<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<h1>THE MENTOR 1918.05.15, No. 155,<br/> <span class="smaller">Benjamin Franklin</span></h1>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/cover.jpg" width-obs="479" height-obs="700" alt="Cover page" /></div>
<div class="bbox" style="width: 25em; margin: auto;">
<p class="center gesperrt smaller">LEARN ONE THING<br/>
EVERY DAY</p>
<p class="smaller noindent">MAY 15 1918</p>
<p class="right smaller noindent" style="margin-top: -2em;">SERIAL NO. 155</p>
<p class="center"><span class="larger">THE<br/>
MENTOR</span><br/>
<br/>
BENJAMIN<br/>
FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="center">By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART</p>
<p class="center">Professor of Government<br/>
Harvard University</p>
<p class="smaller noindent">DEPARTMENT OF<br/>
BIOGRAPHY</p>
<p class="right smaller noindent" style="margin-top: -3em;">VOLUME 6<br/>
NUMBER 7</p>
<p class="center">TWENTY CENTS A COPY</p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="bbox-dashed">
<h2>THE WHISTLE</h2>
<div class="bordered">
<p class="center"><i>A</i> Bit <i>of</i> Ben Franklin Wisdom</p>
</div>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-w.jpg" width-obs="86" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">When I was a child seven years old, my friends, on a holiday,
filled my pocket with coppers. I went directly to a shop where
they sold toys for children; and, being charmed with the sound
of a <i>whistle</i> that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I
voluntarily offered and gave all my money for one. I then came
home and went whistling all over the house, much pleased with
my <i>whistle</i>, but disturbing all the family. My brothers, and sisters,
and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me
I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind of what
good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed at me
so much for my folly that I cried with vexation; and the reflection gave me
more chagrin than the <i>whistle</i> gave me pleasure.</p>
<p>This, however, was afterward of use to me, the impression continuing on my
mind; so that often, when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said
to myself, <i>Don’t give too much for the whistle</i>; and I saved my money. As I grew
up, came into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with
many, very many, who <i>gave too much for the whistle</i>.</p>
<p>When I saw one too ambitious of court favour, sacrificing his time in
attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends,
to attain it, I have said to myself, <i>This man gives too much for his whistle</i>.</p>
<p>When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in
political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by that neglect,
<i>He pays, indeed</i>, said I, <i>too much for his whistle</i>.</p>
<p>If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the
pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the
joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth, <i>Poor man</i>,
said I, <i>you pay too much for your whistle</i>.</p>
<p>When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement
of the mind or of his fortune to mere corporeal sensations, and ruining his health
in their pursuit, <i>Mistaken man</i>, said I, <i>you are providing pain for yourself instead of
pleasure; you give too much for your whistle</i>.</p>
<p>If I see one fond of appearance, or fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture,
fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts and ends his
days in prison, <i>Alas!</i> say I, <i>he has paid dear, very dear, for his whistle</i>.</p>
<p>When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to an ill-natured brute
of a husband, <i>What a pity</i>, say I, <i>that she should pay so much for a whistle</i>!</p>
<p>In short, I can conceive that great part of the miseries of mankind are brought
upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by
their <i>giving too much for their whistle</i>.</p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <p class="smaller noindent">ENGRAVED BY H. DAVIDSON FROM THE SCULPTURE BY R. TAIT MCKENZIE. COURTESY OF THE CENTURY CO.</p> <ANTIMG src="images/plate1.jpg" width-obs="470" height-obs="650" alt="" /> <p class="caption">THE YOUNG BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1723</p> </div>
<h2><i>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</i><br/> <span class="smaller"><i>His Life</i></span></h2></div>
<p class="line"><span class="linebg">ONE</span></p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-plain-b.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts,
January 17, 1706 (January 6, Old Style),
of humble parents, was one of the heroes of the
War of Independence, one of the cleverest of American
diplomats, and one of the greatest American politicians
and statesmen. But this was not all: he possessed so many
talents that he can only be described
properly as a universal genius.</p>
<p>Franklin’s life is one huge catalogue of
performances, hard indeed to tabulate, for
he went from one thing to another with
remarkable rapidity and excelled in everything
that he undertook. A recital of his
accomplishments sounds like a round of
the old counting game, “Doctor, lawyer,
merchant, chief.” He was, in fact, all the
list but the “thief”—even the “beggarman.”</p>
<p>Franklin’s father, Josiah Franklin, a
candle maker, intended that his son should
enter the ministry of the Puritan Church,
and with this idea sent him, when eight
years old, to the Boston Grammar School.
A year of this was too much for the slender
means of the father, so Benjamin was sent
to George Brownell for instruction. A
year of this and Franklin’s school days
were ended. He worked in his father’s
shop for a time, and then apprenticed himself
to his brother James, a printer.</p>
<p>While engaged in the printing business
(and this did not merely consist of setting
type and printing books, but in writing
articles for his paper and also many political
pamphlets that prepared the way for
his future career), he was clerk of the General
Assembly in 1736 (holding this office
until 1751); postmaster in Philadelphia in
1737; and, after he gave up the post of
clerk of the General Assembly, a member
of that body for thirteen years (1751-1764).
His activity in public affairs was
enormous: he organized the first police
and fire company in Philadelphia; established
an academy which became the University
of Pennsylvania; organized an important
debating club—the Junto (1727);
took the lead in improving the paving of
the city; developed the lighting of the
streets; organized a militia force; founded
a city hospital, and in every way concerned
himself with the bettering of conditions,
both civic and political. He undertook to
provide Braddock with horses and wagons
for the march against Fort Duquesne, and,
in 1756, he had charge of the Northwest
frontier for a month, during which he
erected blockhouses and watched the wily
Indians.</p>
<p>In 1757, he was sent to London as agent
for the people to petition the Crown. He
returned home in 1762, expecting to settle
down and devote the remainder of his life
to scientific investigation and the pleasures
of the pen. He brought with him
many degrees and honors, and he thought
that his public life was over. In two years’
time, however, he was again sent to England
as agent to settle questions in relation
to taxation, and represented not only
Pennsylvania, but New Jersey, Georgia,
and Massachusetts. He remained until
1775, and was, therefore, in England during
all the stormy days of the Stamp Act.
On the day after his return he was elected
to the Continental Congress, and was one
of the committee of five to draw up the
Declaration of Independence. On September
26, 1776, he was chosen commissioner
to France with Arthur Lee and Silas Deane,
and arrived in Paris on December 22,
1776, after a perilous passage, to be welcomed
like a hero. On October 28, 1776,
he was appointed sole plenipotentiary to
the Court of France. In 1781, he was appointed
one of a commission to make
peace with Great Britain. He returned to
Philadelphia in 1785, having made commercial
treaties with Sweden (1783) and
Prussia (1785).</p>
<p>Even then, Franklin’s work was not finished.
He was elected a member of the
municipal council of Philadelphia, and was
made a delegate to the Convention that
drew up the Federal Constitution. It is
interesting, also, to note that he signed a
petition to Congress, in 1790, to abolish
slavery. He died in Philadelphia on April
17, 1790, aged eighty-four.</p>
<p>These extraordinary activities, including
those of a politician, diplomat, philanthropist,
civic reformer, philosopher, scientist,
printer, and author, covered a period
of sixty years. And in between all these
separate careers, as we might call them,
we find stray hours filled with delightful
pursuits and such pleasant diversions as
studies in the realm of music, improving
the musical glasses, and buying Bow,
Worcester, and Chelsea china of the newest
fashion. Moreover, Franklin always found
time to write beautifully and to enjoy
social pleasures.</p>
<p class="center smaller">PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION<br/>
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155<br/>
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <p class="smaller noindent">FROM AN ENGRAVING BY GEORGE E. PERINE, AFTER A DRAWING BY C. N. COCHIN</p> <ANTIMG src="images/plate2.jpg" width-obs="472" height-obs="650" alt="" /> <p class="caption">THE MATURE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 1777</p> </div>
<h2><i>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</i><br/> <span class="smaller"><i>The Man</i></span></h2></div>
<p class="line"><span class="linebg">TWO</span></p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-plain-b.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">Benjamin Franklin was the first distinguished
American “self-made man.” He took himself in
hand at an early age, and with only two years
schooling, educated himself so that he became a man
of science, a man of letters, a philosopher, a statesman and a
diplomat, and acquired a fortune besides. And not only was
he all of these things, more than creditably,
but he took rank among the greatest
minds of the highly educated and scientific
Eighteenth Century. This was a
period of original investigation: much
“new thought” of all kinds was coming
into the world, and Franklin’s mind was
exactly the type of mind that was characteristic
of this age—particularly in France.
