin was reconducted by the whole company to his carriage, and before the door was shut, the countess pronounced the following complimentary verse composed by herself.

Starting point is 06:54:03 legislation d'i mano is défin de duu the mme in all te seisens'teufre saumange and jean saw m'est in ce l'et dee dee dee de's o Kampf dee and eeuf d'est dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee veered tree planted by your hands and which grows on the spot of soil which belongs to me where it is soe d'rne by my i sea sweet to me to think of you and to render homage to your virtues and enlightenment, and whatsoever makes you respected by and dear to humanity? This is, as you know, my kind of religion, and you are one of my saints." For herself she declared that, quote, I preserve the memory of those moments you have so kindly passed there, and with a tender interest I cultivate the memorial you have left there of your transit." End of Chapter 7, Part 2. Chapter 7, Part 3 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford.

Starting point is 06:55:22 This Librevox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 7 Relations with the Fair Sex, Part 3. Another well-known salon of which Franklin was a frequenter was that of Madame Helvetius by her friends styled Our Lady of Attuelle. She was the widow of the well-known French scientist who had left her a large property which enabled her to give a comfortable home to a French priest and to several cats. Madame H. appears to have been a very beautiful woman when young, Miss Adams records, but at the time Franklin knew her, a French lady compared her to the ruins of Palmyra. This may have been the eyesight of her own sex, for she does not seem to have found favor with them,

Starting point is 06:56:13 if we may judge from a description written by Mrs. John Adams. Quote, She entered the room with a careless, jaunty air. Upon seeing ladies who were strangers to her, she bawled out, Ah, mon dieu, where is Franklin? Why did you not tell me there were ladies here? You must suppose her speaking all this in French. How do I look? said she.

Starting point is 06:56:36 taking hold of a chemise made of Tiffany, which she had on over a blue lute string, and which looked as much upon the decay as her beauty, for she was once a handsome woman. Her hair was frizzled, over it she had a small straw hat, with a dirty gauze half-handkerchief round it, and a bit of dirtier gauze than ever my maids wore was bowed on behind. She had a black gauze scarf thrown over her shoulders. She ran out of the room. When she returned, the doctor entered at one door, she at the other, upon which she ran forward to him, caught him by the hand, "'Helas, Franklin!' then gave him a double kiss, one upon each cheek, and another upon his forehead.

Starting point is 06:57:20 When we went into the room to dine, she was placed between the doctor and Mr. Adams. She carried on the chief of the conversation at dinner, frequently locking her hands into the doctors, and sometimes spreading her arms upon the backs of both the gentleman's chairs, then throwing her arm carelessly upon the doctor's neck. I should have been greatly astonished at this conduct, if the good doctor had not told me, that in this lady I should see a genuine French woman wholly free from affectation or stiffness of behavior,

Starting point is 06:57:52 and one of the best women in the world. For this I must take the doctor's word, but I would have set her down for a very bad one, although sixty years of age and a widow. I own I was highly disgusted and never wish for an acquaintance with any lady of this cast. After dinner she threw herself upon a settee where she showed more than her feet. She had a little lap dog who was next to the doctor her favorite. This she kissed and when he wet the floor she wiped it up with her chemise. This is one of the doctor's most intimate friends with whom he dines once every week and she with him.

Starting point is 06:58:29 She is rich and is my near neighbor, but I have not yet visited her. Thus you see, my dear, that manners differ exceedingly in different countries. I hope, however, to find amongst the French ladies manners more consistent with my ideas of decency, or I shall be a mere recluse." Of this description we get an amusing echo from little Miss Adams, for she confided in her journal, quote, dined at Mr. Franklin's by invitation, a number of gentlemen and Madame Helvetius, a French lady, sixty years of age. Odeous indeed do our sex appear when divested of those ornaments with which modesty and

Starting point is 06:59:12 delicacy adorn us, end quote. In however much disfavor Madame Helvetius may have been with women, Franklin was undoubtedly sincere in his admiration, for he speaks of her as his fair friend at Etioux. who still possesses health and personal charms, and he complimented her by asserting that, quote, statesman, philosophers, historians, poets, and men of learning of all sorts are drawn round you, and seem as willing to attach themselves to you as straws about a fine piece of amber, end quote. As for himself, he declared, Mr. Franklin never forgets any party at which Madame Helvicious is

Starting point is 06:59:55 expected. He even believes that if he were engaged to go to paradise this morning, he would pray for permission to remain on earth until half-past one to receive the embrace promised him at the Targots. I have often remarked, he wrote her spiritual confessor, in reading the works of Madame Helvetius that although we were born and educated in two countries so remote from each other, we have often been inspired with the same thoughts.

Starting point is 07:00:21 And it is a reflection very flattering to me that we have not only loved the same studies, but as far as we have mutually known them, the same friends and the same woman." To Cabinass II, who at one time was her guest, he wrote letters, to be shown to Madame Havichus, couched in terms that today would be deemed insultingly suggestive, but which then seemed to be thought the height of gallantry. Although the fact that the widow kept in her bedroom upon a table under a glass, a monument erected to the memory of her husband, over which hung his picture, which was very handsome,

Starting point is 07:01:01 should have warned the philosopher. He nonetheless sought to win her love, and his letter pleading a reversal of her negative is one of the most amusing he ever penned. Quote, "'Mortified at the barbarous resolution pronounced by you so positively yesterday evening, that you would remain single the rest of your life as a compliment due to the memory of your husband, I retired to my chamber.' Throwing myself upon my bed, I dreamt that I was dead and was transported to the Elysian fields. I was asked whether I wished to see any persons in particular, to which I replied that I

Starting point is 07:01:37 wished to see the philosophers. There are two who live here at hand in this garden, they said. They are good neighbors, and very friendly towards one another. Who are they? Socrates and Helvicious. I esteemed them both highly, but let me see Helvicious first. because I understand a little French, but not a word of Greek. I was conducted to him. He received me with much courtesy, having known me, he said, by character, some time past.

Starting point is 07:02:07 He asked me a thousand questions relative to the war, the present state of religion, of liberty, of the government in France. You do not inquire, then, said I, after your dear friend, Madame Halvicius, yet she loves you so exceedingly. I was in her company not more than an hour ago. "'Ah,' said he, "'you make me recur to my past happiness, "'which ought to be forgotten in order to be happy here. "'For many years I could think of nothing but her, "'though at length I am consoled.

Starting point is 07:02:38 "'I have taken another wife, "'the most like her that I could find. "'She is not indeed altogether so handsome, "'but she has a great fund of wit and good sense, "'and her whole study is to please me. "'She is at this moment gone to fetch "'the best nectar and ambrosia to regale me stay here a while and you will see her i perceive said i that your former friend is more faithful to you than you are to her she has had several good offers but has refused them all i will confess to you that i loved her extremely but she was cruel to me and rejected me preemptorily for your sake

Starting point is 07:03:15 i pity you sincerely said he for she is an excellent woman handsome and amiable as he finished these words the new madame helvicious entered with the nectar, and I recognized her immediately as my former American friend, Mrs. Franklin. I reclaimed her, but she answered me coldly. I was a good wife to you for 49 years and four months, nearly half a century. Let that contend you. I have formed a new connection here, which will last to eternity. Indignant at this refusal of my Euridice, I immediately resolved to quit those ungrateful shades, and return to this good world again, and behold the sun and you here i am let us avenge ourselves and quote the lady was however unpersuadable yet the friendship suffered no diminution and after franklin returned to america she welcomed increase of years because quote we shall meet the sooner and the sooner shall we find one another with all we have loved i a husband and you a wife but i believe that you who have been a rogue

Starting point is 07:04:25 Coquins will find more than one, end quote. Another French woman to whom Franklin offered more than his friendship was a Madame Brilin, and it is easy to believe him as genuinely attracted, for she was not merely young, but Miss Adams reports her as one of the handsomest women in France. Moreover, Madame Brilin was married to a man far older than herself, who yet was not faithful to her, and she was perfectly open to Franklin. about her marital unhappiness. My father, she confided to him,

Starting point is 07:05:00 marriage in this country is made by weight of gold. On one end of the scale is placed the fortune of a boy, on the other that of a girl. When equality is found, the affair is ended to the satisfaction of the relatives. One does not dream of consulting taste, age, congeniality of character. One marries a young girl

Starting point is 07:05:22 whose heart is full of youth's fire and its cravings, to a man who has used them up. Then one exacts that this woman be virtuous. My friend, this story is mine, and of how many others. I shall do my best that it may not be that of my daughters, but alas, shall I be mistress of their fate? And quote. Indeed, had not her adopted parent been a man of over seventy, the conditions were all in favor of one of the so-called romances so common in France, and there is no doubt that despite his years he would have been willing to have had it so but though madame briland gave franklin my word of honor that i will be your wife in paradise on condition that you do not ogle the maidens too much while waiting for me end quote she assured him that in this world i shall always be a gentle and virtuous woman

Starting point is 07:06:16 and continuing she begged him not to tempt her further but to try to make me a strong one perhaps this miracle is reserved for you i had a father she told him the kindest of men he was my first and my best friend i lost him untimely you have often said to me could i not take the place of those whom you regret and you told me the custom of certain savages who adopt the prisoners that they capture in war and make them take the place of the relatives whom they lose you took in my heart the place of the father whom i so loved and respected the cruel grief i felt in his loss is changed to a gentle melancholy which is dear to me and which i owe to you in me you have gained another child another friend i commenced by having for you the worship that all the world owes to a great man and i had a curiosity to see you my pride was flattered to receive you in my own house next i only saw in you your sole responsiveness to affection your goodness your simplicity and i said this man is so good he will love me and i began to love you much that you might do the same to me end quote in good faith franklin accepted the friendship she was willing to give and the two saw much of each other it becoming his regular custom to spend two evenings in the week with her when she entertained him with little concerts a cup of tea and a game of chess very frequently her ill-health compelled a suspension of these and then they corresponded franklin writing a number of his most charming bagatelles solely for the invalid's amusement one amusing glimpse of the manners of the times is to be found in an apology he made her having received news that she was confined by her ailment though he himself was suffering from the gout he sent her word that

Starting point is 07:08:15 i shall betake myself to your house my dear girl to-morrow morning with great pleasure and if you cannot come down without difficulty perhaps i shall be strong enough to climb your stairway the wish to see you will give me more strength end quote interest in chess however made him forget that he was calling upon a weak woman and so on reaching home i was surprised to find that it was almost eleven o'clock i fear that by forgetting all else in our too great absorption in the game of chess we have greatly incommoded you by detaining you so long in the bath tell me my dear friend how you are this morning never hereafter shall i consent to begin a game in your bathroom can you forgive me this indiscretion you forgive me this indiscretion end quote. In reply, Mrs. Brilon assured him, My good papa, your visits never caused me any inconvenience. All those around me respect you, love you, and think themselves honored in the friendship you have granted us.

Starting point is 07:09:18 I told you that the world criticized the sort of familiarity which existed among us, because I was warned of it. I despise slanderers, and then at peace with myself, but that is not enough. One must submit to what is called. called propriety. That word varies in each century, in each country, to sit less often on your knees. I shall certainly love you, nonetheless, nor will our hearts be more or less pure, but we shall close the mouth of the malicious, and it is no slight thing even for the sage

Starting point is 07:09:50 to make them silent." Then, as if feeling that she must hold out a pleasanter prospect, she further wrote, I think about our arrangements in paradise, perhaps you will be allowed a little more freedom towards me. If by good luck the angels are not corrupted by the spinsters as I fear greatly. Everywhere morals are so bad. Do you know, my dear Papa, that people have criticized my pleasant habit of sitting on your lap, and yours of asking me for what I always refuse. One sees harm in everything in this miserable country."

Starting point is 07:10:26 End quote. It is pleasant to require. that among these malicious people, Monsieur Brilin, was not included, for he maintained an intimate friendship with Franklin, and on one occasion wrote him, quote, You have surely just kissed my wife,

Starting point is 07:10:42 my dear doctor, permit me to return it to you, end quote. However platonic the relation might be in the eyes of Madame Brilin, Franklin was now and then called upon to apologize for, or extenuate what she styled, quote, that gaiety, that gallant

Starting point is 07:11:00 which makes all women love you." End quote. What a difference, my dear friend, between you and me, he said. You find in me innumerable faults, while in you I only see one, but this perhaps is the fault of my spectacles. I mean that kind of avarice which makes you monopolize all my affection, and not to permit me any towards the charming ladies of your country. You imagine that my affection cannot be divided without being diminished.

Starting point is 07:11:29 You are mistaken, and you forget the playful way with which you check me. You disclaim and totally exclude all that our love might have of fleshly in permitting me only some courteous and virtuous salutes, such as you might give to some little cousins. How much do I benefit from it, then, that I may not do as much to others without lessening what belongs to you? End quote. You have taught me to know and to practice a wicked sin, which we call

Starting point is 07:11:58 jealousy, she replied, but that this was a playful assertion is shown by her telling him on one occasion to give this evening to my amiable rival, Madame Helvetius, kiss her for yourself and for me. And upon another, by granting him a, quote, power of attorney to kiss for me until my return, whenever you see them, my two neighbors, La Villiers, and my pretty neighbor, Carriolet, end quote. Furthermore, when Madame Helvichius, after Frank Franklin's departure for America, exclaimed to her, Ah, that great man, that poor dear man, we shall see him no more. Madame Broulon retorted,

Starting point is 07:12:39 It is entirely your fault, madam. Yet, if thus willing to share his society with other women, Madame Brilin eagerly craved his companionship. Quote, come to-morrow to take tea. Come every Wednesday and Saturday. Come as often as you wish. My heart calls you, expects you, is a table. to you for life. She besought him, and again she took him to task, because,

Starting point is 07:13:03 you pass a Wednesday, then, without me, actually, and you will say after that, I love you furiously in excess, and I, my good Papa, who do not love you furiously, but very tenderly, not in excess, I love you enough to be sorry not to see you every time it is possible to me or to you, which loves the more, and the better of us twain, end quote. yet a third time she wrote to-morrow i expect my good papa the pleasure of seeing him increases my well-being and makes me forget my ills when i am sick if papa sometimes sees me melancholy he knows that that is the habit the tendency of tender hearts he may say she amuses me less than another woman but i flatter myself that my papa will add she loves me better she alone than all the other women put together fair farewell to you whom my heart loved from the first instant of her acquaintance, until tomorrow, and any day that your friendship will spare to your daughter."

Starting point is 07:14:08 When at last the time came for Franklin to return to America, she made a really touching farewell. Quote, I had so full a heart yesterday in leaving you that I feared for you and myself a grief-stricken moment which could only add to the pain which our separation causes me, without proving to you further the tender and unalterable affection that I have vowed to you for always. Every day of my life I shall recall that a great man, a sage, was willing to be my friend. My wishes will follow him everywhere. My heart will regret him incessantly. Incessantly, I shall say, I passed eight years with Dr. Franklin. They have flown, and I shall see him no more.

Starting point is 07:14:53 Nothing in the world could console me for this loss except the thought of the peace and happiness that you are about to find in the bosom of your family." Another attachment and another disappointment are told of by John Adams, who, writing of a daughter of Monsieur de Bouletin Villiers, who was styled Mademoiselle de Passais, and was certainly one of the most beautiful young ladies I ever saw in France, said, quote, Mr. Franklin, who at the age of 70-odd,

Starting point is 07:15:25 had neither lost his love of beauty, nor his taste for it, called Mademoiselle de Passet, his favorite, and his flame, and his love, which flattered the family and did not displease the young lady. After the Marquis de Toner had demanded Mademoiselle for a wife and obtained her, Madame de Chalmont, who was a wit, the first time she saw Franklin, cried out, elas all the conductors of m franklin n'n't impassehs l'est en masseur de t'est as franklin had tried to arrange matches for both his son and daughter so he endeavored in these years in france to make a match between his grandson william temple and a daughter of madame brilin but the parents quote though it would be dear to my heart and very agreeable to m'briolne to have been able to form a union which would make us but one family and though we love your son and believe he has everything required to make a distinguished man and to make a woman happy

Starting point is 07:16:32 refuse their consent because we must have a son-in-law who can be in a condition to fill my husband's place and a man of our religion let us love one another she advised and try to forget a plan which to remember would only cause regrets are not ever to recall it save to be still more sure if it be possible of the esteem and friendship we all have for each other and quote apparently franklin the philosopher was doomed to failure as a matchmaker though his advocacy of marriage was so well known that his own daughter wrote him quote as i know my dear papa likes to hear of weddings i will give him a list of my acquaintance that have entered the matrimonial state since his departure turning from these half romances it is pleasant to find him doing what he could for women for whom there could be neither sentiment nor friendship to sarah randolph widow of the loyalist who wrote to him from the deptford poorhouse he sent money to relieve her from the worst of her distress and more striking service still was for the widow of an old personal enemy in his political career in pennsylvania he had no bitterer antagonists than thomas and richard penn the proprietors of penn who had fought him with every known weapon but after the revolution when lady juliana pen appealed to him quote begging his assistance and protection in the recovery of the rights and possessions of an unfortunate family who have so heavily felt the misfortunes of this war and who are likely still to be dreadful sufferers, and in confidence of your well-known wisdom and generosity,

Starting point is 07:18:16 I adopt you for the guardian of William Penn's grandchild." He did not fail her, but did what he could to obtain a restoration of the Penn lands to that family. A glance in closing at Franklin's views on women in general is worth taking. How he advised that they be taught accounts has already been noted, and he had his own daughter instructed in French and music, though he grieved that she should not be a little more careful in her spelling. To an Englishman, he boasted that American women could converse upon most subjects,

Starting point is 07:18:51 even while he told his wife that you are very prudent not to engage in party disputes. Women should never meddle with them, except in endeavors to reconcile their husbands, brothers, and friends who happen to be of contrary sides. If your sex keep cool, you may be a means of cooling hours the sooner, and restoring more speedily that social harmony among fellow citizens that is so desirable after long and bitter dissensions." Miss Adams states that he told me he preferred an English lady who had acquired the graces of French manners, which, he added, were to be gained nowhere but at Paris. That was the center, and there they were all collected and resided. I believe he was here right. There is something not to be defined that the French women possess,

Starting point is 07:19:38 which, when it ornaments and adorns an English lady, forms something irresistibly charming, end quote. Perhaps these views account for poor Richards groan. Is it not enough? Plagues, wars, and famines rise to lash our crimes? But must our wives be wise? End of Chapter 7. Chapter 8 Part 1 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford.

Starting point is 07:20:12 This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 8, Jack of All Trades, Part 1. The career of Franklin teaches very strongly that general ability rather than special aptitude is the quality most potent in winning success, for it is impossible not to conclude that he possessed elements which would have raised him, even if his lot had been other than what it was. Several times in his life he changed his vocation or interests,

Starting point is 07:20:48 but never with apparent loss, and the main impression that his life leaves on the student is that he was not merely multi-dextrous, but multi-minded. Franklin came of a working family, and, my elder brothers, he states, were all put apprentices to different trades. He himself, when 10 years old, was taken from school to, quote, assist my father in his business, which was that of a tallow chandler and soap boiler, a business he was not bred to, but had assumed on his

Starting point is 07:21:18 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 candles, filling the dipping mold, and the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going on errands, etc., end quote. The lad did not take kindly to the work, and, quote, had a strong inclination for the sea, but my father declared against it, end quote.

Starting point is 07:21:47 So Benjamin worked on for two years, destined he feared to become a tallow chandler. But my dislike to the trade, continuing, my father was under apprehension that if I did not find one more agreeable, I should break away and get to sea, as his son Josiah had done, to his great vexation, end quote. The desire for a sailor's life was short-lived, for when at sixteen, he ran off, he states that

Starting point is 07:22:15 my inclinations for the sea were by this time worn out, or I might now have gratified them, end quote. Nor did a longing for it ever recur. On his first visit to England, he found, so he chronicles, the voyage, not a pleasant one, as we had a good deal of bad weather. And on the return trip, he saw cause for congratulation at having happily completed so tedious and dangerous a voyage. Once convinced that his son would not contentedly accept his own handicraft, Josiah Franklin set to work to find out one more suited to his predilection. Quote, he therefore sometimes took me to walk with him,

Starting point is 07:22:56 and see joiners, bricklayers, turners, braziers, etc., at their work. work, that he might observe my inclination and endeavor to fit it on some trade or other on land. My father at last, fixed upon the Cutler's trade, and my uncle Benjamin's son, Samuel, who was bred to that business in London, being about that time established 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, end quote. eventually as already recorded the boy of twelve was apprenticed to printing yet though he considered it from henceforth his special calling and was ever proud of it he was at moments easily led away to other vocations and as soon as he was able he retired from all active plying of the art and mystery save as an occasional pastime giving his time and attention to other occupations the first inclination to change was during his early London visit. He relates that in the printing office he was jocosely called the

Starting point is 07:24:03 Water American because he preferred that beverage to beer, but the title might more appropriately have been given him because of his extreme liking for aquatics. I learned early to swim well, he declared, even delighted with this exercise, and as a child practiced all Thévano's motions and positions, adding some of my own, aiming at the graceful and easy as well as at the useful. Late in life, he wrote, When I was a boy, I made two oval pallets, each about ten inches long and six broad, with a hole for the thumb, in order to retain it fast in the palm of my hand. They much resembled a painter's pallets. In swimming, I pushed the edges of these forward,

Starting point is 07:24:49 and I struck the water with their flat surfaces as I drew them back. I remember I swam faster by means of these pallets, but they fatigued my wrists. end quote. In another reminiscence he tells of a second boyish device. Quote, I amused myself one day with flying a paper kite, and approaching the bank of a pond, which was near a mile broad, I tied the string to a stake, and the kite ascended to a very considerable height above the pond while I was swimming. In a little time, being desirous of amusing myself with my kite, and enjoying at the same time the pleasure of swimming, I returned, and loosing from the stake, the string, with a little stick which was fastened to it,

Starting point is 07:25:33 went again into the water, where I found that, lying on my back and holding the stick in my hands, I was drawn along the surface of the water in a very agreeable manner. Having then engaged another boy to carry my clothes round the pond to a place where I pointed out to him on the other side, I began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried me quite over without the least fatigue, and with the greatest pleasure imaginable. I was only obliged occasionally to halt a little in my course and resist its progress when it appeared that by following too quick I lowered the kite too much by doing which occasionally I made it rise again

Starting point is 07:26:14 I have never since that time practiced this singular mode of swimming though I think it not impossible to cross in this manner from Dover to Calais the packet boat however is still preferable end quote This skill in the water remained with Franklin all through his life. In 1725, going to Chelsea with some gentlemen by water, quote, In our return at the request of the company, I stripped and leaped into the river

Starting point is 07:26:43 and swam from near Chelsea to Blackfriars, performing on the way many feats of activity, both upon and under the water, that surprised and pleased those to whom they were novelties. As a result, I was, to my surprise, sent for by a great man I knew only by name a Sir William Windham, and I waited upon him. He had heard by some means or other of my swimming from Chelsea to Blackfriars, and of my teaching Why Gate and another young man to swim in a few hours.

Starting point is 07:27:15 He had two sons about to set out on their travels. He wished to have them first taught swimming, and proposed to gratify me handsomely if I would teach them. They were not yet come to town, and my stay was unsubes. certain, 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." End quote. A more notable feat than this swim from Chelsea to Blackfriars

Starting point is 07:27:54 was performed by Franklin in his voyage back to America a few months later, when in the open ocean he leaped overboard and swam around the ship to wash myself. There is small wonder after this exhibition of skill and confidence that Franklin felt some irritation over the incident, which he described to a correspondent only a few months before his death. Quote, The letter of yours enclosed is from the widow of a Jew, who happened to be one of a number of passengers

Starting point is 07:28:26 that were about 40 years ago in the stage boat going to New York, and which, by the unskilledful management of the boatman, overset the canoe from whence I was endeavoring to get on board her, near Staten Island, has ever since worried me with demands of a grotia for having, as he pretended, been instrumental in saving my life. Though that was in no danger as we were near the shore, and you know what an expert swimmer I am, and he was no more of any service to me in stopping the boat to take me in than every other passenger

Starting point is 07:28:59 to all whom I gave a liberal entertainment at the tavern when we arrived in New York to their general satisfaction at the time. But this Haynes never saw me afterwards at New York or Brunswick or Philadelphia that he did not done me for money on the pretense of his being poor and having been so happy as to be instrumental in saving my life, which would really end no danger. in this way he got of me sometimes a double jonas sometimes a spanish d'blune and nevertheless how much in the whole i do not know having kept no account of it but it must have been a very considerable sum and as he has neither incurred any risk nor was at any trouble in my behalf i have long since thought him well paid for any little expense of humanity he might have felt on the occasion he seems however to have left me to his widow as part of of her dowry, end quote.

Starting point is 07:29:56 Even in the last years of his life, Franklin illustrated his ex-burtoness. For at nearly 80 years of age, he relates that he went at noon to bathe in Martin's saltwater hot bath and floating on my back fell asleep and slept near an hour by my watch without sinking or turning. A thing I never did before and should hardly have thought possible, end quote.

Starting point is 07:30:20 His fondness for water led him to claim that the exercise of swimming is one of the most healthy and agreeable in the world. After having swam for an hour or two in the evening, one sleeps coolly the whole night, even during the most ardent heat of summer. Perhaps the pores being cleansed, the insensible perspiration increases, and occasions this coolness.

Starting point is 07:30:42 I speak from my own experience, frequently repeated, and that of others to whom I have recommended this." End quote. From becoming a swimming teacher, Franklin was dissuaded by a Philadelphia merchant, Mr. Denham, who induced him as well to leave Watts' printing office. Quote, he proposed 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

Starting point is 07:31:12 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 managed well, would establish me handsomely. The thing pleased me, for I was grown tired of London, remembered with pleasure the happy months I had spent in Pennsylvania, and wished again to see it. Therefore, I immediately agreed on the terms of fifty pounds a year for Pennsylvania money, less indeed than my present get-ings as a compositor, but affording a better prospect. Mr. Denham took a store in Water Street where we opened our goods. I attended the

Starting point is 07:31:54 business diligently, studied accounts, and grew in a little time, expert at selling, but in the beginning of February, 1726-7, when I had just passed my 21st year, we were both taken ill. 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 non-cupative 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." Left in a lurched by this loss of position, Franklin returned to printing for a livelihood, with the success already described. But though his chief trade, it was not his only one,

Starting point is 07:32:43 even when he was most actively engaged in it. As a natural adjunct, he established a bindery and took an interest in a paper mill, his newspaper informing the public that, quote, ready money for old rags may be head of the printer hereof. And at the time I established myself in Pennsylvania, there was not a bookseller's shop in any of the colonies

Starting point is 07:33:07 to the southwards of Boston. In New York and Philadelphia, the printers were indeed stated, They sold only paper, etc. Almanacs, ballads, and a few books. Those who loved reading were obliged to send for their books from London, end quote. This inconvenience, Franklin ended by opening a store for the sale of European works, advertising his importations in the Pennsylvania Gazette or by the issue of pamphlet catalogs.

