have been made by numerous persons to your own. You may remember, when you consulted me on the occasion, that I thought youth on both sides to be no objection. Indeed, from the marriages that have fallen under my observation, I am rather inclined to think, that early ones stand the best chance of happiness. The temper and habits of the young are not yet become so stiff and uncomplying, as when more advanced in life; they form more easily to each other, and hence many occasions of disgust are removed. And if youth has less of that prudence which is necessary to manage a family, yet the parents and elder friends of young married persons are generally at hand to afford their advice, which amply supplies that defect; and by early marriage, youth is sooner formed to regular and useful life; and possibly some of those accidents or connections, that might have injured the constitution, or reputation, or both, are thereby happily prevented. Particular circumstances of particular persons, may possibly sometimes make it prudent to delay entering into that state; but in general when nature has rendered our bodies fit for it, the presumption is in nature's favour, that she has not judged amiss in making us desire it. Late marriages are often attended, too, with this further inconvenience, that there is not the same chance that the parents shall live to see their offspring educated. Late children,' says the Spanish proverb, are early orphans.'

The next letter we shall notice refers to some matters connected with our corporeal health and vigour, which the habits of ease and indulgence in luxurious countries, too much encouraged even by our medical professors, have led us to disregard.

"TO GOVERNOR FRANKLIN,* NEW JERSEY.

"London, August 19, 1772. "In yours of May 14th, you acquaint me with your indisposition, which gave me great concern. The resolution you have taken to use more exercise is extremely proper; and I hope you will steadily perform it. It is of the greatest importance to prevent diseases, since the cure of them by physic is so very precarious. In considering the different kinds of exercise, I have thought that the quantum of each is to be judged of, not by time or by distance, but by the degree of warmth it produces in the body: thus, when I observe if I am cold when I get into a carriage in a morning, I may ride all day without being warmed by it; that if on horseback my feet are cold, I may ride some hours before they become warm; but if I am ever so cold on foot, I cannot walk an hour briskly, without glowing from head to foot by the quickened circulation; I have been ready to say, (using round numbers without regard to exact

Dr. Franklin's son, to whom the first part of the Memoirs of his Life is addressed. See vol. I."

ness, but merely to make a great difference,) that there is more exercise in one mile's riding on horseback, than in five in a coach; and more in one mile's walking on foot, than in five on horseback; to which I may add, that there is more in walking one mile up and down stairs, than in five on a level floor.-The two latter exercises may be had within doors, when the weather discourages going abroad; and the last may be had when one is pinched for time, as containing a great quantity of exercise in a handful of minutes. The dumb bell is another exercise of the latter compendious kind; by the use of it I have in forty swings quickened my pulse from sixty to one hundred beats in a minute, counted by a second watch: and I suppose the warmth generally increases with quickness of pulse. "B. FRANKLIN."

The moral or prudential calculation which is the subject of the ensuing letter, may admit of an improvement that will occur to every adept in the usual method of bookkeeping, on the principles of which the contrivance is founded. Nothing should be struck out, as the final balance may be as properly taken without the erasure, and it is convenient to preserve the short hints (like the heads of an account corresponding in the ledger with the figures) for the review of the whole.

"TO DR. PRIESTLEY.

"DEAR SIR, London, September 19, 1772. "In the affair of so much importance to you, wherein you ask my advice; I cannot for want of sufficient premises, counsel you what to determine; but if you please, I will tell you how. When those difficult cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because, while we have them under consideration, all the reasons pro, and con, are not present to the mind at the same time; but sometimes one set present themselves; and at other times another, the first being out of sight. Hence the various purposes or inclinations that alternately prevail, and the uncertainty that perplexes us. To get over this, my way is, to divide half a sheet of paper by a line into two columns; writing over the one pro, and over the other con: then during three or four days consideration, I put down under the different heads, short hints of the different motives that at different times occur to me, for or against the measure. When I have thus got them all together in one view, I endeavour to estimate their respective weights, and where I find two, (one on each side,) that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a reason pro equal to some two reasons con, I strike out the three. If I judge some two reasons con, equal to some three reasons pro, I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the balance lies; and if after a day or two of farther consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs on either side, I come to a determination accordingly. And though the

weight of reasons cannot be taken with the precision of algebraic quantities; yet, when each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less liable to make a rash step; and in fact I have found great advantage from this kind of equation, in what may be called moral or prudential algebra.

Wishing sincerely that you may determine for the best, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN."

The first mention of a steam-boat in America, that we have noticed, occurs in a letter by Dr. Franklin, dated October 24, 1788, and it is in these terms: "We have no philosophical news here at present, except that a boat moved by a steam-engine rows itself against tide in our river" (at Philadelphia), "and it is apprehended that the construction may be so simplified and improved as to become generally useful." With this invention the copious waters of the Republic are now navigated for many thousand miles, and the discovery has been found to be of the greatest importance to the commerce and agriculture of her extended territories.

The subsequent remarks on the means of assisting the sight and hearing, deserves the particular attention of those who are subject to infirmity in the use of the organs so employed.

