ILLUSTRATIONS

Franklin at the Court of Louis XVI

Frontispiece "He was therefore, feasted and invited to all the court parties. At these he sometimes met the old Duchess of Bourbon, who, being a chess player of about his force, they very generally played together. Happening once to put her king into prize, the Doctor took it. 'Ah,' says she, 'we do not take kings so.' 'We do in America,' said the Doctor."-THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Portrait of Franklin

FACING

PAGE

vii

Pages 1 and 4 of The Pennsylvania Gazette, Number
XL, the first number after Franklin took control xxi
First page of The New England Courant of December

4-11, 1721

"I was employed to carry the papers thro' the streets to the customers

33

36

She, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridicu

"I see him still at work when I go home from club" 120 Two pages from Poor Richard's Almanac for 1736 "I regularly took my turn of duty there as a common soldier"

171

204

"In the evening, hearing a great noise among them, the commissioners walk'd out to see what was the

66 Our axes

66

cut down trees

"We now appeared very wide, and so far from each other in our opinions as to discourage all hope

FACING

PAGE

278

"You will find it stream out plentifully from the key on the approach of your knuckle "

Father Abraham in his study

The end papers show, at the front, the Franklin arms and the Franklin seal; at the back, the medal given by the Boston public schools from the fund left by Franklin for that purpose as provided in the following extract from his will:

"I was born in Boston, New England, and owe my
first instructions in literature to the free grammar-
schools established there. I therefore give one hundred
pounds sterling to my executors, to be by them.
paid over to the managers or directors of the free
schools in my native town of Boston, to be by them.
put out to interest, and so continued at interest forever,
which interest annually shall be laid out in silver medals,
and given as honorary rewards annually by the directors
of the said free schools belonging to the said town, in
such manner as to the discretion of the selectmen of the
said town shall seem meet."

318

328

330

INTRODUCTION

E Americans devour eagerly any piece of writing that purports to tell us the secret of success in life; yet

how often we are disappointed to

find nothing but commonplace statements, or receipts that we know by heart but never follow. Most of the life stories of our famous and successful men fail to inspire because they lack the human element that makes the record real and

brings the story within our grasp. While we are searching far and near for some Aladdin's Lamp to give coveted fortune, there is ready at our hand if we will only reach out and take it, like the charm in Milton's Comus,

"Unknown, and like esteemed, and the dull swain Treads on it daily with his clouted shoon;

99

the interesting, human, and vividly told story of one of the wisest and most useful lives in our own history, and perhaps in any history. In Franklin's Autobiography is offered not so much a ready-made formula for success, as the companionship of a real flesh and blood man of extraordinary mind and quality, whose daily walk