The complete works of Benjamin Franklin; including his private as well as his official and scientific correspondence, and numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed, with many others not included in any former collection, also, the unmu / Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
 |
Author: Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
Title: The complete works of Benjamin Franklin; including his private as well as his official and scientific correspondence, and numerous letters and documents now for the first time printed, with many others not included in any former collection, also, the unmu
Publisher: New York and London, G. P. Putnam's sons, 1887-88.
Tag(s): united states politics and government 1775-1783; united states politics and government 1783-1789; united states politics and government to 1775; united states foreign relations 1775-1783; franklin; benjamin franklin; benjamin; electric; wire; electrical; colonies; electric fluid; peter collinson; prime conductor; cadwallader golden; bottle
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Identifier: bigelowfranklin02johnrich
OF THIS LETTER-PRESS EDITION
600 COPIES II A VE BEEN PRINTED FOR SALE
No.
\
March, 1887
THE WORKS
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
VOL. II.
1744-1757
i
<"T
THE COMPLETE WORKS
OF
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
HIS PRIVATE AS WELL AS HIS OFFICIAL AND SCIENTIFIC CORRESPONDENCE, AND
NUMEROUS LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME
PRINTED, WITH MANY OTHERS NOT INCLUDED IN
ANY FORMER COLLECTION
ALSO
THE UNMUTILATED AND CORRECT VERSION OF HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
COMPILED AND EDITED
JOHN BIGELOW
u Strange that Ulysses does a t^ioiisrHjdj-tLirtgs^o well."- -l^\D, B. n, 335
VOL. II.
NEW YORK AND LONDON
G. P. PUTNAM S SONS
fatyz Jimtherljoclur ^ress
1887
Press of
G. P. PUTNAM S SONS
New York
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
1744
PAGE
XXXI. To the Hon. Cadwallader Golden,
April 5th ... . i
Organization of a Philosophical Society.
XXXII. To Josiah and Abiah Franklin, Sep
tember 6th . . . . . 2
Remedies for the stone and gravel.
1745
XXXIII. To Cadwallader Golden, August 15th, 4
On perspiration and absorption Action of the
heart.
XXXIV. To Cadwallader Golden, November
28th TO
On the circulation of the blood Proposal for
publishing a philosophical miscellany.
XXXV. To Cadwallader Golden . . 14
Why ships, in crossing the Atlantic, have longer
passages Bailing eastward than in sailing westward.
XXXVI.- To John Franklin 16
Humorous view of the expedition against Cape
Breton.
XXXVII. To James Read, August i;th . . 17
XXXVIII. The Speech of Polly Baker 18
XXXIX. The Drinker s Dictionary . 22
XL. On Scandal ... 26
XLI. A Case of Casuistry . 33
224371
vi CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
1747
PAGE
XLII. Plain Truth; or, Serious Considerations
on the Present State of the City of
Philadelphia and the Province of
Pennsylvania, by a Tradesman of
Philadelphia 38
XLIIL To Peter Collinson, March 28th . . 58
Announcement of his electrical experiments.
XLIV. To Peter Collinson, July nth . . 66
Effect of points Positive and negative elec
tricity Electrical kiss Counterfeit spider
Simple electrical machine.
XLV. To Jared Eliot, July i6th ... 75
Linseed oil Origin of springs and petrified
shells on mountains Effects of protective tariffs.
XLVI. To Jared Eliot ..... 80
The culture of grass in meadows.
XLVIL To Peter Collinson, September ist . 83
Observations on the Leyden bottle with experi
ments proving the different electrical states of the
different surfaces.
XLVIIL To Cadwallader Colden, October ist . 91
XLIX. To Cadwallader Colden, November
27th 92
L. To James Logan, December 4th . 94
Fortifications on the Delaware River.
LI. To Thomas Hopkinson ... . 96
On vis inertiae.
LII. To Cadwallader Colden, August 6th . 103
LIII. A Conjecture as to the Cause of the
Heat of the Blood in Health, and of
the Cold and Hot Fits of Some
Fevers ...... 105
1748
LIV. To Cadwallader Colden, January 27th, 108
Procuring cannon Sale of books Colden s
" History of the Five Indian Nations."
CONTENTS OF VOL. II. vii
LV. To James Logan, January 2/th . . 1 1 1
Cannon from Boston Insurance on lottery
tickets.
LVI. To James Logan, January 3Oth . . 112
LVII. To James Logan, April 6th . . 113
Progress in the erection of batteries Diligence
of the people in military exercises.
LVIII. To Cadwallader Golden, September
29th 114
Plans for retirement Governor Shirley Peter
Kalm.
LIX. To James Logan, October 3Oth . . 117
Peter Kalm Swedish missionary.
LX. Advice to a Young Tradesman . . 118
LXI. To Peter Collinson . . . . 121
Ley den bottle Electrical battery Magical -
picture Electrical wheel and feast.
LXII. To Peter Collinson .... 137
The phenomena of thunder-gusts considered.
1749
LXIIL To George Whitefield, July 6th . .150
LXIV. To Mrs. Abiah Franklin, September
7th 152
LXV. To Mrs. Abiah Franklin, October i6th, 153
The yellow fever in Philadelphia.
LXVL To Mrs. Abiah Franklin . . .154
LXVIL To Peter Collinson . . . .156
Magical square of squares.
LXVIII. To Peter Collinson 160
Magical circle.
1750
LXIX. To Jared Eliot, February I3th . . 161
Northeast storms begin at the south Account
of a copper mine The Philadelphia Academy.
LXX. To Cadwallader Golden, June 28th . 165
Electrical papers and experiments James
Logan.
!J
viii CONTENTS OF VOL. 77.
PAGE
LXXL To Peter Collinson, July 2;th . . 167
Electrical fire in the electrified glass Effect of
lightning on the needle of compasses explained
Gunpowder fired by the electrical flame.
LXXII. To Peter Collinson, July 2Qth . . 171
Sending additional papers.
LXXIII. To Samuel Johnson, August 23d . 204
Value of education in promoting the strength
of a State and the virtue of the people Increase
of congregations in churches.
LXXIV. To James Bowdoin, October 25th . 207
Enclosing papers on electricity.
LXXV. To Jared Eliot, October 25th . . 208
Inquiries respecting the mode of planting
hedges.
LXXVI. To a Friend in Boston, December 25th, 209
Account of an accident while making an elec
trical experiment.
1751
LXXVIL To Cadwallader Golden . . .211
LXXVIII. The Importance of Gaining and Pre
serving the Friendship of the In
dians, March 2Oth . . . .217
LXXIX. Observations Concerning the Increase
of Mankind and the Peopling of
Countries . . . . 223
LXXX. To Jared Eliot, September I2th . . 234
Mr. Collinson Philadelphia Academy Ba
rometer, thermometer, and hygrometer Defence
of self-applause.
LXXXL To Mrs. Jane Mecom, October 24th . 238
LXXXIL To Jared Eliot, December loth . . 239
Remarks on husbandry.
LXXXIII. To Jared Eliot, December 24th . . 241
John Bartram Public speaking.
1752
LXXXIV. To James Bowdoin, January 24th . 242
The sea the source of lightning Electric fire.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II. ix
LXXXV. To E. Kinnersley, March 2<d . . 247
Probable cause of the attraction and repulsion
of two electrified globes.
LXXXVI. To E. Kinnersley, March i6th . . 248
Reasons for supposing the glass globe charges
positively and the sulphur negatively A leather
globe for experiments when travelling.
LXXXVII. To Cadwallader Golden, April 23d . 25 1
Metals and water not the only conductors
Electric fire above our atmosphere Theorem
concerning light Poke- weed a remedy for cancer.
LXXXVIIL To Cadwallader Golden, May I4th . 256
Intercession for a printer.
LXXXIX. To Edward and Jane Mecom, May 2 1st, 258
Death of his mother Consolations in affliction
and acquiescence in the dispensations of Provi
dence. ^
XC. To John Perkins, August 1 3th . . 258
The small-pox in Philadelphia.
XCI. To Cadwallader Golden, September
I4th 260
On Colden s theory of light Translation of
electrical papers into French.
XCIL To Peter Collinson, October igth . 262
Electrical kite.
XCIII. To Edward and Jane Mecom, Novem
ber I4th ...... 263
On establishing his nephew at Antigua.
1753
XCIV. To Cadwallader Golden, January 1st . 265
Papers on electricity Abbe Nollet Dalibar^.
XCV. To John Perkins, February 4th . . 267
Water-spouts and whirlwinds compared.
XCVI. To James Bowdoin, February 28th . 283
The transit of Mercury in 1753.
XCVIL To Jared Eliot, April I2th ... 284
Properties of water The author s writings in
France.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
PAGE
XCVIII. To James Bowdoin, April I2th . . 286
On coating electric jars.
XCIX. To William Smith, April igth . . 288
The new academy in Philadelphia.
C. To William Smith, May 3d . . 290
Critical remarks on his scheme of education.
CL To Peter Collinson, May Qth . . 291
Poverty and idleness Difficulty of civilizing
Indians The Germans in Pennsylvania.
CII. To Peter Collinson, September . . 300
Positive and negative electricity of the clouds
How to ascertain the direction of the electric
fluid Size of lightning-rods.
CIII. To James Bowdoin, October i8th . 316
Treaty with the Indians Their complaints.
CIV. To Cadwallader Colden, October 25th, 317
Indian affairs Abbe Nollet s book and Dali-
bard s answer.
CV. To Thomas Clap, November 8th . 318
Smeaton s air-pump.
CVI. To Peter Collinson, November 23d . 320
Notice of another packet of letters.
CVIL To William Smith, November 2;th . 335
The academy.
CVIII. To Cadwallader Colden, December 6th, 336
Regulation of trade with the Indians.
CIX. To James Bowdoin, Decem ber I3th . 337
Concerning the light emitted by salt water
Abbe Nollet s letters.
1754
CX. To Peter Collinson, April i8th . . 340
New method of ascertaining the positive and
negative state of electricity in the clouds.
CXI. To Cadwallader Colden, August 3Oth, 341
On a plan for a union of the colonies Beccaria
on electricity.
CXII. Plan of Union for the Colonies . . 343
CXIII. Letters to Governor Shirley . . 376
CONTENTS OF VOL. II. xi
1755
PAGE
CXIV. To Miss Catherine Ray, March 4th . 387
CXV. Electrical Experiments, March I4th . 389
CXVL To John Lining, March i8th . . 396
Electrical observations and experiments Re
flections on the spirit of invention.
CXVII. To M. Dalibard, June 29th . . 405
Beccaria on electricity Pointed rods Effect
of lightning on the church of Newberry.
CXVIII. To Peter Collinson, August 25th . 409
A whirlwind in Maryland.
CXIX. To Jared Eliot, August 3ist . .411
State of the army Mitchell s map John
Bartram.
CXX. To Jared Eliot, September 1st . . 413
Introducing Mr. Bartram and Mr. Alison.
CXXI. To Miss Catherine Ray, September
nth 414
CXXIL To William Shirley, October 23d . 418
Thanks and proffer of service.
CXXIIL To James Read, November 2d . . 420
Arms and ammunition for the frontier.
CXXIV. An Act to Organize for Military Pur
poses in Pennsylvania . . .421
CXXV. To William Parsons, December 5th . 427
Appropriations for the defence of the frontiers
The militia act.
CXXVI. To William Parsons, December i5th . 429
Troops sent to the front.
CXXVIL Dialogue between X, Y, and Z . . 431
CXXVIIL To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, December
27th . 445
1756
CXXIX. Commission from Lt. - Gov. Morris,
January 5th ..... 446
CXXX. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, January
1 5th 447
xii CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
CXXXI. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, January
25th. . . 447
The situation at Gnadenhutten.
CXXXII. To a friend, January 25th . . . 449
March of the troops to Gnadenhutten and build
ing the fort.
CXXXIII. To Robert Hunter Morris, Governor of
Pennsylvania, January 26th . .451
Gnadenhutten Number and disposition of the
troops.
CXXXIV. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, January
30th . 453
CXXXV. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, January
3ist. . . 454
CXXXVI. To Mrs. James Mecom, February I2th, 455
CXXXVIL To Miss E. Hubbard, February 2$d . 455
On the death of his brother, John Franklin.
CXXXVIIL To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, March 2ist, 457
CXXXIX. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, March 3Oth, 458
CXL. To Joseph Huey, June 6th . . . 459
CXLL To Mrs. Jane Mecom, June 28th . 462
His nephew at Antigua.
CXLII. To William Parsons, June 28th . . 465
Military affairs.
CXLIIL To George Whitefield, July 2d . . 466
CXLIV. To Thomas Pownall, August igth . 468
Indians regardless of treaties Six nations
Recruits wanted on the frontier.
CXLV. To George Washington, August I9th . 470
A mail for the army.
CXLVI. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, November
I3th . . . 471
Conference with the Indians at Easton.
CXLVII. To Edward and Jane Mecom, Decem
ber 30th 473
CXLVIIL Plan for Settling Two Western Colo
nies in North America with Reasons
for the Plan . . 474
CONTENTS OF VOL. II. xiii
1757
PAGE
CXLIX. To Robert Charles, February 1st . 483
CL. Report of the Committee of Grievances
of the Assembly of Pennsylvania,
February 22d 485
CLI. To Mrs. Jane Mecom, February 2ist . 494
CLII. To William Parsons, February 22d . 494
Mission to England.
CLIIL To Miss Catherine Ray, March 3d . 495
CLIV. To Mr. Dunlap, April 4th . . . 496
CLV. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, April 5th, 497
CLVI. To John Lining, April I4th . . 498
On cold produced by evaporation
CLVIL To Mrs. Jane Mecom, April igth . 506
Habits of old age.
CLVIII. To Mrs. Jane Mecom, May 2ist . . 507
Domestic economy.
CLIX. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, May 27th, 509
Delayed at New York Lord Loudoun
French fleet reported.
CLX. To Isaac Norris, May 3Oth . . . 512
Delays Interviews with Lord Loudoun re
specting the pay of servants enlisted in the army.
CLXI. To Mrs. Jane Mecom, May 30th . 516
Rules of conduct Habits of industry.
CLXIL To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, June 2d . 519
Arrival in London.
CLXIII. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, July 27th, 520
CLXIV. To Mrs. Deborah Franklin, November
22d 521
His long illness Dr. Fothergill The Steven-
sons.
CLXV. From William Strahan to Mrs. Frank
lin, December I3th .... 528
CLXVI. To John Pringle, December 2ist . 531
The effects of electricity on paralytics.
XXXI.
TO THE HON. CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
NEW YORK, 5 April, 1744.
SIR : Happening to be in this city about some
particular affairs, I have the pleasure of receiving
yours of the 28th past, here; and can now acquaint
you that the Society, 1 as far as it relates to Philadel
phia, is actually formed, and has had several meetings
to mutual satisfaction. As soon as I get home I
shall send you a short account of what has been done
and proposed at these meetings. The members are :
Dr. Thomas Bond, as Physician.
Mr. John Bartram, as Botanist.
Mr. Thomas Godfrey, as Mathematician.
Mr. Samuel Rhoads, as Mechanician.
Mr. William Parsons, as Geographer.
Dr. Phineas Bond, as General Nat. Philosopher.
Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, President.
Mr. William Coleman, Treasurer.
B. F , Secretary.
To whom the following members have since been
added, viz. : Mr. Alexander, of New York ; Mr.
1 The American Philosophical So
ciety, as afterwards instituted, was
formed out of two societies, of which
this was one. The other was the
Society for Promoting and Propagating
Useful Knowledge. The two societies
were incorporated into one, called the
American Philosophical Society, in
December, 1768, and in January, 1769,
Franklin was elected the first presi
dent, although he was at that time in
England.
THE WORKS OF [1744
Morris, Chief Justice of the Jerseys ; Mr. Home,
Secretary of do. ; Mr. John Coxe, of Trenton ; and
Mr. Martyn, of the same place. Mr. Nicholls tells
me of several other gentlemen of this city that incline
to encourage the thing ; and there are a number of
others, in Virginia, Maryland, and the New England
colonies, we expect to join us as soon as they are
acquainted that the Society has begun to form itself.
I am, Sir, with much respect,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
XXXII.
TO JOSIAH AND ABIAH FRANKLIN.
PHILADELPHIA, 6 September, 1744.
HONORED FATHER AND MOTHER :
I apprehend I am too busy in prescribing and
meddling in the doctor s sphere, when any of you
complain of ails in your letters. But as I always
employ a physician myself when any disorder arises
in my family, and submit implicitly to his orders in
every thing, so I hope you consider my advice, when
I give any, only as a mark of my good will, and put
no more of it in practice than happens to agree with
what your doctor directs.
Your notion of the use of strong lye I suppose may
have a good deal in it. The salt of tartar, or salt of
wormwood, frequently prescribed for cutting, open
ing, and cleansing, is nothing more than the salt of
lye procured by evaporation. Mrs. Stevens s medi-
1744] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 3
cine for the stone and gravel, the secret of which was
lately purchased at a great price by the Parliament,
has for its principal ingredient salt, which Boerhaave
calls the most universal remedy. The same salt inti
mately mixed with oil of turpentine, which you also
mentioned, makes the sapo philosophorum, wonderfully
extolled by some chemists for like purposes. It is
highly probable, as your doctor says, that medicines
are much altered in passing between the stomach and
bladder ; but such salts seem well fitted in their
nature to pass with the least alteration of almost any
thing we know ; and, if they will not dissolve gravel
and stone, yet I am half persuaded that a moderate
use of them may go a great way towards preventing
these disorders, as they assist a weaker digestion in
the stomach, and powerfully dissolve crudities such
as those which I have frequently experienced. As to
honey and molasses, I did not mention them merely
as openers and looseners, but also from conjecture
that, as they are heavier in themselves than our com
mon drink, they might when dissolved in our bodies
increase the gravity of our fluids, the urine in partic
ular, and by that means keep separate and suspended
therein those particles which, when unused, form
gravel, &c.
I will inquire after the herb you mention. We
have a botanist here, an intimate friend of mine, who
knows all the plants in the country. He would be
glad of the correspondence of some gentlemen of the
same taste with you, and has twice, through my
hands, sent specimens of the famous Chinese ginseng ,
THE WORKS OF [1745
found here, to persons who desired it in Boston,
neither of whom has had the civility to write him a
word in answer, or even to acknowledge the receipt
of it, of which please to give a hint to brother John.
We have had a very healthy summer and a fine
harvest ; the country is filled with bread ; but as
trade declines since the war began, I know not what
our farmers will do for a market. I am your affec
tionate and dutiful son, B. FRANKLIN.
XXXIII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 15 August, 1745.
SIR : I received your favor of the 2Oth past, with
your medical piece enclosed, the reading of which
gave me a great deal of pleasure. I showed it to
our friend Mr. Bartram, who carried it home, and, as
he since tells me, is taking a copy of it. His keep
ing of it for that end has prevented my showing it to
any other gentleman as you desired, and hitherto
prevented my writing to you upon it, as I intended.
But, lest you should conclude me the very worst
correspondent in the world, I shall delay no longer
giving you some thoughts that occurred to me in
reading of it, choosing rather to be blamed for not
writing to the purpose than for not writing at all.
I am extremely pleased with your doctrine of the
absorbent vessels intermixed with the perspiratory
ducts, both on the external and internal superficies of
the body. After I had read Sanctorius, I imagined
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 5
a constant stream of the perspirable matter issuing at
every pore in the skin. But then I was puzzled to
account for the effects of mercurial unctions for the
strangury, sometimes occasioned by an outward ap
plication of the flies, and the like ; since whatever
virtue or quality might be in a medicine laid upon the
skin, if it would enter the body it must go against
wind and tide, as one may say. Dr. Hales helped me
a little when he informed me, in his Vegetable Statics,
that the body is not always in a perspirable, but
sometimes in an imbibing, state, as he expresses it, and
will at times actually grow heavier by being exposed
to moist air. But this did not quite remove my diffi
culty, since, as these fits of imbibing did not appear
to be regular or frequent, a blistering plaster might
lie on the body a week, or a mercurial unguent be
used a month, to no purpose, if the body should so long
continue in a perspirable state. Your doctrine, which
was quite new to me, makes all easy, since the body
may perspire and absorb at the same time, through
the different ducts destined to those different ends.
I must own, however, that I have one objection to
the explanation you give of the operation of these
absorbents. That they should communicate with the
veins, and the perspirants with the arteries only, seems
natural enough ; but as all fluids by the hydrostatical
law pass equally in all directions, I question whether
the mere direction of one of those minute vessels,
where it joins with a vein or artery, with or against
the stream of blood in the larger vessel, would be
sufficient to produce such contrary effects as perspir-
6 THE WORKS OF [1745
ing and absorbing. If it would, both perspirants and
absorbents might proceed from the arteries only, or
from the veins only, or from both indifferently ; as,
by the figure in the margin,
whether the vessel a b is an
artery or a vein, if the stream
moves from a to 3, the mi
nute communicating vessel c shall be a perspirant, and
d an absorbent ; and the contrary, if it moves from b
to a. Yet I cannot say I am certain the mere direc
tion of the vessel will have no effect ; I only suspect
it, and am making a little machine to try an experi
ment with for satisfaction.
It is a siphon made of two large joints of Carolina
cane united at e, into which two small glass tubes,/"
and g, are to be inserted,
one on the descending and
the other on the ascending
side. I propose to fill the
siphon and the two glass
tubes with water, and,
when it is playing, unstop at the same instant the
tops of both glass tubes, observing in which the
water sinks fastest. You shall know the success.
I conceive the pressure of the atmosphere on the
apertures of the two glass tubes to be no way differ
ent from the pressure of the same on the mouths of
the perspirants and absorbents, and if the water sinks
equally in the two tubes, notwithstanding the direc
tion of one against and the other with the stream, I
shall be ready to think we must look out for another
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 7
solution. You will say, perhaps, that it will then be
time enough when the experiment is tried, and suc
ceeds as I suspect ; yet I cannot forbear attempting
at one beforehand while some thoughts are present in
my mind. If a new solution should be found neces
sary, this may be ready for consideration.
I do not remember that any anatomist that has
fallen in my way has assigned any other cause of the
motion of the blood through its whole circle than the
contractile force of the heart, by which that fluid is
driven with violence into the arteries, and so contin
ually propelled by repetitions of the same force till it
arrives at the heart again. May we for our present pur
pose suppose another cause producing half the effect,
and say that the ventricles of the heart, like syringes,
draw when they dilate as well as force when they
contract ? That this is not unlikely may be judged
from the valves nature has placed in the arteries to
prevent the drawing back of the blood in those ves
sels when the heart dilates, while no such obstacles
prevent its sucking (to use the vulgar expression)
from the veins. If this be allowed, and the insertion
of the absorbents into the veins and of the perspir-
ants into the arteries be agreed to, it will be of no
importance in what direction they are inserted. For,
as the branches of the arteries are continually lessen
ing in their diameters, and the motion of the blood de
creasing by means of the increased resistance, there
must, as more is constantly pressed on behind, arise
a kind of crowding in the extremities of those vessels,
which will naturally force out what is contained in the
THE WORKS OF [1745
perspirants that communicate with them. This les
sens the quantity of blood, so that the heart cannot
receive again by the veins all it had discharged into
the arteries, which occasions it to draw strongly upon
the absorbents that communicate with them. And
thus the body is continually perspiring and imbibing.
Hence after long fasting the body is more liable to
receive infection from bad air, and food, before it is
sufficiently chylified, is drawn crude into the blood by
the absorbents that open into the bowels.
To confirm this position, that the heart draws as
well as drives the blood, let me add this particular.
If you sit or lean long in such a manner as to com
press the principal artery that supplies a limb with
blood, so that it does not furnish a due quantity, you
will be sensible of a pricking pain in the extremities
like that of a thousand needles, and the veins, which
used to raise your skin in ridges, will be (with the
skin) sunk in channels, the blood being drawn out of
them, and their sides pressed so closely together that
it is with difficulty and slowly that the blood after
wards enters them when the compressed artery is
relieved. If the blood was not drawn by the heart,
the compression of an artery would not empty a
vein, and I conjecture that the pricking pain is
occasioned by the sides of the small vessels being
pressed together.
I am not without apprehension that this hypothesis
is either not new, or, if it is new, not good for any
thing. It may, however, in this letter, with the en
closed paper on a kindred subject, serve to show the
great confidence I place in your candor, since to you
17451 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 9
I so freely hazard myself (ultra crepidam) in meddling
with matters directly pertaining to your profession,
and entirely out of the way of my own. If you give
yourself the trouble of reading them, it is all I can
modestly expect. Your silence about them afterwards
will be sufficient to convince me that I am in the
wrong, and that I ought to study the sciences I dabble
in before I presume to set pen to paper. I will en
deavour, however, to make you some amends by pro
curing you from better judges some better remarks
on the rest of your piece, and shall observe your
caution not to let them know from whom I had it.
The piece on Fluxions I purpose shortly to read
again, and that on the several species of matter, when
you shall have what little I shall be able to say about
them.
The members of our Society here are very idle
gentlemen. They will take no pains. I must, I be
lieve, alter the scheme and proceed with the papers I
have, and may receive, in the manner you advise in
one of your former letters. The mention of your for
mer letters puts me in mind how much I am in arrear
with you. Like some honest insolvent debtors, I
must resolve to pay ready money for what I have
hereafter, and discharge the old debt by little and
little as I am able.
The impertinence of these mosquitos to me (now I
am in the humor of writing) prevents a great deal of
mine to you, so that, for once, they are of some use
in the world. I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
io THE WORKS OF [1745
XXXIV.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 28 November, 1745.
SIR : I shall be very willing and ready, when you
think proper to publish your piece on gravitation, to
print it at my own expense and risk. If I can be the
means of communicating any thing valuable to the
world, I do not always think of gaining, nor even of
saving, by my business ; but a piece of that kind, as it
must excite the curiosity of all the learned, can hardly
fail of bearing its own expense.
I must not pretend to dispute with you on any part
of the animal economy. You are quite too strong for
me. I shall just mention two or three little things,
that I am not quite clear in.
If there is no contrivance in the frame of the auricles
or ventricles of the heart by which they dilate them
selves, I cannot conceive how they are dilated. It is
said, by the force of the venal blood rushing into them.
But if that blood has no force which was not first given
to it by the contraction of the heart, how can it
(diminished as it must be by the resisting friction of
the vessels it has passed through) be strong enough to
overcome that contraction ? Your doctrine of fer
mentation in the capillaries helps me a little ; for if
the returning blood be rarefied by the fermentation,
its motion must be increased ; but, as it seems to me
that it must by its expansion resist the arterial blood
behind it, as much as it accelerates the venal blood
before it, I am still somewhat unsatisfied. I have
1745]
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
ii
heard or read somewhere, too, that the hearts of
some animals continue to contract and dilate, or to
beat, as it is commonly expressed, after they are sep
arated from the other vessels and taken out of the
body. If this be true, their dilation is not caused by
the force of the returning blood.
I should be glad to satisfy myself, too, whether the
blood is always quicker in motion when the pulse
beats quicker. Perhaps more blood is driven forward
by one strong, deep stroke than by two that are weak
and light ; as a man may breathe more air by one
long, common respiration, when in health, than by
two quick, short ones in a fever. I applied the siphon
I mentioned to you in a former letter to the pipe of
a water-engine. E is the engine ; a, its pipe ; b b b,
the siphon ; c and d, the two glass pipes communi
cating with the siphon. Upon working the engine,
the water flowed through the siphon and the glass
tube c ; but none was discharged through d. When
I stopped with my finger the end of the siphon, the
water issued at both glass tubes with equal force, and
12 THE WORKS OF [1745
on only half stopping the end of the siphon, it did
the same. I imagine the sudden bending of the
siphon gives such a resistance to the stream as to
occasion its issuing out of the glass tube c. But I
intend to try a farther experiment, of which I shall
give you an account.
I am now determined to publish an American
Philosophical Miscellany, monthly or quarterly. I
shall begin with next January, and proceed as I find
encouragement and assistance. As I purpose to take
the compiling wholly upon myself, the reputation of
no gentleman or society will be affected by what I
insert of another s ; and that perhaps will make them
more free to communicate. Their names shall be
published or concealed, as they think proper, and
care taken to do exact justice to matters of invention,
&c. I shall be glad of your advice in any particulars
that occurred to you in thinking of this scheme ; for,
as you first proposed it to me, I doubt not but you
have well considered it. 1
I have not the original of Dr. Mitchell s tract on
the Yellow Fever. 2 Mine is a copy I had taken, with
his leave, when here. Mr. Evans will make a copy
of it for you.
I hope it will be confirmed by future experiment
that the yaws are to be cured by tar-water. The case
1 It does not appear that this scheme ler says that he wrote ably on the
was ever carried into execution. yellow fever, as it appeared in Virginia
2 Dr. John Mitchell was a learned in 1742 ; and that his instructive manu-
physician and botanist, and Fellow of scripts on this subject fell into the
the Royal Society. He was a native hands of Dr. Franklin, by whom they
of England, but came over and estab- were communicated to Dr. Rush."
iished himself in Virginia. Dr. Mil- Miller s " Retrospect," vol. i., p. 318.
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 13
you relate to Dr. Mitchell gives great hopes of it, and
should be published, to induce people to make trials.
For, though it should not always succeed, I suppose
there is no danger of its doing any harm.
As to your pieces on Fluxions and the different
species of matter, it is not owing to reservedness that
I have not yet sent you my thoughts ; but because I
cannot please myself with them, having had no leisure
yet to digest them. If I was clear that you are any
where mistaken, I would tell you so, and give my
reasons with all freedom, as believing nothing I could
do would be more obliging to you. I am persuaded
you think, as I do, that he who removes a prejudice
or an error from our minds contributes to their
beauty, as he would do to that of our faces who
should clear them of a wart or a wen.
I have a friend gone to New York with a view of
settling there, if he can meet with encouragement.
It is Dr. John Bard, 1 whom I esteem an ingenious
physician and surgeon and a discreet, worthy, and
honest man. If, upon conversation with him, you
find this character just, I doubt not but you will afford
him your advice and countenance, which will be of
great service to him in a place where he is entirely a
stranger, and very much oblige, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. I shall forward your letter to Dr. Mitchell.
Thank you for leaving it open for my perusal.
1 The father of Dr. Samuel Bard, of whom an interesting memoir has been
published by Professor McVickar.
14 THE WORKS OF [1745
XXXV.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
[Date uncertain.]
SIR : I received yours with others enclosed for
Mr. Bartram and Mr. Armit, to which I suppose the
enclosed are answers. The person who brought
yours said he would call for answers, but did not ; or
if he did, I did not see him.
I understand Parker has begun upon your piece.
A long sitting of our Assembly has hitherto hindered
me from beginning the Miscellany. I shall write to
Dr. Gronovius as you desire.
I wish I had mathematics enough to satisfy myself
whether the much shorter voyages made by ships
bound hence to England, than by those from Eng
land hither, are not in some degree owing to the di
urnal motion of the earth, and if so, in what degree.
It is a notion that has lately entered my mind ; I
know not if ever any other s. Ships in a calm at the
equator move with the sea fifteen miles per minute ;
at our Cape suppose twelve miles per minute ; in the
British Channel suppose ten miles per minute. Here
is a difference of two miles velocity per minute be
tween Cape Henlopen and the Lizard. No small
matter in so weighty a body as a laden ship swim
ming in a fluid. How is this velocity lost in the voy
age thither, if not by the resistance of the water ?
And if so, then the water, which resisted in part,
must have given way in part to the ship, from time
1 A printer in New York.
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 15
to time, as she proceeded continually out of parallels
of latitude where the earth s motion or rotation was
quicker, into others where it was slower. And thus,
as her velocity tends eastward with the earth s mo
tion, she perhaps makes her easting sooner. Suppose
a vessel lying still in a calm at our Cape could be
taken up, and the same instant set down in an equal
calm in the English Channel, would not the differ
ence of velocity between her and the sea she was
placed in appear plainly by a violent motion of the
ship through the water eastward ?
I have not time to explain myself farther, the post
waiting ; but I believe I have said enough for you
to comprehend my meaning. If the reasons hinted
at should incline you to think there is any thing
in this notion, I should be glad of an answer to
this question, if it be capable of a precise answer,
viz.
Suppose a ship sails in a northeast line from lati
tude 39 to latitude 52, in thirty days, how long will
she be returning on the same line, winds, currents,
etc., being equal? Just so much as the eastern mo
tion of the earth helps her easting, I suppose it will
hinder her westing. Perhaps the weight and dimen
sions or shape of the vessel should be taken into con
sideration, as the water resists bodies of different
shapes differently.
I must beg you to excuse the incorrectness of this
scrawl, as I have not time to transcribe. I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
16 THE WORKS OF [1745
XXXVI.
TO JOHN FRANKLIN, AT BOSTON.
PHILADELPHIA, 1745.
- Our people are extremely impatient to hear of
your success at Cape Breton. 1 My shop is filled with
inquirers at the coming in of every post. Some won
der the place is not yet taken. I tell them I shall
be glad to hear that news three months hence. For
tified towns are hard nuts to crack ; and your teeth
have not been accustomed to it. Taking strong
places is a particular trade, which you have taken up
without serving an apprenticeship to it. Armies and
veterans need skilful engineers to direct them in their
attack. Have you any ? But some seem to think
forts are as easy taken as snuff. Father Moody s
prayers look tolerably modest. You have a fast and
prayer day for that purpose ; in which I compute five
hundred thousand petitions were offered up to the
same effect in New England, which, added to the
petitions of every family morning and evening, mul
tiplied by the number of days since January 25th,
make forty-five millions of prayers ; which, set
against the prayers of a few priests in the garrison, to
the Virgin Mary, give a vast balance in your favor.
If you do not succeed, I fear I shall have but an
indifferent opinion of Presbyterian prayers in such
cases, as long as I live. Indeed, in attacking strong
towns I should have more dependence on works, than
on faith ; for, like the kingdom of heaven, they are
1 The expedition against Cape Breton Louisburg, on the I yth of June. The
proved successful, by the surrender of news arrived in Boston on the 3d of July.
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 17
to be taken by force and violence ; and in a French
garrison I suppose there are devils of that kind that
they are not to be cast out by prayers and fasting,
unless it be by their own fasting for want of provi
sions. I believe there is Scripture in what I have
wrote, but I cannot adorn the margin with quotations,
having a bad memory, and no Concordance at hand ;
besides no more time than to subscribe myself, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
XXXVII.
TO JAMES READ.
Saturday Morning, 17 August, 1745.
DEAR JEMMY :
I have been reading your letter over again, and,
since you desire an answer I sit down to write you
one ; yet, as I write in the market, it will, I believe,
be but a short one, though I may be long about it. I
approve of your method of writing one s mind, when
one is too warm to speak it with temper ; but, being
quite cool myself in this affair, I might as well speak
as write, if I had an opportunity.
Are you an attorney by profession, and do you
know no better how to choose a proper court in which
to bring your action ? Would you submit to the de
cision of a husband, a cause between you and his wife ?
Don t you know that all wives are in the right ? It
may be you don t, for you are yet but a young hus
band. But see, on this head, the learned Coke, that
oracle of the law, in his chapter Z? Jur. Mar it. AngL
i8 THE WORKS OF [1745
I advise you not to bring it to trial ; for, if you do,
you will certainly be cast.
Frequent interruptions make it impossible for me
to go through all your letter,. I have only time to
remind you of the saying of that excellent old philos
opher, Socrates, that, in differences among friends,
they that make the first concessions are the wisest ; and
to hint to you that you are in danger of losing that
honor in the present case, if you are not very speedy
in your acknowledgments, which I persuade myself you
will be, when you consider the sex of your adversary.
Your visits never had but one thing disagreeable
in them that is, they were always too short. I shall
exceedingly regret the loss of them, unless you con
tinue, as you have begun, to make it up to me by long
letters.
I am, dear Jemmy, with sincere love to our dearest
Suky, your very affectionate friend and cousin,
B. FRANKLIN.
XXXVIII.
THE SPEECH OF POLLY BAKER.
The Speech of Miss Polly Baker before a Court of
Judicatory, in New England, where she was prosecuted
for a fifth time, for having a Bastard Child ; which in-
1 Two of the more elaborate of the whipping-post, and invited her
Franklin s jokes in the Pennsylvania seducer to dinner. This speech was
Gazette, says Mr. Parton in his charm- a current joke in the colonial press
ing biography of Franklin, have es- for thirty years, and continued to be
caped the vigilance of editors hitherto, occasionally reprinted after the Revo-
The speech of Polly Baker is one of lution. It was inserted in the Gazette,
these ; which is not only humorous, Franklin tells us, to amuse the town
but well rebukes the cruel immorality at a time when there was little news
which sent a poor miserable drab to stirring.
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 19
fluenced the Court to dispense with her punishment,
and which induced one of her judges to marry her
the next day by whom she had fifteen children.
" May it please the honourable bench to indulge me
in a few words : I am a poor, unhappy woman, who
have no money to fee lawyers to plead for me, being
hard put to it to get a living. I shall not trouble your
honours with long speeches ; for I have not the pre
sumption to expect that you may, by any means, be
prevailed on to deviate in your sentence from the law,
in my favour. All I humbly hope is, that your hon
ours would charitably move the governor s goodness
on my behalf, that my fine may be remitted. This is
the fifth time, gentlemen, that I have been dragged
before your court on the same account ; twice I have
paid heavy fines, and twice I have been brought to
public punishment, for want of money to pay those
fines. This may have been agreeable to the laws, and
I don t dispute it ; but since the laws are sometimes
unreasonable in themselves, and therefore repealed ;
and others bear too hard on the subject in particular
instances, and therefore there is left a power some
where to dispense with the execution of them, I take
the liberty to say, that I think this law, by which I
am punished, both unreasonable in itself, and particu
larly severe with regard to me, who have always lived
an inoffensive life in the neighbourhood where I was
born, and defy my enemies (if I have any) to say I
have wronged any man, woman, or child. Abstracted
from the law, I cannot conceive (may it please your
20 THE WORKS OF [1745
honours) what the nature of my offence is. I have
brought five children into the world, at the risque of
my life ; I have maintained them well by my own
industry, without burthening the township, and would
have done it better, if it had not been for the heavy
charges and fines I have paid. Can it be a crime (in
the nature of things, I mean) to add to the King s
subjects, in a new country that really wants people ?
I own it, I should think it rather a praiseworthy than
a punishable action. I have debauched no other
woman s husband, nor enticed any youth ; these things
I never was charged with ; nor has any one the least
cause of complaint against me, unless, perhaps, the
ministers of justice, because I have had children with
out being married, by which they have missed a wed
ding fee. But can this be a fault of mine ? I appeal
to your honours. You are pleased to allow I don t want
sense ; but I must be stupefied to the last degree, not
to prefer the honourable state of wedlock to the con
dition I have lived in. I always was, and still am will
ing to enter into it ; and doubt not my behaving well
in it, having all the industry, frugality, fertility, and
skill in economy appertaining to a good wife s char
acter. I defy any one to say I ever refused an offer
of that sort ; on the contrary, I readily consented to
the only proposal of marriage that ever was made me,
which was when I was a virgin, but too easily confid
ing in the person s sincerity that made it, I unhappily
lost my honour by trusting to his ; for he got me with
child, and then forsook me.
" That very person, you all know, he is now become
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 21
a magistrate 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 honor and power in the
government that punishes my misfortunes with stripes
and infamy. I should be told, tis like, that were there
no act of Assembly in the case, the precepts of religion
are violated by my transgressions. If mine is a reli
gious transgression, leave it to religious punishment.
You have already excluded me from the comforts of
your church communion. Is not that sufficient ?
What need is there then of your additional fines and
whipping? You believe I have offended heaven, and
must suffer eternal fire ; will not that be sufficient ? I
own I do not think as you do, for, if I thought what you
call a sin was really such, I could not presumptuously
commit it. 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, gentle
men, 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
22 THE WORKS OF [1745
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 un-
produced (which is little better than murder) hun
dreds 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 na
ture 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."
XXXIX.
THE DRINKER S DICTIONARY.
A. B.
He is addled. He s Biggy.
He s casting up his accounts. Bewitched.
afflicted. Block and Block.
in his airs. Boozy.
1745]
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
He s Bowz d.
Been at Barbadoes.
Drunk as a Wheelbarrow.
Burdock d.
Busky.
Buzzey.
Has stole a Manchet out of the
Brewer s Basket.
His head is full of Bees.
Has been in the Bibbing Plot,
drank more than he has
bled.
He s Bungey.
As drunk as a Beggar.
He sees the Bears.
He s kiss d Black Betty.
had a thump over the
head with Sampson s
Jawbone.
Bridgey.
He s Cat.
Cagrin d.
Capable.
Cramp d.
Cherubimical.
Cherry Merry.
Wamble Crop d.
Crack d.
Concern d.
Half way to Concord.
Has taken a Chirriping-Glass.
Got Corns in his head.
A Cup too much.
Coguy.
Copey.
He s heat his Copper.
Crocus.
Catch d.
He cuts his Capers.
He s been in the Cellar.
in his Cups.
Non Compos.
Cock d.
Curv d.
Cut.
Chipper.
Chickery.
Loaded his Cart.
Been too free with the
Creature.
Sir Richard has taken off his
Considering Cap.
He s Chap-fallen.
D.
He s Disguiz d.
Got a Dish.
Killed his Dog.
Took his Drops.
It is a Dark Day with him.
He s a Dead Man.
Has Dipp d his Bill.
He s Dagg d.
seen the Devil.
E.
He s Prince Eugene.
Enter d.
Wet both Eyes.
Cock Ey d.
Got the Pole Evil.
Got a brass Eye.
THE WORKS OF
[i745
He s Made an Example.
Eat a Load & a half for
breakfast.
In his Element.
F.
He s Fishey.
Fox d.
Fuddled.
Sore Footed.
Frozen.
Well in for t.
Owes no man a Farthing.
Fears no Man.
Crump Footed.
Been to France.
Flush d.
Froze his Mouth.
Fetter d.
Been to a Funeral.
His Flag is out.
He s Fuzl d.
Spoke with his Friend.
Been at an Indian Feast.
G.
He s Glad.
Groatable.
Gold-headed.
Glaiz d.
Generous.
Booz d the Gage.
As Dizzy as a Gooze.
Been before George.
Got the Gout.
Had a Kick in the Guts.
Been with Sir John Goa,
Been at Geneva,
He s Globular.
Got the Glanders.
H.
He s Half and Half.
Hardy.
Top Heavy.
Got by the Head.
Hiddey.
Got on his little Hat.
Hammerish.
Loose in the Hilts.
Knows not the way Home.
Got the Hornson.
Haunted with Evil Spirits.
Has taken Hippocrates Grand
Elixir.
I.
He s Intoxicated.
J-
He s Jolly.
Jagg d
Jambl d.
Going to Jerusalem.
Jocular.
Been to Jerico.
Juicy.
K.
He s a King.
Clips the King s English.
Seen the French King.
The King is his Cousin.
Got Kib d Heels.
Knapt.
Het his Kettle,
1745]
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
25
L.
He s in Liquor.
Lordly.
He makes Indentures with
his Leggs.
Well to Live
He s Pidgeon Ey d.
Pungey.
As S ood conditioned as a
Lappy
Limber.
M.
He sees two Moons.
Merry.
Middling.
Moon-eyed.
Muddled.
Seen a Flock of Moons.
Maudlin.
Mountous.
Muddy.
Rais d his Monuments.
Mellow.
N.
He s Eat the Cocoa Nut.
Nimptopsical.
Got the Night Mare.
-
He s Oiled.
Eat Opium.
Smelt of an Onion.
Oxycrocium.
Overset.
He drank till he gave up his
Half Penny.
Scalt ^is Head Pan.
Been among the Philistines.
^ In his Prosperity.
^ e s ^ een amon g the Philippi-
ans.
contending with Pharaoh.
Wasted his Paunch.
Polite.
Eats a Pudding Bag.
He s Quarrelsome.
He s
Raddled.
Rich -.
Religious.
Lost his Rudder.
Ragged.
Rais d.
Been to fr ee with Sir
Richard.
Like a Rat in Trouble.
He s Stitch d.
Seafaring.
In the Sudds.
Strong.
Been in the Sun.
as Drunk as David s Sow.
Swampt.
26 THE WORKS OF [1745
His Skin is full. He s Tongue-ty d.
He s Steady. Tann d.
Stiff. Tipium Grove,
burnt his Shoulder. Double Tongu d.
got his Top Gallant Sails Topsy-Turvey.
out. Tipsey.
Seen the yellow Star. swallowed aTavernToken.
As Stiff as a Ringbolt. Thaw d.
Half Seas over. in a Trance.
His Shoe pinches him. Trammel d.
He s Staggerish.
It is Star-light with him. V.
He carries too much Sail.
He s Stew d. ^ e ma -kes Virginia Fence.
Stubb d. Valiant.
Soak d. Got the Indian Vapours.
Soft.
Been too free with Sir \y
John Strawberry.
right before the wind with The Malt is above the Water,
all his Studding Sails He s Wise,
out. Wet.
Has sold his Senses. been to the Salt Water.
Water Soaken.
rp
very Weary.
He s Top d. Out of the Way.
XL.
ON SCANDAL.
MR. GAZETTEER :
I was highly pleased with your last week s paper
upon SCANDAL, as the uncommon doctrine therein
preached is agreeable both to my principles and prac
tice, and as it was published very seasonably to re-
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 27
prove the impertinence of a writer in the foregoing
Thursday s Mercury, who, at the conclusion of one of
his silly paragraphs, laments forsooth, that the fair
sex are so peculiarly guilty of this enormous crime.
Every blockhead, ancient and modern, that could
handle a pen, has, I think, taken upon him to cant in
the same senseless strain. If to scandalize be really a
crime, what do these puppies mean ? They describe
it, they dress it up in the most odious, frightful, and
detestable colors, they represent it as the worst of
crimes, and then roundly and charitably charge the
whole race of womankind with it. Are not they then
guilty of what they condemn, at the same time that
they condemn it ? If they accuse us of any other
crime, they must necessarily scandalize while they do
it ; but to scandalize us with being guilty of scandal,
is in itself an egregious absurdity, and can proceed
from nothing but the most consummate impudence in
conjunction with the most profound stupidity.
This supposing, as they do, that to scandalize is a
crime, you have convinced all reasonable people is an
opinion absolutely erroneous. Let us leave, then,
these select mock-moralists, while I entertain you with
some account of my life and manners.
I am a young girl of about thirty-five, and live at
present with my mother. I have no care upon my
head of getting a living, and therefore find it my duty,
as well as inclination, to exercise my talent at censure,
for the good of my country-folks. There was, I am
told, a certain generous emperor, who, if a day had
passed over his head in which he had conferred no
28 THE WORKS OF [1745
benefit on any man, used to say to his friends, in
Latin, diem per didi, that is, it seems, I have lost a day.
I believe I should make use of the same expression,
if it were possible for a day to pass in which I had
not, or missed, an opportunity to scandalize some
body ; but, thanks be praised, no such misfortune has
befell me these dozen years.
Yet, whatever good I may do, I cannot pretend
that I at first entered into the practice of this virtue
from a principle of public spirit ; for I remember
that, when a child, I had a violent inclination to be
ever talking in my own praise ; and being continually
told that it was ill manners, and once severely whipped
for it, the confined stream formed for itself a new
channel, and I began to speak for the future in the
dispraise of others. This I found more agreeable to
company, and almost as much so to myself ; for what
great difference can there be between putting your
self up, or putting your neighbour down ? Scandal,
like other virtues, is in part its own reward, as it gives
us the satisfaction of making ourselves appear better
than others, or others no better than ourselves.
My mother, good woman, and I, have heretofore
differed upon this account. She argued, that scandal
spoilt all good conversation ; and I insisted that with
out it there would be no such thing. Our disputes once
rose so high that we parted tea-tables, and I concluded
to entertain my acquaintance in the kitchen. The first
day of this separation we both drank tea at the same
time, but she with her visitors in the parlour. She would
not hear of the least objection to any one s character,
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 29
but began a new sort of discourse in some such queer
philosophical manner as this : " I am mightily pleased
sometimes," says she, "when I observe and consider
that the world is not so bad as people out of humor
imagine it to be. There is something amiable, some
good quality or other, in every body. If we were
only to speak of people that are least respected, there
is such a one is very dutiful to her father, and me-
thinks has a fine set of teeth ; such a one is very
respectful to her husband ; such a one is very kind to
her poor neighbours, and, besides, has a very hand
some shape ; such a one is always ready to serve a
friend, and, in my opinion, there is not a woman in
town that has a more agreeable air or gait." This
fine kind of talk, which lasted near half an hour, she
concluded by saying, " I do not doubt but every one
of you has made the like observations, and I should
be glad to have the conversation continued upon this
subject." Just at this juncture I peeped in at the
door, and never in my life before saw such a set of
simple, vacant countenances. They looked some
how neither glad nor sorry, nor angry nor pleased,
nor indifferent nor attentive ; but (excuse the simile)
like so many images of rye-dough. I, in the kitchen,
had already begun a ridiculous story of Mr. - - s
intrigue with his maid, and his wife s behaviour on
the discovery ; at some of the passages we laughed
heartily ; and one of the gravest of mamma s com
pany, without making any answer to her discourse,
got up to go and see what the girls were so merry
about. She was followed by a second, and shortly by
30 THE WORKS OF [1745
a third, till at last the old gentlewoman found her
self quite alone, and being convinced that her project
was impracticable, came herself and finished her tea
with us; ever since which Saul also has been among the
prophets, and our disputes lie dormant.
By industry and application I have made myself
the centre of all the scandal in the province. There
is little stirring, but I hear of it. I began the world
with this maxim, that no trade can subsist without
returns, and, accordingly, whenever I received a good
story, I endeavoured to give two or a better in the
room of it. My punctuality in this way of dealing
gave such encouragement, that it has procured me an
incredible deal of business, which, without diligence
and good method, it would be impossible for me to
go through. For, besides the stock of defamation
thus naturally flowing in upon me, I practise an art
by which I can pump scandal out of people that are
the least inclined that way. Shall I discover my
secret ? Yes ; to let it die with me would be inhu
man. If I have never heard ill of some person, I
always impute it to defective intelligence ; for there
are none without their faults ; no, not one. If she be
a woman, I take the first opportunity to let all her
acquaintance know I have heard that one of the
handsomest or best men in town has said something
in praise either of her beauty, her wit, her virtue, or
her good management. If you know any thing of
human nature, you perceive that this naturally intro
duces a conversation turning upon all her failings,
past, present, and to come. To the same purpose,
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 31
and with the same success, I cause every man of
reputation to be praised before his competitors in
love, business, or esteem, on account of any particu
lar qualification. Near the times of election, if I
find it necessary, I commend every candidate before
some of the opposite party, listening attentively to
what is said of him in answer. But commendations
in this latter case are not always necessary, and
should be used judiciously. Of late years I needed
only observe what they said of one another freely ;
and having, for the help of memory, taken account
of all informations and accusations received, whoever
peruses my writings after my death may happen to
think that during a certain time the people of Penn
sylvania chose into all their offices of honor and
trust the veriest knaves, fools, and rascals in the
whole province. The time of election used to be a
busy time with me ; but this year, with concern I
speak it, people are grown so good-natured, so intent
upon mutual feasting and friendly entertainment, that
I see no prospect of much employment from that
quarter.
I mentioned above, that without good method I
could not go through my business. In my father s
lifetime I had some instruction in accounts, which I
now apply with advantage to my own affairs. I keep
a regular set of books, and can tell, at an hour s warn
ing, how it stands between me and the world. In my
Daybook I enter every article of defamation as it is
transacted ; for scandals received in I give credit, and
when I pay them out again I make the persons to
32 THE WORKS OF [1745
whom they respectively relate debtor. In my Jour
nal I add to each story, by way of improvement, such
probable circumstances as I think it will bear ; and in
my Ledger the whole is regularly posted.
I suppose the reader already condemns me in his
heart for this particular of adding circumstances ;
but I justify this part of my practice thus. It is a
principle with me, that none ought to have a greater
share of reputation than they really deserve ; if they
have, it is an imposition upon the public. I know it
is every one s interest, and therefore believe they en
deavour to conceal all their vices and follies ; and I
hold that those people are extraordinary foolish or
careless, who suffer one fourth of their failings to come
to public knowledge. Taking then the common pru
dence and imprudence of mankind in a lump, I sup
pose none suffer above one fifth to be discovered ;
therefore, when I hear of any person s misdoing, I
think I keep within bounds if in relating it I only
make it three times worse than it is ; and I reserve to
myself the privilege of charging them with one fault
in four, which for aught I know they may be entirely
innocent of. You see, there are but few so careful of
doing justice as myself. What reason then have
mankind to complain of scandal? In a general way
the worst that is said of us is only half what might be
said, if all our faults were seen.
But, alas ! two great evils have lately befallen me at
the same time : an extreme cold, that I can scarce
speak ; and a most terrible tooth-ache, that I dare
hardly open my mouth. For some days past I have
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 33
received ten stories for one I have paid ; and I am
not able to balance my accounts without your assist
ance. I have long thought that if you would make
your paper a vehicle of scandal, you would double the
number of your subscribers. I send you herewith
accounts of four knavish tricks, two * * *, five
* * * % -^ three drubbed wives, and four henpecked
husbands, all within this fortnight ; which you may, as
articles of news, deliver to the public, and, if my
tooth-ache continues, I shall send you more, being in
the mean time your constant reader,
ALICE ADDERTONGUE.
I thank my correspondent, Mrs. Addertongue, for
her good will, but desire to be excused inserting the
articles of news she has sent me, such things being in
reality no news at all.
XLI.
A CASE OF CASUISTRY.
TO THE PRINTER OF THE GAZETTE.
According to the request of your correspondent,
T. P., I send you my thoughts on the following case
by him proposed, viz.:
A man bargains for the keeping of his horse six
months, whilst he is making a voyage to Barbadoes.
The horse strays or is stolen soon after the keeper
has him in possession. When the owner demands
34 THE WORKS OF [1745
the value of his horse in money, may not the other
as justly demand so much deducted as the keeping of
the horse six months amounts to ?
It does not appear that they had any dispute about
the value of the horse, whence we may conclude
there was no reason for such dispute, but it was well
known how much he cost, and that he could not hon
estly have been sold again for more. But the value
of the horse is not expressed in the case, nor the
sum agreed for keeping him six months ; wherefore,
in order to our more clear apprehension of the
thing, let ten pounds represent the horse s value,
and three pounds the sum agreed upon for his
keeping.
Now the sole foundation on which the keeper can
found his demand of a deduction for keeping a horse
he did not keep, is this : " Your horse," he may say,
" which I was to restore to you at the end of six
months, was worth ten pounds ; if I now give you
ten pounds, it is an equivalent for your horse, and
equal to returning the horse itself. Had I returned
your horse (value ten pounds), you would have paid
me three pounds for his keeping, and therefore
would have received in fact, but seven pounds clear.
You then suffer no injury, if I now pay you seven
pounds, and consequently you ought in reason to
allow me the remaining three pounds, according to our
agreement.
But the owner of the horse may possibly insist
upon being paid the whole sum of ten pounds, with-
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 35
out allowing any deduction for his keeping after he
was lost, and that for these reasons :
1. It is always supposed, unless an express agree
ment be made to the contrary, when horses are put
out to keep, that the keeper is at the risk of them,
unavoidable accidents only excepted, wherein no care
of the keeper can be supposed sufficient to preserve
them, such as their being slain by lightning or the
like. This you yourself tacitly allow when you offer
to restore me the value of my horse. Were it other
wise, people, having no security against a keeper s
neglect or mismanagement, would never put horses
out to keep.
2. Keepers, considering the risk they run, always
demand such a price for keeping horses that, if they
were to follow the business twenty years, they may
have a living profit, though they now and then
pay for a horse they have lost ; and if they were to
be at no risk they might afford to keep horses for less
than they usually have. So that what a man pays for
his horse s keeping, more than the keeper could afford
to take if he ran no risk, is in the nature of a premium
for the insurance of his horse. If I then pay you for
the few days you kept my horse, you should restore
me his full value.
3. You acknowledge that my horse eat of your
hay and oats but a few days. It is unjust, then, to
charge me for all the hay and oats that he only might
have eat in the remainder of the six months, and
which you have now still good in your stable. If, as
the proverb says, it is unreasonable to expect a horse
36 THE WORKS OF [1745
should void oats, which never eat any, it is certainly
as unreasonable to expect payment for those oats.
4. If men in such cases as this are to be paid for
keeping horses when they were not kept, then they
have a great opportunity of wronging the owners of
horses. For by privately selling my horse for his
value (ten pounds) soon after you had him in posses
sion, and returning me, at the expiration of the time,
only seven pounds, demanding three pounds as a deduc
tion agreed for his keeping, you get that three pounds
clear into your pocket, besides the use of my money
six months for nothing.
5. But, you say, the value of my horse being ten
pounds, if you deduct three for his keeping and re
turn me seven, it is all I would in fact have received
had you returned my horse ; therefore, as I am no
loser, I ought to be satisfied. This argument, were
there any weight in it, might serve to justify a man
in selling, as above, as many of the horses he takes
to keep as he conveniently can, putting clear into his
own pocket that charge their owners must have been
at for their keeping ; for, this being no. loss to the
owners, he may say : " Where no man is a loser, why
should not I be a gainer ? " I need only answer to
this, that I allow the horse cost me but ten pounds,
nor could I have sold him for more had I been dis
posed to part with him ; but this can be no reason
why you should buy him of me at that price, whether
I will sell him or not. For it is plain I valued him at
thirteen pounds, otherwise I should not have paid ten
pounds for him, and agreed to give you three pounds
1745] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 37
more for his keeping till I had occasion to use him.
Thus, though you pay me the whole ten pounds
which he cost me (deducting only for his keeping
those few days), I am still a loser : I lose the charge
of those days keeping ; I lose the three pounds
at which I valued him above what he cost me ; and
I lose the advantage I might have made of my
money in six months, either by the interest, or by
joining it to my stock in trade in my voyage to
Barbadoes.
6. Lastly, whenever a horse is put to keep, the
agreement naturally runs thus : The keeper says : " I
will feed your horse six months on good hay and
oats, if, at the end of that time, you pay me three
pounds." The owner says : " If you will feed my
horse six months on good hay and oats, I will pay you
three pounds at the end of that time." Now we may
plainly see the keeper s performance of his part of
the agreement must be antecedent to that of the
owner ; and, the agreement being wholly condi
tional, the owner s part is not in force till the
keeper has performed his. You, then, not having
fed my horse six months, as you agreed to do,
there lies no obligation on me to pay for so much
feeding.
Thus we have heard what can be said on both
sides. Upon the whole, I am of opinion that no de
duction should be allowed for the keeping of the
horse after the time of his straying.
I am yours, &c.,
THE CASUIST.
38 THE WORKS OF [1747
XLII.
PLAIN TRUTH ;
OR,
SERIOUS CONSIDERATIONS
ON
THE PRESENT STATE OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA AND
PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
BY A TRADESMAN OF PHILADELPHIA.
Capta urbe, nihil fit reliqui victis. Sed, per deos immortales,
vos ego appello, qui semper domos, villas, signa, tabulas vestras,
[tantse sestimationis] fecistis ; si ista, cujuscumque modi sint, quse
amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus vestris otium praebere vultis ;
expergiscimini aliquando, et capessite rempublicam. Non agitur
[nunc] . . . . de sociorum injuriis ; libertas et anima nostra in
dubio est Dux hostium cum exercitu supra caput est. Vos
cunctamini etiam nunc, et dubitatis quid faciatis ?
Scilicet res ipsa aspera est, sed vos non timetis earn. Imo vero
maxime ; sed inertia et mollitia animi, alius alium exspectantes,
cunctamini ; videlicet diis immortalibus confisi, qui hanc rempub
licam in maximis ssepe periculis servavere. Non votis neque sup-
pliciis muliebribus, auxilia deorum parantur ; vigilando, agendo,
bene consulendo, prospere omnia cedunt. Ubi socordise te atque
ignaviae tradideris, nequicquam deos implores ; irati infestique
sunt. M.por. Cato, in Sallust.
" Translation.
" Should the city be taken, all will be lost to the conquered.
Therefore, if you desire to preserve your buildings, houses, and
country-seats, your statues, paintings, and all your other posses
sions, which you so highly esteem ; if you wish to continue in the
enjoyment of them, or to have leisure for any future pleasures, I
beseech you by the immortal Gods, rouse at last, awake from
your lethargy, and save the commonwealth. It is not the trifling
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 39
concern of injuries from your allies that demands your attention ;
your liberties, lives, and fortunes, with every thing that is inter
esting and dear to you, are in the most imminent danger. Can
you doubt of or delay what you ought to do, now, when the ene
my s swords are unsheathed, and descending on your heads ?
The affair is shocking and horrid ! Yet, perhaps, you are not
afraid. Yes, you are terrified to the highest degree. But through
indolence and supineness of soul, gazing at each other, to see who
shall first rise to your succor ; and a presumptuous dependence
on the immortal Gods, who indeed have preserved this republic
in many dangerous seasons ; you delay and neglect every thing
necessary for your preservation. Be not deceived ; Divine assist
ance and protection are not to be obtained by timorous prayers
and womanish supplications. To succeed, you must join salutary
counsels, vigilance, and courageous actions. If you sink into
effeminacy and cowardice ; if you desert the tender and helpless,
by Providence committed to your charge, never presume to im
plore the Gods ; it will provoke them, and raise their indignation
against you." l
It is said the wise Italians make this proverbial re
mark on our nation, viz.: "The English feel but
they do not see That is, they are sensible of in-
1 The first edition of this pamphlet published a pamphlet entitled Plain
seems to be out of print. The sec- Truth. " Its success was extraordi-
ond, at the close of which first ap- nary (see Autobiography, vol. i., p.
peared the foregoing translation, was 213). An answer to it, entitled " Nee-
printed in 1747. The publication was essary Truth," and enforcing the Qua-
provoked by the defenceless condition ker doctrine of non-resistance, was
of the colony at that time, exposed as published in 1748. It came too late to
it was to Spain on the south and to impair, if it ever could have impaired,
France on the west, with both of the impression left upon the colony by
which nations Great Britain was then " Plain Truth."
at war ; to say nothing of the Indians, Substituting the words "United
who, like the poor, they had always States " for " Pennsylvania," this
with them. The efforts to induce the pamphlet is as timely to-day as when
Quaker Assembly of Pennsylvania to it was written. Though we are at
pass a militia law, and make other peace with all nations, we have many
provisions for the security of the prov- times as many lives, and many times
ince, having proved abortive, Franklin as much property exposed, while our
proposed to try what might be done defences are relatively inferior to those
by a voluntary subscription of the peo- which Franklin denounced nearly a
pie. " To promote this," he says in century and a half ago as inexcusably
his Autobiography, " I first wrote and deficient.
40 THE WORKS OF [1747
conveniences when they are present, but do not take
sufficient care to prevent them ; their natural courage
makes them too little apprehensive of danger, so that
they are often surprised by it, unprovided of the
proper means of security. When it is too late they
are sensible of their imprudence ; after great fires
they provide buckets and engines ; after a pestilence
they think of keeping clean their streets and com
mon sewers ; and when a town has been sacked
by their enemies, they provide for its defence, &c.
This kind of after-wisdom is indeed so common with
us as to occasion the vulgar though very significant
saying, When the steed is stolen you shut the stable
door.
But the more insensible we generally are of public
danger and indifferent when warned of it, so much
the more freely, openly, and earnestly ought such
as apprehend it, to speak their sentiments, that, if
possible, those who seem to sleep, may be awakened
to think of some means of avoiding or preventing the
mischief before it be too late.
Believing, therefore, that it is my duty, I shall hon
estly speak my mind in the following paper.
War at this time rages over a great part of the
known world ; our newspapers are weekly filled with
fresh accounts of the destruction it everywhere occa
sions. Pennsylvania, indeed, situate in the centre of
the colonies, has hitherto enjoyed profound repose ;
and though our nation is engaged in a bloody war
with two great and powerful kingdoms, yet, defended
in a great degree from the French on the one hand,
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41
by the northern provinces, and from the Spaniards on
the other, by the southern, at no small expense to
each, our people have till lately slept securely in their
habitations.
There is no British colony, excepting this, but has
made some kind of provision for its defence ; many
of them have therefore never been attempted by an
enemy ; and others that were attacked have gener
ally defended themselves with success. The length
and difficulty of our bay and river have been thought
so effectual a security to us, that hitherto no means
have been entered into that might discourage an at
tempt upon us or prevent its succeeding.
But whatever security this might have been while
both country and city were poor, and the advantage
to be expected scarce worth the hazard of an attempt,
it is now doubted whether we can any longer safely
depend upon it. Our wealth, of late years much
increased, is one strong temptation, our defenceless
state another, to induce an enemy to attack us ; while
the acquaintance they have lately gained with our bay
and river, by means of the prisoners and flags of truce
they have had among us, by spies which they almost
everywhere maintain, and perhaps from traitors among
ourselves ; with the facility of getting pilots to con
duct them ; and the known absence of ships of war
during the greatest part of the year from both Vir
ginia and New York ever since the war began, render
the appearance of success to the enemy far more
promising, and therefore highly increase our danger.
That our enemies may have spies abroad, and some
42 THE WORKS OF [1747
even in these colonies, will not be made much doubt
of, when it is considered that such has been the prac
tice of all nations in all ages, whenever they were
engaged, or intended to engage, in war. Of this we
have an early example in the Book of Judges (too
pertinent to our case, and therefore I must beg leave
a little to enlarge upon it), where we are told (Chap,
xviii. v. 2,) that the children of Dan sent of their
family five men from their coasts to spy out the land,
and search it, saying, Go, search the land. These
Danites, it seems, were at this time not very orthodox
in their religion, and their spies met with a certain
idolatrous priest of their own persuasion (v. 3), and
they said to him, Who brought thee hither f What
makes f thou in this place f And what hast thou here?
[Would to God no such priests were to be found
among us.] And they said linto him (v. 5), Ask
counsel of God, that we may know whether our way
which we go shall be prosperous ; and the priest said
unto them, Go in peace ; before the Lord is your way
wherein you go. [Are there no priests among us, think
you, that might, in the like case, give an enemy as
good encouragement? It is well known that we have
numbers of the same religion with those who of late
encouraged the French to invade our mother country.]
And they came (v. 7), to Laish, and saw the people
that were therein, how they dwelt CARELESS, after the
manner of the Zidonians, QUIET, and SECURE. They
thought themselves secure, no doubt ; and as they
never had been disturbed, vainly imagined they never
should be. It is not unlikely that some might see the
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 43
danger they were exposed to by living in that careless
manner ; but that, if these publicly expressed their ap
prehensions, the rest reproached them as timorous per
sons, wanting courage or confidence in their gods,
who (they might say) had hitherto protected them.
But the spies (v. 8) returned, and said to their coun
trymen (v. 9) : Arise, that we may go up against them ;
for we have seen the land, and behold it is very good.
And are ye still f Be not slothful to go. (Verse 10) :
When ye go, ye shall come to a people SECURE [that is,
a people that apprehend no danger, and therefore
have made no provision against it ; great encourage
ment this!], and to a large land, and a place where
there is no want of any thing. What could they
desire more ? Accordingly, we find in the following
verses that six hundred men only, appointed with
weapons of war, undertook the conquest of this large
land ; knowing that six hundred men, armed and
disciplined, would be an overmatch perhaps for sixty
thousand unarmed, undisciplined, and off their guard.
And when they went against it, the idolatrous priest
(v. 17), with his graven image, and his ephod, and his
teraphim, and his molten image (plenty of supersti
tious trinkets), joined with them, and, no doubt, gave
them all the intelligence and assistance in his power ;
his heart, as the text assures us, being glad, perhaps
for reasons more than one. And, now, what was the
fate of poor Laish ? The six hundred men being
arrived, found, as the spies had reported, a people
QUIET and SECURE (vv. 27, 28). And they smote them
with the edge of the sword, and burnt the city with
44 THE WORKS OF [1747
FIRE ; and there was no DELIVERER, because it was far
from Zidon. Not so far from Zidon, however, as
Pennsylvania is from Britain ; and yet we are, if pos
sible, more careless than the people of Laish ! As
the Scriptures are given for our reproof, instruction,
and warning, may we make a due use of this example
before it be too late !
And is our country, any more than our city, alto
gether free from danger? Perhaps not. We have,
it is true, had a long peace with the Indians ; but it
is a long peace indeed, as well as a long lane, that has
no ending. The French know the power and import
ance of the Six Nations, and spare no artifice, pains,
or expense to gain them to their interest. By their
priests they have converted many to their religion,
and these * have openly espoused their cause. The
rest appear irresolute what part to take ; no persua
sions, though enforced with costly presents, having
yet been able to engage them generally on our side,
though we had numerous forces on their borders ready
to second and support them. What then may be
expected, now those forces are, by orders from the
crown, to be disbanded ; when our boasted expedition
is laid aside through want (as it may appear to them)
either of strength or courage ; when they see that the
French and their Indians boldly and with impunity
ravage the frontiers of New York, and scalp the in
habitants ; when those few Indians that engaged with
us against the French are left exposed to their resent
ment ? When they consider these things, is there no
1 The Praying Indians.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 45
danger, through disgust at our usage, joined with fear
of the French power, and greater confidence in their
promises and protection than in ours, they may be
wholly gained over by our enemies, and join in the
war against us ? If such should be the case, which
God forbid, how soon may the mischief spread to our
frontier counties ? And what may we expect to be
the consequence, but desertion of plantations, ruin,
bloodshed, and confusion ?
Perhaps some in the city, towns, and plantations
near the river may say to themselves : " An Indian
war on the frontiers will not affect us ; the enemy
will never come near our habitations ; let those con
cerned take care of themselves." And others who
live in the country, when they are told of the danger
the city is in from attempts by sea, may say : " What
is that to us ? The enemy will be satisfied with the
plunder of the town, and never think it worth his
while to visit our plantations ; let the town take care
of itself." These are not mere suppositions, for I
have heard some talk in this strange manner. But
are these the sentiments of true Pennsylvanians, of
fellow-countrymen, or even of men that have common-
sense or goodness ? Is not the whole province one
body, united by living under the same laws and en
joying the same privileges ? Are not the people of
city and country connected as relations, both by blood
and marriage, and in friendships equally dear ? Are
they not likewise united in interest, and mutually
useful and necessary to each other ? When the feet
are wounded, shall the head say : " It is not I ; I will
46 THE WORKS OF [1747
not trouble myself to contrive relief ! " Or if the
head is in danger, shall the hands say : " We are not
affected, and therefore will lend no assistance ! " No.
For so would the body be easily destroyed ; but when
all parts join their endeavours for its security, it is
often preserved. And such should be the union be
tween the country and the town ; and such their mu
tual endeavours for the safety of the whole. When
New England, a distant colony, involved itself in a
grevious debt to reduce Cape Breton, we freely gave
four thousand pounds for her relief. And at another
time, remembering that Great Britain, still more
distant, groaned under heavy taxes in supporting
the war, we threw in our mite to her assistance,
by a free gift of three thousand pounds ; and shall
country and town join in helping strangers (as those
comparatively are), and yet refuse to assist each
other ?
But whatever different opinions we have of our se
curity in other respects, our TRADE, all seem to agree,
is in danger of being ruined in another year. The
great success of our enemies, in two different cruises
this last summer in our bay, must give them the great
est encouragement to repeat more frequently their
visits, the profit being almost certain, and the risk
next to nothing. Will not the first effect of this be
an enhancing of the price of all foreign goods to the
tradesman and farmer who use or consume them ?
For the rate of insurance will increase in proportion
to the hazard of importing them ; and in the same
proportion will the price of those goods increase. If
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 47
the price of the tradesman s work and the farmer s
produce would increase equally with the price of for
eign commodities, the damage would not be so great ;
but the direct contrary must happen. For the same
hazard or rate of insurance that raises the price of
what is imported, must be deducted out of and lower
the price of what is exported. Without this addition
and deduction, as long as the enemy cruise at our
capes, and take those vessels that attempt to go out,
as well as those that endeavour to come in, none can
afford to trade, and business must be soon at a stand.
And will not the consequences be a discouragement
of many of the vessels that used to come from other
places to purchase our produce, and thereby a turning
of the trade to ports that can be entered with less dan
ger, and capable of furnishing them with the same
commodities as New York, &c.; a lessening of busi
ness to every shopkeeper, together with multitudes
of bad debts, the high rate of goods discouraging the
buyers, and the low rates of their labor and produce
rendering them unable to pay for what they had
bought ; loss of employment to the tradesman, and bad
pay for what little he does ; and, lastly, loss of many
inhabitants, who will retire to other provinces not
subject to the like inconveniences ; whence a lowering
of the value of lands, lots, and houses ?
The enemy, no doubt, have been told that the
people of Pennsylvania are Quakers, and against all
defence, from a principle of conscience. This, though
true of a part, and that a small part only, of the in
habitants, is commonly said of the whole ; and what
48 THE WORKS OF [1747
may make it look probable to strangers is that, in fact,
nothing is done by any part of the people towards
their defence. But to refuse defending one s self, or
one s country, is so unusual a thing among mankind,
that possibly they may not believe it till, by experi
ence, they find they can come higher and higher up
our river, seize our vessels, land and plunder our
plantations and villages, and retire with their booty
unmolested. Will not this confirm the report, and
give them the greatest encouragement to strike one
bold stroke for the city and for the whole plunder of
the river ?
It is said by some that the expense of a vessel to
guard our trade would be very heavy, greater than
perhaps all the enemy can be supposed to take from
us at sea would amount to, and that it would be
cheaper for the government to open an insurance
office and pay all losses. But is this right reasoning ?
I think not ; for what the enemy takes is clear loss to
us and gain to him, increasing his riches and strength
as much as it diminishes ours, so making the differ
ence double ; whereas the money paid our own trades
men for building and fitting "out a vessel of defence
remains in the country and circulates among us ; what
is paid to the officers and seamen that navigate her
is also spent ashore, and soon gets into other hands ;
the farmer receives the money for her provisions,
and, on the whole, nothing is clearly lost to the
country but her wear and tear, or so much as she
sells for at the end of the war less than her first cost.
This loss, and a trifling one it is, is all the inconven-
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 49
ience ; but how many and how great are the conven
iences and advantages ! And should the enemy,
through our supineness and neglect to provide for
the defence both of our trade and country, be
encouraged to attempt this city, and, after plundering
us of our goods, either burn it or put it to ransom,
how great would that loss be, besides the confu
sion, terror, and distress so many hundreds of fam
ilies would be involved in !
The thought of this latter circumstance so much
affects me that I cannot forbear expatiating some
what more upon it. You have, my dear countrymen
and fellow-citizens, riches to tempt a considerable
force to unite and attack you, but are under no ties
or engagements to unite for your defence. Hence,
on the first alarm, terror will spread over all ; and as
no man can with certainty depend that another will
stand by him, beyond doubt very many will seek
safety by a speedy flight. Those that are reputed
rich will flee through fear of torture to make them
produce more than they are able. The man that has
a wife and children will find them hanging on his
neck, beseeching him with tears to quit the city and
save his life, to guide and protect them in that time
of general desolation and ruin. All will run into
confusion, amidst cries and lamentations, and the
hurry and disorder of departers carrying away their
effects. The few that remain will be unable to resist.
Sacking the city will be the first, and burning it, in all
probability, the last act of the enemy. This, I be
lieve, will be the case if you have timely notice. But
50 THE WORKS OF [1747
what must be your condition, if suddenly surprised,
without previous alarm, perhaps in the night ! Con
fined to your houses, you will have nothing to trust
to but the enemy s mercy. Your best fortune will be
to fall under the power of commanders of king s ships
able to control the mariners, and not into the hands
of licentious privateers. Who can, without the utmost
horror, conceive the miseries from the latter, when your
persons, fortunes, wives, and daughters shall be sub
ject to the wanton and unbridled rage, rapine, and
lust of negroes, mulattoes, and others, the vilest and
most abandoned of mankind. 1 A dreadful scene !
which some may represent as exaggerated. I think
it my duty to warn you ; judge for yourselves.
It is true, with very little notice the rich may
shift for themselves. The means of speedy flight are
ready in their hands ; and with some previous care to
lodge money and effects in distant and secure places,
though they should lose much, yet enough may be
left them, and to spare. But most unhappily circum
stanced indeed are we, the middling people, the
tradesmen, shopkeepers, and farmers of the province
and city ! We cannot all fly with our families ; and
if we could, how shall we subsist ? No ; we and they,
and what little we have gained by hard labor and in
dustry, must bear the brunt ; the weight of contribu-
1 By accounts, the ragged crew of Martin s ship in returning from their
the Spanish privateer that plundered cruise. Because he bravely defended
Mr. Listen s and another plantation, a himself and vessel longer than they
little below Newcastle, was composed expected, for which every generous
of such as these. The honor and hu- enemy would have esteemed him, did
manity of their officers maybe judged they, after he had struck and submitted,
of by the treatment they gave poor barbarously stab and murder him,
Captain Brown, whom they took with though on his knees, begging quarter !
1747]
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
tions extorted by the enemy (as it is of taxes among
ourselves) must be surely borne by us. Nor can it
be avoided, as we stand at present ; for though we
are numerous we are quite defenceless, having neither
forts, arms, union, nor discipline. And though it
were true that our trade might be protected at
no great expense, and our country and our city
easily defended, if proper measures were but taken,
yet who shall take these measures ? Who shall
pay that expense ? On whom may we fix our
eyes with the least expectation that they will do any
thing for our security ? Should we address that
wealthy and powerful body of people who have ever
since the war governed our elections and filled
almost every seat in our Assembly ; should we
entreat them to consider, if not as friends, at least as
legislators, that protection is as truly due from the
government to the people, as obedience from the
people to the government ; and that if, on account of
their religious scruples, they themselves could do no
act for our defence, yet they might retire, relinquish
their power for a season, quit the helm to freer hands
during the present tempest to hands, chosen by their
own interest too, whose prudence and moderation,
with regard to them, they might safely confide in,
secure, from their own native strength, of resuming
again their present station whenever it shall please
them ; should we remind them, that the public
money, raised from all, belongs to all ; that since
they have, for their own ease, and to secure them
selves in the quiet enjoyment of their religious prin-
52 THE WORKS OF [1747
ciples (and may they long enjoy them), expended
such large sums to oppose petitions, and engage
favorable representations of their conduct, if they
themselves could by no means be free to appropriate
any part of the public money for our defence, yet it
would be no more than justice to spare us a reasona
ble sum for that purpose, which they might easily
give to the King s use as heretofore, leaving all the
appropriation to others, who would faithfully apply it
as we desired ; should we tell them, that, though
the treasury be at present empty, it may soon be
filled by the outstanding public debts collected, or at
least credit might be had for such a sum, on a single
vote of the Assembly ; that though they themselves
may be resigned and easy under this naked, defence
less state of the country, it is far otherwise with a
very great part of the people, with us, who can
have no confidence that God will protect those that
neglect the use of rational means for their security,
nor have any reason to hope that our losses, if we
should suffer any, may be made up by collections in
our favor at home ; should we conjure them by all
the ties of neighbourhood, friendship, justice, and
humanity to consider these things ; and what distrac
tion, misery, and confusion, what desolation and dis
tress, may possibly be the effect of their unseasonable
predominancy and perseverance : yet all would be
in vain ; for they have already been, by great num
bers of the people, petitioned in vain. Our late
Governor did for years solicit, request, and even
threaten them in vain. The Council have since
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 53
twice remonstrated to them in vain. Their religious
prepossessions are unchangeable, their obstinacy in
vincible. Is there, then, the least hope remaining,
that from that quarter any thing should arise for our
security ?
And is our prospect better, if we turn our eyes to
the strength of the opposite party, those great and
rich men, merchants and others, who are ever railing
at Quakers for doing what their principles seem to
require, and what in charity we ought to believe they
think their duty, but take no one step themselves for
the public safety ? They have so much wealth and
influence, if they would use it, that they might easily,
by their endeavours and example, raise a military
spirit among us, make us fond, studious of, and
expert in, martial discipline, and effect every thing
that is necessary, under God, for our protection.
But envy seems to have taken possession of their
hearts, and to have eaten out and destroyed every
generous, noble, public-spirited sentiment. Rage, at
the disappointment of their little schemes for power,
gnaws their souls, and fills them with such cordial
hatred to their opponents, that every proposal, by
the execution of which those may receive benefit as
well as themselves, is rejected with indignation.
" What," they say, " shall we lay out our money to
protect the trade of Quakers ? Shall we fight to
defend Quakers ? No ; let the trade perish, and the
city burn ; let what will happen, we shall never lift a
finger to prevent it." Yet the Quakers have con
science to plead for their resolution not to fight, which
54 THE WORKS OF [1747
these gentlemen have not. Conscience with you,
gentlemen, is on the other side of the question ; con
science enjoins it as a duty on you (and, indeed, I
think it such on every man) to defend your country,
your friends, your aged parents, your wives, and
helpless children ; and yet you resolve not to per
form this duty, but act contrary to your own con
sciences, because the Quakers act according to theirs.
Till of late, I could scarce believe the story of him
who refused to pump in a sinking ship, because one
on board, whom he hated, would be saved by it as
well as himself. But such, it seems, is the unhappi-
ness of human nature, that our passions, when violent,
often are too hard for the united force of reason, duty,
and religion.
Thus unfortunately are we circumstanced at this
time, my dear countrymen and fellow-citizens ; we, I
mean, the middling people, the farmers, shopkeepers,
I and tradesmen of this city and country. Through the
/ dissensions of our leaders, through mistaken principles
^ of religion, joined with a love of worldly power, on
the one hand ; through pride, envy, and implacable
resentment on the other ; our lives, our families, and
little fortunes, dear to us as any great man s can be
to him, are to remain continually exposed to destruc
tion from an enterprising, cruel, now well-informed,
and by success, encouraged enemy. It seems as if
Heaven, justly displeased at our growing wickedness,
and determined to punish x this once-favored land,
1 When God determined to punish his other laws, were scrupulous ob-
his chosen people, the inhabitants of servers of that ONE, which required
Jerusalem, who, though breakers of keeping holy the Sabbath-day, he suf-
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 55
had suffered our chiefs to engage in these foolish and
mischievous contentions for little posts and paltry dis
tinctions, that our hands might be bound up, our un
derstandings darkened and misled, and every means
of our security neglected. It seems as if our greatest
men, our cives nobilissimi T of both parties, had sworn
the ruin of the country, and invited the French, our
most inveterate enemy, to destroy it. Where then
shall we seek for succour and protection ? The gov
ernment we are immediately under denies it to us ;
and if the enemy comes, we are far from Zidon, and
there is no deliverer near. Our case is dangerously
bad ; but perhaps there is yet a remedy, if we have
but the prudence and the spirit to apply it.
If this new, flourishing city and greatly improving
colony is destroyed and ruined, it will not be for
want of numbers of inhabitants able to bear arms in
its defence. It is computed that we have at least
(exclusive of the Quakers) sixty thousand fighting-
men, acquainted with firearms, many of them hunters
and marksmen, hardy and bold. All we want is order,
discipline, and a few cannon. At present we are like
the separate filaments of flax before the thread is
formed, without strength, because without connexion ;
but UNION would make us strong and even formida
ble, though the great should neither help nor join us ;
though they should even oppose our uniting, from
fered even the strict observation of little mercy as he found resistance.
that command to be their ruin ; for JOSEPHUS.
Pompey, observing that they then * Conjuravere cives nobilissimi pa-
obstinately refused to fight, made a triam incendere ; GALLORUM GENTEM,
general assault on that day, took the infestissimam nomini Romano, ad bel-
town, and butchered them with as lum arcessunt. CATO, in SALIAJST.
56 THE WORKS OF [1747
some mean views of their own, yet, if we resolve upon
it, and it pleases God to inspire us with the neces
sary prudence and vigor, it may be effected. Great
numbers of our people are of British race ; and, though
the fierce fighting animals of those happy Islands are
said to abate their native fire and intrepidity when
removed to a foreign clime, yet with the people it is
not so ; our neighbours of New England afford the
world a convincing proof that Britons, though a hun
dred years transplanted, and to the remotest part of
the earth, may yet retain, even to the third and fourth
descent, that zeal for the public good, that military
prowess, and that undaunted spirit which has in every
age distinguished their nation. What numbers have
we likewise of those brave people, whose fathers in the
last age made so glorious a stand for our religion and
liberties, when invaded by a powerful French army,
joined by Irish Catholics, under a bigoted Popish
king ! Let the memorable siege of Londonderry, and
the signal actions of the Iniskillingers, by which the
heart of that Prince s schemes were broken, be per
petual testimonies of the courage and conduct of those
noble warriors ! Nor are there wanting amongst us
thousands of that warlike nation, whose sons have
ever since the time of Caesar maintained the charac
ter he gave their fathers, of joining the most obsti
nate courage to all the other military virtues, I mean
the brave and steady Germans, numbers of whom
have actually borne arms in the service of their re
spective Princes ; and if they fought well for their
tyrants and oppressors, would they refuse to unite
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 57
with us in defence of their newly acquired and most
precious liberty and property? Were this union
formed, were we once united, thoroughly armed and
disciplined, was every thing in our power done for our
security, as far as human means and foresight could
provide, we might then, with more propriety, humbly
ask the assistance of Heaven, and a blessing on our
lawful endeavours. The very fame of our strength and
readiness would be a means of discouraging our ene
mies ; for it is a wise and true saying, that one sword
often keeps another in the scabbard. The way to
secure peace is to be prepared for war. They that
are on their guard, and appear ready to receive their
adversaries, are in much less danger of being attacked
than the supine, secure, and negligent. We have yet
a winter before us which may afford a good and al
most sufficient opportunity for this, if we seize and
improve it with a becoming vigor. And if the hints
contained in this paper are so happy as to meet with
a suitable disposition of mind in his countrymen and
fellow-citizens, the writer of it will, in a few days, lay
before them a form of ASSOCIATION for the purposes
herein mentioned, together with a practicable scheme
for raising the money necessary for the defence of
our trade, city, and country, without laying a burthen
on any man.
May the God of wisdom, strength, and power, the
Lord of the armies of Israel, inspire us with prudence
in this time of danger, take away from us all the
seeds of contention and division, and unite the hearts
and counsels of all of us, of whatever sect or nation,
58 THE WORKS OF [1747
in one bond of peace, brotherly love, and generous
public spirit ; may he give us strength and resolution
to amend our lives and remove from among us every
thing that is displeasing to him, afford us his most
gracious protection, confound the designs of our ene
mies, and give peace in all our borders, is the sincere
prayer of A TRADESMAN OF PHILADELPHIA.
XLIII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 28 March, 1747.
SIR : Your kind present of an electric tube, with
directions for using it, has put several of us on mak
ing electrical experiments, in which we have observed
some particular phenomena that we look upon to be
new. I shall therefore communicate them to you in my
next, though possibly they may not be new to you, as
among the numbers daily employed in those experi
ments on your side of the water, it is probable some
one or other has hit upon the same observations. For
my own part, I never was before engaged in any study
that so totally engrossed my attention and my time,
as this has lately done ; for what with making experi
ments when I can be alone, and repeating them to my
friends and acquaintance, who, from the novelty of
the thing, come continually in crowds to see them, I
have, during some months past, had little leisure for
any thing else. I am, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 59
While on a visit to Boston, in 1746, Franklin witnessed
some electrical experiments performed by a Mr. Spence,
recently arrived from Scotland. Shortly after his return to
Philadelphia the Library Company received from Mr. Collin
son, of London, and a member of the Royal Society, a glass
tube, with instructions for making experiments with it.
With this tube Franklin began a course of experiments
which resulted in discoveries which, humanly speaking,
seem to be exerting a larger material influence upon the
industries of the world than any other discovery of the hu
man intellect. Dr. Stuber, then a resident of Philadelphia,
and author of the first continuation of Franklin s life, who
seems to have enjoyed peculiar opportunities of obtain
ing full and authentic information upon the subject, gives
us the following account of the observations which this let
ter ought for the first time to the notice of the world through
Mr. Collinson.
