CHAPTER IX 



SCIENCE AND THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 



OF the Fellows of the Royal Society, Benjamin 

 Franklin (1706-1790) is the most representative of 

 that age of enlightenment which had its origin in 

 Newton's Principia. Franklin represents the eight- 

 eenth century in his steadfast pursuit of intellectual, 

 social, and political emancipation. And in his long 

 fight, calmly waged, against the forces of want, super- 

 stition, and intolerance, such as still hamper the de- 

 velopment of aspiring youth in America, England, 

 and elsewhere, he found science no mean ally. 



There is some reason for believing that the Frank- 

 lins (francus free) were of a free line, free from 

 that vassalage to an overlord, which in the different 

 countries of Europe did not cease to exist with the 

 Middle Ages. For hundreds of years they had lived 

 obscurely near Northampton. They had early joined 

 the revolt against the papal authority. For gener- 

 ations they were blacksmiths and husbandmen. Frank- 

 lin's great-grandfather had been imprisoned for writ- 

 ing satirical verses about some provincial magnate. 

 Of the grandfather's four sons the eldest became a 

 smith, but having some ingenuity and scholarly abil- 

 ity turned conveyancer, and was recognized as able 

 and public-spirited. The other three were dyers. 

 Franklin's father Josiah and his Uncle Benjamin 

 were nonconformists, and conceived the plan of emi- 



