scripts, correcting and altering as he chose. Bigelow's edition was an improvement, but he based many of his quotations upon the work of Sparks and thereby repeated the errors.

Professor Smyth performed a notable service to American letters in preparing his edition of Franklin's works. He had access to many manuscripts not known when previous editions were published and in republishing he went to the original documents in every case, preserving their exact style, spelling, and of course phraseology.

The "Autobiography" will always remain one of the great monuments of American literature. It has been translated into practically every tongue, securing a wide circulation all over the globe, and in America no library is complete without it. In some cities it is used as a text-book in the public schools.

The manuscript of the "Autobiography" in Franklin's handwriting long remained in the possession of the family of M. le Veillard, Mayor of Passy when Franklin lived there, and one of his close personal friends. In 1867 it came into the possession of Hon. John Bigelow, Minister to the Court of France, and for the first time the public was made acquainted with the "Autobiography" as written by its author. On comparison with the edition put forth by William Temple Franklin, it was found that as his grandfather's literary execu

tor he had taken unwarranted liberties with the text. More than twelve hundred changes were found to have been made by him, all of them of course in his own mind improvements upon the original.

"Of these changes," says McMaster, "little need be said. They are usually Temple Franklin's Latin words for Benjamin Franklin's Anglo-Saxon. They remind us of the language of those finished writers for the press who can never call a fire anything but a conflagration, nor a crowd anything but a vast concourse, and who dare not use the same word twice on the same page Thus it is that in the Temple Franklin edition 'notion' has become 'pretence,' that 'night coming on' has become 'night approaching,' that 'a very large one' has become 'a considerable one,' that 'treated me' has become 'received me,' that 'got a naughty girl with child' has become 'had an intrigue with a girl of bad character,' that 'very oddly' has been turned into ‘a very extraordinary manner.' But the changes did not stop here. The coarseness of the grandfather was very shocking to the grandson, and 'guzzlers of beer' is made 'drinkers of beer,' 'footed it to London' becomes 'walked to London,' 'Keimer stared like a pig poisoned' is made to give way to 'Keimer stared with astonishment."

THE

CHAP. XX.

Literary Friends.

HE first of Benjamin Franklin's friends who could properly be classed under the title of this chapter were two friends of his youth, John Collins and James Ralph. It was with young Collins that he engaged in youthful controversies over weighty subjects, as has been related in another chapter, which resulted in his decision, at the suggestion of his father, to acquire an improved literary style. Collins seems to have been a young man of great promise, but he took to over-indulgence in intoxicants and early disappeared from Franklin's life.

James Ralph was one of the original members of the Junto. He was clerk to a merchant and was "ingenious, genteel in his manners, and extremely eloquent." But he abandoned a young wife and child and went with Franklin to England, where he became a literary hack and a producer of indifferent poetry. His memory is kept alive principally because of the fact that Alexander Pope satirized him in the "Dunciad." He dedicated his first work to Franklin.

In enumerating in the "Autobiography" his closest acquaintances during his first years. in Philadelphia, Franklin named not only James Ralph, but Charles Osborne and Joseph Watson, "all lovers of reading," and presents an attractive

NIGHT:

A

POEM.

In FOUR Books.

Pitchy and dark the night fometimes appears,
Friend to our woe, and parent of our fears i
Our joys and wonder fometimes the excites,
With ftars unnumbred, and eternal lights.

PRIOR.

By JAMES RALPH.

LONDON:

Printed by C. Ackers, for S. BILLINGSLEY at the Judge's«
Head in Chancery-Lane. 1728:

(Price 1 s. 6 d.)

Title page of a volume by Franklin's youthful friend, James Ralph. Original in possession of the author.

Size 4" x 6".

picture of their intimacy when he adds: "Many pleasant Walks we four had together on Sundays into the Woods near Schuykill where we read to one another and conferred on what we read."

One of the dearest friends of Franklin's later years was Benjamin Vaughan, a native of the West Indies, who was in London serving as secretary to Lord Shelburne when Franklin was there. When the "Parable of Persecution" was published in London during Franklin's absence in America, and a charge of plagiarism was brought against him, Vaughan sprang immediately and successfully to his defence. He it was who urged Franklin to continue the writing of the "Autobiography," and he was the editor of the first edition of Franklin's works.

Peter Collinson, celebrated because of his knowledge of botany and natural history, was another close friend. He kept up a correspondence with men of science in all parts of the world, and it was to him that Franklin was indebted for the opportunity to make his first experiments with an electrical tube which Collinson sent from London to the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Cadwallader Colden, another friend, was about the same age as Benjamin Vaughan, both being a dozen years older than Franklin. Colden was the author of the "Hiftory of the Five Indian Nations," "Principles of Action in Matter," and other