Benjamin Franklin was a great man. He was one of nature’s noblemen. He was not a favorite of fortune. The golden gods never wove a chaplet around his brow, nor emptied their treasures in his lap. He was one of the hardy sons of toil. His greatness was not the greatness of accident. He made himself great by the nobility of his life. He loved God and the truth. He never trimmed his sails to popular breezes. He was always on one side or the other of every important question, and generally on the right side. Though you might not always agree with him, you always knew where he stood. He gave no uncertain sound. He was a man for the people. His simplicity, his faith, and his devotion to the truth were simply sublime. In this lay his power.—_Frank G. Allen._ There is a real charm in biography, especially when the deeds and struggles of a valuable life are recorded. Few studies are so fascinating to a thoughtful man as that of the growth of a human soul, the upbuilding of a noteworthy human life. We cannot think of a man who has made his mark in the world, without wishing to know the processes of his development; to mark the conflict of forces within, and limitations without, under the moulding power of whose interactions he became, at last, what we know him to have been. In this case it is the world-old story of struggle and conflict of a strong, earnest nature, grappling bravely with adverse surroundings, and pressing forward with indomitable energy to final victory. The world is full of instances, doubtless, which illustrate the power of man over outward circumstances; but there are few such which are more satisfactory, I think, than that of the life traced in the volume before us. From the materials now accumulating, the historian of another generation will be able to do the chief actors of the last twenty-five years the justice of impartial judgment. Since each shall be present in the grand assizes of heaven, he can the more willingly commit his reputation on earth to the care of impartial posterity. The enterprising publisher, John Burns, deserves much credit for the handsome shape in which the book is brought out.—_G. W. Longan._ It might be thought, by some who read the work, that there is too much of the “Times” and not enough of the “Life” of Benjamin Franklin; but as the author justly claims, it could not have been done otherwise and be faithful. I regard the book as a faithful portraiture, which, indeed, should be allowed by all, especially since in the statement of propositions and differences, the author gives both sides.