To Benjamin Franklin from C.-J. Le Roux, 12 May 1778
From C.-J. Le Roux4
ALS: American Philosophical Society
A Paris. 12. mai 1778.
Monsieur,
Tandis que vous travaillez avec autant d’ardeur que de succès au bonheur des hommes je m’occupe essentiellement de celui des enfans. Puisse cet Ecrit mériter votre suffrage! Il est digne de votre approbation, au moins quant aux vues que je m’y propose, qui sont: de diminuer le temps, les peines et les dépenses qu’exige le mauvais système d’Education.5 J’ai l’honneur d’être très respectueusement Monsieur Votre très humble et très obeissant serviteur
Le Roux
M[âitre] de Pension au college Royal de
Boncourt montagne ste. Genevieve
4. An educator and prolific author; for his works see Quérard, France littéraire. On June 27 he wrote again (University of Pa. Library) to say that he hoped to read a rhymed epistle to the King at La Blancherie’s assembly the following Thursday, and would also eulogize BF.
5. He was full of projects. The “Ecrit” that he enclosed has disappeared, but it was probably a plea to continue the Journal d’éducation, which he had edited for the past decade; one of its purposes, he said later, was to put less emphasis in the classroom on Greek and Latin and more on the lessons of experience. See his memorandum of Feb. 25, 1779 (APS).