Apart from his genial personality and his
talent for always doing the right thing and
the popular thing socially, his scientific and
philosophical tastes were precisely those
in fashion in France.</p>
<p>How did this man attain to such power
and eminence? At twenty-three he was
half-educated and crude. At forty he was
known as one of the most famous scientists
of the day and a brilliant writer; and before
he was fifty he had received the Copley
medal from the Royal Society; the freedom
of the City of Edinburgh; LL.D.
from the University of St. Andrews; degrees
from Harvard, Yale, and William and
Mary; and, in 1762, D.C.L. from Oxford.</p>
<p>What were the characteristics and the
tastes, and what was the disposition and the
appearance of the extraordinary personage
who accomplished all these things? These
are questions that are naturally asked.</p>
<p>We never think of Franklin in his youth.
We picture him according to the Duplessis
(dew-ples′-see) portrait painted in Paris
when he was seventy-two; or, according to
the old prints that show him wearing the
familiar old fur cap and the heavy-rimmed
spectacles. Franklin was rather tall (about
five feet ten inches), corpulent and heavy,
with rounded shoulders. He was a good
swimmer; he was muscular and strong,
and he was a believer in vegetarianism
and air-baths. In late years he suffered
from gout in his foot, and wrote in Paris
a humorous dialogue from which we get
a very good idea of the old gentleman’s
habits and tastes. On his appeal to Gout
to spare him, his persecutor exclaims:
“Not a jot; your rhetoric and your politeness
are thrown away; your apology avails
nothing. If your situation in life is a
sedentary one, your amusements, your
recreations, at least, should be active.
You ought to walk or ride; or, if the
weather prevents that, play at billiards.
But let us examine your course of life.
While the mornings are long and you have
leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why,
instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast
by salutary exercise, you amuse yourself
with books, pamphlets, or newspapers,
which commonly are not worth the reading.
Yet you eat an inordinate breakfast,
four dishes of tea with cream, and one or
two buttered toasts, with slices of hung
beef, which I fancy are not things the
most easily digested. Immediately afterwards
you sit down to write at your desk,
or converse with persons who apply to
you on business. Thus the time passes
till one, without any kind of bodily exercise.
But all this I could pardon, in regard,
as you say, to your sedentary condition.
But what is your practice after dinner?
Walking in the beautiful garden of those
friends with whom you have dined, would
be the choice of men of sense; yours is to
be fixed down to chess, where you are
found engaged for two or three hours!”</p>
<p>But notwithstanding his sedentary life
and his gout and his other maladies,
Franklin lived to be eighty-four, preserving
his extraordinary brightness and gayety
to the last. His mental faculties were
unimpaired, his face was fresh and serene,
and his spirits were buoyant.</p>
<p>This charming vivacity and this play and
sparkle of mind greatly contributed towards
making Franklin so beloved of the French.
His life in Paris was the happiest of his
whole career. He was very social, and he
therefore enjoyed the Parisian garden
parties and dinners, the attractive women,
and the literary, scientific and philosophical
men. He left France with reluctance, saying
he could never forget the years of happiness
that he had spent “in the sweet society of a
people whose conversation is instructive,
whose manners are highly pleasing, and
who, above all the nations in the world,
have, in the greatest perfection, the art of
making themselves beloved by strangers.”</p>
<p>Franklin had a great talent for making
friends; and one of the greatest pleasures
of his life was the enjoyment of his children
and grandchildren. He was always ready
with a witty retort, and he loved a joke and
a hearty laugh. In fact, nothing seemed
too large or too small for Benjamin
Franklin.</p>
<p>Regarding religion, he early revolted
against New England Puritanism and
went through various stages of belief; but
in his old age he had faith in the immortality
of the soul. His tolerance led John
Adams to say: “The Catholics thought
him a Catholic. The Church of England
claimed him. The Presbyterians thought
him half a Presbyterian, and Friends believed
him a wet Quaker.” Of his morals
he has himself written, and he prepared a
moral code with comments.</p>
<p>Intellectual, practical, industrious, capable
and genial, combining so many qualities
in one mind and with a vast amount of public
work achieved, Franklin remains a puzzle,
for he seems to have had abundant time to
enjoy those social talents which amounted
to genius.</p>
<p class="center smaller">PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION<br/>
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155<br/>
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <p class="smaller noindent">FROM AN ENGRAVING BY ROBERT WHITECHURCH. FROM THE PAINTING BY C. SCHUESSELE</p> <ANTIMG src="images/plate3.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="435" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FRANKLIN BEFORE THE LORDS IN COUNCIL. <span class="smcap">Whitehall Chapel, London, 1774</span></p> </div>
<h2><i>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</i><br/> <span class="smaller"><i>As Politician and Diplomat</i></span></h2></div>
<p class="line"><span class="linebg">THREE</span></p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-plain-f.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">Franklin prepared himself unconsciously for political
life even in his boyhood, when he wrote articles
for his brother’s newspaper attacking the established
religious and political system of Massachusetts.
In the paper that he established when he was but
twenty-three—the <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i>—he handled the questions
of the day in masterly fashion.
About this time he published a pamphlet
in favor of paper money, which shows how
early his mind was directed towards large
questions concerning the government.
When he joined the Pennsylvania Assembly,
he became a leader of the Quaker
majority; and, to represent the interests of
the Colony, he was sent as commissioner,
or agent, to England. He remained there
for five years, returning to Philadelphia in
1762, only to stay at home until 1764,
when he was sent on his second mission to
England. This time he remained for ten
years. The period covered the exciting
agitations regarding the Stamp Act, its
passage, its repeal, and all the tumultuous
proceedings that finally led to the Revolution.</p>
<p>Franklin’s composure during the ordeal
of Parliamentary investigation, his witty
replies, and his brilliant evasions to embarrassing
questions greatly enhanced his
reputation. His clever satirical essays,
published in separate pamphlets, were
widely circulated. During this period of
activity Franklin lived in Craven Street,
London, pursued his scientific studies, was
appointed on committees to put lightning-rods
on St. Paul’s Cathedral and the government’s
powder magazines, attended
meetings of various scientific and learned
societies and clubs of which he was a
member, was entertained by the nobility,
and knew everybody of distinction in the
political, scientific, artistic, and literary
worlds.</p>
<p>Returning home, he was made one of
the deputies to the Continental Congress,
which met in Philadelphia, and was
also a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature,
and a member of the Committee
of Safety to prepare the defenses of the
province.</p>
<p>His most important work was yet to
come. In September, 1776, he was appointed,
by vote of Congress, the agent to
represent in France the united Colonies,
which had just declared their independence
of Great Britain. Accordingly, he
left Philadelphia and arrived in France
in December.</p>
<p>In our infancy of diplomatic service the
old gentleman of seventy was banker,
merchant, judge of admiralty, consul, director
of the navy, ambassador to France,
and negotiator with England for the exchange
of prisoners and for peace. He
accomplished his mission with such success
that he was the idol of the French
nation. Franklin was liked by the French
for his social qualities, his scientific accomplishments,
his philosophical mind, and
his humorous and satirical writings. Moreover,
he was worshiped as the personification
of <i>liberty</i>.</p>
<p>His mission in France ended in 1785.</p>
<p>The last important work of his life was
helping to frame the national document
that took the place of the Articles of Confederation;
and his plan regarding representation
in Congress was the one adopted.</p>
<p>The most active period of his life, as he
himself has told us, was between his seventieth
and his eightieth years. If any
statesman ever deserved the name of
“grand old man,” it certainly was Benjamin
Franklin.</p>
<p class="center smaller">PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION<br/>
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155<br/>
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <p class="smaller noindent">FROM THE PAINTING BY BENJAMIN WEST</p> <ANTIMG src="images/plate4.jpg" width-obs="483" height-obs="650" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FRANKLIN DRAWING ELECTRICITY FROM THE SKY</p> </div>
<h2><i>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</i><br/> <span class="smaller"><i>As Scientist</i></span></h2></div>
<p class="line"><span class="linebg">FOUR</span></p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-plain-o.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">One of the stories that has always charmed schoolchildren
is that of Dr. Franklin and his kite; and
the quaint little illustration that appeared in
Franklin’s lifetime, and that was printed by him
hundreds of times over, is still reproduced in the accounts of
this experiment. It was not until 1746, or 1747, after Franklin
had been making original researches in
science for about five years, that he took
up the subject of electricity. Franklin
was then forty-one years old. The subject
was literally “in the air.” Peter Collinson,
of London, had presented to the Philadelphia
Library one of the new glass tubes
that was rubbed with silk or skin to produce
electricity. Franklin began at once
to experiment with this tube, and people
came in crowds to see his performances.
