1840
                   SELECTIONS FROM FRANKLIN'S
                     MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

                      by Benjamin Franklin








şiElectronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
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{TO_GEORGE_WHITEFIELD_ON_FAITH_AND_GOOD_WORKS
        To George Whitefield, On Faith and Good Words


  FOR my own part, when I am employed in serving others, I do
not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as paying debts. In
my travels, and, since my settlement, I have received much kindness
from men, to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making the
least direct return; and numberless mercies from God, who is
infinitely above being benefited by our services. Those kindnesses
from men, I can therefore only return on their fellow men, and I
can only show my gratitude for these mercies from God, by a
readiness to help his other children and my brethren. For I do not
think that thanks and compliments, though repeated weekly, can
discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less those
to our Creator. You will see in this my notion of good works, that
I am far from expecting to merit heaven by them. By heaven we
understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree, and eternal in
duration. I can do nothing to deserve such rewards. He that, for
giving a draft of water to a thirsty person, should expect to be
paid with a good plantation, would be modest in his demands,
compared with those who think they deserve heaven for the little
good they do on earth. Even the mixed, imperfect pleasures we enjoy
in this world, are rather from God's goodness than our merit; how
much more such happiness of heaven! For my part I have not the
vanity to think I deserve it, the folly to expect it, nor the
ambition to desire it; but content myself in submitting to the will
and disposal of that God who made me, who has hitherto preserved
and blessed me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may well confide,
that he will never make me miserable, and that even the afflictions
I may at any time suffer shall tend to my benefit.

  The faith you mention has certainly its use in the world. I do
not desire to see it diminished, nor would I endeavor to lessen it
in any man. But I wish it were more productive of good works, than
I have generally seen it; I mean real good works; works of
kindness, charity, mercy, and public spirit; not holiday-keeping,
sermon-reading or hearing; performing church ceremonies, or making
long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments, despised even
by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity. The
worship of God is a duty; the hearing and reading of sermons may be
useful; but if men rest in hearing and praying, as too many do, it
is as if a tree should value itself on being watered and putting
forth leaves, though it never produced any fruit.

  Your great master thought much less of these outward
appearances and professions, than many of his modern disciples. He
preferred the doers of the word, to the mere hearers; the son that
seemingly refused to obey his father, and yet performed his
commands, to him that professed his readiness, but neglected the
work; the heretical but charitable Samaritan, to the uncharitable
though orthodox priest and sanctified Levite; and those who gave
food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, raiment to the naked,
entertainment to the stranger, and relief to the sick, though they
never heard of his name, he declares shall in the last day be ac-
cepted; when those who cry Lord,! Lord ! who value themselves upon
their faith, though great enough to perform miracles, but have
neglected good works, shall be rejected. He professed, that he came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; which implied
his modest opinion, that there were some in his time so good, that
they need not hear even him for improvement; but now-a-days we have
scarce a little parson, that does not think it the duty of every
man within his reach to sit under his petty ministrations; and that
whoever omits them offends God.

  I wish to such more humility, and to you health and happiness,
being your friend and servant,
                                                      B. FRANKLIN
PHILADELPHIA, 6, June, 1753.


{TO_JOSEPH_PRIESTLEY_WITH_A_METHOD_OF_DECIDING_DOUBTFUL_MATTERS
  To Joseph Priestley With a Method of Deciding Doubtful Matters


  IN the affair of so much importance to you, wherein you ask my
advice, I cannot, for want of sufficient premises, counsel you what
to determine; but, if you please, I will tell you how. When those
difficult, cases occur, they are difficult, chiefly because, while
we have them under consideration, all the reasons pro and con are
not present to the mind at the same time; but sometimes one set
present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out
of sight. Hence the various purposes or inclinations that
alternately prevail, and the uncertainty that perplexes us.

