Meet Doctor Franklin

✍ Scribed by Carl van Doren

• Book ID: 104132630
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1941
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 685 KB
• Volume: 232
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(41)90177-1

✦ Synopsis

Stafiles, Ladies and Gentlemen: Since I have at one time or other spoken about so many aspects of Franklin to so many groups in Philadelphia I may not be able to avoid some repetitions this afternoon, but I will do what I can to avoid it. At this opening talk of this interesting series I shall have to be a little more discursive than some of the more systematic speakers who come later.

Franklin had, I think, the most eminent mind that has ever existed in America.

No wonder there are so many legendary misconceptions of him that it is difficult now to restore and comprehend him in the great integrity of his mind, character, and personality.

He appears, somehow, to be a syndicate of men. We study him as a scientist, as a diplomat, as a statesman, as a business man, as an economist, as a printer, as a humorist and wit, as a great writer, as a sage, and as a landmark in the history of human speech about the common ways of life. What had been said before he so often said better. He was great in friendship, and in his later years was probably the most renowned private citizen on * Delivered in the Hall of The Franklin Institute, October 20, 1939. This \vas the opening address in the "Meet Dr. Franklin" Conference.

(Note__The Franklin Institute is not responsible for the statements and opinions advanced by contributors in the JOURNAL.