BENJAMIN FRANKLINAs Printer

SIX

“Benjamin Franklin, printer,” was Franklin’s favorite way of describing himself. He was, indeed, a printer all his life. When only twelve, he became apprentice to his half-brother, James, but quarreled with him and ran away, finally reaching Philadelphia. Here he obtained employment and the patronage of Sir William Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania and Delaware, who gave him the public printing to do. Persuaded to try his fortune in London with Keith’s patronage, Franklin set sail with high hopes; but, on arriving, he found that Keith had played him false, and that no letter of credit, as promised, awaited him. After a year and a half of struggle and adventure, he was back in Philadelphia working at his trade. Franklin was now twenty-one. In a short time he started in business with a partner, and the firm of Franklin & Meredith limped along slowly but surely until Franklin became possessed of the leading newspaper in Philadelphia, to which he gave a new title, thePennsylvania Gazette.

This he improved in every way, making it the best and most widely read newspaper in the Colonies. By this time (1729) Franklin had a very well-trained pen, and his journalistic writings and published pamphlets had attracted much attention. He now dropped his partner, and, to help out his small income, he opened a shop, where he sold stationery, goose-feathers, soap, liquors, and groceries. About this time he printed the laws of Delaware.

ThePennsylvania Gazettegrew better and better all the time; for it contained anecdotes, extracts from English newspapers and articles which Franklin had written for and read to his club, the Junto.

In Colonial days every printer issued an almanac. Franklin followed the rule; but the annual he published differed in no way from any of the others until 1733, when Franklin, having nobody to prepare his almanac, had to write it himself. He published it as the work of a Richard Saunders, called in Franklin’s genial way, “Poor Richard.” In a note to “Courteous Reader,” Poor Richard introduced himself, little anticipating the success he was to have.

“Poor Richard’s Almanac” appeared every year thereafter, for twenty-five years, the annual sale averaging 10,000 copies a year, far in excess of any other Colonial publication. “Poor Richard” is now a “classic”; even those that have not read it have heard of it. Moreover, many people quote the homely proverbs without knowing it; for Poor Richard’s wisdom became part and parcel of our English speech long ago. Sometimes it has been published as “Father Abraham’s Speech,” and “The Way to Wealth,” and it has been translated into every modern language.

Besides his newspaper and almanac printing, Franklin printed books. He brought out the first novel ever published in America—Richardson’s “Pamela” (1744). Franklin’s tremendous industry and his general thrift made him successful enough to retire at the age of forty-two. Then came a brief interval, before his political career began in earnest, during which he lived “more like a man of taste and a scholar accustomed to cultured surroundings than a self-made man who had battled for years with the material world.”

The year 1748, though marking the end of Franklin’s career as active printer, did not terminate his interest in the setting of type and issuing his writings from his own press. Even in Passy, when in the midst of his busy diplomatic duties, he had a printing-press of his own from which he issued those “bagatelles” that so charmed the French ladies of his acquaintance.

Cleverly the printer speaks in the famous epitaph:

The BodyofBenjamin FranklinPrinter(Like the cover of an old bookIts contents torn outAnd stript of its lettering and gilding)Lies here, food for worms.But the work shall not be lost;For it will (as he believed) appear once moreIn a new and more elegant editionRevised and correctedbyThe Author

The Body

Benjamin Franklin

Printer

(Like the cover of an old book

Its contents torn out

And stript of its lettering and gilding)

Lies here, food for worms.

But the work shall not be lost;

For it will (as he believed) appear once more

In a new and more elegant edition

Revised and corrected

The Author

Franklin’s grandson, William Temple Franklin, who claimed to have the originalMs, said the date upon it was 1728. This disposes of the theory that Franklin took the idea from the Latin epitaph of an Eton school-boy, published in theGentleman’s Magazinefor February, 1736. But, as writing comic epitaphs was a fashion in those days, there is no reason why both should not have been original.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATIONILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF BIOGRAPHYMAY 15, 1918

By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART

Professor of Government, Harvard University

Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1918, by The Mentor Association, Inc.

