Benjamin Franklin and His English

YamanashiYamanashiEiwaCollege Eiwa College Benjamin Franklin And His English Seiz6 H6mura , Foreword ago, when was a college About fivedecades I student I was strongly attracted by the writing of Benjamin Franklin. It was a 13-page quotation from American literature. But it was quite a fascinating piece which spoke of the attractiveness of Franklin's character. Since then I had some chances of reading Benjamin Franklin's Autobio- graphy, and I was much pleased with that, but quite recently I read the book with several teachers of English, translating it into Japanese, sentence by sentence with the object of familiarizing ourselves with American literature. At the same time we did not neglect to pay attention to linguistic features of his English. As it is the English of the eighteenth century, it has features different from those of the present day English. Ireached, therefore, to the conclusion that it would be very useful to the beginners of English and American literature to have some coherent exposition on the English of Benjamin Franklin, if they are interested in Franldin. So I decided to write an article on the character and English of Benjamin Franklin. For this purpose I used Franklin's Autobiogrophy of Kenkyusha British & American Classics and side by side with the book of Kenkyusha pocke- English Series, with notes by Professor Masami Nishikawa, which are of very excel!ent scholarship. It is entirely thanks to the professor's erudition if there be anything deserving attention in this article. To write this article I had the chance of reading- Ripers of Benjumin Franklin consisting of four volumes edited by Lebnard W. Labaree and Whitefield J. Bell, by the courtesy cf Professor Kenzo Marumo of Yamanashi University. It is in 1868 that the complete text of his Autobiographbl was -1- NII-Electronic Library Service YamanashiYamanashiEiwaCollege Eiwa College published. Thanks to that edition we are able to read the book just as was written by Franklin himself. After that some editions of the book have been published, but the authentic edition of Autobiography is found in The Writings oi Benjamin Franklin (10 volumes) edited by Albert Henry Srnyth. But Professor Nishikawa took up the edition by Carl Doren for his text I also followed him P. S. i. The figures in my article refer to the number of the page of the Kenkyusha C]assics text, besides years which are of four figures. 11 Abbreviations : O. E. D. = Oxford English Dictionary S. O. D. == Shorter Oxford English Dictienary C. O. D. =- Concise Oxferd Dictionary P. O. D. == Poeket Oxford Dictionary W. D. ::= Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary U. S. = United States Wording I Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franldin was indeed a versatile man. His biographer ealls him an American printer, author, publisher, inventor, scientist, public servant and diplomat. He liveda many-sided life: but he was not dis- heartened at all, and stood up again and again. The story of his discovery of the identity ef lightning and eleetricity interested me in my boyhood Thus his attraetion was moralisti-c and scientific one. Later genera- .tions have known him most directly through posthumous book Auto- bilograPhyand IJVcry to Weulth and Iloor Ric/iard's Abnanacfe (both were published under the name of Richard Saunders), Benjamin Franklin is characterized as the representative character of the eighteenth century, and was looked up to as the mouthpiece of the eighteenth century Ainerica. His view of life was the very opposite of Calvinism, which Jenathan Edwards tried to retrieve through desperate ' struggle agamst its decline. Bein.ff- born in a Puritan city, Beston, Mass., on Jan. 17, 1706 (new style; Jan. 6, old stylc),of a maker of soap and candles, he reeeived no education worthy of mentioning exeept that of a grammar school. His father Josiah hud seventeen children (four by his first wife and ten more by a second wife; -2 NII-Electronic Library Service YamanashiYamanashiEiwaCollege Eiwa College seventeen in all) and Benjamin was the youngest of them. (8) His AuLobiogr(iphy is the account of his life from his birth up to 1757 (hediedin 1790), and itwas written at wide intervalsbetween 1771 and 1788 and some say that it is often inaccurate in some details. But it gives 1'rank ideas about everyday events and human relations, sometimes giving moral interpretations upon human relationship. Natur- ally he preaches to his son "Jilliam Franklin the gospel of getting ahead in the world by virtue of thrift, industry and shrewd use of the lessons got out of experiences. `CGod helps those who help thernselves," one of Poor Richrd's maxims, is quite typical of one fact of Franklin's belief. This is one of his favorite maxims up to which he tried to live in his life. Yet he was not a timid or self-centered man by any means. He was often passionate or extravagant as his AutobiograPhy tells us. While working as an apprentice of his elder brotlier John, he read for his self-education many wellknown books, such as the books by Plutarch (Liwes), Bunyan (Pilgriin's Pi"ogress) , Defoe (Essay on Project and Robinson Cru- soe),Addison and Burton(Hisiorical Collections). He also read Locke's .E]ssa), (l]onee?