130 ROSENGARTEN — FKANKLIN'S BAGATELLES. [May 17, 



likely that he would have destroyed the originals, or that his friends 

 would have destroyed the printed copies, even then rare enough to 

 be precious. 



The republication throughout Europe and America of his 

 political squibs was clearly part of Franklin's constant and suc- 

 cessful effort to enlist allies for America, and to increase the 

 hostility to England in France and Spain, in Holland and Ger- 

 many, and in England itself. It is a question whether Franklin 

 included in his "Bagatelles" the political squibs which he fired 

 with such telling effect among the enemies of his country, and 

 with such success in making friends for it. His experience in fill- 

 ing his newspaper and his almanac with clever jeux d'esprit stood 

 him in good stead in Paris, and he reproduced many of them for 

 the amusement of his French friends, who were ready to accept 

 with delight everything that he printed. It would be of interest to 

 discover somewhere a complete list of his "Bagatelles," and to 

 learn in what succession they were written, and how many were 

 printed, to whom they were given, and what has become of them. 



The collection of the Franklin Papers in the Philosophical Society 

 contains original "Bagatelles" in Franklin's handwriting, and 

 translations apparently by M. Brillon, "un savant," and by Mme. 

 Brillon, who calls herself " une femme qui n'est point savante." 

 Then, too, it has innumerable letters from Mme. Brillon and her 

 family, with many discussions over Franklin's French and over the 

 translations. One letter declines a proposal by William Temple 

 Franklin for the hand of one of the Brillon daughters, and next to 

 it is the notice of the wedding of Mdlle. Brillon. The cor- 

 respondence of Franklin and Mme. Brillon is characteristic alike 

 of the writers and of the time in which they lived, and it shows 

 how readily Franklin took his part in the life of Paris of his day. 

 Sparks was too serious to care for these pleasing trifles, and too 

 solemn to print even Washington's familiar phrases or Franklin's 

 light and incautious wit; later historical students have censured 

 Sparks for his endeavor to give to the great men of our history a 

 sort of classical pose, as if they were not mortals with average 

 human failings. He had access apparently to much material that 

 he did not print, as being below his high standard of historical 

 dignity. Nowadays we are only too anxious to get at these great 

 men as they were in everyday life, and to rescue from oblivion all 

 they said and wrote, even Franklin's most risky and unrestrained 



