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Title: The Mentor: Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 6, Num. 7, Serial No. 155, May 15, 1918
Author: Hart, Albert Bushnell
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mentor: Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 6, Num. 7, Serial No. 155, May 15, 1918" ***
THE MENTOR 1918.05.15, No. 155,
Benjamin Franklin
LEARN ONE THING
EVERY DAY
MAY 15 1918 SERIAL NO. 155
THE
MENTOR
BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART
Professor of Government
Harvard University
DEPARTMENT OF VOLUME 6
BIOGRAPHY NUMBER 7
TWENTY CENTS A COPY
THE WHISTLE
_A_ Bit _of_ Ben Franklin Wisdom
When I was a child 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_, but disturbing all 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 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 afterward of use to me, the impression continuing
on 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. As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the
actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who _gave too
much for the whistle_.
When I saw one too ambitious of court favour, sacrificing his time in
attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps
his friends, to attain it, I have said to myself, _This man gives too
much for his whistle_.
When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in
political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by that
neglect, _He pays, indeed_, said I, _too much for his whistle_.
If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all
the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow
citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of
accumulating wealth, _Poor man_, said I, _you pay too much for your
whistle_.
When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable
improvement of the mind or of his fortune to mere corporeal sensations,
and ruining his health in their pursuit, _Mistaken man_, said I, _you
are providing pain for yourself instead of pleasure; you give too much
for your whistle_.
If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine
furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he
contracts debts and ends his days in prison, _Alas!_ say I, _he has
paid dear, very dear, for his whistle_.
When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured
brute of a husband, _What a pity_, say I, _that she should pay so much
for a whistle_!
In short, I can conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are
brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of
things, and by their _giving too much for their whistle_.
[Illustration: ENGRAVED BY H. DAVIDSON FROM THE SCULPTURE BY R. TAIT
MCKENZIE. COURTESY OF THE CENTURY CO.
THE YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1723]
_BENJAMIN FRANKLIN_
_His Life_
ONE
Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts, January 17, 1706
(January 6, Old Style), of humble parents, was one of the heroes of the
War of Independence, one of the cleverest of American diplomats, and
one of the greatest American politicians and statesmen. But this was
not all: he possessed so many talents that he can only be described
properly as a universal genius.
Franklin’s life is one huge catalogue of performances, hard indeed
to tabulate, for he went from one thing to another with remarkable
rapidity and excelled in everything that he undertook. A recital of
his accomplishments sounds like a round of the old counting game,
“Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief.” He was, in fact, all the list but
the “thief”--even the “beggarman.”
Franklin’s father, Josiah Franklin, a candle maker, intended that his
son should enter the ministry of the Puritan Church, and with this idea
sent him, when eight years old, to the Boston Grammar School. A year of
this was too much for the slender means of the father, so Benjamin was
sent to George Brownell for instruction. A year of this and Franklin’s
school days were ended. He worked in his father’s shop for a time, and
then apprenticed himself to his brother James, a printer.
While engaged in the printing business (and this did not merely consist
of setting type and printing books, but in writing articles for his
paper and also many political pamphlets that prepared the way for his
future career), he was clerk of the General Assembly in 1736 (holding
this office until 1751); postmaster in Philadelphia in 1737; and,
after he gave up the post of clerk of the General Assembly, a member
of that body for thirteen years (1751-1764). His activity in public
affairs was enormous: he organized the first police and fire company
in Philadelphia; established an academy which became the University
of Pennsylvania; organized an important debating club--the Junto
(1727); took the lead in improving the paving of the city; developed
the lighting of the streets; organized a militia force; founded a city
hospital, and in every way concerned himself with the bettering of
conditions, both civic and political. He undertook to provide Braddock
with horses and wagons for the march against Fort Duquesne, and, in
1756, he had charge of the Northwest frontier for a month, during which
he erected blockhouses and watched the wily Indians.
In 1757, he was sent to London as agent for the people to petition
the Crown. He returned home in 1762, expecting to settle down and
devote the remainder of his life to scientific investigation and the
pleasures of the pen. He brought with him many degrees and honors,
and he thought that his public life was over. In two years’ time,
however, he was again sent to England as agent to settle questions in
relation to taxation, and represented not only Pennsylvania, but New
Jersey, Georgia, and Massachusetts. He remained until 1775, and was,
therefore, in England during all the stormy days of the Stamp Act. On
the day after his return he was elected to the Continental Congress,
and was one of the committee of five to draw up the Declaration of
Independence. On September 26, 1776, he was chosen commissioner to
France with Arthur Lee and Silas Deane, and arrived in Paris on
December 22, 1776, after a perilous passage, to be welcomed like a
hero. On October 28, 1776, he was appointed sole plenipotentiary to the
Court of France. In 1781, he was appointed one of a commission to make
peace with Great Britain. He returned to Philadelphia in 1785, having
made commercial treaties with Sweden (1783) and Prussia (1785).
Even then, Franklin’s work was not finished. He was elected a member of
the municipal council of Philadelphia, and was made a delegate to the
Convention that drew up the Federal Constitution. It is interesting,
also, to note that he signed a petition to Congress, in 1790, to
abolish slavery. He died in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790, aged
eighty-four.
These extraordinary activities, including those of a politician,
diplomat, philanthropist, civic reformer, philosopher, scientist,
printer, and author, covered a period of sixty years. And in between
all these separate careers, as we might call them, we find stray hours
filled with delightful pursuits and such pleasant diversions as studies
in the realm of music, improving the musical glasses, and buying Bow,
Worcester, and Chelsea china of the newest fashion. Moreover, Franklin
always found time to write beautifully and to enjoy social pleasures.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: FROM AN ENGRAVING BY GEORGE E. PERINE, AFTER A DRAWING
BY C. N. COCHIN
THE MATURE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1777]
_BENJAMIN FRANKLIN_
_The Man_
TWO
Benjamin Franklin was the first distinguished American “self-made
man.” He took himself in hand at an early age, and with only two years
schooling, educated himself so that he became a man of science, a man
of letters, a philosopher, a statesman and a diplomat, and acquired a
fortune besides. And not only was he all of these things, more than
creditably, but he took rank among the greatest minds of the highly
educated and scientific Eighteenth Century. This was a period of
original investigation: much “new thought” of all kinds was coming
into the world, and Franklin’s mind was exactly the type of mind that
was characteristic of this age--particularly in France. Apart from his
genial personality and his talent for always doing the right thing and
the popular thing socially, his scientific and philosophical tastes
were precisely those in fashion in France.
How did this man attain to such power and eminence? At twenty-three
he was half-educated and crude. At forty he was known as one of the
most famous scientists of the day and a brilliant writer; and before
he was fifty he had received the Copley medal from the Royal Society;
the freedom of the City of Edinburgh; LL.D. from the University of St.
