THE CAREER OF 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 
SAMUEL ABBOTT GREEN, M.D., 
BOSTON. The Career of Benjamin Franklin. 
A PAPER 
READ BEFORE THE 
American Philosophical Society, 
PHILADELPHIA, MAY 25, 1893, 
AT THE 
CELEBRATION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH 
ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FORMATION 
IN THAT CITY. 
BY 
\ / 
Samuel Abbott Green, M.D., 
BOSTON. 
PHILADELPHIA, 
1893. AT this anniversary meeting of the American Philosophical Soci- 
ety the name of the founder readily suggests itself; and for 
that reason I have taken as the subject of my paper the career of 
Benjamin Franklin, who was during his lifetime, with possibly a 
single exception, the most conspicuous character in American his- 
tory. 
Whether considered as a printer, a patriot, or a philosopher, 
Franklin challenges our highest regard and our deepest admiration. 
Taking him for all in all, in his moral and intellectual proportions, 
he is the most symmetrically developed man that this country has 
produced. In popular phrase he was a great all-round man, able 
to meet any emergency and ever ready to cope with any situation. 
In many ways he has left behind him the imprint of his mind and 
of his work on the activities of the present day, to an extent that 
is unparalleled. To a large degree he had a knack of doing the 
right thing at the right time, which is epitomized by the American 
people as horse sense, —a quality which justly assigns him to a high 
place among men of worldly wisdom. He had a faculty of per- 
forming the most arduous labors on the most momentous occasions 
in such a quiet way that even his nearest friends often were entirely 
ignorant of his agency in the matter; and little did he care whether 
the credit of the deed came to him or went elsewhere. He seemed to 
turn off work of the highest order as easily as the sun shines or the rain 
falls, and just as unconsciously. A marked peculiarity with him was 
doing his whole duty on all occasions, without making a fuss about it. 
An estimate of his father’s character, given in Franklin’s own 
words, would apply equally well to himself: “ His great excellence 
was his sound understanding, and his solid judgment in prudential 
matters, both in private and public affairs.” 
In order to trace some of these qualities towards their source, it 
is necessary to examine the causes at work during Franklin’s early 
REPIUNTED DEC. 1, 1893, FROM PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC., VOL. XXXII. 4 
life, and even to go back still further and learn what influences had 
been brought to bear on his ancestors; since the influence of hered- 
ity must in this, as in every such case, be considered. It has been 
wittily said by a writer—so distinguished in many ways that I 
hardly know whether to speak of him as a poet or a physician, but 
whom all will recognize as “ the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table ” 
—that a man’s education begins a hundred years before he is born. 
I am almost tempted to add that even then he is putting on only 
the finishing touches of his training. A man is a composite being, 
both in body and soul, with a long line of ancestry whose begin- 
ning it is impossible to trace; and every succeeding generation only 
helps to bind and weld together the various and innumerable quali- 
ties which make up his personality, though they be modified bv 
countless circumstances that form his later education, and for which 
he alone is responsible. . Of Franklin it may be said that he came 
of sturdy stock, none better in New England, poor in this world’s 
goods, but rich in faith and the hope of immortality. On both 
sides of the family his ancestors, as far back as the records go, were 
pious folk, hard-working and God-fearing. They knew the value of 
time and money, and they also placed a high estimate on learning 
and wisdom. From such a source it fell to his lot to inherit life, 
and his heritage was better than silver or gold. 
