London，September16，1758

Dear Sister，

I received your favour of June 17.I wonderyou have had no letter from me since my being inEngland.I have written you at least two， and Ithink a third before this，and what was next towaiting on you in person，sent you my picture.InJune last I sent Benny a trunk of books，and wroteto him；I hope they have come to hand，and thathe meets with encouragement in his business.Icongratulate you on the conquest of Cape Breton，and hope as your people took it by praying，thefirst time，you will now pray that it may never begiven up again，which you then forgot.Billy iswell，but in the country.I left him at TunbridgeWells，where we spent a fortnight，and he is nowgone with some company to see Portsmouth.Wehave been together over a great part of Englandthis summer and among other places，visited thetown our father was born in，and found somerelations in that part of the country still living.

Our cousin Jane Franklin，daughter of ouruncle John，died about a year ago.We saw herhusband，Robert Page，who gave us some oldletters to his wife，from Uncle Benjamin.In one ofthem，dated Boston，July 4，1723，he writes thatyour uncle Josiah has a daughter Jane，abouttwelve years old，a good-humoured child.So keepup to your character，and don't be angry whenyou have no letters.In a little book he sent her，called“None but Christ，”he wrote an acrostick on her name，which for namesake's sake，as wellas the good advice it contains，I transcribe andsend you.

“Illuminated from on high，

And shining brightly in your sphere.

Ne'er faint，but keep a steady eye，

Expecting endless pleasures there.“

“Flee vice as you'd a serpent flee；

Raise faith and hope three stories higher，

And let Christ's endless love to thee

Ne'er cease to make thy love aspire.

Kindness of heart by words express，

Let your obedience be sincere，

In prayer and praise you God address，

Nor cease，till he can cease to hear.“

After professing truly that I had a great esteem and veneration for the pious author，permitme a little to play the commentator and critic onthese lines.The meaning of three stories higherseems somewhat obscure.You are to understand，then，that faith，hope，and charity have been called the three steps of Jacob's ladder，reachingfrom earth to heaven；our author calls them stories，likening religion to a building， and theseare the three stories of the Christian edifice.Thusimprovement in religion is called building up andedification.Faith is then the ground floor，hope isup one pair of stairs.My dear beloved Jenny，don't delight so much to dwell in those lowerrooms，but get as fast as you can into the garret，for in truth the best room in the house is charity.For my part，I wish the house was turned upsidedown；'tis so difficult（when one is fat）to go upstairs；and not only so，but I imagine hope andfaith may be more firmly built upon charity，thancharity upon faith and hope.However that my be，I think it the better reading to say——

“Raise faith and hope one story higher.”

Correct it boldly，and I'll support the alteration；for，when you are up two stories already，ifyou raise your building three stories higher youwill make five in all，which is two more than thereshould be，you expose your upper rooms more tothe winds and storms；and，besides，I am afraidthe foundation will hardly bear them， unlessindeed you build with such light stuff as straw andstubble，and that，you know，won't stand fire.Again，where the author says，

“Kindness of heart by words express，”

strike out words，and put in deeds.The world istoo full of compliments already.They are the rankgrowth of every soil，and choke the good plants ofbenevolence，and beneficence；nor do I pretend tobe the first in this comparison of words and actionsto plants；you may remember an ancient poet，whose works we have all studied and copied atschool long ago.

“A man of words and not of deeds

Is like a garden full of weeds.“

It is a pity that good works，among some sorts ofpeople，are so little valued，and good wordsadmired in their stead：I mean seemingly piousdiscourses，instead of humane benevolent actions.Those they almost put out of countenance，by calling morality rotten morality，righteousnessragged righteousness，and even filthy rags——andwhen you mention virtue，pucker up their noses asif they smelt a stink；at the same time that theyeagerly snuff up an empty canting harangue，as ifit was a pose of the choicest flowers：So they haveinverted the good old verse，and say now

“A man of deeds and not of words

Is like a garden full of——“

I have forgot the rhyme，but remember'tissomething the very reverse of perfume.So muchby way of commentary.

My wife will let you see my letter，containingan account of our travels，which I would have youread to sister Dowse，and give my love to her.Ihave no thoughts of returning till next year，andthen may possibly have the pleasure of seeing youand yours；taking Boston in my way home.My

love to brother and all your children，concludes atthis time from，dear Jenny，your affectionatebrother.

