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Mentor Benjamin Franklin - Albert Bushnell Hart · Poor Richard's Alamanac

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  Speaker 1: Section one of The Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
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  Speaker 1: o r G recording by John Daugherty. The Mentor Benjamin Franklin,
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  Speaker 1: Volume six, number seven, Serial number one five five May fifteenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen by Albert Bushnell Hart. Section one. The Whistle,
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  Speaker 1: A bit of ben Franklin wisdom. When I was a
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  Speaker 1: child seven years old, my friends on a holiday filled
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  Speaker 1: my pocket with coppers.
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  Speaker 2: I went directly to.
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  Speaker 1: A shop where they sold toys for children, and, being
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  Speaker 1: charmed with the sound of a whistle that I met
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  Speaker 1: by the way in the hands of another boy, I
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  Speaker 1: voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I
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  Speaker 1: then came home and went whistling all over the house,
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  Speaker 1: much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family.
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  Speaker 1: My brothers and sisters and cousins. Understanding the bargain I
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  Speaker 1: had made, told me I had given four times as
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  Speaker 1: much for it as it was worth, put me in
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  Speaker 1: mind of what good things I might have bought with
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the money, and laughed at me so
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  Speaker 1: much for my folly that I cried with vexation, and
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  Speaker 1: the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave
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  Speaker 1: me pleasure. This, however, was afterward of use to me,
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  Speaker 1: the impression continuing on my mind, so that often when
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  Speaker 1: I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said
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  Speaker 1: to myself, don't give too much for the whistle, And
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  Speaker 1: I saved my money. As I grew up, came into
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  Speaker 1: the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought
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  Speaker 1: I met with many, very many who gave too much
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  Speaker 1: for the whistle. When I saw one too ambitious of
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  Speaker 1: court favor, sacrificing his time in attendance on levees, his repose,
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  Speaker 1: his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends to attain it,
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  Speaker 1: I have said to myself, this man gives too much
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  Speaker 1: for his whistle. When I saw another, fond of popularity,
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  Speaker 1: constantly employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs
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  Speaker 1: and ruining them by that neglect he pays, indeed, said
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  Speaker 1: I too much for his whistle. If I knew a
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  Speaker 1: miser who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all
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  Speaker 1: the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem
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  Speaker 1: of his fellow citizens and the joys of benevolent friendship,
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of accumulating wealth. Poor man said, I,
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  Speaker 1: you pay too much for your whistle. When I met
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  Speaker 1: with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement of
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  Speaker 1: the mind or of his fortune to mere corporeal sensations,
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  Speaker 1: and ruining his health in their pursuit, mistake in man said, I,
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  Speaker 1: you are providing pain for yourself instead of pleasure. You
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  Speaker 1: give too much for your whistle. If I see one
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  Speaker 1: fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture,
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  Speaker 1: fine equipages, all above his fortune for which he contracts
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  Speaker 1: debts and ends his days in prison, alas say I
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  Speaker 1: he has paid dear, very dear for his whistle. When
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  Speaker 1: I see a beautiful, sweet tempered girl married to an
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  Speaker 1: ill natured brute of a husband, what a pity, say I,
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  Speaker 1: that she should pay so much for a whistle. In short,
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  Speaker 1: I can conceive that the great part of the miseries
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  Speaker 1: of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates
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  Speaker 1: they have made of the value of things, and by
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  Speaker 1: their giving too much for the qhistle. End of Section one.
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  Speaker 3: Section two of the Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is a
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  Speaker 3: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 3: Recording by David Lotus. The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six,
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  Speaker 3: number seven, Serial number one fifty five May fifteenth, nineteen
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  Speaker 3: eighteen by Albert Bushnell Hart, Section two. Benjamin Franklin born
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  Speaker 3: in Boston, Massachusetts, January seventeenth, seventeen hundred and six January
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  Speaker 3: sixth old style of humble parents, was one of the
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  Speaker 3: heroes of the War of Independence, one of the c
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  Speaker 3: leverest of American diplomats, and one of the greatest American
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  Speaker 3: politicians and statesmen. But this was not all. He possessed
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  Speaker 3: so many talents that he can only be described properly
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  Speaker 3: as a universal genius. Franklin's life is one huge catalog performances,
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  Speaker 3: hard indeed to tabulate, for he went from one thing
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  Speaker 3: to another with remarkable rapidity, and excelled in everything that
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  Speaker 3: he undertook. A recital of his accomplishments sounds like a
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  Speaker 3: round of the old counting game Doctor Lawyer, Merchant Chief.
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  Speaker 3: He was in fact, all the list but the thief,
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  Speaker 3: even the beggarman. Franklin's father, Josiah Franklin, a candlemaker, intended
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  Speaker 3: that his son should enter the ministry of the Puritan Church,
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  Speaker 3: and with this idea, sent him, when eight years old,
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  Speaker 3: to the Boston Grammar School. A year of this was
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  Speaker 3: too much for the slender means of the father, Benjamin
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  Speaker 3: was sent to George Brunnell for instruction. A year of this,
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  Speaker 3: and Franklin's school days were ended. He worked in his
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  Speaker 3: father's shop for a time, and then apprenticed himself to
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  Speaker 3: his brother, James, a printer, while engaged in the printing business,
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  Speaker 3: and this did not merely consist of setting type and
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  Speaker 3: printing books, but in writing articles for his paper, and
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  Speaker 3: also many political pamphlets that prepared the way for his
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  Speaker 3: future career. He was Clerk of the General Assembly in
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  Speaker 3: seventeen thirty six, holding this office until seventeen fifty one,
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  Speaker 3: Postmaster in Philadelphia in seventeen thirty seven, and after he
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  Speaker 3: gave up the post of Clerk of the General Assembly,
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  Speaker 3: a member of that body for thirteen years seventeen fifty
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  Speaker 3: one to seventeen sixty four. His activity in public affairs
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  Speaker 3: was enormous. He organized the first police and fire company
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  Speaker 3: in Philadelphia, established an academy which became the University of Pennsylvania,
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  Speaker 3: organized an important debating club, the Gento seventeen twenty seven,
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  Speaker 3: took the lead in improving the paving of the city,
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  Speaker 3: developed the lighting of the streets, organized a militia force,
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  Speaker 3: founded a city hospital, and in every way concerned himself
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  Speaker 3: with the bettering of conditions, both civic and political. He
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  Speaker 3: undertook to provide Braddock with horses and wagons for the
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  Speaker 3: march against Fort Duquesne, and in seventeen fifty six he
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  Speaker 3: had charge of the Northwest Frontier for a month, during
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  Speaker 3: which he erected block houses and watched the wily Indians.
