Smyrna times., 1894-02-14
TALKS ON AMERICAN LITERATURE.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

(Prof, Yoeum has prepared a series of articles
on American literature which will be supple
mented by numerous selections from the works
of standard writer's. lis believed that such a
course of reading. while primarily designed for
the pupils Of the public schools may prove in
teresting to the general publc,)
Dumping his boyish head in Cotton
Mathers attic, yet stepping with no
faltering tread upon the very threshold
of to-day, Benjamin Franklin forms the
onnecting link between dependent
colonies and an independent nation.
Indeed the spirit of his life is so in smy-
pathy with that of the present age, that
we can hail him as the first American,
and his writings as the first American
literature. Yet at the age of eighty
two, loved by his countrymen. admired
by his foes, he is bound closely enough
to the past to write of his early hard.
ships and boyish tastes.
In an earlier section of this autobio-
graphy, written in 1771, after stating
that from his infancy he was passion
ately fond of reading" he mentions
Defoe's Essays on Projects" and
Mather's Essay to Do Good, ,as books
which perhaps gave him in his earliest
yonth "a turn of thinking that had an
influence on some of the principal
future events" of his life. Plutarch's
lives were also Tread abundantly" by
this boy of twelve years, who however
like many others of his kind before and
since, was Every fond of voyages" In
deed in 1717 to prevent him from run
ming away to sea, his father-a tallow
chandler of Boston bound him over
as an apprentice to his brother John,
who had just set himself up as a
printer. From this time on through
an acquaintance with the apprentices
of booksellers, he had access to bet
ter books" "Often," he tells u.s." l
sat up in my chamber the greatest part
of the night, when the book was bor
rowed in the evening to be retured in
the morning, lest it should be found
missing" His first literary efforts date
from this period.
II now took a strong inclination for
poetry, and wrote some little pieces;
my brother supposing it might turn to
account, encouraged me, and induced
mo IN oOmDOSo ftvO onoasioDoi haIlodO
One was called The Lighthouse Tragedy,
and contained an account of the ship
wreck of Captain Worthilake, with his
two dau lighters the other was a sailors
song, on the taking of the famous
Teach Tor Black beard) the pirate. They
were wTetched stuff, in street-ballad
style; and when they were printed, my
brother sent me about the town to sell
them. The first sold prOdigiously, the
event being recent, and having made a
great noise. This success hattered my
vanity; but my father discouraged me
by criticizing my performances, and
telling me that verse.makers were gen
orally beggars. Thus 1 escaped being
a poet, and probably a very bad one" j"
No better way of improving ones
style could be found than the one taken
by the young philosopher. about this
time / met with an odd volume of the
Spectator. had never before seen
any of them. bought it, read it over
and over and was much delighted with
it. l thought the writing excellent,
and wished, if possible, to initiate it.
With that view / took some of the
papers, and, making short hints of the
sentiments in each sentence, laid them
by few days, and then, without look
ing at the book, tried to complete the
papers again, by expressing each limited
sentiment at length, and as fully as il
had been expressed before, in any suit
able words that should occur to me.
Then l compared my Spectator with
the original, discovered some of my
faults, and corrected them. But /
found l wanted a stock of works, or a
readiness in recOllecting and using
them, which / thought should have
acquired before that time if I had gone
on making verses; since the continual
search for words of the same import,
but of different length, to suit he meas
ure, or of different sound for the rhyme
would have laid me under a constant
necessity of searching for variety, and
also have tended to fix that variety in
my mind and make me master of it.
Therefore took some of the tales in the
Spectator and turned them into verse
and, after time, when had pretty well
forgotten the prose, turned them back
again. l also sometimes jumbled my
collection of hints into confusion, and
after some weeks endeavOred to reduce
them into the best order, before l began
10 form the full sentences and com
plete the subject. This was to teach me
method in the arrangement of the
thoughts. By comparing my work
with the original i discovered my faults
and corrected them; but sometimes
had the pleasure to fancy that, in par
ticulars of small consequence, I haC
been fortunate enough to improve tn,
method or the language, and this en-
couraged me to think that 1 might in
time come to be a tolerable English
writer, of which 1 was extremely am
bilious"
"My brother had, in 1870 or 1921, be
gun to print newspaper. It was th'
second that appeared in America, anG
was called the NeW England COurant
The only one before it was the BOstOi
NetUs- Letter. 1 remember his beini
dissuaded by some of his friends from
the undertaking, as not likely to sue
ceed, one newspaper being, in thei
judgment, enough for America. A
this time (l771) there are not less thai
five-and-twenty."
Anxious to have his thoughts appea
in print, yet shrewdly suspecting tina
his brother would object to publishing