A description of the famous kite experiment, first written in a letter to Peter Collinson, dated Oct. 19, 1752, which was published later in the same year in The Gentleman's Magazine. 1754. Plan of Union. A plan for the union of the colonies presented to the colonial convention at Albany. 1755. A Dialogue Between X, Y and Z. An appeal to enlist in the provincial army for the defense of Pennsylvania. 1758. Father Abraham's Speech. Published as a preface to Poor Richard's Almanac and gathering into one writing the maxims of Poor Richard, which had already appeared in previous numbers of the Almanac. The Speech was afterwards published in pamphlet form as the Way to Wealth. 1760. Of the Means of disposing the Enemy to Peace. 1760. 1764. A satirical plea for the prosecution of the war against The Interest of Great Britain Considered, with regard Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of our Public A pamphlet favoring a Royal Government for Penn- 1766. The Examination of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, etc., in The British House of Commons, Relative to The Repeal of The American Stamp Act. 1773. Rules by which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To a Small One. 1773. An Edict of The King of Prussia. 1777. Comparison of Great Britain and The United States in Regard to the Basis of Credit In The Two Countries. One of several similar pamphlets written to effect loans for the American cause. 1782. On the Theory of the Earth. The best of Franklin's papers on geology. 1782. Letter purporting to emanate from a petty German Prince and to be addressed to his officer in Command in America. 1785. On the Causes and Cure of Smoky Chimneys. 1786. Retort Courteous. Sending Felons to America. Answers to the British clamor for the payment of 1789. Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting Abolition of Slavery. 1789. An Account of the Supremest Court of Judicature in Pennsylvania, viz. The Court of the Press. 1790. Martin's Account of his Consulship. A parody of a pro-slavery speech in Congress. 1791. Autobiography. The first edition. 1818. Bagatelles. The Bagatelles were first published in 1818 in Wil- Franklin called this the LI Chapter of 1774? A Parable on Brotherly Love. 1778. The Ephemera, an Emblem of Human Life. 1779. The Story of the Whistle. 1779? The Levee. 1779? Proposed New Version of the Bible. Part of the first chapter of Job modernized. (1779. Published) The Morals of Chess. 1780? The Handsome and Deformed Leg. 1780. Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout. (Published in 1802.) 1802. A Petition of the Left Hand. 1806. The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams. FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY I ANCESTRY AND EARLY YOUTH IN BOSTON You may remember the TWYFORD, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's, 1771. DEAR SON: I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey 15 undertook for that purpose. Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week's uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write 10 them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, 15 the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated. That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me 20 sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more 5 favorable. But though this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one's life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down 10in writing. Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might con15ceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this may be read or not as anyone pleases. And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the 20introductory words, "Without vanity I may say," etc., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of 25good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life. And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all 30humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence, which led me to the means I used and gave them success. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done; the complexion of my future fortune being known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us even our afflictions. 5 The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in North-10 amptonshire, for three hundred years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the time when the name of Franklin, that before was the name of an order of people, was assumed by them as a surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of15 about thirty acres, aided by the smith's business, which had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son being always bred to that business; a custom which he and my father followed as to their eldest sons. When I searched the registers at Ecton, I found an account of 20 their births, marriages and burials from the year 1555 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598,25 lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an apprenticeship. There my grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son 30 Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now lord of the manor there. My grandfather had four sons |