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  Speaker 3: In seventeen fifty seven he was sent to London as
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  Speaker 3: asient for the people to petition the Crown. He returned
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  Speaker 3: home in seventeen sixty two, expecting to settle down and
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  Speaker 3: devote the remainder of his life to scientific investigation and
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  Speaker 3: the pleasure of the pen. He brought with him many
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  Speaker 3: degrees and honors, and he thought that his public life
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  Speaker 3: was over. In two years time, however, he was again
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  Speaker 3: sent to England as Agent to settle questions in relation
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  Speaker 3: to taxation, and represented not only Pennsylvania, but New Jersey, Georgia,
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  Speaker 3: and Massachusetts. He remained until seventeen seventy five, and was
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  Speaker 3: therefore in England during all the stormy days of the
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  Speaker 3: Stamp Act. On the day after his return, he was
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  Speaker 3: elected to the Continental Congress and was one of a
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  Speaker 3: committee of five to draw up the Declaration of Independence.
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  Speaker 3: On September twenty sixth, seventeen seventy six, he was chosen
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  Speaker 3: Commissioner to France with Arthur Lee and Silas Dean, and
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  Speaker 3: arrived in Paris on December twentieth, seventeen seventy six. After
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  Speaker 3: a perilous passage. On October twenty eighth, seventeen seventy six,
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  Speaker 3: he was appointed sole Planipotentiary to the Court of France.
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  Speaker 3: In seventeen eighty one, he was appointed one of the
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  Speaker 3: commission to make Peace with Great Britain. He returned to
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  Speaker 3: Philadelphia in seventeen eighty five, having made commercial treaties with
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  Speaker 3: Sweden seventeen eighty three and Prussia seventeen eighty five. Even then,
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  Speaker 3: Franklin's work was not finished. He was elected a member
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  Speaker 3: of the Municipal Council of Philadelphia, and was made a
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  Speaker 3: delegate to the Convention that drew up the Federal Constitution.
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  Speaker 3: It is interesting also to note that he signed a
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  Speaker 3: petition to Congress in seventeen ninety to abolish slavery. He
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  Speaker 3: died in Philadelphia on April seventeenth, seventeen ninety, aged eighty four.
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  Speaker 3: These extraordinary activities, including those of a politician, diplomat, philanthropist,
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  Speaker 3: civic reformer, philosopher, scientist, printer, and author, covered a period
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  Speaker 3: of sixty years. And in between all these separate careers,
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  Speaker 3: as we might call them, we find stray hours filled
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  Speaker 3: with delightful pursuits and such pleasant diversions as studies in
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  Speaker 3: the realm of music, improving the musical glasses, in buying
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  Speaker 3: Beau Worcester and Chelsea, China of the newest fashion. Moreover,
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  Speaker 3: Franklin always found time to write beautifully and to enjoy
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  Speaker 3: social pleasures. End of section two. Recording by David.
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  Speaker 1: Lotus, Section three of the mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
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  Speaker 1: O r G recording by John Daugherty. The Mentor Benjamin Franklin,
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  Speaker 1: Volume six, number seven, Serial number one five five May fifteenth,
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen by Albert Bushnell Hart. Benjamin Franklin, The Man
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  Speaker 1: two Benjamin Franklin was the first distinguished American self made man.
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  Speaker 1: He took himself in hand at an early age, and
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  Speaker 1: with only two years schooling, educated himself so that he
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  Speaker 1: became a man of science, a man of letters, a philosopher,
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  Speaker 1: a statesman, and a diplomat, and acquired a fortune besides.
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  Speaker 1: And not only was he all of these things more
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  Speaker 1: than creditably, but he took rank among the greatest minds
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  Speaker 1: of the highly educated and scientific eighteenth century. This was
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  Speaker 1: a period of original investigation. Much new thought of all
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  Speaker 1: kinds was coming into the world, and Franklin's mind was
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  Speaker 1: exactly the type of mind that was characteristic of this age,
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  Speaker 1: particularly in France. Apart from his genial personality and his
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  Speaker 1: talent for always doing the right thing and the popular
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  Speaker 1: thing socially, his scientific and philosophical tastes were precisely those
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  Speaker 1: in fashion in France. How did this man attain to
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  Speaker 1: such power and eminence at twenty three he was half
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  Speaker 1: educated and crude. At forty he was known as one
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  Speaker 1: of the most famous scientists of the day and a
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  Speaker 1: brilliant writer. And before he was fifty he had received
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  Speaker 1: the Coply Medal from the Royal Society, the Freedom of
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  Speaker 1: the City of Edinburgh, l l d from the University
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  Speaker 1: of Saint Andrew's, degrees from Harvard, Yale and William and Mary,
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  Speaker 1: and in seventeen sixty two d c l from Oxford.
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  Speaker 1: What were the characteristics and the tastes, and what was
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  Speaker 1: the disposition and the appearance of the extraordinary personage who
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  Speaker 1: accomplished all these things? These are questions that are naturally asked.
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  Speaker 1: We never think of Franklin in his youth. We picture
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  Speaker 1: him according to the Duplessi portrait painted in Paris when
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  Speaker 1: he was seventy two, or according to the Old Prince
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  Speaker 1: that show him wearing the familiar old fur cap and
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  Speaker 1: the heavy rimmed spectacles. Franklin was rather tall, about five
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  Speaker 1: feet ten inches, corpulent and heavy with rounded shoulders. He
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  Speaker 1: was a good swimmer. He was muscular and strong, and
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  Speaker 1: he was a believer in vegetarianism and air baths. In
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  Speaker 1: late years he suffered from gout in his foot and
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  Speaker 1: wrote in Paris a humorous dialogue from which we get
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  Speaker 1: a very good idea of the old gentleman's habits and tastes.
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  Speaker 1: On his appeal to gout to spare him, his persecutor exclaims,
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  Speaker 1: not a jot. Your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown away.
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  Speaker 1: Your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is
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  Speaker 1: a sedentary one, your amusements, your recreations, at least should
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  Speaker 1: be active. You ought to walk or ride, or, if
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  Speaker 1: the weather prevents, that play at billiards. But let us
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  Speaker 1: examine your course of life. While the mornings are long
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  Speaker 1: and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you
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  Speaker 1: do why? Instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast by
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  Speaker 1: salutary exercise, you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers,
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  Speaker 1: which commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat
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  Speaker 1: an inordinate breakfast four dishes of tea with cream, and
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  Speaker 1: one or two buttered toasts with slices of hung beef,
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  Speaker 1: which I fancy are not things the most easily digested.
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  Speaker 1: Immediately afterwards, you sit down to write at your desk
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  Speaker 1: or converse with persons who apply to you on business.
