family honors, or educational advantages, perhaps our American FRANKLIN stands highest in the civilized world's regard. The salient feature of his career is its uniformity. In an age of wars, he never led an army, nor set a squadron in the field. He never performed any dazzling achievement. Though an admired writer and one of the greatest of scientific discoverers, he was not a genius. His progress from the mean tallow-chandler's shop of his Boston father, crammed full of hungry brothers and sisters, to the gilded saloons of Versailles, where he stood the observed of all observers,' -in fact, more a king than the gentle Louis, was marked by no abrupt transition, no break, nó bound-he seems not so much to have risen as to have grown. You cannot say when he ceased to be poor, or unknown, or powerless; he steps into each new and higher position as if he had been born for just that; you know that his newspaper, his almanac, his electrical researches, his parliamentary service, his diplomacy, were the best of their time; but who can say that he was more admirable in one field of useful effort than another? An embassador, it has been smartly said, is one 'sent abroad to lie for his country;' yet you feel that this man could eminently serve his country in perfect truth--that his frank sincerity and heartfelt appreciation of the best points in the French character, in Parisian life, served better than the most artful dissimulation, the most The French Alliance was worth more to us than Saratoga for it gave us Yorktown-and it was not Gates's victory, as is commonly asserted, but Franklin's power and popularity, alike in the salons and at Court, that gained us the French alliance.

plausible hypocrisy.

"We cannot help asking, Were poverty and obstacle among the causes, or only the incidents, of this man's greatness? Had he been cradled in affluence and dandled in the lap of luxury, had he been crammed by tutors and learnedly boxed by professors-had Harvard or Yale conferred degrees upon him at twenty, as they both rather superfluously did when he was nearly fifty-had his youth been devoted to Latin conjugations and Greek hexameters rather than to candle-dipping and type-setting—would he have been the usefully great man he indisputably was? Admit that these queries can never be conclusively answered, they may yet be profitably pondered.

"I think I adequately appreciate the greatness of Washington; yet I must place Franklin above him as the consummate type and flowering of human nature under the skies of colonial America. Not that Washington was born to competence and all needful facilities for instruction, so that he began responsible life on vantage-ground that Franklin toiled twenty arduous, precious years to reach-I cannot feel that this fact has undue weight with me. I realize that there are elements of dignity, of grandeur, in the character of Washington for which that of Franklin affords no parallel. But when I contemplate the immense variety and versatility of Franklin's services to

his country and to mankind-when I think of him as a writer whose first effusions commanded attention in his early boyhood—as the monitor and teacher of his fellow-journeymen in a London printing-office-fas almost from the outset a prosperous and influential editor when journalism had never before been a source of power-as taking his place naturally at the head of the postal service in America and of the earliest attempts to form a practical confederation of the Colonies-when I see him, never an enthusiast, and now nearly threescore-and-ten, renouncing office, hazarding fame, fortune, every thing, to struggle for the independence of his country-he having most to lose by failure of any American-his only son a bitter Loyalist-he cheerfully and repeatedly braving the dangers of an ocean swarming with enemies, to render his country the service as embassador which no other man could perform-and finally, when more than eighty years old, crowning a life of duty and honor by helping to frame that immortal Constitution which made us one nation forever-I cannot place Franklin second to any other American. He could not have done the work of Washington-no other man could--but then he did so many admirable things which Washington had too sound a judgment even to attempt. And, great as Washington was, he was not great enough to write and print, after he had achieved power and world-wide fame, a frank, ingenuous confession of his youthful follies and sins for the instruction and admonition of others. Many a man can look calmly down the throats of roaring cannon who lacks the courage and true philanthropy essential to those called to render this service to mankind."*

*From an unpublished Lecture on Self-Made Men.

INDEX.

ACADEMY, vol. i., founded by Franklin, 302, 303.
Acrostics. vol. i., Uncle Benjamin's, 35.
Adams, Captain, vol. ii., 238.

Adams, Charles Francis, vol. ii.. his ridiculous
comments upon Franklin and Polly Baker,
400.

her husband to, on Pennsylvania politics, 128.
quoted upon French servants, 219; upon ru-
mored assassination of Franklin, 315; upon
Madame Helvetius, 429.

Adams, Matthew, vol. i., lends books to
Franklin, 55.