Benjamin Franklin was born on January 6, 1706,—according to 
the old style of reckoning time,—in a modest dwelling near the head 
of Milk street, Boston. Just across the way was the South Meet- 
ing-house, belonging to the Third Church of Christ, of which 
Franklin’s parents were members, and at its services were constant 
attendants. In this sanctuary the little infant, on the day of his 
birth, was baptized by Samuel Willard, the minister, who duly en- 
tered the fact in the church record. With our modern ideas of 
sanitary precaution, it might now seem to us somewhat imprudent to 
take into the open air, even for a very short distance, a delicate 
neonatus, whose earthly pilgrimage was spanned by an existence of 
only a few hours, and to carry him to an unwarmed meeting-house, 
in the midst of a New England winter, even for the purpose of le- 
ceiving the rite of Christian baptism; but our pious forefathers 
thought otherwise. At the same time, prayers were offered up for 
the speedy recovery of the mother; and the knowledge of this fact 
was a source of great comfort and consolation to the family house- 
hold. 5 
Benjamin’s father, Josiah Franklin, was English-born,—coming 
from Northamptonshire, where the family had lived for many gene- 
rations; the same county from which also the family of George 
Washington came. For a long period the men had been rigorous 
toilers, earning their livelihood by the sweat of their brow, and 
many of them were blacksmiths. Benjamin’s mother, Abiah Folger, 
was a native of the island of Nantucket, and his father’s second 
wife. Her father, Peter Folger, was a man of such distinguished 
probity that when he was acting as one of five commissioners ap- 
pointed to measure and lay out the land on that island, it was de- 
creed that any three out of the five might do the business provided 
he was one of them. What a commentary on his integrity, and 
what a tribute to his personal worth ! The resemblance between 
the philosopher and Peter Folger, a later kinsman, as seen in his 
portrait, is very striking; and it may well have been said by his 
neighbors that in his younger days Benjamin favored his mother’s 
family in looks. 
Franklin’s father owned a few books, mostly theological, and on 
these the lad used to browse, and pick up whatever he could in 
order to satisfy his inquiring mind, though he found it dry picking. 
There is no better exercise for a bright boy than to turn him loose 
in a library, and let him run, day after day and week after week, 
nibbling here and tasting there, as whim or fancy dictates. 
Franklin’s early surroundings were of a humble character, and 
his chances of brilliant success in life, as seen from a worldly point 
of view, were slim and discouraging. As a boy he played in the 
street, went barefooted in summer, fished from the wharves at flood 
tide, and snow-balled on the Common in winter; and he got into 
petty scrapes, just as other youngsters of that period did, and just 
as they ever will do, so long as boys are boys, because boyhood is 
brimful of human nature. He was no exception to the general run 
of youthful humanity, any further than that he was a bright, clever lad, 
with a good memory, and that he was fond of reading and always 
hated shams. He would never have been picked out of a group of 
urchins as one ordained to help mold the destiny of a new nation, or 
as one likely to stand before kings. But is it not written, “Seest 
thou a man diligent in business? he shall stand before kings” ? 
Early accustomed to habits of strict frugality, Franklin also im- 
bibed those peculiar notions which laid the foundation of a remark- 
able and distinguished career. Brought up to work, he was not 6 
afraid of labor when apprenticed as a boy in the printing-office of 
his brother James, the owner and editor of The New-England Cou- 
rant, where he often did a man’s stint. His early advantages at 
school were very limited, being confined to a period of less than 
two years, and that, too, before he was eleven years of age. An 
apprenticeship in a printing office at any time is a good school of 
instruction, though one hundred and seventy-five years ago Franklin 
did not find it an agreeable one. His experience at that time, how- 
ever, stood him in good stead on many later occasions. 
The question naturally comes up, “ What special influences were 
brought to bear on the young apprentice during the plastic period 
of his life which made him afterward the great philosopher and the 
sagacious statesman, and above all the apostle of common sense?” 
