June 1, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



835 



able printing business. This business was 

 the foundation of Franklin's fortune; and 

 better foundation no man could desire. His 

 industry was extraordinary. Contrary to 

 the current opinion, Dr. Baird of St. An- 

 drews testified that the new printing office 

 would succeed, 'for the industry of that 

 Pranklin, ' he said, ' is superior to anything 

 I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at 

 work when I go home from the club, and he 

 is at work again before the neighbors are 

 out of bed.' No trade rules or customs 

 limited or levied toll on his productiveness. 

 He speedily became by far the most suc- 

 cessful printer in all the colonies, and in 

 twenty years was able to retire from active 

 business with a competency. 



One would, however, get a wrong impres- 

 sion of Franklin 's career as a printer, if he 

 failed to observe that from his boyhood 

 Franklin constantly used his connection 

 with a printing office to facilitate his re- 

 markable work as an author, editor and 

 publisher. Even while he was an appren- 

 tice to his brother James he succeeded in 

 getting issued from his brother's press bal- 

 lads and newspaper articles of which he 

 was the anonymous author. When he had 

 a press of his own he used it for publishing 

 a newspaper, an almanac and numerous 

 €ssays composed or compiled by himself. 

 His genius as a writer supported his skill 

 and industry as a printer. 



The second part of the double subject 

 assigned to me is Franklin as philosopher. 

 The philosophy he taught and illustrated 

 related to four perennial subjects of human 

 interest: education, natural science, poli- 

 tics and morals. I propose to deal in that 

 order with these four topics. 



Franklin's philosophy of education was 

 elaborated as he grew up, and was applied 

 to himself throughout his life. In the first 

 place, he had no regular education of the 

 usual sort. He studied and read with an 



extraordinary diligence from his earliest 

 years; but he studied only the subjects 

 which attracted him, or which he himself 

 believed would be good for him, and 

 throughout life he pursued only those in- 

 quiries for pursuing which he found within 

 himself an adequate motive. The most 

 important element in his training was read- 

 ing, for which he had a precocious desire, 

 which was imperative and proved to be 

 lasting. His opportunities to get books 

 were scanty; but he seized on all such op- 

 portunities, and fortunately he early came 

 upon the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' the Spector- 

 tor, Plutarch, Xenophon's 'Memorabilia,' 

 and Locke ' On the Human Understanding. ' 

 Practise of English composition was the 

 next, agency in Franklin's education; and 

 his method— quite of his own invention- 

 was certainly an admirable one. He would 

 make brief notes of the thoughts contained 

 in a good piece of writing, and lay these 

 notes aside for several days; then, without 

 looking at the book, he would endeavor to 

 express these thoughts in his own words as 

 fully as they had been expressed in the 

 original paper. Lastly, he would compare 

 his product with the original, thus discover- 

 ing his shortcomings and errors. To im- 

 prove his vocabulary he turned specimens 

 of prose into verse, and later, when he had 

 forgotten the original, turned the verse 

 back again into prose. This exercise en- 

 larged his vocabulary and his acquaintance 

 with synonyms and their different shades 

 of meaning, and showed him how he could 

 twist phrases and sentences about. His 

 times for such exercises and for reading 

 were at night after work, before work in 

 the morning, and on Sundays. This severe 

 training he imposed on himself ; and he was 

 well advanced in it before he was sixteen 

 years of age. His memory and his im- 

 agination must both have served him well; 

 for he not only acquired a style fit for nar- 

 rative, exposition or argument, but also 



