Franklin seems to have forgotten that Jesus Christ had already established a society for the promotion of piety and virtue, designed to embrace the good and virtuous of all nations in a grand brotherhood; love to God and love to man being its sublime principle.

CHAPTER XVI.

Poor Richard's Almanac.-Address to the Reader.

·Enigmatical Prophecies. Harangue at an Auction.

FRANKLIN'S fertile brain was ever devising some new scheme of practical utility. The plan for a library having proved successful, he commenced the next year, which was 1732, the publication of an almanac. It was announced as follows, in the Pennsylvania Gazette, December 19th, 1732:

"Just published, for 1733, An Almanac, containing the Lunations, Eclipses, Planets' Motions and Aspects, Weather, Sun and Moon's Rising and Setting, High Water, &c.; be. sides many pleasant and witty Verses, Jests and Sayings; Author's Motive of Writing; Prediction of the Death of his Friend, Mr. Titan Leeds; Moon no Cuckold; Bachelor's Folly; Parson's Wine, and Baker's Pudding; Short Visits; Kings and Bears; New Fashions; Game for Kisses; Katherine's Love; Different Sentiments; Signs of a Tempest; Death of a Fisherman; Conjugal Debate; Men and Melons; The Prodigal; Breakfast in Bed; Oyster Lawsuit, &c. By Richard Saunders, Philomat. Printed and sold by B. Franklin.”

It was first published under the name of Richard Saunders, and was continued about

twenty-six years, being commonly known as Poor Richard's Almanac.

"I endeavored," says Franklin, "to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand that I reaped considerable profit from it, vending annually nearly ten thousand."

The

Three editions were called for before the end of January, and subsequently, though he published a larger number of copies, a second edition was often necessary to meet the demand. almanac was a happy hit. It was a cheap vehicle for conveying instruction to the common people, who then bought very few books. The little spaces were filled with proverbial sentences, inculcating industry and frugality as the means of procuring a competence, and, as he says, "thereby securing virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly, as it is hard for an empty sack to stand upright.'

Instructive hints were given in matters of morality and religion.

"And be not thou disturbed," the author says, in the almanac of 1739, "O great and sober reader, if, among the many serious sentences in my book, thou findest me trifling now and then, and talking idly. In all the dishes I have hitherto cooked for thee, there is solid meat enough for thy money. There are scraps from the table of wisdom, that will, if well digested, yield strong nourishment for the mind. But squeamish stomachs cannot eat without pickles; which, it is true, are good for nothing else, but they provoke an appetite. The vain youth, that reads my almanac for the sake

of an idle joke, will, perhaps, meet with a serious reflection, that he may the ever after be the better for."

Take, as an example of the amusing and instructive, one of his "Enigmatical Prophecies, which they that do not understand cannot well explain."

"Before the middle of this year, a wind at N. East will arise, during which the water of the sea and rivers will be in such a manner raised, that great part of the towns of Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, the low lands of Maryland and Virginia, and the town of Charleston in South Carolina, will be under water. Happy will it be for the sugar and salt standing in the cellars of those places, if there be tight roofs and ceilings overhead; otherwise, without being a Conjuror, a man may easily foretel that such commodities will receive damage."

In the next number appeared the following explanation:

"The water of the sea and rivers is raised in vapors by the sun, and is formed into clouds in the air, and thence descends in rains. Now, where there is rain overhead (which frequently happens when the wind is at N. E.), the cities and places on the earth below are certainly under water."

In the almanac of 1757, appeared a kind of summary of these proverbs, "the wisdom of many ages and nations," in the form of a harangue, by a wise old man, to the people attending an auction. Franklin thought that, in the form of a connected discourse, this condensed wisdom might make a greater impression. Nor was he disappointed. The piece met with extra

ordinary success. It was copied in all the newspapers of the country, was reprinted in Great Britain, on a large sheet of paper, to be stuck up in houses, and at least three translations were made of it in France, where great numbers were bought by the clergy and gentry, to distribute gratis among their poor parishioners and tenants.

"In Pennsylvania," says Franklin, "as it discouraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some thought it had its share of influence in producing that growing plenty of money which was observable for several years after its publication."

The word Richard was not retained in Dubourg's version, it signifying, in French, a rich man; but a later translation entitled the piece La Science du Bonhomme Richard. A translation into modern Greek appeared in 1833.

The work was ingeniously introduced as follows:

"I stopt my horse lately where a great number of people were collected at a vendue of merchant goods. The hour of sale not being come, they were conversing on the hardness of the times, and one of the company called to a plain, clean old man, with white locks, 'Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Won't these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we be ever able to pay them? What would you advise us to?' Father Abraham stood up and replied: 'If ye'd have my advice, I'll give it you in short, for "A word to the wise is enough," and "Many words won't fill a bushel," as Poor Richard says.' They joined in desiring him to speak his mind, and gathering round him, he proceeded as follows:

"Friends,' says he, and neighbors, the taxes are indeed