Thomas Hopkinson and Philip Syng, who
experimented with him, discovered electrical
fire, and invented an electrical machine
for producing the electrical spark. Franklin
discovered what is now known as
“positive” and “negative” electricity. He
also attempted to explain, in his letters to
Collinson, thunder and lightning as phenomena
of electricity; and, in 1759, sent
him a paper announcing his invention of
the lightning-rod, and an explanation of
its purpose and action. He also suggested
an experiment that would prove that lightning
was a form of electricity; and to show
that lightning was attracted by points he
proposed that a man should stand on a
tall steeple, or tower, with a pointed rod
and draw electricity from the thunder-clouds.
The experiment was tried in
France and England, and Franklin was
proclaimed the discoverer of the identity
of lightning with electricity. Some of the
scientists used a tall metal rod. Franklin
now thought of the kite experiment,
because there were no steeples in Philadelphia
tall enough. To an ordinary kite
covered with silk he fixed a sharp, pointed
wire, rising about a foot above the frame
of the kite. To the end of the twine next
the hand a silk ribbon was tied; and where
the silk and twine joined a key was
fastened. When the thunder-clouds passed
over the kite, the pointed wire drew the
electric fire from them, and down the string
to the key, from which electric fire was
obtained. This experiment was made
in 1752; and the news, as contained
in Franklin’s simple letter to Mr. Collinson,
spread over the world, and with
various theatrical embellishments in the
telling.</p>
<p>“Franklin,” writes one of his biographers,
“cannot be ranked among the great
men of science, the Newtons, the Keplers,
or the Humboldts, Huxleys or Darwins.
He belongs, rather, in the second class,
among the minor discoverers. But his
discovery of the nature of lightning was
so striking and so capable of arousing the
wonder of the masses of mankind and his
invention of the lightning rod was regarded
as so valuable that he has received
more popular applause than men
whose achievements were greater and more
important. His command of language
had seldom been put to better use than in
explaining the rather subtle ideas and conceptions
in the early development of electricity.
Even now, after the lapse of one
hundred and fifty years, we seem to gain
a fresher understanding of that subject
by reading his homely and beautiful explanations;
and modern students would
have an easier time if Franklin were still
here to write their text-books.”</p>
<p>Public business and long years of diplomatic
service interrupted the original
study of science to a great extent; but
even so, in England, in France, and in the
closing years of his life in Philadelphia,
Franklin found time, now and then, to
devote to that loving investigation of
Nature, which, after his thirtieth year,
became the great passion of his life.</p>
<p>Everything in the way of scientific research
fascinated him: he investigated
earthquakes, eclipses, storms, winds, the
science of sound, the laws of hot air and
its movements, ventilation, water-spouts,
phosphorescence (“light in sea-water,” he
called it), the cause of saltiness in the sea,
the Gulf Stream, rainfall, evaporation, the
aurora borealis, light, heat, the daily motion
of the earth, and many other subjects.
He studied music as a science, and invented
a new kind of musical glasses (fashionable
at that time) called “Armonica.” He
studied political economy in a scientific
way, and was so interested in agriculture
that he tried experiments on his New Jersey
farm. He also invented the “Pennsylvania
fireplace” and the “Franklin”
stove. Though his scientific writings are
numerous, they are in the form of essays
and letters. His investigations and experiments
were thus made known to the
world in letters to friends in France and
England; for, as there were no scientific
periodicals in those days, men of learning
kept up a lively correspondence and occasionally
issued a pamphlet.</p>
<p class="center smaller">PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION<br/>
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155<br/>
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <p class="smaller noindent">FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY CHAPPEL</p> <ANTIMG src="images/plate5.jpg" width-obs="473" height-obs="650" alt="" /> <p class="caption">DRAFTING THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE—FRANKLIN, JEFFERSON, ADAMS, LIVINGSTON, SHERMAN</p>
</div>
<h2><i>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</i><br/> <span class="smaller"><i>As Man of Letters</i></span></h2></div>
<p class="line"><span class="linebg">FIVE</span></p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-plain-f.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">Franklin was a master of style. He had what
critics call “a light touch”; and he had the rare
faculty of making any subject interesting. He even
wrote charmingly about stoves! How did he
acquire this wonderful skill, this clear and beautiful language
which dropped so easily from his pen, however dry the theme?
No matter what essay, what letter, what
political pamphlet, or what year of “Poor
Richard” we may pick up, we are always
held by Franklin’s magic personality. His
“Autobiography” is considered one of the
greatest works of its kind ever written.</p>
<p>A careful study of the third volume of
Addison’s “Spectator,” and experimenting
with it in various ways, seems to have
been the beginning of Franklin’s literary
education. It was a queer task for a
young boy—particularly one of an uncultured
family—to impose upon himself;
but he tells us that he was encouraged, for,
“I thought I might possibly in time come
to be a tolerable English writer, of which
I was extremely ambitious.”</p>
<p>Moreover, he fed himself on the best
literature; and this, too, was extraordinary
for a boy in his position. Some of his
early essays, published in pamphlet form,
have very dry titles. “A Dissertation on
Liberty, Necessity, and Pain,” and “A
Modest Inquiry into the Nature and Necessity
of Paper Currency” are hardly
alluring; but these papers are full of
shrewd reasoning and common sense—qualities
that are conspicuous in all his
future writings. Franklin’s newspaper
articles were a splendid preparation for
his political work.</p>
<p>Franklin was very fond of paraphrasing
the Bible in a humorous way, and fond of
hoaxes, like the “Edict of the King of
Prussia,” in which he made Frederick the
Great claim a right to the Kingdom of
Great Britain, because the British Isles
were originally Anglo-Saxon colonies; and,
having reached a flourishing condition, deserved
to be levied upon. Franklin
greatly enjoyed seeing the English take
this seriously. It was copied widely.
So was another satire of 1773, called
“Rules for Reducing a Great Empire to
a Small One,” descriptive of the British
government.</p>
<p>While in France his pen was always
busy. Many of his letters were practically
essays. For Madame Brillon the “Ephemera,”
the “Morals of Chess,” “Dialogue
between Franklin and the Gout,” “Story
of the Whistle,” and “Petition of the Left
Hand” were written.</p>
<p>Franklin’s letters, so numerous and so
witty, cover all periods of his life. His
electrical experiments and theories were
all announced in this form. His letters
written home from England before the
Revolution are delightful reading.</p>
<p>“Poor Richard” was a real creation.
The character made Franklin known in
England and France before he lived in
those countries. “It was quite common a
hundred years ago,” writes a biographer,
“to charge Franklin with being a plagiarist.
It is true that the sayings of ‘Poor Richard,’
and a great deal that went to make
up the almanac, were taken from Rabelais,
Bacon, Rochefoucault, Roy Palmer, and
others. But ‘Poor Richard’ changed and
re-wrote them to suit his purpose, and gave
most of them a far wider circulation than
they had before.”</p>
<p>“There is no little enemy”; “Keep your
eyes wide open before marriage, half-shut
afterwards”; “Lend money to an enemy,
and thou’lt gain him; to a friend and
thou’lt lose him”; “Necessity never made
a good bargain”; “A word to the wise is
enough”; “God helps those that help
themselves”; “The sleeping fox catches no
poultry”; “Drive thy business, let that not
drive thee”; “Early to bed and early to
rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and
wise”; “Experience keeps a dear school,
but fools will learn in no other”—are some
of Poor Richard’s proverbs that have
passed into our everyday speech.</p>
<p class="center smaller">PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION<br/>
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155<br/>
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <p class="smaller noindent">ENGRAVED BY WILLIAM O. GELLER, OF LONDON. FROM THE ORIGINAL PAINTING BY BARON JOLLY, OF BRUXELLES</p> <ANTIMG src="images/plate6.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="456" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE, 1778—<span class="smcap">Seated Figures Are Louis XVI And Marie Antoinette</span></p>
</div>
<h2><i>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</i><br/> <span class="smaller"><i>As Printer</i></span></h2></div>
<p class="line"><span class="linebg">SIX</span></p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-plain-b.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">“Benjamin Franklin, printer,” was Franklin’s
favorite way of describing himself. He was, indeed,
a printer all his life. When only twelve, he became
apprentice to his half-brother, James, but quarreled
with him and ran away, finally reaching Philadelphia. Here
he obtained employment and the patronage of Sir William
Keith, Governor of Pennsylvania and
Delaware, who gave him the public printing
to do. Persuaded to try his fortune
in London with Keith’s patronage, Franklin
set sail with high hopes; but, on arriving,
he found that Keith had played him
false, and that no letter of credit, as promised,
awaited him. After a year and a
half of struggle and adventure, he was
back in Philadelphia working at his trade.
