of this country; and I had hopes he would have appeared this day
on the bench, and have endeavoured to moderate the Court in my
favour; then I should have scorned to have mentioned it, but I
must now complain of it as unjust and unequal, that my betrayer,
and undoer, the first cause of all my faults and miscarriages
(if they must be deemed such), should be advanced to honour and
power in the government that punishes my misfortunes with
stripes and infamy.... But how can it be believed that Heaven is
angry at my having children, when to the little done by me
towards it, God has been pleased to add his divine skill and
admirable workmanship in the formation of their bodies, and
crowned the whole by furnishing them with rational and immortal
souls? Forgive me, gentlemen, if I talk a little extravagantly
on these matters: I am no divine, but if you, gentlemen, must
be making laws, do not turn natural and useful actions into
crimes by your prohibitions. But take into your wise
consideration the great and growing number of bachelors in the
country, many of whom, from the mean fear of the expense of a
family, have never sincerely and honestly courted a woman in
their lives; and by their manner of living leave unproduced
(which is little better than murder) hundreds of their posterity
to the thousandth generation. Is not this a greater offence
against the public good than mine? Compel them, then, by law,
either to marriage, or to pay double the fine of fornication
every year. What must poor young women do, whom customs and
nature forbid to solicit the men, and who cannot force
themselves upon husbands, when the laws take no care to provide
them any, and yet severely punish them if they do their duty
without them; the duty of the first and great command of nature
and nature's God, increase and multiply; a duty, from the steady
performance of which nothing has been able to deter me, but for
its sake I have hazarded the loss of the public esteem, and have
frequently endured public disgrace and punishment; and therefore
ought, in my humble opinion, instead of a whipping, to have a
statue erected to my memory."
A newspaper furnishing the people with so much information and sound
advice, mingled with broad stories, bright and witty, and appealing to
all the human passions,--in other words, so thoroughly like
Franklin,--was necessarily a success. It was, however, a small
affair,--a single sheet which, when folded, was about twelve by eighteen
inches,--and it appeared only twice a week.
It differed from other colonial newspapers chiefly in its greater
brightness and in the literary skill shown in its preparation. But
attempts have been made to exaggerate its merits, and Parton declares
that in it Franklin "originated the modern system of business
advertising" and that "he was the first man who used this mighty engine
of publicity as we now use it." A careful examination of the _Gazette_
and the other journals of the time fails to disclose any evidence in
support of this extravagant statement. The advertisements in the
_Gazette_ are like those in the other papers,--runaway servants and
slaves, ships and merchandise for sale, articles lost or stolen. On the
whole, perhaps more advertisements appear in the _Gazette_ than in any
of the others, though a comparison of the _Gazette_ with Bradford's
_Mercury_ shows days when the latter has the greater number.
Franklin advertised rather extensively his own publications, and the
lamp-black, soap, and "ready money for old rags" which were to be had at
his shop, for the reason, doubtless, that, being owner of both the
newspaper and the shop, the advertisements cost him nothing. This is the
only foundation for the tale of his having originated modern
advertising. His advertisements are of the same sort that appeared in
other papers, and there is not the slightest suggestion of modern
methods in them.
Parton also says that Franklin "invented the plan of distinguishing
advertisements by means of little pictures which he cut with his own
hands." If he really was the inventor of this plan, it is strange that
he allowed his rival Bradford to use it in the _Mercury_ before it was
adopted by the _Gazette_. No cuts appear in the advertisements in the
_Gazette_ until May 30, 1734; but the _Mercury's_ advertisements have
them in the year 1733.
Franklin made no sudden or startling changes in the methods of
journalism; he merely used them effectively. His reputation and fortune
were increased by his newspaper, but his greatest success came from his
almanac, the immortal "Poor Richard."
In those days almanacs were the literature of the masses, very much as
newspapers are now. Everybody read them, and they supplied the place of
books to those who would not or could not buy these means of knowledge.
Every farm-house and hunter's cabin had one hanging by the fireplace,
and the rich were also eager to read afresh every year the weather
forecasts, receipts, scraps of history, and advice mingled with jokes
and verses.
