Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin [books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗
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Buy what thou hast no Need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy Necessaries.
If you would know the Value of Money, go and try to borrow some; for, he that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.
The second Vice is Lying, the first is running in Debt.
Lying rides upon Debt's Back.
Poverty often deprives a Man of all Spirit and Virtue: 'Tis hard for an empty Bag to stand upright.
And now to conclude, Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that; for it is true, we may give Advice, but we cannot give Conduct, as Poor Richard says: However, remember this, They that won't be counseled, can't be helped, as Poor Richard says: and farther, That if you will not hear Reason, she'll surely rap your Knuckles.
THE WHISTLEPassy, November 10, 1779.
I am charmed with your description of Paradise, and with your plan of living there; and I approve much of your conclusion, that, in the meantime, we should draw all the good we can from this world. In my opinion, we might all draw more good from it than we do, and suffer less evil, if we would take care not to give too much for whistles. For to me it seems, that most of the unhappy people we meet with, are become so by neglect of that caution.
You ask what I mean? You love stories, and will excuse my telling one of myself.
When I was a child of seven year old, my friends, on a holiday, filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children; and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.
This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Don't give too much for the whistle; and I saved my money.
As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who gave too much for the whistle.
When I saw one too ambitious of court favor, sacrificing his time in attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it, I have said to myself, This man gives too much for his whistle.
When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by neglect, He pays, indeed, said I, too much for his whistle.
If I knew a miser who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, Poor man, said I, you pay too much for your whistle.
When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal sensations, and ruining his health in their pursuit, Mistaken man, said I, you are providing pain for yourself, instead of pleasure; you give too much for your whistle.
If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in a prison, Alas! say I, he has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle.
When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured brute of a husband, What a pity, say I, that she should pay so much for a whistle!
In short, I conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistles.
Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, when I consider, that, with all this wisdom of which I am boasting, there are certain things in the world so tempting, for example, the apples of King John, which happily are not to be bought; for if they were put to sale by auction, I might very easily be led to ruin myself in the purchase, and find that I had once more given too much for the whistle.
Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours very sincerely and with unalterable affection,
B. Franklin.
A LETTER TO SAMUEL MATHERPassy, May 12, 1784.
Revd Sir,
It is now more than 60 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.
The last and most complete edition of Franklin's works is that by the late Professor Albert H. Smyth, published in ten volumes by the Macmillan Company, New York, under the title, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. The other standard edition is the Works of Benjamin Franklin by John Bigelow (New York, 1887). Mr. Bigelow's first edition of the Autobiography in one volume was published by the J. B. Lippincott Company of Philadelphia in 1868. The life of Franklin as a writer is well treated by J. B. McMaster in a volume of The American Men of Letters Series; his life as a statesman and diplomat, by J. T. Morse, American Statesmen Series, one volume; Houghton, Mifflin Company publish both books. A more exhaustive account of the life and times of Franklin may be found in James Parton's Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (2 vols., New York, 1864). Paul Leicester Ford's The Many-Sided Franklin is a most chatty and readable book, replete with anecdotes and excellently and fully illustrated. An excellent criticism by Woodrow Wilson introduces an edition of the Autobiography in The Century Classics (Century Co., New York, 1901). Interesting magazine articles are those of E. E. Hale, Christian Examiner, lxxi, 447; W. P. Trent, McClure's Magazine, viii, 273; John Hay, The Century Magazine, lxxi, 447.
See also the histories of American literature by C. F. Richardson, Moses Coit Tyler, Brander Matthews, John Nichol, and Barrett Wendell, as well as the various encyclopedias. An excellent bibliography of Franklin is that of Paul Leicester Ford, entitled A List of Books Written by, or Relating to Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1889).
The following list of Franklin's works contains the more interesting publications, together with the dates of first issue.
1722.Dogood Papers.
Letters in the style of Addison's Spectator, contributed to James Franklin's newspaper and signed "Silence Dogood."
1729.The Busybody.
A series of essays published in Bradford's Philadelphia Weekly Mercury, six of which only are ascribed to Franklin. They are essays on morality, philosophy and politics, similar to the Dogood Papers.
1729.A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency.
1732.to
1757.
Prefaces to Poor Richard's Almanac.
Among these are Hints for those that would be Rich, 1737; and Plan for saving one hundred thousand pounds to New Jersey, 1756.
1743.A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge Among the British Plantations in America.
"This paper appears to contain the first suggestion, in any public form, for an American Philosophical Society." Sparks.
1744.An Account of the New Invented Pennsylvania Fire-Places.
1749.Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania.
Contains the plan for the school which later became the University of Pennsylvania.
1752.Electrical Kite.
A description of the famous kite experiment, first written in a letter to Peter Collinson, dated Oct. 19, 1752, which was published later in the same year in The Gentleman's Magazine
1754.Plan of Union.
A plan for the union of the colonies presented to the colonial convention at Albany.
1755.A Dialogue Between X, Y and Z.
An appeal to enlist in the provincial army for the defense of Pennsylvania.
1758.Father Abraham's Speech.
Published as a preface to Poor Richard's Almanac and gathering into one writing the maxims of Poor Richard, which had already appeared in previous numbers of the Almanac. The Speech was afterwards published in pamphlet form as the Way to Wealth.
1760.Of the Means of disposing the enemy to Peace.
A satirical plea for procecution of the war against France,
1760.The Interest of Great Britain Considered, with regard to her Colonies, and the Acquisitions of Canada and Guadaloupe.
1764.Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of our Public Affairs.
A pamphlet favoring a Royal Government for Pennsylvania in exchange for that of the Proprietors.
1766.The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, etc., in The British House of Commons, Relative to The Repeal of The American Stamp Act.
1766.Rules by which A Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One.
Some twenty satirical rules embodying the line of conduct England was pursuing with America.
1773.An Edict of The King of Prussia.
A satire in which the King of Prussia was made to treat England as England was treating America because England was originally settled by Germans.
1777.Comparison of Great Britain and the United States in Regard to the Basis of Credit in The Two Countries.
One of several similar pamphlets written to effect loans for the American cause.
1782.On the Theory of the Earth.
The best of Franklin's papers on geology.
1782.Letter purporting to emanate from a petty German Prince and to be addressed to his officer in Command in America.
1785.On the Causes and Cure of Smoky Chimneys.
1786.Retort Courteous.
Sending Felons to America.
Answers to the British clamor for the payment of American debts.
1789.Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abolition of Slavery.
1789.
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