Starting point is 07:33:38 He also established a little stationer's shop where were to be had Chapman's books, ballads, good writing paper, choice writing parchment, ciphering slates and pencils, Hallman's ink powders, ivory pocketbooks, pounce and pounce boxes, sealing wax, waifers, pencils, fountain pens, choice English quills, brass ink horns, sand glasses, fine mesotints, a great variety of maps, cheap pictures engraved on copper plate of all sorts, of birds, bees, and, fish, fruits, flowers, and useful to such as would learn to draw." These various commodities, the shopkeeper kept in stock, but he would trade in anything in which he could see a chance to profit.

Starting point is 07:34:28 Despite his aversion to the business, how he sold consignments of the Franklin Crown soap has already been told, but that was only one of the many ventures he took. And the Gazette informed its readers from time to time that, quote, the printer hereof had for sale such merchandise as very good sack at six cents per gallon glazed filling papers and bonnet papers very good lamp black very good chocolate

Starting point is 07:34:55 linseed oil very good coffee compasses and scales syneca rattlesnake root with directions on how to use it in the pluracy etc dividers and protractors a very good second-hand two-wheeled shays a very neat, new-fashioned vehicle or four-wheeled chaise, very convenient to carry weak or other sick persons, old or young, good Rhode Island cheese and codfish, quadrants, four staffs, nocturnals, mariner's compasses,

Starting point is 07:35:29 seasoned merchantable boards, coarse and fine edgings, fine broad scarlet cloth, fine broad black cloth, fine white thread hose, and English sail duck. good iron stoves, a large horse fit for a chair or a saddle, the true and genuine Godfrey's cordial, choice bohetee, very good English saffron, New York lottery tickets, choice mackerel to be sold by the barrel, a large copper steel, very good spermacity, fine palm oil, very good temple spectacles, a new fishing net, end quote. A stranger mode of turning a penny was by a venture now and again in indentured and bond servants, being such immigrants as sold their service

Starting point is 07:36:17 for a stated number of years in return for a passage to the colonies. Franklin would occasionally purchase the time, as the expression then was of some of these, and then in the columns of his paper would insert advertisements of which the following are samples. Quote, a likely servant lad's time to be disposed of. He is fit for country and town business, has four years of service and has been in the country a year and a half. Inquire of the printer. To be sold, a likely woman servant, having three years and a half to serve. She is a good spinner.

Starting point is 07:36:55 To be sold, a likely servant lad, about 15 years of age, and has six years to serve. To be sold, a young servant, Welsh woman, having one year and a half to serve, and is fit for town or country service, inquire of the printer. to be sold a likely dutch servant girl about thirteen years of age and has five years to serve a likely young woman's time to be disposed of about eighteen years of age fit for town or country business and can handle her needle well to be sold an irish servant girl's time she has three years and three quarters to serve is young and fit for town or country business end quote a somewhat kindred but more credible traffic was one in slaves. Though due to the friends, there was a very positive public sentiment in Philadelphia against slavery, and still more against the buying and selling of men, Franklin had too much New England canonists to regard it and made many a venture in the

Starting point is 07:37:58 purchase and sale of Negroes, his newspaper informing the public that, quote, a likely young Negro wench, who is a good cook and can wash well, is to be disposed of, inquire of the printer hereof. To be sold, a likely young Negro wench, about 18 years of age, speaks good English and is fit for either town or country, inquire of the printer hereof. To be sold, a likely mulatto girl, aged about 16 years, has had the smallpox and is fit for either town or country,

Starting point is 07:38:31 to be disposed of very reasonable, inquire of the printer hereof. To be sold, a likely young Negro fellow, about 26 years of age, suitable for any farming or a plantation business, having been long accustomed to it, and has had the smallpox. Inquire of the printer hereof. To be sold,

Starting point is 07:38:52 a negro man, 22 years of age, of uncommon strength and activity, very fit for a farmer or a laborious trade, he understands the best methods of managing horses and is very faithful in the employment. Any person that wants such a one may see him by inquiring of the printer hereof.

Starting point is 07:39:11 To be sold, a likely negro woman with a man-child fit for town or country business inquire of the printer hereof. To be sold, a lusty young negro woman fit for the country business,

Starting point is 07:39:24 she has had the small-pox and measles, inquire of the printer hereof. To be sold, a prime able young negro man fit for laborious work in town or a country that has had the small-pox

Starting point is 07:39:37 as also a middle aged negro man that has likewise had the smallpox inquire of the printer hereof, or otherwise they will be exposed to sale in public vendue on Saturday the 11th of April next at 12 o'clock at the Indian King in Market Street. Some of these slaves he procured from New England, where, as population grew in density, the need for them passed, leading to their sale in the colonies to the southward, and there was not always a profit. For Franklin, of one purchase, of husband and wife, wrote to his mother, quote, we conclude to sell them both the first good opportunity,

Starting point is 07:40:15 for we do not like Negro servants, end quote, with the result that, quote, we got again about half what we lost, end quote. In spite of this prejudice, Franklin took with him two Negro servants to England on his second visit, with slight benefit, for one who, quote, was a little use, and often in mischief, ran off within a year, and the other behaved only as well as,

Starting point is 07:40:39 could 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 the philosopher observed and i see with only one eye and here with only one ear so we rub on pretty comfortably end of chapter eight part one Chapter 8, Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libre of Box recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 8, Jack of All Trades, Part 2. Franklin, as he grew in years, came to disapprove heartily of the whole slave system,

Starting point is 07:41:29 and he expressed satisfaction, quote, that a disposition to abolish slavery prevails in North America, that many Pennsylvanians have set their slaves at liberty, and that even the Virginia Assembly have petitioned the King for permission to make a law for preventing the importation of more into the colony." End quote. When the initial abolition society in America was formed, he became its president, and his name was signed to the first petition for the abolition of the slayed trade ever sent to Congress, an act which resulted in his being personally, vituperated on the floor of that body less than a month before his death.

Starting point is 07:42:10 The debate on this petition drew from him the last public paper he ever penned, in which, with his usual Socratic cleverness, he took all the arguments advanced by the favorers of slavery, and by putting them into the mouth of an Algerine, as reasons for continuing the holding of Europeans in bondage, made each one become a reason for ending the system. as Franklin was an instinctive traitor, so he was a natural artisan. Quote, "'It has ever been a pleasure to me to see good workmen handle their tools,' he remarked in his autobiography,

Starting point is 07:42:45 and it has been useful to me, having learnt, 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.'" end quote how he in his printing office contrived molds made printers ink constructed a copper plate press cut ornaments for the paper money and in other ways proved that his abilities were not merely intellectual is told elsewhere his scientific writings continually describe quote little machines that i had roughly made for myself

Starting point is 07:43:24 end quote so too though almost wholly without art instinct he made diagrams and sketches to illustrate and explain his writings that prove a fair knowledge of perspective and a distinct knack of fingers he even essayed at times to do an artist's work long after his retirement from active printing the continental congress secured his aid in the design of their currency and he not only merely sketched the cuts but having in some of his studies discovered that the veins of leaves, like the lines of the finger-ins, were never alike. He suggested the use of a different leaf for each denomination, thus making counterfeit difficult. For his Gazette, he engraved a crude type metal map of the Siege of Lewisburg, which so far as known is the first attempt of a paper to illustrate news. So in his pamphlet entitled Plain Truth, he designed and engraved a cut of Hercules and the Wagoner. during stamp act times he made a symbolic print which had considerable vogue while serving in the continental congress he was appointed a member of the committee to prepare devices for a great seal and he suggested moses lifting up his wand and dividing the red sea and pharaoh and his chariot overwhelmed by the waters with the motto rebellion to tyrants is obedience to god which was adopted by the committee but rejected by congress

Starting point is 07:44:54 Congress. In 1782, of his own volition and at his own charge, he had struck after his ideas a medal to commemorate the revolution, which he reports was mighty well received and gives general pleasure in Paris, and which he hopes will be equally liked in America. A greater service he rendered to art was in selecting Hudin for the execution of the bust of Washington, voted by Virginia, and in persuading that sculpture to undertake the commission. However little of an artist he may have been, a number of his most intimate friends were of that profession, and he shows the interest of a cultivated man in their work.

Starting point is 07:45:36 With Benjamin West, a friendship was formed in Pennsylvania, long before the painter was known as such. When he went to London, Franklin gave him letters of introduction that helped him materially, and the two corresponded on terms of close intimacy, during the rest of Franklin's life. To Patience Wright, another American, and the Madame Tussard of her day,

Starting point is 07:46:00 he gave aid and friendship, and helped her son when he came to Paris as a would-be artist, afterward consenting to sit to him for one of the first portraits the artist ever painted. In London, he made the acquaintance of John Flaxman, when his career was just beginning, and he it was who brought the young fellow to the attention of Josiah Wedgwood.

Starting point is 07:46:21 franklin had early in life become interested in the problem of printing on china and this served to give him a common interest with wedgewood and led to a lifelong friendship with the artist potter he even thought himself first in the field in this process writing an engraver who had sent him some specimens in reference to the invention quote i know not who portends to that of the copper plate engravings for earthenware and i am not disposed to contest the honor with anybody, as the improvement in taking impressions, not directly from the plate, but from printed paper, applicable by that means to other than flat forms, is far beyond my first idea. But I have reason to apprehend that I might have given the hint on which the improvement was made. For more than 20 years since, I wrote to Dr. Mitchell from America, proposing to him the printing of square tiles for ornamenting chimneys from copper plates, describing the manner in which I thought it might be done,

Starting point is 07:47:24 and advising the borrowing from the booksellers, the plates that had been used in a thin folio called Moral Virtue Delineated for the purpose. The Dutch dealt where tiles were much used in America, which are only or chiefly scripture histories wretchedly scrawled. I wish to have those moral prints which were originally taken from Horace's poetical figures introduced on tiles, which being about our chimneys and constantly in the eyes of children when by the fireside might give parents an opportunity in explaining them to impress moral sentiments.

Starting point is 07:48:01 And I gave expectations of great demand for them if executed. Dr. Mitchell wrote to me in answer that he had communicated my scheme to several of the principal artists in the earthen way about London, who rejected it as impracticable, and it was not till some years after that I first saw an enameled snuff-box, which I was sure was from a copper plate, though the curvature of the form made me wonder how the impression was taken." It is a curious fact that Franklin, however much a mechanic, and however fertile-minded, left behind him so few inventions of any great value, his lightning-rod and his stove, elsewhere described, being his only important discoveries.

Starting point is 07:48:45 yet as in his idea of printing on china many of his imperfect ideas could have been developed into very valuable improvements how he experimented in stereotyping has already been told before argand invented his lamp franklin had conceived the idea of a burner which should supply a column of air in the centre he made an essay with a bull-rush without success and according to jefferson quote his occupations did not permit him to repeat and extend his trials to the introduction of a larger column of air than could pass through the stem of a bulrush." Yet he seems to have achieved a partial success for a visitor to his house noted, quote, a lamp which with only three small wicks gives a luster equal to six candles, a pipe is introduced into the midst which supplies fresh and cool air to the lights, end quote having found an account of quote a well-known practice of the chinese to divide the hold of a great ship into a number of separate chambers by partition's tight cocked end quote he suggested that the system might with advantage be introduced into ship-building as a safeguard to life and property but the subject is so briefly dwelt upon as to show that he attached little value to what has since become to be of such consequence so contending that, quote, men do not act like reasonable creatures when they build for themselves combustible dwellings

Starting point is 07:50:17 in which they are every day obliged to use fire, end quote, he drew up a paper on how houses could be better protected from the risk. When he himself built, he evolved a system tending to the modern fireproof construction by, quote, a few precautions not generally used, to wit, none of the wooden work of one room communicates with the wooden work of any other room. and all the floors and even the steps of the stairs are plastered close." Of minor improvements, Franklin perfected more. He first made, for his own use, the double spectacles with lenses curved for near and foresight. He constructed a clock, with three wheels only, which showed hours, minutes, and seconds.

Starting point is 07:51:04 Though not the first to make letter-copying presses, he was consulted by what, and suggested several improvements which made them more effective. For his own convenience, he worked out an artificial arm for taking books from shelves out of reach. In his library, quote, below the grate, on the hearth, there was a small iron plate or trap door about five or six inches square

Starting point is 07:51:28 with a hinge and a small ring to raise it by. When this door or valve was raised, a current of air from the cellar rushed up through the grate to rekindle the fire. At the head of his bed there were two cords. One was a bell-pull, and the other, when pulled, raised an iron bolt about an inch square and nine or ten inches long, which dropped through staples at the top of the door when shut, and until this bolt was raised, the door could not be opened, end quote. In 1787, Washington, as he phrased it in his diary, quote, visited a machine at Dr. Franklin's called a mangle, for pressing, in place of ironing clothes from the wash,

Starting point is 07:52:13 which machine from the facility with which it dispatches business is well calculated for tablecloths and such articles as have not pleats and irregular foldings, and would be very useful in all large families, end quote. Such are samples of his almost numberless devices and improvements. An invention not to be passed over was a musical instrument of which Franklin thought so highly as to believe that it would entombed, supersede the piano and harpsichord. In London, during his second visit, Franklin heard a Mr. Delavale, a most ingenious member of our royal society, play melodies by rubbing his fingers upon the

Starting point is 07:52:52 edges of glass bowls, which had been first tuned by putting into them water more or less, as each note required. Being charmed by the sweetness of its tones and the music he produced from it, Franklin set about perfecting the idea into an instrument. he had blown a number of glass half spheres of different sizes, and these he tuned by grinding away the edges until they were in harmony with the notes of the harpsichord. Having obtained this result, he placed 37 of them,

Starting point is 07:53:23 quote, sufficient for three octaves with all the semitones, upon a spindle, which by means of a wheel and a pedal, could be revolved. This instrument is played upon by sitting before the middle of the set of glasses, as before the keys of a harpsichord, turning them with the foot and wetting them with a sponge and clean water, the fingers should be first a little soaked in water and quite free from all greasiness. A little fine chalk upon them is sometimes useful to make them catch the glass

Starting point is 07:53:53 and bring out the tones more readily. Both hands are used, by which means different parts are played together. Observe the tones are best drawn out when the glasses turn from the ends of the fingers, not when they turn to them. franklin named the harmonica in honor so he wrote in italian of your musical language and claimed that the advantages of this instrument are that its tones are incomparably sweet beyond those of any other that they may be swelled and softened at the pleasure by stronger or weaker pressures of the finger and continued to any length and that the instrument being once well tuned never again once tuning he himself took great pleasure in place upon it, and an amusing glimpse is obtained of him during his last years by a paragraph of one of his letters in which he said, Monsieur Pagan did me the honor of visiting me yesterday. He is assuredly one of the best men possible, for he had the patience to listen to me playing an air on the harmonica and to hear it to the end, end quote.

Starting point is 07:55:01 Again, Madame Vrelon, seeking to tempt him to her home, promises that, quote, Father Pagan will play the God of Love on the violin, I will march on the piano, you little birds on the harmonica, and quote. And the same writer in describing their future life in heaven prophecies that, quote, Monsieur Mesmer will be contented with playing on the harmonica

Starting point is 07:55:25 without boring us with electric fluid, end quote. Franklin was a performer on more than the harmonica, for previous to his development of it, he could play on the harp, the guitar, and the violin. Referring to a present, he told the donor that he should, quote, never touch the sweet strings of the British liar without remembering my British friends, and particularly the kind giver of the instrument, end quote.

Starting point is 07:55:54 In France, a friend wrote him that he had searched for harps everywhere without being able to find any, and offers to procure him a piano forte, for it will supply the place of the heart. and quote this may not have been for his own news however for franklin assured madame bruland that in the forty years he would probably have in heaven before her advent he should have time enough to practise on the harmonica and perhaps i shall play well enough to be worthy to accompany you on the pianoforte and in this case we shall have every now and then some little concerts He even seems to have turned his hand to composing, for the same lady, acknowledged the receipt of Your Music Engraved in America. But it has not been possible to identify the piece.

Starting point is 07:56:44 This ends Chapter 8, Part 2. Chapter 8, Part 3 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 8. Jack of All Trades, Part 3 Nothing better shows Franklin's versatility and capacity than the services he rendered in the three great wars of his time. His first introduction to military affairs was due to a condition peculiar to Pennsylvania. During the war of the Austrian succession, although French and Spanish privateers sailed boldly into the Delaware,

Starting point is 07:57:32 capturing ships and plundering plantations, plead as the governor of that colony would, the Quakers, who controlled the Pennsylvania Assembly, principled against war, refused to raise troops or fortify the river. Nor would the rich and powerful leaders opposed to that sect do more, their reasoning, according to Franklin, being,

Starting point is 07:57:54 quote, shall we lay out our money to protect the trade of Quakers? Shall we fight to defend Quakers? No, let the trade perish and the city burn. Let what will happen. We shall never lift a finger to prevent it." And quote. And in genuine indignation, he remarked, quote, till of late I could scarce believe the story of him who refused to pump in a sinking ship, because one on board whom he hated would be saved by it as well as himself, end quote. In this condition of affairs, Franklin turned from his

Starting point is 07:58:30 presses and made an appeal to those who, like himself, were, quote, the middling people, the farmers, shopkeepers, and tradesmen of our city and country, whose interests were forgotten through the dissension of our leaders, through mistaken principles of religion, joined with love of worldly power on the one hand through pride, envy, and implacable resentment on the other. I am determined to try what might be done by a voluntary association of the people. To promote this, I first wrote and published a pamphlet entitled, Plain Truth, in which I stated our defenseless situation in strong lights, with the necessity of union and a discipline for our defense,

Starting point is 07:59:14 and promised to propose in a few days an association to be generally signed for that purpose. The pamphlet had a sudden and surprising effect. I was called upon for the instrument of association, and copies being dispersed in the country, the subscribers amounted at length to upward of 10,000. These all furnished themselves as soon as they could with arms, formed themselves into companies and regiments, chose their own officers,

Starting point is 07:59:41 and met every week to be instructed in the manual exercise and other parts of military discipline. The women, by subscriptions among themselves, provided silk colors, which they presented to the companies, painted with different devices and mottoes, which I supplied. the officers of the companies composing the philadelphia regiment being met chose me for their colonel but conceiving myself unfit i declined that station and recommended mr lawrence a fine person and man of influence who was accordingly appointed i then proposed a lottery to defray the expense of building a battery below the town and furnishing it with cannon it filled expeditiously and the battery was soon erected the associates kept a nightly guard while the war lasted and among the rest i regularly took my turn of duty there as a common soldier and quote.

Starting point is 08:00:39 Franklin found that, quote, my activity in these operations was agreeable to the governor and council. They took me into confidence, and I was consulted by them in every measure wherein their concurrence was thought useful to the association, and quote. Calling in the aid of religion, quote, I proposed to them the proclaiming of a fast to promote reformation and implore the blessing of heaven on our undertaking, end quote. having thus appealed to the religious part of the community franklin as well devised a means of influencing the people socially it is proposed he told a correspondent to breed gunners by forming an artillery club to go down weekly to the battery and exercise the great guns the best engineers against cape breton were of such a club tradesmen and shopkeepers of boston i was with them at the castle at their exercise in seventeen forty three

Starting point is 08:01:37 End quote. Having made himself so useful, it was natural that with the outbreak of the French and Indian War, his services should once more be in demand. In behalf of the Pennsylvania Assembly, he was sent to confer with General Braddock, and finding the British commander in straits for teams and pack horses, he undertook the task of obtaining them for him, with such success that, quote, in two weeks 150 wagons with 259 carrying horses were on their march for the camp, end quote, to accomplish which Franklin advanced out of his own pocket upward of 200 pounds, and furthermore gave his bond for their return or payment according to valuation. He also undertook to aid the general in furnishing him with provisions, quote, advancing for the service of my own money,

Starting point is 08:02:31 upwards of one thousand pounds sterling, end quote. Learning that the sub-altaran officers were having difficulty to obtain a store of provisions for their march through the wilderness, he obtained a vote from the assembly which furnished each one of them a gift of such supplies as would be of the most value to them. Far more valuable than all this, however, was some unheeded advice he gave Braddock, which is well worth quotation. quote in conversation with him one day he was giving me some account of his intended progress after taking fort du cane says he i am to proceed to niagara and having taken that to frontenac if the season will allow time and i suppose it will fort du cane can hardly detain me above three or four days and then i see nothing that can obstruct my march to niagara having before revolved in my mind the long long long long time his army must make in their march by a very narrow road to be cut for them through the woods and bushes and also what i had read of the former defeat of fifteen hundred french who invaded the iroquois country i had conceived some doubts and some fears for the event of the campaign but i ventured only to say to be sure sir if you arrive well before du cane with these fine troops so well provided with artillery that place not completely fortified and and as we hear with no very strong garrison, can probably make but a short resistance. The only danger I apprehend of obstruction to your march is from the amuscades of Indians,

Starting point is 08:04:10 who, by constant practice, are dexterous in laying and executing them, and the slender line near four miles long, which your army must make, may expose it to be attacked by surprise in its flanks, and to be cut like a thread into several pieces, which, from their distance, cannot come up in time to support each other. He smiled at my ignorance and replied, These savages may indeed be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the king's regular and disciplined troops, sir,

Starting point is 08:04:42 it is impossible they should make any impression. Franklin was no better paid for his aid to Braddock than he was for his advice. Quote, as soon as the losses of the wagons and horses was generally known, all the owners came upon me for the valuation which I had given bond to pay, end quote, claims which gave him infinite trouble, but which eventually he cleared himself of. A credit due on another account, however, was never paid. The disaster to the British Army only served to put further labor on the civilian's shoulders. The Assembly appointed him one of the commissioners for raising and expending money for the defense of the frontiers,

Starting point is 08:05:23 and he set about this business with his use. usual energy. He drew up a bill for establishing and disciplining a voluntary militia, and in its behalf wrote a dialogue which had a great effect. He planned and carried through a lottery for raising a further sum of money, and this done, quote, the governor prevailed with me to take charge of our northwestern frontier, which was infested by the enemy, and provide for the defense of the inhabitants by raising troops and building a line of forts. I undertook this military business, though I did not conceive myself well-qualified for it, end quote. A month on the frontier, in the depth of winter, served to complete the three forts

Starting point is 08:06:07 needed and properly to garrison and provision them, and Franklin returned to Philadelphia to find that he had been chosen, colonel of the regiment, just completed in that city, which he now accepted. quote, the first time I reviewed my regiment they accompanied me to my house and would salute me with some rounds fired before my door, which shook down and broke several glasses of my electrical apparatus, and my new honor proved not much less brittle for all our commissions were soon after broken by a repeal of the law of England, end quote. In the Revolutionary War, despite his years, he took an active part. how he was sent as a commissioner to Canada has already been mentioned, and he was one of the committees sent to camp at Cambridge to consult with Washington and other persons, touching the most effectual method of continuing, supporting,

Starting point is 08:07:02 and regulating the Continental Army. For the defense of Philadelphia, he projected a chavoux de frieze for the River Delaware, which proved of the utmost value, and well-nigh prevented the British from holding that city in 1777, as another element of protection he superintended the construction of row galleys a great scarcity of powder in the early period of the war

Starting point is 08:07:28 set him to considering some substitute for firearms he accordingly designed a pike and with a curious lack of his usual good sense sought by arguments to convince himself and others that the bow and arrow was still a serviceable weapon and missile first because a man may shoot as truly with a bow as with a common musket. Secondly, he can discharge four arrows in the time of charging and discharging one bullet. Thirdly, his object is not taken from his view by the smoke of his own side.

Starting point is 08:08:00 Fourthly, a flight of arrows seen coming upon them terrifies and disturbs the enemy's attention to their business. Fifthly, an arrow sticking in any part of a man puts him hard to combat till it is extracted. Sixthly, bows and arrows are more easily. provided everywhere than muskets and ammunition." End quote. Energetically as Franklin worked in war times, he was a constant advocate of peace. In my opinion, he more than once reiterated,

Starting point is 08:08:32 there never was a good war or a bad peace. What repeated follies are these repeated wars, he exclaimed. You do not want to conquer and govern one another. Why then should you be continually employed in injuring and destroying one another? You are near neighbors, he wrote of Great Britain and France, and each have very respectable qualities. Learn to be quiet and to respect each other's rights. You are all Christians, one is the most Christian king, and the other the defender of the faith. Manifest the propriety of these titles by your future conduct.

