rough manner in that which is called his almanack for the present
year ... [regarding] my predictions, which foretold the death of Mr.
Partridge to happen on March 29, 1708. This he is pleased to contradict
absolutely in the almanack he has published for the present year....
“Without entering into criticisms of chronology about the hour of
his death, I shall only prove that Mr. Partridge is not alive. And
my first argument is this: about a thousand gentlemen having bought
his almanacks for this year, merely to find what he said against me,
at every line they read, they would lift up their eyes, and cry out
betwixt rage and laughter, ‘they were sure no man alive ever writ
such damned stuff as this.’ Neither did I ever hear that opinion
disputed: ... Therefore, if an uninformed carcase walks still about and
is pleased to call himself Partridge, Mr. Bickerstaff does not think
himself any way answerable for that. Neither had the said carcase any
right to beat the poor boy who happened to pass by it in the street,
crying, ‘A full and true account of Dr. Partridge’s death,’ etc.
“... I will plainly prove him to be dead, out of his own almanack for
this year, and from the very passage which he produces to make us
think him alive. He there says ‘he is not only now alive, but was also
alive upon that very 29th of March which I foretold he should die on’:
by this he declares his opinion that a man may be alive now who was
not alive a twelvemonth ago. And indeed there lies the sophistry of
his argument. He dares not assert he was alive ever since that 29th
of March, but that he ‘is now alive and was so on that day’: I grant
the latter; for he did not die till night, as appears by the printed
account of his death, in a letter to a lord; and whether he be since
revived, I leave the world to judge....”
The joke had gained its end; the astrologer and philomath had been
ridiculed out of existence. But the name of the “astrological ’squire”
was in everybody’s mouth; and when in April, 1709, Steele began “The
Tatler,” Isaac Bickerstaff, Esquire, spoke in the dedication of a
gentleman who “had written Predictions, and Two or Three other Pieces
in my Name, which had render’d it famous through all Parts of Europe;
and by an inimitable Spirit and Humour, raised it to as high a Pitch of
Reputation as it could possibly arrive at.”
The Inquisition in Portugal had, with utmost gravity, condemned
Bickerstaff’s predictions and the readers of them, and had burnt his
predictions. The Company of Stationers in London obtained in 1709 an
injunction against the issuing of any almanac by John Partridge, as if
in fact he were dead.
* * * * *
If the fame of this foolery was through all parts of Europe, it must
also have crossed to the English colonies of America, and by reference
to this fact we may explain the curious literary parallel Poor
Richard’s Almanac affords. Twenty-five years later Benjamin Franklin
played the selfsame joke in Philadelphia.
Franklin was but two years old when Swift and his Bickerstaff
coadjutors were jesting. But by the time he had grown and wandered to
Philadelphia and become a journeyman printer--by 1733--Addison, Steele,
Prior, and Congreve had died, and Swift’s wonderful mind was turned
upon and eating itself in the silent deanery of St. Patrick’s.
Conditions about him gave Franklin every opportunity for the jest. The
almanac in the America of 1733 had even greater acceptance than the
like publication of England in Isaac Bickerstaff’s day. No output of
the colonial press, not even the publication of theological tracts, was
so frequent or so remunerative. It was the sole annual which commonly
penetrated the farmhouse of the colonists, where it hung in neighborly
importance near the Bible, Fox’s “Book of Martyrs,” and Jonathan
Edwards’s tractate on “The Freedom of the Human Will.” And it had
uses. Besides furnishing a calendar, weather prophecies, and jokes, it
added receipts for cooking, pickling, dyeing, and in many ways was the
“Useful Companion” its title-page proclaimed.
So keen, practical, and energetic a nature as Franklin’s could not
let the opportunity pass for turning a penny, and with the inimitable
adaptability that marked him all his life he begins his Poor Richard
of 1733:
“Courteous Reader, I might in this place attempt to gain thy favour
by declaring that I write Almanacks with no other view than that of
the publick good, but in this I should not be sincere; and men are
now-a-days too wise to be deceiv’d by pretences, how specious soever.
The plain truth of the matter is, I am excessive poor, and my wife,
good woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud; she can not bear, she
says, to sit spinning in her shift of tow, while I do nothing but gaze
at the stars; and has threatened more than once to burn all my books
and rattling-traps (as she calls my instruments), if I do not make
some profitable use of them for the good of my family. The printer has
offer’d me some considerable share of the profits, and I have thus
began to comply with my dame’s desire.