Andrews; degrees from Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary; and, in
1762, D.C.L. from Oxford.
What were the characteristics and the tastes, and what was the
disposition and the appearance of the extraordinary personage who
accomplished all these things? These are questions that are naturally
asked.
We never think of Franklin in his youth. We picture him according to
the Duplessis (dew-ples′-see) portrait painted in Paris when he was
seventy-two; or, according to the old prints that show him wearing the
familiar old fur cap and the heavy-rimmed spectacles. Franklin was
rather tall (about five feet ten inches), corpulent and heavy, with
rounded shoulders. He was a good swimmer; he was muscular and strong,
and he was a believer in vegetarianism and air-baths. In late years he
suffered from gout in his foot, and wrote in Paris a humorous dialogue
from which we get a very good idea of the old gentleman’s habits and
tastes. On his appeal to Gout to spare him, his persecutor exclaims:
“Not a jot; your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown away; your
apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a sedentary
one, your amusements, your recreations, at least, should be active.
You ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at
billiards. But 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 beef, which I fancy are not things the most easily digested.
Immediately afterwards 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 garden 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!”
But notwithstanding his sedentary life and his gout and his
other maladies, Franklin lived to be eighty-four, preserving his
extraordinary brightness and gayety to the last. His mental faculties
were unimpaired, his face was fresh and serene, and his spirits were
buoyant.
This charming vivacity and this play and sparkle of mind greatly
contributed towards making Franklin so beloved of the French. His life
in Paris was the happiest of his whole career. He was very social,
and he therefore enjoyed the Parisian garden parties and dinners,
the attractive women, and the literary, scientific and philosophical
men. He left France with reluctance, saying he could never forget the
years of happiness that he had spent “in the sweet society of a people
whose conversation is instructive, whose manners are highly pleasing,
and who, above all the nations in the world, have, in the greatest
perfection, the art of making themselves beloved by strangers.”
Franklin had a great talent for making friends; and one of the
greatest pleasures of his life was the enjoyment of his children and
grandchildren. He was always ready with a witty retort, and he loved a
joke and a hearty laugh. In fact, nothing seemed too large or too small
for Benjamin Franklin.
Regarding religion, he early revolted against New England Puritanism
and went through various stages of belief; but in his old age he had
faith in the immortality of the soul. His tolerance led John Adams
to say: “The Catholics thought him a Catholic. The Church of England
claimed him. The Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and
Friends believed him a wet Quaker.” Of his morals he has himself
written, and he prepared a moral code with comments.
Intellectual, practical, industrious, capable and genial, combining
so many qualities in one mind and with a vast amount of public work
achieved, Franklin remains a puzzle, for he seems to have had abundant
time to enjoy those social talents which amounted to genius.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: FROM AN ENGRAVING BY ROBERT WHITECHURCH. FROM THE
PAINTING BY C. SCHUESSELE
FRANKLIN BEFORE THE LORDS IN COUNCIL. WHITEHALL CHAPEL, LONDON, 1774]
_BENJAMIN FRANKLIN_
_As Politician and Diplomat_
THREE
Franklin prepared himself unconsciously for political life even in his
boyhood, when he wrote articles for his brother’s newspaper attacking
the established religious and political system of Massachusetts.
In the paper that he established when he was but twenty-three--the
_Pennsylvania Gazette_--he handled the questions of the day in masterly
fashion. About this time he published a pamphlet in favor of paper
money, which shows how early his mind was directed towards large
questions concerning the government. When he joined the Pennsylvania
Assembly, he became a leader of the Quaker majority; and, to represent
the interests of the Colony, he was sent as commissioner, or agent, to
England. He remained there for five years, returning to Philadelphia in
1762, only to stay at home until 1764, when he was sent on his second
mission to England. This time he remained for ten years. The period
covered the exciting agitations regarding the Stamp Act, its passage,
its repeal, and all the tumultuous proceedings that finally led to the
Revolution.
Franklin’s composure during the ordeal of Parliamentary investigation,
his witty replies, and his brilliant evasions to embarrassing questions
greatly enhanced his reputation. His clever satirical essays, published
in separate pamphlets, were widely circulated. During this period
of activity Franklin lived in Craven Street, London, pursued his
scientific studies, was appointed on committees to put lightning-rods
on St. Paul’s Cathedral and the government’s powder magazines, attended
meetings of various scientific and learned societies and clubs of which
he was a member, was entertained by the nobility, and knew everybody of
distinction in the political, scientific, artistic, and literary worlds.
Returning home, he was made one of the deputies to the Continental
Congress, which met in Philadelphia, and was also a member of the
Pennsylvania Legislature, and a member of the Committee of Safety to
prepare the defenses of the province.
His most important work was yet to come. In September, 1776, he was
appointed, by vote of Congress, the agent to represent in France the
united Colonies, which had just declared their independence of Great
Britain. Accordingly, he left Philadelphia and arrived in France in
December.
In our infancy of diplomatic service the old gentleman of seventy was
banker, merchant, judge of admiralty, consul, director of the navy,
ambassador to France, and negotiator with England for the exchange of
prisoners and for peace. He accomplished his mission with such success
that he was the idol of the French nation. Franklin was liked by the
French for his social qualities, his scientific accomplishments, his
philosophical mind, and his humorous and satirical writings. Moreover,
he was worshiped as the personification of _liberty_.
His mission in France ended in 1785.
The last important work of his life was helping to frame the national
document that took the place of the Articles of Confederation; and his
plan regarding representation in Congress was the one adopted.
The most active period of his life, as he himself has told us, was
between his seventieth and his eightieth years. If any statesman
ever deserved the name of “grand old man,” it certainly was Benjamin
Franklin.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: FROM THE PAINTING BY BENJAMIN WEST
FRANKLIN DRAWING ELECTRICITY FROM THE SKY]
_BENJAMIN FRANKLIN_
_As Scientist_
FOUR
One of the stories that has always charmed schoolchildren is that of
Dr. Franklin and his kite; and the quaint little illustration that
appeared in Franklin’s lifetime, and that was printed by him hundreds
of times over, is still reproduced in the accounts of this experiment.
It was not until 1746, or 1747, after Franklin had been making original
researches in science for about five years, that he took up the subject
of electricity. Franklin was then forty-one years old. The subject was
literally “in the air.” Peter Collinson, of London, had presented to
the Philadelphia Library one of the new glass tubes that was rubbed
with silk or skin to produce electricity. Franklin began at once
to experiment with this tube, and people came in crowds to see his
performances. Thomas Hopkinson and Philip Syng, who experimented with
him, discovered electrical fire, and invented an electrical machine for
producing the electrical spark. Franklin discovered what is now known
as “positive” and “negative” electricity. He also attempted to explain,
in his letters to Collinson, thunder and lightning as phenomena of
electricity; and, in 1759, sent him a paper announcing his invention
of the lightning-rod, and an explanation of its purpose and action.
