Free Book of Ages by Jill Lepore

severely than he bowdlerized Washington’s; although, since so many of the originals have been lost, it’s hard to tell. Sparks did not approve of earthiness, and he struck it out. In making extracts from Jane’s letters, Sparks chose only what reflected well on Franklin.
    Here I have supplied examples. In the following two letters, Sparks’s additions are in boldface; his deletions are struck through.
    1. Franklin wrote to Jane from London on September 16, 1758. The original of this letter is in the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Sparks published it in
The Works of Benjamin Franklin,
volume 7, pp. 182–85.
    London Sept 16 1758
    Dear Sister
    I received your F f avour of June 17 th . I wonder you have had no L l etter from me since my being in England. I have wrote you at least two and I think a third before this ; A , a nd, what was next to waiting on you in P p erson, sent you my P p icture. In June last I sent Benny a T t runk of B b ooks and wrote to him. I hope they are come to hand, and that he meets with I e ncouragement in his B b usiness. I congratulate you on the C c onquest of Cape Breton, and hope as your P p eople took it by P p raying the first T t ime, you will now pray that it may never be given up again, which you then forgot. Billy is well, but in the Country. I left him at Tunbridge Wells , where we spent a fortnight, and he is now gone with some C c ompany to see Portsmouth.
    We have been together over a great part of England this S s ummer ; , and among other places visited the T t own our F f ather was born in and found some R r elations in that part of the C c ountry S s till living. Our C c ousin Jane Franklin, daughter of our U u n c kl e John, died but about a Y y ear ago. We saw her H h usband, Robert Page, who gave us some old L l etters to his W w ife from unk c le Benjamin. In one of them, dated Boston July 4 . th, 1723 he writes “Y that y our U u n k c le Josiah has a D d aughter Jane about 12 twelve years O o ld, a good-humour ’ e d C c hild ” . So Jenny keep up to your C c haracter, and don’t be angry when you have no L l etters.
    In a little B b ook he sent her, call ’ e d “
None but Christ,
” he wrote an A a crostick on her N n ame, which for N n amesakes’ S s ake, as well as the good A a dvice it contains, I transcribe and send you , viz.
    “Illuminated from on H h igh,
    And shining brightly in your S s phere,
    Nere faint, but keep a steady E e ye,
    Expecting endless P p leasures there.
    “Flee V v ice, as you’d a S s erpent flee , ;
    Raise Faith
faith
and
hope
Hope three S s tories higher
    And let Christ’s endless L l ove to thee
    N-ere cease to make thy L l ove A a spire.
    Kindness of H h eart by W w ords express,
    Let your O o bedience be sincere,
    In P p rayer and P p raise your God A a ddress,
    Nere cease’ till he can cease to hear.”
    After professing truly that I have a great E e steem and V v eneration for the pious A a uthor, permit me a little to play the C c ommentator and C c ritic on these L l ines. The M m eaning of
T
t
hree S
s
tories higher
seems somewhat obscure. , y Y ou are to understand, then, that
F
f
aith, H
h
ope
and
C
c
harity
have been called the three S s teps of Jacob’s L l adder, reaching from E e arth to H h eaven . O ; o ur A a uthor calls them
S
s
tories,
likening R r eligion to a B b uilding, and those the three S s tories of the Christian E e difice ; . Thus I i mprovement in R r eligion, is called
B
b
uilding U
u
p,
and
E
e
dification
.
Faith
is then the G g round-floor,
H
h
ope
is up one P p air of S s tairs. My dear ly beloved Jenny, don’t delight so much to dwell in these lower R r ooms, but get as fast as you can into the G g arret ; , for in truth the best R r oom in the H h ouse is
C
c
harity
. For my part, I wish the H h ouse was turn’d upside down; ’tis so difficult (when one is fat) to get up S s tairs; and not only so, but I imagine
H
h
ope
and
F
f
aith
may be more firmly