tracts required by circumstances, and produced upon the spur of the occasion.

"It was easy to perceive that he always endeavoured to reduce all questions to their simple elements, and to present them in such a manner to the public, that the unlearned might be enabled to understand, and to resolve them. It was to such that he always addressed himself. Sometimes it was an error that he attempted to root out and to destroy; and sometimes a useful truth for which he wished gently to prepare their minds, that at length they might be enabled to receive, and above all, to preserve it. It is in vain that we shall search for any subject on which he could be supposed to have written from the mere impulse of glory.

"Sometimes he employed those forms which in appearance only disguise the truth, in order to render it more affecting, and which instead of disclosing, allow the pleasure of divining it.

"It was thus, that while seeming to teach the surest means for diminishing the extent of a state which is found too difficult to be governed, he lampooned the conduct of the English ministry in regard to America; thus also, by way of displaying the injustice of the pretensions of Great Britain, in regard to her colonies, he supposes the king of Prussia to publish an edict, in which he subjects England to the payment of certain taxes, under the pretext that the inhabitants of the banks of the Oder had formerly conquered and peopled it.

"His conversation like his style, was always natural, and often ingenious. In his youth he had read Xenophon, an author who had inspired him with a taste for the Socratic method of argument, and he took pleasure in employing it, sometimes by putting artful questions, tending to make the advocates of a false opinion refute themselves; sometimes by an application of their principles to other events, obliging them thus to recognise the truth, when disengaged from the clouds within which custom or prejudice had en

-veloped it; at other times, deciding by means of an apologue, a tale, or an anecdote, those questions which the pride of a serious discussion would have obscured.

"Being employed by some of the American provinces to request an abolition of the insulting custom of transporting malefactors to the colonies, the minister by way of reply, alleged the necessity of delivering England of such vermin.

"What would you say to us,' rejoined Dr Franklin, if we were to export our rattle-snakes to England?'' "Dr Franklin had never formed a general system of politics: he examined the questions exactly as the events presented themselves to his observation, or as his foresight anticipated them; and he decided them all according to the standard of those principles which originate in a virtuous mind, and in a judgment at once just and comprehensive.

"In general, he appeared not fond of giving all at once the greatest possible degree of perfection to human institutions: he thought it a more certain way to wait for the effects of time; he was not fond of attacking abuses in front; he thought it more prudent first to attack those errors which are the source of them.

"He had in politics, as in morals, that kind of indulgence which requires but little, because it hopes much, and which forgets, and even pardons the present, in favour of the future. He always proposed those measures which seemed to him to be most proper in order to preserve peace; because he was not fond of delivering up the happiness of mankind to the uncertainty of events, nor truth to the interest of party.

"He preferred the good obtained by reason to that which might be expected from enthusiasm; because it is more easy to be procured, and infinitely more lasting.

"In one word, his politics were those of a man who believed in the power of reason, and the reality of

virtue, and who aspired to be the teacher of his fellowcitizens, before he became their legislator."

Dr Franklin was famous through life for a playful and gentle humour in the style of his moral compositions, which has induced us to select for our Appendix, No. IX., The Whistle. The Petition in Favour of the Left Hand. The Art of Procuring Pleasant Dreams, and the Morals of Chess, as amongst the most successful pieces of this kind in the language.

Nor could we omit for our economical readers, The Advice to a Young Tradesman. Hints to those that would be Rich, and the Way to make Money Plenty in Every Man's Pocket.

No. X. we think will also interest the reader, containing the best of his small Political Pieces, or Fragments that we have not elsewhere inserted or referred to.

Upon the subject of one of his smaller pieces, the "Parable against Persecution," we have something a little singular to state. Lord Kaimes, in his Sketches of the History of Man, first stated Dr Franklin's claim to be the author of this, in these words, "The following parable against persecution was communicated to me by Dr Franklin of Philadelphia, a man who makes a great figure in the learned world, and who would still make a greater figure for benevolence and candour, were virtue as much regarded in this declining age as knowledge." Then follows a warm eulogium on the style of the parable.

Knowing this parable to have been in existence ever since the reign of Charles II, we were a little anxious on the appearance of the last edition of Franklin's life by his grandson, to see whether Dr Franklin ever directly claimed it as his own. This, if the editor be correct, he certainly did. Being applied to in 1779, to correct an edition of his writings, then publishing by his friend Mr Vaughan in London, he says, "enclosed I send a more perfect copy of the chapter," and the note of his grandson is, " A parable

against persecution. See Writings, part 3, Miscellanies Sec. 1."-See FRANKLIN'S Memoir, v. 3. p. 47.

We now therefore reprint from the Polemical Discourses of Bishop TAYLOR, fo. 1674, p. 1078, the following paragraph, which will be clearly seen to contain the substance of the story, though Franklin has added an incident or two, improved the style, and connected the whole with the after history of the Jews in an ingenious manner. We willingly suppose Dr Franklin had found this parable in his earlier reading and forgotten its origin! It should also be noticed that TAYLOR introduces it by saying, "I end with a story which I found in the Jews' books." But after inquiry made in high quarters, we have heard of no one else who ever found it there.

When Abraham sat at his tent-door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was a hundred years of age: he received him kindly, and washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down: but observing the old man ate and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, he asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven? The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was. He replied, I thrust him away, because he did not worship thee. God answered him, I have suffered him these hundred years, although he dishonoured me; and couldst not thou endure him one night when he gave thee no trouble? Upon this, saith the story, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction. Go thou and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham.

THE FOLLOWING IS WHAT HAS BEEN CALLED DR FRANKLIN'S PARABLE AGAINST PERSECUTION, IN IMITATION OF SCRIPTUre languaGE, AS FINALLY CORRECTED BY

HIMSELF.

1. And it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun:

2. And behold a man, bowed with age, came from the way of the wilderness leaning on a staff.

3. And Abraham rose and net him, and said unto him, Turn in I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night, and thou shalt arise early on the morrow, and go on thy way.

4. But the man said nay, for I will abide under this tree.

5. And Abraham pressed him greatly; so he turned, and they went into the tent, and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat.

6. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, Creator of heaven and earth?

7. And the man answered and said, I do not worship the God thou speakest of, neither do I call upon his name; for I have made to myself a god, which abideth alway in mine house, and provideth me with all things.

8. And Abraham's zeal was kindled against the man, and be arose and drove him forth with blows into the wilderness.

9. And at midnight God called unto Abraham, saying, Abraham, where is the stranger?

10. And Abraham answered and said, Lord, he would not worship thee, neither would he call upon thy name, therefore I have driven him out from before my face into the wilderness.

11. And God said, have I borne with him these hundred ninety and eight years, and clothed him, not