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  Speaker 1: Thus the time passes till one without any kind of
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  Speaker 1: bodily exercise. But all this I could pardon in regard,
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  Speaker 1: as you say, to your sedentary condition. But what is
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  Speaker 1: your practice after dinner walking in the beautiful garden of
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  Speaker 1: those friends with whom you have dined would be the
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  Speaker 1: choice of men of sense. Yours is to be fixed
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  Speaker 1: down to chess, where you are found engaged for two
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  Speaker 1: or three hours. But notwithstanding his sedentary life, and his
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  Speaker 1: gout and his other maladies, Franklin lived to be eighty four,
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  Speaker 1: preserving his extraordinary brightness and gaiety to the last. His
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  Speaker 1: mental faculties were unimpaired, His face was fresh and serene,
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  Speaker 1: and his spirits were buoyant. This charming vivacity, and this
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  Speaker 1: play and sparkle of mind greatly contributed towards making Franklin
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  Speaker 1: so beloved of the French. His life in Paris was
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  Speaker 1: the happiest of his whole career. He was very social,
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  Speaker 1: and he therefore enjoyed the Parisian garden parties and dinners,
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  Speaker 1: the attractive women, and the literary, scientific and philosophical men.
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  Speaker 1: He left France with reluctance, saying that he could never
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  Speaker 1: forget the years of happiness that he had spent in
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  Speaker 1: the sweet society of a people whose conversation is instructive,
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  Speaker 1: whose manners are highly pleasing, and who, above all the
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  Speaker 1: nations in the world, have, in the greatest perfection, the
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  Speaker 1: art of making themselves beloved by strangers. Franklin had a
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  Speaker 1: great talent for making friends, and one of the greatest
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  Speaker 1: pleasures of his life was the enjoyment of his children
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  Speaker 1: and grandchildren. He was always ready with a witty retort,
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  Speaker 1: and he loved a joke and a hearty laugh. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: nothing seemed too large or too small for Benjamin Franklin.
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  Speaker 1: Regarding religion, he early revolted against New England Puritanism and
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  Speaker 1: went through various stages of belief, But in his old
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  Speaker 1: age he had faith in the immortality of the soul.
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  Speaker 1: His tolerance led John Adams to say the Catholics thought
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  Speaker 1: him a Catholic, the Church of England claimed him, the
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  Speaker 1: Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and friends believed him
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  Speaker 1: a wet quaker. Of his morals, he has himself written,
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  Speaker 1: and he prepared a moral code with comments intellectual, practical, industrious, capable,
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  Speaker 1: and genial, combining so many qualities in one mind, and
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  Speaker 1: with a vast amount of public work achieved, Franklin remains
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  Speaker 1: a puzzle, for he seems to have had abundant time
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  Speaker 1: to enjoy those social talents which amounted to genius. End
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: of Section three. Section four of The Mentor Benjamin Franklin.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot o RG recording by John Dougherty. The
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six, number seven, Serial number one,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: five five May fifteen, nineteen eighteen by Albert bushnel Hart.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Section four Benjamin Franklin as politician and Diplomat three. Franklin
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  Speaker 1: prepared himself unconsciously for political life, even in his boyhood,
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  Speaker 1: when he wrote articles for his brother's newspaper attacking the
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  Speaker 1: estabablished religious and political system of Massachusetts. In the paper
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  Speaker 1: that he established when he was but twenty three, the
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  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Gazette, he handled the questions of the day in
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: masterly fashion. About this time he published a pamphlet in
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  Speaker 1: favor of paper money, which shows how early his mind
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: was directed toward large questions concerning the government. When he
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: joined the Pennsylvania Assembly, he became a leader of the
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Quaker majority and to represent the interests of the colony.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: He was sent as commissioner or agent to England. He
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: remained there for five years, returning to Philadelphia in seventeen
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  Speaker 1: sixty two, only to stay at home until seventeen sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: when he was sent on his second mission to England.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: This time he remained for ten years, the period covering
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the exciting agitations regarding the Stamp Act, its passage, its repeal,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and all the tumultuous proceedings that finally led to the Revolution.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Franklin's composure during the ordeal of parliamentary investigation, his witty
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  Speaker 1: replies and his brilliant evasions to embarrassing questions greatly enhanced
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: his reputation. His clever satirical essays, published in separate pamphlets,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: were widely circulated during this period of activity. Franklin lived
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: in Craven Street, London, pursued his scientific studies, was appointed
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: on committees to put lightning rods on Saint Paul's Cathedral
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and the government's powder magazines. Attended meetings of various scientific
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: and learned societies and clubs of which he was a member,
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  Speaker 1: was entertained by the nobility, and knew everybody of distinction
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: in the political, scientific, artistic, and literary worlds. Returning home,
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  Speaker 1: he was made one of the deputies to the Continental Congress,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: which met in Philadelphia, and was also a member of
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania Legislature and a member of the Committee of
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Safety to prepare the defense of the province. His most
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: important work was yet to come. In September seventeen seventy six,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: he was appointed by vote of Congress, the agent to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: represent in France the United Colonies which had just declared
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: their independence of Great Britain. Accordingly, he left Philadelphia and
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: arrived in France in December. In our infancy of diplomatic service,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the old gentleman of seventy was banker, merchant, judge of admiralty, consul,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: director of the Navy, ambassador to France, and negotiator with
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: England for the exchange of prisoners and for peace. He
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: accomplished his mission with such success that he was the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: idol of the French nation. Franklin was liked by the
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: French for his social qualities, his scientific accomplishments, his philosophical mind,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and his humorous and satirical writings. Moreover, he was worshiped
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: as the personification of liberty. His mission in France ended
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty five. The last important work of his
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: life was helping to frame the National document that took
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: the place of the Articles of Confederation, and his plan
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: regarding representation in Congress was the one adopted. The most
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: active period of his life, as he himself has told us,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: was between his seventieth and eightieth years. If any statesman
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: ever deserved the name of Grand old Man, it certainly
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: was Benjamin Franklin. End of section four.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Section number five of The Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Recording by Michael Hall. The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: number seven, Serial number one hundred and fifty five, May fifteenth,
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighteen, by Albert Bushnell Hart, Section five Benjamin Franklin
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: as Scientists. One of the stories that has always charmed
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: school children is that of doctor Franklin and his kite,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: and the quaint little illustration that appeared in Franklin's lifetime,
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: and that was printed by him hundreds of times over,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: is still reproduced in the accounts of the experiment. It
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: was not until seventeen forty six or seventeen forty seven,
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: after Franklin had been making original researches in science for
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: about five years, that he took up the subject of electricity.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Franklin was then forty one years old. The subject was
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: literally in the air. Peter Collinson of London had presented
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: to the Philadelphia Library one of the new glass tubes
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: that was rubbed with silk or skin to produce electricity.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Franklin began at once to experiment with this tube, and
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: people came in crowds to see his performances. Thomas Hopkinson
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: and Philip Singh, who experimented with him, discovered electrical fire
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: and invented an electrical machine for producing the electrical spark.