  To get over this, my way is, to divide half a sheet of paper
by a line into two columns; writing over the one pro and over the
other con; then during three or four days' consideration, I put
down under the different heads short hints of the different
motives, that at different times occur to me for or against the
measure. When I have thus got them all together in one view, I
endeavor to estimate their respective weights; and, where I find
two (one on each side), that seem equal, I strike them both out. If
I find a reason pro equal to, some two reasons con, I strike out
the three. If I judge some two reasons con, equal to some three
reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at
length where the balance lies; and if, after a day or two of
farther consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs on
either side, I come to a determination accordingly. And, though the
weight of reasons cannot be taken with the precision of algebraic
quantities, yet, when each is thus considered separately and
comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge
better, and am less liable to make a rash step; and in fact I have
found great advantage from this kind of equation, in what may be
called moral or prudential algebra.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
LONDON, 19 September 1772.


{TO_WILLIAM_STRAHAN_AFTER_THE_WAR_HAD_BEGUN
        To William Strahan, After the War Had Begun


MR. STRAHAN,

  YOU are a member of Parliament, and one of that majority,
which has doomed my country to destruction. You have begun to burn
our towns and murder our people. Look upon your hands, they are
stained with the blood of your relations! You and I were long
friends; you are now my enemy, and I am
                                                           Yours,
                                                      B. FRANKLIN
PHILADELPHIA, 5 July, 1775.


{TO_HIS_DAUGHTER_MRS_SARAH_BACHE_ON_HEREDITARY_TITLES_AND_HONORS
To His Daughter, Mrs. Sarah Bache, On Hereditary Titles and Honors


  OUR care in sending me the newspapers is very agreeable to me.
I received by Captain Barney those relating to the Cincinnati. My
opinion of the institution cannot be of much importance; I only
wonder that, when the united wisdom of our nation had, in the
articles of confederation, manifested their dislike of establishing
ranks of nobility, by authority either of the Congress or of any
particular State, a number of private persons should think proper
to distinguish themselves and their posterity, from their fellow
citizens, and form an order of hereditary knights, in direct
opposition to the solemnly declared sense of their country! I
imagine it must be likewise contrary to the good sense of most of
those drawn into it by the persuasion of its projectors, who have
been too much struck with the ribands and crosses they have seen
hanging to the buttonholes of foreign officers. And I suppose
those, who disapprove of it, have not hitherto given it much
opposition, from a principle somewhat like that of your good
mother, relating to punctilious persons, who are always exacting
little observances of respect; that, "if people can be pleased with
small matters, it is a pity but they should have them."

  In this view, perhaps, I should not myself, if my advice had
been asked, have objected to their wearing their riband and badge
themselves according to their fancy, though I certainly should to
the entailing it as an honor on their posterity. For honor,
worthily obtained (as that for example of our officers), is in its
nature a personal thing, and incommunicable to any but those who
had some share in obtaining it. Thus among the Chinese, the most
ancient, and from long experience the wisest of nations, honor does
not descend, but ascends. If a man from his learning, his wisdom,
or his valor, is promoted by the Emperor to the rank of Mandarin,
his parents are immediately entitled to all the same ceremonies of
respect from the people, that are established as due to the
Mandarin himself: on the supposition that it must have been owing
to the education, instruction, and good example afforded him by his
parents, that he was rendered capable of serving the public.

  This ascending honor is therefore useful to the state, as it
encourages parents to give their children a good and virtuous
education. But the descending honor, to a posterity who could have
no share in obtaining it, is not only groundless and absurd, but
often hurtful to that posterity, since it is apt to make them
proud, disdaining to be employed in useful arts, and thence falling
into poverty, and all the meannesses, servility, and wretchedness
attending it; which is the present case with much of what is called
the noblesse in Europe. Or if, to keep up the dignity, of the
family, estates are entailed entire on the eldest male heir,
another pest to industry and improvement of the country is
introduced, which will be followed by all the odious mixture of
pride, and beggary, and idleness, that have half depopulated and
decultivated Spain; occasioning continual extinction of families by
the discouragements of marriage, and neglect in the improvement of
estates.

