BOOKS.

WELD'S LIFE OF FRANKLIN.* THE autobiography of Franklin, especially the earlier portion, is one of the most attractive memoirs extant. It is not fruitful in wild adven- ture and stirring dangers ; it does not contain any of those curious and even terrible pictures of mental struggles which some religious auto- biographies exhibit ; nor has it the rich and various learning or the scholar's philosophy that characterizes Gibbon's life of himself: but it excels everything of the kind in a naturalness whose easy simplicity almost amounts to polish. It has also a wider attraction. The first- mentioned works interest the mass of mankind through their imagina- tions, not at all from experience, not much from sympathy. People at large have little to do with the dangers and escapes of the adventurer, the disorders of a religious mind, or the pertinacious studies of Gibbon, his various inquiries after an historical subject, and the mixture of literature, life, and disquisition, that form the attraction of his auto- biography. The humblest apprentice or artisan can identify himself with Franklin, from the similarity of early condition, and make his life a stimulus and to some extent a guide. It illustrates the truth of some- body's remark, that if any one would simply put down the circumstances of his career, an interesting book might be made. There is little or no- thing in the incidents of Franklin's early life differing from that of any spirited youth who is thrown upon the world and shifts from place to place in pursuit of a living or an opening. Thousands and thousands of mechanics, "commercial gentlemen," and tradesmen, whose business leads them much about, daily meet with more adventures than Franklin; and thousands suffer as many privations as be underwent, either at home at Boston, or as a runaway apprentice in search of work at New York and Philadelphia, or in his first trip to England. The colonial manners of the first half of last century add nothing to the interest, for they are very slightly marked, and are not more curious in themselves than the manners of the same period at home ; though he falls in with several curious characters, whom their " misfortunes" (in Sam Slick's phrase) bad driven to America, yet similar people may be found in any large business town. Two peculiarities must be noted for the warning of com- mon autobiographers. The shrewdness and quiet humour of the man, the transparent clearness and homely finish of his style, give a literary quality to the book. A more powerful source of general attraction is to be found in his subsequent eminence. It is this, we suspect, that in- duces us to follow with so much interest the story of his family squabbles, his difficulties when he had run away from home, the struggles he had to maintain himself, the sorry way in which it was for some time done, and the difficulties he encountered, as well as the persevering industry that overcame them. The source of the Thames, and probably of the Nile or the Niger, may not be nearly so beautiful as the fountains of many in-

significant streams; it is the after coarse of those great rivers which im- parts interest to their origin.

The autobiography of Franklin was intended by himself, and is fre- quently instanced by others, as the moral of perseverance, industry, and temperance. These qualities were no doubt great means of his advance- ment, both in natural philosophy and in life; but we must beware of overstraining even virtue, or of recommending special instances as gene- ral rules ; for they will certainly disappoint. Though spoken of as vir- tues of the mind, the body has something to do both with industry and

temperance. A good constitution is nearly all in all, if they are to be carried to any great extent. The stimulus of a duty or a passion might enable a person to labour for a time as Franklin did when he be- gan business ; but instead of living to eighty-five, very many would pre- maturely break down. It was not drinking water, but native strength, that enabled him to perform the feat at Watt's printing-house, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, of carrying "up and down stairs a large form of types in each band, when others [who drank beer] carried but one in both hands." Temperance, too, is partly a constitutional and individual affair. Many, no doubt, eat and drink more than they require, or than does them good; but they live longer on the average than those who practise tem- perance perforce. The following diet might support a fanatic in a hermit's cell, or a lunatic in Bedlam for a few years ; or it might serve Franklin as a means of bravado; but we doubt whether even he would or could have lived upon it long—certainly not in strength. When he first started the Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1729, his biting style made him enemies. "It is related of Franklin, that, some of his patrons taking exceptions to his coarse, he invited them to sup with him,and talk the matter over. The only provision which he made for supper was a pitcher of water, and two coarse meal puddings, vulgarly denominated saw-dust. When he found, as he expected, that his fastidious friends could not master such fare, he gave them the moral of the acted parable, in these words: 'My friends, any one who can subsist, as I can, on saw-dust pudding and water, needs no man's patronage.'"

