Benjamin Franklin

Paul Elmer More

Informations

• Publié par: untoo
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 50
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Benjamin Franklin, by Paul Elmer More This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Benjamin Franklin Author: Paul Elmer More Release Date: July 22, 2009 [EBook #29482] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ***

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

The Riverside Biographical Series  1. ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. B ROWN .  2. JAMES B. EADS, by L OUIS H OW .  3. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by P AUL E. M ORE .  4. PETER COOPER, by R. W. R AYMOND .  5. THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. M ERWIN .  6. WILLIAM PENN, by G EORGE H ODGES .  7. GENERAL GRANT, by W ALTER A LLEN .  8. LEWIS AND CLARK, by W ILLIAM R. L IGHTON .  9. JOHN MARSHALL, by J AMES B. T HAYER . 10. ALEXANDER HAMILTON, by C HAS . A. C ONANT . 11. WASHINGTON IRVING, by H. W. B OYNTON . 12. PAUL JONES, by H UTCHINS H APGOOD . 13. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, by W. G. B ROWN . 14. SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN, by H. D. S EDGWICK , Jr. Each about 140 pages, 16mo, with photogravure portrait, 65 cents,net;School Edition, each, 50 cents,net.

B

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY B OSTON   AND N EW Y ORK

The Riverside Biographical Series

E

NUMBER 3

N

J

A

M

I

 

 

By

PAUL ELMER MORE

BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY PAUL E. MORE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS

CHAP.   PAGE I. E ARLY D AYS   IN B OSTON 1 II. B EGINNINGS   IN P HILADELPHIA   AND F IRST V OYAGE   TO E NGLAND 22 III. R ELIGIOUS B ELIEFS .—T HE J UNTO 37 IV. T HE S CIENTIST   AND P UBLIC C ITIZEN   IN P HILADELPHIA 52 V. F IRST   AND S ECOND M ISSIONS   TO E NGLAND 85 VI. M EMBER   OF C ONGRESS —E NVOY   TO F RANCE 109

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

I

EARLY DAYS IN BOSTON

When the report of Franklin's death reached Paris, he received, among other marks of respect, this significant honor by one of the revolutionary clubs: in the café where the members met, his bust was crowned with oak-leaves, and on the pedestal below was engraved the single word VIR . This simple encomium, calling to mind Napoleon'sThis is a manafter meeting Goethe, sums up better than a volume of eulogy what Franklin was in his own day and what his life may still signify to us. He acted at one time as a commander of troops, yet cannot be called a soldier; he was a great statesman, yet not among the greatest; he made famous discoveries in science, yet was scarcely a professional scientist; he was lauded as a philosopher, yet barely outstepped the region of common sense; he wrote ever as a moralist, yet in some respects lived a free life; he is one of the few great American authors, yet never published a book; he was a shrewd economist, yet left at his death only a moderate fortune; he accomplished much as a philanthropist, yet never sacrificed his own weal. Above all and in all things he was a man, able to cope with every chance of life and wring profit out of it; he had perhaps the alertest mind of any man of that alert century. In his shrewdness, versatility, self- reliance, wit, as also in his lack of the deeper reverence and imagination, he, I think, more than any other man who has yet lived, represents the full American character. And so in studying his life, though at times we may wish that to his practical intelligence were added the fervid insight of Jonathan Edwards, who was his only intellectual equal in the colonies, or the serene faith of an Emerson, who was born "within a kite string's distance" of his birthplace in Boston, yet in the end we are borne away by the wonderful openness and rectitude of his mind, and are willing to grant him his high representative position. Franklin's ancestors were of the sturdy sort that have made the strength of the Anglo-Saxon race. For three hundred years at least his family had lived on a freehold of thirty acres in the village of Ecton, Northamptonshire; and for many generations father and son had been smiths. Parton, in his capital Life of Franklin, has observed that Washington's ancestors lived in the same county, although much higher in the social scale; and it may well have been that more than one of Franklin's ancestors "tightened a rivet in the armor or replaced a shoe upon the horse of a Washington, or doffed his cap to a Washington riding past the ancestral forge." During these long years the family seems to have gathered strength from the soil, as families are wont to do. Seeing how the Franklins, when the fit of emigrating seized upon them, blossomed out momentarily, and then dwindled away, we are reminded of Poor Richard's wise observation,— "I never saw an oft-removëd tree Nor yet an oft-removëd family That throve so well as those that settled be. "

