Appendix: New Attributions to the Franklin Canon

Summary

Six new attributions or clarifications to the Franklin canon are made in this book; however, for reasons of space, the last four are made without including the necessary and lengthy arguments to substantiate their authorship. While my arguments are forthcoming, I have listed them below for the reader's own judgment and criticism.

“On Simplicity.” In PG, April 13, 1732 (see Conclusion, n. 18, of this volume). Attribution first made by Lemay, Canon, 60–62. Franklin borrows this essay from Bishop Benjamin Hoadly, “Letter XC,” London Journal, July 25, 1724, in The Works of Benjamin Hoadly, D.D., 3 vols. (London: W. Bowyer and J. Nichols, 1773), 3:327–31. Hoadly was often listed with Locke as a chief Enlightenment figure and represented the pinnacle of “old Whig” religious thought. Conclusion—not by Franklin.

“Of the Usefulness of Mathematics.” In PG, October 30, 1735 (see chap. 2, n. 102, of this volume). For a history of this attribution, first made by William Duane, see PBF, 2:126, whose editors rejected it for insufficient evidence of Franklin's authorship; it has since been affirmed by Lemay, A Life, 1:450, 463. It appears that Franklin did write most of this essay, ¶¶2– 12, 13B, 17; still, Franklin borrows ¶1 from the entry “Mathematicks,” in Lexicon Technicum; or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: Explaining not only the Terms of Art, but the Arts themselves, 4th ed. (London: Printed for D. Browne … B. Motte, 1725); Franklin borrows ¶¶14–16 from the preface of J. Ralphson, A Mathematical Dictionary (London: Printed for J. Nicholson, 1702); he borrows ¶¶13A, 18–19, from the preface to vol. 2 of Edmund Stone's Euclid's Elements: Containing the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Books, 2 vols. (London: Printed for T. Woodward, 1731). Conclusion—mostly by Franklin.

“A.B.” to “Dear Ned.” In PG, May 4, July 6, October 12, 1738, March 29, April 5, 1739 (see chap. 10, n. 42, of this volume). For a history of this attribution, see Lemay, Canon, 93–94. Scholars have hitherto mistaken the “A.B.” letters as a satire of Pennsylvania's government.