182 



5. Essays and Tracts, Historical and Political, concerning the American 



Revolution and the events which immediately preceded and fol- 

 lowed— 1747-1790 . 



6. Scientific Papers— from 1737-1790; in all 221 titles and nearly 900 



pages, octavo. 



7. Correspondence, Diplomatic, Domestic and Literary — 1724-90 ; in all, 



some twelve hundred letters, while many still remain unpublished. 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



The autobiography, prepared between the ages of sixty- five 

 and eighty -three, is one of the most remarkable books ever 

 written. It was intended for his son, and certain intimate 

 friends, and was not published until after the death of its 

 author, and was never printed as it had been written until a 

 few years ago, when, in 1874, Mr. John Bigelow issued a cor- 

 rect version from the original manuscript, which by marvelous 

 good fortune had fallen into his hands, while Minister at the 

 Court of France. 



The autobiography has passed through at least one hundred 

 and seventy editions, and has been translated into German, 

 French, Danish, and Spanish. 



To understand it properly, the reader should use Bigelow's 

 edition and none other — for its editor, with admirable skill, 

 has supplemented Franklin's own narrative, complete in itself 

 up to 1757, by a series of extracts from his letters and other 

 writings, so that it is told in the philosopher's own words, and 

 is complete almost to the day of his death. 



During the twenty-eight years of his residence abroad, from 

 1758 to 1785, he was in constant correspondence with the 

 governments he represented, and with his friends, who were 

 numerous and to whom he wrote at length and with great 

 freedom. 



" To his protracted expatriation," writes Bigelow, " we owe 