Franklin was now twenty-one. In a short
time he started in business with a partner,
and the firm of Franklin & Meredith
limped along slowly but surely until
Franklin became possessed of the leading
newspaper in Philadelphia, to which he
gave a new title, the <i>Pennsylvania
Gazette</i>.</p>
<p>This he improved in every way, making
it the best and most widely read newspaper
in the Colonies. By this time (1729)
Franklin had a very well-trained pen, and
his journalistic writings and published
pamphlets had attracted much attention.
He now dropped his partner, and, to help
out his small income, he opened a shop,
where he sold stationery, goose-feathers,
soap, liquors, and groceries. About this
time he printed the laws of Delaware.</p>
<p>The <i>Pennsylvania Gazette</i> grew better
and better all the time; for it contained
anecdotes, extracts from English
newspapers and articles which Franklin
had written for and read to his club, the
Junto.</p>
<p>In Colonial days every printer issued an
almanac. Franklin followed the rule; but
the annual he published differed in no way
from any of the others until 1733, when
Franklin, having nobody to prepare his
almanac, had to write it himself. He published
it as the work of a Richard Saunders,
called in Franklin’s genial way, “Poor
Richard.” In a note to “Courteous
Reader,” Poor Richard introduced himself,
little anticipating the success he was
to have.</p>
<p>“Poor Richard’s Almanac” appeared
every year thereafter, for twenty-five
years, the annual sale averaging 10,000
copies a year, far in excess of any other
Colonial publication. “Poor Richard” is
now a “classic”; even those that have not
read it have heard of it. Moreover, many
people quote the homely proverbs without
knowing it; for Poor Richard’s wisdom
became part and parcel of our English
speech long ago. Sometimes it has been
published as “Father Abraham’s Speech,”
and “The Way to Wealth,” and it has
been translated into every modern language.</p>
<p>Besides his newspaper and almanac
printing, Franklin printed books. He
brought out the first novel ever published in
America—Richardson’s “Pamela” (1744).
Franklin’s tremendous industry and his
general thrift made him successful enough
to retire at the age of forty-two. Then
came a brief interval, before his political
career began in earnest, during which he
lived “more like a man of taste and a
scholar accustomed to cultured surroundings
than a self-made man who had battled
for years with the material world.”</p>
<p>The year 1748, though marking the end
of Franklin’s career as active printer, did
not terminate his interest in the setting
of type and issuing his writings from his
own press. Even in Passy, when in the
midst of his busy diplomatic duties, he
had a printing-press of his own from
which he issued those “bagatelles” that
so charmed the French ladies of his
acquaintance.</p>
<p>Cleverly the printer speaks in the
famous epitaph:</p>
<div class="poetry-container">
<div class="poetry">
<div class="verse center">The Body</div>
<div class="verse center">of</div>
<div class="verse center">Benjamin Franklin</div>
<div class="verse center">Printer</div>
<div class="verse center">(Like the cover of an old book</div>
<div class="verse center">Its contents torn out</div>
<div class="verse center">And stript of its lettering and gilding)</div>
<div class="verse center">Lies here, food for worms.</div>
<div class="verse center">But the work shall not be lost;</div>
<div class="verse center">For it will (as he believed) appear once more</div>
<div class="verse center">In a new and more elegant edition</div>
<div class="verse center">Revised and corrected</div>
<div class="verse center">by</div>
<div class="verse center">The Author</div>
</div></div>
<p>Franklin’s grandson, William Temple
Franklin, who claimed to have the original
<i>Ms</i>, said the date upon it was 1728.
This disposes of the theory that Franklin
took the idea from the Latin epitaph of
an Eton school-boy, published in the
<i>Gentleman’s Magazine</i> for February,
1736. But, as writing comic epitaphs was
a fashion in those days, there is no reason
why both should not have been original.</p>
<p class="center smaller">PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION<br/>
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155<br/>
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="chapter2">
<h2>THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF BIOGRAPHY<br/> MAY 15, 1918</h2></div>
<h2>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</h2>
<p class="center">By ALBERT BUSHNELL HART</p>
<p class="center"><i>Professor of Government, Harvard University</i></p>
<div class="blockquote">
<p class="center smaller">Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright,
1918, by The Mentor Association, Inc.</p>
</div>
<div class="figleft"> <p class="center smaller"><i>MENTOR GRAVURES</i></p> <p class="center smaller">THE YOUNG BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
1723</p>
<p class="center smaller">THE MATURE BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN
1777</p>
<p class="center smaller">FRANKLIN DRAWING
ELECTRICITY FROM
THE SKY</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/book.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="40" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
</div>
<div class="figright"> <p class="center smaller"><i>MENTOR GRAVURES</i></p> <p class="center smaller">FRANKLIN BEFORE THE
LORDS OF WHITEHALL,
LONDON, 1775</p>
<p class="center smaller">DRAFTING THE DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE</p>
<p class="center smaller">FRANKLIN AT THE
COURT OF FRANCE, 1778</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/book.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="40" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus01a.jpg" width-obs="210" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FRANKLIN</p> <p class="caption">From an engraving after a painting by Duplessis</p>
</div>
<p class="caption" style="clear: both;">TRANSLATION OF THE INSCRIPTION—“Honor of the New World and Humanity, this true and amiable sage guides and
enlightens them; like another Mentor, he hides in the common eye a divinity, beneath the features of a mortal.”—<i>M. Feutry.</i></p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-t-1.jpg" width-obs="113" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">Think of an American Revolution without Benjamin Franklin!
As well think of English Literature without Shakespeare,
a Civil War without Lincoln. Franklin <i>was</i> the Revolution
itself. That is, he prepared the way for it, represented it,
infused it with his lively spirit. He was indispensable. If the
British had carried out their cheerful project of hanging Sam Adams,
Patrick Henry would have continued to breathe out the flame of Liberty.
Washington and Franklin, however, were unique figures. Without the
courage, faith and personal leadership of Washington, the army would
have gone to pieces at Valley Forge, and the United States of America
would have been postponed.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it was Franklin’s cool sagacity that convinced first
the French and then the British that there was an America; that several
million people were determined to cling together as a nation. Washington
was the standing proof of the willingness of Americans to fight for
self-government; Franklin was the man who
went far to convince the world that Americans
were capable of carrying on their government
after they got it. Besides his
reputation as the greatest American writer
of his time, and the most renowned scientific
man, he gained and deserved the repute of
being a main supporting pillar of the new
United States of America.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus02a.jpg" width-obs="259" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN’S BIRTHPLACE</p> <p class="caption">It stood on Milk Street, Boston, until destroyed
by fire in 1810</p>
</div>
<h3><i>Franklin in Massachusetts</i></h3>
<p>In a time when most Americans passed
their lives within the borders of their own
colony, Franklin was a citizen of two colonies,
and an official of four. He honored
Massachusetts by being born in Boston in
1706, the son of an emigrant, like millions
after him—his father being of English birth. Benjamin was a human
kind of boy, eager to run away to sea; went to the kind of school kept
by a school-master only two years of his life; educated himself on a
mixed diet of John Bunyan, “Plutarch’s Lives” and the “Spectator”;
became a kind of printer’s devil to his brother James; and early got
into trouble through incautious writing for the newspapers. At seventeen
the graceless youth ran away from home. Yet he came back four
times to visit Boston, and toward the end of his life wrote, “I long
much to see again my native place and to lay my bones there—my
best wishes attend my dear country.”</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus02b.jpg" width-obs="238" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">THE SO-CALLED “VERSAILLES” PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">From an engraving by Levy, owned by Clarence
W. Bowen, Brooklyn, N. Y.</p>
</div>
<h3><i>Franklin as a Pennsylvanian</i></h3>
<p>On his arrival in Philadelphia in 1723,
Benjamin Franklin began to make himself
a commonwealth builder, and for more than
thirty years he was one of the motive forces
in that colony. From the first he found himself
more at home in Philadelphia than in
Boston. A man never overdisposed to self-denial,
he enjoyed the comfort, the good
dinners, the pleasant associations, the building
up of social forces. Still, at that time
Franklin had a much greater interest in
Benjamin Franklin than in the community
around him. He even showed the unusual
enterprise of going abroad in 1725, a practice
commonly reserved for wealthy Colonials who
wanted to spend their money like gentlemen.</p>
<p>Returning in 1727, he, first of all, laid the foundations of a printing
business large and profitable for the time. In 1729, then only twenty-three
years old, he started a newspaper for himself, which speedily made
him a force in the community. Once launched as a publisher, Franklin
extended his ventures more and more widely; and in 1740 he founded
a <i>General Magazine</i>, and was one of the first Americans to discover how
much money can be sunk in a literary periodical and in how short a time.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus03a.jpg" width-obs="254" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">MRS. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</p> <p class="caption">Born Deborah Reed. From a
portrait painted by Matthew Pratt,
and now owned by the Rev. F.
