trustworthiness of this assertion, one can not idly dismiss his _Some
Good Whig Principles_ or disregard his expressed belief that the
people "seldom continue long in the wrong" and if misled they "come
right again, and double their former affections" (cited in W. C.
Bruce, _Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed_, II, 100; also see
_Writings_, X, 130). There is a clearly evident polarity in Franklin's
mind between ultra-democratic faith and a rigorous observation that if
"people" are so constituted, many men are utter rascals. One almost
senses a dichotomy between Franklin the politician and Franklin the
man and moralist.
[i-350] See his _The Constitution of the United States_ (New York,
1924).
[i-351] _The Records of the Federal Convention_, ed. by Max Farrand,
I, 488; see _Writings_, IX, 602-3, 595-9.
[i-352] _Writings_, IX, 596.
[i-353] _The Records of the Federal Convention_, I, 47.
[i-354] _Ibid._, I, 165.
[i-355] _Writings_, IX, 593.
[i-356] _The Records of the Federal Convention_, I, 109.
[i-357] _Ibid._, II, 120.
[i-358] _Ibid._, II, 204.
[i-359] Franklin objected to primogeniture and entail.
[i-360] _Ibid._, II, 249.
[i-361] Gettell, _op. cit._, 122.
[i-362] _Writings_, X, 56-8.
[i-363] _Ibid._, IX, 698-703.
[i-364] _Ibid._, IX, 608.
[i-365] _Ibid._, IX, 638.
[i-366] _Writings_, X, 7.
[i-367] Letter in American Philosophical Society Library; cited by B.
M. Victory, _Benjamin Franklin and Germany_, 128.
[i-368] _Writings_, III, 96.
[i-369] _Ibid._, III, 97.
[i-370] _Ibid._, III, 107.
[i-371] _Ibid._, IV, 221.
[i-372] _Ibid._, IV, 377.
[i-373] _Ibid._, V, 165. He repeated this thought to Beccaria in 1773
(_ibid._, VI, 112). Also see V, 206, 410-1, VII, 49.
[i-374] _Ibid._, VII, 418; also see VIII, 211.
[i-375] _Ibid._, VIII, 315; also see letter to Priestley, June 7,
1782, VIII, 451; to Comte de Salmes, July 5, 1785, IX, 361.
[i-376] _Ibid._, IX, 652.
[i-377] _Ibid._, IX, 621. He wrote this after he was reappointed
President of Pennsylvania in 1787. He confessed, however, that this
honor gave him "no small pleasure."
[i-378] W. P. and J. P. Cutler, _Life, Journals and Correspondence of
Rev. Manasseh Cutler_, I, 269-70.
[i-379] _Joseph and Benjamin, A Conversation_, Trans. from a French
Manuscript (London, 1787), 72. If this meeting never took place, the
reported conversation is anything but "decidedly silly" as Ford opines
(_Franklin Bibliography_, #936, 371).
[i-380] _Writings_, IV, 143.
[i-381] _Ibid._, VIII, 601. Also see IX, 53.
[i-382] _Ibid._, VIII, 593.
[i-383] Brother Potamian and J. J. Walsh, _Makers of Electricity_,
126.
[i-384] "Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden, IV (1748-54),"
_Collections of the New York Historical Society_ (1920), 372.
[i-385] "An Outline of Philosophy in America," _Western Reserve
University Bulletin_ (March, 1896). See also I. W. Riley, _American
Philosophy: The Early Schools_, 229-65.
[i-386] _Franklin, the Apostle of Modern Times_, iv.
[i-387] _Writings_, I, 295.
[i-388] _Boston News-Letter_, Jan. 17, 1744/5. Also see 1669-1882. _An
Historical Catalogue of the Old South Church (Third Church), Boston_
(Boston, 1883), 304.
[i-389] _Writings_, I, 324.
[i-390] _Writings_, IX, 208.
[i-391] _Essays to do Good_, with an Introductory Essay by A. Thomson
(Glasgow, 1825), 102.
[i-392] _Ibid._, 213-4.
[i-393] _Works of Daniel Defoe_, ed. by Wm. Hazlitt (London, 1843), I,
22.
[i-394] _Writings_, I, 239.