Starting point is 08:09:08 By this, says Christ, shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another, end quote. He penned a little parable which reveals still more forcibly the unchristianity of war. Quote, 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 courtier spirit assigned him as a guide. They arrived over the seas of Martinique in the middle of the long day of,

Starting point is 08:09:47 obstinate fights between the fleets of Rodney and de Gras. When through 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 turned angrily to his guide and said, you blundering blockhead you are ignorant of your business 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

Starting point is 08:10:33 and more of what men vainly call humanity end quote recognizing men to be a sort of beings very badly constructed, as they are more easily provoked than reconciled, more disposed to do mischief to each other than to make reparation, much more easily deceived than undeceived, and having more pride and even pleasure in killing than in begetting one another. And therefore, half in doubt, if the species were really worth producing or preserving, end quote, he nonetheless did his best to mitigate the horrors of war. He argued in favor of the abolition. of privateering, claiming that the practice of robbing merchants on the high seas was a remnant of ancient piracy. In 1783, in the framing of the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, he

Starting point is 08:11:25 advocated that the misery of war should be henceforth limited to the actual belligerence, and proposed to accomplish this result by an article to the following effect. quote if war should hereafter arise between great britain and the united states which god forbid the merchants of either country then residing in the other shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts and settle their affairs and may depart freely carrying off all their effects without molestation or hindrance and all fishermen, all cultivators of the earth, and all artisans or manufacturers unarmed, and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages or places, who labor for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, and peaceably follow their respective employments, shall be allowed to continue the same, and shall not be molested by the armed force of the enemy, in whose power by the events of the war they may happen to fall, but if anything is necessary to be taken from them for the use of such armed force,

Starting point is 08:12:28 the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price. And all merchants or traders with their unarmed vessels employed in commerce, exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessities, conveniences, and the comforts of human life, more easy to obtain and more general, shall be allowed to pass freely unmolested. And neither of the powers, parties to this treaty shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading ships or interrupt such commerce, end quote. The proposition ran so far in advance of public opinion that the British envoys refused even to consider it. But later it was made part of the treaty the American commissioners negotiated with Prussia,

Starting point is 08:13:17 and in that form received better appreciation in Great Britain, a leading review asserting, that it was, quote, the best lesson of humanity which a philosophical king, Frederick the second, acting in concert with a philosophical patriot, Franklin, could possibly give to the princes and statesmen of the earth, end quote. In yet another way, Franklin was far in advance of his own times, for in maintaining that, quote, all wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones. He asked, when will mankind be? be convinced of this and agree to settle their differences by arbitration." Franklin's humanity was not limited to the abstract, and his gifts in charity were frequent,

Starting point is 08:14:05 but knowing that aid of this sort can injure as well as benefit, he adopted a system designed to mitigate the evil as far as possible without lessening the good. As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have been of more service to you, he told a friend. 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 around for mankind or all of a family." This method of considering his assistance alone and not a gift is still better shown in a letter to one who had asked for his help. Quote, I send you here with a bill for ten louis d'ors i do not pretend to give such a sum i only lend it to you when you shall return to your country with a good character you cannot fail of getting into some business that will in time enable you to pay all your debts in that case when you meet with another honest man in similar distress you must pay me by lending this sum to him in joining him to discharge the debt by a like operation when he shall be able and shall meet with such another opportunity

Starting point is 08:15:19 I hope it may thus go through many hands before it meets with a knave that will stop its progress. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money. I am not rich enough to afford much in good works, and so I am obliged to be cunning and make the most of a little. It is interesting to note how far he prospered in a moneyed sense. When he first landed in Philadelphia, quote, my whole stock of cash consisted in a Dutch dollar and about a shilling in copper, end quote. Very soon he was a percolator to a friend for a debt of 20 pounds.

Starting point is 08:15:58 He had been empowered to collect, and a little later he ran in debt still more to establish himself as a printer. But once well started, he quickly paid all these claims and began to lay up money. He was able presently to buy his printing office and then a house to live in, how he had his share in a relative's estate divided among his less well-to-do brothers and sisters has been shown, and he left to them also his share of his father's estate, refusing to claim it. When in 1784 he retired from printing, it was agreed that his partner was to pay him a thousand pounds currency a year, and he had monies loaned on bond and mortgage. In 1767, writing to his wife, he speaks of his financial condition. condition.

Starting point is 08:16:47 Quote, Since my partnership with Mr. Hall is expired, a great source of our income is cut off, and if I should lose the post office, which among the many changes here is far from being unlikely, we should be reduced to our rents and interests of money for a subsistence, which will by no means afford the chargeable housekeeping we have been used to. In short, with frugality and prudent care, we may subsist decently on what we have, and leave it entire to our children, end quote. In 1772, during a panic in London,

Starting point is 08:17:23 he lent a friend in whom he had confidence, 5,000 pounds, but was forced to borrow the larger portion from a bank. For several years he was hopeful of securing, with a number of others, a patent for a great tract of land on the Ohio River, a project which only failed by the breaking out of the revolution, and which would have made him a rich man had it been completed. He succeeded better in a land grant in Nova Scotia, ultimately worth some 3,000 pounds.

Starting point is 08:17:52 Before his departure for France in 1776, he put all the money he could raise between 3,000 and 4,000 into the hands of Congress, which, demonstrating his confidence, encouraged others to lend their money in support of the cause. The state of Georgia, in recognition of his services, voted him 3,000 acres of land, and he also became the owner by gift or purchase of some lands on the Ohio. When he died, his estate consisted of ten houses in Philadelphia and almost as many vacant lots, a house in Boston, a pasture near Philadelphia, and a large farm near Burlington in New Jersey, 12 shares of stock of the Bank of North America, and personal bonds exceeding 18,000 pounds, his whole estate being valued at between $200 and $250,000.

Starting point is 08:18:46 Franklin disapproved of public officials having salaries, and in accepting the office of president or governor of Pennsylvania, he states that, quote, it was my intention to devote the appointed salary to some public uses. Accordingly, I had already, before I made my will, given large sums of it to colleges, schools, and building of churches, etc. and by that instrument wishing to be useful even after my death if possible to this end i devote two thousand pounds sterling of which i give one thousand thereof to the inhabitants of the town of boston in massachusetts and the other thousand to the inhabitants of the city of philadelphia in trust these sums to be lent at interest to such young married artificers under the age of twenty-five years as have served an apprenticeship in the said town and faithfully fulfilled the duties required in their indentures, so as to obtain a good moral character

Starting point is 08:19:44 from at least two respectable citizens who are willing to become their sureties, to assist them in setting up in business, end quote. As the funds grew, the surplus was to be expended, quote, in public works, which may be judged of most general utility to the inhabitants, such as fortifications, bridges, aqueducts, public buildings, baths, pavements, and, and, and, or whatever may make living in the town more convenient to its people, and render it more agreeable to strangers resorting thither for health or a temporary residence, end quote. Franklin conceived of these funds eventually reaching millions,

Starting point is 08:20:24 but though both cities accepted the gifts, between the strictness of the terms imposed and poor financial management, the trusts have fulfilled only a small part of their testator's wishes, and have proved anew that the philanthropy of the living is better than the philanthropy of the dead. This ends chapter 8. Chapter 9, Part 1 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford.

Starting point is 08:20:56 This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 9, The Scientist, Part 1. In 1752, when Franklin's letters on electricity were translated into French and printed at Paris, the preceptor of the royal family, the Abbe Nolet, who had formed and published a theory of electricity, would 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.

Starting point is 08:21:34 Nor was it for some time that he could be convinced that there really existed such a man as Franklin at Philadelphia. Such a fact served strikingly to show his position in American philosophy. It is difficult to discover what first turned Franklin's attention to the questions of science, and it seems most likely that it was merely one expression of his appetite for learning. As a boy in Boston, so his autobiography relates, his brother's paper was aided by, quote, some ingenious men among his friends who amused themselves by writing little pieces, and quote, and from another source it is known that among them was Dr. William Douglas, who ranked high in the colonies for his learning.

Starting point is 08:22:18 But the fact that he and his fellow writers were desperately opposed to inoculation reveals the limits of their intellects and makes it improbable that the so-called Hellfire Club exerted much of an influence upon the apprentice. During Franklin's brief sojourn in London in 1725 through 26, he made the acquaintance of several men of scientific attainments, among others of Dr. Manderville, author of The Fable of the Fable of the bees, and Dr. Pemberton, the Secretary of the Royal Society.

Starting point is 08:22:50 An asbestos purse he brought with him from America, and which he offered for sale, secured him the acquaintance of Sir Hans Sloan, who, Franklin relates, came to see me and invite me to his house in Bloomsbury Square, where he showed me all his curiosities. Pemberton promised to give me an opportunity sometime or other of seeing Sir Isaac Newton, of which I was extremely desirous, but this never happened, end quote. Thus it is evident that even at 20 Franklin had strong predilections for men and questions of science. His life after his return to Philadelphia goes as well to prove his interest. Here, he, quote, formed most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, end quote, which was called the Gentow,

Starting point is 08:23:39 each member of which in turn was required to produce one or more queries on any point of morals, politics, or natural philosophy to be discussed by the company. A few of the questions so propounded and debated are known, and among them are to be found such as, How may the phenomena of vapors be explained? What is the reason that the tides rise higher in the Bay of Funday than in the Bay of Delaware? And why does the flame of a candle tend upwards in aspire, end quote. It is not probable that the discussions were of much importance, though Franklin himself asserted that the club was the best school of philosophy, morality, and politics that then existed in the province, for our queries, which were read the week

Starting point is 08:24:26 preceding their discussion, put us upon reading with attention upon the several subjects, that we might speak more to the purpose, end quote. The early years of his printing were too busy ones to let him devote much time to such subjects, but his newspaper supplies an occasional evidence that he was not wholly neglecting them. In the Gazette, as early as 1732, he wrote, on making rivers navigable, a little later on late discoveries, and in 1737 he compiled for his columns an article on the causes of earthquakes. Quote, the late earthquakes felt here, and probably in all the neighboring provinces, having made many people desirous to know what may be the natural cause of such violent concussions, end quote. Though his trade prevented him from all research himself,

Starting point is 08:25:19 his real interest at the time is well proved by his drawing up a subscription paper to raise an annual fund to enable that accurate observer, John Bartram, who, quote, has had a propensity to botanics from his infancy and to the productions of nature in general. to pursue his searches after vegetables and fossils on condition that he will describe and yearly communicate to the subscribers the results." Out of this subscription grew a far more important project. In 1744, Franklin suggested the formation of a society of those interested in science and drew up a proposal or a plan for such an organization to which he gave the name of the American Philosophical Society. offering himself to serve as secretary.

Starting point is 08:26:10 His wish was attained so far as the formation, but for many years little was accomplished, and Franklin complained that, the members of our society here are very idle gentlemen who will take no pains, end quote. In connection with it, the printer planned to publish an American philosophical miscellany, monthly or quarterly,

Starting point is 08:26:31 but this was never achieved. long after the society grew into importance, and with Franklin as its president came to take rank among the learned bodies of Europe. Prior to the issue of the proposal, Franklin had proved his right to be deemed more than a student of science by his invention of the famous Franklin stove. One of his queries for the ginto was entitled, How May Smoke Chimneys Be Best Cured. Suggesting that very early in his studies, his attention was turned to a kindred problem. it is strange methinks franklin remarked that though chimneys have been for so long in use the construction should be so little understood till lately that no workman pretended to make one which should always carry off all smoke and quote nor was this the only difficulty of the old fireplace the investigator catalogued it might have the quote conveniency of two warm seats one in each corner but they are sometimes too hot to abide in and the cold air so nips the backs and heels of those that sit before the fire that they have no comfort till either screens or settles are provided while a moderate quantity of wood on the fire in so large a hearth seems but little and in so strong and cold a draught warms but little so that people are continually laying on more in short it is next too impossible to warm a room with such a fireplace as an alternative a dutch or German stove could be used, but these had offsetting defects in that they supplied little or no fresh

Starting point is 08:28:08 air to the room, and there is no sight of the fire, which in itself is a pleasant thing." To combine the advantages and eliminate the defects of the two systems was the task he set himself, and in 1742 he evolved the Pennsylvania fireplace, in which the heat from an open fire, after ascending was made to descend before escaping through the chimney, and thus was made to heat currents of fresh air as they entered the room. It is impossible today to realize what this improvement meant. I suppose our ancestors never thought, said Franklin, of warming rooms to sit in. All they purposed was to have a place to make a fire in, by which they might warm themselves when cold.

Starting point is 08:28:54 But with this stove, your whole room is equally warm, so that people need not crowded, so close around the fire, but may sit near the window, and have the benefit of the light for reading, writing, needlework, etc. And they may sit with comfort in any part of the room, which is a very considerable advantage in a large family, end quote. It was accomplished, too, with a great saving in fuel. I suppose, the inventor claimed, taking a number of families together, that two-thirds are half the wood at least is saved, end quote. he himself found that, quote, my common room, I know, is made twice as warm as it used to be,

Starting point is 08:29:35 with a quarter of the wood I formerly consumed there, end quote. This saving by his own choice was all the profit that accrued to him. In his autobiography, he said, I made a present of the model to Mr. Robert Grace, one of my early friends, who, having an iron furnace, found the casting of the plates for these stoves a profitable thing as they were growing in demand.

Starting point is 08:29:59 To promote that demand, I wrote and published a pamphlet entitled, An Account of the New Invented Pennsylvania Fireplaces, wherein their construction and manner of operation is particularly explained, their advantages above every other method of warming rooms demonstrated, and all objections that have been raised against the use of them, answered and obviated, etc. This pamphlet had a good effect. Governor Thomas was so pleased with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years.

Starting point is 08:30:34 But I declined it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz, that as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others in any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously. An ironmonger in London, however, assuming a good deal of my pamphlet, and working it up into his own, and making some small changes in the machine, which rather hurt its operation,

Starting point is 08:31:03 got a patent for it there, and made, as I was told, a little fortune by it. And this is not the only instance of patents taken out for my inventions by others, though not always with the same success, which I never contested as having no desire of profiting by patents myself and hating disputes. The use of these fireplaces in very many houses, both of this and the neighboring colonies, has been and is a great saving of wood to the inhabitants." Many years later Franklin invented a second stove, which he believed would be of equal service,

Starting point is 08:31:39 constructed on the principle of the siphon, so that the fire was made to draw downward, thus consuming its own smoke, and which could burn either wood or coal. His first model, in which the coals were held in an ornamental urn, was completed in 1771, and was used by him success with, for several years.

Starting point is 08:31:59 But the stove never obtained any general vogue. It, however, supplied the basis of a clever epigram said to have been written by a Miss Norris, which obtained great currency at the time. Quote, Like Newton sublimely he soared, to a summit before unattained, new regions of science explored,

Starting point is 08:32:20 and the palm of philosophy gained. Oh, had he been wise to pursue the track for his talent designed, what tribute of praise had been due to the teacher and friend of mankind. But to covet political fame was in him a degrading ambition, a spark that from Lucifer came and kindled the flame of sedition. Let candor then write on his urn, here lies the renowned inventor, whose flame to the skies sought to burn, but inverted descends to the center."

Starting point is 08:32:52 End quote. Although it was not announced until some years later, Franklin in 1743 made a discovery which, if not as utilitarian as his stove, bespoke a higher order for scientific research. In that year he was prevented from observing an eclipse by a storm which obscured the moon. Much to his surprise, he found that though the storm blew from the northeast, yet it had not reached Boston till an hour after the eclipse was over. This set him to studying the movements of the winds,

Starting point is 08:33:23 and to the proving of the apparent contradiction that storms travel in an opposite direction from that of the wind. Impossible as this might seem to reconcile, Franklin formed a conjecture which is scarcely to be equalled in scientific writing for its clearness, convincingness, and happy use of comparison. Quote, suppose, he assumed, a great tract of country, land and sea, to wit, Florida and the Bay of Mexico, to have clear weather for several days, and to be heated by the sun and its air thereby exceedingly rarefied suppose the country north eastward as pennsylvania new england nova scotia and newfoundland to be at the same time covered with clouds and its air chilled and condensed the rarefied air being lighter must rise and the denser air next to it will press into its place and that will be followed by the next denser air that's by the next and so on thus when i have a fire in my chimney, there is a current of air constantly flowing from the door to the chimney, but the beginning of the motion was at the chimney, where the air being rarefied by the fire rising, its place was supplied by the cooler air that was next to it, and the place of that by the next,

Starting point is 08:34:40 and so on to the door. So the water in the long sluice or mill-rays, being stopped by a gate, is at rest like the air in a calm. But as soon as you open the gate at one end to let it out, the water next to the gate begins first to move, that which is next to it follows, and so, though the water proceeds forward to the gate, the motion which began there runs backwards, if one may so speak, to the upper end of the race, where the water is last in motion, end quote. It was in 1746 that Franklin's attention was first drawn to electricity. From a long period of neglect, the subject had suddenly secured renewed attention,

Starting point is 08:35:22 by Gray's experiments as to the conductivity of various substances, and Defei's discovery of what he deemed two kinds of electricity. Close upon these developments came the perfecting of the laden jar, and with it the science sprang into instant popularity. Traveling electricians went about all over Europe, exhibiting the phenomena and selling shocks to a half-frightened and deeply interested public. It was one of these itinerants who set the master printer to studying the mysterious fluid.

Starting point is 08:35:54 Quote, being at Boston, I met there with a Dr. Spence, who was lightly arrived from Scotland, and showed me some electric experiments. They were imperfectly performed, as he was not very expert, but being on a subject quite new to me, they equally surprised and pleased me. Soon after my return to Philadelphia, our library company received from Mr. P. Collinson,

Starting point is 08:36:18 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 in Boston, and by much practice acquired 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." End quote.

Starting point is 08:36:49 There was a quality in Franklin's mind. which made it impossible for him not to attempt improvement in whatever he took in hand, and within a year he had ascertained a fact which went far to revolutionize the whole science. Discarding the idea that electricity was a substance created by friction, he maintained that it was, quote, really an element diffused among and attracted by other matter, particularly by water and metals, end quote. He proved that the laden jar, no matter how highly electrified,

Starting point is 08:37:22 contained no more electricity than it did before it was charged, what was added to one surface being taken from the other. This demonstrated, he brushed aside Dufet's theory of vitreous and resinous electricity, and gave to the world in its stead that of a positive and negative, or as he sometimes phrased it, of a plus and minus state. Not merely did this account for and explain the great mass of known phenomena, but the beginning of modern electricity may be said to date from the discovery, for by it the mysterious fluid from being merely a curiosity became potentially a new force or power.

Starting point is 08:38:02 Other investigators had suggested the probable identity of electricity and lightning, and to prove this was Franklin's next undertaking. He first drew up a paper bringing together all the evidence and arguments in favor of the belief, but in his scientific work he was never satisfied with a mere theory, and so he undertook to demonstrate it. Probably his method was suggested to him by an account he received of a certain ship's experience with St. Elmo's fire, and a stroke of lightning during a storm. These masthead globes of fire, Franklin argued, were but, quote, the electrical fire, then drawing off as by points from the cloud, and had there been a good wire communication from the spintel-heads to the sea that could have conducted more freely then tarred ropes or masts of turpentine would. I imagine there would have either been

Starting point is 08:38:55 no stroke or if a stroke, the wire would have conducted it all into the sea without damage to the ship. To determine the question whether the clouds that contain lightning are electrified or not, I would propose an experiment to be tried where it may be done conveniently. On the top of some high tower or steeple place a kind of sentry box, big enough to contain a man and an electrical stand. from the middle of the stand let an iron rod rise and pass bending out of the door and then upright twenty or thirty feet pointed very sharp at the end if the electrical stand be kept clean and dry a man standing on it when such clouds are passing low might be electrified and afford sparks the rod drawing fire to him from a cloud if any danger to the man should be apprehended though i think there would be none let him stand on the floor of his box and now now he and then bring near to the rod a loop of a wire that has one end fastened to the leads, he holding it by a wax handle, so that sparks, if the rod is electrified, will strike from the rod to the wire and not affect him, end quote.

Starting point is 08:40:07 Franklin himself was not able to carry out this experiment because Philadelphia was without a suitable eminence. His suggestion was seized upon, however, by the French savants, Buffon, Dalibar, and Delors. On a hill at Marley, a rod was erected, and on May 10, 1752, quote, a thundercloud having passed over the place where the bar stood, those who were appointed to observe it drew near and attracted from it sparks of fire, perceiving the same kind of commotions as in the common electrical experiments, end quote. Air Franklin learned of this successful proving of his theory with his method by the French scientists, he could write them that, quote, the same experiment has succeeded in Philadelphia,

Starting point is 08:40:53 though made in a different and more easy manner, end quote. Then in a purely abstract form, he described the mode which so sees the popular fancy. Quote, make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the arm 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, 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

Starting point is 08:41:39 pointed wire rising a foot or more above the wood to the end of the twine next to 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 the 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 wetted the kite and

Starting point is 08:42:30 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 file may be charged, and from a 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 a tube, and thereby the sameness of the electric matter with that of lightning completely demonstrated." Even before the identity of electricity and lightning had thus been established, Franklin outlined his proposal for the protection of buildings. If these things are so, he argued as early as 1749, may not the knowledge of this power of points be of use to mankind in

Starting point is 08:43:20 preserving houses, churches, ships, etc., from the stroke of lightning by directing us to fix on the highest parts of those edifices, upright rods of iron made sharp as a needle and guilt to prevent rusting, and from the foot of those rods a wire down the outside of the building into the ground or down round one of the shrouds of a ship and down her side till it reaches the water. Would not these pointed rods probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike and thereby secure us from that most sudden terrible mischief? End quote. It was preeminently frank Linnian that he should turn his discovery to a useful purpose

Starting point is 08:44:05 before the truth of it was accepted, far less confirmed. And few inventors have been so directly rewarded, for he relates that, quote, My own house was one day attacked by lightning, which occasioned the neighbors to run in and give assistance in case of its being on fire. But no damage was done, and my family was only found a good deal frightened with the violence of the explosion. Last year, my house being enlarged, the conductor was obliged. obliged to be taken down i found upon examination that the pointed termination of the copper which was originally nine inches long and about one-third of an inch in diameter in its thickest part had been almost entirely melted and that its connection with the rod of iron below was very slight thus in the course of time this invention has proved of use to the author of it and has added this personal advantage to the pleasure he before received from having been useful to others, end quote.

Starting point is 08:45:09 End of Chapter 9, Part 1. Chapter 9, Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libra Fox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 9, The Scientist, Part 2. These two most important discoveries of Franklin, as well as his minor experiments, were first made known to Europe by letters he wrote to Mr. Collinson. I thought it right, Franklin said in his autobiography, he should be informed of our success in using it, a glass tube, and wrote him several letters containing accounts of our experiments. He got them read in the Royal Society, where they were not

Starting point is 08:46:01 at first thought worth so much notice as to be printed in their transactions. One paper which I wrote for Mr. Kenner'sley on the sameness of lightning with electricity, I sent to Dr. Mitchell, an acquaintance of mine, and one of the members also of that society, who wrote me word that it had been read but was left at by the connoisseurs. The papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he thought them of too much value to be stifled and advised the printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to Cave for publication in his gentleman's magazine, but he chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and Dr. Fathersgill wrote the preface. Cave, it seemed, judged rightly for his profit, for by the additions that

Starting point is 08:46:48 arrived afterward, they swelled to a quarto in volume, which has had five editions and cost him nothing for copy money. What gave my book the more sudden and general celebrity was the success of one of its proposed experiments made by Monsieur Dallibard and Lour at Marley for drawing lightning from the clouds. This engaged the public attention everywhere. Monsieur de Lour, who had an apparatus for experimental philosophy and lectured in that branch of science, undertook to repeat what he called the Philadelphia experiments, 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,

Starting point is 08:47:33 nor of the infinite pleasure are received 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. 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 experience were in among the learned abroad, and of their wonder that my writings had been so little noticed in England. The Society, on this, resumed the consideration of the letters that had been read to them, and the celebrated Dr. Watson drew up a summary account of them,

Starting point is 08:48:10 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 honor, they chose me a member and voted that I should be excused the customary payments, which would have amounted to 25 guineas, and ever since have given me their transactions gratis. They also presented me with the gold medal of Sir Godfrey Hopley for the year 1753, the delivery of which was accompanied by a very handsome speech of the president, Lord Macclesfield, wherein I was highly honored, end quote. although the use of the lightning rod or as it was then more often called franklin's rod spread rapidly there was a strong opposition at first to its employment john adams reports one wise acre who as late as seventeen fifty eight quote, began to prate upon the presumption of philosophy in erecting iron rods to draw the lightning

Starting point is 08:49:32 from the clouds. His brains were in a ferment, and he railed and foamed against those points, and the presumption that erected them, in language taken partly from scripture and partly from the disputes of tavern philosophy, in as wild, mad a manner as King Lear raves against his daughter's disobedience and ingratitude, and against the meanness of the storm in joining with his daughters against him in Shakespeare's Lear. He talked of presuming upon God, as Peter attempted to walk upon the water, attempting to control the artillery of heaven, an execution that mortal man can't stay, end quote. More publicly, the Reverend Thomas Prince, ignoring the fact that earthquakes had occurred before the erection of these safeguards, found in them the cause for the shock of

Starting point is 08:50:20 1755, and in a sermon urged that, quote, the more points of iron are erected around the earth to draw the electrical substance out of the air, the more the earth must needs be charged with it, and therefore it seems worthy of consideration whether any part of the earth being fuller of this terrible substance may not be more exposed to more shocking earthquakes. In Boston are more erected than anywhere else in New England, and Boston seems to be the more dreadfully shaken. Oh, there is no getting out of the mighty hand of God. If we think to avoid it in the air, we cannot in the earth. Yay, it may grow more fatal, end quote. So late as 1770, it was maintained that as lightning is one of the means of punishing the sins of mankind and of warning them

Starting point is 08:51:13 from the commission of sin, it is impious to prevent its full execution, end quote. There was a yet stranger controversy over this discovery, long after the general principle had gained well-nigh universal acceptance. A powder magazine in Europe, having been exploded by lightning, the British Board of Ordinance requested the Royal Society to recommend the best method for preserving the arsenals at Perfleet from such a danger. The Society appointed a committee of five, of which Franklin was one, to prepare a report, and they recommended Franklin's system. but from this one member benjamin wilson dissented so far as to advocate the use of blunt and not pointed ends to the rods the latter were adopted and wilson grown angry published two pamphlets so franklin states quote reflecting on the royal society the committee and myself with some asperity end quote to this franklin made no reply for he explained i have never entered into a any controversy in defense of my philosophical opinions. I leave them to take their chance in the world. If they are right, truth and experience will support them. If wrong, they ought to be refuted and rejected. Disputes are apt to sour one's temper and disturb one's quiet. I have no private

Starting point is 08:52:39 interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made nor proposed to make the least profit by any of them." End quote. His friend in Jenhouse, however, took up the controversy, and was, so Franklin laughingly noted, quote, as much heated about this one point as the Jainsonists and Molinists are about the five, end quote. There the matter would no doubt have ended had not a new antagonist entered the field. George III, having good cause to dislike Franklin's political opinions, sought to discredit his scientific ones by ordering the substitution of Blunt for pointed ends on Q Palace. such was his desire to prove franklin in error that he asked sir john pringle to give an opinion in favour of the change only to receive a reply that quote the laws of nature were not changeable at royal pleasure end quote

Starting point is 08:53:35 it was then intimated to him by the king's authority that a president of the royal society entertaining such an opinion ought to resign and he resigned accordingly at the same time being deprived of his position as position to the queen, with all favor in court circles, so that he was forced to leave London and live in extreme poverty. Franklin, unwitting of the injury it had brought his friend, asserted that the king's action was, quote, a matter of small importance to me, adding, 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, end quote. However the court might side with the king, the wits did otherwise, and one of them produced

Starting point is 08:54:28 an epigram well worth quotation. While you, great George, for safety, hunt, and sharp conductors change for blunt, the nation's out of joint. Franklin, a wiser course pursues and all your thunder fearless views by keeping to the point, end quote. It is interesting to compare this action of royalty with one of the earliest experiments or tricks in electricity which Franklin attempted and which he described to Collinson in the following words. Quote, The magical picture is made thus.

