168 



And now this Yankee tallow-chandler's son, having raised 

 himself, by a strict adherence to the maxims of u Poor Richard," 

 from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to power, proceeded 

 to violate one of the most often inculcated. " Shoemaker,'' says 

 " Poor Eichard," "stick to your last." " A rolling stone gathers 

 no moss." " Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee." But 

 Franklin now sold his shop, his newspaper, his almanac, and 

 gave his time to the study of science. So well was the time 

 spent that, before he was fifty, he had made discoveries and 

 written papers that made him world-famous, secured for him 

 membership in the Royal Society of London and won for him 

 the Copley medal. 



While the whole scientific world were thus doing him honor, 

 he suddenly abandoned his studies, went back to politics and 

 was once more loaded with public duties. His townsmen 

 elected him Assemblyman. The home government appointed 

 him Postmaster-General of the colonies. The Assembly sent 

 him with its Speaker to hold a conference with the Indians at 

 Carlisle; then to the Albany conference where he presented 

 his famous Plan of Union ; and then to represent the pro- 

 vince in England. 



The five years he now passed in England were the closing 

 years of what is commonly known as the French and Indian 

 War, but what might with more fitness be called the struggle for 

 expansion. On his return to Philadelphia, in 1761, he seems 

 for a time to have thought of quitting politics, living at his ease, 

 building a fine house, studying electricity and writing a book 

 on the " Art of Virtue." But the conspiracy of Pontiac, the 

 massacre of the Conestoga Indians by the men of Donegal and 

 Paxtang, and the bitter pamphlet war that followed drew him 

 again into politics. Once more he entered the Assembly, be- 

 came the leader of the Antiproprietary party, and, having 