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: Franklin discovered what is now known as positive and negative electricity.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: He also attempted to explain in his letters to Collinson
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: thunder and lightning as phenomena of electricity, and in seventeen
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: fifty nine sent him a paper announcing his invention of
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: the lightning rod an explanation of its purpose and action.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: He also suggested an experiment that would prove that lightning
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: was a form of electricity, and to show that lightning
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: was attracted by points. He proposed that a man should
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: stand on a tall steeple or tower with a pointed
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: rod and draw the electricity from the thunder clouds. The
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: experiment was tried in France and England, and Franklin was
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: proclaimed the discoverer of the identity of lightning with electricity.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Some of the scientists used a tall metal rod. Franklin
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: now thought of the kite experiment because there were no
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: steeples in Philadelphia tall enough to an ordinary kite covered
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: with silk. He fixed a sharp, pointed wire rising about
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: a foot above the frame of the kite, to the
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: end of the twine. Next the hand, a silk ribbon
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: was tied, and where the silk and twine joined, a
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: key was fastened. When the thunder clouds passed over the kite,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: the pointed wire drew the electric fire from them and
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: down the string to the key, from which electric fire
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: was obtained. This experiment was made in seventeen fifty two,
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: and the news as contained in Franklin's simple letter to
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: mister Collinson, spread over the world, and with various theatrical embellishments.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: In the telling, Franklin writes, one of his biographers cannot
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: be ranked among the great men of science, the Nuisance,
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: the Keplers, or the Humboldts, Huxley's or Darwin's. He belongs
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: rather in the second class, among the minor discoverers. But
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: his discovery of the nature of lightning was so striking
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: and so capable of arousing the wonder of the masses
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: of mankind, and his invention of the lightning rod was
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: regarded as so valuable that he has received more popular
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: applause than men whose achievements were greater and more important.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: His command of language had seldom been put to better
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: use than in explaining the rather subtle ideas and conceptions
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: in the early development of electricity. Even now, after the
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: lapse of one hundred and fifty years, we seemed to
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: gain a fresher understanding of that subject by reading his
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: homely and beautiful explanations, And modern students would have an
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: easier time if Franklin were still here to write their
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: text books, public business, and long years of diplomatic service
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: interrupted the original study of science to a great extent.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: But even so in England, in France, and in the
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: closing years of his life in Philadelphia, Franklin found time
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: now and then to devote to that loving investigation of nature,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: which after his thirtieth year became the great passion of
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: his life. Everything in the way of scientific research fascinated him.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: He investigated earthquakes, eclipses, storms, winds, the science of sound,
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: the laws of hot air and its movement, ventilation, water spouts, phosphorescence,
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: light in sea water. He called it the cause of
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: saltiness in the sea, the Gulf stream rainfall, evaporation, the
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: Aurora borealis, light, heat, the daily motion of the Earth,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: and many other subjects. He studied music as a science
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: and invented a new kind of musical glasses fashionable at
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: that time, called armonica. He studied political economy in a
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: scientific way, and was so interested in agriculture that he
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: tried experiments on his New Jersey farm. He also invented
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: the Pennsylvania fireplace and the Franklin stove. Though his scientific
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: writings are numerous, they are in the form of essays
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: and letters. His investigations and experiments were thus made known
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: to the world in letters to friends in France and England.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: For as there were no scientific periodicals in those days,
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: men of learning kept up a lively correspondence and occasionally
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: issued a pamphlet. End of Section five. Recording by Michael Hall.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Section six of The Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is a
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Recording by Michael Hall. The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: number seven, Serial number one hundred and fifty five, May fifteenth,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighteen, by Albert Bushnell Hart, Section six Benjamin Franklin
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: as man of letters. Franklin was a master of style.
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: He had what critics call a light touch, and he
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: had the rare faculty of making any subject interesting. He
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: even wrote charmingly about stoves. How did he acquire this
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: wonderful skill, this clear and beautiful language, which dropped so
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: easily from his pen, However dry the theme. No matter
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: what essay, what letter, what political pamphlet, or what year
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: of poor Richard, we may pick up. We are always
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: held by Franklin's magic personality. His autobiography is considered one
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: of the greatest works of its kind ever written. A
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: careful study of the third volume of Addison's Spectator and
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: experimenting with it in various ways, seems to have been
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: the beginning of Franklin's literary education. It was a queer
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: task for a young boy, particularly one of an uncultured family,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: to impose upon himself, but he tells us that he
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: was encouraged, for I thought I might possibly, in time
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: was extremely ambitious. Moreover, he fed himself on the best literature,
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: and this too was extraordinary for a boy in his
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: life physician. Some of his early essays published in pamphlet
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: form have very dry titles. A dissertation on Liberty, Necessity
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: and Pain and a modest inquiry into the nature and
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: necessity of paper currency are hardly alluring. But these papers
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: are full of shrewd reasoning and common sense, qualities that
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: are conspicuous in all his future writings. Franklin's newspaper articles
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: were a splendid preparation for his political work. Franklin was
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: very fond of paraphrasing the Bible in a humorous way,
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: and fond of hoaxes, like the Edict of the King
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: of Prussia, in which he made Frederick the Great claim
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: a right to the Kingdom of Great Britain, because the
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: British isles were originally Anglo Saxon colonies, and, having reached
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: a flourishing condition, deserved to be levied upon. Franklin greatly
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: enjoyed seeing the English take this seriously. It was copied widely.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: So was another satire of seventeen seventy three, called Rules
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: for Reducing a Great Empire to a Small One, descriptive
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: of the British government. While in France, his pen was
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: always busy. Many of his letters were practically essays for
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Madame Brilliant. The Ephemera, the morals of Chess, Dialogue between
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Franklin and the Gout, Story of the Whistle, and Petition
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: of the Left Hand were written. Franklin's letters, so numerous
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: and so witty, cover all periods of his life. His
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: electrical experiments and the theories were all announced in this form.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: His letters written home from England before the Revolution a
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: delightful reading Poor Richard was a real creation. The character
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: made Franklin known in England and France before he lived
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: in those countries. It was quite common a hundred years ago,
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: writes a biographer, to charge Franklin with being a plagiarist.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: It is true that the sayings of poor Richard, and
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: a great deal of what went to make up the Almanac,
