to Deborah Reed-his first love of a serious kind, which did not run smooth in its first course, with him or her, but which made a home precious to both after each had tried the folly of living apart after being assured of each other's affection. He was a faithful, tender, and considerate husband, although he brought into his new home a child (the future Governor of New Jersey) born to him out of wedlock, the name of whose mother was never known. She proved a devoted, generous, and faithful wife, the mother of two fine children, one of whom, Francis Folger, died in his fourth year, and the other a daughter, Sarah, who became, Oct. 29, 1767, the wife of Richard Bache, and whose descendants numbered in 1866 one hundred and ten.

Franklin as a Business Man.

'Franklin was an active business man in Philadelphia for just twenty years from 1728 to 1748. He was printer, editor, compiler, publisher, bookseller, bookbinder, and stationer. He made lampblack and ink; he dealt in rags; he sold soap and live-geese feathers. One of his advertisements of 1735, offers very good sack at 6 shillings a gallon;' and he frequently announces, that he has coffee for sale and other household articles. His shop was the source of news, and the favorite haunt of the inquisitive and public-spirited."* In Dec. 28, 1728, the Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, and the Pennsylvania Gazette,' was begun by Keimer; and in the month following, Franklin began in Bradford's Mercury, a series of papers in the manner of the Spectator, entitled 'Busy-Body;' and in March of 1729 published a paper on the 'Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency,' which contains remarks on the nature of money, labor as the standard of value, and the principle of self-adjustment in commercial affairs when unobstructed by unwise legislation, worthy of Adam Smith. In October, following, he came into possession of Keimer's paper, which he published and edited for ten years thereafter with the title reduced to Pennsylvania Gazettewhich he made for the period a model newspaper, a medium for making known wants of all kinds, with reading suitable for the counting-house, and the fireside-for old and young.

In 1731, he projected the plan of a social and subscription library. Fifty persons subscribed forty shillings each, and agreed to pay ten shillings annually; and for this were entitled to take books to their homes. In 1742, this company was incorporated by the name of 'The Library Company of Philadelphia.' The Swede, Prof. Kalm, who was there in 1748, says that then the parent library had given rise

Parton's Life of Franklin.

to 'many little libraries,' on the same plan as itself. He also says that non-subscribers were then allowed to take books out of the library, by leaving a pledge for the value of the book, and paying for a folio eight pence a week, for a quarto sixpence, and for all others four pence. The subscribers,' he says, were so kind to me as to order the librarian, during my stay here, to lend me every book I should want, without requiring any payment of me.' In 1764, the shares had risen in value to nearly twenty pounds, and the collection was considered to be worth seventeen hundred pounds. In 1785, the number of volumes was 5,487; in 1807, 14,457; in 1875, 100,000.

In 1732, he began to print his Almanac, commonly called Poor Richard's Almanac, which he continued for twenty-five years. His inventive and beneficent genius imparted to this species of publication a new character-that of a code of prudentials for all classes of society, and especially for the common people. The collection of aphorisms which he prefixed to the Almanac of 1757, and which bears a title too contracted for its scope, has been styled, by an eminent writer, the best treatise extant, both of public and private economy. It had a prodigious success, was translated into many foreign languages, was spread as well over Europe as North America, and remains still unrivaled for the purposes which it was meant to promote. Franklin gave his newspaper a similar direction; he conducted it not in the spirit of a tradesman or an incendiary, but in that of an apostle of letters and morals. He wrote for it pointed ethical discourses, enriched it with literary selections, and scrupulously excluded from it all libeling and personal abuse.'

In 1733, Franklin began the study of languages, and soon learned to read French, Italian, and Spanish. His progress in Italian was promoted by his love of the game of chess. A friend, who was also learning the Italian, often lured him from his books by challenging him to play at this game. At length, he refused to play any more except upon condition the victor should impose a task upon the vanquished, such as learning a verb or writing a translation, which task should be performed before the next meeting. As they played about equally, they beat one another into the acquisition of the Italian language. His acquisition of Latin was in this wise: Looking over a Latin Testament, one day, he was surprised to find that his knowledge of the three modern languages, together with his dim recollection of his year's study of Latin at the Boston grammar school, enabled him to read the Latin Testament with considerable facility. He became convinced that the true order of acquiring languages is, the modern first, and the ancient afterward.

We are told,' he says, 'that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, having acquired that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages which are derived from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek in order more easily to acquire the Latin.' 'I would, therefore,' he adds, 'offer it to the consideration of those who superintend the education of our youth, whether-since many of those who begin with the Latin, quit the same after spending some years without having made any great proficiency, and what they have learned becomes almost useless, so that their time has been lost-it would not have been better to have begun with the French, proceeding to the Italian and Latin. For though, after spending the same time, they should quit the study of languages and never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have acquired another tongue or two, that, being in modern use, might be serviceable to them in common life.' Music is mentioned by Franklin as a diversion, but he pursued it with more than the devotion of an ordinary amateur. He appears to have played on several instruments, and to have studied their nature and powers. The harp, the guitar, the violin, and the violoncello, appear to have been the instruments be most affected, until, later in life, he improved the armonica. Leigh Hunt, whose parents once lived at Philadelphia, mentions that Franklin offered to teach his mother the guitar.