. Perseverance is perhaps more within our command, or at least the con- tinuous pursuit of something or other. Whether the effective attention which imparts spirit and secures success is altogether a matter of mere will, or mental resolve, may be questioned. The devotion to a subject, the feeling of mission which seems to characterize all really great men, the continuing energy they exhibit through good or evil report, and amid obscurity or disappointment, is, we suspect, an affair of constitution, or of Organization.

Nor, though the assertion may seem strange to some, does Franklin's hfe. appear to furnish what may be called a good business moral. In this point of view he is certainly not a very extraordinary instance of success, notwithstanding his unceasing industry and parsimony, with the oppor- tunities offered for making money in a colony,—whicb, however, in those unapeculative days, seem to have been far less than now. He retired from active business between forty and fifty, with a fortune which though com- l. Benjamin Franklin, his Autobiography ; with a Narrative of his Public Life and Services, by the Reverend IL Hastings Weld. With numerous Designs by J. G. Chap- Man. Published by Harper, New York ; imported by Low, London.

petent was not large, considering his abilities and various avocations : when he placed his whole available means at the disposal of Congress some quarter of a century later, they amounted but to four thousand pounds. We do not mean that he was unsuccessful, as printer, store- keeper, and newspaper-editor, but that be was not successful enough to " point a [money] moral." Barristers and physicians in plenty, traders, manufacturers or merchants by the hundred, in any age, nation, or city, do far more than Franklin did in the "getting on" way. A railway director, or any other unscrupulous speculator, will make more money by a single hit than Franklin ever did in a decade. The true point of admiration about hint is the unceasing energy with which he cultivated his mind under every disadvantage of adverse circumstances, and the systematics- manner in which he did it. Many youths with a taste for reading will steal time from amusements or from sleep to peruse books : but this is

passive work ; the book amuses or interests. Franklin laboured at his studies to acquire knowledge or form a style, after a day devoted to hard' work.

After all, however, it was his genius, favoured by circumstances, that made him so eminent as a politician, and his genius alone which made him

so distinguished as a philosopher and author. He was also a genius of a

peculiar kind. He could not rise to those large truths which require imagination as well as reason ; for although not devoid of invention, we believe it will be found to rise no higher than parody. He had no voca- tion for comprehensive philosophy that promised no direct advantage ; he valued knowledge only for its worth. He could not, indeed, make light- ning useful, but by means of his conductors he turned it to a useful ac-

count. His other discoveries had mostly a directly profitable end, and of a rather cozy kind ; something to increase one's carnal comforts, often with "a public effect," as in lighting, cleansing, and watering towns, but rising from the particular to the general. Individual comfort or gain was at the bottom of his schemes. Indeed, several of them were so petty, that but for the homely grace and appropriateness of his style to his topic, they would become ludicrous : as it is, they excite a smile. For a man to obtain a great and permanent reputation, it is not only requisite that he should be the type of a large class of men or principle of action, but that he should be the originator as well. This was the ease with Franklin. Robertson, in one of those compliments which men o genius pay to one another, speaks of Adam Smith as having turned the- abstract inquiries of philosophy to the practical purposes of life. This, no

doubt, he did, on the comprehensive scale adapted to the ancient system of philosophy, then in full vogue; but Franklin preceded him in point of time, and was, we think, the first who applied that knowledge of the operations of nature which we call natural philosophy to the purposes of individual snuggery and saving, or corporation utility,—how a better fire could be made with less fuel, how smoky chimnies might be cured, and

how a better ventilation to street-lamps would give a better light by pre- venting the clouding of the glass. Franklin and Chesterfield, unknown to each other, originated the school of marketable morality. The great

founders of the ancient systems of' ethics required a course of action far too lofty for the mass of mankind; their disciples were to triumph over human weakness and external evils, or with a sect of the Stoics to deny that suclr a thing as external evil existed. Addison and his coadjutors stripped