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: were taken from Ravalais, Bacon, Rousche for Coal, Roy Palmer,
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: and others. But Poor Richard changed and rewrote them to
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: suit his purpose, and gave most of them a far
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: wider circulation than they had before. There is no lie enemy,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: Lend money to an enemy, and thou'lt gain him to
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: a friend, and thout lose him. Necessity never made a
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: good bargain. A word to the wise is enough. God
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: helps those that help themselves. The sleeping fox catches no poultry,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: drive thy business. Let that not drive thee Early to
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy,
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: and wise. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: learn in no other. Are sum of Poor Richard's proverbs
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: that have passed into our every day's speech. End of
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: section six. Recording by Michael Hall, Section number seven of
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: The Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Michael Hall, The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six, number seven,
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Serial number one hundred and fifty five, May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen,
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: by Albert Bushnell Hart Section seven Benjamin Franklin as printer.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Benjamin Franklin. Printer was Franklin's favorite way of describing himself.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: He was indeed a printer all his life. When only twelve,
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: he became apprentice to his half brother James, but quarreled
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: with him and ran away, finally reaching Philadelphia. Here he
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: obtained employment and the patronage of Sir William Keith, governor
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: of Pennsylvania and Delaware, who gave him the public printing
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: to do. Persuaded to try his fortune in London with
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: Keith's patronage, Franklin set sail with high hopes, but on
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: arriving he found that Keith had played him false, and
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: that no letter of credit as promised awaited him. After
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: a year and a half of struggle and adventure, he
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: was back in Philadelphia working at his trade. Franklin was
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: now twenty one. In a short time, he started in
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: business with a partner, and the firm of Franklin and
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Meredith limped along slowly but surely, until Franklin became possessed
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: of the leading newspaper in Philadelphia, to which he gave
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: a new title, the Pennsylvania Gazette. This improved in every way,
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: making it the best and most widely read newspaper in
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: the colonies. By this time seventeen twenty nine, Franklin had
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: a very well trained pen, and his journalistic writings and
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: published pamphlets had attracted much attention. He now dropped his partner,
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: and to help out his small income, he opened a
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: shop where he sold stationery, goose feathers, soap, liquors, and groceries.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: About this time he printed the Laws of Delaware. The
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: Pennsylvania Gazette grew better and better all the time, for
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: it contained anecdotes, extracts from English newspapers, and articles which
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: Franklin had written for and read to his club, the Junto.
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: In colonial days, every printer issued an almanac Franklin followed
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: the rule, but the annual he published differed in no
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: way from any of the others until seventeen thirty three,
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: when Franklin, having nobody to prepare his almanac, had to
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: write it himself. He published it as the work of
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: a Richard Saunders, called, in Franklin's genial way, Poor Richard.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: In a note to courteous reader, Poor Richard introduced himself,
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: little anticipating the success he was to have. Poor Richard's
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Almanac appeared every year thereafter for twenty five years, the
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: annual sale averaging ten thousand copies a year, far an
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: excess of any other colonial publication. Poor Richard is now
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: a classic. Even those who have not read it have
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: heard of it. Moreover, many people quote the homely proverbs
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: without knowing it, for Poor Richard's Wisdom became part and
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: parcel of our English speech long ago. Sometimes it has
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: been published as Father Abraham's Speech and the Way to Wealth,
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: and it has been translated into every modern language. Besides
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: his newspaper and almanac printing, Franklin printed books. He brought
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: out the first novel ever published in America, Richard's Sans
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: Pamela seventeen forty four. Franklin's tremendous industry and his general
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: thrift made him successful enough to retire at the age
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: of forty two. Then came a brief interval before his
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: political career began in earnest, during which he lived more
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: like a man of taste and a scholar accustomed to
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: cultured surroundings than a self made man who had battled
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: for years with the material world. The year seventeen forty eight,
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: though marking the end of Franklin's career as active printer,
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: did not terminate his interest in the settings of type
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: and issuing his writings from his own press, even in Passis,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: when in the midst of his busy diplomatic duties he
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: had a printing press of his own, from which he
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: issued those vagatelles that so charmed the French lady of
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: his acquaintance. Cleverly the printer speaks in the famous epitaph,
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: the body of Benjamin Franklin printer, like the cover of
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: its lettering and gilding. Lies here food for worms. But
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: the work shall not be lost, for it will, as
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: he believed, appear once more in a new and more
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: elegant edition, revised and corrected by the author. Franklin's grandson,
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: William Temple. Franklin, who claimed to have the original ms,
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: said the date upon it was seventeen twenty eight. This
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: disposes of the theory that Franklin took the idea from
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: the Latin epitaph of an Eton schoolboy public in The
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: Gentleman's Magazine for February seventeen thirty six. But as writing
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: comic epitaphs was a fashion in those days, there is
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: no reason why both should not have been original. End
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: of section seven. Recording by Michael Hall.
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: Section eight of The Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is a
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 43:44
  Speaker 4: Recording by Larry Wilson, The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six,
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: number seven, Serial number one fifty five, May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen,
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: by Albert Bushnell Hart Franklin in Massachusetts. Think of an
• 44:04
  Speaker 4: American Revolution without Benjamin Franklin, as well, think of English
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: literature without Shakespeare, a Civil War without Lincoln, Franklin was
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: the revolution itself, that is, he prepared the way for it,
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: represented it, infused it with his lively spirit. He was indispensable.
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: If the British had carried out their cheerful project of
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: hanging Sam Adams, Patrick Henry would have continued to breathe
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: out the flame of liberty. Washington and Franklin, however, were
• 44:40
  Speaker 4: unique figures. Without the courage, faith, and personal leadership of Washington,
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: the army would have gone to pieces at Valley Forge,
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: and the United States of America would have been postponed.
• 44:53
  Speaker 4: On the other hand, it was Franklin's cool sagacity that
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: convinced first the French and then the British that there
• 45:00
  Speaker 4: was an America that several million people were determined to
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: cling together as a nation. Washington was the standing proof
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: of the willingness of Americans to fight for self government.
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: Franklin was the man who went far to convince the
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: world that Americans were capable of carrying on their government
• 45:20
  Speaker 4: after they got it. Besides his reputation as the greatest
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: American writer of his time and the most renowned scientific man,
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: he gained and deserved the repute of being a main
• 45:32
  Speaker 4: supporting pillar of the new United States of America. Franklin
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: in Massachusetts in a time when most Americans passed their
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: lives within the borders of their own colony. Franklin was
• 45:46
  Speaker 4: a citizen of two colonies and an official of far.
