CHARACTER OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 5. "We are more fond of leaning on others than of standing alone. "Self-interest and not integrity determines our friendships. 12. “Your faults are forgotten; your virtues will live forever. III. THE WORLD'S CHORUS TO FRANKLIN. 167 "We come from all Lands, but you are our Father. You were the First Teach. er of America, and we are going to School to you to-day. You have taught the Nations how to plant the Tree of Liberty in the Soil of Despotism; how Children may become Men; how Men may be Free, and work and love and help one another, and grow into rich and powerful communities; and how, at last, the whole Earth may come together in a Universal Republic, and sit at peace under God's broad Tree of Freedom, with none to molest or make them afraid. "You are the Presiding Genius of every Printing-Office, of every Savings Bank, and every Workshop. You are invoked in every Academy of Science, and in every Hall of Legislation. Your Spirit breathes through every storybook and hovers along every Telegraph Wire. You were the Prophet of Freedom and the Instructor of Mankind. All Nations rise up and call you blessed." The most captivating writer of American biography is Mr. James Parton. In his 'Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin,' after beguiling the reader through two massive volumes of brilliant narration, which seem more like a charming pilgrimage through a broad landscape garden, than an authentic biography, he thus records the CATALOGUE OF THE GOOD DEEDs of FrankLIN, with the monumental brevity and precision of a sculptor : He founded the Philadelphia Library, parent of a thousand libraries, an immense and endless good to the whole United States. He edited the best newspaper in the Colonies; one which published no libels, and fomented no quarrels ; which quickened the intelligence of Pennsyl vania, and gave the onward impulse to the press of America. He was the first who turned to great account the engine of advertising, an indispensable element in modern business. He published Poor Richard, by means of which so much of the wit and wisdom of all ages as its readers could appropriate and enjoy, was brought home to their minds, in words they could understand and remember forever. He created the post-office system of America, and forbore to avail hin self, as postmaster, of privileges for lack of which he had formerly suffered. It was he who caused Philadelphia to be paved, lighted, and cleaned. 168 CATALOGUE OF FRANKLIN'S deeds. As fuel became scarce in the vicinity of the colonial towns, he invented the Franklin Stove, which economized it, and suggested the subsequent warming inventions, in which America beats the world. Besides making a free gift of this invention to the public, he generously wrote an extensive pamphlet explaining its construction and utility. He delivered civilized mankind from the nuisance, once universal, of smoky chimneys. He was the first effective preacher of the blessed gospel of ventilation. He spoke, and the windows of hospitals were lowered; consumption ceased to gasp, and fever to inhale poison. He devoted the leisure of seven years, and all the energy of his genius, to the science of electricity, which gave a stronger impulse to scientific inquiry than any other event of that century. He taught Goethe to experiment in electricity, and set all students to making electrical machines. thunder of its terrors, and lightning of its power to destroy. He was chiefly instrumental in founding the first high school of Pennsylvania, and died protesting against the abuse of the funds of that institution in teaching American youth the languages of Greece and Rome, while French, Spanish, and German were spoken in the streets, and were required in the commerce of the wharves. He founded the American Philosophical Society, the first organization in America of the friends of science. He suggested the use of mineral manures, introduced the basket willow, and promoted the early culture of silk. He lent the indispensable assistance of his name and tact to the founding of the Philadelphia Hospital. Entering into politics, he broke the spell of Quakerism, and woke Pennsylvania from the dream of unarmed safety. He led Pennsylvania in its thirty years' struggle with the mean tyranny of the Penns, a rehearsal of the subsequent contest with the King of Great Britain. When the Indians were ravaging and scalping within eighty miles of Philadelphia, General Benjamin Franklin led the troops of the city against them. He was the author of the first scheme of uniting the Colonies, a scheme so suitable that it was adopted, in its essential features, in the Union of the States, and binds us together to this day. He assisted England to keep Canada, when there was danger of its falling back into the hands of a reactionary race. More than any other man, he was instrumental in causing the repeal of the Stamp Act, which deferred the inevitable struggle until the Colonies were strong enough to triumph. More than any other man, he educated the Colonies up to independence, and secured for them in England the sympathy and support of the Brights, the Cobdens, the Spencers, and Mills of that day. His examination before FRANKLIN'S SERVICES TO MANKIND. 