MENTOR GRAVURESTHE YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1723THE MATURE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1777FRANKLIN DRAWING ELECTRICITY FROM THE SKY

MENTOR GRAVURES

THE YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1723

THE MATURE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 1777

FRANKLIN DRAWING ELECTRICITY FROM THE SKY

MENTOR GRAVURESFRANKLIN BEFORE THE LORDS OF WHITEHALL, LONDON, 1775DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCEFRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, 1778

MENTOR GRAVURES

FRANKLIN BEFORE THE LORDS OF WHITEHALL, LONDON, 1775

DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, 1778

FRANKLINFrom an engraving after a painting by Duplessis

FRANKLIN

From an engraving after a painting by Duplessis

TRANSLATION OF THE INSCRIPTION—“Honor of the New World and Humanity, this true and amiable sage guides and enlightens them; like another Mentor, he hides in the common eye a divinity, beneath the features of a mortal.”—M. Feutry.

Think of an American Revolution without Benjamin Franklin! As well think of English Literature without Shakespeare, a Civil War without Lincoln. Franklinwasthe Revolution itself. That is, he prepared the way for it, represented it, infused it with his lively spirit. He was indispensable. If the British had carried out their cheerful project of hanging Sam Adams, Patrick Henry would have continued to breathe out the flame of Liberty. Washington and Franklin, however, were unique figures. Without the courage, faith and personal leadership of Washington, the army would have gone to pieces at Valley Forge, and the United States of America would have been postponed.

On the other hand, it was Franklin’s cool sagacity that convinced first the French and then the British that there was an America; that several million people were determined to cling together as a nation. Washington was the standing proof of the willingness of Americans to fight for self-government; Franklin was the man who went far to convince the world that Americans were capable of carrying on their government after they got it. Besides his reputation as the greatest American writer of his time, and the most renowned scientific man, he gained and deserved the repute of being a main supporting pillar of the new United States of America.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S BIRTHPLACEIt stood on Milk Street, Boston, until destroyed by fire in 1810

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S BIRTHPLACE

It stood on Milk Street, Boston, until destroyed by fire in 1810

In a time when most Americans passed their lives within the borders of their own colony, Franklin was a citizen of two colonies, and an official of four. He honored Massachusetts by being born in Boston in 1706, the son of an emigrant, like millions after him—his father being of English birth. Benjamin was a human kind of boy, eager to run away to sea; went to the kind of school kept by a school-master only two years of his life; educated himself on a mixed diet of John Bunyan, “Plutarch’s Lives” and the “Spectator”; became a kind of printer’s devil to his brother James; and early got into trouble through incautious writing for the newspapers. At seventeen the graceless youth ran away from home. Yet he came back four times to visit Boston, and toward the end of his life wrote, “I long much to see again my native place and to lay my bones there—my best wishes attend my dear country.”

THE SO-CALLED “VERSAILLES” PORTRAIT OF FRANKLINFrom an engraving by Levy, owned by Clarence W. Bowen, Brooklyn, N. Y.

THE SO-CALLED “VERSAILLES” PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN

From an engraving by Levy, owned by Clarence W. Bowen, Brooklyn, N. Y.

On his arrival in Philadelphia in 1723, Benjamin Franklin began to make himself a commonwealth builder, and for more than thirty years he was one of the motive forces in that colony. From the first he found himself more at home in Philadelphia than in Boston. A man never overdisposed to self-denial, he enjoyed the comfort, the good dinners, the pleasant associations, the building up of social forces. Still, at that time Franklin had a much greater interest in Benjamin Franklin than in the community around him. He even showed the unusual enterprise of going abroad in 1725, a practice commonly reserved for wealthy Colonials who wanted to spend their money like gentlemen.

Returning in 1727, he, first of all, laid the foundations of a printing business large and profitable for the time. In 1729, then only twenty-three years old, he started a newspaper for himself, which speedily made him a force in the community. Once launched as a publisher, Franklin extended his ventures more and more widely; and in 1740 he founded aGeneral Magazine, and was one of the first Americans to discover how much money can be sunk in a literary periodical and in how short a time.

MRS. BENJAMIN FRANKLINBorn Deborah Reed. From a portrait painted by Matthew Pratt, and now owned by the Rev. F. B. Hodge, Wilkesbarre, Pa.

