Transcriber's Note
Every effort has been made to replicate this text asfaithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and otherinconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious erroris noted at the end of this ebook.
Also, many occurrences of mismatched single and double quotes remainas they were in the original.
MEMOIRS
OF
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN;
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
WITH HIS
MOST INTERESTING ESSAYS, LETTERS, AND MISCELLANEOUS
WRITINGS; FAMILIAR, MORAL, POLITICAL,
ECONOMICAL, AND PHILOSOPHICAL.
SELECTED WITH CARE
FROM ALL HIS PUBLISHED PRODUCTIONS, AND COMPRISING
WHATEVER IS MOST ENTERTAINING AND VALUABLE
TO THE GENERAL READER.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT.
It would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, to gather from thehistory and labours of any individual mind, a summary of practicalwisdom as rich in varied instruction as the memoirs and writingspresented in these volumes will be found to afford. If, on account ofthe most distinguished public services, the name of Franklin has becomeinseparably associated with his country's glory, the works which he hasleft behind him no less justly entitle him to be considered as thebenefactor not only of his own country, but of mankind for all comingtime. So admirable, indeed, are these productions, that they can onlycease being read when the love of beauty and of simplicity, of moralpower and of truth, has no longer a place in the hearts of men.
"This self-taught American," to quote from the Edinburgh Review of 1806,"is the most rational, perhaps, of all philosophers. He never loses[Pg viii]sight of common sense in any of his speculations. No individual,perhaps, ever possessed a juster understanding, or was so seldomobstructed in the use of it by indolence, enthusiasm, or authority. * ** * There are not many among the thoroughbred scholars and philosophersof Europe who can lay claim to distinction in more than one or twodepartments of science and literature. The uneducated tradesman ofAmerica has left writings which call for our attention in naturalphilosophy, in politics, in political economy, and in general literatureand morality." And again: "Nothing can be more perfectly and beautifullyadapted to its object than most of the moral compositions of Dr.Franklin. The tone of familiarity, of good-will, and harmlessjocularity; the plain and pointed illustrations; the short sentences,made up of short words; and the strong sense, clear information, andobvious conviction of the author himself, make most of his moralexhortations perfect models of popular eloquence, and often the finestspecimens of a style which has been too little cultivated in his nativecountry.
"The most remarkable thing, however, in these, and indeed in the wholeof his physical speculations, is the unparalleled simplicity andfacility with which the reader is