B. Hodge, Wilkesbarre, Pa.</p>
</div>
<p>In 1732, he began the most popular and the most effective of all his
publications—<i>Poor Richard’s Almanac</i>, an annual which sold the incredible
number of ten thousand a year, and which applied the sagacity and humor
of the writer to setting forth a standard of morals, which, however utilitarian
and self-seeking, had a powerful influence upon a crude and growing
people. Indeed, it is almost the only bit of American literature that
circulated throughout the Colonies and infused a national spirit into the
half century preceding the Revolution.</p>
<p>Once established as a man of property and influence,
Franklin bent his energies to setting up a
new standard of education. In 1743, he issued
proposals for an academy of learning, and in 1744
founded the American Philosophical Society. In
1749, he raised the great sum of five thousand
pounds for the new school, and secured an excellent
building for it. This far-reaching plan also included
a “Free School—for the Instruction of Poor Children
in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic”—apparently
the first suggestion of a free school in his
commonwealth. In 1755, his school developed into
a college which subsequently became the University
of Pennsylvania. No man in America had such solid
and thorough-going views as
to the value of education.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus03b.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="230" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FRANKLIN GIVING PART OF HIS BREAD TO A POOR WOMAN</p> <p class="caption">Philadelphia, 1723</p>
</div>
<p>As has been the case with
many journalists, his calling
speedily brought him into political
relations, for he was
chosen to be the official printer
of the Colonial legislature; and
thereafter for fifty-nine years
was seldom out of some form
of public employment. Thus
established as a kind of public
character, Franklin set himself
to improve both city and Colonial
governments.</p>
<p>In 1737, he was made postmaster
of Philadelphia, and caused
great surprise by his prompt and
accurate financial accounts.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus04a.jpg" width-obs="249" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</p> <p class="caption">From a painting by Duplessis in 1778. The original, in
the Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, is believed to
be the best likeness of Franklin</p>
</div>
<p>Benjamin Franklin also organized
himself into the first Good Government
Club on record. Backed by at
least half the press of the city (for he
owned one of the two newspapers),
and unanimously supported by the
postmaster, he demanded a regeneration
of the city. Eventually, he succeeded
in dispossessing the old constables,
who served in rotation, and
in securing a police force, paid for that
special service. He organized a fire
company, which not only operated
its hand engine when necessary, but
carried materials for covering and
protecting goods. He was also the
first of many exasperated persons to
criticize the Philadelphia pavements.</p>
<p>When later elected member of the
Common Council, and then an Alderman and also a local Justice of Peace,
Franklin, like some other good Philadelphia citizens, became rather
apathetic. Nevertheless, these honors were not unwelcome, for he said
of himself: “I shall never <i>Ask</i>, never <i>Refuse</i>, nor ever <i>Resign</i> an office.”
By this time Franklin was involved in the public life of the colony. In
1736, he obtained the office of clerk to the General Assembly, which he
continued to hold for many years.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus04b.jpg" width-obs="239" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN</p> <p class="caption">Owned by H. C. Thompson, Philadelphia</p>
</div>
<p>Colonial affairs became especially important
when war broke out with France and
Spain in 1744. The Quakers were then the
great problem in the Pennsylvania government,
since their principles forbade them to
fight, or even to vote money for military purposes.
Franklin relates that by a judicious
application of Madeira wine to the gullet of
Governor Clinton of New York, he borrowed
eighteen cannon for the defense of Philadelphia.
He did more. He so aroused the
Quakers that although they refused to authorize
the purchase of powder for the army,
“because that was an ingredient of war,”
they voted an aid to New England of three
thousand pounds to be put into the hands
of the Governor, and appropriated it “for the
purchase of bread, flour, wheat or other grain.”
The Governor accepted with the remark, “I
shall take the money, for I understand very
well their meaning; <i>other grain</i> is gunpowder.”
Franklin himself suggested that the Quakers be
importuned to permit the purchase of a fire
engine; and then, said he, “we will buy a great
gun, which is certainly a <i>fire engine</i>.”</p>
<p>From his position of political and intellectual
influence in Pennsylvania, Franklin easily
passed into the larger field of general Colonial
policies and public service. In 1754, he was
made one of the commissioners to a joint congress
of seven colonies, which met at Albany;
from beginning to end of that meeting he was
the leading spirit, and he prepared
what is practically the
first plan for a Federal Constitution.
This was to include a
Grand Council, which is the
earliest suggestion of a national
legislature. The Congress of
Albany liked the plan and approved
it, but the home government
frowned upon it, and
Franklin records that “the
Assemblies did not adopt it, as
they all thought there was too
much prerogative in it; and
in England it was
judged to have too
much of the democratic.” Franklin called to
mind the Confederation of the Iroquois and marveled
that the “Six Nations of ignorant slaves<SPAN name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</SPAN>
should be capable of forming a scheme for such
a union and be able to execute it in such a
manner, so that it has subsisted for ages, and
appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union
should be impracticable for ten or a dozen
English colonies.”</p>
<div class="footnote">
<p><SPAN name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></SPAN> The word “slaves” is no doubt used here in the sense of “savages.”</p>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <div class="figmulti" style="width: 235px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus05a.jpg" width-obs="235" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ANOTHER DUPLESSIS PORTRAIT OF
FRANKLIN</p>
</div>
<div class="figmulti" style="width: 226px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/illus05b.jpg" width-obs="226" height-obs="300" alt="" />
<p class="caption">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">From the original painting by Chappel</p>
</div>
<div class="figmulti" style="width: 176px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/illus05c.jpg" width-obs="176" height-obs="300" alt="" />
<p class="caption">BUST OF FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">By P. J. Chartigny
In the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New
York</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>In the war that followed, Franklin showed
himself almost the only vigorous administrator.
He was the man who found the wagons necessary
for Braddock’s expedition, he was even
chosen colonel of a militia regiment. Then, in
1757, he was sent by the
Pennsylvania Assembly to
be the agent of the Colony
in England, and thus
entered on a new and
important career.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <div class="figmulti" style="width: 247px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus05d.jpg" width-obs="247" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">From the portrait by Martin, painted in
England in 1765</p>
</div>
<div class="figmulti" style="width: 300px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/illus06a.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="231" alt="" />
<p class="caption">STATUE OF FRANKLIN, NEW YORK</p>
<p class="caption">Designed by E. Classman</p>
</div>
<div class="figmulti" style="width: 243px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/illus06b.jpg" width-obs="243" height-obs="300" alt="" />
<p class="caption">STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">White metal. French, nineteenth
century. Metropolitan
Museum of Art</p>
</div>
<div class="figmulti" style="width: 195px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/illus06c.jpg" width-obs="195" height-obs="300" alt="" />
<p class="caption">FRANKLIN MONUMENT IN NEW ORLEANS</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Many Englishmen
found their way to the
American Colonies and
made reputations there.
Franklin was one of the
few Americans that became
renowned in England.
For years he stood
for the thought that Englishmen
in Great Britain
and the Colonies were
alike citizens of a common Anglo-Saxon empire, which
might look forward to a glorious future. He even
ventured to assert that “the foundations of the future
grandeur and stability of the British empire lie in
America.”</p>
<p>The English government bestowed upon him the
important post of deputy-postmaster-general for
the Colonies. He so impressed the men of learning
that he received doctorates
of law from the
universities of St. Andrews,
Oxford, and Edinburgh.
Yet his public
functions were the lesser part of his influence;
he found friends everywhere, and by his
personal relations with ministers and private
persons affected the minds of the British.