  I wish, therefore, that the Cincinnati, if they must go on
with their project, would direct the badges of their order to be
worn by their fathers and mothers, instead of handing them down to
their children. It would be a good precedent, and might have good
effects. It would also be a kind of obedience to the fourth
commandment, in which God enjoins us to honor our father and
mother, but has nowhere directed us to honor our children. And
certainly no mode of honoring those immediate authors of our being
can be more effectual than that of doing praiseworthy actions,
which reflect honor on those who gave us our education; or more
becoming than that of manifesting, by some public expression or
token, that it is to their instruction and example we ascribe the
merit of those actions.

  But the absurdity of descending honors is not a mere matter
of philosophical opinion; it is capable of mathematical
demonstration. A man's son, for instance, is but half of his
family, the other half belonging to the family of his wife. His
son, too, marrying into another family, his share in the grandson
is but a fourth; in the great grandson, by the same process, it is
but an eighth; in the next generation a sixteenth; the next a
thirty-second; the next a sixty-fourth; the next an hundred and
twenty-eighth; the next a two hundred and fifty-sixth; and the next
a five hundred and twelfth; thus in nine generations, which will
not require more than three hundred years (no very great antiquity
for a family), our present Chevalier of the Order of Cincinnatus's
share in the then existing knight will be but a five hundred and
twelfth part; which, allowing the present certain fidelity of
American wives to be insured down through all those nine
generations, is so small a consideration, that methinks no
reasonable man would hazard for the sake of it the disagreeable
consequences of the jealousy, envy, and ill will of his countrymen.

  Let us go back with our calculation from this young noble, the
five hundred and twelfth part of the present knight, through his
nine generations, till we return to the year of the institution. He
must have had a father and mother, they are two; each of them had
a father and mother, they are four. Those of the next preceding
generation will be eight, the next sixteen, the next thirty-two,
the next sixty-four, the next one hundred and twenty-eight, the
next two hundred and fifty-six, and the ninth in this retrocession
five hundred and twelve, who must be now existing, and all
contribute their proportion of this future Chevalier de
Cincinnatus. These, with the rest, make together as follows: 2 + 4
+ 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 + 256 + 512 = 1022. One thousand and
twenty-two men and women, contributors to the formation of one
knight. And, if we are to have a thousand of these future knights,
there must be now and hereafter existing one million and twenty-two
thousand fathers and mothers, who are to contribute to their
production, unless a part of the number are employed in making more
knights than one. Let us strike off then the twenty-two thousand,
on the supposition of this double employ, and then consider
whether, after a reasonable estimation of the number of rogues, and
fools, and scoundrels and prostitutes, that are mixed with, and
help to make up necessarily their million of predecessors,
posterity, will have much reason to boast of the noble blood of the
then existing set of Chevaliers of Cincinnatus. The future
genealogists, too, of these Chevaliers, in proving the lineal
descent of their honor through so many generations (even supposing
honor capable in its nature of descending), will only prove the
small share of this honor, which can be justly claimed by any one
of them; since the above simple process in arithmetic makes it
quite plain and clear, that, in proportion as the antiquity, of the
family shall augment, the right to the honor of the ancestor will
diminish; and a few generations more would reduce it to something
so small as to be very near an absolute nullity. I hope, therefore,
that the Order will drop this part of their project, and content
themselves, as the Knights of the Garter, Bath, Thistle, St. Louis,
and other Orders of Europe do, with a life enjoyment of their
little badge and riband, and let the distinction die with those who
have merited it. This I imagine will give no offence. For my own
part, I shall think it a convenience, when I go into a company
where there may be faces unknown to me, if I discover, by this
badge, the persons who merit some particular expression of my
respect; and it will save modest virtue the trouble of calling for
our regard, by awkward roundabout intimations of having been
heretofore employed as officers in the Continental service.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
PASSY, 26 January, 1784.


{TO_SAMUEL_MATHER_WITH_BIOGRAPHICAL_ANECDOTES
       To Samuel Mather, With Biographical Anecdotes


  I RECEIVED your kind letter, with your excellent advice to the
people of the United States, which I read with great pleasure, and
hope it will be duly regarded. Such writings, though they may be
lightly passed over by many readers, yet, if they make a deep
impression on one active mind in a hundred, the effects may be
considerable. Permit me to mention one little instance, which
though it relates to myself, will not be quite uninteresting to
you. When I was a boy, I met with a book, entitled "Essays to do
Good," which I think was written by your father. It had been so
little regarded by a former possessor, that several leaves of it
were torn out; but the remainder gave me such a turn of thinking,
as to have an influence on my conduct through life; for I have
always set a greater value on the character of a doer of good, than
on any other kind of reputation; and if I have been, as you seem to
think, a useful citizen, the public owes the advantage of it to
that book.

