Richard' as a
"collection of receipts for laying up treasures on earth rather than
in heaven." Franklin never taught, either by precept or example, to
lay up treasures on earth. He taught the virtues of industry, thrift,
and economy, as the virtues supremely important in his time, to keep
people out of debt and to provide the means of educating and
dignifying society. He never countenanced the accumulation of wealth
for its own sake, but for its uses,--its prompt convertibility into
social comforts and refinements. It would be difficult to name another
man of any age to whom an ambition to accumulate wealth as an end
could be imputed with less propriety. Though probably the most
inventive genius of his age, and thus indirectly the founder of many
fortunes, he never asked a patent for any of his inventions or
discoveries. Though one of the best writers of the English language
that his country has yet produced, he never wrote a line for money
after he withdrew from the calling by which he made a modest provision
for his family.

For the remaining half of his life both at home and abroad, though
constantly operating upon public opinion by his pen, he never availed
himself of a copyright or received a penny from any publisher or
patron for any of these labors. In none of the public positions which
he held, even when minister plenipotentiary, did his pay equal his
expenditures. He was three years president of Pennsylvania after his
return from France, and for his services declined to appropriate to
his own use anything beyond his necessary expenditures for stationery,
postage, and transportation. It is not by such methods that men
justly incur the implied reproach of "laying up treasures on earth,"
or of teaching a candle-end-saving philosophy.

Franklin courted fame no more than fortune. The best of his writings,
after his retirement from journalism, he never gave to the press at
all; not even his incomparable autobiography, which is still
republished more frequently than any of the writings of Dickens or of
Thackeray. He always wrote for a larger purpose than mere personal
gratification of any kind. Even his bagatelles and _jeux d'esprit_
read in the salons of Paris, though apparently intended for the eyes
of a small circle, were inspired by a desire to make friends and
create respect for the struggling people and the great cause he
represented. Few if any of them got into print until many years after
his decease.

F