“Indeed, this motive would have had force enough to have made me
publish an Almanack many years since, had it not been overpowered by my
regard for my good friend and fellow-student, Mr. Titan Leeds, whose
interest I was extreamly unwilling to hurt. But this obstacle (I am far
from speaking it with pleasure) is soon to be removed, since inexorable
death, who was never known to respect merit, has already prepared the
mortal dart, the fatal sister has already extended her destroying
shears, and that ingenious man must soon be taken from us. He dies, by
my calculation, made at his request, on Oct. 17, 1733, 3 ho. 29 m.,
P.M., at the very instant of the ☌ of ☉ and ☿. By his own calculation
he will survive till the 26th of the same month. This small difference
between us we have disputed whenever we have met these nine years past;
but at length he is inclinable to agree with my judgment. Which of us
is most exact, a little time will now determine. As, therefore, these
Provinces may not longer expect to see any of his performances after
this year, I think myself free to take up my task, and request a share
of publick encouragement, which I am the more apt to hope for on this
account, that the buyer of my Almanack may consider himself not only as
purchasing an useful utensil, but as performing an act of charity to
his poor
“Friend and servant,
“R. SAUNDERS.”
Franklin had a more eager biter than Partridge proved to Bickerstaff’s
bait, and Titan Leeds, in his American Almanack for 1734, showed how
uneasy was the hook:
“Kind Reader, Perhaps it may be expected that I should say something
concerning an Almanack printed for the Year 1733, said to be writ by
Poor Richard or Richard Saunders, who for want of other matter was
pleased to tell his Readers, that he had calculated my Nativity, and
from thence predicts my Death to be the 17th of October, 1733. At 29
min. past 3 a-clock in the Afternoon, and that these Provinces may not
expect to see any more of his (Titan Leeds) Performances, and this
precise Predicter, who predicts to a Minute, proposes to succeed me
in Writing of Almanacks; but notwithstanding his false Prediction, I
have by the Mercy of God lived to write a diary for the Year 1734,
and to publish the Folly and Ignorance of this presumptuous Author.
Nay, he adds another gross Falsehood in his Almanack, viz.--That by
my own Calculation, I shall survive until the 26th of the said Month
(October), which is as untrue as the former, for I do not pretend to
that Knowledge, altho’ he has usurpt the Knowledge of the Almighty
herein, and manifested himself a Fool and a Lyar. And by the mercy of
God I have lived to survive this conceited Scriblers Day and Minute
whereon he has predicted my Death; and as I have supplyed my Country
with Almanacks for three seven Years by past, to general Satisfaction,
so perhaps I may live to write when his Performances are Dead. Thus
much from your annual Friend, Titan Leeds, October 18, 1733, 3 ho. 33
min. P.M.”
“... In the preface to my last Almanack,” wrote Franklin, in genuine
humor, in Poor Richard for 1734, “I foretold the death of my dear old
friend and fellow-student, the learned and ingenious Mr. Titan Leeds,
which was to be the 17th of October, 1733, 3 h., 29 m., P.M., at the
very instant of the ☌ of ☉ and ☿. By his own calculation, he was to
survive till the 26th of the same month, and expire in the time of
the eclipse, near 11 o’clock A.M. At which of these times he died,
or whether he be really yet dead, I cannot at this present writing
positively assure my readers; forasmuch as a disorder in my own family
demanded my presence, and would not permit me, as I had intended, to
be with him in his last moments, to receive his last embrace, to close
his eyes, and do the duty of a friend in performing the last offices
to the departed. Therefore it is that I cannot positively affirm
whether he be dead or not; for the stars only show to the skilful what
will happen in the natural and universal chain of causes and effects;
but ’tis well known, that the events which would otherwise certainly
happen, at certain times, in the course of nature, are sometimes
set aside or postpon’d, for wise and good reasons, by the immediate
particular disposition of Providence; which particular disposition the
stars can by no means discover or foreshow. There is, however (and I
can not speak it without sorrow), there is the strongest probability
that my dear friend is no more; for there appears in his name, as I am
assured, an Almanack for the year 1734, in which I am treated in a very
gross and unhandsome manner, in which I am called a false predicter,
an ignorant, a conceited scribbler, a fool and a lyar. Mr. Leeds was
too well bred to use any man so indecently and so scurrilously, and
moreover his esteem and affection for me was extraordinary; so that it
is to be feared that pamphlet may be only a contrivance of somebody or
other, who hopes, perhaps, to sell two or three years’ Almanacks still,
by the sole force and virtue of Mr. Leeds’ name. But, certainly, to put
words into the mouth of a gentleman and a man of letters against his
friend, which the meanest and most scandalous of the people might be
ashamed to utter even in a drunken quarrel, is an unpardonable injury
to his memory, and an imposition upon the publick.
