year after Anderson's _Constitutions_ were printed (in 1723), he may conceivably have read the volume. Stressing toleration, the universality of natural religion, morality rather than theology, reason rather than faith, Masonry could easily have augmented these ideas as they were latent or already developed in Franklin's mind. Scholars have yet to work out the extent to which Freemasonry, yokefellow of deism, reinforced free thought and was one of the subversive forces breaking down colonial orthodoxy. B. Faÿ's _Revolution and Freemasonry, 1680-1800_ neglects non-political influences of Freemasonry. Although there is no evidence that Franklin as early as 1728 read such works (popular in the colonies) as De Ramsay's _The Travels of Cyrus_ and Rowe's translation of _The Golden Sayings of Pythagoras_, the manner in which oriental lore augmented science and Masonry in fostering deism is an intriguing problem in eighteenth-century colonial letters.] [Footnote i-448: See I. W. Riley, _op. cit._, 249. Also see C. M. Walsh, "Franklin and Plato," _Open Court_, XX, 129 ff.] [Footnote i-449: See _Writings_, II, 95-6 (1728).] [Footnote i-450: John Ray's _The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation_ (London, 1827; first ed. 1691), 31-2.] [Footnote i-451: _The Augustan Age_, 54-5.] [Footnote i-452: _Selections from the Writings of Fénelon_, ed. by Mrs. Follen (Boston, 1861), 51-2.] [Footnote i-453: _Ibid._, 59.] [Footnote i-454: _Ibid._, 47.] [Footnote i-455: In Preface to _The Works of the British Poets_, ed. by R. Anderson (London, 1795), 592. Since Franklin frequented Batson's in Cornhill, it is possible that through Dr. Pemberton he might have met Sir R. Blackmore, who was one of its best patrons.] [Footnote i-456: _Ibid._, 611.] [Footnote i-457: See Ray, _op. cit._, 143: "I persuade myself, that the beautiful and gracious Author of man's being and faculties, and all things else, delights in the beauty of his creation, and is well pleased with the industry of man, in adorning the earth with beautiful cities and castles...."] [Footnote i-458: _The Relation of John Locke to English Deism_, 133.] [Footnote i-459: See P. S. Wood, "Native Elements in English Neo-Classicism," _Modern Philology_, XXIV, 201-8 (Nov., 1926).] [Footnote i-460: See C. E. Jorgenson's "The Source of Benjamin Franklin's Dialogues between Philocles and Horatio (1730)," _American Literature_, VI, 337-9 (Nov., 1934).] [Footnote i-461: _Writings_, II, 203.] [Footnote i-462: _Ibid._, II, 467.] [Footnote i-463: Facsimile reprint by W. Pepper (Philadelphia, 1931), 27 note.] [Footnote i-464: See _Almanac_ for 1753.] [Footnote i-465: _Writings_, II, 288.] [Footnote i-466: _Ibid._, II, 429. See also II, 434-5.] [Footnote i-467: See W. J. Campbell, _op. cit._]