128 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



ment of human nature, and six weeks later, within 

 a few weeks of his death, defended the petition with 

 his accustomed vigor, humor, wisdom, and ardent 

 love of liberty. Turgot wittily summed up Frank- 

 lin's career by saying that he had snatched the light- 

 ning from the heavens and the scepter from the 

 hands of tyrants (eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque 

 tyrannis) ; for both his political and scientific ac- 

 tivities sprang from the same impelling emotion 

 hatred of the exercise of arbitrary power and desire 

 for human welfare. It is no wonder that the French 

 National Assembly, promulgators of the Rights of 

 Man, paused in their labors to pay homage to the 

 simple citizen, who, representing America in Paris 

 from his seventy-first till his eightieth year, had by 

 his wisdom and urbanity illustrated the best fruits 

 of an instructed democracy. 



REFERENCES 



American Philosophical Society, Record of the Celebration of the 

 Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of Benjamin Franklin. 



S. G. Fisher, The True Benjamin Franklin. 



Paul L. Ford, Many-sided Franklin. 



Benjamin Franklin, Complete Works, edited by A. H. Smyth, 

 ten volumes, vol. x containing biography. 