“Mr. Leeds was not only profoundly skilful in the useful science
he profess’d, but he was a man of exemplary sobriety, a most
sincere friend, and an exact performer of his word. These valuable
qualifications, with many others, so much endeared him to me, that
although it should be so, that, contrary to all probability, contrary
to my prediction and his own, he might possibly be yet alive, yet
my loss of honour, as a prognosticate, cannot afford me so much
mortification as his life, health, and safety would give me joy and
satisfaction....”
Again, Leeds, in The American Almanack for 1735, returns Franklin’s
jest:
“Courteous and Kind Reader: My Almanack being in its usual Method,
needs no Explanation; but perhaps it may be expected by some that I
shall say something concerning Poor Richard, or otherwise Richard
Saunders’s Almanack, which I suppose was printed in the Year 1733 for
the ensuing Year 1734, wherein he useth me with such good Manners, I
can hardly find what to say to him, without it is to advise him not to
be too proud because by his Prædicting my Death, and his writing an
Almanack....
“But if Falsehood and Inginuity be so rewarded, What may he expect
if ever he be in a capacity to publish that that is either Just or
according to Art? Therefore I shall say little more about it than, as
a Friend, to advise he will never take upon him to prædict or ascribe
any Person’s Death, till he has learned to do it better than he did
before....”
To this exhortation Franklin makes the following gay sally in Poor
Richard for 1735.
“... Whatever may be the musick of the spheres, how great soever the
harmony of the stars, ’tis certain there is no harmony among the
star-gazers: but they are perpetually growling and snarling at one
another like strange curs, or like some men at their wives. I had
resolved to keep the peace on my own part, and offend none of them; and
I shall persist in that resolution. But having receiv’d much abuse from
Titan Leeds deceas’d (Titan Leeds when living would not have used me
so): I say, having receiv’d much abuse from the ghost of Titan Leeds,
who pretends to be still living, and to write Almanacks in spight of
me and my predictions, I can not help saying, that tho’ I take it
patiently, I take it very unkindly. And whatever he may pretend, ’tis
undoubtedly true that he is really defunct and dead. First, because
the stars are seldom disappointed, never but in the case of wise men,
sapiens dominabitur asties, and they foreshadowed his death at the time
I predicted it. Secondly, ’twas requisite and necessary he should die
punctually at that time for the honor of astrology, the art professed
both by him and his father before him. Thirdly, ’tis plain to every
one that reads his two last Almanacks (for 1734 and ’35), that they
are not written with that life his performances used to be written
with; the wit is low and flat; the little hints dull and spiritless;
nothing smart in them but Hudibras’s verses against astrology at the
heads of the months in the last, which no astrologer but a dead one
would have inserted, and no man living would or could write such stuff
as the rest. But lastly, I shall convince him from his own words that
he is dead (ex ore suo condemnatus est); for in his preface to his
Almanack for 1734, he says: ‘Saunders adds another gross falsehood in
his Almanack, viz., that by my own calculation, I shall survive until
the 26th of the said month, October, 1733, which is as untrue as the
former.’ Now if it be as Leeds says, untrue and a gross falsehood,
that he survived till the 26th of October, 1733, then it is certainly
true that he died before that time; and if he died before that time he
is dead now to all intents and purposes, anything he may say to the
contrary notwithstanding. And at what time before the 26th is it so
likely he should die, as at the time by me predicted, viz., the 17th
of October aforesaid? But if some people will walk and be troublesome
after death, it may perhaps be borne with a little, because it cannot
well be avoided, unless one would be at the pains and expense of laying
them in the Red Sea; however, they should not presume too much upon the
liberty allowed them. I know confinement must needs be mighty irksome
to the free spirit of an astronomer, and I am too compassionate to
proceed suddenly to extremities with it; nevertheless, tho’ I resolve
with reluctance, I shall not long defer, if it does not speedily learn
to treat its living friends with better manners.