Every printer issued an almanac as a matter of course, for it was the
one publication which was sure to sell, and there was always more or
less money to be made by it. While Franklin and Meredith were in
business they published their almanac annually, and it was prepared by
Thomas Godfrey, the mathematician, who with his wife lived in part of
Franklin's house. But, as has been related, Mrs. Godfrey tried to make a
match between Franklin and one of her relatives, and when that failed
the Godfreys and Franklin separated, and Thomas Godfrey devoted his
mathematical talents to the preparation of Bradford's almanac.
This was in the year 1732, and the following year Franklin had no
philomath, as such people were called, to prepare his almanac. A great
deal depended on having a popular philomath. Some of them could achieve
large sales for their employer, while others could scarcely catch the
public attention at all. Franklin's literary instinct at once suggested
the plan of creating a philomath out of his own imagination, an ideal
one who would achieve the highest possibilities of the art. So he wrote
his own almanac, and announced that it was prepared by one Richard
Saunders, who for short was called "Poor Richard," and he proved to be
the most wonderful philomath that ever lived.
As Shakespeare took the suggestions and plots of his plays from old
tales and romances, endowing his spoils by the touch of genius with a
life that the originals never possessed, so Franklin plundered right and
left to obtain material for the wise sayings of "Poor Richard." There
was, we are told, a Richard Saunders who was the philomath of a popular
English almanac called "The Apollo Anglicanus," and another popular
almanac had been called "Poor Robin;" but "Poor Richard" was a real
creation, a new human character introduced to the world like Sir Roger
de Coverley.
Novel-writing was in its infancy in those days, and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's
Progress," Addison's character of Sir Roger, and the works of
Richardson, Fielding, and Smollett were the only examples of this new
literature. That beautiful sentiment that prompts children to say, "Tell
us a story," and which is now fed to repletion by trash, was then
primitive, fresh, and simple. Franklin could have written a novel in the
manner of Fielding, but he had no inclination for such a task. He took
more naturally and easily to creating a single character somewhat in the
way Sir Roger de Coverley was created by Addison, whose essays he had
rewritten so often for practice.
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC FOR 1733]
Sir Roger was so much of a gentleman, there were so many delicate
touches in him, that he never became the favorite of the common people.
But "Poor Richard" was the Sir Roger of the masses; he won the hearts of
high and low. In that first number for the year 1733 he introduces
himself very much after the manner of Addison.
"COURTEOUS READER,
"I might in this place attempt to gain thy favor by declaring
that I write almanacks with no other view than that of the
public good, but in this I should not be sincere; and men are
now-a-days too wise to be deceived 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
cannot 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 offered me some
considerable share of the profits, and I have thus begun to
comply with my dame's desire."
There was a rival almanac, of which the philomath was Titan Leeds. "Poor
Richard" affects great friendship for him, and says that he would have
written almanacs long ago had he not been unwilling to interfere with
the business of Titan. But this obstacle was soon to be removed.
"He dies by my calculation," says "Poor Richard," "made at his
request, on Oct. 17, 1733, 3 ho., 29 m., P. M., at the very
instant of the [symbol: conjunction] of [symbol: Sun] and
[symbol: Mercury]. 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."
In the next issue "Poor Richard" announces that his circumstances are
now much easier. His wife has a pot of her own and is no longer obliged
to borrow one of a neighbor; and, best of all, they have something to
put in it, which has made her temper more pacific. Then he begins to
tease Titan Leeds. He recalls his prediction of his death, but is not
quite sure whether it occurred; for he has been prevented by domestic
affairs from being at the bedside and closing the eyes of his old
friend. The stars have foretold the death with their usual exactitude;
but sometimes Providence interferes in these matters, which makes the
astrologer's art a little uncertain. But on the whole he thinks Titan
must be dead, "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;" and he goes on to show that
his good friend Titan would never have treated him in this way.