Starting point is 08:55:05 Having a large mesotento with a frame and glass, suppose of the king, God preserve him, take out the print and cut a panel out of it near two inches distant from the frame all round. If the cut is through the picture, it is not the worse. With thin paste or gum water, fix the border that is cut off on the inside of the glass, pressing it smooth and close, then fill up the vacancy by gilding the glass well with leaf gold or brass. Gild likewise the inner edge of the back of the frame all around, except the top part, and form a communication between that gilding and the gilding behind the glass, then put in the board and that side is finished. Turn up the glass and gild the foreside exactly over the back gilding,

Starting point is 08:55:54 and when it is dry, cover it by pasting on the panel of the picture that hath been cut out, observing to bring the correspondent parts of the border and picture together by which the picture will appear of a piece as at first only part is behind the glass and part before. hold the picture horizontally by the top and place a little movable gilt crown on the king's head. If now the picture be moderately electrified and another person take hold of the frame with one hand so that his fingers touch its inside gilding and with the other hand endeavor to take off the crown, he will receive a terrible blow and fail in the attempt. If the picture were highly charged, the consequence might perhaps be as fatal as that of

Starting point is 08:56:41 high treason, for when the spark is taken through a choir of paper laid on the picture by means of a wire communication, it makes a fair hole through every sheet, that is, through 48 leaves, though a choir of paper is thought good armor against the push of a sword, or even against a pistol bullet, and the crack is exceedingly loud. The operator, who holds the picture by the upper end where the inside of the frame is not gilt to prevent its falling, feels nothing of the shock and may touch the face of the picture without danger, which he pretends is a test of his loyalty. If a ring of persons take the shock among them, the experiment is called the conspirators, end quote. It was in 1757 that Franklin's notice was attracted to the effect of oil on the stealing of waves.

Starting point is 08:57:34 What served to excite his interest, he states, was observing in a convoy, quote, the wakes of two of the ships to be remarkably smooth, while all the others were ruffled by the wind, which blew fresh. Being puzzled with the differing appearance, I at last pointed it out to our captain, and asked him the meaning of it. The cook said he, have, I suppose, been just emptying their greasy water through the scuppers, which has greased the sides of those ships a little, and this answer he gave me with an air of some little contempt as to a person ignorant of what everybody else knew. In my own mind, I at first slighted his solution, though I was not able to think of another, end quote. However unsatisfactory the explanation appeared to the inquirer, he was too

Starting point is 08:58:24 instinctively the scientist, and was too well aware that the learned are apt to slight too much the knowledge of the vulgar, not to bear it in memory, end quote, at length being at Chapham, where there is on the common a large pond, which I abut. I abound. Which I, observed one day to be very rough with the wind, I fetched out a cruet of oil and dropped a little of it on the water. I saw it spread itself with surprising swiftness upon the surface, but the effect of smoothing the waves was not produced, for I had applied it first on the leeward side of the pond, where the waves were greatest, and the wind drove my oil back upon the shore. I then went to the windward side where they began to form, and there the oil, though not more than a teaspoonful,

Starting point is 08:59:09 produced an instant calm over a space several yards square, which spread amazingly and extended itself gradually till it reached the lee side, making all that quarter of the pond, perhaps half an acre, as smooth as a looking-glass. After this I contrived to take with me whenever I went into the country, a little oil in the upper hollow joint of my bamboo cane, with which I might repeat the experiment as opportunity should offer,

Starting point is 08:59:38 and I found it constantly, to succeed, end quote. His experiments, and especially one he made at Portsmouth, during a gale, in the presence of some naval officers and members of the Royal Society, led to much discussion and served to spread the knowledge generally. It is a typical instance of the qualities of his mind that a casual incident and question were sufficient to set him investigating, and thus to bring to the attention of the learned, a really important truth, long known to more practical men. A very similar, though not so successful, an attempt to spread the knowledge that had been learned, not reasoned, was in his observations upon the mapping of the Gulf Stream.

Starting point is 09:00:23 As early as 1745, he was puzzling why ships should have much shorter voyages from America to England than in returning, and wishing he had mathematics enough to satisfy myself that it was not in some degree owing to the diurnal motion of the earth. Quote, about the year 1769 or 1770, there was an application made by the Board of Customs at Boston to the Lords of the Treasury in London, complaining that the packets between Falmouth and New York

Starting point is 09:00:54 were generally a fortnight longer in their passages than merchant ships from London to Rhode Island, and proposing that for the future they should be ordered to Rhode Island instead of New York. being then concerned in the management of the american post-office i happened to be consulted on the occasion and it appearing strange to me that there should be such a difference between the two places scarce a days run asunder especially when the merchant ships are generally deeper laden and more weakly manned than the packets and had from London the whole length of the river and channel to run before they left the land of England. While the packets had only to go from Falmouth, I could not but think the fact misunderstood or misrepresented. There happened then to be in London, a Nan-Tucket-C captain of my acquaintance, to whom I communicated the affair.

Starting point is 09:01:47 He told me he believed the fact might be true, but the difference was owing to this, that the Rhode Island captains were acquainted with the Gulf Stream, which those of the English packets were not. We are well acquainted with that stream, says he, because in our pursuits of whales, which keep near the sides of it, but are not to be met with in it, we run down along the sides and frequently cross it to change our side, and in crossing it have sometimes met and spoke with those packets

Starting point is 09:02:16 who were in the middle of it and stemming it. We have informed them that they were, stemming a current that was against them to the value of three miles an hour, and advise them to cross it and get out of it. But they were too wise to be counseled by simple American fishermen. When the winds are but light, he added, they are carried back by the current more than they are forwarded by the wind, and if the wind be good, the subtraction of 70 miles a day from their course is of some importance. I then observed it was a pity no notice was taken of this current upon the charts and requested him to mark it out for me, which he readily complied with, adding directions

Starting point is 09:02:57 for avoiding it in sailing from Europe to North America. I procured it to be engraved by order from the General Post Office on the old chart of the Atlantic at Mount and Pages, Tower Hill, and copies were sent down to Falmouth for the captains of the packets, who slighted it, however, end quote. With each crossing of the ocean that Franklin made after learning of the this current, he kept a careful record of the temperature of the water, and from the resulting data concluded that, quote, a stranger may know when he is in the Gulf Stream, by the warmth of the water, which is much greater than that of the water on each side of it, end quote. Not content with this, he ingeniously contrived as well to discover how deep the current extended.

Starting point is 09:03:44 One service he rendered the scientific world, less directly was something he did in 1779, at the request of his friend Sir Joseph Banks, then president of the Royal Society. The exploring expedition under Captain James Cook, whom Franklin had known personally in London, was then at sea, but, owing to the condition of war between the United States and Great Britain, was liable to capture. To prevent this, Franklin then in France, issued a pretty notice to all captains and commanders of armed ships acting by commission from the congress which recommended most earnestly that quote in the case the said ship which is now expected to be soon in the european seas on her return should happen to fall into your hands you would not consider her as an enemy nor suffer any plunder to be made of the effects contained in her

Starting point is 09:04:36 nor obstruct her immediate return to england the undertaking being truly laudable in itself as the increase of geographical knowledge, facilitates the communication between distant nations in the exchange of useful products and manufacturers, and the extension of arts, whereby the common enjoyments of human life are multiplied and augmented, the science of other kinds increased to the benefit of mankind in general." When the account of Cook's voyage was printed at the expense of the English government, the Board of Admiralty sent a copy of it to Franklin, with a letter from Lord Howe, signifying that it was presented by direction of the king in recognition of Franklin's action,

Starting point is 09:05:20 and one of the gold medals struck by the Royal Society in honor of Cook was likewise given him. Such are his most important contributions to science, which represent, however, only a small part of the investigations he conducted. He first suggested that the Aurora was an electrical phenomenon. By means of little squares of different colored cloths laid on the snow in a bright, sun-shiny morning, he demonstrated the different effect of color as to heat. He studied and wrote upon sun spots, shooting stars, light, heat, fire, air, evaporation, the tides, rainfall, geology, the wind, whirlwinds, water spouts, ventilation, sound, and a universal fluid or ether. He followed closely such mechanical developments as the balloon and the steamboat,

Starting point is 09:06:13 and even such minor ones as improvements in the methods of manufacturing air pumps, guns, wheels, clocks, etc. There can be no doubt that Franklin's greatest pleasure consisted in scientific research. When he retired from active printing, he said, quote, I flattered myself that I had secured leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies and amusements, end quote. When later political employment seized all of him, he wrote sighingly to Priestley. you judge rightly in supposing that I have not much time at present to consider philosophical matters, end quote. And a little later he complained to Bacaria, I find myself here immersed in affairs which absorb my attention

Starting point is 09:06:57 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 tranquility so necessary for philosophical disquisitions, end quote. During the revolution he assured the president of the royal society, quote, that I long earnestly for a return to those peaceful times when I could sit down in sweet society with my English philosophical friends, communicating to each other new discoveries, and proposing improvements of old ones,

Starting point is 09:07:32 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 employed 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." Besides carrying on his own studies, Franklin was never wanting in any assistance he could give to other inquirers, and first or last he was in correspondence with almost every scientist of note on two continents. even before he had made his name known by his discoveries, he eagerly sought the friendship of the few men of scientific attainment, such as John Winthrop, James Bodwin, Jared Elliott,

Starting point is 09:08:24 Codwalader Calden, James Logan, and John Bartram. His lifelong friendships with Sir William Watson, Sir John Pringle, Peter Collinson, and Sir Joseph Banks have been referred to, and he was equally intimate with Sir William Herschel, and many other of his fellow members of the Royal Society, which even the alienations of the Revolutionary War did not interrupt, and it is interesting to find Arrasmus Darwin saying in a letter to him, quote,

Starting point is 09:08:55 Whilst I am writing to the philosopher and a friend, I can scarcely forget that I am also writing to the greatest statesmen of the present or perhaps any century, who spread the happy contagion of liberty among his countrymen, and like the greatest man of all antiquity, the leader of the Jews, delivered them from the house of bondage and the scourge of oppression, end quote. His chief circle of friends in France were scientists,

Starting point is 09:09:23 guillotine, Levoisier, Condorcette, Dobenton, D'Alembert, Leroy, Dallibard, and Buffon. But perhaps the pleasantest of all his scientific friendships to study are those he gave to far younger men, and his advice and encouragement to David Rittenhouse in Philadelphia and Joseph Priestley in England bore fruit almost as important as his own laborers. You know the just esteem, Jefferson wrote, which attached itself to Dr. Franklin's science, because he always endeavored to direct it to something useful in private life. The chemists have not been attentive enough to this, end quote. Franklin himself asked, what signifies philosophy? that does not apply to some use.

Starting point is 09:10:12 End of Chapter 9, The Scientist. Chapter 10, Part 1 of the Many-Cited Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libra Vox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Fry, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 10, The Humorist, Part 1. Nothing more impresses the student of American history in tracing the subject the psychological development of the people, than the absence of humor in the first hundred and fifty years following the settlement of the country. The English literature on which the colonists had been bred showed no lack of the comic muse, and indeed unquestionably proves

Starting point is 09:10:59 a greater appreciation of wit and humor than its present-day successor. In America, however, either because the immigrants had been recruited from the unfortunate and the religiously austere, or because the hardness of the conditions resulted in a sadness which tinctured the lives of the people, there seems to have been a practical extinction of all sense of the humorous. Notable as Franklin is for many things, perhaps his most remarkable attribute is that the future historian of the now-famous American humor must begin its history with the first publication of poor Richard. This does not mean that the great American's sense of wit and fun began with the publication of his almanac. In the letters of Mrs. Dugood, written when he was 16 years old, he shows already a humorous turn of mind, and anyone who has delved in the extraordinary martuary lubrications, which were once as popular in New England as a modern novel as today,

Starting point is 09:11:58 will appreciate the wittiness of the following extract from one of her letters. quote a receipt to make a New England funeral elegy for the title of your elegy of these you may have enough ready-made to your hands but if you should choose to make it yourself you must be sure not to omit the words a tatis sui which will beautify it exceedingly for the subject of your elegy

Starting point is 09:12:24 take one of your neighbors who has lately departed this life it is no great matter at what age the party died but it will be best if he went away suddenly, being killed, drowned, or froze to death. Having chosen the persons, take all his virtues, excellencies, etc., and if he have not enough, you may borrow some to make up a sufficient quantity. To these add his last words, dying expressions, etc., 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 melancholy expressions, such as,

Starting point is 09:13:01 dreadful, deadly, cruel cold death, unhappy fate, weeping eyes, etc. Having mixed all these ingredients well, put them into the empty skull of some young Harvard, but in case you have near a one at hand, you may use your own. 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 rhymes, such as power, flower, quiver, shiver, grieve us, leave us, tell you, excel you, expeditions, fatigue him, intrigue him, etc. You must spread all upon paper. And if you can procure a scrap of Latin to put at the end, it will garnish it mightily, then having affixed your name at the bottom,

Starting point is 09:13:50 with a mace-disposuit, you will have an excellent elegy. N. B, this receipt will serve when a female is the subject of your elegy, provided you borrow a greater quantity of virtues, excellencies, etc." End quote. Nor is this the only indication that even as a lad he possessed a keen appreciation of humor. When nearly 80-something, he relates, quote, Put me in mind of a violent high-church factor, resident in Boston, when I was a boy. He had bought, upon speculation, a Connecticut cargo of onions, which he flattered himself he might sell again to great profit, but the price fell and they lay upon hand.

Starting point is 09:14:33 He was heartily vexed with his bargain, especially when he observed they began to grow in the store he had filled with them. He showed them one day to offend. Here they are, said he, and they are growing, too. I damn them every day, but I think they are like the Presbyterians. The more I curse them, the more they grow. End quote. In London, he relates that he was popular with his fellow journeyman printers because of, quote, my being esteemed, a pretty good rigette, that is, a jocular verbal satirist, end quote. His natural tendency to humor is shown very clearly by the columns of the Pennsylvania Gazette from the time that Franklin assumed its publication.

Starting point is 09:15:16 I am about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with, he makes a correspondent, right? how shall I come to a knowledge of her faults and whether she has the virtues I imagine she has? Commend her among her female acquaintance, advises Franklin. Elsewhere, as if to put his joke in concrete form, he wrote, Daphius says Cleo has a charming eye, what pity tis her shoulder is awry, Aspasia's shape indeed, but then her heir twould task a conjurer to find beauty there. Without a butt, Hortensia, she commends, the first of women, and the best of friends, owns her in person, wit, fame, virtue bright, but how comes this to pass? She died last night.

Starting point is 09:16:06 He makes another correspondent beg him to let the prettiest creature in this place know, by publishing this, that if it was not for her affectation, she would be absolutely irresistible. And in the next issue he prints six denials of the charge, from as many different women. In the same vein, he writes the paper a letter from Alice Attertung, who describes herself as, a young girl of about 35, who has no care upon my head of getting a living, and therefore find it in my duty as well as inclination,

Starting point is 09:16:39 to exercise my talent at censure for the good of my country folks. Shall I discover my secret? If I have never heard ill of some person, I always impute it to defective intelligence, for there are none without their faults no not one if she be a woman i take the first opportunity to let all her acquaintance know that i have heard that one of the handsomest or best men in town has said something in praise either of her beauty her wit her virtue or her good management if you know anything of human nature you perceive that this naturally introduces a conversation turning upon all her failings past present and to come to the same purpose and with the same success I cause every man of reputation to be praised before his competitors in love, business, or esteem, on account of any particular qualification.

Starting point is 09:17:31 Near the times of election, if I find it necessary, I commend every candidate before some of the opposite party, listening attentively to what is said of him in answer. But commendations in this latter case are not always necessary, and should be used judiciously. Of late years, I need only observe what they said of one another freely, and having for the help of memory taken account of all information

Starting point is 09:17:56 and accusations received, whoever peruses my writings after my death, may happen to think that during a certain time the people of Pennsylvania chose into all their offices of honor and trust the various knaves, fools, and rascals in the whole province, end quote.

Starting point is 09:18:15 It must not be inferred that all his fooling was at the expense of the gentler sex. A drinker's dictionary held up a masculine weakness to scorn. He guide a pair of would-be duelists mercilessly, and in a little poem ridiculed a second manish extravagance. Quote, The following lines are dedicated to the service of our fair readers, which perhaps may give them a useful hint how to behave upon the like occasion. The Fright Myrtle unsheathed his shining blade and fixed its point against his breast,

Starting point is 09:18:49 then gazed upon the wondering maid and thus his dire resolve expressed since cruel fare with cold disdain you still return my raging love thought is but madness life is pain and thus at once i both remove oh stay one moment chloe said and trembling haste to the door here betty quick a pale dear maid this madman else will stain the floor end quote in every way the editor sought to inject a vein of humor into his columns. A sample news item runs, quote, An unhappy man, one Sturgis, upon some difference with his wife, determined to drown himself in the river, and she, kind wife, went with him, it seems, to see it faithfully performed,

Starting point is 09:19:38 and accordingly stood by silent and unconcerned during the whole transaction. He jumped in near Carpenter's Wharf, but was timely taken out again, before what he came about was thoroughly. affected, so that they were both obliged to return home as they came, and put up for that time with the disappointment, end quote. In another issue, printing the fact that a Bucks County former had his pewter buttons melted off his waistband by a flash of lightning, he adds the comment, "'Tis well nothing else thereabouts was made of pewter. How he made jokes of his own typographical errors,

Starting point is 09:20:16 and how he joked his fellow editors has been told already, and his quickness to seize an opportunity is shown by a very typical reply to one of these in a letter addressed to himself. Quote, Mr. Franklin, I am the author of a copy of verses in the last Mercury. It was my real intention to appear open, and not basely with my visor on,

Starting point is 09:20:39 attack a man who had fairly unmasked. Accordingly, I subscribed my name at full length in my manuscript sent to my brother B-D, but he, for some incomprehensible reason, inserted the two initial letters only, viz, B, L. Tis true, every syllable of the performance discovers me to be the author, but as I meet with much censure on the occasion,

Starting point is 09:21:03 I request you to inform the public that I did not desire my name should be concealed, and that the remaining letters are O-C-H-E-A-D, and quote. His irresistible inclination to screw a joke out of everything is illustrated by the scrapes he got himself into with his advertisers. Employed to print an announcement of the sailing of a ship, he added an NB of his own to the effect that among the passengers, quote, no sea-hands nor black gowns will be admitted on any terms, end quote. Some of the clergy, properly incensed, withdrew their subscriptions from the Gazette.

Starting point is 09:21:41 Yet this did not cure him of the tendency, and he was quickly affected. bending again. One Alexander Miller, peruke maker in Second Street, Philadelphia, by advertisement acquainted his customers that he intended to, quote, leave off the shaving business after the 22nd of August next, end quote. And the paper having an overplus of space, Franklin proceeded to tag onto this notification a humorous article on barbers, who he pointed out were peculiarly fitted for politics,

Starting point is 09:22:12 not because of that particular part of their calling, but because they were also adept shavers and tremors, quote, which will naturally lead us to consider the near relation which subsists between shaving, trimming, and politics, and quote, and congratulating the people upon his advertised retirement of the barber, he continued, I am of opinion that all possible encouragement ought to be given to examples of this kind, end quote. It is not surprising that the innocent,

Starting point is 09:22:42 and advertiser resented this, and the printer was called upon to explain. I had no animosity, Franklin wrote, against the person whose advertisement I made the motto of my paper, and he expressed surprise that my paper on shavers and tumors in the last Gazette should be generally condemned, which he at first imputed to a, quote, want of taste and relish for pieces of that force and beauty which none but a university-bred gentleman can produce. and quote. But upon advice of friends, quote, whose judgment I could depend upon, end quote, he thought it best to express regret and promise reformation. A pleasant quality of this love of humor was that Franklin was ever as ready to joke at his own expense as at another's. On Thursday last, the Gazette informed its readers, a certain P-R, tis not customary to give names at length on these occasions, walking carefully in clean clothes over some barrels of tar on carpenter's wharf the head of one of them unluckily gave way and let a leg of him in above the knee whether he was upon the catch at the time we cannot say but tea is certain he caught a tartar tea was observed he sprang out again right briskly verifying the common saying as nimble as a bee in a tar barrel

Starting point is 09:24:07 you must know there are several sorts of bees tis true he was no honey-bee nor yet a humble bee but a boo-bee he may be allowed to be namely b f So, to teach a moral, he wrote his fable of the whistle, telling of how, quote, 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 where they sold toys for children, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle 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 whistle, disturbing 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 of what good things

Starting point is 09:24:59 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 whistle gave me pleasure. This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on in my mind, so that often when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Don't give too much for the whistle, and I saved my money, end quote. Better still was an incident

Starting point is 09:25:29 which proves him truly an incorrigible joker. Two nights ago, he states, being about to kill a turkey by the shock from two large glass jars, containing as much electrical fire as 40 common files, I inadvertently took the hole through my own arms and body by receiving the fire from the united top wires with one hand, while the other held a chain connected to the outsides of both jars.

Starting point is 09:25:54 The company present, who's talking to me and to one another, I suppose, occasioned my inattention to what I was about, say that the flash was very great, and the crack as loud as a pistol, yet my sense is being instantly gone. I neither saw the one nor heard the other, nor did I feel the stroke on my hand. I felt what I know not how well to describe, a universal blow throughout my whole body from head to foot, which seemed within as well as without, after which the first thing I took notice of was a violent, quick shaking of my body, which gradually remitting my sense as gradually returned, end quote.

Starting point is 09:26:35 Yet the moment he became conscious enough to realize what had occurred, he remarked, well i meant to kill a turkey and instead i nearly killed a goose as he made fun of his errors so he did of his triumphs poverty poetry and new titles of honor make men ridiculous he once wrote and in communicating to a friend the fact that the king of france had sent him his thanks and compliments for his useful discoveries in electricity he prefaced it with the story from the tattler of a girl who was observed to grow suddenly proud, and none could guess the reason till it came to be known that she had got on a pair of new silk garters. Lest you should be puzzled to guess the cause, when you observe anything of the kind in me, I think I will not hide my new garters under my petticoats, but take the freedom to show them to you." End quote. But his supreme self-joking was his turning his own physical torture into something to furnish his friend's amusement. You know, he wrote one of these,

Starting point is 09:27:40 that Madame Le Gout has given me good advice often. And while suffering from the disease, he penned his dialogue between Franklin and the Gout, one of his most delightful pieces of persiflage, of which, unfortunately, owing to its length, only the beginning and the end can be quoted. Quote, Midnight 22nd October 1780. Franklin

Starting point is 09:28:06 E! Ooh! Eh! What have I done? done to merit these cruel sufferings the gout many things you have ate and drank too freely and too much indulge those legs of yours in their indolence franklin who is it that accuses me the gout it is i even i the gout franklin what my enemy in person the gout no not your enemy franklin 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 the gout the world may think as it pleases it is always very complacent 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 franklin ah how tiresome you are the gout well then to my office it should not be forgotten that i am your physician there

Starting point is 09:29:23 Franklin. Oh, what a devil of a physician! The gout. How ungrateful you are to say so. Is it not I, 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? Franklin, 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 dark. "'Permit me just to hint that I have also not been unfriendly to you. "'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.'

Starting point is 09:30:09 "'The gout. "'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 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 the gout 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 promise 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 real friend

Starting point is 09:31:10 end quote one very noticeable quality of all franklin's humour is that poke fun as he would at himself he rarely did so at others not once in twenty was his humour aimed at an individual and he appears in this to have regarded poor richard's warnings that thou canst not joke an enemy into a friend but thou mayest a friend into an enemy that joke went out and brought home his fellow and they two began to quarrel and that he mightst not joke makes a foe who makes a jest." End quote. As need scarcely be said, it is poor Richard's almanac which embodies the bulk of the humor originated by Franklin.

Starting point is 09:31:52 In his day, the great source of profit to every printer was the almanac which was issued yearly, and which was the vade Meekam in every household that could spare the necessary two or three pence annually. And so, when Franklin set up his press, he arranged with Thomas Godfrey,

Starting point is 09:32:08 a local scientist of some note to furnish him with the copy for an annual issue. Presently, however, Mrs. Godfrey, by her matchmaking schemes, became the discordia, as already told. If the young printer took philosophically the broken heart, the resulting broken friendship was more serious, for he not only lost Godfrey as his tenant,

Starting point is 09:32:30 but the phallomath carried his manuscript to a rival printer, and Franklin was left in the lurch for his copy. In this predicament he apparently wrote his own almanac, but knowing that his name would hardly give it currency, among readers who still looked upon it as dealing in magic, witchcraft, and astrology, he adopted that of Richard Saunder, an English phylumath of the 17th century, of great popularity, but since quite eclipsed by his more popular Western namesake. under this name therefore the initial number was issued in the latter part of December 1732 when in spite of the late publication three impressions were called for by the popular demand and from that time it was not merely the most esteemed almanac in Pennsylvania but had a sale as far north as Rhode Island and as far south as the Carolinas and indeed it was the first American publication which broke through colonial boundaries

Starting point is 09:33:28 The secret of its success was its humor. The calculations were no more accurate, the poetry no better, nor the printing clearer, than were those of the half-a-dozen competitors, which then came from the Pennsylvania presses, but in the colorless life of the frontier settlements, the advent of this little pamphlet of a dozen leaves was one of the events of the year, and it is not strange that the sense and nonsense of poor Richard, which afterward gained such a place and name in the literary centers of Europe, should surpass its competitors and keep the presses busy printing the ten thousand copies annually called for. The humor was everywhere, in the advertisement that announced its publication,

Starting point is 09:34:10 in the title page and preface, sprinkled in the calendar, the weather predictions, the eclipses, and the prophecies. Here, for instance, is the way he announced the eclipses in the year 1734. There will be but two, the first, April 22nd, 18 minutes after, five in the morning the second october fifteenth thirty six minutes passed one in the afternoon both of the sun and both like mrs s's modesty and old neighbor scrape all's money invisible or like a certain storekeeper late of blank county not to be seen in these parts not the least element of the popularity was due to the controversies with his brother philomaths which franklin originated by his jaco's remarks upon them in the prefaces of poor richard with delightful humor and satire mr saunders in different issues gravely predicts the death of one of his rivals titan leads and the reconciliation of a second john german to the catholic church neither of these gentlemen though able to predict whether twelve months in advance could draw from the stars franklin's purpose and so they fell into his trap and in the preface to their respective issues they replied to him with anger and strong words. Leeds called him a fool and a liar and a conceited scribbler, which German echoed

Starting point is 09:35:35 in no minor key by stating that Franklin's prediction was altogether false and untrue, and that he was one of Mao's false prophets. This was just what Franklin expected, and he used his opportunity to the utmost. With wit and humor, he fanned the flames of controversy, to which his rivals replied with bad language and adjectives. He made every reader of Leeds and German. He made every reader of Leeds and German hear of and wish to see poor Richard, and once seen, it was a very clod page who could not discriminate between texts, one of which has been translated into a dozen languages, while the other has barely survived on the shelves of the antiquary. This ends Chapter 10, Part 1.

