Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | Page 3

for the rapid evolution of
scientific and political thought and activity, yet no less a keen judge
and critic than Lord Jeffrey, the famous editor of the Edinburgh Review,
a century ago said that "in one point of view the name of Franklin must
be considered as standing higher than any of the others which
illustrated the eighteenth century. Distinguished as a statesman, he was
equally great as a philosopher, thus uniting in himself a rare degree of
excellence in both these pursuits, to excel in either of which is deemed
the highest praise."
Franklin has indeed been aptly called "many-sided." He was eminent in
science and public service, in diplomacy and in literature. He was the
Edison of his day, turning his scientific discoveries to the benefit of his
fellow-men. He perceived the identity of lightning and electricity and
set up the lightning rod. He invented the Franklin stove, still widely
used, and refused to patent it. He possessed a masterly shrewdness in
business and practical affairs. Carlyle called him the father of all the

Yankees. He founded a fire company, assisted in founding a hospital,
and improved the cleaning and lighting of streets. He developed
journalism, established the American Philosophical Society, the public
library in Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania. He
organized a postal system for the colonies, which was the basis of the
present United States Post Office. Bancroft, the eminent historian,
called him "the greatest diplomatist of his century." He perfected the
Albany Plan of Union for the colonies. He is the only statesman who
signed the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with
France, the Treaty of Peace with England, and the Constitution. As a
writer, he has produced, in his Autobiography and in Poor Richard's
Almanac, two works that are not surpassed by similar writing. He
received honorary degrees from Harvard and Yale, from Oxford and St.
Andrews, and was made a fellow of the Royal Society, which awarded
him the Copley gold medal for improving natural knowledge. He was
one of the eight foreign associates of the French Academy of Science.
The careful study of the Autobiography is also valuable because of the
style in which it is written. If Robert Louis Stevenson is right in
believing that his remarkable style was acquired by imitation then the
youth who would gain the power to express his ideas clearly, forcibly,
and interestingly cannot do better than to study Franklin's method.
Franklin's fame in the scientific world was due almost as much to his
modest, simple, and sincere manner of presenting his discoveries and to
the precision and clearness of the style in which he described his
experiments, as to the results he was able to announce. Sir Humphry
Davy, the celebrated English chemist, himself an excellent literary
critic as well as a great scientist, said: "A singular felicity guided all
Franklin's researches, and by very small means he established very
grand truths. The style and manner of his publication on electricity are
almost as worthy of admiration as the doctrine it contains."
Franklin's place in literature is hard to determine because he was not
primarily a literary man. His aim in his writings as in his life work was
to be helpful to his fellow-men. For him writing was never an end in
itself, but always a means to an end. Yet his success as a scientist, a
statesman, and a diplomat, as well as socially, was in no little part due

to his ability as a writer. "His letters charmed all, and made his
correspondence eagerly sought. His political arguments were the joy of
his party and the dread of his opponents. His scientific discoveries were
explained in language at once so simple and so clear that plow-boy and
exquisite could follow his thought or his experiment to its
conclusion."[1]
[1] The Many-Sided Franklin. Paul L. Ford.
As far as American literature is concerned, Franklin has no
contemporaries. Before the Autobiography only one literary work of
importance had been produced in this country--Cotton Mather's
Magnalia, a church history of New England in a ponderous, stiff style.
Franklin was the first American author to gain a wide and permanent
reputation in Europe. The Autobiography, Poor Richard, Father
Abraham's Speech or The Way to Wealth, as well as some of the
Bagatelles, are as widely known abroad as any American writings.
Franklin must also be classed as the first American humorist.
English literature of the eighteenth century was characterized by the
development of prose. Periodical literature reached its perfection early
in the century in The Tatler and The Spectator of Addison and Steele.
Pamphleteers flourished throughout the period. The homelier prose of
Bunyan and Defoe gradually gave place to the more elegant and
artificial language of Samuel Johnson, who set the standard for prose
writing