An extraordinary man. But which was the true, the inner- most Benjamin Franklin? The shrewd wit and homespun philosopher? The wizard of science? The canny businessman? The revolutionary? Was it possible that one man could be all these, and more?
The awe of his reputation had preceded him, when he arrived in Europe in December 1776, five months after the American colonists had declared their independence from Britain. The 70-year-old man came as a deputy of the New People, to plead for an alliance with France against England. And though he became an instant hero-and soon the most popular man in France, his features being reproduced in paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints and statuettes-there remained always an aura of mystery about him, a thrill of apprehension that mingled with the awe. For his arrival spelt trouble for social systems based on privilege or force, and hence the end of old Europe. He was, in fact, a dangerous man, sprung from a dangerous people, embarked on the dangerous experiment of political liberty.
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The Americans don't see Franklin that way, to them he's just kindly, humorous old Ben. Yet the truth is that "Old Ben" was at least in part a self-conscious creation of art and publicity, promoted by the author to dramatize the American cause abroad.
Franklin's homespun side is true, but we let it obscure a complexity vast beyond imagining. When, for example, 500 learned societies from around the world, held in 1956 an international celebration of the 250th anniversary of his birth, the occasion had to be broken down into ten different sections:
1. Science, invention and engineering;
2. Statesmanship;
3. Education and the study of nature;
4. Finance, insurance, commerce and industry;
5. Mass communication;
6. Printing, advertising and the graphic arts;
7. Religion, fraternal organizations and the humanities;
8. Medicine and public health;
9. Agriculture;
10. Music and recreation.
Yet Americans have reduced his achievements in pure science, which were so deep as to make him the Newton of the eighteenth century, to the dimensions of the lightning-and-kite-string experiment, because it is easy to grasp. Similarly, they make of him a rather comfortable businessman and booster, when, to the British at least, he was a dangerous revolutionary.
That disturbing quality was what spoke to the restive French of the 1770s. Here was an apparition from the future.