This is answered in part by himself in his charming Autobiography, 
where he speaks of his fondness for reading, and of the difficulty he 
experienced during his younger days in getting the right kind of 
books. He mentions by title Defoe’s Essays on Projects, and Cot- 
ton Mather’s Essays to do Good, otherwise called Bonifacius, as two 
works which had a lasting influence on his after-life. Defoe’s book 
is a very rare work, so rare, indeed, that its very existence has been 
doubted, and it has been even asserted positively that no such book 
was ever written ; but the assertion is wrong. It has been said, too, 
that Franklin had in mind, when he wrote this part of his Autobi- 
ography, Defoe’s Complete English Tradesman, and that he was 
then thinking of this work ; but it was not so. The great printer 
in his younger days had handled too much type to make a mistake 
in the title of a book. Eight or nine years before his birth An 
Essay upon Projects was published in London, written by the same 
author who afterward wrote that prose epic Robinson Crusoe, which 
charmed us all so much in our boyhood. In the introduction to 
the Essay the author terms the age in which he wrote “ the project- 
ing age,” and in the body of the work he refers to many schemes 
which have since crystallized into practical projects, and are now con- 
sidered necessary institutions of the present age. Besides other 
subjects he refers to Banks, Highways, Assurances, Pension Offices 
or Savings Banks, Friendly Societies, and Academies, all which 
to-day are recognized as actual problems in business life. In his 
chapter on “ Assurances” is found the origin of modern Fire Insur- 
ance companies ; and in that on “ Fools,” or Idiots, there is more 
than a suggestion of Insane Asylums and other institutions for the 7 
care and comfort of persons who are mentally unsound. The Essay, 
or collection of Essays, is well written, and in style furnished a good 
model for the readers of that century, although now it would 
hardly be considered an attractive book for boys. It may be as- 
serted, in the light of Franklin’s statement, that this work gave 
the young philosopher a turn of thought which ever afterward he 
followed. In the treatment of the various subjects of the different 
chapters there is a decided flavor of practical wisdom for everyday 
use, which seems to have clung to Franklin during his whole life. 
The other little book mentioned in the Autobiography was first 
published in the year 1710; and, as the author was settled as a 
colleague pastor over the church where the Franklin family was 
then attending worship, it seems natural that the work should 
have been introduced at an early period into the Franklin house- 
hold, where it surely found eager readers. The book is scarcely 
ever looked at nowadays, much less is it ever read; but it contains 
some grains of wheat scattered through the chaff. The following 
extracts from its pages are quite Franklinesque in their character: 
Take a Catalogue of all your more QfStclUt 3£tclcltft)£S. • • • 
Think ; Wherein may I pursue the Good of such a Relative (page 72)? 
Have alwayes lying by you, a List of the Poor in your Neighbour- 
hood (page 75). 
You must not think of making the Good you do, a pouring of 
Water into a Pump, to draw out something for your selves (page 78). 
Do Good unto those Neighbours, who will Speak III of you, after 
you have done it (page 80). 
Often mention the Condition of the Poor, in your Conversation 
with the Rich (page 100). 
The Wind feeds no body, yet it may turn the Mill, which will 
grind the Corn, that may Feed the Poor (page 101). 
To Bear Evil is to Do Good (page 103). 
One Small Man, thus Nicking the Time for it, may do wonders 
(page 179)! 
At a very early period in his life Franklin had acquired a great 
mastery of language, and an excellent style in writing. It was clear 
and terse, and left no doubt as to the meaning he intended to con- 
vey. This high art is rare, and more easily recognized than de- 
scribed. In many ways it is the man himself, and shows him off 
from every point of view. It is never learned by rote, but comes 
largely by practice, and also by familiarity with the works of good 8 
writers. Franklin was a close reader, and in his boyhood devoured 
everything in the shape of a book within the reach of his limited 
means. He studied Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding,— 
a work to which many a man has acknowledged a debt of gratitude 
for its help in mental training. He had also read Bunyan’s Pil- 
grim's Progress, and a stray volume of The Spectator, both excellent 
models for a young man to copy. In one of his Almanacks, 
Franklin says that Addison’s “ writings have contributed more to 
the improvement of the minds of the British nation, and polishing 
their manners, than those of any other English pen whatever.” 
While yet a printer’s apprentice he wrote articles for his brother’s 
newspaper, the authorship of which was at first unknown to the 
editor; and he also wrote doggerel rhymes, in those days often 
called “varses,” which he hawked about the streets of Boston and 
sold for a trifle. In this modest way he earned a few extra shillings 
and laid the foundation of a brilliant career. Who can say now 
that his success in after-life was not in some manner connected with 
the narrow circumstances of the young ballad-maker? 
