In an effort to educate myself, I am reading The Oxford Book of Essays, chosen and edited by John Gross. [copies for sale here] There’s 142 of the blighters, so it will take me all year. To make this “stick” I am going to blog each essay.
This essay is online
Who was the author:
Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705][Note 1] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher.[1] Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general.[2]
What happened the year they were born (and the C02 ppm): 1705
The Big Events they were alive for: Er, the American Revolution!
What happened in the year they died (and the C02 ppm): 1790
My awareness of/appreciation of this author (if any): Relatively high!
What’s the essay?
The essay is called “The Levee.” It’s 2 pages long. For me, the key take-aways were that the man understood the dangers of concentrated power and its ability to create a supportive/shielding eco-system “A Republic, if you can keep it” indeed…
Benjamin Franklin’s Levee: A Warning Against Concentrations Of Power | Quintus Curtius
Best line(s)
What then is the instruction to be gathered from this supposed transaction?
Trust not a single person with the government of your state. For if the Deity himself, being the monarch, may for a time give way to calumny, and suffer it to operate the destruction of the best of subjects; what mischief may you not expect from such power in a mere man, though the best of men, from whom the truth is often industriously hidden, and to whom falsehood is often presented in its place, by artful, interested, and malicious courtiers?
Stuff I had to look up
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Stuff worth thinking about.
Rereading that Muriel Spark novel “The Only Problem” (also on The Book of Job)
Reread the Book of Job.
Stuff to look up
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Connects to (watch this space – if there are later essays that resonate with this one, I’ll come back and add a link to the post for that essay).
marchudson.net 
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