A Benjamin Franklin Reader (26 page)

When Franklin arrived in London, he rented rooms on Craven Street, off the Strand, from a landlady named Margaret Stevenson, who also became his domestic (though probably not romantic) companion. More complex was his relation with her daughter Mary, known as Polly. She was a lively and endearing 18-year-old with the sort of inquisitive intellect that Franklin loved in women. In some respects, Polly served as the London counterpart to his daughter Sally. He treated her in an avuncular, and sometimes even paternal, manner, instructing her on life and morals as well as science and education. But she was also an English version of Caty Ray, a pretty young woman of playful demeanor and lively mind. His letters to her were flirtatious at times, and he flattered her with the focused attention that he lavished on women he liked.

Franklin spent hours talking to Polly and then, when she went to live with an aunt in the country, carried on an astonishing correspondence. During his years in London, he wrote to her far more often than he wrote to his real family. Some of the letters were flirtatious. “Not a day passes in which I do not think of you,” he wrote less than a year after their first meeting. She sent him little gifts. “I have received the garters you have so kindly knit for me,” he said in one letter. “Be assured that I shall think as often of you in the wearing as you did of me in the making.”

As with Caty Ray, his relationship with Polly was an engagement of the mind as much as the heart. He wrote to her at great length and in sophisticated detail about how barometers work, colors absorb heat, electricity is conducted, waterspouts are formed, and the moon affects tidal flows. Eight of these letters were later included in a revised edition of his electricity papers. When he came up with the idea of a phonetic spelling system, he used it first in a letter to Polly.

His one concern was that Polly would take her studies
too
seriously. Even though he appreciated her mind, Franklin flinched when she hinted at her desire to devote herself to learning at the expense of getting married and raising a family. So he provided her with some paternal prodding. In response to her suggestion that she might “live single” the rest of her life, he lectured her about the “duty” of a woman to raise a family.

T
O
P
OLLY
S
TEVENSON
, J
UNE
11, 1760

Dear Polly,

’Tis a very sensible question you ask, how the air can affect the barometer, when its opening appears covered with wood? If indeed it was so closely covered as to admit of no communication of the outward air to the surface of the mercury, the change of weight in the air could not possibly affect it. But the least crevice is sufficient for the purpose; a pinhole will do the business. And if you could look behind the frame to which your barometer is fixed, you would certainly find some small opening.

There are indeed some barometers in which the body of mercury at the lower end is contained in a close leather bag, and so the air cannot come into immediate contact with the mercury: yet the same effect is produced. For the leather being flexible, when the bag is pressed by any additional weight of air, it contracts, and the mercury is forced up into the tube; when the air becomes lighter, and its pressure less, the weight of the mercury prevails, and it descends again into the bag.

Your observation on what you have lately read concerning insects, is very just and solid. Superficial minds are apt to despise those who make that part of creation their study, as mere triflers; but certainly the world has been much obliged to them. Under the care and management of man, the labors of the little silkworm afford employment and subsistence to thousands of families, and become an immense article of commerce. The bee, too, yields us its delicious honey, and its wax useful to a multitude of purposes. Another insect, it is said, produces the cochineal, from whence we have our rich scarlet dye. The usefulness of the cantharides, or Spanish flies, in medicine, is known to all, and thousands owe their lives to that knowledge. By human industry and observation, other properties of other insects may possibly be hereafter discovered, and of equal utility. A thorough acquaintance with the nature of these little creatures, may also enable mankind to prevent the increase of such as are noxious or secure us against the mischiefs they occasion. These things doubtless your books make mention of: I can only add a particular late instance which I had from a Swedish gentleman of good credit. In the green timber intended for ship-building at the king’s yards in that country, a kind of worms were found, which every year became more numerous and more pernicious, so that the ships were greatly damaged before they came into use. The king sent Linnaeus, the great naturalist, from Stockholm, to enquire into the affair, and see if the mischief was capable of any remedy. He found on examination, that the worm was produced from a small egg deposited in the little roughnesses on the surface of the wood, by a particular kind of fly or beetle; from whence the worm, as soon as it was hatched, began to eat into the substance of the wood, and after some time came out again a fly of the parent kind, and so the species increased. The season in which this fly laid its eggs, Linnaeus knew to be about a fortnight (I think) in the month of May, and at no other time of the year. He therefore advised, that some days before that season, all the green timber should be thrown into the water, and kept under water till the season was over. Which being done by the king’s order, the flies missing their usual nests, could not increase; and the species was either destroyed or went elsewhere; and the wood was effectually preserved, for after the first year, it became too dry and hard for their purpose.

There is, however, a prudent moderation to be used in studies of this kind. The knowledge of nature may be ornamental, and it may be useful, but if to attain an eminence in that, we neglect the knowledge and practice of essential duties, we deserve reprehension. For there is no rank in natural knowledge of equal dignity and importance with that of being a good parent, a good child, a good husband, or wife, a good neighbor or friend, a good subject or citizen, that is, in short, a good Christian. Nicholas gimcrack, therefore, who neglected the care of his family, to pursue butterflies, was a just object of ridicule, and we must give him up as fair game to the satirist.

Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever, Yours affectionately,

B. Franklin

P.S. Your good Mother is well, and gives her Love and Blessing to you.

T
O
P
OLLY
S
TEVENSON
, S
EPTEMBER
13, 1760

My dear Friend,

I have your agreeable letter from Bristol, which I take this first leisure hour to answer, having for some time been much engaged in business.

Your first question,
what is the reason the water at this place, though cold at the spring, becomes warm by pumping?
It will be most prudent in me to forbear attempting to answer, till, by a more circumstantial account, you assure me of the fact. I own I should expect that operation to warm, not so much the water pumped as the person pumping. The rubbing of dry solids together, has been long observed to produce heat; but the like effect has never yet, that I have heard, been produced by the mere agitation of fluids, or friction of fluids with solids. Water in a bottle shook for hours by a mill hopper, it is said, discovered no sensible addition of heat. The production of animal heat by exercise, is therefore to be accounted for in another manner, which I may hereafter endeavor to make you acquainted with.

This prudence of not attempting to give reasons before one is sure of facts, I learnt from one of your sex, who, as Selden tells us, being in company with some gentlemen that were viewing and considering something which they called a Chinese shoe, and disputing earnestly about the manner of wearing it, and how it could possibly be put on; put in her word, and said modestly,
Gentlemen, are you sure it is a shoe? Should not that be settled first?

But I shall now endeavor to explain what I said to you about the tide in rivers, and to that end shall make a figure, which though not very like a river, may serve to convey my meaning…

[Editor’s note: Here Franklin proceeds to describe in great detail the effects of tides on rivers.]

I have made this letter longer than I intended, and therefore reserve for another what I have farther to say on the subject of tides and rivers. I shall now only add, that I have not been exact in the numbers, because I would avoid perplexing you with minute calculations, my design at present being chiefly to give you distinct and clear ideas of the first principles.

After writing 6 folio pages of philosophy to a young girl, is it necessary to finish such a letter with a compliment? Is not such a letter of itself a compliment? Does it not say, she has a mind thirsty after knowledge, and capable of receiving it; and that the most agreeable things one can write to her are those that tend to the improvement of her understanding? It does indeed say all this, but then it is still no compliment; it is no more than plain honest truth, which is not the character of a compliment. So if I would finish my letter in the mode, I should yet add something that means nothing, and is
merely
civil and polite. But being naturally awkward at every circumstance of ceremony, I shall not attempt it. I had rather conclude abruptly with what pleases me more than any compliment can please you, that I am allowed to subscribe my self

Your affectionate Friend,

B. Franklin

David Hume was the greatest British philosopher of his era and one of the most important logical and analytic thinkers of all time. When Franklin met him in Scotland in 1759, Hume had already written the two seminal tracts,
A Treatise of Human Nature
and
Essays Concerning Human Understanding,
that are now considered among the most important works in the development of empirical thought, and he was completing the six-volume
History of England
that would make him rich and famous.

Franklin assiduously courted Hume to the colonial cause and shared with him an interest in language. When Hume berated him for coining new words, Franklin agreed to quit using the terms “colonize” and “unshakeable.” But he lamented that “I cannot but wish the usage of our tongue permitted making new words when we want them.” He also included in one of his letters a delightful tale of a Puritan dispute over a maypole, another illustration of his deftness at poking fun at religious tolerance. Although they would later disagree, Hume was impressed by Franklin. “America has sent us many good things, gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, indigo,” he wrote him. “But you are the first philosopher, and indeed the first great man of letters, for whom we are beholden to her.”

T
O
D
AVID
H
UME
, S
EPTEMBER
27, 1760

Dear Sir,

I have too long postponed answering your obliging letter, a fault I will not attempt to excuse, but rather rely on your goodness to forgive it if I am more punctual for the future.

I am obliged to you for the favorable sentiments you express of the pieces sent you; though the volume relating to our Pennsylvania affairs was not written by me, nor any part of it, except the remarks on the proprietor’s estimate of his estate, and some of the inserted messages and reports of the assembly which I wrote when at home, as a member of committees appointed by the house for that service; the rest was by another hand. But though I am satisfied by what you say, that the Duke of Bedford was hearty in the scheme of the expedition, I am not so clear that others in the administration were equally in earnest in that matter. It is certain that after the Duke of Newcastle’s first orders to raise troops in the colonies, and promise to send over commissions to the officers, with arms, clothing, &c. for the men, we never had another syllable from him for 18 months; during all which time the army lay idle at Albany for want of orders and necessaries; and it began to be thought at least that if an expedition had ever been intended, the first design and the orders given, must, thro’ the multiplicity of business here at home, have been quite forgotten.

