p the matter seriously,
publishing a pamphlet which he called, "Proposals relating to the
Education of Youth in Pennsylvania." Nor did his zeal end here. He
continued to urge on the project, and in a short time the money was
raised and the school actually opened. Franklin was for more than forty
years a trustee of the institution, and took just pride in the good
which it accomplished for the community. His purpose in one respect,
however, was foiled; he was an ardent advocate of English and the
sciences in education, and would have been glad to have the study of
Latin and Greek utterly banished from the schools. Fortunately in this
matter public opinion was too strong for him, and he was obliged to
succumb to the regular curriculum. For some reason, whether because of
early lack of training in these studies or because his mind was of such
a sort as to be completely absorbed in the present, he was all his life
violently prejudiced against the classics, and on his very death-bed
one of his last acts was to compose a mocking diatribe against the use
of those languages. It is one of the few cases where his judgment was
marred, not by the limitations of his intelligence, but a lack of the
deeper imagination,--where he applied his footrule of utility to
measure quantities beyond its reach.

With Franklin's increasing prosperity and popularity his influence in
matters political grew more and more dominant. His first recognition in
this field was in 1736, when he was chosen clerk of the General
Assembly,--a position which he continued to hold until he was elected a
member of the Assembly itself. He found this office very tedious, but
amused himself during the long debates by constructing magic squares of
figures and by other diversions of the sort. Constant to his practice
he lets us know that he retained the position chiefly because it
enabled him to get control of the public printing, and once when
threatened by the advent of a new member with loss of this lucrative
employment he saved himself by his usual recourse to honorable
stratagem. Having heard that this gentleman had in his library a
certain very scarce and curious book, Franklin wrote him a note
expressing a desire to read the volume and asking to borrow it for a
few days. The book came immediately, and the two students were at once
bound together in friendship. "This is another instance," Franklin
adds, "of the truth of an old maxim I had learned, which says: 'He th