The True Benjamin Franklin

This edition of Mr. Fisher's "Franklin" contains an appendix, in which the author presents all the proofs extant in regard to Franklin's alleged daughter, Mrs. Foxcroft. The propriety of this discussion is exceedingly doubtful. It may be conceded that Mrs. Foxcroft was acknowledged by Franklin as his daughter, but as nothing whatever is known of her mother, and almost as little of herself previously to her marriage with Foxcroft, the long discussion in Mr. Fisher's book with the appendix must be regarded as lacking in dignity. In his "Autobiography" Franklin acknowledged so many errata that a discussion of his faults with as much amplitude as Mr. Fisher has given to the Foxcroft story would make a much larger book than this to which Mr. Fisher has given the name of "The True Benjamin Franklin." That Franklin was very far from being a saint, most people who know his history will concede, but his virtues were of a nature that they overbalance his faults, and his services to his country were so important that the great Benjamin Franklin will always tend to make the true Benjamin Franklin of little importance in the opinion of his admirers. This is the age of research in little things, and Mr. Fisher's book is a good example of its kind. It will please readers who like to see the scandals of the past uncovered when these scandals besmirch great names, but his revelations will always give greater satisfaction to the prurient than to the prudent.