He also suggested an experiment that would prove that lightning was
a form of electricity; and to show that lightning was attracted by
points he proposed that a man should stand on a tall steeple, or tower,
with a pointed rod and draw electricity from the thunder-clouds. The
experiment was tried in France and England, and Franklin was proclaimed
the discoverer of the identity of lightning with electricity. Some
of the scientists used a tall metal rod. Franklin now thought of the
kite experiment, because there were no steeples in Philadelphia tall
enough. To an ordinary kite covered with silk he fixed a sharp, pointed
wire, rising about a foot above the frame of the kite. To the end of
the twine next the hand a silk ribbon was tied; and where the silk and
twine joined a key was fastened. When the thunder-clouds passed over
the kite, the pointed wire drew the electric fire from them, and down
the string to the key, from which electric fire was obtained. This
experiment was made in 1752; and the news, as contained in Franklin’s
simple letter to Mr. Collinson, spread over the world, and with various
theatrical embellishments in the telling.
“Franklin,” writes one of his biographers, “cannot be ranked among
the great men of science, the Newtons, the Keplers, or the Humboldts,
Huxleys or Darwins. He belongs, rather, in the second class, among the
minor discoverers. But his discovery of the nature of lightning was so
striking and so capable of arousing the wonder of the masses of mankind
and his invention of the lightning rod was regarded as so valuable
that he has received more popular applause than men whose achievements
were greater and more important. His command of language had seldom
been put to better use than in explaining the rather subtle ideas and
conceptions in the early development of electricity. Even now, after
the lapse of one hundred and fifty years, we seem to gain a fresher
understanding of that subject by reading his homely and beautiful
explanations; and modern students would have an easier time if Franklin
were still here to write their text-books.”
Public business and long years of diplomatic service interrupted the
original study of science to a great extent; but even so, in England,
in France, and in the closing years of his life in Philadelphia,
Franklin found time, now and then, to devote to that loving
investigation of Nature, which, after his thirtieth year, became the
great passion of his life.
Everything in the way of scientific research fascinated him: he
investigated earthquakes, eclipses, storms, winds, the science
of sound, the laws of hot air and its movements, ventilation,
water-spouts, phosphorescence (“light in sea-water,” he called it), the
cause of saltiness in the sea, the Gulf Stream, rainfall, evaporation,
the aurora borealis, light, heat, the daily motion of the earth, and
many other subjects. He studied music as a science, and invented a new
kind of musical glasses (fashionable at that time) called “Armonica.”
He studied political economy in a scientific way, and was so interested
in agriculture that he tried experiments on his New Jersey farm. He
also invented the “Pennsylvania fireplace” and the “Franklin” stove.
Though his scientific writings are numerous, they are in the form of
essays and letters. His investigations and experiments were thus made
known to the world in letters to friends in France and England; for,
as there were no scientific periodicals in those days, men of learning
kept up a lively correspondence and occasionally issued a pamphlet.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY CHAPPEL
DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE--FRANKLIN, JEFFERSON, ADAMS,
LIVINGSTON, SHERMAN]
_BENJAMIN FRANKLIN_
_As Man of Letters_
FIVE
Franklin was a master of style. He had what critics call “a light
touch”; and he had the rare faculty of making any subject interesting.
He even wrote charmingly about stoves! How did he acquire this
wonderful skill, this clear and beautiful language which dropped so
easily from his pen, however dry the theme? No matter what essay, what
letter, what political pamphlet, or what year of “Poor Richard” we
may pick up, we are always held by Franklin’s magic personality. His
“Autobiography” is considered one of the greatest works of its kind
ever written.
A careful study of the third volume of Addison’s “Spectator,” and
experimenting with it in various ways, seems to have been the beginning
of Franklin’s literary education. It was a queer task for a young
boy--particularly one of an uncultured family--to impose upon himself;
but he tells us that he was encouraged, for, “I thought I might
possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was
extremely ambitious.”
Moreover, he fed himself on the best literature; and this, too, was
extraordinary for a boy in his position. Some of his early essays,
published in pamphlet form, have very dry titles. “A Dissertation on
Liberty, Necessity, and Pain,” and “A Modest Inquiry into the Nature
and Necessity of Paper Currency” are hardly alluring; but these papers
are full of shrewd reasoning and common sense--qualities that are
conspicuous in all his future writings. Franklin’s newspaper articles
were a splendid preparation for his political work.
Franklin was very fond of paraphrasing the Bible in a humorous way, and
fond of hoaxes, like the “Edict of the King of Prussia,” in which he
made Frederick the Great claim a right to the Kingdom of Great Britain,
because the British Isles were originally Anglo-Saxon colonies; and,
having reached a flourishing condition, deserved to be levied upon.
Franklin greatly enjoyed seeing the English take this seriously. It
was copied widely. So was another satire of 1773, called “Rules for
Reducing a Great Empire to a Small One,” descriptive of the British
government.
While in France his pen was always busy. Many of his letters were
practically essays. For Madame Brillon the “Ephemera,” the “Morals
of Chess,” “Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout,” “Story of the
Whistle,” and “Petition of the Left Hand” were written.
Franklin’s letters, so numerous and so witty, cover all periods of his
life. His electrical experiments and theories were all announced in
this form. His letters written home from England before the Revolution
are delightful reading.
“Poor Richard” was a real creation. The character made Franklin known
in England and France before he lived in those countries. “It was
quite common a hundred years ago,” writes a biographer, “to charge
Franklin with being a plagiarist. It is true that the sayings of ‘Poor
Richard,’ and a great deal that went to make up the almanac, were taken
from Rabelais, Bacon, Rochefoucault, Roy Palmer, and others. But ‘Poor
Richard’ changed and re-wrote them to suit his purpose, and gave most
of them a far wider circulation than they had before.”
“There is no little enemy”; “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage,
half-shut afterwards”; “Lend money to an enemy, and thou’lt gain
him; to a friend and thou’lt lose him”; “Necessity never made a good
bargain”; “A word to the wise is enough”; “God helps those that
help themselves”; “The sleeping fox catches no poultry”; “Drive thy
business, let that not drive thee”; “Early to bed and early to rise
makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise”; “Experience keeps a dear
school, but fools will learn in no other”--are some of Poor Richard’s
proverbs that have passed into our everyday speech.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM O. GELLER, OF LONDON. FROM THE
ORIGINAL PAINTING BY BARON JOLLY, OF BRUXELLES
FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, 1778--SEATED FIGURES ARE LOUIS XVI AND
MARIE ANTOINETTE]
_BENJAMIN FRANKLIN_
_As Printer_
SIX
“Benjamin Franklin, printer,” was Franklin’s favorite way of describing
himself. He was, indeed, a printer all his life. When only twelve,
he became apprentice to his half-brother, James, but quarreled with
him and ran away, finally reaching Philadelphia. Here he obtained
employment and the patronage of Sir William Keith, Governor of
Pennsylvania and Delaware, who gave him the public printing to do.
