The Society for Useful Knowledge (32 page)

9
Ibid.

10
Esmond Wright,
Franklin of Philadelphia
(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1986), 14.

11
ABF
, 52–53.

12
Ezra Stiles,
The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles
(New York: Scribner's, 1901), 2: 376.

13
ABF
, 53.

14
PBF
, 8: 454.

15
ABF
, 57.

16
Bernard Faÿ,
Franklin, The Apostle of Modern Times
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1929), 29.

17
BF,
To Those Who Would Remove to America, WBF
, 9: 443.

18
BF, “Epitaph Written in 1728,”
PBF
, 1: 111. Slight variants exist in a number of extant texts, including some in Franklin's own hand.

19
ABF
, 99–100.

20
ABF
, 96.

21
John Houghton, “A Discourse of Coffee,”
Philosophical Transactions
21: 311–17.

22
Mr. Town [Pseudonym],
Connoisseur
1 (London: Baldwin, 1754), 2.

23
Wright, 114–15.

24
ABF
, 113–14.

25
David Hume to BF, May 10, 1762,
The Letters of David Hume
, ed. J. Y. T. Greig (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932), 1: 192.

26
Edwin Wolf and Kevin J. Hayes,
The Library of Benjamin Franklin
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2006), 7.

27
ABF
, 85.

28
BF,
A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, PBF
, 1: 58.

29
ABF
, 96.

30
BF,
A Dissertation, PBF
, 1: 71.

31
ABF
, 97.

32
Bernard Mandeville,
The Fable of the Bees: Or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits
, 3rd edition (London: J. Tonson, 1724), 476.

33
Harold J. Cook, “Bernard Mandeville,” in
A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy
, ed. Steven Nadler (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), 460–70.

34
ABF
, 97.

35
ABF
, 98.

36
BF to Hans Sloane, June 2, 1725.

37
Quoted in Charles Richard Weld,
A History of the Royal Society
[1848] (New York: Arno Press, 1975), 1: 146.

38
Martha Ornstein,
The Role of Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth Century
, 3rd edition (New York: Arno Press, 1975), 91–92.

39
Thomas Sprat,
History of the Royal Society
[1667], ed. Jackson I. Cope and Harold Whitmore Jones (St. Louis: Washington University, 1958), 71–72.

40
Royal Society of London,
Philosophical Transactions
2: 402–06.

41
Sprat, 72–73.

42
ABF
, 268.

43
BF to Vaughan, November 9, 1779.

44
ABF
, 70–129.

45
BF to [Thomas Hopkinson?], October 16, 1746.

46
James Campbell, “The Pragmatist in Franklin,” in
The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin
, ed. Carla Mulford (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 107; Joyce E. Chaplin,
The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius
(New York: Basic Books, 2006), 3.

47
Chaplin, “Benjamin Franklin's Natural Philosophy,” in
The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Franklin
, ed. Carla Mulford (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 69.

48
Douglas Anderson,
The Radical Enlightenments of Benjamin Franklin
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 33.

49
ABF
, 104.

50
ABF
, 104.

51
ABF
, 105.

52
ABF
, 114.

53
H. B. Van Wesep,
Seven Sages: The Story of American Philosophy
(New York: Longmans, Green, 1960), 53.

54
ABF
, 106.

1
William Penn, “Instructions to the Commissioners,” September 30, 1681,
The Papers of William Penn
, ed. Richard S. Dunn and Mary Maples Dunn (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987), 2: 121.

2
Richard Hofstadter,
America at 1750: A Social Portrait
(New York: Knopf, 1971), 5.

3
J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur,
Letters from an American Farmer
[1782] (New York: Fox Duffield, 1904), 75–76.

4
Alexander Hamilton,
Gentleman's Progress: The Itinerarium of Dr. Alexander Hamilton
, 1744, ed. Carl Bridenbaugh (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992), 18.

5
Ibid., 21.

6
Gottlieb Mittelberger,
Journey to Pennsylvania
[1754], trans. and ed. Oscar Handlin and John Clive (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1960), 36.

7
Carl Bridenbaugh,
Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America, 1743–1776
(New York: Knopf, 1955), 39.

8
William Black and R. Alonzo Brock, “Journal of William Black,”
PMHB
1 (4) (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania), 405.

9
Quoted in Wright,
Franklin of Philadelphia
, 32.

10
Hamilton,
Itinerarium
, 22–23.

11
Ibid., 23.

12
Ibid., 191.

13
Francis Daniel Pastorius,
The Bee Hive
, Mss. Am. 1, Special Collections, 1 Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania, quoted in Hofstadter, 19.

14
Hofstadter, 19; Carl Bridenbaugh and Jessica Bridenbaugh,
Rebels and Gentlemen: Philadelphia in the Age of Franklin
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), 4.

15
Merle Curti,
The Growth of American Thought
, 3rd edition (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1982), 35.

16
Wright, 32.

17
Bridenbaugh,
Cites in Revolt
, 43–44.

18
Gordon S. Wood,
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
(New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 41.

19
William Penn,
No Cross No Crown: A Discourse Shewing the Nature and Discipline of the Holy Cross of Christ
(London: Mary Hinde, 1771), 65.

20
Curti, 16.

21
Hamilton,
Itinerarium
, 22.

22
John Ray,
The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation
[1691] (London: William & John Innys, 1722), 164.

23
Anderson,
Radical Enlightenments
, 129.

24
BF, “Opinions and Conjectures,”
PBF
, 4: 17.

25
Isaac Norris to unknown correspondent, April 30, 1725, quoted in Thomas Wendel, “The Keith-Lloyd Alliance: Factional and Coalition Politics in Colonial Pennsylvania,”
PMHB
92 (3): 299.

