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will go to sea, and find an Antarctic continent ; to-day I will 

 square the circle ; I will ransack botany, and find a new food 

 for man ; I have a new architecture in my mind ; I foresee a 

 new mechanic power.' No ; but he finds himself in the river 

 of thoughts and events, forced onward by the ideas and neces- 

 sities of his contemporaries. He stands where all the eyes of 

 man look one way, and their hands all point in the direction 

 in which he should go. The church has reared him amidst 

 rites and pomps, and he carries out the advice which her music 

 gave him, and builds a cathedral needed by her chants 

 and processions. He finds a war raging ; it educates him by 

 trumpet, in barracks, and he betters the instruction. He finds 

 two counties groping to bring coal, or flour, or fish, from the 

 place of production to the place of consumption, and he hits 

 on a railroad. Every master has found his materials collected, 

 and his power lay in his sympathy with his people, and in his 

 love of the materials he wrought in." * 



The spirit of the hour was Franklin's constant inspiration, 

 and his writings were a legitimate result, the natural outgrowth 

 of his activity in all matters of public concern. Admirable 

 in themselves, their chief interest is nevertheless due to the 

 fact that they form so complete a record of the deeds and the 

 personal character of their author. 



" Though he was a voluminous writer and one of the 

 great masters of English expression, Franklin wrote habitu- 

 ally with a single eye to immediate practical results. He 

 never posed for posterity. Of all the writings to which he 

 mainly owes his present fame, it would be difficult to name 

 one which he gave to the press himself or of which he saw the 

 proof. Yet he never wrote a dull line nor many which the 

 century of time has robbed of their interest or value. What- 



* Emerson. 



