Wendell, Barrett.A Literary History of America.New York: 1900. (Franklin estimate, pp. 92-103.)
Wetzel, W. A.Benjamin Franklin as an Economist.Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Thirteenth Series, IX, 421-76. Baltimore: 1895. (Useful summary, but superseded by Carey'sFranklin's Economic Views.)
Wharton, A. H. "The American Philosophical Society,"Atlantic Monthly, LXI, 611-24 (May, 1888).
Bibliographical suggestions relating to Franklin's American friends and contemporaries will be found following the brief but scholarly studies in theDictionary of American Biography. Of these see especially John Adams (also G. Chinard,Honest John Adams, Boston, 1933); Samuel Adams; Ethan Allen; Nathaniel Ames; Joel Barlow (also V. C. Miller,Joel Barlow: Revolutionist, London, 1791-92, Hamburg, 1932, and T. A. Zunder,Early Days of Joel Barlow, New Haven, 1934); John Bartram; William Bartram (also N. Fagin,William Bartram, Baltimore, 1933); Hugh H. Brackenridge (also C. Newlin,Brackenridge, Princeton, 1933); Cadwallader Colden; John Dickinson; Philip Freneau; Francis Hopkinson; T. Jefferson; Cotton Mather; Jonathan Mayhew; Thomas Paine; David Rittenhouse; Dr. Benjamin Rush (also N. Goodman,Rush, Philadelphia, 1934); Rev. William Smith; Ezra Stiles; John Trumbull; Noah Webster.
Adams, J. T.Provincial Society, 1690-1763.(Volume III ofA History of American Life, ed. Fox and Schlesinger.) New York: 1927. (Contains useful "Critical Essay on Authorities" consulted, pp. 324-56, which serves as a guide for further study of many phases of the social history of the period.)
Adams, R. G.Political Ideas of the American Revolution.Durham, N. C.: 1922.
Andrews, C. M.The Colonial Background of the American Revolution.New Haven: 1924. (Stresses economic factors and the need of viewing the subject from the European angle; profitably used as companion study to Beer'sBritish Colonial Policy.)
Baldwin, Alice M.The New England Clergy and the American Revolution.Durham, N. C.: 1928. (Prior to 1763 the clergy popularized "doctrines of natural right, the social contract, and the right of resistance" and principles of American constitutional law.)
Beard, C. A.The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy.New York: 1915. (Suggestive, ifotherfactors are not neglected. See C. H. Hull's review inAmerican Historical Review, XXII, 401-3.)
Becker, Carl.The Declaration of Independence; A Study in the History of Political Ideas.New York: 1922. (Excellent survey of natural rights, and the extent to which this concept was influenced by Newtonianism.)
Becker, Carl.The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers.New Haven: 1932. (R. S. Crane observes, after calling attention to certain obscurities and confusions: "The description of the general temper of the 'philosophers,' the characterization of the principal eighteenth-century historians, much at least of the final chapter on the idea of progress—these can be read with general approval for their content and with a satisfaction in Becker's prose style that is unalloyed by considerations of exegesis or terminology" [Philological Quarterly, XIII, 104-6].)
Beer, George L.British Colonial Policy, 1754-1765.New York: 1933 [1907].
Bemis, S. F.The Diplomacy of the American Revolution.New York; 1935. (Brilliant exposition of French, Spanish, Austrian, and other diplomacy relative to the Revolution. Should be supplemented by Frank Monaghan'sJohn Jay.)
Bloch, Léon.La philosophie de Newton.Paris: 1908. (A comprehensive, standard exposition.)
Bosker, Aisso.Literary Criticism in the Age of Johnson.Groningen: 1930. (Reviewed by N. Foerster inPhilological Quarterly, XI, 216-7.)
Brasch, F. E. "The Royal Society of London and Its Influence upon Scientific Thought in the American Colonies,"Scientific Monthly, XXXIII, 336-55, 448-69 (1931). (Useful survey.)