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: He honored Massachusetts by being born in Boston in seventeen
• 45:54
  Speaker 4: o six, the son of an immigrant, Like millions after him,
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: his father being an English birth. Benjamin was a human
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: kind of boy, eager to run away to see went
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: to the kind of school kept by a schoolmaster only
• 46:10
  Speaker 4: two years of his life, educated himself on a mixed
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: diet of John Bunyan Plutarch's lives, and the spectator became
• 46:20
  Speaker 4: kind of a printer's devil to his brother James, and
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: early got into trouble through incautious writings for the newspapers.
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: At seventeen, the graceless youth ran away from home, yet
• 46:32
  Speaker 4: he came back four times to visit Boston, and toward
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: the end of his life wrote, I longed much to
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: see again my native place. Had to lay my bones there.
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: My best wishes attend my dear country.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: End of section eight, Section nine of the mentor Benjamin Franklin.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot o RG recording by John Dougherty, The
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six, number seven, Serial number one
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: five five May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen by Albert Bushnell Hart,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: Section nine. Franklin as a Pennsylvanian, Part one. On his
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: arrival in Philadelphia in seventeen twenty three, Benjamin Franklin began
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: to make himself a commonwealth builder, and for more than
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: thirty years he was one of the motive forces in
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: that colony. From the first he found himself more at
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: home in Philadelphia than in Boston. A man never overdisposed
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: to self defe he enjoyed the comfort, the good dinners,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: the pleasant associations, the building up of social forces. Still,
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: at that time, Franklin had a much greater interest in
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin than in the community around him. He even
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: showed the unusual enterprise of going abroad in seventeen twenty five,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: a practice commonly reserved for wealthy colonials who wanted to
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: spend their money like gentlemen. Returning in seventeen twenty seven,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: he first of all laid the foundations of a printing business,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: large and profitable for the time. In seventeen twenty nine,
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: then only twenty three years old, he started a newspaper
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: for himself, which speedily made him a force in the community.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Once launched as a publisher, Franklin extended his ventures more
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: and more widely, and in seventeen forty he founded a
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: general magazine and was one of the first Amyria Bricans
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: to discover how much money can be sunk in a
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: literary periodical, and in how short a time. In seventeen
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: thirty two he began the most popular and the most
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: effective of all his publications, Poor Richard's Almanac, an annual
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: which sold the incredible number of ten thousand a year,
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: and which applied the sagacity and humour of the writer
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: to setting forth a standard of morals, which, however utilitarian
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: and self seeking, had a powerful influence upon a crude
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: and growing people. Indeed, it is almost the only bit
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of American literature that circulated throughout the colonies and infused
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: a national spirit into the half century preceding the Revolution.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: Once established as a man of property and influence, Franklin
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: bent his energies to setting up a new standard of education.
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: In seventeen forty three he issued proposals for an academy
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: of learning, and in seventeen forty four founded the American
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Philosophical Society. In seventeen forty nine he raised the great
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: sum of five thousand pounds for the new school and
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: secured an excellent building for it. This far reaching plan
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: also included a free school for the instruction of poor
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, apparently the first suggestion
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: of a free school in his commonwealth. In seventeen fifty five,
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: his school developed into a college, which subsequently became the
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: University of Pennsylvania. No man in America had such solid
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: and thorough going views as to the value of education,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: as has been the case with many journalists. His calling
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: speedily brought him into political relations, for he was chosen
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: to be the official printer of the colonial legislature, and thereafter,
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: for fifty nine years was seldom out of some form
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: of public employment. Thus established as a kind of public character,
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Franklin set himself to improve both city and colonial governments.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: In seventeen thirty seven, he was made postmaster of Philadelphia,
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: and caused great surprise by his prompt and accurate financial accounts.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin also organized himself into the first good government
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: club on record, backed by at least half the press
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: of the city, for he owned one of the two newspapers,
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: and unanimously supported by the postmaster, he demanded a regeneration
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: of the city. Eventually he succeeded in dispossessing the old
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: constables who served in rotation, and in securing a police
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: force paid for that special service. He organized a fire
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: company which not only operated its hand engine when necessary,
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: but carried materials for covering and protecting goods. He was
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: also the first of many exasperated persons to criticize the
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: Philadelphia pavements. When later elected member of the Common Council
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: and then an alderman and also a local Justice of Peace, Franklin,
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: like some other good Philadelphia citizens, became rather apathetic. Nevertheless,
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: these honors were not unwelcome, for he said of himself,
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: I shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an office.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: By this time Franklin was involved in the public life
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: of the colony. In seventeen thirty six he obtained the
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: office of clerk to the General Assembly, which he continued
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: to hold for many years. Colonial affairs became especially important
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: when war broke out with Rants and Spain in seventeen
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: forty four. The Quakers were then the great problem in
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania government, since their principles forbade them to fight
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: or even to vote money for military purposes. Franklin relates
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: that by a judicious application of Madeira wine to the
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: gullet of Governor Clinton of New York, he borrowed eighteen
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: cannon for the defense of Philadelphia. He did more. He
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: so aroused the Quakers that, although they refused to authorize
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: the purchase of powder for the army because that was
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: an ingredient of war, they voted an aid to New
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: England of three thousand pounds to be put into the
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: hands of the governor, and appropriated it for the purchase
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: of bread, flour, wheat, or other grain. The governor accepted
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: with the remark, I shall take the money, for I
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: understand very well their meaning. Other grain is gunpowder. Franklin
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: himself suggested that the Quakers be importuned to permit the
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: purchase of a fire engine, and then said he we
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: will buy a great gun which is certainly a fire engine.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: End of section nine. Section ten of the Mentor Benjamin Franklin.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot RG recording by John Dougherty The Mentor
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin, Volume six, number seven, Serial number one five
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: five May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen by alberttional Heart. Section ten
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Franklin as a Pennsylvanian, Part two. From his position of
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: political and intellectual influence in Pennsylvania, Franklin easily passed into
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: the larger field of general colonial policies and public service.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: In seventeen fifty four, he was made one of the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: commissioners to Adjoint Congress of Seven Colonies which met at Albany.
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: From beginning to end of that meeting, he was the
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: leading spirit, and he prepared what is practically the first
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: plan for a federal constitution. This was to include a
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: Grand Council, which is the earliest suggestion of a national legislature.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: The Congress of Albany liked the plan and approved it,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: but the Home Government frowned upon it, and Franklin records
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: that the assemblies did not adopt it, as they all
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: thought there was too much prerogative in it, and in
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: England it was judged to have too much of the
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: democratic Franklin called to mind the Confederation of the Iroquois,
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: and marveled that the six nations of ignorant slaves should
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: be capable of forming a scheme for such a union,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: and be able to execute it in such a manner
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: so that it has substituted for ages and appears indissoluble,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: and yet that a like union should be impracticable for
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: ten or a dozen English colonies. In the war that followed,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: Franklin showed himself almost the only vigorous administrator. He was
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: the man who found the wagons necessary for Braddock's expedition.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: He was even chosen colonel of a militia regiment. Then,
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty seven he was sent by the Pennsylvania
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Assembly to be agent of the colony in England, and
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: thus entered on a new and important career. Many Englishmen
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: found their way to the American colonies and made reputations.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Franklin was one of the few Americans that became renowned
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: in England for years he stood for the thought that
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: Englishmen in Great Britain and the colonies were alike citizens
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: of a common Anglo Saxon Empire, which might look forward
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: to a glorious future. He even ventured to assert that
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: the foundations of the future grandeur and stability of the
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: British Empire lie in America. The English government bestowed upon
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: him the important post of Deputy Postmaster General for the colonies.
