Part 27

When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured brute of a husband, What a pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a whistle!

In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.

Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, when I consider, that, with all this wisdom of which I am boasting, there are certain things in the world so tempting, for example, the apples of King John, which happily are not to be bought; for if they were put to sale by auction, I might very easily be led to ruin myself in the purchase, and find that I had once more given too much for the whistle.

Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours very sincerely and with unalterable affection,

B. Franklin.

A LETTER TO SAMUEL MATHER

Passy, May 12, 1784.

Revd Sir,

It is now more than 60 years since I left Boston, but I remember well both your father and grandfather, having heard them both in the pulpit, and seen them in their houses. The last time I saw your father was in the beginning of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He received me in his library, and on my taking leave showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning partly towards him, when he said hastily, "Stoop, stoop!" I did not understand him, till I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man that never missed any occasion of giving instruction, and upon this he said to me, "You are young, and have the world before you; stoop as you go through it, and you will miss many hard thumps." This advice, thus beat into my head, has frequently been of use to me; and I often think of it, when I see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people by their carrying their heads too high.

B. Franklin.

THE END

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The last and most complete edition of Franklin's works is that by the late Professor Albert H. Smyth, published in ten volumes by the Macmillan Company, New York, under the title, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. The other standard edition is the Works of Benjamin Franklin by John Bigelow (New York, 1887). Mr. Bigelow's first edition of the Autobiography in one volume was published by the J. B. Lippincott Company of Philadelphia in 1868. The life of Franklin as a writer is well treated by J. B. McMaster in a volume of The American Men of Letters Series; his life as a statesman and diplomat, by J. T. Morse, American Statesmen Series, one volume; Houghton, Mifflin Company publish both books. A more exhaustive account of the life and times of Franklin may be found in James Parton's Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (2 vols., New York, 1864). Paul Leicester Ford's The Many-Sided Franklin is a most chatty and readable book, replete with anecdotes and excellently and fully illustrated. An excellent criticism by Woodrow Wilson introduces an edition of the Autobiography in The Century Classics (Century Co., New York, 1901). Interesting magazine articles are those of E. E. Hale, Christian Examiner, lxxi, 447; W. P. Trent, McClure's Magazine, viii, 273; John Hay, The Century Magazine, lxxi, 447.

See also the histories of American literature by C. F. Richardson, Moses Coit Tyler, Brander Matthews, John Nichol, and Barrett Wendell, as well as the various encyclopedias. An excellent bibliography of Franklin is that of Paul Leicester Ford, entitled A List of Books Written by, or Relating to Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1889).

The following list of Franklin's works contains the more interesting publications, together with the dates of first issue.

1722. Dogood Papers.

Letters in the style of Addison's Spectator, contributed to James Franklin's newspaper and signed "Silence Dogood."

1729. The Busybody.

A series of essays published in Bradford's Philadelphia Weekly Mercury, six of which only are ascribed to Franklin. They are essays on morality, philosophy and politics, similar to the Dogood Papers.

1729. A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency.

1732. to 1757. Prefaces to Poor Richard's Almanac.

Among these are Hints for those that would be Rich, 1737; and Plan for saving one hundred thousand pounds to New Jersey, 1756.

1743. A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America.

"This paper appears to contain the first suggestion, in any public form, for an American Philosophical Society." Sparks.

1744. An Account of the New Invented Pennsylvania Fire-Places.

1749. Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania.

Contains the plan for the school which later became the University of Pennsylvania.

1752. Electrical Kite.