Persuaded to try his fortune in London with Keith’s patronage, Franklin
set sail with high hopes; but, on arriving, he found that Keith had
played him false, and that no letter of credit, as promised, awaited
him. After a year and a half of struggle and adventure, he was back
in Philadelphia working at his trade. Franklin was now twenty-one.
In a short time he started in business with a partner, and the firm
of Franklin & Meredith limped along slowly but surely until Franklin
became possessed of the leading newspaper in Philadelphia, to which he
gave a new title, the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.
This he improved in every way, making it the best and most widely read
newspaper in the Colonies. By this time (1729) Franklin had a very
well-trained pen, and his journalistic writings and published pamphlets
had attracted much attention. He now dropped his partner, and, to help
out his small income, he opened a shop, where he sold stationery,
goose-feathers, soap, liquors, and groceries. About this time he
printed the laws of Delaware.
The _Pennsylvania Gazette_ grew better and better all the time; for
it contained anecdotes, extracts from English newspapers and articles
which Franklin had written for and read to his club, the Junto.
In Colonial days every printer issued an almanac. Franklin followed
the rule; but the annual he published differed in no way from any of
the others until 1733, when Franklin, having nobody to prepare his
almanac, had to write it himself. He published it as the work of a
Richard Saunders, called in Franklin’s genial way, “Poor Richard.” In
a note to “Courteous Reader,” Poor Richard introduced himself, little
anticipating the success he was to have.
“Poor Richard’s Almanac” appeared every year thereafter, for
twenty-five years, the annual sale averaging 10,000 copies a year, far
in excess of any other Colonial publication. “Poor Richard” is now a
“classic”; even those that have not read it have heard of it. Moreover,
many people quote the homely proverbs without knowing it; for Poor
Richard’s wisdom became part and parcel of our English speech long ago.
Sometimes it has been published as “Father Abraham’s Speech,” and “The
Way to Wealth,” and it has been translated into every modern language.
Besides his newspaper and almanac printing, Franklin printed books. He
brought out the first novel ever published in America--Richardson’s
“Pamela” (1744). Franklin’s tremendous industry and his general thrift
made him successful enough to retire at the age of forty-two. Then came
a brief interval, before his political career began in earnest, during
which he lived “more like a man of taste and a scholar accustomed to
cultured surroundings than a self-made man who had battled for years
with the material world.”
The year 1748, though marking the end of Franklin’s career as active
printer, did not terminate his interest in the setting of type and
issuing his writings from his own press. Even in Passy, when in the
midst of his busy diplomatic duties, he had a printing-press of his
own from which he issued those “bagatelles” that so charmed the French
ladies of his acquaintance.
Cleverly the printer speaks in the famous epitaph:
The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin
Printer
(Like the cover of an old book
Its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering and gilding)
Lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be lost;
For it will (as he believed) appear once more
In a new and more elegant edition
Revised and corrected
by
The Author
Franklin’s grandson, William Temple Franklin, who claimed to have the
original _Ms_, said the date upon it was 1728. This disposes of the
theory that Franklin took the idea from the Latin epitaph of an Eton
school-boy, published in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for February, 1736.
But, as writing comic epitaphs was a fashion in those days, there is no
reason why both should not have been original.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF BIOGRAPHY
MAY 15, 1918
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART
_Professor of Government, Harvard University_
Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New
York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1918, by The
Mentor Association, Inc.
_MENTOR GRAVURES_
THE YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1723
THE MATURE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1777
FRANKLIN DRAWING ELECTRICITY FROM THE SKY
[Illustration]
_MENTOR GRAVURES_
FRANKLIN BEFORE THE LORDS OF WHITEHALL, LONDON, 1775
DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, 1778
[Illustration]
[Illustration: FRANKLIN
From an engraving after a painting by Duplessis
TRANSLATION OF THE INSCRIPTION--“Honor of the New World and Humanity,
this true and amiable sage guides and enlightens them; like another
Mentor, he hides in the common eye a divinity, beneath the features of
a mortal.”--_M. Feutry._]
Think of an American Revolution without Benjamin Franklin! As well
think of English Literature without Shakespeare, a Civil War without
Lincoln. Franklin _was_ the Revolution itself. That is, he prepared the
way for it, represented it, infused it with his lively spirit. He was
indispensable. If the British had carried out their cheerful project
of hanging Sam Adams, Patrick Henry would have continued to breathe
out the flame of Liberty. Washington and Franklin, however, were
unique figures. Without the courage, faith and personal leadership of
Washington, the army would have gone to pieces at Valley Forge, and the
United States of America would have been postponed.
On the other hand, it was Franklin’s cool sagacity that convinced
first the French and then the British that there was an America; that
several million people were determined to cling together as a nation.
Washington was the standing proof of the willingness of Americans
to fight for self-government; Franklin was the man who went far to
convince the world that Americans were capable of carrying on their
government after they got it. Besides his reputation as the greatest
American writer of his time, and the most renowned scientific man, he
gained and deserved the repute of being a main supporting pillar of the
new United States of America.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S BIRTHPLACE
It stood on Milk Street, Boston, until destroyed by fire in 1810]
_Franklin in Massachusetts_
In a time when most Americans passed their lives within the borders
of their own colony, Franklin was a citizen of two colonies, and an
official of four. He honored Massachusetts by being born in Boston in
1706, the son of an emigrant, like millions after him--his father being
of English birth. Benjamin was a human kind of boy, eager to run away
to sea; went to the kind of school kept by a school-master only two
years of his life; educated himself on a mixed diet of John Bunyan,
“Plutarch’s Lives” and the “Spectator”; became a kind of printer’s
devil to his brother James; and early got into trouble through
incautious writing for the newspapers. At seventeen the graceless youth
ran away from home. Yet he came back four times to visit Boston, and
toward the end of his life wrote, “I long much to see again my native
place and to lay my bones there--my best wishes attend my dear country.”
[Illustration: THE SO-CALLED “VERSAILLES” PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN
From an engraving by Levy, owned by Clarence W. Bowen, Brooklyn, N. Y.]
