It is obvious that this inconsistency is very like human nature, especially youthful human nature. There is nothing wonderful in it. It was simply the struggle which often takes place in boys who are both physically and mentally strong. The only thing unusual is that the person concerned has made a complete revelation of it. Such things are generally deeply concealed from the public. But that curious frankness which was mingled with Franklin’s astuteness has in his own case opened wide the doors. It has been commonly stated in his biographies that he had but one illegitimate child, a son; but from a manuscript letter in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, written by John Foxcroft, February 2, 1772, and never heretofore printed, it appears that he had also an illegitimate daughter, married to John Foxcroft: “PHILAD^A Feby 2d, 1772. “DEAR SIR “I have the happiness to acquaint you that your Daughter was safely brot to Bed the 20^th ulto and presented me with a sweet little girl, they are both in good spirits and are likely to do very well. “I was seized with a Giddyness in my head the Day before yesterday wch alarms me a good deal as I had 20 oz of blood taken from me and took physick wch does not seem in the least to have relieved me. [Illustration: JOHN FOXCROFT] “I am hardly able to write this. Mrs F joins me in best affections to yourself and compts to Mrs Stevenson and Mr and Mrs Huson. “I am D^r Sir “Yrs. affectionately “JOHN FOXCROFT. “Mrs Franklin, Mrs Bache, little Ben & Family at Burlington are all well. I had a letter from ye Gov^r yesterday J. F.” Among the Franklin papers in the State Department at Washington there are copies of a number of letters which Franklin wrote to Foxcroft, and in three of them--October 7, 1772, November 3, 1772, and March 3, 1773--he sends “love to my daughter.” There is also in Bigelow’s edition of his works[11] a letter in which he refers to Mrs. Foxcroft as his daughter. The letter I have quoted above was written while Franklin was in England as the representative of some of the colonies, and is addressed to him at his Craven Street lodgings. Foxcroft, who was postmaster of Philadelphia, seems to have been on friendly terms with the rest of Franklin’s family.