Brinton, Crane.A Decade of Revolutions, 1789-1799.New York: 1934. (Useful on the pattern of ideas associated with the French Revolution; has a full and up-to-date "Bibliographical Essay," pp. 293-322, with critical commentary.)
Bullock, C. J.Essays on the Monetary History of the United States.New York: 1900. (Useful bibliography, pp. 275-88.)
Burnett, E. C., ed.Letters of Members of the Continental Congress.Washington, D. C.: 1921. (Seven volumes now published include letters to 1784. Contain a mass of new material of first importance, edited with notes, cross-references, and introductions.)
Burtt, E. A.The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science; A Historical and Critical Essay.New York: 1925.
Bury, J. B.The Idea of Progress.New York: 1932 (new edition). (Standard English work on the topic. See also Jules Delvaille,Essai sur l'histoire de l'idée de progrès[Paris, 1910], a more encyclopedic book.)
Channing, Edward.A History of the United States.New York: 1912. (Volumes II-III.)
Clark, H. H. "Factors to be Investigated in American Literary History from 1787 to 1800,"English Journal, XXIII, 481-7 (June, 1934). (Suggests the genetic interrelations of classical ideas; neoclassicism; the scientific spirit, rationalism, and deism; primitivism and the idea of progress; physical America and the frontier spirit; agrarianism and laissez faire; Federalism versus Democracy, whether Jeffersonian or French; sentimentalism and humanitarianism; Gothicism; and conflicting currents of aesthetic theory.)
Clark, H. H., ed.Poems of Freneau.New York: 1929. (F. L. Pattee says of the Introduction, "No one has ever traced out better the ramifications of French Revolution deism in America and the effects of its clash with Puritanism" [American Literature, II, 316-7]. Also see Clark's "Thomas Paine's Theories of Rhetoric,"Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, XXVIII, 307-39 [1933], which discusses relationships between deism and literary theory.)
Clark, J. M., Viner, J., and others.Adam Smith, 1776-1926.Chicago: 1928. (Brilliant essays on various aspects of Smith's thought and influence. See especially Jacob Viner's "Adam Smith and Laissez-Faire," pp. 116-55, which shows the relations in Smith's mind between economics and religion, between laissez faire and "the harmonious order of nature" posited by the scientific deists.)
Crane, R. S. "Anglican Apologetics and the Idea of Progress, 1699-1745,"Modern Philology, XXXI, 273-306 (Feb., 1934), 349-82 (May, 1934). (Demonstrates in masterly fashion how the idea of progress grew out of orthodox defenses of revealed religion, current in Franklin's formative years. Modifies the conventional view that the Church was hostile to the idea of progress and that it derived exclusively from the scientific spirit.)
Davidson, P. G., Jr. "Whig Propagandists of the American Revolution,"American Historical Review, XXXIX, 442-53 (April, 1934). (Also seeRevolutionary Propaganda in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, 1763-1776. Unpublished dissertation, University of Chicago, 1929.)
"Deism," inThe New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, III, 391-7 (by Ernst Troeltsch).
De la Fontainerie, F., tr. and ed.French Liberalism and Education in the Eighteenth Century: The Writings of La Chalotais, Turgot, Diderot, and Condorcet on National Education.New York: 1932. (Convenient source book.)
Dewey, D. R.Financial History of the United States.New York: 1924 (9th ed.). (Bristles with bibliographical aids for study of eighteenth century.)
Draper, J. W.Eighteenth Century English Aesthetics: A Bibliography.Heidelberg: 1931. (Source materials, pp. 61-128, for aesthetics of literature and drama: includes in appendix, pp. 129-40, ablest secondary works to 1931. An invaluable guide. See additions by R. S. Crane,Modern Philology, XXIX, 251 ff. [1931], W. D. Templeman,ibid., XXX, 309-16, R. D. Havens,Modern Language Notes, XLVII, 118-20 [1932].)