Starting point is 09:36:23 Chapter 10, Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Frye. Baton Ridge, Louisiana. Chapter 10, The Humorist, Part 2. What made poor Richard a byword throughout the colonies, however, were the scraps of wit and wisdom with which Franklin filled in any little blanks in the text. In his autobiography, he tells us that, quote, observing it was generally read, scarce any neighborhood in the province being without it, i considered 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 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 these proverbs

Starting point is 09:37:30 it is hard for an empty sack to stand up right it is hardly necessary to state that franklin did not originate all the sayings of poor richard he himself affirmed that they were the wisdom of many ages and nations and again disclaimed all originality by remarking that not a tenth part of this wisdom was my own but rather the gleanings i had made of all ages and nations anyone familiar with bacon rushphacald and rachel and rachel as well as others will recognize old friends in some of these sayings while a study of the collections of proverbs made in the early part of the last century by ray palmer and others will reveal the probable source from which poor richard pilford yet many of these maxims and aphorisms had been filtered through franklin's brain and were tinged with that mother wit which strongly and individually marks so much that he said and wrote and those of which he was himself the originator rank with the best of the world's philosophy, as the following specimens will evidence. Time eateth all things could old poets say, but times are changed, our times drink all away. You may drive a gift without a gimlet. Here comes glib tongue who can outflatter a dedication and lie like ten epitaphs. One man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than everyone else.

Starting point is 09:39:00 mankind are very old creatures one half censure what they practice the other half practices what they censure the rest always say and do as they ought a hundred thieves cannot strike one naked man especially if his skins off money and man a mutual friendship show man makes false money money makes man so mary's mouth costs her nothing for she never opens it but at a others expense. A doubtful meaning. If female kind is counted ill and is indeed the contrary, no man can find that hurt they will, but everywhere show charity. To nobody, malicious still, in word or deed, believe you me. He that is of opinion money will do everything, may well be suspected of doing everything for money. A rich rogue is like a fat hog who never does, good till as dead as a log he does not possess wealth it possesses him he that falls in love with himself will have no rivals women are books and men the readers be who sometimes in those books erratas see yet oft the readers raptured with each line fair print and paper fraught with sense divine though some neglectful seldom care to read and faithful wives

Starting point is 09:40:30 no more than Bibles heed. Are women books, says Hodge? Then would mine wear an almanac to change her every year? The cunning man steals a horse, the wise man lets him alone. Unions can make even heirs and widows weep. Necessity has no law. I know some attorneys of the same. For 25 years Franklin compiled and printed this almanac, and in the last issue edited by him being for the year 1758, he contributed a preface to which almost the entire knowledge of poor Richard by the world is due. It was, in effect, a skimming of the cream from the 24 previous issues, being a selection of aphorisms, rhymes, and jokes run in a continuous piece, which was described by Franklin as follows. These proverbs I assembled and formed into a connected

Starting point is 09:41:25 discourse prefixed to the almanac of 1757, sick, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. The bringing all these scattered councils 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 broadside, to be stuck up in houses. Two translations were made of it in French, and great numbers were bought by, the clergy and gentry to distribute gratis among their poor parishioners and tenants. It is this preface which has given the name of poor Richard, currency in alien races, and a quotable quality to this day. It has been printed and reprinted again and again.

Starting point is 09:42:13 In every size, from the pot duodissimo up to the imperial folio, in thousands for the plough-boy and in limited and privately printed editions at the expense of nobleman, for the penny-horrible hawker and for the bibliomaniac, for the Society for Preserving Property against Republicans and Levelers, and for the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and under the titles of Father Abraham's Speech, The Way to Wealth, La Science de Bonhomme Richard, it has proved itself one of the most popular American writings. 75 editions of it have been printed in English, 56 in French, 11 in German, and nine in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish,

Starting point is 09:43:02 Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, modern Greek and phonetic writing. It has been printed at least 400 times and is today as popular as ever. Franklin was as much a wit with tongue as he was with pen, and there are innumerable instances of his ready replies. To a Philadelphia neighbor, who complained to him that people would steal into his yard and tap a keg of small beer which he kept there and who consulted him on a means to prevent it he replied put a pipe of madeira alongside it when the declaration of independence was being signed and harrison said that the congress must hang together in its defense franklin jocosely remarked yes we must all hang together or we shall all

Starting point is 09:43:51 hang separately. In France, when Lord Stormont, the British ambassador, circulated the report that a large part of Washington's army had surrendered, and Franklin was asked if it were true, he replied, No, sir, it is not a truth, it is only a stormont. And from that time, the poor ambassador's name was used in Paris as the equivalent of a lie. Upon the news arriving that General Howe had captured Philadelphia, Franklin gave another turn to the disaster and cheered the American partisans by retorting, no, Philadelphia has captured how, a version not merely witty but which time proved truthful. In his contest with the pen proprietors one evening at the governors, Franklin relates, quote, in gay conversation over our wine after supper, he told us jokingly that he much admired

Starting point is 09:44:44 the idea of Sancho Panza, who, when it was, proposed to give him a government, requested it might be a government of blacks, as then, if he could not agree with his people, he might sell them. One of his friends, who sat next to me, says, Franklin, why do you continue to side with the damned Quakers? Had not you better sell them?

Starting point is 09:45:05 The proprietor would give you a good price. The governor, says I, has not yet blacked them enough, end quote. As the bon motte about Stormont shows, Franklin was something of a punster. When it was suggested to him that peerages and pensions would be given to those who might bring about a re-establishment of the dependence of the colonies, he answered. You will give us pensions, probably to be paid, too, out of your expected American revenue, and which none of us can accept without deserving and perhaps obtaining a suspension, end quote.

Starting point is 09:45:42 But the very neatest twixt is disconnected with his right of franking letters. while deputy postmaster general under the crown he wrote on the back of his letters free be franklin but when the continental congress appointed him to the same office he changed the form and wrote be free franklin he encouraged a punster too by writing him that your string of puns made us very merry adding you will allow me to claim a little merit or a 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 end quote to nineteenth-century pallets some of poor richard is coarse and vulgar but the times rather than the author should bear the blame so there are other humours writings of his so certain to shock modern taste that they have never been printed in his collected works one which by surreptitious editions has acquired much currency was pretendedly a letter of advice to a young man on his conduct to women, but was only a bit of fooling, never seriously intended. A second is a satire on the silly conduct of some learned societies in discussing trivial questions. A preface to one of his almanacs is, on the whole, the worst of the three, because printed. Yet, presumably, it was mightily enjoyed and scarcely disapproved of by those who purchased it. his speech of polly baker if written in the plainest anglo-saxon and if given a humorous turn is but such a protest as the noblest men and women have more seriously and with more careful choice of words uttered against laws and customs that pillory the fallen woman and leave unpunished the partner in her sin

Starting point is 09:47:33 it is not to be denied that in a certain way franklin let his sense of fun overcome what was appropriate and dignified thus when he was in command on the frontier in seventeen fifty six we had for our chaplain a zealous presbyterian minister mr baity who complained to me that the men did not generally attend his prayers and exhortations when they enlisted they were promised besides pay and provisions a gill of rum a day which was not generally attend his prayers and exhortations when they enlisted they were promised besides pay and provisions a gill of rum a day which was punctually served out to them half in the morning and the other half in the evening and i observed they were very punctual in attending to receive it upon which i said to mr it is perhaps below the dignity of your profession to act as steward of the room but if you were to deal it out and only just after prayers you would have them all about you end quote he liked the thought undertook the office and with the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor executed it to satisfaction, and never were prayers more generally and more punctually attended, so that I thought this method preferable to the punishment inflicted by some military laws for non-attendance on divine service." With more justification, and probably in this case, with intentional burlesking,

Starting point is 09:48:54 he wrote of the Society of the Cincinnati badge, quote, Others object to the bald eagle as looking too much like a dendon or a 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 perched on some dead tree where too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the fishing hawk,

Starting point is 09:49:24 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 very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward. The little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. I am, on this account, not displeased, that the figure is not known as a bald-de-evaled. but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and with all a true original native of America." End quote.

Starting point is 09:50:11 Allusion has already been made to his political satires, all of which had a more or less humorous turn, so he often adopted the same vein in his non-political articles. Here, for instance, is his method of making clear the misinformation which the British press then, as now delighted to print concerning America, pretendedly a counter-denial of a contradiction. Quote, Dear sir, do not let us suffer ourselves to be amused with such groundless objections.

Starting point is 09:50:41 The very tails of the American sheep are so laden with wool that each has a little car or wagon on four little wheels to support and keep it from trailing on the ground. Would they cock their ships? Would they even litter their horses with wool if it were not both plenty and cheap. And yet all this is as certainly true as the account,

Starting point is 09:51:02 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 whales are saltwater fish, but let them know, sir, that cod, like other fish, when attacked by their enemies, fly into any water where they can be safest, that whales, when they have a mind to eat cod,

Starting point is 09:51:29 pursue them wherever they fly, and that the grand leap of the whale in the chase up the falls of Niagara is esteemed by all who have seen it as one of the finest spectacles in nature, end quote. As Franklin was a wit, so he was a storyteller. The doctor, Miss Adams noted, it's always silent unless he has some diverting story to tell, of which he has a great collection. You know, he himself reminded a friend, everything puts me in mind of a story. Some few of these, selected at random, will serve to indicate how habitual it was to him. Insisting on the necessity of careful preliminary work in science, he told a correspondent that, quote, this prudence of not attempting to give reasons before one is sure of facts,

Starting point is 09:52:18 I learned from one of your sex, who, as Selden tells us, being in company with some gentlemen that were viewing and considering something which they called a Chinese shoe, and disputing earnestly about the manner of wearing it, and how it could possibly be put on, put in her word, and said modestly, gentlemen, are you sure it is a shoe? Should that not be settled first? End quote. Weary of a public matter to which he had given much time, he said, I begin to be a little of a sailor's mind when they were handing a cable out of a store into a ship, and one of them said,

Starting point is 09:52:56 "'Tis a long, heavy cable. I wish we could see the end of it.' "'Damn me,' says another, if I believe it has any end. Somebody has cut it off,' end." In reply to a letter of extravagant thanks, he remarked that it, quote, "'Put me in mind of the story of the Member of Parliament who began one of his speeches with saying he thanked God that he was born and bred a Presbyterian, on which another took leave to observe that the gentleman must needs be of a most grateful disposition since he was thankful for such very small matters, end quote. Protesting against the folly of dueling, he cited the case of a gentleman in a coffee house

Starting point is 09:53:36 who desired another to sit farther from him. Why so? Because, sir, you stink. That is an affront and you must fight me. I will fight you if you inside you if you insid a fight you. insist upon it, but I do not see how that will mend the matter, for if you kill me I shall stink too, and if I kill you, you will stink, if possible, worse than you do at present." Describing his own country and the absence of a leisure class, because idleness was deemed

Starting point is 09:54:07 disreputable, he declared that, quote, 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 handiworks than for the antiquity of his family they are pleased with the observation of a negro and frequently mention it that beaacarara meaning that white man make de black man work make de horse work make de ox work make de ox work make everything work only de hog he da hogg no worker he eat he drink, he walk about, he go to sleep when he please, he lived like a gentleman. These innumerable stories had great currency in their time, and went from mouth to mouth, not always as Franklin told them. Correcting one of these versions, he capped one story with another by writing, quote, as you observe, there was no swearing in the story of the poker when I told

Starting point is 09:55:11 it. The late new dresser of it was probably the same, or perhaps akin to him, who in relating a dispute that happened between Queen Anne and the Archbishop of Canterbury concerning a vacant mitre, which the Queen was for bestowing on a person, the Archbishop thought unworthy, made both the Queen and the Archbishop swear three or four thumping oaths in every sentence of the discussion, and the Archbishop at last gained his point. One present at this tale, being surprised, said, but did the Queen and the Archbishop swear so at one another? Oh, no, no, said the relator. That is only my way of telling the story. Franklin continued to joke to the very end, for when the burden of years and pain was resting heavily upon him, he told a friend who dwelt on the

Starting point is 09:56:00 need of his country for his services, Our Story of the Harrow. Quote, a farmer in our country sent two of his servants to borrow one of a neighbor, ordering them to bring it between them on their shoulders. when they came to look at it one of them who had much wit and cunning said what could our master mean by sending only two men to bring this harrow no two men upon earth are strong enough to carry it pooh said the other who was vain of his strength what do you talk of two men one man can carry it help it on my shoulders and see as he proceeded with it the wag kept exclaiming zounds how strong you are i could not have thought it why you are a sampson There is no such another man in America. What amazing strength God has given you, but you will kill yourself, pray, put it down, and rest a little, or let me bear a part of the weight.

Starting point is 09:56:55 No, no, said he, being more encouraged by the compliments than oppressed by the burden. You shall see I carry it quite home, and so he did. In this particular, I am afraid my part of the imitation will fall short of the original. life like a dramatic piece he once wrote should not only be conducted with regularity but to me thinks it should finish handsomely being now in the last act i begin to cast about for something fit to end with or if mine be more properly compared to an epigram as some of its lines are but barely tolerable i am very desirous of concluding with the bright point this ends chapter ten of franklin the humorist Chapter 11, Part 1 of the Many-Cited Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Starting point is 09:57:58 Chapter 11, Politician and Diplomat, Part 1. The first mistake in public business is the going into it, remarked poor Richard, and the worldly wise sage was speaking from the experience which keeps a dear school. for Franklin, when he penned the sentence, had been over twenty years a public servant. The admonition, however, was little heated, for he continued to hold office almost unceasingly to the end of his days. I have heard, he said, of some great man whose rule it was with regard to offices, never to ask for them, and never to refuse them, to which I have always added in my own practice never to resign them."

Starting point is 09:58:42 On another occasion he asserted, not altogether truthfully, I have never solicited for a public office either for myself or any relation, yet I never refused one that I was capable of executing when a public service was in question, and I never bargained for salary, but contented myself with whatever my constituents were pleased to allow me." And quote. Franklin's entrance into politics may be said to date from his beginning to print the Pennsylvania Gazette, for he relates, quote, The leading men, seeing a newspaper now in the hands of one who could also handle a pen, thought it convenient to oblige and encourage me, and quote, and they gave him, as already told, the public printing.

Starting point is 09:59:28 The same year he secured the favor of the populace in another way. About this time, there was a cry among the people for more paper money, and Franklin, taking advantage of it, wrote and printed an anonymous pamphlet entitled The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency, which, quote, was well received by the common people in general, but the rich men disliked it, for it increased and strengthened the clamor for more money, and they happening to have no writers among them, they were able to answer it, their opposition slackened, and the point was carried by a majority in the house, end quote. In his 20 years active labor at his press, the printer succeeded in making it a producer of wealth, but at this time he had yet to learn the lesson that value is made by material and labor, and not by words and promises.

Starting point is 10:00:18 Later in life, his intercourse with Hume, Price, Targat, Miraboo, and most of all with Adam Smith, who submitted each chapter of his wealth of nations as he composed it to Franklin for discussion, and criticism opened his eyes to the truths that every paper dollar issued banishes or takes out of circulation a metal one so long as there is one left, and that beyond that, however the printing presses may be worked, there will be no more money, the total value of the mass decreasing as rapidly as the volume is swelled, and in excessive issues tending even to fall so sharply as to produce an actual contraction, not augmentation, in the standard of value. I lament with you, he told a friend, in speaking of the continental currency, the many mischiefs,

Starting point is 10:01:08 the injustice, the corruption of manners, etc., had attended a depreciating currency. It is some consolation to me that I washed my hands of that evil by predicting it in Congress and proposing means that would have been effectual to prevent it if they had been adopted. Subsequent operations that I have executed demonstrate that my plan was practicable, but it was, unfortunately rejected, end quote. However erroneous the economic views of the young printer might be, they brought Franklin into political notice, and in 1736 he was chosen clerk of the General Assembly without opposition, a place of value aside from its salary, he states, because it gave him, quote, a better opportunity of keeping up an interest among the members, which secured to me the

Starting point is 10:01:57 business of printing the votes, laws, paper money, and other occasional. jobs for the public that on the whole were very profitable, end quote. The year following he was reappointed, but not unanimously, a new member making a long speech against him. This opposition disturbed the officeholder, and he sought to placate its originator, not by servile respect, but by a very typical artifice. Quote, having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him expressing my desire of perusing that book and requesting he would do me the favor of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I returned it in about a week

Starting point is 10:02:41 with another note expressing strongly my sense of the favor. When we next met in the house, he spoke to me, which he had never done before, and with great civility, and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death. This is another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned which says, quote, he that has once done you a kindness

Starting point is 10:03:08 will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged. And it shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove than to resent, return, and continue inimical proceedings. End quote. I now began, Franklin relates, to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs

Starting point is 10:03:29 and in succession set about methods for bettering the city watch, the fire service, and somewhat later the cleaning and paving of the streets." In 1737, as already told, he was made postmaster of Philadelphia, which brought him forward yet more prominently. But most of all, it was his pamphlet, plain truth, which, though it bore somewhat hard on both parties, had the happiness not to give much offense to either, that may be said to have made a post-a-post. man of him. The share I had in the late association and so forth, he wrote, having given me a little present run of popularity, there was a pretty general intention of choosing me a representative of the city at the next election of the assemblymen. But I have desired all my friends who spoke to me about it, to discourage it, declaring that I should not serve if chosen." End quote. His wish to keep out of office

Starting point is 10:04:25 was idle, however, the governor made him a justice of the peace. This office, Franklin says, I tried a little by attending a few courts and sitting on the bench to hear causes, but finding that more knowledge of the common law than I possessed was necessary to act in that station with credit, I gradually withdrew from it, end quote. The corporation of the city elected him to the common council and later to the office of aldermen, an honor of which his mother doubtingly wrote, quote, quote, I am glad to hear you are so well respected in your town for them to choose you an alderman, although I don't know what it means, or what the better you will be of it besides the honor of it, end quote. Nor did his plea avail to save him from election to the assembly for,

Starting point is 10:05:11 quote, the citizens at large chose me abrogous to represent them, and my election to this trust was repeated every year for ten years without my ever asking any elector for his vote, or signifying either directly or indirectly any desire of being chosen. Despite his endeavors to escape the office, he confesses that, quote, the station was agreeable to me, as I was at length tired of sitting there to hear debates in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and which were often so unentertaining that I was induced to amuse myself with making magic squares or circles or anything to avoid weariness, end quote. From this election to the Assembly dates the real beginning of Franklin as a political

Starting point is 10:05:56 influence, yet in a very brief space of time, he made himself one of the dominant factors. Entering the arena on the question of public defense, he was quickly in opposition to the Pen brothers, the proprietors of the colony, the moot point being the question of taxing the proprietary lands. The popular view was that their lands should bear an equal share, and Franklin became the leader of the party advocating this, his chief opponents being the officeholders and gentry, and for years the contest was waged with a bitterness and vituperation unexampled in colonial politics without the aristocratic party being able to defeat him or to prevent him from carrying his measures. At last, however, aided by some assistance from him, they compassed their

Starting point is 10:06:43 endeavor. In 1764, the frontiersmen, chiefly Scotch-Irish, believing that the Quaker influenced in the assembly prevented proper measures being taken for the defense of the borders from the hostile Indians, deliberately massacred a small village, men, women, and children of peaceful and semi-civilized Indians in the interior of the colony, the remnants of the tribe which had welcomed and made the treaty with PIN. Their only crime, as Franklin said, being that they had reddish-brown skin and black hair. The brutality of the deed fired, Franklin, and he wrote an account of it, perhaps the most righteously angry paper he ever penned, in which he mercilessly lashed and well-nigh cursed

Starting point is 10:07:27 the Christian white savages of Pextang and Donegal. This was enough to consolidate the Presbyterian Party, not merely on the frontier, but in the city against him, and in the election of 1764, they united themselves with the proprietary faction. You can scarcely conceive, he told a friend, the number of bitter enemies that little piece has raised me among the Irish Presbyterians. Another publication of Franklin's too served to gain the coalition of yet a third class of voters. Some years before, in a strictly scientific pamphlet, he had philosophized on the question of immigration and asked, why should the Palatine Boers be suffered to swarm into our settlements, and by hurting to

Starting point is 10:08:13 together, established their language and manners to the exclusion of ours. Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a colony of aliens who will shortly be so numerous as to Germanize us? This was reprinted now to injure him with that people and succeeded only too well. Yet, though the Irish and German votes were thus united against him, a combination almost unfailingly successful in America, and though he was pelted with pamphlets, broadsides, and caricatures impugning his every public act and laying bare his private life, his hold was so great with the masses that he would have been re-elected but for an error of judgment in the party managers. A graphic account of the struggle was written by a Pennsylvanian. Quote, the poll was opened about nine in the morning, the first of October,

Starting point is 10:09:04 and the steps so crowded till between eleven and twelve, night that at no time could a person get up in less than a quarter of an hour from his entrance at the bottom for they could go no faster than the whole column moved about three in the morning the advocates for the new ticket moved for a close but oh fatal mistake the old hands kept it open as they had a reserve of the aged and the lame which could not come in the crowd and were called up and brought out in chairs and litters and some who needed no help between three and three and the six o'clock, about 200 voters. As both sides took care to have spies all night, the alarm was given to the new ticket men. Horsmen and footmen were immediately dispatched to Germantown, etc., and by nine or ten o'clock they began to pour in, so that after the move for a close, seven or eight hundred votes were procured, about 500 or an irate, of which were for the new ticket, and they did not close till three in the afternoon, and it took them till one next day to count them off, end quote. The incident is one of peculiar interest, because it is the only time Franklin ever failed of an election,

Starting point is 10:10:18 and indeed his political success was so uniform that a Quaker demanded of a mutual acquaintance. Friend Joseph, didst the ever know Dr. Franklin to be in a minority? Yet, though defeat is hardest to the most successful, he seems to have taken it well. Mr. Franklin, continued the above narrator, died like a philosopher. And writing of his opposition to the Paxton rioters, and of the resulting political effect, the defeated assemblyman said, quote, I had, by this transaction, made myself many enemies among the populace, and the governor, with whose family our public disputes, had long placed me in an unfriendly light,

Starting point is 10:10:58 and the services I had lately rendered him, not being of the kind that make a man acceptable, thinking at a favorable opportunity, joined the whole weight of the proprietary interest to get me out of the assembly, which was accordingly affected at the last election by a majority of about 25,000 and 4,000 voters. The triumph to the proprietary party was more apparent than real, though they had succeeded in defeating Franklin, they had not been able to beat his party, for, quote, the other counties returned nearly the same members who had served them before, so that the old faction had still a considerable majority in the house, end quote. The Assembly, therefore, when met, chose Franklin its agent to go to Great Britain with a petition to the king that he end the proprietary government.

Starting point is 10:11:47 So all his opponents had accomplished was to place him in a position to do them infinitely more injury than would have been possible had he been re-elected to the Assembly. Once already Franklin had been appointed agent of the colony for a similar service. and the importance of these two visits to Great Britain is scarcely to be magnified. It was not that he was able to accomplish all he endeavored for his colony, though in the first mission he had been fairly successful, but that they brought him into relations with many of the leading men of England, immeasurably broadened his horizon and trained him in diplomacy. When in 1776 Congress sent him across the water to enter into relations with France,

Starting point is 10:12:30 it was not a raw, untrained negotiator who went, but one schooled by 14 years of the most difficult kind of diplomatic service. For colony agents, unlike foreign ministers, were compelled to plead their causes and compass their ends without the argument of the armies and fleets which are so influential a factor in international disputes. Yet so successfully did he perform this difficult task that Pennsylvania rechose him year after year, and in succession, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia voted him their agent, so that in time he came to be the representative of four of the colonies.

Starting point is 10:13:09 Warmly attached as Franklin was to Pennsylvania, he never seems to have been swayed by local interests, as was so common in his time. As early as 1751, he foresaw that a union of the colonies was necessary and was thinking out methods for overcoming provincial prejudices and antipathies, while marveling that the, quote, six nations of ignorant savages should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union, and be able to execute it in such a manner as that it has subsisted ages and appears indissuble. And yet that a like union should be impractable for ten or a dozen English colonies, to whom it is more necessary and must be more advantageous,

Starting point is 10:13:53 and who cannot be supposed to want an equal understanding of their interests. and quote. When news came early in 1754 that the French had driven the English from the forks of the Monongahela, he wrote an editorial comment in which he warned the people that the enemy would never have dared to commit the aggression but for the, quote, present disunited state of the British colonies and the extreme difficulty of bringing so many different governments and assemblies to agree to any speedy and effectual measures for our common defense and security, while our enemies have the very great advantage of being under one direction with one council and one purse." Then he added a cut symbolizing the condition, which attained such instant popularity that

Starting point is 10:14:41 it was frequently reprinted, and which again was used with telling effect at the outbreak of the revolution and when the federal constitution was under discussion. Only a few days after this warning, Franklin went to work to put his idea into concrete form. He had been named one of the commissioners to negotiate a war alliance with the Six Nations, and, on his way to the meeting, so he states, quote, I projected and drew a plan for the union of all the colonies under one government, so far as might be necessary for defense and other important general purposes. By this plan, the general government was to be administered by a

Starting point is 10:15:20 a President General, appointed and supported by the Crown, and a Grand Council was to be chosen by the representatives of the people of the several colonies, met in their respective assemblies. Many objections and difficulties were started, but at length they were all overcome, and the plan was unanimously agreed upon, and copies ordered to be transmitted to the Board of Trade and to the assemblies of the several provinces. Its fate was singular. The assemblies did not adopted, as they all thought there was too much prerogative in it, and in England it was judged to have too much of the democratic. The different and contrary reasons of dislike to my plan make me suspect that it was really the true medium, and I am still of opinion it would have

Starting point is 10:16:06 been happy for both sides the water if it had been adopted. The colonies, so united, would have been sufficiently strong to have defended themselves, there would then have been no need of troops from England. Of course, the subsequent pretense for taxing America and the bloody contest it occasioned would have been avoided. But such mistakes are not new. History is full of errors of states and princes." Franklin was too inherently a statesman not to look further than the mere union of the American colonies, and almost from his entrance into public affairs he was considering the relation between the colonies and the mother country, and striving to find means to maintain it. Years before ill-feeling had been developed, he declared,

Starting point is 10:16:55 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 now, they are nevertheless broad and strong enough to support the greatest political structure that human wisdom ever yet erected, end quote. With the increase of the colonies, he predicted, a vast demand is growing for British manufacturers, a glorious market wholly in the power of Britain in which foreigners cannot interfere, which will increase in a short time even beyond her power of supplying, though her whole trade should be to her colonies. Therefore, Britain should not too much restrain manufacturers in her colonies. A wise and good mother will not do it. To destroy

Starting point is 10:17:43 is to weaken, and weakening the children weakens the whole family." And with true prescience, he wrote, quote, it has long appeared to me that the only true British policy was that which aimed at the good of the whole British Empire, not that which sought the advantage of one part in the disadvantage of the other, therefore all measures of procuring gain to the mother country arise from loss to her colonies, and all of gain to the colonies arising from, or,

Starting point is 10:18:13 occasioning loss to Britain, especially where the gain was small and the loss great, every abridgment of the power of the mother country, where that power was not prejudicial to the liberties of the colonists, and every diminution of the privileges of the colonists, where they were not prejudicial to the welfare of the mother country, I, in my own mind, condemned as improper, partial, unjust, and mischievous, tending to create dissensions and weaken that union on which the strength, solidity, and duration of the empire greatly depended. End quote.