[i-395] See _New England Courant_, No. 48, June 25-July 2, 1722.
[i-396] _Writings_, I, 244.
[i-397] Consecrated to piety, Robert Boyle at his death left £50 per
annum, for a clergyman elected to "preach eight sermons in the year
for proving the Christian religion against notorious infidels, _viz._
Atheists, Theists, Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans...." (_Works of Robert
Boyle_, London, 1772, I, clxvii.)
[i-398] _Writings_, I, 295.
[i-399] In his Introduction to _Selections from Cotton Mather_ (New
York, 1926), xlix-li, K. B. Murdock agrees with I. W. Riley that _The
Christian Philosopher_ (1721) represents the first stage of the
reaction from scriptural Calvinism to the scientific deism of Paine
and Franklin. T. Hornberger's "The Date, the Source, and the
Significance of Cotton Mather's Interest in Science" (_loc. cit._)
shows that "as early as 1693 Cotton Mather was expressing that delight
in the wonder and beauty of design in the external world which
Professors Murdock and Riley regard as deistic in tendency," that he
"was unconsciously vacillating between two points of view."
[i-400] _Works of Richard Bentley_, ed. by A. Dyce (London, 1838),
III, 74-5.
[i-401] _Ibid._, III, 79.
[i-402] _Physico-Theology ..._ (5th ed., London, 1720), 25-6. God's
"exquisite Workmanship" is seen in "every Creature" (p. 27).
[i-403] See _A Discourse of Free-Thinking_ (London, 1713).
[i-404] _Priestcraft in Perfection ..._ (London, 1710).
[i-405] _Writings_, I, 243.
[i-406] A. C. Fraser ed. (Oxford, 1894), II, 425-6.
[i-407] _Ibid._, II, 121. For Locke and his place in the age see S. G.
Hefelbower's _The Relation of John Locke to English Deism_. About the
time he read Locke, Franklin notes he studied Arnauld and Nicole's _La
logique ou l'art de penser_. Mr. G. S. Eddy has informed one of the
editors that the Library Company of Philadelphia owns John Ozell's
translation of the work (London, 1718), and that this was the copy
owned by Franklin. (See Lowndes's _Bibliographer's Manual_, IV, 1930,
and _Dictionary of National Biography_, "John Ozell.") In accord with
the English deistic and rationalistic tendency, _La logique_ admits
that Aristotle's authority is not good, that "Men cannot long endure
such constraint" (Thomas S. Bayne's trans., 8th ed., Edinburgh and
London, n.d., 23). Indebted to Pascal and Descartes, it admits with
the latter that geometry and astronomy may help one achieve justness
of mind, but it vigorously asserts that this justness of mind is more
important than speculative science (p. 1). Anti-sensational, it denies
"that all our ideas come through sense" (p. 34), affirming that we
have within us ideas of things (p. 31). It is uncertain of the value
of induction, which "is never a certain means of acquiring perfect
knowledge" (p. 265; see also 304, 307, 308, 350). It accords little
praise to the sciences and reason, and seems wary of metaphysical
speculation, assuring more humbly that "Piety, wisdom, moderation, are
without doubt the most estimable qualities in the world" (p. 291). As
we shall discover, this work on the whole seems to have had (with the
exception of the last very general principle) little formative
influence on the young mind which was fast impregnating itself with
scientific deism. Were it not for the recurring implications
(particularly in the harvest of editions of the _Autobiography_) that
_La logique_ is as significant for our study as, for example, the
works of Locke and Shaftesbury, this note would be pedantic
supererogation.
[i-408] A. C. Fraser, _op. cit._, I, 99. See also 190, 402-3; II, 65,
68, 352.
[i-409] Cited in C. A. Moore, "Shaftesbury and the Ethical Poets in
England, 1700-1760," _Publications of the Modern Language
Association_, XXXI (N. S. XXIV), 276 (June, 1916).
[i-410] _Ibid._, 271.
[i-411] J. M. Robertson, ed., _Characteristics ..._ (New York, 1900),
I, 27.
[i-412] _Ibid._, I, 241-2.
[i-413] Moore, _op. cit._, 267.
