From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 22 December 1745
To William Strahan
ALS: New York Public Library (Berg)
Dec. 22. 1745
Sir
The above is a Copy of what I wrote you per Mesnard9 who sailed about 10 Days ago from this Port. This goes per Capt. Hargrave, who is soon to sail from Maryland. Enclos’d I send you a Bill for £15.7.1, which I hope will be readily paid. Enclos’d is also a Letter to Mr. Collinson, containing an Order for Books for the Library, which when you deliver you will have an Opportunity of proposing to furnish them. Please to add to the enclos’d List the following Books for me,1 viz. Starkey’s Pyrotechny asserted, an old Book. 6 Echard’s Gazetteer. 6 Watts’s Lyrick Poems. 6 Watts’s Logic with Supplement. 1 Watts’s Essays. also 5 or 6 lbs. of Long primer Fractions, i.e. to use with Long Primer in Arithmetic Work. Mr. Hall and all your Friends here are well, as I hope [obliterated].
9. BF’s letter of Dec. 11, the duplicate of which was written on the same sheet as this of Dec. 22.
1. The books wanted were probably the following: George Starkey, Pyrotechny Asserted and Illustrated, to be the Surest and Safest Means for Arts Triumph over Natures Infirmities (London, 1696); Laurence Echard (or Eachard), The Gazetteer’s: or Newsman’s Interpreter (15th edit., London, 1741); Isaac Watts, Horae Lyricae. Poems chiefly of the Lyric Kind (8th edit., London, 1743); Watts, Logick: or the Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth (7th edit., London, 1740), with The Improvement of the Mind: or, a Supplement to the Art of Logick (2d edit., London, 1743); and Watts, Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects (3d edit., London, 1742).