Original Letters of Dr. Franklin. 369 
at the same height with very little variation the year round. 
In these latitudes, the alterations are not frequently so 
great asin England. ‘Thermometers are often badly made : 
1 had three that differed widely from each other, though be- 
ing in the same place. As to hygrometers, there is no 
good one yet invented. The cord is as good as any, but 
like the rest it grows continually less sensible by time, so 
that the observations of one year cannot be neg with 
those of another by the same instrument. I will think of 
what you hint concerning the Hydrostatic balance. 
at you mention concerning the love of praise is in- 
deed very true, a love of praise, although corrected by art 
reigns more or less in every heart; though we are generally 
hypocrites, in that respect, and pretend to disregard praise ; 
and that our nice modest ears are offended, forsooth, with 
what one of the ancients calls the sweetest kind of musick.° 
is hypocrisy, is only a sacrifice to the pride of others, or 
to their envy ; both which I think, ought rather to be morti- 
fied. The same sacrifice we make, when we forbear to 
praise ourselves, which naturally we are all inclined to; and 
1 suppose it was formerly the fashion, or Virgil, that court- 
ly writer, would not have put a speech into the mouth of 
his hero, which now-a-days we should esteem so great anin- | 
decency, Sum pius /Eneas,—fama super a notus. One 
of the Romans, I forget who, justified speaking in his own 
praise, by saying, every freeman had a right to speak what 
he thought of himself as well as of others. That this is a 
natural inclination, appears, in that all children show it, and 
say freely, I am a good boy ; am I not a good girl? and 
the like; *till they have been frequently chid, and told their 
trumpeter is dead ; and that ’tis unbecoming to sound their 
own praise, &c. But naturam expellas furca licet, usque 
general source of censure and backbiting ; and I wish men 
not been taught to dam up natural currents, to the over- 
flowing and damage of their neighbor’s grounds. Another 
