 19. An agent of Pennsylvania in London. Our new Governor, Captain Denny, brought over for me the before mentioned Medal from the Royal Society, which he presented to me at an entertainment given by the city. He accompanied it, with very polite expressions of his esteem for me, having, as he said, been long acquainted with my character. After dinner, when the company, as was customary at that time, were engaged in drinking, he took me aside into another room, and acquainted me that he had been advised by his friends in England to cultivate a friendship with me, as one who was capable of giving him the best advice, and of contributing most effectually to the making of his administration easy. That he therefore desired of all things to have a good understanding with me, and he begged me to be assured of his readiness on all occasions to render me every service that might be in his power. He said much to me, also, of the proprietors' good disposition towards the province, and of the advantage it might be to us all, and to me in particular, if the opposition that had been so long continued to his measures was dropped, and harmony restored between him and the people, in effecting which it was thought no one could be more serviceable than myself, and I might depend on adequate acknowledgments and recompenses, etc., etc. The drinkers, finding we did not return immediately to the table, sent us a decanner of Madeira, which the Governor made liberal use of, and in proportion became more profuse of his solicitations and promises. My answers were to this purpose that my circumstances, thanks to God, were such as to make proprietary favors unnecessary to me, and that being a member of the Assembly I could not possibly accept of any. That, however, I had no personal enmity to the proprietary, and that whatever the public measures he proposed should appear to be for the good of the people, no one should espouse and forward them more zealously than myself, my past opposition having been founded on this, that the measures which had been urged were evidently intended to serve the proprietary interest with great prejudice to that of the people, which I was much obliged to him, the Governor, for his profession of regard to me, that he might rely on everything in my power to make his administration as easy as possible, hoping at the same time that he had not brought with him the same unfortunate instructions his predecessor had been hampered with. On this he did not then explain himself, but when he afterward came to do business with the Assembly they appeared again, the disputes were renewed, and I was as active as ever in the opposition, being the penman first of the request to have a communication of the instructions, and then of the remarks upon them, which may be found in the votes of the time. And in the historical review I afterward published, between us personally no enmity arose, we were often together, he was a man of letters, had seen much of the world, and was very entertaining and pleasing in conversation. He gave me the first information that my old friend, Jason Randolph, was still alive, that he was esteemed one of the best political writers in England, and been employed in the dispute between Prince Frederick and the King, and had obtained a pension of three hundred a year, that his reputation was indeed small as a poet, Pope having damned his poetry in the Duncanade, but his prose was thought as good as any man's. Begin footnote, a quarrel between George II and his son Frederick, Prince of Wales, who died before his father, a satirical poem by Alexander Pope directed against various contemporary writers. The assembly finally finding the proprietary obstinately persistent in menacing their deputies, and with instructions inconsistent not only with the privileges of the people, but with the service of the Crown, resolved to petition the King against them, and appointed me their agent to go over to England to present and support the petition. The House had set up a bill to the Governor granting a sum of sixty thousand pounds for the King's use, ten thousand pounds of which was subject to the orders of the then General, Lord Loudon, which the Governor absolutely refused to pass, in compliance with his instructions. I agreed with Captain Morris of the packet at New York for my passage and my stores were put on board, when Lord Loudon arrived at Philadelphia expressly as he told me to endeavor an accommodation between the Governor and the Assembly, that his Majesty's service might not be obstructed by their dissensions. Accordingly he desired the Governor and myself to meet him, that he might hear what was to be said on both sides. We met and discussed the business. In behalf of the Assembly I urged all various arguments that may be found in the public papers of that time, which were of my writing, and were printed with the minutes of the Assembly, and the Governor pleaded his instructions, the bond he had given to observe them and his ruin if he disobeyed, yet seemed not unwilling to hazard himself if Lord Loudon would advise it. This his Lordship did not choose to do, though I once thought I had nearly prevailed with him to do it, but finally he rather chose to urge the compliance of the Assembly, and he entreated me to use my endeavors with them for that purpose, fearing that he would spare none of the King's troops for the defense of our frontiers and that if we did not continue to provide for the defense ourselves they must remain exposed to the enemy. I acquainted the House with what had been passed, and presenting them with a set of resolutions I had drawn up, declaring our rights, and that we did not relinquish our claim to those rights, but only suspended the exercise of them on this occasion through force against which we protested, they at length agreed to drop that bill, and frame another comfortable to the proprietary instructions. This, of course, the Governor passed, and I was then at liberty to proceed on my voyage, but in the meantime the packet had sailed with my sea-stores, which was some