188 



readable than as arranged by Mr. Bigelow* to form a part of 

 the autobiography. " To be fully understood and appreciated," 

 writes Bigelow, " they (as well as all the rest of his writings) 

 should be read in chronological order and by the light of cur- 

 rent events, for every one of them was as much the product 

 of its time and circumstances as the fruits and flowers of a 

 garden are of their respective seasons." 



Though the signature is always " B. Franklin," the writer 

 is sometimes the statesman, sometimes the shrewd, practical 

 tradesman, sometimes the philosopher, sometimes the inventor 

 concerned with mechanical details — now the philanthropist, 

 now the wily diplomat, again the loving husband and parent, 

 interested above all things in the affairs of his own little fam- 

 ily, again the brilliant man of the world, gossiping with 

 Madame Helvetius or the Abbe Morellet. 



" His letters," said John Foster, " abound in tokens of benev- 

 olence, sparkling not unfrequently with satiric pleasantry, but 

 of a bland, good-natured kind, arising in the most easy, natu- 

 ral manner, and thrown off with admirable simplicity and 

 brevity of expression. There are short discussions relating to 

 various arts and conveniences of life, plain instructions for 

 persons deficient in cultivation, and the means for it ; condo- 

 lences on the death of friends, and frequent references, in an 

 advanced stage of the correspondence, to his old age and 

 approaching death. Moral principles and questions are some- 

 times considered and simplified ; and American affairs are 

 often brought in view, though not set forth in the diplomatic 

 style." 



It would seem impossible that the man who wrote at times 

 so seriously and devoutly could have been also the author of 

 the so-called " Suppressed Letters." Between the ages of fifteen 



*Bigelow's " Franklin," i, p. 21. 