MRS. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Born Deborah Reed. From a portrait painted by Matthew Pratt, and now owned by the Rev. F. B. Hodge, Wilkesbarre, Pa.

In 1732, he began the most popular and the most effective of all his publications—Poor Richard’s Almanac, an annual which sold the incredible number of ten thousand a year, and which applied the sagacity and humor of the writer to setting forth a standard of morals, which, however utilitarian and self-seeking, had a powerful influence upon a crude and growing people. Indeed, it is almost the only bit of American literature that circulated throughout the Colonies and infused a national spirit into the half century preceding the Revolution.

Once established as a man of property and influence, Franklin bent his energies to setting up a new standard of education. In 1743, he issued proposals for an academy of learning, and in 1744 founded the American Philosophical Society. In 1749, he raised the great sum of five thousand pounds for the new school, and secured an excellent building for it. This far-reaching plan also included a “Free School—for the Instruction of Poor Children in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic”—apparently the first suggestion of a free school in his commonwealth. In 1755, his school developed into a college which subsequently became the University of Pennsylvania. No man in America had such solid and thorough-going views as to the value of education.

FRANKLIN GIVING PART OF HIS BREAD TO A POOR WOMANPhiladelphia, 1723

FRANKLIN GIVING PART OF HIS BREAD TO A POOR WOMAN

Philadelphia, 1723

As has been the case with many journalists, his calling speedily brought him into political relations, for he was chosen to be the official printer of the Colonial legislature; and thereafter for fifty-nine years was seldom out of some form of public employment. Thus established as a kind of public character, Franklin set himself to improve both city and Colonial governments.

In 1737, he was made postmaster of Philadelphia, and caused great surprise by his prompt and accurate financial accounts.

DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLINFrom a painting by Duplessis in 1778. The original, in the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, is believed to be the best likeness of Franklin

DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From a painting by Duplessis in 1778. The original, in the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, is believed to be the best likeness of Franklin

Benjamin Franklin also organized himself into the first Good Government Club on record. Backed by at least half the press of the city (for he owned one of the two newspapers), and unanimously supported by the postmaster, he demanded a regeneration of the city. Eventually, he succeeded in dispossessing the old constables, who served in rotation, and in securing a police force, paid for that special service. He organized a fire company, which not only operated its hand engine when necessary, but carried materials for covering and protecting goods. He was also the first of many exasperated persons to criticize the Philadelphia pavements.

When later elected member of the Common Council, and then an Alderman and also a local Justice of Peace, Franklin, like some other good Philadelphia citizens, became rather apathetic. Nevertheless, these honors were not unwelcome, for he said of himself: “I shall neverAsk, neverRefuse, nor everResignan office.” By this time Franklin was involved in the public life of the colony. In 1736, he obtained the office of clerk to the General Assembly, which he continued to hold for many years.

PORTRAIT OF FRANKLINOwned by H. C. Thompson, Philadelphia

PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN

Owned by H. C. Thompson, Philadelphia

Colonial affairs became especially important when war broke out with France and Spain in 1744. The Quakers were then the great problem in the Pennsylvania government, since their principles forbade them to fight, or even to vote money for military purposes. Franklin relates that by a judicious application of Madeira wine to the gullet of Governor Clinton of New York, he borrowed eighteen cannon for the defense of Philadelphia. He did more. He so aroused the Quakers that although they refused to authorize the purchase of powder for the army, “because that was an ingredient of war,” they voted an aid to New England of three thousand pounds to be put into the hands of the Governor, and appropriated it “for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat or other grain.” The Governor accepted with the remark, “I shall take the money, for I understand very well their meaning;other grainis gunpowder.” Franklin himself suggested that the Quakers be importuned to permit the purchase of a fire engine; and then, said he, “we will buy a great gun, which is certainly afire engine.”

From his position of political and intellectual influence in Pennsylvania, Franklin easily passed into the larger field of general Colonial policies and public service. In 1754, he was made one of the commissioners to a joint congress of seven colonies, which met at Albany; from beginning to end of that meeting he was the leading spirit, and he prepared what is practically the first plan for a Federal Constitution. This was to include a Grand Council, which is the earliest suggestion of a national legislature. The Congress of Albany liked the plan and approved it, but the home government frowned upon it, and Franklin records that “the Assemblies did not adopt it, as they all thought there was too much prerogative in it; and in England it was judged to have too much of the democratic.” Franklin called to mind the Confederation of the Iroquois and marveled that the “Six Nations of ignorant slaves[A]should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union and be able to execute it in such a manner, so that it has subsisted for ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies.”

