Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/339

Rh in London during his visit there in 1759, and this has been fol- lowed in the later edition of his Discourses and that of his Works, Both publications open with the statement that in the year 1749, a number of private gentlemen, who had long regretted it as misfortune to the youth of this province that we had no public Semi- nary, in which they might receive the accomplishments of a regular education, published a paper of hints and proposals for erecting an academy in this city. But the Discourses of 1757 omit a phrase in the third para- graph, found in the Magazine : At first only three persons were concerned in forming it, two of whom are since dead, and the other now in England. These communi- cated their thoughts to others, till at last the number of [here the narrative continues alike in both] twenty-four joined themselves together as Trustees, &c. The one " now in England " was Franklin ; the two " since dead," were Francis and Hopkinson ; for though Logan, Law- rence, Zachary and Willing were also "since dead," the two here named were those intended by the writer. It is not probable this mode of reference to the author of the Proposals and the originator of the Academy would have been made had he been at the time at home. This allusion of 1758 was of an opposite character to that of 1753 (which was indeed repeated in 1762) where in his Mirania he refers to "the English School and Academy in Philadelphia first sketched out by the very ingen- ious and worthy Mr. Franklin of that place." 2 Certain personal references to the Faculty of the College, added to the account in the Magazine, and which will be noticed hereafter, do not find place in its subsequent publications. It was no light work to edit such a Magazine, and it affords another evidence of William Smith's mental activity aud unfailing industry that he should continue it through the particular harassments that the year 1758 brought to him. 1 Miranians, p. 15. In the second edition included in the Discourses of 1762, this reference is put in a footnote and reads "first sketched out by the ingenious Dr. Franklin of that place."