The next year he is still making sport of Titan, the deceased Titan, and
the ghost of Titan, "who pretends to be still living, and to write
Almanacks in spight of me;" and he proves again by means of the funniest
arguments that he must be dead. Another year he devotes several pages of
nonsense to disproving the charge that "Poor Richard" is not a real
person. He ridicules astrology and weather forecasting by pretending to
be very serious over it. At any rate, he says, "we always hit the day of
the month, and that I suppose is esteemed one of the most useful things
in an Almanack." He and his good old wife are getting on now better than
ever; and the almanac for 1738 is prepared by Mistress Saunders herself,
who rails at her husband and makes queer work with eclipses and
forecasting. Then in the number for 1740 Titan writes a letter to "Poor
Richard" from the other world.
Besides the formal essays or prefaces which appeared in each number,
there were numerous verses, paragraphs of admirable satire on the events
of the day or the weaknesses of human nature, and those prudential
maxims which in the end became the most famous of all. As we look
through a collection of these almanacs for an hour or so we seem to have
lived among the colonists, who were not then Americans, but merry
Englishmen, heavy eaters and drinkers, full of broad jokes, whimsical,
humorous ways, and forever gossiping with hearty good nature over the
ludicrous accidents of life, the love-affairs, the married infelicities,
and the cuckolds. It is the freshness, the sap, and the rollicking
happiness of old English life.
"Old Batchelor would have a wife that's wise,
Fair, rich and young a maiden for his bed;
Not proud, nor churlish, but of faultless size,
A country housewife in the city bred.
He's a nice fool and long in vain hath staid;
He should bespeak her, there's none ready made."
"Never spare the parson's wine, nor the baker's pudding."
"Ne'er take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in."
"My love and I for kisses play'd,
She would keep stakes, I was content,
But when I won, she would be paid,
This made me ask her what she meant:
Quoth she, since you are in the wrangling vein
Here take your kisses, give me mine again."
"Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?"
"There is no little enemy."
"_Of the Eclipses this year._
"During the first visible eclipse Saturn is retrograde: For
which reason the crabs will go sidelong and the ropemakers
backward. The belly will wag before, and the ---- will sit down
first.... When a New Yorker thinks to say THIS he shall say
DISS, and the People in New England and Cape May will not be
able to say Cow for their Lives, but will be forc'd to say KEOW
by a certain involuntary Twist in the Root of their Tongues...."
"Many dishes many diseases."
"Let thy maid servant be faithful, strong and homely."
"Here I sit naked, like some fairy elf;
My seat a pumpkin; I grudge no man's pelf,
Though I've no bread nor cheese upon my shelf,
I'll tell thee gratis, when it safe is
To purge, to bleed, or cut thy cattle or--thyself."
"Necessity never made a good bargain."
"A little house well filled, a little field well till'd and a
little wife well will'd are great riches."
"_Of the Diseases this year._
"This Year the Stone-blind shall see but very little; the Deaf
shall hear but poorly; and the Dumb shan't speak very plain. And
it's much, if my Dame Bridget talks at all this Year. Whole
Flocks, Herds and Droves of Sheep, Swine and Oxen, Cocks and
Hens, Ducks and Drakes, Geese and Ganders shall go to Pot; but
the Mortality will not be altogether so great among Cats, Dogs
and Horses...."
"_Of the Fruits of the Earth._
"I find that this will be a plentiful Year of all manner of good
Things, to those who have enough; but the Orange Trees in
Greenland will go near to fare the worse for the Cold. As for
Oats, they'll be a great Help to Horses...."
"Lend money to an enemy, and thou'lt gain him; to a friend, and
thou'lt lose him."
"Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut
afterwards."
"It is hard for an empty sack to stand upright."
For twenty years and more "Poor Richard" kept up this continuous stream
of fun, breaking forth afresh every autumn,--sound, wholesome, dealing
with the real things and the elemental joys of life, and expressed in
that inimitable language of which Franklin was master. In this way was
built up the greater part of his wonderful reputation, which in some of
its manifestations surprises us so much. Such a reputation is usually of
long growth; one or two conspicuous acts will not achieve it. But the
man who every year for nearly a generation delighted every human being
in the country, from the ploughman and hunter to the royal governors,
was laying in store for himself a sure foundation of influence.