  You mention your being in your seventy-eighth year; I am in my
seventy-ninth; we are grown old together. It is now more than sixty
years since I left Boston, but I remember well both your father and
grandfather, having heard them both in the pulpit and seen them in
their houses. The last time I saw your father was in the beginning
of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He
received me in his library, and on my taking leave showed me a
shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage, which was
crossed by a beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he
accompanying me behind, and I turning partly towards him, when he
said hastily,

  "Stoop, stoop!" I did not understand him, till I felt my head
hit against the beam. He was a man that never missed any occasion
of giving instruction, and upon this he said to me, "You are young,
and have the world before you; STOOP as you go through it, and you
will miss many hard thumps." This advice, thus beat into my head,
has frequently been of use to me; and I often think of it, when I
see pride mortified, and misfortunes brought upon people by their
carrying their heads too high.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
PASSY, 12 May, 1784.


{TO_GEORGE_WHATLEY_WITH_MORAL_AND_PHILOSOPHICAL_REFLECTIONS
   To George Whatley, With Moral and Philosophical Reflections


  I AM not acquainted with the saying of Alphonsus, which you
allude to as a sanctification of your rigidity, in refusing to
allow me the plea of old age, as an excuse for my want of exactness
in correspondence. What was that saying? You do not, it seems, feel
any occasion for such an excuse, though you are, as you, say,
rising seventy-. But I am rising (perhaps more properly
falling) eighty, and I leave the excuse with you till you arrive at
that age; perhaps you may then be more sensible of its validity,
and see fit to use it for yourself.

  I must agree with you, that the gout is bad, and that the
stone is worse. I am happy in not having them both together, and I
join in your prayer, that you may live till you die without either.
But I doubt the author of the epitaph you send me was a little
mistaken, when he, speaking of the world, says, that

          "he ne'er cared a pin
     What they said or may say of
     the mortal within."

  It is so natural to wish to be well spoken of, whether alive or
dead, that I imagine he could not be quite exempt from that desire;
and that at least he wished to be thought a wit, or he would not
have given himself the trouble of writing so good an epitaph to
leave behind him. Was it not as worthy of his care, that the world
should say he was an honest and a good man? I like better the
concluding sentiment in the old song, called The Old Man's Wish,
wherein, after wishing for a warm house in a country town, an easy
horse, some good authors, ingenious and cheerful companions, a
pudding on Sundays, with stout ale, and a bottle of Burgundy, etc,,
etc., in separate stanzas, each ending with this burthen,

          "May I govern my passions with absolute sway,
          Grow wiser and better as my strength wears away,
          Without gout or stone, by a gentle decay;"

he adds,

          "With a courage undaunted may I face my last day,
          And, when I am gone, may the better sort say,
          In the morning when sober, in the evening when mellow;
          He's gone, and has not left behind him his fellow;
          For he governed his passions," &c.

But what signifies our wishing? Things happen, after all, as they
will happen. I have sung that wishing song a thousand times, when
I was young, and now find, at fourscore, that the three contraries
have befallen me, being subject to the gout and the stone, and not
being yet master of all my passions. Like the proud girl in my
country, who wished and resolved not to marry a parson, nor a
Presbyterian, nor, an Irishman; and at length found herself married
to an Irish Presbyterian parson.

