Benjamin Franklin Part 14

[Footnote i-391: _Essays to do Good_, with an Introductory Essay by A.

Thomson (Glasgow, 1825), 102.]

[Footnote i-392: _Ibid._, 213-4.]

[Footnote i-393: _Works of Daniel Defoe_, ed. by Wm. Hazlitt (London, 1843), I, 22.]

[Footnote i-394: _Writings_, I, 239.]

[Footnote i-395: See _New England Courant_, No. 48, June 25-July 2, 1722.]

[Footnote i-396: _Writings_, I, 244.]

[Footnote i-397: Consecrated to piety, Robert Boyle at his death left 50 per annum, for a clergyman elected to "preach eight sermons in the year for proving the Christian religion against notorious infidels, _viz._ Atheists, Theists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans...." (_Works of Robert Boyle_, London, 1772, I, clxvii.)]

[Footnote i-398: _Writings_, I, 295.]

[Footnote i-399: In his Introduction to _Selections from Cotton Mather_ (New York, 1926), xlix-li, K. B. Murdock agrees with I. W. Riley that _The Christian Philosopher_ (1721) represents the first stage of the reaction from scriptural Calvinism to the scientific deism of Paine and Franklin. T. Hornberger's "The Date, the Source, and the Significance of Cotton Mather's Interest in Science" (_loc. cit._) shows that "as early as 1693 Cotton Mather was expressing that delight in the wonder and beauty of design in the external world which Professors Murdock and Riley regard as deistic in tendency," that he "was unconsciously vacillating between two points of view."]

[Footnote i-400: _Works of Richard Bentley_, ed. by A. Dyce (London, 1838), III, 74-5.]

[Footnote i-401: _Ibid._, III, 79.]

[Footnote i-402: _Physico-Theology ..._ (5th ed., London, 1720), 25-6.

G.o.d's "exquisite Workmans.h.i.+p" is seen in "every Creature" (p. 27).]

[Footnote i-403: See _A Discourse of Free-Thinking_ (London, 1713).]

[Footnote i-404: _Priestcraft in Perfection ..._ (London, 1710).]

[Footnote i-405: _Writings_, I, 243.]

[Footnote i-406: A. C. Fraser ed. (Oxford, 1894), II, 425-6.]

[Footnote i-407: _Ibid._, II, 121. For Locke and his place in the age see S. G. Hefelbower's _The Relation of John Locke to English Deism_.

About the time he read Locke, Franklin notes he studied Arnauld and Nicole's _La logique ou l'art de penser_. Mr. G. S. Eddy has informed one of the editors that the Library Company of Philadelphia owns John Ozell's translation of the work (London, 1718), and that this was the copy owned by Franklin. (See Lowndes's _Bibliographer's Manual_, IV, 1930, and _Dictionary of National Biography_, "John Ozell.") In accord with the English deistic and rationalistic tendency, _La logique_ admits that Aristotle's authority is not good, that "Men cannot long endure such constraint" (Thomas S. Bayne's trans., 8th ed., Edinburgh and London, n.d., 23). Indebted to Pascal and Descartes, it admits with the latter that geometry and astronomy may help one achieve justness of mind, but it vigorously a.s.serts that this justness of mind is more important than speculative science (p. 1). Anti-sensational, it denies "that all our ideas come through sense" (p. 34), affirming that we have within us ideas of things (p. 31). It is uncertain of the value of induction, which "is never a certain means of acquiring perfect knowledge" (p. 265; see also 304, 307, 308, 350). It accords little praise to the sciences and reason, and seems wary of metaphysical speculation, a.s.suring more humbly that "Piety, wisdom, moderation, are without doubt the most estimable qualities in the world" (p. 291). As we shall discover, this work on the whole seems to have had (with the exception of the last very general principle) little formative influence on the young mind which was fast impregnating itself with scientific deism. Were it not for the recurring implications (particularly in the harvest of editions of the _Autobiography_) that _La logique_ is as significant for our study as, for example, the works of Locke and Shaftesbury, this note would be pedantic supererogation.]