“I am,
“Courteous reader,
“Your obliged friend and servant,
“R. SAUNDERS.”
Here for the nonce the jeu d’esprit ended. In carrying the matter
further Franklin hardly showed the taste of Bickerstaff. The active,
bristling, self-assertive ὕβρις which characterized his early manhood
led him further on to stand over the very grave of Leeds. Before he
made his Almanac for 1740 his competitor had died. But even Leeds dead
he seemed to deem fair play.
“October 7, 1739.
“COURTEOUS READER: You may remember that in my first Almanack,
published for the year 1733, I predicted the death of my dear friend,
Titan Leeds, Philomat, to happen that year on the 17th day of October,
3 h. 29 m. P.M. The good man, it seems, died accordingly. But W. B. and
A. B.[6] have continued to publish Almanacks in his name ever since;
asserting for some years that he was still living. At length when
the truth could no longer be concealed from the world, they confessed
his death in their Almanack for 1739, but pretended that he died not
till last year, and that before his departure he had furnished them
with calculations for 7 years to come.--Ah, my friends, these are poor
shifts and thin disguises; of which indeed I should have taken little
or no notice, if you had not at the same time accused me as a false
predictor; an aspersion that the more affects me as my whole livelyhood
depends on a contrary character.
“But to put this matter beyond dispute, I shall acquaint the world with
a fact, as strange and surprising as it is true; being as follows, viz.:
“On the 4th instant, toward midnight, as I sat in my little study
writing this Preface, I fell fast asleep; and continued in that
condition for some time, without dreaming any thing, to my knowledge.
On awaking I found lying before me the following, viz.:
“‘DEAR FRIEND SAUNDERS: My respect for you continues even in this
separate state; and I am griev’d to see the aspersions thrown on you by
the malevolence of avaricious publishers of Almanacks, who envy your
success. They say your prediction of my death in 1733 was false, and
they pretend that I remained alive many years after. But I do hereby
certify that I did actually die at that time, precisely at the hour
you mention’d, with a variation only of 5 min. 53 sec, which must be
allow’d to be no great matter in such cases. And I do further declare
that I furnish’d them with no calculations of the planets’ motions,
etc., seven years after my death, as they are pleased to give out: so
that the stuff they publish as an Almanack in my name is no more mine
than ’tis yours.
“‘You will wonder, perhaps, how this paper comes written on your
table. You must know that no separate spirits are under any confinement
till after the final settlement of all accounts. In the meantime we
wander where we please, visit our old friends, observe their actions,
enter sometimes into their imaginations, and give them hints waking
or sleeping that may be of advantage to them. Finding you asleep, I
enter’d your left nostril, ascended into your brain, found out where
the ends of those nerves were fastened that move your right hand and
fingers, by the help of which I am now writing unknown to you; but when
you open your eyes you will see that the hand written is mine, tho’
wrote with yours.
“‘The people of this infidel age, perhaps, will hardly believe this
story. But you may give them these three signs by which they shall
be convinced of the truth of it.--About the middle of June next, J.
J----n,[7] Philomat, shall be openly reconciled to the Church of Rome,
and give all his goods and chattels to the chappel, being perverted by
a certain country schoolmaster. On the 7th of September following my
old Friend W. B----t shall be sober 9 hours, to the astonishment of all
his neighbours:--And about the same time W. B. and A. B. will publish
another Almanack in my name, in spight of truth and common sense.
“‘As I can see much clearer into futurity, since I got free from the
dark prison of flesh, in which I was continually molested and almost
blinded with fogs arising from tiff, and the smoke of burnt drams; I
shall in kindness to you, frequently give you information of things
to come, for the improvement of your Almanack: being, Dear Dick, Your
Affectionate Friend,
“‘T. LEEDS.’
“For my own part, I am convinced that the above letter is genuine. If
the reader doubts of it, let him carefully observe the three signs; and
if they do not actually come to pass, believe as he pleases. I am his
humble Friend,
“R. SAUNDERS.”