  You see I have some reason to wish, that, in a future state,
I may not only be as well as I was, but a little better. And I hope
it; for I, too, with your poet, trust in God. And when I observe,
that there is great frugality, as well as wisdom, in his works,
since he has been evidently sparing both of labor and materials;
for by the various wonderful inventions of propagation, he has
provided for the continual peopling his world with plants and
animals, without being at the trouble of repeated new creations;
and by the natural reduction of compound substances to their
original elements, capable of being employed in new compositions,
he has prevented the necessity of creating new matter; so that the
earth, water, air, and perhaps fire, which being compounded form
wood, do, when the wood is dissolved, return, and again become air,
earth, fire, and water; I say, that, when I see nothing
annihilated, and not even a drop of water wasted, I cannot suspect
the annihilation of souls, or believe, that he will suffer the
daily waste of millions of minds ready made that now exist, and put
himself to the continual trouble of making new ones. Thus finding
myself to exist in the world, I believe I shall, in some shape or
other, always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is
liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine; hoping,
however, that the errata of the last may be corrected.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
PASSY, 23 May, 1785.


{TO_MRS_JANE_MECOM_ON_GOOD_AND_BAD_SPELLING
To Mrs. Jane Mecom, On Good and Bad Spelling


  YOU need not be concerned, in writing to me, about your bad
spelling; for, in my opinion, as our alphabet now stands, the bad
spelling, or what is called so, is generally the best, as
conforming to the sound of the letters and of the words. To give
you an instance. A gentleman received a letter, in which were these
words,-Not finding Brown at hom, I delivered your meseg to his yf.
The gentleman finding it bad spelling, and therefore not very
intelligible, called his lady to help him read it. Between them
they picked out the meaning of all but the yf, which they could not
understand. The lady proposed calling her chambermaid, because
Betty, says she, has the best knack at reading bad spelling of any
one I know. Betty came, and was surprised, that neither Sir nor
Madam could tell what yf was. "Why," says she, "y f spells wife;
what else can it spell?" And, indeed, it is a much better, as well
as shorter method of spelling wife, than doubleyou, i, ef, e, which
in reality spell doubleyifey.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
PHILADELPHIA, 4 July, 1786.


{TO_THOMAS_PAINE_DISSUADING_HIM_FROM_PUBLISHING_A_CERTAIN_WORK
 To Thomas Paine, Dissuading Him From Publishing a Certain Work


  I HAVE read your manuscript with some attention. By the
argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you
allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all
religion. For without the belief of a Providence, that takes
cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular
persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his
displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into
any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At
present I shall only give you my opinion, that, though your
reasonings are subtile, and may prevail with some readers, you will
not succeed so as to change the general sentiments of mankind on
that subject, and the consequence of printing this piece will be,
a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no
benefit to others. He that spits against the wind, spits in his own
face.

  But, were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be
done by it? You yourself may find it easy to live a virtuous life,
without the assistance afforded by religion; you having a clear
perception of the advantages of virtue, and the disadvantages of
vice, and possessing a strength of resolution sufficient to enable
you to resist common temptations. But think how great a portion of
mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women, and of
inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes, who have need of
the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support
their virtue, and retain them in the practice of it till it becomes
habitual, which is the great point for its security. And perhaps
you are indebted to her originally, that is, to your religious
education, for the habits of virtue upon which you now justly value
yourself. You might easily display your excellent talents of
reasoning upon a less hazardous subject, and thereby obtain a rank
with our most distinguished authors. For among us it is not
necessary, as among the Hottentots, that a youth, to be raised into
the company of men, should prove his manhood by beating his mother.

  I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the
tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other
person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of
mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps
a good deal of regret and repentance. If men are so wicked with
religion, what would they be if without it. I intend this letter
itself as a proof of my friendship, and therefore add no
professions to it; but subscribe simply yours,
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
DATE uncertain.


{TO_NOAH_WEBSTER_ON_NEW_FANGLED_MODES_OF_WRITINE_AND_PRINTING
   To Noah Webster, On New-Fangled Modes of Writing and Printing


  I CANNOT but applaud your zeal for preserving the purity of
our language, both in its expressions and pronunciation, and in
correcting the popular errors several of our States are continually
falling into with respect to both. Give me leave to mention some of
them, though possibly they may have already occurred to you. I
wish, however, in some future publication of yours, you would set
a discountenancing mark upon them. The first I remember is the word
improved. When I left New England, in the year 1723, this word had
never been used among us, as far as I know, but in the sense of
ameliorated or made better, except once in a very old book of Dr.
Mather's, entitled Remarkable Providences. As that eminent man
wrote a very obscure hand, I remember that when I read that word in
his book, used instead of the word imployed, I conjectured it was
an error of the printer, who had mistaken a too short l in the
writing for an r, and a y with too short a tail for a v; whereby
imployed was converted into improved.

