much? Not one word. Madame D'Arblay's
Diary relates a thousand pleasant things, but it does not tell us what
manner of person Madame D'Arblay was. Franklin's Autobiography gives
agreeable information respecting a sagacious shopkeeper of Philadelphia,
but has little to impart to us respecting the grand Franklin, the
world's Franklin, the philosopher, the statesman, the philanthropist. A
man cannot reveal his best self, nor, unless he is a Rousseau, his
worst. Perhaps he never knows either."

The basis of Mr. Parton's work is, as the basis of every satisfactory
biography must be, the writings of its subject. "After all," he says,
"Dr. Jared Sparks's excellent edition of the 'Life and Works of
Franklin,' is the source of the greater part of the information we
possess concerning him.... The libraries, the public records, and the
private collections of England, France, and the United States, were so
diligently searched by Dr. Sparks, that, though seven previous editions
of the works of Franklin had appeared, he was able to add to his
publication the astonishing number of six hundred and fifty pieces of
Dr. Franklin's composition never before collected, of which four hundred
and fifty had never before appeared in print. To unwearied diligence in
collecting Dr. Sparks added an admirable talent in elucidating. His
notes are always such as an intelligent reader would desire, and they
usually contain all the information needed for a perfect understanding
of the matter in hand. Dr. Sparks's edition is a monument at once to the
memory of Benjamin Franklin and to his own diligence, tact, and
faithfulness." We take great pleasure in copying this passage, both
because it seems to illustrate the spirit which Mr. Parton brought to
his task, and because the value of Mr. Sparks's labors have not always
been so freely acknowledged by those who have been freest in their use
of them.

To a careful study of those volumes Mr. Parton has added patient and
extensive research among the newspapers and magazines of the time, and,
apparently, a wide range of general reading. Thus he has filled his work
with facts, some curious, some new, and all interesting, as well in
their bearing upon the times as upon the man. He is a good delver, a
good sifter, and, what is equally important, a good interpreter,--not
merely bringing facts to the light, but compelling them to give out,
like Correggio's pictures, a light of their own. He possesses, too, in
an e