Starting point is 10:18:50 This ends Chapter 11, Part 1. Chapter 11, Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain, read by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Chapter 11, Politician and Diplomat, part 2. as this implied Franklin was a warm partisan of the connection between Great Britain and her colonies. Even after the stamp and revenue acts should have shown him how selfishly bent on her own narrow interest the mother country was,

Starting point is 10:19:30 he ascribed those measures solely to the corrupt parliament and expressed the hope that, quote, nothing that has happened or may happen will diminish in the least our loyalty to our sovereign or affection for this nation in general. I can scarcely conceive a king of better dispositions of more exemplary virtues or more truly desirous of promoting the welfare of all his subjects. The experience we have had of the family in the two preceding mild reigns and the good temper of our young princes so far as can yet be discovered promise us a continuance of this felicity." As for the colonies, he said, they had not only a respect but an affection for Great Britain for its long. its customs and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Britain were always treated with particular regard. To be an old England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank

Starting point is 10:20:31 among us, end quote. Thus he wrote when America was ablaze with opposition to the parliamentary acts, but still he could assert. Quote, and yet there remains among the people so much respect. veneration and affection for Britain that if cultivated prudently with the kind usage and tenderness for their privileges they might be easily governed still for ages without force or any considerable expense but i do not see here a sufficient quantity of wisdom that is necessary to produce such a conduct and i lament the want of it end quote in answer to the charge that the colony's desired independence

Starting point is 10:21:11 he replied. The Americans have too much love for their mother country. And he assured Lord Chatham that, quote, having more than once traveled almost from one end of the continent to the other, and kept a great variety of company, eating, drinking, and conversing with them freely, I never had heard in any conversation from any person, drunk or sober, the least expression of a wish for a separation, or hint that such a thing would be advantageous to America, end quote. feeling this strong loyalty himself franklin worked unendingly to prevent the breach convinced as he was that the government cannot long be maintained without the union of the two he retorted when it was urged that in time the colonies by their growth would become the dominant half quote which is best supposing your case to have a total separation or a change of the seat of government end quote early and late he preached the necessity of a closer union but it fell on ears deafened by self and immediate interests,

Starting point is 10:22:15 and he was forced to acknowledge that all his arguments were in vain. For, quote, The Parliament here do at present think too highly of themselves to admit representatives from us, if we should ask it, and when they will be desirous of granting it, we shall think too highly of ourselves to accept it. It would certainly contribute to the strength of the whole, if Ireland and all the dominions were united and consolidated under one common council,

Starting point is 10:22:41 for general purposes each retaining its particular council or parliament for its domestic concerns but this should have been early provided for in the infancy of our foreign establishments it was neglected or was not thought of and now the affair is nearly in the situation of friar bacon's project of making a brazen wall around england for its eternal security his servant friar bungy slept while the brazen head which was to dictate how it might be done said, time is and time was. He only waked to hear it say, Time is passed, an explosion followed that tumbled their house about the conjurer's ears, end quote. If such a union, he argued, were now established, which methinks it highly imports this country to establish, it would probably subsist as long as Britain shall continue as 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 every man in england he complained seems to consider himself as a peace of a sovereign over america seems to jostle himself into the throne with the king and talks of our subjects in the colonies and with real indignation he charged that quote angry writers use their utmost efforts to persuade us that this war with the colonies for a war it will be is a national curse when in fact it is a ministerial one, end quote.

Starting point is 10:24:14 The British, he maintained, have no idea that any people can act for many other principle but that of interest, and they believe that three pence in a pound of tea, of which one does perhaps drink ten pounds in a year, is sufficient to overcome all the patriotism of an American, end quote. In noting, however, that the English feel, but they do not see, that is, they are sensible of inconveniences when they are present, but do not take sufficient care to prevent them. He was too inherently fair-minded,

Starting point is 10:24:45 not to acknowledge the faults of the colonies as well, and especially of those politicians who were striving to foment divisions. Quote, I think the New Yorkers have been very discreet in forbearing to write and publish against the late Act of Parliament, he wrote to a friend in America. I wish the Boston people had been as quiet, since Governor Bernard has sent over all their violent papers to the ministry

Starting point is 10:25:09 and wrote them word that he daily expected a rebellion, end quote. When the mob in Boston destroyed the tea, he grieved over a lawlessness which had united all parties in England against the American cause. And though he was the agent from Massachusetts, he risked his position by honestly telling the leaders in that province that, quote, I cannot but hope that the affair of the tea will have been considered in the assembly before this time, and satisfaction proposed, if not made, for such a step will remove much of the prejudice now entertained against us

Starting point is 10:25:43 and put us again on a fair footing in contending for our old privileges as occasion may require, end quote. When his advice was disregarded, he complained, and so we shall go on injuring and provoking each other, instead of cultivating that goodwill and harmony so necessary to the general welfare. End quote. Again and again he begged the extremists in Massachusetts not to accept, sight the people, for all the ends desired could be gained by peaceful methods far more certainly than by law-breaking and violence. Quote, in the meantime I must hope that great care will be taken

Starting point is 10:26:20 to keep our people quiet, he advised, since nothing is more wished for by our enemies than by insurrections we should give a good pretense for increasing the military among us and putting us under more severe restraints." His fear, he declared, was that imprudencies on both sides may step by step bring on the most mischievous consequences. It is imagined here that this act will enforce immediate compliance, and if the people should be quiet, content themselves with the laws they have and let the matter rest, till in some future war the king, wanting aids from them, and finding himself restrained in his legislation by the act as much as the people, shall think fit by his ministers to propose the repeal, the Parliament

Starting point is 10:27:06 will be greatly disappointed, and perhaps it may take. this turn i wish nothing worse may happen end quote but if the people could be kept quiet for a time franklin held the outcome could not be doubtful it must be evident he affirmed that by our rapidly increasing strength we shall soon become of so much importance that none of our just claims of privilege will be as heretofore unattended to nor any security we can wish for our rights be denied us so he counselled even a submission to the parliamentary encroachments certain that their period must be brief the colonies are rapidly increasing in wealth and numbers he pointed out in the last war they maintained an army of twenty-five thousand a country able to do that is no contemptible ally in another war they may perhaps do twice as much with equal ease whenever a war happens our aid will be wished for our friendship desired and cultivated our good-will courted then is the time to say redress our grievances you take money from us by force and now you ask it a voluntary grant you cannot have it both ways if you choose to have it without our consent you must go on taking it in that way and be content with what little you can so obtain if you would have our free gifts, desist from your compulsive methods, and acknowledge our rights, and secure our future enjoyment of them. Our claims will then be attended to, and our complaints regarded." End quote. However much he might counsel moderate opposition and even temporary

Starting point is 10:28:44 submission, he did so because he believed it the most certain way of obtaining justice from Great Britain, and not because he thought her conduct either prudent or justifiable. Long before the attempt to tax the colonies, and so far as known, before any other American had protested against such a course, he claimed that, quote, it is supposed to be an undoubted right of Englishmen, not to be taxed but by their own consent given through their representatives, end quote. His opposition to parliamentary taxation began with the earliest attempt. To a friend, he wrote, depend upon it, my good neighbor, I took every step in my power to prevent the passing of the Stamp Act. Nobody could be more concerned and interested than myself to oppose it sincerely and

Starting point is 10:29:31 heartily. But the tide was too strong against us. The nation was provoked by American claims of independence and all parties joined in resolving by this act to settle the point. We might as well have hindered the sun's setting that we could not do. But since it is down, my friend, and it may be long before it rises again, let us make as good a night of it as we can." When contrary to his expectation, the colonies refused to allow the act to be enforced

Starting point is 10:30:03 and a movement to repeal the act began, he told another, quote, you guessed a right in supposing that I would not be a mute in that play. I was extremely busy, attending members of both houses, informing, explaining, consulting, disputing, in a

Starting point is 10:30:19 continual hurry from morning till 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 sent you the imperfect account that was taken of that examination." End quote. How strongly he felt the rights of his native land was shown by something else he wrote at this time, in which he asserted that, quote, I can only judge of others by myself, I have some little property in America. I will freely spend nineteen shillings in the pound to defend the right of giving or refusing

Starting point is 10:30:55 the other shilling, and, after all, if I cannot defend that right, I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence to any man who can bait a hook or pull a trigger. While other pleaders of the American cause were striving to explain previous acquiescences in parliamentary legislation, he saw the futility of such attempts and took up the one consistent position. quote The more I have thought and read on the subject

Starting point is 10:31:26 The more I find myself confirmed In opinion that no middle doctrine can be well maintained, I mean not clearly with intelligible arguments Something might be made of either of the extremes That Parliament has a power to make all laws for us Or that it has a power to make no laws for us And I think the arguments for the latter

Starting point is 10:31:46 More numerous and weighty than those of the former End quote This doctrine was so in advance of what even the most extreme partisans of American rights thought of asserting, that Franklin never advocated it publicly. On the contrary, he was prepared to accept any compromise which would satisfy the two countries, his purpose being to bring about a return of good feeling. Undoubtedly, this desire to keep the middle ground was partly induced by his dual office holding, for in these years in which he labored so unceasingly to prevent separation, he held the royal

Starting point is 10:32:21 office of joint deputy postmaster general from the crown and several agencies from the colonies, and Franklin loved public office too well to wish to risk the loss of either. So strong, in fact, was the itch that upon it being hinted to him that he might be given a better crown position than that he held, he did everything in his power to gain the favor of those in office. A vague message from the Duke of Grafton, suggesting this as a possibility, was sufficient to make Franklin assure the go-between to use his own words. I was extremely sensible of the Duke's goodness, and very thankful for his favorable disposition towards me, that having lived

Starting point is 10:33:01 long in England, and contracted a friendship and affection for many persons here, it could not but be agreeable to me to remain among them some time longer, if not for the rest of my life, and that there was no nobleman to whom I could, from sincere respect for his great abilities and amiable qualities, so cordially attach myself, or to whom I should so willingly be obliged for the provision he mentioned as to the Duke of Grafton, if his grace should think I could, in any station where he might place me, be serviceable to him and to the public."

Starting point is 10:33:35 As if this was not as efficient forgetting of his own aphorism that a plowman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees. For some weeks he left no stone unturned, to cultivate the ministry. Acting on advice, I accordingly called at the Dukes and left my accord, and when I went next to the treasury, his grace not being there,

Starting point is 10:34:00 Mr. Cooper carried me to Lord North, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who said very obligingly, after talking of some American affairs, I am told by Mr. Cooper that you are not unwilling to stay with us. I hope we shall find some way of making it worth your while.

Starting point is 10:34:16 I thank his lordship and said I should stay with pleasure if I could anyways be useful to government. He made me a compliment, and I took my leave. The Thursday following, I received another note from Mr. Cooper, directing me to be at the Duke of Grafton's next morning, whose porter had orders to let me in. I went accordingly and was immediately admitted. But his grace being then engaged in some unexpected business, with much condescension and politeness, made that an apology for his not discoursing with me then, but wished me to, to be at the Treasury at twelve the next Tuesday. I went accordingly when Mr. Cooper told me something

Starting point is 10:34:55 had called the Duke into the country, and the board was put off, which was not known till it was too late to send me word, but he was glad I was come, as he might then fix another day for me to go again with him into the country. He assures me the Duke has it at heart to do something for me, end quote. All the office-seekers' complacence, however, proved but a waste of time. Instead of me being appointed to a new office, he had to tell his son, there has been a motion made to deprive me of that I now hold, and I believe for the same reason, though that was not the reason given out, viz, my being too much of an American, end quote.

Starting point is 10:35:35 Once assured that he was to receive no new appointment, there was an amusing change in his attitude. I am now grown too old to be ambitious of such a station as that which you say has been mentioned, he wrote, repose is more fit for me and much more suitable to my wishes there is no danger of such a thing being offered to me and i am sure i shall never ask it but even if it were offered i certainly could not accept it to act under such instructions as i know must be given with it and quote whether love of country or love of office was the governing motive for his endeavors to maintain or restore concord he narrowly escaped the usual fate of the go-between because he counseled acquiescence in the stamp act and had a friend nominated to a stamped commissionership he was deemed in america to be little better than a traitor and popular anger against him was so fanned by his political opponents that there was danger for a time of a mob taking vengeance on his family and property fortunately for franklin he was summoned before parliament and questioned at the time that body was considering the repeal of the stamp act and he published this examination in a pamphlet which proved remarkably popular quieted the furor against him and once more brought him into favor

Starting point is 10:36:53 Despite this self-vindication, as he continued to counsel moderate measures, Franklin was from this time mistrusted by such Whigs as James Otis, Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, R. H. Lee, and other extremists, and they did not consider him as belonging to their party. Yet this did not gain him favor with the government party in Great Britain, and after years of labor, he could only describe his position as follows. Quote, being born and bred in one of the countries, and having lived long and made many agreeable connections of friendship in the other, I wish all prosperity to both, but I have talked and written so much and so long on the subject that my acquaintance are weary of hearing and the public of reading any more of it,

Starting point is 10:37:38 which begins to make me weary of talking and writing, especially as I do not find that I have gained any point in either country, except that of rendering myself suspected by my impartiality, in England of being too much an American and in America of being too much an Englishman, end quote. It was in 1774 that the maintenance of this mediatorial position was made impossible to him by a famous sequence of events. Complaining to a gentleman of character in distinction of the sending of troops to Boston and the other repressive measures, Franklin was assured that none of them originated with the ministry, but were solicited and obtained by some the most respectable of the Americans themselves as necessary measures for the welfare of that country.

Starting point is 10:38:26 Upon Franklin doubting his statement, quote, he called on me some days after and produced to me letters from Lieutenant Governor Hutchinson, Secretary Oliver and others, recommending the sending of troops and men of war, and advising that in the colonies there must be an abridgment of what are called English liberties. Though astonished, I could not but confess myself convinced, end quote with these in his possession the colony agent believed it possible to bring about a reconciliation

Starting point is 10:38:57 and he begged permission to let his countrymen know of their existence for he honestly believed that this would end the ill feeling against great britain and place it instead upon the shoulders of the letter-writers in this judgment he was entirely correct for he was shortly able to write the colonial secretary that quote a sincere disposition prevails in the people there to be on good terms with the mother country, and it is said that having immediately discovered, as they think, the authors of their grievances to be some of their own people, their resentment against Britain is thence much abated." Unfortunately, for the hope of the colony agent, the British ministry, which for years had been vacillating in the policy to be pursued as regards America,

Starting point is 10:39:43 was at that moment in one of its numerous periods of reaction, and with a folly which today seems unbelievable, instead of availing itself of this opportunity, it sought to use it as a means of destroying the one American who had consistently striven to heal the breach. Upon a hearing before the Privy Council of a petition from Massachusetts Bay for the removal from office of the writers of these criminatory letters, instead of dealing with the petition, the Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn, launched into a savage personal attack upon Franklin, whom he charged with having obtained the letters by fraud, if not by theft.

Starting point is 10:40:21 I hope, my lords, he said, you will mark and brand the man for the honor of this country, of Europe, and of mankind. Private correspondence has hitherto been held sacred in times of the greatest party rage, not only in politics, but in religion. He has forfeited all the respect of societies and of men.

Starting point is 10:40:41 Into what companies will he hereafter go with an unembarrassed face or the honest intrepity of virtue? Men will watch him with a gellation, i they will hide their papers from him and lock up their escrituars he will henceforth esteem it a liable to be called a man of letters homo truam that is fur or thief litererum and quote then after reassuring the sacredness of a private correspondence he continued this property is as sacred and as precious to gentlemen of integrity as their family plate or jewels are and no man who knows the whatlies will doubt but that they will would much sooner have chosen that any person should have taken their plate and sent it to holland for his avarice than that he should have secreted the letters of their friends their brother's friend and their father's friend and sent them away to boston to gratify an enemy's malice a foreign ambassador

Starting point is 10:41:35 when residing here just before the breaking out of a war and upon particular occasions may bribe a villain to steal or betray any state papers he is under the command of another state and is not amenable to the laws of the country where he resides, and the secure exemption from punishment may induce a laxer morality. But Mr. Franklin, whatever he may teach the people at Boston, while he is here, at least, is a subject, end of Chapter 11, Part 2. Chapter 11, Part 3 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Frye, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 11. Politician and Diplomat. Part 3. There has been much discussion as to whether Franklin acted honorably in transmitting these letters, which might have been saved had his own simple

Starting point is 10:42:39 statement been properly weighed. The letters were shown him by a personal friend, a member of parliament, whom, quote, I am not at present permitted to name, end quote, but who Franklin asserts was a gentleman of character and distinction. This colony agent, deeming it, quote, my duty to give my constituents' intelligence of such importance to their affairs, end quote, finally won from this friend the privilege of sending the letters to the Massachusetts leaders. It is clear, therefore, that he had no reason to believe that they had been wrongfully obtained, or that his friend had not the right to allow him to transmit them. On the contrary, Franklin declared that he came by them honorably. If blame there is, it must rest on this still unknown man, and Franklin, bearing all the

Starting point is 10:43:27 vituperation which was heaped upon him, was but sacrificing himself to shield another. The probabilities favor the view that this was William Strayham, whose position as printer to the king made it necessary that his share should remain unknown. Wetterburn's attack was, with the facts at his disposal, wholly unjustifiable, and would have been without weight but for the circumstances which produced it, for his speech was in truth, but the expression, Franklin says, of a court clamor raised against me as an incendiary, and the decrying and the vilifying of the people of that country, and me as their agent among the rest, was quite a court measure, end quote. His assertions are proved by the conduct of the privy council, for, without even a pretense of judging the cause before them, during

Starting point is 10:44:18 Wedderburn's speech, quote, all the members of the council, the president himself, Lord Dower, not accepted, frequently left out right, end quote. Another eyewitness states that he made them so far forget themselves, and the character in which they officiated as to cry out, hear him, hear him, and quote. And Franklin speaks of their frequently breaking into a applause. One of the ablest lawyers of the period, and one fitted to hold the scales impartially, in his account of the trial, said, quote, I had the grievous mortifications to hear Mr. Wedderburn wandering from the proper question before their lordships, who are forth such a torrent of virulent abuse on Dr. Franklin, as never before took place within the compass of my knowledge of judicial

Starting point is 10:45:07 proceedings, his reproaches appearing to me incompatible with the principles of law, truth, justice, propriety and humanity." End quote. Franklin took this attack calmly, but nonetheless it stung him deeply. However bitterly he felt personally, he still, though further injured by being deprived of his office of joint deputy postmaster-general,

Starting point is 10:45:31 strove to bring about some agreement. I long labored in England, he asserted later, with great zeal and sincerity, to prevent the breach that has happened, and which is now so wide that no endeavor of mine can possibly heal it. You know the treatment I met with from that imprudent court, but I keep a separate account of private injuries, which I may forgive, and I do not think it right to mix them with public affairs." End quote. With Lord Chatham, who sent for him, he discussed

Starting point is 10:46:02 the possibility of reconciling the two countries, and was present by his invitation, when the Earl made his motion in the House of Lords for the withdrawal of the troops from Boston, and again when he submitted a plan of conciliation. Indeed, Franklin was charged in the ensuing debate with being the author of it. Nor did he limit his efforts to those in opposition, but brought into relation with Lord Howe, the chosen instrument of the ministry, already ashamed of the treatment accorded him, by the Earl's sister, Mrs. Howe, with whom he played at chest, he did his utmost to reach some common ground of agreement. Howe promised to grant Franklin, if he would but secure the pacification of the colonies, any reward in the power of the government to bestow. A promise which Franklin said was to

Starting point is 10:46:49 him, with the French vulgarly, called Spitting in the Soup. But not taking offense, he agreed, that if Lord Howe received the appointment of Commissioner to America and the propositions to that country were such as met his approval, he would gladly go as his secretary. He even guaranteed, quote, without any instruction to warrant my so doing, or assurance that I should be reimbursed or my conduct approved," end quote, that the tea should be paid for if the colonies were but granted justice, quote, an engagement in which I must have risked my whole fortune, end quote. All these negotiations came to nothing, however, and when at last convinced that it was but a waste of time, he took ship for America. The abuse and persecution the ministry had

Starting point is 10:47:37 heaped upon Franklin had not merely restored his former popularity in America, but had a enormously added to it. He was quickly elected to the Continental Congress, to the Pennsylvania Assembly, and to the Pennsylvania Convention. Congress appointed him postmaster general and a member of many important committees. Pennsylvania made him chairman of the Committee of Safety, which was practically the governorship of the colony, and the convention chose him for their president. My time, he wrote a friend, 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 defense, which committee holds till near nine when I am at the Congress, and that sits till four in the

Starting point is 10:48:23 afternoon. How Franklin avoided, so far as possible, any share in the drafting of the public papers of the Congress has been told already, nor was he more forward in debate. It was poor Richard who remarked, quote, here comes the orator with his flood of words and his drop of reason, end quote. and during his whole life Franklin was no speech-maker. I served, Jefferson said, with General Washington in the Legislature of Virginia before the Revolution, and during it with Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow of themselves."

Starting point is 10:49:08 And quote. Franklin himself bears this out by saying, that, quote, 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, end quote. John Adams, in one of his periodic outbursts against the man whom the public deemed greater than himself, contrasted his own services in Congress, in which he claimed to have been, quote, active and alert in every branch of business, both in the House and on committees, constantly proposing measures, supporting those I approved when moved by others, opposing such as I disapproved,

Starting point is 10:49:47 discussing and arguing on every question, end quote. With those of Franklin who was seen, Adam says, from day to day sitting in silence a great part of the time fast asleep in his chair, end quote. Yet Franklin was appointed on every important committee, and Adams on few, and the sage, could he but have read his brother congressman's comparison, might fairly have retorted, with the wisdom of poor Richard, quote, he that speaks much is much mistaken, or the worst wheel of the cart makes the most noise, end quote. However little Franklin may have seemed to have accomplished

Starting point is 10:50:25 to those who elected to think so, one service he attempted is not to be passed over, as he had been among the first to suggest a union of the colonies under Great Britain, so he was foremost in advocating their immediate union in their contest with the mother country. long before the majority of Congress saw the wisdom of the purpose or were even willing to consider it, he drafted and laid before that body his Articles of Confederation the first true step toward a national union. In the politics of Pennsylvania, too, he wielded a most dominating

Starting point is 10:50:59 influence, for it was chiefly through his exertions that the old Penn Charter was abrogated, and a new Republican constitution obtained in its stead. In the affecting of this change, too, he succeeded in finally crushing the propriety or aristocratic party, which had fought him with such bitterness for over 20 years, so that never again did it recover its influence in the state. A blow the leading families never forgave, and the resentment of which expresses itself socially even to this day in Philadelphia. Vital as were his labors in local politics,

Starting point is 10:51:33 in the Congress, in Canada, at Cambridge and at Staten Island, he was more needed, and in fact seems to have been preordained, by nature and training for another service. Once the war, from being an attempt to rest rights from an acknowledged sovereign, became a conflict to maintain independence, the new-formed country turned for assistance to France, then the great enemy of Britain.

Starting point is 10:51:57 Almost alone of the congressman, Franklin had traveled in that country, and had both friends and repute there. Even more important, however, was the fact that already semi-approaches had been made to him by those in authority. years before when the excitement over the new doctrine of colonial taxation was sounding a warning which the British people would not hear, there were others quick to heed the murmur of discontent and complaint, and to recognize in it a means for injuring their foe as they had never yet been able to do. But if the times were ripening, the colony agent was not yet ready to part with old lamps for new ones. Degershi, the French ambassador, is gone home, Franklin relates.

Starting point is 10:52:39 and Monsieur Durand is left Minister Plenipotentiary. He is extremely curious to inform himself in the affairs of America, pretends to have a great esteem for me, on account of the abilities shown in my examination, has desired to have all my political writings, invited me to dine with him, was very inquisitive, treated me with great civility, makes me visits, and etc. I fancy that intriguing nation would like very well to meddle on occasion, and blow up the cold. between Britain and her colonies, but I hope we shall give them no opportunity." End quote. Not quite ten years after this was written, Franklin was sailing across the Atlantic,

Starting point is 10:53:21 one of three commissioners sent to beg the aid of France, and to an English friend who chided him for disloyalty, Franklin replied, I was fond to a folly of our British connections, and it was with infinite regret that I saw the necessity you would force us into of breaking it. but the extreme cruelty with which we have been treated has now extinguished every thought of returning to it and separated us forever you have thereby lost limbs that will never grow again end quote it has been said of franklin by the historian of american diplomacy that he must be considered the one true diplomat america has ever produced and when his services and the circumstances under which they were rendered are weighed the statement seems justifiable almost from the moment of his arrival in Paris he came to exercise an influence with the French ministry which can hardly be exaggerated. The reiterated charge of his enemies was that he was the tool of France and always acted in her interests,

Starting point is 10:54:23 but his successor in office, Jefferson, who was of all men the best fitted to know the truth of this, asserted, quote, as to the charge of subservience to France, two years of my own service with him at Paris, daily visits and the most friendly and confidential conversation convinced me that it had not a shadow of foundation. He possessed the confidence of that government in the highest degree, in so much that it may truly be said that they were more under his influence than he under theirs. The fact is that his temper was so amiable and conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never urging impossibilities, or even things unreasonably inconvenient to them, in short, so moderate and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our own, that what his enemies called subservience I saw was only that reasonable

Starting point is 10:55:16 disposition, which, sensible that advantages are not all to be on one's own side, yielding what is just and liberal, is the more certain of obtaining liberality and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course, mutual influence, and this was all which subsistence. between Dr. Franklin and the government of France." This individual opinion, all the documentary evidence goes to reinforce, and it is impossible in studying it not to conclude that the opposition to and attacks upon Franklin by his own countrymen were due primarily to the dislike and jealousy of his fellow commissioners, Lee and Adams, who, unable to compete with him in France, were driven to raise

Starting point is 10:56:01 a cabal against him in America, composed of almost the identical elements which endeavored to bring about the removal of Washington from the command of the armies, and which successfully wrought the political ruin of John Dickinson and Robert Morris. Dr. Franklin, Jefferson Long after said, had many political enemies, as every character must, which, with decision enough to have opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on the feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmity were chiefly in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. In the former, they were merely of the proprietary party. In the latter, they did not commence till the revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, which, spreading by little and little, became at length of some extent.