26
ABF
, 117.

27
ABF
, 116–17.

28
BF, “Proposals and Queries to Be Asked the Junto,”
PBF
, 1: 259.

29
BF, “Rules for a Club, Formerly Established in Philadelphia,” in
Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces
, ed. Benjamin Vaughan (London: J. Johnson, 1779), 533–36.

30
Benjamin Rush,
A Memorial Containing Travels Through Life or Sundry Incidents in the Life of Dr. Benjamin Rush, Written by Himself
(Lanoraie, PA: Louis Alexander Biddle, 1905), 141.

31
Wendel, 296–97.

32
BF,
A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper-Currency, PBF
, 1: 144.

33
Ibid., 1: 157.

34
ABF
, 124.

35
Junto Minute Book, January 18, 1760, quoted in James Delbourgo,
A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders: Electricity and Enlightenment in Early America
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 68–69.

36
Poor Richard Improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris … for the Year of our Lord
1753,
PBF
, 4: 408.

37
ABF
, 163–64.

38
ABF
, 165.

39
Curti, 69.

40
BF to Peter Collinson, May 21, 1751.

41
Ibid.

42
Edwin Wolf, “Franklin and His Friends Choose Their Books,”
PMHB
80 (1): 15–20.

43
Leman Thomas Rede,
Biblotheca Americana
(London: J. Debbett, 1789), 9, 18.

44
Carl Bridenbaugh and Jessica Bridenbaugh,
Rebels and Gentlemen: Philadelphia in the Age of Franklin
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), 87–88.

45
Ibid.

46
Raymond Phineas Stearns,
Science in the British Colonies of America
(Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1970), 503–4.

47
George Champlin Mason,
Annals of the Redwood Library and Athenaeum
(Newport, RI: Redwood Library, 1891), 31.

48
Wolf, 15, 24–30.

49
Thomas Penn to Library Co., May 16 [?], 1733.

50
BF to Peter Collinson, March 28, 1747.

51
BF to Peter Collinson, May 25, 1747.

52
BF to Cadwallader Colden, September 29, 1748.

53
BF, “Promoting Useful Knowledge,”
PBF
, 2: 381–82.

54
Ibid., 380.

1
Quoted in Weld,
History
, 2: 30.

2
Francis Bacon,
The Philosophical Works of Francis Bacon
, ed. John M. Robertson (London: Routledge, 1905), 262.

3
Ibid., 262, 250.

4
Jones,
Ancients and Moderns
, 30–40.

5
Bacon,
Philosophical Works
, 76.

6
Francis Bacon,
Novum Organum
, quoted in Margery Purver,
The Royal Society: Concept and Creation
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1967), 35.

7
Bacon,
Philosophical Works
, 79.

8
Sprat,
Royal Society
, 35–36.

9
Ibid., 62.

10
Ralph S. Bates,
Scientific Societies in the United States
, 3rd edition (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1965), 1–2.

11
Ornstein,
Scientific Societies
, 4, 12.

12
A full text of the first charter is available at
http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/about-us/history/Charter1_English.pdf
.
Last accessed November 29, 2012.

13
Quoted in Weld, 1: 137, 146. For a discussion of the Royal Society's early utilitarian leanings, see Stearns,
Science in the British Colonies
, 90–93.

14
George Fox,
The Journal of George Fox
, 7th edition (London: W. and F. G. Cash, 1852), 1: 53.

15
William Penn,
The Witness of William Penn
, ed. Frederick B. Tolles and E. Gordon Alderfer (New York: Macmillan, 1957), 42–43, quoted in Greaves, 43.

16
Penn,
Passages
, 259.

17
Purver,
Royal Society
, 63.

18
Joseph Glanvill,
Plus Ultra, or the Progress and Advancement of Knowledge Since the Days of Aristotle
(London: James Collins, 1668), 65.

19
Robert Hooke,
Micrographia, or, Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses
[1665] (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2003), xlii, cited in Ornstein, 117, n75.

20
John Locke,
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding
[1690] (London: T. Tegg, 1836), ix.

21
William Petty, “The Advice of W. P. to Mr. Samuel Hartlib, for the Advancement of Some Particular Parts of Learning” [1648], in
Harleian Miscellany
(London: Robert Dutton, 1810), 6: 156.

22
William Walwyn,
The Compassionate Samaritane
(London: NP, 1644), 36–37, quoted in Greaves, 42.

23
Henry Oldenburg to John Winthrop the Younger, quoted in Stearns, 150, n66.

24
Stearns, 120–25.

25
John Winthrop the Younger to Henry Oldenburg, November 12, 1668, in
Correspondence of Hartlib, Haak, Oldenburg and Others of the Royal Society with Governor Winthrop of Connecticut
, 1661–1672, ed. Robert C. Winthrop (Boston: John Wilson, 1878), 34–35.

26
de Crèvecoeur,
Letters
, 265.

27
William Bartram,
Travels, and Other Writings
[1773–1777] (New York: Library of America, 1996), 577.

28
Ernest Earnest,
John and William Bartram: Botanists and Explorers
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1940), 22–23.

29
Ibid., 24.

30
PG
, March 17, 1742.

31
Silvio A. Bedini,
At the Sign of the Compass and Quadrant: The Life and Times of Anthony Lamb
(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1984), 41–42. Godfrey later received the credit that was due him.

32
John Bartram to Peter Collinson, November 3, 1754,
MJB
, 196.

33
John Fothergill, “Memoirs of Peter Collinson,”
London
45: 5.

34
Peter Collinson to John Bartram, January 20, 1734,
MJB
, 62.

35
Peter Collinson to John Bartram, January 24, 1735,
MJB
, 63.