Virtue of the repulsive habit in which she was clothed by a stern philo- sophy or a priestly fanaticism, and presented her in a more attractive

garb ; but, though not overlooking the temporal benefits that flow from a- regular life, they recommended Virtue for herself, and inculcated purity and elevation of mind. As matters stood, neither of these schools was for the worlds of pleasure, fashion, and trade ; the inhabitants of each of which, a century ago, were of a much coarser and less passable kind than they are now. Chesterfield and Franklin, in their respective spheres, expounded an easier code of morals, by which gratifications might be in- dulged, credit preserved, and money made. Chesterfield, impressing on his son the importance of good repute, repeats to him an avowal he had

heard Chartres make, that "though he would not give one fig for virtue, he would give ten thousand pounds for a good character, as be could make a hundred thousand by it." Franklin, having converted several of his youthful companions to infidelity, learns to doubt the propriety of his course, or the use of his creed, because he had lost money by them. "Before I enter upon my public appearance in business, it may be well to let you know the then state of my mind with regard to my principles and morals, that you may see how far those influenced the future events of my life. My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood. piously in the Dissenting way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns several points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read, began to doubt of the revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my' hands; they were said to be the substance of the sermons which had been preached

at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite con-

trary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which. were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist. My arguments perverted some others,

particularly Collins and Ralph; but, each of these having wronged me greatly without the least compunction, and recollecting Keith's conduct toward me, (who

was another free-thinker,) and my own toward Vernon [he made use of some money be had to collect for him, eventually repaid] and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect that this doctrine, though it might be true, was not very useful."

Franklin's eventual marriage with the Miss Read of the above extract, according to his own account in the unexpurgated editions, was a pre-

cautionary measure of a coarse kind. He had behaved to her, as he admits, in a neglectful not to say unfeeling manner, without the slightest provocation ; and in another love affair, or rather courtship, he was not any better. "I had hitherto continued to board with Godfrey, who lived in a part of my house with his wife and children, and bad one side of the shop for his glazier's business, though he worked little, being always absorbed in his mathematics. Mrs. Godfrey projected a match for me with a relation's daughter; took oppor- tunities of bringing us often together, till a serious courtship on my part ensued, the girl being in herself very deserving. The old folks encouraged me by con- tinual invitations to supper, and by leaving us together, till at length it was time to explain. Mrs. Godfrey managed our little treaty. I let her know that I ex- pected as much money with their daughter as would pay off my remaining debt for the printing-house, which I believe was not then above& hundred pounds. She brought me word they had no such sum to spare. I said, they might mortgage their house in the loan-office. The answer to this, after some days, was, that they did not approve the match ; that, on inquiry of Bradford, they had been in- formed the printing business was not a.profitable one ; the types would soon be worn out, and more wanted ; that Kenner and David Harry had failed one after the other, and I should probably soon follow them ; and, therefore, I was forbidden the house, and the daughter was shut up. "Whether this was a real change of sentiment, or only artifice, on a supposition of our being. too far engaged in affection to retract, and therefore that we should steal a marriage, which would leave them at liberty to give or withhold what they pleased, I know not; but I suspected the motive, resented it, and went no more. Mrs. Godfrey brought me afterward some more favourable accounts of their dis- position, and would have drawn me on again; but I declared absolutely my reso- lution to have nothing more to do with that family."

This sacrifice of everything to the main chance, though admitting of defence by worldly reasoning, is so repugnant to the common feeling of mankind, that at all times and in all nations (except Holland, and perhaps America) it constitutes a far more unpopular character than a less regular man whose vices are of a genial or lofty nature. Nor is this preference without grounds. The animal propensities or the more sordid desires are quite as strong as other passions ; and as they do not seem such gross violations of virtue, are perhaps more readily yielded to; so that this kind of man is frequently perpetrating dirty or shabby things. Franklin's career is too much disfigured by such. The private ones he professionally termed "errata "; the public lie softly called " manceuvres,"—though tricks, to use the mildest term, would be the proper designation. But man is a contradiction. Notwithstanding his business labours, his early parsimony, and the manner in which money continually figures in his autobiography, it may be doubted whether Franklin cared for it fur- ther than was necessary for competence and the expenses of his station— whether he did not strive for business and profit as the end of the present pursuit. No sense of philosophical dignity would have induced a merce- nary man to refuse taking out patents for discoveries, which Franklin in- variably did. "I declined it," says he, "on a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions,—viz. that as we enjoy great advan- tages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by an invention of ours ; and this we should do freely and generously."