-ning Human Unt;tei'standing and the books by Deists, which, without high standard of education, would not have been understood to his great advantages. After being taken out of the grammar "sent shcool, he was to a school for xvriting and arithmetic kept by a then famous man, Mr. George' Brownell-･･under him I acquired fair writing pretty soon, but I failed in the arithmetic and no progress in it." (11) He received no other education, But his booliish inclination led his father to determine to malce him a printer, in which trade he remained engag-ed along time. In 1723 he ran away to Philadelphia where he purchased Ptrnnsvvlt,ania GaN"･'ette after he had spent two years in London and kept on publishing it in 1729. It seems that this was the example of his brother James Franklin, who printed the tTVbxv England Coura;vt. He then thought of eneouraging the public to cultivate common sense among them and published Poor Richard's Almanac]{ under the name of Richard Saunders. He was the first man and about to establish the public library in Philadelphia (1742) , the same period he established Philadelphia University. It was also about - 3 --- NII-Electronic Library Service YamanashiYamanashiEiwaCollege Eiwa College this time that Frank}in began experiments in electricity. But we can trace his curiosity about electricity to his boyhood but not until 1740 did it become more than desultory. In that year he invented the Philadelphia fireplace, which is better known by the name ef Franl{lin stove. He wrote a pamphlet about this stove in 1744. By this time he was reading all the scientific literature he cou}d put his hand to, ttnd he carefully read articles on electricity, In April 1751 a ¢ ollection was printecl as Ea:Periments and Observt'uions oiz Electricit:y. The experiment suggested by Benjamin Franl{lin to prove the identity of lighln- ing and electricity was carried on in France, which is said to have been done on a simple experiment of flying a kite in the thunder storm. This is what I learned from our textbook of English for the middle school. By 1752 he had made the most important contribution to science, including his observation that came apparently from the northeast actually moved from the southwest, which was his desert outside electricity. For the rest of his life he conclucted many vaiuable experiments and theorized a great deal. He was as interested in heat, light, souncl and magnetism, as he was interested in hydrody- namics, hydrostatics, chemistry, geology, physiology, psychology and eceanography. How can you imagine that such a man of little educationa background as Benjarnin Franklin could be versed in $o many branchesl of science? But he dicl that. We cannot but be impressed by his deep and profound intellec:t and his researching spirit. This is his inteliectual field of science, and new we have to deal with his aetivities as a public servant, From 1753, when he took charge of the mails in all the northern colonies, he was prone to think in termg of the bond of commmon interest which tied the separate commonwealths together. He was also elected burgess for･ Pennsy}vania in I75t'). Next year he was appointed envoy to France and there he stayed for nine years. In 1785 he was elected govemor of Pennsyl- vania. For about 20 yeurs Franklin was America's chief spokesman, so far as an America to speak for. He became an American and a revolutionary almost in spite of himself. He worked until the last moment to reconcile inflicting interest to interpret America to Englishmen and British politlcs to Americans. But contrary to his -4 NII-Electronic Library Service YamanashiYamanashiEiwaCollege Eiwa College wish, he failed in reconciliating the two. Like most politicians he made mistakes and suffered because of them, but he also had some "Plan success. One of them was the adoption of the of Union" by the Albany congres$ which met in 1754 to make common cause against the French and Indians. His political activities nearly ruined Franklin in 1755,when he promised Pennsylvania farmers to stand good for any losses they might suffer, should they use horses and wagons to supply General Edward Braddoek's army in its expedition against Ft. Duqeusne. It seemed that he might have to pay almost 20,OOO out of his own pocket.

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