“What would the Founders say?” Right and left, this is surely the most chafing piece of rhetoric in politics. Waterboarding, wiretapping, polyamory, chemtrails, school vouchers: All we can be sure of is that whatever they’d say, they’d say with a good deal more dash and dispatch than today’s expensively coiffed D.C. overlords.

The proof, should you need any, is in this new selection of Ben Franklin’s writings.

Let’s skip the Big Questions. Franklin displays rich thought and good humor in small matters, too, and those are more fun. Take romance. (Did I say “small matters”?) Here is his “Advice to a Young Man”:

I know of no Medicine fit to diminish the violent natural Inclinations you mention; and if I did, I think I should not communicate it to you. Marriage is the proper remedy… . A single man...
 

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