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Title: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Author: Benjamin Franklin
Editor: Frank Woodworth Pine
Illustrator: E. Boyd Smith
Release date: December 28, 2006 [eBook #20203]
Most recently updated: October 19, 2022
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20203
Credits: Produced by Turgut Dincer, Brian Sogard and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ***
Produced by Turgut Dincer, Brian Sogard and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: FRANKLIN ARMS]
[Illustration: FRANKLIN SEAL]
[Illustration: Franklin at the Court of Louis XVI
"He was therefore, feasted and invited to all the court
parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of
Bourbon, who, being a chess player of about his force,
they very generally played together. Happening once to
put her king into prize, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says
she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,' said
the Doctor."--Thomas Jefferson.]
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
_by_
E. BOYD SMITH
EDITED
_by_
FRANK WOODWORTH PINE
[Illustration: Printers Mark]
_New York_
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1916
Copyright, 1916,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
June, 1922
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction vii
The Autobiography
I. Ancestry and Early Life in Boston 3
II. Beginning Life as a Printer 21
III. Arrival in Philadelphia 41
IV. First Visit to Boston 55
V. Early Friends in Philadelphia 69
VI. First Visit to London 77
VII. Beginning Business in Philadelphia 99
VIII. Business Success and First Public Service 126
IX. Plan for Attaining Moral Perfection 146
X. _Poor Richard's Almanac_ and Other Activities 169
XI. Interest in Public Affairs 188
XII. Defense of the Province 201
XIII. Public Services and Duties 217
XIV. Albany Plan of Union 241
XV. Quarrels with the Proprietary Governors 246
XVI. Braddock's Expedition 253
XVII. Franklin's Defense of the Frontier 274
XVIII. Scientific Experiments 289
XIX. Agent of Pennsylvania in London 296
Appendix
Electrical Kite 327
The Way to Wealth 331
The Whistle 336
A Letter to Samuel Mather 34O
Bibliography 343
ILLUSTRATIONS
Franklin at the Court of Louis XVI _Frontispiece_
"He was therefore, feasted and invited to all the court
parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of
Bourbon, who, being a chess player of about his force,
they very generally played together. Happening once to
put her king into prize, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says
she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,'
said the Doctor."--Thomas Jefferson.
PAGE
Portrait of Franklin vii
Pages 1 and 4 of _The Pennsylvania Gazette_, Number
XL, the first number after Franklin took control xxi
First page of _The New England Courant_ of December
4-11, 1721 33
"I was employed to carry the papers thro' the streets
to the customers" 36
"She, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I
made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous
appearance" 48
"I took to working at press" 88
"I see him still at work when I go home from club" 120
Two pages from _Poor Richard's Almanac_ for 1736 171
"I regularly took my turn of duty there as a common
soldier" 204
"In the evening, hearing a great noise among them,
the commissioners walk'd out to see what was the
matter" 224
"Our axes ... were immediately set to work to
cut down trees" 278
"We now appeared very wide, and so far from each
other in our opinions as to discourage all hope
of agreement" 318
"You will find it stream out plentifully from the key
on the approach of your knuckle" 328
Father Abraham in his study 330
The end papers show, at the front, the Franklin arms and
the Franklin seal; at the back, the medal given by the
Boston public schools from the fund left by Franklin for
that purpose as provided in the following extract from his
will:
"I was born in Boston, New England, and owe my first
instructions in literature to the free grammar-schools
established there. I therefore give one hundred pounds
sterling to my executors, to be by them ... paid over to
the managers or directors of the free schools in my native
town of Boston, to be by them ... put out to interest, and
so continued at interest forever, which interest annually
shall be laid out in silver medals, and given as honorary
rewards annually by the directors of the said free schools
belonging to the said town, in such manner as to the
discretion of the selectmen of the said town shall seem
meet."
[Illustration: B. Franklin From an engraving by J. Thomson from the
original picture by J. A. Duplessis]
[Illustration: B. Franklin's signature]
INTRODUCTION
We Americans devour eagerly any piece of writing that purports to tell
us the secret of success in life; yet how often we are disappointed to
find nothing but commonplace statements, or receipts that we know by
heart but never follow. Most of the life stories of our famous and
successful men fail to inspire because they lack the human element
that makes the record real and brings the story within our grasp.
While we are searching far and near for some Aladdin's Lamp to give
coveted fortune, there is ready at our hand if we will only reach out
and take it, like the charm in Milton's _Comus_,
"Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain
Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;"
the interesting, human, and vividly told story of one of the wisest
and most useful lives in our own history, and perhaps in any history.
In Franklin's _Autobiography_ is offered not so much a ready-made
formula for success, as the companionship of a real flesh and blood
man of extraordinary mind and quality, whose daily walk and
conversation will help us to meet our own difficulties, much as does
the example of a wise and strong friend. While we are fascinated by
the story, we absorb the human experience through which a strong and
helpful character is building.
The thing that makes Franklin's _Autobiography_ different from every
other life story of a great and successful man is just this human
aspect of the account. Franklin told the story of his life, as he
himself says, for the benefit of his posterity. He wanted to help them
by the relation of his own rise from obscurity and poverty to eminence
and wealth. He is not unmindful of the importance of his p Next |