175 



pher, and its pages are turned over year by year by visitors to 

 the halls of the Society; who tracing in the lines which 

 lie there wrote, realize to a certain extent the character of 

 the man, the carefulness with which he did everything, and 

 whether he turned his attention to the curing of smoky chim- 

 neys, or to the invention of an improved fire-place, or to draw- 

 ing the lightning from the heavens and demonstrating its 

 identity with electricity, or in proposing new theories of light 

 and heat, or in encouraging the manufacture of large sheets of 

 paper, or in his correspondence with the distinguished mem- 

 bers of the Society — in all these things his connection with 

 the American Philosophical Society illustrates the character 

 of the man and the institutions which he founded in Philadel- 

 phia, cognating their purposes for the promotion of useful 

 knowledge and which still remain and nourish among us in 

 the types of the library company of Philadelphia, the old 

 University of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Contribution- 

 ship for the insurance of houses against loss by fire, the 

 establishment of the first fire engine company of Philadelphia. 

 "Whether we look for him in the fields of philosophy or 

 in the walks of business, or in works such as the framing of 

 declarations of independence, constitutions or treaties, the 

 admirable character of Benjamin Franklin is impressed upon 

 every one of these things to which I have referred. And espe- 

 cially has his character been impressed upon the foundations, 

 the traditions, the applications of the American Philosophical 

 Society. That Society honors him as its founder and partici- 

 pates in honoring him in all those illustrations of human 

 character to which our historian, Mr. McMaster, has referred 

 and which have crowned our country with so much honor, 

 with so many blessings and with such useful instruction to 

 rising generations. 



