Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers. Lately written by B. Franklin, LL. D. Fellow of the Royal Society of London; Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris; President of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia.

FRANKLIN, Benjamin.

$28,000.00

Item Number: 125345

London: Printed for C. Dilly, in the Poultry, 1787.

First edition of the last collection of Franklin’s writings to appear during his lifetime; a major collection of his political, philosophical and scientific writings, a second volume of which was planned but never published. First issue with page 25 mispaginated “52.” Octavo, bound in full contemporary tree calf with elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt, gilt Greek key ruling to the front and rear panels. With four copper-engraved folding plates including diagrams of the Franklin stove and the earliest published map of the Gulf Stream. In very good condition. Armorial bookplate and early ownership inscriptions. Text and plates very clean. Rare.

Intended by the publisher as a companion volume to the Experiments and Observations on Electricity (1769) and his Political, Miscellaneous and Philosophical Pieces (1779), Franklin's Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers contains a selection of important political essays including his Remarks concerning the Savages in North America (1784), The letter from Dr. B. Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan… of Privateering (1785), and Information to those who would remove to America (1784), which is "one of the clearest expressions of his belief that American society should be based on the virtues of the middle… classes" (Isaacson, 423). Also highly notable is Internal State of America, his sharply optimistic postwar reply to "complaints of hard times in the American press… with an equally sharp consciousness of British propaganda" (Crane, William and Mary Quarterly, XV:2, 218). This volume additionally contains three major scientific writings: Description of a New Stove for the burning of Pitcoal (1785), Letter from Dr. B. Franklin to Dr. Ingenhausz [On the Causes and Cure of Smoky Chimneys] (1785), and Letter from Dr. Benjamin Franklin… containing sundry Maritime Observations (1785). Merging his political and scientific interests, Franklin used Maritime's study of the sea and Gulf Stream to "proclaim the virtues of his nation and its people." This inspired others to also "think of the Gulf Stream in political terms. In 1790 Thomas Paine declared the French Revolution 'as fixed as the Gulf Stream' and Jonathan Williams claimed the current's waters were as distinct as 'the colors of red, white and blue'" (Chaplin, 320-25).