n IF R A N 
^ofiver? bo you think any pcifon ought to be harmed in 
]iis bodv, name, or goods, for mere fpeeulative opinions, 
■or ills external way of wovlhip ? Do you love truth for 
truth’s fake ; and will you endeavour impartially to find 
and receive it yourfelf, and communicate it to others ?” 
Franklin and lus partner ventured to fet up a new public 
paper, which his efforts both as a writer and a printer 
can fed to fucceed, and they alfo obtained the printing of 
the votes and laws of the aflembly. In procefs of time, 
Kleredith withdrew from the partnerfhip, and'Franklin 
met witli friends who enabled him to take the whole con¬ 
cern, and add to it the bufinefs of a ftationer. A dif- 
culTion concerning a new emiflion of paper-money taking 
place, he wrote an anonymous pamphlet in favour of the 
meafure, which was well received, and contributed to 
its fuccefs. Tliis obtained for liim farther countenance 
from p.erfons in power, and enfured his profperity. He 
confefies that at this time he was drawn into improper 
Conncdtions with the fex, owing, probably, to the difap- 
pointment he met with in the object of his firfl attach¬ 
ment, mifs Read, who had been induced by his negle£l 
to marry anoth.er perfon. From this man, however, fhe 
w as foon feparated, on account of a report that he had a 
former wife living; and he had removed to the Weft 
Indies, where he died. The lovers renewed their inter- 
courfe, and in September, 1730, they ventured to marry, 
though yet in fome degree uncertain of her widowhood. 
She proved a good and faithful companion, and ellentially 
contributed to Ids comfort and profperity. 
Hitherto we have been tracing the hiftory only of an 
humble tradefman, rendered interefting by the example 
it affords of gradual advance by means of frugality and 
jnduftry, and of the developement of a ftrong and faga. 
cions mind. We are now to view his progrefs in the cha- 
radters of politician and philofop'her; but it is to be re¬ 
gretted that at the very commencement of this period, 
we lofe the thread of narration from his own pen, which 
has hitherto condudled us. His friend. Dr. Stuber, of 
Philadelphia, has in fome degree fupplicd this defedft; 
and other fourcesof information have not been negledted. 
The eftablifliment of the public library in Philadelphia, 
was one of the ufcful projedfs of Franklin, which he 
brought to effect in 1731. He had the fatisfaiTion of fee¬ 
ing and aiding its advance to that flourifiling ftate which 
it has long attained. In 1732 he began to publifh his 
Poor Richard’s Almanac. This work became remark¬ 
able by the number of excellent prudential maxims oc- 
cafiondlly inferted in it, diftinguifhed by a proverbial point 
and concifenefs, and calculated to be indelibly impreffed 
upon the memory. They have been colle^ed into a 
iingle ftiort piece, entitled, The Way to Flealth, which 
has been publifhed in a variety of forms. His proper 
political career commenced in 1736, when he was ap¬ 
pointed clerk to the general aflembly of Pennfylvania. 
To this office he was rc-cledled for feveral years, till he 
became a reprefentative. In the next year he obtained' 
the valuable office of poft-mafter to the city of Philadel¬ 
phia. In 1738 he improved the police of the city with 
refpedl to tlie dreadful calamity of fire, by forming a fo- 
ciety called the fire-company, to which was afterwards 
a Ided an infurance-company againft Ioffes by fire. In the 
i’lench war of 1744, when it became a queftion to fecure 
the province againft the inroads of the enemy, a militia- 
bill was recommended by the governor to the aflembly, 
which a difpute between the proprietary intereft and that 
of the citizens at large prevented from being carried. 
F'ranklin at this crifis flood forth, and propofed a plan of 
voluntary affociation for defence, which was immediately 
figned by 1200 perfons; and being circulated through 
tl'ic province, at lengtli obtained 10,000 fubfcriptions. 
This may be reckoned a very important ftep towards ac- 
■quainting America with her ftrength, and the means of 
bringing it into aftion. 
