"Let us then search what is the sin

that God doth punish for?

And when found out, cast it away,
and ever it abhor.

"Sure, 'tis not chiefly for those sins
that magistrates do name,

And make good laws for to suppress,
and execute the same.

"But 'tis for that same crying sin,
that rulers will not own,
And that whereby much cruelty
to brethren hath been shown.

"The sin of persecution

such laws established,

By which laws they have gone so far
as blood hath touched blood.

"It is now forty years ago

since some of them were made, Which was the ground and rise of all the persecuting trade.

"Then many worthy persons were
banished to the woods,

Where they among the natives did
lose their most precious bloods.

"And since that many godly men
have been to prison sent,

They have been fined and whipped also,

and suffered banishment.

"The cause of all this suffering

was not for any sin,

But for the witness that they bare

against babe sprinkling."

This persecution he attributes to the influence of" the tribe of min

isters," who, he says, are "the eyes" through which "our magistrates" see. He then addresses this persecuting tribe of ministers:

But, then, the prudent Peter would not be misunderstood. He

was much in favor of law and order:

"I would not have you for to think,

tho' I have wrote so much,

That I hereby do throw a stone

at magistrates, as such.

-"The rulers in the country, I

do own them in the Lord; And such as are for government, with them I do accord.

"But that which I intend hereby,

is, that they would keep bounds, And meddle not with God's worship, for which they have no ground.

"There's work enough to do besides,
to judge in mine and thine;
To succor poor and fatherless,
that is the work in fine."

These liberal and just sentiments, expressed in the homely manner of the time, were years in advance of public opinion, though Peter assures us that "hundreds" of the people of Massachusetts were of the same mind as himself. Dr. Franklin was proud to reckon among his progenitors a man capable of thus rebuking his generation, and he quoted some of Peter Folger's roughest verses, with approbation.

A tallow-chandler of thirty-four, with six young children, would have been an ill match for a young lady of twenty-two, the daughter of an honored scholar, if that tallow-chandler had not been a man to make it worth a woman's while to undergo, for his sake, unusual care and toil. Josiah Franklin was handsome, agreeable, accomplished, and wise. He was of medium stature, well formed, very strong, agile, and expert. His "limbs were made in England." He could draw prettily, had some skill in playing the violin, and his voice in singing was sonorous and pleasing. At the close of the day, when his labor was done, he would take his violin and accompany himself while he sang to his family the homely songs and hymns of his native land. The melody of his voice and violin sounded pleasantly through all the long life of his son, who recalled those evening scenes at home to the last of his days. He

*The whole of this poem, numbering more than a hundred stanzas, is printed in "Duyckinck's Cyclopedia of American Literature," i, 53.

had an active, inquiring, genial mind, loved to see intelligent friends at his table, and took great pleasure in conversation. Known to be a prudent, sincere, and friendly man, his advice was much sought by his neighbors, as well as by leading men concerned in the affairs of the town and the church. He was a genuine Franklin, blithe, prudent, and steadfast. So Abiah Folger took him and her share of the responsibilities of the Blue Ball. The daughter of Peter Folger, we may imagine, would be attracted rather than deterred, by the prospect of honorable labor. She proved a helpmeet to her husband, a mother to his children, and lent, I doubt not, a dextrous female hand in the shop on "melting days."

Ten children were the fruit of their union: John, born in December, 1690; Peter, born November 22, 1692; Mary, born September 22, 1694; James, born February 4, 1697; Sarah, born July 9, 1699; Ebenezer, born September 20, 1701, who died in infancy; Thomas, born December 7, 1703; BENJAMIN, born January 6 (old style), 1706; Lydia, born August 3, 1706; Jane, born March 27, 1712, the pet and beauty of the family, Benjamin's favorite sister, his correspondent for sixty years.*

It is probable that Benjamin Franklin derived from his mother the fashion of his body and the cast of his countenance. There are lineal descendants of Peter Folger who strikingly resemble Franklin in these particulars; one of whom, a banker of New Orleans, looks like a portrait of Dr. Franklin stepped out of its frame. But there the resemblance ends; for that poor rich old man, unmindful of his noble ancestry, is a bigot of slavery, having established a newspaper in 1862 solely to defend it.

1706, the year of Benjamin Franklin's birth, was the fourth of the reign of Queen Anne, and the year of Marlborough's victory at Ramillies. Pope was then a sickly dwarf, four feet high and nineteen years of age, writing, at his father's cottage in Windsor Forest, the Pastorals which, in 1709, gave him his first celebrity. Voltaire was a boy of ten, in his native village near Paris. Bolingbroke was a rising young member of the House of Commons, noted, like Fox at a later day, for his dissipation and his oratory. Addison, aged thirty-four, had written his Italian travels, but not the "Spectator," and was a thriving politician. Newton, at sixty-four,

* "Savage's Genealogical Dictionary of New England," ii. 200.

his great work all done, was master of the Mint; had been knighted the year before, and elected President of the Royal Society in 1703. The grandfather of Goethe had just ceased to be a Frankfort tailor, and become a Frankfort innkeeper. Louis XIV. was King of France, and the first King of Prussia was reigning. The father of George Washington was a Virginia boy of ten; the father of John Adams was just entering Harvard College; and the father of Thomas Jefferson was not yet born.

CHAPTER III.

UNCLE BENJAMIN AND HIS ACROSTICS.

FRANKLIN was born on a Sunday. The family lived then in Milk Street, opposite the Old South Church, within twenty yards of the church door. So the thankful father carried his new-born son across the street the same day, and had him baptized by the pastor, Dr. Willard; perhaps, even then, dedicating the tithe of his sons to the service of the Church. He named him Benjamin, in honor of his brother over the sea, the dyer of Leicester Fields. The record of his birth in the town register, and that of his baptism on the books of the Old South Church, are still shown.

Soon after the birth of Benjamin, his father removed to a house at the corner of Hanover and Union Streets, where he lived the rest of his life. It was a small, but decent and comfortable, dwelling of wood.

It is an advantage to a child to be reared in a numerous family. There is less danger of his being spoiled. There are more to love him, and he has more to love. He learns early to consider himself as only one person among many, and he is constantly reminded that others, as well as himself, have feelings, desires, and rights. Benjamin Franklin could recollect seeing twelve brothers and sisters at his father's table, all of whom grew to maturity and became parents. Both he and his sister Jane bore testimony to the happiness of their early home. "It was, indeed, a lowly dwelling," wrote she, we were brought up in, but we were fed plentifully, made comfortable with fire and clothing, had seldom any contention