" His observations," says Dr. Stuber, " he communicated,
in a series of letters, to his friend Collinson, the first of which
is dated March 28th, 1747. In these he shows the power of
points in drawing and throwing off the electrical matter,
which had hitherto escaped the notice of electricians. He
also made the grand discovery of a plus and minus, or of
a positive and negative state of electricity. We give him the
honor of this without hesitation ; although the English have
claimed it for their countryman, Dr. Watson. Watson s paper
is dated January 2ist, 1748 ; Franklin s, July nth, 1747, sev
eral months prior. Shortly after Franklin, from his principles
of the plus and minus state, explained in a satisfactory man
ner the phenomena of the Leyden phial, first observed by
Mr. Cuneus, or by Professor Muschenbroeck, of Leyden,
which had much perplexed philosophers. He showed clear
ly that when charged the bottle contained no more electricity
than before, but that as much was taken from one side as was
thrown on the other ; and that to discharge it nothing was
necessary but to produce a communication between the two
60 THE WORKS OF [1747
sides, by which the equilibrium might be restored, and that
then no signs of electricity would remain. He afterwards de
monstrated by experiments that the electricity did not reside
in the coating, as had been supposed, but in the pores of the
glass itself. After a phial was charged he removed the coat
ing, and found that upon applying a new coating the shock
might still be received. In the year 1749, he first suggested
his idea of explaining the phenomena of thunder-gusts and of
the aurora borealis upon electrical principles. He points out
many particulars in which lightning and electricity agree ;
and he adduces many facts, and reasonings from facts, in
support of his positions.
" In the same year he conceived the astonishingly bold
and grand idea of ascertaining the truth of his doctrine by
actually drawing down the lightning, by means of sharp-
pointed iron rods raised into the region of the clouds.
Even in this uncertain state, his passion to be useful to
mankind displayed itself in a powerful manner. Admitting
the identity of electricity and lightning, and knowing the
power of points in repelling bodies charged with electricity,
and in conducting their fires silently and imperceptibly, he
suggested the idea of securing houses, ships, etc., from being
damaged by lightning, by erecting pointed rods that should
rise some feet above the most elevated part, and descend
some feet into the ground or the water. The effect of these
he concluded would be either to prevent a stroke by repel
ling the cloud beyond the striking distance, or by drawing
off the electrical fire which it contained ; or, if they could
not effect this, they would at least conduct the electric mat
ter to the earth, without any injury to the building
" It was not until the summer of 1752 that he was enabled
to complete his grand and unparalleled discovery by experi
ment. The plan which he had originally proposed was, to
erect, on some high tower or other elevated place, a sentry-
box, from which should rise a pointed iron rod, insulated by
being fixed in a cake of resin. Electrified clouds passing over
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 61
this would, he conceived, impart to it a portion of their elec
tricity, which would be rendered evident to the senses by
sparks being emitted when a key, the knuckle, or other con
ductor, was presented to it. Philadelphia at this time afforded
no opportunity of trying an experiment of this kind. While
Franklin was waiting for the erection of a spire, it occurred to
him that he might have more ready access to the region of
clouds by means of a common kite. He prepared one by
fastening two cross sticks to a silk handkerchief, which
would not suffer so much from the rain as paper. To the
upright stick was affixed an iron point. The string was, as
usual, of hemp, except the lower end, which was silk.
Where the hempen string terminated, a key was fastened.
With this apparatus, on the appearance of a thunder-gust
approaching, he went out into the commons, accompanied
by his son, to whom alone he communicated his intentions,
well knowing the ridicule which, too generally for the in
terest of science, awaits unsuccessful experiments in phi
losophy. He placed himself under a shed, to avoid the
rain ; his kite was raised, a thunder-cloud passed over it, no
sign of electricity appeared. He almost despaired of suc
cess, when suddenly he observed the loose fibres of his
string to move towards an erect position. He now pre
sented his knuckle to the key, and received a strong spark.
How exquisite must his sensations have been at this mo
ment ! On this experiment depended the fate of his theory.
If he succeeded, his name would rank high among those
who had improved science ; if he failed, he must inevitably
be subjected to the derision of mankind, or, what is worse,
their pity, as a well-meaning man, but a weak, silly projec
tor. The anxiety with which he looked for the result of
his experiment may be easily conceived. Doubts and de
spair had begun to prevail, when the fact was ascertained,
in so clear a manner, that even the most incredulous could
no longer withhold their assent. Repeated sparks were
drawn from the key, a phial was charged, a shock given,
62 THE WORKS OF [1747
and all the experiments made which are usually performed
with electricity.
" About a month before this period, some ingenious
Frenchman had completed the discovery in the manner
originally proposed by Dr. Franklin. The letters which he
sent to Mr. Collinson, it is said, were refused a place in the
Transactions of the Royal Society of London. However
this may be, Collinson published them in a separate volume,
under the title of * New Experiments and Observations on
Electricity, made at Philadelphia, in America. They were
read with avidity, and soon translated into different lan
guages. A very incorrect French translation fell into the
hands of the celebrated Buffon, who, notwithstanding the
disadvantages under which the work labored, was much
pleased with it, and repeated the experiments with success.
He prevailed on his friend, M. Dalibard, to give his country
men a more correct translation of the works of the American
electrician. This contributed much towards spreading a
knowledge of Franklin s principles in France. The King,
Louis the Fifteenth, hearing of these experiments, expressed
a wish to be a spectator of them. A course of experiments
was given at the seat of the Due D Ayen, at St. Germain, by
M. de Lor. The applauses which the King bestowed upon
Franklin excited in Buffon, Dalibard, and De Lor an earnest
desire of ascertaining the truth of his theory of thunder-gusts.
Buffon erected his apparatus on the tower of Montbar, M.
Dalibard at Marly-la-ville, and De Lor at his house in the
Estrapade at Paris, some of the highest ground in that capi
tal. Dalibard s machine first showed signs of electricity.
On the loth of May, 1752, a thunder-cloud passed over
it, in the absence of M. Dalibard, and a number of sparks
were drawn from it by Coiffier, joiner, with whom Dalibard
had left directions how to proceed, and by M. Raulet, the
prior of Marly-la-ville.
" An account of this experiment was given to the Royal
Academy of Sciences, by M. Dalibard, in a Memoir dated
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 63
May 1 3th 1752. On the i8th of May, M. de Lor proved
equally successful with the apparatus erected at his own
house. These philosophers soon excited those of other
parts of Europe to repeat the experiment ; amongst whom
none signalized themselves more than Father Beccaria, of
Turin, to whose observations science is much indebted.
Even the cold regions of Russia were penetrated by the
ardor for discovery. Professor Richmann bade fair to add
much to the stock of knowledge on this subject, when an
unfortunate flash from his conductor put a period to his
existence.
" By these experiments Franklin s theory was established
in the most convincing manner.
" Besides these great principles, Franklin s letters on elec
tricity contain a number of facts and hints which have con
tributed greatly towards reducing this branch of knowledge
to a science. His friend, Mr. Kinnersley, communicated to
him a discovery of the different kinds of electricity excited
by rubbing glass and sulphur. This, we have said, was first
observed by M. Du Faye, but it was for many years neg
lected. The philosophers were disposed to account for the
phenomena rather from a difference in the quantity of elec
tricity collected, and even Du Faye himself seems at last to
have adopted this doctrine. Franklin at first entertained
the same idea, but upon repeating the experiments he per
ceived that Mr. Kinnersley was right, and that the vitreous
and resinous electricity of Du Faye were nothing more than
the positive and negative states, which he had before ob
served, and that the glass globe charged positively, or in
creased, the quantity of electricity on the prime conductor,
while the globe of sulphur diminished its natural quantity,
or charged negatively. These experiments and observations
opened a new field for investigation, upon which electricians
entered with avidity ; and their labors have added much to
the stock of our knowledge.
" Franklin s letters have been translated into most of the
64 THE WORKS OF [1747
European languages, and into Latin. In proportion as they
have become known his principles have been adopted."
In speaking of the first publication of his papers on elec
tricity, Franklin himself says : " Obliged as we were to Mr.
Collinson for the present of the tube, &c., I thought it right
he should be informed of our success in using it, and wrote
him several letters containing accounts of our experiments.
He got them read in the Royal Society, where they were
not at first thought worth so much notice as to be printed
in their Transactions. One paper, which I wrote to Mr.
Kinnersley, on the sameness of lightning with electricity, I
sent to Mr. Mitchel, an acquaintance of mine, and one of
the members also of that Society, who wrote me word that
it had been read but was laughed at by the connoisseurs.
The papers, however, being shown to Dr. Fothergill, he
thought them of too much value to be stifled, and advised
the printing of them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to
Cave for publication in his Gentleman s Magazine, but he
chose to print them separately in a pamphlet, and Dr. Foth
ergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seems, judged rightly for
his profession, for by the additions that arrived afterwards
they swelled to a quarto volume, which has had five edi
tions, and cost him nothing for copy-money."
The following is an extract from the Preface to the first edi
tion of the pamphlet published by Cave, as above mentioned.
" It may be necessary to acquaint the reader that the
following observations and experiments were not drawn up
with a view to their being made public, but were communi
cated at different times, and most of them in letters, written
on various topics, as matter only of private amusement.
" But some persons to whom they were read, and who
had themselves been conversant in electrical disquisitions,
were of opinion they contained so many curious and inter
esting particulars relative to this affair, that it would be
doing a kind of injustice to the public to confine them
solely to the limits of a private acquaintance.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 65
" The editor was therefore prevailed upon to commit
such extracts of letters and other detached pieces as were in
his hands to the press, without waiting for the ingenious
author s permission so to do ; and this was done with the
less hesitation, as it was apprehended the author s engage
ments in other affairs would scarce afford him leisure to give
the public his reflections and experiments on the subject,
finished with that care and precision of which the treatise
before us shows he is alike studious and capable."
Dr. Priestley, in his History of Electricity, published in
the year 1767, gives a full account of Franklin s experi
ments and discoveries.
" Nothing was ever written upon the subject of elec
tricity," he says, " which was more generally read and ad
mired in all parts of Europe, than these letters. There is
hardly any European language into which they have not
been translated ; and, as if this were not sufficient to make
them properly known, a translation of them has lately been
made into Latin. It is not easy to say, whether we are
most pleased with the simplicity and perspicuity with which
these letters are written, the modesty with which the author
proposes every hypothesis of his own, or the noble frank
ness with which he relates his mistakes, when they were
corrected by subsequent experiments.
" Though the English have not been backward in ac
knowledging the great merit of this philosopher, he has had
the singular good fortune to be, perhaps, even more cele
brated abroad than at home ; so that, to form a just idea of
the great and deserved reputation of Dr. Franklin, we must
read the foreign publications on the subject of electricity ;
in many of which the terms Franklinism, Franklinist, and the
Franklinian system, occur in almost every page. In con
sequence of this, Dr. Franklin s principles bid fair to be
handed down to posterity as equally expressive of the true
principles of electricity, as the Newtonian philosophy is of the
system of nature in general."
66 THE WORKS OF [1747
The observations and theories of Franklin met with high
favor in France, where his experiments were repeated and
the results verified to the admiration of the scientific world.
In the year 1753, his friend, Peter Collinson, wrote to him
from London: " The King of France strictly commands the
Abbe" Mazdas to write a letter in the politest terms to the
Royal Society, to return the King s thanks and compliments,
in an express manner, to Mr. Franklin of Pennsylvania, for
his useful discoveries in electricity, and the- application of
pointed rods to prevent the terrible effect of thunder
storms." And the same Mr. Collinson wrote as follows to
the Reverend Jared Eliot, of Connecticut, in a letter dated
London, November 22d, 1753: "Our friend Franklin will
be honored on St. Andrew s day, the 3<Dth instant, the an
niversary of the Royal Society, when the Right Honorable
the Earl of Macclesfield will make an oration on Mr. Frank
lin s new discoveries in electricity, and, as a reward and
encouragement, will bestow on him a gold medal." This
ceremony accordingly took place, and the medal was
conferred.
XL1V.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, n July, 1747.
SIR : In my last I informed you that in pursuing
our electrical inquiries we had observed some partic
ular phenomena which we looked upon to be new,
and of which I promised to give you some account,
though I apprehended they might not possibly be
new to you, as so many hands are daily employed in
electrical experiments on your side the water, some
or other of which would probably hit on the same
observations.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 67
The first is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies,
both in drawing off and throwing off the electrical
fire. For example :
Place an iron shot of three or four inches diameter
on the mouth of a clean, dry glass bottle. By a fine
silken thread from the- ceiling, right over the mouth
of the bottle, suspend a small cork ball about the
bigness of a marble, the thread of such a length as that
the cork ball may rest against the side of the shot.
Electrify the shot, and the ball will be repelled to the
distance of four or five inches, more or less, accord
ing to the quantity of electricity. When in this state,
if you present to the shot the point of along, slender,
sharp bodkin, at six or eight inches distance, the
repellency is instantly destroyed, and the cork flies
to the shot. A blunt body must be brought within
an inch and draw a spark to produce the same effect.
To prove that the electrical fire is drawn off by the
point, if you take the blade of the bodkin out of the
wooden handle and fix it in a stick of sealing-wax,
and then present it at the distance aforesaid, or if you
bring it very near, no such effect follows ; but sliding
one finger along the wax till you touch the blade, and
the ball flies to the shot immediately. If you present
the point in the dark you will see, sometimes at a foot
distance and more, a light gather upon it, like that of
a fire-fly or glow-worm ; the less sharp the point the
nearer you must bring it to observe the light, and
at whatever distance you see the light you may
draw off the electrical fire and destroy the repellency.
If a cork ball so suspended be repelled by the tube,
68 THE WORKS OF [1747
and a point be presented quick to it, though at a con
siderable distance, it is surprising to see how suddenly
it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near
as well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry,
for perfectly dry wood will no more conduct electricity
than sealing-wax.
To show that points will throw off 1 as well as draw
off the electrical fire ; lay a long sharp needle upon
the shot, and you cannot electrize the shot so as to
make it repel the cork ball. Or fix a needle to the
end of a suspended gun-barrel, or iron rod, so as to
point beyond it like a little bayonet, 2 and while it re
mains there, the gun-barrel or rod cannot, by applying
the tube to the other end, be electrized so as to give
a spark, the fire continually running out silently at
the point. In the dark you may see it make the
same appearance as it does in the case before men
tioned.
The repellency between the cork ball and the shot
is likewise destroyed : ist, by sifting fine sand on it,
this does it gradually ; 2dly, by breathing on it; sdly,
by making a smoke about it from burning wood 3 ;
1 This power of points to throw off 8 We suppose every particle of sand,
the electrical fire was first communi- moisture, or smoke, being first at-
cated to me by my ingenious friend, tracted and then repelled, carries off
Mr. Thomas Hopkinson, since de- with it a portion of the electrical fire ;
ceased, whose virtue and integrity, in but that the same still subsists in those
every station of life, public and pri- particles till they communicate it to
vate, will ever make his memory dear something else, and that it is never
to those who knew him, and knew really destroyed. So, when water is
how to value him. F. thrown on common fire, we do not
a This was Mr. Hopkinson s experi- imagine the element is thereby de
ment, made with an expectation of stroyed or annihilated, but only dis-
drawing a more sharp and powerful persed, each particle of water carrying
spark from the point, as from a kind off in vapor its portion of the fire
of focus, and he was surprised to find which it had attracted and attached to
little or none. F. itself. F.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 69
4thly, by candle-light, even though the candle is at a
foot distance, these do it suddenly. The light of a
bright coal from a wood fire, and the light of a red-
hot iron do it likewise, but not at so great a distance.
Smoke from dry rosin dropped on hot iron does not
destroy the repellency, but is attracted by both shot
and cork ball, forming proportionable atmospheres
round them, making them look beautifully, somewhat
like some of the figures in Burnet s or Whiston s
Theory of the Earth.
N. B. This experiment should be made in a closet
where the air is very still, or it will be apt to fail.
The light of the sun thrown strongly on both cork
and shot by a looking-glass, for a long time together,
does not impair the repellency in the least. This
difference between fire-light and sun-light is another
thing that seems new and extraordinary to us. 1
We had for some time been of opinion that the
electrical fire was not created by friction, but collect
ed, being really an element diffused among, and
attracted by other matter, particularly by water and
metals. We had even discovered and demonstrated
its afflux to the electrical sphere, as well as its efflux,
by means of little, light windmill-wheels made of
stiff paper vanes fixed obliquely, and turning freely
on fine wire axes ; also by little wheels of the same
matter, but formed like water-wheels. Of the dispo-
1 This different effect probably did from the rarefying the air, between
not arise from any difference in the the glowing coal or red-hot iron and
light, but rather from the particles the electrized shot, through which rare-
separated from the candle, being first fied air, the electric fluid could more
attracted and then repelled, carrying readily pass. F.
off the electric matter with them ; and
70 THE WORKS OF [1747
sition and application of which wheels, and the vari
ous phenomena resulting, I could, if I had time, fill
you a sheet. 1 The impossibility of electrizing one s
self (though standing on wax) by rubbing the tube,
and drawing the fire from it ; and the manner of
doing it by passing the tube near a person or thing
standing on the floor, &c., had also occurred to us
some months before Mr. Watson s ingenious Sequel
came to hand ; and these were some of the new
things I intended to have communicated to you.
But now I need only mention some particulars not
hinted in that piece, with our reasonings thereupon ;
though perhaps the latter might well enough be
spared.
1. A person standing on wax and rubbing the
tube, and another person on wax drawing the fire,
they will both of them (provided they do not stand
so as to touch one another) appear to be electrized
to a person standing on the floor ; that is, he will
perceive a spark on approaching each of them with
his knuckle.
2. But if the persons on wax touch one another
during the exciting of the tube, neither of them will
appear to be electrized.
3. If they touch one another after exciting the
tube, and drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be
a stronger spark between them than was between
either of them and the person on the floor.
1 These experiments with the wheels wheels was not owing to any afflux or
were made and communicated to me efflux of the electric fluid, but to vari-
by my worthy and ingenious friend, ous circumstances of attraction and
Mr. Philip Syng ; but we afterwards repulsion. 1750. F.
discovered that the motion of those
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 71
4. After such strong spark neither of them discover
any electricity.
These appearances we attempt to account for thus :
We suppose, as aforesaid, that electrical fire is a com
mon element, of which every one of the three persons
above mentioned has his equal share, before any
operation is begun with the tube. A, who stands on
wax and rubs the tube, collects the electrical fire from
himself into the glass ; and, his communication with
the common stock being cut off by the wax, his body
is not again immediately supplied. B (who stands
on wax likewise), passing his knuckle along near the
tube, receives the fire which was collected by the glass
from A ; and his communication with the common
stock being likewise cut off, he retains the additional
quantity received. To C, standing on the floor, both
appear to be electrized ; for he, having only the middle
quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon ap
proaching B, who has an over quantity ; but gives
one to A, who has an under quantity. If A and B
approach to touch each other, the spark is stronger,
because the difference between them is greater.
After such touch there is no spark between either of
them and C, because the electrical fire in all is reduced
to the original equality. If they touch while elec
trizing, the equality is never destroyed, the fire only
circulating. Hence have arisen some new terms
among us : we say B (and bodies like circumstanced)
is electrized positively ; A, negatively. Or rather, B
is electrized//^/ A, minus. And we daily in our
experiments electrize bodies plus or minus, as we
72 THE WORKS OF [1747
think proper. To electrize plus or minus, no more
needs to be known than this, that the parts of the
tube or sphere that are rubbed, do, in the instant of
the friction, attract the electrical fire, and therefore
take it from the thing rubbing ; the same parts imme
diately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed
to give the fire they have received to any body that
has less. Thus you may circulate it as Mr. Watson
has shown ; you may also accumulate or subtract it,
upon or from any body, as you connect that body
with the rubber, or with the receiver, the communi
cation with the common stock being cut off. We
think that ingenious gentleman was deceived when
he imagined (in his Seqitel^) that the electrical fire
came down the wire from the ceiling to the gun-
barrel, thence to the sphere, and so electrized the
machine and the man turning the wheel, &c. We
suppose it was driven off, and not brought on through
that wire ; and that the machine and man, &c., were
electrized minus that is, had less electrical fire in
them than things in common.
As the vessel is just upon sailing, I cannot give
you so large an account of American electricity as I
intended ; I shall only mention a few particulars more.
We find granulated lead better to fill the phial with
than water, being easily warmed, and keeping warm
and dry in damp air. We fire spirits with the wire
of the phial. We light candles, just blown out, by
drawing a spark among the smoke between the wire
and snuffers. We represent lightning by passing the
wire in the dark over a China plate that has gilt
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 73
flowers, or applying it to gilt frames of looking
glasses, &c. We electrize a person twenty or more
times running, with a touch of the finger on the
wire, thus : He stands on wax. Give him the elec
trized bottle in his hand. Touch the wire with your
finger and then touch his hand or face ; there are
sparks every time. 1 We increase the force of the
electrical kiss vastly, thus : Let A and B stand
on wax, or A on wax and B on the floor ; give
one of them the electrized phial in hand ; let the
other take hold of the wire ; there will be a small
spark ; but when their lips approach they will be
struck and shocked. The same if another gentle
man and lady, C and D, standing also on wax, and
joining hands with A and B, salute or shake hands.
We suspend by fine silk thread a counterfeit spider
made of a small piece of burnt cork, with legs of
linen thread, and a grain or two of lead stuck in him
to give him more weight. Upon the table, over
which he hangs, we stick a wire upright, as high as
the phial and wire, four or five inches from the
spider ; then we animate him by setting the electri
fied phial at the same distance on the other side
of him ; he will immediately fly to the wire of the
phial, bend his legs in touching it, then spring off and
fly to the wire in the table, thence again to the wire
of the phial, playing with his legs against both, in a
very entertaining manner, appearing perfectly alive
1 By taking a spark from the wire, and leaves him in the negative state,
the electricity within the bottle is di- Then when his hand or face is touched,
minished ; the outside of the bottle then an equal quantity is restored to him
draws some from the person holding it, from the person touching. F.
74
THE WORKS OF [174?
to persons unacquainted. He will continue this
motion an hour or more in dry weather. We elec
trify, upon wax in the dark, a book that has a double
line of gold round upon the covers, and then apply a
knuckle to the gilding ; the fire appears everywhere
upon the gold like a flash of lightning ; not upon the
leather, nor if you touch the leather instead of the
gold. We rub our tubes with buckskin and observe
always to keep the same side to the tube and never
to sully the tube by handling ; thus they work readily
and easily without the least fatigue, especially if kept
in tight pasteboard cases lined with flannel, and sit
ting close to the tube. 1 This I mention because the
European papers on electricity frequently speak of
rubbing the tubes as a fatiguing exercise. Our
spheres are fixed on iron axes which pass through
them. At one end of the axis there is a small handle
with which you turn the sphere like a common grind
stone. This we find very commodious, as the ma
chine takes up but little room, is portable, and may
be enclosed in a tight box when not in use. It is
true the sphere does not turn so swift as when the
great wheel is used ; but swiftness we think of little
importance, since a few turns will charge the phial,
&c., sufficiently. 2
I am, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
1 Our tubes are made here of green 2 This simple, easily-made machine
glass, twenty-seven or thirty inches was a contrivance of Mr. Syng s. F.
long, as big as can be grasped. F.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 75
XLV.
TO JARED ELIOT. 1
PHILADELPHIA, July 16, 1747.
DEAR SIR : I received your favor of the 4th instant.
I ought before this time to have acknowledged the
receipt of the book, which came very safe, and in
good order, to hand. We have many oil-mills in this
province, it being a great country for flax. Linseed
oil may now be bought for three shillings per gallon ;
sometimes for two shillings and six pence ; but at
New York, I have been told, it generally holds up
at about eight shillings. Of this you can easily be
satisfied, it being your neighbor government.
In your last, you inquired about the kind of land
from which our hemp is raised. I am told it must be
very rich land. Sometimes they use drained swamps
and banked meadows ; but the greater part of our
hemp is brought from Conestago, which is a large
and very rich tract of land on the banks of the
Susquehanna, a large fresh-water river. It is brought
down in wagons.
If you should send any of your steel saws here for
sale, I should not be wanting where my recommenda
tion might be of service.
We have had as wet a summer as has been known
here these thirty years, so that it was with difficulty
our people got in their harvest. In some parts of the
country a great deal of hay has been lost, and some
1 The Reverend Jared Eliot was a had a taste for philosophical studies,
graduate of Yale College, and for and published essays on agriculture,
many years was settled as a clergyman some of which passed through several
at Killingworth in Connecticut. He editions.
76 THE WORKS OF [1747
corn mildewed ; but in general the harvest has been
very great. The two preceding summers (particularly
the last) were excessively dry. I think with you, it
might be of advantage to know what the seasons are
in the several parts of the country. One s curiosity
in some philosophical points might also be gratified
by it.
We have frequently, along this North American
coast, storms from the northeast, which blow vio
lently sometimes three or four days. Of these I
have had a very singular opinion some years, viz.,
that, though the course of the wind is from north
east to southwest, yet the course of the storm is
from southwest to northeast ; that is, the air is in
violent motion in Virginia before it moves in Con
necticut, and in Connecticut before it moves at Cape
Sable, &c. My reasons for this opinion (if the like
have not occurred to you) I will give in my next.
I thank you for the curious facts you have com
municated to me relating to springs. I think with
you, that most springs arise from rains, dews, or
ponds, on higher grounds ; yet possibly some, that
break out near the tops of high hollow mountains,
may proceed from the abyss, or from water in the
caverns of the earth, rarefied by its internal heat,
and raised in vapor, till the cold region near the tops
of such mountains condenses the vapor into water
again, which comes forth in springs, and runs down
on the outside of the mountains, as it ascended on
the inside. There is said to be a large spring near
the top of Teneriffe ; and that mountain was for-
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 77
merly a volcano, consequently hollow within. Such
springs, if such there be, may properly be called
springs of distilled water.
Now I mention mountains, it occurs to tell you
that the great Appalachian Mountains, which run
from York River, back of these colonies, to the
Bay of Mexico, show in many places, near the
highest parts of them, strata of sea shells ; in some
places the marks of them are in the solid rocks. It
is certainly the wreck of a world we live on ! We
have specimens of these sea-shell rocks, broken off
near the tops of these mountains, brought and de
posited in our library as curiosities. If you have
not seen the like, I will send you a piece. Farther,
about mountains (for ideas will string themselves like
ropes of onions) ; when I was once riding in your
country, Mr. Walker showed me at a distance the
bluff side or end of a mountain, which appeared
striped from top to bottom, and told me the stone
or rock of that mountain was divided by nature into
pillars ; of this I should be glad to have a particular
account from you. I think I was somewhere near
New Haven when I saw it.
You made some mistake when you intended to
favor me with some of the new valuable grass seed (I
think you called it herd-seed), for what you gave me
is grown up and proves mere timothy ; so I suppose
you took it out of a wrong paper or parcel.
I wish your new law may have the good effect ex
pected from it, in extricating your government from
the heavy debt this war has obliged them to contract.
78 THE WORKS OF [1747
I am too little acquainted with your particular circum
stances to judge of the prudence of such a law for
your colony with any degree of exactness. But to a
friend one may hazard one s notions, right or wrong ;
and as you are pleased to desire my thoughts, you shall
have them and welcome. I wish they were better.
First, I imagine that the five per cent, duty on
goods imported from your neighboring governments,,
though paid at first hand by the importer, will not
upon the whole come out of his pocket, but be paid
in fact by the consumer; for the importer will be sure
to sell his goods as much dearer to reimburse him
self ; so that it is only another mode of taxing your
own people, though perhaps meant to raise money on
your neighbours. Yet, if you can make some of the
goods, heretofore imported, among yourselves, the
advanced price of five per cent, may encourage your
own manufacture, and in time make the importation of
such articles unnecessary, which will be an advantage.
Secondly, I imagine the law will be difficult to
execute, and require many officers to prevent smug
gling in so extended a coast as yours ; and the charge
considerable ; and, if smuggling is not prevented, the
fair trader will be undersold and ruined. If the
officers are many and busy, there will arise numbers
of vexatious lawsuits and dissensions among your peo
ple. Quczre, whether the advantages will over-balance.
Thirdly, if there is any part of your produce that
you can well spare, and would desire to have taken
off by your neighbours in exchange for something
you more want, perhaps they, taking offence at your
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 79
selfish law, may in return lay such heavy duties or
discouragements on that article, as to leave it a drug
on your hands. As to the duty on transporting lum
ber (unless in Connecticut bottoms to the West
Indies), I suppose the design is to raise the price of
such lumber on your neighbours, and throw that ad
vanced price into your treasury. But may not your
neighbours supply themselves elsewhere ? Or, if
numbers of your people have lumber to dispose of,
and want goods from, or have debts to pay to, your
neighbours, will they not (unless you employ num
bers of officers to watch all your creeks and landings)
run their lumber, and so defeat the law ? Or, if the
law is strictly executed, and the duty discourage the
transportation to your neighbours, will not all your
people that want to dispose of lumber be laid at the
mercy of those few merchants that send it to the
West Indies, who will buy it at their own price, and
make such pay for it as they think proper ?
If I had seen the law and heard the reasons that
are given for making it, I might have judged and
talked of it more to the purpose. At present I shoot
my bolt pretty much in the dark ; but you can excuse
and make proper allowance.
My best respects to good Mrs. Eliot and your sons ;
and, if it falls in your way, my service to the kind,
hospitable people near the river, whose name I am
sorry I have forgot.
I am, dear Sir, with the utmost regard,
Your obliged and humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
8o THE WORKS OF [1747
XLVI.
TO JARED ELIOT.
SIR : I have perused your two Essays on Field
Husbandry, and think the public may be much bene
fited by them ; but, if the farmers in your neighbor
hood are as unwilling to leave the beaten road of their
ancestors as they are near me, it will be difficult to
persude them to attempt any improvement. Where
the cash is to be laid out on a probability of a return,
they are very averse to the running any risk at all, or
even expending freely, where a gentleman of a more
public spirit has given them ocular demonstration of
the success.
About eighteen months ago, I made a purchase of
about three hundred acres of land near Burlington,
and resolved to improve it in the best and speediest
manner, that I might be enabled to indulge myself in
that kind of life which was most agreeable. My for
tune, thank God, is such that I can enjoy all the
necessaries and many of the indulgences of life ; but
I think that in duty to my children I ought so to man
age, that the profits of my farm may balance the loss
my income will suffer by my retreat to it. In order
to this, I began with the meadow on which there had
never been much timber, but it was always overflowed.
The soil is very fine, and black about three feet ; then
it comes to a bluish clay. Of this deep meadow I have
about eighty acres, forty of which had been ditched
and mowed. The grass which comes in first after
ditching is spear-grass and white clover ; but the
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 81
weeds are to be mowed four or five years before they
will be subdued, as the vegetation is very luxuriant.
This meadow had been ditched and planted with
Indian corn, of which it produced above sixty bushels
per acre. I first scoured up my ditches and drains,
and took off all the weeds ; then I ploughed it, and
sowed it with oats in the last of May. In July I mowed
them down together with the weeds, which grew plen
tifully among them, and they made good fodder. I
immediately ploughed it again, and kept harrowing
till there was an appearance of rain ; and, on the 23d
of August, I sowed near thirty acres with red clover
and herd-grass, allowing six quarts of herd-grass and
four pounds of red clover to an acre in most parts of
it ; in other parts, four quarts of herd-grass and three
pounds of red clover. The red clover came up in four
days and the herd-grass in six days ; and I now find
that, where I allowed the most seed, it protects itself
the best against the frost. I also sowed an acre with
twelve pounds of red clover, and it does well. I sowed
an acre more with two bushels of rye-grass seed and
five pounds of red clover ; the rye-grass seed failed,
and the red clover heaves out much for want of being
thicker. However, in March next I intend to throw
in six pounds more of red clover, as the ground is
open and loose. As these grasses are represented not
durable, I have sown two bushels of the sweeping of
hay-lofts (where the best hay was used), well riddled,
per acre, supposing that the spear-grass and white
clover seed would be more equally scattered when the
other shall fail.
82 THE WORKS OF [1747
What surprised me was to find that the herd-grass,
whose roots are small and spread near the surface,
should be less affected by the frost than the red
clover, whose roots I measured in the last of Octo
ber, and found that many of their tap roots penetrated
five inches, and from its sides threw out near thirty
horizontal roots, some of which were six inches long,
and branched. From the figure of this root, I flat
tered myself that it would endure the heaving of the
frost ; but I now see that wherever it is thin sown it
is generally hove so far out that but a few of the
horizontal and a small part of the tap roots remain
covered, and I fear will not recover. Take the
whole together, it is well matted, and looks like a
green corn-field.
I have about ten acres more of this ground ready
for seed in the spring, but expect to combat with the
weeds a year or two. That sown in August I believe
will rise so soon in the spring as to suppress them in
a great measure.
My next undertaking was a round pond of twelve
acres. Ditching round it, with a large drain through
the middle, and other smaller drains, laid it perfectly
dry. This, having first taken up all the rubbish, I
ploughed up and harrowed it many times over, till it
was smooth. Its soil is blackish ; but, in about a
foot or ten inches, you come to a sand of the same
color with the upland. From the birch that grew
upon it, I took it to be of a cold nature, and therefore
I procured a grass which would best suit that kind of
ground, intermixed with many others, that I might
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 83
thereby see which suited it best. On the 8th of Sep
tember, I laid it down with rye, which being harrowed
in, I threw in the following grass seed : a bushel of
Salem grass or feather-grass, half a bushel of timothy
or herd-grass, half a bushel of rye-grass, a peck of
burden-grass or blue bent, and two pints of red clover
per acre (all the seed in the chaff except the clover),
and bushed them in. I could wish they had been
clean, as they would have come up sooner, and been
better grown before the frost ; and I have found by
experiment, that a bushel of clean chaff of timothy or
Salem grass will yield five quarts of seed. The rye
looks well, and there is abundance of timothy or
Salem grass come up amongst it ; but it is yet small,
and in that state there is scarce any knowing those
grasses apart. I expect from the sand lying so near
the surface, that it will suffer much in dry weather.
B. FRANKLIN.
XLVII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, i September, 1747.
SIR : The necessary trouble of copying long let
ters, which perhaps, when they come to your hands,
may contain nothing new, or worth your reading (so
quick is the progress made with you in electricity),
half discourages me of writing any more on that
subject. Yet I cannot forbear adding a few ob
servations on M. Muschenbroek s wonderful bottle.
i. The non-electric contained in the bottle differs,
84 THE WORKS OF [1747
when electrized, from a non-electric electrized out of
the bottle, in this : that the electrical fire of the latter
is accumulated on its surface, and forms an electrical
atmosphere round it of considerable extent ; but the
electrical fire is crowded into the substance of the
former, the glass confining it. 1
2. At the same time that the wire and the top of
the bottle, &c., is electrized positively or plus, the
bottom of the bottle is electrized negatively or minus,
in exact proportion ; that is, whatever quantity of
electrical fire is thrown in at the top, an equal
quantity goes out of the bottom. 2 To understand
this, suppose the common quantity of electricity in
each part of the bottle, before the operation begins,
is equal to twenty ; and at every stroke of the tube,
suppose a quantity equal to one is thrown in ; then,
after the first stroke, the quantity contained in the
wire and upper part of the bottle will be twenty-one,
in the bottom nineteen ; after the second, the upper
part will have twenty-two, the lower eighteen ; and so
on, till after twenty strokes, the upper part will have
a quantity of electrical fire equal to forty, the lower
part none ; and then the operation ends, for no more
can be thrown into the upper part when no more can
be driven out of the lower part. If you attempt to
throw more in, it is spewed back through the wire, or
flies out in loud cracks through the sides of the bottle.
1 See this opinion rectified in 16 3 What is said here, and after, of
and 17, p. 126. The fire in the hot- the top and bottom of the bottle, is
tie was found by subsequent experi- true of the inside and outside surfaces,
ments not to be contained in the and should have been so expressed,
non-electric, but in the glass. 1748.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 85
3. The equilibrium cannot be restored in the bottle
by inward communication or contact of the parts ; but
it must be done by a communication formed without
the bottle, between the top and bottom, by some non
electric, touching or approaching both at the same
time ; in which case it is restored with a violence and
quickness inexpressible ; or touching each alternately,
in which case the equilibrium is restored by degrees.
4. As no more electrical fire can be thrown into
the top of the bottle, when all is driven out of the
bottom, so, in a bottle not yet electrized, none can
be thrown into the top when none can get out at the
bottom ; which happens either when the bottom is
too thick, or when the bottle is placed on an electric
per se. Again, when the bottle is electrized, but little
of the electrical fire can be drawn out from the top,
by touching the wire, unless an equal quantity can at
the same time get in at the bottom. 1 Thus, place an
electrized bottle on clean glass or dry wax, and you
will not, by touching the wire, get out the fire from
the top. Place it on a non-electric, and touch the
wire, you will get it out in a short time, but soonest
when you form a direct communication as above.
So wonderfully are these two states of electricity,
the plus and minus, combined and balanced in this
miraculous bottle ! situated and related to each other
in a manner that I can by no means comprehend !
If it were possible that a bottle should in one part
contain a quantity of air strongly compressed, and in
another part a perfect vacuum, we know the equilib-
1 See the preceding note, relating to top and bottom.
86 THE WORKS OF [1747
rium would be instantly restored within. But here
we have a bottle containing at the same time a ple
num of electrical fire and a vacuum of the same fire, and
yet the equilibrium cannot be restored between them
but by a communication without, though the plenum
presses violently to expand, and the hungry vacuum
seems to attract as violently in order to be filled.
5. The shock to the nerves (or convulsion rather) is
occasioned by the sudden passing of the fire through
the body in its way from the top to the bottom of
the bottle. The fire takes the shortest x course, as
Mr. Watson justly observes. But it does not ap
pear from experiment that, in order for a person
to be shocked, a communication with the floor is
necessary ; for he that holds the bottle with one hand
and touches the wire with the other, will be shocked
as much, though his shoes be dry, or even standing
on wax, as otherwise. And on the touch of the wire
(or of the gun-barrel, which is the same thing), the
fire does not proceed from the touching finger to the
wire, as is supposed, but from the wire to the finger,
and passes through the body to the other hand, and
so into the bottom of the bottle.
Experiments confirming the above.
EXPERIMENT I.
Place an electrized phial on wax ; a small cork ball,
suspended by a dry silk thread, held in your hand and
brought near to the wire, will first be attracted and
then repelled ; when in this state of repellency, sink
1 Other circumstances being equal,
PLATE I.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 87
your hand that the ball may be brought towards the
bottom of the bottle. It will be there instantly and
strongly attracted till it has parted with its fire.
If the bottle had a positive electrical atmosphere,
as well as the wire, an electrified cork would be re
pelled from one as well as from the other.
EXPERIMENT II.
PLATE I., FIG. i. From a bent wire (a) sticking in
the table, let a small linen thread (K) hang down within
half an inch of the electrized phial (V). Touch the
wire or the phial repeatedly with your finger, and
at every touch you will see the thread instantly at
tracted by the bottle. (This is best done by a vine
gar-cruet,^ or some such bellied bottle.) As soon as
you draw any fire out from the upper part by touch
ing the wire, the lower part of the bottle draws an
equal quantity in by the thread.
EXPERIMENT III.
FIG. 2. Fix a wire in the lead, with which the
bottom of the bottle is armed (d\ so as that, bend
ing upwards, its ring-end may be level with the top
or ring-end of the wire in the cork (i), and at three
or four inches distance. Then electrize the bottle
and place it on wax. If a cork, suspended by a silk
thread (/"), hang between these two wires, it will play
incessantly from one to the other till the bottle is no
longer electrized ; that is, it fetches and carries fire
from the top to the bottom 1 of the bottle till the
equilibrium is restored.
1 See the preceding note relating to top and bottom.
88 THE WORKS OF [1747
EXPERIMENT IV.
FIG. 3. Place an electrized phial on wax ; take a
wire (/) in form of a C, the ends at such a distance,
when bent, as that the upper may touch the wire of
the bottle when the lower touches the bottom ; stick
the outer part on a stick of sealing-wax (/), which
will serve as a handle ; then apply the lower end to
the bottom of the bottle, and gradually bring the
upper end near the wire in the cork. The conse
quence is, spark follows spark till the equilibrium is
restored. Touch the top first, and on approaching
the bottom with the other end, you have a constant
stream of fire from the wire entering the bottle.
Touch the top and bottom together, and the equi
librium will instantly be restored, the crooked wire
forming the communication.
EXPERIMENT V.
FIG. 4. Let a ring of thin lead or paper surround a
bottle (z ), even at some distance from or above the
bottom. From that ring let a wire proceed up till it
touch the wire of the cork (/&). A bottle so fixed
cannot by any means be electrized ; the equilibrium
is never destroyed ; for while the communication
between the upper and lower parts of the bottle is
continued by the outside wire, the fire only circulates ;
what is driven out at bottom is constantly supplied
from the top. 1 Hence a bottle cannot be electrized
that is foul or moist on the outside, if such moisture
continue up to the cork or wire.
1 See the preceding note relating to top and bottom.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 89
EXPERIMENT VI.
Place a man on a cake of wax, and present him the
wire of the electrified phial to touch, you standing on
the floor and holding it in your hand. As often as
he touches it he will be electrified//^/ and any one
standing on the floor may draw a spark from him.
The fire in this experiment passes out of the wire
into him ; and at the same time out of your hand
into the bottom of the bottle.
EXPERIMENT VII.
Give him the electrical phial to hold, and do you
touch the wire ; as often as you touch it he will be
electrified minus, and may draw a spark from any one
standing on the floor. The fire now passes from the
wire to you, and from him into the bottom of the
bottle.
EXPERIMENT VIII.
Lay two books on two glasses, back towards back,
two or three inches distant. Set the electrified phial
on one, and then touch the wire ; that book will be
electrified minus, the electrical fire being drawn out
of it by the bottom of the bottle. Take off the
bottle, and, holding it in your hand, touch the other
with the wire ;. that book will be electrified//^/ the
fire passing into it from the wire, and the bottle at
the same time supplied from your hand. A suspended
small cork ball will play between these books till the
equilibrium is restored.
90 THE WORKS OF [1747
EXPERIMENT IX.
When a body is electrized phis, it will repel a pos
itively electrified feather or small cork ball. When
minus (or when in the common state), it will attract
them, but stronger when minus than when in the
common state, the difference being greater.
EXPERIMENT X.
Though, as in Experiment VI, a man standing on
wax may be electrized a number of times by re
peatedly touching the wire of an electrized bottle
(held in the hand of one standing on the floor),
he receiving the fire from the wire each time ; yet
holding it in his own hand and touching the wire,
though he draws a strong spark, and is violently
shocked, no electricity remains in him, the fire only
passing through him from the upper to the lower
part of the bottle. Observe, before the shock, to
let some one on the floor touch him to restore the
equilibrium of his body ; for in taking hold of the
bottom of the bottle he sometimes becomes a little
electrized minus, which will continue after the shock,
as would also any plus electricity which he might
have given him before the shock. For restoring the
equilibrium in the bottle does not at all affect the
electricity in the man through whom the fire passes ;
that electricity is neither increased nor diminished.
EXPERIMENT XI.
The passing of the electrical fire from the upper
to the lower part 1 of the bottle, to restore the equi
librium, is rendered strongly visible by the following
1 That is, from the inside to the outside.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 91
pretty experiment. Take a book whose covering is
filleted with gold ; bend a wire of eight or ten inches
long in the form of (m), Fig. 5, slip it on the end of
the cover of the book, over the gold line, so as that
the shoulder of it may press upon one end of the gold
line, the ring up, but leaning towards the other end
of the book. Lay the book on a glass or wax, 1 and
on the other end of the gold lines set the bottle
electrized ; then bend the springing wire by pressing
it with a stick of wax till its ring approaches the
ring of the bottle wire ; instantly there is a strong
spark and stroke, and the whole line of gold, which
completes the communication between the top and
bottom of the bottle, will appear a vivid flame, like
the sharpest lightning. The closer the contact be
tween the shoulder of the wire and the gold at one
end of the line, and between the bottom of the bottle
and the gold at the other end, the better the experi
ment succeeds. The room should be darkened. If
you would have the whole filleting round the cover
appear in fire at once, let the bottle and wire touch
the gold in the diagonally opposite corners.
I am, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
XLVIII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, i October, 1747.
SIR : I send you herewith the History of the
Five Nations. You will perceive that Osborne, to
1 Placing the book on glass or wax visible electricity is not brought up
is not necessary to produce the ap- from the common stock in the earth,
pearance ; it is only to show that the
92 THE WORKS OF [1747
puff up the book, has inserted the charters, &c., of
his Province, all under the title of History of the
Five Nations, which I think was not fair, but it is a
common trick of booksellers.
Mr. James Read, to whom Mr. Osborne has sent
a parcel of books by recommendation of Mr. Collin-
son, being engaged in business of another kind, talks
of declining to act in disposing of them, and per
haps may put them into my hands. If he should,
I will endeavour to do Mr. Osborne justice in dispos
ing of them to the best advantage, as also of any
other parcel he may send me from your recommenda
tion.
Mr. Armit is returned well from New England.
As he has your power of attorney, and somewhat
more leisure at present than I have, I think to put
your letter to Mr. Hughes into his hands, and desire
him to manage the affair of your servant. I shall
write a line besides to Hughes, that he would assist
in obliging the servant to do you justice, which may
be of some service, as he owns himself obliged to me,
for recovering a servant for him that had been gone
above a twelvemonth. I am, Sir, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
XLIX.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 27 November, 1747.
SIR : The violent party spirit that appears in all the
votes, &c., of your Assembly seems to me extremely
unseasonable as well as unjust, and to threaten mis-
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 93
chief not only to yourselves but to your neighbours.
It begins to be plain that the French may reap great
advantages from your divisions. God grant they
may be as blind to their own interest, and as negli
gent of it as the English are of theirs. It must be
inconvenient to you to remove your family, but more
so to you and them to live under continual apprehen
sions and alarms. I shall be glad to hear you are all
in a place of safety.
Though Plain Truth 1 bore somewhat hard on
both parties here, it has had the happiness not to give \J j
much offence to either. It has wonderfully spirited
us up to defend ourselves and country, to which end
great numbers are entering into an association, of
which I send you a copy enclosed. We are likewise
setting on foot a lottery to raise three thousand
pounds for erecting a battery of cannon below the
city. We have petitioned the Proprietor to send us
some from England, and have ordered our corre
spondents to send us over a parcel, if the application
to the Proprietor fails. But, lest by any accident
they should miscarry, I am desired to write to you
and ask your opinion whether, if our government
should apply to Governor Clinton to borrow a few of
your spare cannon till we could be supplied, such
application might probably meet with success. Pray
excuse the effects of haste on this letter.
I am, Sir, with the greatest respect, your most
obliged humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
1 See this tract, supra.
94
THE WORKS OF
[i747
L.
TO JAMES LOGAN. 1
Monday Noon [4 December, 1747].
SIR : I am heartily glad you approve of our pro
ceedings. We shall have arms for the poor in the
1 James Logan, descended from an
ancient family of Restalrig in Scotland,
was born at Lurgan, in Ireland, 1674.
His father was a man of great learn
ing, and educated for the Scottish
church ; but, having been converted to
the principles of the Quakers, he was,
at the time of his son s birth, a teacher
in a public school in that Society. At
an early age James Logan became im
bued with a love of letters and science.
Before he was thirteen years old, he
had made uncommon proficiency in
the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew lan
guages. He soon afterwards acquired
a taste for the mathematics, in which
he became profoundly skilled, and
which science seems to have been his
favorite study through life. For a few
years he had charge of a large Gram
mar School at Bristol, in England ; but
he afterwards engaged in commerce.
Becoming acquainted with William
Penn, he was induced by him to
give up his plans of life, and accom
pany him as secretary on his second
visit to Pennsylvania, in 1699.
Having acquired the entire confi
dence of the Proprietor, he was left
by him in charge of his private estate,
and in the important offices of Provin
cial Secretary, Commissioner of Prop
erty, and Receiver-General. In the
course of his life he filled the places of
Recorder of the City of Philadelphia,
Presiding Judge of Common Pleas,
Chief Justice of the Province, and
President of the Council, in which last
office he governed the Province for
two years, from 1736 to 1738. He
also had the entire management of the
intercourse with the Indians. When
William Penn left the Province, in
1701, he presented Mr. Logan to the
assembled Chiefs as his representative ;
and this choice of an agent was justi
fied by his conduct. During the whole
of his public life the affectionate inter
course commenced by William Penn,
and the confidential reliance inspired
by his justice and benevolence, were
preserved by James Logan. It is per
haps worthy of being mentioned that
the celebrated Mingo Chief, whose
eloquent speech is contained in Mr.
Jefferson s Notes on Virginia, was
named Logan by his father Shickel-
lemy, as a mark of respect and grati
tude for the friend and protector of
himself and his race.
A history of James Logan s public
life would be that of Pennsylvania
during the first forty years of the last
century. Venerating William Penn,
with whose noble and generous nature
he was well acquainted, he stood up
at all times in his defence against the
encroachments of the Assembly ; and
if he forfeited his popularity, and en
dured calumny and persecution, he
preserved his fidelity, the confidence of
his employers, and the respect of all
good men. Weary of the burden of
public office he retired in 1738 from
all his salaried employments, remain
ing only a short time longer a member
of the Provincial Council. At his
estate, called Stenton, near German-
town, he passed in retirement the re
mainder of his days devoted to agricul
ture and his favorite studies. A large
collection of mathematical papers in
manuscript, exhibiting extensive and
varied researches in that science, are
marked on the envelope, Hot a ante
Nonam, and are doubtless the results
of his morning recreations before office
hours. His correspondence with the
literary men of America and Europe,
from the year 1713, proves that there
1747]
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
95
spring, and a number of battering cannon. The place
for the batteries is not yet fixed ; but it is generally
thought that near Red Bank will be most suitable,
as the enemy must there have natural difficulties to
struggle with, besides the channel being narrow. The
Dutch are as hearty as the English. Plain Truth
was scarcely a department of learning
in which he was not interested. His
tory, archaeology, criticism, theology,
ethics, natural philosophy, anatomy,
and law, are treated of. Sometimes
Hebrew or Arabic characters and al
gebraic formulas, roughen the pages of
his letter books. Sometimes his letters
convey a lively Greek ode to a learned
friend, and often they are written in
the Latin language. Among his cor
respondents in this country were Cad-
wallader Golden, Governor Burnet,
and Colonel Hunter, the accomplished
friend of Swift ; and in Europe, Col-
linson, Fothergill, Mead, Sir Hans
Sloane, Flamsteed, Jones the mathe
matician, father of the celebrated Sir
William Jones, Fabricius, Gronovius,
and Linnaeus ; the last of whom gave
the name of Logan to a Class in botany.
Of his printed writings perhaps the
best known is his translation of Cicero s
Cato Major, or a Discourse on Old
Age, with explanatory notes, which
was printed by Franklin in 1744, and
several times reprinted in England.
He also wrote Experimenta et Mele-
temata de Plantarum Generatione,
printed at Leyden in 1739, and after
wards translated by Dr. Fothergill and
printed in London ; Demons trationes
de Radiorum in Superficies sphericas
ab Axe incidentium a primario Foco
Aberrationibus, printed at Leyden,
1741 ; Epistola ad Virum Clarissi-
mum Joannem Albertum Fabricium,
printed at Amsterdam, 1740 ; A
Translation of Cato s Distichs into
English Verse, printed at Philadel
phia. He furnished contributions to
the Philosophical Transactions, and
wrote other pieces on various subjects
in Latin and English, some of which
were published. He also left some
curious papers in manuscript, particu
larly part of an ethical treatise, en
titled The Duties of Man, as they
may be deduced from Nature. This
was prepared with great care. Parts
of it were sent to his friends in Eng
land and received their high commend
ation ; but it seems never to have been
completed. Also fragments of a Dis
sertation on the Writings of Moses ;
A Defence of Aristotle and the An
cient Philosophers ; Essays on Lan
guages and on the Antiquities of the
British Isles ; a Translation of Mauro-
cordatus ite.pl ua^uovroov , and of
Philo Judasus Allegory of the Essccans.
His acquaintance with Franklin be
gan at an early date, and he had the
highest opinion of him from the first,
as an industrious, useful, and ingenious
man ; giving him every encouragement
as a printer, and much assistance in
his scientific pursuits and public en
terprises. In the military defence of
the city he was prominently active,
notwithstanding his connection with
the Friends Meeting. Indeed he at
all times vindicated the principle of
self-defence, as not only consistent
with the Christian doctrines, but ab
solutely essential to the existence of
society. In every other respect, though
neither austere nor bigoted, he was a
strict Friend. His virtues, his benevo
lence, his public integrity and services,
his intimate connexion with William
Penn, and the honor which his
talents and learning conferred on the
Society of Friends, perhaps saved him
from the censure which a less eminent
man might have incurred.
In addition to his services as a
public man, and his high reputation
among his contemporaries, the valua
ble library left by him to the City of
96 THE WORKS OF [1747
and the Association are in their language, and
their parsons encouraged them. It is proposed to
breed gunners by forming an artillery club, to go down
weekly to the battery and exercise the great guns.
The best engineers against Cape Breton were of such
a club, tradesmen and shopkeepers of Boston. I was
with them at the Castle * at their exercise in 1743.
I have not time to write longer, nor to wait on
you till next week. In general all goes well, and
there is a surprising unanimity in all ranks. Near
eight hundred have signed the Association, and more
are signing hourly. One company of Dutch is com
plete. I am with great respect, Sir, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
LI.
TO THOMAS HOPKINSON. 2
PHILADELPHIA, 1747.
According to my promise, I send you in writing
Philadelphia should preserve his name leisure, what measures are proposed
in grateful and honorable remem- to furnish small arms, powder, and
brance. . . . ^ ball to those in the country ; and par-
James Logan died on the 31 st of Oc- ticularly what measures are taken to
tober, 1751, aged seventy-seven years, defend our river, especially at the Red
and was buried in the Friends grave- Bank, on the Jersey side, and on our
yard at the corner of Arch Street and own, where there ought not to be less
Fourth Street in Philadelphia. J. than 40 guns, from six- to twelve-
FRANCIS FISHER. pounders. What gunners are to be
This letter to Logan is in reply to depended on ?
one received from him, dated Dec. 3d, " The project of a lottery to clear
in which he had said : ,3,000 is excellent, and I hope it will
" Our friends spared no pains to get be speedily rilled, nor shall I be want-
and accumulate estates, and are yet ing. But thou wilt answer all these
against defending them, though these questions and much more, if thou wilt
very estates are in a great measure the visit me here, as on First day to dine
sole cause of their being invaded, as I with me, and thou wilt exceedingly
showed to our Yearly Meeting, last oblige thy very loving friend." EDI-
September was six years, in a paper TOR.
thou then printed. But I request to 1 Castle William in Boston Harbor,
be informed, as soon as thou hast any a Thomas Hopkinson was born in
1747]
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
97
my observations on your book * ; you will be the better
able to consider them, which I desire you to do at
your leisure, and to set me right where I am wrong.
I stumble at the threshold of the building, and
therefore have not read further. The author s vis
inertia essential to matter, upon which the whole work
is founded, I have not been able to comprehend.
And I do not think he demonstrates at all clearly (at
least to me he does not), that there is really such a
property in matter.
He says in No. 2 : " Let a given body or mass
of matter be called a, and let any given celerity
be called c. That celerity doubled, tripled, &c., or
halved, thirded, &c., will be zc, *$c, &c., or fy, \c y &c.,
respectively. Also the body doubled, tripled, or
London, in April, 1709, had been a
student at Oxford, came to America
while young, married and settled in
Philadelphia, where he died in 1751.
He was an intimate friend of Franklin,
and associated with him in his elec
trical and philosophical experiments.
Mr. Hopkinson was chosen the first
president of the American Philosophi
cal Society, instituted in the year 1744,
and also took an active part in found
ing the City Library and the College
of Philadelphia. He left several
children, among whom was Francis
Hopkinson, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, well
known as a writer, and for his valuable
public services during and after the
revolution. EDITOR.
1 It was a book by Andrew Baxter,
entitled An Inquiry into the Nature
of the Human Soul, wherein its Im
materiality is evinced, &c. One of
the chief objects of this book was to
prove, that a resistance to any change
is essential to matter, consequently in
consistent with active powers in it ;
and that, if matter wants active
powers, an immaterial being is neces
sary for all those effects, &c., as
cribed to its own natural powers.
After stating the several proofs, ques
tioned by Dr. Franklin, of a Vis
inertia, or force of inertness, in
matter, the author adds : "If the im
materiality of the soul, the existence
of God, and the necessity of a most
particular, incessant providence in the
world, are demonstrable from such
plain and tosy principles, the atheist has
a desperate cause in hand." (See the
third edition, pp. 1-8.) In fact, Mr.
Baxter s doctrine seems to establish,
rather than disprove, an activity in
matter, and consequently to defeat his
own conclusion, were not that con
clusion to be found from other prem
ises. Primd facie, it seems better
for Mr. Baxter s system to suppose
matter incapable of force or effort,
even in the case, as he calls it, of
resisting change, which case appears
to me no other than the simple one of
matter not altering its state without a
cause, and a cause exactly propor
tioned to the effect. B. V.
98 THE WORKS OF [1747
halved, thirded, will be 2a, 3$, or-|#, ^a, respectively."
Thus far is clear. But he adds : " Now to move the
body a, with the celerity c, requires a certain force to
be impressed upon it ; and to move it with a celerity
as 2c, requires twice that force to be impressed upon
it, &c." Here I suspect some mistake creeps in, by
the author s not distinguishing between a great force
applied at once, and a small one continually applied,
to a mass of matter, in order to move it. I think it is
generally allowed by the philosophers, and, for aught
we know, is certainly true, that there is no mass of
matter, how great soever, but may be moved by any
force how small soever (taking friction out of the
question), and this small force, continued, will in time
bring the mass to move with any velocity whatsoever.
Our author himself seems to allow this towards the
end of the same No. 2, when he is subdividing his
celerities and forces ; for as in continuing the division
to eternity by his method of \c, \c, \c, \c, &c., you can
never come to a fraction of velocity that is equal to
oc, or no celerity at all ; so, dividing the force in the
same manner, you can never come to a fraction of
force that will not produce an equal fraction of celerity.
Where, then, is the mighty vis inertice, and what is
its strength, when the greatest assignable mass of
matter will give way to, or be moved by, the least
assignable force ? Suppose two globes equal to the
sun and to one another, exactly equipoised in Jove s
balance ; suppose no friction in the centre of motion,
in the beam, or elsewhere ; if a musqueto then were
to light on one of them, would he not give motion to
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 99
them both, causing one to descend and the other to
rise ? If it is objected, that the force of gravity helps
one globe to descend, I answer, the same force op
poses the other s rising. Here is an equality that
leaves the whole motion to be produced by the mus-
queto, without whom those globes would not be
moved at all. What, then, does vis inertice do in
this case ? and what other effect could we expect if
there were no such thing f Surely, if it were any
thing more than a phantom, there might be enough
of it in such vast bodies to annihilate, by its opposi
tion to motion, so trifling a force !
Our author would have reasoned more clearly, I
think, if, as he has used the letter a for a certain quan
tity of matter, and c for a certain quantity of celerity,
he had employed one letter more, and put/", perhaps,
for a certain quantity of force. This let us suppose
to be done ; and then, as it is a maxim that the force
of bodies in motion is equal to the quantity of matter
multiplied by the celerity (or f = c x #) \ and as the
force received by and subsisting in matter, when it is
put in motion, can never exceed the force given ; so,
if f moves a with c, there must needs be required if
to move a with 20 ; for a moving with 2c would have
a force equal to 2/, which it could not receive from
if; and this, not because there is such a thing as vis
inerticz, for the case would be the same if that had
no existence ; but because nothing can give more than
it has. And now again, if a thing can give what it
has, if if can to la give ic, which is the same thing
as giving it if (that is, if force applied to matter at
ioo THE WORKS OF [1747
rest can put it in motion and give it equal force),
where, then, is vis inertia f If it existed at all in
matter, should we not find the quantity of its resistance
subtracted from the force given ?
In No. 4, our author goes on and says : " The body
a requires a certain force to be impressed on it to be
moved with a celerity as c, or such a force is neces
sary ; and therefore it makes a certain resistance,
&c. ; a body as 20- requires twice that force to be
moved with the same celerity, or it makes twice that
resistance ; and so on." This I think is not true ;
but that the body 2#, moved by the force if (though
the eye may judge otherwise of it), does really move
with the same celerity as it did when impelled by the
same force; for ia is compounded of la + ia; and
if each of the i# s, or each part of the compound,
were made to move with ic (as they might be by 2^),
then the whole would move with 2c, and not with ic,
as our author supposes. But if applied to 2a makes
each a move with \c ; and so the whole moves with
ic; exactly the same as la was made to do by if
before. What is equal celerity but a measuring the
same space by moving bodies in the same time f Now
if ia, impelled by i/J measures one hundred yards
in a minute ; and in 2a, impelled by i/J each
a measures fifty yards in a minute, which added make
one hundred ; are not the celerities, as the forces,
equal ? And since force and celerity in the same
quantity of matter are always in proportion to each
other, why should we, when the quantity of matter is
doubled, allow the force to continue unimpaired, and
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 101
yet suppose one half of the celerity to be lost ? x I
wonder the more at our author s mistake in this point,
since in the same number I find him observing : " We
may easily conceive that a body, as 3<z, 4^, &c., would
make three or four bodies equal to once a, each of
which would require once the first force to be moved
with the celerity c." If, then, in 3*2, each a requires
once the first force/" to be moved with the celerity c,
would not each move with the force /"and celerity cf
and consequently the whole be 3*2 moving with ^f
and y f After so distinct an observation, how could
he miss of the consequence, and imagine that \c and
y were the same ? Thus, as our author s abatement
of celerity in the case of 2a moved by if is imagi
nary, so must be his additional resistance. And here
again I am at a loss to discover any effect of the vis
inertia.
In No. 6 he tells us "that all this is likewise cer
tain when taken the contrary way, viz., from motion
1 Dr. Franklin s reasoning seems ever, but may be moved, with any
only to prove that where bodies of velocity, by any continued force, how
different masses have equal force, they small soever," I ask whether the mw-
4 measure <?^tf /space in equal times." ing body must not have its force
For, allowing that 20 moves one him- rather in the shape of much celerity
dred yards in a minute (because it than of much matter for this purpose ;
moves two separate fifty yards in that since without much celerity it would
time), yet surely that space is not the not move fast enough to apply its
same with that of the one hundred force to give the required velocity,
yards moved by i#, in the same time, even though its quantity of matter,
though it may be equal to it ; for the and consequently of force, were infi-
body 2a (that is, a and a), in the first nite. " Equal celerity, therefore, in
case, describes a broad double space ; moving bodies is their measuring
and the body i, in the second case, equal space, along a continued line , in
describes a long and single space. equal time." Equal space measured
There is a farther consideration which along a number of smaller parallel
may show the difference of celerity lines, suits cases of equal motion in-
and force. For when Dr. Franklin deed, but, according to this corrected
says, in his second paragraph, "there definition, not of equal celerity.
is no mass of matter, how great so- B. V.
102 THE WORKS OF [1747
to rest ; for the body a moving with a certain veloci
ty, as c, requires a certain degree of force or resist
ance to stop that motion," &c., &c. ; that is, in other
words, equal force is necessary to destroy force. It
may be so. But how does that discover a vis in-
erticz? Would not the effect be the same if there
were no suck thing? A force if strikes a body la,
and moves it with the celerity ic that is, with the
force if ; it requires, even according to our author,
only an opposing if to stop it. But ought it not (if
there were a vis inertia) to have not only the force
if, but an additional force equal to the force of vis
inertia, that obstinate power by which a body endeav-
oicrs with all its might to continue in its present state,
whether of motion or rest f I say, ought there not to
be an opposing force equal to the sum of these ?
The truth, however, is, that there is no body, how
large soever, moving with any velocity, how great so
ever, but may be stopped by any opposing force, how
small soever, continually applied. At least all our
modern philosophers agree to tell us so.
Let me turn the thing in what light I please, I can
not discover the vis inertia -, nor any effect of it. It
is allowed by all that a body la, moving with a ve
locity ic and a force if, striking another body la at
rest, they will afterwards move on together, each with
\c and \f; which, as I said before, is equal in the
whole to ic and if. If vis inertia, as in this case,
neither abates the force nor the velocity of bodies,
what does it, or how does it discover itself ?
I imagine I may venture to conclude my observa-
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 103
tions on this piece, almost in the words of the au
thor : that, if the doctrines of the immateriality of
the soul and the existence of God and of divine
providence are demonstrable from no plainer princi
ples, the deist (that is, theisf) has a desperate cause in
hand. I oppose my theist to his atheist, because I think
they are diametrically opposite, and not near of kin, as
Mr. Whitefield seems to suppose, where (in his Journal)
he tells us : " M. B. was a deist ; I had almost said an
atheist " that is, chalk ; I had almost said charcoal.
The din of the Market l increases upon me ; and
that, with frequent interruptions, has, I find, made
me say some things twice over ; and, I suppose, for
get some others I intended to say. It has, however,
one good effect, as it obliges me to come to the relief
of your patience with
Your humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
LII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 6 August, 1747. ,
SIR : The observations I sent you on Baxter s book
were wrote on a sheet or two of paper in folio. He
builds his whole argument on the vis inertia of mat
ter. I boldly denied the being of such a property,
and endeavoured to demonstrate the contrary. If I
succeeded, all his edifice falls of course, unless some
other way supported. I desired your sentiments of
my argument. You left the book for me at New
1 Philadelphia Market, near which Dr. Franklin lived.
io 4 THE WORKS OF [1747
York, with a few lines containing a short censure
upon the author, and that your time had been much
taken up in town with business, but you were now
about to retire into the country, where you should
have leisure to peruse my papers ; since which I have
heard nothing from you relating to them. I hope you
will easily find them, because I have lost my rough
draft ; but do not give yourself much trouble about
them ; for if they are lost it is really no great matter.
I am glad to hear that some gentlemen with you
are inclined to go on with electrical experiments. I
am satisfied we have workmen here who can make
the apparatus as well to the full as that from Lon
don ; and they will do it reasonably. By the next
post I will send you their computation of the expense.
If you shall conclude to have it done here I will over
see the work, and take care that every part be done
to perfection as far as the nature of the thing admits.
Instead of the remainder of my rough minutes on
electricity (which are indeed too rough for your
view), I send you enclosed copies of two letters I
lately wrote to Mr. Collinson on that subject. When
you have perused them, please to leave them with
Mr. Nichols, whom I shall desire to forward them per
next post to a friend in Connecticut.
I am glad your Philosophical Treatise meets with
so good reception in England. Mr. Collinson writes
the same things to Mr. Logan ; and Mr. Rose, of
Virginia, writes me that he had received accounts
from his correspondents to the same purpose. I
perceive by the papers that they have also lately re-
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 105
printed in London, your History of the Five Nations
in octavo. If it come to your hands I should be glad
to have a sight of it.
Mr. Logan, on a second reading of your piece on
Fluxions lately, is satisfied that some of the faults he
formerly objected to it were his own, and owing to
his too little attention at that time. He desires me
to tell you so, and that he asks your pardon. Upon
what Mr. Collinson wrote, he again undertook to
read and consider your Philosophical Treatise. 1 I
have not seen him since, but shall soon, and will
send you his sentiments.
I am, Sir,
With great respect,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
LIII.
A CONJECTURE AS TO THE CAUSE OF THE HEAT OF THE
BLOOD IN HEALTH, AND OF THE COLD AND HOT
FITS OF SOME FEVERS. 2
The parts of fluids are so smooth, and roll among
one another with so little friction, that they will not
1 The title of this treatise, as origi- 1751." Appended is a chapter en-
nally printed, was as follows : " Ex- titled : " An Introduction to the Doc-
plication of the first Causes of Action trine of Fluxions, or the Arithmetic
in Matter ; and of the Cause of of Infinities ; in order to assist the
Gravitation. London, 1746." A Imagination in forming Conceptions
second edition enlarged was pub- of the Principles on which that Doc-
lished five years afterwards with a dif- trine is founded." ED.
ferent title, namely : " The Princi- a This piece I have found in Frank-
ples of Action in Matter, the Gravita- lin s handwriting among the papers of
tion of Bodies and the Motion of the Cadwallader Golden. Its date is un-
Planets explained from those Princi- certain, but it was probably written
pies. By Cadwallader Colden, Es- before the year 1750. SPARKS.
quire. London. Printed for Dodsley,
106 THE WORKS OF [1747
by any (mechanical) agitation grow warmer. A phial
half full of water shook with violence and long con
tinued, the water neither heats itself nor warms the
phial. Therefore the blood does not acquire its heat
either from the motion and friction of its own parts,
or its friction against the sides of its vessels.
But the parts of solids, by reason of their closer
adhesion, cannot move among themselves without
friction, and that produces heat. Thus, bend a
plummet to and fro, and, in the place of bending,
it shall soon grow hot. Friction on any part of our
flesh heats it. Clapping of the hands warms them.
Exercise warms the whole body.
The heart is a thick muscle, continually contracting
and dilating nearly eighty times in a minute. By this
motion there must be a constant interfrication of its
constituent solid parts. That friction must produce
a heat, and that heat must consequently be continually
communicated to the perfluent blood.
To this may be added, that every propulsion of the
blood by the contraction of the heart distends the
arteries, which contract again in the intermission ;
and this distension and contraction of the arteries
may occasion heat in them, which they must like
wise communicate to the blood that flows through
them.
That these causes of the heat of the blood are suf
ficient to produce the effect, may appear probable, if
we consider that a fluid once warm requires no more
heat to be applied to it in any part of time to keep it
warm, than what it shall lose in an equal part of time.
1747] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 107
A smaller force will keep a pendulum going, than
what first set it in motion.
The blood, thus warmed in the heart, carries
warmth with it to the very extremities of the body,
and communicates to them ; but, as by this means its
heat is gradually diminished, it is returned again to
the heart by the veins for a fresh calefaction.
The blood communicates its heat, not only to the
solids of our body, but to our clothes, and to a por
tion of the circumambient air. Every breath, though
drawn in cold, is expired warm ; and every particle of
the materia perspirabilis carries off with it a portion
of heat.
While the blood retains a due fluidity, it passes
freely through the minutest vessels, and communicates
a proper warmth to the extremities of the body. But
when by any means it becomes so viscid as not to
be capable of passing those minute vessels, the ex
tremities, as the blood can bring no more heat to
them, grow cold.
The same viscidity in the blood and juices checks
or stops the perspiration, by clogging the perspiratory
duct, or, perhaps, by not admitting the perspirable
parts to separate. Paper wet with size and water
will not dry so soon as if wet with water only.
A vessel of hot water, if the vapor can freely pass
from it, soon cools. If there be just fire enough
under it to add continually the heat it loses, it retains
the same degree. If the vessel be closed, so that the
vapor may be retained, there will from the same fire
be a continual accession of heat to the water, till it
io8 THE WORKS OF [1748
rises to a great degree. Or, if no fire be under it, it
will retain the heat it first had for a long time. I
have experienced, that a bottle of hot water stopped,
and put in my bed at night, has retained so much
heat seven or eight hours, that I could not in the
morning bear my foot against it, without some of the
bedclothes intervening.
During the cold fit, then, perspiration being
stopped, great part of the heat of the blood, that
used to be dissipated, is confined and retained in the
body ; the heart continues its motion, and creates a
constant accession to that heat ; the inward parts
grow very hot, and, by contact with the extremities,
communicate that heat to them. The glue of the
blood is by this heat dissolved, and the blood after
wards flows freely, as before the disorder.
LIV.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 27 January, 1748.
DEAR SIR : I received your favor relating to the
cannon. We have petitioned our Proprietors for
some, and have besides wrote absolutely to London
for a quantity, in case the application to the Proprie
tors should not succeed ; so that, accidents excepted,
we are sure of being supplied some time next summer.
But, as we are extremely desirous of having some
mounted early in the spring, and perhaps, if your en
gineer should propose to use all you have, the works
he may intend will not very soon be ready to receive
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 109
them, we should think ourselves exceedingly obliged
to your government, if you would lend us a few for
one year only. When you return to New York, I
hope a great deal from your interest and influence.
Mr. Read, to whom Osborne consigned your
books, 1 did not open or offer them for sale till within
these two weeks, being about to remove when he re
ceived them, and having till now no conveniency of
shelves, &c. In our two last papers he has advertised
generally, that he has a parcel of books to sell-
Greek, Latin, French, and English, but makes no
particular mention of the Indian History ; it is there
fore no wonder that he has sold none of them, as he
told me a few days since. I had one of them from
London, which I sent you before any of my friends
saw it. So, as no one here has read it but myself, I
can only tell you my own opinion, that it is a well-
written, entertaining, and instructive piece, and must
be exceedingly useful to all those colonies which have
any thing to do with Indian affairs.
You have reason to be pleased with the mathema
tician s envious expression about your tract on gravi
tation. I long to see from Europe some of the deliber
ate and mature thoughts of their philosophers upon it.
To obtain some leisure I have taken a partner 2
1 Mr. Colden s " History of the partnership with Franklin continued
Five Indian Nations," which was eighteen years, during which time he
published in London, and copies of had the principal charge of the busi-
which were sent over to be sold in ness. He conducted the Pennsylvania
Philadelphia. Gazette, and was likewise a bookseller
a David Hall, a Scotchman by birth, and stationer. He died on the I7th
and a friend of Mr. Strahan, who had of December, 1772, at the age of fifty-
worked in the same office with Franklin eight years. See Thomas "History
as a journeyman printer in London. His of Printing," vol. ii., p. 54.
no
THE WORKS OF
[1748
into the printing-house ; but, though I am thereby a
good deal disengaged from private business, I find
myself still fully occupied. The association, lottery,
and batteries fill up at present a great part of my
time. 1
1 In his Autobiography Franklin
says : "I proposed a Lottery to de
fray the expense of building a battery
below the town, and furnishing it with
cannon. It filled expeditiously, and
the battery was soon erected.* " Mr.
Logan put into my hands sixty pounds,
to be laid out in lottery tickets for the
battery, with directions to apply what
prizes might be drawn wholly to that
service." The following memoranda,
found in Franklin s handwriting, show
his manner of proceeding on this oc
casion :
" Proposed, That the Managers of
the Lottery be applied to, to appoint
suitable persons to go down the river
to the Capes, and there consult with
the persons in authority, and concert
with them the modes of conveying in
telligence to Philadelphia, whether by
express or otherwise, when any ene
mies appear of such force as to make
an alarm necessary, or even such as
may endanger our trade ; who may
likewise, in returning, land at such
places as they judge suitable to give
signals from, and endeavour to agree
with the neighbouring inhabitants to
keep watch and give the signals that
may be agreed on, and engage to fur
nish them with guns, tar-barrels, or
whatever else may be necessary for
that purpose.
That, for the more certain alarm
ing the country on any occasion, as
soon as the commander-in-chief at
Philadelphia is well-informed of the
approach, on our coasts, of any con
siderable force of the enemy, letters
and orders may be despatched by ex
presses to the colonels of some or all
of the regiments, as the occasion may
require, who may immediately com
municate the same to the other officers
of the regiments, and they to the men
of the respective companies, who are
immediately to meet at their usual
place of rendezvous, and from thence
march to such place as the colonel
shall appoint for assembling his regi
ment ; and when all the companies
are assembled, the regiment to march
to such place as the commander-in-
chief shall have directed.
" That, in case of any attempt on
the inhabitants of the frontiers by
small parties, as the Indian custom is,
the superior officers of the regiment,
being well-informed of the facts, may
despatch away on horseback suitable
bodies of active men, well acquainted
with the woods, to such places or
passes among the mountains, or near
the conflux of rivers, by which it is
probable the enemy must endeavour
to make their retreat, and there to
take post and lie in wait till their re
turn, keeping proper scouts or senti
nels at a distance of the body to give
notice of their approach ; by which
means they may be cut off, and the
prisoners they take may be recovered ;
a few instances of which would proba
bly much intimidate those cowardly
people, and make them afraid of at
tempting to attack us hereafter. And
that such places may be known to
more people, it might be proper for
the officers beforehand to make a few
journeys to them, guided by Indian
traders or hunters, accompanied by
such of their men as would be suitable
to act on occasion and are disposed
that way, observing and pointing out
all the proper places for ambushes,
&c. The expense of which journeys
might be defrayed by the managers of
the lottery.
" That, if there be certain accounts
of any large body of the enemy march
ing towards any part of the frontiers,
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. in
I thank you for communicating the sheet on the
first principles of morality, the continuation of which
I shall be glad to see. I am, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
LV.
TO JAMES LOGAN.
PHILADELPHIA, 27 January, 1748.
SIR : I have not yet found the book, but suppose I
shall to-morrow. The post goes out to-day, which
allows me no time to look for it. We have a particu
lar account from Boston of the guns there. They
are in all thirty-nine, Spanish make, and new ; fifteen
of them are twenty-eight pounders and twenty-four
are fourteen pounders. We offer by this post ^"1500
this currency for them all, and suppose we shall get
them.
The insurers, in consideration of the premium of
twenty per cent, engage thus : that if the prizes
arising against the tickets insured do not, one with
the colonels of the nearest frontier to erect such defences, and the neigh-
regiments may despatch expresses to hours, being poor, cannot bear the
the commander-in-chief at Philadel- expense, some assistance might be ob-
phia, with the vouchers of the intelli- tained from the lottery managers, if
gence, from whom orders may issue to another lottery should go on.
raise such force as may be necessary That those managers be applied
to march to the assistance of such to, to offer rewards by public declara-
threatened frontier. tion to such as should be maimed in
" That the people on the frontiers action, and pensions to poor widows,
be advised to pitch on some suitable whose husbands should happen to fall
places at proper distances, and there in defence of their country,
enclose pieces of ground with palisades "That a number of spades, pick-
or stockades, so as to make them de- axes, shovels, &c., be provided for
fensible against Indians, whereto, on the city regiment, to be used by the
occasion, their wives, children, and negroes and others as pioneers for
ancient persons may retire in time of casting up sudden intrenchments on
danger. In parts where there may occasion." EDITOR.
not be had sufficient voluntary labor
ii2 THE WORKS OF [1748
another, make in the whole a sum equal to the first
cost of the tickets, they will make up the deficiency.
They now think it a disadvantageous agreement and
have left off insuring, for though they would gain, as
you observe, ^1000 if they insured the whole at that
rate in one lot, yet it will not be so when they insure
a number of separate lots, as ten, twenty, or one
hundred tickets in a lot, because the prizes falling in
one lot do not help to make up the deficiencies in
another. The person that insured your one hundred
and twenty-five, did the next day give the whole
premium to another, with six and a quarter per cent
more, to be reinsured two thirds of them. I have
not insured for anybody, so I shall neither lose nor
gain that way. I will send the policy, that you may
see it, with the book. I am, Sir, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LVI.
TO JAMES LOGAN.
PHILADELPHIA, 30 January, 1748.
SIR : I send you herewith the book, and enclosed is
the policy. Here is no news but what is bad, namely,
the taking of Mesnard, an account of which we have
by way of Lisbon. He was carried into St. Malo.
And just now we have advice from New York, that an
express was arrived there from New England to in
form the government that two prisoners, who had
escaped from different parts of Canada and arrived
in New England, agreed in declaring that three
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 113
thousand men were getting ready to march against
Albany, which they intended to besiege and take,
and that they were to be joined by a great body of
Indians. They write from New York that the ad
vice is credited there. I wish it may not prove too
true, the wretched divisions and misunderstandings
among the principal men in that government giving
the enemy too much encouragement and advantage.
I hope you and your good family continue well,
being with sincere respect and affection, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LVII.
TO JAMES LOGAN.
PHILADELPHIA, 6 April, 1748.
SIR : I have a letter from Mr. Samuel Laurens, of
New York, who undertook to ship the guns for us,
informing me that two small vessels had been agreed
with to bring them round, but a sloop arriving there
on Sunday last that had been chased in latitude
thirty-six by a ship and brigantine, which were sup
posed to be the Don Pedro with a consort coming on
this coast, the Governor and Council thought it more
advisable to send them to Brunswick, which we since
hear is done. Captain Wallace, a discreet old sea
commander of this place, goes to-day or to-morrow
to receive them there and provide carriages to bring
them to Philadelphia. The postmaster at New York
and another correspondent there write me that the
ship seen was certainly the Don Pedro, the captain of
ii 4 THE WORKS OF [1748
the vessel chased knowing her well, having often seen
her at the Havana, where he has been several voyages
with a flag of truce. He was very near being taken,
but escaped by favor of the night. We are glad to
hear the Don is come out with one consort only, as
by some accounts we apprehended he intended to
bring a small fleet with him. It now looks as if his
design was more against our trade than our city.
With this I send you a packet from London and a
pamphlet from Sweden, both left with me for you by
the new Swedish missionary, Mr. Sandin. You must
have heard that Mr. James Hamilton is appointed
our governor, an event that gives us the more
pleasure, as we esteem him a benevolent and upright
as well as a sensible man. I hope he will arrive here
early in the summer and bring with him some cannon
from the Proprietors. I am, Sir, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LVIII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 29 September, 1748.
SIR: I received your favor of the i2th instant,
which gave me the greater pleasure, as it was so long
since I had heard from you. I congratulate you on
your return to your beloved retirement. I, too, am
taking the proper measures for obtaining leisure to
enjoy life and my friends more than heretofore, hav
ing put my printing-house under the care of my part
ner, David Hall, absolutely left off bookselling, and
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 115
removed to a more quiet part of the town, where I
am settling my old accounts, and hope soon to be
quite master of my own time, and no longer, as the
song has it, at every ones call but my own. If
health continue, I hope to be able in another year
to visit the most distant friend I have, without incon
venience.
With the same views I have refused engaging fur
ther in public affairs. The share I had in the late
Association, &c., having given me a little present run
of popularity, there was a pretty general intention of
choosing me a representative of the city at the next
election of Assembly men ; but I have desired all my
friends who spoke to me about it, to discourage it,
declaring that I should not serve if chosen. Thus
you see I am in a fair way of having no other tasks
than such as I shall like to give myself, and of enjoy
ing what I look upon as a great happiness, leisure to
read, study, make experiments, and converse at large
with such ingenious and worthy -men as are pleased
to honor me with their friendship or acquaintance, on
such points as may produce something for the com
mon benefit of mankind, uninterrupted by the little
cares and fatigues of business. Among other pleas
ures I promise myself, that of corresponding more
frequently and fully with Dr. Golden is none of the
least. I shall only wish that what must be so agree
able to me may not prove troublesome to you.
I thank you for your kind recommending of me to
Mr. Osborne. Mr. Read would readily have put the
books into my hands, but it being now out of my
n6 THE WORKS OF [1748
way to dispose of them, I propose to Mr. Hall the
taking of them into his shop ; but he, having looked
over the invoice, says they are charged so extrava
gantly high that he cannot sell them for any profit to
himself without hurting the character of his shop.
He will, however, at my request, take the copies of
the Indian History and put them on sale ; but the
rest of the cargo must lie, I believe, for Mr. Osborne s
further orders. I shall write to him by our next
vessels.
I am glad you have had an opportunity of gaining
the friendship of Governor Shirley, with whom though
I have not the honor of being particularly acquainted,
I take him to be a wise, good, and worthy man. He
is now a fellow sufferer with you, in being made the
subject of some public, virulent, and senseless libels.
I hope they give him as little pain.
Mr. Bartram continues well. Here is a Swedish
gentleman, 1 a professor of botany, lately arrived, and
I suppose will soon be your way, as he intends for
Canada. Mr. Collinson and Dr. Mitchell recom
mend him to me as an ingenious man. Perhaps the
enclosed (left at the post-office for you) may be from
him. I have not seen him since the first day he came.
I delivered yours to Mr. Evans ; and when I next
see Mr. Bartram I shall acquaint him with what you
say.
I am, with great esteem and respect, dear Sir, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
1 This was Peter Kalm, the Swedish some time in America, and afterwards
traveller and naturalist, who spent published an account of his travels.
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 117
LIX.
TO JAMES LOGAN.
PHILADELPHIA, 30 October, 1748.
SIR : I received your favor of the 28th, with the
piece on the Generation of Plants, for which I thank
you. Mr. Sandin, the Swedish missionary, who gave
me Wahlboom s Oration to send you (as he passed
through this town from New York, where he just
arrived, to Racoon Creek, where he was to be set
tled), I have never seen since. Mr. Kalm came to
see me the day he arrived, and brought me letters
from Mr. Collinson and Dr. Mitchell, both recom
mending him. I invited him to lodge at my house,
and offered him any service in my power ; but I never
saw him afterwards till yesterday, when he told me
that he had been much in the country, and at New
York, since his arrival, but was now come to settle in
town for the winter. To-day he dined with me ; and,
as I had received yours in the morning, I took occa
sion to ask him if he had not yet seen Mr. Logan.
He said, no ; that he had once been out with his
countryman, Mr. Kock, proposing to wait on you as
they returned ; but it proved later in the evening
than they had expected, and he thought a visit then
would be unseasonable, but proposed soon to pay his
respects to you. Possibly he might at that time have
the packet for you at Naglee s. I did not" ask him
about that. Inquiring of him what was become of
Mr. Sandin, he told me that soon after he got to
Racoon Creek, he was taken with the fever and
n8 THE WORKS OF [1748
ague, which was followed by several other disorders,
that constantly harassed him, and at length carried
him off, just as Kalm arrived here, who, hearing that
he was dangerously ill, hurried down to see him, but
found him dead.
Sandin had a family with him, and, when here, was
in haste to get to his settlement, but might intend to
wait on you when he should come again to Philadel
phia. Kalm, I suppose, might be in haste to see as
much of the country as he could, and make his journey
to New York before cold weather came on. I men
tion these things so particularly, that you may see you
have not been purposely avoided by both these gen
tlemen, as you seem to imagine. I did not let Kalm
know that you had mentioned him to me in your let
ter. I shall write to Mr. Hugh Jones, as you desire.
I am, Sir, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
LX.
ADVICE TO A YOUNG TRADESMAN.
To MY FRIEND, A. B. :
As you have desired it of me, I write the following
hints, which have been of service to me, and may, if
observed, be so to you.
Remember that time is money. He that can earn
ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or
sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but
sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not
to reckon that the only expense ; he has really spent,
or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 119
Remember that credit is money. If a man lets his
money lie in my hands after it is due, he gives me the
interest, or so much as I can make of it during that
time. This amounts to a considerable sum where a
man has good and large credit, and makes good use
of it.
Remember that money is of the prolific, generating
nature. Money can beget money, and its offspring
can beget more, and so on. Five shillings turned is
six, turned again it is seven and three-pence, and so
on till it becomes an hundred pounds. The more there
is of it, the more it produces every turning, so that
the profits rise quicker and quicker. He that kills a
breeding sow destroys all her offspring to the thou
sandth generation. He that murders a crown de
stroys all that it might have produced, even scores of
pounds.
Remember that six pounds a year is but a groat a
day. For this little sum (which may be daily wasted
either in time or expense unperceived) a man of credit
may, on his own security, have the constant posses
sion and use of an hundred pounds. So much in
stock, briskly turned by an industrious man, produces
great advantage.
Remember this saying : The good paymaster is lord
of another mans purse. He that is known to pay
punctually and exactly to the time he promises, may
at any time, and on any occasion, raise all the money
his friends can spare. This is sometimes of great
use. After industry and frugality, nothing contrib
utes more to the raising of a young man in the world
120 THE WORKS OF [1748
than punctuality and justice in all his dealings ; there
fore, never keep borrowed money an hour beyond the
time you promised, lest a disappointment shut up
your friend s purse for ever.
The most trifling actions that affect a man s credit
are to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at
five in the morning, or nine at night, heard by a cred
itor, makes him easy six months longer ; but if he
sees you at a billiard-table or hears your voice at a
tavern when you should be at work, he sends for his
money the next day ; demands it, before he can re
ceive it, in a lump.
It shows, besides, that you are mindful of what you
owe ; it makes you appear a careful as well as an hon
est man, and that still increases your credit.
Beware of thinking all your own that you possess,
and of living accordingly. It is a mistake that many
people who have credit fall into. To prevent this,
keep an exact account for some time, both of your
expenses and your income. If you take the pains at
first to mention particulars, it will have this good
effect : you will discover how wonderfully small,
trifling expenses mount up to large sums, and will
discern what might have been and may for the fu
ture be saved, without occasioning any great incon
venience.
In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as
plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on
two words, industry and frugality that is, waste
neither time nor money, but make the best use of
both. Without industry and frugality nothing will
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 121
do, and with them every thing. He that gets all he
can honestly, and saves all he gets (necessary ex
penses excepted), will certainly become rich, if that
Being who governs the world, to whom all should
look for a blessing on their honest endeavours, doth
not, in his wise providence, otherwise determine.
AN OLD TRADESMAN.
LXI.
i
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, , 1748.
SIR :
i. There will be the same explosion and shock
if the electrified phial is held in one hand by the
hook and the coating touched with the other, as
when held by the coating and touched at the hook.
2. To take the charged phial safely by the hook,
and not at the same time diminish its force, it must
first be set down on an electric per se.
3. The phial will be electrified as strongly, if held
by the hook and the coating applied to the globe or
tube, as when held by the coating and the hook
applied. 1
4. But the direction of the electrical fire, being
different in the charging, will also be different in the
explosion. The bottle charged through the hook
will be discharged through the hook ; the bottle
charged through the coating will be discharged
1 This was a discovery of the very ingenious Mr. Kinnersley, and by him
communicated to me. F.
