From Benjamin Franklin to Madame Brillon, [before 1 July 1781]
To Madame Brillon
AL: Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs, Paris (1970)1; AL (draft): American Philosophical Society
[before July 1, 1781]2
Pour vous faire mieux comprendre la force de ma Demonstration3 que vous ne m’aimez pas, je commence par un petit Conte.4
Un Mendiant demandoit d’un rich Eveque5 un Louis en Aumone. Tu es un Extravagant: On ne donne pas des Louis6 aux Mendiants. Un Ecu, donc. Non: c’est trop. Un Liard, donc:—ou vôtre Benediction. Mon Benediction! Oui; je te7 le donnerai. Non; je ne l’accepterai pas. Car s’il vaut un Liard, vous ne le voudriez pas me donner.
Voila comme cet Eveque aimoit son Voisin! Voila sa Charité!— Et si j’examine la vôtre, je ne la trouverai pas beaucoup plus grande. J’ai eu un faim8 incroyable, & vous ne m’aviez pas donné à manger; J’étois etranger;1 & j’étois (presque) aussi malade que le Colin de2 vôtre Chanson;3 & vous ne m’aviez pas ni réçu, ni gueri, ni même soulagé. Vous qui étés riche4 comme un Archeveque en toutes les Vertus chretiennes & morales,5 & qui pouvez m’en sacrifier une petite Portion de quelques unes, sans que la Perte soit visible; vous me dites que cela est trop, & que vous ne voulez pas le faire.6 Voila votre Charité—à un pauvre Miserable, qui autrefois jouit de l’Affluence, & qui7 est malheureusement réduit à8 demander de vos Aumones!— Vous dites, neantmoins, que vous l’aimez. Mais vous9 ne lui donneriez pas vôtre Amitié, s’il fallut1 pour cela faire la2 Depense de le moindre petit Morceau, de la valeur d’un Liard, de vôtre Sagesse!3
1. A photocopy of this MS was given to the Franklin Papers at the time it was offered for sale at the Hôtel des Commissaires-Priseurs on Dec. 11, 1970. We note in annotation the revisions that BF made in his draft, where he identified this tale as “Le Mendiant.”
2. Dated on the basis of Mme Brillon’s reply of this date, immediately below.
3. BF had first written “mon Argument tant pro”; he replaced “Argument” with “Raisonnement” and then lined out the whole phrase.
4. The abbé de La Roche included this conte in extracts he made from five of BF’s letters to Mme Brillon. The abbé made minor changes of style and corrected certain errors of grammar. Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France.
5. BF added “rich” and crossed out “Arch” before “Eveque”.
6. BF lined out “Ghinets”, presumably a misspelling of guinées, and wrote in “Louis” above, here and elsewhere.
7. BF had first written “vous”.
8. BF had added here, and then lined out, “& un soif”.
1. BF had originally continued, “et vous ne m’aviez pas reçu:”. BF has borrowed from the gospel of Matthew a description of the Last Judgment: 25:42–3.
2. Originally “dans”.
3. Colin appears as a character in several of Mme Brillon’s pastoral songs, but nowhere is he depicted as Colin malade (as she calls him in her reply, below). The collection of Mme Brillon’s musical compositions, now at the APS, includes some thirty songs from four œuvres. A fifth, the third œuvre, has not been located. See Bruce Gustafson, “The Music of Madame Brillon: A Unified Manuscript Collection from Benjamin Franklin’s Circle,” Notes, XLIII (1987), 524–5, 540.
4. BF modified this with “aussi” in the draft and “si” in the AL, both of which he crossed out.
5. BF settled on “chrétiennes & morales” after trying out “de l’homme” and “vous qui avez un si”.
6. BF added “que” to this clause and moved “le” from in front of “voulez”.
7. BF had written “qui demande”.
8. Changed from “de”.
9. BF inserted above “si n’en” then lined it out.
1. In the draft BF wrote “si cela” then “s’il faut”.
2. BF crossed out “moindre petite” here in the AL; in the draft he had started to write “le moi”, crossed out “moi” and wrote “depense de la moindre petite morceau”.
3. In the draft BF crossed out two words now illegible before writing “sagesse”.