I am not a little pleased to hear of your change of sentiments in some particulars relating to America; because I think it of importance to our general welfare that the people of this nation should have right notions of us, and I know no one that has it more in his power to rectify their notions, than Mr. Hume. I have lately read with great pleasure, as I do every thing of yours, the excellent essay on the
jealousy of commerce:
I think it cannot but have a good effect in promoting a certain interest too little thought of by selfish man, and scarce ever mentioned, so that we hardly have a name for it; I mean the
interest of humanity,
or common good of mankind: but I hope particularly from that essay, an abatement of the jealousy that reigns here of the commerce of the colonies, at least so far as such abatement may be reasonable.

I thank you for your friendly admonition relating to some unusual words in the pamphlet. It will be of service to me. The
pejorate,
and the
colonize,
since they are not in common use here, I give up as bad; for certainly in writings intended for persuasion and for general information, one cannot be too clear, and every expression in the least obscure is a fault. The
unshakeable
too, though clear, I give up as rather low. The introducing new words where we are already possessed of old ones sufficiently expressive, I confess must be generally wrong, as it tends to change the language; yet at the same time I cannot but wish the usage of our tongue permitted making new words when we want them, by composition of old ones whose meanings are already well understood. The German allows of it, and it is a common practice with their writers. Many of our present English words were originally so made; and many of the Latin words. In point of clearness such compound words would have the advantage of any we can borrow from the ancient or from foreign languages. For instance, the word
inaccessible,
though long in use among us, is not yet, I dare say, so universally understood by our people as the word
uncomeatable
would immediately be, which we are not allowed to write. But I hope with you, that we shall always in America make the best English of this island our standard, and I believe it will be so. I assure you, it often gives me pleasure to reflect how greatly the
audience
(if I may so term it) of a good English writer will in another century or two be increased, by the increase of English people in our colonies.

My son presents his respects with mine to you and Dr. Monro. We received your printed circular letter to the members of the society, and purpose some time next winter to send each of us a little philosophical essay. With the greatest esteem I am, dear sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

B. Franklin

T
O
D
AVID
H
UME
, M
AY
19, 1762

Dear sir,

It is no small pleasure to me to hear from you that my paper on the means of preserving buildings from damage by lightning, was acceptable to the philosophical society. Mr. Russel’s proposals of improvement are very sensible and just. A leaden spout or pipe is undoubtedly a good conductor so far as it goes. If the conductor enters the ground just at the foundation, and from thence is carried horizontally to some well, or to a distant rod driven downright into the earth; I would then propose that the part under ground should be lead, as less liable to consume with rust than iron. Because if the conductor near the foot of the wall should be wasted, the lightning might act on the moisture of the earth, and by suddenly ratifying it occasion an explosion that may damage the foundation. In the experiment of discharging my large case of electrical bottles thro’a piece of small glass tube filled with water, the suddenly rarified water has exploded with a force equal, I think, to that of so much gunpowder; bursting the tube into many pieces, and driving them with violence in all directions and to all parts of the room. The shivering of trees into small splinters like a broom, is probably owing to this rarefaction of the sap in the longitudinal pores or capillary pipes in the substance of the wood. And the blowing-up of bricks or stones in a hearth, rending stones out of a foundation, and splitting of walls, is also probably an effect sometimes of rarified moisture in the earth, under the hearth, or in the walls. We should therefore have a durable conductor under ground, or convey the lightning to the earth at some distance.

It must afford Lord Mareschall a good deal of diversion to preside in a dispute so ridiculous as that you mention. Judges in their decisions often use precedents. I have somewhere met with one that is what the lawyers call
a case in point.
The church people and the Puritans in a country town, had once a bitter contention concerning the erecting of a maypole, which the former desired and the latter opposed. Each party endeavored to strengthen itself by obtaining the authority of the mayor, directing or forbidding a maypole. He heard their altercation with great patience, and then gravely determined thus; you that are for having no maypole shall have no maypole; and you that are for having a maypole shall have a maypole. Get about your business and let me hear no more of this quarrel. So methinks Lord Mareschal might say; you that are for no more damnation than is proportioned to your offences, have my consent that it may be so: and you that are for being damned eternally, God eternally damn you all, and let me hear no more of your disputes.

Your compliment of
gold
and
wisdom
is very obliging to me, but a little injurious to your country. The various value of every thing in every part of this world, arises you know from the various proportions of the quantity to the demand. We are told that gold and silver in Solomon’s time were so plenty as to be of no more value in his country than the stones in the street. You have here at present just such a plenty of wisdom. Your people are therefore not to be censured for desiring no more among them than they have; and if I have
any,
I should certainly carry it where from its scarcity it may probably come to a better market.

I nevertheless regret extremely the leaving a country in which I have received so much friendship, and friends whose conversation has been so agreeable and so improving to me; and that I am henceforth to reside at so great a distance from them is no small mortification, to my dear friend, Yours most affectionately

B. Franklin