179 1] ^^^- WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 32^ 



lin had suffered his poHtical opposition to pass into personal ma- 

 h'gnancy. But such things made httle impression on Dr. Smith. 

 If sometimes angry, as no doubt he justly was, in his anger he 

 sinned not. The sun never went down on his wrath. MaHce, 

 hatred, or even the h'ghter kinds of uncharitableness, if we can 

 judge by his conduct, never rested in his heart. With the utmost 

 readiness he compHed with the Society's request, and his eulogy 

 on Franklin may be taken to be one of the most skilful efforts of 

 his oratory. It is at this day one of the most agreeable short 

 biographies that we have of Franklin, and though published long 

 before Dr. Franklin's autobiography, in some sort anticipates it. 



The eulogy was delivered on the ist of March, 1791, in that 

 grand edifice of old Philadelphia, the German Lutheran Church,* 

 on Fourth street above Arch. Great efforts were taken by the Philo- 

 sophical Society to make the scene impressive. The ceremonies 

 were attended by the President and Mrs. Washington, the Vice- 

 President and Mrs. Adams, by the Senate and House of Repre- 

 sentatives of the United States, by the Governor and Legislature 

 of Pennsylvania, and by a large number of distinguished citizens. 

 The American Philosophical Society was there in corporate dig- 

 nity, and a special place was given to the brotherhood of printers. 



The orator having ascended the pulpit, opens in a grand melo- 

 dramatic fnguc, worthy — had the performance been a musical 

 one — of Sebastian Bach himself; a fit exordium to the memory of 

 the man who tore lightning from heaven, and a sceptre from 

 tyrants : 



Citizens pf Pennsylvania ! Luminaries of science ! Assembled fathers of 

 America ! 



Heard you not that solemn interrogatory ? 



Who is he that now recedes from his labors among you? 



What citizen, super-eminent in council, do you now deplorep 



What luminary, what splendid sun of science, from the hallowed walks 

 of philosophy, now withdraws his beams? 



What father of his country, what hero, what statesman, what law- 

 giver, is now extinguished from your political hemisphere, and invites 

 the mournful obsequies ? 



Is it he — your Franklin ? It cannot be ! Long since, full of years, 



*This fine historic building was pulled down in 1875. 