[Footnote i-408: A. C. Fraser, _op. cit._, I, 99. See also 190, 402-3; II, 65, 68, 352.]

[Footnote i-409: Cited in C. A. Moore, "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, 1700-1760," _Publications of the Modern Language a.s.sociation_, x.x.xI (N. S. XXIV), 276 (June, 1916).]

[Footnote i-410: _Ibid._, 271.]

[Footnote i-411: J. M. Robertson, ed., _Characteristics ..._ (New York, 1900), I, 27.]

[Footnote i-412: _Ibid._, I, 241-2.]

[Footnote i-413: Moore, _op. cit._, 267.]

[Footnote i-414: In _Dogood Paper_ No. XIV Franklin suggests (autobiographically?): "In Matters of Religion, he that alters his Opinion on a _religious Account_, must certainly go thro' much Reading, hear many Arguments on both Sides, and undergo many Struggles in his Conscience, before he can come to a full Resolution" (_Writings_, II, 46).]

[Footnote i-415: He read Thomas Tryon's _The Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness_, probably the second edition (London, 1691), a copy of which is in the W. S. Mason Collection. Tryon holds that no "greater Happiness" than Attic sobriety is "attainable upon Earth" (p. 1). Divine Temperance is the "spring head of all Virtues" (p. 33). Inward harmony "is both the Glory and the Happiness, the Joy and Solace of created Beings, the celebrated Musick of the Spheres, the Eccho of Heaven, the Business of Seraphims, and the Imployment of Eternity" (p. 500). From Xenophon he learned that "self-restraint" is "the very corner-stone of virtue." The cla.s.sic core of the _Memorabilia_ is the love of the moderate contending with the love of the incontinent. Franklin has impressed many as representing an American Socrates. Emerson was certain that Socrates "had a Franklin-like wisdom" (Centenary Ed., IV, 72).

Franklin's fondness for Socratic centrality, discipline, and knowledge of self is fragmentarily shown by the aphorisms appropriated in _Poor Richard_. There are scores of the quality of the following: "He that lives carnally won't live eternally." "Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?" "Caesar did not merit the triumphal car more than he that conquers himself." "If Pa.s.sion drives, let Reason hold the Reins." "A man in a Pa.s.sion rides a mad Horse." "There are three Things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond and to know one's self." Consult T. H. Russell's _The Sayings of Poor Richard, 1733-1758_.]

[Footnote i-416: See S. Bloore, "Samuel Keimer. A Footnote to the Life of Franklin," _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, LIV, 255-87 (July, 1930), and "Samuel Keimer," in _Dictionary of American Biography_, X, 288-9. In 1724 Samuel Keimer (probably with Franklin's aid) reprinted Gordon and Trenchard's _The Independent Whig_. (See W. J.

Campbell's _A Short-t.i.tle Check List of all the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin_.) Franklin also was acquainted with their _Cato's Letters_, having helped to set up parts from it while working on the _New England Courant_. _The Independent Whig_ emphasizes humanitarian morality rather than theological dogma, morality which "prompts us to do good to all Men, and to all Men alike" (London, 1721, xlviii). It is fearful of metaphysical vagaries (p. 26). Warring against priests and their "Monkey Tricks at Church" (p. 165)--"One Drop of Priestcraft is enough to contaminate the Ocean" (p. 168)--it sets up a violent ant.i.thesis between reason and authority (p. 212), declaring that "we must judge from Scripture what is Orthodoxy" _but_ "we must judge from Reason, what is Scripture" (p.

