183481From Benjamin Franklin to Josiah and Abiah Franklin, 13 April 1738 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: Historical Society of Pennsylvania I have your Favour of the 21st of March in which you both seem concern’d lest I have imbib’d some erroneous Opinions. Doubtless I have my Share, and when the natural Weakness and Imperfection of Human Understanding is considered, with the unavoidable Influences of Education, Custom, Books and Company, upon our Ways of thinking, I imagine a Man must...
183482A Defense of Conduct, 15 February 1738 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , February 15, 1737/8. Dr. Evan Jones, “chymist” at the Golden Paracelsus’ Head in Philadelphia, had a simple-minded apprentice Daniel Rees, who thought he wanted to be a Mason. With several cronies, one a renegade Mason, Jones, thinking to have some agreeable sport, set up a burlesque initiation ceremony, complete with scandalous oath of allegiance to...
183483Poor Richard, 1737 (Franklin Papers)
Poor Richard, 1737. An Almanack For the Year of Christ 1737 ,... By Richard Saunders, Philom. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, at the New Printing-Office near the Market. (Yale University Library) This is the fifth Time I have appear’d in Publick, chalking out the future Year for my honest Countrymen, and foretelling what shall, and what may, and what may not come to pass; in...
183484From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 1737 (Franklin Papers)
Transcript: Harvard College Library (Sparks) Having read the Chapter on Moral Good or Virtue, with all the Attention I am Capable of, amidst the many little Cares that Continually infest me, I shall, as the Author Condescends to desire, give my Opinion of it, and that with all Sincerity and Freedom, neither apprehending the Imputation of Flattery on the one hand, nor that of Ill Manners on the...
183485Extracts from the Gazette, 1737 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 6 to December 29, 1737. Thursday Evening last [ should be Wednesday, Dec. 29], the Weather being very cold and clear, we had a fair and surprizing Appearance of the Aurora Borealis , or Northern Twilight . It was more red and luminous than that which we saw here about Six Years ago: Insomuch that People in the Southern Parts of the Town, imagin’d...
183486[Causes of Earthquakes, 15 and 22 December 1737] (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 15 and 22, 1737. An earthquake felt in the Middle Colonies on December 7, 1737, was the occasion for publishing these essays. Duane printed them ( Works , IV , 380–91), as did Sparks and Bigelow, but Alfred Owen Aldridge has shown them to be almost verbatim reprints from Chambers’ Cyclopaedia; or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences .......
183487[On Freedom of Speech and the Press, 17 November 1737] (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , November 17, 1737, and following issues. Duane ( Works , IV , 319–40) and, on his authority, though less certain, Sparks ( Writings , ii, 285–311), printed this long historical essay with its examples drawn mainly from Roman and English history. It is signed “X.” No evidence, internal or external, persuades the present editors that Franklin wrote it.
183488The Drinker’s Dictionary, 13 January 1737 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 13, 1736/7. In his Silence Dogood Letter, No. 12 (see above, I , 39) Franklin listed nineteen terms signifying drunkenness. Fifteen of them, some with slight changes, appear in The Drinker’s Dictionary. This congruity is the principal reason for attributing the piece to Franklin. Nothing more like a Fool than a drunken Man. Poor Richard. ’Tis an...
183489Poor Richard, 1736 (Franklin Papers)
Poor Richard, 1736. An Almanack For the Year of Christ 1736 , ... By Richard Saunders, Philom. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by B. Franklin, at the New Printing-Office near the Market. (Yale University Library) Your kind Acceptance of my former Labours, has encouraged me to continue writing, tho’ the general Approbation you have been so good as to favour me with, has excited the Envy of some,...
183490Afterword to Every Man His Own Doctor, 1736 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in [John Tennent], Every Man his own Doctor: or, The Poor Planter’s Physician .... The Fourth Edition. Philadelphia: printed and Sold by B. Franklin, near the Market, M,DCC,XXXVI. (Historical Society of Pennsylvania) In 1734 Franklin reprinted John Tennent’s Every Man his own Doctor , which had been published earlier that year in a “second edition” in Williamsburg, Va. Franklin may...