for experimental philosophy, and propose speedily to complete it. The Loganian Library, one of the best collections in America, is shortly to be opened, so that neither books nor instruments will be wanting; and as we are determined always to give good salaries, we have reason to believe we may have always an opportunity of choosing good masters; upon which, indeed, the success of the whole depends. We are obliged to you for your kind offers in this respect, and when you are settled in England we may occasionally make use of your friendship and judgment.

If it suits your convenience to visit Philadelphia before your return to Europe, I shall be extremely glad to see and converse with you here, as well as to correspond with you after your settlement in England, for an acquaintance and communication with men of learning, virtue, and public spirit is one of my greatest enjoyments. I do not know whether you ever happened to see the first proposals I made for erecting this academy. I send them inclosed. They had, however imperfect, the desired success, being followed by a subscription of four thousand pounds towards carrying them into execution. As we are fond of receiving advice and are daily improving by experience, I am in the hopes we shall, in a few years, see a perfect institution.

I am, very respectfully, etc.

B. FRANKLIN.

Franklin was in sympathy with Dr. Smith's ideas in education. They were far in advance of the prevailing sentiment of the times and are substantially embodied in the four years' course prevailing at the present time. Prof. Lamberton has shown at length the philosophical character of Dr. Smith's educational ideas, and that the University of Pennsylvania was the first American institution to adopt the curriculum common now throughout the country. Much has been said of Franklin's relations to Dr. Smith, and there is a diversity of sentiment concerning them. It seems upon consideration of the evidence that Dr. Smith leaned to the classical studies, while Franklin preferred the English branches. This may possibly be explained by the difference in the education of Franklin and Smith. Dr. Franklin would have all young men trained as he had trained himself; Dr. Smith, a fine classical scholar, would place Latin and Greek above the English language in the college. To these fundamental differences between them was added the disputes growing out of the relations of the academy and the college to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the contentions following the war of the Revolution. The college was likely to be destroyed amidst these serious commotions.2

In 1754 Franklin drew his plan of union for the colonies, known as the Albany Plan. It illustrates his love of compromise, and the scheme as first drawn by Franklin is, "Short Hints towards a Scheme for

'See Prof. Lamberton's article on the Department of Arts in the University of Pennsylvania.

For a detailed account of the relations between Franklin and Smith and between the college and the legislature, see, infra, the Historical Sketch of the University, by John L. Stewart, Ph. B.; The University in its Relations to the State of Pennsylvania, by the Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker, LL. D.; The Relations of the University and the City, by J. G. Rosengarten, A. M.; The Provosts and Vice-Provosts, by Hon. Henry Reed, A. M.; The Department of Arts, by Prof. William Lamberton, A. M.

1755-1779.

uniting the Northern Colonies." While the commissioners from the colonies, who assembled at Albany, met for the ostensible purpose of discussing Indian affairs, the subject of a plan of union, the uppermost thought in Franklin's mind, received their attention. It is, as proposed by Franklin, according to the representative idea of government, a governor general appointed by the King, having a salary from the Crown and a veto on the acts of the grand council, to be chosen by the assembly of one member from each of the smaller colonies and two or more from each of the larger. It was an effort to establish for the colonies a government similar to that now existing in Canada. Franklin says of the Albany Plan:

The assemblies all thought there was too much prerogative and in England it was thought to have too much of the democratic, and therefore the plan was not adopted.

In 1755 his experiments in killing fowls by electricity led him to record: "Too great a charge might indeed kill a man. It would certainly, as you observe, be the easiest of all deaths," anticipating modern electrocution.

His utilitarian philosophy is illustrated in his letter to George Whitefield of July 2, 1756:

Life, like a dramatic piece, should not only be conducted with regularity, but, methinks, it should finish handsomely. Being now in the last act, I begin to cast about for something fit to end with; or, if mine be more properly compared to an epigram, as some of its lines are but barely tolerable, I am very desirous of concluding with a bright point. In such an enterprise I could spend the remainder of life with pleasure, and I firmly believe God would bless us with success if we undertook it with a sincere regard to His honor, the service of our gracious King, and (which is the same thing) the public good.

It is in this letter that he thanks Whitefield for his "generous benefactions to the German schools. They go on pretty well, and will do better when Mr. Smith,' who has at present the principal charge of them, shall learn to mind party writing and party politics less and his proper business more, which, I hope, time will bring about."

Franklin's love of a comfortable ancestry is illustrated in his letter to his wife from London the 6th of September, 1758, in which he gives. an account of his visit to Huntingdonshire, the ancient home of his family. He is there pleased to record of his ancestors that the women were smart and sensible; that the men became wealthy, left off business, and lived comfortably; and, as was characteristic of himself, others. were clever, "vastly content with their situation, and very cheerful, and another a leading man in all county affairs and much employed in public busines❞—all of which shows Franklin's ideal of men and women.

'The ill feeling between Smith and Franklin already referred to was intensified by the heat of local politics, but it seems that the contention between them gradually ceased, and so completely that Dr. Smith accepted the invitation to pronounce the eulogy upon Franklin at the time of his death.

1180-10

In 1760, in his letter of May 3 to Lord Kames, he acknowledges the receipt of the Principles of Equity, "which," says Franklin, "will be of more service to the colony judges, as few of them have been bred to the law," and he therefore sent his copy to a particular friend in Philadelphia, one of the judges of the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania, and to Rev. William Smith, afterwards Provost of the University. It is in this letter that he outlines "a little work for the benefit of youth," to be called the Art of Virtue:

Most people have naturally some virtues, but none have naturally all the virtues. To acquire those that are wanting, and secure what we acquire as well as those we have naturally, is as properly an art as painting, navigation, or architecture. If a man would become a painter, navigator, or architect, it is not enough that he is advised to be one; that he is convinced by the arguments of his adviser; that it would be for his advantage to be one, and that he resolves to be one, but he must also be taught the principles of the art, be shown all the methods of working, and how to acquire the habits of using properly all the instruments; and thus regularly and gradually he arrives by practice at some perfection in the art. If he does not proceed thus he is apt to meet with difficulties that discourage him and make him drop the pursuit.

He would have youth become virtuous as he would have them become "tolerable English writers," by practice, and his theory occurs in his writings again and again.

The limitations on this article prevent me from doing more than to refer to some of Franklin's ideas concerning the future of America, but one of great moment deserves passing attention; his firm belief that Canada should share the fate of the thirteen colonies and form with them a united America. This belief of his is outlined in his pamphlet entitled, "The Interest of Great Britain with regard to our Colonies and the Aquisition of Canada and Guadaloupe," written in 1760. It seems strange to us that some English statesmen should have considered Guadaloupe as more valuable to the British Empire than Canada; Franklin, however, prevailed and Canada was retained. Had his views prevailed at the time of the treaty of peace in 1783, Canada would now be a part of the United States.

In the same year, September 27, addressing David Hume from Cov entry, he says, referring to a pamphlet on the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, long attributed to Franklin, but probably brought out by his patronage though not written by him:

I am not a little pleased to hear of your change of sentiment in some particulars relating to America, because I think it of importance to our general welfare that the people of this nation should have right notions of us, and I know no one that has it more in his power to rectify their notions than Mr. Hume. I have lately read with great pleasure, as I do everything of yours, the excellent essay on the Jealousy of Commerce.1 I think it can not but have a good effect in promoting a certain interest

Essay on "The Jealousy of Trade," No. XXVIII, in Hume's Collected Works; Nos. XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXIX, XXX, and XXXI, on Money, Interest, Trade, Taxes, and Public Credit, are interesting in relation to Franklin's notions on those subjects.