It was held by William Taylor of Norwich, that the love of gain and the disposition to clutch unfair advantages which are assumed to dis- tinguish the Americans, are owing to the influence of Franklin. This idea was probably not well founded. The undue predominance of money in Franklin's writings is as much owing to the straitened circumstances of his original condition, and the colonial tone of mind, as to his own character. The tricky nature of his conduct and that of his countrymen may likewise be owing to national circumstances. In this country, we need only look to the conduct of men in high though secondary positions daring any great speculative fever, to see that the Americans are not the only persons who "can take advantage." In America, such persons rise to power, for the country "wants a breed of gentlemen." In England, men rarely rise to station unless they are gentlemen born, or bred in some pursuit which the Romans called liberal; so that they are capable of getting an advantage by a "com- prehension of opportunities," or if driven to take it, put a better face upon the matter. We incline to consider Franklin less of an American than many do, and that what there was American in him was fortuitous. He was rather a very remarkable than a great man, and the world would have been badly off had it never produced a loftier mind than his: but he was larger than the United States. We have seen that he was a chief in enforcing a working morality and in turning natural philosophy to account. He was almost as conspicuous in advancing the people to the position and consideration which they now occupy. Many writers both in FraiJoe and England contributed by ridicule and satirical argument to destroy the effete power and prejudice in favour of the feudal aristocracy; French writers advanced the doctrines of human equality and the rights of man ; but "no single hand," that we remember, so strongly con- tributed as Franklin rationally to further the cause of what is now called Democracy. He was a humanity-man opposed to slavery and war ; but, as might be expected from his character, in a rational way. He knew that as men are constituted and as the world wagged in his day, quarrels would arise which nothing but the " ultima ratio" could settle. He wished to modify the evils of war, by abolishing privateering, and esta- blishing stricter laws, as well as by dwelling upon the losses, injuries, and cruelties that it produced. But he knew that its speedy abolition was a chimera, and that when war came it must be carried on : in the Revo- lutionary contest he was prepared to sacrifice his own property and life. A long experience of the Quaker Assembly of Pennsylvania had taught him the inconsistencies into which extreme opinions di ire us, and the hollowness of extreme pretences to philanthropy ; and there is not a quieter exposure of humbug than his account of the various proceedings of the Friends during the dangers of the Colonial times. Though the reader may have met it before, it will bear reading again, especially when there is so much of the same sort of thing going on about us.

"With respect to defence, Spain having been several years at war against Great Britain, and being at length joined by France, which brought us into great danger; and the laboured and long-continued endeavour of our Governor, Thomas, to prevail with our Quaker Assembly to pass a militia law, and make other pro- visions for the security of the province having proved abortive, I proposed to try what might be done by a voluntary subscription of the people. To promote this, I first wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled Plain Truth, in which I stated our helpless situation in strong lights, with the necessity of union and discipline for our defence, and promised to propose in a few days an association, to be gene- rally signed for that purpose. The pamphlet had a sudden and surprising effect.

