The Works of Benjamin Franklin (Volume 1); Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Edition, and Many Letters, Official and Private, Not Hitherto Published with Notes and a Life of the Author (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: chapter{Section 4chapter{Section 5PREFACE, BY THE EDITOR. Few writers have been so regardless of literary reputation as Franklin. Scarcely any of his compositions were published under his own eye; many of them were not written for the press; and the fame of authorship appears rarely to have been among the motives by which he was induced to employ his pen. It is true, that, in early life and afterwards, he cultivated with uncommon assiduity the art of writing, till he attained a mastery over the language, which has raised his name to the first rank in English literature. Yet it was his primary object, not so much to become distinguished by this accomplishment, as to acquire the power of acting on the minds of others, and of communicating, in the most attractive and effectual manner, such discoveries as he might make, and his schemes for the general improvement, the moral culture, the comfort, and happiness of mankind. He seldom affixed his name to any of his writings. They were mostly designed for a particular purpose; and, when they had answered the end for chapter{Section 6which they were intended, he seems to have given himself little concern about their future destiny. Hence he never took pains to collect and revise for the press any portion of his miscellaneous papers, which had been separately printed, nor to cause a collection of them to be published with his name and under his own supervision; although in two or three instances he rendered some assistance to others, who had voluntarily undertaken the task. The first collection was published in London in the year 1751. It consisted only of letters and papers on electricity, which he had sent to Peter Collinson, who committed them to the press without the author's knowledge, giving as a reason the extremely int...