_Franklin as a Pennsylvanian_
On his arrival in Philadelphia in 1723, Benjamin Franklin began to
make himself a commonwealth builder, and for more than thirty years
he was one of the motive forces in that colony. From the first he
found himself more at home in Philadelphia than in Boston. A man never
overdisposed to self-denial, he enjoyed the comfort, the good dinners,
the pleasant associations, the building up of social forces. Still, at
that time Franklin had a much greater interest in Benjamin Franklin
than in the community around him. He even showed the unusual enterprise
of going abroad in 1725, a practice commonly reserved for wealthy
Colonials who wanted to spend their money like gentlemen.
Returning in 1727, he, first of all, laid the foundations of a
printing business large and profitable for the time. In 1729, then
only twenty-three years old, he started a newspaper for himself,
which speedily made him a force in the community. Once launched as
a publisher, Franklin extended his ventures more and more widely;
and in 1740 he founded a _General Magazine_, and was one of the
first Americans to discover how much money can be sunk in a literary
periodical and in how short a time.
[Illustration: MRS. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
Born Deborah Reed. From a portrait painted by Matthew Pratt, and now
owned by the Rev. F. B. Hodge, Wilkesbarre, Pa.]
In 1732, he began the most popular and the most effective of all
his publications--_Poor Richard’s Almanac_, an annual which sold
the incredible number of ten thousand a year, and which applied the
sagacity and humor of the writer to setting forth a standard of morals,
which, however utilitarian and self-seeking, had a powerful influence
upon a crude and growing people. Indeed, it is almost the only bit of
American literature that circulated throughout the Colonies and infused
a national spirit into the half century preceding the Revolution.
Once established as a man of property and influence, Franklin bent
his energies to setting up a new standard of education. In 1743, he
issued proposals for an academy of learning, and in 1744 founded the
American Philosophical Society. In 1749, he raised the great sum of
five thousand pounds for the new school, and secured an excellent
building for it. This far-reaching plan also included a “Free
School--for the Instruction of Poor Children in Reading, Writing and
Arithmetic”--apparently the first suggestion of a free school in his
commonwealth. In 1755, his school developed into a college which
subsequently became the University of Pennsylvania. No man in America
had such solid and thorough-going views as to the value of education.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN GIVING PART OF HIS BREAD TO A POOR WOMAN
Philadelphia, 1723]
As has been the case with many journalists, his calling speedily
brought him into political relations, for he was chosen to be the
official printer of the Colonial legislature; and thereafter for
fifty-nine years was seldom out of some form of public employment. Thus
established as a kind of public character, Franklin set himself to
improve both city and Colonial governments.
In 1737, he was made postmaster of Philadelphia, and caused great
surprise by his prompt and accurate financial accounts.
[Illustration: DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
From a painting by Duplessis in 1778. The original, in the Academy
of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, is believed to be the best likeness of
Franklin]
Benjamin Franklin also organized himself into the first Good Government
Club on record. Backed by at least half the press of the city (for he
owned one of the two newspapers), and unanimously supported by the
postmaster, he demanded a regeneration of the city. Eventually, he
succeeded in dispossessing the old constables, who served in rotation,
and in securing a police force, paid for that special service. He
organized a fire company, which not only operated its hand engine when
necessary, but carried materials for covering and protecting goods.
He was also the first of many exasperated persons to criticize the
Philadelphia pavements.
When later elected member of the Common Council, and then an Alderman
and also a local Justice of Peace, Franklin, like some other good
Philadelphia citizens, became rather apathetic. Nevertheless, these
honors were not unwelcome, for he said of himself: “I shall never
_Ask_, never _Refuse_, nor ever _Resign_ an office.” By this time
Franklin was involved in the public life of the colony. In 1736,
he obtained the office of clerk to the General Assembly, which he
continued to hold for many years.
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN
Owned by H. C. Thompson, Philadelphia]
Colonial affairs became especially important when war broke out with
France and Spain in 1744. The Quakers were then the great problem in
the Pennsylvania government, since their principles forbade them to
fight, or even to vote money for military purposes. Franklin relates
that by a judicious application of Madeira wine to the gullet of
Governor Clinton of New York, he borrowed eighteen cannon for the
defense of Philadelphia. He did more. He so aroused the Quakers that
although they refused to authorize the purchase of powder for the
army, “because that was an ingredient of war,” they voted an aid to
New England of three thousand pounds to be put into the hands of the
Governor, and appropriated it “for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat
or other grain.” The Governor accepted with the remark, “I shall take
the money, for I understand very well their meaning; _other grain_ is
gunpowder.” Franklin himself suggested that the Quakers be importuned
to permit the purchase of a fire engine; and then, said he, “we will
buy a great gun, which is certainly a _fire engine_.”
From his position of political and intellectual influence in
Pennsylvania, Franklin easily passed into the larger field of general
Colonial policies and public service. In 1754, he was made one of
the commissioners to a joint congress of seven colonies, which met
at Albany; from beginning to end of that meeting he was the leading
spirit, and he prepared what is practically the first plan for a
Federal Constitution. This was to include a Grand Council, which is the
earliest suggestion of a national legislature. The Congress of Albany
liked the plan and approved it, but the home government frowned upon
it, and Franklin records that “the Assemblies did not adopt it, as they
all thought there was too much prerogative in it; and in England it was
judged to have too much of the democratic.” Franklin called to mind
the Confederation of the Iroquois and marveled that the “Six Nations
of ignorant slaves[A] should be capable of forming a scheme for such
a union and be able to execute it in such a manner, so that it has
subsisted for ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union
should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies.”
[A] The word “slaves” is no doubt used here in the sense of
“savages.”
[Illustration: ANOTHER DUPLESSIS PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN]
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
From the original painting by Chappel]
[Illustration: BUST OF FRANKLIN
By P. J. Chartigny In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York]
In the war that followed, Franklin showed himself almost the only
vigorous administrator. He was the man who found the wagons necessary
for Braddock’s expedition, he was even chosen colonel of a militia
regiment. Then, in 1757, he was sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly to
be the agent of the Colony in England, and thus entered on a new and
important career.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
From the portrait by Martin, painted in England in 1765]
[Illustration: STATUE OF FRANKLIN, NEW YORK
Designed by E. Classman]
[Illustration: STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN
White metal. French, nineteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of Art]
[Illustration: FRANKLIN MONUMENT IN NEW ORLEANS]
Many Englishmen found their way to the American Colonies and made
reputations there. Franklin was one of the few Americans that became
renowned in England. For years he stood for the thought that Englishmen
in Great Britain and the Colonies were alike citizens of a common
Anglo-Saxon empire, which might look forward to a glorious future. He
even ventured to assert that “the foundations of the future grandeur
and stability of the British empire lie in America.”
The English government bestowed upon him the important post of
deputy-postmaster-general for the Colonies. He so impressed the men
of learning that he received doctorates of law from the universities
of St. Andrews, Oxford, and Edinburgh. Yet his public functions were
the lesser part of his influence; he found friends everywhere, and by
his personal relations with ministers and private persons affected
the minds of the British. The colonies of Georgia, New Jersey, and
Massachusetts also designated him as their agent, and his various
public offices brought him in the large income for that time of fifteen
hundred pounds a year.
