1907.] 



ROSENGARTEN— ALBERT HENRY SMITH. ill 



dents of the High School was an unusual tribute to his ability, his 

 industry and his broad and generous sympathy with all who shared 

 his love of study. 



His " Shakespeare's Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre," a study 

 in Comparative Literature, was the outcome of his Johns Hopkins 

 thesis for his iNI.A. degree, — recast and expanded, it was read before 

 the American Philosophical Society and was printed in volume 

 thirty-seven of its Proceedings. Reprinted in 1898, it obtained 

 great praise from competent Shakespearean critics at home and 

 abroad, and it is a monument of his learning and critical ability. 

 As he said in reply to some verbal criticism of his frequent use of 

 Shakespearean words and phrases, *' A student's nature is soon sub- 

 dued to what it works in, like the dyer's hand, and I have worked 

 in Shakespeare, steeping myself in his language, until unconsciously 

 I use words and phrases which are, to me, rich in suggestion and 

 association," and he made good use of his mastery of Shakespere. 



His great work was his " Writings of Franklin." It was the 

 most effective and important tribute to Franklin's Bicentenary, 

 so well celebrated by this and kindred societies, founded by Frank- 

 lin and of which he was a member. The ten volumes of Franklin 

 will be a lasting monument of Professor Smyth's industry, research 

 and critical acumen. He unearthed new material at home and 

 abroad to the extent of three hundred and eighty-five letters and 

 forty papers all from Franklin's pen, and not printed by any 

 previous editor; he corrected more than two thousand errors 

 in earlier editions, and restored the text so much altered by. 

 Sparks in his mistaken notion of improving Franklin's racy and 

 vigorous English. He found new material in public and private 

 collections, in that recently acquired by the Library of the University 

 of Pennsylvania, as a tribute to its great founder, and in public 

 archives at home and abroad, and in the collections never before 

 consulted by any editor of Franklin's writings. He gave a full ac- 

 count of the Franklin Papers, rescued from neglect and now rever- 

 ently preserved in the Library of the American Philosophical So- 

 ciety, in the Congressional Library, and in that of the University of 

 Pennsylvania. He gave a bibliography of the printed editions of 

 Franklin's Writings, an analysis of his works, philosophical, politi- 



PROC. AMER, PHIL. SOC, XLVf. 185M, PRINTED JULY 16, I907. 



