33^ LIFE A.VD CORRESPONDENCE OF THE [l/QI 



root at the same time, and spring to a greater or les3 degree of perfec- 

 tion, according to the richness of the soil and the aptitude of the 

 season ? 



From the beginning of the year 1746; till about twenty years after- 

 wards, was the eera of electricity, as no other branch of natural philoso- 

 phy was so much cultivated during that period. In America, and in 

 the mind of Franklin, it found a rich bed : the seed took root and 

 sprung into a great tree, before he knew tliat similar seeds had vege- 

 tated, or risen to any height in other parts of the world. 



Before that period, philosophers amused tlicmselves only with the 

 smaller phenomena of electricity; such as relate to the attraction of 

 light bodies; the distances to which such attraciion would extend-; the 

 luminous appearances produced by the excited glass tube ; and the fir- 

 ing spirits and inflammable air by electricity. Little more was known 

 on the subject, than Thales had discovered 2,000 years before; that 

 certain bodies, such as amber and glass, had this attractive quality. 

 Our most indefatigable searchers into nature, who in other branches 

 seemed to have explored her profoundest depths, were content with 

 what was known in former ages of electricity, without advancing any- 

 thing new of their own. Sufficient data and experiments were wanting 

 to reduce tlie doctrine and phenomena of electricity into any rules or 

 system; and to apply them to any beneficial purposes in life. This 

 great achievement, which had eluded the industry and abilities of a 

 Boyle and a Newton, was reserved for a Franklin. AVith that diligence, 

 ingenuity, and strength of judgment, fcr which he was distinguished in 

 all his undertakings, he commenced his experiments and discoveries in 

 the latter part of the year 1746; led thereto, as he tells us, by follow- 

 ing the directions of his friend, Peter Collinson of London, in the use 

 of an electric tube, which that benevolent philosopher had presented to 

 the library company of Philadelphia. The assiduity with which he 

 prosecuted his investigations, appears from his first letter to Mr. Collin- 

 son, of March 28th, 1747: 



For my own part, says he, I never was before engaged in any study that so totally 



engrossed my attention and my time, as this has lately done. For, what with making 



^experiments, when I can be alone, and repeating them to my friends and acquaintance, 



who, from the novelty of the thing, come continually in crowds to see them, I have 



for some months past had leisure for little else. 



He had a delight in communicating his discoveries to his friends; 

 and such was his manner of communication, with that winning modesty, 

 that he appeared rather seeking to acquire information hiniself than to 

 give it to others; which gave him a great advantage in his way of 

 reasoning over those who followed a more dogmatic manner. 



"Possibly," he would say, "these experiments may not be new to 

 you, as, among the numbers daily employed in such observations on 

 your side the water, it is probable some one or other has hit on them 