In 1736, he was promoted to the office of clerk in the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, and the following year to the more lucrative one of postmaster of Philadelphia. His prosperity at this time enabled him to prosecute several schemes for the municipal improvement of the city. Among these were the reformation of the city watch, the paving and lighting of the streets, the organization of fire companies, and a fire insurance office. He had a large share in the establishment of the Pennsylvania hospital;* in his efforts to found an academy, with an English school in 1749, he may be considered the founder of the University of Pennsylvania; and his Circular in 1743 to his correspondents in different parts of the country suggesting their associating together for conference and correspondence on subjects that increase the power of man over matter, and multiply the conveniences or pleasures of life,' led to the establishment of the American Philosophical Society.

In 1741, he invented the open stove which bore his name, and wrote a pamphlet explanatory of its construction and utility; but

* The idea of establishing a hospital in Philadelphia belongs to Dr. Thomas Bond, who, meeting with little encouragement, came to Franklin-For I am often asked-Have you consulted Franklin on this business? and what does he think of it?' Franklin took the work in hand, obtained subscriptions, and secured its success by a grant of 2,0001. from the Assembly.

refused a patent for it, on the beneficent principle, that such inventions ought to become at once common property, and be considered in the light of an interchange of good offices among mankind.

In 1744, he began to print, in addition to the Pennsylvania Gazette, a monthly magazine, entitled 'The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America,' which stopped with the sixth number.

His attention was first drawn to the facts of electricity in 1746. After much study of the subject with apparatus sent over by Mr. Collinson, he was the first to ascertain, in 1752, the identity of lightning and the electric fluid; and history presents few grander scenes than that of Franklin, with his son twenty-one years old by his side, on the 26th of June, 1752, in the fields near Philadelphia, with a thunder cloud expanding and darkening the sky, into which the philosopher had let fly a kite of ordinary construction-except that the covering is a silk handkerchief, and the head has an iron point, and the string of hemp terminates in his hand with a thread of silk, at the junction of which hangs an iron key, he touches the key, and the lightning of the heavens sparkles in his hand-and the speculations of the study are proved correct. The fact is well recorded in the inscription under his portrait:-Eripuit fulmen cœlo”* Public Life.

Franklin's public life in the sense of living as much for the public as for himself, began with his business career, but in the narrow sense of holding office, with his acceptance of the clerkship of the Assembly in 1736, and of the Assistant Postmastership in 1747. In 1748 the Governor appointed him Justice of the Peace, the city elected him first to the Common Council in 1750, and soon after, an Alderman, and his fellow-citizens made him their representative in the Assembly in the same year. The first position he resigned when he found he knew too little of law to discharge its duties properly; the second he made serviceable for the cleanliness, safety, and traffic of the city, and the latter for the defense of the Province against the Indians. In 1753, he was commissioned Postmastergeneral by the Home Government, and in that capacity introduced improvements which made henceforward the Postal Service one of the prime civilizers and blessings of his country.

Eripuit Calo fulmen, sceptrumque Tyrannis.

He snatched the thunderbolt from Heaven, and the scepter from the hands of Tyrants. This motto was composed by Turgot in 1778, (after Franklin signed the Alliance with France,) and improved by D'Alembert by substituting the word sceptrumque for mox sceptra, as originally written. It was suggested not by any thing in Claudian, as suggested by Lord Brougham, but by the Anti Lucretius, sive de Deo et Natura by the Cardinal Malchior de Polignac in 1747. See Atlantic Monthly, Nov., 1863.

In 1754, the depredations of the Indians on the frontiers had become grievous and alarming; the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, appointed deputies to meet at Albany, and to devise some plan of military defense. Franklin was in attendance on behalf of his province, and produced The Albany Plan of Union.' The supremacy of his intellect was felt and acknowledged in the Congress, and his scheme was adopted. The idea was to solicit an act of parliament for establishing a general government over the colonies, consisting of a governor, to be named by the crown, and of a parliament, to be elected by the assemblies of the provincial states, in the proportion of their respective populousness. This general government was to raise troops, build forts, and to provide for the public defense. Notwithstanding the unanimous sanction of the Albany Congress, the plan was rejected both by the provincial assemblies and by the ministry of England. By the first it was held too favorable to the influence of the crown; by the second, as being too favorable to the independence of the colonies. But the discussion served to familiarize the words congress, general government, American army, and thus to prepare the very form of confederacy, which was afterward resorted to during the revolution. In the autumn of the same year, he saw at Boston the English plan of union, in which provision was made for the reimbursement for all advances made by the British treasury for colonial defense by a tax to be laid on the Colonies by Parliament. To this feature he at once objected, in writing, in words which afterward became familiar as household words- No taration without representation.' 'No distinction between Englishmen living in England, and Englishmen living abroad.'

In the spring of 1755, Franklin was of great service to General Braddock in obtaining appropriations from the Assembly and supplying the means of transportation for the supplies of the army, which was destined to encounter a disastrous defeat—a defeat which his own sagacity had anticipated, and of which he warned the General to provide against by more watchfulness. In the same year he took the field in person, and did good service as Colonel in protecting the Moravian settlements from the incursions of the Indians.

In 1755, he engaged in a charitable scheme which originated in London for the relief and instruction of poor Germans and their descendants in Pennsylvania and the adjacent colonies. His plan contemplated distributing the German emigrants among the English settlers instead of locating them together; and at once establishing English schools for adults as well as for children. He always mani