Part 25 (1/2)

Hays.) Philadelphia: 1908. (This valuable work lists letters to Franklin, letters from Franklin, and miscellaneous letters, with brief notes on the topics discussed in each letter and place of publication in cases where the letters have been published.)

_Books Printed by Benjamin Franklin. Born Jan. 17, 1706._ New York: 1906. (Lists best known imprints; useful although eclipsed by Campbell.)

*_The Cambridge History of American Literature._ New York: 1917. I, 442-52. (Lists of ”Collected Works,” ”Separate Works,” and ”Contributions to Periodicals” const.i.tute a convenient abridgment of Ford, but the list, ”Biographical and Critical,” limited to two pages, is at best inadequately suggestive.)

Campbell, W. J. _The Collection of Franklin Imprints in the Museum of the Curtis Publis.h.i.+ng Company. With a Short-t.i.tle Check List of All the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin._ Philadelphia: 1918.

Campbell, W. J. _A Short-t.i.tle Check List of All the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin._ Philadelphia: 1918.

*Fa, B. _Benjamin Franklin bibliographie et etude sur les sources historiques relatives a sa vie_ (Vol. III of _Benjamin Franklin, bourgeois d'Amerique et citoyen du monde_.) Paris: 1931. (Fa, in _Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times_, pp. 517-33, has furnished ”only a summary bibliography,” which, in spite of its occasional inaccuracies and infelicities in form, contains many useful items, American, English, and French; especially valuable for notes on several ma.n.u.script collections. In this French edition the bibliography is more detailed.)

*Ford, P. L. _Franklin Bibliography. A List of Books Written by, or Relating to Benjamin Franklin._ Brooklyn, N. Y.: 1889. (The standard, time-honored work, unfortunately not superseded.)

Ford, W. C. _List of the Benjamin Franklin Papers in the Library of Congress._ Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.: 1905.

Hays, I. M. _Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society._ Vols. II-VI in _The Record of the Celebration of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Benjamin Franklin, under the Auspices of the American Philosophical Society Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge, April 17 to 20, 1906_. Philadelphia: 1908. (A. H. Smyth purports to have printed in his ten-volume edition all of Franklin's letters in this collection. Valuable especially for letters addressed to Franklin.)

”List of Works in the New York Public Library by or Relating to Benjamin Franklin,” _Bulletin of New York Public Library_, X, No. 1. New York: 1906, pp. 29-83.

Rosengarten, J. G. ”Some New Franklin Papers,” _University of Pennsylvania Alumni Register_, 1-7 (July, 1903). (A report to the Board of Trustees saying ”there are over five hundred pieces of MS among the collection of Franklin papers recently added to the Library of the University.” These range from 1731 to Franklin's latest correspondence. Only a few of these pieces are described.)

Stevens, Henry. _Benjamin Franklin's Life and Writings. A Bibliographical Essay on the Stevens Collection of Books and Ma.n.u.scripts Relating to Doctor Franklin._ London: 1881. (Pp. 21-40 contain a list of ”Franklin's Printed Works.”)

Swift, Lindsay. ”Catalogue of Works Relating to Benjamin Franklin in the Boston Public Library,” _Bulletin of the Boston Public Library_, V, 217-31, 276-84, 420-33. Boston: 1883. (Including Dr. S. A. Green's collection, this was the ”immediate predecessor” to Ford.)

For current articles the student should consult especially the bibliographies in _Philological Quarterly_, _American Literature_, _Publications of the Modern Language a.s.sociation_, bibliographical bulletins of the Modern Humanities Research a.s.sociation, and Grace G.

Griffin's annual bibliography, _Writings on American History_.

_Selections from_ BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

NOTE: Superior figures through the text refer to notes in pp. 529 ff.

_From the_ AUTOBIOGRAPHY[1]

TWYFORD, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771.

