Joseph Siffred Duplessis, Academicien, né à Carpentrar, s'est distingué par une belle intelligence, les effets de la lumière, sur les chairs et accessoires un pinceau large; bien senti et un coloris vrai. Les personnages de distinction dans ses portraits sont posés avec noblesse et dans des altitudes bien choisies. Il à peint le portrait de Louis XVI., ceux de M. et Mme. Neckar, et de plusieurs grands de la Cour.-Les trois siècles de la peinture la France, par Gault de St. Germain. 1808.-Swiback l'eleve le plus distingué de Duplessis, à surpassé son maître.

It will be observed that, unmindful of the example of previous editors of these Memoirs, I have limited myself strictly to a reproduction of their text, without attempting to continue and complete the narrative of the Autobiographer's life. I have one sufficient excuse, if any is needed, for this course which none of my predecessors could have pleaded. The delightful and comparatively recent work of Mr. Parton has left no place in English literature for another biography of this most illustrious of our countrymen.

I do not know that I can more appropriately conclude this bibliographical summary than by quoting a few passages from the introduction to the Memoirs of Franklin by Professor Edward Laboulaye, which appeared in Paris in 1866.* The translation of the Memoirs and correspondence of Franklin was one of the many ways by which this distinguished jurist contributed, during our late struggle for the preservation of our Federal Union, to keep alive in France that friendship for the United States

* Mémoires de Benjamin Franklin, écrits par lui-même, traduits de l'Anglais et annotés par Edouard Laboulaye, de l'Institut de France. Paris, Libraire de L. Hachette & Cie. 1866.

which Franklin, more than any other one person, had the merit of inspiring, and to which, for the second time, we have been largely beholden for our national exist

ence:

"What constitutes the charm of the Memoirs is not the recital of events, which are of the most ordinary character; it is the reflections which accompany their recital. Franklin is a born moralist. The first letter he writes to his sister is a sermon on the virtues of a good housekeeper. The penitent is fifteen and the preacher twenty. From this moment to his death Franklin did not change. He is always the man who reasons out his conduct-the sage who, following the ingenious definition of Mr. Bancroft, never said a word too soon nor a word too late. He never said a word too much, nor failed to say the decisive word at the proper moment. In his letters how many moral lessons, given with as much gayety as power! It is not an author one reads; he is a friend to whom one listens. There is Franklin, with his venerable face, his hair floating back, and his eye always shrewd and quick, presenting altogether one of the most amiable figures of the last century. How many prejudices he playfully dissipated! how he rallied the selfishness of individuals and the artifices of governments, which are but another form of selfishness! Do not ask of him anything sublime, nor expect from him those bursts which raise you above the passing world. Franklin never quits the earth; it is not genius in him; it is good sense expressed in its highest power. Do not seek in him a poet, nor even an orator, but a master of practical life-a man to whom the world belongs. Neither imagine you have to do with a vulgar, worldly wisdom. This amiable mocker, who laughs at

everything, is not the less kind-hearted, a devoted patriot, and one of the sincerest friends of humanity. His laugh is not that of Voltaire; there is no bitterness in it; it is the benevolent smile of an old man whom life has taught to be indulgent. In noting without vanity what he terms his errata of conduct, Franklin teaches us that no one has a right to judge another severely, and that in the most correct life there is always many a page to correct. It is thus that he humbles himself to us to encourage us. He is a companion who takes us by the hand, and, talking with us familiarly, little by little, makes us blush at our weaknesses, and communicates to us something of his warmth and goodness. Such are the effects wrought by perusing the Memoirs, and still more by the correspondence-most strengthening reading for all ages and conditions. No one ever started from a lower point than the poor apprentice of Boston. No one ever raised himself higher by his own unaided forces than the inventor of the lightning-rod. No one has rendered greater service to his country than the diplomatist who signed the treaty of 1783, and assured the independence of the United States. Better than the biographies of Plutarch, this life, so long and so well filled, is a source of perpetual instruction to all men. Every one can there find counsel and example. Franklin has never played a part-neither with others nor with himself. He says what he thinks; he does what he says. He knows but one road which leads from destitution to fortune. He knows of but one mode to arrive at happiness, or, at least, to contentment; it is by labor, economy, and probity. Such is the receipt he gives to his readers; but this receipt he commenced by trying himself. We can believe

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in a secret with which he himself succeeded. In our democratic society, where every one seeks to better his condition-a very legitimate purpose-nothing is worth so much as the example and the lessons of a man who, without influence and without fortune, became master after having been a laborer-gave himself the education which he lacked, and, by force of toil, privations and courage, raised himself to the first rank in his country, and conquered the admiration and respect of the human race. To have the talent of Franklin, or to be favored as he was by events, is not given to all; but every one may have the honor of following such a model, even without the hope of reaching it."

I will venture to add that in my judgment there never was a time in the history of our country when the lessons of humility, economy, industry, toleration, charity, and patriotism, which are made so captivating in this Autobiography, could be studied with more profit by the rising generation of Americans than now. They have burdens to bear unknown to their ancestors, and problems of government to solve unknown to history. All the qualities, moral and intellectual, that are requisite for a successful encounter with these portentous responsibilities were singularly united in the character of Franklin, and nothing in our literature is so well calculated to reproduce them as his own deliberate record of the manner in which he laid the foundation at once of his own and of his country's greatness.

All the notes to this volume, not credited to other sources, are from the manuscript, and, of course, in Franklin's handwriting.

The notes signed "B." are by the Editor.

Those signed "W. T. F." are by William Temple Franklin.

Those signed "Sparks," are from Dr. Sparks' precious Collection of the Writings of Franklin.

I have rigorously followed the orthography of the MS.; not that I attach much importance to this comparatively mechanical feature of the work, but because I thought it would be satisfactory to many readers to see with what defects of early education its author had successfully contended in reaching a celebrity as yet attained by none of his countrymen.

It will be observed that Franklin followed no system of orthography very strictly. He would spell public with a "k," and music without a "k." In some participles and adjectives ending in "ed" he would substitute an apostrophe for the final "e;" in others he would give the final syllable in full. Though is almost uniformly spelt" tho'," job with two "b's," and surf with two "f's" -extreme, extream."

A few gross mistakes occur, such as "sope," for "soap," etc.; yet as a general rule his orthography conformed to that of his time. It may be said, with entire justice, that he spelled the king's English very much better than the king himself did.

THE SQUIRRELS, December 28, 1867.

JOHN BIGELOW.