Part 3 (1/2)
”6. INDUSTRY.
”Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
”7. SINCERITY.
”Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
”8. JUSTICE.
”Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
”9. MODERATION.
”Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
”10. CLEANLINESS.
”Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes, or habitation.
”11. TRANQUILLITY.
”Be not disturbed at trifles, or accidents common or unavoidable.
”12. CHASt.i.tY.
”13. HUMILITY.
”Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”
The last of these was added to the list at the suggestion of a Quaker friend. Franklin claims to have acquired a good deal of the _appearance_ of it, but concluded that in reality there was no pa.s.sion so hard to subdue as _pride_. ”For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
The virtue which gave him most trouble, however, was order, and this he never acquired.
In 1732 appeared the first copy of ”Poor Richard's Almanack.” This was prepared, printed, and published by Franklin for about twenty-five years in succession, and nearly ten thousand copies were sold annually. Besides the usual astronomical information, it contained a collection of entertaining anecdotes, verses, jests, etc., while the ”little s.p.a.ces that occurred between the remarkable events in the calendar” were filled with proverbial sayings, inculcating industry and frugality as helps to virtue. These sayings were collected and prefixed to the almanack of 1757, whence they were copied into the American newspapers, and afterwards reprinted as a broad-sheet in England and in France.
In 1733 Franklin commenced studying modern languages, and acquired sufficient knowledge of French, Italian, and Spanish to be able to read books in those languages. In 1736 he was chosen Clerk to the General a.s.sembly, an office to which he was annually re-elected until he became a member of the a.s.sembly about 1750. There was one member who, on the second occasion of his election, made a long speech against him. Franklin determined to secure the friends.h.i.+p of this member. Accordingly he wrote to him to request the loan of a very scarce and curious book which was in his library. The book was lent and returned in about a week, with a note of thanks. The member ever after manifested a readiness to serve Franklin, and they became great friends--”Another instance of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says, '_He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged_.' And it shows how much more profitable it is prudently to remove, than to resent, return, and continue inimical proceedings.”
In 1737 Franklin was appointed Deputy-Postmaster-General for Pennsylvania. He was afterwards made Postmaster-General of the Colonies. He read a paper in the Junto on the organization of the City watch, and the propriety of rating the inhabitants on the value of their premises in order to support the same. The subject was also discussed in the other clubs which had sprung from the Junto, and thus the way was prepared for the law which a few years afterwards carried Franklin's proposals into effect. His next scheme was the formation of a fire brigade, in which he met with his usual success, and other clubs followed, until most of the men of property in the city were members of one club or another. The original brigade, known as the Union Fire Company, was formed December 7, 1736. It was in active service in 1791.
Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society in 1743. The head-quarters of the society were fixed in Philadelphia, where it was arranged that there should always be at least seven members, viz. a physician, a botanist, a mathematician, a chemist, a mechanician, a geographer, and a general natural philosopher, besides a president, treasurer, and secretary. The other members might be resident in any part of America. Correspondence was to be kept up with the Royal Society of London and the Dublin Society, and abstracts of the communications were to be sent quarterly to all the members. Franklin became the first secretary.
Spain, having been for some years at war with England, was joined at length by France. This threatened danger to the American colonies, as France then held Canada, and no organization for their defence existed. Franklin published a pamphlet ent.i.tled ”Plain Truth,” setting forth the unarmed condition of the colonies, and recommending the formation of a volunteer force for defensive purposes. The pamphlet excited much attention. A public meeting was held and addressed by Franklin; at this meeting twelve hundred joined the a.s.sociation. At length the number of members enrolled exceeded ten thousand. These all provided themselves with arms, formed regiments and companies, elected their own officers, and attended once a week for military drill.
Franklin was elected colonel of the Philadelphia Regiment, but declined the appointment, and served as a private soldier. The provision of war material was a difficulty with the a.s.sembly, which consisted largely of Quakers, who, though they appeared privately to be willing that the country should be put in a state of defence, hesitated to vote in opposition to their peace principles. Hence it was that, when the Government of New England asked a grant of gunpowder from Pennsylvania, the a.s.sembly voted 3000 ”for the purchasing of bread, flour, wheat, or _other grain_.” Pebble-powder was not then in use. When it was proposed to devote 60, which was a balance in the hands of the Union Fire Company, as a contribution towards the erection of a battery below the town, Franklin suggested that it should be proposed that a fire-engine be purchased with the money, and that the committee should ”buy a great gun, which is certainly a _fire-engine_.”