loss to me, and my only recompense was his Lordship's thanks for my service, all the credit of obtaining the accommodation falling to his share. He set out for New York before me, and as the time for dispatching the packet-boats was at his disposition, and there were two then remaining there, one of which he said was to sail very soon, I requested to know the precise time that I might not miss her by any delay of mine. His answer was, I have given out that she is to sail on Saturday next, but I may let you know, and through a notice, that if you are there by Monday morning you will be in time, but do not delay longer. By some accidental hindrance at a ferry it was Monday noon, before I arrived, and I was much afraid she might have sailed, as the wind was fair, but I was soon made easy by the information that she was still in the harbour, and would not move till the next day. One would imagine that I was now on the very point of departing for Europe. I thought so, but I was not then so well acquainted with his lordship's character, of which indecision was one of the strongest features. I shall give some instances. It was about the beginning of April that I came to New York, and I think it was near the end of June before we sailed. There were then two of the packet-boats, which had been long in port, but were delayed for the General's letters, which were always to be ready to moral. Another packet arrived, she too was detained, and before we sailed a fourth was expected. Ours was the first to be dispatched, as having been there the longest. Passengers were engaged in all, and some extremely impatient, to be gone, and the merchants uneasy about their letters, and the orders they had given for insurance, it being wartime, for fall goods, but their anxiety availed nothing. His lordship's letters were not ready, and yet whoever waited on him found him always at his desk, pen in hand, and concluded that he must needs right abundantly. Going myself one morning to pay my respects, I found in his anti-chamber one Innis, a messenger of Philadelphia, who had come from Thence, expressed with a packet from Governor Denny for the General. He delivered to me some letters from my friends there, which occasioned my inquiry when he was to return, and where he lodged, that I might send some letters by him. He told me he was ordered to call to-morrow at nine for the General's answer to the Governor, and should set off immediately. I put my letters into his hand that same day, a fortnight after I met him again in the same place. So you are soon returned, Innis. Returned? No, I am not gone yet. How so? I have called here by order every morning, these two weeks past for his lordship's letter, and it is not yet ready. Is it possible, when he is so great a writer, for I see him constantly at his escriture? Yes, says Innis, but he is like St. George on the signs, always on horseback and never rides on. This observation of the messenger was, it seems, well founded, for when in England I understood that Mr. Pitt gave it as one reason for removing this General, and sending Generals Amherst and Wolfe, that the minister never heard from him and could not know what he was doing. Begin footnote. William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, 1708 to 1778, a great English statesman in order, under his able administration England won Canada from France. He was a friend of America at the time of our revolution. This daily expectation of sailing, and all the three packets going down to Sandy Hook, to join the fleet there, the passengers thought it best to be on board, lest by a sudden order the ship should sail, and they be left behind. There, if I remember right, we were about six weeks, consuming our sea-stores, and obliged to procure more. At the length, the fleet sailed, the General and all his army on board, bound to Louisburg, with the intent to besiege and take that fortress. All the packet boats and company ordered to attend the General's ship, ready to receive his dispatches, when they should be ready. We were out five days before we got a letter, with leave to part, and then our ship quitted the fleet and steered for England. The other two packets he still detained, carrying them with him to Halifax, where he stayed some time to exercise the men in sham attacks upon sham forts. Then altered his mind as to besieging Louisburg, and returned to New York with all his troops, together with the two packets of above mentioned, and all their passengers. During his absence the French and Savages had taken Fort George on the frontier of that province, and the Savages had massacred many of the garrison after capitulation. I saw afterwards in London Captain Bonnell, who commanded one of those packets. He told me that, when he had been detained a month, he acquainted his Lordship that his ship was grown foul to a degree that must necessarily hinder her fast sailing, a point of consequence for a packet boat, and requested an allowance of time to heave her down and clean her bottom. He was asked how long that would require. He answered three days, the General replied, If you can do it in one day I give leave, otherwise not, for you must certainly sail the day after tomorrow. So he never obtained leave, though detained afterwards from day to day, during full three months. I saw also in London one of Bonnell's passengers, who was sowing raged against his Lordship, for deceiving and detaining him so long at New York, and then carrying him to Halifax and back again, that he swore he would sue him for damages. Whether he did or not I have not heard. As he represented the injury to his affairs it was very considerable. On the whole I wondered much how such a man came to be entrusted with so important a business as the conduct of a great army. But having since seen more of the great world and the means of obtaining and motives for giving places, my wonder is diminished. General Shirley, on whom the command of the army devolved upon the death of Braddock, would in my opinion if continued in place have made a much better campaign than that