Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
The clay medallion of me [Franklin wrote to Sarah
Bache] you say you gave to Mr. Hopkinson was the first
of the kind made in France. A variety of others have
been made since of different sizes; some to be set in
the lids of snuff-boxes, and some so small as to be
worn in rings; and the numbers sold are incredible.
These, with the pictures, busts, and prints (of which
copies upon copies are spread everywhere) have made
your father's face as well known as that of the moon,
so that he durst not do anything that would oblige him
to run away, as his phiz would discover him wherever he
should venture to show it.
It was computed that some two hundred different kinds of representations of
his face were turned out to be set in rings, watches, snuff-boxes,
bracelets, looking-glasses and other chattels. One print of him is said to
have made the fortune of the engraver. Particularly striking is the
testimony of John Adams to the fame of Franklin when in France, which is
part of the remarkable letter published by him in the _Boston Patriot_ on
May 11, 1811, in answer to Franklin's strictures on his conduct in France:
His reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz
or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire; and his character
more beloved and esteemed than any or all of them....
His name was familiar to government and people, to
kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers,
as well as plebeians, to such a degree that there was
scarcely a peasant or a citizen, a _valet de chambre_,
coachman or footman, a lady's chambermaid, or a
scullion in a kitchen, who was not familiar with it,
and who did not consider him as a friend to human kind.
When they spoke of him, they seemed to think he was to
restore the golden age.
To the pen of Adams we are also indebted for an account of the first public
meeting between Voltaire and Franklin, which also testified with such
dramatic _éclat_ to the place occupied by Franklin in the hearts of the
French people. This was at the hall of the Academy of Science in Paris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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