Part 16 (1/2)

[Footnote i-480: Parton, _op. cit._, I, 546.]

[Footnote i-481: He admonished Deborah, his wife, that she ”should go oftener to Church” (_Writings_, IV, 202), and his daughter, Sarah, ”Go constantly to Church, whoever preaches” (_Ibid._, IV, 287).]

[Footnote i-482: _Letters to Benjamin Franklin from His Family and Friends, 1751-1790_ (New York, 1859), 10.]

[Footnote i-483: Franklin's English friends, Dr. Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, Rev. David Williams, Dr. John Fothergill, Peter Collinson, Sir Joseph Banks, Jonathan s.h.i.+pley, Lord Kames, Sir William Jones, et cetera, though not all deists, found Newtonian science useful in augmenting their philosophies.]

[Footnote i-484: _A Discourse ..._ (London, 1775), 33. For background material on the history of this concept see L. E. Hicks, _A Critique of Design-Arguments_ (New York, 1883).]

[Footnote i-485: N. Meredith, _Considerations on the Utility of Conductors for Lightning ..._ (London, 1789), 44-5. See especially the characteristic notice in _Monthly Review ..._, XLII (London, 1770), 199-210, 298-308.]

[Footnote i-486: For references see B. Fa, _The Revolutionary Spirit in France and America_; E. E. Hale and E. E. Hale, Jr., _Franklin in France_; L. Amiable, _Un loge maconnique d'avant 1789 ..._.]

[Footnote i-487: _Writings_, IX, 436.]

[Footnote i-488: W. T. Franklin ed. of Franklin's _Writings_ (London, 1818), I, 433.]

[Footnote i-489: See similar expression in letter to Mme Brillon, cited in J. M. Stifler, _The Religion of Benjamin Franklin_, 55-6.]

[Footnote i-490: _Writings_, III, 135.]

_CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE_

1706. Benjamin Franklin born in Boston, January 17 (January 6, 1705, O. S.).

1714-16. After a year in Boston Grammar School is sent to learn writing and arithmetic in school kept by George Brownell, from which, after a year, he is taken to a.s.sist his father, Josiah, a candlemaker.

1717. James Franklin returns from England, following apprentices.h.i.+p as printer.

1718. Benjamin is apprenticed to brother James.

1718-23. Period of a.s.siduous reading in Anthony Collins, Shaftesbury, Locke, Addison and Steele, Cotton Mather, Bunyan, Defoe, etc.

1719. Writes and hawks ballads of the ”Grub-Street” style, ”The Lighthouse Tragedy” and ”The Taking of Teach the Pirate.”

1721-23. Aids brother in publis.h.i.+ng the _New England Courant_.

During 1722-23 in charge of paper after James is declared objectionable by the authorities.

1722. His _Dogood Papers_ printed anonymously in the _New England Courant_.

1723. Breaks his indentures and leaves for New York; eventually arrives in Philadelphia.

1723-24. Employed by Samuel Keimer, a printer in Philadelphia.

1724. Visits Cotton Mather and Governor Burnet (New York). Meets James Ralph, Grub-Street pamphleteer, historian, and poet in the Thomson tradition. Patronized by Governor Keith. Leaves for London in November on the _London-Hope_ to buy type, etc., for printing shop to be set up in his behalf by Keith. Upon arrival he and Ralph take lodgings in Little Britain.

1725-26. Employed in Palmer's and Watts's printing houses.

1725. Publishes _A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain_. One result of this is acquaintance with Lyons, author of _The Infallibility of Human Judgement_. Through him Franklin meets Bernard Mandeville and Dr. Henry Pemberton, who is preparing a third edition of Sir Isaac Newton's _Principia_. Is received by Sir Hans Sloane in Bloomsbury Square. Conceives of setting up a swimming school in London.

1726. On July 21, with Mr. Denham, merchant and Quaker, leaves for Philadelphia on the _Berks.h.i.+re_. Between July 22 and October 11 writes _Journal of a Voyage from London to Philadelphia_.