of Loudon in 1757, which was frivolous, expensive, and disgraceful to our nation beyond conception, for though Shirley was not a bred soldier, he was sensible and sagacious in himself, and attentive to good advice from others, capable of forming judicious plan, and quick and active in carrying them to execution. Loudon instead of defending the colonies with his great army left them totally exposed while he paraded idly at Halifax, by which means Fort George was lost. Besides, he deranged all our mercantile operations and distressed our trade by a long embargo on the exportation of provisions on pretense of keeping supplies from being obtained by the enemy, but in reality, forbidding down their price in favor of the contractors, in whose profits it was said, perhaps from suspicion only, he had a share, and when at length the embargo was taken off by neglecting to send notice of it to Charlestown, the Carolina fleet was detained near three months longer, whereby their bottoms were so much damaged by the worm that a great part of them foundered in their passage home. Begin footnote. This relation illustrates the corruption that characterized English public life in the eighteenth century. It was gradually overcome in the early part of the next century. End footnote. Shirley was, I believe, sincerely glad of being relieved from so burdensome a charge as the conduct of an army must be to a man unacquainted with military business. I was at the entertainment given by the city of New York to Lord Loudon on his taking upon him the command. Surely, though thereby superseded, was present also. There was a great company of officers, citizens, and strangers, and some chairs having been borrowed in the neighborhood. There was one among them very low, which fell to the lot of Mr. Shirley. Perceiving it as I sat by him I said, Have they given you, sir, too low a seat? No matter, says he, Mr. Franklin, I find a low seat the easiest. While I was, as aforementioned, detained at New York, I received all the accounts of my provisions, etc., that I had furnished to Braddock, some of which accounts could not sooner be obtained from the different persons I had employed to assist in the business. I presented them to Lord Loudon, desiring to be paid the balance. He caused them to be regularly examined by the proper officer, who, after comparing every article with its vouchers, justified them to be right, and the balance due for which his lordship promised to give me an order on the paymaster. This was, however, put off from time to time, and though I called often for it by appointment, I did not get it. At length, just before my departure, he told me he had, on better consideration, concluded not to mix his accounts with those of his predecessor. And you, says he, when in England, have only to exhibit your accounts at the treasury, and you will be paid immediately. I mentioned, but without effect, the great and unexpected expense I had been put to by being detained so long in New York, as a reason for my desiring to be presently paid, and on my observing that it was not right, I should be put to any further trouble or delay in obtaining the money I had advanced, as I charged no commission for my service. However, says he, you must not think of persuading us that you are no gainer. We understand better those affairs, and know that everyone concerned in supplying the army finds means, in the doing it, to fill his own pockets. I assured him that was not my case, and that I had not pocketed a farthing, but he appeared clearly not to believe me. And indeed I have since learnt that immense fortunes are often made in such employments. As to my balance I am not paid it to this day of which more hereafter. Our captain of the packet had boasted much before we sailed of the swiftness of his ship. Unfortunately when we came to the sea she proved the dullest of ninety-six sail to his no small mortifications. After many conjectures respecting the cause, when we were near another ship almost as dull as ours, which however gained upon us, the captain ordered all hands to come off and stand as near the instant staff as possible. We were, passengers included, about forty persons. While we stood there the ship mended her pace and soon left her neighbor far beyond, which proved clearly that our captain suspected that she was loaded too much by the head. The casks of water it seemed had been all placed forward. These were therefore ordered to be moved further aft on which the ship recovered her character and proved the best sailor in the fleet. The captain said he had once gone at the rate of thirteen knots, which is accounted thirteen miles per hour. We had on board as a passenger captain Kennedy of the Navy, who contended that it was impossible and that no ship ever sailed so fast and that there must have been some error in the division of the log-line or some mistake in heaving the log. A wager ensued between the two captains to be decided when there should be sufficient wind. Kennedy there, upon examined rigorously the log-line and being satisfied with it, he determined to throw the log himself, accordingly some days after, when the wind blew very fair and fresh, and the captain of the packet, Ludwig, said he believed she then went at the rate of thirteen knots. Kennedy made the experiment and owed his wager lost. Again footnote. A log-line is a piece of wood shaped and weighted so as to keep it stable within the water. To this is attached a line not of that regular distances. By these devices it is possible to tell the speed of a ship. And footnote. The above fact I give for the sake of the following observation. It has been remarked as an imperfection in the art of ship-building that it can never be known till she has tried whether a new ship will or will not be a good sailor, for that the model of a good sailing ship has been exactly followed in a new one which has proved on the contrary remarkably dull. I apprehend that this may barely be occasioned by the different opinions of seamen respecting the modes of lading, rigging, and sailing of