Benjamin Franklin Part 15

Franklin's practical and masculine-humanitarianism keyed to the saving of time and energy was unlike the sentimental warmheartedness often displayed by Thomson. Franklin was never moved to tears at beholding the worm's "convulsive twist in agonizing folds."]

[Footnote i-437: Phillips Russell has suggested _Spectator_, No. 183, as Franklin's probable source in Part II of the _Dissertation_. There, pleasure and pain are "such constant yoke-fellows." This intuitive a.s.sertion can hardly be conceived as the elaborate metaphysical rationale upon which this idea rests in Franklin's work.]

[Footnote i-438: Robertson, _op. cit._, 239-40.]

[Footnote i-439: London (4th ed.), 1724. A despiser of authoritarianism in religion, intrigued by the physico-deistic thought of his day, Lyons (with a vituperative force akin to Thomas Paine's) d.a.m.ns those who d.a.m.n men for revolting against divine and absolute revelation (p. 25). "Men have _Reason_ sufficient to find out proper and regular ways for improving and perfecting their laws." Faith he calls "an unintelligible Chymaera of the Phantasie" (p. 92). The doctrine of the Trinity "is one of the most nice Inventions that ever the subtlest Virtuoso constru'd to puzzle the Wit of Man with" (p. 112). Through faith people make of G.o.d "only a confus'd unintelligible Description of a _Heterogeneous Monster_ of their own Making" (p. 117). Deistically he opines that "we shall soon see that the Object of _True Religion_, and all Rational Mens Speculations, is an Eternal, Unchangeable, Omnipotent Being, infinitely Good, Just and Wise" (p. 123). Like Toland he urges, "To pretend to Believe a Thing or the Working of a Miracle, is a stupid and gaping Astonishment" (p. 195). Although he enjoyed Franklin's dissertation, he does not in his work hold to Franklin's necessitarianism: "Nothing interrupts Men, but only as they interrupt one another" (p. 238).

Religion to Lyons is remote from books, but is found in the "unalterable laws of Nature, which no Authority can destroy, or Interpolator corrupt"

(p. 252).]

[Footnote i-440: Although Franklin indicates in his _Autobiography_ that he delighted to listen to Mandeville hold forth at the Horns, there seems to be traceable in his writings no direct influence of Mandeville's thought. (One may wonder whether Franklin's use of the name "Horatio" in his 1730 dialogues between Philocles and Horatio could be traced to Mandeville's use of the name in his dialogues between Cleomenes and Horatio.) Mandeville's empirical view of man's essential egoism would have found sympathetic response from Franklin. On the other hand, Mandeville's ethical rigorism (see Kaye's Introd. to The _Fable of the Bees_) differs from the utilitarian cast Franklin sheds over his strenuous ethicism. One may suspect that like a Bunyan, a Swift, a Rabelais, Mandeville would have fortified Franklin against accepting too blithely Shaftesbury's faith in man's innate altruism, even if he did not short-circuit Franklin's growing humanitarianism.]

[Footnote i-441: _Writings_, I, 278.]

[Footnote i-442: David Brewster, _Life of Sir Isaac Newton_ (New York, 1831), 258. For fuller treatment see his _Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton_ (Edinburgh, 1855), II, 378 ff., and _pa.s.sim_.]

[Footnote i-443: Quoted in C. S. Duncan, _op. cit._, 16. See Desaguliers's _A System of Experimental Philosophy, Prov'd by Mechanicks ..._ (London, 1719), and his _The Newtonian System of the World, The Best Model of Government: An Allegorical Poem_ (Westminster, 1728). The popularizers of Newton were legion: see especially Watts, Derham, Ray, Huygens, Blackmore, Locke, Thomson, Shaftesbury, S. Clarke, Whiston, Keill, Maclaurin.]

[Footnote i-444: _A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy_ (London, 1728), 2-3.]

[Footnote i-445: _Ibid._, 405. Cf. also 13, 18, 181, 406.]

[Footnote i-446: Not to be neglected in a summary of the factors influencing Franklin during his youth is Quakerism. Taught in Boston to suspect the Quakers, in Philadelphia in the midst of their stronghold he came soon, one may imagine, to have a sympathetic regard for them.

Quakerism, in its antagonism towards sacraments and ceremonies, in its emphasis on the priesthood of every man and the right of private judgment, in its strenuous effort to promote fellow-service, was congenial to the young printer, reacting against Presbyterianism. Like the radical thought of the age, Quakerism refused first place to scriptural revelation, which became secondary to the light within, the dictates of one's heart. Often, we may suspect, the light within was blended with the concept in deism, that regardless of the promptings of scripture, each man has within him a natural sense which enables him to apprehend the truths of nature. The effort of deism to simplify religion was historically shared by Quakerism. During the years we have under consideration Franklin was endeavoring to make a simple wors.h.i.+p out of the subtle theology which had been offered him during his early years.

Presbyterianism had frowned upon a covenant of works; Quakerism attempted to express its covenant with G.o.d in terms of human kindliness, fellows.h.i.+p, and service.]

[Footnote i-447: It would be interesting to know if M. Fa is able to doc.u.ment his statement that the Junto "had Masonic leanings" ("Learned Societies in Europe and America in the Eighteenth Century," _American Historical Review_, x.x.xVII, 258 [1932]). R. F. Gould (_The History of Freemasonry_, London, 1887, III, 424) conjectures whether where was a lodge in Boston as early as 1720 but can offer no evidence of a real history of Masonry in the colonies until 1730, when colonial Masonry "may be said to have its commencement." Chroniclers of Franklin's Masonic career have found no doc.u.mentary evidence of his affiliation with Masonry until February, 1731, when he entered St. John's Lodge. See J. F. Sachse, _Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason_; J. H. Tatsch, _Freemasonry in the Thirteen Colonies_ (New York, 1924); _Early Newspaper Accounts of Free Masonry in Pennsylvania, England, Ireland, and Scotland. From 1730 to 1750 by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Reprinted from Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette_ (Philadelphia, 1886); _Masonic Letters of Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia to H. Price of Boston_, ed. by C.