122 THE WORKS OF [1748
through the coating, and not otherways, for the fire
must come out the same way it went in.
5. To prove this, take two bottles that were equally
charged through the hooks, one in each hand ; bring
their hooks near each other, and no spark or shock
will follow, because each hook is disposed to give
fire and neither to receive it. Set one of the bottles
down on glass, take it up by the hook, and apply its
coating to the hook of the other, then there will be
an explosion and shock, and both bottles will be dis
charged.
6. Vary the experiment by charging two phials
equally, one through the hook, the other through the
coating ; hold that by the coating which was charged
through the hook, and that by the hook which was
charged through the coating ; apply the hook of the
first to the coating of the other, and there will be no
shock or spark. Set that down on glass which you
held by the hook, take it up by the coating, and bring
the two hooks together ; a spark and shock will fol
low, and both phials be discharged.
In this experiment the bottles are totally dis
charged, or the equilibrium within them restored.
The abounding of fire in one of the hooks (or rather
in the internal surface of one bottle) being exactly
equal to the wanting of the other ; and therefore, as
each bottle has in itself the abounding as well as the
wanting, the wanting and abounding must be equal
in each bottle. See 8, 9, 10, u. But if a man
holds in his hands two bottles, one fully electrified,
the other not at all, and brings their hooks together,
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 123
he has but half a shock, and the bottles will both
remain half electrified, the one being half discharged,
and the other half charged.
7. Place two phials equally charged on a table, at
five or six inches distance. Let a cork ball, sus
pended by a silk thread, hang between them. If the
phials were both charged through their hooks, the
cork, when it has been attracted and repelled by the
one, will not be attracted, but equally repelled, by the
other. But if the phials were charged, the one
through the hook and the other through the coat
ing, 1 the ball, when it is repelled from one hook, will
be as strongly attracted by the other, and play vigor
ously between them, fetching the electric fluid from
the one, and delivering it to the other, till both phials
are nearly discharged.
8. When we use the terms of charging and dis
charging the phial, it is in compliance with custom,
and for want of others more suitable. Since we are
of opinion that there is really no more electrical fire
in the phial after what is called its charging, than be
fore, nor less after its discharging ; excepting only
the small spark that might be given to, and taken
from, the non-electric matter, if separated from the
bottle, which spark may not be equal to a five-
hundredth part of what is called the explosion.
For if, on the explosion, the electrical fire came out
of the bottle by one part, and did not enter in again
1 To charge a bottle commodiously wall or floor. When it is charged,
through the coating, place it on a remove the latter communication be-
glass stand ; form a communication fore you take hold of the bottle,
from the prime conductor to the coat- otherwise great part of the fire will
ing, and another from the hook to the escape by it, F.
124 THE WORKS OF [1748
by another, then, if a man, standing on wax, holding
the bottle in one hand, takes the spark by touching
the wire hook with the other, the bottle being thereby
discharged, the man would be charged ; or whatever
fire was lost by one, would be found in the other,
since there was no way for its escape ; but the con
trary is true.
9. Besides, the phial will not suffer what is called a
charging, unless as much fire can go out of it one
way, as is thrown in by another. A phial cannot be
charged standing on wax or glass, or hanging on the
prime conductor, unless a communication be formed
between its coating and the floor.
10. But suspend two or more phials on the prime
conductor, one hanging on the tail of the other, and
a wire from the last to the floor, an equal number of
turns of the wheel shall charge them all equally, and
every one as much as one alone would have been ;
what is driven out at the tail of the first, serving to
charge the second ; what is driven out of the second
charging the third ; and so on. By this means a
great number of bottles might be charged with the
same labor, and equally high, with one alone ; were
it not that every bottle receives new fire, and loses
its old with some reluctance, or rather gives some
small resistance to the charging, which in a number
of bottles becomes more equal to the charging power,
and so repels the fire back again on the globe, sooner
in proportion than a single bottle would do.
11. When a bottle is charged in the common
way, its inside and outside surfaces stand ready, the
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 125
one to give fire by the hook, the other to receive
it by the coating ; the one is full and ready to throw
out, the other empty and extremely hungry ; yet, as
the first will not give out, unless the other can at the
same instant receive in, so neither will the latter
receive in, unless the first can at the same instant
give out. When both can be done at once, it is done
with inconceivable quickness and violence.
1 2. So a straight spring (though the comparison
does not agree in every particular), when forcibly
bent, must, to restore itself, contract that side which
in the bending was extended, and extend that which
was contracted ; if either of these two operations be
hindered, the other cannot be done. But the spring
is not said to be charged with elasticity when bent,
and dischargedv!\\v(\ unbent; its quantity of elasticity
is always the same.
13. Glass, in like manner, has within its substance
always the same quantity of electrical fire, and that a
very great quantity in proportion to the mass of
glass, as shall be shown hereafter.
14. This quantity, proportioned to the glass, it
strongly and obstinately retains, and will have
neither more nor less, though it will suffer a change
to be made in its parts and situation ; that is, we may
take away part of it from one of the sides, provided
we throw an equal quantity into the other.
15. Yet, when the situation of the electrical fire is
thus altered in the glass, when some has been taken
from one side and some added to the other, it
will not be at rest, or in its natural state, till it is
126 THE WORKS OF [1748
restored to its original equality. And this restitution
cannot be made through J^
But must be done 1">V fll nnn-plprtrifi rnmrrmrnra-
tion formed without, from surface to surface.
1 6. Thus, the whole force of the bottle and power
of giving a shock is in the glass itself ; the non-
electrics in contact with the two surfaces serving only
to give and receive to and from the several parts of
the glass ; that is, to give on one side and take away
from the other.
1 7. This was discovered here in the following man
ner : purposing to analyze the electrified bottle, in
order to find wherein its strength lay, we placed it on
glass, and drew out the cork and wire, which for that
purpose had been loosely put in. Then taking the
bottle in one hand, and bringing a finger of the other
near its mouth, a strong spark came from the water,
and the shock was as violent as if the wire had re
mained in it, whtV.h showed t.hat-the force did jiot^ lie
in Jthe wire.. Then, to find if it resided in the water,
being crowded into and condensed in it, as confined
by the glass, which had been our former opinion, we
electrified the bottle again, and placing it on glass,
drew out the wire and cork as before ; then taking up
the bottle, we decanted all its water into an empty
bottle, which likewise stood on glass ; and taking up
that other bottle, we expected, if the force resided in
the water, to find a shock from it ; but there was
none. We judged then that it must either be lost in
decanting or remain in the first bottle. The latter
we found to be true ; for that bottle on trial gave the
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 127
shock, though filled up as it stood with fresh unelec-
trified water from a tea-pot. To find, then, whether
glass had this property merely as glass, or whether
the form contributed any thing to it, we took a pane
of sash-glass, and laying it on the hand, placed a plate
of lead on its upper surface ; then electrified that
plate, and bringing a finger to it, there was a spark
and shock. We then took two plates of lead
of equal dimensions, but less than the glass by two
inches every way, and electrified the glass between
them by electrifying the uppermost lead ; then sepa
rated the glass from the lead, in doing which what
little fire might be in the lead was taken out, and
the glass being touched in the electrified parts with a
finger, afforded only very small pricking sparks, but
a great number of them might be taken from differ
ent places. Then dexterously placing it again be
tween the leaden plates, and completing a circle be
tween the two surfaces, a violent shock ensued, which
demonstrated the power to reside in glass as glass,
and that the non-electrics in contact served only, like
the armature of a loadstone, to unite the force of the
several parts, and bring them at once to any point de
sired ; it being the property of a non-electric that the
whole body instantly receives or gives what electrical
fire is given to, or taken from, any one of its parts.
1 8. Upon this we made what we called an electrical
battery, consisting of eleven panes of large sash-glass,
armed with thin leaden plates, pasted on each side,
placed vertically, and supported at two inches dis
tance on silk cords, with thick hooks of leaden wire,
128 THE WORKS OF [1748
one from each side, standing upright, distant from
each other, and convenient communications of wire
and chain, from the giving side of one pane to the re
ceiving side of the other, that so the whole might be
charged together, and with the same labor as one
single pane ; and another contrivance to bring the
giving sides, after charging, in contact with one long
wire, and the receivers with another, which two long
wires would give the force of all the plates of glass at
once through the body of any animal forming the
circle with them. The plates may also be discharged
separately, or any number together that is required.
But this machine is not much used, as not perfectly
answering our intention with regard to the ease of
charging, for the reason given, 10. We made also
of large glass panes magical pictures and self-moving
animated wheels, presently to be described.
19. I perceive by the ingenious Mr. Watson s last
book, lately received, that Dr. Bevis had used, before
we had, panes of glass to give a shock z ; though till
that book came to hand I thought to have communi
cated it to you as a novelty. The excuse for men
tioning it here is, that we tried the experiment
differently, drew different consequences from it (for
Mr. Watson still seems to think the fire accumulated
on the non-electric, that is, in contact with the glass,
p. 7 2 )> and, as far as we hitherto know, have carried
it farther.
20. The magical picture 2 is made thus. Having a
1 I have since heard that Mr. Smeaton was the first who made use of panes
of glass for that purpose. F.
2 Contrived by Mr. Kinnersley. F.
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 129
large mezzotinto with a frame and glass, suppose of
the KING (God preserve him), take out the print and
cut a pannel out of it near two inches distant from the
frame all round. If the cut is through the picture,
it is not the worse. With thin paste or gum-water,
fix the border that is cut off on the inside the glass,
pressing it smooth and close ; then fill up the vacancy
by gilding the glass well with leaf-gold or brass.
Gild likewise the inner edge of the back of the frame
all round, except the top part, and form a communi
cation between that gilding and the gilding behind
the glass ; then put in the board, and that side is
finished. Turn up the glass and gild the fore side
exactly over the back gilding, and when it is dry
cover it by pasting on the pannel of the picture that
hath been cut out, observing to bring the correspon
dent parts of the border and picture together, by
which the picture will appear of a piece, as at first,
only part is behind the glass and part before. Hold
the picture horizontally by the top, and place a little
movable gilt crown on the King s head. If now the
picture be moderately electrified, and another person
take hold of the frame with one hand, so that his
fingers touch its inside gilding, and with the other
hand endeavour to take off the crown, he will receive
a terrible blow and fail in the attempt. If the picture
were highly charged, the consequence might perhaps
be as fatal x as that of high treason ; for when the
spark is taken through a quire of paper laid on the
1 We have since found it fatal to The biggest we have yet killed is a
small animals, though not to large ones. hen. 1750. F.
130 THE WORKS OF [1748
picture by means of a wire communication, it makes
a fair hole through every sheet, that is, through
forty-eight leaves, though a quire of paper is thought
good armour against the push of a sword, or even
against a pistol bullet, and the crack is exceedingly
loud. The operator, who holds the picture by the
upper end, where the inside of the frame is not gilt, to
prevent its falling, feels nothing of the shock, and
may touch the face of the picture without danger,
which he pretends is a test of his loyalty. If a ring
of persons take the shock among them, the experi
ment is called The Conspirators.
21. On the principle in 7 that hooks of bottles
differently charged will attract and repel differently, is
made an electrical wheel that turns with considerable
strength. A small upright shaft of wood passes at
right angles through a thin round board of about
twelve inches diameter, and turns on a sharp point
of iron fixed in the lower end, while a strong wire in
the upper end, passing through a small hole in a thin
brass plate, keeps the shaft truly vertical. About
thirty radii of equal length, made of sash-glass cut in
narrow strips, issue horizontally from the circumfer
ence of the board, the ends most distant from the
centre being about four inches apart. On the end
of every one a brass thimble is fixed. If now the
wire of a bottle electrified in the common way be
brought near the circumference of this wheel, it will
attract the nearest thimble, and so put the wheel in
motion ; that thimble in passing by receives a spark,
and thereby being electrified is repelled, and so driven
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 131
forwards, while a second being attracted approaches
the wire, receives a spark, and is driven after the first,
and so on till the wheel has gone once round, when
the thimbles before electrified approaching the wire,
instead of being attracted as they were at first, are
repelled, and the motion presently ceases. But if
another bottle which has been charged through the
coating be placed near the same wheel, its wire will
attract the thimble repelled by the first, and thereby
double the force that carries the wheel round, and
not only taking out the fire that had been communi
cated to the thimbles by the first bottle, but even
robbing them of their natural quantity, instead of
being repelled when they come again towards the
first bottle, they are more strongly attracted, so that
the wheel mends its pace till it goes with great
rapidity, twelve or fifteen rounds in a minute, and
with such strength as that the weight of one hundred
Spanish dollars, with which we once loaded^jt
not seem in the least to retard its motion^J This is
called an electrical jack, and if a large fowl were
spitted on the upright shaft, it would be carried round
before a fire with a motion fit for roasting.
22. But this wheel, like those driven by wind, water,
or weights, moves by a foreign force, to wit, that of
the bottles. The self-moving wheel, though con
structed on the same principles, appears more surpris
ing. It is made of a thin, round plate of window-
glass, seventeen inches diameter, well gilt on both
sides, all but two inches next the edge. Two small
hemispheres of wood are then fixed with cement to
132 THE WORKS OF [1748
the middle of the upper and under sides, centrally op
posite, and in each of them a thick strong wire eight
or ten inches long, which together make the axis of
the wheel. It turns horizontally on a point at the
lower end of its axis, which rests on a bit of brass ce
mented with a glass salt-cellar. The upper end of its
axis passes through a hole in a thin brass plate ce
mented to a long strong piece of glass, which keeps
it six or eight inches distant from any non-electric,
and has a small ball of wax or metal on its top to
keep in the fire. In a circle on the table which sup
ports the wheel, are fixed twelve small pillars of glass,
at about four inches distance, with a thimble on the
top of each. On the edge of the wheel is a small
leaden bullet, communicating by a wire with the gild
ing of the upper surface of the wheel ; and about six
inches from it is another bullet, communicating in
like manner with the under surface. When the wheel
is to be charged by the upper surface, a communica
tion must be made from the under surface to the table.
When it is well charged it begins to move ; the bullet
nearest to a pillar moves towards the thimble on that
pillar, and passing by electrifies it, and then pushes
itself from it ; the succeeding bullet, which communi
cates with the other surface of the glass, more
strongly attracts that thimble, on account of its being
before electrified by the other bullet ; and thus the
wheel increases its motion till it comes to such a
height that the resistance of the air regulates it. It
will go half an hour, and make, one minute with an
other, twenty turns in a minute, which is six hundred
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 133
turns in the whole ; the bullet of the upper surface
giving in each turn twelve sparks to the thimbles,
which makes seven thousand two hundred sparks ;
and the bullet of the under surface receiving as many
from the thimbles ; those bullets moving in the time
near two thousand five hundred feet. The thimbles
are well fixed, and in so exact a circle that the bullets
may pass within a very small distance of each of them.
If, instead of two bullets, you put eight, four commu
nicating with the upper surface and four with the un
der surface, placed alternately, which eight at about
six inches distance completes the circumference, the
force and swiftness will be greatly increased, the
wheel making fifty turns in a minute ; but then it will
not continue moving so long. These wheels may be
applied, perhaps, to the ringing of chimes, 1 and mov
ing of light-made orreries.
23. A small wire bent circularly, with a loop at
each end ; let one end rest against the under surface
of the wheel, and bring the other end near the upper
surface, it will give a terrible crack, and the force will
be discharged.
24. Every spark in that manner drawn from the
surface of the wheel, makes a round hole in the gild
ing, tearing off a part of it in coming out ; which
shows that the fire is not accumulated on the gilding,
but is in the glass itself.
25. The gilding being varnished over with turpen
tine varnish, the varnish, though dry and hard, is
burnt by the spark drawn through it, and gives a
1 This was afterwards done with success by Mr. Kinnersley. F.
134 THE WORKS OF [1748
strong smell and visible smoke. And when the
spark is drawn through paper, all round the hole
made by it the paper will be blacked by the smoke,
which sometimes penetrates several of the leaves.
Part of the gilding torn off is also found forcibly
driven into the hole made in the paper by the
stroke.
26. It is amazing to observe in how small a portion
of glass a great electrical force may lie. A thin glass
bubble, about an inch diameter, weighing only six
grains, being half filled with water, partly gilt on the
outside, and furnished with a wire hook, gives, when
electrified, as great a shock as a man can well bear.
As the glass is thickest near the orifice, I suppose the
lower half, which, being gilt, was electrified and gave
the shock, did not exceed two grains ; for it appeared,
when broken, much thinner than the upper half. If
one of these thin bottles be electrified by the coating,
and the spark taken out through the gilding, it will
break the glass inwards, at the same time that it
breaks the gilding outwards.
27. And allowing (for the reasons before given,
8, 9, 10) that there is no more electrical fire in a
bottle after charging than before, how great must be
the quantity in this small portion of glass ! It seems
as if it were of its very substance and essence. Per
haps if that due quantity of electrical fire so obstinately
retained by glass could be separated from it, it would
no longer be glass ; it might lose its transparency,
or its brittleness, or its elasticity. Experiments may
possibly be invented hereafter to discover this.
1748] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 135
28. We were surprised at the account, given in Mr.
Watson s book, of a shock communicated through a
great space of dry ground, and suspect there must be
some metalline quality in the gravel of that ground ;
having found that simply dry earth, rammed in a glass
tube, open at both ends, and a wire hook inserted in
the earth at each end, the earth and wires making
part of a circuit, would not conduct the least percepti
ble shock ; and, indeed, when one wire was electrified,
the other hardly showed any signs of its being in con
nexion with it 1 Even a thoroughly wet packthread
sometimes fails of conducting a shock, though it
otherwise conducts electricity very well. A dry
cake of ice, or an icicle held between two in a
circle, likewise prevents the shock, which one would
not expect, as water conducts it so perfectly well.
Gilding on a new book, though at first it conducts
the shock extremely well, yet fails after ten or a dozen
experiments, though it appears otherwise in all re
spects the same, which we cannot account for. 2
29. There is one experiment more which surprises
us, and is not hitherto satisfactorily accounted for ; it
is this. Place an iron shot on a glass stand, and let a
ball of damp cork, suspended by a silk thread, hang in
contact with the shot. Take a bottle in each hand,
one that is electrified through the hook, the other
1 Probably the ground is never so from part to part through the air,
dry. F. which always resists the motion of
2 We afterwards found that it failed this fluid, and was probably the cause
after one stroke with a large bottle ; of the gold s not conducting so well as
and the continuity of the gold appear- before ; the number of interruptions
ing broken, and many of its parts dis- in the line of gold, making, when
sipated, the electricity could not pass added together, a space larger, per-
the remaining parts without leaping haps, than the striking distance. F.
136 THE WORKS OF [1748
through the coating ; apply the giving wire to the shot,
which will electrify it positively, and the cork shall be
repelled ; then apply the requiring wire, which will
take out the spark given by the other, when the cork
will return to the shot ; apply the same again and
take out another spark, so will the shot be electrified
negatively, and the cork in that case shall be repelled
equally as before. Then apply the giving wire to the
shot and give the spark it wanted, so will the cork re
turn ; give it another, which will be an addition to its
natural quantity, so will the cork be repelled again ;
and so may the experiment be repeated as long as
there is any charge in the bottles. Which shows that
bodies having less than the common quantity of elec
tricity repel each other, as well as those that have
more.
Chagrined a little that we have been hitherto able
to produce nothing in this way of use to mankind ;
and the hot weather coming on, when the electrical
experiments are not so agreeable, it is proposed to
put an end to them for this season, somewhat humor
ously, in a party of pleasure on the banks of the
Skuylkill* Spirits, at the same time, are to be fired
by a spark sent from side to side through the river,
without any other conductor than the water ; an experi
ment which we some time since performed to the amaze
ment of many. 2 A turkey is to be killed for our din-
1 The river that washes one side of 3 As the possibility of this experi-
Philadelphia, as the Delaware does the ment has not been easily conceived, I
other ; both are ornamented with the shall here describe it. Two iron rods,
summer habitations of the citizens and about three feet long, were planted
the agreeable mansions of the principal just within the margin of the river, on
people of this colony. F f the opposite sides, A thick piece of
1748-1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 137
ner by electrical shock, and roasted by the electrical
jack, before a fire kindled by the electrified bottle ;
when the healths of all the famous electricians in Eng
land, Holland, France, and Germany are to be drank
in electrified bumpers? under the the discharge of guns
from the electrical battery.
LXII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
SIR : Non-electric bodies, that have electric fire
thrown into them, will retain it till other electrics,
that have less, approach ; and then it is communicated
by a snap, and becomes equally divided.
2. Electrical fire loves water, is strongly attracted
by it, and they can subsist together.
3. Air is an electric per se, and when dry will not
conduct the electrical fire ; it will neither receive it,
nor give it to other bodies ; otherwise no body sur-
wire, with a small round knob at its the supported wire connected with
end, was fixed on the top of one of them.
the rods, bending downwards, so as to That the electric fire thus actually
deliver commodiously the spark upon passes through the water, has since
the surface of the spirit. A small wire been satisfactorily demonstrated to
fastened by one end to the handle of many by an experiment of Mr. Kin-
the spoon, containing the spirit, was nersley s, performed in a trough of
carried across the river and supported water about ten feet long. The hand,
in the air by the rope commonly used being placed under water in the
to hold by in drawing the ferry-boats direction of the spark (which always
over. The other end of this wire was takes the straight or shortest course,
tied round the coating of the bottle ; if sufficient, and other circumstances
which being charged, the spark was are equal), is struck and penetrated by
delivered from the hook to the top of it as it passes. F.
the rod standing in the water on that * An electrified bitmper is a small,
side. At the same instant the rod on the thin, glass tumbler, nearly filled with
other side clelived a spark into the spoon wine, and electrified as the bottle. This
and fired the spirit ; the electric fire when brought to the lips gives a shock,
returning to the coating of the bottle, if the party be close shaved, and does
through the handle of the spoon and not breathe on the liquor. April 29,
1749. F.
138 THE WORKS OF [1748-1749
rounded by air could be electrified positively and
negatively ; for, should it be attempted positively, the
air would immediately take away the overplus ; or
negatively, the air would supply what was wanting.
4. Water being electrified, the vapors arising from
it will be equally electrified, and floating in the air, in
the form of clouds, or otherwise, will retain that quan
tity of electrical fire, till they meet with other clouds
or bodies not so much electrified, and then will com
municate as before mentioned.
5. Every particle of matter electrified is repelled
by every other particle equally electrified. Thus the
stream of a fountain, naturally dense and continual,
when electrified, will separate and spread in the form
of a brush, every drop endeavouring to recede from
every other drop. But on taking out the electrical
fire they close again.
6. Water being strongly electrified (as well as
when heated by common fire) rises in vapors more
copiously ; the attraction of cohesion among its par
ticles being greatly weakened by the opposite power
of repulsion introduced with the electrical fire ; and,
when any particle is by any means disengaged, it is
immediately repelled, and so flies into the air.
7. Particles happening to be situated as A and B
(PI. I., Fig. 6, representing the profile of a vessel of wa
ter) are more easily disengaged than Cand I}, as each
is held by contact with three only, whereas C and D are
each in contact with nine. When the surface of the
water has the least motion, particles are continually
pushed into the situation represented by A and B.
1748-1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 139
8. Friction between a non-electric and an electric
per se will produce electrical fire, not by creating^ but
collecting it, for it is equally diffused in our walls,
floors, earth, and the whole mass of common matter.
Thus the whirling glass globe, during its friction
against the cushion, draws fire from the cushion,
the cushion is supplied from the frame of the ma
chine, that from the floor on which it stands. Cut
off the communication by thick glass or wax, placed
under the cushion, and no fire can be produced, be
cause it cannot be collected.
9. The ocean is a compound of water a non
electric, and salt an electric per se.
10. When there is a friction among the parts near
its surface the electrical fire is collected from the
parts below. It is then plainly visible in the night ;
it appears in the stern and in the wake of every sail
ing vessel ; every dash of an oar shows it, and every
surf and spray ; in storms the whole sea seems on
fire. The detached particles of water then repelled
from the electrified surface continually carry off the
fire as it is collected ; they arise and form clouds,
and those clouds are highly electrified and retain the
fire till they have an opportunity of communicating it.
1 1. The particles of water, rising in vapors, attach
themselves to particles of air.
12. The particles of air are said to be hard, round,
separate, and distant from each other, every particle
strongly repelling every other particle, whereby they
recede from each other as far as common gravity
will permit.
140 THE WORKS OF [1748-1749
1 3. The space between any three particles equally
repelling each other will be an equilateral triangle.
14. In air compressed these triangles are smaller,
in rarefied air they are larger.
15. Common fire joined with air increases the
repulsion, enlarges the triangles, and thereby makes
the air specifically lighter. Such air among denser
air will rise.
1 6. Common fire as well as electrical fire gives re
pulsion to the particles of water, and destroys their
attraction of cohesion ; hence common fire as well as
electrical fire assists in raising vapors.
1 7. Particles of water having no fire in them mu
tually attract each other. Three particles of water,
then, being attached to the three particles of a tri
angle of air, would, by their mutual attraction oper
ating against the air s repulsion, shorten the sides
and lessen the triangle, whereby that portion of air
made denser would sink to the earth with its water
and not rise to the formation of a cloud.
1 8. But if every particle of water attaching itself
to air brings with it a particle of common fire, the
repulsion of the air being assisted and strengthened
by the fire more than obstructed by the mutual
attraction of the particles of water, the triangle
dilates, and that portion of air, becoming rarer and
specifically lighter, rises.
19. If the particles of water bring electrical fire
when they attach themselves to air, the repulsion be
tween the particles of water electrified, joins with the
natural repulsion of the air to force its particles to a
1748-1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 141
greater distance, whereby the triangles are dilated,
and the air rises, carrying up with it the water.
20. If the particles of water bring with them por
tions of both sorts of fire, the repulsion of the parti
cles of air is still more strengthened and increased
and the triangles farther enlarged.
21. One particle of air may be surrounded by
twelve particles of water of equal size with itself, all
in contact with it, and by more added to those.
22. Particles of air thus loaded would be drawn
nearer together by the mutual attraction of the parti
cles of water, did not the fire, common or electrical,
assist their repulsion.
23. If air thus loaded be compressed by adverse
winds or by being driven against mountains, &c., or
condensed by taking away the fire that assisted it in
expanding, the triangles contract, the air with its
water will descend as a dew ; or if the water sur
rounding one particle of air comes in contact with
the water surrounding another, they coalesce and
form a drop, and we have rain.
24. The sun supplies (or seems to supply) common
fire to vapors, whether raised from earth or sea.
25. Those vapors, which have both common and
electrical fire in them are better supported than those
which have only common fire in them ; for when va
pors rise into the coldest region above the earth, the
cold will not diminish the electrical fire, if it doth the
common.
26. Hence clouds, formed by vapors raised from
fresh waters within land, from growing vegetables,
142 THE WORKS OF [1748-1749
moist earth, &c., more speedily and easily deposit
their water, having but little electrical fire to repel
and keep the particles separate. So that the greatest
part of the water raised from the land is let fall on
the land again ; and winds blowing from the land to
the sea are dry, there being little use for rain on the
sea, and to rob the land of its moisture, in order to
rain on the sea, would not appear reasonable.
27. But clouds formed by vapors raised from the
sea, having both fires, and particularly a great quan
tity of the electrical, support their water strongly,
raise it high, and being moved by winds, may bring
it over the middle of the broadest continent from the
middle of the widest ocean.
28. How these ocean clouds, so strongly support
ing their water, are made to deposit it on the land
where it is wanted, is next to be considered.
29. If they are driven by winds against mountains,
those mountains, being less electrified, attract them,
and on contact take away their electrical fire (and,
being cold, the common fire also) ; hence the particles
close towards the mountains and towards each other.
If the air was not much loaded, it only falls in dews
on the mountain tops and sides, forms springs, and
descends to the vales in rivulets, which, united, make
larger streams and rivers. If much loaded, the elec
trical fire is at once taken from the whole cloud ; and,
in leaving it, flashes brightly and cracks loudly, the
particles instantly coalescing for want of that fire, and
falling in a heavy shower.
30. When a ridge of mountains thus dams the
1748-1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 143
clouds and draws the electrical fire from the cloud
first approaching it, that which next follows, when it
comes near the first cloud, now deprived of its fire,
flashes into it, and begins to deposit its own water,
the first cloud again flashing into the mountains ; the
third approaching cloud, and all succeeding ones,
acting in the same manner as far back as they
extend, which may be over many hundred miles of
country.
31. Hence the continual storms of rain, thunder,
and lightning on the east side of the Andes, which,
running north and south, and being vastly high,
intercept all the clouds brought against them from
the Atlantic ocean by the trade winds, and oblige
them to deposit their waters, by which the vast
rivers Amazons, La Plata, and Oroonoko are formed,
which return the water into the same sea, after having
fertilized a country of very great extent.
32. If a country be plain, having no mountains to
intercept the electrified clouds, yet it is not without
means to make them deposit their water. For if an
electrified cloud coming from the sea, meets in the
air a cloud raised from the land, and therefore not
electrified, the first will flash its fire into the latter,
and thereby both clouds shall be made suddenly to
deposit water.
33. The electrified particles of the first cloud close
when they lose their fire ; the particles of the other
clouds close in receiving it ; in both, they have there
by an opportunity of coalescing into drops. The
concussion or jerk given to the air contributes also
144 THE WORKS OF [1748-1749
to shake down the water, not only from those two
clouds, but from others near them. Hence the sudden
fall of rain immediately after flashes of lightning.
34. To show this by an easy experiment ; take two
round pieces of pasteboard, two inches diameter ;
from the centre and circumference of each of them
suspend, by fine silk threads eighteen inches long,
seven small balls of wood, or seven peas equal in
goodness ; so with the balls, appending to each paste
board, form equal equilateral triangles, one ball being
in the centre, and six at equal distances from that and
from each other ; and thus they represent particles of
air. Dip both sets in water, and some adhering to
each ball, they will represent air loaded. Dexterously
electrify one set, and its balls will repel each other to
a greater distance, enlarging the triangles. Could the
water supported by seven balls come into contact, it
would form a drop or drops so heavy as to break the
cohesion it had with the balls, and so fall. Let the
two sets then represent two clouds, the one a sea
cloud electrified, the other a land cloud. Bring them
within the sphere of attraction, and they will draw
towards each other, and you will see the separated
balls close thus : the first electrified ball that comes
near an unelectrified ball by attraction, joins it, and
gives it fire ; instantly they separate, and each flies
to another ball of its own party, one to give, the
other to receive fire ; and so it proceeds through
both sets, but so quick as to be in a manner in
stantaneous. In the cohesion they shake off and
drop their water, which represents rain.
1748-1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 145
35. Thus, when the sea and land clouds would pass
at too great a distance for the flash, they are attracted
towards each other till within that distance ; for the
sphere of electrical attraction is far beyond the dis
tance of flashing.
36. When a great number of clouds from the sea
meet a number of clouds raised from the land, the
electrical flashes appear to strike in different parts ;
and as the clouds are jostled and mixed by the
winds, or brought near by the electrical attraction,
they continue to give and receive flash after flash, till
the electrical fire is equally diffused.
37. When the gun-barrel (in electrical experi
ments) has but little electrical fire in it, you must
approach it very near with your knuckle before you
can draw a spark. Give it more fire, and it will give
a spark at a greater distance. Two gun-barrels united,
and as highly electrified, will give a spark at a still
greater distance. But if two gun-barrels electrified
will strike at two inches distance, and make a loud
snap, to what a great distance may ten thousand acres
of electrified cloud strike and give its fire, and how
loud must be that crack ?
38. It is a common thing to see clouds at different
heights passing different ways, which shows different
currents of air, one under the other. As the air be
tween the tropics is rarefied by the sun, it rises, the
denser northern and southern air pressing into its
place. The air, so rarefied and forced up, passes
northward and southward, and must descend into the
polar regions, if it has no opportunity before, that the
circulation may be carried on.
146 THE WORKS OF [1748-1749
39. As currents of air, with the clouds therein, pass
different ways, it is easy to conceive how the clouds,
passing over each other, may attract each other, and
so come near enough for the electrical stroke. And
also how electrical clouds may be carried within land
very far from the sea, before they have an opportunity
to strike.
40. When the air, with its vapors raised from the
ocean between the tropics, comes to descend in the
polar regions, and to be in contact with the vapors
arising there, the electrical fire they brought begins to
be communicated, and is seen in clear nights, being
first visible where it is first in motion that is, where
the contact begins, or in the most northern part ; from
thence the streams of light seem to shoot southerly,
even up to the zenith of northern countries. But
though the light seems to shoot from the north south
erly, the progress of the fire is really from the south
northerly, its motion beginning in the north being
the reason that it is there seen first.
For the electrical fire is never visible but when in
motion and leaping from body to body, or from par
ticle to particle, through the air. When it passes
through dense bodies it is unseen. When a wire
makes part of the circle in the explosion of the elec
trical phial, the fire, though in great quantity, passes
in the wire invisibly ; but in passing along a chain, it
becomes visible as it leaps from link to link. In pass
ing along leaf gilding it is visible, for the leaf gold is
full of pores ; hold a leaf to the light, and it appears
like a net, and the fire is seen in its leaping over the
1748-1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 147
vacancies. And as when a long canal filled with still
water is opened at one end, in order to be discharged,
the motion of the water begins first near the opened
end, and proceeds towards the close end, though the
water itself moves from the close toward the opened
end, so the electrical fire discharged into the polar re
gions, perhaps from a thousand leagues length of
vaporized air, appears first where it is first in motion
that is, in the most northern part, and the appear
ance proceeds southward, though the fire really
moves northward. This is supposed to account for
the aurora borealis.
41. When there is great heat on the land in a par
ticular region (the sun having shone on it perhaps
several days, while the surrounding countries have
been screened by clouds), the lower air is rarefied,
and rises ; the cooler, denser air above descends ; the
clouds in that air meet from all sides, and join over
the heated place ; and if some are electrified, others
not, lightning and thunder succeed, and showers fall.
Hence, thunder-gusts after heats, and cool air after
gusts ; the water and the clouds that bring it coming
from a higher and therefore a cooler region.
42. An electrical spark drawn from an irregular
body at some distance is scarcely ever straight, but
shows crooked and waving in the air. So do the
flashes of lightning, the clouds being very irregular
bodies.
43. As electrified clouds pass over a country, high
hills and high trees, lofty towers, spires, masts of
ships, chimneys, &c., as so many prominences and
148 THE WORKS OF [1748-1749
points draw the electrical fire, and the whole cloud
discharges there.
44. Dangerous, therefore, is it to take shelter under
a tree during a thunder-gust. It has been fatal to
many, both men and beasts.
45. It is safer to be in the open field for another
reason. When the clothes are wet, if a flash in its
way to the ground should strike your head, it may
run in the water over the surface of your body ;
whereas, if your clothes were dry, it would go through
the body, because the blood and other humors, con
taining so much water, are more ready conductors.
Hence a wet rat cannot be killed by the exploding
electrical bottle, when a dry rat may. 1
46. Common fire is in all bodies, more or less, as
well as electrical fire. Perhaps they maybe different
modifications of the same element ; or they may be
different elements. The latter is by some suspected.
47. If they are different things, yet they may and
do subsist together in the same body.
48. When electrical fire strikes through a body, it
acts upon the common fire contained in it, and puts
that fire in motion ; and if there be a sufficient quan
tity of each kind of fire, the body will be inflamed.
49. When the quantity of common fire in the body
is small, the quantity of the electrical fire (or the
electrical stroke) should be greater ; if the quantity
of common fire be great, less electrical fire suffices to
produce the effect.
1 This was tried with a bottle con- jars mentioned in these papers might
taining about a quart. It is since have killed him, though wet. F.
thought that one of the large glass
1748-1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 149
50. Thus spirits must be heated before we can fire
them by the electrical spark. 1 If they are much
heated, a small spark will do ; if not, the spark must
be greater.
51. Till lately, we could only fire warm vapors;
but now we can burn hard, dry rosin. And when we
can procure greater electrical sparks, we may be able
to fire, not only unwarmed spirits, as lightning does,
but even wood, by giving sufficient agitation to the
common fire contained in it, as friction we know will
do.
52. Sulphureous and inflammable vapors arising
from the earth are easily kindled by lightning. Be
sides what arise from the earth, such vapors are sent
out by stacks of moist hay, corn, or other vegetables,
which heat and reek. Wood, rotting in old trees or
buildings, does the same. Such are therefore easily
and often fired.
53. Metals are often melted by lightning, though
perhaps not from heat in the lightning, nor altogether
from agitated fire in the metals. For, as whatever
body can insinuate itself between the particles of
metal, and overcome the attraction by which they co
here (as sundry menstrua can), will make the solid
become a fluid, as well as fire, yet without heating it ;
so the electrical fire, or lightning, creating a violent
repulsion between the particles of the metal it passes
through, the metal is fused.
54. If you would, by a violent fire, melt off the end
1 We have since fired spirits without the hand, will be warmed sufficiently by
heating them, when the weather is the hand, if the spirit be well rectified,
warm. A little, poured into the palm of Ether takes fire most readily. F.
150 THE WORKS OF [1749
of a nail which is half driven into a door, the heat
given the whole nail, before a part would melt, must
burn the board it sticks in ; and the melted part
would burn the floor it dropped on. But if a sword
can be melted in the scabbard, and money in a man s
pocket by lightning, without burning either, it must
be a cold fusion. 1
55. Lightning rends some bodies. The electrical
spark will strike a hole through a quire of strong paper.
56. If the source of lightning assigned in this pa
per be the true one, there should be little thunder
heard at sea far from land. And accordingly some
old sea-captains, of whom inquiry has been made, do
affirm, that the fact agrees perfectly with the hypothe
sis ; for that, in crossing the great ocean, they seldom
meet with thunder till they come into soundings ; and
that the islands far from the continent have very little
of it. And a curious observer, who lived thirteen
years at Bermudas, says there was less thunder there
in that time than he has sometimes heard in a month
at Carolina.
LXIII.
TO GEORGE WHITEFIELD.
PHILADELPHIA, 6 July, 1749.
DEAR SIR : Since your being in England, I have
received two of your favours, and a box of books to
1 These facts, though related in sev- did actually burn into the boards. (See
eral accounts, are now doubted ; since "Philosophical Transactions," Vol.
it has been observed that the parts of a LI. , Part I.) And Mr. Kinnersley has
bell-wire which fell on the floor, being found that a fine iron wire, melted by
broken and partly melted by lightning, electricity, has had the same effect. F.
1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 151
be disposed of. It gives me great pleasure to hear of
your welfare, and that you purpose soon to return to
America.
We have no kind of news here worth writing to
you. The affair of the building remains in statu quo,
there having been no new application to the Assembly
about it, or any thing done in consequence of the
former.
I have received no money on your account from
Mr. Thanklin, or from Boston. Mrs. Read, 1 and
your other friends here, in general, are well, and will
rejoice to see you again.
I am glad to hear that you have frequent oppor
tunities of preaching among the great. If you can
gain them to a good and exemplary life, wonderful
changes will follow in the manners of the lower ranks ;
for ad exemplum regis, etc. On this principle, Con
fucius, the famous Eastern reformer, proceeded.
When he saw his country sunk in vice, and wicked
ness of all kinds triumphant, he applied himself first
to the grandees ; and having, by his doctrine, won
them to the cause of virtue, the commons followed in
multitudes. The mode has a wonderful influence on
mankind ; and there are numbers who, perhaps, fear
less the being in hell, than out of the fashion. Our most
western reformations began with the ignorant mob ;
and when numbers of them were gained, interest and
party views drew in the wise and great. Where both
methods can be used, reformations are likely to be
more speedy. O that some method could be found
1 Franklin s wife was a Miss Read,
152 THE WORKS OF [1749
to make them lasting ! He who discovers that will,
in my opinion, deserve more, ten thousand times, than
the inventor of the longitude.
My wife and family join in the most cordial saluta
tions to you and good Mrs. Whitefield.
I am, dear Sir, your very affectionate friend, and
most obliged humble servant,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
LXIV.
TO MRS. ABIAH FRANKLIN, AT BOSTON.
PHILADELPHIA, 7 September, 1749.
HONORED MOTHER :
We received your kind letter by this post, and are
glad you still continue to enjoy such a share of health.
Cousin Josiah and his spouse arrived hearty and well
last Saturday noon. I met them the evening before
at Trenton, thirty miles off, and accompanied them to
town. They went into their own house on Monday,
and I believe will do very well, for he seems bent on
industry, and she appears a discreet, notable young
woman. My wife has been to see them every day,
calling in as she passes by ; and I suspect has fallen
in love with our new cousin, for she entertains me a
deal, when she comes home, with what cousin Sally
does, and what cousin Sally says, what a good con
triver she is, and the like.
I believe it might be of service to me, in the
matter of getting in my debts, if I were to make
a voyage to London ; but I have not yet determined
1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 153
on it in my own mind, and think I am grown
almost too lazy to undertake it.
The Indians are gone homewards loaded with
presents. In a week or two the treaty with them will
be printed, and I will send you one. My love to
brother and sister Mecom, and to all inquiring
friends. I am your dutiful son,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXV.
TO MRS. ABIAH FRANKLIN.
PHILADELPHIA, 16 October, 1749.
HONORED MOTHER :
This has been a busy day with your daughter, and
she is gone to bed much fatigued and cannot write.
I send you enclosed one of our new Almanacs.
We print them early, because we send them to many
places far distant. I send you also a moidore en
closed, which please to accept towards chaise hire,
that you may ride warm to meetings this winter.
Pray tell us what kind of a sickness you have had in
Boston this summer. Besides the measles and flux,
which have carried off many children, we have lost
some grown persons, by what we call the Yellow
Fever ; though that is almost, if not quite over,
thanks to God, who has preserved all our family
in perfect health.
Here are cousins Coleman, and two Folgers, all
well. Your granddaughter is the greatest lover of
her book and school of any child I ever knew, and is
very dutiful to her mistress as well as to us.
154 THE WORKS OF [1749
I doubt not but brother Mecom will send the
collar, as soon as he can conveniently. My love to
him, sister, and all the children. I am your dutiful
son, B. FRANKLIN.
LXVI.
TO MRS. ABIAH FRANKLIN.
[Date uncertain.]
HONORED MOTHER :
We received your kind letter of the 2d instant, by
which we are glad to hear you still enjoy such a
measure of health, notwithstanding your great age.
We read your writing very easily. I never met with
a word in your letters but what I could easily under
stand ; for, though the hand is not always the best,
the sense makes every thing plain. My leg, which
you inquire after, is now quite well. I shall keep
these servants ; but the man not in my own house. I
have hired him out to the man that takes care of my
Dutch printing-office, who agrees to keep him in
victuals and clothes, and to pay me a dollar a week
for his work. The wife, since that affair, behaves ex
ceeding well ; but we conclude to sell them both the
first good opportunity, for we do not like negro
servants. We got again about half what we lost.
As to your grandchildren, Will is now nineteen
years of age, a tall, proper youth, and much of a beau.
He acquired a habit of idleness on the Expedition, 1
but begins of late to apply himself to business, and I
1 His son, William, had been an of- for an expedition against Canada, in
ficer in the Pennsylvania forces raised the year 1746.
1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 155
hope will become an industrious man. He imagined
his father had got enough for him, but I have assured
him that I intend to spend what little I have my
self, if it please God that I live long enough ; and,
as he by no means wants acuteness, he can see
by my going on that I mean to be as good as my
word.
Sally grows a fine girl, and is extremely industrious
with her needle, and delights in her work. She is of
a most affectionate temper, and perfectly dutiful and
obliging to her parents, and to all. Perhaps I flatter
myself too much, but I have hopes that she will prove
an ingenious, sensible, notable, and worthy woman,
like her aunt Jenny. She goes now to the dancing-
school.
For my own part, at present, I pass my time agree
ably enough. I enjoy, through mercy, a tolerable
share of health. I read a great deal, ride a little, do
a little business for myself, now and then for others,
retire when I can, and go into company when I
please ; so the years roll round, and the last will
come, when I would rather have it said, He lived use
fully, than He died rich.
Cousins Josiah and Sally are well, and I believe
will do well, for they are an industrious loving young
couple ; but they want a little more stock to go on
smoothly with their business.
My love to brother and sister Mecom, and their
children, and to all my relations in general. I am
your dutiful son,
B. FRANKLIN.
156 THE WORKS OF [1749
LXVII.
TO PETER COLLINSON. 1
SIR : According to your request, I now send you
the arithmetical curiosity, of which this is the history.
Being one day in the country, at the house of our
common friend, the late learned Mr. Logan, he
showed me a folio French book filled with magic
squares, wrote, if I forget not, by one M. Frenicle, in
which, he said, the author had discovered great in
genuity and dexterity in the management of numbers ;
and though several other foreigners had distinguished
themselves in the same way, he did not recollect that
any one Englishman had done any thing of the kind
remarkable.
I said it was, perhaps, a mark of the good sense of
our English mathematicians, that they would not
spend their time in things that were merely difficiles
nugce, incapable of any useful application. He an
swered, that many of the arithmetical or mathemati
cal questions publicly proposed and answered in
England were equally trifling and useless. " Perhaps
the considering and answering such questions," I re
plied, " may not be altogether useless, if it produces
by practice an habitual readiness and exactness in
mathematical disquisitions, which readiness may, on
many occasions, be of real use." " In the same way,"
says he, " may the making of these squares be of use."
1 In a letter from James Logan to Assembly, and there, for want of other
Mr. Collinson, dated February 14, employment, while he sat idle, he took
1750, he says: " Our Benjamin Frank- it into his head to think of magical
lin is certainly an extraordinary man, squares, in which he outdid Frenicle
one of a singular good judgment, but himself, who published above eighty
of equal modesty. He is clerk of our pages in folio on that subject alone."
PLATE II.
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198
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217
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226
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1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 157
I then confessed to him that in my younger days,
having once some leisure (which I still think I might
have employed more usefully), I had amused myself
in making this kind of magic squares, and at length
had acquired such a knack at it that I could fill the
cells of any magic square of reasonable size with a
series of numbers as fast as I could write them, dis
posed in such a manner as that the sums of every row,
horizontal, perpendicular, or diagonal, should be equal ;
but not being satisfied with these, which I looked on
as common and easy things, I had imposed on myself
more difficult tasks, and succeeded in making other
magic squares, with a variety of properties, and much
more curious. He then showed me several in the
same book of an uncommon and more curious kind ;
but as I thought none of them equal to some I re
membered to have made, he desired me to let him see
them ; and, accordingly, the next time I visited him I
carried him a square of eight, which I found among
my old papers, and which I will now give you, with an
account of its properties. (See Plate II., Fig. i.)
The properties are :
1. That every straight row (horizontal or vertical)
of eight numbers added together makes 260, and half
each row half 260.
2. That the bent row of eight numbers, ascending
and descending diagonally, viz., from 16 ascending to
10, and from 23 descending to 17; and every one
of its parallel bent rows of eight numbers, make 260.
Also the bent row from 52 descending to 54, and
from 43 ascending to 4.5, and every one of its parallel
158 THE WORKS OF [1749
bent rows of eight numbers, make 260. Also the
bent row from 45 to 43, descending to the left, and
from 23 to 1 7, descending to the right, and every one
of its parallel bent rows of eight numbers, make 260.
Also the bent row from 52 to 54, descending to the
right, and from 10 to 16, descending to the left, and
every one of its parallel bent rows of eight numbers,
make 260. Also the parallel bent rows next to the
above-mentioned, which are shortened to three num
bers ascending and three descending, &c., as from 53
to 4 ascending, and from 29 to 44 descending, make,
with the two corner numbers, 260. Also the two
numbers, 14, 61, ascending, and 36, 19, descending,
with the lower four numbers situated like them, viz.,
50, i, descending, and 32, 47, ascending, make 260.
And, lastly, the four corner numbers, with the four
middle numbers, make 260.
So this magical square seems perfect in its kind.
But these are not all its properties ; there are five
other curious ones, which, at some other time, I will
explain to you.
Mr. Logan then showed me an old arithmetical
book, in quarto, wrote, I think, by one Stifelius,
which contained a square of sixteen, that he said he
should imagine must have been a work of great
labor ; but, if I forget not, it had only the common
properties of making the same sum, viz., 2056, in
every row, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. Not
willing to be outdone by Mr. Stifelius, even in the
size of my square, I went home and made that even
ing the following magical square of sixteen, which,
1749] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 159
besides having all the properties of the foregoing
square of eight that is, it would make the 2056 in all
the same rows and diagonals, had this added, that a
four-square hole being cut in a piece of paper of such
a size as to take in and show through it just sixteen
of the little squares, when laid on the greater square,
the sum of the sixteen numbers, so appearing through
the hole, wherever it was placed on the greater
square, should likewise make 2056. This I sent to
our friend the next morning, who, after some days,
sent it back in a letter with these words : " I return
to thee thy astonishing or most stupendous piece of
the magical square, in which " but the compliment
is too extravagant, and therefore, for his sake, as well
as my own, I ought not to repeat it. Nor is it
necessary ; for I make no question but you will
readily allow this square of sixteen to be the most
magically magical of any magic square ever made by
any magician. (See Plate II., Fig. 2.)
I did not, however, end with squares, but composed
also a magic circle consisting of eight concentric
circles and eight radial rows, filled with a series of
numbers from 12 to 76 inclusive, so disposed as that
the numbers of each circle, or each radial row, being
added to the central number 12, they make exactly
360, the number of degrees in a circle, and this circle
had, moreover, all the properties of the square of
eight. If you desire it I will send it, but at present I
believe you have enough on this subject.
I am, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
160 THE WORKS OF
LXVIII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
Magical Circle.
SIR : I am glad the perusal of the magical squares
afforded you any amusement. I now send you the
magical circle. (See Plate III.)
Its properties, besides those mentioned in my
former, are these :
Half the numbers in any radial row added with
half the central number, make 180, equal to the num
ber of degrees in a semicircle.
Also half the numbers in any one of the concentric
circles, taken either above or below the horizontal
double line, with half the central number, make 1 80.
And if any four adjoining numbers, standing
nearly in a square, be taken from any part and added
with half the central number, they make 180.
There are, moreover, included four other sets of
circular spaces, eccentric with respect to the first,
each of these sets containing five spaces. The cen
tres of the circles that bound them, are at A, B, C,
and D. Each set, for the more easy distinguishing
them from the first, are drawn with a different colored
ink, red, blue, green, and yellow. 1
These sets of eccentric circular spaces intersect
those of the concentric, and each other, and yet the
number contained in each of the twenty eccentric
spaces, taken all around, make, with the central
1 In the plate they are distinguished by dashed or dotted lines, as different as
the engraver could well make them. F.
PLATE III.
CI1RCJLE
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 161
number, the same sum as those in each of the eight
concentric, viz., 360. The halves also of those drawn
from the centres A and C, taken above or below the
double horizontal line, and of those drawn from
centres B and D taken to the right or left of the
vertical line, do, with half the central number, make
just 1 80.
It may be observed, that there is not one of the
numbers but what belongs at least to two of the dif
ferent circular spaces ; some to three, some to four,
some to five ; and yet they are all so placed as never
to break the required number 360, in any of the
twenty-eight circular spaces within the primitive circle.
These interwoven circles make so perplexed an ap
pearance, that it is not easy for the eye to trace every
circle of numbers one would examine, through all the
maze of circles intersected by it ; but if you fix one
foot of the compasses in either of the centres, and
extend the other to any number in the circle you
would examine belonging to that centre, the moving
foot will point the others out, by passing round over
all the numbers of that circle successively. I am, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXIX.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, 13 February, 1750.
DEAR SIR :
You desire to know my thoughts about the north
east storms beginning to leeward. Some years since,
162 THE WORKS OF [1750
there was an eclipse of the moon at nine o clock in
the evening, which I intended to observe ; but be
fore night a storm blew up at northeast, and continued
violent all night and all next day ; the sky thick-clouded,
dark, and rainy, so that neither moon nor stars could
be seen. The storm did a great deal of damage all
along the coast, for we had accounts of it in the news
papers from Boston, Newport, New York, Maryland,
and Virginia ; but what surprised me was to find in
the Boston newspapers an account of an observation
of that eclipse made there ; for I thought, as the storm
came from the northeast, it must have begun sooner
at Boston than with us, and consequently have pre
vented such observation. I wrote to my brother
about it, and he informed me, that the eclipse was
over there an hour before the storm began. Since
which I have made inquiries from time to time of
travellers, and of my correspondents northeastward
and southwestward, and observed the accounts in the
newspapers from New England, New York, Mary
land, Virginia, and South Carolina ; and I find it to
be a constant fact, that northeast storms begin to
leeward, and are often more violent there than far
ther to windward. Thus the last October storm, which
with you was on the 8th, began on the 7th in Virginia
and North Carolina, and was most violent there. 1
1 Professor Bache, of the University in Relation to the Northeast Storms of
of Pennsylvania, has shown that the the Atlantic Coast of the United
eclipse of the moon here alluded to States," published in the Journal of
happened in the evening of the 2ist of the Franklin Institute, in the year
October, 1743 ; as may be seen in his 1833. It appears that Dr. Franklin was
tract entitled :" An Attempt to Fix the the first discoverer of the above facts
Date of Observation of Dr. Franklin, respecting northeast storms. SPARKS.
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 163
As to the reason of this, I can only give you my
conjectures. Suppose a great tract of country, land
and sea, to wit, Florida and the Bay of Mexico, to
have clear weather for several days, and to be heated
by the sun, and its air thereby exceedingly rarefied.
Suppose the country northeastward, as Pennsylvania,
New England, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, to
be at the same time covered with clouds, and its air
chilled and condensed. The rarefied air being lighter
must rise, and the denser air next to it will press into
its place ; that will be followed by the next denser air,
that by the next, and so on. Thus, when I have a
fire in my chimney, there is a current of air constantly
flowing from the door to the chimney ; but the be
ginning of the motion was at the chimney, where the
air being rarefied by the fire rising, its place was sup
plied by the cooler air that was next to it, and the
place of that by the next, and so on to the door. So
the water in a long sluice or mill-race, being stopped
by a gate, is at rest like the air in a calm ; but as soon
as you open the gate at one end to let it out, the
water next ,the gate begins first to move, that which
is next to it follows ; and so, though the water pro
ceeds forward to the gate, the motion which began
there runs backwards, if one may so speak, to the
upper end of the race, where the water is last in
motion. We have on this continent a long ridge of
mountains running from northeast to southwest, and
the coast runs the same course. These may, perhaps,
contribute towards the direction of the winds, or at
least influence them in some degree. If these con-
\
164 THE WORKS OF [1750
jectures do not satisfy you, I wish to have yours on
the subject.
I doubt not but those mountains which you men
tion contain valuable mines, which time will discover.
I know of but one valuable copper mine in this coun
try, which is that of Schuyler s in the Jerseys. This
yields good copper, and has turned out vast wealth
to the owners. I was at it last fall, but they were not
then at work. The water is grown too hard for them,
and they waited for a fire-engine from England to
drain their pits. I suppose they will have that at
work next summer ; it costs them one thousand
pounds sterling.
Colonel John Schuyler, one of the owners, has a
deer park five miles round, fenced with cedar logs,
five logs high, with blocks of wood between. It
contains a variety of land, high and low, woodland
and clear. There are a great many deer in it, and
he expects in a few years to kill two hundred head a
year, which will be a very profitable thing. He has
likewise six hundred acres of meadow, all within bank.
The mine is not far from Passaic Falls, which I went
also to see. They are very curious ; the water falls
seventy feet perpendicularly, as we are told ; but we
had nothing to measure with.
It will be agreeable to you to hear that our sub
scription goes on with great success, and we suppose
will exceed five thousand pounds of our currency.
We have bought for the Academy the house that
was built for itinerant preaching, which stands on
a large lot of ground capable of receiving more build-
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 165
ings to lodge the scholars, if it should come to be a
regular college. The house is one hundred feet long
and seventy wide, built of brick, very strong, and
sufficiently high for three lofty stories. I suppose
the building did not cost less than two thousand
pounds but we bought it for seven hundred and
seventy-five pounds, eighteen shillings, eleven pence,
and three farthings ; though it will cost us three and
perhaps four hundred more to make the partitions and
floors and fit up the rooms. I send you enclosed a
copy of our present constitution but we expect a char
ter from our Proprietaries this summer, when they may
probably receive considerable alterations. The paper
admonishes me that it is time to conclude.
I am, Sir,
Your obliged humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXX.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 28 June, 1750.
SIR : I wrote a line to you last post, and sent you
some electrical observations and experiments. You
formerly had those papers of mine, out of which
something has been taken by Mr. Watson and in
serted in the Transactions. If you have forgot the
contents of those papers, I am afraid some things in
that I last sent you will hardly be understood, as
they depend on what went before. I send you here
with, my essay towards a new hypothesis of the cause
166 THE WORKS OF [1750
and effects of lightning, &c., of which you may re
member some hints in my first electrical minutes. I
sent this essay above a twelvemonth since to Dr.
Mitchell in London, and have since heard nothing of
it, which makes me doubt of its getting to hand. In
some late experiments, I have not only frequently
fired unwarmed spirits by the electrical stroke, but
have even melted small quantities of copper, silver,
and gold ; and not only melted, but vitrified them,
so as to incorporate them with common glass ; and
this without any sensible heat, which strengthens my
supposition, that the melting of metals by lightning
may be a cold fusion. Of these experiments I shall
shortly write a particular account. I wrote to Mr.
Collinson, on reading in the Transactions the ac
counts from Italy and Germany, of giving purges,
transferring odors, &c., with the electrical effluvia,
that I was persuaded they were not true. He since
informs me, that Abbe Nollet, of Paris, who had
tried the experiments without success, was lately at
the pains to make a journey to Turin, Bologna, and
Venice, to inquire into the facts, and see the ex
periments repeated, imagining they had there some
knacks of operating that he was unacquainted with ;
but, to his great disappointment, found little or no
satisfaction, the gentlemen there having been prema
ture in publishing their imaginations and expecta
tions for real experiments. Please to return me the
papers when you have perused them.
My good old friend, Mr. Logan, being about three
months since struck with a palsy, continues speech-
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 167
less, though he knows people, and seems in some de
gree to retain his memory and understanding. I fear
he will not recover. Mr. Kalm * is gone towards
Canada again, and Mr. - Evans 2 is about to take a
journey to Lake Erie, which he intends next week.
Mr. Bartram continues well and hearty. I thank you
for what you write concerning celestial observations.
We are going on with our building for the Academy,
and propose to have an observatory on the top ; and,
as we shall have a mathematical professor, I doubt
not but we shall soon be able to send you some
observations accurately made.
I am with great esteem and respect, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. If you think it would be agreeable to Mr.
Alexander, or any other friend in New York, to
peruse these electrical papers, you may return them
to me through his hands.
LXXI.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 27 July, 1750.
SIR : Mr. Watson, I believe, wrote his Observa
tions on my last paper in haste, without having first
1 A Swedish botanist, sent by the in Swedish in 1753-1761 in three vols.
Swedish government, at the suggestion It was translated into English, Dutch,
of Linnaeus, to make a botanical tour and German. EDITOR.
of North America. He arrived in 2 Lewis Evans, author of " Geo-
1748 and returned in 1751, having graphical, Historical, Political, Philo-
travelied and collected specimens in sophical, and Mechanical Essays," of
New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada. some other tracts, and of a map of the
He published an account of his travels Middle Colonies.
i68 THE WORKS OF [1750
well considered the experiments, related in i 7, which
still appear to me decisive in the question, Whether
the accumulation of the electrical fire be in the electri
fied glass , or in the non-electric matter connected with
the glass 9 and to demonstrate that it is really in the
glass.
As to the experiment that ingenious gentleman
mentions, and which he thinks conclusive on the other
side, I persuade myself he will change his opinion of
it when he considers that, as one person applying the
wire of the charged bottle to warm spirits in a spoon
held by another person, both standing on the floor,
will fire the spirits, and yet such firing will not deter
mine whether the accumulation was in the glass or the
non-electric ; so the placing another person between
them, standing on wax, with a basin in his hand, into
which the water from the phial is poured, while he at
the instant of pouring presents a finger of his other
hand to the spirits, does not at all alter the case ; the
stream from the phial, the side of the basin, with the
arms and body of the person on the wax, being alto
gether but as one long wire, reaching from the inter
nal surface of the phial to the spirits.
June 29^, 1 75 1. In Captain Waddell s account of
the effects of lightning on his ship, I could not but
take notice of the large comazants (as he calls them),
that settled on the spintles at the top-mast heads, and
burned like very large torches (before the stroke).
According to my opinion, the electrical fire was then
drawing off, as by points, from the cloud ; the large
ness of the flame betokening the great quantity of
1 7 5 o] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1 69
electricity in the cloud ; and had there been a good
wire communication from the spintle heads to the sea
that could have conducted more freely than tarred
ropes or masts of turpentine wood, I imagine there
would either have been no stroke, or, if a stroke, the
wire would have conducted it all into the sea without
damage to the ship.
His compasses lost the virtue of the loadstone, or
the poles were reversed, the north point turning to
the south. By electricity we have (here at Philadel
phia) frequently given polarity to needles, and re
versed it at pleasure. Mr, Wilson, at London, tried
it on too large masses and with too small force.
A shock from four large glass jars, sent through a
fine sewing-needle, gives it polarity, and it will trav
erse when laid on water. If the needle, when struck,
lies east and west, the end entered by the electric
blast points north. If it lies north and south, the end
that lay towards the north will continue to point north
when placed on water, whether the fire entered at that
end or at the contrary end.
The polarity given is strongest when the needle is
struck lying north and south ; weakest, when lying
east and west. Perhaps if the force was still greater,
the south end, entered by the fire (when the needle
lies north and south), might become the north, other
wise it puzzles us to account for the inverting of com
passes by lightning ; since their needles must always
be found in that situation, and by our little experi
ments, whether the blast entered the north and went
out at the south end of the needle, or the contrary,
iyo THE WORKS OF [1750
still the end that lay to the north should continue to
point north.
In these experiments the ends of the needle are
sometimes finely blued, like a watch-spring, by the
electric flame. This color, given by the flash from
two jars only, will wipe off, but four jars fix it, and
frequently melt the needles. I send you some that
have had their heads and points melted off by our
mimic lightning, and a pin that had its point melted
off and some part of its head and neck run. Some
times the surface on the body of the needle is also
run, and appears blistered when examined by a mag-
nifying-glass. The jars I make use of, hold seven or
eight gallons, and are coated and lined with tin-foil ;
each of them takes a thousand turns z of a globe nine
inches diameter to charge it.
I send you two specimens of tin-foil melted between
glass by the force of two jars only.
I have not heard that any of your European elec
tricians have ever been able to fire gunpowder by the
electric flame. We do it here in this manner : A
small cartridge is filled with dry powder, hard
rammed, so as to bruise some of the grains ; two
pointed wires are then thrust in, one at each end, the
points approaching each other in the middle of the
cartridge till within the distance of half an inch ;
then, the cartridge being placed in the circuit, when
1 The cushion being afterwards cov- too moist, we found so much more of
ered with a long flap of buckskin, the electric fluid was obtained as that
which might cling to the globe, and one hundred and fifty turns were
care being taken to keep that flap of a sufficient. 1753. F.
due temperature between too dry and
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 171
the four jars are discharged, the electric flame, leaping
from the point of one wire to the point of the other
within the cartridge amongst the powder, fores it, and
the explosion of the powder is at the same instant
with the crack of the discharge.
Yours, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXXII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 29 July, 1750.
SIR : As you first put us on electrical experiments
by sending to our Library Company a tube with
directions how to use it, and as our honorable Pro
prietary enabled us to carry those experiments to a /
greater height by his generous present of a complete
electrical apparatus, it is fit that both should know
from time to time what progress we make. It was
in this view I wrote and sent you my former papers
on this subject, desiring that as I had not the honor /
of a direct correspondence with that bountiful bene
factor to our library, they might be communicated to
him through your hands. In the same view I write
and send you this additional paper. If it happens to
bring you nothing new (which may well be, consider
ing the number of ingenious men in Europe continu
ally engaged in the same researches), at least it will
show that the instruments put into our hands are not
neglected, and that if no valuable discoveries are
172 THE WORKS OF [1750
made by us, whatever the cause may be, it is not
want of industry and application.
I am, Sir, your much obliged humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
Opinions and Conjectures concerning the Properties and
Effects of the Electrical Matter, and the Means of
Preserving Buildings, Ships, &c., from Light
ning, arising from Experiments and Observations
made at Philadelphia, 1749.
i. The electrical matter consists of particles ex
tremely subtile, since it can permeate common mat
ter, even the densest metals, with such ease and
freedom as not to receive any perceptible resistance.
2. If any one should doubt whether the electrical
matter passes through the substance of bodies, or
only over and along their surfaces, a shock from an
electrified large glass jar, taken through his own
body, will probably convince him.
3. Electrical matter differs from common matter in
this, that the parts of the latter mutually attract, those
of the former mutually repel, each other. Hence
the appearing divergency in a stream of electrified
effluvia.
4. But, though the particles of electrical matter do
repel each other, they are strongly attracted by all
other matter. 1
5. From these three things, the extreme subtility
of the electrical matter, the mutual repulsion of its
1 See the ingenious essays on Electricity, in the Transactions, by Mr.
Ellicot. F.
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 173
parts, and the strong attraction between them and
other matter, arises this effect, that, when a quantity
of electrical matter is applied to a mass of common
matter, of any bigness or length, within our observa
tion (which hath not already got its quantity), it is
immediately and equally diffused through the whole.
6. Thus, commom matter is a kind of sponge to
the electrical fluid. And as a sponge would receive
no water, if the parts of water were not smaller than
the pores of the sponge ; and even then but slowly,
if there were not a mutual attraction between those
parts and the parts of the sponge ; and would still
imbibe it faster, if the mutual attraction among the
parts of the water did not impede, some force being
required to separate them ; and fastest, if, instead of
attraction, there were a mutual repulsion among those
parts, which would act in conjunction with the attrac
tion of the sponge ; so is the case between the elec
trical and common matter.
7. But in common matter there is (generally) as
much of the electrical as it will contain within its
substance. If more is added, it lies without upon
the surface, and forms what we call an electrical at
mosphere ; and then the body is said to be electrified.
8. It is supposed, that all kinds of common matter
do not attract and retain the electrical with equal
strength and force, for reasons to be given hereafter.
And that those called electrics per se, as glass, &c.,
attract and retain it strongest, and contain the great
est quantity.
9. We know, that the electrical fluid is in common
174 THE WORKS OF [1750
matter, because we can pump it out by the globe or
tube. We know that common matter has near as
much as it can contain, because, when we add a little
more to any portion of it, the additional quantity
does not enter, but forms an electrical atmosphere.
And we know, that common matter has not (gen
erally) more than it can contain, otherwise all loose
portions of it would repel each other, as they con
stantly do when they have electric atmospheres.
10. The beneficial uses of this electric fluid in the
creation we are not yet well acquainted with, though
doubtless such there are, and those very considerable ;
but we may see some pernicious consequences that
would attend a much greater proportion of it. For,
had this globe we live on as much of it in proportion
as we can give to a globe of iron, wood, or the like,
the particles of dust and other light matters that get
loose from it would, by virtue of their separate elec
trical atmospheres, not only repel each other, but be
repelled from the earth, and not easily be brought to
unite with it again ; whence our air would continually
be more and more clogged with foreign matter and
grow unfit for respiration. This affords another occa
sion of adoring that wisdom which has made all things
by weight and measure !
11. If a piece of common matter be supposed en
tirely free from electrical matter, and a single particle
of the latter be brought nigh, it will be attracted and
enter the body, and take place in the centre, or
where the attraction is every way equal. If more
particles enter, they take their places where the
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 175
balance is equal between the attraction of the com
mon matter and their own mutual repulsion. It is
supposed they form triangles, whose sides shorten as
their number increases, till the common matter has
drawn in so many that its whole power of com
pressing those triangles by attraction is equal to their
whole power of expanding themselves by repulsion ;
and then will such a piece of matter receive no more.
12. When part of this natural proportion of elec
trical fluid is taken out of a piece of common matter,
the triangles formed by the remainder are supposed
to widen, by the mutual repulsion of the parts, until
they occupy the whole piece.
13. When the quantity of electrical fluid taken
from a piece of common matter is restored again,
it enters the expanded triangles, being again com
pressed till there is room for the whole.
14. To explain this : take two apples, or two balls
of wood or other matter, each having its own natural
quantity of the electrical fluid. Suspend them by
silk lines from the ceiling. Apply the wire of a well-
charged phial, held in your hand, to one of them (A)
Plate I., Fig. 7, and it will receive from the wire a quan
tity of the electrical fluid, but will not imbibe it, being
already full. The fluid, therefore, will flow round its
surface and form an electrical atmosphere. Bring A
into contact with B, and half the electrical fluid
is communicated, so that each has now an electrical
atmosphere, and therefore they repel each other.
Take away these atmospheres, by touching the balls,
and leave them in their natural state ; then, having
176 THE WORKS OF [1750
fixed a stick of sealing-wax to the middle of the phial
to hold it by, apply the wire to A, at the same time
the coating touches B. Thus will a quantity of the
electrical fluid be drawn out of B, and thrown on A.
So that A will have a redundance of this fluid, which
forms an atmosphere round, and B an exactly equal
deficiency. Now, bring these balls again into con
tact, and the electrical atmosphere will not be divided
between A and B, into two smaller atmospheres as
before ; for B will drink up the whole atmosphere of
A, and both will be found again in their natural
state.
15. The form of the electrical atmosphere is that
of the body it surrounds. This shape may be
rendered visible in a still air, by raising a smoke
from dry rosin dropt into a hot tea-spoon under the
electrified body, which will be attracted, and spread
itself equally on all sides, covering and concealing
the body. 1 And this form it takes, because it is
attracted by all parts of the surface of the body,
though it cannot enter the substance already replete.
Without this attraction, it would not remain round
the body, but dissipate in the air.
1 6. The atmosphere of electrical particles surround
ing an electrified sphere is not more disposed to leave
it, or more easily drawn off from any one part of the
sphere than another, because it is equally attracted
by every part. But that is not the case with bodies
of any other figure. From a cube it is more easily
drawn at the corners than at the plane sides, and so
1 See Supra, p. 68.
1 7 5 o] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1 7 7
from the angles of a body of any other form, and still
most easily from the angle that is most acute. Thus
if a body shaped as A, B, C, D, , in Plate I., Fig. 8,
be electrified, or have an electrical atmosphere com
municated to it, and we consider every side as a base
on which the particles rest, and by which they are at
tracted, one may see, by imagining a line from A to
F, and another from E to G, that the portion of the
atmosphere included in F, A, E, G, has the line A,
E for its basis. So the portion of atmosphere in
cluded in If, A, B, I, has the line A, B for its basis.
And likewise the portion included in K, B, C, L, has
B, C to rest on ; and so on the other side of the
figure. Now, if you would draw off this atmosphere
with any blunt, smooth body, and approach the mid
dle of the side A, B, you must come very near, before
the force of your attractor exceeds the force or power
with which that side holds the atmosphere. But there
is a small portion between /, J3, K, that has less of
the surface to rest on, and to be attracted by, than
the neighbouring portions, while at the same time
there is a mutual repulsion between its particles and
the particles of those portions ; therefore here you
can get it with more ease, or at a greater distance.
Between F, A, H, there is a larger portion that has
yet a less surface to rest on, and to attract it ; here,
therefore, you can get it away still more easily. But
easiest of all, between L, C, M, where the quantity
is largest, and the surface to attract and keep it back
the least. When you have drawn away one of these
angular portions of the fluid, another succeeds in its
178 THE WORKS OF [1750
place from the nature of fluidity and the mutual re
pulsion before mentioned ; and so the atmosphere
continues flowing off at such angle, like a stream, till
no more is remaining. The extremities of the por
tions of atmosphere over these angular parts are
likewise at a greater distance from the electrified
body, as may be seen by the inspection of the above
figure ; the point of the atmosphere of the angle C
being much farther from C, than any other part of
the atmosphere over the lines C, B, or B, A ; and
besides the distance arising from the nature of the
figure, where the attraction is less, the particles will
naturally expand to a greater distance by their mutual
repulsion. On these accounts we suppose electrified
bodies discharge their atmospheres upon unelectrified
bodies more easily, and at a greater distance from
their angles and points than from their smooth sides.
Those points will also discharge into the air, when
the body has too great an electrical atmosphere, with
out bringing any non-electric near to receive what is
thrown off. For the air, though an electric per se,
yet has always more or less water and other non
electric matters mixed with it ; and these attract and
receive what is so discharged.
17. But points have a property, by which they
draw on as well as throw off the electrical fluid, at
greater distances than blunt bodies can. That is,
as the pointed part of an electrified body will dis
charge the atmosphere of that body, or communicate
it farthest to another body, so the point of an unelec
trified body will draw off the electrical atmosphere
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 179
from an electrified body, farther than a blunter
part of the same unelectrified body will do. Thus,
a pin held by the head, and the point presented to
an electrified body, will draw off its atmosphere at a
foot distance ; where, if the head were presented in
stead of the point, no such effect would follow. To
understand this, we may consider that, if a person
standing on the floor would draw off the electrical
atmosphere from an electrified body, an iron crow
and a blunt knitting-needle held alternately in his
hand, and presented for that purpose, do not draw
with different forces in proportion to their different
masses. For the man, and what he holds in his
hand, be it large or small, are connected with the
common mass of unelectrified matter ; and the force
with which he draws is the same in both cases, it con
sisting in the different proportion of electricity in the
electrified body and that common mass. But the
force with which the electrified body retains its
atmosphere by attracting it, is proportioned to the
surface over which the particles are placed ; that is,
four square inches of that surface retain their at
mosphere with four times the force that one square
inch retains its atmosphere. And as in plucking
the hairs from a horse s tail a degree of strength not
sufficient to pull away a handful at once could yet
easily strip it hair by hair, so a blunt body presented
cannot draw off a number of particles at once, but a
pointed one, with no greater force, takes them away
easily, particle by particle.
1 8. These explanations of the power and operation
i8o THE WORKS OF [1750
of points, when they first occurred to me, and while
they first floated in my mind, appeared perfectly
satisfactory ; but now I have written them, and con
sidered them more closely, I must own I have some
doubts about them ; yet, as I have at present nothing
better to offer in their stead, I do not cross them out ;
for, even a bad solution read, and its faults discov
ered, has often given rise to a good one, in the mind
of an ingenious reader.
19. Nor is it of much importance to us to know
the manner in which nature executes her laws ; it is
enough if we know the laws themselves. It is of real
use to know that China left in the air unsupported
will fall and break ; but how it comes to fall, and why
it breaks, are matters of speculation. It is a pleasure
indeed to know them, but we can preserve our China
without it.
20. Thus, in the present case, to know this power
of points may possibly be of some use to mankind,
though we should never be able to explain it. The
following experiments, as well as those in my first
paper, show this power. I have a large prime con
ductor, made of several thin sheets of clothier s paste
board, formed into a tube, near ten feet long and a
foot diameter. It is covered with Dutch embossed
paper, almost totally gilt. This large metallic surface
supports a much greater electrical atmosphere than a
rod of iron of fifty times the weight would do. It is
suspended by silk lines, and when charged will strike,
at near two inches distance, a pretty hard stroke, so
as to make one s knuckle ache. Let a person stand-
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 181
ing on the floor present the point of a needle, at
twelve or more inches distance from it, and while
the needle is so presented, the conductor cannot be
charged, the point drawing off the fire as fast as it is
thrown on by the electrical globe. Let it be charged,
and then present the point at the same distance, and
it will suddenly be discharged. In the dark you
may see the light on the point, when the experiment
is made. And if the person holding the point
stands upon wax, he will be electrified by receiving
the fire at that distance. Attempt to draw off the
electricity with a blunt body, as a bolt of iron round
at the end, and smooth (a silversmith s iron punch,
inch thick, is what I use), and you must bring it
within the distance of three inches before you can do
it, and then it is done with a stroke and crack. As
the pasteboard tube hangs loose on silk lines, when
you approach it with the punch-iron, it likewise will
move towards the punch, being attracted while it is
charged ; but if, at the same instant, a point be pre
sented as before, it retires again, for the point dis
charges it. Take a pair of large brass scales, of two
or more feet beam, the cords of the scales being silk.
Suspend the beam by a pack-thread from the ceiling,
so that the bottom of the scales may be about a foot
from the floor ; the scales will move round in a circle
by the untwisting of the pack-thread. Set the iron
punch on the end upon the floor, in such a place as
that the scales may pass over it in making their cir
cle ; then electrify one scale by applying the wire of
a charged phial to it. As they move round, you see
i8 2 THE WORKS OF [1750
that scale draw nigher to the floor, and dip more
when it comes over the punch ; and if that be placed
at a proper distance, the scale will snap and discharge
its fire into it. But if a needle be stuck on the end
of the punch, its point upward, the scale, instead of
drawing nigh to the punch and snapping, discharges
its fire silently through the point, and rises higher
from the punch. Nay, even if the needle be placed
upon the floor near the punch, its point upwards, the
end of the punch, though so much higher than the
needle, will not attract the scale and receive its fire,
for the needle will get it and convey it away before it
comes nigh enough for the punch to act. And this
is constantly observable in these experiments, that the
greater quantity of electricity on the pasteboard tube,
the farther it strikes or discharges its fire, and the
point likewise will draw it off at a still greater distance.
Now if the fire of electricity and that of lightning be
the same, as I have endeavoured to show at large in
a former paper, this pasteboard tube and these scales
may represent electrified clouds. If a tube of only
ten feet long will strike and discharge its fire on the
punch at two or three inches distance, an electrified
cloud of perhaps ten thousand acres may strike and
discharge on the earth at a proportionably greater
distance. The horizontal motion of the scales over
the floor may represent the motion of the clouds over
the earth ; and the erect iron punch, a hill or high
building ; and then we see how electrified clouds
passing over hills or high buildings at too great a
height to strike, may be attracted lower till within
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 183
their striking distance. And lastly, if a needle fixed
on the punch with its point upright, or even on the
floor below the punch, will draw the fire from the
scale silently at a much greater than the striking dis
tance, and so prevent its descending towards the
punch ; or if in its course it would have come nigh
enough to strike, yet being first deprived of its fire it
cannot, and the punch is thereby secured from the
stroke ; I say, if these things are so, may not the
knowledge of this power of points be of use to man
kind in preserving houses, churches, ships, &c., from
the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix on the
highest parts of those edifices upright rods of iron
made sharp as a needle, and gilt to prevent rusting,
and from the foot of those rods a wire down the out
side of the building into the ground, or down round
one of the shrouds of a ship, and down her side till it
reaches the water ? Would not these pointed rods
probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud
before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby se
cure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief ?
21. To determine the question whether the clouds
that contain lightning are electrified or not, I would
propose an experiment to be tried where it may be
done conveniently. On the top of some high tower
or steeple, place a kind of sentry-box (as in Plate I.,
Fig. 9), big enough to contain a man and an electrical
stand. From the middle of the stand let an iron rod
rise and pass bending out of the door, and then upright
twenty or thirty feet, pointed very sharp at the end. If
the electrical stand be kept clean and dry, a man stand-
1 84 THE WORKS OF [1750
ing on it when such clouds are passing low might be
electrified and afford sparks, the rod drawing fire to
him from a cloud. If any danger to the man should be
apprehended (though I think there would be none),
let him stand on the floor of his box, and now and
then bring near to the rod the loop of a wire that has
one end fastened to the leads, he holding it by a wax
handle ; so the sparks, if the rod is electrified, will
strike from the rod to the wire and not affect him.
22. Before I leave this subject of lightning, I may
mention some other similarities between the effects
of that and those of electricity. Lightning has often
been known to strike people blind. A pigeon that
we struck dead to appearance by the electrical shock,
recovering life, drooped about the yard several days,
ate nothing, though crumbs were thrown to it, but
declined and died. We did not think of its being
deprived of sight, but afterwards a pullet, struck
dead in like manner, being recovered by repeatedly
blowing into its lungs, when set down on the floor
ran headlong against the wall, and on examination
appeared perfectly blind. Hence we concluded that
the pigeon also had been absolutely blinded by the
shock. The biggest animal we have yet killed, or
tried to kill, with the electrical stroke was a well-
grown pullet.
23. Reading in the ingenious Dr. Miles s account of
the thunder-storm at Stretham, the effect of the light
ning in stripping off all the paint that had covered a
gilt moulding of a pannel of wainscot without hurting
the rest of the paint, I had a mind to lay a coat of
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 185
paint over the filleting of gold on the cover of a
book, and try the effect of a strong electrical flash
sent through that gold from a charged sheet of glass.
But having no paint at hand, I pasted a narrow strip
of paper over it, and when dry sent the flash through
the gilding, by which the paper was torn off from
end to end with such force that it was broken in
several places, and in others brought away part of
the grain of the Turkey-leather in which it was bound,
and convinced me that had it been painted the paint
would have been stripped off in the same manner
with that on the wainscot at Stretham.
24. Lightning melts metals, and I hinted in my
paper on that subject that I suspected it to be a cold
fusion ; I do not mean a fusion by force of cold, but
a fusion without heat. We have also melted gold,
silver, and copper in small quantities by the electrical
flash. The manner is this : Take leaf-gold, leaf-
silver, or leaf-gilt copper, commonly called leaf-brass,
or Dutch gold ; cut off from the leaf long narrow
strips the breadth of a straw. Place one of these
strips between two strips of smooth glass that are
about the width of your finger. If one strip of gold
the length of the leaf be not long enough for the
glass, add another to the end of it, so that you may
have a little part hanging out loose at each end of the
glass. Bind the pieces of glass together from end
to end with strong silk thread ; then place it so
as to be part of an electrical circuit (the ends of
gold hanging out being of use to join with the
other parts of the circuit), and send the flash through
i86 THE WORKS OF [1750
it, from a large electrified jar or sheet of glass. Then,
if your strips of glass remain whole, you will see that
the gold is missing in several places, and instead of
it a metallic stain on both the glasses ; the stains on
the upper and under glass exactly similar in the
minutest stroke, as may be seen by holding them
to the light ; the metal appeared to have been not
only melted, but even vitrified, or otherwise so driven
into the pores of the glass, as to be protected by it
from the action of the strongest aqita fortis or aqua
regia. I send you enclosed two little pieces of glass
with these metallic stains upon them, which cannot
be removed without taking part of the glass with
them. Sometimes the stain spreads a little wider
than the breadth of the leaf, and looks brighter at
the edge, as by inspecting closely you may observe
in these. Sometimes the glass breaks to pieces ;
once the upper glass broke into a thousand pieces,
looking like coarse salt. The pieces I send you were
stained with Dutch gold. True gold makes a darker
stain, somewhat reddish ; silver, a greenish stain. We
once took two pieces of thick looking-glass, as broad
as a gunter s scale, and six inches long ; and, plac
ing leaf-gold between them, put them between two
smoothly-plained pieces of wood, and fixed them tight
in a book-binder s small press ; yet, though they were
so closely confined, the force of the electrical shock
shivered the glass into many pieces. The gold was
melted, and stained into the glass, as usual. The cir
cumstances of the breaking of the glass differ much
in making the experiment, and sometimes it does not
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 187
break at all ; but this is constant, that the stains in the
upper and under pieces are exact counterparts of each
other. And though I have taken up the pieces of
glass between my fingers immediately after this melt
ing, I never could perceive the least warmth in them.
25. In one of my former papers I mentioned that
gilding on a book, though at first it communicated
the shock perfectly well, yet failed after a few experi
ments, which we could not account for. We have
since found, that one strong shock breaks the con
tinuity of the gold in the filleting, and makes it look
rather like dust of gold, abundance of its parts being
broken and driven off; and it will seldom conduct
above one strong shock. Perhaps this may be the
reason : when there is not a perfect continuity in the
circuit, the fire must leap over the vacancies ; there
is a certain distance which it is able to leap over
according to its strength ; if a number of small va
cancies, though each be very minute, taken together
exceed that distance, it cannot leap over them, and
so the shock is prevented.
26. From the before-mentioned law of electricity,
that points, as they are more or less acute, draw on
and throw off the electrical fluid with more or less
power, and at greater or less distances, and in larger
or smaller quantities in the same time, we may see
how to account for the situation of the leaf of gold
suspended between two plates, the upper one con
tinually electrified, the under one in a person s hand
standing on the floor. When the upper plate is
electrified, the leaf is attracted and raised towards
i88 THE WORKS OF [1750
it, and would fly to that plate, were it not for its
own points. The corner that happens to be upper
most when the leaf is rising, being a sharp point,
from the extreme thinness of the gold, draws and
receives at a distance a sufficient quantity of the
electric fluid to give itself an electric atmosphere, by
which its progress to the upper plate is stopped, and
it begins to be repelled from that plate, and would
be driven back to the under plate, but that its low
est corner is likewise a point, and throws off or dis
charges the overplus of the leaf s atmosphere as fast
as the upper corner draws it on. Were these two
points perfectly equal in acuteness, the leaf would
take place exactly in the middle space, for its weight
is a trifle compared to the power acting on it ; but it
is generally nearest the unelectrified plate, because,
when the leaf is offered to the electrified plate, at a
distance, the sharpest point is commonly first affected
and raised towards it ; so that point, from its greater
acuteness, receiving the fluid faster than its opposite
can discharge it at equal distances, it retires from the
electrified plate and draws nearer to the unelectrified
plate, till it comes to a distance where the discharge
can be exactly equal to the receipt, the latter being
lessened and the former increased ; and there it re
mains as long as the globe continues to supply fresh
electrical matter. This will appear plain, when the
difference of acuteness in the corners is made very
great. Cut a piece of Dutch gold (which is fittest
for these experiments on account of its great strength)
into the form of Figure 10, the upper corner a right
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 189
angle, the two next obtuse angles, and the lowest a
very acute one ; and bring this on your plate, un
der the electrified plate, in such a manner as that
the right-angled part may be first raised (which is
done by covering the acute part with the hollow of
your hand), and you will see this leaf take place
much nearer to the upper than the under plate ;
because, without being nearer, it cannot receive so
fast at its right-angled point as it can discharge
at its acute one. Turn this leaf with the acute part
uppermost, and then it takes place nearest the un-
electrified plate ; because otherwise it receives faster
at its acute point than it can discharge at its right-
angled one. Thus the difference of distance is always
proportioned to the difference of acuteness. Take
care, in cutting your leaf, to leave no little ragged
particles on the edges, which sometimes form points
where you would not have them. You may make
this figure so acute below and blunt above, as to
need no under plate, it discharging fast enough into
the air. When it is made narrower, as the figure be
tween the pricked lines, we call it ihe golden fish, from
its manner of acting. For if you take it by the tail,
and hold it at a foot or greater horizontal distance
from the prime conductor, it will, when let go, fly to
it with a brisk but wavering motion, like that of an
eel through the water ; it will then take place under
the prime conductor, at perhaps a quarter or half an
inch distance, and keep a continual shaking of the
tail like a fish, so that it seems animated. Turn its
tail towards the prime conductor, and then it flies to
190 THE WORKS OF [1750
your finger, and seems to nibble it. And if you hold
a plate under it at six or eight inches distance, and
cease turning the globe, when the electrical atmos
phere of the conductor grows small, it will descend
to the plate, and swim back again several times, with
the same fish-like motion, greatly to the entertain
ment of spectators. By a little practice in blunting
or sharpening the heads or tails of these figures, you
may make them take place as desired, nearer or
farther from the electrified plate.
27. It is said, in section eighth of this paper, that
all kinds of common matter are supposed not to
attract the electrical fluid with equal strength ; and
that those called electrics per se, as glass, &c., attract
and retain it strongest, and contain the greatest quan
tity. This latter position may seem a paradox to
some, being contrary to the hitherto received opinion ;
and therefore I shall now endeavour to explain it.
