Excerpt from The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans, Vol. 2 of 4: With Biographical Sketches Dr. Franklin was unquestionably a very remarkable man one who, in any age or country, would, by the mere force Of his native talents, have made a respectable figure in life. It is probable, however, that had his lot thrown him in an older or more refined community than America was in his youth, he would not have been contemplated as the sun of the system. He, like many other distinguished characters, was much indebted to circumstances. It must be admitted, too, that he had many conceits, or fancies; that he was by no means without his foibles; and that, in his own phrase, he committed some great errors in the early part Of his career. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.