  But when I returned to Boston, in 1733, I found this change
had obtained favor, and was then become common; for I met with it
often in perusing the newspapers, where it frequently made an
appearance rather ridiculous. Such, for instance, as the
advertisement of a country-house to be sold, which had been many
years improved as a tavern; and, in the character of a deceased
country gentleman, that he had been for more than thirty years
improved as a justice of the peace. This use of the word improved
is peculiar to New England, and not to be met with among any other
speakers of English, either on this or the other side of the water.

  During my late absence in France, I find that several other
new words have been introduced into our parliamentary language; for
example, I find a verb formed from the substantive notice; I should
not have NOTICED this, were it not that the gentleman, etc. Also
another verb from the substantive advocate; The gentleman who
ADVOCATES or has ADVOCATED that motion, &c. Another from the
substantive progress, the most awkward and abominable of the three;
The committee, having PROGRESSED, resolved to adjourn. The word
opposed, though not a new word, I find used in a new mannerfive , as,
The gentlemen who are OPPOSED to this measure; to which I have also
myself always been OPPOSED. If you should happen to be of my
opinion with respect to these innovations, you will use your
authority in reprobating them.

  In examining the English books, that were printed between the
Restoration and the accession of George the Second, we may observe,
that all substantives were began with a capital, in which we
imitated our mother tongue, the German. This was more particularly
useful to those who were not well acquainted with the English;
there being such a prodigious number of our words, that are both
verbs and substantives, and spelled in the same manner, though
often accented differently in the pronunciation.

  This method has, by the fancy of printers, of late years been
laid aside, from an idea that suppressing the capitals shows the
character to greater advantage; those letters prominent above the
line disturbing its even regular appearance. The effect of this
change is so considerable, that a learned man of France, who used
to read our books, though not perfectly acquainted with our
language in conversation with me on the subject of our authors,
attributed the greater obscurity, he found in our modern books,
compared with those of the period above mentioned, to change of
style for the worse in our writers; of which mistake I convinced
him, by marking for him each substantive with a capital in a
paragraph, which he then easily understood, though before he could
not comprehend it. This shows the inconvenience of that pretended
improvement.

  From the same fondness for an even and uniform appearance of
characters in the line, the printers have of late banished also the
Italic types, in which words of importance to be attended to in the
sense of the sentence, and words on which an emphasis should be put
in reading, used to be printed. And lately another fancy has
induced some printers to use the short round s, instead of the long
one, which formerly served well to distinguish a word readily by
its varied appearance. Certainly the omitting this prominent letter
makes the line appear more even; but renders it less immediately
legible; as the paring all men's noses might smooth and level their
faces, but would render their physiognomies less distinguishable.
                                                      B. FRANKLIN
PHILADELPHIA, 26 December, 1789.


{TO_EZRA_STILES_WITH_A_STATEMENT_OF_HIS_RELIGIOUS_CREED
    To Ezra Stiles, With a Statement of His Religious Creed


  YOU desire to know something of my religion. It is the first
time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your
curiosity amiss, and shall endeavor in a few words to gratify it,
Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the creator of the
universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be
worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is
doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal,
and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its
conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all
sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet
with them.

  As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly
desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left
them to us, the best the world ever saw or is like to see; but I
apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have,
with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to
his Divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon,
having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with
it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with
less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if
that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making
his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially, as I do
not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the
unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks
of his displeasure.

  I shall only add, respecting myself, that, having experienced
the goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a
long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though
without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
Philadelphia, 9 March, 1790.


