OUR PARLIAMENTARY ELOQUENCE. 135 the change which the establishment of a republican government in the last of those countries is likely to produce, or of the hints and cautions with which, in contemplation of that event, she thinks it necessary to provide her countrymen. These are perhaps the most curious parts of the work:-but we cannot enter upon them at present;—and indeed, in what we have already said, we have so far exceeded the limits to which we always wish to confine ourselves, that we do not very well know what apology to make to our readers-except merely, that we are not without hope, that the miscellaneous nature of the subject, by which we have been insensibly drawn into this great prolixity, may have carried them also along, with as moderate a share of fatigue as we have ourselves experienced. If it be otherwise—we must have the candour and the gallantry to say, that we are persuaded the fault is to be imputed to us, and not to the ingenious author upon whose work we have been employed; and that, if we had confined ourselves to a mere abstract of her lucubrations, or interspersed fewer of our own remarks with the account we have attempted to give of their substance, we might have extended this article to a still greater length, without provoking the impatience even of the more fastidious of our readers. As it is, we feel that we have done but scanty justice, either to our author or her subjectthough we can now make no other amends, than by earnestly entreating our readers to study both of them for themselves. 136 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. (JULY, 1806.) The Complete Works, in Philosophy, Politics, and Morals, of the late DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Now first collected and arranged. With Memoirs of his Early Life, written by Himself. 3 vols. 8vo. pp. 1450. Johnson, London: 1806. NOTHING, we think, can show more clearly the singular want of literary enterprise or activity, in the United States of America, than that no one has yet been found in that flourishing republic, to collect and publish the works of their only philosopher. It is not even very creditable to the liberal curiosity of the English public, that there should have been no complete edition of the writings of Dr. Franklin, till the year 1806: and we should have been altogether unable to account for the imperfect and unsatisfactory manner in which the task has now been performed, if it had not been for a statement in the prefatory advertisement, which removes all blame from the editor, to attach it to a higher quarter. It is there stated, that recently after the death of the author, his grandson, to whom the whole of his papers had been bequeathed, made a voyage to London, for the purpose of preparing and disposing of a complete collection of all his published and unpublished writings, with memoirs of his life, brought down by himself to the year 1757, and continued to his death by his descendant. It was settled, that the work should be published in three quarto volumes, in England, Germany, and France; and a negotiation was commenced with the booksellers, as to the terms of the purchase and publication. At this stage of the business, however, the proposals were suddenly withdrawn; and nothing more has been heard of the work, in this its fair and natural market. "The proprietor, it seems, had found a bidder of a different description, in some emissary of Government, whose object was to withhold the manuscripts from the world, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 137 not to benefit it by their publication; and they thus either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed, received a remuneration for suppressing them." If this statement be correct, we have no hesitation in saying, that no emissary of Government was ever employed on a more miserable and unworthy service. It is ludicrous to talk of the danger of disclosing in 1795, any secrets of state, with regard to the war of American independence; and as to any anecdotes or observations that might give offence to individuals, we think it should always be remembered, that public functionaries are the property of the public; that their character belongs to history and to posterity; and that it is equally absurd and discreditable to think of suppressing any part of the evidence by which their merits must be ultimately determined. But the whole of the works that have been suppressed, certainly did not relate to republican politics. The history of the author's life, down to 1757, could not well contain any matter of offence; and a variety of general remarks and speculations which he is understood to have left behind him, might have been permitted to see the light, though his diplomatic revelations had been forbidden. The emissary of Government, however, probably took no care of those things. He was resolved, we suppose, "to leave no rubs nor botches in his work;" and, to stifle the dreaded revelation, he thought the best way was to strangle all the innocents in the vicinage. Imperfect as the work now before us necessarily is, we think the public is very much indebted to its editor. It is presented in a cheap and unostentatious form; and though it contains little that has not been already printed as the composition of the author, and does not often settle any point of disputed authenticity in a satisfactory manner, it seems, on the whole, to have been compiled with sufficient diligence, and arranged with considerable judgment. Few writings, indeed, require the aid of a commentator less than those of Dr. Franklin; and though this editor is rather too sparing of his 138 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. presence, we are infinitely better satisfied to be left now and then to our conjectures, than to be incumbered with the explanations, and overpowered with the loquacity, of a more officious attendant. We do not propose to give any thing like a regular account of the papers contained in these volumes. The best of them have long been familiar to the public; and there are many which it was proper to preserve, that cannot now be made interesting to the general reader. Dr. Franklin, however, is too great a man to be allowed to walk past, without some observation; and our readers, we are persuaded, will easily forgive us, if we yield to the temptation of making a few remarks on his character. This self-taught American is the most rational perhaps of all philosophers. He never loses sight of common sense in any of his speculations; and when his philosophy does not consist entirely in its fair and vigorous application, it is always regulated and controlled by it in its application and result. No individual, perhaps, ever possessed a juster understanding; or was so seldom obstructed in the use of it, by indolence, enthusiasm, or authority. Dr. Franklin received no regular education; and he spent the greater part of his life in a society where there was no relish and no encouragement for literature. On an ordinary mind, these circumstances would have produced their usual effects, of repressing all sorts of intellectual ambition or activity, and perpetuating a generation of incurious mechanics: but to an understanding like Franklin's, we cannot help considering them as peculiarly propitious; and imagine that we can trace back to them, distinctly, almost all the peculiarities of his intellectual character. Regular education, we think, is unfavourable to vigour or originality of understanding. Like civilisation, it makes society more intelligent and agreeable; but it levels the distinctions of nature. It strengthens and assists the feeble; but it deprives the strong of his triumph, and casts down the hopes of the aspiring. It accomplishes this, not only by training up the mind in BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 139 an habitual veneration for authorities, but, by leading us to bestow a disproportionate degree of attention upon studies that are only valuable as keys or instruments for the understanding, they come at last to be regarded as ultimate objects of pursuit; and the means of education are absurdly mistaken for its end. How many powerful understandings have been lost in the Dialectics of Aristotle! And of how much good philosophy are we daily defrauded, by the preposterous error of taking a knowledge of prosody for useful learning! The mind of a man, who has escaped this training, will at least have fair play. Whatever other errors he may fall into, he will be safe at least from these infatuations: And if he thinks proper, after he grows up, to study Greek, it will probably be for some better purpose than to become critically acquainted with its dialects. His prejudices will be those of a man, and not of a schoolboy; and his speculations and conclusions will be independent of the maxims of tutors, and the oracles of literary patrons. The consequences of living in a refined and literary community, are nearly of the same kind with those of a regular education. There are so many critics to be satisfied so many qualifications to be establishedso many rivals to encounter, and so much derision to be hazarded, that a young man is apt to be deterred from so perilous an enterprise, and led to seek for distinction in some safer line of exertion. He is discouraged by the fame and the perfection of certain models and favourites, who are always in the mouths of his judges, and, "under them, his genius is rebuked," and his originality repressed, till he sinks into a paltry copyist, or aims at distinction, by extravagance and affectation. In such a state of society, he feels that mediocrity has no chance of distinction: and what beginner can expect to rise at once into excellence? He imagines that mere good sense will attract no attention; and that the manner is of much more importance than the matter, in a candidate for public admiration. In his attention to the manner, the matter is apt to be neglected; and, in his solicitude to please those who require elegance of |