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: He so impressed the men of learning that he received
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: doctorates of law from the universities of Saint Andrew's, Oxford
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: and Edinburgh. Yet his public functions were the lesser part
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: of his influence. He found friends everywhere, and by his
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: personal relations with ministers and private persons affected the minds
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: of the British. The colonies of Georgia, New Jersey and
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: Massachusetts also designated him as their agent, and his various
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: public offices brought him in the large income for that
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: time of fifteen hundred pounds a year. When the question
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: of the Stamp Act arose in seventeen sixty six, Franklin
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: appeared before the House of Commons to protest, and in
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: his examination occurred the famous passage question can anything less
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: than a military force carry the Stamp Act into execution. Answer.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: I do not see how a military force could be
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: applied to that purpose. Question why may it not? Answer?
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Suppose a military force be sent into America, they will
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: find nobody in arms. What are they then to do?
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: They cannot force a man to take stamps who chooses
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: to do without them. They will not find a rebellion,
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: they will indeed make one. Franklin's position had great weight
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: in bringing about the repeal of the Stamp Act, and
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: thereafter he strove with all his might to prevent the
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: breaking up of the Empire. When the storm broke in
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy five, Franklin needed to make no choice. An
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: American through and through, he never thought of anything but
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: casting his lot with that of his countrymen, And on
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: March twenty first, seventeen seventy five, he left England and
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: became an original son of the American Revolution. The conditions
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: have never been better set forth than in his own words.
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: And now the affair is nearly in the situation of
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: Friar Bacon's project of making a brazen wall round England
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: for its eternal security. His servant, Friar Bungey slept while
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: the brazen head, which was to dictate how it may
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: be done, said time is and time was he only
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: waked to hear it say time is passed. End of
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: section ten, Section eleven of the Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot o RG recording by John Dougherty. The Mentor
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin, Volume six, number seven, Serial number one five
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: five May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen by Albert bushnel Hart. Section
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: eleven Franklin in the Revolution Franklin as a diplomat Franklin
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: in the Revolution. When Franklin arrived at Philadelphia May fifth,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: he found himself at once a member and a leader
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: in a body of men who, without any legal mandate,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: were called upon to create, to organize, and to defend
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: the United States. The day after Franklin's arrival in America,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: he was designated by Pennsylvania as a member of the
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: Continental Congress, which was to meet shortly A few days later,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: The next year, he was chosen member and president of
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: the State Constitutional Convention, and in seventeen seventy six he
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: was appointed Envoy of the United States to France. Besides
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: these dignities, in that year and a half, he was
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: one of the half dozen men who designated the framework
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: of the future state and national governments of America. July
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: twenty one, seventeen seventy five, Franklin formally presented to Congress
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: a skillful plan for a federal government, which was the
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: foundation stone of the present Federal Constitution. It contains some
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: things out of the Albany Plan of seventeen fifty four,
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: and had it been adopted as it stood, would have
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: been a better instrument of government than was later drawn
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: up by Congress. Franklin proposed and urged a strong, vigorous,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: and well knit union. He was also a member of
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: the committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence in
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six. His principal contribution to the discussion was
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: his famous retort when somebody said, we must all hang together. Yes,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: we must all hang together, or else we shall all
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: hang separately. Franklin took an honorable part in the Pennsylvania
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Constitutional Convention of seventeen seventy six, and to him was
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: due the final phrase in the Pennsylvania Bill of Rights
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: that all men have a natural and inalienable right to
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: consciences and understanding Franklin as a diplomat. Benjamin Franklin was
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: now seventy years old, and said of himself to a
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: fellow member of Congress, I am old and good for nothing.
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: But as the store keepers say of their remnants of cloth,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: I am but a fag end, and you may not
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: have me for what you please to give. Yet he
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: accepted the most important post of his life when in
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: September seventeen seventy six, he was elected Commissioner to France.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: There for nine years he served his country as the
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: most popular, most sagacious, and most successful foreign minister ever
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: appointed by the United States. He was not merely a
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: diplomatic representative. He was a commercial and financial agent, fitted
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: out vessels, issued commissions, borrowed money. Well did Horace Walpole
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: say of him that Franklin was furnishing materials for writing
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the history of the Decline of the British Empire. Without Franklin,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: the two Treaties of seventeen seventy eight with France could
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: not have been obtained by his personal relations with Englishmen.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: Of note, he was the natural starting point for overtures
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: of concord, and in the negotiations of the Piece of
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: seventeen eighty two he stood alongside the eager, impetuous, and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: hotly national John Adams and courteous, high bred and determined
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: John Jay as chief of that remarkable triumvirate of negotiators.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: After all, Franklin His chief service abroad was not so
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: much the obtaining of favorable terms as the maintaining of
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: American character. Who could deny the right to be a
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: nation to a people whose best aspirations were typified by
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: this shrewd, hard headed, kindly man, A gallant among the fashionables,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: a philosopher among scientists, a statesman among ministers, a man
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: among men. End of section eleven, Section twelve of The
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox o RG recording by John Derwert.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six, number seven serial number one,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: five five May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen by Albert Bushnell Hart,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Section twelve. Franklin in the Federal Convention at seventy nine
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: years of age. Most men expect retirement, and it was
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: very grateful to Franklin that on his return to America
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: in seventeen eighty five, he should almost immediately be chosen
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: by Pennsylvania to be the president of the Commonwealth. His
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: universal popularity was shown by the people of western North
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: Carolina now East Tennessee, who in seventeen eighty four set
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: up a short lived frontier Commonwealth, to which, by way
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: of compliment, they gave the name of Franklin. In seventeen
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: eighty seven, Franklin readily accepted membership in the Federal Convention
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: as one of the Pennsylvania delegation. He was somewhat out
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: of touch with the real difficulties of the time, and
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: most of his suggestions were overruled, but his influence throughout
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: was in favor of a well organized, strong central government,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: and he was almost the only member to introduce an
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: element of humanity and good humor. On the last day
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: of the Convention, he rose to urge a spirit of
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: compromise a willingness to yield something of one's own opinion,
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: to avoid the spirit of a certain French lady who,
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: in a dispute with her sister said, I don't know
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: how it happens, sister, but I met with nobody but
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: myself that is always in the right. When at the
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: end signatures of the members were appended numerous enough to
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: make it likely that the Constitution would be exc accepted
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: by the people, Franklin looked at the sun painted behind
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: the President's chair and made a comment which is as
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: applicable to his own reputation as it was to the
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: new Federal Constitution. I have often, and often, in the
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: course of the session and the vicissitudes of my hopes
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: behind the President, without being able to tell whether it
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: was rising or setting. But now at length I have
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: the happiness to know that it is a rising and
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: not a setting sun. This was the end of Franklin's
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: public life. Three years later, he died full of years
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: and honor, with the established reputation of a man of learning,
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: power and statesmanship, possessed of a calm dignity that impressed
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: even the frivolous court of France. He added a love
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: of fun such as no other great American public man
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: has shown, except Abraham Lincoln. His autobiography abounds in delightful
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: pictures of the gawky youth and the serene statesman. His
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: vast powers belonged to his country. His great endeavors went
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: into federal government, which he helped to found, to protect,
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: and to restate in the immortal Constitution of seventeen eighty seven.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: That is his best monument. End of section twelve, Section
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: thirteen of The Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot o RG
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: recording by John Daugherty. The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: number seven, Serial number one, five five May fifteenth, nineteen
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: eighteen by Albert Bushnell Hart. Section thirteen the open Letter.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin's eyes were blue gray. How do we know this?
