12 APRIL 1890, Page 23

From Printing Office to the Court of St. James's. By

W. M. Thayer. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—This is the story of the early life of Benjamin Franklin, drawn in the inain from the diary. It is a very readable volume, and puts into a proper prominence that part of the great American's career which is most susceptible of imitation. The prudence and courage of Franklin are most happily illustrated in this story, and it is perhaps not altogether without comfort for ordinary mortals to find that he too could be taken in.