Correspondence' of M. Temple (Franklin), one will still not have Franklin. But let us be just. If M. Temple (Franklin) cuts up and pitilessly lacerates a Correspondence as yet entirely unpublished, and which was absolutely unknown in France, in revenge, and by an equally reasonable calculation, he is about to reproduce for the fourth time, that is to say to satiety, the Memoirs of the Life of Franklin,' printed at Paris, for the first time, in 1791 (one volume in 8vo., by Buisson); for the second time, in the year II. (one volume in 12mo., Rue Therese); and for the third time, in 1800 (two volumes in 8vo., by Buisson), from the English edition of Dundee.

"I owe this confidence to my readers, especially to that public which M. Temple (Franklin) appeals to, that it may be duly instructed as to the merit of the editions of which this person wishes to give France the benefit.

"Since the month of January, and by many French bookpublishers, with a competition much more formidable than the Extracts of Correspondence,' which M. Temple (Franklin) announces to-day, and to satisfy also the impatient subscribers of this Complete Correspondence, the literary gentleman charged with it has judged proper to confide to two literary men, equally known and esteemed, MM. Cohen and Breton, the translation of a certain number of sheets of the second volume.

"The style of Franklin became, as he advanced in years, less clear and less vigorous; that of his correspondents also was frequently diffuse and confused. In imposing upon himself the rule never to depart from the original in any respect, the translator has necessarily encountered numberless difficulties, and has seen himself forced to reproduce thousands of abstract ideas. By the aid of a convenient selection he might easily have been able to avoid the one, and substitute his own ideas for the others; but the glory of belittling a great man, of abridging Franklin, was reserved for one of his descendants. Ought we to inherit from one we have assassinated ?"

APPENDIX No. 9.

Extract from letter of Dr. Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan, dated Nov. 2, 1789.

* "You request advice from me respecting your conduct, and desire me to tell you their faults. As to your conduct, I know nothing that looks like a fault, except yr. declining to act in any public station, although you are qualified to do much public good in many you must have had it in your power to occupy. In respect to yr. writings, your language seems to me to be good and pure, and your sentiments to be generally just; but your style or composition wants perspicuity, and this I think owing principally to a neglect of method. What I would thereforerecommend to you is, that before you sit down to write on any subject you would spend some days in considering it, putting down at the same time, in short hints, every thought which occurs to you as proper to make a part of yr. intended piece. When you have thus obtained a collection of the thoughts, examine them carefully with this view, to find which of them is properest to be presented first to the mind of the reader, that he being possessed of that, may be better disposed to receive what you intend for the second; and thus I would have you put a figure before each thought to mark its future place in your composition. For so every preceding composition preparing the mind for that which is to follow, and the reader often anticipating it, he proceeds with ease and pleasure and approbation, as seeming continually to meet with his own thoughts. In this mode you have a better chance for a perfect production; because the mind attending first to the sentiments alone, next to the method alone each part is likely to be better performed, and I think, too, in less time.

"You see I give my counsel rather bluntly, without attempting

• Sparks' Works of Franklin, vol. x. p. 397.

to soften my manner of finding fault by any apology, which would give some people great offence; but in the present situation of affairs between us, when I am soliciting the advantage of your criticism upon a work of mine, it is, perhaps, my interest that you should be a little offended in order to produce a greater degree of wholesome severity. I think with you that if my Memoirs are to be published, an edition of them should be printed in England for that country, as well as here for this, and I shall gladly leave it to your friendly management."

INDEX.