The colonies of Georgia, New Jersey, and
Massachusetts also designated him as their
agent, and his various public offices brought
him in the large income for that time of
fifteen hundred pounds a year.</p>
<p>When the question of the Stamp Act arose
in 1766, Franklin appeared before the House
of Commons to protest, and in his examination
occurred the famous passage:</p>
<p>“Question—‘Can anything less than a
military force carry the Stamp Act into
execution?’</p>
<p>“Answer—‘I do not see how a military force could be applied to that
purpose.’</p>
<p>“Question—‘Why may it not?’</p>
<p>“Answer—‘Suppose a military force be sent into America, they will
find nobody in arms; what are they then to do? They cannot force a
man to take stamps who chooses to do without them. They will not
find a rebellion; they will indeed make one.’”</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <div class="figmulti" style="width: 215px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus07a.jpg" width-obs="215" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">By Boyle</p>
<p class="caption">This statue stands at Ninth and Chestnut Streets,
Philadelphia, close to the spot where Franklin first
drew electricity from the sky</p>
</div>
<div class="figmulti" style="width: 237px;">
<ANTIMG src="images/illus07b.jpg" width-obs="237" height-obs="300" alt="" />
<p class="caption">STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN AND
LOUIS XVI.</p>
<p class="caption">French porcelain. Metropolitan
Museum of Art</p>
</div>
</div>
<p>Franklin’s position had great weight in bringing about the repeal of
the Stamp Act; and thereafter he strove with all his might to prevent
the breaking up of the empire. When
the storm broke in 1775, Franklin needed
to make no choice. An American through
and through, he never thought of anything
but casting his lot with that of his
countrymen; and on March 21, 1775, he
left England, and became an original
Son of the American Revolution. The
conditions have never been better set
forth than in his own words: “And now
the affair is nearly in the situation of
Friar Bacon’s project of making a brazen
wall round England for its eternal security.
His servant, Friar Bungey, slept
while the brazen head, which was to dictate
how it may be done, said, ‘<i>Time</i> is
and <i>Time</i> was.’ He only waked to hear
it say, ‘<i>Time is past</i>.’”</p>
<h3><i>Franklin in the Revolution</i></h3>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus08b.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FRENCH PLAQUE</p> <p class="caption">After Cochin by Dupont. Metropolitan Museum of Art</p>
</div>
<p>When Franklin arrived at Philadelphia,
May 5th, he found himself at once
a member and a
leader in a body
of men who, without
any legal mandate, were called upon to create,
to organize, and to defend the United States.
The day after Franklin’s arrival in America he
was designated by Pennsylvania as a member of
the Continental Congress which was to meet
shortly. A few days later he was elected a member
of the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly. The
next year he was chosen member and president of
the State Constitutional Convention; and in 1776,
he was appointed envoy of the United States to
France. Besides these dignities, in that year and
a half, he was one of the half dozen men who
designated the framework of
the future state and national
governments of America.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus08a.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="400" alt="" /> <p class="caption">THREE PLATES BEARING PORTRAITS OF FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">Made by Veuve Perrin, Marseilles,
France, late in the eighteenth
century. Metropolitan Museum
of Art</p>
</div>
<p>July 21, 1775, Franklin
formally presented to Congress
a skilful plan for a federal
government, which was
the foundation stone of the
present Federal Constitution.
It contains some things out
of the Albany plan of 1754;
and had it been adopted as
it stood, would have been
a better instrument of government
than was later
drawn up by Congress. Franklin proposed and
urged a strong, vigorous and well-knit union. He
was also a member of the committee to draw up
the Declaration of Independence in 1776. His
principal contribution to the discussion was his
famous retort when somebody said, “We must all
hang together”—“Yes, we must all hang together,
or we shall all hang separately.” Franklin took
an honorable part in the Pennsylvania Constitutional
Convention of 1776, and to him was due
the fine phrase in the Pennsylvania Bill of Rights,
“That all men have a natural and inalienable right
to worship Almighty God according to the dictates
of their own consciences and understanding.”</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus08c.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">HEAD OF FRANKLIN</p> <p class="caption">Nineteenth-century, French tortoise-shell
snuff-box. Metropolitan
Museum of Art</p>
</div>
<h3><i>Franklin as a Diplomat</i></h3>
<p>Benjamin Franklin was now seventy years old, and said of himself to
a fellow member of Congress, “I am old and good for nothing; but as
the storekeepers say of their remnants of cloth, I
am but a fag end, and you may have me for what
you please to give.” Yet he accepted the most
important post of his life when in September, 1776,
he was elected commissioner to France. There for
nine years he served his country as the most popular,
most sagacious, and most successful foreign
minister ever appointed by the United States.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus09.jpg" width-obs="465" height-obs="650" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ONE OF FRANKLIN’S INGENIOUS DEVICES FOR TEACHING THE LESSONS OF PRACTICAL WISDOM</p> </div>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus10a.jpg" width-obs="212" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">FRANKLIN TEARS THE LIGHTNING FROM THE SKY AND THE SCEPTER FROM THE TYRANTS</p>
<p class="caption">Seated beside him is the figure of America.
From a sepia drawing by Fragonard, owned by
Clarence S. Bement, Philadelphia</p>
</div>
<p>He was not merely a diplomatic representative;
he was a commercial and financial agent, fitted out
vessels, issued commissions, borrowed money. Well
did Horace Walpole say of him that Franklin was
furnishing materials for writing the History
of the Decline of the British Empire. Without
Franklin the two treaties of 1778 with
France could not have been obtained. By
his personal relations with Englishmen of
note, he was the natural starting point for
overtures of concord; and in the negotiations
of the peace of 1782 he stood alongside the
eager, impetuous, and hotly national John
Adams, and courteous, high bred and determined
John Jay, as chief of that remarkable
triumvirate of negotiators.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus10b.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="250" alt="" /> <p class="caption">PRINTING PRESS AT WHICH FRANKLIN WORKED WHEN A BOY IN BOSTON</p>
<p class="caption">Now exhibited in the rooms of the Mechanics’ Institute,
Boston, Mass.</p>
</div>
<p>After all, Franklin’s chief service abroad
was not so much the obtaining of favorable
terms as the maintaining of American character.
Who could deny the right to be a
nation to a people whose best aspirations
were typified by this shrewd, hard-headed,
kindly man, a gallant among the fashionables,
a philosopher among scientists, a statesman
among ministers, a man among men?</p>
<h3><i>Franklin in the Federal Convention</i></h3>
<p>At seventy-nine years of age most men expect retirement, and it was
very grateful to Franklin that, on his return to America in 1785, he should
almost immediately be chosen by Pennsylvania to be the president of the
commonwealth. His universal popularity was shown by the people of
western North Carolina (now east Tennessee), who, in 1784, set up
a short-lived frontier commonwealth,
to which by way of compliment
they gave the name
of Franklin. In 1787, Franklin
readily accepted membership in
the Federal Convention, as one
of the Pennsylvania delegation.
He was somewhat out of touch
with the real difficulties of the
time, and most of his suggestions
were overruled, but his influence
throughout was in favor of a well
organized, strong central government;
and he was almost the only
member to introduce an element
of humanity and good humor.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus11a.jpg" width-obs="261" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">MRS. SARAH BACHE</p> <p class="caption">Daughter of Franklin</p>
</div>
<p>On the last day of the convention
he rose to urge a spirit of
compromise, a willingness to yield something of one’s own opinion; to avoid
the spirit of “a certain French lady, who, in a dispute with her sister, said,
‘I don’t know how it happens, sister, but I meet with nobody but myself
that is always in the right.’” When at the end, signatures of the members
were appended, numerous enough to make it likely that the Constitution
would be accepted by the people, Franklin looked at the sun painted behind
the President’s chair, and made a comment
which is as applicable to his own reputation as
it was to the new Federal Constitution. “I
have often and often in the course of the session,
and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as
to its issue, looked at that sun behind the President
without being able to tell whether it was
rising or setting; but now at length, I have the
happiness to know that it is a rising and not
a setting sun.”</p>
<p>This was the end of Franklin’s public life;
three years later he died, full of years and honor,
with the established reputation of a man of
learning, power, and statesmanship.
Possessed of a calm
dignity that impressed even the
frivolous court of France, he
added a love of fun such as no
other great American public
man has shown, except Abraham
Lincoln. His Autobiography
abounds in delightful
pictures of the gawky youth
and the serene statesman. His
vast powers belong to his
country; his great endeavors
went into federal government,
which he helped to found, to
protect, and to restate in the
immortal Constitution of 1787.