[A]The word “slaves” is no doubt used here in the sense of “savages.”

ANOTHER DUPLESSIS PORTRAIT OF FRANKLINBENJAMIN FRANKLINFrom the original painting by ChappelBUST OF FRANKLINBy P. J. Chartigny In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

ANOTHER DUPLESSIS PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN

BENJAMIN FRANKLINFrom the original painting by Chappel

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From the original painting by Chappel

BUST OF FRANKLINBy P. J. Chartigny In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

BUST OF FRANKLIN

By P. J. Chartigny In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

In the war that followed, Franklin showed himself almost the only vigorous administrator. He was the man who found the wagons necessary for Braddock’s expedition, he was even chosen colonel of a militia regiment. Then, in 1757, he was sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly to be the agent of the Colony in England, and thus entered on a new and important career.

BENJAMIN FRANKLINFrom the portrait by Martin, painted in England in 1765STATUE OF FRANKLIN, NEW YORKDesigned by E. ClassmanSTATUETTE OF FRANKLINWhite metal. French, nineteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of ArtFRANKLIN MONUMENT IN NEW ORLEANS

BENJAMIN FRANKLINFrom the portrait by Martin, painted in England in 1765

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From the portrait by Martin, painted in England in 1765

STATUE OF FRANKLIN, NEW YORKDesigned by E. Classman

STATUE OF FRANKLIN, NEW YORK

STATUETTE OF FRANKLINWhite metal. French, nineteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of Art

STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN

White metal. French, nineteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of Art

FRANKLIN MONUMENT IN NEW ORLEANS

Many Englishmen found their way to the American Colonies and made reputations there. Franklin was one of the few Americans that became renowned in England. For years he stood for the thought that Englishmen in Great Britain and the Colonies were alike citizens of a common Anglo-Saxon empire, which might look forward to a glorious future. He even ventured to assert that “the foundations of the future grandeur and stability of the British empire lie in America.”

The English government bestowed upon him the important post of deputy-postmaster-general for the Colonies. He so impressed the men of learning that he received doctorates of law from the universities of St. Andrews, Oxford, and Edinburgh. Yet his public functions were the lesser part of his influence; he found friends everywhere, and by his personal relations with ministers and private persons affected the minds of the British. The colonies of Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts also designated him as their agent, and his various public offices brought him in the large income for that time of fifteen hundred pounds a year.

When the question of the Stamp Act arose in 1766, Franklin appeared before the House of Commons to protest, and in his examination occurred the famous passage:

“Question—‘Can anything less than a military force carry the Stamp Act into execution?’

“Answer—‘I do not see how a military force could be applied to that purpose.’

“Question—‘Why may it not?’

“Answer—‘Suppose a military force be sent into America, they will find nobody in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not find a rebellion; they will indeed make one.’”

BENJAMIN FRANKLINBy BoyleThis statue stands at Ninth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, close to the spot where Franklin first drew electricity from the skySTATUETTE OF FRANKLIN AND LOUIS XVI.French porcelain. Metropolitan Museum of Art

BENJAMIN FRANKLINBy BoyleThis statue stands at Ninth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, close to the spot where Franklin first drew electricity from the sky

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

By Boyle

This statue stands at Ninth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, close to the spot where Franklin first drew electricity from the sky

STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN AND LOUIS XVI.French porcelain. Metropolitan Museum of Art

STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN AND LOUIS XVI.

French porcelain. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Franklin’s position had great weight in bringing about the repeal of the Stamp Act; and thereafter he strove with all his might to prevent the breaking up of the empire. When the storm broke in 1775, Franklin needed to make no choice. An American through and through, he never thought of anything but casting his lot with that of his countrymen; and on March 21, 1775, he left England, and became an original Son of the American Revolution. The conditions have never been better set forth than in his own words: “And now the affair is nearly in the situation of Friar Bacon’s project of making a brazen wall round England for its eternal security. His servant, Friar Bungey, slept while the brazen head, which was to dictate how it may be done, said, ‘Timeis andTimewas.’ He only waked to hear it say, ‘Time is past.’”