By Mr. Dollond's saying that my double spectacles can only serve particular eyes, I doubt he has not been rightly informed of their construction. I imagine it will be found pretty generally true that the same convexity of glass through which a man sees clearest and best at the distance proper for reading, is not the best for greater distances. I therefore had formerly two pair of spectacles, which I shifted occasionally, as in travelling I sometimes read and often wanted to regard the prospects. Finding this change troublesome and not always sufficiently ready, I had the glasses cut, and half of eách kind associated in the same circle. By this means, as I wear my spectacles constantly, I have only to move my eyes up or down as I want to see distinctly far or near, the proper glasses being always ready. This I find more particularly convenient since my being in France, the glasses that serve me best at table to see what I eat not being the best to see the faces of those on the other side of the table who speak to me; and when one's ears are not well accustomed to the sounds of a language, a sight of the movements in the features of him that speaks helps to explain; so that I understand French better by the help of my spectacles.

"The deafness you complain of gives me concern, as if great it must diminish considerably your pleasure in conversation. If moderate you may remedy it easily and readily, by putting your thumb and

fingers behind your ear, pressing it outwards, and enlarging it as it were, with the hollow of your hand. By an exact experiment I found that I could hear the tick of a watch at forty feet distance, by this means, which was barely audible at twenty feet without it. The experiment was made at midnight when the house was still."

Whatever might be the character of the French people when the following account of them was given in 1779, it by no means accords with our opinion of it, after the devastation of public and private morals by the tempest of the revolution. The letter containing it was addressed to the Hon. Josiah Quincy, and is dated at Passy, near Paris, April 22, 1779.

"I am exceedingly pleased with your account of the French politeness and civility, as it appeared among the officers and people of their fleet. They have certainly advanced iu those respects many degrees beyond the English. I find them here a most amiable nation to live with. The Spaniards are by common opinion supposed to be cruel, the English proud, the Scotch insolent, the Dutch avaricious, &c. but I think the French have no national vice ascribed to them. They have some frivolities, but they are harmless. To dress their heads so that a hat cannot be put on them, and then wear their hats under their arms, and to fill their noses with tobacco, may be called follies perhaps, but they are not vices, they are only the effects of the tyranny of custom. In short there is nothing wanting in the character of a Frenchman that belongs to that of an agreeable and worthy man. They have only some trifles, a surplus of which might be spared."

Admirable observations are distributed in these letters on the mischief and misery of war. One of the favourite purposes of the Doctor's life appears to have been to prevent the slaughter of battle and the plunder which is the temptation to it. The letter to Dr. Priestley from Passy (p. 33), was written under the strongest aversion to human malignity in this work of destruction, and it is as witty as it is energetic; but as we are under the unavoidable obligation of restricting our extracts, we have preferred giving the following letter, to which we have subjoined an article of arrangement proposed to Mr. Oswald. That gentleman was one of the negotiators for peace, treating with Dr. Franklin under a commission from this Court, during the administration of Lord Shelbourne.

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"EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO B. VAUGHAN, ESQ. Passy, July 10, 1782. By the original law of nations, war and extirpation was the punishment of injury. Humanizing by degrees, it admitted slavery instead CRIT. REV. VOL. V. Jan. 1817.

I ́

of death. A farther step was, the exchange of prisoners instead of slavery. Another, to respect more the property of private persons under conquest, and to be content with acquired dominion. Why should not this law of nations go on improving? Ages have intervened between its several steps; but as knowledge of late increases rapidly, why should not those steps be quickened? Why should it not be agreed to as the future law of nations, that in any war hereafter the following descriptions of men should be undisturbed, have the protection of both sides, and be permitted to follow their employments in surety: viz.

1. Cultivators of the earth, because they labour for the subsistence of mankind.

"2. Fishermen, for the same reason.

"3. Merchants and traders, in unarmed ships, who accommodate different nations, by communicating and exchanging the necessaries and conveniences of life.

"4. Artists and mechanics, inhabiting and working in open

towns.

"It is hardly necessary to add, that the hospitals of enemies should be unmolested; they ought to be assisted.

"In short, I would have nobody fought with but those who are paid for fighting. If obliged to take corn from the farmer, friend or enemy, I would pay him for it; the same for the fish or goods of

the others.

"This once established, that encouragement to war which arises from a spirit of rapine, would be taken away, and peace therefore more likely to continue and be lasting. B. FRANKLIN."

"ARTICLE PROPOSED.

"If war should hereafter arise between Great Britain and the United States, which God forbid, the merchants of either country then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts, and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects without molestation or hinderance. And all fishermen, all cultivators of the earth, and all artizans or manufacturers unarmed, and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, who labour for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, and peaceably follow their respective employments, shall be allowed to continue the same, and shall not be molested by the armed force of the enemy, in whose power by the events of the war they may happen to fall; but if any thing is necessary to be taken from them, for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price. And all merchants or traders with their unarmed vessels, employed in commerce, exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to obtain, and more general, shall be allowed to pass freely unmolested. And neither of the powers parties to this treaty, shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading ships, or interrupt such commerce."