Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notesFranklin, Benjamin
General
Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notes
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
[Footnote i-107: Quoted in T. H. Montgomery's _A History of the
University of Pennsylvania_, 396. Smith's educational principles may be
partially seen in his "View of the Philosophy Schools" (1754) printed in
H. W. Smith's _Life and Correspondence of the Rev. William Smith_
(Philadelphia, 1879), I, 59 f. Although he conceived Nature as affording
only "those fainter exhibitions of the Deity" (I, 156), he was a sturdy
orthodox rationalist, tending toward, yet not embracing deism.
Emphasizing the principal writings of Barrow, Maclaurin, Watts, Keill,
Locke, Hutcheson, 'sGravesande, Martin, Desaguliers, Rohault (Clarke's
edition), Ray, Derham, and Sir Isaac Newton, Smith suggests the
rationalist who buttresses scriptural revelation with the evidences of
Deity through discovery by reason of the Workman in the Work. His
_Discourses on Public Occasions in America_ (2d ed., London, 1762) are
the result "of his office as Head of a seminary of learning
[Philadelphia Academy and College]; in order to advance the interests of
Science, and therewith the interests of true Christianity" (p. vi). "A
General Idea of the College of Mirania" (1762), though written about
1752 while Smith was in New York, suggests the form of his "View": he
observes that "besides his revealed will, God has given intimations of
his will to us, by appealing to our senses in the constitution of our
nature, and the constitution and harmony of the material universe"
(_Discourses_, 44). The same titles and authors are listed as in the
"View." A Newtonian rationalist, Smith meditated: "All thy works, with
unceasing voice, echo forth thy wondrous praises. The splendid sun, with
the unnumbered orbs of heaven, thro' the pathless void, repeat their
unwearied circuits, that, to the uttermost bounds of the universe, they
may proclaim Thee the source of justest order and unabating harmony"
(_ibid._, 155). Smith arrived at his principles of rationalism
apparently without indebtedness to Franklin: there seems to be no
evidence that as provost he was merely attempting to fulfill the
scientific and rationalistic ideas latent in Franklin's _Proposals_,
that he was a tool in Franklin's hands. Indeed, they were anything but
friendly to one another. Hence, one feels that the credit for the
relatively modern curriculum should be given more abundantly to Smith
than to Franklin.]
[Footnote i-108: _Writings_, II, 388.]
[Footnote i-109: Montgomery, _op. cit._, 254 note.]
[Footnote i-110: _Writings_, II, 9-14.]
[Footnote i-111: _Writings_, X, 29.]
[Footnote i-112: _Ibid._, X, 31. Compare similar views in Benjamin
Rush's "Observations upon the Study of the Latin and Greek Languages,"
in _Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical_ (Philadelphia, 1798), and
Francis Hopkinson's "An Address to the American Philosophical Society,"
in _Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings_ (Philadelphia, 1792),
I.]
[Footnote i-113: _Writings_, IV, 22.]
[Footnote i-114: _Ibid._, VI, 153.]
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