Page:A dictionary of printers and printing.djvu/775

 1. ^

//

^.'f-t,.o

766

HISTORY OF PRINTING.

1790, April 17. Died, Benjamin Franklin, the most celebrated individual that stands re- corded in the anDals of typography, and well may every professor of the art boast of the name of this extraordinary man. From the humble rank of a journeyman printer, he rose to be the most eminent philosopher of the age in which he lived. We find the fame of the patriot vying with that of the philosopher, in casting a splendour over it, ana standing alone the most exalted states- man of his time. M'Creery, in his poem of the Prets, pays him the following elegant tribute :

O yield, re UvtncTf to the great who rest, Shariog celestial Joys among the blest I Colombia, rising into wealth and power, Unites her fame with Franklin's natal hoar. Franklin, who struck with awe his country's foes. And great b^ore a venal senate rose. — Artists who in your hnmbler stations stand. Earning your bread by labour's active hand. He left the lesson to your useful dass, — Unheeded shaU the great example pass I Like yours his sinewy arm the lever sway'd, And Independence her blest tribute paid.

Panegyric, which has so often been disgrace- fully employed in strewing flowers on the tombs of the worthless, redeems her credit when she comes forth, with truth by her side, to immorta- lize the memory of the great and the good. To these epithets, if greatness and goodness be measured by the capacity and the inclination to serve mankind, no man had ever a fairer title than Benjamin Franklin.* " At the name of Franklin, every thing interesting to virtue, free- dom, and humaniw, rises to our recollection! By what eulogy shall we do justice to his pie- eminent abilities and worth ? This would require a pre-eminence of abilities and worth like his own. His vast and comprehensive mind was cast in a mould, which nature seems rarely to have used before, and, therefore, can be mea- sured only by a mind cast in a similar mould. His original and universal genius was capable of the greatest things, but disdained not the small- est, provided they were useful. With equal ease and abilities, he could conduct the affairs of a printing-press, and of a great nation ; and dis- charge the duties of a public minister of state, or the private executor of a will. Those talents, which have separately entered into the compo-

'* As a proof that Franklin was anciently the common name of an order or rank in England, see judge Fortes- que, De ItnUUlnu Ugum An^lm^ written about the year 1412, in which is the following passage, as translated, to ahow that good Juries might easily be formed in any part of England:

'* Moreover, the same country is filled and replenished with landed menne, that therein so small a thorpe cannot be found wherein dwelleth not a knight, an esquire, or such a householder as is there commonly nlled & franklin, enriched with great possessions ; and also other fyeeholders and many yeomen, able for their livelihood to make a Jury in fonn aforementioned."

Chancer, too, calls his country-gentleman t/Vanklini and, after descnbing his good house-keeping, mus character- ixeahim:

This worthy frankelin bore a purse of silk Fix'd to his girdle ; white as morning milk , Knight of the shire, first Justice at the assize, To hdp the poor, the doobtfhl to advise. In all employments generous. Just he prov'd, Renonn'd for courteaey, by all beloved.

sition of other eminent chanieters in the rarious departments of life, were in him united to fonn one great and splendid character ; and whoever, in future, shall be said to have deserved well of his countiv, need not think himself undervalued, when he snail be compared to a Franklin, in any of the great talents he possessed ; but the happy man who shall be said to equal him in his whole talents, and who shall devote them to the like benevolent and beneficent purposes, for the ser- vice of his covntry and the happiness of man- kind, can receive no further addition to his praise."* The limits to which we are confined prevent us from giving any thing like a memoir of this great man ; but as his works have been so universally read, and his lifi in every one's hands, little else is left us to do than to give a bare outline of facts that may serve for reference. He was born at Boston, in North America, on the 17th of January, 1706; the youngest, with the exception of two daughters, of a fiunily of seventeen children. His father, who had emi- grated from Englandf about twenty-four years before, followed the occupation of a soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, by which he seems with difficulty to have been able to support his nume- rous family. At first it was proposed to make Benjamin a clergyman ; but his father was not able to afford him a college education, and it was found besides that the church in America was a poor profession ailer all. At ten years of age, he was taken W his father to assist him in his own business. He showed so much dislike to the business, that his fiither was induced to let him choose for himself. It was finally re- solved to place him with his brother James, who had been bred a printer, and just returned from England, and set up on his own account at BosU)n4 To him, therefore, Benjamin was bound apprentice, when he was yet only in his twelfth year, on an agreement tiiat he should remain with him in that capacity till he reached the age of twentv-one; but a difference happening between them, he removed to New Yorlc, from whence he went to Philadelphia, where after working as a journeyman for some time, he at- tracted the notice of sir William Keith, the governor, who persuaded him to set up for him- self. Accordingly he came to England to pur- chase materials, but on his arrival found that the governor had deceived him by false pnnnises, on which he obtained a situation in London, first as a pressman, and afterwards as a compositor, is the office of Mr. Palmer, in Bartholomew-close, and Mr. Watt's, near Lincoln's Inn-fields. He remained in London about two years, and in 1726 returned to Philadelphia, where he became clerk to a merchant. He entered into partner- ship as a printer with a person named Meredith,

• Bulognm oh Dr. FrankUn, LL. D. PretUemt ef Mr American Pkibuophical Sotiety, &c. &c. D^vcred Maidi 1, 1791, in Philadelphia, before both houses of congre— , and the American philosophical society, &c. By ¥^UaiD Smith, D. D. one of the vice-presidents of the said society, and provost of the college and academy of Philadelphia. Svo.

t From Eaton, in Northamptondiire.

X See page (M, anU.

VjOOQ IC