Jt was about this time that he mad.e a commencement 
cf thofc eleflrical experiments which have conferred fo 
4 
KLIN. 
much celebrity on lusmiame. Peter Collinfon had fent, 
in 1745, to the library-fociety of Philadelphia, an ac¬ 
count of the curious faffs relative to eleflricity which 
then engaged the attention of the European philofophers, 
together witli a tube for experiments, and direftions for 
its life. Franklin, together with fome of his friends, 
immediately began to apply to the fubjeft. His difco- 
veries were communicated in three publications, entitled. 
New Experiments and Obfervations in Eleflricity, made 
at Philadelphia in America, in the form of letters to 
Mr. Collinfon. Their dates are from 1747-to 1754. 
Thefe were univerfally read and admired ; and Dr. Prieft- 
ley (Hiftory of Eleflricity) fays of them, “It is noteafy 
to fay whether we are mott pleafed with the fimplicity 
and perfpicuity with which thefe letters are written, the 
modefty with which tlie author propofes every hypothefis 
of his own, or the noble franknefs with which he relates 
his miftakes, when they were coriefled by fubfequent ex-, 
perinients.” Referring to tlie work above quoted for.a- 
particular account of our philofopher’s new ideas and 
difcoveries, we (hall only give a (ketch of the moft inu 
portant of them. Having been led to think that in the 
excitation of the electric tube, the fluid was conveyed 
from the perfon who rubbed it, to him who touched it, 
he defignated the ftate of the latter by the expreffion of 
being eleiStr'ified pofitivdy, or plus, as liaving received 
more than his original quantity of eleftric fire; while 
the former was faid to be eledlrified negatively, or minus, as 
having loft a part of his natural portion of the fame. 
This led him to the capital difcovery with refpedl to the 
manner of charging the Leyden phial; the theory of 
which is, that when one fide of the glafs is eleftrified 
plus, the other is eleifli ified minus ; fo that in charging it, 
all tliat is done is to throw the eledlrric fire from one fide, 
and convey it to the other ; while difcharging it is the 
reftoration of the equilibrium. This theory he confirmed 
by a fet of very ingenious experiments, which have ge¬ 
nerally been thought decifive; and accordingly it has 
made its way againft all oppofition. He farther proved 
that the accumulated eleiStric fire in tlie charged fide of 
the phial reiided not in the coating, but in the pores of 
the glafs itfelf.—See the article Electricity, vol. vi. 
p. 408-427, The moft'brilliant, however, of his difco¬ 
veries, was that of the identity of the elettric fire and 
that of lightning. Their finiiiarity had been fufpeifted, 
and fome experiments, according to his diredtions, had 
begun to be made in France towards the verification of 
the fa6t; but Franklin completed the demonftration of 
it entirely by his own experiments. They were guided 
by tlie extraordinary power he had obferved to be pof- 
felfed by pointed bodies in attracting and throwing off 
the electric fire. The fir(t poiitive proof he obtained of 
bis problem was in June, 1752, when, by means of a 
filken kite furniflied with an iron point, and having a key 
appended at the termination of its hempen firing, he 
drew down from a palling thunder-cloud eleCtric fire 
enough to yield fenfible fparks from the key. He after¬ 
wards fixed an infulated iron rod upon his houfe, which 
drew down the lightning, and gave him an opportunity 
of examining whether it was pofitive or negative. As 
utility was in his mind the great end of philofophical in- 
veftigation, he immediately applied this grand difcovery 
to the fecuriiig of buildings from the effeCts of lightning, 
which are particularly alarming on the continent of 
North America. By means of pointed metallic conduc¬ 
tors projecting from the top of the building, he con¬ 
ceived that the palling thunder-clouds might be made to 
difcharge their fire filently and innoxioufly ; and fuch 
was the confidence in his opinion, that thefe conduclor.s 
foon came to he generally ufed in America, and were 
adopted in England and other countries. He gave an in- 
ftance of his application of phyfics to the purpofes of 
coinm.on life by his invention, in 1745, of the Pennfyl- 
vanian fire-places, combining the qualities of an open 
grate with that of a ftove. 
Politics 