28. In order to this, let it first be considered that
we cannot, by any means we are yet acquainted with,
force the electrical fluid through glass. I know it is
commonly thought that it easily pervades glass ; and
the experiment of a feather suspended by a thread, in
a bottle hermetically sealed, yet moved by bringing a
rubbed tube near the outside of the bottle, is alleged
to prove it. But if the electrical fluid so easily per
vades glass, how does the phial become charged (as
we term it), when we hold it in our hands ? Would
not the fire, thrown in by the wire, pass through to
our hands, and so escape into the floor ? Would not
the bottle in that case be left just as we found it, un-
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 191
charged, as we know a metal bottle so attempted to
be charged would be ? Indeed, if there be the least
crack, the minutest solution of continuity in the glass,
though it remains so tight that nothing else we know
of will pass, yet the extremely subtile electric fluid
flies through such a crack with the greatest freedom,
and such a bottle we know can never be charged ;
what then makes the difference between such a bottle
and one that is sound, but this, that the fluid can pass
through the one and not through the other. 1
29. It is true there is an experiment that at first
sight would be apt to satisfy a slight observer that
the fire thrown into the bottle by the wire does really
pass through the glass. It is this : Place the bottle
on a glass stand under the prime conductor ; suspend
a bullet by a chain from the prime conductor till it
comes within a quarter of an inch right over the wire
of the bottle ; place your knuckle on the glass stand
at just the same distance from the coating of the
bottle as the bullet is from its wire. Now let the
globe be turned, and you see a spark strike from the
bullet to the wire of the bottle, and the same instant
you see and feel an exactly equal spark striking from
the coating on your knuckle, and so on, spark for
spark. This looks as if the whole received by the
bottle was again discharged from it. And yet the
bottle by this means is charged ! 2 And therefore the
fire that thus leaves the bottle, though the same in
quantity, cannot be the very same fire that entered at
1 See the first sixteen sections of the former paper, No. LXI.
3 See 10 of paper No. LXI.
i 9 2 THE WORKS OF [1750
the wire, for if it were, the bottle would remain un
charged.
30. If the fire that so leaves the bottle be not the
same that is thrown in through the wire, it must be
fire that subsisted in the bottle (that is, in the glass
of the bottle) before the operation began.
31. If so there must be a great quantity in glass,
because a great quantity is thus discharged, even from
very thin glass.
32. That this electrical fluid or fire is strongly at
tracted by glass, we know from the quickness and vio
lence with which it is resumed by the part that had
been deprived of it when there is an opportunity.
And by this, that we cannot from a mass of glass
draw a quantity of electric fire, or electrify the whole
mass minus, as we can a mass of metal. We cannot
lessen or increase its whole quantity, for the quantity
it has it holds, and it has as much as it can hold. Its
pores are filled with it as full as the mutual repellency
of the particles will admit, and what is already in re
fuses, or strongly repels, any additional quantity.
Nor have we any way of moving the electrical fluid
in glass, but one : that is, by covering part of the two
surfaces of thin glass with non-electrics, and then
throwing an additional quantity of this fluid on one
surface, which, spreading in the non-electric, and
being bound by it to that surface, acts by its repelling
force on the particles of the electrical fluid contained
in the other surface, and drives them out of the glass
into the non-electric on that side from whence they
are discharged, and then those added on the charged
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 193
side can enter. But when this is done there is no
more in the glass, nor less, than before, just as
much having left it on one side as it received on the
other.
33. I feel a want of terms here, and doubt much
whether I shall be able to make this part intelligible.
By the word surface, in this case, I do not mean mere
length and breadth without thickness ; but, when I
speak of the upper or under surface of a piece of
glass, the outer or inner surface of the phial, I mean
length, breadth, and half the thickness, and beg the
favor of being so understood. Now I suppose that
glass, in its first principles, and in the furnace, has no
more of this electrical fluid than other common mat
ter ; that when it is blown, as it cools, and the par
ticles of common fire leave it, its pores become a
vacuum ; that the component parts of glass are ex
tremely small and fine, I guess from its never show
ing a rough face when it breaks, but always a polish ;
and from the smallness of its particles I suppose the
pores between them must be exceedingly small, which
is the reason that aqua fortis, nor any other men
struum we have, can enter to separate them and
dissolve the substance ; nor is any fluid we know of
fine enough to enter, except common fire and the
electric fluid. Now the departing fire, leaving a
vacuum, as aforesaid, between these pores, which
air nor water are fine enough to enter and fill, the
electric fluid (which is everywhere ready in what we
call the non-electrics, and in the non-electric mixtures
that are in the air) is attracted in ; yet does not be-
i 9 4 THE WORKS OF [1750
come fixed with the substance of the glass, but sub
sists there as water in a porous stone, retained only
by the attraction of the fixed parts, itself still loose
and a fluid. But I suppose farther, that, in the cool
ing of the glass, its texture becomes closest in the
middle, and forms a kind of partition, in which the
pores are so narrow that the particles of the elec
trical fluid, which enter both surfaces at the same
time, cannot go through, or pass and repass from
one surface to the other, and so mix together ; yet,
though the particles of electric fluid imbibed by
each surface cannot themselves pass through to
those of the other, their repellency can, and by this
means they act on one another. The particles of the
electric fluid have a mutual repellency, but by the
power of attraction in the glass they are condensed
or forced near to each other. When the glass has
received, and by its attraction forced closer together,
so much of this electric fluid, as that the power of
attracting and condensing in the one, is equal to the
power of expansion in the other, it can imbibe no
more, and that remains its constant whole quantity ;
but each surface would receive more, if the repellency
of what is in the opposite surface did not resist its
entrance. The quantities of this fluid in each surface
being equal, their repelling action on each other is
equal ; and therefore those of one surface cannot
drive out those of the other ; but if a greater quan
tity is forced into one surface than the glass would
naturally draw in, this increases the repelling power
on that side, and, overpowering the attraction on the
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 195
other, drives out part of the fluid that had been im
bibed by that surface, if there be any non-electric
ready to receive it ; such there is in all cases where
glass is electrified to give a shock. The surface that
has been thus emptied, by having its electrical fluid
driven out, resumes again an equal quantity with
violence, as soon as the glass has an opportunity
to discharge that over quantity more than it could
retain by attraction in its other surface, by the
additional repellency of which the vacuum had
been occasioned. For experiments favoring (if I
may not say confirming) this hypothesis, I must,
to avoid repetition, beg leave to refer you back
to what is said of the electrical phial in my former
papers.
34. Let us now see how it will account for several
other appearances. Glass, a body extremely elastic
(and perhaps its elasticity may be owing in some de
gree to the subsisting of so great a quantity of this
repelling fluid in its pores), must, when rubbed, have
its rubbed surface somewhat stretched, or its solid
parts drawn a little farther asunder, so that the va
cancies, in which the electrical fluid resides, become
larger, affording room for more of that fluid, which is
immediately attracted into it from the cushion or
handrubbing, they being supplied from the common
stock. But the instant the parts of the glass so
opened and filled have passed the friction, they close
again, and force the additional quantity out upon the
surface, where it must rest till that part comes round
to the cushion again, unless some non-electric (as the
196 THE WORKS OF [1750
prime conductor) first presents to receive it. 1 But
if the inside of the globe be lined with a non-electric,
the additional repellency of the electrical fluid thus
collected by friction on the rubbed part of the globe s
outer surface drives an equal quantity out of the
inner surface into that non-electric lining, which, re
ceiving it and carrying it away from the rubbed part
into the common mass through the axis of the globe
and frame of the machine, the new-collected electrical
fluid can enter and remain in the outer surface, and
none of it (or a very little) will be received by the
prime conductor. As this charged part of the globe
comes round to the cushion again, the outer surface
delivers its overplus fire into the cushion, the oppo
site inner surface receiving at the same time an equal
quantity from the floor. Every electrician knows that
a globe wet within will afford little or no fire ; but
the reason has not before been attempted to be given,
that I know of.
35. So, if a tube lined with a non-electric be
rubbed, 2 little or no fire is obtained from it ; what is
collected from the hand in the downward rubbing
stroke entering the pores of the glass, and driving an
equal quantity out of the inner surface into the non
electric lining ; and the hand, in passing up to take a
second stroke, takes out again what had been thrown
J In the dark the electric fluid may be glass ; in the other it is leaving the glass
seen on the cushion in two semi-circles and returning into the back part of the
or half-moons, one on the fore part, the cushion. When the prime conductor is
other on the back part of the cushion, applied to take it off the glass, the
just where the globe and cushion sepa,- back crescent disappears. F.
rate. In the fore crescent the fire is a Gilt paper, with the gilt face next
passing out of the cushion into the the glass, does well.
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 197
into the outer surface, and then the inner surface re
ceives back again what it had given to the non-electric
lining. Thus, the particles of electrical fluid belong
ing to the inside surface go in and out of their pores
every stroke given to the tube. Put a wire into the
tube, the inward end in contact with the non-electric
lining, so it will represent the Leyden bottle. Let a
second person touch the wire while you rub, and the
fire, driven out of the inward surface when you give
the stroke, will pass through him into the common
mass, and return through him when the inner surface
resumes its quantity, and therefore this new kind of
Leyden bottle cannot be so charged. But thus it
may : after every stroke, before you pass your hand
up to make another, let a second person apply
his finger to the wire, take the spark, and then
withdraw his finger ; and so on till he has drawn
a number of sparks ; thus will the inner surface be
exhausted, and the outer surface charged ; then wrap
a sheet of gilt paper close round the outer surface,
and grasping it in your hand you may receive a shock
by applying the finger of the other hand to the wire ;
for now the vacant pores in the inner surface resume
their quantity, and the overcharged pores in the outer
surface discharge their overplus ; the equilibrium be
ing restored through your body, which could not be
restored through the glass. 1 If the tube be exhausted
of air, a non-electric lining in contact with the wire is
not necessary ; for in vacuo the electrical fire will fly
freely from the inner surface without a non-electric
1 See paper No. LXI., 15.
198 THE WORKS OF [1750
conductor ; but air resists its motion ; for being itself
an electric per se, it does not attract it, having already
its quantity. So the air never draws off an electric
atmosphere from any body, but in proportion to the
non-electrics mixed with it ; it rather keeps such an
atmosphere confined, which, from the mutual repulsion
of its particles, tends to dissipation, and would imme
diately dissipate in vacuo. And thus the experiment
of the feather enclosed in a glass vessel hermetically
sealed, but moving on the approach of the rubbed
tube, is explained. When an additional quantity of
the electrical fluid is applied to the side of the vessel
by the atmosphere of the tube, a quantity is repelled
and driven out of the inner surface of that side into
the vessel, and there affects the feather, returning
again into its pores when the tube with its atmos
phere is withdrawn ; not that the particles of that
atmosphere did themselves pass through the glass to
the feather. And every other appearance I have yet
seen, in which glass and electricity are concerned, are,
I think, explained with equal ease by the same hy
pothesis. Yet perhaps it may not be a true one, and
I shall be obliged to him that affords me a better.
36. Thus I take the difference between non-elec
trics and glass, an electric per se, to consist in these
two particulars, ist, that a non-electric easily suf
fers a change in the quantity of the electric fluid it
contains. You may lessen its whole quantity by
drawing out a part, which the whole body will again
resume ; but of glass you can only lessen the quan
tity contained in one of its surfaces ; and not that,
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 199
but by supplying an equal quantity at the same time
to the other surface ; so that the whole glass may al
ways have the same quantity in the two surfaces, their
two different quantities being added together. And
this can only be done in glass that is thin ; beyond a
certain thickness we have yet no power that can make
this change. And 2dly, that the electric fire freely
moves from place to place in and through the sub
stance of a non -electric, but not so through the sub
stance of glass. If you offer a quantity to one end of
a long rod of metal it receives it, and when it enters
every particle that was before in the rod pushes its
neighbour quite to the farther end, where the over
plus is discharged ; and this instantaneously, where
the rod is part of the circle in the experiment of the
shock. But glass, from the smallness of its pores, or
stronger attraction of what it contains, refuses to ad
mit so free a motion ; a glass rod will not conduct a
shock, nor will the thinnest glass suffer any particle
entering one of its surfaces to pass through to the
other.
37. Hence we see the impossibility of success in
the experiments proposed to draw out the effluvial
virtues of a non-electric, as cinnamon, for instance,
and mixing them with the electric fluid, to convey
them with that into the body by including it in the
globe, and then applying friction, &c. For, though the
effluvia of cinnamon and the electric fluid should mix
within the globe, they would never come out together
through the pores of the glass, and so go to the prime
conductor, for the electric fluid itself cannot come
20O
THE WORKS OF [175.
through, and the prime conductor is always supplied
from the cushion, and that from the floor. And be
sides, when the globe is filled with cinnamon, or other
non-electric, no electric fluid can be obtained from its
outer surface, for the reason before mentioned. I
have tried another way, which I thought more likely
to obtain a mixture of the electric and other effluvia
together, if such a mixture had been possible. I
placed a glass plate under my cushion, to cut off the
communication between the cushion and the floor,
then brought a small chain from the cushion into a
glass of oil of turpentine, and carried another chain
from the oil of turpentine to the floor, taking care
that the chain from the cushion to the glass should
touch no part of the frame of the machine. Another
chain was fixed to the prime conductor, and held in
the hand of a person to be electrified. The ends of
the two chains in the glass were near an inch distant
from each other, the oil of turpentine between. Now
the globe being turned could draw no fire from the
floor through the machine, the communication that
way being cut off by the thick glass plate under the
cushion ; it must then draw it through the chains
whose ends were dipped in the oil of turpentine.
And as the oil of turpentine, being an electric per se,
would not conduct, what came up from the floor was
obliged to jump from the end of one chain to the end
of the other, through the substance of that oil, which
we could see in large sparks, and so it had a fair
opportunity of seizing some of the finest particles of
the oil in its passage, and carrying them off with it ;
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 201
but no such effect followed, nor could I perceive the
least difference in the smell of the electric effluvia
thus collected, from what it has when collected other
wise, nor does it otherwise affect the body of a person
electrized. I likewise put into a phial, instead of
water, a strong purgative liquid, and then charged
the phial, and took repeated shocks from it, in which
case every particle of the electrical fluid must, before
it went through my body, have first gone through
the liquid when the phial is charging, and returned
through it when discharging, yet no other effect fol
lowed than if it had been charged with water. I
have also smelled the electric fire when drawn through
gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, wood, and the human
body, and could perceive no difference ; the odor is
always the same, where the spark does not burn
what it strikes ; and therefore I imagine it does not
take that smell from any quality of the bodies it
passes through. And indeed, as that smell so readily
leaves the electric matter, and adheres to the knuckle
receiving the sparks, and to other things, I suspect
that it never was connected with it, but arises instan
taneously from something in the air acted upon by it.
For if it was fine enough to come with the electric
fluid through the body of one person, why should it
stop on the skin of another ?
But I shall never have done, if I tell you all my
conjectures, thoughts, and imaginations on the nature
and operations of this electric fluid, and relate the
variety of little experiments we have tried. I have
already made this paper too long, for which I must
202 THE WORKS OF [1750
crave pardon, not having now time to abridge it. I
shall only add that, as it has been observed here that
spirits will fire by the electric spark in the summer
time without heating them, when Fahrenheit s ther
mometer is above seventy ; so, when colder, if the
operator puts a small flat bottle of spirits in his
bosom, or a close pocket, with the spoon, some little
time before he uses them, the heat of his body will
communicate warmth more than sufficient for the
purpose.
ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENTS ;
Proving that the Ley den Bottle has no more Electrical
Fire in it when charged than before, nor less when
discharged ; that, in discharging, the Fire does not
issue from the Wire and the Coating at the same
Time, as some have thought, but that the Coating
always receives what is discharged by the Wire, or
an equal Quantity ; the outer Surf ace being always
in a Negative State of Electricity, when the inner
Surface is in a Positive State.
Place a thick plate of glass under the rubbing
cushion, to cut off the communication of electrical
fire from the floor to the cushion ; then, if there be
no fine points or hairy threads sticking out from the
cushion, or from the parts of the machine opposite to
the cushion (of which you must be careful), you can
get but a few sparks from the prime conductor, which
are all the cushion will part with.
Hang a phial then on the prime conductor, and it
i7So] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 203
will not charge, though you hold it by the coating.
But-
Form a communication by a chain from the coating
to the cushion, and the phial will charge.
For the globe then draws the electric fire out of
the outside surface of the phial, and forces it through
the prime conductor and wire of the phial into the
inside surface.
Thus the bottle is charged with its own fire, no
other being to be had while the glass plate is under
the cushion.
Hang two cork balls by flaxen threads to the prime
conductor ; then touch the coating of the bottle, and
they will be electrified and recede from each other.
For, just as much fire as you give the coating, so
much is discharged through the wire upon the prime
conductor, whence the cork balls receive an electrical
atmosphere. But
Take a wire bent in the form of a C, with a stick
of wax fixed to the outside of the curve to hold it by ;
and apply one end of this wire to the coating, and
the other at the same time to the prime conductor,
the phial will be discharged ; and if the balls are not
electrified before the discharge, neither will they
appear to be so after the discharge, for they will not
repel each other.
If the phial really exploded at both ends, and dis
charged fire from both coating and wire, the balls
would be more electrified, and recede farther ; for
none of the fire can escape, the wax handle pre
venting.
204 THE WORKS OF [1750
But if the fire with which the inside surface is sur
charged be so much precisely as is wanted by the
outside surface, it will pass round through the wire
fixed to the wax handle, restore the equilibrium in
the glass, and make no alteration in the state of the
prime conductor.
Accordingly we find that if the prime conductor be
electrified, and the cork balls in a state of repellency
before the bottle is discharged, they continue so
afterwards. If not, they are not electrified by that
discharge.
LXXIII.
TO SAMUEL JOHNSON. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 23 August, 1750.
DEAR SIR: We received your favor of the i6th
instant. Mr. Peters will hardly have time to write to
you by this post, and I must be short. Mr. Francis
spent the last evening with me, and we were all glad
to hear that you seriously meditate a visit after the
middle of next month, and that you will inform us by
a line when to expect you. We drank your health
and Mrs. Johnson s, remembering your kind enter
tainment of us at Stratford.
I think with you, that nothing is of more impor
tance for the public weal, than to form and train up
youth in wisdom and virtue. Wise and good men
are, in my opinion, the strength of a state ; much
1 Dr. Samuel Johnson was the first of the first establishment of the College
president of King s (now Columbia) of Philadelphia, the presidency of
College, New York. This letter ap- which institution had been offered to
pears to have been written at the time him, but was declined.
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 205
more so than riches" or arms, which, under the man
agement of ignorance and wickedness, often draw on
destruction, instead of providing for the safety of the
people. And though the culture bestowed on many
should be successful only with a few, yet the influence
of those few and the service in their power may be
very great. Even a single woman, that was wise, by
her wisdom saved the city.
I think also that general virtue is more probably
to be expected and obtained from the education of
youth, than from the exhortation of adult persons ;
bad habits and vices of the mind being, like diseases
of the body, more easily prevented than cured. I
think, moreover, that talents for the education of
youth are the gift of God ; and that he on whom
they are bestowed, whenever a way is opened for the
use of them, is as strongly called as if he heard a
voice from heaven ; nothing more surely pointing
out duty in a public service, than ability and oppor
tunity of performing it.
I have not yet discoursed with Dr. Jenney concern
ing your removal hither. You have reason, I own, to
doubt whether your coming on the foot I proposed
would not be disagreeable to him, though I think it
ought not ; for, should his particular interest be
somewhat affected by it, that ought not to stand
in competition with the general good ; especially as it
cannot be much affected, he being old, and rich, and
without children. I will, however, learn his senti
ments before the next post. But whatever influence
they might have on your determination about remov-
206 THE WORKS OF [1750
ing, they need have none on your intention of
visiting ; and if you favor us with the visit, it is
not necessary that you should previously write to
him to learn his disposition about your removal,
since you will see him, and when we are all together
those things may be better settled in conversation
than by letters at a distance.
Your tenderness of the Church s peace is truly laud
able ; but methinks to build a new church in a grow
ing place is not properly dividing but multiplying ;
and will really be the means of increasing the number
of those who worship God in that way. Many who
cannot now be accommodated in the church go to
other places or stay at home ; and if we had another
church, many who go to other places or stay at home
would go to church. I suppose the interest of the
church has been far from suffering in Boston by the
building of two churches there in my memory. I had
for several years nailed against the wall of my house
a pigeon-box that would hold six pair ; and though
they bred as fast as my neighbours pigeons, I never
had more than six pair, the old and strong driving
out the young and weak, and obliging them to seek
new habitations. At length I put up an additional
box with apartments for entertaining twelve pair
more, and it was soon filled with inhabitants by the
overflowing of my first box and of others in the
neighbourhood. This I take to be a parallel case
with the building a new church here.
Your years I think are not so many as to be an ob
jection of any weight, especially considering the vigor
of your constitution. For the smallpox, if it should
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 207
spread here, you might inoculate with great probabil
ity and safety ; and I think that distemper generally
more favorable here than farther northward. Your ob
jection about the politeness of Philadelphia and your
imagined rusticity is mere compliment, and your
diffidence of yourself absolutely groundless.
My humble respects, if you please, to your breth
ren at the Commencement. I hope they will advise
you to what is most for the good of the whole, and
then I think they will advise you to remove hither.
Please to tender my best respects and service to Mrs.
Johnson and your son. I am, dear Sir, your obliged
and affectionate humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.
LXXIV.
TO JAMES BOWDOIN, 1 AT BOSTON.
PHILADELPHIA, 25 October, 1750.
SIR : Enclosed with this I send you all my elec
trical papers, fairly transcribed, and I have, as you
desired, examined the copy, and find it correct. I
shall be glad to have your observations on them, and
if in any part I have not made myself well under
stood, I will on notice endeavour to explain the ob
scure passages by letter. My compliments to Mr.
Cooper and the other gentlemen who were with you
here. I hope you all got safe home. I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
1 Mr. Bowdoin was at this time of Arts and Sciences. He took an
twenty-three years old. He became active and prominent part in the
distinguished afterwards as a philos- events of the American Revolution,
opher and statesman, being one of and was subsequently governor of
the principal founders and the first Massachusetts. SPARKS.
president of the American Academy
208 THE WORKS OF [1750
LXXV.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, 25 October, 1750.
DEAR SIR : I ought to have informed you sooner,
that we got well home, and should have inquired after
your health, as we left you in the hands of a fever.
I beg you will excuse the delay, and desire you will
remember in my favor the old saying, They who have
much business must have much pardon. Whenever
Mr. Francis and I meet of an evening, we drink your
health, among our other New England friends, and he
desires to be always respectfully remembered to you.
I am glad to hear you are got well again ; but I
cannot have the pleasure of seeing you again this
year. I will write to Colonel Schuyler, and obtain
for you a particular account of his manner of improv
ing his banked grounds ; and will also procure for
you a specimen of our alum earth, with Mr. Syng s
observations on it. In return (for you know there is
no trade without returns) I request you to procure
for me a particular account of the manner of making
a new kind of fence we saw at Southhold, on Long
Island, which consists of a bank and hedge. I would
know every particular relating to the matter, as the
best thickness, height and slope of the bank ; the
manner of erecting it, the best time for the work, the
best way of planting the hedge, the price of the work
to laborers per rod or perch, and whatever may be
of use for our information here, who begin in many
places to be at a loss for wood to make fence with.
1750] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 209
We were told at Southhold, that this kind of fencing
had been long practised with success at Southampton
and other places, on the south side of the Island, but
was new among them. I hear the minister at South-
hold is esteemed an ingenious man ; perhaps you
may know him, and he will at your request favor me
with an explicit account of these fences.
The fore part of the summer here was extremely
dry, and the grass in many places was burnt up.
But we had a good crop of wheat ; and, rains coming
on about the end of July, we had in August a new
spring, the grass sprouting again wonderfully thick
and fast, in fields where we thought the very roots had
been destroyed. Our grave-diggers said they found
the earth hot sensibly at three feet depth, even after
these rains ; perhaps the great heat below and the
moisture above occasioned this sudden and profuse
vegetation, the whole country being, as it were, one
great hot-bed.
I am, with esteem and affection, dear Sir,
Your obliged humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXXVI.
TO A FRIEND IN BOSTON. 2
PHILADELPHIA, 25 December, 1750.
I have lately made an experiment in electricity that
I desire never to repeat. Two nights ago, being
1 A copy of this letter was found without the name of the person to
among Governor Bowdoin s papers, whom it was addressed. SPARKS.
210 THE WORKS OF [1750
about to kill a turkey by the shock from two large
glass jars, containing as much electrical fire as forty
common phials, I inadvertently took the whole
through my own arms and body, by receiving the
fire from the united top wires with one hand, while
the other held a chain connected with the outsides
of both jars. The company present (whose talking
to me and to one another, I suppose, occasioned my
inattention to what I was about) say that the flash
was very great, and the crack as loud as a pistol ;
yet, my senses being instantly gone, I neither saw
the one nor heard the other ; nor did I feel the stroke
on my hand, though I afterwards found it raised a
round swelling where the fire entered, as big as half
a pistol-bullet, by which you may judge of the quick
ness of the electrical fire, which by this instance
seems to be greater than that of sound, light, or ani
mal sensation.
What I can remember of the matter is that I was
about to try whether the bottles or jars were fully
charged by the strength and length of the stream is
suing to my hand, as I commonly used to do, and
which I might safely enough have done if I had not
held the chain in the other hand. I then felt what I
know not how well to describe a universal blow
throughout my whole body from head to foot, which
seemed within as well as without ; after which the
first thing I took notice of was a violent, quick
shaking of my body, which gradually remitting, my
sense as gradually returned, and then I thought the
bottles must be discharged, but could not conceive
1 75 1] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 2 1 1
how, till at last I perceived the chain in my hand, and
recollected what I had been about to do. That part
of my hand and fingers which held the chain was left
white, as though the blood had been driven out, and
remained so eight or ten minutes after, feeling like
dead flesh ; and I had a numbness in my arms and
the back of my neck, which continued till the next
morning, but wore off. Nothing remains now of
this shock but a soreness in my breast-bone, which
feels as if it had been bruised. I did not fall, but sup
pose I should have been knocked down if I had re
ceived the stroke in my head. The whole was over
in less than a minute.
You may communicate this to Mr. Bowdoin as a
caution to him, but do not make it more public, for I
am ashamed to have been guilty of so notorious a
blunder; a match for that of the Irishman whom my
sister told me of, who, to divert his wife, poured the
bottle of gunpowder on the live coal ; or of that
other, who, being about to steal powder, made a hole
in the cask with a hot iron. I am yours, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. The jars hold six gallons each.
LXXVII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN, AT NEW YORK.
PHILADELPHIA, , 1751.
SIR : I enclose you answers, such as my present
hurry of business will permit me to make, to the
212 THE WORKS OF [1751
principal queries contained in yours of the 28th
instant, and beg leave to refer you to the latter piece
in the printed collection of my papers, for further
explanation of the difference between what are called
electrics per se and non-electrics. When you have time
to read and consider these papers, I will endeavour to
make any new experiments you shall propose, that
you think may afford farther light or satisfaction
to either of us ; and shall be much obliged to
you for such remarks, objections, &c., as may occur
to you.
I forget whether I wrote to you that I have melted
brass pins and steel needles, inverted the poles
of the magnetic needle, given a magnetism and
polarity to needles that had none, and fired dry
gunpowder by the electric spark. I have five bottles
that contain eight or nine gallons each, two of which
charged are sufficient for those purposes ; but I can
charge and discharge them altogether. There are no
bounds (but what expense and labor give) to the
force man may raise and use in the electrical way ;
for bottle may be added to bottle ad infinitum, and
all united and discharged together as one, the
force and effect proportioned to their number and
size. The greatest known effects of common light
ning may, I think, without much difficulty, be ex
ceeded in this way, which a few years since could
not have been believed, and even now may seem to
many a little extravagant to suppose. So we are
got beyond the skill of Rabelais s devils of two
years old, who, he humorously says, had only learned
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 213
to thunder and lighten a little round the head of a
cabbage.
I am, with sincere respect,
Your most obliged humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
Queries and Answers Referred to in the Foregoing
Letter.
Query. Wherein consists the difference between
an electric and a non-electric body ?
Answer. The terms electric per se and non-electric
were first used to distinguish bodies, on a mistaken
supposition that those called electrics per se alone
contained electric matter in their substance which
was capable of being excited by friction, and of being
produced or drawn from them, and communicated to
those called non-electrics, supposed to be destitute of
it ; for the glass, &c., being rubbed, discovered signs
of having it, by snapping to the finger, attracting, re
pelling, &c., and could communicate those signs to
metals and water. Afterwards it was found that
rubbing of glass would not produce the electric mat
ter, unless a communication was preserved between
the rubber and the floor ; and subsequent experi
ments proved that the electric matter was really
drawn from those bodies that at first were thought to
have none in them. Then it was doubted whether
glass, and other bodies called electrics per se, had
really any electric matter in them, since they appar
ently afforded none but what they first extracted
from those which had been called non-electrics. But
214 THE WORKS OF [1751
some of my experiments show that glass contains
it in great quantity, and I now suspect it to be pretty
equally diffused in all the matter of this terraqueous
globe. If so, the terms electric per se and non-electric
should be laid aside as improper ; and (the only differ
ence being this, that some bodies will conduct electric
matter, and others will not) the terms conductor and
non-conductor may supply their place. If any portion
of electric matter is applied to a piece of conducting
matter, it penetrates and flows through it, or spreads
equally on its surface ; if applied to a piece of non
conducting matter, it will do neither. Perfect con
ductors of electric matter are only metals and water ;
other bodies conducting only as they contain a mixture
of those, without more or less of which they will not
conduct at all. 1 This (by the way) shows a new rela
tion between metals and water heretofore unknown.
To illustrate this by a comparison, which, however,
can only give a faint resemblance. Electric matter
passes through conductors as water passes through a
porous stone, or spreads on their surfaces as water
spreads on a wet stone ; but when applied to non
conductors, it is like water dropped on a greasy stone,
it neither penetrates, passes through, nor spreads on
the surface, but remains in drops where it falls. See
farther on this head, in my last printed piece, entitled
Opinions and Conjectures, &c. 1 749.
Query. What are the effects of air in electrical
experiments ?
Answer. All I have hitherto observed are these.
1 This proposition is since found to be too general, Mr, Wilson having dis
covered that melted wax and rosin will also conduct.
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 215
Moist air receives and conducts the electrical matter
in proportion to its moisture, quite dry air not at all ;
air is therefore to be classed with the non-conductors.
Dry air assists in confining the electrical atmosphere
to the body it surrounds, and prevents its dissipat
ing ; for in vacuo it quits easily, and points operate
stronger that is, they throw off or attract the elec
trical matter more freely and at greater distances ;
so that air intervening obstructs its passage from
body to body in some degree. A clean electrical
phial and wire, containing air instead of water, will
not be charged, nor give a shock, any more than if it
was filled with powder of glass ; but exhausted of air,
it operates as well as if filled with water. Yet an
electric atmosphere and air do not seem to exclude
each other, for we breathe freely in such an atmos
phere, and dry air will blow through it without dis
placing or driving it away. I question whether the
strongest dry north-wester would dissipate it. I once
electrified a large cork ball at the end of a silk thread
three feet long, the other end of which I held in my
fingers, and whirled it round, like a sling, one hun
dred times in the air, with the swiftest motion I could
possibly give it ; yet it retained its electric atmosphere,
though it must have passed through eight hundred
yards of air, allowing my arm in giving the motion
to add a foot to the semidiameter of the circle. By
quite dry air, I mean the dryest we have ; for per
haps we never have any perfectly free from moisture.
An electrical atmosphere raised round a thick wire,
inserted in a phial of air, drives out none of the air,
nor on withdrawing that atmosphere will any air rush
2i6 THE WORKS OF [1751
in, as I have found by a curious experiment 1 ac
curately made, whence we concluded that the air s
elasticity was not affected thereby.
An Experiment towards Discovering More of the
Qualities of the Electric Fluid.
From the prime conductor, hang a bullet by a wire
hook ; under the bullet, at half an inch distance, place
a bright piece of silver to receive the sparks ; then
let the wheel be turned, and in a few minutes (if the
repeated sparks continually strike in the same spot)
the silver will receive a blue stain, nearly the color of
a watch-spring.
A bright piece of iron will also be spotted, but not
with that color ; it rather seems corroded.
On gold, brass, or tin I have not perceived it
makes any impression. But the spots on the silver
or iron will be the same, whether the bullet be lead,
brass, gold, or silver.
On a silver bullet there will also appear a small
spot, as well as on the plate below it.
1 The experiment here mentioned might rise in that leg. When the air
was thus made. An empty phial was within the bottle came to be of the
stopped with a cork. Through the same temperature of that without, the
cork passed a thick wire, as usual in drop of red ink would rest in a certain
the Leyden experiment, which wire part of the leg. But the warmth of a
almost reached the bottom. Through finger applied to the phial would
another part of the cork passed one cause that drop to descend, as the
leg of a small glass siphon ; the other least outward coolness applied would
leg on the outside came down almost make it ascend. When it had found
to the bottom of the phial. This its situation, and was at rest, the wire
phial was held a short time in the was electrified by a communication
hand, which, warming and of course from the prime conductor. This was
rarefying the air within, drove a small supposed to give an electric atmos-
part of it out through the siphon. phere to the wire within the bottle,
Then a little red ink in a tea-spoon which might likewise rarefy the in-
was applied to the opening of the eluded air, and of course depress the
outer leg of the siphon ; so that as the drop of ink in the siphon. But no
air within cooled, a little of the ink such effect followed. F.
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 217
LXXVIII.
IMPORTANCE OF GAINING AND PRESERVING THE FRIEND
SHIP OF THE INDIANS. 1
[ The author of the foregoing essay, having desired the
printer to communicate the manuscript to some of
the most judicious of his friends, it produced the
following letter from one of them, the publishing
whereof, we think, needs no other apology, viz. /]
PHILADELPHIA, March 20, 1751.
DEAR MR. PARKER :
I have, as you desire, read the manuscript you sent
me, and am of opinion, with the publick-spirited au
thor, that securing the friendship of the Indians is of
the greatest consequence to these colonies ; and that
the surest means of doing it are, to regulate the In
dian trade, so as to convince them, by experience,
that they may have the best and cheapest goods and
the fairest dealings from the English ; and to unite
the several governments, so as to form a strength
that the Indians may depend on for protection in
case of a rupture with the French; or apprehend
great danger from, if they should break with, us.
1 The prospect of a rupture between seemed to merit a place in this collec-
the English and French governments tion.
in 1750-51 were so threatening that The editor is happy to acknowledge
the friendship of the Indian tribes his obligations to Professor Edward
became a matter of supreme impor- Eggleston for calling his attention to
tance, and how to secure it occupied this letter, which that gentleman found
the attention of leading men through- in the Harvard College Library. "I
out the colonies. In the appendix think," says Professor Eggleston, in a
to the second edition of a pamphlet note to the editor, "the pamphlet is
entitled "The Importance of Gaining anonymous, but I have a minute that
and Preserving the Friendship of the the author is Archibald Kennedy. The
Indians to Brittish Interests Con- first edition, N.Y., 1751, and the letter
sidered," London, 1782, is a letter I believe to be Franklin s was dated
which bears so many distinctive traces at Philadelphia and addressed to the
of Franklin s authorship that it has printer of the first edition Parker."
218 THE WORKS OF [1751
This union of the colonies, however necessary, I
apprehend is not to be brought about by the means
that have hitherto been used for that purpose. A
governor of one colony, who happens from some cir
cumstances in his own government to see the neces
sity of such an union, writes his sentiments of the
matter to the other governors, and desires them to
recommend it to their respective assemblies. They
accordingly lay the letters before those assemblies,
and perhaps recommend the proposal in general
words. But governors are often on ill terms with
their assemblies, and seldom are the men that have
the most influence among them. And perhaps some
governors, though they openly recommend the
scheme, may privately throw cold water on it, as
thinking additional publick charges will make their
people less able or less willing to give to them. Or
perhaps they do not clearly see the necessity of it,
and therefore do not very earnestly press the con
sideration of it ; and no one being present that has
the affair at heart to back it, to answer and remove
objections, &c., it is easily dropp d, and nothing is
done. Such an union is certainly necessary to us all,
but more immediately so to our government. Now
if you were to pick out half a dozen men of good un
derstanding and address, and furnish them with a
reasonable scheme and proper instructions, and send
them in the nature of ambassadors to the other
colonies, where they might apply particularly to all
the leading men, and by proper management get
them to engage in promoting the scheme ; where, by
1 75 1] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 2 1 9
being present, they would have the opportunity of
pressing the affair both in publick and private, obviat
ing difficulties as they arise, answering objections as
soon as they are made, before they spread and gather
strength in the minds of the people, &c., &c., I
imagine such an union might thereby be made and
established ; for reasonable, sensible men, can always
make a reasonable scheme appear such to other
reasonable men, if they take pains, and have time and
opportunity for it ; unless from some circumstances /
their honesty and good intentions are suspected. A
voluntary union entered into by the colonies them
selves, I think, would be preferable to one imposed
by parliament ; for it would be perhaps not much
more difficult to procure, and more easy to alter and
improve, as circumstances should require and experi
ence direct. It would be a very strange thing, if Six
Nations of ignorant savages should be capable of
forming a scheme for such an union, and be able to
execute it in such a manner, as that it has subsisted
ages, and appears indissoluble ; and yet that a like
union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen
English colonies, to whom it is more necessary and
must be more advantageous, and who cannot be
supposed to want an equal understanding of their
interests.
Were there a general council form d by all the
colonies, and a general governor appointed by the
crown to preside in that council, or in some manner
to concur with and confirm their acts, and take care
of the execution, every thing relating to Indian affairs
220 THE WORKS OF [1751
and the defence of the colonies might be properly
put under their management. Each colony should
be represented by as many members as it pays sums
of hundred pounds in the common treasury for the
common expence ; which treasury would perhaps be
best and most equitably supply d by an equal excise
on strong liquors in all the colonies, the produce never
to be apply d to the private use of any colony, but
to the general service. Perhaps if the council were to
meet successively at the capitals of the several
colonies, they might thereby become better ac
quainted with the circumstances, interests, strength,
or weakness, &c., of all, and thence be able to
judge better of measures proposed from time to
time : at least it might be more satisfactory to the
colonies if this were proposed as a part of the
scheme, for a preference might create jealousy and
dislike.
I believe the place mentioned is a very suitable one
to build a fort on. In times of peace, parties of the
garrisons of all frontier forts might be allowed to go
out on hunting expeditions, with or without Indians,
and have the profit to themselves of the skins they
got ; by this means a number of wood-runners would
be formed, well acquainted with the country, and of
great use in the war time as guides of parties and
scouts, &c. Every Indian is a hunter ; and as their
manner of making war, viz., by skulking, surprising,
and killing particular persons and families, is just the
same as their hunting, only changing the object, every
Indian is a disciplined soldier. Soldiers of this kind
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 221
are always wanted in the colonies in an Indian war,
for the European military discipline is of little use in
these woods.
Publick trading houses would certainly have a good
effect towards regulating the private trade, and pre
venting the impositions of the private traders, and
therefore such should be established in suitable places
all along the frontiers ; and the superintendent of the
trade, proposed by the author, would, I think, be a
useful officer.
The observation concerning the importation of
Germans in too great numbers into Pennsylvania is,
I believe, a very just one. This will in a few years
become a German colony ; instead of their learning
our language, we must learn theirs, or live as in a
foreign country. Already the English begin to quit
particular neighborhoods surrounded by Dutch, being
made uneasy by the disagreeableness of disonant man
ners ; and, in time, numbers will probably quit the
province for the same reason. Besides, the Dutch
under-live, and are thereby enabled to under-work
and under-sell the English, who are thereby extremely
incommoded, and consequently disgusted, so that
there can be no cordial affection or unity between the
two nations. How good subjects they may make,
and how faithful to the British interest, is a question
worth considering. And, in my opinion, equal num
bers might have been spared from the British islands
without being missed there, and on proper encourage
ment would have come over. I say without being
missed, perhaps I might say without lessening the
222 THE WORKS OF [1751
number of people at home. I question, indeed,
whether there be a man the less in Britain for the
establishment of the colonies. An island can support
but a certain number of people ; when all employments
are full, multitudes refrain from marriage, till they
can see how to maintain a family. The number of
Englishmen in England cannot by their present com
mon increase be doubled in a thousand years ; but if
half of them were taken away and planted in America,
where there is room for them to increase, and suffi
cient employment and subsistence, the number of
Englishmen would be doubled in a hundred years ; for
those left at home would multiply in that time so as
to fill up the vacancy, and those here would at least
keep pace with them.
Every one must approve the proposal of encoura
ging a number of sober discreet smiths to reside among
the Indians. They would doubtless be of great ser
vice. The whole subsistence of Indians depends on
keeping their guns in order, and if they are obliged
to make a journey of two or three hundred miles to
an English settlement to get a lock mended, it may,
besides the trouble, occasion the loss of their hunting
season. They are people that think much of their
temporal, but little of their spiritual, interests ; and
therefore, as he would be a most useful and necessary
man to them, a smith is more likely to influence them
than a Jesuit ; provided he has a good common under
standing, and is from time to time well instructed.
I wish I could offer any thing for the improvement
of the author s piece, but I have little knowledge
175 1] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 223
and less experience in these matters. I think it ought
to be printed ; and should be glad to see there were a
more general communication of the sentiments of
judicious men, on subjects so generally interesting ;
it would certainly produce good effects. Please to
present my respects to the gentleman, and thank him
for the perusal of the manuscript.
I am, yours affectionately.
LXXIX.
OBSERVATIONS
CONCERNING
THE INCREASE OF MANKIND AND THE PEOPLING OF COUN
TRIES.
1. Tables of the proportion of marriages to births,
of deaths to births, of marriages to the number of in
habitants, &c., formed on observations made upon the
bills of mortality, christenings, &c. of populous cities,
will not suit countries ; nor will tables formed on ob
servations made on full-settled old countries as Eu
rope, suit new countries as America. 1
2. For people increase in proportion to the num
ber of marriages, and that is greater in proportion to
the ease and convenience of supporting a family.
When families can be easily supported, more persons
marry, and earlier in life.
1 Nor will tables which are accu- chances of life have been ascertained
rately calculated at one period, neces- to be greater in Europe during the
sarily continue to be correct in the last half century than they were for-
same country at another period. The merly. W.PHILLIPS.
224 THE WORKS OF [1751
3. In cities, where all trades, occupations, and offi
ces are full, many delay marrying till they can see
how to bear the charges of a family ; which charges
are greater in cities, as luxury is more common ;
many live single during life and continue servants to
families, journeymen to trades, &c.; hence cities do
not, by natural generation, supply themselves with
inhabitants ; the deaths are more than the births.
4. In countries full settled the case must be nearly
the same ; all lands being occupied and improved to
the height, those who cannot get land must labor for
others that have it ; when laborers are plenty their
wages will be low ; by low wages a family, is supported
with difficulty ; this difficulty deters many from mar
riage, who therefore long continue servants and sin
gle. Only as the cities take supplies of people from
the country, and thereby make a little more room in
the country, marriage is a little more encouraged
there, and the births exceed the deaths.
5. Europe is generally full settled with husband
men, manufacturers, &c., and therefore cannot now
much increase in people. America is chiefly occupied
by Indians, who subsist mostly by hunting. The
hunter, of all men, requires the greatest quantity
of land from whence to draw his subsistence (the hus
bandman subsisting on much less, the gardener on
still less, and the manufacturer requiring least of all).
The Europeans found America as fully settled as it well
could be by hunters ; yet these, having large tracts,
were easily prevailed on to part with portions of ter
ritory to the new comers, who did not much interfere
r
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 225
with the natives in hunting, and furnished them with
many things they wanted.
6. Land being thus plenty in America, and so
cheap as that a laboring man that understands hus
bandry can in a short time save money enough to
purchase a piece of new land sufficient for a planta
tion, whereon he may subsist a family, such are not
afraid to marry ; for, if they even look far enough
forward to consider how their children, when grown
up, are to be provided for, they see that more land is
to be had at rates equally easy, all circumstances
considered.
7. Hence, marriages in America are more general,
and more generally early than in Europe. And
if it is reckoned there that, there is but one marriage
per annum among one hundred persons, perhaps we
may here reckon two ; and if in Europe they have
but four births to a marriage (many of their mar
riages being late), we may here reckon eight, of
which, if one half grow up, and our marriages are
made, reckoning one with another, at twenty years
of age, our people must at least be doubled every
twenty years.
8. But, notwithstanding this increase, so vast is
the territory of North America, that it will require
many ages to settle it fully, and, till it is fully settled,
labor will never be cheap here, where no man con
tinues long a laborer for others, but gets a plantation
of his own ; no man continues long a journeyman to
a trade, but goes among those new settlers and sets
up for himself, &c. Hence labor is no cheaper now
226 THE WORKS OF [1751
in Pennsylvania than it was thirty years ago, though
so many thousand laboring people have been im
ported.
9. The danger, therefore, of these colonies inter
fering with their mother country in trades that de
pend on labor, manufactures, &c., is too remote to
require the attention of Great Britain.
10. But in proportion to the increase of the col
onies, a vast demand is growing for British manufac
tures, a glorious market wholly in the power of Brit
ain, in which foreigners cannot interfere, which will
increase in a short time even beyond her power of
supplying, though her whole trade should be to her
colonies ; therefore, Britain should not too much re
strain manufactures in her colonies. A wise and
good mother will not do it. To distress is to weaken,
and weakening the children weakens the whole
family.
11. Besides, if the manufactures of Britain (by
reason of the American demands) should rise too
high in price, foreigners who can sell cheaper will
drive her merchants out of foreign markets ; foreign
manufactures will thereby be encouraged and in
creased, and consequently foreign nations, perhaps
her rivals in power, grow more populous and more
powerful ; while her own colonies, kept too low, are
unable to assist her, or add to her strength.
12. It is an ill-grounded opinion that, by the labor
of slaves, America may possibly vie in cheapness of
manufactures with Britain. The labor of slaves can
never be so cheap here as the labor of workingmen is
i75i] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 227
in Britain. Any one may compute it. Interest of
money is in the colonies from six to ten per cent.
Slaves, one with another, cost thirty pounds sterling
per head. Reckon then the interest of the first pur
chase of a slave, the insurance or risk on his life, his
clothing and diet, expenses in his sickness and loss of
time, loss by his neglect of business (neglect is natu
ral to the man who is not to be benefited by his own
care or diligence), expense of a driver to keep him at
work, and his pilfering from time to time, almost
every slave being by nature a thief, and compare the
whole amount with the wages of a manufacturer of
iron or wool in England, you will see that labor is
much cheaper there than it ever can be by negroes
here. Why, then, will Americans purchase slaves ?
Because slaves may be kept as long as a man pleases,
or has occasion for their labor ; while hired men are
continually leaving their masters (often in the midst of
his business) and setting up for themselves (sec. 8).
13. As the increase of people depends on the en
couragement of marriages, the following things must
diminish a nation, viz. : i. The being conquered ; for
the conquerors will engross as many offices and exact
as much tribute or profit on the labor of the con
quered as will maintain them in their new establish
ment ; and this, diminishing the subsistence of the
natives, discourages their marriages, and so gradu
ally diminishes them, while the foreigners increase.
2. Loss of territory. Thus, the Britons being driven
into Wales, and crowded together in a barren coun
try, insufficient to support such great numbers, dimin-
228 THE WORKS OF [1751
ished till the people bore a proportion to the produce,
while the Saxons increased on their abandoned lands
till the island became full of English. And were the
English now driven into Wales by some foreign na
tion, there would in a few years be no more English
men in Britain than there are now people in Wales.
3. Loss of trade. Manufactures exported, draw sub
sistence from foreign countries for numbers, who are
thereby enabled to marry and raise families. If the
nation be deprived of any branch of trade, and no
new employment is found for the people occupied in
that branch, it will also be soon deprived of so many
people. 4. Loss of food. Suppose a nation has a
fishery, which not only employs great numbers, but
makes the food and subsistence of the people cheaper.
If another nation becomes master of the seas, and
prevents the fishery, the people will diminish in pro
portion as the loss of employ and dearness of provi
sion make it more difficult to subsist a family. 5. Bad
government and insecurity of property. People not only
leave such a country, and, settling abroad, incorpo
rate with other nations, lose their native language,
and become foreigners, but the industry of those that
remain being discouraged, the quantity of subsistence
in the country is lessened, and the support of a family
becomes more difficult. So heavy taxes tend to di
minish a people. 6. The introduction of slaves. The
negroes brought into the English sugar islands have
greatly diminished the whites there ; the poor are by
this means deprived of employment, while a few
families acquire vast estates, which they spend on
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 229
foreign luxuries, and in educating their children in the
habit of those luxuries. The same income is needed
for the support of one that might have maintained
one hundred. The whites who have slaves, not labor
ing are enfeebled, and therefore not so generally pro
lific ; the slaves being worked too hard and ill fed,
their constitutions are broken, and the deaths among
them are more than the births ; so that a continual
supply is needed from Africa. The northern colo
nies, having few slaves, increase in whites. Slaves
also pejorate the families that use them ; the white
children become proud, disgusted with labor, and be
ing educated in idleness, are rendered unfit to get a
living by industry.
14. Hence, the prince that acquires new territory,
if he finds it vacant, or removes the natives to give
his own people room ; the legislator that makes
effectual laws for promoting of trade, increasing em
ployment, improving of land by more or better till
age, providing more food by fisheries, securing prop
erty, &c. ; and the man that invents new trades, arts,
or manufactures, or new improvements in husbandry,
may be properly called fathers of their nation, as they
are the cause of the generation of multitudes by the
encouragement they afford to marriage.
1 5. As to privileges granted to the married (such
as the /aw trium liberorum among the Romans), they
may hasten the filling of a country that has been thin
ned by war or pestilence, or that has otherwise vacant
territory, but cannot increase a people beyond the
means provided for their subsistence,
230 THE WORKS OF [1751
1 6. Foreign luxuries and needless manufactures,
imported and used in a nation, do, by the same
reasoning, increase the people of the nation that fur
nishes them, and diminish the people of the nation
that uses them. Laws, therefore, that prevent such
importations, and on the contrary promote the ex
portation of manufactures to be consumed in foreign
countries, may be called (with respect to the people
that make them) generative laws, as, by increasing
subsistence, they encourage marriage. Such laws
likewise strengthen a country doubly, by increasing
its own people and diminishing its neighbours.
17. Some European nations prudently refuse to
consume the manufactures of East India; they
should likewise forbid them to their colonies ; for
the gain to the merchant is not to be compared with
the loss, by this means, of people to the nation.
1 8. Home luxury in the great increases the nation s
manufacturers employed by it, who are many, and
only tends to diminish the families that indulge in it,
who are few. The greater the common fashionable
expense of any rank of people, the more cautious
they are of marriage. Therefore luxury should never
be suffered to become common.
19. The great increase of offspring in particular
families is not always owing to greater fecundity of
nature, but sometimes to examples of industry in the
heads, and industrious education ; by which the chil
dren are enabled to provide better for themselves, and
their marrying early is encouraged from the prospect
of good subsistence,
175 1] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 231
20. If there be a sect therefore in our nation that
regard frugality and industry as religious duties, and
educate their children therein, more than others
commonly do, such sect must consequently increase
more by natural generation than any other sect in
Britain.
21. The importation of foreigners into a country
that has as many inhabitants as the present employ
ments and provisions for subsistence will bear, will
be in the end no increase of people, unless the new
comers have more industry and frugality than the na
tives, and then they will provide more subsistence, and
increase in the country ; but they will gradually eat
the natives out. Nor is it necessary to bring in for
eigners to fill up any occasional vacancy in a country,
for such vacancy (if the laws are good, sec. 14, 16)
will soon be filled by natural generation. Who can
now find the vacancy made in Sweden, France, or
other warlike nations, by a plague of heroism .forty
years ago ; in France, by the expulsion of the Prot
estants ; in England, by the settlement of her colo
nies ; or in Guinea, by one hundred years exportation
of slaves, that has blackened half America ? The
thinness of inhabitants in Spain is owing to national
pride and idleness, and other causes, rather than to
the expulsion of the Moors, or to the making of new
settlements.
22. There is, in short, no bound to the prolific na
ture of plants or animals, but what is made by their
crowding and interfering with each other s means of
subsistence. Were the face of the earth vacant of
232 THE WORKS OF [1751
other plants, it might be gradually sowed and over
spread with one kind only, as, for instance, with fen
nel ; and were it empty of other inhabitants, it might
in a few ages be replenished from one nation only, as,
for instance, with Englishmen. Thus, there are sup
posed to be now upwards of one million English
souls in North America (though it is thought scarce
eighty thousand has been brought over sea), and yet
perhaps there is not one the fewer in Britain, but
rather many more, on account of the employment the
colonies afford to manufacturers at home. This mil
lion doubling, suppose but once in twenty-five years,
will in another century be more than the people of
England, and the greatest number of Englishmen
will be on this side the water. 1 What an accession of
power to the British empire by sea as well as land !
What increase of trade and navigation ! What num
bers of ships and seamen ! We have been here but
little more than one hundred years, and yet the force
of our privateers in the late war, united, was greater,
both in men and guns, than that of the whole British
navy in Queen Elizabeth s time. How important an
1 It is a curious fact that to this tract years, will in another century be more
the world is largely, if not entirely, in- than the people of England. " Mai thus
debted for a book which, in its day, accepts this rather hypothetical state-
produced a remarkable sensation, and ment as evidence of a demonstrated
the theories of which are still occasion- fact, and proceeds to build upon it his
ally debated. Malthus "Essay on chimerical theory that the population
Population " would probably never of the earth increases in a geometrical
have been written but for the support ratio, while the means for its subsist-
of his theory which he was able to ex- ence increases only in an arithmetical
tract from the 22d clause of this paper. ratio. William Godwin wrote a reply
In that clause Franklin, with his to Malthus entitled "An Enquiry con-
habitual caution, referring to the num- cerning the Power of Increase in the
ber of " English souls" then in North Numbers of Mankind, being an An-
America says; "This million doub- swer to Mr. Malthus Essay on that
ling, suppose but once in twenty-five Subject," which was published in 1820,
175 1] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 233
affair then to Britain is the present treaty for settling
the bounds between her colonies and the French, and
how careful should she be to secure room enough,
since on the room depends so much the increase of
her people.
23. In fine, a nation well regulated is like a poly
pus. Take away a limb, its place is soon supplied ;
cut it in two, and each deficient part shall speedily
grow out of the part remaining. Thus, if you have
room and substance enough, as you may by dividing
make ten polypuses out of one, you may of one make
ten nations, equally populous and powerful, or rather
increase a nation ten fold in numbers and strength.
And since detachments of English from Britain,
sent to America, will have their places at home so
soon supplied and increase so largely here, why
should the Palatine boors be suffered to swarm into
our settlements, and, by herding together, establish
their language and manners, to the exclusion of ours ?
Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English,
become a colony of aliens, who will shortly be so
numerous as to Germanize us, instead of our Anglify-
He did not see any way of demolish- edge of Franklin s paper at second
ing Malthus but by first trying to de- hand, and to have never read more of
molish the statement of Franklin. it than was quoted by Malthus, stum-
" Dr. Franklin " he says "is in this bles into a curious blunder as to its
case particularly the object of our date. He says (p. 119) "it was writ-
attention, because he was the first man ten in 1731 when the author was
who started the idea of the people of twenty-five years of age," meaning
America being multiplied by procrea- evidently to imply thereby that it was
tion so as to double every twenty-five the work of an immature political
years. Dr. Franklin, born in Boston, economist. The fact was that Frank-
was eminently an American patriot; lin s paper was written in 1751, when
and the paper from which these ex- he was forty-five years of age. Franklin
tracts are taken, was expressly written understood what he was writing about
to exalt the importance and glory of his much better than Godwin, and time
country," Mr. Godwin, who is open to and science have fully justified all the
the suspicion of having taken his knowl- statements which Godwin contested.
234 THE WORKS OF [1751
ing them, and will never adopt our language or cus
toms any more than they can acquire our complexion ?
24. Which leads me to add one remark, that the
number of purely white people in the world is pro-
portionably very small. All Africa is black or tawny ;
Asia chiefly tawny ; America (exclusive of the new
comers) wholly so. And in Europe, the Spaniards,
Italians, French, Russians, and Swedes are generally
of what we call a swarthy complexion ; as are the
Germans also, the Saxons only excepted, who, with
the English, make the principal body of white people
on the face of the earth. I could wish their numbers
were increased. And while we are, as I may call it,
scouring our planet, by clearing America of woods,
and so making this side of our globe reflect a brighter
light to the eyes of inhabitants in Mars or Venus,
why should we, in the sight of superior beings, darken
its people? Why increase the sons of Africa by
planting them in America, where we have so fair an
opportunity, by excluding all blacks and tawnys, of
increasing the lovely white and red ? But perhaps
I am partial to the complexion of my country, for
such kind of partiality is natural to mankind.
LXXX.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, 12 September, 1751.
DEAR SIR : I received your favor of last month,
with the twelve essays. The Collinson you mention
is the same gentleman I correspond with. He is a
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 235
most benevolent, worthy man, very curious in botany
and other branches of natural history, and fond of
improvements in agriculture, etc. He will be pleased
with your acquaintance. In the late Philosophical
Transactions you may see frequently papers of his,
or letters that were directed to him, on various sub
jects. He is a member of the Royal Society.
An ingenious acquaintance of mine here, Mr. Hugh
Roberts, one of our most eminent farmers, tells me
that it appears by your writings that your people are
yet far behind us in the improvement of swamps and
meadows. I am persuading him to send you such
hints as he thinks may give you farther insight into
that matter. But in other respects he greatly esteems
your pieces. He says they are preferable to any thing
of late years published on that subject in England.
The late writers there chiefly copy from one another,
and afford very little new or useful ; but you have
collected experiences and facts, and make proposi
tions, that are reasonable and serviceable. You have
taught him, he says, to clear his meadows of elder
(a thing very pernicious to banks), which was before
beyond the art of all our farmers ; and given him
several other useful informations.
I am exceedingly obliged to you for the plan and
directions concerning ditching. It is very satisfactory,
and I hope will be useful here.
Our Academy flourishes beyond expectation. We
have now above one hundred scholars, and the num
ber is daily increasing. We have excellent masters at
present ; and, as we give pretty good salaries, I hope
236 THE WORKS OF [1751
we shall always be able to procure such. We pay the
Rector, who teaches Latin and Greek, per annum, ^"200
The English master ........... ^"150
The Mathematical professor ........ ^125
Three assistant tutors, each ^60
Total per annum ...... ^655
Our currency is something better than that of New
York. The scholars pay each 4. per annum.
The changes of the barometer are most sensible in
high latitudes. In the West India Islands the mer
cury continues at the same height with very little
variation the year round. In these latitudes, the
alterations are not frequently so great as in England,
Thermometers are often badly made. I had three
that differed widely from each other, though hung in
the same place. As to hygrometers, there is no good
one yet invented. The cord is as good as any ; but,
like the rest, it grows continually less sensible by
time, so that the observations of one year cannot be
compared with those of another by the same instru
ment. I will think of what you hint concerning the
hydrostatic balance.
What you mention concerning the love of praise is
indeed very true ; it reigns more or less in every
heart ; though we are generally hypocrites in that
respect, and pretend to disregard praise, and our nice,
modest ears are offended, forsooth, with what one of
the ancients calls the sweetest kind of music. This
hypocrisy is only a sacrifice to the pride of others, or
to their envy ; both which, I think, ought rather to be
mortified, The same sacrifice we make when we
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 237
forbear to praise ourselves, which naturally we are all
inclined to ; and I suppose it was formerly the fashion,
or Virgil, that courtly writer, would not have put a
speech into the mouth of his hero, which now-a-days
we should esteem so great an indecency :
" Sum pius ^Eneas,
fama super sethera notus."
One of the Romans, I forget who, justified speaking
in his own praise by saying : Every freeman had a
right to speak what he thought of himself, as well as of
others. That this is a natural inclination appears in
that all children show it, and say freely : / am a good
boy ; Am I not a good girl? and the like, till they have
been frequently chid, and told their trumpeter is
dead, and that it is unbecoming to sound their own
praise, &c. But naturam expellas furca, tamen usque
reciirret. Being forbid to praise themselves, they
learn instead of it to censure others, which is only a
roundabout way of praising themselves ; for condem
ning the conduct of another, in any particular, amounts
to as much as saying : / am so honest, or wise, or good,
or prudent, that I could not do or approve of such an
action. This fondness for ourselves, rather than mal
evolence to others, I take to be the general source of
censure and backbiting ; and I wish men had not been
taught to dam up natural currents, to the overflowing
and damage of their neighbours grounds.
Another advantage, methinks, would arise from
freely speaking our good thoughts of ourselves, viz. :
if we were wrong in them, somebody or other would
238 THE WORKS OF [1751
readily set us right ; but now, while we conceal so
carefully our vain, erroneous self-opinions, we may
carry them to our grave, for who would offer physic
to a man that seems to be in health ? And the
privilege of recounting freely our own good actions
might be an inducement to the doing of them, that
we might be enabled to speak of them without being
subject to be justly contradicted or charged with
falsehood ; whereas now, as we are not allowed to
mention them, and it is an uncertainty whether
others will take due notice of them or not, we are
perhaps the more indifferent about them ; so that,
upon the whole, I wish the out-of-fashion practice of
praising ourselves would, like other old fashions, come
round into fashion again. But this I fear will not be
in our time, so we must even be contented with what
little praise we can get from one another. And I
will endeavour to make you some amends for the
trouble of reading this long scrawl, by telling you
that I have the sincerest esteem for you, as an in
genious man and a good one, which together make
the valuable member of society. As such, I am with
great respect and affection, dear Sir, your obliged
humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.
LXXXI.
TO MRS. JANE MECOM.
PHILADELPHIA, 24 October, 1751.
DEAR SISTER : My son waits upon you with this,
whom I heartily recommend to your motherly care
and advice. He is indeed a sober and discreet lad of
1751] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 239
his years, but he is young and unacquainted with the
ways of your place. My compliments to my new
niece, Miss Abiah, and pray her to accept the enclosed
piece of gold, to cut her teeth ; it may afterwards buy
nuts for them to crack.
Some time since I sent a letter to your care for our
cousin at Casco Bay. Have you had an opportunity
to forward it ? My love to brother Mecom and your
children ; and to brother and sister Davenport and
children ; and respects to Mrs. Billings and her
daughter, and all other friends, from, dear sister,
your affectionate brother, B. FRANKLIN.
LXXXII.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, 10 December, 1751.
DEAR SIR : The rector of our Academy, Mr.
Martin, came over to this country on a scheme for
making potash, in the Russian method. He prom
ised me some written directions for you, which ex
pecting daily I delayed writing, and now he lies
dangerously ill of a kind of quinsy. The surgeons
have been obliged to open his windpipe, and intro
duce a leaden pipe for him to breathe through. I fear
he will not recover.
I thank you for the merino wool. It is a curiosity.
Mr. Roberts promises me some observations on hus
bandry for you. It is one Mr. Masters that makes
manure of leaves, and not Mr. Roberts. I hope to
get the particulars from him soon.
240 THE WORKS OF [1751
I have a letter from Mr. Collinson, of July iQth, in
which he says : " Pray, has Mr. Eliot published any
addition to his work ? I have Nos. i and 2. If
I can get ready, I will send some improvements made
in the sandy parts of the county of Norfolk. By the
way, it is a great secret, but it is Mr. Jackson s own
drawing up, being experiments made on some of his
father s estates in that county ; but his name must
not be mentioned. I thank you for the foul meadow
grass. I sowed it June 7th, as soon as I received it,
but none is yet come up. I don t know how it is, but
I never could raise any of your native grasses ; and I
have had a variety from J. Bartram of curious species."
In another, of September 26th, he says : " I am
much obliged to thee for Mr. Eliot s Third Essay. I
have sent Maxwell s Select Transactions in Hus
bandry. If Mr. Eliot has not seen them, they may
be very useful to him. I have prevailed on our
worthy, learned, and ingenious friend Mr. Jackson to
give some dissertations on the husbandry of Norfolk,
believing it may be very serviceable to the colonies.
He has great opportunities of doing this, being
a gentleman of leisure and fortune, being the only
son, whose father has great riches and possessions,
and resides every year, all the long vacation, at his
father s seat in Norfolk. After J. Bartram has
perused it, I shall submit how it may be further dis
posed of, only our friend Eliot should see it soon ;
for Jackson admires his little Tracts of Husbandry,
as well as myself, and it may be of greater service
to him and his colony, than to yours. The foul
175 1] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 241
meadow grass has at last made its appearance.
Another year we shall judge better of it." Thus far
friend Collinson. You may expect the papers in a
post or two. If you make any use of them, you will
take care not to mention any thing of the author.
The bearer is my son, who desired an opportunity
of paying his respects to you in his return from
Boston. He went by sea.
They have printed all my electrical papers in Eng
land, and sent me a few copies, of which I design to
send you one per next post, after having corrected a
few errata. I am, dear Sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. Mr. Martin is dead.
LXXXIII.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, 24 December, 1751.
DEAR SIR : I wrote you at large by my son, in
answer to your former favors, and sent you an ex
tract from Mr. Collinson s letter, who much admires
your Tracts on Husbandry. Herewith you will re
ceive a manuscript of a friend of Mr. Collinson s, and
a printed book ; which you may keep till spring, and
then return it to me. I believe they will afford you
pleasure.
I send you also enclosed a letter from my friend
John Bartram, whose Journal you have read. He
242 THE WORKS OF [1752
corresponds with several of the greatest naturalists
in Europe, and will be proud of an acquaintance with
you. I make no apologies for introducing him to
you ; for, though a plain and illiterate man, you will
find he has merit. And since for want of skill in
agriculture I cannot converse with you pertinently
on that valuable subject, I am pleased that I have
procured you two correspondents who can.
I am glad you have introduced English declama
tion into your college. It will be of great service to
the youth, especially if care is taken to form their
pronounciation on the best models. Mr. Whittlesey,
who was lately here, will tell you that we have little
boys under seven, who can deliver an oration with
more propriety than most preachers. It is a matter
that has been too much neglected.
I am, dear Sir, yours affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXXXIV.
TO JAMES BOWDOIN.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, MAY 27, 1756.
PHILADELPHIA, 24 January, 1752.
SIR : I am glad to learn by your favor of the 2ist
past, that Mr. Kinnersley s lectures have been accept
able to the gentlemen of Boston, and are like to prove
serviceable to himself.
I thank you for the countenance and encourage
ment you have so kindly afforded my fellow-citizen.
I send you enclosed an extract of a letter contain-
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 243
ing the substance of what I observed concerning the
communication of magnetism to needles by electricity.
The minutes I took at the time of the experiments
are mislaid. I am very little acquainted with the na
ture of magnetism. Dr. Gawin Knight, inventor of
the steel magnets, has wrote largely on that subject ;
but I have not yet had leisure to peruse his writings
with the attention necessary to become master of his
doctrine.
Your explication of the crooked direction of light
ning J appears to me both ingenious and solid. When
we can account as satisfactorily for the electrification
of clouds, I think that branch of natural philosophy
will be nearly complete.
The air undoubtedly obstructs the motion of the
electric fluid. Dry air prevents the dissipation of an
electric atmosphere, the denser the more, as in cold
1 The explanation here referred to column, and is acted upon by it more
will be found in the following para- strongly than any other neighbour-
graph of a letter written to Franklin ing portion of air. The column be-
by Bowdoin on 21 Dec., 1751. Frank- ing thus acted upon, becomes more
lin had in September of the same year dense, and, being more dense, re-
given Mr. Kinnersley a letter of intro- pels the spark more strongly ; its re
duction to Bowdoin, to pave the way pellency being in proportion to its
for a course of lectures in Boston density. Having acquired by being
on electricity, which Mr. Kinnersley condensed a degree of repellency
had prepared and delivered in Phila- greater than its natural, it turns the
delphia : spark out of its straight course ; the
The electrical fire passing through neighbouring air, which must be less
the air has the same crooked direction dense, and therefore has a smaller de-
as lightning. This appearance I en- gree of repellency, giving it a more
deavour to account for thus. Air is ready passage. The spark having
an &\Qctv\cper se ; therefore there must taken a new direction must now act on,
be a mutual repulsion between air and or most strongly repel, the column of
the electrical fire. A column or cylin- air which lies in that direction, and con-
der of air having the diameter of its sequently must- condense that column
base equal to the diameter of the elec- in the same manner as the former,
trical spark, intervenes between that when the spark must again change its
part of the body which the spark is course, which course will be repeatedly
drawn from and that of the body it changed, till the spark reaches the
aims at. The spark acts upon this body that attracted it." ED.
244 THE WORKS OF [1752
weather. I question whether such an atmosphere
can be retained by a body in vacua. A common elec
trical phial requires a non-electric communication
from the wire to every part of the charged glass ;
otherwise, being dry and clean, and filled with air
only, it charges slowly and discharges gradually by
sparks, without a shock ; but, exhausted of air, the
communication is so open and free between the in
serted wire and surface of the glass, that it charges as
readily, and shocks as smartly, as if filled with water ;
and I doubt not but that in the experiment you pro
pose the sparks would not only be near straight in
vacuo, but strike at a greater distance than in the
open air, though perhaps there would not be a loud
explosion. As soon as I have a little leisure, I will
make the experiment and send you the result.
My supposition, that the sea might possibly be the
grand source of lightning, arose from the common ob
servation of its luminous appearance in the night, on
the least motion ; an appearance never observed in
fresh water. Then I knew that the electric fluid may
be pumped up out of the earth by the friction of a
glass globe on a non-electric cushion ; and that not
withstanding the surprising activity and swiftness of
that fluid and the non-electric communication between
all parts of the cushion and the earth, yet quantities
would be snatched up by the revolving surface of the
globe, thrown on the prime conductor, and dissipated in
air. How this was done, and why that subtile, active
spirit did not immediately return again from the globe
into some part or other of the cushion, and so into the
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 245
earth, was difficult to conceive ; but whether from its
being opposed by a current setting upwards to the
cushion, or from whatever other cause, that it did not
so return was an evident fact. Then I considered the
separate particles of water as so many hard spherules,
capable of touching the salt only in points, and im
agined a particle of salt could therefore no more be
wet by a particle of water, than a globe by a cushion ;
that there might therefore be such a friction between
these originally constituent particles of salt and water,
as in a sea of globes and cushions ; that each particle
of water on the surface might obtain, from the com
mon mass, some particles of the universally diffused,
much finer, and more subtile electric fluid, and, form
ing to itself an atmosphere of those particles, be re
pelled from the then generally electrified surface of
the sea, and fly away with them into the air. I
thought, too, that possibly the great mixture of par
ticles electric per se in the ocean water might, in
some degree, impede the swift motion and dissipation
of the electric fluid through it to the shores, &c.
But having since found, that salt in the water of an
electric phial does not lessen the shock ; and having
endeavoured in vain to produce that luminous appear
ance from a mixture of salt and water agitated ; and
observed, that even the sea-water will not produce it
after some hours standing in a bottle ; I suspect it
to proceed from some principle yet unknown to us
(which I would gladly make some experiments to
discover, if I lived near the sea), and I grow more
doubtful of my former supposition, and more ready
246 THE WORKS OF [1752
to allow weight to that objection (drawn from the
activity of the electric fluid, and the readiness of
water to conduct), which you have indeed stated with
great strength and clearness.
In the mean time, before we part with this hy
pothesis, let us think what to substitute in its place.
I have sometimes queried, whether the friction of the
air, an electric per se, in violent winds, among trees,
and against the surface of the earth, might not pump
up, as so many glass globes, quantities of the electric
fluid, which the rising vapors might receive from the
air, and retain in the clouds they form ; on which I
should be glad to have your sentiments. An ingen
ious friend of mine supposes the land clouds more
likely to be electrified than the sea clouds. I send
his letter for your perusal, which please to return me.
I have wrote nothing lately on electricity, nor ob
served any thing new that is material, my time being
much taken up with other affairs. Yesterday I dis
charged four jars through a fine wire, tied up between
two strips of glass ; the wire was in part melted, and
the rest broke into small pieces, from half an inch
long to half a quarter of an inch. My globe raises
the electric fire with greater ease, in much greater
quantities, by the means of a wire extended from the
cushion to the iron pin of a pump-handle behind my
house, which communicates by the pump-spear with
the water in the well.
By this post I send to Dr. Perkins, who is curious
in that way, some meteorological observations and
conjectures, and desire him to communicate them to
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 247
you, as they may afford you some amusement, and I
know you will look over them with a candid eye. By
throwing our occasional thoughts on paper, we more
readily discover the defects of our opinions, or we
digest them better, and find new arguments to sup
port them. This I sometimes practise ; but such
pieces are fit only to be seen by friends.
I am, with great respect, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXXXV.
TO E. KINNERSLEY, AT BOSTON. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 2 March, 1752.
SIR : I thank you for the experiments communi
cated. 2 I sent immediately for your brimstone globe,
1 The Rev. Ebenezer Kinnersley was was strongly repelled ; then I tried
a professor in the College of Phila- rubbed glass and China, and found
delphia. EDITOR. that each of these would attract it,
2 The experiments here referred to until it became electrified again, and
were described in the following letter then it would be repelled as at first ;
from Mr. Kinnersley to Dr. Franklin : and while thus repelled by the rubbed
glass or China, either of the others
[BOSTON] 3 February, 1752. when rubbed would attract it. Then
SIR : I have the following experi- I electrified the ball with the wire of
ments to communicate. I held in one a charged phial, and presented to it
hand a wire, which was fastened at rubbed glass (the stopper of a decan-
the other end to the handle of a pump, ter) and a China tea-cup, by which it
in order to try whether the stroke from was as strongly repelled as by the
the prime conductor, through my arms, wire ; but when I presented either of
would be any greater than when con- the other rubbed electrics, it would be
veyed only to the surface of the earth, strongly attracted, and when I elec-
but could discover no difference. trifled it by either of these, till it be-
I placed the needle of a compass on came repelled, it would be attracted
the point of a long pin, and, holding by the wire of the phial, but be re-
it in the atmosphere of the prime con- pelled by its coating,
ductor, at the distance of about three These experiments surprised me
inches, found it to whirl round like the very much, and have induced me to
flyers of a jack, with great rapidity. infer the following paradoxes :
I suspended with silk a cork ball, i. If a glass globe be placed at one
about the bigness of a pea, and pre- end of a prime conductor, and a sul-
sented to it rubbed amber, sealing- phur one at the other end, both being
wax, and sulphur, by each of which it equally in good order, and in equal
248 THE WORKS OF [1752
in order to make the trials you desired, but found it
wanted centres, which I have not time now to supply ;
but, the first leisure, I will get it fitted for use, try
the experiments, and acquaint you with the result.
In the mean time I suspect that the different at
tractions and repulsions you observed, proceeded
rather from the greater or smaller quantities of the
fire you obtained from different bodies, than from its
being of a different kind, or having a different direc
tion. In haste, I am, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXXXVI.
TO E. KINNERSLEY, AT BOSTON.
PHILADELPHIA, 16 March, 1752.
SIR : Having brought your brimstone globe to
work, I tried one of the experiments you proposed,
and was agreeably surprised to find that the glass
globe being at one end of the conductor, and the
sulphur globe at the other end, both globes in mo-
motion, not a spark of fire can be ob- one globe charging positively, the
tained from the conductor ; but one other negatively.
globe will draw out as fast as the other 4. The phial being thus charged,
gives in. hang it in like manner on the other
2. If a phial be suspended on the conductor, set both wheels a going
conductor, with a chain from its coat- again, and the same number of turns
ing to the table, and only one of the that charged it before will now dis-
globes be made use of at a time, charge it, and the same number re-
twenty turns of the wheel, for in- peated will charge it again,
stance, will charge it ; after which, so 5. When each globe communicates
many turns of the other wheel will with the same prime conductor, hav-
discharge it, and as many more will ing a chain hanging from it to the
charge it again. table, one of them, when in motion
3. The globes being both in motion, (but which I cannot say), will draw
each having a separate conductor, with fire up through the cushion, and dis-
a phial suspended on one of them, charge it through the chain ; the other
and the chain of it fastened to the will draw it up through the chain, and
other, the phial will become charged ; discharge it through the cushion.
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 249
tion, no spark could be obtained from the conductor,
unless when one globe turned slower, or was not in
so good order as the other ; and then the spark was
only in proportion to the difference, so that turning
equally, or turning that slowest which worked best,
would again bring the conductor to afford no spark.
I found also that the wire of a phial charged by
the glass globe, attracted a cork ball that had touched
the wire of a phial charged by the brimstone globe,
and vice versd, so that the cork continued to play be
tween the two phials, just as when one phial was
charged through the wire, the other through the
coating, by the glass globe alone. And two phials
charged, the one by the brimstone globe, the other
by the glass globe, would be both discharged by
bringing their wires together, and shock the person
holding the phials.
From these experiments one may be certain that
your second, third, and fourth proposed experiments
would succeed exactly as you suppose, though I have
not tried them, wanting time. I imagine it is the
glass globe that charges positively, and the sulphur
negatively, for these reasons. i. Though the sul
phur globe seems to work equally well with the glass
one, yet it can never occasion so large and distant a
spark between my knuckle and the conductor, when
the sulphur one is working, as when the glass one is
used ; which, I suppose, is occasioned by this, that
bodies of a certain bigness cannot so easily part with
a quantity of electrical fluid they have and hold
attracted within their substance, as they can receive
250 THE WORKS OF [1752
an additional quantity upon their surface by way
of atmosphere. Therefore so much cannot be drawn
out of the conductor, as can be thrown on it. 2. I
observe that the stream or brush of fire appearing
at the end of a wire connected with the conductor, is
long, large, and much diverging, when the glass globe
is used, and makes a snapping (or rattling) noise ;
but when the sulphur one is used, it is short, small,
and makes a hissing noise ; and just the reverse
of both happens, when you hold the same wire in
your hand, and the globes are worked alternately :
the brush is large, long, diverging, and snapping (or
rattling), when the sulphur globe is turned ; short,
small, and hissing, when the glass globe is turned.
When the brush is long, large, and much diverging,
the body to which it joins seems to me to be throwing
the fire out ; and when the contrary appears, it seems
to be drinking in. 3. I observe that when I hold
my knuckle before the sulphur globe, while turning,
the stream of fire between my knuckle and the globe
seems to spread on its surface, as if it flowed from
the finger ; on the glass globe it is otherwise. 4.
The cool wind (or what was called so), that we used
to feel as coming from an electrified point, is, I think,
more sensible when the glass globe is used, than
when the sulphur one. But these are hasty thoughts.
As to your fifth paradox, it must likewise be true, if
the globes are alternately worked ; but, if worked to
gether, the fire will neither come up nor go down by
the chain, because one globe will drink it as fast as
the other produces it.
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 251
I should be glad to know whether the effects
would be contrary, if the glass globe is solid, and the
sulphur globe is hollow ; but I have no means at
present of trying.
In your journeys, your glass globes meet with
accidents, and sulphur ones are heavy and incon
venient. Query. Would not a thin plane of brim
stone, cast on a board, serve on occasion as a
cushion, while a globe of leather stuffed (properly
mounted) might receive the fire from the sulphur,
and charge the conductor positively ? Such a globe
would be in no danger of breaking. 1 I think I can
conceive how it may be done ; but have not time to
add more than that I am,
Yours, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXXXVII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, NOVEMBER II, 1756.
PHILADELPHIA, 23 April, 1752.
SIR : In considering your favor of the i6th past, I
recollected my having wrote you answers to some
queries concerning the difference between electrics
per se and non-electrics, and the effects of air in elec
trical experiments, which, I apprehend, you may not
have received. The date I have forgotten.
We have been used to call those bodies electrics
1 The discoveries of the late ingen- mutual friction of white and black silk,
ious Mr. Symmer, on the positive and etc., afford hints for farther improve-
negative electricity produced by the ments to be made with this view, F,
252 THE WORKS OF [1752
per se, which would not conduct the electric fluid.
We once imagined that only such bodies contained
that fluid ; afterwards that they had none of it, and
only educed it from other bodies ; but further experi
ments showed our mistake. It is to be found in all
matter we know of ; and the distinction of electrics per
se and non-electrics should now be dropped as improper,
and that of conductors and non-conductors assumed in
its place, as I mentioned in those answers.
I do not remember any experiment by which it ap
peared that high-rectified spirit will not conduct ; per
haps you have made such. This I know, that wax,
rosin, brimstone, and even glass, commonly reputed
electrics per se y will, when in a fluid state, conduct
pretty well. Glass will do it when only red-hot. So
that my former position, that only metals and water
were conductors, and other bodies more or less such
as they partook of metal or moisture, was too general.
Your conception of the electric fluid, that it is in
comparably more subtile than air, is undoubtedly
just. It pervades dense matter with the greatest
ease ; but it does not seem to mix or incorporate
willingly with mere air, as it does with other matter.
It will not quit common matter to join with air. Air
obstructs, in some degree, its motion. An electric
atmosphere cannot be communicated at so great a
distance, by far, through intervening air as through
a vacuum. Who knows, then, but there may be, as
the ancients thought, a region of this fire above our
atmosphere, prevented by our air and its own too
great distance for attraction, from joining our earth ?
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 253
Perhaps where the atmosphere is rarest this fluid
may be densest, and nearer the earth, where the at
mosphere grows denser, this fluid may be rarer, yet
some of it be low enough to attach itself to our high
est clouds, and thence they, becoming electrified may
be attracted by and descend towards the earth and
discharge their watery contents, together with that
ethereal fire. Perhaps the aurora boreales are cur
rents of this fluid in its own region, above our atmos
phere, becoming from their motion, visible. There
is no end to conjectures. As yet we are but novices
in this branch of natural knowledge.
You mention several differences of salts in electri
cal experiments. Were they all equally dry ? Salt
is apt to acquire moisture from a moist air, and some
sorts more than others. When perfectly dried by
lying before a fire, or on a stove, none that I have
tried will conduct any better than so much glass.
New flannel, if dry and warm, will draw the elec
tric fluid from non-electrics, as well as that which has
been worn.
I wish you had the convenience of trying the ex
periments you seem to have such expectations from,
upon various kinds of spirits, salts, earth, &c. Fre
quently, in a variety of experiments, though we miss
what we expected to find, yet something valuable
turns out, something surprising and instructing,
though unthought of.
I thank you for communicating the illustration of
the theorem concerning light. It is very curious.
But I must own I am much in the dark about light. I
254 THE WORKS OF [1752
am not satisfied with the doctrine that supposes par
ticles of matter, called light, continually driven off
from the sun s surface, with a swiftness so pro
digious ! Must not the smallest particle conceivable
have, with such a motion, a force exceeding that of
a twenty-four pounder discharged from a cannon ?
Must not the sun diminish exceedingly by such a
waste of matter ; and the planets, instead of draw
ing nearer to him, as some have feared, recede to
greater distances through the lessened attraction ?
Yet these particles, with this amazing motion, will
not drive before them, or remove the least and light
est dust they meet with. And the sun, for aught
we know, continues of his ancient dimensions, and
his attendants move in their ancient orbits.
May not all the phenomena of light be more con
veniently solved, by supposing universal space rilled
with a subtile elastic fluid, which, when at rest, is not
visible, but whose vibrations affect that fine sense in
the eye, as those of air do the grosser organs of the
ear ? We do not, in the case of sound, imagine that
any sonorous particles are thrown off from a bell, for
instance, and fly in straight lines to the ear ; why
must we believe that luminous particles leave the sun
and proceed to the eye ? ( Some diamonds, if rubbed,
shine in the dark, without losing any part of their
matter. I can make an electrical spark as big as the
flame of a candle, much brighter, and therefore,
visible farther ; yet this is without fuel ; and I am
persuaded no part of the electric fluid flies off in such
case to distant places, but all goes directly, and is to
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 255
~~^
be found in the place to which I destine it. May not
different degrees of the vibration of the above-men
tioned universal medium occasion the appearances of
different colors ? I think the electric fluid is always
the same ; yet I find that weaker and stronger sparks
differ in apparent color ; some white, blue, purple,
red ; the strongest, white ; weak ones, red. Thus
different degrees of vibration given to the air produce
the seven different sounds in music, analogous to the
seven colors, yet the medium, air, is the same.
If the sun is not wasted by expense of light, I can
easily conceive that he shall otherwise always retain
the same quantity of matter ; though we should sup
pose him made of sulphur constantly flaming. The
action of fire only separates the particles of matter ;
it does not annihilate them. Water, by heat raised
in vapor, returns to the earth in rain ; and if we could
collect all the particles of burning matter that go off
in smoke, perhaps they might, with the ashes, weigh
as much as the body before it was fired ; and if we
could put them into the same position with regard to
each other, the mass would be the same as before,
and might be burnt over again. The chemists have
analyzed sulphur, and find it composed, in certain
proportions, of oil, salt, and earth ; and having by
the analysis discovered those proportions, they can,
of those ingredients, make sulphur. So we have only
to suppose, that the parts of the sun s sulphur, sep
arated by fire, rise into his atmosphere, and there,
being freed from the immediate action of the fire,
they collect into cloudy masses, and growing by
256 THE WORKS OF [1752
degrees too heavy to be longer supported, they de
scend to the sun and are burnt over again. Hence
the spots appearing on his face, which are observed
to diminish daily in size, their consuming edges being
of particular brightness.
It is well we are not, as poor Galileo was, sub
ject to the Inquisition for philosophical heresy. My
whispers against the orthodox doctrine, in private
letters, would be dangerous ; but your writing and
printing would be highly criminal. As it is, you must
expect some censure ; but one heretic will surely ex
cuse another.
I am heartily glad to hear more instances of the
success of the poke-weed in the cure of that horrible
evil to the human body, a cancer. You will deserve
highly of mankind for the communication. But I
find in Boston they are at a loss to know the right
plant, some asserting it is what they call mechoachan,
others other things. In one of their late papers it is
publicly requested that a perfect description may be
given of the plant, its places of growth, &c. I have
mislaid the paper, or would send it to you. I thought
you had described it pretty fully. I am, Sir, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
LXXXVIII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 14 May, 1752.
SIR : I find P has been indiscreet enough to
print a piece in his paper which has brought him into
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 257
a great deal of trouble. I cannot conceive how he
was prevailed on to do it, as I know him to be a
thorough believer himself, and averse to every thing
that is commonly called freet kinking. He is now
much in his penitentials, and requests me to inter
cede with you, to procure from the governor a Nol.
Pros, in his favor, promising to be very circumspect
and careful for the future, not to give offence either
in religion or politics, to you or any of your friends,
in which, I believe, he is very sincere.
I have let him know that I pretend to no interest
with you, and I fear he has behaved to the governor
and to you in such a manner as not to deserve your
favor. Therefore I only beg leave to recommend the
poor man s case to your consideration ; and if you
could, without inconvenience to your own character,
interest yourself a little in his behalf, I shall, as I
am much concerned for him, esteem it a very great
obligation.
As to the cause of religion, I really think it will be
best served by stopping the prosecution ; for, if there
be any evil tendency apprehended from the publica
tion of that piece, the trial and punishment of the
printer will certainly make it a thousand times more
public, such is the curiosity of mankind in these cases.
It is, besides, an old thing, has been printed before
both in England and by Andrew Bradford here ; but,
no public notice being taken of it, it died and was for
gotten, as I believe it would now be, if treated with
the same indifference. I am with great respect, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
258 THE WORKS OF [1752
LXXXIX.
TO EDWARD AND JANE MECOM.
PHILADELPHIA, 21 May, 1752.
DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER :
I received yours with the affecting news of our
dear good mother s death. I thank you for your
long continued care of her in her old age and sick
ness. Our distance made it impracticable for us to
attend her, but you have supplied all. She has lived
a good life, as well as a long one, and is happy.
Since I sent you the order on Mr. Huske, I have
received his account, and find he thinks he has money
to receive, and though I endeavour by this post to
convince him he is mistaken, yet possibly he may not
be immediately satisfied, so as to pay that order ;
therefore, lest the delay should be inconvenient to
you, I send the six pistoles enclosed. But if the
order is paid, give those to brother John, and desire
him to credit my account with them. Your affec
tionate brother, B. FRANKLIN.
XC.
TO JOHN PERKINS. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 13 August, 1752.
SIR : I received your favor of the 3d instant.
Some time last winter I procured from one of our
physicians an account of the number of persons in
oculated during the five visitations of the small-pox
1 Dr. Perkins, of Boston, had asked the instance of Dr. Douglass, who
Franklin for the number that had designed to write something on the
died of inoculation in Philadelphia, at small-pox.
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 259
we have had in twenty-two years ; which account I
sent to Mr. W. V., of your town, and have no copy.
If I remember rightly, the number exceeded eight
hundred, and the deaths were but four. I suppose
Mr. V. will show you the account, if he ever received
it. These four were all that our doctors allow to
have died of the small-pox by inoculation, though I
think there were two more of the inoculated who
died of the distemper ; but the eruptions appearing
soon after the operation, it is supposed they had
taken the infection before in the common way.
I shall be glad to see what Dr. Douglass may
write on the subject. I have a French piece printed
at Paris, 1724, entitled, Observations sur la Saignee
die Pied, et sur la Purgation, au Commencement de la
Petite Verole, et Raisons de doubt e contre r Inoculation.
A letter of the Doctor s is mentioned in it. If he or
you have it not, and desire to see it, I will send it.
Please to favor me with the particulars of your purging
method, to prevent the secondary fever.