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: Because Dupless's pastel portrait in colors tells us so Franklin
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: had bland shrewd, clear seeing eyes that comprehended in their
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: genial open glance the whole of human nature. They first
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: saw the light of day on January seventeenth, seventeen o six,
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: and they were closed for the last time on April seventeenth,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: seventeen ninety. During all those years, those luminous, blue gray
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: eyes were observing life closely, studiously, and intelligently, and they
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: saw any great things come to pass, the most important
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: being the making of a new nation. The eyes of
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: Franklin saw liberty in its cradle, and with earnest solicitude,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: watched its growth and development until it became the watchword
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: and dominating principle of a great republic. Moreover, while witnessing
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: these national events and sharing actively in them, Franklin had
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: time to look into the every day affairs of men,
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 1: to find solutions for many problems of the workaday world,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: to suggest and plan improved methods of doing things, to
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: invent useful devices, and, with his printing establishment as a
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: means of public expression, to give utterance to a system
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: of practical philosophy that was a benefit and blessing to
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: his fellow men. Franklin was the peerless practical man, and
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: his writings contain the complete gospel of common sense. It
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: would be well if all of us could look at
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: the world through Ben Franklin's discerning gray eyes. It is
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: not the gray color of the eye, but the gray
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: matter back of it that counts. I note here the
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: color of Ben Franklin's eyes only because I have just
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: been checked up on the subject of eyes. A reader
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: writes me as follows, Let me call attention to a
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: discrepancy in the Julius Caesar number of the Mentor. On
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: cover page two, the statement is made that Caesar's eyes
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: were dark gray. On page eight it is said that
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: they were black. Our reader overlooks the fact that the
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: two statements are not made by the same writer. The
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: first statement is made by the English historian James Anthony Freud,
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: the other by George W. Botsford, late Professor of Ancient
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: History in Columbia University. These two eminent scholars present the
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: conclusions that they have individually drawn from historical study. When
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: two authorities differ, it is the duty of the mentor,
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: as an educational publication, to present the two statements for
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: the reader's comparison. It is probable that the original evidence
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: on which mister Freud and Professor Botsford based their statements
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: was to the effect that Caesar's eyes were very dark
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: and piercing in their glance, and that surely is near
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: enough for the color of eyes. Nearly two thousand years ago.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: We are reproducing Dupless's pastel portrait of Franklin on this page.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: This picture has a story. Duplessi made several portraits of Franklin.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: This seems to be the only one in pastel, the
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: others being oil paintings. When Franklin was in France, he
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: lived at Passeis, a suburb of Paris. A friend and
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: neighbor was Monsieur Levillard, who frequently urged Franklin to write
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: his memoirs. Franklin lent a willing ear, and it was
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: his wish that his neighbor should translate the memoirs when finished,
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: into French. With that end in view, he turned over
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: to Monsieur Levillard much autobiographical material. This pastel portrait by
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: Duplessy was made especially for Monsieur Levillard, and when that
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: unfortunate gentleman met his death on the Revolutionary scaffold in
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: seventeen ninety four, the picture went to his daughter and
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: later came into the possession of mister John Bigelow when
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: he was United States Minister to France eighteen sixty five
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: to sixty six by him. It was presented to the
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: New York Public Library, and it now hangs in the
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: trustees Room. Signed W. D. Mort Editor, end of section thirteen.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 4: Section fourteen of the Mentor Benjamin Franklin. This is the
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 4: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 4: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 4: Recording by Larry Wilson, The Mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 4: number seven, Serial number one, fifty five, May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen,
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 4: by Albert Bushnell Hart. Daylight Saving Franklin's idea. There was
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 4: nothing of any significance in the affairs of mankind that
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 4: escaped to Benjamin Franklin's attention. Not only political, social, commercial, literary,
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 4: and artistic matters concerned him, but likewise the many problems
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 4: great and small, that had to be met in the
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 4: course of the day's work. He was the first to
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 4: conceive the idea of daylight saving, which means that he was,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 4: in practical wisdom one hundred thirty odd years ahead of
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 4: his time. On an early morning walk along the streets
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 4: of London in seventeen eighty four, the thought first came
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 4: to Franklin, and in passing it on to the world
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 4: at large, he said, in a walk through the strand
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 4: in Fleet Street one morning at seven o'clock, I observed
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 4: that there was not one shop open, although it had
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 4: been daylight and the sun up above three hours. The
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 4: inhabitants of London, choosing voluntarily to live by candlelight, had
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 4: sleep by sunshine, and yet often complaining a little absurdly
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 4: of the duty on candles and the high price of tallow.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 4: Soon thereafter, in the Journauld de Paris, he published an
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 4: article later appearing among his essays, under the title an
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 4: Economical Project, which further elaborated the advantages of daylight saving,
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 4: namely of turning the clock forward an hour, so that
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 4: everybody would live one hour longer by daylight and one
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: hour less by artificial light. End of section fourteen. End
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 4: of the mentor Benjamin Franklin, Volume six, number seven, serial
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 4: number one, fifty five May fifteenth, nineteen eighteen, by Albert
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 4: Bushnell Hart