As at that time the drama was not regarded with favor by the 
good people of Boston, I have often wondered if Franklin in his 
boyhood had ever read any of Shakespeare’s plays. The original 
settlers of Massachusetts abhorred playwrights, and looked with 
distrust upon everything connected with the theatrical stage. Even 
in his boyhood Franklin had such a keen appreciation of what 
is great and grand, and such a lively concern for all things human, 
that it would be of interest now to know that he, too, had paid 
silent homage at the shrine of the “ sweet swan of Avon.” In The 
New-England Courant of July 2, 1722, there is a bare allusion to 
“ Shakespear’s Works,” which is probably the first time that the 
name of the great dramatist is mentioned in New England litera- 
ture. It occurs in a list of books made by an anonymous corre- 
spondent, as belonging to himself, which would come handy “in 
writing on Subjects Natural, Moral, and Divine, and in cultivating 
those which seem the most Barren.” The whole communication 
reads not unlike the effusions of the young printer, and may have 
been written by him. 
The circumstances under which Franklin left home are too well 
known to be repeated here. Youthful indiscretions can never be 
defended successfully, but they may be forgotten, or passed over in 
silence. 9 
From his native town Franklin went to Philadelphia, with no 
recommendations and an utter stranger; but fortunately before 
leaving home he had learned to set type. The knowledge of this 
art gave the friendless boy a self-reliance that proved to be of prac- 
tical help, and laid the foundation of his future fame. During a 
long life he never forgot the fact that he was a printer first, and 
Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the 
Court of France afterward; and still later President of the State of 
Pennsylvania. In his last will and testament he sets forth these 
distinctive titles in the order given here; and in his own epitaph, 
which he wrote as a young man, he styles himself simply “ Printer.” 
This epitaph is a celebrated bit of literature, quaint and full of 
figurative expression, and has often been re-printed. It bears a 
remote resemblance to some lines at the end of a Funeral Elegy on 
John Foster, a graduate of Harvard College and the pioneer printer 
of Boston, who died on September 9, 1681. The Elegy was written 
by Joseph Capen, then a recent graduate of the same institution, 
and was first published as a broadside. Perhaps the lines suggested 
to Franklin his own epitaph. As a bright boy with an inquisitive 
turn of mind, he was familiar with the main incidents in the life of 
Foster, who had set up the first printing-press in Boston, and was 
probably the earliest engraver in New England. 
After Franklin had become fairly domiciled at his new home in 
Philadelphia, one of his chief aims was to make himself useful not 
only to his fellow-artisans, but to the community at large. In divers 
ways he stro/e to raise the condition of young men, and to impress 
upon them the responsibilities of life and the duty they owed to 
others. 
In the year 1732 Franklin began to publish Poor Richard's Al- 
manack, which not only put money in his purse but made his name 
a household word throughout the land. It soon reached a wide 
circulation, and was kept up by him for twenty-five years. It was 
largely read by the people of the middle colonies and had great 
influence over the masses. From every available source he selected 
shrewd and homely maxims, and scattered them through the pages 
of the publication. So popular did these sayings become that they 
were reprinted on sheets, under the title of “ The Way to Wealth,” 
and circulated in England as well as in this country, and were even 
translated into French and sold in the streets of Paris. They are 
not so highly thought of now as they once were; and the more the 10 
pity. The present age likes show and style better than quiet ease 
and domestic comfort, and is sometimes called the gilded age, to 
distinguish it from one that is not veneered. The pseudonym of 
authorship on the title-page of tht Almanack was Richard Saunders, 
and in quoting these maxims the public often used the expression, 
“as Poor Richard says,” referring to the pseudonym; and in this 
way the name of Poor Richard has become inseparably connected 
with that of Franklin. During the latter part of the seventeenth 
century there had been printed in London an almanack by Rich- 
ard Saunders, and Franklin, doubtless, there found the name. In 
fact his own title-page begins, “ Poor Richard improved show- 
ing that it had some reference to a previous publication. 
A curious circumstance, connected with the translation of these 
proverbs into French, may be worth narrating. The translator 
found a difficulty in rendering “Poor Richard” into his vernac- 
ular tongue, as Richard in French means a rich man; and to 
give a poor rich man as the author of the sayings was an absurdity 
on the face of it. So the translator compromised by rendering 
the name of the author as “ Bonhomme Richard ;” and Paul Jones’s 
famous ship was so called in honor of the Boston printer and the 
Philadelphia philosopher. 
Franklin never accepted results without carefully examining rea- 
sons, and even as a boy was slow to take statements on trust, 
always wanting to know the why and wherefore of things. By 
temperament he was a doubter; but in the end such persons make 
the best believers. Once drive away the mist of unbelief from 
their minds, and the whole heavens become clear. With the eye 
of faith they then see what has previously been denied to them. 