DEAR SON, I have ever had a Pleasure in obtaining any little Anecdotes of my Ancestors. You may remember the Enquiries I made among the Remains of my Relations when you were with me in England; and the journey I undertook for that purpose. Now imagining it may be equally agreable to you to know the Circ.u.mstances of _my_ Life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with; and expecting a Weeks uninterrupted Leisure in my present Country Retirement, I sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other Inducements. Having emerg'd from the Poverty and Obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a State of Affluence and some Degree of Reputation in the World, and having gone so far thro' Life with a considerable Share of Felicity, the conducing Means I made use of, which, with the Blessing of G.o.d, so well succeeded, my Posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own Situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. That Felicity, when I reflected on it, has induc'd me sometimes to say, that were it offer'd to my Choice, I should have no Objection to a Repet.i.tion of the same Life from its Beginning, only asking the Advantages Authors have in a second Edition to correct some Faults of the first. So would I if I might, besides corr[ecting] the Faults, change some sinister Accidents and Events of it for others more favourable, but tho' this were deny'd, I should still accept the Offer. However, since such a Repet.i.tion is not to be expected, the next Thing most like living one's Life over again, seems to be a _Recollection_ of that Life; and to make that Recollection as durable as possible, the putting it down in Writing. Hereby, too, I shall indulge the Inclination so natural in old Men, to be talking of themselves and their own past Actions, and I shall indulge it, without being troublesome to others who thro' respect to Age might think themselves oblig'd to give me a Hearing, since this may be read or not as any one pleases. And lastly (I may as well confess it, since my Denial of it will be believ'd by no Body) perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own _Vanity_. Indeed I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory Words, _Without vanity I may say_, &c. but some vain thing immediately follow'd. Most People dislike Vanity in others whatever share they have of it themselves, but I give it fair Quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of Good to the Possessor and to others that are within his Sphere of Action: And therefore in many Cases it would not be quite absurd if a Man were to thank G.o.d for his Vanity among the other Comforts of Life.--

And now I speak of thanking G.o.d, I desire with all Humility to acknowledge, that I owe the mention'd Happiness of my past Life to his kind Providence, which led me to the Means I us'd and gave them Success.

My Belief of this, induces me to _hope_, tho' I must not _presume_, that the same Goodness will still be exercis'd towards me in continuing that Happiness, or in enabling me to bear a fatal Reverse, which I may experience as others have done, the Complexion of my future Fortune being known to him only: in whose Power it is to bless to us even our Afflictions.

The Notes one of my Uncles (who had the same kind of Curiosity in collecting Family Anecdotes) once put into my Hands, furnish'd me with several Particulars relating to our Ancestors. From these Notes I learnt that the Family had liv'd in the same Village, Ecton in Northamptons.h.i.+re, for 300 Years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the Time when the Name _Franklin_ that before was the name of an Order of People, was a.s.sum'd by them for a Surname, when others took surnames all over the kingdom)[,] on a Freehold of about 30 Acres, aided by the Smith's Business, which had continued in the Family till his Time, the eldest son being always bred to that Business[.] A Custom which he and my Father both followed as to their eldest Sons.--When I search'd the Register at Ecton, I found an Account of their Births, Marriages and Burials, from the Year 1555 only, there being no Register kept in that Parish at any time preceding.--By that Register I perceiv'd that I was the youngest Son of the youngest Son for 5 Generations back. My Grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow Business longer, when he went to live with his Son John, a Dyer at Banbury in Oxfords.h.i.+re, with whom my Father serv'd an Apprentices.h.i.+p. There my Grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his Gravestone in 1758. His eldest Son Thomas liv'd in the House at Ecton, and left it with the Land to his only Child, a Daughter, who, with her Husband, one Fisher of Wellingborough sold it to Mr. Isted, now Lord of the Manor there. My Grandfather had 4 Sons that grew up, viz Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. I will give you what Account I can of them at this distance from my Papers, and if these are not lost in my Absence, you will among them find many more Particulars.