Drennon, Herbert. "Newtonianism: Its Method, Theology, and Metaphysics,"Englische Studien, LXVIII, 397-409 (1933-1934). (Other parts of Mr. Drennon's brilliant doctoral dissertation,James Thomson and Newtonianism[University of Chicago, 1928], have been published inPublications of the Modern Language Association, XLIX, 71-80, March, 1934; inStudies in Philology, XXXI, 453-71, July, 1934; and inPhilological Quarterly, XIV, 70-82, Jan., 1935.)
Ducros, Louis.French Society in the Eighteenth Century.Tr. from the French by W. de Geijer; with a Foreword by J. A. Higgs-Walker. London: 1927.
Duncan, C. S.The New Science and English Literature in the Classical Period.Menasha, Wis.: 1913. (Scholarly.)
Dunning, W. A.A History of Political Theories from Luther to Montesquieu.New York: 1905, andA History of Political Theories from Rousseau to Spencer. New York: 1920. (Standard works.)
Elton, Oliver.The Augustan Age.New York: 1899, andA Survey of English Literature, 1730-1780. 2 vols. London: 1928. (Acute on literary trends, though hardly adequate on ideas.)
Evans, Charles.American Bibliography.Chicago: 1903-1934. (Volumes I-XII, 1639-1799.)
Faÿ, Bernard.Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800.Boston: 1935. (Stimulating conjectures vitiated by extravagant and undocumented conclusions.)
Faÿ, Bernard.The Revolutionary Spirit in France and America.Tr. by R. Guthrie. New York: 1927. (Especially valuable for notes on the vogue of Franklin in France. Highly important comprehensive survey of French influence in America, and the impetus our revolution gave to French liberalism.)
Fisher, S. G.The Quaker Colonies. A Chronicle of the Proprietors of the Delaware.New Haven: 1921. (Useful bibliography, pp. 231-4.)
Fiske, John.The Beginnings of New England, or the Puritan Theocracy in Its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty.Boston: 1896 [1889]. (See also Perry Miller'sOrthodoxy in Massachusetts, 1630-1650.A Genetic Study.Cambridge, Mass.: 1933.)
Gettell, R. G.History of American Political Thought.New York: 1928. (The standard comprehensive treatment of its subject. Has good bibliographies.)
Gide, Charles, and Rist, Charles.A History of Economic Doctrines from the Time of the Physiocrats to the Present Day.Authorized translation from the second revised and augmented edition of 1913 under the direction of the late Professor Wm. Smart, by R. Richards. Boston: 1915. (Excellent survey of physiocracy.)
Gierke, Otto.Natural Law and the Theory of Society, 1500 to 1800.With a Lecture on The Ideas of Natural Law and Humanity, by Ernst Troeltsch. Tr. with an introduction by E. Barker. 2 vols. Cambridge, England: 1934. (A standard work, with excellent notes, especially valuable on European backgrounds.)
Gohdes, Clarence. "Ethan Allen and hisMagnum Opus,"Open Court, XLIII, 128-51 (March, 1929). (Suggests the eighteenth-century battle between revelation and reason, the latter as buttressed by Lockian sensationalism and Newtonian science.)
Greene, E. B.The Provincial Governor in the English Colonies of North America.Cambridge, Mass.: 1898. (Inveterate divergence between provincial governor and provincial assemblies foreshadowed the American Revolution.)
Halévy, E.The Growth of Philosophic Radicalism.Tr. by M. Morris, with a preface by A. D. Lindsay. London: 1928. (A comprehensive, authoritative work.)
Hansen, A. O.Liberalism and American Education in the Eighteenth Century.With an introduction by E. H. Reisner. New York: 1926. (A good bibliography of primary sources and a poor bibliography of secondary sources, pp. 265-96. Although this slights Franklin and deals especially with plans following Franklin's death, it surveys educational ideals with reference to the ideas of the Enlightenment, ideas latent in Franklin's writings.)
Haroutunian, Joseph.Piety versus Moralism, the Passing of the New England Theology.New York: 1932. (An important scholarly work arguing reluctantly that Puritanism declined because it was theocentric and inadequate to the social needs of the time. Has an excellent bibliography.)