When the question of the Stamp Act arose in 1766, Franklin appeared
before the House of Commons to protest, and in his examination occurred
the famous passage:
“Question--‘Can anything less than a military force carry the Stamp
Act into execution?’
“Answer--‘I do not see how a military force could be applied to that
purpose.’
“Question--‘Why may it not?’
“Answer--‘Suppose a military force be sent into America, they will
find nobody in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man
to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not find a
rebellion; they will indeed make one.’”
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
By Boyle
This statue stands at Ninth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, close
to the spot where Franklin first drew electricity from the sky]
[Illustration: STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN AND LOUIS XVI.
French porcelain. Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Franklin’s position had great weight in bringing about the repeal of
the Stamp Act; and thereafter he strove with all his might to prevent
the breaking up of the empire. When the storm broke in 1775, Franklin
needed to make no choice. An American through and through, he never
thought of anything but casting his lot with that of his countrymen;
and on March 21, 1775, he left England, and became an original Son
of the American Revolution. The conditions have never been better
set forth than in his own words: “And now the affair is nearly in
the situation of Friar Bacon’s project of making a brazen wall round
England for its eternal security. His servant, Friar Bungey, slept
while the brazen head, which was to dictate how it may be done, said,
‘_Time_ is and _Time_ was.’ He only waked to hear it say, ‘_Time is
past_.’”
_Franklin in the Revolution_
[Illustration: FRENCH PLAQUE
After Cochin by Dupont.
Metropolitan Museum of Art]
When Franklin arrived at Philadelphia, May 5th, he found himself at
once a member and a leader in a body of men who, without any legal
mandate, were called upon to create, to organize, and to defend the
United States. The day after Franklin’s arrival in America he was
designated by Pennsylvania as a member of the Continental Congress
which was to meet shortly. A few days later he was elected a member
of the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly. The next year he was chosen
member and president of the State Constitutional Convention; and in
1776, he was appointed envoy of the United States to France. Besides
these dignities, in that year and a half, he was one of the half dozen
men who designated the framework of the future state and national
governments of America.
[Illustration: THREE PLATES BEARING PORTRAITS OF FRANKLIN
Made by Veuve Perrin, Marseilles, France, late in the eighteenth
century. Metropolitan Museum of Art]
July 21, 1775, Franklin formally presented to Congress a skilful plan
for a federal government, which was the foundation stone of the present
Federal Constitution. It contains some things out of the Albany plan
of 1754; and had it been adopted as it stood, would have been a better
instrument of government than was later drawn up by Congress. Franklin
proposed and urged a strong, vigorous and well-knit union. He was also
a member of the committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence
in 1776. His principal contribution to the discussion was his famous
retort when somebody said, “We must all hang together”--“Yes, we must
all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.” Franklin took
an honorable part in the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of
1776, and to him was due the fine phrase in the Pennsylvania Bill of
Rights, “That all men have a natural and inalienable right to worship
Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences and
understanding.”
[Illustration: HEAD OF FRANKLIN
Nineteenth-century, French tortoise-shell snuff-box. Metropolitan
Museum of Art]
_Franklin as a Diplomat_
Benjamin Franklin was now seventy years old, and said of himself to a
fellow member of Congress, “I am old and good for nothing; but as the
storekeepers say of their remnants of cloth, I am but a fag end, and
you may have me for what you please to give.” Yet he accepted the most
important post of his life when in September, 1776, he was elected
commissioner to France. There for nine years he served his country as
the most popular, most sagacious, and most successful foreign minister
ever appointed by the United States.
[Illustration: ONE OF FRANKLIN’S INGENIOUS DEVICES FOR TEACHING THE
LESSONS OF PRACTICAL WISDOM]
[Illustration: FRANKLIN TEARS THE LIGHTNING FROM THE SKY AND THE
SCEPTER FROM THE TYRANTS
Seated beside him is the figure of America. From a sepia drawing by
Fragonard, owned by Clarence S. Bement, Philadelphia]
He was not merely a diplomatic representative; he was a commercial
and financial agent, fitted out vessels, issued commissions, borrowed
money. Well did Horace Walpole say of him that Franklin was
furnishing materials for writing the History of the Decline of the
British Empire. Without Franklin the two treaties of 1778 with France
could not have been obtained. By his personal relations with Englishmen
of note, he was the natural starting point for overtures of concord;
and in the negotiations of the peace of 1782 he stood alongside the
eager, impetuous, and hotly national John Adams, and courteous, high
bred and determined John Jay, as chief of that remarkable triumvirate
of negotiators.
[Illustration: PRINTING PRESS AT WHICH FRANKLIN WORKED WHEN A BOY IN
BOSTON
Now exhibited in the rooms of the Mechanics’ Institute, Boston, Mass.]
After all, Franklin’s chief service abroad was not so much the
obtaining of favorable terms as the maintaining of American character.
Who could deny the right to be a nation to a people whose best
aspirations were typified by this shrewd, hard-headed, kindly man,
a gallant among the fashionables, a philosopher among scientists, a
statesman among ministers, a man among men?
_Franklin in the Federal Convention_
At seventy-nine years of age most men expect retirement, and it was
very grateful to Franklin that, on his return to America in 1785, he
should almost immediately be chosen by Pennsylvania to be the president
of the commonwealth. His universal popularity was shown by the people
of western North Carolina (now east Tennessee), who, in 1784, set up
a short-lived frontier commonwealth, to which by way of compliment
they gave the name of Franklin. In 1787, Franklin readily accepted
membership in the Federal Convention, as one of the Pennsylvania
delegation. He was somewhat out of touch with the real difficulties of
the time, and most of his suggestions were overruled, but his influence
throughout was in favor of a well organized, strong central government;
and he was almost the only member to introduce an element of humanity
and good humor.
[Illustration: MRS. SARAH BACHE
Daughter of Franklin]
On the last day of the convention he rose to urge a spirit of
compromise, a willingness to yield something of one’s own opinion; to
avoid the spirit of “a certain French lady, who, in a dispute with
her sister, said, ‘I don’t know how it happens, sister, but I meet
with nobody but myself that is always in the right.’” When at the end,
signatures of the members were appended, numerous enough to make it
likely that the Constitution would be accepted by the people, Franklin
looked at the sun painted behind the President’s chair, and made a
comment which is as applicable to his own reputation as it was to
the new Federal Constitution. “I have often and often in the course
of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its
issue, looked at that sun 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.”
