BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.*
WE have already, in a notice of the earlier volumes of this magnificent edition of Franklin's' works, congratulated the
editor and publishers on the way in which they were raising a monument to one of America's greatest worthies. We are heartily glad now, on its conclusion, to repeat our congratu- tions, for finis coronavit opus. The indexes are worthy of the carefully edited text, and the text is worthy of the splendid print and paper in which it is here arrayed. A difficult question is raised, no doubt, by the fact that, roughly speaking, half of that text is of the stuff which the world would willingly let die. But the same, or nearly the same, may be said of the voluminous writings of men whose intellectual calibre and literary skill were con- siderably higher than Dr. Franklin's. We are unable to solve this question even approximately, and although we can praise Mr. Ainger with a light heart for the wise omissions which he made in his edition of Lamb's works, we feel that Mr. Bigelow and his publishers are far better judges than we can be of the propriety of printing much that the lapse of time has practi- cally rendered obsolete in the works of Benjamin Franklin.
• It is to the man rather than to the author that this splendid monument has been raised, and if Americans are content to read and purchase it, it is not for Englishmen to impugn their taste and wisdom. As an author, Franklin stands in the second class, though it would be difficult, perhaps, to name any " Auto- biography" that ranks higher than his. But the majority of his writings, like those of his English parallel, Cobbett, were essentially ephemeral. His style was admirable from its sim- plicity, but it lacked the raciness of Cobbett's style, and the plainness of " Poor Richard's " diction will not bear comparison with the Authorised Version of Solomon's Proverbs. His occasional coarseness may be charitably regarded as a venial sin, and the critic who would chastise him for it with whips must assuredly chastise many a greater writer with scorpions. And to the charge of irreligion, Franklin may clearly plead " Not guilty." Orthodox he was not ; but his success in life and his unstained character make his religion of interest to thought- ful men. We have no space here, if we had the inclination or ability, to discuss this point ; but few Christians, we take it, after reading the following passage, will be eager to stigmatise the man who wrote it as irreligious, duly considering that he was a man whose life, humanly speaking, was " in the right." Franklin is answering a question put to him in the best taste and with great earnestness by the President of Yale College in 1790 :—
" You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another world respecting its conduct in this. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is like to see ; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequences, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed."
Franklin may be pardoned readily enough for thinking in 1789 that French, having superseded Latin for so many pur- poses in Europe, was likely to become a universal language, to which "our English" might only "bid fair to obtain the second place." But his views of the Latin that had been superseded are far less wise than those which Frederick bad so strenuously forced on his people some few years previously. That acute Prince, though his own Latin was hardly a whit
• The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin. Compiled and edited by John Bigelow. 10 vole. Kew York : G. P. Putnam's SODS, the Knickerbocker Press. 1888.
better than Dame Quickly's, clung, so to paraphrase his ener- getic French phrase, to Latin like a bulldog with his teeth. And Franklin's inability to grasp the importance of Latin as a key to the literatures of France and Spain and Italy is stranger, perhaps, than his inability to feel that without Latin no man can easily master the resources of "our English." And it is instructive to reflect that Shakespeare, with his "small Latin," was much more master of those resources than Milton was. Franklin was right—time has proved he was—in thinking that Greek must be relegated, in the press of advancing knowledge, to a place amongst the luxuries of life; but to substitute the study of modern tongues for Latin is putting the cart before the horse for " us English," and we rejoice to think that, for the present at least, there is no prospect of Frederick the Great's wise view on this point being neglected in England.
Washington stands out with Franklin as one of the two great heroes of the birth-throes of the United States. The former was not a soldier of the first order, and it is permissible for Englishmen to believe that, had Clive lived, he would effectually, not to say easily, have prevented Washington from becoming the saviour of his country. But the Inde- pendence of America—it is easy to see now—was sooner or later inevitable, and Englishmen as well as Americans have reason to be grateful that it was won so well and so early.
But putting Washington's military genius out of the question, and remembering even that strange ungeniality of his which made his own officers shirk his society, there is abundant evidence that " the Cincinnatus of the West," as Byron affectedly called him, was a born ruler of men. And reading between the lines, when one remembers that it was written by so ardent a Republican as Franklin, the following extract from his will is curiously corroborative of that evidence :—" My fine crab walking-stick, with a gold head curiously wrought in the form of the cap of liberty, I give to my friend and the friend of mankind, General Washington.
If it were a sceptre, he has merited it, and would become it." About three months after this will was dated, " the friend of mankind" wrote as follows to Franklin :—
" If to be venerated for benevolence, if to be admired for talents, if to be esteemed for patriotism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, can gratify the human mind, you must have the pleasing consolation to know that you have not lived in vain. And I flatter myself that it will not be reckoned among the least grateful occurrences of your life to be assured that, so long as I retain my memory, you will be recollected with respect, veneration, and affection by your sincere friend, GEORGE WASHINGTON."
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