[i-414] In _Dogood Paper_ No. XIV Franklin suggests
(autobiographically?): "In Matters of Religion, he that alters his
Opinion on a _religious Account_, must certainly go thro' much
Reading, hear many Arguments on both Sides, and undergo many Struggles
in his Conscience, before he can come to a full Resolution"
(_Writings_, II, 46).
[i-415] He read Thomas Tryon's _The Way to Health, Long Life and
Happiness_, probably the second edition (London, 1691), a copy of
which is in the W. S. Mason Collection. Tryon holds that no "greater
Happiness" than Attic sobriety is "attainable upon Earth" (p. 1).
Divine Temperance is the "spring head of all Virtues" (p. 33). Inward
harmony "is both the Glory and the Happiness, the Joy and Solace of
created Beings, the celebrated Musick of the Spheres, the Eccho of
Heaven, the Business of Seraphims, and the Imployment of Eternity" (p.
500). From Xenophon he learned that "self-restraint" is "the very
corner-stone of virtue." The classic core of the _Memorabilia_ is the
love of the moderate contending with the love of the incontinent.
Franklin has impressed many as representing an American Socrates.
Emerson was certain that Socrates "had a Franklin-like wisdom"
(Centenary Ed., IV, 72). Franklin's fondness for Socratic centrality,
discipline, and knowledge of self is fragmentarily shown by the
aphorisms appropriated in _Poor Richard_. There are scores of the
quality of the following: "He that lives carnally won't live
eternally." "Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?" "Caesar did not
merit the triumphal car more than he that conquers himself." "If
Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins." "A man in a Passion rides
a mad Horse." "There are three Things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond
and to know one's self." Consult T. H. Russell's _The Sayings of Poor
Richard, 1733-1758_.
[i-416] See S. Bloore, "Samuel Keimer. A Footnote to the Life of
Franklin," _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, LIV,
255-87 (July, 1930), and "Samuel Keimer," in _Dictionary of American
Biography_, X, 288-9. In 1724 Samuel Keimer (probably with Franklin's
aid) reprinted Gordon and Trenchard's _The Independent Whig_. (See W.
J. Campbell's _A Short-Title Check List of all the Books, Pamphlets,
Broadsides, known to have been printed by Benjamin Franklin_.)
Franklin also was acquainted with their _Cato's Letters_, having
helped to set up parts from it while working on the _New England
Courant_. _The Independent Whig_ emphasizes humanitarian morality
rather than theological dogma, morality which "prompts us to do good
to all Men, and to all Men alike" (London, 1721, xlviii). It is
fearful of metaphysical vagaries (p. 26). Warring against priests and
their "Monkey Tricks at Church" (p. 165)--"One Drop of Priestcraft is
enough to contaminate the Ocean" (p. 168)--it sets up a violent
antithesis between reason and authority (p. 212), declaring that "we
must judge from Scripture what is Orthodoxy" _but_ "we must judge from
Reason, what is Scripture" (p. 276). Tilting at a Deity "revengeful,
cruel, capricious, impotent, vain, fond of Commendation and Flattery,"
exalting an "All-powerful, All-wise, and All-merciful God" (p. 413),
_The Independent Whig_, like Franklin's _Articles_, suggests that "it
is absurd to suppose, that we can direct the All-wise Being in the
Dispensation of his Providence; or can flatter or persuade him out of
his eternal Decrees" (p. 436). In _Cato's Letters_ (3rd ed., 4 vols.,
London, 1733), which were tremendously popular in the American
colonies, Franklin could have read that "The People have no Biass to
be Knaves" (I, 178), that man "cannot enter into the Rationale of
God's punishing all Mankind for the Sin of their first Parents, which
they could not help" (IV, 38), "That we cannot provoke him, when we
intend to adore him; that the best Way to serve him, is to be
serviceable to one another" (IV, 103). Jesus instituted a natural
religion, a worship of One Immutable God, free from priests,
sacrifices, and ceremonies, in which one shows through "doing Good to
men" his adoration for God (IV, 265-6). Here are observations which
could easily have reinforced Franklin's deistic rationale. For
interesting evidence of further deistic and rationalistic works
available to Franklin, see L. C. Wroth's _An American Bookshelf_,
1755.