Hefelbower, S. G.The Relation of John Locke to English Deism.Chicago: 1918. (The relation between Locke and the English deists is "not causal, nor do they mark different stages of the same movement"; they are "related as coordinate parts of the larger progressive movement of the age." Stresses Locke's tolerance, rationalism, and natural religion.)
Higgs, Henry.The Physiocrats. Six Lectures on the French Économistes of the Eighteenth Century.London: 1897. (Gide and Rist term this a "succinct account" of the physiocratic system.)
Hildeburn, C. R.Issues of the Pennsylvania Press. A Century of Printing, 1685-1784.2 vols. Philadelphia: 1885-1886. (A highly useful guide to what was being read in Pennsylvania year by year.)
Horton, W. M.Theism and the Scientific Spirit.New York: 1933. (Popular accounts of "Copernican world" and "God in the Newtonian world" in chapters I-II.)
Humphrey, Edward.Nationalism and Religion in America, 1774-1789.Boston: 1924.
Jameson, J. F.The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement.Princeton, N. J.: 1926. (Brief and general, but suggestive.)
Jones, H. M.America and French Culture, 1750-1848.Chapel Hill, N. C.: 1927. (A monumental, elaborately documented comprehensive work, containing an excellent bibliography.)
Jones, H. M. "American Prose Style: 1700-1770,"Huntington Library Bulletin, No. 6, 115-51 (Nov., 1934). (Shows that Puritan preachings inculcated the ideal of a simple, lucid, and dignified style.)
Kaye, F. B., ed.The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits. With a Commentary Critical, Historical, and Explanatory.2 vols. Oxford: 1924. (The introduction is the most lucid and penetrating commentary on Mandeville in relation to the pattern of ideas of his age. See L. I. Bredvold's review inJournal of English and Germanic Philology, XXIV, 586-9, Oct., 1925.)
Koch, G. A.Republican Religion: The American Revolution and the Cult of Reason.New York: 1933. ("A vast body of facts about a host of obscure figures"—reviewed by H. H. Clark inJournal of Philosophy, XXXI, 135-8. Contains an elaborate bibliography.)
Kraus, M.Intercolonial Aspects of American Culture on the Eve of the Revolution.New York: 1928. (Scholarly.)
Lecky, W. E. H.A History of England in the Eighteenth Century.7 vols. New York: 1892-1893 (new ed.). (A standard work, containing a finely documented treatment of the political aspects of the American Revolution.)
Leonard, S. A.The Doctrine of Correctness in English Usage, 1700-1800.Madison, Wis.: 1929. (Authoritative.)
Lévy-Bruhl, Lucien.History of Modern Philosophy in France.Chicago: 1899.
Lincoln, C. H.The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania, 1760-1776.Philadelphia: 1901. (A highly important study showing that local sectional strife which would have eventually led to conflict synchronized with the strife between the colony and England.)
Lovejoy, A. O. "The Parallel of Deism and Classicism,"Modern Philology, XXIX, 281-99 (Feb., 1932). ("A systematic statement of the rationalisticpreconceptionswhich, when applied in matters of religion terminated in Deism, when applied in aesthetics produced Classicism. An illuminating synthesis, done throughout with characteristic finesse and discrimination" [Philological Quarterly, XII, 106, April, 1933].)
McIlwain, C. H.The American Revolution: A Constitutional Interpretation.New York: 1923. (Offers defense of revolution on English constitutional grounds.)
Martin, Kingsley.French Liberal Thought in the Eighteenth Century: A Study of Political Ideas from Bayle to Condorcet.Boston: 1929. (Stimulating survey of ideology motivating the French revolution, "a dramatic moment when feudalism, clericalism and divine monarchy collapsed.")
Merriam, C. E.A History of American Political Theories.New York: 1924 [1903]. (Authoritative, brief treatment.)