This was the end of Franklin’s public life; three years later he died,
full of years and honor, with the established reputation of a man of
learning, power, and statesmanship. Possessed of a calm dignity that
impressed even the frivolous court of France, he added a love of fun
such as no other great American public man has shown, except Abraham
Lincoln. His Autobiography abounds in delightful pictures of the gawky
youth and the serene statesman. His vast powers belong to his country;
his great endeavors went into federal government, which he helped to
found, to protect, and to restate in the immortal Constitution of 1787.
That is his best monument.
[Illustration: GRAVE OF FRANKLIN IN THE CHRIST CHURCH BURIAL GROUND,
PHILADELPHIA
The stone nearest the fence covers the bodies of both Franklin and his
wife]
_SUPPLEMENTARY READING_
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, WITH NOTES BY JOHN BIGELOW. An
attractive edition in Everyman’s Library.
SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF FRANKLIN
POOR RICHARD’S ALMANAC
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SELF-REVEALED _By W. C. Bruce_
THE TRUE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN _By S. G. Fisher_
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN _By L. C. Holman_
⁂ Information concerning the above books may be had on application to
the Editor of The Mentor.
_THE OPEN LETTER_
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
From a pastel drawing made in Paris in 1783 by Duplessis, New York
Public Library]
Benjamin Franklin’s eyes were blue-gray. How do we know this? Because
Duplessis’s pastel portrait in colors tells us so. Franklin had bland,
shrewd, clear seeing eyes that comprehended in their genial, open
glance the whole of human nature. They first saw the light of day on
January 17, 1706, and they were closed for--the last time on April
17, 1790. During all those years those luminous blue-gray eyes were
observing life closely, studiously and intelligently, and they saw many
great things come to pass--the most important being the making of a
new nation. The eyes of Franklin saw Liberty in its cradle, and with
earnest solicitude, watched its growth and development until it became
the watchword and dominating principle of a great republic. Moreover,
while witnessing these national events, and sharing actively in them,
Franklin had time to look into the everyday affairs of men, to find
solutions for many problems of the work-a-day world, to suggest and
plan improved methods of doing things, to invent useful devices--and,
with his printing establishment as a means of public expression, to
give utterance to a system of practical philosophy that was a benefit
and blessing to his fellow men. Franklin was the peerless Practical
Man, and his writings contain the Complete Gospel of Common Sense.
* * * * *
It would be well if all of us could look at the world through Ben
Franklin’s discerning, gray eyes. It is not the gray color of the eye,
but the gray matter back of it that counts. I note here the color of
Ben Franklin’s eyes only because I have just been “checked up” on the
subject of eyes. A reader writes me as follows:
Let me call attention to a discrepancy in the Julius Cæsar
number of The Mentor. On cover page 2 the statement is made
that Cæsar’s eyes were dark gray. On page 8 it is said that
they were black.
Our reader overlooks the fact that the two statements are not made by
the same writer. The first statement is made by the English historian
James Anthony Froude; the other by George W. Botsford, late professor
of ancient history in Columbia University. These two eminent scholars
present the conclusions that they have individually drawn from
historical study. When two authorities differ it is the duty of The
Mentor, as an educational publication, to present the two statements
for the reader’s comparison. It is probable that the original evidence
on which Mr. Froude and Professor Botsford based their statements was
to the effect that Cæsar’s eyes were very dark and piercing in their
glance--and that, surely, is near enough for the color of eyes nearly
two thousand years ago.
* * * * *
We are reproducing Duplessis’s pastel portrait of Franklin on this
page. This picture has a story. Duplessis made several portraits of
Franklin; this seems to be the only one in pastel, the others being oil
paintings. When Franklin was in France he lived at Passy, a suburb of
Paris. A friend and neighbor was M. le Veillard, who frequently urged
Franklin to write his memoirs. Franklin lent a willing ear, and it was
his wish that his neighbor should translate the memoirs, when finished,
into French. With that end in view, he turned over to M. le Veillard
much auto-biographical material. This pastel portrait by Duplessis was
made especially for M. le Veillard, and when that unfortunate gentleman
met his death on the Revolutionary scaffold in 1794, the picture
went to his daughter, and later came into the possession of Mr. John
Bigelow, when he was United States Minister to France (1865-66). By him
it was presented to the New York Public Library, and it now hangs in
the trustees’ room.
[Illustration: W. D. Moffat
EDITOR]
DAYLIGHT SAVING FRANKLIN’S IDEA
There was nothing of any significance in the affairs of mankind that
escaped Benjamin Franklin’s attention. Not only political, social,
commercial, literary and artistic matters concerned him, but likewise
the many problems, great and small, that had to be met in the course
of the day’s work. He was the first to conceive the idea of daylight
saving--which means that he was, in practical wisdom, 130 odd years
ahead of his time.
On an early morning walk along the streets of London in 1784 the
thought first came to Franklin, and in passing it on to the world at
large he said:
“In a walk through the Strand and Fleet street one morning at 7
o’clock, I observed there was not one shop open, although it had been
daylight and the sun up above three hours, the inhabitants of London
choosing voluntarily to live by candle light and sleep by sunshine; and
yet often complaining a little absurdly of the duty on candles and the
high price of tallow.”
Soon thereafter in the _Journal de Paris_ he published an article,
later appearing among his essays under the title “An Economical
Project,” which further elaborated the advantages of daylight saving;
namely, of “Turning the clock forward an hour” so that everybody would
live one hour longer by daylight and one hour less by artificial light.
* * * * *
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DO YOU KNOW--During the past few months more than 400,000 previous
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=1= =Beautiful Children in Art=, by Kobbé.
=2= =Makers of American Poetry=, by Mabie.
=3= =Washington the Capital=, by Elmendorf.
=4= =Beautiful Women in Art=, by Willing.
=5= =Romantic Ireland=, by Elmendorf.
=6= =Masters of Music=, by Henderson.
=7= =Natural Wonders of America=, by Elmendorf.
=8= =Pictures We Love to Live With=, by Huneker.
=9= =The Conquest of the Peaks=, by Fay.
=10= =Scotland, the Land of Song and Scenery=, by Elmendorf.
=11= =Cherubs in Art=, by Kobbé.
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=19= =Flowers of Decoration=, by H. S. Adams.
=20= =Makers of American Humor=, by Burges Johnson.
=21= =American Sea Painters=, by Arthur Hoeber.
=22= =The Explorers=, by Hart.
=23= =Sporting Vacations=, by Beard.
=24= =Switzerland, the Land of Scenic Splendors=, by Elmendorf.
=25= =American Novelists=, by Mabie.
=26= =American Landscape Painters=, by Samuel Isham.
=27= =Venice, the Island City=, by Elmendorf.
=28= =The Wife in Art=, by Kobbé.
=29= =Great American Inventors=, by Brace.
=30= =Furniture and Its Makers=, by Richards.