The success of "Poor Richard" was immediate. The first number of it went
through several editions, and after that the annual sales amounted to
about ten thousand copies. For the last number which Franklin prepared
for the year 1758, before he turned over the enterprise to his partner,
he wrote a most happy preface. It was always his habit, when a
controversy or service he was engaged in was finished, to summarize the
whole affair in a way that strengthened his own position and left an
indelible impression which all the efforts of his enemies could not
efface. Accordingly, for this last preface he invented a homely,
catching tale that enabled him to summarize all the best sayings of
"Poor Richard" for the last twenty-five years.
"I stopt my Horse lately where a great Number of people were
collected at a Vendue of Merchant Goods. The Hour of Sale not
being come, they were conversing on the Badness of the Times,
and one of the Company call'd to a plain clean old Man, with
white Locks, 'Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the Times?
Won't these heavy Taxes quite ruin the Country? How shall we be
ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?'--Father
Abraham stood up, and reply'd, 'If you'd have my Advice, I'll
give it you in short, for a Word to the Wise is enough, and many
Words won't fill a Bushel, as Poor Richard says.' They join'd in
desiring him to speak his Mind, and gathering round him, he
proceeded as follows:
"'Friends,' says he, 'and neighbours, the Taxes are indeed very
heavy, and if those laid on by the Government were the only Ones
we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have
many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed
twice as much by our Idleness, three times as much by our Pride,
and four times as much by our Folly, and from these Taxes the
Commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an
Abatement. However let us hearken to good Advice, and something
may be done for us; God helps them that help themselves, as Poor
Richard says in his Almanack of 1733.
"'It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its
People one tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its
Service. But Idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckon
all that is spent in absolute Sloth, or doing of nothing, with
that which is spent in idle Employments or Amusements, that
amount to nothing. Sloth, by bringing on Diseases absolutely
shortens Life. Sloth, like Rust, consumes faster than Labour
wears, while the used Key is always bright, as Poor Richard
says. But dost thou love Life, then do not squander Time, for
that's the Stuff Life is made of, as poor Richard says.--How
much more than is necessary do we spend in Sleep! forgetting
that The Sleeping Fox catches no Poultry, and that there will be
sleeping enough in the Grave, as Poor Richard says. If Time be
of all Things the most precious, wasting of Time must be, as
Poor Richard says, the greatest Prodigality, since, as he
elsewhere tells us, Lost Time is never found again; and what we
call Time-enough, always proves little enough. Let us then be up
and doing, and doing to the Purpose; so by Diligence shall we do
more with less Perplexity. Sloth makes all Things difficult, but
Industry all Things easy, as Poor Richard says; and He that
riseth late, must trot all Day, and shall scarce overtake his
Business at night. While Laziness travels so slowly, that
Poverty soon overtakes him, as we read in Poor Richard, who
adds, Drive thy Business, let that not drive thee; and Early to
Bed, and early to rise, makes a Man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
* * * * *
"'So much for Industry, my Friends, and Attention to one's own
Business; but to these we must add Frugality, if we would make
our Industry more certainly successful. A man may, if he knows
not how to save as he gets, Keep his nose all his life to the
Grindstone, and die not worth a Groat at last.
* * * * *
"'And now to conclude, Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools
will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true, we
may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct, as Poor Richard
says: However, remember this, They that won't be counselled,
can't be helped, as Poor Richard says: and farther, That if you
will not hear Reason, she'll surely wrap your Knuckles.'
"Thus the old Gentleman ended his Harangue. The People heard it,
and approved the Doctrine, and immediately practised the
contrary, just as if it had been a common Sermon; for the Vendue
opened and they began to buy extravagantly, notwithstanding all
his Cautions and their own Fear of Taxes."
