Note 53 — Part I (continued 4)

From an exact reprint made by W. S. Mason from a copy of Poor Richard (1758) in his collection. Lindsay Swift, in Benjamin Franklin, notes: "It may safely be said that it is the American classic par excellence, and shares with Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin the honour of having passed by translation into more other tongues than anything else thus far bearing the stamp of our national spirit" (pp. 33-4). A glance at Ford's Franklin Bibliography, 53-111, will suggest the vogue of this classic. See L. L. L.'s "The Way to Wealth: History and Editions," Nation, XCVI, 494-6 (May 15, 1913).

William Temple Franklin observes that The Way to Wealth "is supposed to have greatly contributed to the formation of that national character they [people of America] have since exhibited" (1818 ed. of Franklin's Works, III, 248).