Monaghan, Frank.John Jay, Defender of Liberty.New York: 1935. (A brilliant biography and a fully documented study of the activities and diplomacy of the Continental Congress. Supplements S. F. Bemis; see above.)
Moore, C. A. "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in England, 1700-1760,"Publications of the Modern Language Association, XXXI (N. S.XXIV), 264-325 (June, 1916). (Penetrating and brilliant survey of the growth of altruism, to be supplemented by R. S. Crane's studies of earlier sources.)
Morais, H. M.Deism in Eighteenth Century America.New York: 1934. (If little space is given to the implications of Deism in terms of political, economic, and literary theory, and if the leaders of deistic thought, such as Franklin, Jefferson, and Paine are too lightly dealt with, this work is "substantial, precise, well-documented, modest, cautious, and objective." Has a good bibliography. Reviewed by H. H. Clark,American Literature, VI, 467-9, Jan., 1935. See also Morais's "Deism in Revolutionary America, 1763-89,"International Journal of Ethics, XLII, 434-53, July, 1932.)
Morley, John.Diderot and the Encyclopædists.2 vols. London: 1923. (A suggestive survey, parts of which have been superseded by more recent studies.)
Mornet, Daniel.French Thought in the Eighteenth Century.Tr. by L. M. Levin. New York: 1929. (Lucid and penetrating survey; suggestive notes on the influence of speculation motivated by science.)
Mornet, Daniel.Les origines intellectuelles de la Révolution française (1715-1787).Paris: 1933. (A brilliant work, concluding that without the extraordinary diffusion of radical ideas in all classes in France, the States-General in 1789 would not have adopted revolutionary measures. See C. Brinton's review,American Historical Review, XXXIX, 726-7, 1934.)
Morse, W. N. "Lectures on Electricity in Colonial Times,"New England Quarterly, VII, 364-74 (June, 1934). (Presents fourteen items on the vogue of electrical experiments, 1747-1765.)
Mott, F. L.A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850.New York: 1930.
Mullett, C. F.Fundamental Law and the American Revolution, 1760-1776.New York: 1933. (A highly important scholarly study, with excellent bibliography of relevant investigations of recent date. Supplements B. F. Wright.)
Ornstein, Martha.The Rôle of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth Century.New York: 1913. Reprinted, University of Chicago Press: 1928. (Shows their radical influence. See suggestive reviews inAmerican Historical Review, XXXIV, 386-7, 1929; andTimes Literary Supplement[London], 679, Sept. 27, 1928.)
Osgood, H. L.The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century.4 vols. New York: 1924-1925. (Standard work on political aspects.)
Perkins, J. B.France in the American Revolution.Boston: 1911. (Includes able survey of Franklin's efforts in behalf of colonies.)
Richardson, L. N.A History of Early American Magazines, 1741-1789.New York: 1931. (An encyclopedic survey indispensable to all students of the period. Enormously documented.)
Robertson, J. M.A Short History of Free Thought, Ancient and Modern.2 vols. London: 1915. (Third edition, revised and expanded. An important survey, if somewhat militantly partisan.)
Roustan, Marius.The Pioneers of the French Revolution.Tr. by F. Whyte, with an Introduction by H. J. Laski. Boston: 1926. (Thesis: "The spirit of thephilosopheswas the spirit of the Revolution." Highly readable, but inferior to parallel studies by Martin and Mornet in incisive analysis of patterns of ideas. Stresses picturesque social aspects.)
Schapiro, J. S.Condorcet and the Rise of Liberalism in France.New York: 1934. (Condorcet is the "almost perfect expression of the pioneer liberalism of the period"; he is viewed as the "last of the encyclopedists and the most universal of all." A lucid scholarly study, although hardly superseding Alengry'sCondorcet.)
Schlesinger, A. M. "The American Revolution," inNew Viewpoints in American History. New York: 1922, pp. 160-83. (A brief but excellent interpretation, stressing economic factors, and presenting a useful "Bibliographical Note," pp. 181-3, including references to studies of political and religious factors. See also studies of the latter by R. G. Adams, Alice Baldwin, Carl Becker, B. F. Wright, C. F. Mullett, C. H. Van Tyne, and Edward Humphrey.)