[i-417] One of the editors has examined the photostated _New England
Courant_ in the W. S. Mason Collection. For readable accounts of this
newspaper see: W. G. Bleyer, _Main Currents in the History of American
Journalism_, chaps. I-II; C. A. Duniway, _The Development of Freedom
of the Press in Massachusetts_, 97-103; W. C. Ford, "Franklin's New
England Courant," _Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical
Society_, LVII, 336-53 (April, 1924); H. F. Kane, "James Franklin
Senior, Printer of Boston and Newport," _American Collector_, III,
17-26 (Oct., 1926).
[i-418] See _Writings_, II, 52-3.
[i-419] One of the editors has used the Huth copy now possessed by W.
S. Mason. Not included in the Sparks, Bigelow, or Smyth editions of
his works, it was printed by Parton as an Appendix to his _Life_; by
I. W. Riley, _op. cit._, and recently edited by L. C. Wroth for The
Facsimile Text Society.
[i-420] Franklin must have been mistaken in his belief that he set up
the second edition. The work was privately printed in 1722, reprinted
in 1724 and a second time in 1725. Hence Franklin really set up the
_third_ edition. For an extensive analysis of this work, see C. G.
Thompson's dissertation, _The Ethics of William Wollaston_ (Boston,
1922).
[i-421] Wollaston, _op. cit._, 15.
[i-422] _Ibid._, 23.
[i-423] _Ibid._, 78-9.
[i-424] _Ibid._, 80.
[i-425] _Ibid._
[i-426] _Ibid._, 83.
[i-427] It would be interesting to know whether Franklin's much
discussed prudential virtues (listed in _Autobiography_) were not in
part motivated by Wollaston's pages 173-80.
[i-428] _Ibid._, 7.
[i-429] _Ibid._, 26.
[i-430] _Ibid._, 63 ff.
[i-431] _Writings_, VII, 412.
[i-432] _A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity_, _Pleasure and Pain_
(London, 1725), 4.
[i-433] _Ibid._, 5.
[i-434] For an incisive exposition of the earlier and contemporary
controversy regarding freedom of the will, see C. H. Faust and T. H.
Johnson's Introduction to _Jonathan Edwards_ (American Writers Series,
New York, 1935), xliii-lxiv.
[i-435] _A Dissertation ..._, 10-1.
[i-436] In Franklin's liturgy of the '30's (in the _Autobiography_) he
quotes from Thomson's _Winter_ (lines 217 ff.). While the references
to Thomson are few in the complete works, his later influence on
Franklin need not be underestimated. See Franklin's letter to W.
Strahan (_Writings_, II, 242-3) in which he confesses that "That
charming Poet has brought more Tears of Pleasure into my Eyes than all
I ever read before." It is not inconceivable that in Thomson Franklin
found additional sanction for his humanitarian bias. One remembers the
wide differences between the humanitarianism of Thomson and Franklin.
Franklin's practical and masculine-humanitarianism keyed to the saving
of time and energy was unlike the sentimental warmheartedness often
displayed by Thomson. Franklin was never moved to tears at beholding
the worm's "convulsive twist in agonizing folds."
[i-437] Phillips Russell has suggested _Spectator_, No. 183, as
Franklin's probable source in Part II of the _Dissertation_. There,
pleasure and pain are "such constant yoke-fellows." This intuitive
assertion can hardly be conceived as the elaborate metaphysical
rationale upon which this idea rests in Franklin's work.
[i-438] Robertson, _op. cit._, 239-40.
[i-439] London (4th ed.), 1724. A despiser of authoritarianism in
religion, intrigued by the physico-deistic thought of his day, Lyons
(with a vituperative force akin to Thomas Paine's) damns those who
damn men for revolting against divine and absolute revelation (p. 25).
"Men have _Reason_ sufficient to find out proper and regular ways for
improving and perfecting their laws." Faith he calls "an
unintelligible Chymæra of the Phantasie" (p. 92). The doctrine of the
Trinity "is one of the most nice Inventions that ever the subtlest
Virtuoso constru'd to puzzle the Wit of Man with" (p. 112). Through
faith people make of God "only a confus'd unintelligible Description
of a _Heterogeneous Monster_ of their own Making" (p. 117).
