Note i-122 — INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
Hume wrote to Franklin: "You are the first philosopher, and indeed the first great man of letters for whom we are beholden to her [America]" (Writings, IV, 154). Cowper exclaimed that Franklin was "one of the most important [men] in the literary world, that the present age can boast of" (Parton, op. cit., II, 439); for other engaging estimates of Franklin as a man of letters consult C. W. Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism ..., IV, 79-106.