Note 97 — Part I (continued 7)

Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769-1798), son of Richard Bache, Franklin's son-in-law. See B. Faÿ, The Two Franklins: Fathers of American Democracy (Boston, 1933). See The Diary of B. F. B. Aug. 1, 1782, to Sept. 14, 1785. Trans. from the French by William Duane, 1865 (in W. S. Mason Collection). A charming self-portrait of a precocious lad who is grief-stricken when rain prevents him from going to the mountains to witness M. du Villard's experiments, who follows avidly the ascensions of "aërostatic globes," who takes M. Charles's course in natural philosophy. Franklin had Didot, the master type founder, come to Passy to teach Ben how "to cast printing types." On July 12, 1785, he records the patriarch's exodus from Passy: "A mournful silence reigned around him and was only interrupted by sobs."