Transcriber's Notes:
1. Passages in italics are surrounded by underscores
Words with gesperrt (wide) letter spacing are surrounded with =equals=
2. The editor of the original book marked some mispelled words with [_sic_], and these have been retained as written, uncorrected.
Additional words found to be mispelled have been corrected and are listed under "Spelling Corrections" at the end of this e-text.
Additionally this work contains a large number of word spelling variations found to be valid in Webster's English Dictionary as well as several unverified spellings that appear multiple times and inconsistant word capitalization and hyphenation, all of which have been retained as printed. The interested reader will find an alphabetic "Word Variations" list at the end of this e-text.
3. Numbered footnotes in Sections I-VII of the Introduction have been relocated to the end of the Introduction and marked with an "i-". Lettered footnotes in the "Selections" have been relocated directly under the paragraph they pertain to.
4. Additional Transcriber's Notes are located at the "Poor Richards Almanack" facsimile reproduction beginning on page 225, and at the end of this e-text.
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HARRY HAYDEN CLARK General Editor
*
_Volumes of representative selections, prepared by American scholars under the general editorship of Harry Hayden Clark, University of Wisconsin._
Volumes now ready are starred.
AMERICAN TRANSCENDENTALISTS, Raymond Adams, University of North Carolina
*WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, Tremaine McDowell, University of Minnesota
*JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, Robert E. Spiller, Swarthmore College
*JONATHAN EDWARDS, Clarence H. Faust, University of Chicago, and Thomas H. Johnson, Hackley School
*RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Frederic I. Carpenter, Harvard University
*BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Frank Luther Mott and Chester E. Jorgenson, University of Iowa
*ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THOMAS JEFFERSON, Frederick C. Prescott, Cornell University
BRET HARTE
*NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Austin Warren, Boston University
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, Robert Shafer, University of Cincinnati
*WASHINGTON IRVING, Henry A. Pochmann, Mississippi State College
HENRY JAMES, Lyon Richardson, Western Reserve University
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
*HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Odell Shepard, Trinity College
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, Norman Foerster, University of Iowa, and Harry H. Clark, University of Wisconsin
HERMAN MELVILLE, Willard Thorp, Princeton University
JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY
THOMAS PAINE, Harry H. Clark, University of Wisconsin
FRANCIS PARKMAN, Wilbur L. Schramm, University of Iowa
*EDGAR ALLAN POE, Margaret Alterton, University of Iowa, and Hardin Craig, Stanford University
WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, Claude Jones, Johns Hopkins University
*SOUTHERN POETS, Edd Winfield Parks, University of Georgia
SOUTHERN PROSE, Gregory Paine, University of North Carolina
*HENRY DAVID THOREAU, Bartholow Crawford, University of Iowa
*MARK TWAIN, Fred Lewis Pattee, Rollins College
*WALT WHITMAN, Floyd Stovall, University of Texas
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER
Benjamin Franklin
REPRESENTATIVE SELECTIONS, WITH INTRODUCTION, BIBLIOGRAPHY, AND NOTES
BY FRANK LUTHER MOTT
Director, School of Journalism University of Iowa
AND CHESTER E. JORGENSON
Instructor in English University of Iowa
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY New York · Cincinnati · Chicago Boston · Atlanta
COPYRIGHT, 1936, BY AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY All rights reserved
MOTT AND JORGENSON'S FRANKLIN W.P.I.
MADE IN U.S.A.
PREFACE
Benjamin Franklin's reputation in America has been singularly distorted by the neglect of his works other than his Autobiography and his most utilitarian aphorisms. If America has contented herself with appraising him as "the earliest incarnation of 'David Harum,'" as "the first high-priest of the religion of efficiency," as "the first Rotarian," it may be that this aspect of Franklin is all that an America plagued by growing pains, by peopling and mechanizing three thousand miles of frontier, has been able to see. That facet of Franklin's mind and mien which allowed Carlyle to describe him as "the Father of all Yankees" was appreciated by Sinclair Lewis's George F. Babbitt: "Once in a while I just naturally sit back and size up this Solid American Citizen, with a whale of a lot of satisfaction." But this is not the Franklin of "imperturbable common-sense" honored by Matthew Arnold as "the very incarnation of sanity and clear-sense, a man the most considerable ... whom America has yet produced." Nor is this the Franklin who emerges from his collected works (and the opinions of his notable contemporaries) as an economist, political theorist, educator, journalist, scientific deist, and disinterested scientist. If he wrote little that is narrowly belles-lettres, he need not be ashamed of his voluminous correspondence, in an age which saw the fruition of the epistolary art. The Franklin found in his collected and uncollected writings is, as the following Introduction may suggest, not the Franklin who too commonly is synchronized exclusively with the wisdom and wit of Poor Richard.
Since the present interpretation of the growth of Franklin's mind, with stress upon its essential unity in the light of scientific deism, tempered by his debt to Puritanism, classicism, and neoclassicism, may seem somewhat novel, the editors have felt it desirable to document their interpretation with considerable fullness. It is hoped that the reader will withhold judgment as to the validity of this interpretation until the documentary evidence has been fully considered in its genetic significance, and that he will feel able to incline to other interpretations only in proportion as they can be equally supported by other evidence. The present interpretation is also supported by the Selections following--the fullest collection hitherto available in one volume--which offer, the editors believe, the essential materials for a reasonable acquaintance with the growth of Franklin's mind, from youth to old age, in its comprehensive interests--educational, literary, journalistic, economic, political, scientific, humanitarian, and religious.
With the exception of the selections from the Autobiography, the works are arranged in approximate chronological order, hence inviting a necessarily genetic study of Franklin's mind. The Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain, never before printed in an edition of Franklin's works or in a book of selections, is here printed from the London edition of 1725, retaining his peculiarities of italics, capitalization, and punctuation. Attention is also drawn to the photographically reproduced complete text of Poor Richard Improved (1753), graciously furnished by Mr. William Smith Mason. The Way to Wealth is from an exact reprint made by Mr. Mason, and with his permission here reproduced. One of the editors is grateful for the privilege of consulting Mr. Mason's magnificent collection of Franklin correspondence (original MSS), especially the Franklin-Galloway and Franklin-Jonathan Shipley (Bishop of St. Asaph) unpublished correspondence. With Mr. Mason's generous permission the editors reproduce fragments of this correspondence in the Introduction.
The bulk of the selections have been printed from the latest, standard edition, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, collected and edited with a Life and Introduction by Albert Henry Smyth (10 vols., 1905-1907). For permission to use this material the editors are grateful to The Macmillan Company, publishers. The editors are indebted to Dr. Max Farrand, Director of the Henry E. Huntington Library, for permission to reprint part of Franklin's MS version of the Autobiography.
Chester E. Jorgenson is preparing an analysis and interpretation of Franklin's brand of scientific deism, its sources and relation to his economic, political, and literary theories and practice. Fragments of this projected study are included, especially in Section VII of the following Introduction. For the past two years Mr. Jorgenson has enjoyed the kindness and generosity of Mr. William Smith Mason, and has incurred an indebtedness which cannot be expressed adequately in print.
The work of the editors has been vastly eased by Beata Prochnow Jorgenson's assistance in typing, proofreading, et cetera. They are extremely grateful to Professor Harry Hayden Clark for incisive suggestions and valuable editorial assistance.
F. L. M. C. E. J.
CONTENTS