many works in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, beside the most learned of English books; but his observations in Natural History show that his studies had not been confined to printed pages. He was graduated at seventeen from Yale College, preached in New York before he was twenty, was twenty-four years pastor at Northampton, Mass., and became president of Princeton College two months before his death. His wonderful power as a preacher was ascribed to his "immense preparation, long forethought, sedulous writing of every word, touching earnestness, and holy life."

4

203. Franklin.-But the mind which most perfectly represented and most strongly influenced the character of American institutions was that of Benjamin Franklin, (b. 1706, d. 1790), the printer-boy of Boston, the self-taught sage of Philadelphia, the representative of the colonies at London, the embassador of the United States at Paris, whose plain, good sense, genial humor, and honest self-respect made him the favorite of all ranks and classes. He had accustomed himself from boyhood to write on public affairs, and his pamphlets on the interests of England and the rights of the colonies were read with great attention on both sides of the ocean. Examined by Parliament in 1765 concerning the probable effect of the Stamp Act in America (§ 220), he replied with so much firmness, dignity, and intelligence that even the bitterest enemies of the colonies were forced to respect his arguments. A distinguished statesman declared him to be the greatest diplomatist of the eighteenth century. "He never spoke a word too soon; he never spoke a word too late; he never spoke a word too much; he never failed to speak the right word at the right time."

204. His most popular work was "Poor Richard's Almanac," whose successive numbers were afterwards abridged and reprinted in one volume under the title of "The Way to Wealth." It contains a fund of homely wisdom, and Frank

lin himself attributed the rapid increase of prosperity in Philadelphia to the extent to which the people read and followed his good advice. (See Note 6, p. 167.)

205. Among his great services to his country was his organization of its postal service as early as 1754.

penny stamp is a monument to Franklin." His simple experiment with the kite, proving lightning and thunder to be caused by electric currents, and his subsequent invention of the lightning-rod, gave him a high place among scientific men. His philosophical writings are in the same clear language as his charming autobiography and almanac, for he aimed to make wisdom useful rather than dignified.

Benjamin Franklin.

"Every

206. Science. From the beginning the colonies contained many noted students of natural science. The soils, minerals, plants, and animals of the new continent were all objects of keen research. Linnæus, the noted Swedish naturalist, declared John Bartram, the Quaker gardener of Philadelphia, to be the "greatest natural botanist in the world." Virginia and the more southerly colonies had several botanists of European fame. But the scientific reputation of America was established when Franklin, in 1744, drew about him other gentlemen of kindred tastes, and formed the American Philosophical Society. It was an important bond of union among the best men in all the colonies.

207. John Woolman is known only by his "Journal," with

U.S. H.-8.

went far to put an end to slave-holding among Quakers. He was born in West Jersey, 1720, and died in England, 1773.

208. Pamphlets on questions concerning government and popular rights were the most valuable part of American literature during the second colonial period. The

OLONIAL

COLONIAL CUSTOMS.

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theory of a great, free nation was slowly forming in some of the best minds of the age; and the American state papers of the next generation were recognized in England as ranking among the wisest productions of all ages.

209. Colonial Habits.-All the colonies had greatly increased in wealth by industry and frugal living, while still among the mass of the people food, dress, and furniture were of the simplest kind. Clothing was usually home-spun and home-woven from the wool of their own flocks or the flax of their own fields. Yet there were some families in every colony that imported costly furniture and silver-plate from Europe, and even plain people often invested their slow savings in strings of gold beads or in laces and satins for great occasions. In some colonies apparel was limited by law to the means of the wearer: the grave magistrates had much trouble with the silken hoods and kirtles of the women, the "great boots," gold buttons, and ornamented belts of the men; but if the accused could prove that their circumstances warranted the expense, they were dismissed without a fine.

210. In New England especially "plain living and high thinking" were the rule. Great respect was paid to educated men. Ministers and magistrates,—with their sons, if college-bred,-alone bore the title of Mister; Goody,-a contraction for Goodman or Goodwife,—was the mode of address for ordinary people. Punishments were inflicted without the least regard to the personal dignity of the culprit. When two men quarreled in the Plymouth Colony, they were bound together, head to head and foot to foot, for twenty-four hours. In New York a scolding wife was made to stand all day before the door of her house, having her tongue enclosed in a cleft stick. The Pillory, as represented in the engraving, was a wooden frame in which the head and hands of the criminal were held fast, while he was

exposed to the taunts and sneers of the crowd. In Virginia, as in the mother-country, this was a common penalty for religious dissent.

211. Roads, in all parts of the country, were few and poor. Whole families went to church through the woods on horseback, the wife, sometimes with a child on her lap, sitting on a pillion behind her husband. In exposed settlements the father carried his gun and left it at the churchdoor in the care of the sentinel who watched for hostile Indians. Long journeys were made, if possible, by water, but stage-coaches connected Boston with Providence, and New York with Philadelphia. Like English vehicles of the same kind, they were called "flying-machines.

212. Manufactures.-At first nearly all the people in the colonies were farmers or fishermen; but necessity soon compelled them to make salt, glass, paper, farmers' tools, shoes, hats, and gunpowder; and, though almost every home had its loom, cloth factories were also set up. Circumstances favored inventive talent, for which Americans have always been famous. New England had a saw-mill one hundred and thirty years before one was built in the mother-country. But England, far from encouraging manufactures in the colonies, checked and thwarted them, lest they should become rivals of her own.

213. Commerce and Piracy.-The first product of New England which reached Europe was a cargo of sassafras root, taken by Gosnold ($54) in 1602. Before long,

furs, fish, lumber, corn, rice, and tobacco furnished freight for multitudes of ships; and a lucrative commerce sprang up with England and the West Indies, and between the colonies. This commerce was seriously molested by pirates, whose black flags were met in all the seas.

To suppress their ravages the British Admiralty, in 1696, ordered Captain Kidd3 with a ship to the East Indies. But Kidd, after retaking several prizes, thought it more profitable