Madame Helvetius, and his verses entitled _Paper_. The greater portion
of his writings consists of papers on general politics, commerce, and
political economy, contributions to the public questions of his day.
These are of the nature of journalism rather than of literature, and
many of them were published in his newspaper, the _Pennsylvania
Gazette_, the medium through which for many years he most strongly
influenced American opinion. The most popular of his writings were his
_Autobiography_ and _Poor Richard's Almanac_. The former of these was
begun in 1771, resumed in 1788, but never completed. It has remained
the most widely current book in our colonial literature. _Poor
Richard's Almanac_, begun in 1732 and continued for about twenty-five
years, had an annual circulation of ten thousand copies. It was filled
with proverbial sayings in prose and verse, inculcating the virtues of
industry, honesty, and frugality.[1] Some of these were original with
Franklin, others were selected from the proverbial wisdom of the ages,
but a new force was given them by pungent turns of expression. Poor
Richard's saws were such as these: "Little strokes fell great oaks;"
"Three removes are as bad as a fire;" "Early to bed and early to rise
makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise;" "Never leave that till
to-morrow which you can do to-day;" "What maintains one vice would
bring up two children;" "It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright."

Now and then there are truths of a higher kind than these in Franklin,
and Sainte-Beuve, the great French critic, quotes, as an example of his
occasional finer moods, the saying, "Truth and sincerity have a certain
distinguishing native luster about them which cannot be counterfeited;
they are like fire and flame that cannot be painted." But the sage who
invented the Franklin stove had no disdain of small utilities; and in
general the last word of his philosophy is well expressed in a passage
of his _Autobiography_: "Human felicity is produced not so much by