FRENCH PLAQUEAfter Cochin by Dupont. Metropolitan Museum of Art

FRENCH PLAQUE

After Cochin by Dupont. Metropolitan Museum of Art

When Franklin arrived at Philadelphia, May 5th, he found himself at once a member and a leader in a body of men who, without any legal mandate, were called upon to create, to organize, and to defend the United States. The day after Franklin’s arrival in America he was designated by Pennsylvania as a member of the Continental Congress which was to meet shortly. A few days later he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly. The next year he was chosen member and president of the State Constitutional Convention; and in 1776, he was appointed envoy of the United States to France. Besides these dignities, in that year and a half, he was one of the half dozen men who designated the framework of the future state and national governments of America.

THREE PLATES BEARING PORTRAITS OF FRANKLINMade by Veuve Perrin, Marseilles, France, late in the eighteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of Art

THREE PLATES BEARING PORTRAITS OF FRANKLIN

Made by Veuve Perrin, Marseilles, France, late in the eighteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of Art

July 21, 1775, Franklin formally presented to Congress a skilful plan for a federal government, which was the foundation stone of the present Federal Constitution. It contains some things out of the Albany plan of 1754; and had it been adopted as it stood, would have been a better instrument of government than was later drawn up by Congress. Franklin proposed and urged a strong, vigorous and well-knit union. He was also a member of the committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence in 1776. His principal contribution to the discussion was his famous retort when somebody said, “We must all hang together”—“Yes, we must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.” Franklin took an honorable part in the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1776, and to him was due the fine phrase in the Pennsylvania Bill of Rights, “That all men have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences and understanding.”

HEAD OF FRANKLINNineteenth-century, French tortoise-shell snuff-box. Metropolitan Museum of Art

HEAD OF FRANKLIN

Nineteenth-century, French tortoise-shell snuff-box. Metropolitan Museum of Art

Benjamin Franklin was now seventy years old, and said of himself to a fellow member of Congress, “I am old and good for nothing; but as the storekeepers say of their remnants of cloth, I am but a fag end, and you may have me for what you please to give.” Yet he accepted the most important post of his life when in September, 1776, he was elected commissioner to France. There for nine years he served his country as the most popular, most sagacious, and most successful foreign minister ever appointed by the United States.

ONE OF FRANKLIN’S INGENIOUS DEVICES FOR TEACHING THE LESSONS OF PRACTICAL WISDOM

FRANKLIN TEARS THE LIGHTNING FROM THE SKY AND THE SCEPTER FROM THE TYRANTSSeated beside him is the figure of America. From a sepia drawing by Fragonard, owned by Clarence S. Bement, Philadelphia

FRANKLIN TEARS THE LIGHTNING FROM THE SKY AND THE SCEPTER FROM THE TYRANTS

Seated beside him is the figure of America. From a sepia drawing by Fragonard, owned by Clarence S. Bement, Philadelphia

He was not merely a diplomatic representative; he was a commercial and financial agent, fitted out vessels, issued commissions, borrowed money. Well did Horace Walpole say of him that Franklin was furnishing materials for writing the History of the Decline of the British Empire. Without Franklin the two treaties of 1778 with France could not have been obtained. By his personal relations with Englishmen of note, he was the natural starting point for overtures of concord; and in the negotiations of the peace of 1782 he stood alongside the eager, impetuous, and hotly national John Adams, and courteous, high bred and determined John Jay, as chief of that remarkable triumvirate of negotiators.

PRINTING PRESS AT WHICH FRANKLIN WORKED WHEN A BOY IN BOSTONNow exhibited in the rooms of the Mechanics’ Institute, Boston, Mass.

PRINTING PRESS AT WHICH FRANKLIN WORKED WHEN A BOY IN BOSTON

Now exhibited in the rooms of the Mechanics’ Institute, Boston, Mass.