B.FRANKLIN

親愛的姐姐：

我已收到你6月17日的來信。我很詫異，自我到英格蘭后你再也沒有收到我的任何信。我至少給你寫過兩封，而且在這封信之前還有第三封，緊接著在去看了你之后，我又給你寄去了我的照片。六月份我給本尼寄去了一箱書，還給他寫了一封信；我希望他悉數(shù)收到，并希望他工作有長進(jìn)。祝賀你征服了布里敦角，希望正如你的人民第一次通過祈禱得到了它一樣，現(xiàn)在你們將祈禱它永遠(yuǎn)再也不會被丟棄，然后忘卻這一切。比利很好，現(xiàn)在在鄉(xiāng)下。我把他留在了膝布里奇韋爾斯，我們在那呆了兩周，現(xiàn)在他又與別人結(jié)伴去參觀樸次茅斯了。今年夏天我們一起游覽了英格蘭的大部分地區(qū)，其中，我們還參觀了我們的父親出生的小鎮(zhèn)，并找到了一些在那個地區(qū)仍然健在的親戚。

我們的表妹簡·富蘭克林，約翰叔叔的女兒，一年前去世了。我們見到了她的丈夫羅伯特·佩奇，他給了我們一些本杰明叔叔寫給他妻子的信。在其中一封1723年7月4日寫于波土頓的信中，他寫到你們的叔叔喬賽亞有一個女兒名叫簡，大約12歲，是一個快樂的孩子。因此請你保持這種性格，沒有收到信也不要生氣。在叔叔送給她的一本書名為《獨(dú)一無二的耶穌》的薄書里，他以她的名義寫了一首離合體詩?，F(xiàn)在我把它抄錄下來并寄給你，不僅因為你與她同名的緣故，而且因為其中包含了忠告。

“高高地照亮著，

在你的領(lǐng)地上明亮地閃耀著

不要迷迷糊糊，要全神貫注，

期待那里無盡的歡樂。

邪惡逃走了，就如同你驅(qū)走了惡魔；

把信仰和希望提高到三層樓之上，

讓耶穌對你無盡的愛

從不停止激勵你的愛。

去用語言表達(dá)善良的心，

讓你的順從成為一種真誠，

在祈禱中，贊美上帝的話語，

不要停止，直到上帝停止聆聽。“

坦誠地說我對虔誠的作者懷著無限的尊敬和敬佩，接下來請允許我給這幾行詩做一點注釋和評論?！叭龑訕侵稀逼湟馑坪跤悬c模糊不清。不過，你知道人們一直把忠誠、希望和慈悲稱作雅各天梯的三級臺階，從地球伸向天堂；我們的作者把宗教比喻成樓房，于是把三級臺階稱之為三層樓，而忠誠、希望和慈悲就是基督教圣殿的三層樓。因此宗教的升華就是漸進(jìn)和頓悟。忠誠便是第一層，希望是第二層。我親愛的詹妮，不要太滿足于住在低層樓，而要盡可能迅速地上到頂層樓，因為事實上房子里最好的房間是慈悲。在我看來，我倒希望房子翻個個，因為上樓梯太難了（當(dāng)一個人太胖時），不僅如此，我想還因為希望與忠誠較之于慈悲建立在忠誠與希望之上是更為牢固地建立在慈悲之上。無論怎樣，我想這樣說妥當(dāng)一些——

“把忠誠與希望提高一層”。

我大膽地改正了它，當(dāng)然我這樣改變是有道理的；因為當(dāng)你已上到兩層樓時，如果你把你的樓房增高三層，總共就造了五層，比應(yīng)該有的多了兩層，這樣上面的房間則更多地暴露于風(fēng)雨之中；除此之外，恐怕地基也難以承受，除非你真的是用那些如此輕的材料諸如稻草和頭發(fā)去建造，但你知道那是經(jīng)不住火的。另外，作者說，

“用語言表達(dá)心靈的仁慈，”

刪去“語言”一詞，換上“行為”。這個世界充滿了恭維，這些恭維在每一塊土地上猶如雜草叢生，窒息掉慈善和德行這樣的好植物。我并沒有自命是第一個把言語和行為比做植物的；你或許記得一位古代詩人，很久以前在學(xué)校里，我們都讀過并抄錄過他的作品。

“一個只說不做的人

就像是長滿雜草的花園?！?/P>

很遺憾一些好作品在某些人群中受到冷落，相反一些好的言辭卻受到了贊美：我指的是那些似乎虔誠的演講，而不是人類的仁慈行為。幾乎令人局促不安的是那些人稱道德為腐敗的道德、正直為襤褸的正直，甚至是充滿了污穢的襤褸——一提到美德，他們就皺起他們的鼻子，好像嗅到了一股臭味；與此同時，他們空話連篇，仿佛那是一種最好的花環(huán)。因此，他們把好的古詩前后顛倒，改寫成：

“一個只做而不說的人

就像是花園長滿了——“

我已忘記那句尾的韻腳，但記得那絕對不是什么好話。評述就這么多。

我妻子會給你看我的信，其中有我們旅行的記敘，希望你把信讀給道斯妹妹聽，代我向她問好。我想明年回來，這樣可能有幸見到你和你們一家；并在返回時取道波士頓。向哥哥和你的所有的孩子問好。親愛的詹妮，我就此擱筆，愛你的弟弟。

本·富蘭克林

于倫敦

1758年9月16日

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