Schneider, H. W.The Puritan Mind.New York: 1930. (An acute scholarly study, with excellent bibliography. The stress on ideas supplements and balances Parrington's tendency to dismiss ideas as by-products of economic factors.)
Smith, T. V.The American Philosophy of Equality.Chicago: 1927. (Chapter I includes discussion of "natural rights," with recognition of the influence of European theorists.)
Smyth, A. H.The Philadelphia Magazines and Their Contributors, 1741-1850.Philadelphia: 1892. (Brief descriptive account, mostly superseded by the relevant sections in F. L. Mott's and L. N. Richardson's histories.)
Stephen, Leslie.A History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century.2 vols. London: 1902 (3rd ed.). (As J. L. Laski observes, it is "almost insolent to praise such work." In certain aspects, however, it has been superseded by studies by such men as R. S. Crane, A. O. Lovejoy, H. M. Jones, etc.)
Stimson, Dorothy.The Gradual Acceptance of the Copernican Theory of the Universe.Hanover, N. H.: 1917.
Taylor, O. H. "Economics and the Idea of Natural Law,"Quarterly Journal of Economics, XLIV, 1-39 (Nov., 1929). ("The evolution of the idea of 'law' in economics" paralleling "its evolution in the natural sciences" led to belief in an economic mechanism which "was regarded as a wise device of the Creator for causing individuals, while pursuing only their own interests, to promote the prosperity of society, and for causing the right adjustment to one another of supplies, demands, prices, and incomes, to take place automatically, in consequence of the free action of all individuals." The author suggests that there is evident an incongruous dichotomy between the mechanistic idea of the physiocrats and their assumption that enlightened men "would be able to use government as a scientific tool for carrying out purely rationalistic measures in the common interest." See also outline of his doctoral thesis on this subject. Harvard UniversitySummaries of Theses[1928], 102-6. An authoritative study of an important subject.)
Torrey, N. L.Voltaire and the English Deists.New Haven: 1930. (Shows Voltaire's great indebtedness to Newtonianism, which he popularized in France, and to earlier deists than Bolingbroke. Authoritative.)
Turberville, A. S., ed.Johnson's England. An Account of the Life and Manners of His Age.2 vols. Oxford University Press: 1933. (Although this collaborative work neglects political, religious, economic, and aesthetic ideas, it embodies readable and authoritative surveys of external aspects of social history, viewed from many angles. Contains useful bibliographies. See review by H. H. Clark,American Review, II, No. 4 [Feb., 1934].)
Tyler, M. C.A History of American Literature, 1607-1765(2 vols. New York: 1878), andThe Literary History of the American Revolution(2 vols. New York: 1897). (Somewhat grandiloquent but very full survey, including Loyalists. Excellent on literary aspects but partly superseded on ideas. Contains excellent bibliography of primary sources.)
Van Tyne, C. H.The Causes of the War of Independence.Boston: 1922. (Brilliant both in interpretation and style, and well balanced in considering economic, political, social, religious, and philosophic factors.)
Veitch, G. S.The Genesis of Parliamentary Reform.London: 1913. (Useful for English backgrounds.)
Weld, C. R.A History of the Royal Society with Memoirs of the Presidents.2 vols. London: 1848.
Wendell, Barrett.Cotton Mather, the Puritan Priest.Cambridge, Mass.: 1926 [1891]. (A sympathetic study of one of Franklin's masters, based on a deep knowledge of the Puritan spirit.)
Weulersse, Georges.Le mouvement physiocratique en France(de 1756 à 1770). 2 vols. Paris: 1910. (The standard treatment.)
White, A. D.A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.2 vols. New York: 1897. (Prominent attention given to colonial eighteenth century.)