a ship. Each has his system and the same vessel laden by the judgment and orders of one captain shall sail better or worse than when by the orders of another. Besides it scarce ever happens that a ship is formed fitted for the sea and sailed by the same person. One man builds the hull, another rigs her, third lades and sails her. No one of these has the advantage of knowing all the ideas and experience of the others and therefore cannot draw just conclusions from a combination of the whole. Even in the simple operation of sailing when at sea I have often observed different judgments in the officers who commanded the successive watches, the wind being the same. One would have the sails trimmed sharper or flatter than another so that they seemed to have no certain rule to govern by. Yet I think a set of experiments might be instituted, first to determine the most proper form of the hull for swift sailing, the best dimensions and the properest place for the masts, then the form and quantity of sails and their position as the wind may be and lastly the disposition of the lading. This is an age of experiments and I think a set of accurately made and combined would be of great use. I am persuaded therefore that ere long some ingenious philosopher will undertake it to whom I wish success. We were several times chased in our passage but out sailed everything and in thirty days had soundings. We had a good observation and the captain judged himself so near to our port, Falmouth, that if we made a good run in the night we might be off the mouth of that harbor in the morning and by running in that night might escape the notice of the enemy's privateers who often cruised near the entrance of the channel. Accordingly all the sail was set and that we could possibly make and the wind being very fresh and fair, we went right before it and made great way. The captain after his observation shaped his course as he thought so as to pass wide of the Shealy Isles but it seems there is sometimes a strong in-draft setting up St. George's channel which deceives seamen and caused the loss of Sir Collarsley Shovel's squadron. This in-draft was probably the cause of what happened to us. We had a watchman placed on the bow to whom they often called. Look well out before thee, and he as often answered, I, I, but perhaps had his eyes shut and was half asleep at the time. They sometimes answering, as is said mechanically, for he did not see a light just before us, which had been hid by the stubbing sails from the man at the helm and from the rest of the watch, but by an accidental yaw of the ship was discovered and occasioned, a great alarm, we being very near it, the light appearing to me as big as a cartwheel. It was midnight and our captain fast asleep, but Captain Kennedy jumped upon deck, and seeing the danger ordered the ship to wear round, all sails standing and operation dangerous to the masts, but it carried us clear and we escaped shipwreck, for we were running right upon the rocks on which the lighthouse was erected. Thus deliverance impressed me strongly with the utility of lighthouses, and made me resolve to encourage the building more of them in America if I should live to return there. In the morning it was found by the soundings, etc., that we were near our port, but a thick fog hid the land from our sight. About nine o'clock the fog began to rise, and seemed to be lifted up from the water like a curtain at a playhouse, discovering underneath the town of Falmouth the vessels in its harbor and the fields that surrounded it. There was a most pleasing spectacle to those who had been so long without any other prospects than the uniform view of a vacant ocean, and it gave us the more pleasure as we were now free from the anxieties which the state of war occasioned. I set out immediately with my son for London, and we only stopped a little by the way to view Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain and Lord Pembroke's house and the gardens with his very curious antiques at Wilton. We arrived in London the 27th of July, 1757. As soon as I was settled in a lodging Mr. Charles had provided for me, I went to visit Dr. Father Hill, to whom I was strongly recommended, and whose counsel respecting my proceedings I was advised to obtain. He was against an immediate complaint to government, and thought the proprietaries should first be personally applied to, who might possibly be induced by the interposition and persuasion of some private friends to accommodate matters amicably. I then waited on my old friend and correspondent, Mr. Peter Collinson, who told me that John Halsbury, the great Virginia merchant, had requested to be informed when I should arrive, that he might carry me to Lord Granville's, who was then President of the Council, and wished to see me as soon as possible. I agreed to go with him the next morning. Accordingly Mr. Hansbury called for me and took me in his carriage to the noblemen's, who received me with great civility and after some questions respecting the present state of affairs in America, and discourse thereupon he said to me, You Americans have wrong ideas of the nature of your constitution. You contend that the king's instructions to his governors are not laws, and think yourselves at liberty to regard or disregard them at your own discretion. But those instructions are not like the pocket instructions given to a minister going abroad, for regulating his conduct in some trifling point of ceremony. They are first drawn up by judges, learned in the laws. They are considered, debated, and perhaps amended in Council, after which they are signed by the king. They are then so far as they relate to you, the law of the land, for the king is the legislator of the colonies. I told his lordship that this was new doctrine to me. I had always understood from our charters that our laws were to be made by our assemblies, to present it indeed to the king for his royal assent. But being once given, the king could not repeal or alter them. And as the assemblies could not make permanent laws without his