The book of days : a miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, including anecdote, biography, & history, curiosities of literature and oddities of human life and character / edited by R. Chambers.

Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of days : a miscellany of popular antiquities in connection with the calendar, including anecdote, biography, & history, curiosities of literature and oddities of human life and character / edited by R. Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    72/854 (page 58)
    JANUARY 6. ©pijjtnmg, or (Old Christmas Day.) St Melanius, bishop, 490. St Nilammon, hermit. St Peter, abbot of St Austin’s, Canterbury, 608. Born.— Richard II., King of England, 1366; Joan d’Arc, 1402; Peter Metastasio, poet, 1698; Benjamin Franklin, philosopher, Boston, U.S., 1706; David Dale, philanthropist, 1739; George Thomas Doo, engraver, 1800. Died.—Seth Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, mathematician, 1689; John Dennis, critic, 1734; Madame d’Arblay (Frances Burney), novelist, 1840; James Smith, comic poet, 1840 ; Fanny Wright, lady politician, 1853. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.* Modern society has felt as if there were some- thing wanting in the character of Franklin; yet what the man positively had of good about him was, beyond all doubt, extremely good. Self- denial, energy, love of knowledge, sagacity to discern and earnestness to pursue what was calculated to promote happiness amongst mankind, scientific in- genuity, courage in the protection of patriotic interests against mis- rule—all were his. How few men possess half so many high qualities! It is an extremely characteristic circum- stance that, landing at Falmouth from a dan- gerous voyage, and going to church with his son to return thanks to God for their deliver- ance, he felt it as an oc- casion when a Catholic would have vowed to build a chapel to some saint: ‘not being a Ca- tholic,’ said the philo- sopher, ‘ if I were to vow at all, it would be to build a lighthouse’ [the article found chiefly wanting towards the end of their voyage]. It is little known that it was mainly by the advice of Franklin that the English govern- ment resolved to conquer Canada, and for that purpose sent out Wolfe’s expedition. While in our island at that time (1759), as agent for the colony of Pennsylvania, he made an ex- * Franklin is sometimes said to have been born on the 17th of January. He was, in reality, born on what was held at the time of birth as the 6th, being old style. Con- sidering that the day of the birth of remarkable men, as expressed in their own time, is that round which our asso- ciations arrange themselves, it is intended in this work to adhere to that date, in all cases where it is known. 58 BENJAMIN FEANKLIN. cursion to Scotland, accompanied by his son. His reputation as a man of science had made him well known there, and he was accordingly re- ceived with distinction by Hume, Kobertson, Lord Karnes, and other literary men of note, was made a doctor of St Andrew’s University, and a bur- gess by the Town Council of Edinburgh. Franklin paid a long visit to Lord Karnes at his seat of Karnes in Berwickshire, and when he came away, his host and hostess gave him a convoy into the English border. Some months after, writing to his lordship from London, he said: ‘How much more agreeable would our journey have been, if we could have enjoyed you as far as York! We could have beguiled the way by discoursing on a thousand things that now we may never have an opportunity of considering together; for conversation warms the mind, enlivens the imagination, and is continually starting fresh game that is immediately pursued and taken, and which would never have occurred in the duller intercourse of epistolary correspon- dence. So that when- ever I reflect on the great pleasure and ad- vantage I received from the free communication of sentiment in the con- versation we had at Karnes, and in the agreeable little rides to the Tweedside, I shall ever regret our prema- ture parting.’ ‘ Our conversation,’ he added, ‘ until we came to York, was chiefly a recollection of what we had seen and heard, the pleasure we had en- joyed, and the kind- nesses we had received in Scotland, and how far that country had exceeded our expecta- tions. On the whole, I must say, I think the time we spent there was six weeks of the densest happiness I have ever met with in any part of my life; and the agreeable and in- structive society we found there in such plenty, has left so pleasing an impression on my memory, that, did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I should choose to spend the remain- der of my days in.’ Soon after, May 3rd, 1760, Franklin commu- nicated to Lord Karnes a plan he had formed to write a little book under the title of The Art of Virtue. ‘ Many people,’ he said, ‘ lead bad lives that would gladly lead good ones, but do not know how to make the change. They have fre- quently resolved and endeavoured it; but in vain, because their endeavours have not been properly