Whitney, Lois.Primitivism and the Idea of Progress in English Popular Literature of the Eighteenth Century.Baltimore: 1934. (An acute study of the history of an important idea, especially as embodied in novels. Occasionally misleading because Miss Whitney does not always pay necessary attention to the major individuals' change of attitude, to their genetic development. Contains no bibliography. See Bury, above.)
Williams, David. "The Influence of Rousseau on Political Opinion, 1760-1795,"English Historical Review, XLVIII, 414-30 (1933).
Winsor, Justin, ed.Narrative and Critical History of America.8 vols. Boston: [1884-] 1889. (Especially valuable for bibliographical notes.)
Wright, B. F.American Interpretations of Natural Law. A Study in the History of Political Thought.Cambridge, Mass.: 1931. (An able outline of main trends, although it neglects evidence both in eighteenth-century sermons and in legal papers of colonial attorneys. Shows strong influence of Grotius, Puffendorf, and Locke on Revolutionary theories. Should be supplemented by C. F. Mullett's parallel book. Reviewed by R. B. Morris,American Historical Review, XXXVII, 561-2, April, 1932.)
Wright, T. G.Literary Culture in Early New England, 1620-1730.New Haven: 1920. (Valuable for its check lists of colonial libraries, suggesting books current in Franklin's formative years. The best treatment of its subject although it neglects the literary and aesthetic theories of the period. To be supplemented by books by C. F. Richardson, W. F. Mitchell, and E. C. Cook.)
Further background studies may be found inThe Cambridge History of English Literature, Cambridge and New York, 1912-1914, VIII-XI, andThe Cambridge History of American Literature, New York, 1917, Vol. I. See also the more up-to-date bibliographies in P. Smith'sA History of Modern Culture, New York, 1934, II, 647-76; R. S. Crane'sA Collection of English Poems, 1660-1800, New York, 1932, pp. 1115-42; and especially O. Shepard and P. S. Wood,English Prose and Poetry, 1660-1800, Boston, 1934, pp. xxxiii-xxxviii and pp. 937-1067. For bibliographical guides, see note following, p. clxxxviii.
Boggess, A. C., and Witmer, E. R.Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the University of Pennsylvania.(Being the Appendix to theCalendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, edited by I. M. 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" constitute 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 Publishing Company. With a Short-Title Check List of All the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin.Philadelphia: 1918.
Campbell, W. J.A Short-Title Check List of All the Books, Pamphlets, Broadsides, &c., known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin.Philadelphia: 1918.
*Faÿ, B.Benjamin Franklin bibliographie et étude sur les sources historiques relatives à sa vie(Vol. III ofBenjamin Franklin, bourgeois d'Amérique et citoyen du monde.) Paris: 1931. (Faÿ, inFranklin, 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 manuscript 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.Washington, D. C.: 1905.
Hays, I. M.Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society.Vols. II-VI inThe 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 Manuscripts 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 inPhilological Quarterly,American Literature,Publications of the Modern Language Association, bibliographical bulletins of the Modern Humanities Research Association, and Grace G. Griffin's annual bibliography,Writings on American History.
*
Selections from
*
NOTE: Superior figures through the text refer tonotesinpp. 529ff.
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 Circumstances ofmyLife, 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 God, 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 Repetition 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 Repetition is not to be expected, the next Thing most like living one's Life over again, seems to be aRecollectionof 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'dto 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 ownVanity. 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 God for his Vanity among the other Comforts of Life.—
And now I speak of thanking God, 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 tohope, tho' I must notpresume, 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 Northamptonshire, for 300 Years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the Time when the NameFranklinthat before was the name of an Order of People, was assum'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'dthat 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 Oxfordshire, with whom my Father serv'd an Apprenticeship. 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 principal 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 Apprenticeship 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. [AlthoughFranklin 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 principal 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.toand 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 2dsReign, when some of the Ministers that had been outed for Nonconformity, holding Conventicles in Northamptonshire, 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 withthree 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 2dwife 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, (entitled Magnalia Christi Americana) asa godly 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 God, 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,