* * * * *
This speech of the wise old man at the auction, while perhaps not so
interesting to us now as are some other parts of "Poor Richard," was a
great hit in its day; in fact, the greatest Franklin ever made. Before
it appeared "Poor Richard's" reputation was confined principally to
America, and without this final speech might have continued within
those limits. But the "clean old Man, with white locks" spread the fame
of "Poor Dick" over the whole civilized world. His speech was reprinted
on broadsides in England to be fastened to the sides of houses,
translated into French, and bought by the clergy and gentry for
distribution to parishioners and tenants. Mr. Paul Leicester Ford, in
his excellent little volume, "The Sayings of Poor Richard," has
summarized its success. Seventy editions of it have been printed in
English, fifty-six in French, eleven in German, and nine in Italian. It
has also been translated into Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Welsh, Polish,
Gaelic, Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, Chinese, and Modern Greek,
reprinted at least four hundred times, and still lives.
It was quite common a hundred years ago to charge Franklin with being an
arrant plagiarist. It is true that the sayings of "Poor Richard" and a
great deal that went to make up the almanac were taken from Rabelais,
Bacon, Rochefoucauld, Ray Palmer, and any other sources where they could
be found or suggested. But "Poor Richard" changed and rewrote them to
suit his purpose, and gave most of them a far wider circulation than
they had before.
More serious charges have, however, been made, and they are summarized
in Davis's "Travels in America,"[15] which was published in 1803. I have
already noticed one of these,--the charge that his letter on air-baths
was taken from Aubrey's "Miscellanies,"--which, on examination, I cannot
find to be sustained. Davis also charges that Franklin's famous epitaph
on himself was taken from a Latin one by an Eton school-boy, published
with an English translation in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for February,
1736. Franklin's epitaph is already familiar to most of us:
The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin
Printer
(Like the cover of an old book
Its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering and gilding)
Lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be lost
For it will (as he believed) appear once more
In a new and more elegant edition
Revised and corrected
by
The Author.
The Eton boy's was somewhat like it:
Vitæ Volumine peracto
Hic Finis Jacobi Tonson
Perpoliti Sociorum Principis;
Qui Velut Obstetrix Musarum
In Lucem Edivit
Foelices Ingenii Partus.
Lugete, Scriptorum chorus,
Et Frangite Calamos;
Ille vester, Margine Erasus, deletur!
Sed hæc postrema Inscriptio
Huic primæ Mortis Paginæ
Imprimatur,
Ne Prælo Sepulchri Commissus,
Ipse Editor careat Titulo:
Hic Jacet Bibliopola
Folio vitæ delapso
Expectans novam Editionem
Auctiorem et Emendatiorem.
One of these productions might certainly have been suggested by the
other. But Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, who professed
to have the original in his possession, in his grandfather's
handwriting, said that it was dated 1728, and it is printed with that
date in one of the editions of Franklin's works. If this date is
correct, it would be too early for the epitaph to have been copied from
the one in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for February, 1736. It might be
said that possibly the Eton boy knew of Franklin's epitaph; but I cannot
find that it was printed or in any way made public before 1736. There is
no reason why both should not be original, for everybody wrote epitaphs
in that century.
Franklin has been credited by one of his biographers with the invention
of the comic epitaph, and Smollett's famous inscription on Commodore
Trunnion's tomb in "Peregrine Pickle" is described as a mere imitation
of Franklin's epitaph on himself. But there is no evidence that Smollett
had seen Franklin's production before "Peregrine Pickle" was published
in 1750, and it was not necessary that he should. There were plenty of
similar productions long before that time. Franklin's own _Gazette_,
January 6 to January 15, 1735/6, gives a very witty inscription on a
dead greyhound, which is described as cut on the walls of Lord Cobham's
gardens at Stow. In writing comic epitaphs Franklin was merely following
the fashion of his time, and he was hardly as good at it as Smollett.
He has himself told us the source of one of his best short essays, "The
Ephemera," a beautiful little allegory which he wrote to please Madame
Brillon in Paris. In a letter to William Carmichael, of June 17, 1780,
he describes the circumstances under which it was written, and says that
"the thought was partly taken from a little piece of some unknown
writer, which I met with fifty years since in a newspaper."[16] It was
in this way that he worked over old material for "Poor Richard."
Everything he had read seemed capable of supplying suggestions, and it
must be said that he usually improved on the work of other men.