assent, so neither could he make a law for them without theirs. He assured me I was totally mistaken. I did not think so, however, and his lordship's conversation having a little alarmed me as to what might be the sentiments of the court concerning us, I wrote it down as soon as I returned to my lodgings. I recollected that about twenty years before a clause in a bill brought into Parliament by the ministry had proposed to make the king's instructions laws in the colonies, but the clause was thrown out by the commons, for which we adored them as our friends and friends of liberty, till by their conduct towards us in 1765 it seemed that they had refused that point of sovereignty to the king only that they might reserve it for themselves. Begin footnote, this whole passage shows how hopelessly divergent were the English and American views on the relations between the mother country and her colonies. Grenville here made clear that the Americans were to have no voice in making or amending their laws. Parliament and the king were to have absolute power over the colonies. No wonder Franklin was alarmed by this new doctrine, with his keen insight into human nature and his consequent knowledge of American character he foresaw the inevitable result of such an attitude on the part of England. His conversation with Grenville makes these last pages of the autobiography one of his most important parts. After some days Dr. Fathergill, having spoken to the proprietaries, they agreed to a meeting with me at Mr. T. Penn's house in Spring Garden. The conversation at first consisted of mutual declarations of disposition to reasonable accommodations, but I supposed each party had his own ideas what should be meant by reasonable. We then went into consideration of our several points of complaint which I enumerated. The proprietaries justified their conduct as well as they could, and I, the assemblies, we now appeared very wide and so far from each other in our opinions as to discourage all hope of agreement. However, it was concluded that I should give them the heads of our complaints in writing, and they promised then to consider them. I did soon after, but they put the paper into the hands of their solicitor, Ferdinand John Parris, who managed for them all their law business in their great suit with the neighboring proprietary of Maryland, Lord Baltimore, which had subsisted seventy years, and wrote for them all their papers and messages in their dispute with the assembly. He was a proud, angry man, and as I had occasionally in answers of the assembly, treated his papers with some severity, they being really weak in point of argument and haughty in expression. He had conceived a mortal enmity to me, which, discovering itself whenever we met, I declined the proprietary's proposal that he and I should discuss the heads of complaint between our two selves, and refused treating with any one but them. They then by his advice put the paper into the hands of the attorney and solicitor general, for their opinion and counsel upon it, where it lay unanswered a year wanting eight days, during which time I made frequent demands of an answer from the proprietary's, but without obtaining any other than that they had not yet received the opinion of the attorney and solicitor general. What it was when they received it I never learnt, for they did not communicate it to me, but sent a long message to the assembly, drawn and signed by Paris, reciting my paper, complaining of its want of formality, as a rudeness on my part, and giving a flimsy justification of their conduct, adding that they should be willing to accommodate matters if the assembly would send out some person of candor to treat with them for that purpose, intimating whereby that I was not such. Want of formality or rudeness was, probably, my not having addressed the papers to them with the assumed titles of true and absolute proprietary's of the province of Pennsylvania, which I omitted this not thinking it necessary in a paper, the intention of which was only to reduce to a certainty by writing what in conversation I had delivered Vivivosa. But during this delay the assembly having prevailed with Governor Denny to pass an act taxing the proprietary estate in common with the estates of the people, which was the grand point in dispute they omitted answering the message. When this act however came over the proprietary's counseled by Paris determined to oppose its receiving the royal assent. Accordingly they petitioned the king in counsel and a hearing was appointed in which two lawyers were employed by them against the act, and two by me in support of it. They alleged that the act was intended to load the proprietary estate in order to spare those of the people, and that if it were suffered to continue in force and the proprietary's who were in odium with the people left to their mercy in purporting of the taxes they would inevitably be ruined. We replied that the act had no such intention, and would have no such effect, that the assessors were honest and discreet men under an oath to assess fairly and equitably, and that any advantage each of them might expect in lessening his own tax by augmenting that of the proprietary's was too trifling to induce them to purge themselves. This is the purport of what I remember as urged by both sides, except that we insist strongly on the mischievous consequences that must attend a repeal. For that the money, one hundred thousand pounds, being printed and given to the king's use, expended in his service, and now spread among the people, the repeal would strike it dead in their hands to the ruin of many, and the total discouragement of future grants, and the selfishness of the proprietary's in soliciting such a general catastrophe, nearly from a groundless fear of their estate being taxed too highly, was insisted upon in the strongest terms. On this Lord Mansfield, one of the counsel rose, and beckoning me took me into the clerk's chamber, while the lawyers were pleading, and asked me if I was really of the opinion that no injury would be done