Franklin did not set up for a saint, or pretend to be what he was 
not; and his friends have never claimed that he was free from 
human failings. They have always looked with regret at his 
youthful errors, and would willingly blot them out; but he himself 
has freely confessed them all. It is on his own testimony alone 
that the world knows his worst faults. “ To err is human, to forgive 
divine.” 
Franklin was a voluminous writer on a large variety of subjects, 
but of all his works the Autobiography has been the most widely 
circulated. This book was first published soon after his death, and 
has since passed through many editions. It has been translated 
into numerous languages and been read throughout Christendom, 11 
where it has charmed both the old and the young; and the demand 
for it still continues. For close, compact style and for general 
interest it has become almost a classic work in the English lan- 
guage. The bibliographical history of the book is somewhat pecu- 
liar, and makes a story worth telling. 
Presumably an Autobiography, published after the death of the 
writer, would remain substantially unchanged; but it was not so 
with Franklin’s. At four different times there have appeared in 
English four versions of the Autobiography, each one varying from 
the others,—though they have not always covered the same period 
of time,—thus making great and decided changes throughout the 
book. The explanation of this anomaly may be found in the fol- 
lowing statement. The narrative was written at various times and 
places, and the author has. given some of the circumstances under 
which it was prepared. The first part, coming down to his mar- 
riage in the year 1730, was written at Twyford, England, in 1771, 
while he was visiting at the house of his friend, Dr. Jonathan Ship- 
ley, Bishop of Saint Asaph, with whom he was on terms of close 
intimacy. It was begun for the gratification of his own family, and 
intended for them alone; but afterward it took a wider scope, and 
was then evidently meant for publication. He did not resume 
work upon it until 1784; but in the meantime the incomplete 
sketch had been shown to some of his friends, who urged him 
strongly to go on with it. The second part of these memoirs, 
written while Franklin was living at Passy, near Paris, is short and 
made up largely of his ideas on life rather than by the recital of 
events. When he began this portion of the narrative, he did not 
have the former part with him, which accounts for a break in the 
thread of the story. The third part was begun in August, 1788, 
while Franklin was in Philadelphia, and is brought down to the 
year 1757. This portion ended the Autobiography, as formerly 
printed in English. About a year after Franklin’s death there was 
published in Paris a French translation of the first part of the 
memoirs. It is a little singular that the principal portion of the 
Autobiography, which was destined to have so great a popularity, 
should have been printed first in a foreign land and in a foreign 
tongue; and it has never been satisfactorily explained why this was 
so, nor is it known with certainty who made the translation from 
the English into the French. 
In 1793, two years after the appearance of the Paris edition, two 12 
separate and distinct translations were made from it and published 
in London,—the one by the Messrs. Robinson, and the other by 
Mr. J. Parsons. Both editions appeared about the same time; and 
probably some rivalry between two publishing firms was at the 
bottom of it. They were English translations from a French 
translation of the original English; and yet, with the drawback 
of all these changes, the book has proved to be as charming as a 
novel. 
In 1818 William Temple Franklin, while editing his grand- 
father’s works, brought out another edition of the Autobiography, 
which seemed to have the mark of genuineness; and for half a 
century this version was the accepted one. But in 1868 even 
this edition had to yield to a fourth version, which gave the ipsis- 
sima verba of the great philosopher. During that year another 
edition was published from Franklin’s original manuscript, which 
a short time previously had fallen into the hands of the Hon. 
John Bigelow, while he was United States Minister at the French 
Court; and by him it was carefully and critically annotated. This 
version now forms the standard edition of the Autobiography, and 
easily supersedes all former versions. It contains, moreover, six or 
eight additional pages of printed matter from Franklin’s pen, 
which had never before appeared in English. It is also a curious 
fact in the history of the book that there are no less than five 
editions in French, all distinct and different translations. 
The limits of this paper will not allow me to follow Franklin in 
his various wanderings either back to his native town or across the 
ocean to London, where he worked as a journeyman printer. Nor 
can I even mention the different projects he devised for improving 
the condition of all classes of mankind, from the highest to the 
lowest, and thereby adding to the comforts and pleasures of life. 