I am indebted for your preceding letter, but busi
ness sometimes obliges one to postpone philosophical
amusements. Whatever I have wrote of that kind
are really, as they are entitled, but Conjectures and
Suppositions ; which ought always to give place, when
careful observation militates against them. I own I
have too strong a penchant to the building of hy
potheses ; they indulge my natural indolence. I wish
I had more of your patience and accuracy in making
observations, on which alone true philosophy can be
founded. And, I assure you, nothing can be more
2 6o THE WORKS OF [1752
obliging to me than your kind communication of
those you make, however they may disagree with my
preconceived notions.
I am sorry to hear, that the number of your in
habitants decreases. I some time since wrote a small
paper of Thoughts on the Peopling of Countries,
which, if I can find, I will send you, to obtain your
sentiments. The favorable opinion you express of
my writings may, you see, occasion you more trouble
than you expected from,
Sir, yours, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
XCI.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 14 September, 1752.
DEAR SIR : When I had read your favor of May
the 2Oth, I resolved to read and consider more care
fully Sir Isaac Newton s Optics, which I have not
looked at these many years. I delayed answering
till I should have an opportunity of doing this, but
one thing or other has hitherto hindered. In the
winter I may possibly have more leisure.
In the mean time I would just mention that the
interposition of a hill between a bell and the ear does
interrupt a great part of the sound, though not all ;
and we cannot be certain that an opaque body placed
between the eye and a luminous object intercepts all
the light, since, as you observe, it does not follow
that where we see no light there is therefore none
1 See this paper Supra., p. 223.
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 261
existing. What you say of the separation of the
distinct parts of light, which, once separated, remain
always the same, has more weight with me, and
indeed seems conclusive ; at least, I see at present
nothing to object.
I congratulate you on the prospect you have, of
passing the remainder of life in philosophical retire
ment. I wish for the same, but it seems too distant.
I might then more punctually perform my part in the
correspondence you honor me with ; than which I
have none more instructive or agreeable.
Send me, if you please, the translation of your
piece into High Dutch. I understand a little of the
German language, and will peruse and return it. At
present I cannot guess the meaning of the passage
you mention. Unless perhaps, as your twentieth
section speaks of " a power that neither resists nor
moves, and exerts no kind of action of itself, without
the concurrence of some other power ; so that in the
absence of other powers it must be in a perfect inac
tion," &c., it may be some kind of Dutch wit, and in
tended to joke that quietism which in Germany is
supposed to be very prevalent in Pennsylvania, many
of their Quietists 1 having removed hither.
I see by Cave s Magazine for May that they have
translated my electrical papers into French, and
printed them in Paris. I hope our friend Collinson
will procure and send me a copy of the translation.
Such things should be done by men skilled in the
1 This is the only evidence in our elon suffered and Molinos died, ever
literature, so far as I know, that any found a refuge in the United States,
of this sect, for whose principles Fen- ED.
262 THE WORKS OF [1752
subject as well as in the language, otherwise great
mistakes are easily made, and the clearest matters
rendered obscure and unintelligible.
XCII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 21, 1752.
PHILADELPHIA, 19 October, 1752.
SIR : As frequent mention is made in publick
papers from Europe of the success of the Philadelphia
experiment for drawing the electric fire from clouds
by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high
buildings, &c., it may be agreeable to the curious to
be informed that the same experiment has succeeded
in Philadelphia, though made in a different and more
easy manner, which is as follows.
Make a small cross of two light strips of cedar, the
arms so long as to reach to the four corners of a large
thin silk handkerchief when extended ; tie the corners
of the handkerchief to the extremities of the cross, so
you have the body of a kite ; which, being properly
accommodated with a tail, loop, and string, will rise
in the air, like those made of paper ; but this being
of silk is fitter to bear the wet and wind of a thunder-
gust without tearing. To the top of the upright
stick of the cross is to be fixed a very sharp-pointed
wire, rising a foot or more above the wood. To the
end of the twine, next the hand, is to be tied a silk
ribbon, and where the silk and twine join, a key may
1752] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 263
be fastened. This kite is to be raised when a thunder-
gust appears to be coming on, and the person who
holds the string must stand within a door or window,
or under some cover, so that the silk ribbon may not
be wet ; and care must be taken that the twine does
not touch the frame of the door or window. As soon
as any of the thunder-clouds come over the kite, the
pointed wire will draw the electric fire from them, and
the kite, with all the twine, will be electrified, and
the loose filaments of the twine will stand out every
way, and be attracted by an approaching finger. And
when the rain has wetted the kite and twine, so that
it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it
stream out plentifully from the key on the approach
of your knuckle. At this key the phial may be
charged ; and from electric fire thus obtained spirits
may be kindled, and all the other electric experiments
be performed which are usually done by the help of a
rubbed glass globe or tube, and thereby the sameness
of the electric matter with that of lightning completely
demonstrated. B. FRANKLIN.
XCIII.
TO EDWARD AND JANE MECOM.
PHILADELPHIA, 14 November, 1752.
DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER :
Benny sailed from hence this day two weeks, and
left our Capes the Sunday following. They are sel
dom above three weeks on the voyage to Antigua.
That island is reckoned one of the healthiest in the
264 THE WORKS OF [1752
West Indies. My late partner there enjoyed perfect
health for four years, till he grew careless, and got to
sitting up late in taverns, which I have cautioned
Benny to avoid, and have given him all other neces
sary advice I could think of, relating both to his
health and conduct, and I hope for the best.
He will find the business settled to his hand : a
newspaper established, no other printing-house to in
terfere with him, or beat down his prices, which are
much higher than we get on the continent. He has
the place on the same terms with his predecessor,
who, I understand, cleared from five to six hundred
pistoles during the four years he lived there. I have
recommended him to some gentlemen of note for
their patronage and advice.
Mr. Parker, though he looked on Benny as one of
his best hands, readily consented to his going, on the
first mention of it. I told him Benny must make him
satisfaction for his time. He would leave that to be
settled by me, and Benny as readily agreed with me
to pay Mr. Parker as much as would hire a good
journeyman in his room. He came handsomely pro
vided with apparel, and I believe Mr. Parker has, in
every respect, done his duty by him, and in this
affair has really acted a generous part ; therefore I
hope, if Benny succeeds in the world, he will make
Mr. Parker a return beyond what he has promised.
I suppose you will not think it amiss to write Mr.
and Mrs. Parker a line or two of thanks ; for, not
withstanding some little differences, they have on the
whole been very kind to Benny.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 265
We have vessels going very frequently from this
port to Antigua. You have some too from your
port. What letters you send this way I will take
care to forward. Antigua is the seat of govern
ment for all the Leeward Islands, to wit, St. Christo
pher s, Nevis, and Montserrat. Benny will have the
business of all those islands, there being no other
printer.
After all, having taken care to do what appears to
be for the best, we must submit to God s providence,
which orders all things really for the best.
While Benny was here, and since, our Assembly
was sitting, which took up my time, and I could not
before write you so fully.
With love to your children, I am, dear brother and
sister, your affectionate brother,
B. FRANKLIN.
XCIV.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, i January, 1753.
DEAR SIR : I have your favor of the third past,
with your son s remarks on the Abbe Nollet s Letters.
I think the experiments and observations are judi
ciously made and so well expressed that, with your
and his leave, I would transmit them to Mr. Collinson
for publication. I have repeated all the Abbe s ex
periments in vacuo, and find them answer exactly as
they should do on my principles, and in the material
part quite contrary to what he has related of them ;
266 THE WORKS OF [1753
so that he has laid himself extremely open by attempt
ing to impose false accounts of experiments on the
world to support his doctrine.
M. Dalibard wrote to me that he was preparing an
answer that would be published the beginning of this
winter ; but as he seems to have been imposed on by
the Abbe s confident assertion, that a charged bottle
set down on an electric per se is deprived of its elec
tricity, and in his letter to me attempts to account
for it, I doubt he is not yet quite master of the sub
ject to do the business effectually. So I conclude to
write a civil letter to the Abbe myself, in which,
without resenting any thing in his letters, I shall en
deavour to set the disputed matters in so clear a light
as to satisfy every one who will take the trouble of
reading it. Before I send it home, I shall communi
cate it to you, and take your friendly advice on it.
I set out to-morrow on a journey to Maryland, where
I expect to be some weeks, but shall have some lei
sure when I return. At present I can only add my
thanks to your ingenious son, and my hearty wishes
of a happy new year to you, and him, and all yours.
I am, Sir, &c. B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. I wrote to you last post, and sent my paper
on the Increase of Mankind. I send the Supplemen
tal Electrical Experiments in several fragments of
letters, of which Cave x has made the most, by print
ing some of them twice over.
1 The bookseller in London, who first published Franklin s papers on elec
tricity.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 267
XCV.
TO JOHN PERKINS.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, JUNE 24, 1756.
PHILADELPHIA, 4 February, 1753.
SIR : I ought to have written to you long since,
in answer to yours of October i6th concerning the
water-spout ; but business partly, and partly a desire
of procuring further information by inquiry among
my sea-faring acquaintance, induced me to postpone
writing from time to time, till I am now almost
ashamed to resume the subject, not knowing but you
may have forgot what has been said upon it.
Nothing certainly can be more improving to a
searcher into nature than objections judiciously made
to his opinion, taken up, perhaps, too hastily ; for
such objections oblige him to re-study the point, con
sider every circumstance carefully, compare facts,
make experiments, weigh arguments, and be slow in
drawing conclusions. And hence a sure advantage
results ; for he either confirms a truth, before too
slightly supported, or discovers an error, and receives
instruction from the objector.
In this view I consider the objections and remarks
you sent me, and thank you for them sincerely ; but
how much soever my inclinations lead me to philo
sophical inquiries, I am so engaged in business, public
and private, that those more pleasing pursuits are fre
quently interrupted, and the chain of thought, neces
sary to be closely continued in such disquisitions, is
so broken and disjointed that it is with difficulty I
268 THE WORKS OF [1753
satisfy myself in any of them ; and I am now not
much nearer a conclusion in this matter of the spout
than when I first read your letter.
Yet, hoping we may in time sift out the truth be
tween us, I will send you my present thoughts, with
some observations on your reasons on the accounts in
the Transactions, and on other relations I have met
with. Perhaps while I am writing some new light
may strike me, for I shall now be obliged to consider
the subject with a little more attention.
I agree with you that, by means of a vacuum in a
whirlwind, water cannot be supposed to rise in large
masses to the region of the clouds ; for the pressure
of the surrounding atmosphere could not force it up in
a continued body or column to a much greater height
than thirty feet. But if there really is a vacuum in
the centre, or near the axis of whirlwinds, then, I
think, water may rise in such vacuum to that height,
or to a less height, as the vacuum may be less perfect.
I had not read Stuart s account in the Transactions
for many years before the receipt of your letter, and
had quite forgot it ; but now, on viewing his drafts
and considering his descriptions, I think they seem to
favor my hypothesis ; for he describes and draws col
umns of water, of various heights, terminating ab
ruptly at the top, exactly as water would do when
forced up by the pressure of the atmosphere into an
exhausted tube.
I must, however, no longer call it my hypothesis,
since I find Stuart had the same thought, though
somewhat obscurely expressed, where he says, " he
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 269
imagines this phenomenon may be solved by suction
(improperly so called), or rather pulsion, as in the
application of a cupping-glass to the flesh, the air be
ing first voided by the kindled flax."
In my paper, I supposed a whirlwind and a spout
to be the same thing, and to proceed from the same
cause ; the only difference between them being that
the one passes over land, the other over water. I
find also in the Transactions that M. de la Pry me was
of the same opinion ; for he there describes two
spouts, as he calls them, which were seen at different
times, at Hatfield, in Yorkshire, whose appearances
in the air were the same with those of the spouts at
sea, and effects the same with those of real whirl
winds.
Whirlwinds have generally a progressive as well
as a circular motion ; so had what is called the spout,
at Topsham (see the account of it in the Transac
tions), which also appears, by its effects described, to
have been a real whirlwind. Water-spouts have, also,
a progressive motion ; this is sometimes greater and
sometimes less ; in some violent, in others barely per
ceivable. The whirlwind at Warrington continued
long in Acrement Close.
Whirlwinds generally arise after calms and great
heats ; the same is observed of water-spouts, which
are therefore most frequent in the warm latitudes.
The spout that happened in cold weather, in the
Downs, described by Mr. Gordon in the Transactions,
was, for that reason, thought extraordinary ; but he
remarks withal, that the weather, though cold when
270 THE WORKS OF [1753
the spout appeared, was soon after much colder ; as
we find it, commonly, less warm after a whirlwind.
You agree, that the wind blows every way towards
a whirlwind, from a large space round. An intelli
gent whaleman, of Nantucket, informed me, that
three of their vessels, which were out in search of
whales, happening to be becalmed, lay in sight of
each other, at about a league distance, if I remember
right, nearly forming a triangle ; after some time a
water-spout appeared near the middle of the triangle,
when a brisk breeze of wind sprung up, and every
vessel made sail ; and then it appeared to them all, by
the setting of the sails, and the course each vessel
stood, that the spout was to the leeward of every one
of them ; and they all declared it to have been so,
when they happened afterwards in company, and
came to confer about it. So that in this particular
likewise, whirlwinds and water-spouts agree.
But if that which appears a water-spout at sea
does sometimes, in its progressive motion, meet with
and pass over land, and there produce all the phe
nomena and effects of a whirlwind, it should thence
seem still more evident, that a whirlwind and a spout
are the same. I send you herewith a letter from an
ingenious physician of my acquaintance, which gives
one instance of this, that fell within his observation.
A fluid, moving from all points horizontally tow
ards a centre, must at that centre either ascend or
descend. Water being in a tub, if a hole be opened
in the middle of the bottom, will flow from all sides
to the centre, and there descend in a whirl. But air,
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 271
flowing on and near the surface of land or water,
from all sides towards the centre, must at the centre
ascend, the land or water hindering its descent.
If these concentring currents of air be in the upper
region, they may indeed descend in the spout or
whirlwind ; but then, when the united current reached
the earth or water, it would spread, and probably
blow every way from the centre. There may be
whirlwinds of both kinds, but from the commonly
observed effects I suspect the rising one to be the
most common ; when the upper air descends, it is
perhaps in a greater body extended wider, as in
our thunder-gusts, and without much whirling ; and
when air descends in a spout or whirlwind, I should
rather expect it would press the roof of a house
inwards, or force in the tiles, shingles, or thatch,
force a boat down into the water, or a piece of timber
into the earth, than that it would lift them up and
carry them away.
It has so happened that I have not met with any
accounts of spouts that certainly descended ; I sus
pect they are not frequent. Please to communicate
those you mention. The apparent dropping of a
pipe from the clouds towards the earth or sea, I will
endeavour to explain hereafter.
The augmentation of the cloud, which, as I am in
formed, is generally if not always the case during a
spout, seems to show an ascent, rather than a de
scent, of the matter of which such cloud is composed ;
for a descending spout, one would expect, should di
minish a cloud. I own, however, that cold air de-
272 THE WORKS OF [1753
scending may, by condensing the vapors in a lower
region, form and increase clouds ; which, I think, is
generally the case in our common thunder-gusts, and
therefore do not lay great stress on this argument.
Whirlwinds and spouts are not always, though
most commonly, in the day time. The terrible
whirlwind which damaged a great part of Rome,
June n, 1749, happened in the night of that day.
The same was supposed to have been first a spout, for
it is said to be beyond doubt, that it gathered in the
neighbouring sea, as it could be tracked from Ostia
to Rome. I find this in Pere Boscovich s account of
it, as abridged in the Monthly Review for December,
1750.
In that account, the whirlwind is said to have ap
peared as a very black, long, and lofty cloud, dis
coverable, notwithstanding the darkness of the night,
by its continually lightning or emitting flashes on all
sides, pushing along with a surprising swiftness, and
within three or four feet of the ground. Its general
effects on houses were, stripping off the roofs, blow
ing away chimneys, breaking doors and windows,
forcing up the floors, and unpaving the rooms, (some
of these effects seem to agree well with a supposed
vacuum in the centre of the whirlwind,) and the very
rafters of the houses were broken and dispersed,
and even hurled against houses at a considerable dis
tance, &c.
It seems, by an expression of Pere Boscovich s, as
if the wind blew from all sides towards the whirl
wind ; for, having carefully observed its effects, he
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 273
concludes of all whirlwinds, " that their motion is
circular, and their action attractive."
He observes, on a number of histories of whirl
winds, &c., " that a common effect of them is to carry
up into the air tiles, stones, and animals themselves,
which happened to be in their course, and all kinds
of bodies unexceptionably, throwing them to a con
siderable distance, with great impetuosity."
Such effects seem to show a rising current of air.
I will endeavour to explain my conceptions of this
matter by figures, representing a plan, and an eleva
tion of a spout or whirlwind.
I would only first beg to be allowed two or three
positions, mentioned in my former paper.
1. That the lower region of air is often more
heated, and so more rarefied, than the upper ; con
sequently, specifically lighter. The coldness of the
upper region is manifested by the hail, which some
times falls from it in a hot day.
2. That heated air may be very moist and yet the
moisture so equally diffused and rarefied as not to be
visible till colder air mixes with it when it condenses
and becomes visible. Thus our breath, invisible in
summer, becomes visible in winter.
Now let us suppose a tract of land, or sea, of per
haps sixty miles square, unscreened by clouds, and
unfanned by winds, during great part of a summer s
day, or, it may be, for several days successively, till
it is violently heated, together with the lower region
of air in contact with it, so that the said lower air
becomes specifically lighter than the superincumbent
274 THE WORKS OF [1753
higher region of the atmosphere, in which the clouds
commonly float ; let us suppose, also, that the air sur
rounding this tract has not been so much heated
during those days, and therefore remains heavier.
The consequence of this should be, as I conceive,
that the heated, lighter air, being pressed on all sides,
must ascend, and the heavier descend ; and as this
rising cannot be in all parts, or the whole area, of the
tract at once, for that would leave too extensive a
vacuum, the rising will begin precisely in that column
that happens to be the lightest or most rarefied ; and
the warm air will flow horizontally from all points to
this column, where the several currents meeting, and
joining to rise, a whirl is naturally formed, in the
same manner as a whirl is formed in the tub of water,
by the descending fluid flowing from all sides of the
tub to the hole in the centre.
And as the several currents arrive at this central
rising column with a considerable degree of horizontal
motion, they cannot suddenly change it to a vertical
motion ; therefore as they gradually, in approaching
the whirl, decline from right to curve or circular
lines, so, having joined the whirl, they ascend by a
spiral motion, in the same manner as the water de
scends spirally through the hole in the tub before-
mentioned.
Lastly, as the lower air, and nearest the surface, is
most rarefied by the heat of the sun, that air is most
acted on by the pressure of the surrounding cold and
heavy air, which is to take its place ; consequently its
motion towards the whirl is swiftest, and so the force
PLATE IV.
"WMffilB.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 275
of the lower part of the whirl, or trump, strongest,
and the centrifugal force of its particles greatest ; and
hence the vacuum round the axis of the whirl should
be greatest near the earth or sea, and be gradually
diminished as it approaches the region of the clouds,
till it ends in a point, as at P, in Figure 2, Plate IV.,
forming a long and sharp cone.
In Figure i, which is a plan or ground-plat of a
whirlwind, the circle /^represets the central vacuum.
Between a a a a and b b b b y I suppose a body of
air, condensed strongly by the pressure of the cur
rents moving towards it from all sides without, and by
its centrifugal force from within, moving round with
prodigious swiftness (having, as it were, the momenta
of all the currents, > > - > >, united in
itself), and with a power equal to its swiftness and
density.
It is this whirling body of air between a a a a and
b b b b that rises spirally ; by its force it tears build
ings to pieces, twists up great trees by the roots, &c.,
and by its spiral motion raises the fragments so
high, till the pressure of the surrounding and ap
proaching currents, diminishing, can no longer con
fine them to the circle, or their own centrifugal force,
increasing, grows too strong for such pressure, when
they fly off in tangent lines, as stones out of a sling,
and fall on all sides and at great distances.
If it happens at sea, the water under and between
a a a a and b b b b will be violently agitated and driven
about, and parts of it raised with the spiral current,
and thrown about so as to form a bush-like appearance.
276 THE WORKS OF [1753
This circle is of various diameters, sometimes very
large.
If the vacuum passes over water, the water may
rise in it, in a body or column, to near the height of
thirty-two feet.
If it passes over houses, it may burst their win
dows or walls outwards, pluck off the roofs, and pluck
up the floors, by the sudden rarefaction of the air con
tained within such buildings ; the outward pressure of
the atmosphere being suddenly taken off. So the
stopped bottle of air bursts under the exhausted
receiver of the air-pump.
Figure 2 is to represent the elevation of a water
spout, wherein I suppose P P P to be the cone,
at first a vacuum, till W W, the rising column of
water, has filled so much of it ; 6" ,5" ,5* S, the spiral
whirl of air, surrounding the vacuum, and continued
higher in a close column after the vacuum ends in
the point P, till it reaches the cool region of the air.
B B, the bush, described by Stuart, surrounding the
foot of the column of water.
Now, I suppose, this whirl of air will, at first, be as
invisible as the air itself, though reaching in reality
from the water to the region of cool air, in which our
low summer thunder-clouds commonly float ; but
presently it will become visible at its extremities. At
its lower end, by the agitation of the water under the
whirling part of the circle, between P and S, forming
Stuart s bush, and by the swelling and rising of the
water in the beginning vacuum, which is at first
a small, low, broad cone, whose top gradually rises
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 277
and sharpens as the force of the whirl increases. At
its upper end it becomes visible, by the warm air
brought up to the cooler region, where its moisture
begins to be condensed into thick vapor by the cold,
and is seen first at A, the highest part, which, being
now cooled, condenses what rises next at B, which
condenses that at C, and that condenses what is rising
at D, the cold operating by the contact of the vapors
faster in a right line downwards than the vapors
themselves can climb in a spiral line upwards ; they
climb, however, and, as by continual addition they
grow denser, and consequently their centrifugal force
greater, and being risen above the concentrating cur
rents that compose the whirl, fly off, spread, and
form a cloud.
It seems easy to conceive how, by this successive
condensation from above, the spout appears to drop
or descend from the cloud, though the materials
of which it is composed are all the while ascending.
The condensation of the moisture contained in so
great a quantity of warm air as may be supposed to
rise in a short time in this prodigiously rapid whirl, is,
perhaps, sufficient to form a great extent of cloud,
though the spout should be over land, as those at
Hatfield ; and if the land happens not to be very
dusty, perhaps the lower part of the spout will scarce
become visible at all, though the upper, or what is
commonly called the descending, part be very dis
tinctly seen.
The same may happen at sea, in case the whirl
is not violent enough to make a high vacuum, and
278 THE WORKS OF [1753
raise the column, &c. In such case, the upper part
A B CD only will be visible, and the bush perhaps
below.
But if the whirl be strong, and there be much dust
on the land, and the column W W be raised from the
water, then the lower part becomes visible, and some
times even united to the upper part. For the dust
may be carried up in the spiral whirl, till it reach the
region where the vapor is condensed, and rise with
that even to the clouds ; and the friction of the whirl
ing air, on the sides of the column W W, may
detach great quantities of its water, break it into
drops, and carry them up in the spiral whirl, mixed
with the air ; the heavier drops may indeed fly off,
and fall in a shower, round the spout ; but much of it
will be broken into vapor, yet visible ; and thus,
in both cases, by dust at land, and by water at sea,
the whole tube may be darkened and rendered
visible.
As the whirl weakens, the tube may (in appear
ance) separate in the middle, the column of water
subsiding, and the superior condensed part drawing
up to the cloud. Yet still the tube or whirl of air may
remain entire, the middle only becoming invisible, as
not containing visible matter.
Dr. Stuart says : " It was observable of all the
spouts he saw, but more perceptible of the great one,
that towards the end it began to appear like a hollow
canal, only black in the borders but white in the
middle ; and though at first it was altogether black
and opake, yet now one could very distinctly perceive
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 279
the sea water to fly up along the middle of this canal,
as smoke up a chimney."
And Dr. Mather, describing a whirlwind, says :
" A thick, dark, small cloud arose, with a pillar of
light in it, of about eight or ten feet diameter, and
passed along the ground in a tract not wider than a
street, horribly tearing up trees by the roots, blowing
them up in the air like feathers, and throwing up
stones of great weight to a considerable height in the
air," &c.
These accounts, the one of water-spouts, the other
of a whirlwind, seem in this particular to agree ; what
one gentleman describes as a tube, black in the bor
ders and white in the middle, the other calls a black
cloud with a pillar of light in it ; the latter expression
has only a little more of the marvellous, but the thing
is the same ; and it seems not very difficult to under
stand. When Dr. Stuart s spouts were full charged
that is, when the whirling pipe of air was filled be
tween a a a a and b b b b y Figure i, with quantities
of drops, and vapor torn off from the column W W,
Figure 2, the whole was rendered so dark as that it
could not be seen through, nor the spiral ascending
motion discovered ; but when the quantity ascending
lessened, the pipe became more transparent, and the
ascending motion visible. For, by inspection of the
figure (Fig. 3) representing a section of our spout,
with the vacuum in the middle, it is plain that if we
look at such a hollow pipe in the direction of the
arrows, and suppose opake particles to be equally
mixed in the space between the two circular lines,
2 8o THE WORKS OF [1753
both the part between the arrows a and b and that
between the arrows c and d will appear much darker
than that between b and c, as there must be many
more of those opake particles in the line of vision
across the sides than across the middle. It is thus,
that a hair in a microscope evidently appears to be a
pipe, the sides showing darker than the middle. Dr.
Mather s whirl was probably filled with dust, the sides
were very dark, but the vacuum within rendering the
middle more transparent, he calls it a pillar of light.
It was in this more transparent part between b and
c that Stuart could see the spiral motion of the
vapors, whose lines on the nearest and farthest side
of the transparent part crossing each other, repre
sented smoke ascending in a chimney ; for, the quan
tity being still too great in the line of sight through
the sides of the tube, the motion could not be discov
ered there, and so they represented the solid sides of
the chimney.
When the vapors reach in the pipe from the clouds
near to the earth, it is no wonder now to those who
understand electricity, that flashes of lightning should
descend by the spout, as in that of Rome.
But you object : If water may be thus carried into
the clouds, why have we not salt rains ? The objec
tion is strong and reasonable, and I know not whether
I can answer it to your satisfaction. I never heard
but of one salt rain, and that was where a spout
passed pretty near a ship ; so I suppose it to be only
the drops thrown off from the spout by the centrifugal
force (as the birds were at Hatfield), when they had
17531 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 281
been carried so high as to be above, or to be too
strongly centrifugal for the pressure of the concurring
winds surrounding it. And indeed I believe there
can be no other kind of salt rain ; for it has pleased
the goodness of God so to order it, that the particles
of air will not attract the particles of salt, though they
strongly attract water.
Hence, though all metals, even gold, may be united
with air, and rendered volatile, salt remains fixed in
the fire, and no heat can force it up to any consider
able height, or oblige the air to hold it. Hence,
when salt rises, as it will a little way, into air with
water, there is instantly a separation made ; the par
ticles of water adhere to the air, and the particles of
salt fall down again, as if repelled and forced off from
the water by some power in the air ; or as some
metals, dissolved in a proper menstruum, will quit the
solvent when other matter approaches, and adhere to
that, so the water quits the salt and embraces the
air ; but air will not embrace the salt and quit the
water, otherwise our rains would indeed be salt, and
every tree and plant on the face of the earth be
destroyed, with all the animals that depend on them
for subsistence. He who hath proportioned and
given proper qualities to all things, was not unmind
ful of this. Let us adore HIM with praise and
thanksgiving !
By some accounts of seamen, it seems the column
of water, W W, sometimes falls suddenly ; and if it
be, as some say, fifteen or twenty yards diameter, it
must fall with great force, and they may well fear for
282 THE WORKS OF [1753
their ships. By one account, in the Transactions, of
a spout that fell at Colne, in Lancashire, one would
think the column is sometimes lifted off from the
water and carried over land, and there let fall in a
body ; but this, I suppose, happens rarely.
Stuart describes his spouts as appearing no bigger
than a mast, and sometimes less ; but they were seen
at a league and a half distance.
I think I formerly read in Dampier, or some other
voyager, that a spout, in its progressive motion, went
over a ship becalmed on the coast of Guinea, and
first threw her down on one side, carrying away her
foremast, then suddenly whipped her up and threw
her down on the other side, carrying away her mizen-
mast, and the whole was over in an instant. I sup
pose the first mischief was done by the fore side of
the whirl, the latter by the hinder side, their motion
being contrary.
I suppose a whirlwind, or spout, may be stationary,
when the concurring winds are equal ; but if unequal,
the whirl acquires a progressive motion, in the direc
tion of the strongest pressure.
When the wind that gives the progressive motion
becomes stronger below than above, or above than
below, the spout will be bent, and, the cause ceasing,
straighten again.
Your queries, towards the end of your paper, ap
pear judicious and worth considering. At present I
am not furnished with facts sufficient to make any
pertinent answer to them ; and this paper has already
a sufficient quantity of conjecture.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 283
Your manner of accommodating the accounts to
your hypothesis of descending spouts is, I own, in
genious, and perhaps that hypothesis may be true.
I will consider it farther ; but as yet I am not satis
fied with it, though hereafter I may be.
Here you have my method of accounting for the
principal phenomena, which I submit to your can
did examination.
And as I now seem to have almost written a book
instead of a letter, you will think it high time I
should conclude, which I beg leave to do, with assur
ing you that I am, Sir, &c.
B. FRANKLIN.
XCVI.
TO JAMES BOWDOIN.
PHILADELPHIA, 28 February, 1753.
DEAR SIR : The enclosed is a copy of a letter
and some papers I received lately from a friend, of
which I have struck off fifty copies by the press to
distribute among my ingenious acquaintance in North
America, hoping some of them will make the observa
tions proposed. The improvement of geography and
astronomy is the common concern of all polite nations,
and I trust our country will not miss the opportunity
of sharing in the honor to be got on this occasion.
The French originals are despatched by express
overland to Quebec. I doubt not but you will do
what may lie in your power to promote the making
these observations in New England, and that we may
284 THE WORKS OF [1753
not be excelled by the American French either in dil
igence or accuracy. We have here a three-foot re
flecting telescope and other proper instruments, and
intend to observe at our Academy, if the weather per
mit. You will see by our Almanac that we have had
this transit under consideration before the arrival of
these French letters. 1
Dr. Colden s book was printed in England last
summer, but not to be published till the meeting of
Parliament. I have one copy, however, which I pur
pose shortly to send you.
With great esteem and respect, I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
XCVII.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, 12 April, 1753.
DEAR SIR : I received your favor of March 26th,
and thank you for communicating to me the very
ingenious letter from your friend, Mr. Todd, with
whom, if it may be agreeable to him, I would gladly
entertain a correspondence. I shall consider his ob
jections till next post.
I thank you for your hint concerning the word
adhesion, which should be defined. When I speak of
particles of water adhering to particles of air, I mean
not a firm adhesion, but a loose one, like that of a
1 The paper alluded to, of which relating to a Transit of Mercury over
fifty copies were struck off for dis- the Sun, which is to happen May 6,
tribution, was entitled: "Letters 1753."
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 285
drop of water to the end of an icicle before freezing.
The firm adhesion is after it is frozen.
I conceive that the original constituent particles of
water are perfectly hard, round, and smooth. If so,
there must be interstices, and yet the mass incom
pressible. A box filled with small shot has many in
terstices, and the shot maybe compressed, because they
are not perfectly hard. If they were, the interstices
would remain the same, notwithstanding the greatest
pressure, and would admit sand, as water admits salt.
Our vessel, named the Argo, is gone for the north
west passage ; and the captain has borrowed my Jour
nals of the last voyage, except one volume of a broken
set, which I send you. I enclose a letter from our
friend, Mr. Collinson, and am promised some speltz,
which I shall send per next post.
The Tatler tells us of a girl who was observed
to grow suddenly proud, and none could guess the
reason, till it came to be known that she had got on
a pair of new silk garters. Lest you should be puz
zled to guess the cause, when you observe any thing
of the kind in me, I think I will not hide my new
garters under my petticoats, but take the freedom to
show them to you, in a paragraph of our friend Col-
linson s last letter, viz. But I ought to mortify, and
not indulge, this vanity ; I will not transcribe the
paragraph, yet I cannot forbear.
"If any of thy friends," says Peter, " should take
notice that thy head is held a little higher up than
formerly, let them know : when the grand monarch
of France strictly commands the Abbe Mazeas to
286 THE WORKS OF [1753
write a letter in the politest terms to the Royal
Society, to return the King s thanks and compli
ments in an express manner to Mr. Franklin of
Pennsylvania, for his useful discoveries in electricity,
and application of the pointed rods to prevent the
terrible effects of thunder-storms, I say, after all this,
is not some allowance to be made, if thy crest is a
little elevated ? There are four letters containing
very curious experiments on thy doctrine of points
and its verification, which will be printed in the new
Transactions. I think, now I have stuck a feather in
thy cap, I may be allowed to conclude in wishing thee
long to wear it. Thine, P. COLLINSON."
On reconsidering this paragraph, I fear I have not
so much reason to be proud as the girl had ; for a
feather in the cap is not so useful a thing, or so
serviceable to the wearer, as a pair of good silk
garters. The pride of man is very differently grati
fied ; and had his Majesty sent me a marshal s staff,
I think I should scarce have been so proud of it as I
am of your esteem, and of subscribing myself, with
sincerity, dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend and humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
XCVIII.
TO JAMES BOWDOIN.
PHILADELPHIA, 12 April, 1753.
SIR : I have shipped eighteen glass jars in casks
well packed, on board Captain Branscombe for Bos
ton ; six of them are for you, the rest I understand
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 287
are for the College. Leaf tin, such as they use in
silvering looking-glasses, is best to coat them with ;
they should be coated to within about four or five
inches of the brim. Cut the tin into pieces of the
form here represented, and they will
comply better with the bellying of the
glass ; one piece only should be round
to cover the bottom ; the same shapes
will serve the inside. I had not con-
veniency to coat them for you, and feared to trust
anybody else, Mr. Kinnersley being abroad in the
West Indies. To make the pieces comply the better,
they may be cut in two where the cross lines are.
They reach from the top to the edge of the round
piece which covers the bottom. I place them in
loose rims of scabboard, something like a small
sieve, in which they stand very well. If you charge
more than one or two together, pray take care how
you expose your head to an accidental stroke ; for, I
can assure you from experience, one is sufficient to
knock a stout man down ; and I believe a stroke from
two or three, in the head, would kill him.
Has Dr. Colden s new book reached you in Bos
ton ? If not, I will send it to you.
With great respect, I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. The glass-maker being from home, I cannot
now get the account. The tin is laid on with com
mon paste, made of flour and water boiled together,
and the pieces may lap over each other a little.
288 THE WORKS OF [1753
XCIX.
TO WILLIAM SMITH. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 19 April, 1753.
SIR: I received your favor of the nth instant,
with your new piece on Education? which I shall
carefully peruse, and give you my sentiments of it, as
you desire, by next post.
I believe the young gentlemen, your pupils, may be
entertained and instructed here in mathematics and
philosophy to satisfaction. Mr. Alison, 3 who was
educated at Glasgow, has been long accustomed to
teach the latter, and Mr. Grew 4 the former, and I
think their pupils make great progress. Mr. Alison
has the care of the Latin and Greek school ; but as
he has now three good assistants, 5 he can very well
afford some hours every day for the instruction of
those who are engaged in higher studies. The
mathematical school is pretty well furnished with in
struments. The English Library is a good one, and
1 As early as 1743, Franklin had en- count of these institutions, in their
deavored to procure the establishment various stages, may be seen in
of an Academy in Philadelphia. His Wood s " History of the University
efforts were not successful till 1749, f Pennsylvania," contained in the
when, chiefly through his instrumen- third volume of the " Memoirs of the
tality, the Academy was instituted and Historical Society of Pennsylvania."
went into operation. Franklin was 2 A General Idea of the College of
chosen the first president of the Board Mirania. STUBER.
of Trustees. From this institution 3 The Rev. Francis Alison, after-
arose, first the College of Philadelphia, wards Vice-Provost of the College in
and afterwards the present University Philadelphia. STUBER.
of Pennsylvania. The Reverend Wil- * Theophilus Grew, afterwards Pro-
liam Smith was appointed Provost of fessor of Mathematics in the College,
the Academy in 1754, and he filled STUBER.
that office, at the head of the Academy 6 Those assistants were at that time
and College successively, for the period Charles Thomson, afterwards Secre-
of thirty-seven years, till the Univer- tary of Congress, Paul Jackson, and
sity was founded in 1791. A full ac- Jacob Duche. STUBER.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 289
we have, belonging to it, a middling apparatus for
experimental philosophy, and purpose speedily to
complete it. The Loganian Library, one of the best
collections in America, will shortly be opened ; so
that neither books nor instruments will be wanting ;
and as we are determined always to give good
salaries, we have reason to believe we may have
always an opportunity of choosing good masters ;
upon which, indeed, the success of the whole de
pends. We are obliged to you for your kind offers
in this respect, and when you are settled in Eng
land we may occasionally make use of your friendship
and judgment.
If it suits your convenience to visit Philadelphia
before your return to Europe, I shall be extremely
glad to see and converse with you here, as well as to
correspond with you after your settlement in Eng
land. For an acquaintance and communication with
men of learning, virtue, and public spirit is one of
my greatest enjoyments.
I do not know whether you ever happened to see
the first proposals I made for erecting this Academy.
I send them enclosed. They had, however imperfect,
the desired success, being followed by a subscription
of four thousand pounds towards carrying them into
execution. And as we are fond of receiving advice,
and are daily improving by experience, I am in hopes
we shall, in a few years, see a perfect institution. I
am, very respectfully, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
2 9 o THE WORKS OF [1753
c.
TO WILLIAM SMITH.
PHILADELPHIA, 3 May, 1753.
SIR : Mr. Peters has just now been with me, and
we have compared notes on your new piece. We
find nothing in the scheme of education, however ex
cellent, but what is, in our opinion, very practicable.
The great difficulty will be to find the Aratus z and
other suitable persons to carry it into execution ;
but such may be had if proper encouragement be
given. We have both received great pleasure in the
perusal of it. For my part, I know not when I have
read a piece that has more affected me ; so noble and
just are the sentiments, so warm and animated the
language, yet, as censure from your friends may be of
more use, as well as more agreeable, to you than
praise, I ought to mention that I wish you had
omitted, not only the quotation from the Review, 2
which you are now justly dissatisfied with, but those
expressions of resentment against your adversaries,
in pages 65 and 79. In such cases, the noblest vic
tory is obtained by neglect and by shining on.
Mr. Allen has been out of town these ten days,
but before he went he directed me to procure him six
copies of your piece. Mr. Peters has taken ten. He
purposed to have written to you, but omits it, as he
1 The name given to the principal 3 The quotation alluded to (from the
or head of the ideal college, the system London Monthly Review for 1749)
of education in which has nevertheless was judged to reflect too severely on
been nearly realized, or followed as a the discipline and government of the
model, in the College and Academy English Universities of Oxford and
of Philadelphia and some other Amer- Cambridge, and was expunged from
lean seminaries for many years past. the following editions of this work.
STUBER. STUBER.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 291
expects so soon to have the pleasure of seeing you here.
He desires me to present his affectionate compliments
to you, and to assure you that you will be very wel
come to him. I shall only say that you may depend
on my doing all in my power to make your visit to
Philadelphia agreeable to you. I am, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CI.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 9 May, 1753.
SIR : I thank you for the kind and judicious re
marks you have made on my little piece. I have often
observed with wonder that temper of the poorer Eng
lish laborers which you mention, and acknowledge it
to be pretty general. When any of them happen to
come here, where labor is much better paid than in
England, their industry seems to diminish in equal
proportion. But it is not so with the German labor
ers ; they retain the habitual industry and frugality
they bring with them, and receiving higher wages, an
accumulation arises that makes them all rich. When
I consider that the English are the offspring of Ger
mans ; that the climate they live in is much of the
same temperature, and when I see nothing in nature
that should create this difference, I am tempted to
suspect it must arise from the constitution ; and I
have sometimes doubted whether the laws peculiar to
England, which compel the rich to maintain the poor,
have not given the latter a dependence that very
292 THE WORKS OF [1753
much lessens the care of providing against the wants
of old age.
I have heard it remarked that the poor in Protes
tant countries, on the continent of Europe, are gen
erally more industrious than those of Popish countries.
May not the more numerous foundations in the latter
for relief of the poor have some effect towards
rendering them less provident ? To relieve the mis
fortunes of our fellow creatures is concurring with
the Deity ; it is godlike ; but if we provide encour
agement for laziness, and support for folly, may we
not be found fighting against the order of God and
nature, which perhaps has appointed want and misery
as the proper punishments for, and cautions against,
as well as necessary consequences of, idleness and
extravagance ? Whenever we attempt to amend the
scheme of Providence, and to interfere with the gov
ernment of the world, we had need be very circum
spect, lest we do more harm than good. In New
England they once thought blackbirds useless, and
mischievous to the corn. They made efforts to
destroy them. The consequence was, the blackbirds
were diminished ; but a kind of worm, which de
voured their grass, and which the blackbirds used to
feed on, increased prodigiously ; then, finding their
loss in grass much greater than their saving in corn,
they wished again for their blackbirds.
We had here some years since a Transylvanian
Tartar, who had travelled much in the East, and
came hither merely to see the West, intending to
go home through the Spanish West Indies, China,
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 293
&c. He asked me one day, what I thought might be
the reason that so many and such numerous nations,
as the Tartars in Europe and Asia, the Indians in
America, and the Negroes in Africa, continued a
wandering, careless life, and refused to live in cities,
and cultivate the arts they saw practised by the civil
ized parts of mankind ? While I was considering
what answer to make him he said, in his broken
English : " God make man for Paradise. He make
him for live lazy. Man make God angry. God turn
him out of Paradise, and bid workee. Man no love
workee ; he want to go to Paradise again ; he want
to live lazy. So all mankind love lazy." However
this may be, it seems certain that the hope of becom-\
ing at some time of life free from the necessity of ,_
care and labor, together with fear of penury, are the
main springs of most people s industry. To those,
indeed, who have been educated in elegant plenty,
even the provision made for the poor may appear
misery ; but to those who have scarce ever been
better provided for, such provision may seem quite
good and sufficient. These latter, then, have nothing
to fear worse than their present condition, and scarce
hope for any thing better than a parish maintenance.
So that there is only the difficulty of getting that
maintenance allowed while they are able to work, or
a little shame they suppose attending it, that can
induce them to work at all ; and what they do will
only be from hand to mouth.
The proneness of human nature to a life of ease,
of freedom from care and labor, appears strongly in
294 THE WORKS OF [1753
the little success that has hitherto attended every
attempt to civilize our American Indians. In their
present way of living, almost all their wants are
supplied by the spontaneous productions of nature,
with the addition of very little labor, if hunting and
fishing may indeed be called labor, where game is so
plenty. They visit us frequently, and see the advan
tages that arts, sciences, and compact societies pro
cure us. They are not deficient in natural under
standing ; and yet they have never shown any
inclination to change their manner of life for ours, or
to learn any of our arts. When an Indian child has
been brought up among us, taught our language, and
habituated to our customs, yet if he goes to see
his relatives, and makes one Indian ramble with
them, there is no persuading him ever to return.
And that this is not natural to them merely as In
dians, but as men, is plain from this, that when white
persons, of either sex, have been taken prisoners
by the Indians, and lived awhile with them, though
ransomed by their friends, and treated with all im
aginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay
among the English, yet in a short time they become
disgusted with our manner of life, and the care
and pains that are necessary to support it, and take
the first opportunity of escaping again into the woods,
from whence there is no redeeming them. One in
stance I remember to have heard, where the person
was brought home to possess a good estate ; but,
finding some care necessary to keep it together, he
relinquished it to a younger brother, reserving to
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 295
himself nothing but a gun and a match-coat, with
which he took his way again into the wilderness.
So that I am apt to imagine that close societies,
subsisting by labor and art, arose first not from
choice but from necessity, when numbers being driven
by war from their hunting grounds, and prevented by
seas, or by other nations, from obtaining other hunt
ing grounds, were crowded together into some narrow
territories, which without labor could not afford them
food. However, as matters now stand with us, care
and industry seem absolutely necessary to our well-
being. They should therefore have every encourage
ment we can invent, and not one motive to diligence
be subtracted ; and the support of the poor should
not be by maintaining them in idleness, but by em
ploying them in some kind of labor suited to their
abilities of body, as I am informed begins to be of late
the practice in many parts of England, where work
houses are erected for that purpose. If these were
general, I should think the poor would be more care
ful, and work voluntarily to lay up something for them
selves against a rainy day, rather than run the risk of
being obliged to work at the pleasure of others for a
bare subsistence, and that too under confinement.
The little value Indians set on what we prize so
highly, under the name of learning, appears from a
pleasant passage that happened some years since, at
a treaty between some colonies and the Six Nations.
When every thing had been settled to the satisfaction
of both sides, and nothing remained but a mutual
exchange of civilities, the English Commissioners told
296 THE WORKS OF [1753
the Indians that they had in their country a college
for the instruction of youth, who were there taught
various languages, arts, and sciences ; that there was
a particular foundation in favor of the Indians to
defray the expense of the education of any of their
sons who should desire to take the benefit of it ; and
said, if the Indians would accept the offer, the Eng
lish would take half a dozen of their brightest lads,
and bring them up in the best manner. The Indians,
after consulting on the proposals, replied, that it was
remembered that some of their youths had formerly
been educated at that college, but that it had been ob
served that for a long time after they returned to their
friends they were absolutely good for nothing ; being
neither acquainted with the true method of killing
deer, catching beavers, or surprising an enemy. The
proposition they looked on, however, as a mark of
kindness and good will of the English to the Indian na
tions, which merited a grateful return ; and therefore,
if the English gentlemen would send a dozen or two of
their children to Onondaga, the Great Council would
take care of their education, bring them up in what
was really the best manner, and make men of them.
I am perfectly of your mind, that measures of great
temper are necessary with the Germans ; and am not
without apprehensions, that, through their indis
cretion, or ours, or both, great disorders may one
day arise among us. Those who come hither are
generally the most stupid of their own nation, and, as
ignorance is often attended with credulity when
knavery would mislead it, and with suspicion when
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 297
honesty would set it right ; and as few of the
English understand the German language, and so can
not address them either from the press or the pulpit,
it is almost impossible to remove any prejudices they
may entertain. Their clergy have very little influence
on the people, who seem to take a pleasure in abusing
and discharging the minister on every trivial occa
sion. Not being used to liberty, they know not how
to make a modest use of it. And as Kolben says of
the young Hottentots, that they are not esteemed
men until they have shown their manhood by beating
their mothers, so these seem not to think themselves
free, till they can feel their liberty in abusing and
insulting their teachers. Thus they are under no
restraint from ecclesiastical government ; they be
have, however, submissively enough at present to the
civil government, which I wish they may continue to
do, for I remember when they modestly declined
intermeddling in our elections, but now they come in
droves and carry all before them, except in one
or two counties.
Few of their children in the country know English.
They import many books from Germany ; and of the
six printing-houses in the province, two are entirely
German, two half German half English, and but two
entirely English. They have one German newspaper,
and one half-German. Advertisements, intended to
be general, are now printed in Dutch and English.
The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both
languages, and in some places only German. They
begin of late to make all their bonds and other legal
298 THE WORKS OF [1753
instruments in their own language, which (though I
think it ought not to be) are allowed good in our
courts, where the German business so increases that
there is continued need of interpreters ; and I sup
pose in a few years they will also be necessary in
the Assembly, to tell one half of our legislators what
the other half say.
In short, unless the stream of their importation
could be turned from this to other colonies, as you
very judiciously propose, they will soon so outnumber
us that all the advantages we have will, in my
opinion, be not able to preserve our language, and
even our government will become precarious. The
French, who watch all advantages, are now them
selves making a German settlement, back of us,
in the Illinois country, and by means of these
Germans they may in time come to an understanding
with ours ; and, indeed, in the last war, our Germans
showed a general disposition, that seemed to bode us
no good. For, when the English, who were not
Quakers, alarmed by the danger arising from the de
fenceless state of our country, entered unanimously
into an association, and within this government and
the Lower Counties raised, armed, and disciplined
near ten thousand men, the Germans, except a very
few in proportion to their number, refused to engage
in it, giving out, one amongst another, and even
in print, that, if they were quiet, the French, should
they take the country, would not molest them ; at the
same time abusing the Philadelphians for fitting out
privateers against the enemy, and representing the
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 299
trouble, hazard, and expense of defending the
province, as a greater inconvenience than any that
might be expected from a change of government.
Yet I am not for refusing to admit them entirely into
our colonies. All that seems to me necessary is, to
distribute them more equally, mix them with the
English, establish English schools where they are
now too thick settled, and take some care to prevent
the practice, lately fallen into by some of the ship
owners, of sweeping the German gaols to make
up the number of their passengers. I say I am not
against the admission of Germans in general, for they
have their virtues. Their industry and frugality are
exemplary. They are excellent husbandmen, and con
tribute greatly to the improvement of a country.
I pray God to preserve long to Great Britain the
English laws, manners, liberties, and religion. Not
withstanding the complaints so frequent in your
public papers, of the prevailing corruption and degen
eracy of the people, I know you have a great deal of
virtue still subsisting among you ; and I hope the
constitution is not so near a dissolution as some seem
to apprehend. I do not think you are generally be
come such slaves to your vices, as to draw down the
justice Milton speaks of, when he says, that T
1 This letter was first printed in the jectures that the words of Milton,
Gentleman s Magazine for January, alluded to by the writer are the fol-
1834, as contained in the Diary of lowing :
Mr. Thomas Green. The person who
communicated it to the *. says ISF^&SfllttSlZ
the original manuscript, from which wrong
he transcribed the letter, ends thus But justice, and some fatal curse annex d,
abruptly, and that the remainder ^Sl^S^ust ^ ^
could not be recovered. He con- Paradise Lost, xii., 97.
3 oo THE WORKS OF [1753
CII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
THE SEA AND LIGHTNING.
PHILADELPHIA, September, 1753.
SIR : In my former paper on this subject, written
first in 1747, enlarged and sent to England in 1749, I
considered the sea as the grand source of lightning,
imagining its luminous appearance to be owing to
electric fire, produced by friction between the par
ticles of water and those of salt.
Living far from the sea, I had then no opportu
nity of making experiments on the sea water, and
so embraced this opinion too hastily. For, in
1750 and 1751, being occasionally on the seacoast,
I found, by experiments, that sea water in a bottle,
though at first it would by agitation appear lumi
nous, yet in a few hours it lost that virtue ; hence
and from this, that I could not by agitating a solution
of sea salt in water produce any light, I first began to
doubt of my former hypothesis, and to suspect that
the luminous appearance in sea water must be owing
to some other principles.
I then considered whether it were not possible that
the particles of air, being electrics per se, might, in
hard gales of wind, by their friction against trees,
hills, buildings, &c., as so many minute electric globes,
rubbing against non-electric cushions, draw the elec
tric fire from the earth, and that the rising vapors
might receive that power from the air, and by such
means the clouds become electrified.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 301
If this were so, I imagined that by forcing a con
stant violent stream of air against my prime conduc
tor, by bellows, I should electrify it negatively ; the
rubbing particles of air drawing from it part of its
natural quantity of the electric fluid. I accordingly
made the experiment, but it did not succeed.
In September, 1752, I erected an iron rod to draw
the lightning down into my house, in order to make
some experiments on it, with two bells to give notice
when the rod should be electrified ; a contrivance
obvious to every electrician.
I found the bells rang sometimes when there was
no lightning or thunder, but only a dark cloud over
the rod ; that sometimes, after a flash of lightning,
they would suddenly stop ; and, at other times, when
they had not rung before, they would, after a flash,
suddenly begin to ring ; that the electricity was
sometimes very faint, so that, when a small spark
was obtained, another could not be got for some time
after ; at other times the sparks would follow ex
tremely quick, and once I had a continual stream
from bell to bell, the size of a crow-quill ; even during
the same gust there were considerable variations.
In the winter following I conceived an experiment,
to try whether the clouds were electrified positively or
negatively ; but my pointed rod, with its apparatus,
becoming out of order, I did not refit it till towards
the spring, when I expected the warm weather would
bring on more frequent thunder-clouds.
The experiment was this : to take two phials ; charge
one of them with lightning from the iron rod, and
302 THE WORKS OF [1753
give the other an equal charge by the electric glass
globe, through the prime conductor ; when charged,
to place them on a table within three or four inches
of each other, a small cork ball being suspended by a
fine silk thread from the ceiling so as it might play
between the wires. If both bottles then were electri
fied positively, the ball, being attracted and repelled
by one, must be also repelled by the other. If the
one positively, and the other negatively, then the ball
would be attracted and repelled alternately by each,
and continue to play between them as long as any
considerable charge remained.
Being very intent on making this experiment, it
was no small mortification to me that I happened to
be abroad during two of the greatest thunder-storms
we had early in the spring ; and though I had given
orders in the family that if the bells rang when I was
from home they should catch some of the lightning
for me in electrical phials, and they did so, yet it was
mostly dissipated before my return ; and in some of
the other gusts, the quantity of lightning I was able
to obtain was so small, and the charge so weak,
that I could not satisfy myself ; yet I sometimes
saw what heightened my suspicions and inflamed my
curiosity.
At last, on the I2th of April, 1753, there being a
smart gust of some continuance, I charged one phial
pretty well with lightning, and the other equally, as
near as I could judge, with electricity from my glass
globe ; and, having placed them properly, I beheld,
with great surprise and pleasure, the cork ball play
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 303
briskly between them, and was convinced that one
bottle was electrized negatively.
I repeated this experiment several times during the
gust, and in eight succeeding gusts, always with the
same success ; and being of opinion (for reasons I for
merly gave in my letter to Mr. Kinnersley, since
printed in London), that the glass globe electrizes
positively, I concluded that the clouds are always
electrized negatively, or have always in them less
than their natural quantity of the electric fluid.
Yet, notwithstanding so many experiments, it
seems I concluded too soon ; for at last, June the
6th, in a gust which continued from five o clock P.M.,
to seven, I met with one cloud that was electrized
positively, though several that passed over my rod
before, during the same gust, were in the negative
state. This was thus discovered.
I had another concurring experiment, which I often
repeated, to prove the negative state of the clouds,
viz., while the bells were ringing, I took the phial,
charged from the glass globe, and applied its wire to
the erected rod, considering that if the clouds were
electrized positively, the rod, which received its elec
tricity from them, must be so too ; and then the addi
tional positive electricity of the phial would make the
bells ring faster ; but if the clouds were in a negative
state, they must exhaust the electric fluid from my
rod, and bring that into the same negative state with
themselves, and then the wire of a positively charged
phial, supplying the rod with what it wanted (which
it was obliged otherwise to draw from the earth by
304 THE WORKS OF [1753
means of the pendulous brass ball playing between
the two bells), the ringing would cease till the bottle
was discharged.
In this manner I quite discharged into the rod
several phials, that were charged from the glass
globe, the electric fluid streaming from the wire to
the rod, till the wire would receive no spark from the
finger ; and during this supply to the rod from the
phial, the bells stopped ringing ; but by continuing the
application of the phial wire to the rod, I exhausted
the natural quantity from the inside surface of the same
phials, or, as I call it, charged them negatively.
At length, while I was charging a phial by my
glass globe, to repeat the experiment, my bells of
themselves stopped ringing, and, after some pause,
began to ring again. But now, when I approached
the wire of the charged phial to the rod, instead of
the usual stream that I expected from the wire to
the rod, there was no spark not even when I
brought the wire and the rod to touch ; yet the bells
continued ringing vigorously, which proved to me
that the rod was then positively electrified, as well as
the wire of the phial, and equally so ; and, conse
quently, that the particular cloud then over the rod
was in the same positive state. This was near the
end of the gust.
But this was a single experiment, which, however,
destroys my first too general conclusion, and reduces
me to this : That the clouds of a thunder-gust are
most commonly in a negative state of electricity, but
sometimes in a positive state.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 305
The latter I believe is rare ; for, though I, soon
after the last experiment, set out on a journey to
Boston, and was from home most part of the sum
mer, which prevented my making further trials and
observations, yet Mr. Kinnersley, returning from the
Islands just as I left home, pursued the experiments
during my absence, and informs me that he always
found the clouds in the negative state.
So that, for the most, part in thunder-strokes, it is
the earth that strikes into the clouds, and not the cloitds
that strike into the earth.
Those who are versed in electric experiments will
easily conceive that the effects and appearances must
be nearly the same in either case : the same explosion
and the same flash between one cloud and another,
and between the clouds and mountains, &c. ; the same
rending of trees, walls, &c., which the electric fluid
meets with in its passage ; and the same fatal shock to
animal bodies ; and that pointed rods fixed on build
ings or masts of ships, and communicating with the
earth or sea, must be of the same service in restoring
the equilibrium silently between the earth and clouds,
or in conducting a flash or stroke, if one should be, so
as to save harmless the house or vessel ; for points
have equal power to throw off, as to draw on, the
electric fire, and rods will conduct up as well as
down.
But though the light gained from these experi
ments makes no alteration in the practice, it makes a
considerable one in the theory. And now we as
much need an hypothesis to explain by what means
306 THE WORKS OF [1753
the clouds become negatively, as before to show how
they became positively, electrified.
I cannot forbear venturing some few conjectures on
this occasion ; they are what occur to me at present,
and though future discoveries should prove them not
wholly right, yet they may in the meantime be of
some use, by stirring up the curious to make more
experiments, and occasion more exact disquisitions.
I conceive, then, that this globe of earth and water,
with its plants, animals, and buildings, have, diffused
throughout their substance, a quantity of the electric
fluid, just as much as they can contain, which I call
the natural quantity.
That this natural quantity is not the same in all kinds
of common matter under the same dimensions, nor in
the same kind of common matter in all circumstances ;
but a solid foot, for instance, of one kind of common
matter may contain more of the electric fluid than a
solid foot of some other kind of common matter ; and
a pound weight of the same kind of common matter
may, when in a rarer state, contain more of the
electric fluid than when in a denser state.
For the electric fluid being attracted by any portion
of common matter, the parts of that fluid (which have
among themselves a mutual repulsion) are brought so
near to each other, by the attraction of the common
matter that absorbs them, as that their repulsion is
equal to the condensing power of attraction in com
mon matter ; and then such portion of common matter
will absorb no more.
Bodies of different kinds, having thus attracted and
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 307
absorbed what I call their natural quantity, that is,
just as much of the electric fluid as is suited to their
circumstances of density, rarity, and power of attract
ing, do not then show any signs of electricity among
each other.
And if more electric fluid be added to one of these
bodies, it does not enter, but spreads on the surface,
forming an atmosphere; and then such body shows
signs of electricity.
I have, in a former paper, compared common matter
to a sponge, and the electric fluid to water ; I beg
leave once more to make use of the same comparison,
to illustrate farther my meaning in this particular.
When a sponge is somewhat condensed by being
squeezed between the fingers, it will not receive and
retain so much water as when in its more loose and
open state.
If more squeezed and condensed, some of the water
will come out of its inner parts, and flow on the
surface.
If the pressure of the fingers be entirely removed,
the sponge will not only resume what was lately
forced out, but attract an additional quantity.
As the sponge in its rarer state will naturally at
tract and absorb more water, and in its denser state
will naturally attract and absorb less water, we may
call the quantity it attracts and absorbs in either state
its natural quantity, the state being considered.
Now what the sponge is to water, the same is
water to the electric fluid.
When a portion of water is in its common dense
308 THE WORKS OF [1753
state, it can hold no more electric fluid than it has ;
if any be added, it spreads on the surface.
When the same portion of water is rarefied into
vapor, and forms a cloud, it is then capable of receiv
ing and absorbing a much greater quantity ; there is
room for each particle to have an electric atmosphere.
Thus water, in its rarefied state, or in the form of
a cloud, will be in a negative state of electricity ; it
will have less than its natural quantity that is, less
than it is naturally capable of attracting and absorb
ing in that state.
Such a cloud, then, coming so near the earth as to
be within the striking distance, will receive from the
earth a flash of the electric fluid, which flash, to sup
ply a great extent of cloud, must sometimes contain
a very great quantity of that fluid.
Or such a cloud, passing over woods of tall trees,
may, from the points and sharp edges of their moist
top leaves, receive silently some supply.
A cloud, being by any means supplied from the
earth, may strike into other clouds that have not
been supplied, or not so much supplied ; and those to
others, till an equilibrium is produced among all the
clouds that are within striking distance of each other.
The cloud thus supplied, having parted with much
of what it first received, may require and receive a
fresh supply from the earth, or from some other
cloud which by the wind is brought into such a situa
tion as to receive it more readily from the earth.
Hence repeated and continual strokes and flashes,
till the clouds have all got nearly their natural quan-
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 309
tity as clouds, or till they have descended in showers,
and are united again with this terraqueous globe,
their original.
Thus thunder-clouds are generally in a negative
state of electricity compared with the earth, agreeable
to most of our experiments ; yet, as by one experi
ment we found a cloud electrized positively, I con
jecture that in that case such cloud, after having
received what was, in its rare state, only its natural
quantity, became compressed by the driving winds, or
some other means, so that part of what it had absorbed
was forced out, and formed an electric atmosphere
around it in its denser state. Hence it was capable of
communicating positive electricity to my rod.
To show that a body in different circumstances of
dilatation and contraction is capable of receiving and
retaining more or less of the electric fluid on its surface,
I would relate the following experiment : I placed a
clean wine-glass on the floor, and on it a small silver
can. In the can I put about three yards of brass chain ;
to one end of which I fastened a silk thread, which
went right up to the ceiling, where it passed over a
pulley, and came down again to my hand, that I
might at pleasure draw the chain up out of the can,
extending it till within a foot of the ceiling, and let it
gradually sink into the can again. From the ceiling,
by another thread of fine raw silk, I suspended a
small light lock of cotton, so as that when it hung
perpendicularly it came in contact with the side of the
can. Then, approaching the wire of a charged phial
to the can, I gave it a spark which flowed round in an
3 io THE WORKS OF [1753
electric atmosphere ; and the lock of cotton was re
pelled from the side of the can to the distance of
about nine or ten inches. The can would not then
receive another spark from the wire of the phial ; but
as I gradually drew up the chain, the atmosphere of
the can diminished by flowing over the rising chain,
and the lock of cotton accordingly drew nearer and
nearer to the can ; and then, if I again brought the
phial wire near the can, it would receive another
spark, and the cotton fly off again to its first distance ;
and thus, as the chain was drawn higher, the can
would receive more sparks ; because the can and ex
tended chain were capable of supporting a greater
atmosphere than the can with the chain gathered up
into its belly. And that the atmosphere round the
can was diminished by raising the chain, and increased
again by lowering, is not only agreeable to reason,
since the atmosphere of the chain must be drawn
from that of the can, when it rose, and returned to it
again when it fell ; but was also evident to the eye,
the lock of cotton always approaching the can when
the chain was drawn up, and receding when it was let
down again.
Thus we see that increase of surface makes a body
capable of receiving a greater electric atmosphere ;
but this experiment does not, I own, fully demon
strate my new hypothesis ; for the brass and silver
still continue in their solid state, and are not rarefied
into vapor, as the water is in clouds. Perhaps some
future experiments on vaporized water may set this
matter in a clearer light.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 311
One seemingly material objection arises to the new
hypothesis, and it is this : if water in its rarefied state,
as a cloud, requires and will absorb more of the elec
tric fluid than when in its dense state as water, why
does it not acquire from the earth all its wants at the
instant of its leaving the surface, while it is yet near,
and but just rising in vapor? To this difficulty I own
I cannot at present give a solution satisfactory to my
self. I thought, however, that I ought to state it in
its full force, as I have done, and submit the whole to
examination.
And I would beg leave to recommend it to the cu
rious in this branch of natural philosophy, to repeat
with care and accurate observation, the experiments
I have reported in this and former papers relating to
positive and negative electricity, with such other rela
tive ones as shall occur to them, that it may be cer
tainly known whether the electricity communicated
by a glass globe be really positive. And also I would
request all who may have the opportunity of observ
ing the recent effects of lightning on buildings, trees,
&c., that they would consider them particularly with
a view to discover the direction. But in these exam
inations this one thing is always to be understood,
viz., that a stream of the electric fluid passing through
wood, brick, metal, &c., while such fluid passes in
small quantity, the mutually repulsive power of its
parts is confined and overcome by the cohesion of
the parts of the body it passes through, so as to pre
vent an explosion ; but when the fluid comes in a
quantity too great to be confined by such cohesion,
312 THE WORKS OF [1753
it explodes, and rends or fuses the body that endeav
oured to confine it. If it be wood, brick, stone, or
the like, the splinters will fly off on that side where
there is least resistance. And thus, when a hole is
struck through pasteboard by the electrified jar, if
the surfaces of the pasteboard are not confined or
compressed, there will be a bur raised all round the
hole on both sides the pasteboard ; but if one side
be confined, so that the bur cannot be raised on
that side, it will be all raised on the other, which way
soever the fluid was directed. For the bur round the
outside of the hole is the effect of the explosion every
way from the centre of the stream, and not an effect
of the direction.
In every stroke of lightning, I am of opinion that
the stream of the electric fluid, moving to restore the
equilibrium between the cloud and the earth, does
always previously find its passage, and mark out, as
I may say, its own course, taking in its way all the
conductors it can find, such as metals, damp walls,
moist wood, &c., and will go considerably out of a
direct course for the sake of the assistance of good
conductors ; and that, in this course, it is actually
moving, though silently and imperceptibly, before
the explosion, in and among the conductors ; which
explosion happens only when the conductors cannot
discharge it as fast as they receive it, by reason of
their being incomplete, disunited, too small, or not of
the best materials for conducting. Metalline rods,
therefore, of sufficient thickness, and extending from
the highest part of an edifice to the ground, being of
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 313
the best materials and complete conductors, will, I
think, secure the building from damage, either by re
storing the equilibrium so fast as to prevent a stroke,
or by conducting it in the substance of the rod as far
as the rod goes, so that there shall be no explosion
but what is above its point, between that and the
clouds.
If it be asked, What thickness of a metalline rod
may be supposed sufficient ? in answer, I would re
mark that five large glass jars, such as I have de
scribed in my former papers, discharge a very great
quantity of electricity, which, nevertheless, will be all
conducted round the corner of a book, by the fine fil
leting of gold on the cover, it following the gold the
farthest way about rather than take the. shorter course
through the cover, that not being so good a conduc
tor. Now, in this line of gold, the metal is so ex
tremely thin as to be little more than the color of
gold, and on an octavo book is not in the whole an
inch square, and, therefore, not the thirty-sixth part
of a grain, according to M. Reaumur ; yet it is suffi
cient to conduct the charge of five large jars, and how
many more I know not. Now, I suppose a wire of
a quarter of an inch diameter, to contain about five
thousand times as much metal as there is in that gold
line ; and, if so, it will conduct the charge of twenty-
five thousand such glass jars, which is a quantity, I
imagine, far beyond what was ever contained in any
one stroke of natural lightning. But a rod of half an
inch diameter would conduct four times as much as
one of a quarter.
3 i4 THE WORKS OF [1753
And with regard to conducting, though a certain
thickness of metal be required to conduct a great
quantity of electricity, and at the same time keep its
own substance firm and unseparated, and a less quan
tity, as a very small wire, for instance, will be de
stroyed by the explosion ; yet such small wire will
have answered the end of conducting that stroke,
though it become incapable of conducting another.
And, considering the extreme rapidity with which the
electric fluid moves without exploding, when it has a
free passage, or complete metal communication, I
should think a vast quantity would be conducted in a
short time, either to or from a cloud, to restore its
equilibrium with the earth, by means of a very small
wire, and, therefore, thick rods should seem not so
necessary. However, as the quantity of lightning
discharged in one stroke cannot well be measured,
and in different strokes is certainly very various, in
some much greater than in others ; and as iron (the
best metal for the purpose, being least apt to fuse) is
cheap, it may be well enough to provide a larger
canal to guide that impetuous blast than we imagine
necessary ; for, though one middling wire may be
sufficient, two or three can do no harm. And time,
with careful observations well compared, will at length
point out the proper size to greater certainty.
Pointed rods erected on edifices may likewise often
prevent a stroke in the following manner : An eye so
situated as to view horizontally the under side of a
thunder-cloud, will see it very ragged, with a number
of separate fragments, or petty clouds, one under
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 315
another, the lowest sometimes not far from the earth.
These, as so many stepping-stones, assist in conduct
ing a stroke between the cloud and a building. To
represent these by an experiment, take two or three
locks of fine, loose cotton ; connect one of them with
the prime conductor by a fine thread of two inches
(which may be spun out of the same lock by the fin
gers), another to that, and the third to the second, by
like threads. Turn the globe, and you will see these
locks extend themselves towards the table (as the
lower small clouds do towards the earth), being at
tracted by it ; but on presenting a sharp point erect
under the lowest, it will shrink up to the second, the
second to the first, and all together to the prime con
ductor, where they will continue as long as the point
continues under them. May not, in like manner, the
small electrized clouds, whose equilibrium with the
earth is soon restored by the point, rise up to the
main body, and by that means occasion so large a
vacancy as that the grand cloud cannot strike in that
place ?
These thoughts, my dear friend, are many of them
crude and hasty ; and if I were merely ambitious of
acquiring some reputation in philosophy, I ought to
keep them by me till corrected and improved by time
and farther experience. But since even short hints
and imperfect experiments in any new branch of
science, being communicated, have oftentimes a good
effect in exciting the attention of the ingenious to the
subject, and so become the occasion of more exact
disquisition and more complete discoveries, you are
316 THE WORKS OF [1753
at liberty to communicate this paper to whom you
please ; it being of more importance that knowledge
should increase than that your friend should be
thought an accurate philosopher.
B. FRANKLIN.
cm.
TO JAMES BOWDOIN.
PHILADELPHIA, 18 October, 1753.
DEAR SIR : I recollect that I promised to send
you Dr. Brownrigg s Treatise on Common Salt. You
will receive it herewith. I hope it may be of use in
the affair of your fishery. Please to communicate
it to Captain Erwin, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Boutineau, or
any other of your friends who may be desirous of
seeing it.
Since my return from Boston, I have been to our
western frontiers on a treaty with the Ohio Indians.
They complained much of the abuses they suffer
from our traders, and earnestly requested us to put
the trade under some regulation. If you can procure
and send me your truckhouse law, and a particular
account of the manner of executing it, with its conse
quences, &c., so that we may have the benefit of your
experience, you will much oblige me ; and if you
have found it a useful law, I am in hopes we shall be
induced to follow your good example. 1
1 Mr. Bowdoin replied as follows, ernment to erect truckhouses for them ;
in a letter dated at Boston, November where they have since been supplied
1 2th : " Our Indians formerly (as with the goods they wanted in a much
yours now) made great complaints better manner both in regard of the
of the abuses they suffered from pri- quality and price of them, and with
vate traders, which induced the gov- more certainty than the private traders
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 317
My compliments to Mrs. Bowdoin and all inquiring
friends. With much respect and esteem, I am, dear
Sir, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
CIV.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 25 October, 1753.
SIR : This last summer I have enjoyed very little
of the pleasure of reading or writing. I made a long
journey to the eastward, which consumed ten weeks,
and two journeys to our western frontier ; one of
them, to meet and hold a treaty with the Ohio
Indians, in company with Mr. Peters and Mr. Norris. 1
I shall send you a copy of that treaty as soon as it is
published. I should be glad to know whether the
Act, mentioned in y our History of the Five Nations,
could. The government used to put a natural tendency to beget and con-
an advance on the goods supplied, firm a mutual and lasting friendship,
but now they let the Indians have Another good effect of this method is,
them in the small quantities they want that it prevents the Indians from
at the same rate they are purchased being concerned with private traders ;
here in the wholesale way, and allow for not being able to supply them at
them for their peltry what it sells for so low a rate as the government, the
here ; and, notwithstanding, they are Indians will not trade with them, and
frequently complaining about the it is therefore a more effectual bar
prices of the exchanged commodi- against private trade than all the laws
ties, and say that the French supply that can be invented,
them at a cheaper rate, and allow them "Our truckhouses are built in form
more for their skins than we do ; but of a square, each side one hundred
some allowance is to be made for this and fifty feet or more, at each corner
account of theirs. a flanker, in which is a couple of
" The best method we can go into, cannon ; three sides of the square
is to supply them with what they want are built upon to accommodate the
at the cheapest rate possible, which garrison and for storehouses, the
will not only undermine the French whole being surrounded with pali-
trade with them, but in proportion sades."
thereto bring them into our interest l This treaty, or rather conference,
and friendship against the French ; was held at Carlisle, in Pennsylvania,
for trade and commerce between with deputies from several tribes of
nation and nation, especially when western Indians. See Sparks "Life
carried on to mutual advantage, have of Washington," 2d edition, p. 25.
3i8 THE WORKS OF [1753
to prevent the people of New York from supplying
the French with Indian goods, still subsists, and is
duly executed. 1
I left your book with Mr. Bowdoin, in Boston. I
hope you will hear from him this winter. I observed
extracts from it in all the Magazines, and in the
Monthly Review, but I see no observations on it. I
send you herewith Nollet s book. M. Dalibard writes
me that he is just about to publish an answer to it,
which, perhaps, may save me the trouble.
I hope soon to find time to finish my new Hy
pothesis of Thunder and Lightning, which I shall im
mediately communicate to you. I sent you, by our
friend Bartram, some meteorological conjectures for
your amusement. When perused, please to return
them, as I have no copy. With sincere esteem and
respect, I am, dear Sir, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
CV.
TO THOMAS CLAP. 2
PHILADELPHIA, 8 November, 1753.
DEAR SIR : The first intimation I find of the new
air-pump is in a piece of Mr. Watson s read to the
1 To this inquiry Mr. Golden re- there were at least two hundred of
plied, November igth : " We have them, stout young fellows, at one time
at present no law in this province for in the town. The Indians have pass-
restraining the trade to Canada, ex- ports from the governor of Canada,
cept that by which a duty is laid on and I therefore conclude that this
Indian goods sold out of the city of trade is thought beneficial to the
Albany and applied for support of the French interest, and it may be a great
garrison at Oswego. It is certain that inducement to our Indians to desert,
a very considerable trade is carried on by the benefit they receive from it ;
between Albany and Canada by means for none are allowed to be the carriers
of the Caghnawaga or French Indians, between Albany and Canada but
all of them deserters from the Five French Indians."
Nations. When I was last at Albany, 9 President of Yale College.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 319
Royal Society, February 2Oth, 1752, where, describ
ing some experiments he made in zwz^?, he says :
" The more complete the vacuum, cater is paribus, the
more considerable were the effects ; and here I should
not do justice to real merit were I silent in regard to
Mr. Smeaton. This gentleman, with a genius truly
mechanical, which enables him to give to such philo
sophical instruments as he executes a degree of per
fection scarce to be found elsewhere ; this gentleman,
I say, has constructed an air-pump by which we are
empowered to make Boyle s vacuum much more per
fect than heretofore. By a well conducted experiment,
which admits of no doubt as to its truth, I have seen
by this pump the air rarefied to one thousand times
its natural state ; whereas, commonly, we seldom
arrive at above one hundred and fifty. As the pro
motion of the mechanic arts is a considerable object
of our excellent institution, if this gentleman could be
prevailed upon to communicate to the Royal Society
that particular construction of his air-pump which en
ables it to execute so much more than those commonly
in use, it would not fail to be an acceptable present."
So far Mr. Watson. In April following, was read
a letter from Mr. Smeaton, in which he describes his
improvement, and gives a draft of his pump ; the
whole too long to transcribe ; but it appears to me
that the machine, being rather simplified than made
more complex, can scarce cost more than one of the
old sort, though the price is not mentioned. By only
turning a cock it is at pleasure made a condensing
engine ; an advantage the others have not.
320 THE WORKS OF [1753
I have seen nothing of your searchers. Mr. Parker
has received Bower, but writes me that he is at a loss
how to send it, and desires you would order some
body to call for it.
I shall send the dollars for Mr. Mix per next post ;
for I fancy you will not now buy this apparatus here,
but choose the new air-pump from England.
With my respects to all friends, I am, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CVI.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 23 November, 1753.
DEAR FRIEND : In my last, via Virginia, I prom
ised to send you per next ship, a small philosophical
packet ; but now, having got the materials (old letters
and rough drafts) before me, I fear you will find it a
great one. Nevertheless, as I am like to have a few
days leisure before this ship sails, which I may not
have again in a long time, I shall transcribe the whole
and send it ; for you will be under no necessity of read
ing it all at once, but may take it a little at a time, now
and then of a winter evening. When you happen to
have nothing else to do (if that ever happens), it may
afford you some amusement. B. FRANKLIN.
Proposal of an Experiment to measure the Time taken
up by an Electric Spark in moving through any
given Space. By James Alexander, of New York.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 26, 1756.
If I remember right, the Royal Society made one
experiment to discover the velocity of the electric
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 321
fire, by a wire of about four miles in length, supported
by silk, and by turning it forwards and backwards in
a field, so that the beginning and end of the wire were
at only the distance of two people, the one holding
the Leyden bottle and the beginning of the wire, and
the other holding the end of the wire and touching
the ring of the bottle ; but by this experiment no dis
covery was made, except that the velocity was ex
tremely quick.
As water is a conductor as well as metals, it is to
be considered, whether the velocity of the electric fire
might not be discovered by means of water ; whether
a river, or lake, or sea, may not be made part of the
circuit through which the electric fire passes, instead
of the circuit all of wire, as in the above experiment.
Whether in a river, lake, or sea, the electric fire
will not dissipate, and not return to the bottle ? or
will it proceed in straight lines through the water the
shortest course possible back to the bottle ?
If the last, then suppose one brook that falls into
Delaware doth head very near to a brook that falls
into Schuylkill ; and let a wire be stretched and sup
ported as before, from the head of one brook to the
head of the other ; and let the one end communicate
with the water ; and let one person stand in the other
brook, holding the Leyden bottle ; and let another
person hold that end of the wire not in the water,
and touch the ring of the bottle. If the electric
fire will go as in the last question, then will it go
down the one brook to Delaware or Schuylkill, and
down one of them to their meeting, and up the
other and the other brook ; the time of its doing
this may possibly be observable, and the farther
upwards the brooks are chosen, the more observable
it would be.
Should this be not observable, then suppose the
two brooks falling into Susquehanna and Delaware,
322 THE WORKS OF [1753
and proceeding as before, the electric fire may, by
that means, make a circuit round the North Cape of
Virginia, and go many hundreds of miles, and in
doing that, it would seem it must take some observa
ble time.
If still no observable time is found in that experi
ment, then suppose the brooks falling the one into
the Ohio and the other into Susquehanna or Potomac ;
in that the electric fire would have a circuit of some
thousands of miles to go down Ohio to Mississippi,
to the Bay of Mexico, round Florida, and round the
South Cape of Virginia ; which, I think, would give
some observable time, and discover exactly the
velocity.
But if the electric fire dissipates or weakens in the
water, as I fear it does, these experiments will not
answer.
Answer to the Foregoing.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER 26, 1756.
Suppose a tube of any length, open at both ends,
and containing a movable wire of just the same
length that fills its bore. If I attempt to introduce
the end of another wire into the same tube it must be
done by pushing forward the wire it already contains,
and the instant I press and move one end of that
wire, the other end is also moved ; and in introducing
one inch of the same wire, I extrude, at the same
time, an inch of the first from the other end of the
tube.
If the tube be filled with water, and I inject an ad
ditional inch of water at one end, I force out an equal
quantity at the other in the very same instant.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 323
And the water forced out at one end of the tube is
not the very same water that was forced in at the
other end at the same time ; it was only in motion at
the same time.
The long wire, made use of in the experiment to
discover the velocity of the electric fluid, is itself
filled with what we call its natural quantity of that
fluid, before the hook of the Leyden bottle is applied
to one end of it.
The outside of the bottle being, at the time of such
application, in contact with the other end of the wire,
the whole quantity of electric fluid contained in the
wire is, probably, put in motion at once.
For at the instant the hook connected with the in
side of the bottle gives out, the coating, or outside of
the bottle, draws in a portion of that fluid.
If such long wire contains precisely the quantity
that the outside of the bottle demands, the whole
will move out of the wire to the outside of the bottle,
and the over quantity which the inside of the bottle
contained, being exactly equal, will flow into the wire
and remain there in the place of the quantity the wire
had just parted with to the outside of the bottle.
But if the wire be so long as that one tenth (sup
pose) of its natural quantity is sufficient to supply
what the outside of the bottle demands, in such case
the outside will only receive what is contained in one
tenth of the wire s length, from the end next to it ;
though the whole will move so as to make room at
the other end for an equal quantity issuing, at the
same time, from the inside of the bottle.
3 2 4 THE WORKS OF [1753
So that this experiment only shows the extreme
facility with which the electric fluid moves in metal ;
it can never determine the velocity.
And, therefore, the proposed experiment (though
well imagined and very ingenious) of sending the
spark round through a vast length of space, by the
waters of Susquehanna, or Potomac, and Ohio, would
not afford the satisfaction desired, though we could
be sure that the motion of the electric fluid would be
in that tract, and not under ground in the wet earth
by the shortest way. B. FRANKLIN.
Physical and Meteorological Observations, Conjectures,
and Suppositions.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, JUNE 3, 1756.
The particles of air are kept at a distance from
each other by their mutual repulsion.
Every three particles, mutually and equally repell
ing each other, must form an equilateral triangle.
All the particles of air gravitate towards the earth,
which gravitation compresses them, and shortens the
sides of the triangles ; otherwise their mutual repel-
lency would force them to greater distances from each
other.
Whatever particles of other matter (not endued
with that repellency) are supported in air must ad
here to the particles of air, and be supported by
them ; for in the vacancies there is nothing they can
rest on.
Air and water mutually attract each other. Hence
water will dissolve in air, as salt in water.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 325
The specific gravity of matter is not altered by di
viding the matter, though the superficies be in
creased. Sixteen leaden bullets, of an ounce each,
weigh as much in water as one of a pound, whose
superficies is less.
Therefore the supporting of salt in water is not
owing to its superficies being increased.
A lump of salt, though laid at rest at the bottom of
a vessel of water, will dissolve therein, and its parts
move every way, till equally diffused in the water ;
therefore there is a mutual attraction between water
and salt. Every particle of water assumes as many
of salt as can adhere to it ; when more is added, it
precipitates, and will not remain suspended.
Water, in the same manner, will dissolve in air,
every particle of air assuming one or more particles
of water. When too much is added, it precipitates
in rain.
But there not being the same contiguity between
the particles of air as of water, the solution of water
in air is not carried on without a motion of the air,
so as to cause a fresh accession of dry particles.
Part of a fluid, having more of what it dissolves,
will communicate to other parts that have less. Thus,
very salt water, coming in contact with fresh, com
municates its saltness till all is equal, and the sooner,
if there is a little motion of the water.
Even earth will dissolve or mix with air. A stroke
of a horse s hoof on the ground in a hot, dusty road
will raise a cloud of dust that shall, if there be a light
breeze, expand every way, till, perhaps, near as big as
326 THE WORKS OF [1753
a common house. It is not by mechanical motion
communicated to the particles of dust by the hoof
that they fly so far, nor by the wind that they spread
so wide ; but the air near the ground, more heated by
the hot dust struck into it, is rarefied and rises, and
in rising mixes with the cooler air, and communicates
of its dusc to it, and it is at length so diffused as to
become invisible. Quantities of dust are thus carried
up in dry seasons ; showers wash it from the air, and
bring it down again. For, water attracting it stronger,
it quits the air and adheres to the water.
Air, suffering continual changes in the degrees of
its heat from various causes and circumstances, and,
consequently, changes in its specific gravity, must
therefore be in continual motion.
A small quantity of fire mixed with water (or de
gree of heat therein) so weakens the cohesion of its
particles that those on the surface easily quit it, and
adhere to the particles of air.
A greater degree of heat is required to break the
cohesion between water and air.
Air moderately heated will support a greater quan
tity of water invisibly than cold air ; for its particles
being by heat repelled to a greater distance from each
other, thereby more easily keep the particles of water
that are annexed to them from running into cohesions
that would obstruct, refract, or reflect the light.
Hence, when we breathe in warm air, though the
same quantity of moisture may be taken up from the
lungs, as when we breathe in cold air, yet that moist
ure is not so visible.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 327
Water being extremely heated, that is, to the de
gree of boiling, its particles in quitting it so repel each
other, as to take up vastly more space than before,
and by that repellency support themselves, expelling
the air from the space they occupy. That degree of
heat being lessened, they again mutually attract ; and
having no air particles mixed to adhere to, by which
they might be supported and kept at a distance, they
instantly fall, coalesce, and become water again.
The water commonly diffused in our atmosphere
never receives such a degree of heat from the sun, or
other cause, as water has when boiling ; it is not
therefore supported by such heat, but by adhering to
air.
Water being dissolved in and adhering to air, that
air will not readily take up oil, because of the mutual
repellency between water and oil.
Hence cold oils evaporate but slowly, the air hav
ing generally a quantity of dissolved water.
Oil being heated extremely, the air that approaches
its surface will be also heated extremely ; the water
then quitting it, it will attract and carry off oil, which
can now adhere to it. Hence the quick evaporation
of oil heated to a great degree.
Oil being dissolved in air, the particles to which it
adheres will not take up water.
Hence the suffocating nature of air impregnated
with burnt grease, as from snuffs of candles and the
like. A certain quantity of moisture should be every
moment discharged and taken away from the lungs ;
air that has been frequently breathed is already over-
328 THE WORKS OF [1753
loaded, and for that reason can take no more, so will
not answer the end. Greasy air refuses to touch it.
In both cases suffocation for want of the discharge.
Air will attract and support many other substances.
A particle of air loaded with adhering water, or
any other matter, is heavier than before, and would
descend.
The atmosphere supposed at rest, a loaded de
scending particle must act with a force on the par
ticles it passes between, or meets with, sufficient to
overcome, in some degree, their mutual repellency,
and push them nearer to each other.
A Thus, supposing the particles^,
O O O B, C, D, and the other near them, to
F B c G be at the distance caused by their
O O O O mutual repellency (confined by their
common gravity), if A would de-
O O O scend to E, it must pass between
D B and C ; when it comes between
O O O O B and C, it will be nearer to them
E than before, and must either have
pushed them nearer to F and G, contrary to their
mutual repellency, or pass through by a force exceed
ing its repellency with them. It then approaches D,
and, to move it out of the way, must act on it with a
force sufficient to overcome its repellency with the
two next lower particles, by which it is kept in its
present situation.
Every particle of air, therefore, will bear any load
inferior to the force of these repulsions.
Hence the support of fogs, mists, clouds.
i753l BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 329
Very warm air, clear, though supporting a very
great quantity of moisture, will grow turbid and
cloudy on the mixture of a colder air, as foggy, turbid
air will grow clear by warming.
Thus the sun, shining on a morning fog, dissipates
it ; clouds are seen to waste in a sunshiny day.
But cold condenses and renders visible the vapor ;
a tankard or decanter filled with cold water will con
dense the moisture of warm, clear air on its outside,
where it becomes visible as dew, coalesces into drops,
descends in little streams.
The sun heats the air of our atmosphere most near
the surface of the earth ; for there, besides the direct
rays, there are many reflections. Moreover the earth,
itself being heated, communicates of its heat to the
neighbouring air.
The higher regions, having only, the direct rays of
the sun passing through them, are comparatively very
cold. Hence the cold air on the tops of mountains,
and snow on some of them all the year, even in the
torrid zone. Hence hail in summer.
If the atmosphere were all of it (both above and
below) always of the same temper as to cold or heat,
then the upper air would always be rarer than the
lower, because the pressure on it is less ; consequently
lighter, and therefore would keep its place.
But the upper air may be more condensed by cold
than the lower air by pressure ; the lower more ex
panded by heat than the upper, for want of pressure.
In such case the upper air will become the heavier,
the lower the lighter.
330 THE WORKS OF [1753
The lower region of air being heated and expanded
heaves up and supports for some time the colder, heavier
air above, and will continue to support it while the
equlibrium is kept. Thus water is supported in an in
verted open glass, while the equilibrium is maintained
by the equal pressure upwards of the air below ; but the
equilibrium by any means breaking, the water descends
on the heavier side and the air rises into its place.
The lifted heavy, cold air over a heated country,
becoming by any means unequally supported, or un
equal in its weight, the heaviest part descends first,
and the rest follows impetuously. Hence gusts after
heats, and hurricanes in hot climates. Hence the air
of gusts and hurricanes cold, though in hot climates
and seasons ; it coming from above.