After all, Franklin’s chief service abroad was not so much the obtaining of favorable terms as the maintaining of American character. Who could deny the right to be a nation to a people whose best aspirations were typified by this shrewd, hard-headed, kindly man, a gallant among the fashionables, a philosopher among scientists, a statesman among ministers, a man among men?

At seventy-nine years of age most men expect retirement, and it was very grateful to Franklin that, on his return to America in 1785, he should almost immediately be chosen by Pennsylvania to be the president of the commonwealth. His universal popularity was shown by the people of western North Carolina (now east Tennessee), who, in 1784, set up a short-lived frontier commonwealth, to which by way of compliment they gave the name of Franklin. In 1787, Franklin readily accepted membership in the Federal Convention, as one of the Pennsylvania delegation. He was somewhat out of touch with the real difficulties of the time, and most of his suggestions were overruled, but his influence throughout was in favor of a well organized, strong central government; and he was almost the only member to introduce an element of humanity and good humor.

MRS. SARAH BACHEDaughter of Franklin

MRS. SARAH BACHE

Daughter of Franklin

On the last day of the convention he rose to urge a spirit of compromise, a willingness to yield something of one’s own opinion; to avoid the spirit of “a certain French lady, who, in a dispute with her sister, said, ‘I don’t know how it happens, sister, but I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right.’” When at the end, signatures of the members were appended, numerous enough to make it likely that the Constitution would be accepted by the people, Franklin looked at the sun painted behind the President’s chair, and made a comment which is as applicable to his own reputation as it was to the new Federal Constitution. “I have often and often in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

This was the end of Franklin’s public life; three years later he died, full of years and honor, with the established reputation of a man of learning, power, and statesmanship. Possessed of a calm dignity that impressed even the frivolous court of France, he added a love of fun such as no other great American public man has shown, except Abraham Lincoln. His Autobiography abounds in delightful pictures of the gawky youth and the serene statesman. His vast powers belong to his country; his great endeavors went into federal government, which he helped to found, to protect, and to restate in the immortal Constitution of 1787. That is his best monument.

GRAVE OF FRANKLIN IN THE CHRIST CHURCH BURIAL GROUND, PHILADELPHIAThe stone nearest the fence covers the bodies of both Franklin and his wife

GRAVE OF FRANKLIN IN THE CHRIST CHURCH BURIAL GROUND, PHILADELPHIA

The stone nearest the fence covers the bodies of both Franklin and his wife

⁂ Information concerning the above books may be had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.

THE OPEN LETTER

BENJAMIN FRANKLINFrom a pastel drawing made in Paris in 1783 by Duplessis, New York Public Library

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

From a pastel drawing made in Paris in 1783 by Duplessis, New York Public Library

Benjamin Franklin’s eyes were blue-gray. How do we know this? Because Duplessis’s pastel portrait in colors tells us so. Franklin had bland, shrewd, clear seeing eyes that comprehended in their genial, open glance the whole of human nature. They first saw the light of day on January 17, 1706, and they were closed for—the last time on April 17, 1790. During all those years those luminous blue-gray eyes were observing life closely, studiously and intelligently, and they saw many great things come to pass—the most important being the making of a new nation. The eyes of Franklin saw Liberty in its cradle, and with earnest solicitude, watched its growth and development until it became the watchword and dominating principle of a great republic. Moreover, while witnessing these national events, and sharing actively in them, Franklin had time to look into the everyday affairs of men, to find solutions for many problems of the work-a-day world, to suggest and plan improved methods of doing things, to invent useful devices—and, with his printing establishment as a means of public expression, to give utterance to a system of practical philosophy that was a benefit and blessing to his fellow men. Franklin was the peerless Practical Man, and his writings contain the Complete Gospel of Common Sense.

It would be well if all of us could look at the world through Ben Franklin’s discerning, gray eyes. It is not the gray color of the eye, but the gray matter back of it that counts. I note here the color of Ben Franklin’s eyes only because I have just been “checked up” on the subject of eyes. A reader writes me as follows:

Let me call attention to a discrepancy in the Julius Cæsar number of The Mentor. On cover page 2 the statement is made that Cæsar’s eyes were dark gray. On page 8 it is said that they were black.