Deistically he opines that "we shall soon see that the Object of _True
Religion_, and all Rational Mens Speculations, is an Eternal,
Unchangeable, Omnipotent Being, infinitely Good, Just and Wise" (p.
123). Like Toland he urges, "To pretend to Believe a Thing or the
Working of a Miracle, is a stupid and gaping Astonishment" (p. 195).
Although he enjoyed Franklin's dissertation, he does not in his work
hold to Franklin's necessitarianism: "Nothing interrupts Men, but only
as they interrupt one another" (p. 238). Religion to Lyons is remote
from books, but is found in the "unalterable laws of Nature, which no
Authority can destroy, or Interpolator corrupt" (p. 252).
[i-440] Although Franklin indicates in his _Autobiography_ that he
delighted to listen to Mandeville hold forth at the Horns, there seems
to be traceable in his writings no direct influence of Mandeville's
thought. (One may wonder whether Franklin's use of the name "Horatio"
in his 1730 dialogues between Philocles and Horatio could be traced to
Mandeville's use of the name in his dialogues between Cleomenes and
Horatio.) Mandeville's empirical view of man's essential egoism would
have found sympathetic response from Franklin. On the other hand,
Mandeville's ethical rigorism (see Kaye's Introd. to The _Fable of the
Bees_) differs from the utilitarian cast Franklin sheds over his
strenuous ethicism. One may suspect that like a Bunyan, a Swift, a
Rabelais, Mandeville would have fortified Franklin against accepting
too blithely Shaftesbury's faith in man's innate altruism, even if he
did not short-circuit Franklin's growing humanitarianism.
[i-441] _Writings_, I, 278.
[i-442] David Brewster, _Life of Sir Isaac Newton_ (New York, 1831),
258. For fuller treatment see his _Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and
Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton_ (Edinburgh, 1855), II, 378 ff., and
_passim_.
[i-443] Quoted in C. S. Duncan, _op. cit._, 16. See Desaguliers's _A
System of Experimental Philosophy, Prov'd by Mechanicks ..._ (London,
1719), and his _The Newtonian System of the World, The Best Model of
Government: An Allegorical Poem_ (Westminster, 1728). The popularizers
of Newton were legion: see especially Watts, Derham, Ray, Huygens,
Blackmore, Locke, Thomson, Shaftesbury, S. Clarke, Whiston, Keill,
Maclaurin.
[i-444] _A View of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy_ (London, 1728), 2-3.
[i-445] _Ibid._, 405. Cf. also 13, 18, 181, 406.
[i-446] Not to be neglected in a summary of the factors influencing
Franklin during his youth is Quakerism. Taught in Boston to suspect
the Quakers, in Philadelphia in the midst of their stronghold he came
soon, one may imagine, to have a sympathetic regard for them.
Quakerism, in its antagonism towards sacraments and ceremonies, in its
emphasis on the priesthood of every man and the right of private
judgment, in its strenuous effort to promote fellow-service, was
congenial to the young printer, reacting against Presbyterianism. Like
the radical thought of the age, Quakerism refused first place to
scriptural revelation, which became secondary to the light within, the
dictates of one's heart. Often, we may suspect, the light within was
blended with the concept in deism, that regardless of the promptings
of scripture, each man has within him a natural sense which enables
him to apprehend the truths of nature. The effort of deism to simplify
religion was historically shared by Quakerism. During the years we
have under consideration Franklin was endeavoring to make a simple
worship out of the subtle theology which had been offered him during
his early years. Presbyterianism had frowned upon a covenant of works;
Quakerism attempted to express its covenant with God in terms of human
kindliness, fellowship, and service.
[i-447] It would be interesting to know if M. Faÿ is able to document
his statement that the Junto "had Masonic leanings" ("Learned
Societies in Europe and America in the Eighteenth Century," _American
Historical Review_, XXXVII, 258 [1932]). R. F. Gould (_The History of
Freemasonry_, London, 1887, III, 424) conjectures whether where was a
lodge in Boston as early as 1720 but can offer no evidence of a real
history of Masonry in the colonies until 1730, when colonial Masonry
"may be said to have its commencement." Chroniclers of Franklin's
Masonic career have found no documentary evidence of his affiliation
with Masonry until February, 1731, when he entered St. John's Lodge.