The cold air descending from above, as it pene
trates our warm region full of watery particles, con
denses them, renders them visible, forms a cloud
thick and dark, overcasting sometimes, at once, large
and extensive ; sometimes, when seen at a distance,
small at first, gradually increasing ; the cold edge or
surface of the cloud condensing the vapors next it,
which form smaller clouds that join it, increase its bulk,
it descends with the wind and its acquired weight,
draws nearer the earth, grows denser with continual
additions of water, and discharges heavy showers.
Small black clouds thus appearing in a clear sky,
in hot climates, portend storms, and warn seamen to
hand their sails.
The earth turning on its axis in about twenty-four
hours, the equatorial parts must move about fifteen
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 331
miles in each minute ; in northern and southern lati
tudes this motion is gradually less to the poles, and
there nothing.
If there was a general calm over the face of the
globe, it must be by the air s moving in every part as
fast as the earth or sea it covers.
He that sails or rides has insensibly the same
degree of motion as the ship or coach with which he
is connected. If the ship strikes the shore, or the
coach stops suddenly, the motion continuing in the
man, he is thrown forward. If a man were to jump
from the land into a swift-sailing ship, he would be
thrown backward (or towards the stern), not having
at first the motion of the ship.
He that travels by sea or land towards the equinoc
tial, gradually acquires motion ; from it, loses.
But if a man were taken up from latitude 40 (where
suppose the earth s surface to move twelve miles per
minute) and immediately set down at the equinoctial,
without changing the motion he had, his heels would
be struck up, he would fall westward. If taken up
from the equinoctial and set down in latitude 40, he
would fall eastward.
The air under the equator, and between the tropics,
being constantly heated and rarefied by the sun, rises.
Its place is supplied by air from northern and southern
latitudes, which, coming from parts where the earth
and air had less motion, and not suddenly acquiring
the quicker motion of the equatorial earth, 1 appears an
1 See a paper on this subject, by the this hypothesis for explaining the
late ingenious Mr. Hadley, in the trade-winds first appeared. F.
Philosophical Transactions, wherein
332 THE WORKS OF [1753
east wind blowing westward, the earth moving from
west to east, and slipping under the air.
Thus when we ride in a calm it seems a wind
against us ; if we ride with the wind, and faster, even
that will seem a small wind against us.
The air rarefied between the tropics, and rising,
must flow in the higher region north and south.
Before it rose, it had acquired the greatest motion
the earth s rotation could give it. It retains some
degree of this motion, and descending in higher lati
tudes, where the earth s motion is less, will appear a
westerly wind, yet tending towards the equatorial
parts, to supply the vacancy occasioned by the air of
the lower regions flowing thitherwards.
Hence our general cold winds are about northwest ;
our summer cold gusts the same.
The air in sultry weather, though not cloudy, has a
kind of haziness in it, which makes objects at a dis
tance appear dull and indistinct. This haziness is
occasioned by the great quantity of moisture equally
diffused in that air. When, by the cold wind blow
ing down among it, it is condensed into clouds, and
falls in rain, the air becomes purer and clearer.
Hence, after gusts, distant objects appear distinct,
their figures sharply terminated.
Extreme cold winds congeal the surface of the
earth, by carrying off its fire. Warm winds, after
wards blowing over that frozen surface, will be chilled
by it. Could that frozen surface be turned under,
and a warmer turned up from beneath it, those warm
winds would not be chilled so much.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 333
The surface of the earth is also sometimes much
heated by the sun ; and such heated surface, not
being changed, heats the air that moves over it.
Seas, lakes, and great bodies of water, agitated by
the winds, continually change surfaces ; the cold sur
face in winter is turned under by the rolling of the
waves, and a warmer turned up ; in summer, the warm
is turned under, and colder turned up. Hence the
more equal temper of sea water, and the air over
it. Hence, in winter, winds from the sea seem
warm, winds from the land cold. In summer, the
contrary.
Therefore the lakes northwest of us, 1 as they are
not so much frozen nor so apt to freeze as the earth,
rather moderate than increase the coldness of our
winter winds.
The air over the sea being warmer, and therefore
lighter in winter than the air over the frozen land,
may be another cause of our general northwest winds,
which blow off to sea at right angles from our North
American coast ; the warm, light sea air rising, the
heavy, cold land air pressing into its place.
Heavy fluids descending frequently form eddies or
whirlpools, as is seen in a funnel where the water ac
quires a circular motion, receding every way from a
centre, and leaving a vacancy in the middle, greatest
above, and lessening downwards, like a speaking-
trumpet, its big end upwards.
Air descending or ascending may form the same
kind of eddies or whirlings, the parts of air acquiring
1 In Pennsylvania.
334 THE WORKS OF [1753
a circular motion, and receding from the middle of
the circle by a centrifugal force, and leaving there a
vacancy, if descending, greatest above, and lessening
downwards ; if ascending, greatest below, and lessen
ing upwards, like a speaking-trumpet, standing its big
end on the ground.
When the air descends with violence in some
places, it may rise with equal violence in others, and
form both kinds of whirlwinds.
The air, in its whirling motion receding every way
from the centre or axis of the trumpet, leaves there a
vacuum, which cannot be filled through the sides, the
whirling air, as an arch, preventing ; it must then
press in at the open ends.
The greatest pressure inwards must be at the lower
end, the greatest weight of the surrounding atmos
phere being there. The air entering rises within,
and carries up dust, leaves, and even heavier bodies
that happen in its way as the eddy or whirl passes
over land.
If it passes over water, the weight of the surround
ing atmosphere forces up the water into the vacuity,
part of which, by degrees, joins with the whirling air,
and adding weight, and receiving accelerated motion,
recedes still farther from the centre or axis of the
trump as the pressure lessens, and at last, as the
trump widens, is broken into small particles, and so
united with air as to be supported by it, and become
black clouds at the top of the trump.
Thus these eddies may be whirlwinds at land,
water-spouts at sea. A body of water so raised may
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 335
be suddenly let fall when the motion, &c., has not
strength to support it, or the whirling arch is broken
so as to admit the air ; falling in the sea it is harm
less, unless ships happen under it ; but if in the pro
gressive motion of the whirl it has moved from the
sea over the land, and then breaks, sudden, violent,
and mischievous torrents are the consequences.
B. FRANKLIN.
CVII.
TO WILLIAM SMITH.
PHILADELPHIA, 27 November, 1753.
DEAR SIR : Having written to you fully, via
Bristol, I have now little to add. Matters relating to
the Academy remain in statu quo. The trustees
would be glad to see a rector established there, but
they dread entering into new engagements till they
are got out of debt ; and I have not yet got them
wholly over to my opinion, that a good professor or
teacher of the higher branches of learning would
draw so many scholars as to pay great part, if not
the whole, of his salary. Thus, unless the Proprietors
of the province shall think fit to put the finishing
hand to our institution, it must, I fear, wait some few
years longer before it can arrive at that state of per
fection which to me it seems now capable of ; and all
the pleasure I promised myself in seeing you settled
among us vanishes into smoke. But good Mr. Col-
linson writes me word that no endeavours of his shall
be wanting ; and he hopes, with the Archbishop s
336 THE WORKS OF [1753
assistance, to be able to prevail with our Proprietors. 1
I pray God grant them success. My son presents
his affectionate regards, with, dear Sir, yours, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CVIII.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 6 December, 1753.
DEAR SIR: I received your favor of the iQth past,
with some remarks on my meteorological paper, for
which I thank you and return some observations on
those remarks, hoping by this friendly intercourse of
sentiments and objections some advantage will arise,
to the increase of true knowledge.
I sent you our treaty some time since. You will
find very little in it ; but I have hopes it will intro
duce a regulation of our Indian trade, by the govern
ment taking it in hand and furnishing the Indians
with goods at the cheapest rate without aiming at
profit, as is done by Massachusetts ; by which means
I think we must vastly undersell the French, and
thereby attach the Indians more firmly to the British
interest.
Mr. Collinson certainly received your answer to
Kastner. I think one of his letters to me mentions it.
I send you herewith a copy of my paper on the
Increase of Mankind ; the only one I have, so must
1 Upon the application of Archbishop Penn subscribed an annual sum, and
Herring and Peter Collinson, at Dr. afterwards gave at least ^5, ooo, to the
Franklin s request (aided by the letters founding or engrafting the College
of Mr. Allen and Mr. Peters), Thomas upon the Academy. STUBER.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 337
request you to return it. That on the Air, &c., is
what you have already seen. The third mentioned
to you by Mr. Collinson concerning the Germans, is
scarcely worth sending. It will contain nothing new
to you.
I congratulate you on Lord Halifax s approbation
of your conduct in public affairs. From such a man
the honor is great, and the satisfaction ; but the
approbation of your own mind is something more
valuable in itself, and it is what I doubt not you will
always enjoy.
I should like to see Pike s book some time or other,
when you can conveniently send it. With great
respect and esteem, I am, Sir, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CIX.
TO JAMES BOWDOIN.
PHILADELPHIA, 13 December, 1753.
DEAR SIR: I received your favor of the 1 2th ultimo,
with the law of your province for regulating the
Indian trade, for which I thank you, and for the re
marks that accompany it, which clearly evince the
usefulness of the law, and I hope will be sufficient to
induce our Assembly to follow your example.
I have yet received no particulars of the unhappy
gentleman s death at Petersburg, (whose fate I la
ment). One of the papers says that all the letters
from thence confirm the account, and mentions his
name (Professor Richmann), but nothing farther.
338 THE WORKS OF [1753
No doubt we shall have a minute account of the acci
dent with all its circumstances, in some of the maga
zines or the Transactions of the Royal Society. 1
The observation you made of the sea water emit
ting more and less light in different tracts passed
through by your boat is new, and your manner of
accounting for it ingenious. It is indeed very pos
sible that an extremely small animalcule, too small to
be visible even by the best glasses, may yet give a
visible light. I remember to have taken notice, in a
drop of kennel water, magnified by the solar micro
scope to the bigness of a cart-wheel, there were num
bers of visible animalcules of various sizes swimming
about ; but I was sure there were likewise some
which I could not see, even with that magnifier, for
the wake they made in swimming to and fro was
very visible, though the body that made it was not so.
Now if I could see the wake of an invisible animal
cule, I imagine I might much more easily see its
light if it were of the luminous kind. For how small is
the extent of a ship s wake, compared with that of
the light of her lantern.
My barometer will not showtheluminous appearance
by agitating the mercury in the dark, but I think yours
does. Please to try whether it will, when agitated,
attract a fine thread hung near the top of the tube.
As to the answer to Nollet, if I were going on with
it, I should be extremely glad of your peeping into it
(as you say) now and then, that I might correct it by
1 Professor Richmann was killed at for bringing electricity from the
Petersburg, on the 26th of July, 1753, clouds. He received a shock, which
while repeating Franklin s experiment caused instantaneous death.
1753] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 339
your advice. The materials in short hints have been
long collected and methodized ; they only want to be
clothed with expression. But soon after my return
from New England, I received the enclosed from
Monsieur Dalibard, wherein he tells me that he is
preparing an answer, not only to the Abbe, but to
some others that have wrote against my doctrine,
which will be published the beginning of this winter.
This, with a good deal of business, and a little natu
ral indolence, has made me neglect finishing my an
swer till I shall see what is done by him. Perhaps it
may then appear unnecessary for me to do any thing
farther in it. And will not one s vanity be more grat
ified in seeing one s adversary confuted by a disciple
than even by one s self ? I am, however, a little con
cerned for Dalibard, when I find by his letter that he
has been so far imposed on by the Abbe s confident
assertion that a charged bottle placed on an electric
per se loses its electricity, as to attempt to account
for it, when the thing is absolutely not fact. I have
in answer wrote him my sentiments on that and some
other particulars of the Abbe s book, which I hope
will get to hand before his answer is published. 1
I am with the greatest esteem and regard,
Dear Sir, your most obliged humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
1 The Abbe Nollet published in Paris fute his doctrines and hypotheses,
a volume entitled :" Lettres surl Elec- The Abbe s effort brought into the
tricite, dans lesquelles on examine les field several champions of Dr. Frank-
de couvertes qui ont etc faites sur cette lin, among whom were David Golden,
maiiere depuis 1 Annee 1752, et les a son of Cadwallader Golden, of New
consequences que Ton en peut tirer." York, and Monsieur Dalibard, of Paris.
In the first volume were six letters Franklin decided that the Abbe s let-
directed to Franklin, designed to con- ters did not require any reply from him.
340 THE WORKS OF [1754
ex.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 18 April, 1754.
SIR : Since September last, having been abroad on
two long journeys and otherwise much engaged, I
have made but few observations on the positive and
negative state of electricity in the clouds. But Mr.
Kinnersley kept his rod and bells in good order, and
has made many.
Once this winter the bells rang a long time during
a fall of snow, though no thunder was heard or light
ning seen. Sometimes the flashes and cracks of the
electric matter between bell and" bell were so large
and loud as to be heard all over the house ; but by
all his observations the clouds were constantly in a
negative state, till about six weeks ago, when he
found them once to change in a few minutes from the
negative to the positive. About a fortnight after
that he made another observation of the same kind,
and last Monday afternoon, the wind blowing hard
at southeast and veering round to northeast, with
many thick, driving clouds, there were five or six suc
cessive changes from negative to positive, and from
positive to negative, the bells stopping a minute or
two between every change. Besides the methods
mentioned in my paper of September last of discov
ering the electrical state of the clouds, the following
may be used. When your bells are ringing, pass a
rubbed tube by the edge of the bell, connected with
your pointed rod ; if the cloud is then in a negative
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 341
state, the ringing will stop ; if in a positive state, it
will continue, and perhaps be quicker. Or suspend
a very small cork ball by a fine silk thread, so that it
may hang close to the edge of the rod-bell ; then,
whenever the bell is electrified, whether positively or
negatively, the little ball will be repelled and continue
at some distance from the bell. Have ready around-
headed glass stopper of a decanter, rub it on your
side till it is electrified, then present it to the cork
ball. If the electricity in the ball is positive, it will
be repelled from the glass stopper, as well as from
the bell ; if negative, it will fly to the stopper.
B. FRANKLIN.
CXI.
TO CADWALLADER GOLDEN.
PHILADELPHIA, 30 August, 1754.
DEAR SIR : I have now before me your favors of
July 23d, and August I5th. I return Mr. Pike s
Philosophia Sacra. His manner of philosophizing is
much out of my way.
I am now about to proceed on my eastern journey,
but hope to be at home in the winter, the best season
for electrical experiments, when I will gladly make
any you desire. In the mean time I should be glad
if you would communicate the thoughts you mention,
that I may consider them. If you please, direct them
to me at Boston.
There must, I think, be some mistake in what you
1 Soon after writing this letter Franklin set out on a tour to New England.
342 THE WORKS OF [1754
mention, of my having sent to Mr. Collinson the
paper you wrote me on water-spouts. I have the
original now by me, and cannot recollect that I ever
copied it, or that I ever communicated the contents of
it to Mr. Collinson or any one. Indeed, I have long
had an intention of sending him all I have wrote, and
all I have received from others on this curious subject,
without mentioning names ; but it is not yet done.
Our Assembly were not inclined to show any ap
probation of the plan of union ; yet I suppose they
will take no steps to oppose its being established by
the government at home. Popular elections have
their inconveniences in some cases ; but in establish
ing new forms of government, we cannot always ob
tain what we may think the best ; for the prejudices
of those concerned, if they cannot be removed, must
be in some degree complied with. However, I am
of opinion that when troops are to be raised in
America, the officers appointed must be men they
know and approve, or the levies will be made with
more difficulty, and at much greater expense. 1
It is not to be expected that a Quaker Assembly
will establish any but Quaker schools ; nor will they
J ever agree to a tax for the payment of any clergy.
It is intended by the Society, that the schoolmasters
among the Germans shall teach English.
I am glad the representation is agreeable to your
sentiments. The letter to Lord Halifax I suppose
your son sends from New York.
1 The author had recently returned of Union. This Plan, and Mr. Col-
from the Convention at Albany, where den s remarks on some parts of it,
he had proposed his celebrated Plan may be found in No. CXII.
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 343
Since my return I have received from Italy a book
in quarto, entitled Dell Elettricismo Artificial e
Naturale, Libri D^l,e, di Giovambattista Beccaria de
CC. RR. delle Scuole Pie, printed at Turin, and
dedicated to the King. The author professedly goes
on my principles ; he seems a master of method, and
has reduced to systematic order the scattered experi
ments and positions delivered in my paper. At the
end of the first book, there is a letter addressed to
the Abbe Nollet, in which he answers some of the
Abbe s principal objections. This letter being trans
lated into French, I send you the translation for your
perusal, and will send you the Italian book itself by
some future opportunity, if you desire it. It pleases
me the more, in that I find the author has been led by
sundry observations and experiments, though differ
ent from mine, to the same strange conclusion, viz.,
that some thunder-strokes are from the earth upwards ;
in which I feared I should for some time have been
singular.
With the greatest esteem and regard I am, dear
Sir, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. Please to send me the French piece by the
first opportunity, after you have perused it, directed
to me at Boston.
CXII.
PLAN OF UNION FOR THE COLONIES.
In anticipation of unpleasant complications with France, the Lords of Trade
directed commissioners to be appointed in several of the provinces, to assemble
at Albany, for the specific purpose of conciliating and attaching to them the Six
Nations, whose alliance was of vital importance in case of a war with France.
344 THE WORKS OF [1754
The commissioners met on the igth of June, 1754. The colonies of New
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsyl
vania, and Maryland were represented by twenty-five commissioners, or dele
gates. Franklin was the commissioner from Pennsylvania. Several days
were spent in distributing presents and holding "talks" with the Indians.
On the 24th of June the journal of the commissioners shows the following
record :
" A motion was made that the commissioners deliver their opinion whether
a union of all the colonies is not at present absolutely necessary for their
security and defence. The question was accordingly put, and passed in the
affirmative iinanimously .
" On a motion made, that a committee be appointed to prepare and receive
plans or schemes for the union of the colonies, and to digest them into one
general plan for the inspection of this Board ; Resolved, that each government
choose one of their own number to be of that committee. Accordingly were
appointed Thomas Hutchinson for Massachusetts, Theodore Atkinson for New
Hampshire, William Pitkin for Connecticut, Stephen Hopkins for Rhode
Island, William Smith for New York, Benjamin Franklin for Pennsylvania,
and Benjamin Tasker for Maryland."
It is a significant and curious fact that, with the exception of those from
Massachusetts, none of the delegates had any instructions to discuss the ques
tion of a union of the colonies for mutual defence, or for any other purpose.
Their instructions restricted them to the concerting of measures best calcu
lated to secure the friendship of the Six Nations, and to resist the encroach
ment of the French and their allies. The Massachusetts commissioners were
authorized to enter into articles of union and confederation for the general
defence of his Majesty s subjects and interests in North America, as well in
time of peace as of war." Though not within the instructions of the commis
sioners, there are abundant reasons for believing that some plan of union
was the subject of much more thought and discussion than the friendship of
the Indians, a subject, however, which was not neglected. It certainly had
been the uppermost thought in Franklin s mind for some time. The Pennsyl
vania Gazette for May gth, 1754, contains an account, evidently from his pen,
of the capture by the French of Captain Trent s party, who were erecting a
fort (afterwards Fort Duquesne) at the fork of the Ohio. After narrating
the particulars, and urging union to resist aggression, he adds : " The con
fidence of the French in this undertaking seems well grounded in the present
disunited state of the British colonies, and the extreme difficulty of bringing
so many different governments and assemblies to agree in any speedy and
effectual measures for our common defence and security ; while our enemies
have the very great advantage of being under one direction, with one council,
and one purse." At the end of the article is a woodcut, in which is the figure
of a snake, separated into parts, to each of which is affixed the initial of one
of the colonies, and at the bottom in large capital letters the motto, JOIN
OR DIE. It is not surprising, therefore, that when Franklin arrived at Albany,
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 345
he had in his pocket a " plan of union " which he had submitted to several in
fluential friends in New York, and received their approval of it. Several other
plans were submitted to the committee, but his was approved of, and reported
to the commissioners. Its various features were under discussion twelve days,
and finally adopted, subject to the confirmation of Parliament, which was
judged necessary to give such a union validity. Though the commissioners
were nearly or quite unanimous in approving Franklin s plan of union
Trumbull says the Connecticut delegates did not approve of it, though they
did approve of the union, it met with a very different reception from the
colonial assemblies to whom it was submitted, while in England, it proved so
unacceptable that the Board of Trade did not even recommend it to the notice
of the king. Franklin says : " The Assemblies all thought there was too
much prerogative in it, and in England it was thought to have too much
of the democratic" The home government had doubtless much the same
reasons for discouraging such a union as the Roman emperors had for refusing
to allow the servile population to be put in uniform ; they did not care to give
them such facilities for learning their own strength.
Short Hints towards a Scheme for Uniting the North
ern Colonies.
A GOVERNOR-GENERAL.
To be appointed by the King.
To be a military man.
To have a salary from the crown.
To have a negation on all acts of the Grand Coun
cil, and carry into execution whatever is agreed on
by him and that Council.
GRAND COUNCIL.
One member to be chosen by the Assembly of
each of the smaller colonies, and two or more by each
of the larger, in proportion to the sums they pay
yearly into the general treasury.
MEMBERS PAY.
- shillings sterling per diem, during their sitting,
and milage for travelling expenses.
346 THE WORKS OF [1754
PLACE AND TIME OF MEETING.
To meet - times in every year, at the capital of
each colony, in course, unless particular circumstances
and emergencies require more frequent meetings and
alteration in the course of places. The governor-
general to judge of those circumstances, &c., and call
by his writs.
GENERAL TREASURY.
Its fund, an excise on strong liquors, pretty equally
drunk in the colonies, or duty on liquor imported, or
- shillings on each license of a public house, or
excise on superfluities, &c., &c. All which would
pay in some proportion to the present wealth of each
colony, and increase as that wealth increases, and
prevent disputes about the inequality of quotas. To
be collected in each colony and lodged in their treas
ury, to be ready for the payment of orders issuing
from the governor-general and Grand Council jointly.
DUTY AND POWER OF THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL
AND GRAND COUNCIL.
To order all Indian treaties. Make all Indian pur
chases not within proprietary grants. Make and sup
port new settlements by building forts, raising and
paying soldiers to garrison the forts, defend the
frontiers, and annoy the enemy. Equip guard-vessels
to scour the coasts from privateers in time of war, and
protect the trade, and every thing that shall be found
necessary for the defence and support of the colonies
in general, and increasing and extending their settle
ments, &c.
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 347
For the expense, they may draw on the fund in the
treasury of any colony.
MANNER OF FORMING THIS UNION.
The scheme being first well considered, corrected,
and improved by the commissioners at Albany, to be
sent home, and an act of Parliament obtained for es
tablishing it. 1
Letter from James Alexander to Cadwallader C olden,
Respecting the Above Hints.
NEW YORK, [June] 9, 1754.
DEAR SIR :
I had some conversation with Mr. Franklin and Mr.
Peters 3 as to the uniting the colonies, and the difficulties
thereof, by effecting our liberties on the one hand, or being
ineffectual on the other. Whereon Mr. Franklin promised to
set down some hints of a scheme that he thought might do,
which accordingly he sent to me to be transmitted to you,
and it is enclosed.
To me it seems extremely well digested, and at first sight
avoids many difficulties that had occurred to me.
Some difficulties still remain. For example, there cannot
be found men tolerably well skilled in warlike affairs to be
chosen for the Grand Council, and there is danger in com
municating to them the schemes to be put in execution, for
fear of a discovery to the enemy.
Whether this may not be in some measure remedied by a
council of state of a few persons to be chosen by the Grand
1 This paper was communicated to to Dr. Golden for his sentiments, who
James Alexander, with the following is desired to forward the whole to Al-
note : bany, to their very humble servant,
" NEW YORK, June 8, 1754. " B. FRANKLIN."
" Mr. Alexander is requested to pe- a Mr. Peters was one of the delegates
ruse these Hints, and make remarks in to the Albany Convention from Penn-
correcting or improving the scheme, sylvania.
and send the paper, with such remarks,
348 THE WORKS OF [1754
Council at their stated meetings, which council of state to be
always attending the governor-general, and with him to di
gest beforehand all matters to be laid before the next Grand
Council, and only the general, but not the particular, plans
of operation.
That the governor-general and that council of state issue
orders for the payment of moneys, so far as the Grand Council
have beforehand agreed may be issued for any general plan
to be executed. That the governor-general and council of
state, at every meeting of the Grand Council, lay before
them their accounts and transactions since the last meeting;
at least so much of their transactions as is safe to be made
public. This council of state to be something like that of
the United Provinces, and the Grand Council to resemble the
States-General.
That the capacity and ability of the persons to be chosen
of the council of state and Grand Council be their only
qualifications, whether members of the respective bodies
that choose them or not. That the Grand Council, with the
governor-general, have power to increase, but not to decrease,
the duties laid by act of Parliament, and have power to issue
bills of credit on emergencies, to be sunk by the increased
funds, bearing a small interest, but not to be tenders. I am,
dear Sir,
Your most obedient,
and most humble servant,
JAMES ALEXANDER.
Remarks on the Hints for a Scheme of Union, by
Cadwallader Colden.
GOVERNOR-GENERAL.
It seems agreed on all hands that something is necessary
to be done for uniting the colonies in their mutual defence,
and it seems to be likewise agreed that it can only be done
effectually by act of Parliament. For this reason I suppose
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 349
that the necessary funds for carrying it into execution, in
pursuance of the ends proposed by it, cannot be otherwise
obtained. If it were thought that the Assemblies of the
several colonies may agree to lay the same duties and apply
them to the general defence and security of all the colonies,
no need of an act of Parliament.
Queer e : Which best for the colonies; by Parliament, or
by the several Assemblies ?
The King s ministers, so long since as the year 1723 or
1724, had thoughts of sending over a governor-general of all
the colonies, and the Earl of Stair was proposed as a fit
person. It is probable, the want of a suitable support of the
dignity of that office prevented that scheme s being carried
into execution, and that the ministry and people of England
think that this charge ought to be borne by the colonies.
GRAND COUNCIL.
Quczre : Is the Grand Council, with the governor-general,
to have a legislative authority? If only an executive power,
objections may be made to their being elective. It would
be in a great measure a change of the constitution, to which
I suspect the crown will not consent. We see the incon
veniences attending the present constitution, and remedies
may be found without changing it, but we cannot foresee
what may be the consequences of a change in it. If the
Grand Council be elected for a short time, steady measures
cannot be pursued. If elected for a long time, and not re
movable by the crown, they may become dangerous. Are
they to have a negative on the acts of the governor-general ?
It is to be considered that England will keep their colonies,
so far as they can, dependent on them ; and this view is to
be preserved in all schemes to which the King s consent is
necessary.
PLACE AND TIME OF MEETING.
It may be thought dangerous to have fixed meetings of
the Grand Council, and in all the colonies at certain times and
350 THE WORKS OF [1754
places. It is a privilege which the Parliament has not, nor
the Privy Council, and may be thought destructive of the
constitution.
GENERAL TREASURY.
Some estimate ought to be made of the produce which
may be reasonably expected from the funds proposed to be
raised by duties on liquors, &c., to see whether it will be
sufficient for the ends proposed. This I think may be done
from the custom-houses in the most considerable places for
trade in the colonies.
MANNER OF FORMING THE UNION.
No doubt any private person may, in the proper manner,
make any proposals which he thinks for the public benefit ;
but, if they are to be made by the commissioners of the
several colonies, who now meet at Albany, it may be pre
sumed that they speak the sense of their constituents. What
authority have they to do this ? I know of none from either
the Council or Assembly of New York.
However, these things may be properly talked of in con
versation among the commissioners for further information,
and in order to induce the several Assemblies to give proper
powers to commissioners to meet afterwards for this purpose.
Reasons and Motives on which the Plan of Union
was Formed.
The commissioners from a number of the northern
colonies being met at Albany, and considering the
difficulties that have always attended the most neces
sary general measures for the common defence, or for
the annoyance of the enemy, when they were to be
carried through the several particular Assemblies of
all the colonies : some Assemblies being before at
variance with their governors or councils, and the
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 351
several branches of the government not on terms of
doing business with each other ; others taking the
opportunity, when their concurrence is wanted, to
push for favorite laws, powers, or points, that they
think could not at other times be obtained, and so
creating disputes and quarrels ; one Assembly waiting
to see what another will do, being afraid of doing more
than its share, or desirous of doing less, or refusing
to do any thing, because its country is not at present
so much exposed as others, or because another will
reap more immediate advantage ; -from one or other
of which causes, the Assemblies of six out of seven
colonies applied to had granted no assistance to Vir
ginia, when lately invaded by the French, though
purposely convened, and the importance of the occa
sion earnestly urged upon them ; considering, more
over, that one principal encouragement to the French
in invading and insulting the British American do
minions, was their knowledge of our disunited state,
and of our weakness arising from such want of union ;
and that from hence different colonies were, at differ
ent times, extremely harassed, and put to great ex
pense both of blood and treasure, who would have
remained in peace, if the enemy had had cause to fear
the drawing on themselves the resentment and power
of the whole ; the said commissioners, considering
also the present encroachments of the French, and
the mischievous consequences that may be expected
from them, if not opposed with our force, came to an
unanimous resolution : That a union of the colonies is
absolutely necessary for their preservation.
352 THE WORKS OF [1754
The manner of forming and establishing this union
was the next point. When it was considered that
the colonies were seldom all in equal danger at the
same time, or equally near the danger, or equally sen
sible of it, that some of them had particular interests
to manage, with which a union might interfere, and
that they were extremely jealous of each other, it was
thought impracticable to obtain a joint agreement of
all the colonies to a union, in which the expense and
burthen of defending any of them should be divided
among them all ; and if ever acts of Assembly in all
the colonies could be obtained for that purpose, yet
as any colony, on the least dissatisfaction, might re
peal its own act, and thereby withdraw itself from the
union, it would not be a stable one, or such as could
be depended on ; for if only one colony should, on
any disgust, withdraw itself, others might think it un
just and unequal that they, by continuing in the
union, should be at the expense of defending a col
ony which refused to bear its proportional part, and
would therefore one after another withdraw, till the
whole crumbled into its original parts. Therefore
the commissioners came to another previous resolu
tion, That it was necessary the Union should be estab
lished by act of Parliament.
They then proceeded to sketch out a Plan of
Union, which they did in a plain and concise manner,
just sufficient to show their sentiments of the kind of
union that would best suit the circumstances of the
colonies, be most agreeable to the people, and most
effectually promote his Majesty s service and the
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 353
general interest of the British empire. This was
respectfully sent to the Assemblies of the several
colonies for their consideration, and to receive such
alterations and improvements as they should think fit
and necessary ; after which it was proposed to be
transmitted to England to be perfected, and the
establishment of it there humbly solicited.
This was as much as the commissioners could do.
It was proposed by some of the commissioners to
form the colonies into two or three distinct unions ;
but for these reasons that proposal was dropped even
by those that made it, viz. :
1. In all cases where the strength of the whole was
necessary to be used against the enemy, there would
be the same difficulty in degree to bring the several
unions to unite together as now the several colonies ;
and consequently the same delays on our part and
advantage to the enemy.
2. Each union would separately be weaker than
when joined by the whole, obliged to exert more
force, be oppressed by the expense, and the enemy
less deterred from attacking it.
3. Where particular colonies have selfish views, as
New York, with regard to Indian trade and lands ;
or are less exposed, being covered by others, as New
Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland ; or
have particular whims and prejudices against warlike
measures in general, as Pennsylvania, where the
Quakers predominate ; such colonies would have
more weight in a partial union, and be better able to
oppose and obstruct the measures necessary for the
354 THE WORKS OF [1754
general good, than where they are swallowed up i ti
the general union.
4. The Indian trade would be better regulated by
the union of the whole than by the partial unions.
And as Canada is chiefly supported by that trade, if
it could be drawn into the hands of the English, as
it might be if the Indians were supplied on moderate
terms, and by honest traders appointed by and acting
for the public ; that alone would contribute greatly
to the weakening of our enemies.
5. The establishing of new colonies westward on
the Ohio and the Lakes, a matter of considerable
importance to the increase of British trade and
power, to the breaking that of the French, and to
the protection and security of our present colonies,
would best be carried on by a joint union.
6. It was also thought that by the frequent meet
ings together of commissioners or representatives
from all the colonies, the circumstances of the whole
would be better known, and the good of the whole
better provided for ; and that the colonies would, by
this connexion, learn to consider themselves, not as
so many independent states, but as members of the
same body ; and thence be more ready to afford as
sistance and support to each other, and to make di
versions in favor even of the most distant, and to
join cordially in any expedition for the benefit of all
against the common enemy.
These were the principal reasons and motives for
forming the Plan of Union as it stands. To which
may be added this, that as the union of the [The
remainder of this article was lost.]
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 355
Plan of Union Adopted by the Convention at Albany,
with the Reasons and Motives for Each Article of
the Plan*
It is proposed that humble application be made for
an act of Parliament of Great Britain, by virtue of
which one general government may be formed in
America, including all the said colonies, within and
under which government each colony may retain its
present constitution, except in the particulars wherein
a change may be directed by the said act, as here
after follows.
PRESIDENT-GENERAL AND GRAND COUNCIL.
That the said general government be administered
by a President- General, to be appointed and supported
by the crown ; and a Grand Council, to be chosen by
the representatives of the people of the several colonies
met in their respective Assemblies.
It was thought that it would be best the President-
General should be supported as well as appointed by
the crown, that so all disputes between him and the
Grand Council concerning his salary might be pre-
1 The several Articles, as originally other plan was proposed to the Con-
adopted, are printed in Italic type; vention, which included only New
the reasons and motives in Roman. Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecti-
It is to be observed that the union cut, Rhode Island, New York, and
was to extend to the colonies of New New Jersey. This was printed in the
Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecti- volume of the collections of the
cut, Rhode Island, New York, New Massachusetts Historical Society for
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Vir- 1800. It is a rough draft of the above
ginia, North Carolina, and South plan, with some unimportant varia-
Carolina (being all the British Colo- tions. It would seem, by the Hints
nies at that time in North America, communicated to Mr. Alexander, that
except Georgia and Nova Scotia), Franklin himself did not at first
" for their mutual defence and secur- contemplate any thing more than
ity, and for extending the British a union of the northern colonies.
settlements in North America." An- SPARKS.
356 THE WORKS OF [1754
^ vented ; as such disputes have been frequently of
mischievous consequence in particular colonies, espe
cially in time of public danger. The quit-rents of
crown lands in America might in a short time be
sufficient for this purpose. The choice of members
for the Grand Council is placed in the House of Repre
sentatives of each government, in order to give the
people a share in this new general government, as the
crown has its share by the appointment of the Presi
dent-General.
But it being proposed by the gentlemen of the
council of New York, and some other counsellors
among the commissioners, to alter the plan in this
particular, and to give the governors and council of
the several provinces a share in the choice of the
Grand Council, or at least a power of approving and
confirming, or of disallowing, the choice made by the
house of representatives, it was said :
" That the government or constitution, proposed to
be formed by the plan, consists of two branches : a
President-General appointed by the crown, and a
council chosen by the people, or by the people s
representatives, which is the same thing.
"That by a subsequent article, the council chosen
by the people can effect nothing without the consent
of the President-General appointed by the crown ; the
crown possesses therefore full one half of the power
of this constitution.
"That in the British constitution, the crown is sup
posed to possess but one third, the lords having their
share.
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 357
" That this constitution seemed rather more favora
ble for the crown.
" That it is essential to English liberty, that the
subject should not be taxed but by his own consent,
or the consent of his elected representatives.
"That taxes to be laid and levied by this proposed
constitution will be proposed and agreed to by the
representatives of the people, if the plan in this par
ticular be preserved ;
" But if the proposed alteration should take place,
it seemed as if matters may be so managed as that
the crown shall finally have the appointment, not
only of the President-General, but of a majority of the
Grand Council ; for seven out of eleven governors
and councils are appointed by the crown ;
" And so the people in all the colonies would in
effect be taxed by their governors.
"It was therefore apprehended that such altera
tions of the plan would give great dissatisfaction, and
that the colonies could not be easy under such a
power in governors, and such an infringement of
what they take to be English liberty.
" Besides, the giving a share in the choice of the
Grand Council would not be eq^ial with respect to all
the colonies, as their constitutions differ. In some,
both governor and council are appointed by the
crown. In others, they are both appointed by the
proprietors. In some, the people have a share in the
choice of the council ; in others, both government and
council are wholly chosen by the people. But the
House of Representatives is everywhere chosen by the
358 THE WORKS OF [1754
people ; and, therefore, placing the right of choosing
the Grand Council in the representatives is equal
with respect to all.
" That the Grand Council is intended to represent
all the several houses of representatives of the colo
nies, as a house of representatives doth the several
towns or counties of a colony. Could all the people
of a colony be consulted and unite in public meas
ures, a house of representatives would be needless,
and could all the Assemblies conveniently consult and
unite in general measures, the Grand Council would
be unnecessary.
" That a House of Commons or the House of
Representatives and the Grand Council are thus alike
in their nature and intention. And as it would seem
improper that the King or House of Lords should
have a power of disallowing or appointing members
of the House of Commons ; so likewise, that a gov
ernor and council appointed by the crown should have
a power of disallowing or appointing members of the
Grand Council, who, in this constitution, are to be the
representatives of the people.
" If the governors and councils, therefore, were to
have a share in the choice of any that are to conduct
this general government, it should seem more proper
that they choose the President-General. But this
being an office of great trust and importance to the
nation, it was thought better to be filled by the im
mediate appointment of the crown.
"The power proposed to be given by the plan to
the Grand Council is only a concentration of the pow-
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 359
ers of the several Assemblies in certain points for the
general welfare ; as the power of the President-Gen
eral is, of the powers of the several governors in the
same points.
" And as the choice therefore of the Grand Coun
cil by the representatives of the people neither gives
the people any new powers nor diminishes the power
of the crown, it was thought and hoped the crown
would not disapprove of it."
Upon the whole, the commissioners were of opin
ion that the choice was most properly placed in the
representatives of the people.
ELECTION OF MEMBERS.
That within months after the passing of such
act, the House of Representatives that happens to be
sitting within that time, or that shall be especially for
that purpose convened, may and shall choose members for
the Grand Council in the following proportion that is
to say :
Massachusetts Bay . 7 Pennsylvania . . . 6
New Hampshire . . 2 Maryland 4.
Connecticut .... 5 Virginia . . . . /
Rhode Island 2 North Carolina . . 4
New York . . . . 4 Soitth Carolina . . 4
New Jersey . j
4 8
It was thought that if the least colony was allowed
more than two, and the others in proportion, the num
ber would be very great, and the expense heavy ; and
that less than two would not be convenient, as a single
360 THE WORKS OF [1754
person being by any accident prevented appearing at
the meeting, the colony he ought to appear for would
./ , not be represented. That as the choice was not im-
V mediately popular, they would be generally men of
good abilities for business, and men of reputation for
integrity ; and that forty-eight such men might be a
number sufficient. But though it was thought reason
able that each colony should have a share in the
representative body in some degree according to the
proportion it contributed to the general treasury, yet
the proportion of wealth or power of the colonies is
not to be judged by the proportion here fixed ; be
cause it was at first agreed that the greatest colony
should not have more than seven members, nor the
least less than two ; and the setting these proportions
between these two extremes was not nicely attended
to, as it would find itself, after the first election, from
the sums brought into the treasury, as by a subse
quent article.
PLACE OF FIRST MEETING.
who shall meet for the first time at the city of Phila
delphia in Pennsylvania, being called by the President-
General as soon as conveniently may be after his ap
pointment.
Philadelphia was named as being nearer the centre
of the colonies, where the commissioners would be
well and cheaply accommodated. The high roads
through the whole extent, are for the most part very
good, in which forty or fifty miles a day may very
well be, and frequently are, travelled. Great part of
the way may likewise be gone by water. In summer
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 361
time the passages are frequently performed in a week
from Charleston to Philadelphia and New York ; and
from Rhode Island to New York, through the Sound,
in two or three days ; and from New York to Phila
delphia, by water and land, in two days, by stage,
boats, and wheel carriages that set out every other
day. The journey from Charleston to Philadelphia
may likewise be facilitated by boats running up Chesa
peake Bay three hundred miles. But if the whole
journey be performed on horseback, the most distant
members, viz., the two from New Hampshire and
from South Carolina, may probably render themselves
at Philadelphia in fifteen to twenty days ; the majority
may be there in much less time.
NEW ELECTION.
That there shall be a new election of the members
of the Grand Council every three years ; and on the
death or resignation of any member, his place should
be supplied by a new choice at the next sitting of the
Assembly of the colony he represented.
Some colonies have annual assemblies, some continue
during a governor s pleasure ; three years was thought
a reasonable medium, as affording a new member time
to improve himself in the business, and to act after
such improvement, and yet giving opportunities, fre
quently enough, to change him if he has misbehaved.
PROPORTION OF MEMBERS AFTER THE FIRST THREE
YEARS.
That after the Jirst three years, when the proportion
of money arising out of each colony to the general
362 THE WORKS OF [1754
treasury can be known, the number of members to be
chosen for each colony shall from time to time, in all
ensuing elections, be regulated by that proportion, yet
so as that the number to be chosen by any one province
be not more than seven, nor less than two.
By a subsequent article it is proposed that the
General Council shall lay and levy such general duties
as to them may appear most equal and least burthen-
some, &c. Suppose, for instance, they lay a small
duty or excise on some commodity imported into or
made in the colonies, and pretty generally and equally
used in all of them, as rum, perhaps, or wine ; the
yearly produce of this duty or excise, if fairly collect
ed, would be in some colonies greater, in others less,
as the colonies are greater or smaller. When the
collector s accounts are brought in, the proportions
will appear ; and from them it is proposed to regulate
the proportion of representatives to be chosen at the
next general election, within the limits, however, of
seven and two. These numbers may therefore vary in
the course of years, as the colonies may in the growth
and increase of people. And thus the quota of tax
from each colony would naturally vary with its circum
stances, thereby preventing all disputes and dissatisfac
tion about the just proportions due from each ; which
might otherwise produce pernicious consequences, and
destroy the harmony and good agreement that ought
to subsist between the several parts of the Union.
MEETINGS OF THE GRAND COUNCIL, AND CALL.
That the Grand Council shall meet once in every
year, and oftener if occasion require, at such time and
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 363
place as they shall adjourn to at the last preceding
meeting, or as they shall be called to meet at by the
President- General on any emergency, he having first
obtained in writing the consent of seven of the members
to such call, and sent dite and timely notice to the whole.
It was thought, in establishing and governing new
colonies or settlements, regulating Indian trade, In
dian treaties, &c., there would be every year sufficient
business arise to require at least one meeting, and at
such meeting many things might be suggested for
the benefit of all the colonies. This annual meeting
may either be at a time or place certain, to be fixed
by the President-General and Grand Council at their
first meeting ; or left at liberty, to be at such time
and place as they shall adjourn to, or be called to
meet at by the President-General.
In time of war it seems convenient that the meet
ing should be in that colony which is nearest the seat
of action.
The power of calling them on any emergency
seemed necessary to be vested in the President-Gen
eral ; but that such power might not be wantonly
used to harass the members, and oblige them to make
frequent long journeys to little purpose, the consent
of seven at least to such call was supposed a conven
ient guard.
CONTINUANCE.
That the Grand Council have power to choose their
speaker, and shall neither be dissolved, prorogued, nor
continued sitting longer than six weeks at one time,
without their own consent or the special command of
the crown.
364 THE WORKS OF [1754
The speaker should be presented for approbation ;
it being convenient, to prevent misunderstandings and
disgusts, that the mouth of the Council should be a
person agreeable, if possible, both to the Council and
President-General.
Governors have sometimes wantonly exercised the
power of proroguing or continuing the sessions of as
semblies merely to harass the members and compel a
compliance ; and sometimes dissolve them on slight
disgusts. This it was feared might be done by the
President-General, if not provided against, and the
inconvenience and hardship would be greater in the
general government than in particular colonies, in
proportion to the distance the members must be from
home during sittings, and the long journeys some of
them must necessarily take.
MEMBERS ALLOWANCE.
That the members of the Grand Council shall be
allowed for their service ten shillings sterling per diem
during their session and journey to and from the place
of meeting; twenty miles to be reckoned a days jour
ney.
It was thought proper to allow some wages, lest
the expense might deter some suitable persons from
the service ; and not to allow too great wages, lest
unsuitable persons should be tempted to cabal for the
employment, for the sake of gain. Twenty miles were
set down as a day s journey, to allow for accidental
hindrances on the road and the greater expenses of
travelling than residing at the place of meeting.
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 365
ASSENT OF PRESIDENT-GENERAL AND HIS DUTY.
That the assent of the President-General be requisite
to all acts of the Grand Council, and that it be his
office and duty to cause them to be carried into execution.
The assent of the President-General to all acts of
the Grand Council was made necessary, in order to
give the crown its due share of influence in this gov
ernment, and connect it with that of Great Britain.
The President-General, besides one half of the legis
lative power, hath in his hands the whole executive
power.
POWER OF PRESIDENT-GENERAL AND GRAND COUNCIL ;
TREATIES OF PEACE AND WAR.
That the President-General, with the advice of the
Grand Council, hold or direct all Indian treaties in
which the general interest of the colonies may be con
cerned ; and make peace or declare war with Indian
nations.
The power of making peace or war with Indian
nations is at present supposed to be in every colony,
and is expressly granted to some by charter, so that
no new power is hereby intended to be granted to
the colonies. But as, in consequence of this power,
one colony might make peace with a nation that an
other was justly engaged in war with, or make war on
slight occasions without the concurrence or approba
tion of neighbouring colonies greatly endangered by
it, or make particular treaties of neutrality, in case of
a general war, to their own private advantage in trade,
by supplying the common enemy, of all which there
3 66 THE WORKS OF [1754
have been instances, it was thought better to have all
treaties of a general nature under a general direction,
that so the good of the whole may be consulted and
provided for.
INDIAN TRADE.
That they make such laws as they judge necessary
for regulating all Indian trade.
Many quarrels and wars have arisen between the
colonies and Indian nations through the bad conduct
of traders, who cheat the Indians after making them
drunk, &c., to the great expense of the colonies, both
in blood and treasure. Particular colonies are so inter
ested in the trade, as not to be willing to admit such
a regulation as might be best for the whole ; and there
fore it was thought best under a general direction.
INDIAN PURCHASES.
That they make all purchases, from Indians for the
crown, of lands not now within the bounds of particu
lar colonies, or that shall not be within their bounds
when some of them are reduced to more convenient
dimensions.
Purchases from the Indians, made by private per
sons, have been attended with many inconveniences.
They have frequently interfered and occasioned un
certainty of titles, many disputes and expensive law
suits, and hindered the settlement of the land so
disputed. Then the Indians have been cheated by
^ such private purchases, and discontent and wars have
been the consequence. These would be prevented
by public, fair purchases.
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 367
Several of the colony charters in America extend
their bounds to the South Sea, which may be perhaps,
three or four thousand miles in length to one or two
hundred miles in breadth. It is supposed they must
in time be reduced to dimensions more convenient for
the common purposes of government.
Very little of the land in those grants is yet pur
chased of the Indians.
It is much cheaper to purchase of them, than to
take and maintain the possession by force ; for they
are generally very reasonable in their demands for
land ; and the expense of guarding a large frontier
against their incursions is vastly great ; because all
must be guarded, and always guarded, as we know
not where or when to expect them*
NEW SETTLEMENTS.
That they make new settlements on such purchases,
by granting lands in the Kings name, reserving a quit-
rent to the crown for the use of the general treasury.
It is supposed better that there should be one pur
chaser than many ; and that the crown should be that
purchaser, or the Union in the name of the crown.
By this means the bargains may be more easily made,
1 To guard against the incursions of gotten that the Indians, like other
the Indians, a plan was sent over to people, knew the difference between
America (and, as I think, by author- day and night, and that a mile of ad-
ity), suggesting the expediency of vance and another of retreat were
clearing away the woods and bushes nothing to the celerity of such an
from a tract of land, a mile in breadth, enemy. This plan, it is said, was the
and extending along the back of the work of Dean Tucker. B. V.
colonies. Unfortunately, besides the If the absurdity of such a scheme is
large expense of the undertaking not in itself sufficiently glaring, it may
(which, if one acre cost -2 sterling, be added, that bushes would soon start
and six hundred and forty acres make up and grow into trees again, and the
a square mile, is ,128,000 first cost expense of clearing must be often re-
for every hundred miles), it was for- peated.
368 THE WORKS OF [1754
the price not enhanced by numerous bidders, future
disputes about private Indian purchases, and monopo
lies of vast tracts to particular persons (which are
prejudicial to the settlement and peopling of the
country), prevented ; and the land being again granted
in small tracts to the settlers, the quit-rents reserved
may in time become a fund for support of govern
ment, for defence of the country, ease of taxes, &c.
Strong forts on the Lakes, the Ohio, &c., may, at
the same time they secure our present frontiers, serve
to defend new colonies settled under their protection ;
and such colonies would also mutually defend and
support such forts, and better secure the friendship
of the far Indians.
A particular colony has scarce strength enough to
extend itself by new settlements, at so great a dis
tance from the old ; but the joint force of the Union
might suddenly establish a new colony or two in those
parts, or extend an old colony to particular passes,
greatly to the security of our present frontiers, in
crease of trade and people, breaking off the French
communication between Canada and Louisiana, and
speedy settlement of the intermediate lands.
The power of settling new colonies is, therefore,
thought a valuable part of the plan, and what cannot
so well be executed by two unions as by one.
LAWS TO GOVERN THEM.
That they make laws for regulating and governing
such new settlements till the crown shall think fit to
form them into particular governments.
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 369
The making of laws suitable for the new colonies,
it was thought, would be properly vested in the Presi
dent-General and Grand Council, under whose protec
tion they must at first necessarily be, and who would
be well acquainted with their circumstances, as having
settled them. When they are become sufficiently
populous, they may by the crown be formed into
complete and distinct governments.
The appointment of a sub-president by the crown,
to take place in case of the death or absence of the
President-General, would perhaps be an improvement
of the plan ; and if all the governors of particular prov
inces were to be formed into a standing council of
state, for the advice and assistance of the President-
General, it might be another considerable improve
ment.
RAISE SOLDIERS AND EQUIP VESSELS, &C.
That they raise and pay soldiers and build forts for
the defence of any of the colonies, and equip vessels of
force to guard the coasts and protect the trade on the
ocean, lakes, or great rivers ; but they shall not impress
men in any colony withoitt the consent of the legislature.
It was thought that quotas of men, to be raised and
paid by the several colonies, and joined for any pub
lic service, could not always be got together with the
necessary expedition. For instance, suppose one
thousand men should be wanted in New Hampshire
on any emergency. To fetch them by fifties and
hundreds out of every colony, as far as South Caro
lina, would be inconvenient, the transportation charge
able, and the occasion perhaps passed before they
370 THE WORKS OF [1754
could be assembled ; and therefore that it would be
best to raise them (by offering bounty-money and pay)
near the place where they would be wanted, to be dis
charged again when the service should be over.
Particular colonies are at present backward to build
forts at their own expense, which they say will be
equally useful to their neighbouring colonies, who re
fuse to join, on a presumption that such forts will be
built and kept up, though they contribute nothing.
This unjust conduct weakens the whole ; but the forts
being for the good of the whole, it was thought best
they should be built and maintained by the whole out
of the common treasury.
In the time of war, small vessels of force are some
times necessary in the colonies to scour the coasts of
small privateers. These being provided by the Union
will be an advantage in turn to the colonies which are
situated on the sea, and whose frontiers on the land-
side, being covered by other colonies, reap but little
immediate benefit from the advanced forts.
POWER TO MAKE LAWS, LAY DUTIES, &C.
That for these purposes they have power to make
laws, and lay and levy such general duties, imposts,
or taxes as to them shall appear most eqiial and jiist
(considering the ability and other circumstances of the
inhabitants in the several colonies), and such as may be
collected with the least inconvenience to the people ;
rather discouraging- luxiiry than loading inditstry with
unnecessary burthens.
The laws which the President-General and Grand
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 371
Council are empowered to make are stick only as shall
be necessary for the government of the settlements ;
the raising, regulating, and paying soldiers for the
general service ; the regulating of Indian trade, and
laying and collecting the general duties and taxes.
They should also have a power to restrain the ex
portation of provisions to the enemy from any of the
colonies, on particular occasions, in time of war.
But it is not intended that they may interfere with
the constitution and government of the particular
colonies, who are to be left to their own laws, and to
lay, levy, and apply their own taxes as before.
GENERAL TREASURER AND PARTICULAR TREASURER.
That they may appoint a General Treasurer and
Particular Treasurer in each government, when neces
sary ; and from time to time may order the siims in
the treasuries of each government into the general
treasury, or draw on them for special payments, as
they Jind most convenient.
The treasurers here meant are only for the general
funds, and not for the particular funds of each colony,
which remain in the hands of their own treasurers at
their own disposal.
MONEY, HOW TO ISSUE.
Yet no money to issue but by joint orders of the
President-General and Grand Council ; except where
sums have been appropriated to particular purposes,
and the President-General is previously empowered by
an act to draw such sums.
372 THE WORKS OF [1754
To prevent misapplication of the money, or even
application that might be dissatisfactory to the crown
or the people, it was thought necessary to join the Presi
dent-General and Grand Council in all issues of money.
ACCOUNTS.
That the general accounts shall be yearly settled and
reported to the several Assemblies.
By communicating the accounts yearly to each
Assembly, they will be satisfied of the prudent and
honest conduct of their representatives in the Grand
Council.
QUORUM.
That a quorum of the Grand Council, empowered to
act with the President- General, do consist of twenty-five
members, among whom there shall be one or more from a
majority of the colonies.
The quorum seems large, but it was thought it
would not be satisfactory to the colonies in general
to have matters of importance to the whole transacted
by a smaller number, or even by this number of
twenty-five, unless there were among them one at
least from a majority of the colonies ; because other
wise, the whole quorum being made up of members
from three or four colonies at one end of the union,
something might be done that would not be equal
with respect to the rest, and thence dissatisfaction
and discords might rise to the prejudice of the whole.
LAWS TO BE TRANSMITTED.
That the laws made by them for the purposes afore
said shall not be repugnant, but, as near as may be,
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 373
agreeable to the laws of England, and shall be trans
mitted to the King in Council for approbation as soon as
may be after their passing ; and if not disapproved with
in three years after presentation, to remain in force.
This was thought necessary for the satisfaction of
the crown, to preserve the connexion of the parts of
the British empire with the whole, of the members
with the head, and to induce greater care and cir
cumspection in making of the laws, that they be good
in themselves and for the general benefit.
DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT-GENERAL.
That in case of the death of the President- General,
the Speaker of the Grand Council for the time being
shall succeed, and be vested with the same powers and
authorities, to continue till the Kings pleasure be known.
It might be better, perhaps, as was said before, if
the crown appointed a vice-president, to take place on
the death or absence of the President-General ; for so
we should be more sure of a suitable person at the
head of the colonies. On the death or absence of
both, the speaker to take place (or rather the eldest
King s governor) till his Majesty s pleasure be known.
OFFICERS, HOW APPOINTED.
That all military commission officers, whether for
land or sea service, to act under this general constitution^
shall be nominated by the President-General ; but the
approbation of the Grand Council is to be obtained
before they receive their commissions. And all civil
officers are to be nominated by the Grand Council, and to
374 THE WORKS OF [1754
receive the President- General s approbation before they
officiate.
It was thought it might be very prejudicial to the
service to have officers appointed unknown to the
people, or unacceptable ; the generality of Americans
serving willingly under officers they know, and not
caring to engage in the service under strangers, or
such as are often appointed by governors through
favor or interest. The service here meant is not the
stated, settled service in standing troops, but any
sudden and short service, either for defence of our
colonies or invading the enemy s country (such as the
expedition to Cape Breton in the last war, in which
many substantial farmers and tradesmen engaged as
common soldiers, under officers of their own country,
for whom they had an esteem and affection, who
would not have engaged in a standing army or under
officers from England). It was therefore thought
best to give the Council the power of approving the
officers, which the people will look upon as a great
security of their being good men. And without some
such provision as this, it was thought the expense of
engaging men in the service on any emergency would
be much greater, and the number who could be in
duced to engage much less, and that therefore it would
be most for the King s service and general benefit of the
nation that the prerogative should relax a little in this
particular throughout all the colonies in America, as it
had already done much more in the charters of some
particular colonies, viz., Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The civil officers will be chiefly treasurers and col-
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 375
lectors of taxes ; and the suitable persons are most
likely to be known by the Council.
VACANCIES, HOW SUPPLIED.
But in case of vacancy by death or removal of any
officer, civil or military, under this constitution, the Gov
ernor of the province in which such vacancy happens may
appoint, till the pleasure of the President- General and
Grand Council can be known.
The vacancies were thought best supplied by the
governors in each province, till a new appointment
can be regularly made ; otherwise the service might
suffer before the meeting of the President-General
and Grand Council.
EACH COLONY MAY DEFEND ITSELF ON EMERGENCY, &C.
That the particular military as well as civil establish
ments in each colony remain in their present state, the
general constitution notwithstanding ; and that on sudden
emergencies any colony may defend itself, and lay the
accounts of expense thence arising before the President-
General and General Council, who may allow and order
payment of the same, as far as they judge such accounts
just and reasonable.
Otherwise the union of the whole would weaken
the parts, contrary to the design of the Union. The
accounts are to be judged of by the President-General
and Grand Council, and allowed if found reasonable.
This was thought necessary to encourage colonies to
defend themselves, as the expense would be light
when borne by the whole ; and also to check impru
dent and lavish expense in such defences.
376
THE WORKS OF
[i754
CXIII.
THREE LETTERS TO GOVERNOR SHIRLEY.
LETTER I. 1
CONCERNING THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE IN CHOOSING THE RULERS
BY WHOM TAXES ARE IMPOSED.
Tuesday Morning [December 17, 1754].
SIR : I return you the loose sheets of the plan,
with thanks to your Excellency for communicating
them.
I apprehend, that excluding the people of the colo
nies from all share in the choice of the grand council
will give extreme dissatisfaction, as well as the taxing
1 It is stated by Mr. Benjamin
Vaughan, that these letters first ap
peared in the London Chronicle for
February 6 and 8, 1766, with prefa
tory remarks signed "A LOVER OF
BRITAIN."
" The Albany Plan of Union," says
this writer, " was sent to the govern
ment here for approbation. Had it
been approved and established by the
authority from hence, English Amer
ica thought itself sxifficiently able to
cope with the French, without other as
sistance ; several of the colonies having
alone, in former wars, withstood the
whole power of the enemy, unassisted
not only by the mother country, but
by any of the neighboring provinces.
The plan, however, was not approved
here ; but a new one was formed in
stead of it ; by which it was proposed,
that the governors of all the colonies,
attended by one or two members of
their respective councils, should as
semble, and concert measures for the
defence of the whole, erect forts where
they judged proper, and raise what
troops they thought necessary, with
power to draw on the treasury here
for the sums that should be wanted,
and the treasury to be reimbursed by a
tax laid on the colonies by act of Par
liament. This new plan, being com
municated by Governor Shirley to a
gentleman of Philadelphia (Dr. Frank
lin) then in Boston (who has very
eminently distinguished himself, be
fore and since that time, in the liter
ary world, and whose judgment, pene
tration, and candor, as well as his
readiness and ability to suggest, for
ward, or carry into execution, every
scheme of public utility, hath most
deservedly endeared him, not only to
our fellow-subjects throughout the
continent of North America, but to
his numberless friends on this side the
Atlantic), occasioned the following re
marks from him, which perhaps may
contribute in some degree to its being-
laid aside. As they very particularly
show the then sentiments of the Amer
icans on the subject of a parlia
mentary tax, before the French power
in that country was subjected, and be
fore the late restraints on their com
merce, they satisfy me, and I hope
they will convince your readers, con
trary to what has been advanced by
some of your correspondents, that
those particulars have had no share
in producing the present opposition
to such a tax, nor in disturbances
occasioned by it, which these pa
pers indeed do almost prophetically
foretell."
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 377
them by act of Parliament, where they have no repre
sentation. It is very possible that this general gov
ernment might be as well and faithfully administered
without the people as with them ; but where heavy
burthens are to be laid upon them, it has Been found
useful to make it as much as possible their own act ;
for they bear better, when they have, or think they
have, some share in the direction ; and when any
public measures are generally grievous, or even dis
tasteful, to the people, the wheels of government
move more heavily.
LETTER II.
ON THE IMPOSITION OF DIRECT TAXES UPON THE COLONIES WITH
OUT THEIR CONSENT.
Wednesday Morning [December 18, 1754].
SIR : I mentioned it yesterday to your Excellency
as my opinion, that excluding the people of the colo
nies from all share in the choice of the grand council
would probably give extreme dissatisfaction, as well
as the taxing them by act of Parliament, where they
have no representation. In matters of general con
cern to the people, and especially where burthens are
to be laid upon them, it is of use to consider, as well
what they will be apt to think and say, as what they
ought to think. I shall therefore, as your Excellency
requires it of me, briefly mention what of either kind
occurs to me on this occasion.
First, they will say, and perhaps with justice, that
the body of the people in the colonies are as loyal,
and as firmly attached to the present constitution and
378 THE WORKS OF [1754
reigning family, as any subjects in the King s do
minions.
That there is no reason to doubt the readiness and
willingness of the representatives they may choose to
grant from time to time such supplies for the defence
of the country as shall be judged necessary, so far
as their abilities will allow.
That the people in the colonies who are to feel the
immediate mischiefs of invasion and conquest by an
enemy, in the loss of their estates, lives, and liberties,
are likely to be better judges of the quantity of forces
necessary to be raised and maintained, forts to be
built and supported, and of their own abilities to bear
the expense, than the Parliament of England, at so
great a distance.
That governors often come to the colonies merely
to make fortunes, with which they intend to return to
Britain ; are not always men of the best ability and
integrity ; have many of them no estates here, nor
any natural connexion with us that should make them
heartily concerned for our welfare ; and might possibly
be fond of raising and keeping up more forces than
necessary, from the profits accruing to themselves, and
to make provision for their friends and dependents.
That the counsellors in most of the colonies being
appointed by the crown, on the recommendation of
governors, are often persons of small estates, fre
quently dependent on the governors for office, and
therefore too much under influence.
That there is therefore great reason to be jealous
of a power in such governors and councils to raise
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 379
such sums as they shall judge necessary, by drafts on
the Lords of the Treasury, to be afterwards laid on
the colonies by act of Parliament, and paid by the
people here ; since they might abuse it by projecting
useless expeditions, harassing the people, and taking
them from their labor to execute such projects,
merely to create offices and employments, and gratify
their dependents, and divide profits.
That the Parliament of England is at a great dis
tance, subject to be misinformed and misled by such
governors and councils, whose united interests might
possibly secure them against the effect of any com
plaint from hence.
That it is supposed an undoubted right of English
men not to be taxed but by their own consent, given
through their representatives.
That the colonies have no representatives in Par
liament.
That to propose taxing them by Parliament, and
refuse them the liberty of choosing a representative
council to meet in the colonies, and consider and judge
of the necessity of any general tax and the quantum,
shows a suspicion of their loyalty to the crown, or of
their regard for their country, or of their common sense
and understanding, which they have not deserved.
That compelling the colonies to pay money with
out their consent, would be rather like raising contri
butions in an enemy s country, than taxing of English
men for their own public benefit.
That it would be treating them as a conquered
people, and not as true British subjects.
380 THE WORKS OF [1754
That a tax laid by the representatives of the colo
nies might be easily lessened as the occasions should
lessen ; but being once laid by Parliament, under the
influence of the representations made by governors,
would probably be kept up and continued for the
benefit of governors, to the grievous burthen and dis
content of the colonies, and prevention of their growth
and increase.
That a power in governors to march the inhabi
tants from one end of the British and French colo
nies to the other, being a country of at least one
thousand five hundred miles long, without the appro
bation or the consent of their representatives first ob
tained to such expeditions, might be grievous and
ruinous to the people, and would put them upon a
footing with the subjects of France in Canada, that
now groan under such oppression from their govern
or, who for two years past has harassed them with
long and destructive marches to Ohio.
That if the colonies in a body may be well gov
erned by governors and councils appointed by the
crown, without representatives, particular colonies
may as well or better be so governed ; a tax may be
laid upon them all by act of Parliament for support
of government, and their Assemblies may be dis
missed as an useless part of the constitution.
That the powers, proposed by the Albany Plan of
Union to be vested in a grand council representative
of the people, even with regard to military matters,
are not so great as those which the colonies of Rhode
Island and Connecticut are intrusted with by their
17541 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 381
charters, and have never abused ; for, by this plan,
the president-general is appointed by the crown, and
controls all by his negative ; but in those govern
ments the people choose the governor, and yet allow
him no negative.
That the British colonies bordering on the French
are properly frontiers of the British empire ; and the
frontiers of an empire are properly defended at the
joint expense of the body of the people in such em
pire. It would now be thought hard by act of Par
liament to oblige the Cinque Ports or sea-coasts of
Britain to maintain the whole navy, because they are
more immediately defended by it, not allowing them
at the same time a vote in choosing members of the
Parliament ; and as the frontiers of America bear the
expense of their own defence, it seems hard to allow
them no share in voting the money, judging of the
necessity and sum, or advising the measures.
That, besides the taxes necessary for the defence
of the frontiers, the colonies pay yearly great sums to
the mother country unnoticed ; for
1. Taxes paid in Britain by the landholder or artifi
cer must enter into and increase the price of the prod
uce of land and manufactures made of it ; and great
part of this is paid by consumers in the colonies, who
thereby pay a considerable part of the British taxes.
2. We are restrained in our trade with foreign na
tions ; and where we could be supplied with any
manufacture cheaper from them, but must buy the
same dearer from Britain, the difference of price is a
clear tax to Britain.
382 THE WORKS OF [1754
3. We are obliged to carry a great part of our prod
uce directly to Britain ; and where the duties laid
upon it lessen its price to the planter, or it sells for
less than it would in foreign markets, the difference is
a tax paid to Britain.
4. Some manufactures we could make, but are for
bidden, and must take them of British merchants ; the
whole price is a tax paid to Britain.
5. By our greatly increasing the demand and con
sumption of British manufactures, their price is con
siderably raised of late years ; the advantage is clear
profit to Britain, and enables its people better to pay
great taxes ; and much of it being paid by us, is clear
tax to Britain.
6. In short, as we are not suffered to regulate our
trade and restrain the importation and consumption
of British superfluities, as Britain can the consump
tion of foreign superfluities, our whole wealth centres
finally amongst the merchants and inhabitants of
Britain ; and if we make them richer, and enable them
better to pay their taxes, it is nearly the same as being
taxed ourselves, and equally beneficial to the crown.
These kinds of secondary taxes, however, we do
not complain of, though we have no share in the lay
ing or disposing of them ; but to pay immediate heavy
taxes, in the laying, appropriation, and disposition of
which we have no part, and which perhaps we may
know to be as unnecessary as grievous, must seem
hard measures to Englishmen, who cannot conceive
that by hazarding their lives and fortunes in subduing
and settling new countries, extending the dominion
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 383
and increasing the commerce of the mother nation,
they have forfeited the native rights of Britons, which
they think ought rather to be given to them, as due to
such merit, if they had been before in a state of slavery.
These, and such kinds of things as these, I appre
hend will be thought and said by the people, if the
proposed alteration of the Albany plan should take
place. Then the administration of the board of gov
ernors and council so appointed, not having the rep
resentative body of the people to approve and unite
in its measures, and conciliate the minds of the peo
ple to them, will probably become suspected and
odious, dangerous animosities and feuds will arise
between the governors and governed, and every thing
go into confusion.
Perhaps I am too apprehensive in this matter ; but
having freely given my opinion and reasons, your
Excellency can judge better than I whether there be
any weight in them ; and the shortness of the time
allowed me will, I hope, in some degree excuse the
imperfections of this scrawl.
With the greatest respect and fidelity, I have the
honor to be
Your Excellency s most obedient
and most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN/
1 Respecting this letter, Mr. John found secret, the great design of taxing
Adams said (in his " History of the the colonies by act of Parliament.
Dispute with America," first published This sagacious gentleman and dibtin-
in 1774): "Dr. Franklin, who was guished patriot, to his lasting honor,
known to be an active and very able sent the governor an answer in writ-
man, and to have great influence in ing, with the following remarks on his
the province of Pennsylvania, was in scheme:" Mr. Adams then quotes
Boston in the year 1754, and Mr. the principal parts of the above letter.
Shirley communicated to him the pro- EDITOR.
384 THE WORKS OF [1754
LETTER III.
ON THE SUBJECT OF UNITING THE COLONIES MORE INTIMATELY
WITH GREAT BRITAIN, BY ALLOWING THEM REPRESENTATIVES
IN PARLIAMENT.
BOSTON, December 22, 1754.
SIR : Since the conversation your Excellency was
pleased to honor me with, on the subject of uniting
the colonies more intimately with Great Britain, by al
lowing them representatives in Parliament, I have
something further considered that matter, and am of
opinion that such a union would be very acceptable
to the colonies, provided they had a reasonable num
ber of representatives allowed them ; and that all the
old acts of Parliament restraining the trade or cramp
ing the manufactures of the colonies be at the same
time repealed, and the British subjects on this side the
water put, in those respects, on the same footing with
those in Great Britain, till the new Parliament, rep
resenting the whole, shall think it for the interest of
the whole to re-enact some or all of them. It is not
that I imagine so many representatives will be al
lowed the colonies as to have any great weight by
their numbers, but I think there might be sufficient
to occasion those laws to be better and more impar
tially considered, and perhaps to overcome the inter
est of a petty corporation, or of any particular set of
. artificers or traders in England, who heretofore seem,
in some instances, to have been more regarded than
all the colonies, or than was consistent with the gen
eral interest or best national good. I think, too, that
the government of the colonies by a Parliament in
which they are fairly represented, would be vastly
1754] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 385
more agreeable to the people than the method lately
attempted to be introduced by royal instruction, as
well as more agreeable to the nature of an English
constitution and to English liberty; and that such
laws as now seem to bear hard on the colonies, would
(when judged by such a Parliament for the best in
terest of the whole) be more cheerfully submitted to
and more easily executed.
I should hope, too, that by such a union the
people of Great Britain and the people of the
colonies would learn to consider themselves as not
belonging to different communities with different
interests, but to one community with one interest ;
which I imagine would contribute to strengthen the
whole, and greatly lessen the danger of future sepa
rations.
It is, I suppose, agreed to be the general interest
of any state, that its people be numerous and rich ;
men enow to fight in its defence, and enow to pay
sufficient taxes to defray the charge ; for these cir
cumstances tend to the security of the state and its
protection from foreign power. But it seems not of
so much importance whether the fighting be done
by John or Thomas, or the tax paid by William or
Charles. The iron manufacture employs and en
riches British subjects, but is it of any importance
to the state whether the manufacturer lives at Bir
mingham, or Sheffield, or both, since they are still
within its bounds, and their wealth and persons still
at its command ? Could the Goodwin Sands be laid
dry by banks, and land equal to a large country
3 86 THE WORKS OF [1754
thereby gained to England, and presently filled with
English inhabitants, would it be right to deprive
such inhabitants of the common privileges enjoyed
by other Englishmen, the right of vending their
produce in the same ports, or of making their own
shoes, because a merchant or a shoemaker living on
the old land might fancy it more for his advantage
to trade or make shoes for them ? Would this be
right even if the land were gained at the expense of
the state ? And would it not seem less right if the
charge and labor of gaining the additional territory
to Britain had been borne by the settlers them
selves ? And would not the hardship appear yet
greater if the people of the new country should be
allowed no representatives in the Parliament enact
ing such impositions?
Now, I look on the colonies as so many countries
gained to Great Britain, and more advantageous to
it than if they had been gained out of the seas around
its coasts and joined to its lands ; for, being in dif
ferent climates, they afford greater variety of prod
uce and materials for more manufactures, and -being
separated by the ocean, they increase much more its
shipping and seamen ; and since they are all included
in the British empire, which has only extended itself
by their means, and the strength and wealth of the
parts are the strength and wealth of the whole, what
imports it to the general state whether a merchant, a
smith, or a hatter grows rich in Old or New Eng
land ? And if, through increase of the people, two
smiths are wanted for one employed before, why may
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 387
not the new smith be allowed to live and thrive in
the new country, as well as the old one in the old? In
fine, why should the countenance of a state be par
tially afforded to its people, unless it be most in favor
of those who have most merit ? And if there be any
difference, those who have most contributed to en
large Britain s empire and commerce, increase her
strength, her wealth, and the numbers of her people,
at the risk of their own lives and private fortunes in
new and strange countries, methinks ought rather to
expect some preference. With the greatest respect
and esteem, I have the honor to be
Your Excellency s most obedient
and humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXIV.
TO MISS CATHERINE RAY, AT BLOCK ISLAND.
PHILADELPHIA, 4 March, 1755.
DEAR KATY : Your kind letter of January 2Oth is
but just come to hand, and I take this first oppor
tunity of acknowledging the favor. It gives me great
pleasure to hear that you got home safe and well that
day. I thought too much was hazarded, when I saw
you put off to sea in that very little skiff, tossed by
every wave. But the call was strong and just a sick
parent. I stood on the shore and looked after you
till I could no longer distinguish you even with my
glass ; then returned to your sister s, praying for your
safe passage. Towards evening all agreed that you
must certainly be arrived before that time, the weather
3 88 THE WORKS OF [1755
having been so favorable, which made me more easy
and cheerful, for I had been truly concerned for you.
I left New England slowly, and with great reluc
tance. Short day s journeys, and loitering visits on
the road, for three or four weeks, manifested my un
willingness to quit a country in which I drew my first
breath, spent my earliest and most pleasant days, and
had now received so many fresh marks of the people s
goodness and benevolence, in the kind and affection
ate treatment I had everywhere met with. I almost
forgot I had a home, till I was more than half way
towards it ; till I had, one by one, parted with all my
New England friends, and was got into the western
borders of Connecticut, among mere strangers. Then,
like an old man, who, having buried all he loved in
this world, begins to think of heaven, I began to think
of and wish for home ; and as I drew nearer, I found
the attraction stronger and stronger. My diligence
and speed increased with my impatience. I drove on
violently, and made such long stretches, that a very
few days brought me to my own house, and to the
arms of my good old wife and children, where I
remain, thanks to God, at present well and happy.
Persons subject to the hyp complain of the north
east wind, as increasing their malady. But since you
promised to send me kisses in that wind, and I find
you as good as your word, it is to me the gayest wind
that blows, and gives me the best spirits. I write
this during a northeast storm of snow, the greatest
we have had this winter. Your favors come mixed
with the snowy fleeces, which are pure as your virgin
I755J BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 389
innocence, white as your lovely bosom, and as cold.
But let it warm towards some worthy young man,
and may Heaven bless you both with every kind of
happiness.
I desired Miss Anna Ward to send you over a little
book I left with her, for your amusement in that
lonely island. My respects to your good father, and
mother, and sister. Let me often hear of your wel
fare, since it is not likely I shall ever again have the
pleasure of seeing you. Accept mine and my wife s
sincere thanks for the many civilities I receive from
you and your relations ; and do me the justice to
believe me, dear girl, your affectionate, faithful friend
and humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. My respectful compliments to your good
brother Ward, and sister ; and to the agreeable
family of the Wards at Newport, when you see them.
Adieu.
cxv.
ELECTRICAL EXPERIMENTS
Made in Pursuance of those made by Mr. Canton, dated
December 6, 1753 ; with Explanations, by Benja
min Franklin.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER l8, 1755-
PHILADELPHIA, 14 March, 1755.
PRINCIPLES.
I. Electric atmospheres that flow round non-elec
tric bodies, being brought near each other, do not
readily mix and unite into one atmosphere, but remain
separate and repel each other.
390 THE WORKS OF [1755
This is plainly seen in suspended cork balls and
other bodies electrified.
II. An electric atmosphere not only repels another
electric atmosphere, but will also repel the electric
matter contained in the substance of a body approach
ing it, and, without joining or mixing with it, force
it to other parts of the body that contained it.
This is shown by some of the following experi
ments.
III. Bodies electrified negatively, or deprived of
their natural quantity of electricity, repel each other
(or at least appear to do so by a mutual receding), as
well as those electrified positively, or which have
electric atmospheres.
This is shown by applying the negatively charged
wire of a phial to two cork balls suspended by silk
threads, and many other experiments.
Fix a tassel of fifteen or twenty threads, three
inches long, at one end of a tin prime conductor
(mine is about five feet long and four inches diameter),
supported by silk lines.
Let the threads be a little damp, but not wet.
Pass aiv excited glass tube near the other end of the
prime conductor, so as to give it some sparks, and the
threads will diverge.
Because each thread, as well as the prime conduct
or, has acquired an electric atmosphere, which repels
and is repelled by the atmospheres of the other
threads ; if those several atmospheres would readily
mix, the threads might unite, and hang in the middle
of one atmosphere, common to them all.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 391
Rub the tube afresh, and approach the prime conductor
therewith, crosswise, near that end, bid not nigh enough
to give sparks, and the threads will diverge a little more.
Because the atmosphere of the prime conductor is
pressed by the atmosphere of the excited tube, and
driven towards the end where the threads are, by
which each thread acquires more atmosphere.
Withdraw the tube, and they will close as m^lch.
They close as much, and no more, because the at
mosphere of the glass tube, not having mixed with
the atmosphere of the prime conductor, is withdrawn
entire, having made no addition to or diminution
from it.
Bring the excited tube under the tuft of threads, and
they will close a little.
They close, because the atmosphere of the glass
tube repels their atmospheres, and drives part of
them back on the prime conductor.
Withdraw it, and they will diverge as much.
For the portion of atmosphere which they had lost
returns to them again.
Excite the glass tiibe and approach the prime conduct
or with it, holding it across, near the end opposite to that
on which the threads hang, at the distance of five or six
inches. Keep it there a few seconds, and the threads of
the tassels will diverge. Withdraw it, and they will
close.
They diverge, because they have received electric
atmospheres from the electric matter before con
tained in the substance of the prime conductor, but
which is now repelled and driven away by the atmos-
392 THE WORKS OF [1755
phere of the glass tube from the parts of the prime
conductor opposite and nearest to that atmosphere,
and forced out upon the surface of the prime conduct
or at its other end, and upon the threads hanging
thereto. Were it any part of the atmosphere of the
glass tube that flowed over and along the prime con
ductor to the threads, and gave them atmospheres
(as is the case when a spark is given to the prime
conductor from the glass tube), such part of the
tube s atmosphere would have remained, and the
threads continue to diverge ; but they close on with
drawing the tube, because the tube takes with it all its
own atmosphere, and the electric matter, which had
been driven out of the substance of the prime con
ductor, and formed atmospheres round the threads,
is thereby permitted to return to its place.
Take a spark from the prime conductor near the
threads, when they are diverged as before, and they will
close.
For by so doing you take away their atmospheres,
composed of the electric matter driven out of the
substance of the prime conductor, as aforesaid, by the
repellency of the atmosphere of the glass tube. By
taking this spark you rob the prime conductor of part
of its natural quantity of the electric matter, which
part so taken is not supplied by the glass tube, for,
when that is afterwards withdrawn, it takes with it
its whole atmosphere, and leaves the prime conductor
electrized negatively, as appears by the next opera
tion.
Then withdraw the tube, and they will open again.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 393
For now the electric matter in the prime conduct
or returning to its equilibrium, or equal diffusion, in
all parts of its substance, and the prime conductor
having lost some of its natural quantity, the threads
connected with it lose part of theirs, and so are elec
trized negatively, and therefore repel each other, by
Principle III.
Approach the prime conductor with the tube, near the
same place as at first, and they will close again.
Because the part of their natural quantity of elec
tric fluid which they had lost is now restored to them
again, by the repulsion of the glass tube forcing that
fluid to them from other parts of the prime conduct
or ; so they are now again in their natural state.
Withdraw it, and they will open again.
For what had been restored to them is now taken
from them again, flowing backintothe prime conductor,
and leaving them once more electrized negatively.
Bring the excited tube under the threads, and they
will diverge more.
Because more of their natural quantity is driven
from them into the prime conductor, and thereby
their negative electricity increased.
The prime conductor not being electrified, brings the
excited tube under the tassel, and the threads will diverge.
Part of their natural quantity is thereby driven out
of them into the prime conductor, and they become
negatively electrized, and therefore repel each other.
Keeping the tube in the same place with one hand,
attempt to toiich the threads with the finger of the other
hand, and they will recede from the finger.
394 THE WORKS OF [1755
Because the finger being plunged into the atmos
phere of the glass tube, as well as the threads, part
of its natural quantity is driven back through the
hand and body by that atmosphere, and the finger
becomes, as well as the threads, negatively electrized,
and so repels, and is repelled by them. To confirm
this, hold a slender, light lock of cotton, two or three
inches long, near a prime conductor that is electrified
by a glass globe or tube. You will see the cotton
stretch itself out towards the prime conductor. At
tempt to touch it with the finger of the other hand,
and it will be repelled by the finger. Approach it
with a positively charged wire of a bottle, and it will
fly to the wire. Bring it near a negatively charged
wire of a bottle, it will recede from that wire in the
same manner that it did from the finger ; which
demonstrates the finger to be negatively electrized,
as well as the lock of cotton so situated.
Turkey killed by Electricity. Effect of a Shock on the
Operator in making the Experiment.
As Mr. Franklin, in a former letter to Mr. Collin-
son, mentioned his intending to try the power of a
very strong electrical shock upon a turkey, that gen
tleman accordingly has been so -very obliging as to
send an account of it, which is to the following pur
pose :
He made first several experiments on fowls, and
found that two large, thin glass jars gilt, holding each
about six gallons, were sufficient, when fully charged,
17551 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 395
to kill common hens outright ; but the turkeys,
though thrown into violent convulsions, and then ly
ing as dead for some minutes, would recover in less
than a quarter of an hour. However, having added
three other such to the former two, though not fully
charged, he killed a turkey of about ten pounds
weight, and believes that they would have killed a
much larger. He conceited, as himself says, that the
birds killed in this manner eat uncommonly tender.
In making these experiments, he found that a man
could, without great detriment, bear a much greater
shock than he had imagined ; for he inadvertently re
ceived the stroke of two of these jars through his arms
and body, when they were very near fully charged.
It seemed to him a universal blow throughout the
body from head to foot, and was followed by a vio
lent, quick trembling in the trunk which went off
gradually in a few seconds. It was some minutes
before he could recollect his thoughts so as to know
what was the matter ; for he did not see the flash,
though his eye was on the spot of the prime con
ductor, from whence it struck the back of his hand ;
nor did he hear the crack, though the by-standers said
it was a loud one ; nor did he particularly feel the
stroke on his hand, though he afterwards found it
had raised a swelling there of the bigness of half a
pistol-bullet. His arms and the back of the neck felt
somewhat numbed the remainder of the evening, and
his breast was sore for a week after, as if it had been
bruised. From this experiment may be seen the
danger, even under the greatest caution, to the oper-
396 THE WORKS OF [1755
ator, when making these experiments with large jars ;
for it is not to be doubted but several of these fully
charged would as certainly, by increasing them in
proportion to the size, kill a man, as they before did
a turkey.
CXVI.
TO JOHN LINING, AT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.
PHILADELPHIA, 18 March, 1755.
SIR : I send you enclosed a paper containing
some new experiments I have made, in pursuance of
those by Mr. Canton, that are printed with my last
letters. I hope these, with my explanation of them,
will afford you some entertainment. 1
In answer to your several inquiries. The tubes
and globes we use here are chiefly made here. The
glass has a greenish cast, but is clear and hard, and,
I think, better for electrical experiments than the
white glass of London, which is not so hard. There
are certainly great differences in glass. A white globe
I had made here some years since, would never, by
any means, be excited. Two of my friends tried it,
as well as myself, without success. At length, putting
it on an electric stand, a chain from the prime con
ductor being in contact with it, I found it had the
properties of a non-electric ; for I could draw sparks
from any part of it, though it was very clean and
dry.
All I know of Domien is, that by his own account
he was a native of Transylvania, of Tartar descent,
1 See No. CXV.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 397
but a priest of the Greek Church ; he spoke and wrote
Latin very readily and correctly. He set out from
his own country with an intention of going round the
world, as much as possible by land. He travelled
through Germany, France, and Holland, to England.
Resided some time at Oxford. From England he
came to Maryland ; thence went to New England ;
returned by land to Philadelphia ; and from hence
travelled through Maryland, Virginia, and North
Carolina to you. He thought it might be of service
to him in his travels to know something of elec
tricity. I taught him the use of the tube, how to
charge the Leyden phial, and some other experiments.
He wrote to me from Charleston, that he lived eight
hundred miles upon electricity ; it had been meat,
drink, and clothing to him. His last letter to me
was, I think, from Jamaica, desiring me to send the
tubes you mention, to meet him at the Havana, from
whence he expected to get a passage to La Vera
Cruz ; designed travelling over land through Mexico
to Acapulco ; thence to get a passage to Manilla, and
so through China, India, Persia, and Turkey, home to
his own country, proposing to support himself chiefly
by electricity. A strange project ! But he was, as
you observe, a very singular character. I was sorry
the tubes did not get to the Havana in time for him.
If they are still in being, please to send for them, and
accept of them. What became of him afterwards, I
have never heard. He promised to write to me as
often as he could on his journey, and as soon as he
should get home after finishing his tour. It is now
398 THE WORKS OF [1755
seven years since he was here. If he is still in New
Spain, as you imagine from that loose report, I sup
pose it must be that they confine him there, and pre
vent his writing ; but I think it more likely that he
may be dead.
The questions you ask about the pores of glass, I
cannot answer otherwise than that I know nothing of
their nature ; and suppositions, however ingenious,
are often mere mistakes. My hypothesis, that they
were smaller near the middle of the glass, too small
to admit the passage of electricity, which could pass
through the surface till it came near the middle, was
certainly wrong. For soon after I had written that
letter, I did, in order to confirm the hypothesis (which
indeed I ought to have done before I wrote it), make
an experiment. I ground away five sixths of the
thickness of the glass from the side of one of my
phials, expecting that, the supposed denser part be
ing so removed, the electric fluid might come through
the remainder of the glass, which I had imagined
more open ; but I found myself mistaken. The bot
tle charged as well after the grinding as before. I
am now as much as ever at a loss to know how or
where the quantity of electric fluid on the positive
side of the glass is disposed of.
As to the difference of conductors, there is not
only this, that some will conduct electricity in small
quantities, and yet do not conduct it fast enough to
produce the shock ; but even among those that will
conduct a shock, there are some that do it better than
others. Mr. Kinnersley has found, by a very good
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 399
experiment, that when the charge of a bottle hath an
opportunity of passing two ways, that is, straight
through a trough of water ten feet long and six inches
square, or round about through twenty feet of wire,
it passes through the wire, and not through the
water, though that is the shortest course ; the wire
being the better conductor. When the wire is taken
away, it passes through the water, as may be felt by
a hand plunged in the water ; but it cannot be felt in
the water when the wire is used at the same time.
Thus, though a small phial containing water will give
a smart shock, one containing the same quantity of
mercury will give one much stronger, the mercury
being the better conductor ; while one containing oil
only, will scarce give any shock at all.
Your question, how I came first to think of pro
posing the experiment of drawing down the lightning
in order to ascertain its sameness with the electric
fluid, I cannot answer better than by giving you an
extract from the minutes I used to keep of the ex
periments I made, with memorandums of such as I
purposed to make, the reasons for making them, and
the observations that arose upon them, from which
minutes my letters were afterwards drawn. By this
extract you will see that the thought was not so much
"an out-of-the-way one," but that it might have oc
curred to an electrician.
"November jth, 1749. Electrical fluid agrees with
lightning in these particulars : i. Giving light.
2. Color of the light. 3. Crooked direction. 4. Swift
motion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Crack or
400 THE WORKS OF [1755
noise in exploding. 7. Subsisting in water or ice.
8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. Destroying
animals. 10. Melting metals, n. Firing inflamma
ble substances. 12. Sulphureous smell. The electric
fluid is attracted by points. We do not know whether
this property is in lightning. But since they agree
in all the particulars wherein we can already compare
them, is it not probable they agree likewise in this ?
Let the experiment be made."
I wish I could give you any satisfaction in the article
of clouds. I am still at a loss about the manner in
which they become charged with electricity ; no hy
pothesis I have yet formed perfectly satisfying me.
