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CLXXXII: TO MISS MARY STEVENSON - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. III Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. III (Letters and Misc. Writings 1753-1763).

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CLXXXII

TO MISS MARY STEVENSON

  • Craven Street,

1 May, 1760.

I embrace, most gladly, my dear friend’s proposal of a subject for our future correspondence; not only as it will occasion my hearing from her more frequently, but as it will lay me under a necessity of improving my own knowledge, that I may be better able to assist in her improvement. I only fear my necessary business and journeys, with the natural indolence of an old man, will make me too unpunctual a correspondent. For this I must hope some indulgence. But why will you, by the cultivation of your mind, make yourself still more amiable, and a more desirable companion for a man of understanding, when you are determined, as I hear, to live single? If we enter, as you propose, into moral as well as natural philosophy, I fancy, when I have established my authority as a tutor, I shall take upon me to lecture you a little on the chapter of duty.

But, to be serious, our easiest mode of proceeding, I think, will be for you to read some books that I may recommend to you; and, in the course of your reading, whatever occurs that you do not thoroughly apprehend, or that you clearly conceive and find pleasure in, may occasion either some questions for further information, or some observations that show how far you are satisfied and pleased with your author. These will furnish matter for your letters to me, and, in consequence, mine also to you.

Let me know, then, what books you have already perused on the subject intended, that I may the better judge what to advise for your next reading. And believe me ever, my dear good girl, your affectionate friend and servant,

B. Franklin.