That is his best monument.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus11b.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="239" alt="" /> <p class="caption">GRAVE OF FRANKLIN IN THE CHRIST CHURCH BURIAL GROUND, PHILADELPHIA</p>
<p class="caption">The stone nearest the fence covers the bodies of both Franklin
and his wife</p>
</div>
<hr class="tb" />
<h3><i>SUPPLEMENTARY READING</i></h3>
<ul>
<li>AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
WITH NOTES BY JOHN BIGELOW.<br/>An attractive edition in Everyman’s Library.</li>
<li>SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF
FRANKLIN</li>
<li>POOR RICHARD’S ALMANAC</li>
<li>BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SELF-REVEALED <i>By W. C. Bruce</i></li>
<li>THE TRUE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN <i>By S. G. Fisher</i></li>
<li>SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF BENJAMIN
FRANKLIN <i>By L. C. Holman</i></li>
</ul>
<p class="center smaller">⁂ Information concerning the above books may be had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="chapter2">
<h2><i>THE OPEN LETTER</i></h2></div>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus12a.jpg" width-obs="227" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">BENJAMIN FRANKLIN</p>
<p class="caption">From a pastel drawing made in Paris in 1783
by Duplessis, New York Public Library</p>
</div>
<p>Benjamin Franklin’s eyes were blue-gray.
How do we know this? Because
Duplessis’s pastel portrait in colors tells
us so. Franklin had bland, shrewd, clear
seeing eyes that comprehended in their
genial, open glance the whole of human
nature. They first saw the light of day
on January 17, 1706,
and they were closed for—the
last time on April
17, 1790. During all
those years those luminous
blue-gray eyes were
observing life closely,
studiously and intelligently,
and they saw
many great things come
to pass—the most important
being the making
of a new nation.
The eyes of Franklin
saw Liberty in its cradle,
and with earnest solicitude,
watched its growth
and development until
it became the watchword
and dominating principle
of a great republic.
Moreover, while witnessing
these national
events, and sharing actively
in them, Franklin had time to look
into the everyday affairs of men, to find
solutions for many problems of the work-a-day
world, to suggest and plan improved
methods of doing things, to invent useful
devices—and, with his printing establishment
as a means of public expression, to
give utterance to a system of practical
philosophy that was a benefit and blessing
to his fellow men. Franklin was the peerless
Practical Man, and his writings contain
the Complete Gospel of Common Sense.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/stars.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="19" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<p>It would be well if all of us could look at
the world through Ben Franklin’s discerning,
gray eyes. It is not the gray color
of the eye, but the gray matter back of it
that counts. I note here the color of Ben
Franklin’s eyes only because I have just
been “checked up” on the subject of eyes.
A reader writes me as follows:</p>
<div class="blockquote">
<p>Let me call attention to a discrepancy in the
Julius Cæsar number of The Mentor. On cover page
2 the statement is made that Cæsar’s eyes were
dark gray. On page 8 it is said that they were black.</p>
</div>
<p>Our reader overlooks the fact that the two
statements are not made by the same writer.
The first statement is made by the English
historian James Anthony Froude; the other
by George W. Botsford, late professor of ancient
history in Columbia University. These
two eminent scholars present the conclusions
that they have individually
drawn from
historical study. When
two authorities differ it is
the duty of The Mentor,
as an educational publication,
to present the two
statements for the reader’s
comparison. It is
probable that the original
evidence on which Mr.
Froude and Professor
Botsford based their
statements was to the
effect that Cæsar’s eyes
were very dark and
piercing in their glance—and
that, surely, is near
enough for the color of
eyes nearly two thousand
years ago.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/stars.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="19" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<p>We are reproducing
Duplessis’s pastel portrait
of Franklin on this page. This
picture has a story. Duplessis made several
portraits of Franklin; this seems
to be the only one in pastel, the others
being oil paintings. When Franklin was
in France he lived at Passy, a suburb of
Paris. A friend and neighbor was M. le
Veillard, who frequently urged Franklin to
write his memoirs. Franklin lent a willing
ear, and it was his wish that his neighbor
should translate the memoirs, when finished,
into French. With that end in view,
he turned over to M. le Veillard much auto-biographical
material. This pastel portrait
by Duplessis was made especially for M. le
Veillard, and when that unfortunate gentleman
met his death on the Revolutionary
scaffold in 1794, the picture went to his
daughter, and later came into the possession
of Mr. John Bigelow, when he was
United States Minister to France (1865-66).
By him it was presented to the
New York Public Library, and it now
hangs in the trustees’
room.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/signature.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="94" alt="(signature)" /> <p class="caption">W. D. Moffat<br/> <span class="smcap">Editor</span></p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="bbox-dashed">
<h2>DAYLIGHT SAVING<br/> FRANKLIN’S IDEA</h2>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-t-2.jpg" width-obs="85" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">There was nothing of any significance in the affairs
of mankind that escaped Benjamin Franklin’s attention.
Not only political, social, commercial,
literary and artistic matters concerned him, but
likewise the many problems, great and small, that
had to be met in the course of the day’s work. He was the
first to conceive the idea of daylight saving—which means that
he was, in practical wisdom, 130 odd years ahead of his time.</p>
<p>On an early morning walk along the streets of London in
1784 the thought first came to Franklin, and in passing it on
to the world at large he said:</p>
<p>“In a walk through the Strand and Fleet street one
morning at 7 o’clock, I observed there was not one shop open,
although it had been daylight and the sun up above three
hours, the inhabitants of London choosing voluntarily to live
by candle light and sleep by sunshine; and yet often complaining
a little absurdly of the duty on candles and the high
price of tallow.”</p>
<p>Soon thereafter in the <i>Journal de Paris</i> he published an
article, later appearing among his essays under the title “An
Economical Project,” which further elaborated the advantages
of daylight saving; namely, of “Turning the clock
forward an hour” so that everybody would live one hour
longer by daylight and one hour less by artificial light.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p class="center larger"><span class="smcap">The Mentor Association</span></p>
<p class="center">ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST
IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL</p>
<p class="center">THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH</p>
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SECRETARY, H. A. CROWE.</p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p class="center larger">THE MENTOR</p>
<p><span class="larger">DO YOU KNOW—</span>During the past few months more
than 400,000 previous Issues of The
Mentor have been purchased by the
members of the rapidly growing Mentor Association. The idea of “Learning One Thing
Every Day” is conveyed just as much through the previous issues of The Mentor, as it is
through the current numbers. In reading through the list you are going to find a
very large number of titles covering subjects that are of the keenest interest to you.