276). Tilting at a Deity "revengeful, cruel, capricious, impotent, vain, fond of Commendation and Flattery," exalting an "All-powerful, All-wise, and All-merciful G.o.d" (p. 413), _The Independent Whig_, like Franklin's _Articles_, suggests that "it is absurd to suppose, that we can direct the All-wise Being in the Dispensation of his Providence; or can flatter or persuade him out of his eternal Decrees" (p. 436). In _Cato's Letters_ (3rd ed., 4 vols., London, 1733), which were tremendously popular in the American colonies, Franklin could have read that "The People have no Bia.s.s to be Knaves" (I, 178), that man "cannot enter into the Rationale of G.o.d's punis.h.i.+ng all Mankind for the Sin of their first Parents, which they could not help" (IV, 38), "That we cannot provoke him, when we intend to adore him; that the best Way to serve him, is to be serviceable to one another" (IV, 103). Jesus inst.i.tuted a natural religion, a wors.h.i.+p of One Immutable G.o.d, free from priests, sacrifices, and ceremonies, in which one shows through "doing Good to men" his adoration for G.o.d (IV, 265-6). Here are observations which could easily have reinforced Franklin's deistic rationale. For interesting evidence of further deistic and rationalistic works available to Franklin, see L.

C. Wroth's _An American Bookshelf_, 1755.]

[Footnote i-417: One of the editors has examined the photostated _New England Courant_ in the W. S. Mason Collection. For readable accounts of this newspaper see: W. G. Bleyer, _Main Currents in the History of American Journalism_, chaps. I-II; C. A. Duniway, _The Development of Freedom of the Press in Ma.s.sachusetts_, 97-103; W. C. Ford, "Franklin's New England Courant," _Proceedings of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society_, LVII, 336-53 (April, 1924); H. F. Kane, "James Franklin Senior, Printer of Boston and Newport," _American Collector_, III, 17-26 (Oct., 1926).]

[Footnote i-418: See _Writings_, II, 52-3.]

[Footnote i-419: One of the editors has used the Huth copy now possessed by W. S. Mason. Not included in the Sparks, Bigelow, or Smyth editions of his works, it was printed by Parton as an Appendix to his _Life_; by I. W. Riley, _op. cit._, and recently edited by L. C. Wroth for The Facsimile Text Society.]

[Footnote i-420: Franklin must have been mistaken in his belief that he set up the second edition. The work was privately printed in 1722, reprinted in 1724 and a second time in 1725. Hence Franklin really set up the _third_ edition. For an extensive a.n.a.lysis of this work, see C.

G. Thompson's dissertation, _The Ethics of William Wollaston_ (Boston, 1922).]

[Footnote i-421: Wollaston, _op. cit._, 15.]

[Footnote i-422: _Ibid._, 23.]

[Footnote i-423: _Ibid._, 78-9.]

[Footnote i-424: _Ibid._, 80.]

[Footnote i-425: _Ibid._]

[Footnote i-426: _Ibid._, 83.]

[Footnote i-427: It would be interesting to know whether Franklin's much discussed prudential virtues (listed in _Autobiography_) were not in part motivated by Wollaston's pages 173-80.]

[Footnote i-428: _Ibid._, 7.]

[Footnote i-429: _Ibid._, 26.]

[Footnote i-430: _Ibid._, 63 ff.]

[Footnote i-431: _Writings_, VII, 412.]

[Footnote i-432: _A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity_, _Pleasure and Pain_ (London, 1725), 4.]

[Footnote i-433: _Ibid._, 5.]

[Footnote i-434: For an incisive exposition of the earlier and contemporary controversy regarding freedom of the will, see C. H. Faust and T. H. Johnson's Introduction to _Jonathan Edwards_ (American Writers Series, New York, 1935), xliii-lxiv.]

[Footnote i-435: _A Dissertation ..._, 10-1.]

[Footnote i-436: In Franklin's liturgy of the '30's (in the _Autobiography_) he quotes from Thomson's _Winter_ (lines 217 ff.).

While the references to Thomson are few in the complete works, his later influence on Franklin need not be underestimated. See Franklin's letter to W. Strahan (_Writings_, II, 242-3) in which he confesses that "That charming Poet has brought more Tears of Pleasure into my Eyes than all I ever read before." It is not inconceivable that in Thomson Franklin found additional sanction for his humanitarian bias. One remembers the wide differences between the humanitarianism of Thomson and Franklin.