Starting point is 10:56:49 Dr. Lee was his principal, a man of much malignity, who, besides enlisting his whole family in the same hostility was enabled as the agent of Massachusetts with the British government to infuse it into that state with considerable effect. Mr. Izard, the doctor's enemy also, but from a pecuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges against him. Mr. J. Silas Dean, Mr. Lawrence, his colleagues also, ever maintained toward him unlimited confidence and respect, end quote. Strangely enough, Franklin was saved from his countrymen by the intervention of France. Very early in the mission, the ministry of that country deliberately took the step of ignoring Franklin's fellow commissioners and again and again in granting aids, stipulated to him that

Starting point is 10:57:40 Lee and Adams should know nothing. And so Franklin was forced repeatedly in writing to Congress to tell them that, quote, the other commissioners are not acquainted with this proposition as yet. I being expressly enjoined not to communicate it to any other person. person, not even to the other gentlemen, end quote. It was not strange under these circumstances that his fellow commissioners united in abusing him. Lee complained that, quote, if Dr. Franklin's jealousy and intolerant spirit, together with the artifices successively employed, had not incapacitated the other from serving their

Starting point is 10:58:17 country and the common cause by their advice and information, end quote, many imaginary ills would not have come to pass, and as. Adams asserted that Virginese made Franklin his confidant only because he could manage him as he pleased. Their fellow commissioner took all their abuse and plotting calmly, and one anecdote will serve to show how little it moved him. Quote, Mr. Z, Adams, while at Paris, had often pressed the doctor to communicate with him his several negotiations with the Court of France, which the doctor avoided as decently as he could. at length he received from Mr. Z, Adams, a very intemperate letter. He folded it up and put it into a pigeonhole. The second, third, and so forth, on to the fifth or sixth, he received and disposed of in the same way. Finding no answer could be obtained by a letter, Mr. Z. Adams paid him a personal visit and gave aloose to all the warmth of which he was susceptible.

Starting point is 10:59:18 The doctor replied, I can no more answer this conversation than the second. several impatient letters you have written me, taking them down from the pigeonhole, call on me when you are cool and good-humored, and I will justify myself to you." End quote. Dr. Lee's accusation of Captain Landis for insanity, wrote Franklin, was probably well-founded, as in my opinion would have been the same accusation if it had been brought by Landis against Lee, for though neither of them are permanently mad, they are both so at times, and the insanity of the latter is the most mischievous, end quote.

Starting point is 10:59:56 Of Adams, Franklin said, the extravagant and violent language held here by a public person in public company, which have a tendency to diminish the union with France, are here, and I hope there, in America, imputed to the true cause, a disorder in the brain, which, though not constant, has its fits too frequent, end quote. Whether it was jealousy or insanity, the time came. when practically the public business had come to a standstill, and convinced of this, Franklin offered to resign. But the French government interfered and, through their American

Starting point is 11:00:33 envoy, secured the recall of Franklin's rivals and the election of Franklin as the sole minister to France. The Congress have done me the honor, Franklin said, to refuse accepting my resignation, and insist on my continuing in their service till the peace. I must therefore buckle again to business, and thank God that my health and spirits are of late improved. I fancy it may have been a double mortification to those enemies you have mentioned to me that I should ask as a favor what they hoped to vex me by taking from me, and that I should nevertheless be continued. But this sort of consideration should never influence our conduct.

Starting point is 11:01:13 We ought always to do what appears best to be done without much regarding what others may think of it. I call this continuance as honor, and I really esteem it to be a greater than my first appointment when I consider that all the interests of my enemies united with my own request were not sufficient to prevent it, end quote. An interesting feature of these years of negotiation were the indirect overtures made Franklin by the British ministry. Though George III was convinced that hatred of this country is the constant object of Franklin's mind, he yet thought it, quote, proper to keep open the channel of intercourse

Starting point is 11:01:50 with that insidious man, end quote, and through David Hartley and other informal agents, he endeavored to negotiate an arrangement which should regain at least a nominal sovereignty over the colonies, and by ending the war with them, enable England, quote, to avenge the faithless and insolent conduct of France, end quote. But Franklin held that the true political interest of America consists in observing and fulfilling with the greatest exactitude, the engagements of our alliance with France, and behaving at the same time towards England, so as not entirely to extinguish her hopes of a reconciliation. And so he refused to play false to an ally, or consider reunion with Great Britain on any terms. You may please yourselves and your children, he told one of these negotiators, with the rattle of

Starting point is 11:02:40 your right to govern us, as long as you have done with that of your kings 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, end quote. The English seemed not to know either how to continue the war or to make peace with us, he told Washington, even after Yorktown, but finally a treaty was concluded, and his work done, he returned homeward,

Starting point is 11:03:15 writing to the Englishman who had striven most for peace the following farewell. Quote, I cannot quit the coasts of Europe without taking leave of my ever-deer friend, Mr. Hartley. We were long fellow laborers in the best of all works, the work of peace. I leave you still in the field, but having finished my day's task, I am going home to go to bed. Wish me a good night's rest as I do you a pleasant evening, end quote. this hope for arrest was but elusive. No sooner had he landed at Philadelphia than, quote, the two parties in the Assembly and Council, the Constitutionists and the Anti-Constitutionists, joined in requesting my service as counselor and afterward in electing me as President.

Starting point is 11:04:03 Of 74 members in Council and Assembly, who voted by ballot, there was in my first election but one negative besides my own, end quote. I had on my return some right, he acknowledged to a friend, 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." It is poetically appropriate that his last public service was performed in the federal convention, and that no man in that body contributed more to bring about the lasting union of the states, of which he had been among the earliest suggestors, and for which he had worked so unceasingly. His closing remarks, whilst the last members

Starting point is 11:04:59 were signing, form a fitting end to his own career. Dr. Franklin, looking toward the president's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art the rising from the setting sun. I have, he said, often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue,

Starting point is 11:05:27 looked at that behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now, at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, and not a setting sun. End of chapter 11. Franklin as politician and diplomat. Chapter 12, Part 1 of the many-sided Franklin

Starting point is 11:05:56 by Paul Lester Ford. This Liber Fox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Fry, Batonridge, Louisiana. Chapter 12. Social Life, Part 1. The busy man, quote, poor Richard. has few idle visitors. To the boiling pot, the flies come not."

Starting point is 11:06:20 End quote. But this was only one of his many aphorisms, which he himself disproved, for however manifold his occupations, there never seems to have been the time when he had not friends and the time to see them. With his first arrival in Philadelphia,

Starting point is 11:06:35 he relates that, 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, pleasantly." So in London, during his short sojourn there, he went to the taverns and made friends of the ingenious frequenters. In his voyage back to Philadelphia, too, an incident served to show his social inclinations. A passenger was detected, marking a pack of cards, was tried for it by his

Starting point is 11:07:04 fellow voyagers, and being convicted, he was condemned to pay a fine, and upon his refusal was excommunicated by the mess, everyone refusing to play, eat, drink, or converse with him. The embryo philosopher of twenty thereupon noted in his journal that, quote, man is a sociable being,

Starting point is 11:07:24 and it is, for aught I know, one of the worst of punishments to be excluded from society. I have read abundance of fine things on the subject of solitude, and I know it is a common boast in the mouths of those that affect to be thought wise that they are never less alone,

Starting point is 11:07:40 when alone. I acknowledge solitude and agreeable refreshment to a busy mind, but were these thinking people obliged to be always alone, I am apt to think they would quickly find their very being insupportable to them." End quote. Once established in Philadelphia, as already told, he founded the social club of the Juntoe. For this little society, Franklin ever retained the warmest feelings. many years after its beginning, he wrote from England to a fellow member, quote, I wish you would continue to meet the junto, notwithstanding that some effects of our public political misunderstandings may sometimes appear there. It is now perhaps one of the oldest clubs, as I think it was formerly one of the best,

Starting point is 11:08:26 in the King's Dominions. It wants but about two years of forty since it was established, end quote. Still later, when in France, he said, you tell me you sometimes visit the ancient gentto i wish you would do it oftener i know they all love and respect you and regret you're absenting yourself so much people are apt to grow strange and not understand one another so well when they meet but seldom since we have held that club till we are grown gray together let us hold it out to the end for my own part i find i love company chat a laugh a glass and even a song as well as ever and at the same time relish better than I used to do, the grave observations and wise sentences of old men's conversation, so that I am sure the gento will still be as agreeable to me as it ever has been. I therefore hope it will not be discontinued as long as we are able to crawl together."

Starting point is 11:09:24 In his most active period, Franklin states in his autobiography, quote, Our club, the gento, 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 12. We had, from the beginning, made it a rule to keep our institution a secret, which was pretty well observed. 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 endeavor to form a subordinate club

Starting point is 11:10:11 with the same rules respecting queries, etc., and without informing them of the connection with the Gento. 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 Ginto member might propose what queries we should desire and was to report to the Gento what passed 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

Starting point is 11:10:47 and our power of doing good by spreading through the several clubs the sentiments of the Gento. The project was approved and every member undertook to form his club, but they did not all succeed. five or six only were completed which were called by different names as the vine the union the band etc they were useful to themselves 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 and quote another expression of his social impulses in these years is shown by his being one of the organizers of the first Masonic Society in America in 1730. In 1732 he was appointed a warden and in 1734 he was elected grandmaster on which occasion quote a very elegant entertainment was provided and the proprietor

Starting point is 11:11:52 the governor and several other persons of distinction honored the society with their presence and quote how by his exhibitions of electrical phenomena Franklin's house was continually full for some time with people who came to see these new wonders has already been mentioned and there were other social incidents one of which he described as follows it is proposed to put an end to our experiments

Starting point is 11:12:19 for this season somewhat humorously in a party of pleasure on the banks of the skill-kill spirits at the same time are to be fired by a spark sent from side to side through the river without any other conductor than the water, an experiment which we sometime since performed to the amazement of many. A turkey is to be killed for our dinner by electric shock, and roasted by the electric jack before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle, when the healths of all the famous electricians in England, Holland, France, and Germany

Starting point is 11:12:51 are to be drank in electrified bumpers under the discharge of guns from the electrical battery. end quote his share in the association the hospital the academy and many other public-spirited affairs brought him into relation with all the prominent folk and he was socially received by the best as already told from these invitations his wife was omitted and as franklin for some years dwelt over his shop and later removed to a more quiet part of town at the corner of sassafras and second streets where he lived as to the appearance in modest circumstances, there was no attempt to return the civilities in kind. Yet there was a welcome and a homely meal and room for all who chose to come. Mr. Francis spent the last evening with me, Franklin told the future president of King's College, and we were all glad to hear that you seriously meditate a visit after the middle of next month, and that you will inform us by a line when to expect you. We drank your health and Mrs. Johnson's, remembering your kind entertainment of us in Stratford, end quote. There are numerous such casual allusions to visitors in his letters,

Starting point is 11:14:04 and always in a way to show that they were boons to the host. Whenever Franklin traveled, as his concern in the post office often necessitated, he was the object of the warmest hospitality. Of one visit to the northern states, he said, quote, I left New England slowly and with great reluctance, short days 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.

Starting point is 11:14:45 I almost forgot I had a home 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, end quote. Another letter gives a glimpse of social hours in New Jersey and New York. Quote, the corporation were to have a dinner that day at the point for their entertainment and prevailed on us to stay. They were all the principal people and a great many ladies. After dinner we set out and got here before dark. We waited on the governor and on General Amherst yesterday, dined with Lord Sterling, went in the evening to my old friend Mr. Kennedy's funeral,

Starting point is 11:15:28 and are to dine with the general today." With the outbreak of the bitter political contests over the proprietary government, the court party pronounced an edict of social ostracism against him, and henceforth he was tabooed at such houses as the Allens, Shippins, Norris's, and other aristocratic families. One enemy declared that his friends had generally deserved, at him. But on his return from his first mission to England, Franklin indignantly denied this, writing, quote, Dr. Smith's report of the diminution of my friends were all false. My house has been

Starting point is 11:16:05 full of a succession of them from morning to night, ever since my arrival, congratulating me on my return with the utmost cordiality and affection. My fellow citizens, while I was on the sea, had at the annual election chosen me unanimously, as they had done every year while I was in England, England to be their representative in assembly, and would, they say, if I had not disappointed them by coming privately to town before they heard of my landing, have met me with 500 horse? End quote. There can be no question that this regard was reciprocated. From Europe, he wrote on one occasion, quote, I thank you for the pleasing account you

Starting point is 11:16:44 give me of the health and welfare of my old friends, Hugh Roberts, Luke Morris, Philip Singh, Samuel Rhodes, etc. same of yourself and family. Shake the old ones by the hand for me, and give the young ones my blessing, end quote. On receiving word of the death of one, he replied, quote, I regret the loss of my friend Parsons. Death begins to make breaches in the little gento of old friends that he had long for born, and it must be expected he will now soon pick us all off one after another, end quote. when yet another break in his circle came he was quote grieved to hear of the death of my good old friend dr evans i have lost so many since i left america that i begin to fear that i shall find myself a stranger among strangers when i return if so i must come again to my friends in england and quote so he found cause for regret in the separation that his long agencies in great britain forced upon him but this exce though an honorable one he told a new england friend is become grievous to me in so long a separation from my family friends and country all which you happily enjoy and long may you continue to enjoy them i hope for the great pleasure of once more seeing and conversing with you and though living on in one's children as we both may do it is a good thing i cannot but fancy it might be better to continue living ourselves at the same time i rejoice therefore in your kind

Starting point is 11:18:17 attentions of including me in the benefits of that inestimable stone, which, curing all diseases, even old age itself, will enable us to see the future glorious state of our America, enjoying in full security her own liberties, and offering in her bosom a participation of them to all the oppressed of the nations. I anticipate the jolly conversations we and 20 more of our friends may have a hundred years hence on this subject, over that well-replenished, at Cambridge commencement, and quote. Once in England, although he lived simply in lodgings, he formed a wide and steadily growing circle of friends. In his account of his agency to the Pennsylvania Assembly, he informed that body that, quote, I made journeys partly for the health, and partly

Starting point is 11:19:07 that I might, by country visits to persons of influence, have more convenient opportunities of discoursing with them on our public affairs, the expense of which journeys was not easily proportioned and separated. And being myself honored with visits from persons of quality and distinction, I was obliged for the credit of the province to live in a fashion and expense suitable to the public character I sustained, and much above what I should have done if I had been considered merely as a private person. And this difference of expense was not easy to distinguish and charge in my accounts. and quote i have lately made a journey of a fortnight to birmingham sheffield leeds and manchester he told a correspondent and returned only in time to be at court on the king's birthday which was yesterday and quote so visits were made to bath and other english resorts two trips to cambridge with his son he described as follows quote we stayed there a week being entertained with great kindness by the principal people and

Starting point is 11:20:13 shown all the curiosities of the place, and returning by another road to see more of the country, we came again to London. I found the journey advantageous to my health, increasing both my health and spirits, and therefore, as all the great folks were out of town and public business at a stand, I, the more easily prevailed with myself to take another journey and accept the invitation we had to be again at Cambridge at the commencement, the beginning of July. We went to court again. We went to accordingly, and were present at all the ceremonies, dined every day in their halls, and my vanity was not a little gratified by the particular regard shown me by the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of the University and the heads of colleges."

Starting point is 11:20:57 Even more enthusiastically, he wrote to Lord Cames of an excursion with his son into Scotland. Quote, Our conversation, till we came to York, was chiefly a recollection of what we had seen and heard the pleasures we had enjoyed, and the kindnesses we had received in Scotland, and how far that country had exceeded our expectations. 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, and the agreeable and instructive society that we found there in such plenty has left so pleasing an impression on my memory that did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I should choose.

Starting point is 11:21:41 to spend the remainder of my days in." End quote. His one grief, so he told his lordship, was that, I did not press you and Lady Cames more strongly to favor us with your company farther. How much more agreeable would our journey have been if we could have enjoyed you as far as York?

Starting point is 11:22:00 We could have beguiled the way by discoursing on a thousand things that now we may never have an opportunity of considering together, for conversation warms the mind, enlivens the imagination and is continually starting fresh game that is immediately pursued and taken and which would never have occurred in the duller intercourse of epistolary correspondence so that whenever I reflect on the great pleasure and advantage I receive from the free communication of

Starting point is 11:22:27 sentiment in the conversation we had at Kames and in the agreeable little rides to the tweed side I shall forever regret our premature parting end quote clearly the liking was reciprocal for not long after he again wrote to cams quote your invitation to make another jaunt to scotland and offered to meet us half-way en famille was extremely obliging certainly i never spend my time anywhere more agreeably nor have i been in any place where the inhabitants and their conversation left such lastingly pleasing impressions on my mind accompanied with the strongest inclination once more to visit that hospitable friendly and sensible people. The friendship your lordship in particular honors me with, would not, you may be assured, be among the least of my inducements, end quote. He was as good as his word in this, for once again he journeyed northward, a pilgrimage he described to his son as follows. Quote, in Scotland I spent five days with Lordeames at his seat, Blair Drummond, near Sterling, two or three days at Glasgow, two days at Caron Ironworks, and the rest of the month in and about

Starting point is 11:23:40 Edinburgh, lodging at David Humes, who entertained me with the greatest kindness and hospitality, as did Lord Cam's and his lady. All our old acquaintances there, Sir Alexander Dick and Lady, Mr. McGowan, Doctors Robertson, Cullen, Black, Ferguson, Russell, and others, inquired affectionately of your welfare. I was out three months. and quote another friend he was fond of visiting was lord le despenser and on one if not more occasions he clearly forgot poor richard's warning that fish and visitors smell in three days for he told a correspondent that i spent sixteen days at lord le dispenser's most agreeably and returned in good health and spirits elsewhere noting during another stay that i am in this house as much at my ease as if it was were my own, and the gardens are a paradise. But a pleasanter thing is the kind countenance, the facetious and very intelligent conversation of mine host, who having been for many years

Starting point is 11:24:45 engaged in public affairs, seeing all parts of Europe, and kept the best company in the world, is himself the best existing, end quote. Yet a third British home to which he always went with his special pleasure was Twyford, the residence of his warm friend Bishop Shipley, I now breathe with reluctance the smoky air of London, Franklin told him, when I think of the sweet air of Twyford, and by the time your races are over or about the middle of next month, if it should not then be unsuitable to your engagements or other purposes, I promise myself the happiness of spending a week or two where I so pleasantly spent the last, end quote. And in France he wrote one of the Shipley girls, Your mention of the summer house brings fresh to my mind all the plight. pleasures I enjoyed in the sweet retreat at Twyford, the hours of agreeable and instructive conversation with the amiable family at table, with its father alone, the delightful walks in the gardens, and neighboring grounds, end quote. These were specimens of his true intimacies, but there was much social intercourse of a more formal nature. Even to catalog his friends and visits would be a

Starting point is 11:25:57 task of no little magnitude, but an extract from a semi-journal he wrote will best served to give a slight idea of both and to show how his time was spent. Quote, Returning from Bright Helmstone, I was called to visit my friend, Mr. Sargent, at his seat, Halstead, in Kent, agreeable to a former engagement. He let me know that he had promised to conduct me to Lord Stanhope's at Shevening, who expected I would call on him when I came into that neighborhood. We, accordingly waited on Lord Stanhope that evening, who told me that Lord Chatham

Starting point is 11:26:33 desired to see me, and that Mr. Sargent's house, where I was to lodge, being in the way, he would call for me there the next morning, and carry me to Mr. Hayes. This was done accordingly. That truly great man received me with abundance of civility. From Hayes I went to Halstead, Mr. Sargent's place, to dine, intending thence to visit Lord Stanhope at Shevening, but hearing that his lordship and the family were in town, I stayed at Halstead all night, and the next morning went to Chislehurst to call on Lord Camden, it being in my way to town. I met his lordship and family in two carriages,

Starting point is 11:27:11 just without his gate, going on a visit of congratulation to Lord Chatham and his lady on the late marriage of their daughter to Lord Mahone, son of Lord Stanhope. They were to be back at dinner, so I agreed to go in, stay to dinner, and spend the evening there, and not return to town till next morning.

Starting point is 11:27:29 End quote. End of Part 1 of Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Part 2 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford This Librevox recording is in the public domain Read by Michelle Fry Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Starting point is 11:27:51 Chapter 12 Social Life Part 2 It is not to be supposed that there were not enemies as well as friends in these years and Franklin's social experience with one of these gives an amusing insight into his character and governing principles of conduct. For a number of years, the Earl of

Starting point is 11:28:12 Hillsborough was Secretary of State for America, and there was a persistent, if veiled, war between him and the colony agent. Yet in Franklin's journal through Ireland, quote, being in Dublin at the same time with his lordship, I met with him accidentally at the Lord Lieutenant's, who had happened to invite us to dine with the large company on the same day. He was surprisingly civil, and urged my fellow-travelers and me to call at his house in our intended journey northward where we might be sure of better accommodations than the inns would afford us he pressed us so politely that it was not easy to refuse without apparent rudeness as we must pass through his town hillsborough and by his door we called upon him and were detained at his house four days during which time he entertained us with great civility and a particular attention to me that appeared the more extraordinary as i knew that just before we left london he had expressed himself concerning me in very angry terms calling me a republican a factious mischievous fellow and the like he seemed attentive to everything that might make my stay in his house agreeable to me and put his eldest son lord kill hill warling into his phaeton with me to drive me around a forty miles that i might see the country the seats the manufacturers covering me with his own great-coat lest i should take cold all which i could not but wonder at

Starting point is 11:29:40 when i had been a little while returned to london i waited on him to thank him for his civilities in ireland and to discourse with him on a georgia affair the porter told me he was not at home i left my cord went another time and received the same answer, though I knew he was at home, a friend of mine being with him. After intermissions of a week each, I made two more visits and received the same answer. The last time was on a levy day when a number of carriages were at his door. My coachman driving up, alighted, and was opening the coach door, when the porter, seeing me, came out and surlily chide the coachman for opening the door before he had inquired whether my lord was at home, and then, turning to me, said, My lord is not at home. I have never since been nigh him, and we have only abused one another at a distance, end quote.

Starting point is 11:30:37 This affront Franklin was presently able to revenge, for he drew up a reply to a report of the secretary of so convincing a character that the ministry, who desired but an excuse to oust Hillsborough from the cabinet, availed themselves of it to force his race. resignation. Yet, though the Earl knew of this and could never forgive me for writing that pamphlet, he still masked his dislike. Quote, I went down to Oxford with, and at the instance of Lord Le Despencer, Franklin relates, who is on all occasions very good to me, and seems of late very desirous of my company. That same day, Lord Hillsborough called upon Lord Le Despencer, whose chamber and mine were together in Queens College. I was in the inner room, and room shifting and heard his voice but did not see him, and he went downstairs immediately with Lord Ledespenser, who mentioned that I was above. He returned directly and came to me in the

Starting point is 11:31:33 pleasantest manner imaginable. Dr. Franklin, said he, I did not know till this minute that you were here, and I am come back to make you my bow. I am glad to see you at Oxford, and that you look so well, etc. In return for this extravagance, I complimented him on his son's performance in the theatre, though indeed it was but indifferent, so that account was settled. For as people say, when they are angry, if he strikes me, I'll strike him again. I think sometimes it may be right to say, if he flutters me, I'll flutter him again. This is Lex Talionis, returning offenses in kind. My quarrel is only with him, who of all men I ever met with, is sure, the most unequal in his treatment of people, the most insincere, and the most wrong-headed."

Starting point is 11:32:22 The whole episode serves to illustrate two of poor Richard's worldly wise remarks. If any man flatters me, I'll flatter him again, though he were my best friend. And he is not well-bred that cannot bear ill-breeding in others. It also throws a flood of light on some advice the Earl of Shelburne, later the Marquis of Landown, gave the English negotiator of the Treaty of 1783. Some people in this country, he warned him, who have too long indulged themselves in abusing everything American, have been pleased to circulate an opinion that Dr. Franklin is a very cunning man.

Starting point is 11:33:01 In answer to which I have remarked to Mr. Oswald, Dr. Franklin knows very well how to manage a cunning man, but when the doctor converses or treats with a man of candor, there is no man more candid than himself. There was two in these years in England more or less intercourse with the diplomatic corps. How the French ambassador sought him out has been elsewhere mentioned, but this was but one instance. Several of the foreign ambassadors, Franklin remarked, have assiduously cultivated my acquaintance, treating me as one of their core, partly, I believe, from the desire they have from time to time,

Starting point is 11:33:38 of hearing something of American affairs, an object to become of importance in foreign courts, who begin to hope Britain's alarming power will be diminished by the defection of her colonies, and partly that they may have an opportunity of introducing me to the gentlemen of their country who desire it. The king, too, has lately been heard to speak of me with great regard, end quote. Still another element was club life, not of the kind now termed such, for institutions which have made it possible had not then come into existence. It was then the mode for men to gather daily or weekly at some tavern and eat a dinner together, the expense for food and wine being clubbed or shared.