If you will make a selection at once of TEN numbers that appeal to you most strongly—giving
the serial numbers only (on a post-card) we will send them to you immediately—all
charges paid—and send you a bill for the full amount, $2.00—which you
can pay any time within 30 days. We urge you to act NOW.</p>
<ul>
<li><b>1 Beautiful Children in Art</b>, by Kobbé.</li>
<li><b>2 Makers of American Poetry</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>3 Washington the Capital</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>4 Beautiful Women in Art</b>, by Willing.</li>
<li><b>5 Romantic Ireland</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>6 Masters of Music</b>, by Henderson.</li>
<li><b>7 Natural Wonders of America</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>8 Pictures We Love to Live With</b>, by Huneker.</li>
<li><b>9 The Conquest of the Peaks</b>, by Fay.</li>
<li><b>10 Scotland, the Land of Song and Scenery</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>11 Cherubs in Art</b>, by Kobbé.</li>
<li><b>12 Statues with a Story</b>, by Lorado Taft.</li>
<li><b>13 The Discoverers</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>14 London</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>15 The Story of Panama</b>, by Bonsal.</li>
<li><b>16 American Birds of Beauty</b>, by E. H. Forbush.</li>
<li><b>17 Dutch Masterpieces</b>, by Van Dyke.</li>
<li><b>18 Paris, the Incomparable</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>19 Flowers of Decoration</b>, by H. S. Adams.</li>
<li><b>20 Makers of American Humor</b>, by Burges Johnson.</li>
<li><b>21 American Sea Painters</b>, by Arthur Hoeber.</li>
<li><b>22 The Explorers</b>, by Hart.</li>
<li><b>23 Sporting Vacations</b>, by Beard.</li>
<li><b>24 Switzerland, the Land of Scenic Splendors</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>25 American Novelists</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>26 American Landscape Painters</b>, by Samuel Isham.</li>
<li><b>27 Venice, the Island City</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>28 The Wife in Art</b>, by Kobbé.</li>
<li><b>29 Great American Inventors</b>, by Brace.</li>
<li><b>30 Furniture and Its Makers</b>, by Richards.</li>
<li><b>31 Spain and Gibraltar</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>32 Historic Spots of America</b>, by McElroy.</li>
<li><b>33 Beautiful Buildings of the World</b>, by Ward.</li>
<li><b>34 Game Birds of America</b>, by E. H. Forbush.</li>
<li><b>35 The Contest for North America</b>, by Hart.</li>
<li><b>36 Famous American Sculptors</b>, by Lorado Taft.</li>
<li><b>37 The Conquest of the Poles</b>, by Rear Admiral Peary.</li>
<li><b>38 Napoleon</b>, by Ida M. Tarbell.</li>
<li><b>39 The Mediterranean</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>40 Angels in Art</b>, by Van Dyke.</li>
<li><b>41 Famous Composers</b>, by Henry T. Finck.</li>
<li><b>42 Egypt, the Land of Mystery</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>43 The Revolution</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>44 Famous English Poets</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>45 Makers of American Art</b>, by J. T. Willing.</li>
<li><b>46 The Ruins of Rome</b>, by Botsford.</li>
<li><b>47 Makers of Modern Opera</b>, by H. E. Krehbiel.</li>
<li><b>48 Two Early German Painters—Dürer and Holbein</b>, by F. J. Mather, Jr.</li>
<li><b>49 Vienna, the Queen City</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>50 Ancient Athens</b>, by Botsford.</li>
<li><b>51 The Barbizon School</b>, by Hoeber.</li>
<li><b>52 Abraham Lincoln</b>, by Hart.</li>
<li><b>53 George Washington</b>, by McElroy.</li>
<li><b>54 Mexico</b>, by Frederick Palmer.</li>
<li><b>55 Famous American Women Painters</b>, by Arthur Hoeber.</li>
<li><b>56 The Conquest of the Air</b>, by Woodhouse.</li>
<li><b>57 Court Painters of France</b>, by Coffin, N. A.</li>
<li><b>58 Holland</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>59 Our Feathered Friends</b>, by E. H. Forbush.</li>
<li><b>60 Glacier National Park</b>, by Hornaday.</li>
<li><b>61 Michelangelo</b>, by Cox.</li>
<li><b>62 American Colonial Furniture</b>, by Esther Singleton.</li>
<li><b>63 American Wild Flowers</b>, by Eaton.</li>
<li><b>64 Gothic Architecture</b>, by Ward.</li>
<li><b>65 The Story of the Rhine</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>66 Shakespeare</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>67 American Mural Painters</b>, by Hoeber.</li>
<li><b>68 Celebrated Animal Characters</b>, by Hornaday.</li>
<li><b>69 Japan</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>70 The Story of the French Revolution</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>71 Rugs and Rug Making</b>, by Mumford.</li>
<li><b>72 Alaska</b>, by Browne.</li>
<li><b>73 Charles Dickens</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>74 Grecian Masterpieces</b>, by Lorado Taft.</li>
<li><b>75 Fathers of the Constitution</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>76 Masters of the Piano</b>, by Finck.</li>
<li><b>77 American Historic Homes</b>, by Singleton.</li>
<li><b>78 Beauty Spots of India</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>79 Etchers and Etching</b>, by Weitenkampf.</li>
<li><b>80 Oliver Cromwell</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>81 China</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>82 Favorite Trees</b>, by Hornaday.</li>
<li><b>83 Yellowstone National Park</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>84 Famous Women Writers of England</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>85 Painters of Western Life</b>, by Hoeber.</li>
<li><b>86 China and Pottery of Our Forefathers</b>, by Esther Singleton.</li>
<li><b>87 The Story of The American Railroad</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>88 Butterflies</b>, by Holland.</li>
<li><b>89 The Philippine Islands</b>, by Worcester.</li>
<li><b>90 Great Galleries of the World—the Louvre</b>, by Van Dyke.</li>
<li><b>91 William M. Thackeray</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>92 The Grand Canyon</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>93 Architecture in American Country Homes</b>, by Aymar Embury.</li>
<li><b>94 The Story of the Danube</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>95 Animals in Art</b>, by Kobbé.</li>
<li><b>96 The Holy Land</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>97 John Milton</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>98 Joan of Arc</b>, by Ida M. Tarbell.</li>
<li><b>99 Furniture of the Revolutionary Period</b>, by Esther Singleton.</li>
<li><b>100 The Ring of the Nibelung</b>, by Finck.</li>
<li><b>101 The Golden Age of Greece</b>, by Botsford.</li>
<li><b>102 Chinese Rugs</b>, by Mumford.</li>
<li><b>103 The War of 1812</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>104 Great Galleries of the World—The National Gallery, London</b>, by Van Dyke.</li>
<li><b>105 Masters of the Violin</b>, by Finck.</li>
<li><b>106 American Pioneer Prose Writers</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>107 Old Silver</b>, by Esther Singleton.</li>
<li><b>108 Shakespeare’s Country</b>, by William Winter.</li>
<li><b>109 Historic Gardens of New England</b>, by Mary H. Northend.</li>
<li><b>110 The Weather</b>, by C. F. Talman.</li>
<li><b>111 American Poets of the Soil</b>, by Johnson.</li>
<li><b>112 Argentina</b>, by Newman.</li>
<li><b>113 Game Animals of America</b>, by Hornaday.</li>
<li><b>114 Raphael</b>, by Van Dyke.</li>
<li><b>115 Walter Scott</b>, by Mabie.</li>
<li><b>116 The Yosemite Valley</b>, by Elmendorf.</li>
<li><b>117 John Paul Jones</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>118 Russian Music</b>, by Finck.</li>
<li><b>119 Chile</b>, by Newman.</li>
<li><b>120 Rembrandt</b>, by Van Dyke.</li>
<li><b>121 Southern California</b>, by C. F. Lummis.</li>
<li><b>122 Keeping Time</b>, by Talman.</li>
<li><b>123 American Miniature Painting</b>, by Mrs. Elizabeth Lounsbery.</li>
<li><b>124 Gems</b>, by Esther Singleton.</li>
<li><b>125 The Orchestra</b>, by Henderson.</li>
<li><b>126 Brazil</b>, by E. M. Newman.</li>
<li><b>127 The American Triumvirate</b>, by A. B. Hart.</li>
<li><b>128 The Madonna and Child in Art</b>, by Van Dyke.</li>
<li><b>129 The Story of the American Navy</b>, by Barnes.</li>
<li><b>130 Lace and Lace Making</b>, by Esther Singleton.</li>
<li><b>131 American Water Color Painters</b>, by Kobbé.</li>
<li><b>132 Peru</b>, by E. M. Newman.</li>
<li><b>133 The Story of the American Army</b>, by Hart.</li>
<li><b>134 Our Planet Neighbors</b>, by Harold Jacoby.</li>
<li><b>135 The Story of Russia</b>, by Leo Pasvolsky.</li>
<li><b>136 The Story of the Hudson</b>, by A. B. Hart.</li>
<li><b>137 Prehistoric Animal Life</b>, by Dr. Matthew.</li>
<li><b>138 Hawaii</b>, by E. M. Newman.</li>
<li><b>139 Earthquakes and Volcanoes</b>, by Talman.</li>
<li><b>140 The Canadian Rockies</b>, by Ruth Kedzie Wood.</li>
<li><b>141 Corot</b>, by Elliott Daingerfield.</li>
<li><b>142 Bolivia</b>, by E. M. Newman.</li>
<li><b>143 Russian Art</b>, by William A. Coffin.</li>
<li><b>144 The American Government</b>, by A. B. Hart.</li>
<li><b>145 Christmas in Picture and Story</b>, by Singleton.</li>
<li><b>146 The Picture on the Wall</b>, by Weitenkampf.</li>
<li><b>147 Lafayette</b>, by Albert Bushnell Hart.</li>
<li><b>148 American Composers</b>, by Henry T. Finck.</li>
<li><b>149 The Luxembourg Gallery</b>, by Wm. A. Coffin.</li>
</ul>
<p class="center">THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION; 114-116 East 16th Street, New York City</p>
<p class="center larger">MAKE THE SPARE<br/>
MOMENT COUNT</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/back.jpg" width-obs="482" height-obs="700" alt="Back cover page: The Mentor issue list" /></div>
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