The Life of Benjamin Franklin

VIENNA: W. BRAUMÜLLER. AMSTERDAM: J. MÜLLER. PARIS: C. REINWALD.

TRIESTE, VENICE, AND VERONA: HERM. FR. MÜNSTER.

TURIN: CH. SCHIEPATTI.

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

BY MR. J. SPARKS.*

THERE is a curious circumstance connected with the first publication of Dr. Franklin's Autobiography. He began to write it in England as early as the year 1771, and from time to time he made such additions. as his leisure would permit. While he was in France, as Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States, he showed a copy of it to some of his friends there, and one of them, M. Le Veillard, translated it into French. Not long after Dr. Franklin's death, this French translation appeared from the Paris press. It was then retranslated, by some unknown but skilful hand, into English, and published in London; and this retranslation is the Life of Franklin, which has usually been circulated in Great Britain and the United States, and of which numerous editions have been printed. And

* With Mr. Sparks' permission the present volume has been printed from; The Life of Benjamin Franklin, &c. By JARED SPARKS. Boston, 1850."

even to this day it continues to be read, and to be quoted by respectable writers, as if it were the author's original work; although the fact of its being a translation is expressly stated in the Preface to the first edition, and although twenty-five years have elapsed since the Autobiography was published from the original manuscript, by Franklin's grandson. In the present volume it is printed from the genuine copy.

Notes have been added to illustrate some parts, and the whole is divided into chapters, of suitable length, for the convenience of readers.