Our reader overlooks the fact that the two statements are not made by the same writer. The first statement is made by the English historian James Anthony Froude; the other by George W. Botsford, late professor of ancient history in Columbia University. These two eminent scholars present the conclusions that they have individually drawn from historical study. When two authorities differ it is the duty of The Mentor, as an educational publication, to present the two statements for the reader’s comparison. It is probable that the original evidence on which Mr. Froude and Professor Botsford based their statements was to the effect that Cæsar’s eyes were very dark and piercing in their glance—and that, surely, is near enough for the color of eyes nearly two thousand years ago.

We are reproducing Duplessis’s pastel portrait of Franklin on this page. This picture has a story. Duplessis made several portraits of Franklin; this seems to be the only one in pastel, the others being oil paintings. When Franklin was in France he lived at Passy, a suburb of Paris. A friend and neighbor was M. le Veillard, who frequently urged Franklin to write his memoirs. Franklin lent a willing ear, and it was his wish that his neighbor should translate the memoirs, when finished, into French. With that end in view, he turned over to M. le Veillard much auto-biographical material. This pastel portrait by Duplessis was made especially for M. le Veillard, and when that unfortunate gentleman met his death on the Revolutionary scaffold in 1794, the picture went to his daughter, and later came into the possession of Mr. John Bigelow, when he was United States Minister to France (1865-66). By him it was presented to the New York Public Library, and it now hangs in the trustees’ room.

(signature)W. D. MoffatEditor

W. D. MoffatEditor

DAYLIGHT SAVINGFRANKLIN’S IDEAThere was nothing of any significance in the affairs of mankind that escaped Benjamin Franklin’s attention. Not only political, social, commercial, literary and artistic matters concerned him, but likewise the many problems, great and small, that had to be met in the course of the day’s work. He was the first to conceive the idea of daylight saving—which means that he was, in practical wisdom, 130 odd years ahead of his time.On an early morning walk along the streets of London in 1784 the thought first came to Franklin, and in passing it on to the world at large he said:“In a walk through the Strand and Fleet street one morning at 7 o’clock, I observed there was not one shop open, although it had been daylight and the sun up above three hours, the inhabitants of London choosing voluntarily to live by candle light and sleep by sunshine; and yet often complaining a little absurdly of the duty on candles and the high price of tallow.”Soon thereafter in theJournal de Parishe published an article, later appearing among his essays under the title “An Economical Project,” which further elaborated the advantages of daylight saving; namely, of “Turning the clock forward an hour” so that everybody would live one hour longer by daylight and one hour less by artificial light.The Mentor AssociationESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVELTHE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTHBY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC., AT 114-116 EAST 16TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE COPIES TWENTY CENTS. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; SECRETARY, W. D. MOFFAT, TREASURER, J. S. CAMPBELL; ASSISTANT TREASURER AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY, H. A. CROWE.

There was nothing of any significance in the affairs of mankind that escaped Benjamin Franklin’s attention. Not only political, social, commercial, literary and artistic matters concerned him, but likewise the many problems, great and small, that had to be met in the course of the day’s work. He was the first to conceive the idea of daylight saving—which means that he was, in practical wisdom, 130 odd years ahead of his time.

On an early morning walk along the streets of London in 1784 the thought first came to Franklin, and in passing it on to the world at large he said:

“In a walk through the Strand and Fleet street one morning at 7 o’clock, I observed there was not one shop open, although it had been daylight and the sun up above three hours, the inhabitants of London choosing voluntarily to live by candle light and sleep by sunshine; and yet often complaining a little absurdly of the duty on candles and the high price of tallow.”

Soon thereafter in theJournal de Parishe published an article, later appearing among his essays under the title “An Economical Project,” which further elaborated the advantages of daylight saving; namely, of “Turning the clock forward an hour” so that everybody would live one hour longer by daylight and one hour less by artificial light.

The Mentor Association

ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL

THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH

BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC., AT 114-116 EAST 16TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. SUBSCRIPTION, FOUR DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN POSTAGE 50 CENTS EXTRA. SINGLE COPIES TWENTY CENTS. PRESIDENT, THOMAS H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; SECRETARY, W. D. MOFFAT, TREASURER, J. S. CAMPBELL; ASSISTANT TREASURER AND ASSISTANT SECRETARY, H. A. CROWE.

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