Chapter I: Front Matter

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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.

* * * * *

*

AMERICAN WRITERS SERIES

*

HARRY HAYDEN CLARK
_General Editor_

*

AMERICAN WRITERS SERIES

_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

ÆT. 56]

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