Some time since, I heated very hot a brass plate, two
feet square, and placed it on an electric stand. From
the plate a wire extended horizontally four or five
feet, and, at the end of it, hung, by linen threads, a
pair of cork balls. I then repeatedly sprinkled water
over the plate, that it might be raised from it in vapor,
hoping, that, if the vapor either carried off the elec
tricity of the plate, or left behind it that of the water
(one of which I supposed it must do, if, like the
clouds, it became electrized itself, either positively or
negatively), I should perceive and determine it by the
separation of the balls, and by finding whether they
were positive or negative ; but no alteration was
made at all, nor could I perceive that the steam was
itself electrized, though I have still some suspicion
that the steam was not fully examined, and I think
the experiment should be repeated. Whether the
first state of electrized clouds is positive or negative,
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 401
if I could find the cause of that, I should be at no
loss about the other ; for either is easily deduced
from the other, as one state is easily produced by the
other. A strongly positive cloud may drive out of a
neighbouring cloud much of its natural quantity of
the electric fluid, and, passing by it, leave it in a
negative state. In the same way, a strongly negative
cloud may occasion a neighbouring cloud to draw
into itself from others an additional quantity, and,
passing by it, leave it in a positive state. How these
effects may be produced, you will easily conceive, on
perusing and considering the experiments in the en
closed paper ; and from them too it appears probable,
that every change from positive to negative, and from
negative to positive, that, during a thunder-gust, we
see in the cork balls annexed to the apparatus, is not
owing to the presence of clouds in the same state,
but often to the absence of positive or negative clouds,
that, having just passed, leave the rod in the opposite
state.
The knocking down of the six men was performed
with two of my large jars not fully charged. I laid
one end of my discharging-rod upon the head of the
first ; he laid his hand on the head of the second ;
the second his hand on the head of the third, and so
to the last, who held in his hand the chain that was
connected with the outside of the jars. When they
were thus placed, I applied the other end of my rod
to the prime conductor, and they all dropped to
gether. When they got up, they all declared they
had not felt any stroke, and wondered how they came
402 THE WORKS OF [1755
to fall ; nor did any of them either hear the crack, or
see the light of it. You suppose it a dangerous ex
periment ; but I had once suffered the same myself,
receiving, by accident, an equal stroke through my
head, that struck me down, without hurting me.
And I had seen a young woman, that was about to
be electrified through the feet (for some indisposi
tion), receive a greater charge through the head, by
inadvertently stooping forward to look at the placing
of her feet, till her forehead (as she was very tall)
came too near my prime conductor ; she dropped, but
instantly got up again, complaining of nothing. A
person so struck, sinks down doubled, or folded to
gether, as it were, the joints losing their strength and
stiffness at once, so that he drops on the spot where
he stood, instantly, and there is no previous stagger
ing, nor does he ever fall lengthwise. Too great a
charge might, indeed, kill a man, but I have not yet
seen any hurt done by it. It would certainly, as you
observe, be the easiest of all deaths.
The experiment you have heard so imperfect an ac
count of, is merely this : I electrified a silver pint
can, on an electric stand, and then lowered into it a
cork ball, of about an inch diameter, hanging by
a silk string, till the cork touched the bottom of the
can. The cork was not attracted to the inside of the
can, as it would have been to the outside ; and, though
it touched the bottom, yet, when drawn out, it was
not found to be electrified by that touch, as it would
have been by touching the outside. The fact is sin
gular. You require the reason ; I do not know it.
Perhaps you may discover it, and then you will be so
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 403
good as to communicate it to me. 1 I find a frank ac
knowledgment of one s ignorance is, not only the
easiest way to get rid of a difficulty, but the likeliest
way to obtain information, and therefore I practise
it ; I think it an honest policy. Those who affect to
be thought to know every thing, and so undertake to
explain every thing, often remain long ignorant of
many things that others could and would instruct
them in, if they appeared less conceited.
The treatment your friend has met with is so com
mon, that no man, who knows what the world is and
ever has been, should expect to escape it. There are
everywhere a number of people, who, being totally
destitute of any inventive faculty themselves, do not
readily conceive that others may possess it ; they think
of inventions as of miracles ; there might be such for
merly, but they are ceased. With these, every one
who offers a new invention is deemed a pretender ; he
had it from some other country, or from some book ;
a man of their own acquaintance, one who has no
more sense than themselves, could not possibly, in
their opinion, have been the inventor of any thing.
They are confirmed, too, in these sentiments, by fre
quent instances of pretensions to invention, which
vanity is daily producing. That vanity, too, though
an incitement to invention, is, at the same time, the
pest of inventors. Jealousy and envy deny the merit
or the novelty of your invention ; but vanity, when
the novelty and merit are established, claims it for its
1 Mr. Franklin has since thought, an electric atmosphere upon them, and
that possibly the mutual repulsion of occasion it to stand chit-rly on the out-
the inner opposite sides of the electri- side ; but recommends it to the far-
cal can may prevent the accumulating ther examination of the curious.
4 o 4 THE WORKS OF [1755
own. The smaller your invention is, the more morti
fication you receive in having the credit of it disputed
with you by a rival, whom the jealousy and envy of
others are ready to support against you, at least so
far as to make the point doubtful. It is not in itself
of importance enough for a dispute ; no one would
think your proofs and reasons worth their attention ;
and yet, if you do not dispute the point, and demon
strate your right, you not only lose the credit of being
in that instance ingenious, but you suffer the disgrace
of not being ingenuous ; not only of being a plagiary,
but of being plagiary for trifles. Had the invention
been greater, it would have disgraced you less ; for
men have not so contemptible an idea of him that
robs for gold on the highway, as of him that can pick
pockets for half-pence and farthings. Thus, through
envy, jealousy, and the vanity of competitors for fame,
the origin of many of the most extraordinary inven
tions, though produced within but a few centuries
past, is involved in doubt and uncertainty. We scarce
know to whom we are indebted for the compass, and
spectacles, nor have even paper and printing, that re
cord every thing else, been able to preserve with cer
tainty the name and reputation of their inventors.
One would not, therefore, of all faculties or qualities
of the mind, wish, for a friend or a child, that he
should have that of invention. For his attempts to
benefit mankind in that way, however well imagined,
if they do not succeed, expose him, though very un
justly, to general ridicule and contempt ; and, if they
do succeed, to envy, robbery, and abuse.
I am, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 405
CXVII.
TO M. DALIBARD, AT PARIS, ENCLOSED IN A LETTER TO
PETER COLLINSON.
READ AT THE ROYAL SOCIETY, DECEMBER l8, 1755.
PHILADELPHIA, 29 June, 1755.
SIR : You desire my opinion of Pere Beccaria s
Italian book. 1 I have read it with much pleasure,
and think it one of the best pieces on the subject
that I have seen in any language. Yet, as to the
article of Water-spouts, I am not at present of his
sentiments ; though I must own, with you, that he
has handled it very ingeniously. Mr. Collinson has
my opinion of whirlwinds and water-spouts at large,
written some time since. I know not whether they
will be published ; if not, I will get them transcribed
for your perusal. 2 It does not appear to me that
Pere Beccaria doubts of the absolute impermeability oj
glass in the sense I mean it ; for the instances he
gives of holes made through glass, by the electric
stroke, are such as we have all experienced, and only
show that the electric fluid could not pass without
making a hole. In the same manner we say glass is
impermeable to water, and yet a stream from a fire-
engine will force through the strongest panes of a
window. As to the effect of points in drawing the
1 This work is written, conformably a Beccaria wrote a long letter to
to Mr. Franklin s theory, upon artifi- Franklin, dated at Turin, December
cial and natural electricity, which 24, 1757, giving an account of several
compose the two parts of it. It was experiments made by him in electricity,
printed in Italian, at Turin, in quarto, illustrative of Franklin s principles.
*753 ; betwen the two parts is a letter The letter, written in Latin, is con-
to the Abbe Nollet, in defence of Mr. tained in the " Philosophical Transac-
Franklin s system. J. BEVIS. tions," Vol. LI., p. 514.
406 THE WORKS OF [1755
electric matter from the clouds, and thereby securing
buildings, &c., which, you say, he seems to doubt, I
must own I think he only speaks modestly and judi
ciously. I find I have been but partly understood in
that matter. I have mentioned it in several of my
letters, and, except once, always in the alternative,
viz., that pointed rods erected on buildings, and com
municating with the moist earth, would either prevent
a stroke, or, if not prevented, would conduct it, so as
that the building should suffer no damage. Yet,
whenever my opinion is examined in Europe, nothing
is considered but the probability of those rods pre
venting a stroke or explosion, which is only a part of
the use I proposed for them ; and the other part, their
conducting a stroke, which they may happen not to
prevent, seems to be totally forgotten, though of
equal importance and advantage.
I thank you for communicating M. de Buffon s re
lation of the effect of lightning at Dijon, on the 7th
of June last. In return, give me leave to relate an
instance I lately saw of the same kind. Being in the
town of Newbury in New England, in November
last, I was shown the effect of lightning on their
church, which had been struck a few months before.
The steeple was a square tower of wood, reaching
seventy feet up from the ground to the place where
the bell hung, over which rose a taper spire, of wood
likewise, reaching seventy feet higher, to the vane of
the weather-cock. Near the bell was fixed an iron
hammer to strike the hours ; and from the tail of the
hammer a wire went down through a small gimlet-
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 407
hole in the floor that the bell stood upon, and
through a second floor in like manner ; then hori
zontally under and near the plastered ceiling of that
second floor, till it came near a plastered wall ; then
down by the side of that wall to a clock, which
stood about twenty feet below the bell. The wire
was not bigger than a common knitting-needle. The
spire was split all to pieces by the lightning, and
the parts flung in all directions over the square in
which the church stood, so that nothing remained
above the bell.
The lightning passed between the hammer and the
clock in the abovementioned wire, without hurting
either of the floors, or having any effect upon them
(except making the gimlet-holes, through which the
wire passed, a little bigger), and without hurting the
plastered wall, or any part of the building, so far as
the aforesaid wire and the pendulum-wire of the clock
extended ; which latter wire was about the thickness
of a goose-quill. From the end of the pendulum,
down quite to the ground, the building was exceed
ingly rent and damaged, and some stones in the
foundation-wall torn out, and thrown to the distance
of twenty or thirty feet. No part of the aforemen
tioned long, small wire, between the clock and the
hammer, could be found, except about two inches that
hung to the tail of the hammer, and about as much that
was fastened to the clock ; the rest being exploded,
and its particles dissipated in smoke and air, as gun
powder is by common fire, and had only left a black
smutty track on the plastering, three or four inches
408 THE WORKS OF [1755
broad, darkest in the middle, and fainter towards the
edges, all along the ceiling, under which it passed,
and down the wall. These were the effects and ap
pearances ; on which I would only make the following
remarks, viz.
1. That lightning, in its passage through a build
ing, will leave wood to pass as far as it can in metal,
and not enter the wood again till the conductor of
metal ceases.
And the same I have observed in other instances,
as to walls of brick or stone.
2. The quantity of lightning that passed through
this steeple must have been very great, by its effects
on the lofty spire above the bell, and on the square
tower, all below the end of the clock-pendulum.
3. Great as this quantity was, it was conducted by
a small wire and a clock-pendulum, without the least
damage to the building so far as they extended.
4. The pendulum rod, being of a sufficient thick
ness, conducted the lightning without damage to it
self ; but the small wire was utterly destroyed.
5. Though the small wire was itself destroyed, yet
it had conducted the lightning with safety to the
buildin g- lU^-
6. And from the whole it seems probable that if
even such a small wire had been extended from the
spindle of the vane to the earth, before the storm, no
damage would have been done to the steeple by that
stroke of lightning, though the wire itself had been
destroyed.
B. FRANKLIN.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 409
CXVIII.
TO PETER COLLINSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 25 August, 1755.
DEAR SIR : As you have my former papers on
whirlwinds, &c., I now send you an account of one
which I had lately an opportunity of seeing and ex
amining myself.
Being in Maryland, riding with Colonel Tasker,
and some other gentlemen, to his country-seat, where
I and my son were entertained by that amiable and
worthy man with great hospitality and kindness, we
saw, in the vale below us, a small whirlwind begin
ning in the road, and showing itself by the dust it
raised and contained. It appeared in the form of a
sugar-loaf, spinning on its point, moving up the hill
towards us, and enlarging as it came forward. When
it passed by us, its smaller part near the ground ap
peared no bigger than a common barrel ; but, widen
ing upwards, it seemed, at forty or fifty feet high, to
be twenty or thirty feet in diameter. The rest of the
company stood looking after it ; but, my curiosity
being stronger, I followed it, riding close by its side,
and observed its licking up, in its progress, all the
dust that was under its smaller part. As it is a com
mon opinion that a shot, fired through a water-spout,
will break it, I tried to break this little whirlwind, by
striking my whip frequently through it, but without
any effect. Soon after, it quitted the road and took
into the woods, growing every moment larger and
stronger, raising, instead of clust, the old dry leaves
4 io THE WORKS OF [1755
with which the ground was thick covered, and making
a great noise with them and the branches of the trees,
bending some tall trees round in a circle swiftly and
very surprisingly, though the progressive motion of
the whirl was not so swift but that a man on foot
might have kept pace with it ; but the circular motion
was amazingly rapid. By the leaves it was now filled
with, I could plainly perceive that the current of air
they were driven by moved upwards in a spiral line ;
and when I saw the passing whirl continue entire,
after leaving the trunks and bodies of large trees
which it had enveloped, I no longer wondered that
my whip had no effect on it in its smaller state. I
accompanied it about three quarters of a mile, till
some limbs of dead trees, broken off by the whirl,
flying about and falling near me, made me more ap
prehensive of danger ; and then I stopped, looking at
the top of it as it went on, which was visible, by
means of the leaves contained in it, for a very great
height above the trees. Many of the leaves, as they
got loose from the upper and widest part, were scat
tered in the wind ; but so great was their height in
the air, that they appeared no bigger than flies. My
son, who was by this time come up with me, followed
the whirlwind till it left the woods, and crossed an
old tobacco-field, where, finding neither dust nor
leaves to take up, it gradually became invisible be
low, as it went away over the field. The course of
the general wind then blowing was along with us as
we travelled, and the progressive motion of the whirl
wind was in a direction nearly opposite, though it did
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 411
not keep a straight line, nor was its progressive mo
tion uniform, it making little sallies on either hand as
it went, proceeding sometimes faster and sometimes
slower, and seeming sometimes for a few seconds al
most stationary, then starting forward pretty fast
again. When we rejoined the company, they were
admiring the vast height of the leaves now brought
by the common wind over our heads. These leaves
accompanied us as we travelled, some falling now
and then round about us, and some not reaching the
ground till we had gone near three miles from the
place where we first saw the whirlwind begin. Upon
my asking Colonel Tasker if such whirlwinds were
common in Maryland, he answered pleasantly : " No,
not at all common ; but we got this on purpose
to treat Mr. Franklin." And a very high treat it
was to,
Dear Sir,
Your affectionate friend and humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXIX.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, 31 August, 1755.
DEAR FRIEND : I have been employed almost all
this summer in the service of an unfortunate army,
and other public affairs, that have brought me greatly
in arrear with my correspondents. I have lost the
pleasure of conversing with them, and I have lost my
labor. I wish these were the only losses of the year ;
4 i2 THE WORKS OF [1755
but we have lost a number of brave men, and all our
credit with the Indians. I fear these losses may soon
be productive of more and greater.
I have had no opportunity of making the inquiry
you desired relating to Leonard. Somerset County
in Maryland is one hundred and fifty miles from
hence, and out of the common road of travellers or
the post ; nor have I any correspondent or acquaint
ance there. But now, while I am writing, I recollect
a friend I have at Newtown, within fifty miles of
Somerset, who has a very general knowledge of those
parts and of the people, as he practises the law in all
the counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I
will immediately write to him about it.
I am sorry your newspapers miscarry. If your
riders are not more careful I must order them to be
changed. The Mitchell, who made the map, is our
Dr. Mitchell. I send you one of Evans s new maps,
which I imagine will be agreeable to you. Please to
accept it. I am glad to hear your son has acquired
the art of making steel. I hope it will prove profit
able. Mr. Roberts is pleased that you so kindly
accept his fork and rake. I suppose he will write to
you ; but he is a man of much business, and does not
love writing. I shall learn once more (for he told
me once and I have forgotten it) how those teeth are
put in and send you word ; but perhaps our friend
Bartram can tell you. He delivers you this, and I
need not recommend him to you, for you are already
acquainted with his merit, though not with his face
and person. You will have a great deal of pleasure
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 413
in one another s conversation. I wish I could be
within hearing, but that cannot be. He is upon one
of his rambles in search of knowledge, and intends to
view both your sea-coast and back country.
Remember me kindly to Mr. Tufts and Mr. Rug-
gles when you see them. My respects to your good
lady and family. With the greatest esteem, I am,
dear Sir, your most affectionate, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXX.
TO JARED ELIOT.
PHILADELPHIA, i September, 1755.
DEAR SIR : I wrote to you yesterday, and now I
write again. You will say, It cant rain, but it pours ;
for I not only send you mamiscript but living letters.
The former may be short, but the latter will be longer
and yet more agreeable. Mr. Bartram I believe you
will find to be at least twenty folio pages, large paper
well filled, on the subjects of botany, fossils, hus
bandry, and the first creation. This Mr. Alison is
as many or more on agriculture, philosophy, your
own catholic divinity, and various other points of
learning equally useful and engaging. Read them
both. It will take you at least a week ; and then
answer by sending me two of the like kind, or by
coming yourself. If you fail of this, I shall think I
have overbalanced my epistolary account, and that
you will be in my debt as a correspondent for at least
twelve months to come.
414 THE WORKS OF [1755
I remember with pleasure the cheerful hours I en
joyed last winter in your company, and would with
all my heart give any ten of the thick old folios that
stand on the shelves before me for a little book of the
stories you then told with so much propriety and hu
mor. Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever
yours affectionately, B. FRANKLIN.
CXXI.
TO MISS CATHERINE RAY.
PHILADELPHIA, n September, 1755.
Begone, business, for an hour, at least, and let me
chat a little with my Katy.
I have now before me, my dear girl, three of
your favors, viz., of March the 3d, March the 3Oth,
and May the ist. The first I received just before
I set out on a long journey, and the others while I
was on that journey, which held me near six weeks.
Since my return I have been in such a perpetual
hurry of public affairs of various kinds, as renders it
impracticable for me to keep up my private corre
spondences, even those that afforded me the greatest
pleasure.
You ask in your last how I do, and what I am
doing, and whether everybody loves me yet, and why
I make them do so.
In regard to the first, I can say, thanks to God,
that I do not remember I was ever better. I still
relish all the pleasures of life that a temperate man
can in reason desire, and through favor I have them
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 415
all in my power. This happy situation shall continue
as long as God pleases, who knows what is best for
his creatures, and I hope will enable me to bear with
patience and dutiful submission any change he may
think fit to make that is less agreeable. As to the
second question, I must confess (but don t you be
jealous) that many more people love me now than
ever did before ; for since I saw you I have been en
abled to do some general services to the country and
to the army, for which both have thanked and praised
me, and say they love me. They say so, as you used
to do ; and if I were to ask any favors of them, they
would, perhaps, as readily refuse me ; so that I find
little real advantage in being beloved, but it pleases
my humor.
Now it is near four months since I have been fa
vored with a single line from you ; but I will not be
angry with you, because it is my fault. I ran in debt
to you three or four letters, and, as I did not pay,
you would not trust me any more, and you had some
reason. But, believe me, I am honest, and, though
I should never make equal returns, you shall see I
will keep fair accounts. Equal returns I can never
make, though I should write to you by every post ;
for the pleasure I receive from one of yours is more
than you can have from two of mine. The small
news, the domestic occurrences among our friends,
the natural pictures you draw of persons, the sensible
observations and reflections you make, and the easy,
chatty manner in which you express every thing, all
contribute to heighten the pleasure ; and the more as
4 i6 THE WORKS OF [1755
they remind me of those hours and miles that we
talked away so agreeably, even in a winter journey,
a wrong 1 road, and a soaking shower.
I long to hear whether you have continued ever
since in that monastery I ; or have broke into the
world again, doing petty mischief ; how the lady
Wards do, and how many of them are married, or
about it ; what is become of Mr. B - and Mr. L ,
and what the state of your heart is at this instant ?
But that, perhaps, I ought not to know ; and, therefore,
I will not conjure, as you sometimes say I do. If I
could conjure, it should be to know what was that
oddest question aboitt me that ever was thought of,
which you tell me a lady had just sent to ask you.
I commend your prudent resolutions, in the article
of granting favors to lovers. But if I were courting
you, I could not hardly approve such conduct. I
should even be malicious enough to say you were
too knowing, and tell you the old story of The Girl
and the Miller. I enclose you the songs you write
for, and with them your Spanish letter with a transla
tion. I honor that honest Spaniard for loving you.
It showed the goodness of his taste and judgment.
But you must forget him, and bless some worthy
young Englishman.
You have spun a long thread, five thousand and
twenty-two yards. It will reach almost from Rhode
Island hither. I wish I had hold of one end of it, to
pull you to me. But you would break it rather than
come. The cords of love and friendship are longer
1 Block Island.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 417
and stronger, and in times past have drawn me far
ther ; even back from England to Philadelphia. I
guess that some of the same kind will one day draw
you out of that Island.
I was extremely pleased with the - you sent
me. The Irish people, who have seen it, say it is
the right sort ; but I cannot learn that we have any
thing like it here. The cheeses, particularly one of
them, were excellent. All our friends have tasted it,
and all agree that it exceeds any English cheese they
ever tasted. Mrs. Franklin was very proud, that a
young lady should have so much regard for her old
husband, as to send him such a present. We talk
of you every time it comes to table. She is sure you
are a sensible girl, and a notable housewife, and talks
of bequeathing me to you as a legacy ; but I ought
to wish you a better, and hope she will live these
hundred years ; for we are grown old together, and if
she has any faults, I am so used to them that I don t
perceive them ; as the song says,
" Some faults we have all, and so has my Joan,
But then they re exceedingly small ;
And, now I m grown used to them, so like my own,
I scarcely can see them at all ;
My dear friends,
I scarcely can see them at all." 1
1 The author here quotes a Stanza These twelve years my wife, still the joy
from one of his own " Songs," written -,,, of , my ! lfe \
, , T T , , & . , . Blest day that I made her my own.
for the Junto. It has been printed m
Professor McVickar s " Life of Dr. " Not a word of her face, of her shape, or her
Samuel Bard." Or of flames, or of darts, you shall hear ;
I beauty admire, but virtue I prize,
MY PLAIN COUNTRY JOAN ; A SONG. That fades not in seventy year.
41 Of their Chloes and Phyllises poets may " Am I loaded with care, she takes off a large
prate, share,
I sing my plain country Joan, That the burden ne er makes me to reel ;
4i8
THE WORKS OF
Indeed, I begin to think she has none, as I think of
you. And since she is willing I should love you, as
much as you are willing to be loved by me, let us
join in wishing the old lady a long life and a happy.
With her respectful compliments to you, to your
good mother and sisters, present mine, though un
known ; and believe me to be, dear girl, your affec
tionate friend and humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. Sally says : " Papa, my love to Miss Katy."
If it was not quite unreasonable, I should desire you
to write to me every post, whether you hear from me
or not. As to your spelling, don t let those laughing
girls put you out of conceit with it. It is the best in
the world, for every letter of it stands for something.
CXXII.
TO WILLIAM SHIRLEY.
PHILADELPHIA, 23 October, 1755.
SIR : I beg leave to return your Excellency my
most sincere and hearty thanks for your letter of the
1 7th of September, with the orders for the payment of
wagon owners, and an extract of your orders to Colonel
Dunbar, forbidding the enlistment of servants and
Does good fortune arrive, the joy of my wife
Quite doubles the pleasure I feel.
She defends my good name, even when I m
to blame,
Firm friend as to man e er was given ;
Her compassionate breast feels for all the
distressed,
Which draws down more blessings from
heaven.
In health a companion delightful and dear,
Still easy, engaging, and free ;
In sickness no less than the carefulest
nurse,
As tender as tender can be.
In peace and good order my household she
guides,
Right careful to save what I gain ;
Yet cheerfully spends, and smiles on the
friends
I ve the pleasure to entertain.
" Some faults have we all, and so has my
Joan,
But then they re exceedingly small,
And, now I m grown used to them, so like
my own
I scarcely can see them at all.
" Were the finest young princess, with millions
in purse,
To be had in exchange for my Joan,
I could not get better wife, might get a
worse,
So I 11 stick to my dearest old Joan."
i755l BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 4 1 9
apprentices. 1 Acts of justice so readily done become
great favors, which I hope will be ever gratefully ac
knowledged by this people in actions as well as words.
I have also your favor of the 5th instant. Govern
or Morris is gone to Newcastle, to meet the Assem
bly of the Lower Counties, so that I cannot at pres
ent see the papers you refer me to, but I shall wait
upon him in my journey to Virginia ; and if, on pe
rusing those papers, any thing seeming worthy of your
notice should occur to me, I shall communicate my
sentiments to you with that honest freedom which
you always approve.
This journey, which I cannot now avoid, will de
prive me of the pleasure of waiting on your Excel
lency in New York at the time you mention. I hear,
too, that the governor does not purpose to send any
commissioners thither, but to go himself. I know
not what is to be the particular subject of your con
sultations ; but as I believe all your schemes have
*At this time General Shirley was balance, stating as a reason, that he
Governor of Massachusetts. He was preferred not to mix up his accounts
with the army at Oswego, as com- with those of his predecessors ; and,
mander-in-chief of his Majesty s forces as Franklin was then on the point of
in America. It appears, that he never departing for England, he referred
entirely fulfilled the good intentions him to the treasury in London, where,
expressed in his letter. In his auto- he said, payment would immediately
biography, Dr. Franklin gives a par- be made. The application to the
ticular account of the services he treasury, however, was unsuccessful,
rendered to General Braddock, in pro- The closing paragraph of the Gov-
curing horses and wagons for his ex- ernor s letter ran as follows :
pedition. He expended, of his own " Though I am at present engaged
money, upwards of a thousands pounds in a great hurry of business, being to
sterling. This sum was in part re- move from hence in a very few days
turned by General Braddock, but the for Niagara, I cannot conclude with-
remainder was never paid. When out assuring you that I have the high-
Lord Loudoun succeeded General est sense of your public services in
Shirley, the accounts were examined general, and particularly that of en-
and compared with the vouchers by g a gi n g those wagons, without which
the proper officer, and certified to be General Braddock could not have pro-
right ; but Lord Loudoun declined giv- ceeded. I am, with great esteem, &c.
ing an order on the paymaster for the " W. SHIRLEY."
420 THE WORKS OF [1755
the King s service (which is the public good) in view,
I cannot but wish them success.
Our Assembly meets the beginning of December,
when I hope to be at home again ; and if any assist
ance is to be required of them and the people here,
depend on my faithful services, so far as my little
sphere of influence shall extend. With the highest
esteem and respect, I have the honor to be, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXXIII.
TO JAMES READ.
PHILADELPHIA, 2 November, 1755.
DEAR SIR : I have your letter by Mr. Sea, and
one just now by express. I am glad to hear the arms
are well got up ; they are the best that we could pro
cure. I wish they were better ; but they are well
fortified, will bear a good charge, and I should
imagine they would do good service with swan or
buck shot, if not so fit for single ball. I have been
ill these eight days, confined to my room and bed
most of the time, but am now getting better. I have,
however, done what I could in sending about to pur
chase arms, &c., for the supply of the frontiers, and
can now spare you fifty more, which I shall send up
to-morrow with some flints, lead, swan-shot, and a
barrel of gunpowder. The arms will be under your
care and Mr. Weiser s, 1 you being gentlemen in com
mission from the governor. Keep an account of
1 Conrad Weiser, celebrated as an highly respected for his character, and
Indian interpreter for many years, of great influence with the Indians.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 421
whose hands you put them into. Let them be pru
dent, sober, careful men, such as will not rashly hurt
our friends with them, and such as will honestly re
turn them when peace shall be happily restored.
I sincerely commiserate the distress of your out
settlers. The Assembly sit to-morrow, and there is
no room to doubt of their hearty endeavours to do
every thing necessary for the country s safety. I
wish the same disposition may be found in the gov
ernor, and I hope it. I have put off my journey to
Virginia, and you may depend on my best services
for the common welfare, so far as my little influence
extends. I am your affectionate kinsman and humble
servant, B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. My best respects to Mr. Weiser. Nine
hundred arms with ammunition have been sent up by
the Committee of Assembly to different parts of the
frontier.
CXXIV.
AN ACT
FOR THE BETTER ORDERING AND REGULATING SUCH AS ARE
WILLING AND DESIROUS TO BE UNITED FOR MILITARY PUR
POSES IN PENNSYLVANIA.
Whereas this province was first settled by (and a
majority of the Assemblies have ever since been of)
1 The defeat of General Braddock at hitherto prevented the establishment
the battle of the Monongahela, on the of any efficient militia system. To
gth of July, 1755, had filled the peo- meet the crisis, Franklin drew up the
pie of Pennsylvania with alarm. The following act for embodying and disci-
Assembly at its next session made a plining a voluntary militia. It was
large grant in money for purposes of carried through the House, he says,
defence. The doctrine of non-resist- without much difficulty, because care
ance, which was a part of the creed of had been taken to leave the Quakers
a large portion of the population, had at liberty.
422 THE WORKS OF [1755
the people called Quakers, who, though they do not,
as the world is now circumstanced, condemn the use
of arms in others, yet are principled against bearing
arms themselves ; and to make any law to compel
them thereto against their consciences, would be not
only to violate a fundamental in our constitution, and
be a direct breach of our charter of privileges, but
would also in effect be to commence persecution
against all that part of the inhabitants of the province ;
and for them by any law to compel others to bear
arms, and exempt themselves, would be inconsistent
and partial ; yet forasmuch as, by the general tolera
tion and equity of our laws, great numbers of people
of other religious denominations are come among
us, who are under no such restraint, some of whom
have been disciplined in the art of war, and conscien
tiously think it their duty to fight in defence of their
country, their wives, their families, and estates, and
such have an equal right to liberty of conscience with
others ; and whereas a great number of petitions from
the several counties of this province have been pre
sented to this House, setting forth that the petitioners
are very willing to defend themselves and their
country, and desirous of being formed into regular
bodies for that purpose, instructed and disciplined
under proper officers with suitable and legal authority ;
representing withal, that unless measures of this kind
are taken, so as to unite them together, subject them
to due command, and thereby give them confidence
in each other, they cannot assemble to oppose the
enemy without the utmost danger of exposing them
selves to confusion and destruction ;
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 423
And whereas the voluntary assembling of great
bodies of armed men from different parts of the prov
ince on any occasional alarm, whether true or false, as
of late hath happened, without call or authority from
the government, and without due order and direction
among themselves, may be attended with danger to
our neighbouring Indian friends and allies, as well as
to the internal peace of the province ;
And whereas the governor hath frequently recom
mended it to the Assembly, that, in preparing and
passing a law for such purposes, they should have a
due regard for scrupulous and tender consciences,
which cannot be done where compulsive means are
used to force men into military service ; therefore, as
we represent all the people of the province, and are
composed of members of different religious persua
sions, we do not think it reasonable that any should,
through a want of legal powers, be in the least re
strained from doing what they judge it their duty to
do for their own security and the public good ; we,
in compliance with the said petitions and recommen
dations, do offer it to the governor to be enacted,
and be it enacted by the Honorable Robert Hunter
Morris, with the King s royal approbation lieutenant-
governor, under Thomas Penn and Richard Penn,
true and absolute proprietors of the province of Penn
sylvania, and of the counties of Newcastle, Kent, and
Sussex, upon Delaware, by and with the advice and
consent of the representatives of the freemen of the
said province in General Assembly met, and by the
authority of the same, that, from and after the pub-
424 THE WORKS OF [1755
lication of this act, it shall and may be lawful for the
freemen of this province to form themselves into
companies, as heretofore they have used in time of
war without law, and for each company, by majority
of votes in the way of ballot, to choose its own of
ficers, to wit, a captain, lieutenant, and ensign, and
present them to the governor or commander-in-chief
for the time being for his approbation ; which officers
so chosen, if approved and commissioned by him,
shall be the captain, lieutenant, and ensign of each
company respectively, according to their commis
sions ; and the { said companies being divided into
regiments by the governor or commander-in-chief, it
shall and may be lawful for the officers so chosen and
commissioned for the several companies of each regi
ment to meet together, and by majority of votes; in
the way of ballot, to choose a colonel, lieutenant-col
onel, and major for the regiment, and present them
to the governor or commander-in-chief for his appro
bation ; which officers so chosen, if approved and
commissioned by him, shall be the colonel, lieutenant-
colonel, and major of the regiment, according to their
commissions, during the continuance of this act.
Provided always, that if the governor or com
mander-in-chief shall not think fit to grant his com
mission to any officer so first chosen and presented,
it shall and may be lawful for the electors of such
officer to choose two other persons in his stead, and
present them to the governor or commander-in-chief,
one of whom, at his pleasure, shall receive his com
mission, and be the officer as aforesaid.
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 425
And be it further enacted by the authority afore
said, that as soon as the said companies and regiments
are formed, and their officers commissioned as afore
said, it shall and may be lawful to and for the gov
ernor or commander-in-chief, by and with the advice
and consent of the colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and
majors of all the regiments, being for that purpose by
him called and convened, or by and with the advice
and consent of a majority of the said officers that
shall be met and present together on such call, to
form, make, and establish articles of war, for the bet
ter government of the forces that shall be under their
command, and for bringing offenders against the
same to justice, and to erect and constitute courts-
martial, with power to hear, try, and determine any
crimes or offences by such articles of war, and in
flict penalties by sentence or judgment of the same
on those who shall be subject thereto in any place
within this province. Which articles of war, when
made as aforesaid, shall be printed and distributed
to the captains of the several companies, and by
them distinctly read to their respective companies ;
and all and every captain, lieutenant, ensign, or
other freeman who shall, after at least three days
consideration of the said articles, voluntarily sign
the same, in presence of some one justice of the
peace, acknowledging his having perused or heard
the same distinctly read, and that he has well con
sidered thereof, and is willing to be bound and gov
erned thereby, and promises obedience thereto, and to
his officers accordingly, shall henceforth be deemed
426 THE WORKS OF [1755
well and duly bound to the observance of the said
articles, and to the duties thereby required, and sub
ject to the pains, penalties, punishments, and forfeit
ures that may therein be appointed for disobedience
and other offences.
Provided always that the articles, so to be made
and established, shall contain nothing repugnant,
but be as near as possible conformable, to the mil
itary laws of Great Britain, and to the articles of
war made and established by his Majesty in pursu
ance of the last act of Parliament for punishing
mutiny and desertion, the different circumstances of
this province compared with Great Britain, and of
a voluntary militia of freemen compared with mer
cenary standing troops, being duly weighed and ma
turely considered.
Provided, also, that nothing in this act shall be un
derstood or construed to give any power or authority
to the governor or commander-in-chief, and the said
officers, to make any articles or rules that shall in the
least affect those of the inhabitants of the province who
are conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, either
in their liberties, persons, or estates ; nor any other
persons of what persuasion or denomination soever,
who have not first voluntarily and freely signed the
said articles after due consideration as aforesaid.
Provided, also, that no youth under the age of
twenty-one years, nor any bought servant or in
dented apprentice, shall be admitted to enroll him
self, or be capable of being enrolled, in the said com
panies or regiments, without the consent of his or
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 427
their parents or guardians, masters or mistresses, in
writing, under their hands first had and obtained.
Provided, also, that no enlistment or enrolment of
any person in any of the companies or regiments to
be formed and raised as aforesaid, shall protect such
person in any suit or civil action brought against him
by his creditors or others, except during his being in
actual service in field or garrison ; nor from a prosecu
tion for any offence committed against the laws of this
province.
Provided, also, that no regiment, company, or
party of volunteers shall, by virtue of this act, be
compelled or led more than three days march beyond
the inhabited parts of the province ; nor detained
longer than three weeks in any garrison, without an
express engagement for that purpose, first volun
tarily entered into and subscribed by every man so to
march or remain in garrison.
This act to continue in force until the 3Oth day of
October next, and no longer.
cxxv.
TO WILLIAM PARSONS. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 5 December, 1755.
DEAR SIR : I received your favor of November
25th, and take this first opportunity of acquainting
you, that an act is passed granting ,60,000 chiefly
J William Parsons was one of the afterwards Surveyor-General of Penn-
earliest members of the Junto, formed sylvania. When this letter was writ-
by Franklin soon after he established ten he was at Easton. He died in
himself in Philadelphia. He was 1758.
428 THE WORKS OF [1755
for the defence of the province, and is to be disposed
of for that purpose, by seven persons, namely, Isaac
Norris, James Hamilton,]. Mifflin, Joseph Fox, Evan
Morgan, John Hughes, and your old friend. We
meet every day, Sundays not excepted, and have a
good agreement with the governor. Three hundred
men are ordered to be immediately raised on pay, to
range the frontiers, and blockhouses for stages to be
erected at proper distances and garrisoned ; so that I
hope in a little time to see things in a better posture.
A militia act is also passed, of which, if people are
well disposed, a good use may be made, and bodies
of men be ready on any occasion to assist and
support the rangers. All parties laid aside, let you
and I use our influence to carry this act into execu
tion.
I received also your letter of the 27th, relating the
unhappy affair of Gnadenhutten, and desiring arms.
I have accordingly procured and sent up by a wagon
to one George Overpack s, a chest of arms containing
fifty, and five loose, fifty-five in all, of which twenty-
five are for Easton, and thirty to be disposed of to
such persons nearest danger on the frontiers, who are
without arms and unable to buy, as yourself with
Messrs. Atkins and Martin may judge most proper ;
letting all know that the arms are only lent for their
defence, that they belong to the public, and must be
held forthcoming when the government shall demand
them, for which each man should give his note. By
the same wagon we send twenty-five guns for Lehigh
township, and ten for Bethlehem to the Moravian
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 429
Brethren, which make in all one hundred ; with which
goes one hundred weight of gunpowder, and four
hundred pounds of lead ; so there should be one
pound of powder arid four pounds of lead divided to
each man.
Who brought your last letter to me I know not, it
being left at my house. You mention sending a
wagon, and I daily expected to see the wagoner,
but he never called on me for an answer. Please
let me know by a line when you have received what
is sent. I am your affectionate friend and humble
servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXXVI.
TO WILLIAM PARSONS.
PHILADELPHIA, 15 December, 1755.
DEAR FRIEND: We received yours of the i3th.
You will before this time have received the arms and
ammunition, blankets, &c., sent up for an intended
ranging party. They may be made use of for the
defence of your town till we arrive. Captain Trump,
from Upper Dublin, marches the day after to-morrow
with fifty men to your assistance. The provisions
for their use go with them, so that they will not
burden you. Orders are gone to Captains Aston
and Wayne to march also with their companies
immediately. They will remain on your frontier
two or three months, till they can be relieved by
others.
43
THE WORKS OF
[i755
Mr. Hamilton and myself will set out on Thursday
to visit you, and erect blockhouses in proper places.
Think of suitable officers for raising and command
ing men to be kept in the province pay ; for Mr.
Hamilton does not know the people your way, nor
do I know whom to recommend. He will bring some
blank commissions with him. I enclose you twenty
pounds towards buying meal and meat for the poor
fugitives that take refuge with you. Be of good
courage, and God guide you. You friends will never
desert you. I am yours affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN.
1 Franklin was extremely active in
providing for the defence of the fron
tiers, as well by his personal efforts, as
in the capacity of one of the commis
sioners for that purpose. The follow
ing memoranda were found by Mr.
Duane among Franklin s papers.
" Considerations to be taken.
"What number of men?
" Should the post be fortified, and
in what manner?
" How long to be continued there ?
" Could they not be partly employed
in raising their own provisions ?
" Could they have some lots of land
assigned them for their encourage
ment ?
" What their pay ; and from what
funds ?
" How much the annual expense ?
"Is it certain that the late method
of giving rewards for apprehending
rioters will be effectual ?
" To whom does the land belong?"
In one of his letters he said : " The
fifty arms now sent are all furnished
with staples for sling straps, that, if
the governor should order a troop or
company of rangers on horseback, the
pieces may be slung at the horsemen s
backs. A party on the scout should
observe several rules to avoid being
tracked and surprised in their encamp
ments at night. This may be done
sometimes when they come to a creek
or run, by entering the run and
travelling up the stream or down the
stream, in the water, a mile or two,
and then encamp, the stream effacing
the track, and the enemy at a loss to
know whether the party went up or
down. Suppose a party marching from
A intends to halt at B, they do not go
straight to B and stop there, but pass by
at some little distance, and make a turn
which brings them thither. Between
B and C two or three
sentinels are placed
to watch the track, and
give immediate notice
at B, if they perceive
any party pass by in
pursuit, with an account
of the number, &c.,
which enables the party
at B to prepare and at
tack them if they judge
that proper, or gives
them time to escape.
But I add no more of
this kind, recollecting
that Mr. Weiser must be
much better acquainted with all these
things than I am."
B
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 431
CXXVII.
A DIALOGUE 1
BETWEEN X, Y, & Z, CONCERNING THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS IN
PENNSYLVANIA.
X. Your servant, Gentlemen ; I am glad to see you
at my house. Is there any thing new to-day ?
Y. We have been talking of the militia act ; have
you seen it?
X. Yes ; I have read it in the papers.
Z. And what do you think of it ?
X. The more I consider it, the better I like it. It
appears to me a very good act, and I am persuaded
will be of good use, if heartily carried into execution.
Z. Ay, that may be ; but who is to carry it into
execution ? It says that people may form them
selves into companies, and choose their own officers ;
but there is neither time nor place appointed for this
transaction, nor any person directed or empowered
to call them together.
X. It is true ; but methinks there are some words
that point out the method pretty plain to willing
minds. And it seems to me, that we who joined so
sincerely in the petitions for a militia law, and really
thought one absolutely necessary for the safety of
our country, should, now we have obtained the law,
rather endeavour to explain than invent difficulties
in the construction of it.
Y. What are those words you mention ?
X. Here is the act itself ; I will read that part of
1 This Dialogue, was first printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette, December 18.
1755.
432 THE WORKS OF [1755
it : " From and after the publication of this act, it
shall and may be lawful for the freemen of this prov
ince to form themselves into companies, as heretofore
they used in time of war without law, and for each
company, by majority of votes, in the way of ballot,
to choose its own officers, &c." The words I meant
are these : " as heretofore they used in time of
war." Now I suppose we have none of us forgot the
association in the time of the last war ; it is not so
long since, but that we may well enough remember
the method we took to form ourselves into com
panies, choose our officers, and present them to the
governor for approbation and commissions ; and the
act in question says plainly we may now lawfiilly do,
in this affair, what we then did without law.
Y. I did not before take so much notice of those
words, but, to be sure, the thing is easy enough ; for
I remember very well how we managed at that time.
And indeed it is easier to effect it now than it was
then ; for the companies and regiments, and their
districts, &c., were then all to form and settle. But
now why may not the officers of the old companies
call the old associators together, with such others in
the district of each company as incline to be con
cerned, and proceed immediately to a new choice by
virtue of the act ? Other new companies may in other
places be formed, as the associated companies were.
Z. You say right. And if this were all the objec
tion to the act, no doubt they would do so immedi
ately. But it is said there are other faults in it.
X. What are they ?
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 433
Z. The act is so loose that persons who never in
tended to engage in the militia, even Quakers, may
meet and vote in the choice of the officers.
X. Possibly ; but was any such thing observed in
the association elections?
Z. Not that I remember.
X. Why should it be more apprehended now than
it was at that time ? Can they have any motives to
such a conduct now, which they had not then ?
Z. I cannot say.
X. Nor can I. If a militia be necessary for the
safety of the province, I hope we shall not boggle at
this little difficulty. What else is objected ?
Z. I have heard this objected : That it were better
the governor should appoint the officers ; for, the
choice being in the people, a man very unworthy to
be an officer may happen to be popular enough to
get himself chosen by the undiscerning mob.
X. It is possible. And if all officers appointed by
governors were always men of merit, and fully quali
fied for their posts, it would be wrong ever to hazard
a popular election. It is reasonable, I allow, that the
commander-in-chief should not have officers abso
lutely forced upon him, in whom, from his knowledge
of their incapacity, he can place no confidence. And,
on the other hand, it seems likely that the people
will engage more readily in the service, and face
danger with more intrepidity when they are com
manded by a man they know and esteem, and on
whose prudence and courage, as well as good-will and
integrity, they can have reliance, than they would
434 THE WORKS OF [1755
under a man they either did not know or did not
like. For, supposing governors ever so judicious
and upright in the distribution of commissions, they
cannot know everybody in every part of the province,
and are liable to be imposed on by partial recom
mendations ; but the people generally know their
neighbours. And, to me, the act in question seems
to have hit a proper medium between the two modes
of appointing. The people choose, and if the gov
ernor approves, he grants the commission ; if not,
they are to choose a second, and even a third time.
Out of three choices it is probable one may be right ;
and where an officer is approved both by superiors
and inferiors, there is the greatest prospect of those
advantages that attend a good agreement in the ser
vice. This mode of choice is moreover agreeable to
the liberty and genius of our constitution. It is simi
lar to the manner in which by our laws sheriffs and
coroners are chosen and approved. And yet it has
more regard to the prerogative than the mode of
choice in some colonies, where the military officers
are either chosen absolutely by the companies them
selves, or by the House of Representatives, without
any negative on that choice, or any approbation
necessary from the governor.
Y. But is that agreeable to the English constitution ?
X. Considered in this light, I think it is ; British
subjects, by removing into America, cultivating a
wilderness, extending the dominion, and increasing
the wealth, commerce, and power of their mother
country at the hazard of their lives and fortunes,
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 435
ought not, and in fact do not, thereby lose their native
rights. There is a power in the crown to grant a
continuance of those rights to such subjects in any
part of the world, and to their posterity born in such
new country ; and for the farther encouragement and
reward of such merit, to grant additional liberties and
privileges, not used in England, but suited to the dif
ferent circumstances of different colonies. If then
the grants of those additional liberties and privileges
may be regularly made under an English constitution,
they may be enjoyed agreeably to that constitution.
Y. But the act is very short ; there are numberless
circumstances and occasions pertaining to a body of
armed men which are not, as they ought to have
been, expressly provided for in the act.
X. It is true there are not express provisions in
the act for all circumstances, but there is a power
lodged by the act in the governor and field-officers of
the regiments to make all such provisions in the arti
cles of war which they may form and establish.
Y. But can it be right in the legislature, by any
act, to delegate their power of making laws to
others ?
X. I believe not, generally ; but certainly in par
ticular cases it may. Legislatures may, and frequently
do, give to corporations power to make by-laws for
their own government. And in this case the act of
Parliament gives the power of making articles of war
for the government of the army to the King alone,
and there is no doubt but the Parliament understands
the rights of government.
436 THE WORKS OF [1755
K Are you sure the act of Parliament gives such
power ?
X. This is the act. The power I mention is here
in the 55th section : " Provided always, that it shall
and may be lawful to and for his Majesty to form,
make, and establish articles of war for the better gov
ernment of his Majesty s forces, and for bringing
offenders against the same to justice ; and to erect
and constitute courts : martial, with power to try, hear,
and determine any crimes or offences by such articles
of war, and inflict penalties by sentence or judgment
of the same." And here you see, bound up with the ""
act, the articles of war, made by his Majesty in pur
suance of the act, and providing for every circum
stance.
Z. It is, sure enough. I had been told that our /
act of Assembly was impertinently singular in this
particular.
X. The governor himself, in a message to the
House, expressly recommended this act of Parliament
for their imitation, in forming the militia bill.
Z. I never heard that before.
X. But it is, true. The Assembly, however, con-
sidering that this militia would consist chiefly of free
holders, have varied a little from that part of the act
of Parliament, in favor of liberty ; they have not given
the sole power of making those articles of war to the
governor, as that act does to the^ King ; but have
joined with the governor, for that purpose, a number
of officers to be chosen by the people. The articles,
moreover, are not to be general laws, binding on all
17551 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 437
the province, nor on any man who has not first ap
proved of them and voluntarily engaged to observe
them.
Z. Is there no danger that the govern6r and offi
cers may make those articles too severe ?
X. Not without you can suppose them enemies to
the service and to their country ; for, if they should
make such as are unfit for freemen and Englishmen
to be subjected to, they will get no soldiers ; nobody
will engage. In some cases, however, if you and I
were in actual service, I believe we should both think
it necessary for our own safety, that the articles should
be pretty severe.
Z. What cases are they ?
X. Suppose a sentinel should betray his trust, give
intelligence to the enemy, or conduct them into our
quarters.
Z. To be sure there should be severe punishments
for such crimes, or we might all be mined. /
X. Choose reasonable men for your officers, and
you need not fear their making reasonable laws ; and
if they make such, I hope reasonable men will not
refuse to engage under them. ,
Y. But here is a thing I do not like. By this act
of Assembly the Quakers are neither compelled to
muster nor to pay a fine if they do not.
X. It is true ; nor could they be compelled either
to muster or pay a fine of that kind by any militia
law made here. They are exempted by the charter
and fundamental laws of the province.
Y. How so ?
438 THE WORKS OF [1755
X. See here ; it is the first clause in the charter.
I will read it : " Because no people can be truly
happy, though under the greatest enjoyment of civil
liberties, if abridged of the freedom of their consciences
as to their religious profession and worship ; and Al
mighty God being the only lord of conscience, father
of lights and spirits, and the author as well as object
of all divine knowledge, faith, and worship, who only
doth enlighten the minds, and persuade and convince
the understandings of people, I do hereby grant
and declare, That no person or persons inhabiting
in this province or territories, who shall confess and
acknowledge one Almighty God, the creator, up
holder, and ruler of the world, and profess him or
themselves obliged to live quietly under the civil gov
ernment, shall be, IN ANY CASE, MOLESTED OR PREJU
DICED in his or their PERSON OR ESTATE because of his
or their conscientious persuasion or practice, nor be
compelled to frequent or maintain any religious wor
ship, place, or ministry, contrary to his or their mind,
Or tO DO OR SUFFER ANY OTHER ACT OR THING, Contrary
to their religious persuasion." And, in the 8th sec
tion of the same charter, you see a declaration, that
" neither the proprietor, nor his heirs or assigns, shall
procure or do any thing or things whereby the liber
ties in this charter contained or expressed, nor any
part thereof, shall be infringed or broken ; and if any
thing shall be procured or done by any person or per
sons contrary to these presents, it shall be held of NO
FORCE OR EFFECT. " This liberty of conscience, granted
by charter, is also established by the first law in our
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 439
book, and confirmed by the crown. And, moreover,
the governor has an express instruction from the pro
prietaries, that, in case of making any militia law, he
shall take especial care that the charter be not in
fringed in this respect. Besides, most of our peti
tions for a militia from the moderate part of the peo
ple requested particularly that due regard might be
had to scrupulous and tender consciences. When
taxes are raised, however, for the King s service, the
Quakers and Menonists pay their part of them, and a
great part ; for, as their frugality and industry make
them generally wealthy, their proportion is the greater
compared with their numbers. And out of these
taxes those men are paid who go into actual service.
As for mustering and training, no militia are any
where paid for that. It is by many justly delighted
in, as a manly exercise. But those who are engaged
in actual service for any time ought undoubtedly to
have pay.
Y. There is no provision in this militia act to pay
them.
X. There is a provision that no regiment, com
pany, or party, though engaged in the militia, shall
be obliged " to more than three days march, &c.,
without an express engagement for that purpose, first
voluntarily entered into and subscribed by every man,
so to march or remain in garrison." And it is to be
supposed that no man will subscribe such particular
engagement without reasonable pay or other encour
agement.
Y. But where is that pay to come from ?
440 THE WORKS OF [1755
X. From the government to be sure ; and out of
the money struck by the act for granting ,60,000.
Z. Yes ; but those who serve must pay a share of
the tax, as well as those who do not.
X. Perhaps not. It is to be supposed that those
who engage in the service for any time, upon pay,
will be chiefly single men, and they are expressly ex
empted from the tax by the ,60,000 act. Conse
quently those who do not serve must pay the more ;
for the sum granted must be made up.
Z. I never heard before that they were exempted
by that act.
X. It is so, I assure you.
Y. But there is no provision in the militia act for
the maimed.
X. If they are poor, they are provided for by the
laws of their country. There is no other provision
by any militia law that I know of. If they have be
haved well, and suffered in their country s cause, they
deserve, moreover, some grateful notice of their ser
vice and some assistance from the common treasury ;
and if any particular township should happen to be
overburthened, they may, on application to the gov
ernment, reasonably expect relief.
Z. Though the Quakers and others conscientiously
scrupulous of bearing arms are exempted, as you say,
by charter, they might, being a majority in the As
sembly, have made the law compulsory on others.
At present it is so loose that nobody is obliged by it
who does not voluntarily engage.
X. They might, indeed, have made the law com-
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 441
pulsory on all others. But it seems they thought it
more equitable and generous to leave to all as much
liberty as they enjoy themselves, and not lay even a
seeming hardship on others which they themselves
declined to bear. They have, however, granted all
we asked of them. Our petitions set forth that "we
were freely willing and ready to defend ourselves and
country, and all we wanted was legal authority, order,
and discipline." These are now afforded by the law,
if we think fit to make use of them. And, indeed, I
do not see the advantage of compelling people of any
sect into martial service merely for the sake of rais
ing numbers. I have been myself in some service of
danger, and I always thought cowards rather weak
ened than strengthened the party. Fear is con
tagious, and a panic once begun spreads like wildfire,
and infects the stoutest heart. All men are not by
nature brave ; and a few who are so will do more
effectual service by themselves than when accom
panied by and mixed with a multitude of poltroons,
who only create confusion and give advantage to the
enemy.
Z. What signifies what you thought or think ?
Others think differently ; and all the wise legislatures
in the other colonies have thought fit to compel all sorts
of persons to bear arms or suffer heavy penalties.
X. As you say, what I thought or think is not of
much consequence. But a wiser legislator than all
those you mention put together, and who better
knew the nature of mankind, made his military law
very different from theirs in that respect.
442 THE WORKS OF [1755
Z. What legislator do you mean ?
X. I mean God himself, who would have no man
led to battle that might rather wish to be at home,
either from fear or other causes.
Z. Where do you find that law ?
X. It is in the 2Oth chapter of Deuteronomy, where
are these words : When thou goest out to battle against
thine enemies, the officers shall speak ^mto the people,
saying, What man is there that hath built a new
ho^lse, and hath not dedicated it f Let him go and re
turn to his hoiise, lest he die in the battle, and another
man dedicate it. And what man is he that hath
planted a vineyard, and hath not yet eaten of it f Let
him also go and ret^lrn unto his house, lest he die in the
battle, and another man eat of it. And what man is
there that hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken
her f Let him go and return ^tnto his house, lest he
die in the battle, and another man take her. And
Z. These all together could not be many ; and this
has no relation to cowardice.
X. If you had not interrupted me, I was coming to
that part (verse 8) : And the officers shall speak fur
ther unto the people, and they shall say, What man is
there that is FEARFUL and FAINT-HEARTED ? Let him
go and return unto his house, lest his brethren s heart
faint, as well as his heart ; that is, lest he communi
cate his fears, and his brave brethren catch the con
tagion, to the ruin of the whole army. Accordingly,
we find that, under this military law, no people in the
world fought more gallantly, or performed greater
actions, than the Hebrew soldiery. And if you would
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 443
be informed what proportion of people would be dis
charged by such a proclamation, you will find that
matter determined by an actual experiment, made by
General Gideon, as related in the 7th Chapter of
Judges ; for he, having assembled thirty-two thousand
men against the Midianites, proclaimed, according to
law (verse 3) : Whosoever is FEARFUL and AFRAID, let
him return and depart early from Mount Gilead.
Z. And pray, how many departed ?
X. The text says there departed twenty-two thou
sand, and there remained but ten thousand men. A
very great sifting ! and yet on that particular occasion
a farther sifting was required. Now it seems to me
that this militia law of ours, which gives the brave
all the advantages that they can desire, of order,
authority, discipline, and the like, and compels no
cowards into their company, is such a kind of sieve
as the Mosaic proclamation. For, with us, not only
every man who has built a house, or planted a vine
yard, or betrothed a wife, or is afraid of his flesh,
but the narrow bigot, filled with sectarian malice, if
such there be, who hates Quakers more than he loves
his country, his friends,, his wife, or family, may say :
/ will not engage, for I do not like the act ; or, / do
not like the officers that are chosen ; or, / do not like
the articles of war ; and so we shall not be troubled
with them, but all that engage will be hearty.
Z. For my part, I am no coward, but hang me if I
will fight to save the Quakers.
X. That is to say, you will not pump ship, because
it will save the rats as well as yourself.
444 THE WORKS OF [1755
Y. You have answered most of the objections I
have heard against the act to my satisfaction ; but
there is one remaining. The method of carrying it
into execution seems so roundabout, I am afraid we
cannot have the benefit of it in any reasonable time.
X. I cannot see much in that objection. The sev
eral neighbourhoods out of which companies are
formed, may meet and choose their company officers
in one and the same day ; and the regiments may be
formed, and field-officers chosen, in a week or ten
days after, who may immediately proceed to consider
the several militia laws of Britain and the colonies,
and, with the governor, form out of them such ar
ticles as will appear most suitable for the freemen of
this province, who incline to bear arms voluntarily ;
and the whole may be in order in a month from the
first elections, if common diligence be used. And,
indeed, as the colonies are at present the prize con
tended for between Britain and France, and the latter,
by the last advices, seems to be meditating some
grand blow, part of which may probably fall on Penn
sylvania, either by land or sea, or both, it behoves us
I think, to make the best use we can of this act, and
carry it immediately into execution, both in town and
country. If there are any material defects in it, ex
perience will best discover them, and show what is
proper or necessary to amend them. The approaching
winter will afford us some time to arm and prepare,
and more leisure, than other seasons, for exercising
and improving in good discipline.
Z. But if this act should be carried into execution,
1755] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 445
prove a good one, and answer the end, what shall we
have to say against the Quakers at the next election ?
X. O my friends, let us on this occasion cast from
us all these little party views, and consider ourselves
as Englishmen and Pennsylvanians. Let us think
only of the service of our King, the honor and safety
of our country, and vengeance on its murdering ene
mies. If good be done, what imports it by whom
it is done ? The glory of serving and saving others
is superior to the advantage of being served or secured.
Let us resolutely and generously unite in our country s
cause, in which to die is the sweetest of all deaths,
and may the God of armies bless our honest en
deavours.
CXXVIII.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
EASTON, Saturday Night, 27 December, 1755.
MY DEAR CHILD : I received with pleasure yours of
the 24th, which acquainted me of your and the fam
ily s welfare. I am glad to hear that the companies
are forming in town and choosing their officers, and
I hope the example will be followed throughout the
country. We all continue well, but much harassed
with business. After many difficulties and disappoint
ments we marched two companies yesterday over the
mountains, namely, Aston s and Trump s. We wait
here only for shoes, arms, and blankets, expected
hourly, and then shall move toward Berks County.
Our compliments to Mrs. Masters and all inquiring
friends. When you write next, direct to Mr. Read s
446 THE WORKS OF [1756
care at Reading. My duty to mother, and love to
the children. I hope to find you all well at my
return. My love to Mr. Hall. We have no fresh
news here of mischief, to be depended on. Send the
newspapers and my letters to Reading, and let me
have all the little news about the X Y Z proceedings,
officers, &c. I am obliged to Goody Smith for kindly
remembering me. I am, with great affection, your
loving husband, B. FRANKLIN.
CXXIX.
COMMISSION FROM LIEUT.-GOVERNOR MORRIS.
The Honorable Robert Hunter Morris, Esquire, Lieutenant-Gov
ernor, and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsyl
vania, and Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on
Delaware, to Benjamin Franklin.
I do hereby authorize and empower you to take into your
charge the County of Northampton, to dismiss all persons
who have been commissioned by me to any military com
mand, and to put others into their places ; and to fill up the
blank commissions herewith delivered, with the names of
such persons as you shall judge fit for his Majesty s service ;
hereby ratifying all your acts and proceedings, done in virtue
of this power ; and approving the expenses accruing there
upon. And I do further order and enjoin all officers and
soldiers to yield obedience to you in the execution of this
power, and all magistrates, sheriffs, and others, in any kind
of civil authority, and all his Majesty s liege subjects, to be
aiding and assisting you in the premises. Given under my
hand and seal, at Reading, this 5th day of January, 1756.
ROBERT H. MORRIS.
1 This was a special and temporary missioned colonel of the Philadelphia
commission ; after Franklin s return, regiment,
in February, he was chosen and com-
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 447
cxxx.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
BETHLEHEM, 15 January, 1756.
MY DEAR CHILD : We move this day for Gnaden-
hutten. If you have not cash sufficient, call upon Mr.
Moore, the treasurer, with that order of the Assembly,
and desire him to pay you one hundred pounds of it.
If he has not cash on hand, Mr. Norris (to whom my
respects) will advance it for him. We shall have with
us about one hundred and thirty men, and shall en
deavour to act cautiously, so as to give the enemy no
advantage through our negligence. Make yourself
therefore easy. Give my hearty love to all friends. I
hope in a fortnight or three weeks, God willing, to see
the intended line of forts finished, and then I shall
make atrip to Philadelphia, and send away the lottery
tickets, and pay off the prizes, though you may pay
such as come to hand of those sold in Philadelphia of
my signing. They were but few, the most being sold
abroad ; and those that sold them and received the
money will pay off the prizes. I hope you have paid
Mrs. Stephens for the bills. I am, my dear child,
your loving husband, B, FRANKLIN.
CXXXI.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
GNADENHUTTEN, 25 January, 1756.
MY DEAR CHILD : This day week we arrived
here. I wrote to you the same day, and once since.
We all continue well, thanks be to God. We have
448 THE WORKS OF [1756
been hindered with bad weather, yet our fort is in a
good defensible condition, and we have every day
more convenient living. Two more are to be built,
one on each side of this, at about fifteen miles dis
tance. I hope both will be done in a week or ten days,
and then I purpose to bend my course homewards.
We have enjoyed your roast beef, and this day
began on the roast veal. All agree that they are both
the best that ever were of the kind. Your citizens,
that have their dinners hot and hot, know nothing of
good eating. We find it in much greater perfection
when the kitchen is four score miles from the dining
room.
The apples are extremely welcome, and do bravely
to eat after our salt pork ; the minced pies are not
yet come to hand, but I suppose we shall find them
among the things expected up from Bethlehem on
Tuesday ; the capillaire is excellent, but, none of us
having taken cold as yet, we have only tasted it.
As to our lodging, it is on deal featherbeds, in
warm blankets, and much more comfortable than
when we lodged at our inn the first night after we
left home ; for, the woman being about to put very
damp sheets on the bed, we desired her to air them
first ; half an hour afterwards she told us the bed was
ready, and the sheets well aired. I got into bed, but
jumped out immediately, finding them as cold as
death, and partly frozen. She had aired faem indeed,
but it was out upon the hedge. I was forced to wrap
myself up in my great coat and woollen trowsers.
Every thing else about the bed was shockingly dirty.
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 449
As I hope in a little time to be with you and my
family, and chat things over, I now only add that I
am, dear Debby, your affectionate husband,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXXXII.
TO A FRIEND. 1
GNADENHUTTEN, 25 January, 1756.
DEAR SIR : We got to Hays s the same evening
we left you, and reviewed Craig s company by the way.
Much of the next morning was spent in exchang
ing the bad arms for the good. Wayne s company
having joined us, we that night reached Uplinger s,
where we got into good quarters, and Saturday
morning we began to march towards Gnadenhutten,
and proceeded nearly two miles ; but it seeming to
set in for a rainy day, the men unprovided with
great coats, and many unable to secure effectually
their arms from the wet, we thought it advisable to
face about, and return to our former quarters, where
the men might dry themselves and lie warm ; whereas,
had they proceeded, they would have come in wet to
Gnadenhutten, where shelter and opportunity of dry
ing themselves that night were uncertain. In fact, it
rained all day, and we were all pleased that we had
not proceeded.
The next day, being Sunday, we marched hither,
where we arrived about two o clock in the afternoon,
and before five had enclosed our camp with a strong
1 This letter was probably directed to one of the commissioners, but the name
of the individual is not known.
450 THE WORKS OF [1756
breastwork musket-proof ; and, with the boards
brought here before by my order from Bunker s Mill,
we got ourselves under some shelter from the weather.
Monday was so dark, with a thick fog all day, that
we could neither look out for a place to build, nor
see where materials were to be had. Tuesday morn
ing we looked round us, pitched on a place, and
marked out our fort on the ground. By three in the
afternoon the logs were all cut, and many of them
hauled to the spot, the ditch dug to set them in three
feet deep, and many were pointed and set up. The
next day we were hindered by rain most of the day.
Thursday we resumed our work, and before night
were perfectly well enclosed ; and- on Friday morning,
the stockade was finished and part of the platform
within erected, which was completed next morning,
when we dismissed Foulke s and Wetherhold s com
panies, and sent Hays down for a convoy of provi
sions. This day we hoisted the flag, made a general
discharge of our pieces, which had been long loaded,
and of our two swivels, and named the place Fort
Allen in honor of our old friend. It is one hundred
and twenty-five feet long, and fifty wide ; the stock
ades most of them a foot thick, three feet in the
ground and twelve feet out, pointed at the top.
This is an account of our week s work, which I
thought might give you some satisfaction. Foulke is
gone to build another fort between this and Schuyl-
kill fort, which I hope will be finished (as Trexler is
to join him) in a week or ten days, as soon as Hays
returns. I shall detach another party to erect another
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 451
at Surfass s, which I hope may be finished in the
same time, and then I suppose end my campaign,
God willing, and do myself the pleasure of seeing you
on my return. I can now add no more than that I
am with great esteem and affection, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXXXIII.
TO ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, GOVERNOR OF PENNSYL
VANIA.
FORT ALLEN, AT GNADENHUTTEN, 26 January, 1756.
SIR: We left Bethlehem the i6th instant, with
Foulke s company forty-six men, the detachment of
McLaughlin s twenty, and seven wagons laden with
stores and provisions. We got that night to Hays s
quarters, where Wayne s company joined us from
Nazareth. The next day we marched cautiously
through the gap of the mountain, a very dangerous
pass, and got to Uplinger s, twenty-one miles from
Bethlehem, the roads being bad and the wagons
moving slowly.
This present Monday we are erecting a third house
in the fort to accommodate the garrison. As soon
as Captain Hays returns with the convoy of stores
and provisions, which I hope may be to-morrow, I
purpose to send Arndt and Hays to join Captain
Trump in erecting the middle fort there, purposing
to remain here between them and Foulke, ready to
assist and supply both, as occasion may require ; and
I hope in a week or ten days, weather favoring, that
those two forts may be finished, the line of forts com-
452 THE WORKS OF [1756
pleted and garrisoned, the rangers in motion, and the
intermediate guards and watches disbanded, unless
they are permitted and encouraged to go after the
enemy to the Susquehanna.
At present the expense in this county is prodigious.
We have on foot and in pay the following companies,
viz. : Trump s, consisting of fifty men ; Aston s, fifty ;
Wayne s, fifty-five ; Foulke s, forty-six ; Trexler s,
forty-eight ; and Wetherhold s, forty-four without
the Fork ; Arndt s, fifty ; Craig s, thirty ; and Mar
tin s, thirty in the Irish settlements ; Van Elten s,
thirty at Minisink ; Hays s, forty-five ; detachment
of McLaughlin s, twenty ; Parsons s, twenty-four at
Easton ; total, five hundred and twenty-two.
This, Sir, is a particular account of our transac
tions, and the present state of affairs in this county.
I am glad to learn, by your favor of the 2ist, just re
ceived, that you have thoughts of coming to Bethle
hem, as I may hope for an opportunity of waiting
upon your Honor there, after our works are finished,
and of communicating every thing more fully. I now
only add, that I am, with dutiful respect, Sir, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN. 1
1 He wrote to Mr. Horsefield, Jan- both are finished, with Wayne and the
uary25th: " Foulke with his company detachment of Davis s, that I may be
marches this day to build another fort able to supply and assist on either side
between this and Fort Lebanon in the as occasion requires. This is the pres-
Forks of the Schuylkill. He is to be ent state of our affairs, of which please
assisted by Trexler s company, and a to inform our friends, as I cannot now
detachment of Wetherhold s, which write to them."
also leaves us this day. My son, with Again, to Mr. Samuel Rhoads, Jan-
Hays s company and Arndt s, marches uary 26th: "We have built one
in a few days to Surfass s place (where pretty strong fort, and by the end of
Trump is also expected), to erect next week, or in ten days, hope to fin-
another fort between this and Fort ish two more, one on each side of this,
Hamilton near Brodhead s. I pur- and at fifteen miles distance. These,
pose to remain here between them till I suppose, will complete the projected
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 453
CXXXIV.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
FORT ALLEN, AT GNADENHUTTEN, 30 January, 1756.
MY DEAR CHILD : Every other day, since we
have been here, it has rained, more or less, to our no
small hindrance. It rained yesterday, and now again
to-day, which prevented our marching ; so I will sit
down half an hour to confer a little with you.
All the things you sent me, from time to time, are
safely come to hand, and our living grows every day
more comfortable ; yet there are many things we still
want, but do not send for them, as we hope our stay
here will not be long.
I thought to have wrote you a long letter, but here
comes in a number of people from different parts,
that have business with me, and interrupt me ; we
have but one room, and that quite public ; so I can
only add, that I have just received yours, Sally s, and
Grace s letters, of the 25th, with one from Mr.
Hughes, and one from Mr. Thomson. Present my
respects to those gentlemen (and excuse my not writ
ing, as I have nothing material, and am much hur
ried), and love to all our friends and neighbours.
Billy presents his duty to you, and love to his sister ;
all the gentlemen their compliments ; they drink
line from Delaware to the Susque- the six wagons are just arrived, and
hanna. I then purpose, God willing, I suppose all right, though I have
to return homewards, and enjoy the not yet had time to examine the con-
pleasures I promise myself, of finding tents. There are ten Lehigh people
my friends well." buzzing in both ears while I write ;
In another letter to Mr. Horsefield, so can only add my thanks for your
written on the 28th, he said : "I care and readiness to serve the
have the pleasure to inform you, that province."
454 THE WORKS OF [1756
your health at every meal, having always something
on the table to put them in mind of you.
I found, among the newspapers, Mr. Shoen s bills
of exchange, which should not have been sent up
here ; I suppose it was by mistake, and mention it,
that you need not be troubled to look more for them.
I am, dear girl, your loving husband,
B. FRANKLIN.
cxxxv.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
FORT ALLEN, 31 January, 1756.
MY DEAR : I wrote a line to you yesterday, and,
having this opportunity, write another, just to let you
know that we all continue well, and much the better
for the refreshments you have sent us ; in short, we
do very well ; for, though there are a great number
of things, besides what we have, that used to seem
necessary to comfortable living, yet we have learned
to do without them.
Mr. Beatty is a very useful man here, and the Doc
tor another. Besides their services to the public,
they are very agreeable companions to me. They,
with Captain Clapham, Mr. Edmond, and the rest of
our company, present their hearty respects to you for
the goodies. Billy presents his duty to you and his
grandmother, and love to his sister. Distribute my
compliments among our acquaintance, and hearty
love to all friends. The bearer waits, so that I can
not write to my dear Sally. I am, dear girl, your
loving husband, B, FRANKLIN,
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 455
CXXXVI.
TO MRS. JANE MECOM.
PHILADELPHIA, 12 February, 1756.
DEAR SISTER : I condole with you on the loss of
our dear brother. 1 As our number grows less, let us
love one another proportionably more.
I am just returned from my military expedition,
and now my time is taken up in the Assembly.
Providence seems to require various duties of me. I
know not what will be next ; but I find, the more I
seek for leisure and retirement from business, the
more I am engaged in it. Benny, I understand, in
clines to leave Antigua. He may be in the right. I
have no objection. My love to brother and to your
children. I am, dearest sister, your affectionate
brother, B. FRANKLIN.
CXXXVII.
TO MISS E. HUBBARD. 2
PHILADELPHIA, 23 February, 1756.
- I condole with you. We have lost a most dear
and valuable relation. But it is the will of God and
nature that these mortal bodies be laid aside when
the soul is to enter into real life. This is rather an
embryo state, a preparation for living. A man is not
completely born until he be dead. Why then should
we grieve that a new child is born among the im-
1 John Franklin, who died at Bos- wife, by the name of Hubbard, a
ton, in January, 1756, at the age of widow. Miss E. Hubbard, to whom
sixty-five. this letter was addressed, was her
3 John Franklin married a second daughter by a former marriage.
456 THE WORKS OF [1756
mortals, a new member added to their happy so
ciety ?
We are spirits. That bodies should be lent us,
while they can afford us pleasure, assist us in acquir
ing knowledge, or in doing good to our fellow crea
tures, is a kind and benevolent act of God. When
they become unfit for these purposes, and afford us
pain instead of pleasure, instead of an aid become an
incumbrance, and answer none of the intentions for
which they were given, it is equally kind and benevo
lent that a way is provided by which we may get rid
of them. Death is that way. We ourselves, in some
cases, prudently choose a partial death. A mangled
painful limb which cannot be restored we willingly
cut off. He who plucks out a tooth parts with it
freely, since the pain goes with it ; and he who quits
the whole body, parts at once with all pains and pos
sibilities of pains and diseases which it was liable to
or capable of making him suffer.
Our friend and we were invited abroad on a party
of pleasure, which is to last for ever. His chair was
ready first, and he is gone before us. We could not
all conveniently start together ; and why should you
and I be grieved at this, since we are soon to follow,
and know where to find him ? Adieu.
B. FRANKLIN.- 1
1 On a similar occasion he wrote to these thirteen (some of us then very
his sister, a few days afterwards, as young) all at one table, when an en-
follows : "It is remarkable that so tertainment was made at our house, on
many breaches by death should be occasion of the return of our brother
made in our family in so short a space. Josiah, who had been absent in the
Out of seventeen children that our East Indies, and unheard of for nine
father had, thirteen lived to grow up years. Of these thirteen, there now
and settle in the world, I remember remain but three. As our number
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 457
CXXXVIII.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
FREDERICK-TOWN, VIRGINIA, 21 March, 1756.
MY DEAR CHILD : We got here yesterday after
noon, and purpose sailing to-day if the wind be fair.
Peter was taken ill with a fever and pain in his side
before I got to Newcastle. I had him bled there,
and put him into the chair wrapped up warm, as he
could not bear the motion of the horse, and got him
here pretty comfortably. He went immediately to
bed, and took some camomile tea, and this morning
is about again and almost well. I leave my horses at
Mr. Milliken s, a gentleman that lives on Bohemia
River.
Among the government orders I left with you, are
two written ones drawn on Mr. Charles Norris for
considerable sums. You did not tell me, when I
asked you, what money you had in hand. If you
want before my return, present one of those orders to
Mr. Norris, and he will pay the whole or a part, as
you have occasion. Billy will also pay you some
money, which I did not care to take with me from
Newcastle. Be careful of your accounts, particularly
about the lottery affairs. My duty to mother, and
love to Sally, Debby, Gracy, &c., not forgetting the
diminishes, let our affection to each vanced in years when he died. I re-
other rather increase ; for, besides its member him a young man when I was
being our duty, it is our interest, a very young boy. In looking back,
since the more affectionate relations how short the time seems ! I suppose
are to each other, the more they are that all the passages of our lives that
respected by the rest of the world." we have forgotten, being so many links
Again, speaking of the death of an taken out of the chain, give the more
acquaintance, he wrote : " Your neigh- distant parts leave, as it were, to
bour must have been pretty well ad- come apparently nearer together."
458 THE WORKS OF [1756
Goody. Desire Dr. Bond to send me some of those
pills by post. I forgot to take any with me. Let
Mr. Parker know I received the money he sent me
on the post-office and money-paper accounts. I for
got to write it to him, though I fully intended it. If
there is peace I shall probably not come home so
soon as I purposed to do in case the ships from
England bring a declaration of war, or in case the
uncertainty continues. I am, my dear child, your
loving husband, B. FRANKLIN.
CXXXIX.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
WILLIAMSBURG, 30 March, 1756.
MY DEAR CHILD : I wTote to you via New York
the day after my arrival, acquainting you that I had a
fine journey and passage down the Bay, being but
four days from Philadelphia to Colonel Hunter s,
though stopped near a day on the road. 1 I have
been well ever since, quite clear of the dizziness I
complained of, and as gay as a bird, not beginning
yet to long for home, the worry of perpetual business
being yet fresh in my memory. Mr. Hunter is much
better than I expected to find him, and we are daily
employed in settling our affairs. About the end of
the week we are to take a tour into the country.
Virginia is a pleasant country, now in full spring ; the
people obliging and polite. I shall return in the
1 Franklin and Colonel Hunter were ness of the post-office seems to have
at this time jointly postmasters-gen- been the object of this journey to
eral of the colonies, and the busi- Virginia.
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 459
man-of-war to New York with Colonel Hunter and
his lady ; at least, this is proposed ; but, if a more con
venient opportunity offers, perhaps I may not stay so
long as the end of the next month, when that ship is
to sail. I am, my dear Debby, your loving husband,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXL.
TO JOSEPH HUEY.
PHILADELPHIA, 6 June, 1756. 2
SIR : I received your kind letter of the 26. inst,
and am glad to hear that you increase in strength. I
hope you will continue mending till you recover your
former health and firmness. Let me know if you still
use the cold bath, and what effect it has.
As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could
have been of more service to you. But if it had, the
only thanks I should desire is, that you would always
be equally ready to serve any other person that may
need your assistance, and so let good offices go round,
for mankind are all of a family.
For my own part, when I am employed in serving
others, I do not look upon myself as conferring
1 On the loth of June he wrote from been printed, and always, I believe, as
Philadelphia to William Parsons : " It having been written to Whitefield, but
is now a long time since I had the among the author s MSS. I find the
pleasure of a line from you. I am first draft, with the following indorse-
now returned from Virginia, where I ment in Franklin s handwriting : Let-
was near two months. I should be ter to Joseph Huey. " Aside from the
glad to learn from you the present state intrinsic improbability of Franklin s
of the forces in your county, and of the preaching such a sermon as this to
people. If in any thing I can serve Whitefield, there is no good reason
you, command freely your old friend." to doubt that it was written to the man
2 Mr. Sparks publishes this letter as to whom it was addressed. The first
addressed to George Whitefield under draft, from which we print, is in the
date of June 6, 1753. In a note he American Philosophical Society in
says ; " The above letter has often Philadelphia. EDITOR.
460 THE WORKS OF [1756
favours, but as paying debts. In my travels and since
my settlement I have received much kindness from
men, to whom I shall never have any opportunity of
making the least direct return, and numberless mer
cies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited
by our services. These kindnesses from men I can
therefore only return on their fellow-men ; and I can
only show my gratitude for those mercies from God,
by a readiness to help his other children and my
brethren. For I do not think that thanks and com
pliments tho repeated weekly, can discharge our real
obligations to each other, and much less those to our
Creator.
You will see in this my notion of good works, that
I am far from expecting (as you suppose) that I shall
ever merit heaven by them. By heaven we under
stand a state of happiness, infinite in degree and
eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such
reward. He that for giving a draught of water to a
thirsty person should expect to be paid with a good
plantation, would be modest in his demands, compared
with those who think they deserve heaven for the
little good they do on earth. Even the mixed, im
perfect pleasures we enjoy in this world are rather
from God s goodness than our merit ; how much more
such happiness of heaven. For my own part, I have
not the vanity to think I deserve it, the folly to ex
pect it, nor the ambition to desire it ; but content
myself in submitting to the will and disposal of that
God who made me, who hitherto preserv d and bless d
me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may well con-
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 461
fide, that he will never make me miserable, and that
even the afflictions I may at any time suffer shall tend
to my benefit.
The faith you mention has doubtless its use in the
world ; I do not desire it to be diminished, nor would
I endeavour to lessen it in any man. But I wish it
were more productive of good works than I have
generally seen it. I mean real good works, works of
kindness, charity, mercy, and publick spirit ; not holi
day-keeping, sermon reading or hearing, performing
church ceremonies, or making long prayers, filled with
flatteries and compliments, despis d even by wise
men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity.
The worship of God is a duty, the hearing and read
ing of sermons may be useful ; but if men rest in
hearing and praying, as too many do, it is as if a tree
should value itself in being water d and putting forth
leaves, tho it never produc d any fruit.
Your great Master tho t much less of these outward
appearances and professions than many of the modern
disciples. He preferr d the doers of the word to the
mere hearers ; the Son that seemingly refus d to obey
his father and yet perform d his command, to him that
profess d his readiness but neglected the work ; the
heretical but charitable Samaritan, to the uncharitable
tho orthodox priest and sanctified Levite ; and those
who gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty,
raiment to the naked, entertainment to the stranger,
and relief to the sick, &c., tho they never heard of
his name, he declares shall in the last day be accepted,
when those who cry Lord, Lord, who value themselves
462 THE WORKS OF [1756
on their faith, tho great enough to perform miracles,
but have neglected good works, shall be rejected,
he professed that he came not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance ; which imply d his modest
opinion that there were some in His time so good that
they need not hear even him for improvement ; but
nowadays we have scarce a little parson, that does
not think it the duty of every man within his reach to
sit under his petty ministrations, and that whoever
omits them 1 [all the rest of this letter is torn out]
[On the back of this letter is the following endorsement.]
In writing to his brother, August 6, 1747, Franklin says: "I am glad to
hear that Mr. Whitefield is safe arrived, and recovered his health. He is a
good man, and I love him."
CXLI.
TO MRS. JANE MECOM.
NEW YORK, 28 June, 1756.
DEAR SISTER : I received here your letter of ex
travagant thanks, which put me in mind of the story
of the member of Parliament, who began one of his
speeches with saying he thanked God that he was
born and bred a Presbyterian ; on which another
took leave to observe, that the gentleman must needs
be of a most grateful disposition, since he was thank
ful for such very small matters.
You desire me to tell you what I know about Ben
ny s removal, and the reasons of it. Some time last
year, when I returned from a long journey, I found a
1 Mr. Sparks concludes this letter is a very satisfactory conclusion, but we
with the words " offends God." That have no evidence that it was Franklin s.
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 463
letter from him, which had been some time unan
swered, and it was some considerable time afterwards
before I knew of an opportunity to send an answer.
I should first have told you, that when I set him up
at Antigua, he was to have the use of the printing-
house on the same terms with his predecessor, Mr.
Smith ; that is, allowing me one third part of the
profits. After this, finding him diligent and careful,
for his encouragement, I relinquished that agreement,
and let him know, that as you were removed into a
dearer house, if he paid you yearly a certain sum, I
forget what it was, towards discharging your rent,
and another small sum to me, in sugar and rum for
my family use, he need keep no farther accounts of
the profits, but should enjoy all the rest himself. I
cannot remember what the whole of both payments
amounted to, but I think they did not exceed twenty
pounds a year.
The truth is, I intended, from the first, to give him
that printing-house ; but as he was young and inex
perienced in the world, I thought it best not to do it
immediately, but to keep him a little dependent for a
time, to check the flighty unsteadiness of temper,
which, on several occasions, he had discovered ; and
what I received from him, I concluded to lay out in
new letters (or types), that, when I should give it to
him entirely, it might be worth his acceptance ; and
if I should die first, I put it in my will, that the let
ters should be all new cast for him.
This proposal of paying you and me a certain an
nual sum did not please him ; and he wrote to desire
464 THE WORKS OF [1756
I would explicitly tell him how long that annual pay
ment was to continue ; whether, on payment of that,
all prior demands I had against him, for the arrears
of our first agreement, were likewise cancelled ; and
finally insisted, that I would name a certain sum that
I would take for the printing-house, and allow him to
pay it off in parts as he could, and then the yearly
payments to cease ; for, though he had a high esteem
for me, yet he loved freedom, and his spirit could not
bear dependence on any man, though he were the
best man living,
This was the letter, which casually remained, as
I said, so long unanswered ; at which he took farther
offence ; and before I could answer it, I received an
other from him, acquainting me that he had come to
a resolution to remove from the Island ; that his reso
lution was fixed, and nothing that could be said to
him should move or shake it ; and he proposed an
other person to me, to carry on the business in his
room. This was immediately followed by another
and a third letter, to the same purpose, all declaring
the inflexibility of his determination to leave the Isl
and, but without saying where he proposed to go, or
what were his motives. So I wrote him, that I would
not attempt to change his resolutions ; that I made
no objections to his quitting, but wished he had let
me know where he was going ; that, as to the person
he recommended to succeed him, I had kept the of
fice there after Mr. Smith s decease, in hopes it might
be of use to him (Benny). I did not incline to be
concerned with any other there. However, if the
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 465
person would buy it, I named the price ; if not, I di
rected it to be packed up and sent home. All I de
sired of him was to discharge what he owed to Mr.
Strahan, bookseller in London, one of my friends,
who had credited him on my recommendation.
By this post I received the enclosed letter, and un
derstand the things are all arrived. I shall be very
glad to hear he does better in another place, but I
fear he will not for some years be cured of his fickle
ness, and get fixed to any purpose ; however, we
must hope for the best, as with this fault he has
many good qualities and virtues.
My love to brother and children, and to all that
love you. I am, dear sister, your affectionate brother,
B. FRANKLIN.
CXLII.
TO WILLIAM PARSONS.
NEW YORK, 28 June, 1756.
DEAR FRIEND : I have received here your favor
of the iQth instant, with a copy of your remarks on
reviewing the forts, for which I am much obliged to
you ; and I hope the governor and commissioners
will immediately take the necessary measures to
remedy every thing that you find amiss. I think you
hazarded yourself with too small escorts, and am glad
you got safe through. It appears plainly that it will
be of great use to review the forts frequently. The
expense must be inconsiderable compared to the ad
vantages and security that may be derived from it.
Great part of the British regiments are arrived
466 THE WORKS OF [1756
here. The men are all in health, and look exceed
ingly well. What will be undertaken this summer is,
I believe, unknown, or uncertain till the general s
arrival. Some of the officers think this year will be
chiefly spent in preparation for the next. Others
imagine there will be an accommodation. For my
part, I can make no judgment. This only I can
plainly see, that New York is growing immensely
rich by money brought into it from all quarters for
the pay and subsistence of the troops. General
Shirley, it is said, is to go home in the same ship
that brings Lord Loudoun, and to be made one of
the Lords of Trade. The Indians continue to scalp
now and then a man too close to Albany, Oswego,
and the capips. The New England forces are not
yet complete. Those colonies have overdone them
selves, and undertaken too much ; more than they
are able to bear or perform.
With great esteem, I am, dear friend, affectionately
yours, B. FRANKLIN.
CXLIII.
TO GEO. WHITEFIELD.
NEW YORK, July 2, 1756.
DEAR SIR : I received your favour of the 24th of
February with great pleasure, as it informed me of
your welfare, and expressed your continued regard
for me. I thank you for the pamphlet you enclosed
to me. 1 As we have just observed a provincial fast
on the same occasion, I thought it very seasonable
1 Doubtless, Whitefield s " Short Address to Persons of all Denominations,"
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 467
to be published in Pennsylvania ; and accordingly
reprinted it immediately.
You mention your frequent wish that you were a
chaplain to the American army. I sometimes wish
that you and I were jointly employed by the crown
to settle a colony on the Ohio. I imagine that we
could do it effectually, and without putting the nation
to much expense ; but I fear we shall never be called
upon for such a service. What a glorious thing it
would be to settle in that fine country a large, strong
body of religious and industrious people ! What a
security to the other colonies and advantage to
Britain, by increasing her people, territory, strength,
and commerce ! Might it not greatly facilitate the
introduction of pure religion among the heathen, if
we could, by such a colony, show them a better
sample of Christians than they commonly see in our
Indian traders? the most vicious and abandoned
wretches of our nation ! Life, like a dramatic piece,
should not only be conducted with regularity, but, me-
thinks, it should finish handsomely. Being now in
the last act, I begin to cast about for something fit
to end with. Or, if mine be more properly compared
to an epigram, as some of its lines are but barely
tolerable, I am very desirous of concluding with a
bright point. In such an enterprise, I could spend
the remainder of life with pleasure ; and I firmly be
lieve God would bless us with success, if we under
took it with a sincere regard to His honour, the
service of our gracious king, and (which is the same
thing) the public good.
468 THE WORKS OF [1756
I thank you cordially for your generous benefac
tions to the German schools. They go on pretty
well ; and will do better, when Mr. Smith, who has
at present the principal charge of them, shall learn to
mind party-writing and party politics less, and his
proper business more ; which, I hope, time will bring
about.
I thank you for your good wishes and prayers ;
and am, with greatest esteem and affection, dear Sir,
your most obedient humble servant,
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
My best respects to Mrs. Whitefield.
