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FOR THE LITERARY MAGAZINE.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.

with a portrait.

DR. FRANKLIN wrote a short
abstract of his own life, in the form
of an epistolary communication to
his son. This account begins with
a historical deduction of his family,
and ends abruptly at the period of
his marriage, and of the first forma-
tion of the library of Philadelphia,
about the year 1730, when the hero
of the tale was about twenty-four
years old. This narrative was
composed in 1777, and is one of the
most amusing, as well as instructive,
biographical performances in any
language. It is greatly to be re-
gretted, that Franklin laid down
the pen here. What a rich fund of
curious political information would
he have given us, had he continued
this memoir to the period of his re-
tirement, in old age, at Philadelphia!
had he carried us through the bust-
ling and various scenes attending the
revolution, and related his own ob-
servations and experience of men
and things, while in a public capa-
city in England and France!

Dr. Steuben, an ingenious young
man of Philadelphia, has attempted
to continue the narrative to the doc-
tor's death. This performance is
not without merit, but its unavoid-

able deficiencies only augment our
regret that Franklin did not continue
the narrative with his own pen; or
that, if any thing of this kind be still
extant, it has not been permitted to
see the light.

To attempt to abridge or re-mo-
del the doctor's own juvenile story
would be an unpardonable presump-
tion. To that, therefore, and to the
sketch by Steuben, all those who
are desirous of being acquainted
with the character of that most
extraordinary personage must be
referred.