=31= =Spain and Gibraltar=, by Elmendorf.
=32= =Historic Spots of America=, by McElroy.
=33= =Beautiful Buildings of the World=, by Ward.
=34= =Game Birds of America=, by E. H. Forbush.
=35= =The Contest for North America=, by Hart.
=36= =Famous American Sculptors=, by Lorado Taft.
=37= =The Conquest of the Poles=, by Rear Admiral Peary.
=38= =Napoleon=, by Ida M. Tarbell.
=39= =The Mediterranean=, by Elmendorf.
=40= =Angels in Art=, by Van Dyke.
=41= =Famous Composers=, by Henry T. Finck.
=42= =Egypt, the Land of Mystery=, by Elmendorf.
=43= =The Revolution=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=44= =Famous English Poets=, by Mabie.
=45= =Makers of American Art=, by J. T. Willing.
=46= =The Ruins of Rome=, by Botsford.
=47= =Makers of Modern Opera=, by H. E. Krehbiel.
=48= =Two Early German Painters--Dürer and Holbein=, by
F. J. Mather, Jr.
=49= =Vienna, the Queen City=, by Elmendorf.
=50= =Ancient Athens=, by Botsford.
=51= =The Barbizon School=, by Hoeber.
=52= =Abraham Lincoln=, by Hart.
=53= =George Washington=, by McElroy.
=54= =Mexico=, by Frederick Palmer.
=55= =Famous American Women Painters=, by Arthur Hoeber.
=56= =The Conquest of the Air=, by Woodhouse.
=57= =Court Painters of France=, by Coffin, N. A.
=58= =Holland=, by Elmendorf.
=59= =Our Feathered Friends=, by E. H. Forbush.
=60= =Glacier National Park=, by Hornaday.
=61= =Michelangelo=, by Cox.
=62= =American Colonial Furniture=, by Esther Singleton.
=63= =American Wild Flowers=, by Eaton.
=64= =Gothic Architecture=, by Ward.
=65= =The Story of the Rhine=, by Elmendorf.
=66= =Shakespeare=, by Mabie.
=67= =American Mural Painters=, by Hoeber.
=68= =Celebrated Animal Characters=, by Hornaday.
=69= =Japan=, by Elmendorf.
=70= =The Story of the French Revolution=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=71= =Rugs and Rug Making=, by Mumford.
=72= =Alaska=, by Browne.
=73= =Charles Dickens=, by Mabie.
=74= =Grecian Masterpieces=, by Lorado Taft.
=75= =Fathers of the Constitution=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=76= =Masters of the Piano=, by Finck.
=77= =American Historic Homes=, by Singleton.
=78= =Beauty Spots of India=, by Elmendorf.
=79= =Etchers and Etching=, by Weitenkampf.
=80= =Oliver Cromwell=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=81= =China=, by Elmendorf.
=82= =Favorite Trees=, by Hornaday.
=83= =Yellowstone National Park=, by Elmendorf.
=84= =Famous Women Writers of England=, by Mabie.
=85= =Painters of Western Life=, by Hoeber.
=86= =China and Pottery of Our Forefathers=, by Esther Singleton.
=87= =The Story of The American Railroad=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=88= =Butterflies=, by Holland.
=89= =The Philippine Islands=, by Worcester.
=90= =Great Galleries of the World--the Louvre=, by Van Dyke.
=91= =William M. Thackeray=, by Mabie.
=92= =The Grand Canyon=, by Elmendorf.
=93= =Architecture in American Country Homes=, by Aymar Embury.
=94= =The Story of the Danube=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=95= =Animals in Art=, by Kobbé.
=96= =The Holy Land=, by Elmendorf.
=97= =John Milton=, by Mabie.
=98= =Joan of Arc=, by Ida M. Tarbell.
=99= =Furniture of the Revolutionary Period=, by Esther Singleton.
=100= =The Ring of the Nibelung=, by Finck.
=101= =The Golden Age of Greece=, by Botsford.
=102= =Chinese Rugs=, by Mumford.
=103= =The War of 1812=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=104= =Great Galleries of the World--The National Gallery, London=,
by Van Dyke.
=105= =Masters of the Violin=, by Finck.
=106= =American Pioneer Prose Writers=, by Mabie.
=107= =Old Silver=, by Esther Singleton.
=108= =Shakespeare’s Country=, by William Winter.
=109= =Historic Gardens of New England=, by Mary H. Northend.
=110= =The Weather=, by C. F. Talman.
=111= =American Poets of the Soil=, by Johnson.
=112= =Argentina=, by Newman.
=113= =Game Animals of America=, by Hornaday.
=114= =Raphael=, by Van Dyke.
=115= =Walter Scott=, by Mabie.
=116= =The Yosemite Valley=, by Elmendorf.
=117= =John Paul Jones=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=118= =Russian Music=, by Finck.
=119= =Chile=, by Newman.
=120= =Rembrandt=, by Van Dyke.
=121= =Southern California=, by C. F. Lummis.
=122= =Keeping Time=, by Talman.
=123= =American Miniature Painting=, by Mrs. Elizabeth Lounsbery.
=124= =Gems=, by Esther Singleton.
=125= =The Orchestra=, by Henderson.
=126= =Brazil=, by E. M. Newman.
=127= =The American Triumvirate=, by A. B. Hart.
=128= =The Madonna and Child in Art=, by Van Dyke.
=129= =The Story of the American Navy=, by Barnes.
=130= =Lace and Lace Making=, by Esther Singleton.
=131= =American Water Color Painters=, by Kobbé.
=132= =Peru=, by E. M. Newman.
=133= =The Story of the American Army=, by Hart.
=134= =Our Planet Neighbors=, by Harold Jacoby.
=135= =The Story of Russia=, by Leo Pasvolsky.
=136= =The Story of the Hudson=, by A. B. Hart.
=137= =Prehistoric Animal Life=, by Dr. Matthew.
=138= =Hawaii=, by E. M. Newman.
=139= =Earthquakes and Volcanoes=, by Talman.
=140= =The Canadian Rockies=, by Ruth Kedzie Wood.
=141= =Corot=, by Elliott Daingerfield.
=142= =Bolivia=, by E. M. Newman.
=143= =Russian Art=, by William A. Coffin.
=144= =The American Government=, by A. B. Hart.
=145= =Christmas in Picture and Story=, by Singleton.
=146= =The Picture on the Wall=, by Weitenkampf.
=147= =Lafayette=, by Albert Bushnell Hart.
=148= =American Composers=, by Henry T. Finck.
=149= =The Luxembourg Gallery=, by Wm. A. Coffin.
THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION; 114-116 East 16th Street, New York City
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*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Mentor: Benjamin Franklin, Vol. 6, Num. 7, Serial No. 155, May 15, 1918" ***
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