Thomas was bred a Smith under his Father, but being ingenious, and encourag'd in Learning (as all his Brothers likewise were) by an Esquire Palmer then the princ.i.p.al Gentleman in that Parish, he qualify'd himself for the Business of Scrivener, became a considerable Man in the County Affairs, was a chief Mover of all publick Spirited Undertakings for the County or Town of Northampton and his own village, of which many instances were told us; and he was at Ecton much taken Notice of and patroniz'd by the then Lord Halifax. He died in 1702, Jan. 6, old Stile, just 4 Years to a Day before I was born. The Account we receiv'd of his Life and Character from some old People at Ecton, I remember struck you as something extraordinary, from its Similarity to what you knew of mine. Had he died on the same Day, you said one might have suppos'd a Transmigration.--John was bred a Dyer, I believe of Woollens. Benjamin, was bred a Silk Dyer, serving an Apprentices.h.i.+p at London. He was an ingenious Man, I remember him well, for when I was a Boy he came over to my Father in Boston, and lived in the House with us some Years. He lived to a great Age. His Grandson Samuel Franklin now lives in Boston. He left behind him two Quarto Volumes, MS of his own Poetry, consisting of little occasional Pieces address'd to his Friends and Relations, of which the following sent to me, is a Specimen. [Although Franklin wrote in the margin ”Here insert it,” the poetry is not given.] He had form'd a Shorthand of his own, which he taught me, but, never practising it I have now forgot it. I was nam'd after this Uncle, there being a particular Affection between him and my Father. He was very pious, a great Attender of Sermons of the best Preachers, which he took down in his Shorthand and had with him many Volumes of them. He was also much of a Politician, too much perhaps for his Station. There fell lately into my Hands in London a Collection he had made of all the princ.i.p.al Pamphlets relating to Publick Affairs from 1641 to 1717. Many of the Volumes are wanting, as appears by the Numbering, but there still remains 8 Vols. Folio, and 24 in 4.^to and 8.^vo.--A Dealer in old Books met with them, and knowing me by my sometimes buying of him, he brought them to me. It seems my Uncle must have left them here when he went to America, which was above 50 years since. There are many of his Notes in the Margins.--

This obscure Family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continu'd Protestants thro' the Reign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in Danger of Trouble on Account of their Zeal against Popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with Tapes under and within the Frame of a Joint Stool. When my Great Great Grandfather read it [it] to his Family, he turn'd up the joint Stool upon his Knees, turning over the Leaves then under the Tapes. One of the Children stood at the Door to give Notice if he saw the Apparitor coming, who was an Officer of the Spiritual Court. In that Case the Stool was turn'd down again upon its feet, when the Bible remain'd conceal'd under it as before. This Anecdote I had from my Uncle Benjamin.--The Family continu'd all of the Church of England till about the End of Charles the 2^ds Reign, when some of the Ministers that had been outed for Nonconformity, holding Conventicles in Northamptons.h.i.+re, Benjamin and Josiah adher'd to them, and so continu'd all their Lives.

The rest of the Family remain'd with the Episcopal Church.

Josiah, my father, married young, and carried his Wife with three Children into New England, about 1682. The Conventicles having been forbidden by Law, and frequently disturbed, induced some considerable Men of his Acquaintance to remove to that Country, and he was prevail'd with to accompany them thither, where they expected to enjoy their Mode of Religion with Freedom.--By the same Wife he had 4 Children more born there, and by a second wife ten more, in all 17, of which I remember 13 sitting at one time at his Table, who all grew up to be Men and Women, and married. I was the youngest Son, and the youngest Child but two, and was born in Boston, N. England. My mother, the 2^d wife was Abiah Folger, a daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first Settlers of New England, of whom honourable mention is made by Cotton Mather, in his Church History of that Country, (ent.i.tled Magnalia Christi Americana) as _a G.o.dly learned Englishman_, if I remember the Words rightly. I have heard that he wrote sundry small occasional Pieces, but only one of them was printed which I saw now many years since. It was written in 1675, in the home-spun Verse of that Time and People, and address'd to those then concern'd in the Government there. It was in favour of Liberty of Conscience, and in behalf of the Baptists, Quakers, and other Sectaries, that had been under Persecution; ascribing the Indian Wars and other Distresses, that had befallen the Country to that Persecution, as so many Judgments of G.o.d, to punish so heinous an Offense; and exhorting a Repeal of those uncharitable Laws. The whole appear'd to me as written with a good deal of Decent Plainness and manly Freedom. The six last concluding Lines I remember, tho' I have forgotten the two first of the Stanza, but the Purport of them was that his Censures proceeded from Good will, and therefore he would be known as the Author,

”Because to be a Libeller, (says he) I hate it with my Heart.