(Godfrey), our first poet worthy of the name (Freneau), and our first novelist (Brown). Joining these three names with that of Franklin, we perceive that in addition to founding a new nation, the last half of the eighteenth century began also a new literature destined, before another half century had passed, to take an honorable place among the literatures of the world.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 1706-1790

Franklin's own story of his life down to 1757 is one of the great biographies of the world. Written in the form of a letter to his son, for the latter and his descendants only, and with no thought of publication, it has found a secure place among the world's classics. It is a simple straightforward account of the author's rise by his own efforts from "poverty and obscurity . . . to a state of affluence and some degree of celebrity in the world." Early Life. He was born in Boston, the fifteenth of seventeen children of his father, of whom ten were by a second wife, Abiah Folger, daughter of a New England preacher who distinguished himself somewhat by his advocacy of religious toleration. Add to the

size of the family the fact that Franklin's father was a candle maker, and the "poverty and obscurity" of his situation will be readily understood. After two years at school Benjamin was taken at the age of ten to help his father. He disliked the business; and his father, fearing that the boy would yield to a strong "hankering" for the

sea, decided to put him in some line of work that would please him better. His great

fondness for books

prompted his father to apprentice him to his brother James, a printer.

After some disagreements with his employer, Benjamin, then seventeen years old, ran away to New York. Finding no work there, he proceeded on the advice of an acquaintance to Philadelphia, which city was to be his home for the rest of his own was to be in

separably connected. One of his familiar and humorous stories is that of his first promenade up Market Street, eating a loaf of dry bread, and carrying a loaf under each arm. Miss Read, his future wife, saw him, "and thought I made," says he, "as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance." He worked with one Keimer for a time; and

becoming known as a good workman, was led by Governor Keith to go to England in order to secure equipment for a shop of his own which would do the government printing. In London Keith's name proved of no value, and Franklin was obliged to seek work at his trade for support. He was very successful at this, and attained great distinction as the "Water-American"

among the beer-drinking English printers, who marveled that he was stronger than they. After eighteen months in London, he sailed for Philadelphia in July, 1726.

Part in Public Affairs. - Again engaging in the printing business, he purchased three years later The Pennsylvania Gazette. His influence, always for good, increased. He formed a

number of his most

a

his notice.

substantial friends into The subject's favorite of the 600 likesociety called the nesses of himself which had come under "Junto " which developed into the American Philosophical Society. With the aid of the Junto he started his "first project of a public nature that for a subscription library, - the mother of all the North American subscription libraries." In 1749 he was the moving spirit in the foundation of an academy, which six years later received a charter raising it to collegiate grade, and subsequently became the University of

Pennsylvania. Among other results of his activity for the public good were the paving of the Philadelphia streets, the organization of a regular police force and a fire department, and the establishment of a state militia.

After 1748 he took no active part in business, "having taken a very able, industrious, and honest partner," who managed the concern successfully for eighteen years. By this move "I flattered myself," says Franklin, "that I had found leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies and amusements; but the public laid hold of me for their purposes." He was appointed or elected magistrate, councilman, assemblyman, postmaster-general, delegate to the Albany Congress in 1754,' colonial agent in England and in France, member of the Second Continental Congress, and member of the Constitutional Convention. He has the distinction of being the only man who signed the four most important documents of our country, the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with England, and the Constitution.

It is interesting to note that, though Franklin's services to the colonies were inestimable, he was out of the country during the war and during the greater part of the twenty years preceding it. From 1757 to 1762 he represented Pennsylvania in England; from 1764 to 1775, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Georgia; and from 1776 to 1783 he was ambassador to France from the United States of America. He was uniformly and eminently successful in every public office he held, and on his foreign missions achieved great social triumphs. On his return to Pennsyl vania in 1785 he was chosen governor of the state, and two

1 Franklin drew up a plan of union, which was rejected by the colonies because " there was too much prerogative in it," and by the mother country because there was too much of the democratic."- Autobiog. raphy, Chap. X.

66

years later was an influential member of the body that framed the Constitution. This was his last public service, and was performed faithfully despite the fact that he was not only in poor health, incident to old age, but was suffering constant, severe pain.

"Whilst the last members were signing" [the Constitution], says James Madison,1 "Doctor Franklin, looking towards the president's chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art, a rising, from a setting sun. 'I have,' said he, 'often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that 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."" The sun of Franklin's life, on the contrary, was approaching its setting; and the end came April 17, 1790, a month before the last state signed the Constitution. At his death Congress went into mourning for one month, and the French Assembly addressed a letter of condolence to the American people.

First Literary Efforts. The above outline of Franklin's life gives little hint of why he has a place in literature, and no writings of his have been mentioned except the Autobiography and The Way to Wealth. He was, however, a voluminous writer, and on a wide range of subjects. His first publications appeared while he was still a boy (1722) a series of fourteen letters written to his brother James's newspaper, signed "Silence Dogood." The substance of them was inspired by Mather's essays, and the style by Addison's Spectator.

2

"Mrs. Dogood" introduces herself in the first papers as a

1 In his Journal of the Constitutional Convention.
2 See above, page 18.