• • •

"I had some reason to believe that the defence of the country was not dis- agreeable to any of them, [the Quakers,] provided they were not required to as- sist in it. And I found that a much greater number of them than I could have imagined, though against offensive war, were clearly for the defensive. Many pamphlets pro and con were published on the subject, and some by good Qaakess, in favour of defence, which I believe convinced most of their young people. " A transaction in our fire company gave me some insight into their prevailing sentiments. It had been proposed that we should encourage the scheme for build- ing a battery by laying out the present stock, then about sixty pounds, in tickets of the lottery. By our rules, no money. could be disposed of till the next meeting after the proposaL The company consisted of thirty members, of whom twenty- two were Quakers and eight only of other persuasions. We eight punctually at- tended the meeting; but, though we thought that some of the Quakers would join us, we were by no means sure of a majority. Only one Quaker, Mr. James Morris, appeared to oppose the measure. He expressed much sorrow that it had ever been proposed, as he said Friends were all against it; and it would create such discord as might break up the company. We told him that we saw no rea- son for that: we were the minority; and if Friends were against the measure, and outvoted us, we must and should, agreeably to the usage of all societies, submit. When the hour for business arrived, it was moved to put this to the vote: he al_ lowed we might do it by the rules, but, as he could assure us that a number of members intended to be present for the purpose of opposing it, it would be but candid to allow a little time for their appearing. "While we were disputing this, a waiter came to tell me that two gentlemen below desired to speak with me. I went down, and found there two of our Quaker members. They told me there were eight of them assembled at a tavern just by; that they were determined to come and vote with us if there should be occasion, which they hoped would not be the case, and desired we would not call for their assistance if we could do without it, as their voting for such a measure might embroil them with their elders and friends. Being thus secure of a ma- jority, I went up, and after a little seeming hesitation, agreed to a delay of an- other hour. This Mr. Morris allowed to be extremely fair. Not one of his op- posing friends appeared, at which he expressed great surprise; and, at the ex- piration of the hour, we carried the resolution eight to one; and as, of the twenty- two Quakers, eight were ready to vote with us, and thirteen, by their absence, manifested that they were not inclined to oppose the measure, I afterward esti- mated the proportion of Quakers sincerely against defence as one to twenty-one

only. • •

My being many years in the Assembly, a majority of which were constantly Quakers, gave me frequent opportunities of seeing the embarrassment given them by their principle against war, whenever application was made to them, by order of the Crown, to grant aids for military purposes. They were unwilling to of- fend Government, on the one hand, by a direct refusal; and their friends, the body of the Quakers, on the other, by a compliance contrary to their principles; using a variety of evasions to avoid complying, and modes of disguising the com- pliance when it became unavoidable. The common mode at last was, to grant money under the phrase of its being 'for the King's use,' and never to inquire how it was applied. " But if the demand was not directly from the Crown, that phrase was found not so proper, and some other was to be invented. Thus, when powder was want- ing, (I think it was for the garrison at Louisburg,) and the Government of New England solicited a grant of some from Pennsylvania, which was much urged on the House by Governor Thomas, they would not grant money to buy powder, be- cause that was an ingredient of war; but 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. Some of the Council, desirous of giving the House still further embarrassment, advised the Governor not to accept provision, as not being the thing he had demanded: but he replied, I shall take the money, furl understand very well their meaning; other grain is gunpowder '; which he accordingly bought, and they never objected to it. " It was in allusion to this fact, that when in our fire company we feared the success of our proposal in favour of the lottery, and I had said to a friend of mine, one of our members, 'If we fail, let us move the purchase of a fire-engine with the money; the Quakers can have no objection to that; and then, if you nominate me and I you as a committee for that purpose, we will buy a great gun, which is certainly a fire-engine.' 'I see,' said he, you have improved by- being so long in the Assembly: your equivocal project would be jut a match for their wheat or other grain.'" Mr. Weld's Benjamin Franklin contains the whole of the autobio- graphy; and the remainder of the life is as far as practicable supplied from the correspondence and papers of Franklin. A character is given to the original parts of the memoirs by the object of the author. This is to make Franklin conspicuous as a diplomatist instead of a philoso- pher; the latter feature being more considered in the various American biographies, and (we think) in those of other countries. By this plan, Franklin's various occupations and his laborious industry when he began a new career after sixty, together with his thorough knowledge of American facts and American interests, and his business shrewdness and pertinacious tenacity of purpose, are brought out more distinctly than if blended with other subjects. It is a good idea as a variety, but not as a true view. The general estimate is the right one. France would have assisted America as soon as she seemed able to keep her ground ; and from the circumstances of the case, the war must have eventually terminated as it did, whether Franklin had lived or not: but we could not so well have had Franklin's philosophy without Frank- lin. In fact, it was his philosophical and literary reputation that aided bins as a diplomatist. Without that, he would have cut a very different figure both in London and Paris, and been far less influential not merely with politicians but society at large.