164 



We assemble but to ratify and record the final judg- 

 ment of a century. One hundred years ago, when 

 this Society called upon one of its members to com- 

 memorate his life among them and his labors for man, 

 it was possible to ask of a single speaker* to express 

 the world's estimate of Benjamin Franklin. To-night 

 that great monument of his achievements which death 

 completed when no man's effort could add aught to it, 

 has cast so broad a shadow across one hundred years, 

 that no one, however able, can compass its breadth, 

 within the circumference of his intellectual horizon. 

 Along whichever of the many paths that Franklin 

 traveled to greatness, lesser men may wearily plod 

 to-day, each is still aware, however high he may 

 ascend, that his experience is too narrow and his vision 

 too short to know and survey all the field of Frank- 

 lin's achievements in the past or their fruits in the 

 present. One hundred years ago, we heard one 

 speaker ; to-night we listen to five. For this occasion 

 this Society has summoned here the biographer of 

 Franklin ; it has called upon the historian of the land 

 in which he served his country abroad ; upon the man 

 of science ; upon one both the man of science and let- 

 ters, and lastly, to represent the civic and associated 

 acclivities in which Franklin was engaged, upon the 

 President of this Society. From this jury, thus con- 

 stituted, presenting the garner of all the manifold 

 fields which Franklin sowed to rich fame for himself 

 and richer harvest for others, we hear -summed up 

 to-night the verdict of the century. This finding, 

 which but ratifies the earlier presentment made by 

 that greater jury which includes the civilized world, 



♦After the death of Franklin, Dr. William Smith was appointed by the American 

 Philosophical Society to pronounce a eulogy upon the founder. 



