IV.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
1706–1790
"The first philosopher and indeed the first great man of letters for whom we are beholden to America." - David Hume.
Pennsylvania. — (See Goldwin Smith's On the Foundation of the American Colonies, 26; also Tyler, II., 225.) The life and work of Benjamin FranklinAutobiography.
Father Abraham's Speech.
Essays and Letters
Works in 10 volumes. turn our eyes for the first time toward the Middle Colonies. The Plantation of Pennsylvania, with which his life after the age of seventeen was identified, has in its history much to remind one of early New England. It was settled by those who came for conscience' sake. The Quakers were as zealous in their efforts to found schools as were the men of Massachusetts; they were as unworldly, as serious, and as intellectual as wore the Puritans themselves. Unlike the Puritans, they were not persecutors, nor did they ever interfere with the liberty of the press.
Early in the eighteenth century, about the time that Franklin appeared in Philadelphia, that city was the centre of literary activity second only to Boston. It is said that there are now in the old library of Philadelphia, "four hundred and twenty-five original books and
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