Franklin's place in literature is hard to determine because he was not primarily a literary man. His aim in his writings as in his life work was to be helpful to his fellow-men. For him writing was never an end in itself, but always a means to an end. Yet his success as a scientist, a statesman, and a diplomat, as well as socially, was in no little part due to his ability as a writer. "His letters charmed all, and made his correspondence eagerly sought. His political arguments were the joy of his party and the dread of his opponents. His scientific discoveries were explained in language at once so simple and so clear that plow-boy and exquisite could follow his thought or his experiment to its conclusion."[1] [1] _The Many-Sided Franklin._ Paul L. Ford. As far as American literature is concerned, Franklin has no contemporaries. Before the _Autobiography_ only one literary work of importance had been produced in this country--Cotton Mather's _Magnalia_, a church history of New England in a ponderous, stiff style. Franklin was the first American author to gain a wide and permanent reputation in Europe. The _Autobiography_, _Poor Richard_, _Father Abraham's Speech_ or _The Way to Wealth_, as well as some of the _Bagatelles_, are as widely known abroad as any American writings. Franklin must also be classed as the first American humorist. English literature of the eighteenth century was characterized by the development of prose. Periodical literature reached its perfection early in the century in _The Tatler_ and _The Spectator_ of Addison and Steele. Pamphleteers flourished throughout the period. The homelier prose of Bunyan and Defoe gradually gave place to the more elegant and artificial language of Samuel Johnson, who set the standard for prose writing from 1745 onward. This century saw the beginnings of the modern novel, in Fielding's _Tom Jones_, Richardson's _Clarissa Harlowe_, Sterne's _Tristram Shandy_, and Goldsmith's _Vicar of Wakefield_. Gibbon wrote _The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, Hume his _History of England_, and Adam Smith the _Wealth of Nations_.