e
thought them of too much value to be stifled, and advised the printing
of them. Mr. Collinson then gave them to Cave for publication in his
_Gentleman's Magazine_, but he chose to print them separately in a
pamphlet, and Dr. Fothergill wrote the preface. Cave, it seemed, judged
rightly for his profession, for by the additions that arrived afterward
they swelled to a quarto volume, which has had five editions and cost
him nothing for copy-money."

The following is an extract from the preface to the first edition of the
pamphlet published by Cave, as above mentioned:

"It may be necessary to acquaint the reader that the following
observations and experiments were not drawn up with the view to their
being made public, but were communicated at different times, and most of
them in letters, written on various topics, as matter only of private
amusement.

"But some persons to whom they were read, and who had themselves been
conversant in electrical disquisitions, were of opinion they contained
so many curious and interesting particulars relative to this affair,
that it would be doing a kind of injustice to the public to confine them
solely to the limits of a private acquaintance.

"The editor was therefore prevailed upon to commit such extracts of
letters and other detached pieces as were in his hands to the press,
without waiting for the ingenious author's permission so to do; and this
was done with the less hesitation, as it was apprehended the author's
engagements in other affairs would scarce afford him leisure to give
the public his reflections and experiments on the subject, finished with
that care and precision of which the treatise before us shows he is
alike studious and capable."

Dr. Priestley, in his _History of Electricity_, published in the year
1767, gives a full account of Franklin's experiments and discoveries.

"Nothing was ever written upon the subject of electricity," he says,
"which was more generally read and admired in all parts of Europe than
these letters. There is hardly any European language into which they
have not been translated; and, as if this were not sufficient to make
them properly known, a translation of them has lately been made into
Latin. It is not easy to say whether we are most pleased with the
simplicity and perspicuity with which these letters are written, the
modesty with which the author proposes every hypothesis of his own, or
the noble frankness with which he relates his