The Advocate and news., 1897-12-15
COOPERATIVE READING CLUBS.
AMERICAN LITERATURE COURSE.


in Boston, but without the fortune OF
many notahles, Franklin was not a
graduate of Harvard College. At the
age of Q years he was taken from school
and put to work in his fathers soap
factory. Soap-boiling was not an at
tractive business, and after three years
he became an apprentice" in the print
ing house of his brother James.
It is said that "The art of putting
things into written words" was first in
troduced by Franklin to American read
ors. This "art" eventually caused rup-
ture between the brothers. as Benjamin
had been secretly sending articles to the
Courant his brothers paper. Instead
of commenting his brother Benjamin for
these readable articles, James criticised
him. The result was that Benjamin
Franklin started for Philadelphia, pen
niless and friendless, strange entrance
into city in which he afterward be-
came famous. The hardships he en-
dured were many, yet ne despaired not.
It is not of those struggles that we
are to speak, but OF Franklin as a
writer.
Franklin was a great man." says
Mr.. Henry Beer, "but hardly a great
writer, though as writer, too, he had
many admirable and some great quail
ties. Among these were crystal clear
ness and simplicity of style. Poor
Richards Almanac and his 'Autobiog-
raphy' were the most popular of his
writings. The former was filled with
proverbial sayings in prose and verse,
intoxicating the virtues Of industry hon
esty, and frugality."
The following is a bit OF philosophy
taken from his Autobiography"
Human felicity is produced not so
much by great pieces of good fortune,
that seldom happen, as by little advan-
tages that occur every day; thus, If you
teach poor young man to shave himself
and keep his razor in order, you may
contribute more to the happiness of his
life than in giving him a thousand
guineas"
AS foreign minister, as a powerful
factor Of the press, and the manner In
which he transacted all business at home
and abroad during that great struggle
for independence, Franklin stands with
out peer.
FRANKLIN'S UNIVERSAL CREED.
(From Richardson's American Litera-
ture." Vol. -
There is one God, who made all things
He governs the world by his providence.
He ought to be wOrshipped by alteration,
prayer and thanksgiving.
The most acceptable service of God Is
doing good to man.
The soul is immortal
God will certainly reward virtue and
punish vice either here or hereafter.
Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) was a
native of Connecticut and graduate OF
Yale. He was for more than twenty
years minister for the church in
Northampton. His writings belong
rather to theology than literature and
he ranks as the subtlest metaphysician
of his age from the excellence of his
celebrated treatise, Inquiry into the
Freedom of the Will" published in 1754
Even as a school boy he made deep
guesses in physics, and it might be said
that he anticipated Berkeley in denying
the existence of matter. His training
at Yale was in the train of philosophical
studies which prepared him for his life
work His famous book against the free
dom of the will, upon which Edwards
lavished all his intellectual faculties,
was to show that sound philosophical
and theological conclusions were iden-
teal, as regards the action OF the mind
and will of man.
Cotton Mather (1663-172S), graduate
of Harvard, was a man who, says Rich
ardson, sampled all the knowledge ac-
cessible in New England" He ordered
his daily life and conversation by sys-
tenn of minute observations. His pub
lished works number $50. HE wrote in
style ponderous with learning and stiff
with illusions, digressions, conceits, an
ecdotes and quotations from Greek and
the Latin" says Mr.. Beers, in his initial
Studies" Previous to this he says, in
regard to Cotton Mather "The book