The recollection of his own narrow circumstances during his 
younger days always prompted him to help others similarly placed; 
and the famous line of Terence applied to him as truthfully as to 
any other man of the last century. In brief, it is enough to say 
that on all occasions and at all times his sympathies were with the 
people. In the great political contest which really began on the 
passage of the Stamp Act, and did not end until the Declaration of 
Peace in 1783, he was from the first on the side of the Colonists, 
and one of their main supports. During the War of the Revolu- 13 
tion he was a venerable man, the senior of General Washington by 
more than twenty-five years, and the leaders all looked up to him 
for advice. In such an emergency it is young men for action, but old 
men for counsel; and on all occasions he was a wise counselor. 
Franklin’s services in Europe as one of the Commissioners of 
the United States were as essential to the success of the patriots as 
those of any military commander at home; and he gave as much 
time and thought to the public cause, and with as marked results, 
as if he had led legions of men on the battlefield. The pen is 
mightier than the sword, and the triumphs of diplomacy are equally 
important with those of generals who lead armies on to victory. 
I regret that the space of time allowed forbids me to dwell, as I 
should like to do, on Franklin’s brilliant career as a philosopher. 
From early boyhood his inquiring mind had led him to study the 
lessons of Nature and to learn the hidden meaning of her myste- 
ries. It is easy to understand how, while yet a young man, his 
youthful imagination became excited over the wonders of the 
heavens, when the lightning flashed and the thunder pealed ; and 
how he burned to find out the causes of the phenomena. By his 
ingenious experiments in the investigation of these matters, and by 
his brilliant discoveries made before he had reached the middle 
period of his life, he acquired throughout Europe a reputation as a 
philosopher; and the results of his labors were widely published in 
France and Germany, as well as in England. In his memoirs he 
gives a brief account of the way he was drawn into scientific stud- 
ies, and how the seed was sown which brought forth the ripened 
fruit; but the preparation of the soil in which the seed was planted 
dates back to his childhood, when he was reading Defoe, Mather, 
and other writers, or even to an earlier period. For a full quarter 
of a century before the Revolutionary War broke out, he had 
gained such fame in Europe for his attainments, and was so widely 
known for his fairness, that, when acting as a diplomatist during 
the political troubles of the Colonies, great weight was always given 
to his opinions. 
By the help of that subtle power which Franklin’s genius first 
described, audible speech is now conveyed to far distant places, 
messages are sent instantaneously across the continent and under 
the seas, and the words of Puck have become a reality : 
“ I’ll put a girdle round about the earth 
In forty minutes.” 14 
Through the aid of this mysterious agency, dwellings and thor- 
oughfares are illuminated, and means of transit multiplied in the 
streets of crowded cities, where it is made to take the place of the 
horse; and yet to-day mankind stands only on the threshold of 
its possibilities. 
Whether the career of the practical printer or of the sagacious 
statesman or of the profound philosopher be considered, Franklin’s 
life was certainly a remarkable one. It would be difficult, if not 
impossible, to name another man so distinguished in a triple char- 
acter and so fully equipped in all his parts. By dint of genius 
alone, he arose to high eminence, and took his place with the great 
men of the age, where he was easily their peer, and where he main- 
tained his rank until the day of his death. 
One of Franklin’s early acts, fraught with great benefit to schol- 
arship, was the founding, one hundred and fifty years ago, of the 
American Philosophical Society, the oldest scientific body in 
America and one of the oldest in any country,—whose numerous 
publications, covering a broad variety of subjects and extending 
over a period of nearly its whole existence, have won for it a 
proud eminence, and given it high rank among the learned societies 
of the world. 
On this interesting anniversary it falls to my lot to bring to you 
the felicitations of the Massachusetts Historical Society, which was 
founded in Franklin’s native town and is the oldest association of 
its kind in the United States. The younger sister on this occasion 
sends her warmest greetings, and instructs me to express the hope 
that the same success and prosperity which have followed your 
growth during a long life of honor and usefulness may continue to 
abide with you, undiminished and unabated, for long generations 
to come.