Adams, John, vol. i., his father, 82; quoted
upon Deism, 63; upon colonial office-seekers,
216; upon superstition in New England, 294;
upon Franklin and the grape-vines, 313, 814;
upon Franklin and Bute, 430; attends Dr.
Price's chapel, 545; upon the Hutchinson let-
ters, 571. Vol. ii.. quoted upon Arthur Lee, 14;
distrustful, 15; suspects Franklin, 17; quoted
upon Franklin's fable of the eagle and the cat,
66; allusion to, 67; upon Dickinson, 82; upon
Deane's appointment, 114; on committee to
draft declaration, 126; defends the same in
Congress, 127; to his wife on politics of Penn-
sylvania, 12; quoted upon Franklin in Con-
gress, 129, 130; designs seal, 131; relates journey
to Amboy with Franklin, 142; interview with
Howe, 144 to 151; advocates discipline, 150;
upon Beaumarchais, 178; distrusts the French
government, 190; quoted upon Franklin's Albany Conference, The, vol. i., 337.
knowledge of French, 206; upon his popu-Alert, The, vol. ii., 240.
larity in France, 213; upon his religion, 213; |
upon Ralph Izard, 257; arrives in France,
814; witnesses scene between Franklin and
Voltaire, 317; suspects Hartley, 326; offered
a peerage, 830; quoted upon Franklin's dislike
of George III., 332, 333; upon Paul Jones, 335;
quoted by Deane, 356; his arrival in France,
867; his character, 365, 369; sides with Lee
and Izard, 371, 872; puts the embassy into
red tape, 374; to Chaumont, on the house-
rent, 374 375; arranges the Fourth of July
dinner, 376; returns to America, 377; de-
nounces Deane, 377: grants money to Izard,
350, 388; offends De Vergennes, 394, 396, 397,
899; upon Plato, 401; appointed peace com-
Laissioner, 410; Franklin to, on the negotia-
tion, 460; in the negotiation for peace, 461,
486 to 505, 508.

Adams, Samuel, vol. i., opposed to Franklin,
500, 597; returns Hutchinson letters, 596.
Vol. ii., Lee to, on Franklin and Hillsbor
ough, 15, 16, 17; confers with Franklin, 109;
Arthur Lee to, on the envoys in France, 254;
at reception of Gerard, 320; allusion to, 368.
Addington, Dr., vol. i., 584. Vol. ii., 40.
Addison, Joseph, vol. i., allusion to, 31, 185;
quoted, 165; allusion to, 304, 398.
Address to Dissenters, vol. i., published by
Priestley, 494.

Advertising, vol. i., in the Pennsylvania Ga-
zette, 226.

Eneas, vol. i., Franklin commends, 310.
Age of Reason, vol. ii., quoted upon Paine's
education, 20; remarks upon, 552.
Albany, New York, vol. i., conference at, in 1754,
836. Vol. ii., 119.

Adams, Mrs. John. vol. i., quoted upon edu-
cation of women in New England, 57; upon
sea-voyage, 144: upon intelligence of Ameri-
can people, 203; upon society in Philadel
phia, 208; quotes Poor Richard, 227; attends
Dr. Price's chapel, 545,

Vol. ii. comforts Mrs. Quincy, 18; dines
with Franklin at Cambridge, 103; upon burn-
ing of Falmouth, 104; upon John Carroll, 117;

VOL. II.-29*

Alexander, Mr., vol. ii., 451.
Allemand, Professor, vol. i., invents Leyden
jar, 275; takes a shock, 276.
Allen, Fort, vol. i., 365, 366.
Alison, Mr., vol. i., 406.
Alliance between France and the United States,
vol. ii., 256, 304, 312, 317, 318.
Alliance, The, vol. ii., 344, 347, 349, 331, 386, 387.
Allibone, S. Austin, vol. i., quoted upon Bur-
ton's books, 44; upon the Boyle lecture, 63.
Almanacs, vol. i., in the colonies, 227; Poor
Richard, 227; others, 280.

Amboy, vol. i., Franklin at, in 1723, 101; Wil-
liam Franklin at, in 1762, 432.

Vol. ii., Governor Franklin arrested at, 94.
American Philosophical Society, vol. i., foun-
ded, 262.

Vol. i., investigates saltpeter, 75; addresses
Franklin on his return from France, 537; meets
at Franklin's house, 546; Franklin's bequest
to, 558; honors Franklin's memory, 621.
American Weekly Mercury, vol. i., remarks
upon prosecution of James Franklin, 90; quo-
ted upon Andrew Hamilton, 126, apon arri
val of the Berkshire, 151; its quality, 153,
184; Franklin writes for, 184; his rival, 196.
Amherst, Lord, vol. i., 394.