169 the House of Commons struck both countries as the speeches of Henry Ward Beecher a genuine brother of Franklin-did in the autumn of 1863. As the eloquent preacher set England right upon the questions of to-day, so did Franklin upon those of 1765. And Franklin would have kept her right, but for the impenetrable stupidity of George III. He discovered the temperature of the Gulf stream. He discovered that North-east storms begin in the South-west. He invented the invaluable contrivance by which a fire consumes its own smoke. He made important discoveries respecting the causes of the most univer sal of all diseases--colds. He pointed out the advantage of building ships in water-tight compartments, taking the hint from the Chinese. He expounded the theory of navigation which is now universally adopted by intelligent seamen, and of which a charlatan and a traitor has received the credit. At the beginning of the Revolution, he was the soul of the party whose sentiments Thomas Paine spoke in 'Common Sense.' In Paris, as the antidote to the restless distrust of Arthur Lee, and the restless vanity of John Adams, he saved the alliance over and over again, and brought the negotiations for peace to a successful close. His mere presence in Europe was a moving plea for the rights of man. In the Convention of 1787, his indomitable good humor was, probably, the uniting element, wanting which the Convention would have dissolved without having done its work. His last labors were for the abolition of slavery and the aid of its emancipated victims. Having, during a very long life, instructed, stimulated, cheered, amused, and elevated his countrymen and all mankind, he was faithful to them to the end, and added to his other services the edifying spectacle of a calm, cheerful, and triumphant death; leaving behind him a mass of writings, full of his own kindness, humor, and wisdom, to perpetuate his influence, and sweeten the life of coming generations. Such is the brief record of the more conspicuous actions of Benjamin Franklin. But to conclude. We find that several fortunate circumstances in the lot of Franklin were not due to any act of his own; such as his great gifts, his birth in a pure and virtuous family, his birth in large America, in an age of free inquiry, and his early opportunities of mental culture. But we have observed that the enjoyment of all these advantages did not make him a happy or a virtuous man, or an orderly, useful member of society. The great event in his life was his deliberate and final choice to dedicate himself to virtue and the public good. This was his own act. In this the person of humblest endowments may imitate him. From that act dates the part of his career which yielded him substantial welfare, and which his countrymen now con 170 LORD BROUGHAM'S JUDGMENT OF FRANKLIN. template with pleasure and gratitude. It made a MAN of him. It gave him the command of his powers, and his resources. It enabled him to extract from life all its latent good, and to make his own life a vast addition to the sur of good in the world. Men have lived who were more magnificently endowed than Franklin. Men have lived whose lives were more splendid and heroic than his. If the inhabitants of the earth were required to select—to represent them in some celestial congress composed of the various orders of intelligent beings—a specimen of the human race, and we should send a Shakspeare, the celestials would say, He is one of us; or a Napoleon, the fallen angels might claim him. But if we desired to select a man who could present in his own character the largest amount of human worth with the least of human frailty, and in his own lot on earth the largest amount of enjoyment with the least of suffering; one whose character was estimable without being too exceptionally good, and his lot happy without being too generally unattainable; one who could bear in his letter of credence, with the greatest truth, This is a Man, and his life on earth was such as good men may live, I know not who, of the renowned of all ages, we could more fitly choose to represent us in that high court of the universe, than Benjamin Franklin, printer, of Philadelphia. Thus far Mr. Parton. In the sober judgment of that most learned and philosophical of England's modern statesmen, Lord Brougham thus speaks of Franklin :-'One of the most remarkable men, certainly, of our times, as a politician, or of any age, as a philosopher, was Franklin, who also stands alone in combining together these two characters, the greatest that man can sustain, and in this, that having borne the first part in enlarging science, by one of the greatest discoveries ever made, he bore the second part in founding one of the greatest empires in the world. In this truly great man every thing seems to concur that goes towards the constitution of exalted merit. First, he was the architect of his own fortune. Born in the humblest station, he raised himself by his talents and his industry, first to the place in society which may be attained with the help only of extraordinary abilities, great application, and good luck; but next, to the loftier heights which a daring and happy genius alone can scale; and the poor printer's boy who, at one period of his life, had no covering to shelter his head from the dews of night, rent in twain the proud dominion of England, and lived to be the ambassador of a commonwealth which he had formed, at the court of the haughty monarchs of France, who had been his allies. 'In domestic life he was faultless, and in the intercourse of society, delightful. There was a constant good humor and a playful wit, easy, and of high relish, without any ambition to shine, the natural fruit of his lively fancy, his solid, natural good sense, and his cheerful temper, that gave his conversation an unspeakable charm and alike suited every circle, from the humblest to the |