e's statement thtaa ibilyti  nam orrr ulcobed re gretaaht aC nlylr n deul ig wialingiruhtf oNe se .r telah e if linmaceb ehflliks e ad ,ht ena daFarof electcreator  dluoven eop c ,t ebal; ra  lerrneacseieh ,oGteec .l as welt asntiset a si scitameht enigllteinf  ost onen wl scricae, kienc remoe thalicyp tremA fo  etni naci encellig the. Ato  fa eg tehiehg  iisrempiossbinaytilht ,hguo imiltations to his gneui,sm ka eih m sap neht dna ,rache thr deund se oegr.rG foM  raeg a tell, ownee Br ot teht saw nes ch sl,oora garmm r meiaenhwre eehhan a yed less t tor dln eb rmeme himt he couself dna ,daeohcs ta  ung inbeo r  tleab eeR s' .eBjnmaniacher of the thr  daey osgnuoaht  ad hea ledrn  rto  andtic,thme arih siiwhttl yifuc ugho , t ancitimahetam a reven saw  It is cuy well.  donatlbloh  eid ndouif d atthe f  hvewo ,reuoirh ,s apsooi-br led anc-wodnah a sllatsmall waed in a p orpsreel,ra dn o  tlettlig inndif ,dnalgnE weN  up a  set, helineih snit no eebd  —,srog ayldoehs  d onfewien t heota omgnw oh meBjnaf of seventeen, h eh efi ruof dais hBy y.  wstir feh ndnt s ceyba  chimoren, aldre         ehtraeybA     tuoiaosFrh 68 1 J5, hildren to Bosto.nH  eah debnea ye dinr he tld o emohub ,on tni w in, anklyounthe o  fegtss noofrue w am cs, s hih itdna efiwc eerht  urprisedre not snalknis t ah trF s std Q anabAntiap  dnaa ewekau ,sr se c them ofeedoY uoes.sv reured meom cvehad ulho rf ylnam eht dedn ni-glGsa sof rhte Times" he apped ni  eggo lermyhr. es hIn "isokLo nib cn e ffohela per theted secu dlob sla il rof yl ofy rtbeiescon c ohw " il , hsil,namedrnng End aea la"g doylutkcte—,s of Nan settler traeh sih eveile rtod se uk,ol faldnE gnN weoisuhe pof tany ke m he . Tec sd onfewi t saf ehetfihtned philosopher, w mani ,ht d e seiten on r,geol he tofe  fo rethgF reteP  washer, dau thejnma ,eBm tonis' he tto, isesen Gacifitsym taerg audihis  of tion c t ma dni —,A"neec afs r tetoe as psgniaht sehtht em sat int Abraha rfoh sit ehd oo evah dlueviecer amnjBed am f'sinP"rauo s gaia bael Persnst ion,ecuthw " hci ehthtua uord se ptoterednt  oerdaa  shte last chapter of  ,ihglre roFePetold rom ht fcaug tiw enigami nac We. erthfandra s g yrPtosetas utdrelish thh what r gnolow ,devi os  e h  h  lad nttaif,   to e open  infvery neajgnB aw sim n sod an, g inthmea ecneulmih tuob immovable tolera fot ehl raega dn mae hay  bven ee ecnh fon siruta  histhat mot ownacrreh rih mei dir bis f hadtr, thsa noiti gnitres ce the child wast kanet ehd yao  Cthrchu th,who  hcircase deifid o ppee,tS rtiMkl  Sou e Old e thositmaf eht emit tahn  ias wmehoy il  6o(dl ts aJunra y 06. At tyle), 17  nil sawF niknarstBo, onrnbon  iecnetsixmajneB . boim lhe -eon f n  o sts,yi nit li listre Trhandam So tah ru,orekil t Bu fwegeortht  tsmane l t naugga.e e tone of Old Tethd tetami iinklnarF sah yltcefro ped, sifiemyst layle uqersrh aef  ouryod instmoiw uf llna ,oy dk to-daythe tricct .rT y t ne,t e " s.rmer Cinta hly oc si qesntneucal k of deep root i nht eaptsa dnh   age aatcela pnd t erehw ,  ygoloeheducand n weationynoers  setmyuo ot g  sih  gninulc s.ayer Pndmilw a saw sujahspt ihll in thst as we na ,moorloohcs eh  tofg inthmesod  lnuitacrpcaih srainic tlastscho nih dat  oeg tomer, young Benjam noistuo edit fo osthif eds atuc li,yf maert w ehn soly ige a larerew tro dnels os nsea mheppsuf  o ner of H the corohsu eno  aowdone at . Nalur tr stseeU dnnoinvonaa re rtly Shonow.he shgt rhuo eh t rhtti o  tedov mlymifa eht sdrawretfa