P. MacCalla (Philadelphia, 1888); M. M. Johnson, _The Beginnings of Freemasonry in America_ (New York, 1924). See "Prefatory Note" in W. B.

Loewy's reprint of Anderson's _Const.i.tutions_ (a reprint of Franklin's imprint of 1734) in _Publications of the Masonic Historical Society of New York_, No. 3 (New York, 1905). Arriving in London only seven years after the inauguration of the Grand Lodge, Franklin could hardly have been unaware of the broader speculations of Masonry. In London only a year after Anderson's _Const.i.tutions_ were printed (in 1723), he may conceivably have read the volume.

Stressing toleration, the universality of natural religion, morality rather than theology, reason rather than faith, Masonry could easily have augmented these ideas as they were latent or already developed in Franklin's mind. Scholars have yet to work out the extent to which Freemasonry, yokefellow of deism, reinforced free thought and was one of the subversive forces breaking down colonial orthodoxy. B. Fa's _Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800_ neglects non-political influences of Freemasonry.

Although there is no evidence that Franklin as early as 1728 read such works (popular in the colonies) as De Ramsay's _The Travels of Cyrus_ and Rowe's translation of _The Golden Sayings of Pythagoras_, the manner in which oriental lore augmented science and Masonry in fostering deism is an intriguing problem in eighteenth-century colonial letters.]

[Footnote i-448: See I. W. Riley, _op. cit._, 249. Also see C. M. Walsh, "Franklin and Plato," _Open Court_, XX, 129 ff.]

[Footnote i-449: See _Writings_, II, 95-6 (1728).]

[Footnote i-450: John Ray's _The Wisdom of G.o.d Manifested in the Works of the Creation_ (London, 1827; first ed. 1691), 31-2.]

[Footnote i-451: _The Augustan Age_, 54-5.]

[Footnote i-452: _Selections from the Writings of Fenelon_, ed. by Mrs.

Follen (Boston, 1861), 51-2.]

[Footnote i-453: _Ibid._, 59.]

[Footnote i-454: _Ibid._, 47.]

[Footnote i-455: In Preface to _The Works of the British Poets_, ed. by R. Anderson (London, 1795), 592. Since Franklin frequented Batson's in Cornhill, it is possible that through Dr. Pemberton he might have met Sir R. Blackmore, who was one of its best patrons.]

[Footnote i-456: _Ibid._, 611.]

[Footnote i-457: See Ray, _op. cit._, 143: "I persuade myself, that the beautiful and gracious Author of man's being and faculties, and all things else, delights in the beauty of his creation, and is well pleased with the industry of man, in adorning the earth with beautiful cities and castles...."]

[Footnote i-458: _The Relation of John Locke to English Deism_, 133.]

[Footnote i-459: See P. S. Wood, "Native Elements in English Neo-Cla.s.sicism," _Modern Philology_, XXIV, 201-8 (Nov., 1926).]

[Footnote i-460: See C. E. Jorgenson's "The Source of Benjamin Franklin's Dialogues between Philocles and Horatio (1730)," _American Literature_, VI, 337-9 (Nov., 1934).]

[Footnote i-461: _Writings_, II, 203.]

[Footnote i-462: _Ibid._, II, 467.]

[Footnote i-463: Facsimile reprint by W. Pepper (Philadelphia, 1931), 27 note.]

[Footnote i-464: See _Almanac_ for 1753.]

[Footnote i-465: _Writings_, II, 288.]

[Footnote i-466: _Ibid._, II, 429. See also II, 434-5.]

[Footnote i-467: See W. J. Campbell, _op. cit._]

[Footnote i-468: No. 570 (Nov. 15, 1739), No. 565 (Oct. 11, 1739), and No. 628 (Dec. 25, 1740), for example, are loaded with tributes to the effective preaching and contagious saintliness of this preacher of the Great Awakening.]

[Footnote i-469: No. 618 (Oct. 16, 1740). Franklin's _General Magazine and Historical Chronicle_ contains many Whitefield references.]

[Footnote i-470: _Writings_, II, 316. In general, emotional Methodism was not responsive to science as a basis for rationalistic deism, although to a considerable extent Methodism and deism synchronized in their endeavor to relieve social suffering. See U. Lee's able study, _The Historical Backgrounds of Early Methodist Enthusiasm_ (New York, 1931).]

[Footnote i-471: Rev. L. Tyerman, _Life of the Reverend George Whitefield_ (London, 1876), I, 439.]

[Footnote i-472: _Ibid._, II, 283-4.]

[Footnote i-473: _Ibid._, II, 540-1.]

[Footnote i-474: _Ibid._, II, 541.]

[Footnote i-475: See H. H. Clark's "An Historical Interpretation of Thomas Paine's Religion," _University of California Chronicle_, x.x.xV, 56-87 (Jan., 1933), and "Toward a Reinterpretation of Thomas Paine,"

_American Literature_, V, 133-45 (May, 1933).]

[Footnote i-476: _Writings_, IX, 520.]

[Footnote i-477: _Ibid._, VIII, 561. See also IX, 506.]

[Footnote i-478: Aug. 22, 1784; unpublished letter in W. S. Mason Collection. Also see _Writings_, VIII, 113; IX, 476, 488, 621.]

[Footnote i-479: I. W. Riley, _American Thought from Puritanism to Pragmatism_, 76.]