Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
particulars in which the writer had been misled by wrong information, and
that the whole was written with too much rancor and asperity. Indeed, Smith
even promised that he would write to Dr. Fry admitting the respects in
which his statements were false; but, when pressed by Strahan to write this
letter on the spot, he declined to do so, though stating that he would call
upon Strahan in a day or so and show it to him before it was sent; which he
never did. On the contrary, when subsequently questioned at Oxford
concerning his promise to write such a letter, he "denied the whole, & even
treated the question as a Calumny." So wrote Dr. Kelly to Strahan in the
letter already mentioned by us. "I make no other comment on this
behaviour," said Dr. Kelly further, "than in considering him (Smith)
extremely unworthy of the Honour, he has received, from our University."
The fact that, despite all this, at Franklin's death, Dr. Smith, at the
request of the American Philosophical Society, made Franklin's character
and career the subject of an eulogistic address is certainly calculated to
induce us all to unite in the prayer of Franklin in his _Articles of
Belief_ to be delivered from "Anger (that momentary Madness)."
Dr. Smith proved to be one fly in the Academy gallipot. The other was the
extent to which the Latin School was pampered at the expense of the English
School which was very close to the heart of Franklin. Its insidious
encroachments steadily went on until finally the English School scarcely
had a foothold in the institution at all. The result was that in 1769 it
had been reduced from its first flourishing condition, when, if Franklin
may be believed, the Academy was attended by some little boys under seven,
who could deliver an oration with more propriety than most preachers, to a
state of bare sufferance. The exercises in English reading and speaking,
once the delight of the Trustees and of the parents and other relations of
the boys, when these boys were trained by Mr. Dove, the English Master,
with all the different modulations of voice required by sense and subject,
languished after his resignation on account of his meagre salary, and at
length, under the blighting neglect of the Trustees, were wholly
discontinued. The English school, to use Franklin's forcible expression,
was simply starved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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