The ”Pennsylvania fireplace” was invented in 1742. A patent was offered to Franklin by the Governor of Pennsylvania, but he declined it on the principle ”_that, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously_.” An ironmonger in London made slight alterations, which were not improvements, in the design, and took out a patent for the fireplace, whereby he made a ”small fortune.” Franklin never contested the patent, ”having no desire of profiting by patents himself,” and ”hating disputes.” This fireplace was designed to burn wood, but, unlike the German stoves, it was completely open in front, though enclosed at the sides and top. An air-chamber was formed in the middle of the stove, so arranged that, while the burning wood was in contact with the front of the chamber, the flame pa.s.sed above and behind it on its way to the flue. Through this chamber a constant current of air pa.s.sed, entering the room heated, but not contaminated, by the products of combustion. In this way the stove furnished a constant supply of fresh warm air to the room, while it possessed all the advantages of an open fireplace. Subsequently Franklin contrived a special fireplace for the combustion of coal. In the scientific thought which he devoted to the requirements of the domestic economist, as in very many other particulars, Franklin strongly reminds us of Count Rumford.
The next important enterprise which Franklin undertook, partly through the medium of the Junto, was to establish an academy which soon developed into the University of Philadelphia. The members of the club having taken up the subject, the next step was to enlist the sympathy of a wider const.i.tuency, and this Franklin effected, in his usual way, by the publication of a pamphlet. He then set on foot a subscription, the payments to extend over five years, and thereby obtained about 5000. A house was taken and schools opened in 1749. The cla.s.ses soon became too large for the house, and the trustees of the academy then took over a large building, or ”tabernacle,” which had been erected for George Whitefield when he was preaching in Philadelphia. The hall was divided into stories, and at a very small expense adapted to the requirements of the cla.s.ses. Franklin, having taken a partner in his printing business, took the oversight of the work. Afterwards the funds were increased by English subscriptions, by a grant from the a.s.sembly, and by gifts of land from the proprietaries; and thus was established the University of Philadelphia.
Having practically retired from business, Franklin intended to devote himself to philosophical studies, having commenced his electrical researches some time before in conjunction with the other members of the Library Company. Public business, however, crowded upon him. He was elected a member of the a.s.sembly, a councillor and afterwards an alderman of the city, and by the governor was made a justice of the peace. As a member of the a.s.sembly, he was largely concerned in providing the means for the erection of a hospital, and in arranging for the paving and cleansing of the streets of the city. In 1753 he was appointed, in conjunction with Mr. Hunter, Postmaster-General of America. The post-office of the colonies had previously been conducted at a loss. In a few years, under Franklin's management, it not only paid the stipends of himself and Mr. Hunter, but yielded a considerable revenue to the Crown. But it was not only in the conduct of public business that Franklin's merits were recognized. By this time he had secured his reputation as an electrician, and both Yale College and Cambridge University (New England) conferred on him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In the same year that he was made Postmaster-General of America he was awarded the Copley Medal and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the usual fees being remitted in his case.
Before his election as member, Franklin had for several years held the appointment of Clerk to the a.s.sembly, and he used to relieve the dulness of the debates by amusing himself in the construction of magic circles and squares, and ”acquired such a knack at it” that he could ”fill the cells of any magic square of reasonable size with a series of numbers as fast as” he ”could write them.” Many years afterwards Mr. Logan showed Franklin a French folio volume filled with magic squares, and afterwards a magic ”square of 16,” which Mr. Logan thought must have been a work of great labour, though it possessed only the common properties of making 2056 in every row, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. During the evening Franklin made the square shown on the opposite page. ”This I sent to our friend the next morning, who, after some days, sent it back in a letter, with these words: 'I return to thee thy astonis.h.i.+ng and most stupendous piece of the magical square, in which----;' but the compliment is too extravagant, and therefore, for his sake as well as my own, I ought not to repeat it. Nor is it necessary; for I make no question that you will readily allow this square of 16 to be the most magically magical of any magic square ever made by any magician.”
The square has the following properties:--Every straight row of sixteen numbers, whether vertical, horizontal, or diagonal, makes 2056.