Starting point is 11:34:22 When in France his letters to his friends in London often referred to a club he frequented while in England. Pleased to present my best respects to our good old friends of the London coffee house, he begged one correspondent. I often figure to myself the pleasure I should have in being once more seated among them. end quote again he requested pleased to present my affectionate respects to that honest sensible and intelligent society who did me so long the honor of admitting me to share in their instructive conversations i never think of the hours i so happily spent in that company without regretting that they are never to be repeated i often think of the agreeable evenings i used to pass with that excellent collection of good men he told one of the members the club at the london and wish to be

Starting point is 11:35:11 again among them. Perhaps I may pop in some Thursday evening when they least expect me, end quote. One letter he ended, with a heartfelt wish to embrace you once more and enjoy your sweet society in peace among our honest, worthy, ingenious friends at the London, end quote. Nor was the regard one-sided, for a member informed him that the honest Whig Club drank your health very affectionately. In sailing away from Great Britain, David Hume assured Franklin that, quote, I am very sorry that you intend soon to leave our hemisphere. America has sent us many good things.

Starting point is 11:35:50 Gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, indigo, etc. But you are the first philosopher, and indeed the first great man of letters, for whom we are beholden to her. It is our own fault that we have not kept him, whence it appears that we do not agree with Solomon that wisdom is above gold, for we take care never to send back an ounce,

Starting point is 11:36:11 of the latter which we once lay our fingers upon, end quote. The regret was quite as strong on that part of the Voyager, for in departing he declared that, quote, I fancy I feel a little like dying saints, who in parting with those they love in this world, are only comforted with the hope of a more perfect happiness in the next. I have, in America, connections of the most engaging kind, and happy as I have been in the friendships here contracted, those promise me greater and more, lasting felicity. Upon the whole, he said on another occasion, I have lived so great a part of my life in Britain,

Starting point is 11:36:49 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, end quote. As in his circle of friends in Philadelphia, he outlived the most of his intimates in Great Britain, and in his last years heard with grief of one more,

Starting point is 11:37:11 break. Quote, The departure of my dearest friend, which I learned from your last letter, greatly affects me. To meet her once more in this life was one of the principal motives of my proposing to visit England again before my return to America. The last year carried off my friends Dr. Pringle, Dr. Fothergill, Lord Caims, and Lord Le Despensure. This has begun to take away the rest and strikes the hardest. thus the ties I had to that country, and indeed to the world in general, are loosened one by one, and I shall soon have no attachment left to make me unwilling to follow."

Starting point is 11:37:50 It was in France, however, that his greatest social success was achieved. Twice while in Great Britain as a colony agent he had made trips to Paris, and among the scientists there had made a wide circle of friends, and been won by the charm of the people. The civilities we everywhere receive, he told an English friend, 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 shown one here by being a stranger as in England by being a lady, end quote. On his return to England, he could not but look back

Starting point is 11:38:34 on, quote, the time I spent in Paris and in the improving conversation and agreeable society of so many ingenious and learned men, which seems now to me like a pleasing dream from which I was only to be awakened by finding myself at London. Would to God, he exclaimed, in speaking of his intended return to America, I could take with me Monsieur dupont, Du Boer, 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 me ever wishing again to visit Europe." End quote.

Starting point is 11:39:14 Nor was it only in the scientific circles that he made acquaintances, and the fame of his electrical experiments even secured him an invitation to the French court. You see, he wrote Miss Stevenson, 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 honor of being presented to the king. He spoke to both of us very graciously, and very cheerfully, is a handsome man, has a very lively look, and appears younger than he is. In the evening we were at the Grand Covert, where the family sup in public.

Starting point is 11:39:52 The table was half a hollow square, the service gold. When either made a sign for drink, the word was given by one of the waiters, A boar for le Roa, or A Boar for Leanne. Then two persons came from within, the one with wine, and the other with wine, and the other with water in carafs. Each drank a little glass of what he brought, and then put both the caravs with a glass on a saliver, and then presented it.

Starting point is 11:40:20 Their distance from each other was such as that other chairs might have been placed between any two of them. An officer of the court brought us up through the crowd of spectators, and placed Sir John Pringle so as to stand between the queen and Madame Victoire. The king talked a good deal to Sir John, asked many questions, about our royal family, and did me too the honor of taking some notice of me. That is saying enough." End quote. When Franklin came to France, therefore, as a commissioner from the Continental Congress, it was to a people not merely eager to espouse his country's cause, but already somewhat

Starting point is 11:40:59 acquainted with the man. From the moment he landed, and before it was even known what attitude the court would take toward him, the lionizing began. A welcoming bar. was given him at nantes, where he noted that, quote, there were no women's headdresses less than five, and a few were seven lengths of the face above the top of the forehead, end quote. But as he journeyed toward Paris, he was persuaded to pause long enough to dine at the Duke de Rochevacalz, where there were duchesses and a countess, he remarked, no head higher than a face and a half. So, it seems, the farther from court, the more extravagant the mode,

Starting point is 11:41:39 end quote. This entertaining was forced upon him before the object of his mission was divulged, but, quote, I find it generally supposed here that I am sent to negotiate, and that opinion appears to give great pleasure if I can judge by the extreme civilities I meet with from the numbers of the principal people

Starting point is 11:41:58 who have done me the honor to visit me, end quote. Once in Paris, although not openly recognized by the court in his diplomatic capacity, everyone united to show him honor and courtesy. As already quoted, he assured his sister that, The account you have had of the vogue I am in here has some truth in it. Perhaps few strangers in France have had the good fortune to be so universally popular, end quote. To his daughter, he remarked,

Starting point is 11:42:27 The clay medallion of me you say you gave to Mr. Hopkinson was the first of the kind made in France. A variety of others have been made sense of different sizes, some to be set in the lids of snuff boxes, and some so small as to be worn in rings, and the numbers sold are incredible. These, with the pictures, busts, and prints, of which copies upon copies are spread everywhere, have made your father's face as well known as that of the moon, so that he durst not do anything that would oblige him to run away, as his fizz would discover him wherever he should venture to show it. it is said by learned etymologists that the name doll for the images children play with is derived from the word idle from the number of dolls now made of him he may be truly said that in this sense to be idolized in this country and quote

Starting point is 11:43:23 figure me in your mind he asked a friend as jolly as formerly and as strong and hardy only a few years older very plainly dressed wearing my thin grass straight hair that peeps out under my only coiffure, a fine fur cap, which comes down my forehead almost to my spectacles. Think how this must appear among the powdered heads of Paris, end quote. Yet it was in vain that the British ambassador sought to throw ridicule on the new envoy. Quote, I talk of him in a ludicrous manner, and sometimes say, for instance, that the effect of his fur cap seems to be worn out, and that I observe he is less talked of. since the arrival of Paccini, the famous Italian composer, end quote. To his principal, however, he told another story, quote, that physician de Bourg,

Starting point is 11:44:16 whom your lordship has heard of, sent cards all over Paris testifying to his acquaintance the arrival of Dr. Franklin. I have already observed to your lordship that numbers of people resort to him, Franklin, but there are very few persons of condition among them, end quote. then as if to complete the stormount he acknowledged that from the first the duke de chassell and his party took franklin by the hand and quote openly espouse the cause of the rebels and quote and that the newcomer had formed a great intimacy with the duke de i live here in great respect franklin himself said to a friend and dine every day with great folks but i still long for home and for repose and should be happy to eat indian pudding in your company and under your hospitable roof when john adams for a time his fellow commissioner joined him in paris and lived with him he shared in this unending hospitality and recorded in his journal that quote invitations were sent to dr franklin and me every day day in the week to dine in some great or small company, and quote. A complete chronicle of his social hours would be impossible, but a glimpse here and there

Starting point is 11:45:30 may well be taken. From the diary of John Adams are extracted the following, to show some of the entertainments accepted by the two commissioners. Quote, Dr. Franklin presented to me the compliments of Monsieur Togot, late controller of the finance, and his invitation to dine with him. went with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee and dined in company with the Duchess d'Anville, the mother of the Duke de la Rochevecalde, and twenty of the great people of France. Dined with Monsieur Chalieu, one of the farmers general.

Starting point is 11:46:04 We were shown into the most superb gallery that I have yet seen. The paintings, statues, and curiosities were innumerable. The old Marshal Richelieu dined there, and a vast number of other great company. After dinner, Mr. Chalue invited Dr. Franklin and me to go to the opera and take a seat in his loggis. We did. The music and dancing were very fine. Dined at home with a great deal of company, went after dinner to see the misanthrope of Moliere with Mr. Amil. It was followed by the Ereouzement. Dined at Mr. Bertens, the Secretary of State, at his seat in the country.

Starting point is 11:46:44 Dr. Franklin, his grandson and I, rode with Madame Bertin, the niece of the minister, in her vature with four horses. This day I had the honor to dine with the Prince de Tengri, Duke de Beaumont of the illustrious house of Montmorency. Went to the concert spiritual in the Royal Garden, where was an infinite number of gentlemen and ladies walking, dined with the Duchess Donville at her house, with her daughter and granddaughter, dukes, abbots, etc., etc., etc. Dined with the Marshal de Malibois, with a great deal of company.

Starting point is 11:47:21 Here also we were shown the Marshal's ami seated at the table with all his great company. I could say but little, but I understood her as well as anyone I had heard in French. It appears to me that the Marshal had chosen her rather for her wit and senses than personal charms. Dined with the Marshal de Mouchy, with the Duke and Duchess Diane. their daughter, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Viscount de Malibois, her sister, another sister, unmarried, the Prussian ambassador, an Italian ambassador, and a great deal of other great company. End quote. One offset there was to the complete enjoyment of dining out, for groaning at the innumerable applications of officers to him for employment, Franklin complained that,

Starting point is 11:48:08 quote, I am afraid to accept an invitation to dine abroad, being almost sure of meeting with some officer or officer's friend who as soon as i am put in good humor by a glass or two of champagne begins his attack upon me end quote until france recognized american independence the negotiators could not be received at court or by the ministry but once the treaty of amity and commerce was signed they became fully recognized diplomatic agents and the hitherto closed official doors were thrown open to them the whole court at the first function Franklin attended, united to heap attention and distinction upon him, and from that time, as if to make up for the brief period of non-recognition, he was shown the utmost honor, being bidden to the greatest and most exclusive affairs, even to those given to royalty itself. He describes an opera given to a royal prince, at which he was present, where, quote, the house being richly finished with abundance of carving and gilding, well illuminated with waxed,

Starting point is 11:49:13 and the company all superbly dressed many of the men in cloth of tissue and the ladies sparkling with diamonds formed altogether the most splendid spectacle my eyes ever beheld end quote in adams diary is a reference to one ministerial dinner they went to given by virgins quote there was a full table no ladies but the countess the count's brother the ambassador who lately signed the treaty with switzerland mr garnier the late secretary to the embassy in England, and many others, dukes and bishops and counts, etc. End of Chapter 12, Part 2. Chapter 12, Part 3 of the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Read by Michelle Fry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Starting point is 11:50:12 Chapter 12, Social Life, Part 3. all these courtesies involved recognition, and Franklin seemed to have been, when able, fairly regardful of his social duties, for only a few weeks of his many years in Paris as he seemed to have kept a diary, but that little reveals him as doing conscientiously the required courtesies. One afternoon's doings will suffice, quote, we went to Paris to visit Princess Dashcaw, not at home, visit Prince and Princess Messerano, visit Duke de Roche recalled, and Madame La Duchess L'Enville, visit Mr. Danna and Searle, not at home,

Starting point is 11:50:54 leave invitations to dine with me on Sunday, visit Comte d'Estang, not at home, Mr. Turgot, not at home, end quote. In one respect, he refused to go through the conventional forms, although the recognition of the United States gave Franklin full diplomatic status with the French court, his fellow ambassadors, whose governments had not yet acknowledged the new country, necessarily could not accept him as one of their core. By good luck, the American minister heard that they had come to the decision not to, quote,

Starting point is 11:51:28 return the visits I should make them, as they supposed, when I was first received here as Minister Plenipotentiary, and disappointed their project by visiting none of them. In my private opinion, the first civility is due from the old resident to the stranger and newcomer. My opinion, indeed, is good for nothing against custom, which I should have obeyed but for the circumstances that rendered it more prudent to avoid disputes and affronts, though at the hazard of being thought rude or singular, end quote. out of this anomalous situation came an incident ridiculous enough which caused the envoy not a little amusement and which he narrated as follows quote the Count de Nor, who is son of the Empress of Russia, arriving at Paris, ordered, it seems, cards of visit to be sent to all the foreign ministers. One of them, on which was written,

Starting point is 11:52:26 Le Comte de Nor and the Prince Beriatinsky, was brought to me. It was on Monday evening last. Being at court the next day, I inquired of an old minister, my friend, what was the etiquette, and whether the count received visits. the answer was non en s'est he c'est e'er voila all this is done by passing the door and ordering your name to be written on the porter's book accordingly on wednesday i passed the house of prince bariatinsky ambassador of russia where the count lodged and left my name on the list of each i thought no more of the matter but this day may the twenty fourth comes the servant who had brought the card in great affliction saying he was like to be ruined by his mistake in bringing the card here, and wishing to obtain from me some paper of I know not what kind, for I did not see him.

Starting point is 11:53:24 In the afternoon came my friend Monsieur Leroy, who is also the friend of the princes, telling me how much he, the prince, was concerned at the accident, that both himself and the Count had great personal regard for me and my character, but that our independence not yet being acknowledged by the Court of Russia, it was impossible for him to permit himself to make me a visit as minister. I told Monsieur Leroy it was not my custom to seek such honors, though I was very sensible of them when conferred upon me, that I should not have voluntarily intruded a visit,

Starting point is 11:53:59 and that in this case I had only done what I was informed the etiquette required of me. But if it would be attended with any inconvenience to print, Beriatinsky, whom I much esteemed and respected, I thought the remedy was easy. He had only to erase my name out of his book of visits received, and I would burn their card." End quote. The offer was accepted, and the nameless danger thus avoided. At the next attendance at court, Franklin noted that the, quote, Prince was particularly civil to me. Apologized for what passed relating to the visit, expressed himself extremely sensible of my French. in covering the affair which might have occasioned him very disagreeable consequences. End quote. A diplomatic entanglement of much the same character, though a very different conclusion, occurred when the Emperor Joseph of Austria came to Paris in 1777.

Starting point is 11:54:56 He earnestly desired to make Franklin's acquaintance, but without giving it any political significance. The Minister of the Grand Duke of Tuscany accordingly wrote the famous American, quote, The Ben-Ecole Prey Monsieur Franklin to him to be dinner

Starting point is 11:55:14 to come dejean at at him mercrede matins, the 28 of this month,

Starting point is 11:55:21 at 9 o'clock he will give a good tass of chocolate. Verbly he informed Franklin

Starting point is 11:55:30 that the intention was to give the Emperor an opportunity of an interview

Starting point is 11:55:34 with him but owing to an accident, this meeting did not take place. Eventually they were brought together, and Jefferson relates something concerning one of their encounters. Quote,

Starting point is 11:55:47 when Dr. Franklin went to France on his revolutionary mission, his eminence as a philosopher, his venerable appearance, and the cause on which he was sent, rendered him extremely popular for all ranks and conditions of men there entered warmly into the American interest. He was, therefore, feasted and invited to

Starting point is 11:56:06 all the court parties. At this he sometimes met the old Duchess of Bourbon, who, being a chess player of about his force, they very generally played together. Happening once to put her king into prize, the doctor took it. Ah, says she, we do not take king so. We do in America, said the doctor. At one of these parties, the Emperor Joseph II, then at Paris, in Gagnito, under the title of Count falkenstein was overlooking the game in silence while the company was engaged in animated conversations on the american question how happens it monsieur le comte said the duchess that while we all feel so much interest in the cause of the americans you say nothing for them i am a king by trade said he with pardonable pride the self-made man speaking of his father's having quote among his instructions to me when a boy frequently repeated the proverb of Solomon, Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before kings,

Starting point is 11:57:14 he shall not stand before mean men, remarked that, quote, I did not think that I should ever literally stand before kings, which, however, has since happened, for I have stood before five, and even had the honor of sitting down with one, the king of Denmark, to dinner, end quote. Greatly in demand as the minister was for form,

Starting point is 11:57:36 entertaining, there was as well a V on team, which has been more or less referred to already, and which his recurrent attacks of the gout tended to foster. Of this life, he has left a pleasant picture in his dialogue with the gout, in which the disease accuses him of the following conduct. Quote, The gout. 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

Starting point is 11:58:25 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 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. wrapped 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 these humours and so purifying or dissipating them if it was in some nook or alley in paris deprived of walks that you played a while at chess after

Starting point is 11:59:48 dinner this might be excusable but the same taste prevails with you in passe artuelle montmart or senoy 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. Franklin, oh, ah! Oh, ah! As much instructions as you please, Madam Gout, and as many reproaches, but pray, madam, a truce with your corrections. The Gout.

Starting point is 12:00:36 Do you remember how often you have promised yourself the following morning, a walk in the grove of Boulogne, in the garden de la Mouette, 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. Franklin, that I confess may have happened occasionally, probably ten times in a year. The gout, your confession is far short of the truth, the gross amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times. franklin is it possible the gout so possible that it is fact you may rely on the accuracy of my statement you know mr briland'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,

Starting point is 12:01:41 and as it is a maxim of your own that a man may take as much exercise in walking a mile up and downstairs as in ten on level ground, what an opportunity was here for you to have had exercise in both those ways? Did you embrace it? And how often? Franklin, I cannot immediately answer that question. The gout. Well, I will do it for. you. Not once.

Starting point is 12:02:08 Franklin. Not once? The gout. 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 the agreeable conversation. And what has been your choice?

Starting point is 12:02:26 Why, 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 chessboard, and low, you are occupied in your seat till nine o'clock, and that besides two hours play after dinner, and then, instead of walking home,

Starting point is 12:02:52 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! franklin i am convinced now of the justness of poor richard's remark that our debts and our sins are always greater than we think they are end quote it was in paris or rather in the suburb of passe that for the first time franklin was situated so as to entertain john adams who lived for a time with him describes the place quote i determined to put my country to no further expense on my account but to take my lodgings under the same roof with Dr. Franklin, and to use no other equipage than his, if I could avoid it. This house was called the Basque Corps de Monsieur L'Ré de Chamonte, which was, to be sure,

Starting point is 12:03:47 not a title of great dignity for the mansion of ambassadors, though they were no more than American ambassadors. Nevertheless, it had been nothing less than the famous Hotel de Valentinois, with a motto on the door, from an Englishman who came to the minister with a letter of introduction it is further learned that his house was delightfully situated and seems very spacious and he seemed to have a great number of domestics we sent up the letter and were then shown up into his bedchamber where he sat in his nightgown his feet wrapped up in flannels and resting on a pillow he having for three or four days been much afflicted with the gout and the gravel." Franklin himself, in answer to a question from a correspondent, said,

Starting point is 12:04:39 You wish to know how I live? It is in a fine house, situated in a neat village, on high ground, half a mile from Paris, with a large garden to walk in. I have abundance of acquaintance, dine abroad six days in seven, Sundays I reserve to dine at home with such Americans as passed this way, and I then have my grandson Ben with some other American children from the school." In Miss Adams' journal our brief accounts of two of these dinners. Today we have dined with Dr. Franklin, she wrote of one. There was a large company, our family, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Lady, Lord Mount Morris, an Irish volunteer,

Starting point is 12:05:23 here, Dr. Jeffreys, Mr. Paul Jones, we had a sumptuous dinner, end quote. Of the second, she said, quote, dined today at Dr. Franklin's. The whole company were Americans, except an old man, Monsieur Brillant, who was a friend of the doctor, and who came as he said, I demande a dinner a pair Franklin, end quote. A description of yet a third of these dinners has been preserved by Jefferson. quote the doctor had a party to dine with him one day at passe of whom one half were americans the other half french and among the last was the abbe reynal at the dinner he got on his favourite theory of the degeneracy of animals and even of man in america and urged it with his usual eloquence the doctor at length noticing the accidental stature and position of his guests at table come says he m l'abé let us try this question by the fact before us. We are here one-half Americans and one-half French,

Starting point is 12:06:28 and it happens that the Americans have placed themselves on one side of the table, and our French friends are on the other. Let both parties rise, and we will see on which side nature has degenerated. It happened that his American guests were Carmichael, Harmer, Humphreys, and others of the finest stature and form, while those on the other side were remarkably diminutive, and the Abbe himself, particularly was a mere shrimp. He parried the appeal, however, by a complementary admission of exceptions, among which the doctor himself was a conspicuous one, end quote. This open hospitality excited some criticism in America, and Franklin was warned that, quote, our two liberal entertainment of our countrymen here has been reported at home by our guests and has given

Starting point is 12:07:19 offense, end quote. They must be contended for the future, as I am, he therefore said, with plain beef and pudding. The readers of the Connecticut newspapers ought not to be troubled with any more accounts of our extravagance. For my own part, if I could sit down to dinner on a piece of their excellent salt, pork, and pumpkin, I would not give a farthing for all the luxuries of Paris, and quote. Apparently the decision was to his physical, if not to his jovial advantage, for John Adams mentions that, quote, Franklin has broke up the practice of inviting everybody to dine with him on Sunday at Passay, and he is getting better. The gout left him weak, but he begins to sit at table, and quote. An amusing contrast to one of the great dinners that Franklin and Adams

Starting point is 12:08:09 attended is supplied by Adams, who records that he, quote, came home and supped with Dr. Franklin on cheese and beer, end quote. Franklin's rules of conduct in society were well fitted to make him popular. The wit of conversation, he remarked, consists more in finding it and others than showing a great deal yourself. He who goes out of your company, pleased with his own facetiousness and ingenuity, will the sooner come into it again. Most, most, men had rather please than admire you, and seek less to be instructed and diverted than approved and applauded, and it is certainly the most delicate sort of pleasure to please another.

Starting point is 12:08:50 The great secret of succeeding in conversation, he said on another occasion, is to admire little, to hear much, always to distrust our own reason, and sometimes that of our friends, never to pretend to wit, but to make that of others appear as much as possibly we can, to hearken to what is said and to answer to that purpose. In one of his baguettels, the handsome and the deformed leg, he described the two sorts of people in the world, who with equal degrees of health and wealth become the one happy and the other miserable, and the need society has for protecting itself from the latter class.

Starting point is 12:09:30 Quote, an old philosophical friend of mine was grown from experience, he declared, 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 and took no notice of the handsome leg, that was sufficient to determine my

Starting point is 12:10:15 philosopher to have no further acquaintance with him. Everybody has not this two-legged instrument, but everyone with a little attention may observe signs of that carping, a fault-finding disposition, and take the same resolution of avoiding the acquaintance of those infected with it." It was one of the rules which, above all others, made Dr. Franklin the most amiable of men in society, Jefferson related, never to contradict anybody. If he was urged to announce an opinion, he did it rather by asking questions, as if for information, or by suggesting doubts, end quote. He was friendly and agreeable in conversation, Miss Logan states,

Starting point is 12:10:56 which he suited to his company, appearing to wish to benefit his hearers. i could readily believe that he heard nothing of consequence himself but what he turned to the account he desired and in his turn profited by the conversation of others end quote it is little wonder that an eyewitness reports that when he left passe it seemed as if the village had lost its patriarch end quote nor was the break felt on one side alone and franklin wrote from america that he quote could not forget paris and the nine years happiness i enjoyed there, in the sweet society of a people whose conversation is instructive, whose manners are highly pleasing, and who, above all the nations of the world, have, in the greatest perfection, the art of making themselves beloved by strangers. And now, even in my sleep, I find that the scenes of all my pleasant dreams are laid in that city or in its neighborhood, end quote. Manessa Cutler, who called upon Franklin in his Philadelphia home in 1787, draws a pleasant picture of his last years.

Starting point is 12:12:05 Dr. Franklin lives in Market Street, he states, between second and third streets, but his house stands up a courtyard at some distance from the street. We found him in his garden, sitting upon a grass plat under a very large mulberry, with several other gentlemen and two or three ladies. There was no curiosity in Philadelphia, which I felt so anxious to see as this great man, who has been the wonder of Europe as well as the glory of America. But a man who stood first in the literary world and had spent so many years in the courts of kings, particularly in the refined court of France, I conceived would not be a very easy access, and must certainly have much of the air of grandeur and majesty about him. common folks must expect only to gaze at him at a distance and answer such questions as he might please to ask in short when i entered his house i felt as if i was going to be introduced to the presence of a european monarch but how were my ideas changed when i saw a short fat trunched old man in a plain quaker dress bald pate and short white locks sitting without his hat under the tree and as mr jerry introduced me rose from his chair

Starting point is 12:13:21 care took me by the hand expressed his joy to see me welcomed me to the city and begged me to seat myself close to him his voice was low but his countenance open frank and pleasing he instantly reminded me of the old captain cummings for he is nearly of his pitch and no more of the air of superiority about him i delivered him my letters after he had read them he took me again by the hand and with the usual compliments introduced me to the other gentlemen of the company, who were most of them members of the convention. Here we entered into a free conversation and spent our time most agreeably until it was dark. The tea table was spread under the tree, and Mrs. Bosch, a very gross and rather homely lady, who is the only daughter of the doctor,

Starting point is 12:14:11 and lives with him, served it out to the company. She had three of her children about her, over whom she seemed to have no kind of command, but who appeared to be excessively fond of their grandpapa." Franklin himself has left an equally pleasant description of this closing period of his life. Quote, I have found my family here in health, good circumstances, and well respected by their fellow citizens. The companions of my youth are indeed almost all departed,

Starting point is 12:14:41 but I find an agreeable society among their children and grandchildren. I have public business enough to preserve me from all. we and private amusement besides in conversation books my garden and cribbage considering our well-furnished plentiful market as the best of gardens i am turning mine in the midst of which my house stands into grass plots and gravel walks with trees and flowering shrubs cards we sometimes play here in long winter evenings but it is as in france they play at chess not for money but for honour or the pleasure of beating one another this will not be quite a novelty to you, as you may remember, we played together in that manner during the winter at Passy. I have indeed now and then a little compunction in reflecting that I spend time so idly, but another reflection comes to relieve me, whispering, you know that the soul is immortal, why then should you be such a niggered of a little time when you have a whole eternity before you? So, being easily convinced, and like other reasonable creatures, satisfied with a small reason,

Starting point is 12:15:49 when it is in favor of doing what I have a mind to, I shuffle the cards again and begin another game." End quote. To a friend he wrote, We loved and still love one another. We are grown gray together, and yet it is too early to part. Let us sit till the evening of life is spent.

Starting point is 12:16:10 The last hours are always the most joyous. When we can stay no longer, it is time enough then to bid each other good night, separate and go quietly to bed. This ends the many-sided Franklin by Paul Lester Ford. Thanks for listening and I hope you've enjoyed it.

Classic Audiobook Collection - The Many-Sided Franklin by Paul Leicester Ford ~ Full Audiobook [biography]

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