Note 102 — Part I (continued 7)

Two days before, he wrote to Richard Price: "We make daily great Improvements in Natural, there is one I wish to see in Moral Philosophy; the Discovery of a Plan, that would induce and oblige Nations to settle their Disputes without first Cutting one another's Throats" (Writings, VIII, 9). One remembers Franklin's classic utterance (in a letter to David Hartley, Passy, Feb. 2, 1780): "There hardly ever existed such a thing as a bad Peace, or, a good War" (ibid., VIII, 5; also see VIII, 506). An interesting comment on Franklin's devotion to peace may be found in A Project of Universal and Perpetual Peace. Written by Pierre-André Gargaz, a former Galley-Slave, and printed by Benjamin Franklin at Passy in the Year 1782. Here reprinted, together with an English Version, Introduction, and Typographical Note by George Simpson Eddy, New York, 1922.