In this wise ended Poor Richard’s jest. Franklin’s style throughout
is so simple and direct that one is at first inclined to scout the
suggestion that the joke is not entirely original. It is impossible,
however, to suppose that Franklin, with his broad reading, did not know
Squire Bickerstaff’s. The development of the humor is wholly imitated.
But Franklin made the method his own so thoroughly that his wit has
those keener, subtler, more agile qualities which have distinguished
American from the slower and sedater humor of the English. In the
Bickerstaff jocularity evidences of the death of Partridge are
enumerated in material surroundings of a not too prosperous London
quack. Franklin, on the other hand, ironically and graphically reasons
upon supposititious traits and qualities of character and breeding.
In England, Swift’s squib having given the death-blow to astrology,
“Merlinus Liberatus, by John Partridge,” was published years after, but
shorn of its specious and misleading pretences. Franklin’s jesting was
more self-seeking.
Not one of Franklin’s biographers or editors has referred to the
Bickerstaff joke. Upon the contrary, in an “Introduction to Fac-simile
of Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1733,” published by The Duodecimos in
1894, it is asserted that Franklin “in a strain of delightful satire
upon the already venerable pretensions of almanac-makers to foretell
the future, ... disposes of this difficulty by a method so novel, so
ingenious, and withal of an illuminating power so far-reaching as to
set the whole colony talking about it.”
It need hardly be added that none of Swift’s biographers--all being
English--have hinted at Franklin’s pleasantry.
The inextinguishable laughter--the true Homeric ἄσβεστος γέλως--which
is the atmosphere of both incidents, fits them to rank with the
imaginary durance of Sancho Panza upon his island, or with Tartarin in
Tarascon, or, to go to the first humor of literature, with the advance
and retreat of Thersites in the council of Zeus-nourished kings. And in
Britain and America all our heroes were real.
* * * * *
Upon other occasions than the Saunders-Leeds jesting Franklin loved
playful feint; he had “Bagatelles” for his delight. It was a quizzical
side of the character which made him the first of our notable American
humorists. To amuse himself with an oriental apologue which he called
“The Parable of Persecution,” he had the story bound with a Bible. From
this book he would read the legend aloud, amazing his auditors that so
beautiful a scriptural passage had escaped their knowledge.
The form in which Franklin cast the tale is this:
“And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in the door
of his tent, about the going down of the sun.
“And behold a man, bowed with age, came from the way of the wilderness,
leaning on a staff.
“And Abraham arose and met him, and said unto him, ‘Turn in, I pray
thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night, and thou shalt arise
early on the morrow, and go thy way,’
“But the man said, ‘Nay, for I will abide under this tree.’
“And Abraham pressed him greatly: so he turned and they went into the
tent, and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat.
“And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him,
‘Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, Creator of heaven
and earth?’
“And the man answered and said, ‘I do not worship the God thou speakest
of, neither do I call upon his name; for I have made to myself a god,
which abideth alway in mine house, and provideth me with all things.’
“And Abraham’s zeal was kindled against the man, and he arose and fell
upon him, and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness.
“And at midnight God called unto Abraham, saying, ‘Abraham, where is
the stranger?’
“And Abraham answered and said, ‘Lord, he would not worship thee,
neither would he call upon thy name; therefore have I driven him out
from before my face into the wilderness.’
“And God said, ‘Have I borne with him these hundred and ninety and
eight years, and nourished him, and clothed him, notwithstanding his
rebellion against me; and couldst not thou, that art thyself a sinner,
bear with him one night?’
“And Abraham said, ‘Let not the anger of the Lord wax hot against his
servant; lo, I have sinned; lo, I have sinned; forgive me, I pray thee.’
“And Abraham arose, and went forth into the wilderness, and sought
diligently for the man, and found him, and returned with him to the
tent; and when he had treated him kindly, he sent him away on the
morrow with gifts.
“And God spake again unto Abraham, saying, ‘For this thy sin shall thy
seed be afflicted four hundred years in a strange land.
“‘But for thy repentance will I deliver them; and they shall come
forth with power, and with gladness of heart, and with much substance.’”
Franklin’s fine literary sense and feeling would doubtless have
told him that the tale was oriental, even if Jeremy Taylor, whose
“Discourse on the Liberty of Prophesying” it brings to a finish, had
not introduced it with the words, “I end with a story which I find in
the Jews’ book.[8]