{TO_DAVID_HARTLEY_EXPLAINING_THE_ORIGIN_OF_THE_STAMP_ACT
     To David Hartley, Explining the Origin of the Stamp Act


  IN the pamphlets you were so kind as to lend me there is one
important fact misstated, apparently from the writers not having
been furnished with good information. It is the transaction between
Mr. Grenville and the Colonies, wherein he understands that Mr.
Grenville demanded of them a specific sum, that they refused to
grant anything, and that it was on their refusal only that he made
the motion for the Stamp Act. No one of these particulars is true.
The fact is this.

  Sometime in the winter of 1763-4, Mr. Grenville called
together the agents of the several colonies, and told them that he
purposed to draw a revenue from America and to that end his
intention was to levy a stamp duty on the colonies by act of
Parliament in the ensuing session, of which he thought they should
be immediately acquainted, that they might have time to consider,
and, if any other duty equally productive would be more agreeable
to them, they might let him know it. The agents were therefore
directed to write this to their respective Assemblies, and
communicate to him the answers they should receive. The agents
wrote accordingly.

  I was a member in the Assembly of Pennsylvania when this
notification came to hand. The observations there made upon it
were, that the ancient, established and regular method of drawing
aids from the colonies was this. The occasion was always first
considered by their sovereign in his Privy Council, by whose sage
advice he directed his Secretary of State to write circular letters
to the several governors, who were directed to lay them before
their Assemblies. In those letters the occasion was explained for
their satisfaction, with gracious expressions of His Majesty's
confidence in their known duty and affection, on which they replied
that they would grant such sums as should be suitable to their
abilities, loyalty and zeal for his service. That the Colonies had
always granted liberally on such requisitions and so liberally
during the late war, that the king, sensible they had granted much
more than their proportion, had recommended it to Parliament five
years successively to make them some compensation, and the
Parliament accordingly returned them AE 200,000 a year to be divided
among them. That the proposition of taxing them in Parliament was
therefore both cruel and unjust That by the constitution of the
Colonies their business was with the king in matters of aid; they
had nothing to do with any financier, nor he with them; nor were
the agents the proper channels through which requisitions should be
made. It was therefore improper for them to enter into any
stipulation, or make any proposition to Mr. Grenville about laying
taxes on their constituents by Parliament, which had really no
right at all to tax them, especially as the notice he had sent them
did not appear to be by the king's order and perhaps was without
his knowledge; as the king when he would obtain anything from them
always accompanied his requisition with good words, but this
gentleman, instead of a decent demand, sent them a menace that they
should certainly be taxed, and only left them the choice of the
manner. But, all this notwithstanding, they were so far from
refusing to grant money that they resolved to the following
purpose: "That, as they always had, so they always should, think it
their duty to grant aid to the crown according to their abilities,
whenever required of them in the usual constitutional manner." I
went soon after to England, and took with me an authentic copy of
this resolution, which I presented to Mr. Grenville before he
brought in the Stamp Act. I asserted in the House of Commons (Mr.
Grenville being present) that I had done so, and he did not deny
it. Other Colonies made similar resolutions. And had Mr. Grenville
instead of that Act applied to the king in Council for such
requisitional letters to be circulated by the Secretary of State,
I am sure he would have obtained more money from the Colonies by
their voluntary grants than he himself expected from his stamps.
But he chose compulsion rather than persuasion, and would not
receive from their good will what he thought he could obtain
without it. And thus the golden bridge, which the ingenious author
thinks the Americans unwisely and unbecomingly refused to hold out
to the Minister and Parliament, was actually held out to them, but
they refused to walk over it. This is the true history of that
transaction, and, as it is probable there may be another edition of
that excellent pamphlet, I wish this may be communicated to the
candid author, who I doubt not will correct that error.

  I am ever, with sincere esteem, dear Sir, &c.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
PASSY, 12 March, 1778.


{TO_ROBERT_MORRIS_ON_THE_STATE_OF_AMERICAN_CREDIT_IN_EUROPE
   To Robert Morris, On the State of American Cerdit in Europe


  THE sentiment you express "that no country is truly
independent, until with her own credit and resources she is able to
defend herself and correct her enemies," appears to me perfectly
just. And the resolutions you have taken of endeavoring to
establish our credit, by drawing out our resources in such a
manner, that we may be little burthensome and essentially useful to
our friends, are such as all good patriots ought to wish you may
succeed in, and should hold themselves ready to afford you every
assistance in their power.