CXLIV.
TO THOMAS POWNALL. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 19 August, 1756.
SIR : I have done myself the honor to write you
twice since my return, relating to the proposed road ;
but have as yet had no line from you.
Enclosed I send you a copy of the late treaty, or
conference, at Easton, with a letter from Bishop
1 Thomas Pownall, commonly called governor of New Jersey, and governor
Governor Pownall, came first to Amer- of South Carolina, though it would
ica with Sir Danvers Osborn, Govern- seem that he remained but a short
or of New York, in 1753. His broth- time in either of these two last
er, John Pownall, was one of the stations. He was a member of Par-
secretaries to the Board of Trade ; liament from 1768 to 1780, and op-
and Thomas Pownall had made him- posed with much boldness and ability
self well acquainted with American the ministerial measures against the
affairs. He returned to England in colonies. He wrote and published
February, 1756, but came back to various tracts relating to America, the
America again with the Earl of Lou- most valuable of which is his treatise
doun, who landed at New York on entitled, " Administration of the Colo-
the 23d of July following. In the nies," which passed through several
next year, 1757, he succeeded General editions. He died in 1805, at the ad-
Shirley as governor of Massachusetts, vanced age of eighty-three years.
At later periods he was lieutenant- SPARKS.
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 469
Spangenberg to Mr. Norris, by which you will see
nothing is likely to come of the treaty. The Indians
are preparing to continue the war, and we see of how
little consequence Sir William Johnson s treaty has
been in our behalf. For my own part, I make no
doubt but the Six Nations have privily encouraged
these Indians to fall upon us. They have taken no
step to defend us, as their allies, nor to prevent the
mischief done us. I look upon the application made
through Sir William Johnson to these nations to pro
cure us peace, as the most unfortunate step we ever
took ; for we tied up the hands of our people, till we
heard the result of that application. The affair was
drawn out to great length of time, and in the mean
while our frontier people were continually butchered,
and at last either dispersed or dispirited. In short, I
do not believe we shall ever have a firm peace with
the Indians till we have well drubbed them.
Our frontiers are greatly distressed, as you will see
by the enclosed letters. The people are also dis
tressed by the enlisting of their servants ; but, if
Lord Loudoun would order the recruits, now near
five hundred, to march up and take post on the
frontiers, in the forts there, where they would find
good barracks, and would be of great use to the
inhabitants, it would be a most acceptable thing to
the whole province. In this Mr. Norris joins with
me, as well as in compliments to his Lordship and
yourself.
The Assembly are met, and in a very good dispo
sition toward the service ; but, the new governor
470 THE WORKS OF [1756
being hourly expected, nothing can be done till his
arrival. He is, we hear, on the road from York. I
am, Sir, &c. B. FRANKLIN.
CXLV.
TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1
PHILADELPHIA, 19 August, 1756.
SIR : I have your favors of July 23d and August
3d, but that you mention to have wrote by Mr. Bal-
four is not come to hand. I forwarded the packet
enclosed in that of July 23d, as directed, and shall
readily take care of any other letters from you, that
pass through my hands. The post, between this
place and Winchester, was established for the ac
commodation of the army chiefly, by a vote of our
Assembly. They are not willing to continue the
charge, and it must, I believe, be dropped, unless
your Assembly and that of Maryland will contribute
to support it, which, perhaps, is scarce to be ex
pected.
I am sorry it should be laid down, as I shall my
self be a loser in the affair of newspapers. 2 But the
letters per post by no means defray the expense. If
you can prevail with your Assembly to pay the rider
from Winchester to Carlisle, I will endeavour to per
suade ours to continue paying the rider from Carlisle
1 At this time commander-in-chief during Braddock s inarch, arranged a
of the Virginia forces raised to pro- post between Philadelphia and Win-
tect the frontiers from the Indians Chester, in consequence of a vote of
and French. His head-quarters were the Pennsylvania Assembly,
at Winchester. Franklin, in his ca- 2 At this time Franklin printed
pacity of postmaster-general for the and published a newspaper in Phila-
colonies, had, the year previous, delphja,
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 471
hither. My agreement with the house was, to carry
all public despatches gratis, to keep account of post
age received for private letters, and charge the
expense of riders and offices ; and they were to pay
the balance. I am, Sir, with great esteem and re
spect, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. We have just received news that the Dela
ware Indians, with whom we treated lately at Easton,
have burnt the goods they received as presents, and
resolved to continue the war. 1
CXLVI.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
EASTON, 13 November, 1756.
MY DEAR CHILD : I wrote to you a few days since
by a special messenger, and enclosed letters for all
our wives and sweethearts ; expecting to hear from
you by his return, and to have the northern news
papers and English letters per the packet ; but he is
just now returned without a scrap for poor us. So I
1 Though Franklin was actively en- to place upon their list a gentleman
gaged in these important affairs, which whose public spirit and uncommon
had an immediate claim upon his abilities are so universally known and
exertions, he took a not less zealous so deservedly esteemed. They are glad
or liberal part in promoting objects of to find their plan approved by you,
general utility ; as is manifest by the and will always give great attention
following extract from a letter written to what you shall judge most proper
to him by Mr. William Shipley, dated for their encouragement in America,
London, September i, 1756. Mr. which they hope from time to time
Shipley was secretary to the society, you will please to let them know,
in whose behalf he wrote. They return you thanks for your gen-
" Sir, I am ordered to acquaint you erous present of twenty guineas, which
that the Society for the Encourage- their treasurer has received by the
ment of Arts, Manufactures, and hands of Mr. Collinson. They ear-
Commerce have unanimously elected nestly desire your correspondence, in-
you a corresponding member; and it formation, and advice,"
gives the Society a singular pleasure
472 THE WORKS OF [1756
had a good mind not to write to you by this oppor
tunity ; but I never can be ill natured enough even
when there is the most occasion. The messenger
says he left the letters at your house, and saw you
afterwards at Mr. Duche s, and told you when he
would go, and that he lodged at Honey s, next door
to you, and yet you did not write ; so let Goody
Smith give one more just judgment, and say what
should be done to you. I think I won t tell you that
we are well, nor that we expect to return about the
middle of the week, nor will I send you a word of
news ; that s poz.
My duty to mother, love to the children, and to
Miss Betsey and Gracy, &c., &c. I am your loving
husband, B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. I have scratched o^U the loving words, being
writ in haste by mistake, when I forgot I was angry.
1 When the above letter was writ- pal speaker for the Indians. He ex-
ten, the author was at Easton, in Penn- plained the reasons of the recent hos-
sylvania, attending a conference with tilities, but said he was now at peace,
the Indians. The successes of the and wished to remain so. He prom-
French on the frontiers, and the disas- ised to return all the prisoners, and
ters which followed Braddock s defeat, demanded that the Indians who had
had excited the Indians to hostilities ; been taken should likewise be sent
and murders and other outrages had back to him. He also complained of
been committed by them even in the wrongs which he had suffered,
heart of the province. To counteract " I do not want," said he, " to com-
the influence of the French and bring pel any of the Indians to return
the Indians to a better temper, it was or to stay against their will. If they
deemed expedient to hold an amicable are inclined to stay and live among
conference with some of their chiefs. the English, I am quite willing they
Governor Denny was present in per- should go back again ; but I want
son, and also William Logan and that they should come and see me,
Richard Peters, on the part of the that thereby I may convince their re-
Council ; and Benjamin Franklin, lations and the other nations afar off,
Joseph Fox, William Masters, and that they are not servants, but free
John Hughes, as delegates from the people.
Assembly. The conference was opened "The kings of England and
at Easton on the 8th of November. France," he added, "have settled or
Teedyuscung, a king of the Delawares, wrought this land so as to coop us up,
residing at Wyoming, was the princi- as if in a pen, This very ground
756]
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
473
CXLVII.
TO EDWARD AND JANE MECOM.
PHILADELPHIA, 30 December, 1756.
DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER : You will receive
this by the hand of your son Benjamin, on whose
safe return from the West Indies I sincerely con
gratulate you.
He has settled accounts with me, and paid the bal
ance honorably. He has also cleared the old print
ing-house to himself, and sent it to Boston, where he
that is under me " (striking it with his
foot) "was my land and inheritance,
and was taken from me by fraud ;
when I say this ground, I mean all
the land lying between Tohiccon
Creek and Wyoming on the River
Susquehanna. The Proprietaries, who
have purchased their lands from us
cheap, have sold them too dear to
poor people, and the Indians have
suffered for it. It would have been
more prudent for the Proprietaries to
sell the lands cheaper, and to have
given it in charge to the people, who
bought from them, to use the Indians
with kindness on that account."
The governor asked him what he
meant by fraud.
Teedyuscung replied : " When one
man had formerly liberty to purchase
lands, and he took the deeds from the
Indians for it, and then died ; after
his death, the children forge the deed
for the true one, with the same Indian
names to it, and thereby take lands
from the Indians which they never
sold : this is fraud. Also, when one
king has land beyond the river, and
another king has land on this side,
both bounded by rivers, mountains,
and springs, which cannot be moved,
and the Proprietaries, greedy to pur
chase lands, buy of one king what be
longs to another ; this is likewise
fraud.
" All the land extending from To
hiccon Creek, over the great moun
tain to Wyoming, has been taken from
me by fraud ; for, when I had agreed
to sell the land to the old Proprietary
by the course of the river, the young
Proprietaries came, and got it run by a
straight course by the compass, and
by that means took in double the
quantity intended to be sold."
Though these charges were not al
lowed to be correct, yet the commis
sioners thought it advisable to put an
end to the complaints of the Indians
by satisfying their claims, and they
offered to Teedyuscung a suitable
compensation. He declined accepting
it on the ground that other tribes be
sides his own were concerned and
must be consulted, and concluded by
saying that in the spring he would bring
them together for another treaty.
The manuscript minutes of this
singular conference have been pre
served in the archives of the Ameri
can Philosophical Society. The com
missioners, who attended the confer
ence on the part of the Assembly,
were not satisfied with the manner in
which the minutes were reported to
that body by the governor, and they
signed jointly an explanatory paper,
which was probably drawn up by
Franklin, and which is printed in the
"Votes and Proceedings of the As
sembly," under the date of January
29, 1757. SPARKS.
474 THE WORKS OF [1756
purposes to set up his business, together with book
selling, which, considering his industry and frugality,
I make no doubt will answer. He has good credit
and some money in England, and I have helped him
by lending him a little more ; so that he may expect
a cargo of books, and a quantity of new letter, in the
spring ; and I shall from time to time furnish him
with paper. We all join in love to you and yours.
I am your loving brother, B. FRANKLIN.
CXLVIII.
PLAN
FOR SETTLING TWO WESTERN COLONIES IN NORTH
AMERICA, WITH REASONS FOR THE PLAN. 1
The great country back of the Appalachian Moun
tains, on both sides of the Ohio, and between that
1 Dr. Franklin was early possessed of being carried into effect by the troubles
the belief, that great advantage would immediately preceding the revolution,
redound to the English colonies on The following paper was probably
the sea-board by settlements beyond written shortly after the Albany Con-
the Alleganies under governments dis- vention, in 1754, at the request of
tinctly organized. Such settlements Governor Pownall, who had a project
would not only rapidly increase in for settling what he called " barrier
population, thereby strengthening the colonies." He presented a memorial to
power of the whole, but would serve the Duke of Cumberland on this sub-
as a barrier to the other colonies ject in the year 1756, in which he says:
against the Indians and French, who, " If the English would advance one
in time of war, made descents upon step further, or cover themselves
the frontiers, kept the people in alarm, where they are, it must be at once, by
and caused great expense in raising one large step over the mountains,
troops and supporting an army to re- with a numerous and military colony,
pel their invasions. He pursued this Where such should be settled, I do
favorite object for many years ; and not take upon me to say ; at present I
after he went to England a company shall only point out the measure and
was formed, under his auspices, who the nature of it, by inserting two
petitioned for a grant to settle a colony schemes, one of Dr. Franklin s, the
west of the Allegany Mountains. other of your memorialist ; and if I
Many obstacles were encountered, might indulge myself with scheming,
but the application was at last success- I should imagine that two such were
ful. The scheme was prevented from sufficient, and only requisite and
:756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 475
river and the Lakes, is now well known, both to the
English and French, to be one of the finest in North
America, for the extreme richness and fertility of the
land, the healthy temperature of the air, and mildness
of the climate ; the plenty of hunting, fishing, and
fowling; the facility of trade with the Indians, and
the vast convenience of inland navigation or water-
carriage by the Lakes and great rivers, many hundreds
of leagues around.
From these natural advantages it must undoubtedly
(perhaps in less than another century) become a pop
ulous and powerful dominion * ; and a great accession
of power either to England or France.
The French are now making open encroachments
on those territories, in defiance of our known rights ;
and, if we longer delay to settle that country, and
suffer them to possess it, these inconveniences and
mischiefs will probably follow :
1. Our people, being confined to the country be
tween the sea and the mountains, cannot much more
increase in number, people increasing in proportion
to their room and means of subsistence.
2. The French will increase much more, by that
proper ; one at the back of Virginia, When this memorial, with Frank-
filling up the vacant space between the lin s plan, was presented, the whole
Five Nations and southern confeder- country was too much involved in the
acy, and connecting into one system war with the French and Indians, to
our barrier ; the other somewhere in allow any scheme of this sort to be
the Cohass on Connecticut River, or matured ; the peace followed, when
wherever best adapted to cover the the occasion for them was less press-
New England colonies. These, with ing ; and the revolution opened the
the little settlements mentioned above way to other methods of attaining the
in the Indian countries, complete my same object. SPARKS.
idea of this branch." " Administra- 1 This prediction has been verified
tion of the Colonies," 4th ed., Ap- in a much less time than even the au-
pend., p. 48. thor anticipated. EDITOR.
476 THE WORKS OF [1756
acquired room and plenty of subsistence, and become
a great people behind us.
3. Many of our debtors and loose English people,
our German servants, and slaves, will probably desert
to them, and increase their numbers and strength, to
the lessening and weakening of ours.
4. They will cut us off from all commerce and
alliance with the western Indians, to the great preju
dice of Britain, by preventing the sale and consump
tion of its manufactures.
5. They will both in time of peace and war (as
they have always done against New England) set
the Indians on to harass our frontiers, kill and scalp
our people, and drive in the advanced settlers ; and
so, in preventing our obtaining more subsistence by
cultivating of new lands, they discourage our mar
riages, and keep our people from increasing ; thus
(if the expression may be allowed) killing thousands
of our children before they are born.
If two strong colonies of English were settled be
tween the Ohio and Lake Erie, in the places here
after to be mentioned, these advantages might be
expected :
i. They would be a great security to the frontiers
of our other colonies, by preventing the incursions of
the French and French Indians of Canada, on the
back parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and
the Carolinas ; and the frontiers of such new colonies
would be much more easily defended, than those of
the colonies last mentioned now can be, as will appear
hereafter.
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 477
2. The dreaded junction of the French settlements
in Canada with those of Louisiana would be pre
vented.
3. In case of a war, it would be easy, from those
new colonies, to annoy Louisiana, by going down the
Ohio and Mississippi ; and the southern part of Can
ada, by sailing over the Lakes, and thereby confine
the French within narrow limits.
4. We could secure the friendship and trade of the
Miamis or Twigtwees (a numerous people consisting
of many tribes, inhabiting the country between the
west end of Lake Erie, and the south end of Lake
Huron, and the Ohio), who are at present dissatisfied
with the French and fond of the English, and would
gladly encourage and protect an infant English settle
ment in or near their country, as some of their chiefs
have declared to the writer of this memoir. Further,
by means of the Lakes, the Ohio, and the Mississippi,
our trade might be extended through a vast country,
among many numerous and distant nations, greatly
to the benefit of Britain.
5. The settlement of all the intermediate lands,
between the present frontiers of our colonies on one
side, and the Lakes and Mississippi on the other,
would be facilitated and speedily executed, to the
great increase of Englishmen, English trade, and
English power.
The grants to most of the colonies are of long,
narrow slips of land, extending west from the Atlan
tic to the South Sea. They are much too long for
their breadth ; the extremes at too great a distance ;
478 THE WORKS OF [1756
and therefore unfit to be continued under their
present dimensions.
Several of the old colonies may conveniently be
limited westward by the Allegany or Appalachian
mountains, and new colonies formed west of those
mountains.
A single old colony does not seem strong enough
to extend itself otherwise than inch by inch. It can
not venture a settlement far distant from the main
body, being unable to support it ; but if the colonies
were united under one governor-general and grand
council, agreeably to the Albany plan, they might
easily, by their joint force, establish one or more new
colonies, whenever they should judge it necessary or
advantageous to the interest of the whole.
But if such union should not take place, it is pro
posed that two charters be granted, each for some
considerable part of the lands west of Pennsylvania
and the Virginia mountains, to a number of the no
bility and gentry of Britain ; with such Americans as
shall join them in contributing to the settlement of
those lands, either by paying a proportion of the ex
pense of making such settlements, or by actually go
ing thither in person, and settling themselves and
families.
That by such charters it be granted that every
actual settler be entitled to a tract of - - acres for
himself, and - - acres for every poll in the family he
carries with him ; and that every contributor of -
guineas be entitled to a quantity of acres, equal to
the share of a single settler, for every such sum of
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 479
guineas contributed and paid to the colony treasurer ;
a contributor for - - shares to have an additional
share gratis ; that settlers may likewise be contribu
tors, and have right of land in both capacities.
That as many and as great privileges and powers
of government be granted to the contributors and
settlers, as his Majesty in his wisdom shall think most
fit for their benefit and encouragement, consistent
with the general good of the British empire ; for ex
traordinary privileges and liberties, with lands on
easy terms, are strong inducements to people to
hazard their persons and fortunes in settling new
countries. And such powers of government as
(though suitable to their circumstances, and fit to be
trusted with an infant colony) might be judged unfit
when it becomes populous and powerful, these might
be granted for a term only ; as the choice of their
own governor for ninety-nine years ; the support of
government in the colonies of Connecticut and Rhode
Island (which now enjoy that and other like privileges)
being much less expensive than in the colonies under
the immediate government of the crown, and the
constitution more inviting.
That the first contributors to the amount of
guineas be empowered to choose a treasurer to re
ceive the contribution.
That no contributions be paid till the sum of -
thousand guineas be subscribed.
That the money thus raised be applied to the pur
chase of the lands from the Six Nations and other
Indians, and of provisions, stores, arms, ammunition,
480 THE WORKS OF [1756
carriages, &c., for the settlers, who, after having
entered their names with the treasurer, or person by
him appointed to receive and enter them, are, upon
public notice given for that purpose, to rendezvous
at a place to be appointed, and march in a body to
the place destined for their settlement, under the
charge of the government to be established over
them. Such rendezvous and march, however, not to
be directed till the number of names of settlers
entered, capable of bearing arms, amount at least
to - - thousand.
It is apprehended that a great sum of money might
be raised in America on such a scheme as this ; for
there are many who would be glad of any opportu
nity, by advancing a small sum at present, to secure
land for their children, which might in a few years
become very valuable ; and a great number, it is
thought, of actual settlers might likewise be engaged
(some from each of our present colonies), sufficient
to carry it into full execution by their strength and
numbers ; provided only, that the crown would be at
the expense of removing the little forts the French
have erected in their encroachments on his Majesty s
territories, and supporting a strong one near the Falls
of Niagara, with a few small armed vessels, or half-
galleys to cruise on the Lakes.
For the security of this colony in its infancy, a
small fort might be erected and for some time main
tained at Buffalo Creek on the Ohio, above the set
tlement ; and another at the mouth of the Tioga, on
the south side of Lake Erie, where a port should be
1756] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 481
formed and a town erected for the trade of the
Lakes. The colonists for this settlement might march
by land through Pennsylvania.
The river Scioto, which runs into the Ohio about
two hundred miles below Logstown, is supposed the
fittest seat for the other colony / there being for forty
miles on each side of it, and quite up to its heads, a
body of all rich land ; the finest spot of its bigness in
all North America, and has the particular advantage
of sea-coal in plenty (even above ground in two
places) for fuel, when the woods shall be destroyed.
This colony would have the trade of the Miamis or
Twigtwees ; and should, at first, have a small fort
near Hochockin, at the head of the river, and an
other near the mouth of Wabash. Sandusky, a
French fort near the Lake Erie, should also be taken ;
and all the little French forts south and west of the
Lakes, quite to the Mississippi, be removed, or taken
and garrisoned by the English. The colonists for
this settlement might assemble near the heads of the
rivers in Virginia, and march over land to the naviga
ble branches of the Kenhawa, where they might em
bark with all their baggage and provisions, and fall
into the Ohio, not far above the mouth of the Scioto.
Or they might rendezvous at Will s Creek, and go
down the Monongahela to the Ohio.
The fort and armed vessels at the strait of Niag
ara would be a vast security to the frontiers of these
new colonies against any attempts of the French from
Canada. The fort at the mouth of the Wabash
would guard that river, the Ohio, and the Cutava
482 THE WORKS OF [1756
River, in case of any attempt from the French of the
Mississippi. Every fort should have a small settle
ment round it, as the fort would protect the settlers,
and the settlers defend the fort and supply it with
provisions.
The difficulty of settling the first English colonies
in America, at so great a distance from England,
must have been vastly greater than the settling these
proposed new colonies ; for it would be the interest
and advantage of all the present colonies to support
these new ones ; as they would cover their frontiers,
and prevent the growth of the French power behind
or near their present settlements ; and the new coun
try is nearly at equal distance from all the old colo
nies, and could easily be assisted from all of them.
And as there are already in all the old colonies
many thousands of families that are ready to swarm,
wanting more land, the richness and natural advan
tage of the Ohio country would draw most of them
thither, were there but a tolerable prospect of a safe
settlement. So that the new colonies would soon be
full of people ; and, from the advantage of their situa
tion, become much more terrible to the French set
tlements than those are now to us. The gaining of
the back Indian trade from, the French, by the navi
gation of the Lakes, &c., would of itself greatly
weaken our enemies, it being now their principal sup
port. It seems highly probable, that in time they
must be subjected to the British crown, or driven out
of the country.
Such settlements may better be made now, than
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 483
fifty years hence ; because it is easier to settle our
selves, and thereby prevent the French settling there,
as they seem now to intend, than to remove them
when strongly settled.
If these settlements are postponed, then more forts
and stronger, and more numerous and expensive gar
risons, must be established, to secure the country, pre
vent their settling, and secure our present frontiers ;
the charge of which may probably exceed the charge
of the proposed settlements, and the advantage noth
ing near so great.
The fort at Oswego should likewise be strength
ened, and some armed half-galleys, or other small ves
sels, kept there to cruise on Lake Ontario, as pro
posed by Mr. Pownall in his paper laid before the
commissioners at the Albany treaty.
If a fort was also built at Tirondequat on Lake
Ontario, and a settlement made there near the lake
side, where the lands are said to be good, much bet
ter than at Oswego, the people of such settlements
would help to defend both forts on any emergency.
CXLIX.
TO ROBERT CHARLES. x
PHILADELPHIA, i February, 1757.
SIR : By this ship you will receive a box contain
ing sundry copies of our last years Votes, to which
are added, as you advised, the accounts of the ex
penditure of the fifty-five thousand pounds, and the
1 Many years agent in England for the Assembly of Pennsylvania.
484 THE WORKS OF [1757
subsequent thirty thousand. Also the papers relating
to the employing of foreign officers. There is like
wise in the box an authenticated copy of our late bill
for granting one hundred thousand to the King s use,
and of the vote appointing yourself and Mr. Par
tridge agents, under the great seal, with all the late
messages. You will see in the Votes a copy of the
Proprietary Instructions, in which a money bill is
made for us by the Proprietary, sitting in his closet
at one thousand leagues distance.
The governor laid before us an estimate of the
necessary expense for defraying the province one
year, amounting to one hundred and five thousand
pounds. We knew our inability to bear the raising
of so great a sum in so short a time. We de
ducted the least necessary articles, and reduced it to
one hundred thousand pounds, which we granted, and
sent up the bill. Not that we thought this province
capable of paying such a tax yearly, or any thing
near it, but believing it necessary to exert ourselves
at this time in an extraordinary manner, to save the
country from total ruin by the enemy. The governor,
to use his own polite word, REJECTS it. Your Eng
lish kings, I think, are complaisant enough to say
they will advise upon it. We have no remedy here,
but must obey the instruction, by which we are so
confined, as to the time of rating the property to be
taxed, the valuation of that property, and the sum
per pound to be taxed on the valuation, that it is
demonstrably impossible by such a law to raise one
quarter of the money absolutely necessary to defend
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 485
us. Three fourths of the troops must be disbanded,
and so the country be exposed to the mercy of our
enemies, rather than the least tittle of a Proprietary
instruction should be deviated from !
I forbear to enlarge, because the House have
unanimously desired your friend Mr. Norris, and my
self, to go home immediately, to assist their agents in
getting these matters settled. He has not yet de
termined ; but if he goes, you will by him be fully
informed of every thing, and my going will not, in
my opinion, be necessary. If he declines it, I may
possibly soon have the pleasure of seeing you. I am
with great respect, Sir, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
CL.
REPORT
OF THE COMMITTEE OF AGGRIEVANCES OF THE ASSEMBLY
OF PENNSYLVANIA.
DATED FEBRUARY 22D, I757. 1
In obedience to the order of the House, we have
drawn up the heads of the most important aggriev-
1 The English colonial governments ly, Charter governments, where the
were of three sorts. First, Provincial fundamentals of the government are
governments; where the constitution previously prescribed and made known
originally depends on the King s com- to the settlers, being in no degree left
mission and instructions, given to his subject to a governor s commission or
governors ; and the Assemblies, held proprietor s will. (See Blackstont,
under that authority, have their share Vol. I. Introd. 4.) Good faith,
in making local ordinances not repug- however, to mankind, seemed to re-
nant to English law. Next, Proprie- quire that the constitutions, once
tary governments ; where a district of begun under the provincial or proprie-
country is given by the crown to in- tary governments, should remain un-
dividuals, attended with certain legis- altered (except for improvement) to
lative powers in the nature of a fief ; the respective settlers ; equally as in
with a provision for the sovereignty charter governments,
at home, and also for the fulfilment of By the last paragraph of the follow-
the terms and end of the grant. Last- ing Report, it seems that the Assem-
4 86 THE WORKS OF [1757
ances that occur to us, which the people of this prov
ince with great difficulty labor under ; the many
infractions of the constitution (in manifest violation
of the royal grant, the proprietary charter, the laws
of this province, and of the laws, usages, and customs
of our mother country), and other matters, which we
apprehend call aloud for redress.
They are as follow :
First. By the royal charter (which has ever been,
ought to be, and truly is, the principal and invariable
fundamental of this constitution), King Charles the
Second did give and grant unto William Penn, his
heirs and assigns, the province of Pennsylvania ; and
also to him and his heirs, and his or their deputies or
lieutenants, free, full, and absolute power for the good
and happy government thereof, to make and enact any
laws, " according to their best discretion, by and with
the advice, assent, and approbation of \hefreemen of
the said country, or of their delegates or deputies " ;
for the raising of money, or any other end appertain
ing to the public state, peace, or safety of the said
country. By the words of this grant, it is evident that
full powers are granted to the deputies and lieutenants
of William Penn and his heirs, to concur with the
people in framing laws for their protection and the
safety of the province, according to their best discre
tion ; independent of any instructions or directions
bly established in Pennsylvania in- mittee of the Assembly, the following
tended to send commissioners to Report was meant to convey the opin-
England to solicit redress of various ion of that committee concerning the
grievances, particularly respecting instructions necessary to be given by
their Proprietors conduct ; and that, the Assembly to the commissioners.
the business being referred to a com- B. V.
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 487
they should receive from their principals. And it is
equally obvious to your committee, that the people of
this province and their representatives were interested
in this royal grant ; and by virtue thereof have an
original right of legislation inherent in them, which
neither the proprietors nor any other person whatso
ever can divest them of, restrain or abridge, without
manifestly violating and destroying the letter, spirit,
and design of this grant.
Nevertheless we unfortunately find, that the pro
prietaries of this province, regardless of this sacred
fundamental of all our rights and liberties, have so
abridged and restricted their late and present governor s
discretion in matters of legislation, by their illegal,
impracticable, and unconstitutional instructions and
prohibitions, that no bill for granting aids and supplies
to our most gracious Sovereign (be it ever so reason
able, expedient, and necessary for the defence of his
Majesty s colony, and safety of his people), unless it
be agreeable thereto, can meet with its approbation ;
by means whereof the many considerable sums of
money, which have been offered for those purposes
by the Assemblies of this province (ever anxious to
maintain his honor and rights), have been rejected ;
to the great encouragement of his Majesty s enemies,
and the imminent danger of the loss of this his colony.
Secondly. The representatives of the people in Gen
eral Assembly met, by virtue of the said royal grant,
and the charter and privileges granted by the said
William Penn, and a law of this province, have right
to, and ought to enjoy, all the powers and privileges
4 88 THE WORKS OF [1757
of an Assembly, according to the rights of the free-
born subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the
plantations of America. It is an indubitable and now
an uncontested right of the Commons of England to
grant aids and supplies to his Majesty in any manner
they think most easy to themselves and the people ;
and they are the sole judges of the measure, manner,
and time of granting and raising the same.
Nevertheless the proprietaries of this province, in
contempt of the said royal grant, proprietary char
ter, and law of their colony ; designing to subvert
the fundamentals of this constitution, to deprive the
Assembly and people of their rights and privileges,
and to assume an arbitrary and tyrannical power over
the liberties and properties of his Majesty s liege sub
jects ; have so restrained their governors by the des
potic instructions (which are not to be varied from,
and are particularly directory in the framing and
passing of money bills and supplies to his Majesty, as
to the mode, measure, and time), that it is impossible
for the Assembly, should they lose all sense of their
most essential rights, and comply with those instruc
tions, to grant sufficient aids for the defence of this
his Majesty s province from the common enemy.
Thirdly. In pursuance of sundry acts of General
Assembly, approved of by the crown, and a natural
right inherent in every man antecedent to all laws,
the Assemblies of this province have had the power
of disposing of the public moneys, that have been
raised for the encouragement of trade and support of
government by the interest money arising by the
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 489
loans of the bills of credit and the excise. No part
of these moneys was ever paid by the proprietaries,
or ever raised on their estates ; and therefore they
can have no pretence of right to a voice in the dispo
sition of them. They have even been applied with
prudent frugality to the honor and advantage of the
public and the King s immediate service, to the
general approbation of the people ; the credit of the
government has been preserved, and the debts of the
public punctually discharged. In short, no incon
veniences, but great and many advantages, have ac
crued from the Assembly s prudent care and manage
ment of these funds.
Yet the proprietaries resolved to deprive the As
semblies of the power and means of supporting an
agent in England, and of prosecuting their complaints
and remonstrating their aggrievances, when injured
and oppressed, to his Majesty and his Parliament ;
and, to rob them of this natural right (which has
been so often approved of by their gracious Sov
ereign), have, by their said instructions, prohibited
their governor from giving his assent to any laws
emitting or reemitting any paper currency or bills of
credit, or for raising money by excise or any other
method ; unless the governor or commander-in-chief
for the time being, by clauses to be inserted therein,
have a negative in the disposition of the moneys aris
ing thereby ; let the languishing circumstances of our
trade be ever so great, and a further or greater
medium be ever so necessary for its support.
Fourthly. By the laws and statutes of England,
490 THE WORKS OF [1757
the chief rents, honors, and castles of the crown are
taxed, and pay their proportion to the supplies that
are granted to the King for the defence of the realm
and support of government. His Majesty, the
nobility of the realm, and all the British subjects do
now actually contribute their proportion towards the
defence of America in general, and this province in
particular ; and it is in a more especial manner the
duty of \h& proprietaries to pay their proportion of a
tax for the immediate preservation of their own
estates in this province. To exempt, therefore, any
part of their estates from their reasonable part of this
necessary burthen, is as unjust as it is illegal, and as
new as it is arbitrary.
Yet the proprietaries, notwithstanding the general
danger to which the nation and its colonies are ex
posed, and great distress of this province in particular,
by their said instructions have prohibited their gov
ernors from passing laws for the raising supplies for
its defence ; ^lnless all their located, unimproved, and
unoccupied lands, quit-rents, fines, and purchase
moneys on interest (the much greater part of their
enormous estates in this colony) are expressly ex
empted from paying any part of the tax.
Fifthly. By virtue of the said royal charter, the
proprietaries are invested with a power of doing all
things, "which unto a complete establishment of
justice, unto courts and tribunals, forms of judicature,
and manner of proceedings, do belong." It was cer
tainly the import and design of this grant, that the
courts of judicature should be formed, and fa& judges
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 491
and officers thereof hold their commissions, in a man
ner not repugnant, but agreeable, to the laws and
customs of England ; that thereby they might remain
free from the influence of persons in power, the
rights of the people might be preserved, and their
properties effectually secured. That the grantee,
William Penn (understanding the said grant in this
light), did, by his original frame of government,
covenant and grant with the people, that the judges
and other officers should hold their commissions
during their good behaviour, and no longer.
Notwithstanding which, the governors of this prov
ince have, for many years past, granted all the com
missions to the judges of the King s Bench or
supreme court of this province, and to the judges of
the court of Common Pleas of the several counties,
to be held during their will and pleasure ; by means
whereof the said judges being subject to the influence
and direction of the proprietaries and their govern
ors, their favorites and creatures, the laws may not
be duly administered or executed, but often wrested
from their true sense to serve particular purposes ;
the foundation of justice may be liable to be de
stroyed ; and the lives, laws, liberties, privileges,
and properties of the people thereby rendered pre
carious and altogether insecure ; to the great disgrace
of our laws, and the inconceivable injury of his
Majesty s subjects.
Your committee further beg leave to add, that, be
sides these aggrievances, there are other hardships
the people of this province have experienced, that
492 THE WORKS OF [1757
call for redress. The enlistment of servants without
the least satisfaction being made to the masters, has
not only prevented the cultivation of our lands, and
diminished the trade and commerce of the province,
but is a burthen extremely unequal and oppressive to
individuals. And should the practice continue, the
consequence must prove very discouraging to the
further settlement of this colony, and prejudicial to
his Majesty s future service. Justice, therefore, de
mands that satisfaction should be made to the mas
ters of such enlisted servants, and that the right of
masters to their servants be confirmed and settled.
But as those servants have been enlisted into his
Majesty s service for the general defence of America,
and not of this province only, but all the colonies,
and the nation in general, have and will receive equal
benefit from their service, this satisfaction should be
made at the expense of the nation, and not of the
province only.
That the people now labor under a burthen of taxes
almost insupportable by so young a colony, for the
defence of its long-extended frontier, of about two
hundred miles from New Jersey to Maryland ; without
either of those colonies, or the three lower counties
on Delaware, contributing their proportion thereto ;
though their frontiers are in a great measure covered
and protected by our forts. And should the war
continue, and with it this unequal burthen, many of
his Majesty s subjects in this province will be reduced
to want ; and the province, if not lost to the enemy,
involved in debt and sunk under its load.
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 493
That, notwithstanding this weight of taxes, the
Assemblies of this province have given to the general
service of the nation five thousand pounds to purchase
provisions for the troops under General Braddock ;
,2,985. os. nd. for clearing a road by his orders;
,10,514. los. id. to General Shirley, for the purchas
ing provisions for the New England forces ; and ex
pended the sum of ,2,385. os. 2\d. in supporting the
inhabitants of Nova Scotia ; which likewise we con
ceive ought to be a national expense.
And that his Majesty s subjects, the merchants and
insurers in England, as well as the merchants here and
elsewhere, did during the last and will during the pres
ent war greatly suffer in their property, trade, and com
merce, by the enemy s privateers on this coast, and at our
capes, unless some method be fallen on to prevent it.
Wherefore your committee are of opinion, that the
commissioners, intended to be sent to England to
solicit a memorial and redress of the many infractions
and violations of the constitution, should also have it
in charge, and be instructed, to represent to our most
gracious Sovereign and his Parliaments the several
unequal burthens and hardships before mentioned ;
and endeavour to procure satisfaction to the masters
of such servants as have been enlisted, and the right
of masters to their servants established and con
firmed ; and obtain a repayment of the said several
sums of money, some assistance towards defending
our extensive frontier, and a vessel of war to protect
the trade and commerce of this province.
Submitted to the correction of the House.
494 THE WORKS OF [1757
CLI.
TO MRS. JANE MECOM.
PHILADELPHIA, 21 February, 1757.
DEAR SISTER : I am glad to hear your son has got
well home. I like your conclusion not to take a
house for him till summer, and if he stays till his new
letters arrive, perhaps it would not be amiss ; for a
good deal depends on the first impression a man
makes. As he will keep a bookseller s shop with
his printing-house, I don t know but it might be worth
his while to set up at Cambridge.
I enclose you some whisk seed ; it is a kind of corn,
good for creatures ; it must be planted in hills, like
Indian corn. The tops make the best thatch in the
world ; and of the same are made the whisks you use
for velvet. Pray try if it will grow with you. I
brought it from Virginia. Give some to Mr. Cooper,
some to Mr. Bowdoin. Love to cousin Sally, and her
spouse. I wish them and you much joy. Love to
brother, &c., B. FRANKLIN.
CLIL
TO WILLIAM PARSONS.
PHILADELPHIA, 22 February, 1757.
DEAR FRIEND : I thank you for the intelligence
from Fort Allen relating to the Indians. The com
missioners have not yet settled your account, but I
will press them to do it immediately. I have not
heard from Mr. Stephenson, but will write to him once
more.
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 495
And now, my dear old friend, I am to take leave
of you, being ordered home to England by the As
sembly, to obtain some final settlement of the points
that have occasioned so many unhappy disputes. I
assure you I go with the sincerest desire of procuring
peace, and therein I know I shall have your prayers
for my success. God bless you, and grant that at my
return I may find you well and happy. I am, as ever,
dear friend, yours affectionately,
B. FRANKLIN. 1
CLIII.
TO MISS CATHERINE RAY.
PHILADELPHIA, 3 March, 1757.
DEAR KATY : Being about to leave America for
some time, I could not go without taking leave of my
dear friend. I received your favor of the 8th of Novem
ber, and am ashamed, that I have suffered it to re
main so long unanswered, especially as now, through
1 On the 2gth of January, the As- himself, however, in the disposition of
sembly resolved that Isaac Norris, the House, and was ready to go when-
the Speaker of the House, and Benja- ever they should think fit to require
min Franklin, should be requested to his service." It was then resolved,
go to Egland, " as commissioners to " that Benjamin Franklin be, and he
solicit the removal of grievances occa- is hereby, appointed Agent of this
sioned by proprietary instructions, province, to solicit and transact the
&c." When they were called upon to affairs thereof in Great Britain." See
declare to the Assembly, whether they "Votes and Proceedings," February
would comply with the request, Mr. 3d. His son was at this time clerk of
Norris declined, and gave as a reason the House, and it was resolved " that
the state of his health. Mr. Franklin William Franklin have leave to resign
said "that he esteemed the nomina- his office of clerk of this House, that
tion by the House to that service as a he may accompany his father, ap-
high honor, but that he thought, if the pointed one of the commissioners to
Speaker could be prevailed on to un- negotiate our affairs in England, and
dertake it, his long experience in pub- that another person be chosen to serve
lie affairs would render the addition as clerk during the absence of the said
of another unnecessary ; that he held Franklin." February i8th.
496 THE WORKS OF [1757
shortness of time, I cannot chat with you in any man
ner agreeably.
I can only wish you well and happy, which I do most
cordially. Present my best compliments to your good
mamma, brother and sister Ward, and all your other
sisters, the agreeable Misses Ward, Dr. Babcock and
family, the charitable Misses Stanton, and, in short,
to all that love me. I should have said all that love
you, but that would be giving you too much trouble.
Adieu, dear good girl, and believe me ever your affec
tionate friend, B. FRANKLIN.
CLIV.
TO MR. DUNLAP.
PHILADELPHIA, 4 April, 1757.
I now appoint you postmaster of Philadelphia,
during our absence, as it will be some present em
ployment for you till our return ; when I hope to put
you in a better way, if I find you diligent, careful,
and faithful.
I would not have the office remov d on any account
from my house during my absence, without my leave
first obtain d.
And as Mrs. Franklin has had a great deal of ex
perience in the management of the post-office, I de
pend on your paying considerable attention to her
advice in that matter.
As I leave but little money with Mrs. Franklin for
the support of the family, and have (torn - ) of
the post-office for the (torn - -) absence, I ex
pect and (torn - ) account with her for, and
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 497
pay her, every Monday morning, the postage of the
preceding week, taking her receipts for the same, and
retaining only your commissions of ten per cent.
You should have a little book for such receipts.
Wishing you health and happiness, I am, your af
fectionate uncle, B. FRANKLIN.
CLV.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
TRENTON/ 5 April, 1757.
MY DEAR CHILD : We found the roads much bet
ter than we expected, and got here well before night.
My kind friend Mr. Griffith s carriage appearing too
weak in the wheels, I have accepted Mr. Masters s
obliging offer, and take his carriage forward from this
place, and he will return to town in Mr. Griffith s.
About a dozen of our friends accompanied us quite
hither, to see us out of the province, and we spent a
very agreeable evening together. I leave home, and
undertake this long voyage, the more cheerfully, as I
can rely on your prudence in the management of my
affairs and education of our dear child ; and yet I can
not forbear once more recommending her to you with
a father s tenderest concern. My love to all. If the
roads do not prove worse, we may be at Woodbridge
to-night. I believe I did not see Mr. Dunlap when I
came away, so as to take leave of him ; my love to
him. Billy presents his duty and love to all. I am
your affectionate husband, B. FRANKLIN.
1 On his way to New York, where he was to take passage for England.
498 THE WORKS OF [1757
CLVI.
TO JOHN LINING, AT CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.
NEW YORK, 14 April, 1757.
SIR : It is a long time since I had the pleasure of
a line from you ; and, indeed, the troubles of our
country, with the hurry of business I have been en
gaged in on that account, have made me so bad a
correspondent, that I ought not to expect punctuality
in others.
But being about to embark for England, I could
not quit the continent without paying my respects to
you, and, at the same time, taking leave to introduce
to your acquaintance a gentleman of learning and
merit, Colonel Henry Bouquet, who does me the
favor to present you this letter, and with whom I am
sure you will be much pleased.
Professor Simson, of Glasgow, lately communicated
to me some curious experiments of a physician of his
acquaintance, by which it appeared that an extraordi
nary degree of cold, even to freezing, might be pro
duced by evaporation. I have not had leisure to
repeat and examine more than the first and easiest of
them, viz. : Wet the ball of a thermometer by a feather
dipped in spirit of wine, which has been kept in the
same room, and has, of course, the same degree of
heat or cold. The mercury sinks presently three or
four degrees, and the quicker if during the evapora
tion you blow on the ball with the bellows ; a second
wetting and blowing, when the mercury is down,
carries it yet lower. I think I did not get it lower
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 499
than five or six degrees from where it naturally stood,
which was, at that time, sixty. But it is said, that a
vessel of water being placed in another somewhat
larger, containing spirit, in such a manner that the
vessel of water is surrounded with the spirit, and
both placed under the receiver of an air-pump, on
exhausting the air, the spirit evaporating, leaves such
a degree of cold as to freeze the water, though the
thermometer, in the open air, stands many degrees
above the freezing point.
I know not how this phenomenon is to be accounted
for ; but it gives me occasion to mention some loose
notions relating to heat and cold, which I have for
some time entertained, but not yet reduced into any
form. Allowing common fire, as well as electrical, to
be a fluid capable of permeating other bodies, and
seeking an equilibrium, I imagine some bodies are
better fitted by nature to be conductors of that fluid
than others ; and that, generally, those which are the
best conductors of electrical fluid, are also the best
conductors of this ; and e contra.
Thus a body which is a good conductor of fire
readily receives it into its substance, and conducts it
through the whole to all the parts, as metals and
water do ; and if two bodies, both good conductors,
one heated, the other in its common state, are brought
into contact with each other, the body which has
most fire readily communicates of it to that which
had least, and that which had least readily receives
it, till an equilibrium is produced. Thus, if you take
a dollar between your fingers with one hand, and a
500 THE WORKS OF [1757
piece of wood, of the same dimensions, with the
other, and bring both at the same time to the flame
of a candle, you will find yourselves obliged to drop
the dollar before you drop the wood, because it con
ducts the heat of the candle sooner to your flesh.
Thus, if a silver tea-pot had a handle of the same
metal, it would conduct the heat from the water to
the hand, and become too hot to be used ; we there
fore give to a metal tea-pot a handle of wood, which
is not so good a conductor as metal. But a china or
stone tea-pot being in some degree of the nature of
glass, which is not a good conductor of heat, may
have a handle of the same stuff. Thus, also, a damp
moist air shall make a man more sensible of cold, or
chill him more, than a dry air that is colder, because
a moist air is fitter to receive and conduct away the
heat of his body. This fluid, entering bodies in great
quantity, first expands them by separating their parts
a little ; afterwards, by farther separating their parts,
it renders solids fluid, and at length dissipates their
parts in air. Take this fluid from melted lead, or
from water, the parts cohere again ; and this is
sooner done by the means of good conductors.
Thus, if you take, as I have done,
a square bar of lead, four inches
long, and one inch thick, together
with three pieces of wood planed to
the same dimensions, and lay them,
as in the margin, on a smooth
board, fixed so as not to be easily
separated or moved, and pour into the cavity they form
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 501
as much melted lead as will fill it, you will see the
melted lead chill, and become firm, on the side next
the leaden bar, some time before it chills on the other
three sides in contact with the wooden bars, though,
before the lead was poured in, they might all be sup
posed to have the same degree of heat or coldness,
as they had been exposed in the same room to the
same air. You will likewise observe that the leaden
bar, as it had cooled the melted lead more than the
wooden bars have done, so it is itself more heated
by the melted lead. There is a certain quantity of
this fluid, called fire, in every human body, which
fluid, being in due proportion, keeps the parts of the
flesh and blood at such a just distance from each
other, as that the flesh and nerves are supple and the
blood fit for circulation. If part of this due propor
tion of fire be conducted away, by means of a con
tact with other bodies, as air, water, or metals,
the parts of our skin and flesh that come into such
contact first draw more together than is agreea
ble, and give that sensation which we call cold ; and
if too much be conveyed away, the body stiffens, the
blood ceases to flow, and death ensues. On the other
hand, if too much of this fluid be communicated to
the flesh, the parts are separated too far, and pain
ensues, as when they are separated by a pin or lancet.
The sensation that the separation by fire occasions,
we call heat, or burning. My desk on which I now
write and the lock of my desk are both exposed to
the same temperature of the air, and have therefore
the same degree of heat or cold ; yet if I lay my
502 THE WORKS OF [1757
hand successively on the wood and on the metal,
the latter feels much the coldest, not that it is really
so, but being a better conductor, it more readily
than the wood takes away and draws into itself the
fire that was in my skin. Accordingly, if I lay one
hand, part on the lock and part on the wood, and
after it has lain so some time, I feel both parts
with my other hand, I find the part that has been in
contact with the lock very sensibly colder to the
touch than the part that lay on the wood. How
a living animal obtains its quantity of this fluid,
called fire, is a curious question. I have shown that
some bodies (as metals) have a power of attract
ing it stronger than others ; and I have sometimes
suspected that a living body had some power of at
tracting out of the air, or other bodies, the heat it
wanted. Thus metals hammered or repeatedly bent
grow hot in the bent or hammered part. But when
I consider that air in contact with the body cools
it ; that the surrounding air is rather heated by its
contact with the body ; that every breath of cooler
air drawn in carries off part of the body s heat when
it passes out again ; that therefore there must be in
the body a fund for producing it, or otherwise the
body would soon grow cold : I have been rather in
clined to think that the fluidyfr^, as well as the fluid
air, is attracted by plants in their growth, and be
comes consolidated with the other materials of which
they are formed, and makes a great part of their
substance ; that, when they come to be digested, and
to suffer in the vessels a kind of fermentation, part
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 503
of the fire, as well as part of the air, recovers its fluid,
active state again, and diffuses itself in the body, di
gesting and separating it ; that the fire so reproduced
by digestion and separation, continually leaving the
body, its place is supplied by fresh quantities, arising
from the continual separation ; that whatever quick
ens the motion of the fluids in an animal quickens
the separation, and reproduces more of the fire, as
exercise ; that all the fire emitted by wood and other
combustibles when burning existed in them before
in a solid state, being only discovered when separat
ing ; that some fossils, as sulphur, sea-coal, &c., con
tain a great deal of solid fire ; and that, in short,
what escapes and is dissipated in the burning of
bodies, besides water and earth, is generally the air
and fire that before made parts of the solid. Thus
I imagine that animal heat arises by or from a kind
of fermentation in the juices of the body, in the same
manner as heat arises in the liquors preparing for
distillation, wherein there is a separation of the spirit
uous from the watery and earthy parts. And it is re
markable that the liquor in a distiller s vat, when in
its highest and best state of fermentation, as I have
been informed, has the same degree of heat with the
human body that is, about 94 or 96.
Thus, as- by a constant supply of fuel in a chim
ney you keep a warm room, so by a constant supply
of food in the stomach, you keep a warm body ; only,
where little exercise is used, the heat may possibly
be conducted away too fast, in which case such
materials are to be used for clothing and bedding,
504 THE WORKS OF [1757
against the effects of an immediate contact of the air,
as are in themselves bad conductors of heat, and
consequently prevent its being communicated through
their substance to the air. Hence what is called
warmth in wool, and its preference on that account to
linen, wool not being so good a conductor ; and hence
all the natural coverings of animals to keep them
warm are such as retain and confine the natural heat
in the body, by being bad conductors, such as wool,
hair, feathers, and the silk by which the silk-worm in
its tender embryo state is first clothed. Clothing
thus considered does not make a man warm by giving
warmth, but by preventing the too quick dissipation
of the heat produced in his body, and so occasion
ing an accumulation.
There is another curious question I will just venture
to touch upon, viz.: Whence arises the sudden extra
ordinary degree of cold, perceptible on mixing some
chemical liquors, and even on mixing salt and snow,
where the composition appears colder than the coldest
of the ingredients ? I have never seen the chemical
mixtures made ; but salt and snow I have often
mixed myself, and am fully satisfied that the compo
sition feels much colder to the touch, and lowers the
mercury in the thermometer more, than either in
gredient would do separately. I suppose, with others,
that cold is nothing more than the absence of heat or
fire. Now, if the quantity of fire before contained or
diffused in the snow and salt was expelled in the
uniting of the two matters, it must be driven away
either through the air or the vessel containing them.
If it is driven off through the air, it must warm the
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 505
air ; and a thermometer held over the mixture, with
out touching it, would discover the heat by the rising of
the mercury, as it must, and always does, in warm air.
This, indeed, I have not tried, but I should guess
it would rather be driven off through the vessel,
especially if the vessel be metal, as being a better
conductor than air ; and so one should find the basin
warmer after such mixture. But, on the contrary,
the vessel grows cold, and even water, in which the
vessel is sometimes placed for the experiment, freezes
into hard ice on the basin. Now I know not how to
account for this, otherwise than by supposing that
the composition is a better conductor of fire than the
ingredients separately, and, like the lock compared
with the wood, has a stronger power of attracting
fire, and does accordingly attract it suddenly from
the fingers, or a thermometer put into it, from the
basin that contains it, and from the water in contact
with the outside of the basin ; so that the fingers have
the sensation of extreme cold, by being deprived of
much of their natural fire ; the thermometer sinks,
by having part of its fire drawn out of the mercury ;
the basin grows colder to the touch, as, by having its
fire drawn into the mixture, it is become more capa
ble of drawing and receiving it from the hand ; and,
through the basin, the water loses its fire that kept it
fluid, so it becomes ice. One would expect, that
from all this attracted acquisition of fire to the com
position, it should become warmer ; and, in fact, the
snow and salt dissolve at the same time into water,
without freezing. I am, Sir, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
506 THE WORKS OF [1757
CLVII.
TO MRS. JANE MECOM.
NEW YORK, 19 April, 1757.
DEAR SISTER : I wrote a few lines to you yester
day, but omitted to answer yours relating to sister
Dowse. As having their own way is one of the great
est comforts of life to old people, I think their friends
should endeavour to accommodate them in that, as
well as in any thing else. When they have long lived
in a house, it becomes natural to them ; they are al
most as closely connected with it as the tortoise with
his shell ; they die, if you tear them out of it ; old
folks and old trees, if you remove them, it is ten to
one that you kill them ; so let our good old sister be
no more importuned on that head. We are growing
old fast ourselves, and shall expect the same kind of
indulgences ; if we give them, we shall have a right
to receive them in our turn.
And as to her few fine things, I think she is in the
right not to sell them, and for the reason she gives,
that they will fetch but little ; when that little is spent,
they would be of no further use to her ; but perhaps
the expectation of possessing them at her death may
make that person tender and careful of her, and help
ful to her to the amount of ten times their value. If
so, they are put to the best use they possibly can be.
I hope you visit sister as often as your affairs will
permit, and afford her what assistance and comfort
you can in her present situation. Old age, infirmities,
&&& poverty, joined, are afflictions enough. The neg-
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 507
led and slights of friends and near relations should
never be added. People in her circumstances are apt
to suspect this sometimes without cause ; appearances
should therefore be attended to, in our conduct tow
ards them, as well as realities. I write by this post
to cousin Williams, to continue his care, which I
doubt not he will do.
We expect to sail in about a week, so that I can
hardly hear from you again on this side the water ;
but let me have a line from you now and then, while
I am in London. I expect to stay there at least a
twelvemonth. Direct your letters to be left for me
at the Pennsylvania Coffee-house, in Birchin Lane,
London. My love to all, from, dear sister, your
affectionate brother, B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. April 25th. We are still here, and perhaps
may be here a week longer. Once more adieu, my
dear sister.
CLVIII.
TO MRS. JANE MECOM.
WOODBRIDGE, NEW JERSEY, 21 May, 1757.
DEAR SISTER : I received your kind letter of the
9th instant, in which you acquainted me with some of
your late troubles. These are troublesome times to
us all ; but perhaps you have had more than you
should. I am glad to hear that Peter is at a place
where he has full employ. A trade is a valuable
thing ; but unless a habit of industry be acquired
with it, it turns out of little use ; if he gets that in
5o8 THE WORKS OF [1757
his new place, it will be a happy exchange, and the
occasion not an unfortunate one. It is very agree
able to me to hear so good an account of your other
children ; in such a number to have no bad ones is a
great happiness.
The horse sold very low indeed. If I wanted one
to-morrow, knowing his goodness, old as he is, I
should freely give more than twice the money for
him ; but you did the best you could, and I will take
of Benny no more than he produced.
I don t doubt but Benny will do very well when he
gets to work ; but I fear his things from England
may be so long a coming as to occasion the loss of
the rent. Would it not be better for you to move
into the house ? Perhaps not, if he is near being
married. I know nothing of that affair but what you
write me, except that I think Miss Betsey a very
agreeable, sweet-tempered, good girl, who has had a
housewifely education, and will make, to a good hus
band, a very good wife. Your sister and I have a
great esteem for her ; and if she will be kind enough
to accept of our nephew, we think it will be his own
fault if he is not as happy as the married state can
make him. The family is a respectable one, but
whether there be any fortune I know not ; and as
you do not inquire about this particular, I suppose
you think with me, that where every thing else de
sirable is to be met with, that is not very material.
If she does not bring a fortune, she will help to make
one. Industry, frugality, and prudent economy in a
wife, are to a tradesman, in their effects, a fortune ;
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 509
and a fortune sufficient for Benjamin, if his expecta
tions are reasonable. We can only add that if the
young lady and her friends are willing, we give our
consent heartily, and our blessing. My love to
brother and the children. Your affectionate brother,
B. FRANKLIN.
P. S. If Benny will promise to be one of the ten-
derest husbands in the world, I give my consent. He
knows already what I think of Miss Betsey. I am
his loving aunt, DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
CLIX.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
NEW YORK, Friday, 27 May, 1757.
MY DEAR DEBBY : Mr. Parker being doubtful this
morning whether the rain would permit his setting
out to-day, I had prepared no letter to send by Sally,
when he took a sudden resolution to go. Mr. Golden T
could not spare his daughter, as she helps him in the
post-office, he having no clerk. I enclose only the
fourth bills, which you are to put up safe with my
writings. The first set I take with me, the second
goes by Radford, and I now send the third by
Bonnel.
All the packets are to sail together with the fleet,
but when that will be is yet uncertain ; for yesterday
came in three privateers with several prizes, and by
them there is advice that the French fleet, which was
in the West Indies, is come to the northward ; and
1 Mr. Alexander Golden, the postmaster in New York.
5io THE WORKS OF [1757
now it is questioned whether it will be thought pru
dent for these transports to sail till there is certain
advice that the grand fleet is arrived from England.
This, however, is only town talk.
I send Mr. Kneeland s letter. Pray forward the
paper he writes for, by the first opportunity. I send
a memorandum received from Joseph Croker, with a
note on the back of it. I leave it to yourself whether
to go home directly, or stay a little longer. If I find
we are not likely to sail for some time, I shall perhaps
step down again to Woodbridge and try to finish
my work. But it may be that your longer absence
from home will be attended with some inconvenience.
I am making up a bundle of papers to send you.
Put them into my room. I can hear nothing yet of
the clothes.
I have been very low-spirited all day. This tedious
state of uncertainty and long waiting have almost
worn out my patience. Except the two or three
weeks at Woodbridge, I know not when I have spent
time so uselessly as since I left Philadelphia.
I left my best spectacles on the table. Please to
send them to me.
Saturday Morning. Jemmy got here early, and
tells me Mr. Parker and the children got well down.
In my room on the folio shelf between the clock and
our bedchamber, stands a folio, called the Gardiner s
Dictionary, by P. Miller. And on the same side of
the room, on the lowest shelf or lowest but one, near
the middle, and by the side of a little partition, you
will find standing or rather lying on its fore edge a
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 511
quarto pamphlet, covered with blue paper, called a
Treatise on Cider-making. Deliver those two books
to Mr. Parker.
Simday Afternoon. Yesterday, while I was at my
Lord s, 1 with whom I had the honor to dine, word
was brought in that five sail of French men-of-war
were seen off Egg Harbour the day before ; and as
some of the French prisoners lately brought in re
port that such a number of men-of-war sailed with
them from the West Indies to go to the northward,
these vessels might be supposed to be the same, if
the account from Egg Harbour was true. If on
examination it be found true, and the French take it
into their heads to cruise off this port with such
a force, we shall then be shut up here for some time,
for our fleet here is not of force sufficient to venture
out. If this story be not true, yet it is thought by
some we shall hardly sail till there is certain advice
of the English fleet being arrived at Halifax, and
perhaps not till a convoy comes from thence to guard
us. So I am wavering whether I had not best go
down again to Woodbridge and finish my books.
I spent last evening with Mr. Nichol s family, who
all desired their compliments to you and Sally. I
send you one of the French books translated.
Monday Morning. Our going is yet uncertain.
I believe I shall put every thing on board to-morrow,
and either go down again to Woodbridge or send for
the trunk of books hither to employ myself till we
1 Lord Loudoun, who had lately arrived as commander-in-chief in America,
being successor to General Shirley.
5i2 THE WORKS OF [1757
have sailed. The report of French men-of-war off
the coast is vanished. I am, my dear Debby, your
ever loving husband, B. FRANKLIN.
CLX.
TO ISAAC NORRIS. 1
NEW YORK, 30 May, 1757.
SIR : After waiting here about seven weeks for
the sailing of the packet, the time of her sailing is
no more certain now than it was on the day of our
arrival. The packets, as it is now said, are all three
to sail with the fleet ; the two first to be dismissed
soon after the fleet is at sea ; the third to go with
the fleet to the place of rendezvous, and not to be
discharged till the arrival and junction of the fleet
from England. But this is not certain ; resolutions
change as advices are received, or occurrences arise,
and it is doubtful whether the fleet will sail from
hence till there is certain news of the arrival of that
from England, since there is intelligence that Beau-
fremont s squadron is gone from the West Indies to
the northward.
I have had the honor of several conferences with
my Lord Loudoun on the subject of the servants. 2
1 For many years Speaker of the servants into the army, thus depriving
Assembly of Pennsylvania. the farmers of their services, and of
a It was common for emigrants, of the value that had been paid for them,
the poorer class, to pay for their pas- Redress was sought from the govern-
sage by selling their time for a certain ment, and Franklin was instructed to
number of years to the captain in lay the subject before Lord Loudoun,
whose ship they came over. The the commander-in-chief of the army,
time, or term of service, thus pledged, Other particulars respecting emigrant
was sold by the captain, after his ar- servants, and the enlistment of them,
rival in port, to farmers in the country. may be seen in Sparks edition of
During the war it had been a practice "Washington s Writings," vol. ii.,
of the recruiting officers to enlist these pp. 168, 189, 199.
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 513
His Lordship objects, first, that it appears by the
list which I laid before him, that many of the ser
vants were enlisted in General Braddock s and Gen
eral Shirley s time. With those he has nothing to
do. Secondly, that many were enlisted before the
act of Parliament appointed satisfaction to be made
to the masters ; and as the lawyers all agree that the
right to take them without pay was clearly in the
King before the act, no satisfaction should be made
or expected for these. Thirdly, that the particular
proofs of the loss of each servant, and of his being
enlisted in the King s service, do not appear.
Fourthly, that the affair is now so intricate and per
plexed, that it would take more time to examine and
settle it than he can possibly spare. Fifthly, that if
his officers had done wrong in not paying for the
servants, as they took them, the fault was our own ;
it was owing to some principal people among our
selves, whom he could name, who had always assured
the officers that the Assembly intended to pay for
the servants, and by that means led them into the
error.
His Lordship made several other observations and
objections, all which I answered and endeavoured to
remove as well as I could ; but there is, I believe,
one at bottom, which it is not in my power to re
move, and that is the want of money. The expenses
of an American war necessarily run very high, and
are complained of by some in England ; and his Lord
ship is unwilling to discourage the ministry at home
by large charges. He will therefore mix none of
514 THE WORKS OF [1757
those of his predecessors with his own. He makes
the most frugal agreements, and avoids all payments
that he can avoid with honor. For instance, there is
a balance not very large due to me, on my account of
wagons and forage supplies to General Braddock. I
presented the account to his Lordship, who had it
examined and compared with the vouchers ; and on
report made to him that it was right, ordered a war
rant to be drawn for the payment ; but before he
signed it he sent for me, told me that as the money
became due before his time, he had rather not mix it
in his accounts, if it would be the same thing to me
to receive it in England. He believed it a fair and
just account, and as such would represent it at home,
so that I should meet with no difficulty in getting it
paid there. I agreed to his Lordship s proposal, and
the warrant was laid aside.
I once proposed to his Lordship that if he would
appoint, or advise Governor Denny to appoint, some
persons of credit in Pennsylvania to examine the
claims of the masters, and report to his Lordship at
the end of the campaign, it would, for the present,
make the minds of the sufferers more easy ; and he
could then order payment for such part as he should
find right for him to pay, and we might endeavour to
procure satisfaction elsewhere for the rest. His
Lordship declined this, saying, that he knew not
whom to appoint, being unacquainted with the peo
ple ; that he did not care to trouble Governor Denny
with it, of whom he must ask it as a favor ; and be
sides, auditors, in the plantations, of accounts against
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 515
the crown had in many instances been so partial and
corrupt that they had lost all credit. If he appointed
auditors, they must be some of the officers of the
army who understood the affair ; and at present they
were engaged in other duties.
I will not trouble you with a detail of all I said to
his Lordship on this affair, though I omitted nothing
material that occurred to me ; but I find he is for
keeping the matter in suspense, without either prom
ising payment or refusing to pay ; perhaps till he re
ceives directions about it from home. He does not
seem willing, however, that I should make any appli
cation there relating to it, and chooses to keep the
list in his hands till his return from the campaign.
The list is, indeed, so very imperfect, that I could
not promise myself much in laying it before him. Of
many servants it is not noted by what officers, or in
what company, or even in what regiment they were
enlisted ; of others, the time they were bound for, or
had served, or had still to serve, is omitted. Of
others, no notice is taken of the price they cost ; nor
is there any distinction of apprentices, though, per
haps, the account is the best that could be obtained,
the time and other circumstances considered. Upon
the whole, as the inquiry, if it is ever made by my
Lord s order, will be by officers of the army, they
being, in his Lordship s opinion, the fittest persons
and most impartial ; as all enlistments before the
commencement of his command will be rejected, and
also all before the act of Parliament ; as very clear
proofs of every circumstance when the servant was
516 THE WORKS OF [1757
enlisted, by what officer, of what regiment, and the
like will be insisted on, and the recruiting officers
at the time took such effectual care to prevent the
master s knowing any thing of these circumstances,
I am inclined to think very little benefit will be pro
duced by such inquiry ; and that our application at
home for some allowance on that account will be
better founded on what the Assembly, after their own
inquiry, have thought themselves obliged to pay, than
on such an imperfect list as has been sent to me.
This, however, I submit ; and if it should still be
thought proper to apply in England on the footing
of the list, another copy must be forwarded by some
future opportunity.
His Lordship has on all occasions treated me with
the greatest goodness, but I find frequently that
wrong prejudices are infused into his mind against
our province. We have too many enemies among
ourselves, but I hope in time things will wear a bet
ter face. Please to present my humble respects to
the House, and believe me, with great esteem, &c.,
B. FRANKLIN.
CLXI.
TO MRS. JANE MECOM.
NEW YORK, 30 May, 1757.
DEAR SISTER : I have before me yours of the gth
and 1 6th instant. I am glad you have resolved to
visit sister Dowse oftener ; it will be a great comfort
to her to find she is not neglected by you, and your
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 517
example may, perhaps, be followed by some others of
her relations.
As Neddy is yet a young man, I hope he may get
over the disorder he complains of, and in time wear it
out. My love to him and his wife and the rest of
your children. It gives me pleasure to hear that
Eben is likely to get into business at his trade. If he
will be industrious and frugal, it is ten to one but he
gets rich, for he seems to have spirit and activity.
I am glad that Peter is acquainted with the crown-
soap business so as to make what is good of the kind.
I hope he will always take care to make it faithfully,
and never slight the manufacture, or attempt to de
ceive by appearances. Then he may boldly put his
name and mark, and in a little time it will acquire as
good a character as that made by his late uncle, or
any other person whatever. I believe his aunt at
Philadelphia can help him to sell a good deal of it ;
and I doubt not of her doing every thing in her
power to promote his interest in that way. Let a box
be sent to her (but not unless it be right good), and
she will immediately return the ready money for it.
It was beginning once to be in vogue in Philadel
phia, but brother John sent me one box, an ordinary
sort, which checked its progress. I would not have
him put the Franklin arms on it, but the soap
boilers arms he has a right to use, if he thinks fit.
The other would look too much like an attempt to
counterfeit. In his advertisements he may value
himself on serving his time with the original maker,
but put his own mark or device on the papers, or any
518 THE WORKS OF [1757
thing he may be advised to as proper ; only on the
soap, as it is called by the name of crown-soap, it
seems necessary to use a stamp of that sort, and per
haps no soapboiler in the King s dominions has a
better right to the crown than himself.
Nobody has wrote a syllable to me concerning his
making use of the hammer, or made the least com
plaint of him or you. I am sorry, however, that he
took it without leave. It was irregular, and if you
had not approved of his doing it, I should have
thought it indiscreet. Leave, they say, is light, and
it seems to me a piece of respect that was due to his
aunt, to ask it, and I can scarce think she would have
refused him the favor.
I am glad to hear Johnny is so good and diligent a
workman. If he ever sets up at the goldsmith s busi
ness, he must remember that there is one accomplish
ment without which he cannot possibly thrive in that
trade that is, perfect honesty. It is a business that,
though ever so uprightly managed, is always liable to
suspicion ; and if a man is once detected in the small
est fraud, it soon becomes public, and every one is
put upon his guard against him ; no one will venture
to try his wares, or trust him to make up his plate ;
so at once he is ruined. I hope my nephew will,
therefore, establish a character as an honest and faith
ful as well as skilful workman, and then he need not
fear for employment.
And now, as to what you propose for Benny, I
believe he may be, as you say, well enough qualified
for it ; and when he appears to be settled, if a
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 519
vacancy should happen, it is very probable he may
be thought of to supply it ; but it is a rule with me
not to remove any officer that behaves well, keeps
regular accounts, and pays duly ; and I think the rule
is founded on reason and justice. I have not shown
any backwardness to assist Benny, where it could be
done without injuring another. But if my friends re
quire of me to gratify not only their inclinations, but
their resentments, they expect too much of me.
Above all things I dislike family quarrels, and when
they happen among my relations, nothing gives me
more pain. If I were to set myself up as a judge of
those subsisting between you and brother s widow
and children, how unqualified must I be, at this
distance, to determine rightly, especially having
heard but one side. They always treated me with
friendly and affectionate regard ; you have done the
same. What can I say between you, but that I wish
you were reconciled, and that I will love that side
best that is most ready to forgive and oblige the
other ? You will be angry with me here, for putting
you and them too much upon a footing ; but I shall
nevertheless be, dear sister, your truly affectionate
brother, B. FRANKLIN.
CLXII.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
NEW YORK, 2 June, 1757.
MY DEAR CHILD : I have just received yours of
the 2Qth. You do not tell me whether you take the
trunk of books with you, but I suppose you do. It
520 THE WORKS OF [1757
is now said we are all to go on board to-morrow, and
sail down to the Hook. I hope it will be so, for,
having now nothing to do, my stay here is extremely
tedious. Please to give my respects to Mrs. Moore,
and assure her that I will take care of her letters.
You will find sundry parcels that came from London,
some directed to the Library Company, some for Mr.
Bartram. Deliver them, if not delivered. Desire Mr.
Normandy to send after me a fresh memorandum
of what he wanted, Mr. Collinson having lost the
former.
I hope my dear Sally will behave in every thing to
your satisfaction, and mind her learning and improve
ment. As my absence will make your house quieter,
and lessen your business, you will have the more
leisure to instruct her and form her. I pray God to
bless you both, and that we may once more have a
happy meeting. God preserve, guard, and guide you.
It is a doubt whether your next letters will reach us
here. Billy joins with me in love to all friends, and
presents his duty to you and love to his sister. My
duty to mother and love to all the family. I shall
endeavour to write to you once more before we sail,
being as ever, my dear child, your affectionate
husband, B. FRANKLIN.
CLXIII.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
LONDON, 27 July, 1757.
MY DEAR CHILD : We arrived here well last night,
only a little fatigued with the last day s journey, being
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 5 2 1
seventy miles. I write only this line, not knowing of
any opportunity of sending it ; but Mr. Collinson will
inquire for one, as he is going out. If he finds one,
I shall write more largely. I have just seen Mr.
Strahan, who is well, with his family. Billy is with
me here at Mr. Collinson s, and presents his duty to
you and love to his sister. My love to all. I am,
my dear child, your loving husband,
B. FRANKLIN. 1
CLXIV.
TO MRS. DEBORAH FRANKLIN.
LONDON, 22 November, 1757.
MY DEAR CHILD : During my illness, which con
tinued near eight weeks, I wrote you several little
letters, as I was able. The last was by the packet
which sailed from Falmouth above a week since. In
that I informed you that my intermittent fever, which
had continued to harass me by frequent relapses, was
gone off, and I have ever since been gathering strength
and flesh. My doctor, Fothergill, who had forbid me
the use of pen and ink, now permits me to write as
much as I can without over fatiguing myself, and
therefore I sit down to write more fully than I have
hitherto been able to do.
The 2d of September I wrote to you that I had
had a violent cold and something of a fever, but that
1 The packet in which he sailed immediately, with my son, for Lon-
was bound to Falmouth. In his don, and we only stopped a little by
autobiography, after describing the the way to view Stonehenge, on Salis-
voyage, his narrow escape from ship- bury Plain, and Lord Pemberton s
wreck on the Scilly rocks, and his house and gardens, with the very
arrival in port, he adds : " I set out curious antiquities at Wilton."
5 22
THE WORKS OF
[i757
it was almost gone. However, it was not long before
I had another severe cold, which continued longer
than the first, attended by great pain in my head, the
top of which was very hot, and when the pain went
off, very sore and tender. These fits of pain con
tinued sometimes longer than at others ; seldom less
than twelve hours, and once thirty-six hours. I was
now and then a little delirious ; they cupped me on
the back of the head, which seemed to ease me for
the present ; I took a great deal of bark, both in sub
stance and infusion, and too soon thinking myself
well, I ventured out twice, to do a little business and
forward the service I am engaged in, and both times
got fresh cold and fell down again. My good doctor
grew very angry with me for acting contrary to his
cautions and directions, and obliged me to promise
more observance for the future. He attended me
very carefully and affectionately ; and the good lady
of the house nursed me kindly. 1 Billy was also of
1 This lady was Mrs. Margaret
Stevenson, who kept a boarding-house
in Craven Street, near the Strand,
and with whom Dr. Franklin lived
during the whole fifteen years of his
residence in London. For Mrs. Ste
venson, and her daughter, Miss Mary
Stevenson, who at this time was
eighteen years old, he formed a strong
attachment, which continued through
life. His first acquaintance with Mrs.
Stevenson was accidental, he be
ing recommended to her house by
some of his Pennsylvania friends who
had boarded there. Miss Stevenson
was a girl of excellent sense, and of a
highly cultivated mind, and some of
his best letters on philosophical and
other subjects were written to her. In
the London Guide Books, " No. 7
Craven Street," is still indicated as the
house in which Dr. Franklin resided.
Miss Stevenson s time was mostly
passed in the country with Mrs.
Tickell, her aunt ; and this absence
from her mother s house was the cause
of the correspondence between her
and Dr. Franklin, who recommended
books for her reading, directed her
studies, and answered her philosophi
cal inquiries. She was married in the
year 1770 to William Hewson, a dis
tinguished anatomist, who is known
by his numerous papers in the Philo
sophical Transactions, and particu
larly by his work on the " Lymphatic
System." As a reward for his ana
tomical discoveries he was honored
with the Copley Medal. He was like
wise elected a fellow of the Royal So-
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 523
great service to me, in going from place to place,
where I could not go myself, and Peter was very
diligent and attentive. I took so much bark in various
ways, that I began to abhor it ; I durst not take a
vomit, for fear of my head ; but at last I was seized
one morning with a vomiting and purging, the latter
of which continued the greater part of the day, and I
believe was a kind of crisis to the distemper, carrying
it clear off ; for ever since I feel quite lightsome, and
am every day gathering strength ; so I hope my sea
soning is over, and that ! shall enjoy better health
during the rest of my stay in England.
I thank you for writing to me so frequently and
fully. I believe I have missed none of your letters
yet, but those by Lyon, who was taken. You men
tion Mr. Scott s being robbed, but do not say to what
value. Was it considerable ? I have seen Mr. Ralph,
and delivered him Mrs. Garrigues s letter. He is re
moved from Turnham Green. When I return, I will
tell you every thing relating to him. In the mean
time I must advise Mrs. Garrigues not to write to
him again, till I send her word how to direct her
letters, he being unwilling, for some good reasons,
that his present wife should know any thing of his
having any connexions in America. He expresses
ciety. He died in 1774, thus termina- tinued to reside in England till 1786,
ting a brilliant career at the early age when she came over with her children
of thirty-four. His widow was left to Philadelphia. She lived there till
with three infant children. In the 1792, and then removed to Bristol in
mean time her fortune was increased Pennsylvania, where her eldest son
by the death of an aunt, and she de- had established himself, and where she
voted herself to the care of her mother died, on the I4th of October, 1795. This
and the education of her children. son \vent afterwards to Vera Cruz, and
Mrs. Stevenson, her mother, died in died there in 1802. Her grandchildren
January, 1783. Mrs. Hewson con- are still living (1886) in Philadelphia.
524 THE WORKS OF [1757
great affection for his daughter and grandchildren.
He has but one child here.
I have found David Edwards, and send you some
of his letters, with one for his father. I am glad to
hear that our friends at Newark got well through the
smallpox.
The above particulars are in answer to things men
tioned in your letters, and so are what follow.
Governor Shirley s affairs are still in an uncertain
state ; he is endeavouring to obtain an inquiry into
his conduct, but the confusion of public affairs occa
sions it to be postponed. He and I visit frequently.
I make no doubt but reports will be spread by my
enemies to my disadvantage, but let none of them
trouble you. If I find I can do my country no good,
I will take care at least not to do it any harm ; I will
neither seek nor expect any thing for myself ; and,
though I may perhaps not be able to obtain for the
people what they wish and expect, no interest shall
induce me to betray the trust they have reposed in
me ; so make yourself quite easy in regard to such
reports.
Mr. Hunter is better than he has been for a long
time. He and his sister desire to be remembered
to you. I believe I left the seal with Mr. Parker. I
am glad to hear that Mr. Boudinot has so seasonable
a supply, and hope he will not go to mining again.
I am obliged to all my friends that visit you in my
absence. My love to them.
Mr. Ralph delivered me your letters very obliging
ly ; he is well respected by people of value here. I
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 525
thank you for sending me brother Johnny s journal ;
I hope he is well, and sister Read and the children.
I am sorry to hear of Mr. Burt s death. He came to
me at New York with a proposal that I did not ap
prove of, but it showed his good will and respect for
me ; when I return, I will tell you what it was. I
shall entertain Mr. Collinson and Dr. Fothergill with
your account of Teedyuskung s visit.
I should have read Sally s French letter with more
pleasure, but that I thought the French rather too
good to be all her own composing. I suppose her
master must have corrected it. But I am glad she is
improving in that and her music ; I send her a French
Pamela.
You were very lucky in not insuring the rum. We
are obliged to Mr. Booth for his care in that remit
tance. I suppose you have wrote to acknowledge the
receipt of it. I have not yet seen Mr. Burkett. I
am not much surprised at Green s behaviour ; he has
not an honest principle, I fear. I have not yet seen
Mr. Walsteinholme, but he is arrived. I am glad you
went to Elizabethtown, and that Ben has got that
good girl. I hope they will do well. When you
write, remember my love to her.
December $d. I write by little and little as I can
find time. I have now gone through all your agreea
ble letters, which give me fresh pleasure every time I
read them. Last night I received another, dated Oc
tober 1 6th, which brings me the good news that you
and Sally were got safe home ; your last, of the Qth,
being from Elizabethtown. Budden s ship is not yet
526 THE WORKS OF [1757
come up to London, but is daily expected, having
been some time at Cowes. Mr. Hall has sent me a
bill, as you mention. Mr. Walsteinholme is come to
town, and I expect to see him to-day. When I have
inquired how things are with Green, I shall write
some directions to you what to do in the affair.
I am glad to hear that Miss Ray is well, and that
you correspond. It is not convenient to be forward
in giving advice in such cases. She has prudence
enough to judge for herself, and I hope she will judge
and act for the best.
I hear there has a miniature painter gone over to
Philadelphia, a relation to John Reynolds. If Sally s
picture is not done to your mind by the young man,
and the other gentleman is a good hand and follows
the business, suppose you get Sally s done by him,
and send it to me with your small picture, that I may
here get all our little family drawn in one conversa
tion piece. I am sorry to hear of the general sick
ness ; I hope it is over before this time, and that lit
tle Franky is recovered.
I was as much disappointed in my intention of
writing by the packet as you were in not receiving
letters, and it has since given me a great deal of vexa
tion. I wrote to you by way of New York the day
after my arrival in London, which I do not find you
have received.
I do not use to be a backward correspondent, though
my sickness has brought me behindhand with my
friends in that respect. Had I been well, I intended
to have gone round among the shops, and bought
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 527
some pretty things for you and my dear good Sally
(whose little hands you say eased your headache), to
send by this ship, but I must now defer it to the next,
having only got a crimson satin cloak for you, the
newest fashion, and the black silk for Sally ; but
Billy sends her a scarlet feather, muff, and tippet, and
a box of fashionable linen for her dress. In the
box is a thermometer for Mr. Taylor, and one for
Mr. Schlatter, which you will carefully deliver ; as
also a watch for Mr. Schlatter. I shall write to
them. The black silk was sent to Mr. Neates,
who undertook to forward it in some package of
his.
It is now twelve days since I began to write this
letter, and I still continue well, but have not yet quite
recovered my strength, flesh, or spirits. I every day
drink a glass of infusion of bark in wine, by way of
prevention, and hope my fever will no more return.
On fair days, which are but few, I venture out about
noon. The agreeable conversation I meet with among
men of learning, and the notice taken of me by per
sons of distinction, are the principal things that soothe
me for the present under this painful absence from my
family and friends. Yet those would not keep me
here another week, if I had not other inducements
duty to my country, and hopes of being able to do it
service.
Pray remember me kindly to all that love us, and
to all that we love. It is endless to name names. I
am, my dear child, your loving husband,
B. FRANKLIN.
528 THE WORKS OF [1757
CLXV.
FROM WILLIAM STRAHAN TO MRS. FRANKLIN. 1
LONDON, 13 December, 1757.
DEAR MADAM : I will not write to you, for the future, as
a stranger whom I never had the happiness of seeing, but as to
one with whom I have been for some time acquainted ; for,
having had the pleasure for several months past to be per
sonally known to what you will readily allow to be your better
half, you will permit me to fancy I am by no means igno
rant of the essential qualities of the other.
I had for many years conceived a very high, and now find
a very just, opinion of Mr. Franklin. This I was naturally
led to by the concurring testimony of everybody who knew
him (for the voice of his enemies, if he ever had any, never
reached me), and by the opportunities I have had of judging
for myself, during my correspondence with him for a dozen
years. But though the notion I had formed of him, in my own
mind, before I had the pleasure of seeing him, was really, as
far as it went, just enough, I must confess it was very unequal
to what I know his singular merit deserves.
I own it is somewhat odd to entertain a lady with the char
acter of her husband, who must herself, of all others, be the
least ignorant in that particular. But as all who know me
know that I cannot help speaking my sentiments freely on
any subject that strikes me in a great degree, so I choose to
write my mind in regard to Mr. Franklin, before all others,
to you, because you are the most unexceptionable judge of
the truth and propriety of what I say, and because I am per
suaded you will listen to me, not only with patience but
Mr. Strahan was printer to the gth of July, 1785, at the age of 70. A
king, in which station he acquired a long and close intimacy subsisted be-
handsome fortune. He was eminent tween him and Dr. Franklin, and much
for his talents and character. In the of their correspondence, which was
year 1775 he was elected to Parliament voluminous, has been preserved, though
from the borough of Malmesbury, as a but a small portion of Strahan s has
colleague of Mr. Fox. He died the been printed.
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 529
with pleasure ; and indeed, whatever your own personal quali
ties may be, however amiable and engaging in my mind,
your being the choice of such a man must add greatly to your
honor. To be the wife of one who has so much ability, in
clination, and success, if you view him in a public capacity,
in being eminently useful to his country, must necessarily con
fer on you great reputation ; and to be the bosom friend of
one who is equally fitted to promote any kind of domestic
happiness, must as necessarily be the constant spring of the
most substantial comfort to you.
For my own part, I never saw a man who was, in every
respect, so perfectly agreeable to me. Some are amiable in
one view, some in another, he in all. Now, Madam, as I
know the ladies here consider him in exactly the same light
I do, upon my word I think you should come over, with all
convenient speed, to look after your interest ; not but that
I think him as faithful to his Joan as any man breathing ; but
who knows what repeated and strong temptation may in time,
and while he is at so great a distance from you, accomplish ?
Besides, what a delightful expedition would this be to Miss
Franklin, and how must it amuse and improve her, to see
and live a while in this great city. I know you will object to
the length of the voyage and the danger of the seas ; but
truly this is more terrible in apprehension than in reality.
Of all the ways of travelling, it is the easiest and most expe
ditious ; and, as for the danger, there has not a soul been
lost between Philadelphia and this, in my memory ; and I
believe not one ship taken by the enemy.
Is the trouble and risk, then, of such a voyage to be com
pared in any degree with the pleasure it will afford you and
your best friends ? By no means. Instead of being afraid
of the sea, we ought to have a particular regard for it, as it
is so far from being a bar to the communication and inter
course of different and far distant countries, that it facilitates
their correspondence in a very high degree. Nay more, it
conveys in the floating castles of your mother country that
530 THE WORKS OF [1757
protection and assistance which I trust will soon give peace
to your borders. I might urge as an additional inducement
for you to come over in the spring, that the important busi
ness with which Mr. Franklin is charged in the service of his
country (which I dare say you would wish above all things
may be brought to a happy conclusion) may very probably
detain him more than one season, which will exhaust your
patience to such a degree, that you may repent, when too
late, you did not listen to my advice.
Your son I really think one of the prettiest young gentle
men I ever knew from America. He seems to me to have a
solidity of judgment not very often to be met with in one
of his years. This, with the daily opportunities he has of
improving himself in the company of his father, who is at
the same time his friend, his brother, his intimate and easy
companion, affords an agreeable prospect that your hus
band s virtues and usefulness to his country may be pro
longed beyond the date of his own life.
Your daughter (I wish I could call her mine), I find by the
reports of all who know her, is a very amiable girl in all re
spects ; but of her I shall say nothing till I have the pleasure
of seeing her. Only I must observe to you, that being mis
tress of such a family is a degree of happiness perhaps the
greatest that falls to the lot of humanity. I sincerely wish
you very long the unabated enjoyment of them. I leave it
to your friend to write you every thing from this place you
would desire to know. But I cannot take my leave without
informing you that Mr. Franklin has the good fortune to
lodge with a very discreet gentlewoman who is particularly
careful of him, who attended him during a very severe cold
he was some time ago seized with, with an assiduity, con
cern, and tenderness which perhaps only yourself could
equal, so that I don t think you could have a better substi
tute till you come over to take him under your own protec
tion. He is now perfectly recovered.
My own family are, I thank God, just now in perfect
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 531
health. My wife joins me in kindest compliments to you-
and dear Miss, not forgetting her honest son David 1 and his
fireside. I wish you a speedy and happy meeting with your
friends on this side the water, which will give great
pleasure to, dear Madam, your most affectionate humble
servant, WILLIAM STRAHAN.
CLXVI.
TO JOHN PRINGLE. 2
CRAVEN STREET, 21 December, 1757.
SIR : In compliance with your request, I send you
the following account of what I can at present recol
lect relating to the effects of electricity in paralytic
cases which have fallen under my observation.
Some years since, when the newspapers made men
tion of great cures performed in Italy and Germany
by means of electricity, a number of paralytics were
brought to me from different parts of Pennsylvania,
and the neighbouring provinces, to be electrized,
which I did for them at their request. My method
was to place the patient first in a chair, on an electric
stool, and draw a number of large strong sparks from
all parts of the affected limb or side. Then I fully
charged two six gallon glass jars, each of which had
about three square feet of surface coated ; and I sent
the united shock of these through the affected limb
or limbs, repeating the stroke commonly three times
each day. The first thing observed was an immedi
ate greater sensible warmth in the lame limbs that
1 David Hall, the partner of Frank- a Afterwards Sir John Pringle, and
lin in the printing business. President of the Royal Society.
532 THE WORKS OF [1757
had received the stroke than in the others ; and the
next morning the patients usually related that they
had in the night felt a pricking sensation in the flesh
of the paralytic limbs ; and would sometimes show a
number of small red spots, which they supposed were
occasioned by those prickings. The limbs, too, were
found more capable of voluntary motion, and seemed
to receive strength. A man, for instance, who could
riot the first day lift the lame hand from off his knee,
would the next day raise it four or five inches ; the
third day, higher ; and on the fifth day was able, but
with a feeble, languid motion, to take off his hat.
These appearances gave great spirits to the patients,
and made them hope a perfect cure ; but I do not re
member that I ever saw any amendment after the
fifth day ; which the patients perceiving, and finding
the shocks pretty severe, they became discouraged,
went home, and in a short time relapsed ; so that I
never knew any advantage from electricity in palsies,
that was permanent. And how far the apparent,
temporary advantage might arise from the exercise
in the patients journey, and coming daily to my
house, or from the spirits given by the hope of suc
cess, enabling them to exert more strength in moving
their limbs, I will not pretend to say.
Perhaps some permanent advantage might have
been obtained if the electric shocks had been accom
panied with proper medicine and regimen, under the
direction of a skilful physician. It may be, too, that
a few great strokes, as given in my method, may not
be so proper as many small ones ; since by the ac-
1757] BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 533
count from Scotland of a case in which two hundred
shocks from a phial were given daily, it seems that a
perfect cure has been made. As to any uncommon
strength supposed to be in the machine used in that
case, I imagine it could have no share in the effect
produced ; since the strength of the shock from
charged glass is in proportion to the quantity of
surface of the glass coated ; so that my shocks from
those large jars must have been much greater than
any that could be received from a phial held in the
hand.
I am, with great respect, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
END OF VOL. II.
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