50 
famous ship was so called in honor of the Boston printer and the 
Philadelphia philosopher. 
Franklin never accepted results without carefully examining rea- 
sons, and even as a boy was slow to take statements on trust, 
always wanting to know the why and wherefore of things. By 
temperament he was a doubter; but in the end such persons make 
the best believers. Once drive away the mist of unbelief from 
their minds, and the whole heavens become clear. With the eye 
of faith they then see what has previously been denied to them. 
Franklin did not set up for a saint, or pretend to be what he was 
not; and his friends have never claimed that he was free from 
human failings. They have always looked with regret at his 
youthful errors, and would willingly blot them out; but he himself 
has freely confessed them all. It is on his own testimony alone 
that the world knows his worst faults. ‘* To err is human, to forgive 
divine.”’ 
Franklin was a voluminous writer on a large variety of subjects, 
but of all his works the Autobiography has been the most widely 
circulated. ‘This book was first published soon after his death, and 
has since passed through many editions. It has been translated 
into numerous languages and been read throughout Christendom, 
where it has charmed both the old and the young; and the demand 
for it still continues. For close, compact style and for general 
interest it has become almost a classic work in the English lan- 
guage. The bibliographical history of the book is somewhat pecu- 
liar, and makes a story worth telling. 
Presumably an Autobiography, published after the death of the 
writer, would remain substantially unchanged; but it was not so 
with Franklin’s. At four different times there have appeared in 
English four versions of the Auéodiography, each one varying from 
the others, —though they have not always covered the same period 
of time,—thus making great and decided changes throughout the 
book. ‘The explanation of this anomaly may be found in the fol- 
lowing statement. ‘The narrative was written at various times and 
places, and the author has given some of the circumstances under 
which it was prepared. The first part, coming down to his mar- 
riage in the year 1730, was written at Twyford, England, in 1771, 
while he was visiting at the house of his friend, Dr. Jonathan Ship- 
ley, Bishop of Saint Asaph, with whom he was on terms of close 
intimacy. It was begun for the gratification of his own family, and 