  As in taking your measures it will be useful to you to know
what aids you may expect from Europe, I think it right to give you
my opinion that you cannot rely on such as may be called very
considerable. If Europe was in peace, and its governments therefore
under no necessity of borrowing, much of the spare money of private
persons might then be collectible in a loan to our States. But four
of the principal nations being already at war, and a fifth supposed
to be preparing for it, all borrowing what they can, and bidding
from time to time a higher interest, it is to be supposed that
moneyed men will rather risk lending their cash to their own
governments, or to those of their neighbors, than to hazard it over
the Atlantic with a new state, which to them hardly appears to be
yet firmly established. Hence all our attempts to procure private
loans have hitherto miscarried, and our only chance of pecuniary
aids is from the governments of France or Spain, who being at war
with our enemy are somewhat interested in assisting us. These two
governments have indeed great revenues. But, when it is considered
that the abilities of nations to assist each other are not in
proportion to their incomes, but in proportion to their economy,
and that saving and treasuring up in time of peace is rarely
thought of by Ministers, whence the expenses of the peace
establishment equal if they do not exceed the incomes; therefore
when a war comes on, they, are, with regard to the means of
carrying it on, almost as poor as we, being equally obliged to
borrow. The difference only is, that they have a credit which we
want; which we had indeed with our own people, but have lost it by
abusing it. Their credit, however, can only procure the moneys that
are to spare, and those in so general a demand are few. Hence it
is, and because her treasures have been long detained in America,
that Spain has been able to help us very little; and though France
has done for us much more, it has not been equal to our wants,
although I sincerely believe it equal to her abilities, the war
being otherwise exceedingly expensive to her and her commerce much
obstructed. If the ten million loan in Holland is all applied to
our purposes, we shall this year have obtained near twenty million
of livres; and I think there is no probability of our obtaining the
same for the next: nothing can therefore be more apropos or more
necessary than your purpose of endeavoring that "our revenues
should be expended with economy." Would to God that economy could
also be introduced into our private affairs! the money our foolish
people spend in superfluities and vanities would be nearly equal to
the expense of the war. Bat that is wishing mankind more sense than
God has been pleased to give them and more than they desire, for
they have not enough to know they want it, and one may as well wish
them more money.

  It is true that Spain has now got great part of her treasure
home, and may possibly grant more than she has hitherto done to Mr.
Jay's applications. But though the sums arrived are considerable
upon paper, the king's part is not very great, and much of it has
been anticipated; so that our expectations should not be sanguine
from that quarter neither.

  I have not proposed to any banker here, as yet, to have the
connection you mention with our Bank. The opinion of our general
poverty and inability, which the enormous depreciation of our paper
among ourselves has impressed on the minds of all Europe, give me
no hopes of success in such a proposition. I clearly see, however,
the advantages that you show would arise from the operations; and
as soon as any favorable circumstances in our affairs may give a
probable chance of succeeding, I shall seize the opportunity and
propose it. Perhaps I may sooner venture to ask privately the
sentiments of our banker (who is a judicious man) on such a
proposition and let you know what he thinks of it.

  Thus you see, my dear friend, I have not endeavored to flatter
you with pleasing expectations of aids that may never be obtained;
and thereby betray you into plans that might miscarry and disgrace
you. Truth is best for you and for us all. When you know what you
cannot depend on, you will better know what you can undertake. I
shall certainly do what may lie in my power to help you: but do not
expect too much of me. If you can succeed in executing the
engagement I entered into with Mr. Necker, that will augment my
credit, and of course my power of being useful to you. At present
it is very good. My acceptances having always been punctually paid,
now pass on any exchange in Europe for money; but if I should be
obliged to fail in discharging any of them it is gone forever, and
may be thrown by as a broken instrument of no farther service. You
are so sensible of this and possess so much innate honor that I
shall not have the least doubt, in accepting your drafts or your
enabling me to pay them duly.

  With the most sincere esteem and affection, I am, &c.
                                                     B. FRANKLIN.
PASSY, 5 November, 1781.


                           The End