Benjamin Franklin

1706-1790

Franklin was the greatest man of colonial and revolutionary times. It is rarely in the history of the world that one achieves distinction in so many different lines as did this son of a poor New England tallow-chandler. He was a scientist, and his discoveries in electricity are still the foundation of modern knowledge in that subject; he was an inventor, and the lightning-rod, a printing press and a stove are among the common things to which he turned his genius; as a writer, he stands among the foremost of his nation; as an exponent of practical domestic and governmental economy not only did he influence his own generation but by his maxims and wise advice he still urges the world to right habits in living; a statesman and a diplomat, he conducted the most delicate negotiations with foreign powers in so skilful a manner as to win their admiration and the veneration of his countrymen. Franklin stood among the greatest as a statesman, as an author and as a man of science. No other American can lay claim to such leadership in more than one of these directions.

It is difficult to consider any one power of this truly many-sided man. Our chief interest is in him as a writer but it is not so much his style as it is

the man Franklin that makes his writings valuable. His Autobiography is so clear, so pointed, and rings so true that few other narratives may be compared with it. Yet there is no attempt at fine writing and little play of the imagination. He has a message and he delivers it effectively. His wit is pungent, always at hand, and his sentences are never cumbered with unnecessary words. But this as well as his other writings are valuable chiefly for the thought that is in them. They are teaching all the time. By quoting at length his Autobiography we may be able to give some idea of the man's early life, the simplicity of his style, and his remarkable wisdom in common everyday affairs. He writes as follows:

My father married young, and carried his wife, with three children, to New England about 1685. The conventicles being at that time forbidden by law and frequently disturbed in the meetings, some considerable men of his acquaintance determined to go to that country, and he was prevailed with to accompany them thither, where they expected to enjoy the exercise of their religion with freedom. By the same wife my father had four children more born there, and by a second ten othersin all seventeen; of whom I remember to have seen thirteen sitting together at his table, who all grew up to years of maturity and were

married. I was the youngest son and the youngest of all the children except two daughters. I was born in Boston, in New England.

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me as the tithe of his sons to the service of the Church. My early readiness in learning to read, which must have been very early, as I do not remember when I could not read, and the opinion of all his friends that I should certainly make a good scholar, encouraged him in this purpose of his.

I continued, however, at the grammar school rather less than a year, though in that time I had risen gradually from the middle of the class of that year to be at the head of the same class, and was removed into the next class, whence I was to be placed in the third at the end of the year.

But my father, burdened with a numerous family, was unable, without inconvenience, to support the expense of a college education. Considering, moreover, as he said to one of his friends in my presence, the little encouragement that line of life afforded to those

educated for it, he gave up his first intentions, took me from the grammar school, and sent me to a school for writing and arithmetic, kept by a then famous man, Mr. George Brownwell. He was a skillful master and succeeded in his profession, employing the mildest and most encouraging methods. Under him I learned to write a good hand pretty soon, but I failed entirely in arithmetic. At ten years old I was taken to help my father in his business, which was that of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler; a business to which he was not bred, but had assumed on his arrival in New England, because he found that his dyeing trade, being in little request, would not maintain his family. Accordingly I was employed in cutting wicks for the candles, filling the molds for cast candles, attending the shop, going of errands, etc.

I disliked the trade and had a strong inclination to go to sea, but my father declared against it. But residing near the water I was much in it and on it. I learned to swim well and to manage boats, and when embarked with other boys I was commonly allowed to govern, especially in any case of difficulty; and upon other occasions I was generally the leader among the boys, and sometimes led them into scrapes, of which I will mention one instance,