See J. F. Sachse, _Benjamin Franklin as a Free Mason_; J. H. Tatsch,
_Freemasonry in the Thirteen Colonies_ (New York, 1924); _Early
Newspaper Accounts of Free Masonry in Pennsylvania, England, Ireland,
and Scotland. From 1730 to 1750 by Dr. Benjamin Franklin. Reprinted
from Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette_ (Philadelphia, 1886); _Masonic
Letters of Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia to H. Price of Boston_,
ed. by C. P. MacCalla (Philadelphia, 1888); M. M. Johnson, _The
Beginnings of Freemasonry in America_ (New York, 1924). See "Prefatory
Note" in W. B. Loewy's reprint of Anderson's _Constitutions_ (a
reprint of Franklin's imprint of 1734) in _Publications of the Masonic
Historical Society of New York_, No. 3 (New York, 1905). Arriving in
London only seven years after the inauguration of the Grand Lodge,
Franklin could hardly have been unaware of the broader speculations of
Masonry. In London only a year after Anderson's _Constitutions_ were
printed (in 1723), he may conceivably have read the volume.
Stressing toleration, the universality of natural religion, morality
rather than theology, reason rather than faith, Masonry could easily
have augmented these ideas as they were latent or already developed in
Franklin's mind. Scholars have yet to work out the extent to which
Freemasonry, yokefellow of deism, reinforced free thought and was one
of the subversive forces breaking down colonial orthodoxy. B. Faÿ's
_Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800_ neglects non-political
influences of Freemasonry.
Although there is no evidence that Franklin as early as 1728 read such
works (popular in the colonies) as De Ramsay's _The Travels of Cyrus_
and Rowe's translation of _The Golden Sayings of Pythagoras_, the
manner in which oriental lore augmented science and Masonry in
fostering deism is an intriguing problem in eighteenth-century
colonial letters.
[i-448] See I. W. Riley, _op. cit._, 249. Also see C. M. Walsh,
"Franklin and Plato," _Open Court_, XX, 129 ff.
[i-449] See _Writings_, II, 95-6 (1728).
[i-450] John Ray's _The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the
Creation_ (London, 1827; first ed. 1691), 31-2.
[i-451] _The Augustan Age_, 54-5.
[i-452] _Selections from the Writings of Fénelon_, ed. by Mrs. Follen
(Boston, 1861), 51-2.
[i-453] _Ibid._, 59.
[i-454] _Ibid._, 47.
[i-455] In Preface to _The Works of the British Poets_, ed. by R.
Anderson (London, 1795), 592. Since Franklin frequented Batson's in
Cornhill, it is possible that through Dr. Pemberton he might have met
Sir R. Blackmore, who was one of its best patrons.
[i-456] _Ibid._, 611.
[i-457] See Ray, _op. cit._, 143: "I persuade myself, that the
beautiful and gracious Author of man's being and faculties, and all
things else, delights in the beauty of his creation, and is well
pleased with the industry of man, in adorning the earth with beautiful
cities and castles...."
[i-458] _The Relation of John Locke to English Deism_, 133.
[i-459] See P. S. Wood, "Native Elements in English Neo-Classicism,"
_Modern Philology_, XXIV, 201-8 (Nov., 1926).
[i-460] See C. E. Jorgenson's "The Source of Benjamin Franklin's
Dialogues between Philocles and Horatio (1730)," _American
Literature_, VI, 337-9 (Nov., 1934).
[i-461] _Writings_, II, 203.
[i-462] _Ibid._, II, 467.
[i-463] Facsimile reprint by W. Pepper (Philadelphia, 1931), 27 note.
[i-464] See _Almanac_ for 1753.
[i-465] _Writings_, II, 288.
[i-466] _Ibid._, II, 429. See also II, 434-5.
[i-467] See W. J. Campbell, _op. cit._
[i-468] No. 570 (Nov. 15, 1739), No. 565 (Oct. 11, 1739), and No. 628
(Dec. 25, 1740), for example, are loaded with tributes to the
effective preaching and contagious saintliness of this preacher of the
Great Awakening.
[i-469] No. 618 (Oct. 16, 1740). Franklin's _General Magazine and
Historical Chronicle_ contains many Whitefield references.