the proprietary estate in the execution of the act. I said certainly. Then says he, you can have little objection to enter into an engagement to assure that point. I answered none at all. He then called in Paris, and after some discourse his lordship's proposition was accepted on both sides. A paper to the purpose was drawn up by the clerk of the counsel, which I signed, with Mr. Charles, who was also an agent of the province, for their ordinary affairs, when Lord Mansfield returned to the counsel chamber, where finally the law was allowed to pass. Some changes were however recommended, and we also engaged they should be made by a subsequent law, but the assembly did not think them necessary. For one year's tax having been levied by the act before the order of the counsel arrived, they appointed a committee to examine the proceedings of the assessors, and on this committee they put several particular friends of the proprietaries. After a full inquiry they unanimously signed a report that they found the tax had been assessed with perfect equity. The assembly looked into my entering into the first part of the engagement as an essential service to the province, since it secured the credit of the paper money then spread over all the country. They gave me their thanks in form when I returned, but the proprietaries were enraged at Governor Denny for having passed the act, and turned him out with threats of suing him for breach of instructions which he had given bond to observe. He, however, having done it at the insistence of the general, and for his majesty's service, and having some powerful interest at court, despised the threats and they were never put in execution. UNFINISHED DOMAIN For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN EDITED BY FRANK WOODWARD PINE APPENDICS ELECTRICAL KITE TO PETER COLINSON, FILEDELPHIA, OCTOBER 19, 1752 Sir, as frequent mention is made in public 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, etc., 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, then 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 to the hand, is to be tied a silk ribbon, and where the silk and twine join a key may 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 wet the kite and twine, so that it can conduct electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key on the approach of your knuckle. As this key the file may be charged, and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all the 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 which that of lightning completely demonstrated. Be Franklin! The shade of him who counsel can bestow still pleased to teach, and yet not proud to know, unbiased or by favor or by spite, nor dully prepossessed nor blindly right, who learned well-bred and, though well-bred, sincere, modestly bold and humanely severe, who to a friend his faults can sweetly show, and gladly praise the merit of a foe. Here, there, he sits, he is cheerful aid to lend, a firm, unshaken, uncorrupted friend, a verse alike to flatter or offend. He rarely warm in censure or in praise. Good nature, wit and judgment round him weight, and thus he sits enthroned in classic state. To failings mild but zealous for dessert, the clearest head and sincerest heart few men deserve our passion either ways. From Father Abraham's speech, 1760. End of electrical kite. The way to wealth. From Father Abraham's speech, forming the preface to poor Richard's Almanac for 1758. It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their time to be employed in its service, but idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckoned all that is spent in absolute sloth, or doing of nothing, with that which is spent in the employments or amusements that amount to nothing, sloth, by bringing on disease, absolutely shortens life. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, while the used key is always bright, as poor Richard says, but dost thou love life, then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of, as poor Richard says. How much more than is necessary do we spend in sleep, forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no poultry and that there will be sleeping enough in the grave, as poor Richard says. If time be of all things, the most precious wasting time must be, as poor Richard says, the greatest progility. Since, as he elsewhere tells us, lost time is never found again, and what we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us then up and be doing and doing to the purpose, so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity. Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all easy, as poor Richard says, and he that riseth late must trod all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night, while laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it, as we read in poor Richard, who adds, Drive thy business, let not that drive thee, and early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Industry need not wish, and he that lives upon hope will die fasting. There is no gains without pains. He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an office of profit and honour. But then the trade must be worked, and the calling well formed, for neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. What though you have found no treasure nor has any such relation left you a legacy, diligence is the mother of good luck, as poor Richard says, and God gives all things to industry. One to-day is worth to to-morrow, and farther. Have you something to do to-morrow, do it to-day. If you were a servant you would not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle. Are you, then, your own master, be ashamed to catch yourself idle. Stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects for constant dropping, wares away stones, and by diligence and patience the mouse ate into the cable, and little strokes fell great oaks. Methinks I hear some of you say must a man afford himself no leisure. I will tell thee, my friend, what poor Richard says, employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure, and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour. Leisure is time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never, so that, as poor Richard says, a life of leisure and a life of laziness, are two things. Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee, and again, if you would have your business done, go, if not, send. If you would have a faithful servant, and when you like serve yourself. A little neglect may breed great mischief, adding, for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse was lost, and for want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business, but to these we must add frugality. What maintains one vice would bring up two children. You may think, perhaps, that a little tea or a little punch, now and then, diet a little more costly, close a little finer, and a little entertainment, now and then, can be no great matter. But remember what poor Richard says, many a little makes a nickel. Beware of little expenses, a little leak will sink a great ship, and again, who dainty's love shall beggars prove, and moreover fools make feasts, and wise men eat them. But what thou hast no need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries. If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some, for he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing. The second vice is lying. The first is running in debt. Lying rides upon debt's back. Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright. And now, to conclude, experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scare in that for it is true. We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct, as poor Richard says. However, remember this, they that won't be counseled can't be helped. As poor Richard says, and farther, that if you will not hear reason, she'll surely wrap your knuckles. The whistle to Madame Brilliant. Passe, November 10th, 1779. I am charmed with your description of Paradise, and with your plan of living there, and I approve much of your conclusion that in the meantime we should draw all the good we can from this world. In my opinion, we might all draw more good from it than we do, and suffer less evil if we should take care, not to give too much for whistles, for to me it seems that most of the unhappy people we meet with are come to by neglect of that caution. You ask what I mean, you love stories, and will excuse my telling one of myself. When I was a child of seven years old, my friends on a holiday filled my pockets with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children, and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered, and gave all my money for one. I came home and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers and sisters and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth, put me in mind of what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money, and laughed at me so much for my folly that I cried with vexation, and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure. This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind, so that often when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing I said to myself, don't give too much for the whistle, and I saved my money. As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle. When I saw one too ambitious for court favors, sacrificing his time in attendance on levies, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends to attain it, I have said to myself, this man gives too much for his whistle. When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by neglect, he pays indeed said I too much for his whistle. If I knew a miser who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, poor man said I, you pay too much for your whistle. When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporal sensations and ruining his health in the pursuit, mistaken man said I, you are providing pain for yourself instead of pleasure, you give too much for your whistle. If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts and ends his career in a prison, alas, say I, he paid dear, very dear, for his whistle. When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured, brute of a husband, what a pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a whistle. I conceive that the great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things and by their giving too much for their whistles. Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people when I consider that, with all this wisdom of which I am boasting, there are certain things in the world so tempting, for example, the apples of King John, which happily are not to be bought, or put to sale by auction, I might very easily be led to ruin myself in the purchase and find that I had once more given too much for the whistle. I do, my dear friend, and believe me, every yours very sincerely with unalterable affection be Franklin. A letter to Samuel Mather. Passet. May 12, 1784. Reverend Sir. It is now more than sixty years since I left Boston, but I remember well both your father and grandfather, having heard them both in the pulpit and seen them in their houses. The last time I saw your father it was the beginning of 1724 when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He received me in his library and on taking leave showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage We were still talking as I withdrew. He accompanied me behind and I turned partly towards him when he said hastily, Stoop! Stoop! I did not understand him till I felt my head hit against the beam. He was a man that never missed an occasion of giving instruction and upon this he said to me, You are young and have the world before you. Stoop! As you go through it and you will miss many hard thumps. This advice thus beat into my head has frequently been of use to me and I often think of it when I see pride mortified and misfortunes brought upon people by their carrying their heads too high. Be Franklin! The End End of Appendix End of the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin