Colonial Prose and Poetry (Volume 3)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Benjamin Franklin requires no extended biographical notice here. It is not the diplomat that concerns us, but the representative of the eighteenth-century spirit as it shows itself in the social activities of the colonial printer. Franklin was born in Boston, January 17, 1706, and apprenticed there to his brother, a printer. But he ran away at seventeen, and, thrown quite on his own resources in Philadelphia, rose by native shrewdness and energy, attracted patronage, was sent to London ( 1724), readily found employment there, returned to Philadelphia in 1726, resumed his trade as printer, soon started in business for himself, and in 1729 purchased the moribund Pennsylvania Gazette which, by industry and good sense, he put at the head of American journals. In 1731 he established the first American circulating library, in 1732 he published the first of Poor Richard's Almanacs, which, in the course of a quarter of a century attained a marvellous popularity. In 1736 he was chosen clerk of the General Assembly, of which he was a member from 1738 to 1748. In 1737 he was made deputy Postmaster at Philadelphia. Constantly occupied for the public welfare, he organized the first police force and fire company in the colonies, initiated the foundation of the University of Pennsylvania, of the American Philosophical Society, and of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Indeed he initiated or furthered nearly every project of municipal improvement in the Philadelphia of his generation, acquiring meantime familiarity with French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin, and making important discoveries in electricity, which attracted attention first in France, then in England. At the time of the French War (1754) Franklin was the most important man in Pennsylvania, and it...