BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 21 



be possessed of a truth which few governments are possessed 

 of that A must take some of B's produce, otherwise B will 

 not be able to pay for what he would take of A." 



The reprint of Franklin's scientific writings by Sparks in- 

 cludes sixty-three papers on electricity, and one hundred and 

 fifty-seven on philosophical subjects, making in all two hun- 

 dred and twenty letters, filling eight hundred and eighty pages. 



Franklin was made a Foreign Associate in the French Acad- 

 emy of Sciences in 1772, and was esteemed in France during 

 his residence there as one of the foremost men of the time. In 

 1782 the Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts of Padua 

 expressed a desire, through Chevalier Deprin, to add Frank- 

 lin's name to its list of members. Its diploma recited that 

 the particular act of electing into a learned society per- 

 sons who had been zealous in promoting the increase of all 

 kinds of knowledge was " properly but an acknowledgment of 

 the original titles of their relationship. Among them, Dr. 

 Franklin, having distinguished himself eminently, and having 

 rendered himself equally memorable in natural philosophy and 

 in politics, the Academy . . . considers it to be honouring them- 

 selves when they number him among the twenty-four strangers 

 who, by the constitution, are to be associated into their body." 



In 1784 he was elected a member of the Spanish Royal 

 Academy of Sciences, and the publication of a Spanish transla- 

 tion of some of his writings was announced. A few days after- 

 ward the Count de Capomenes wrote him from Madrid : 

 " Nature, which you have profoundly studied, is indebted to 

 you for investigating and explaining phenomena which wise 

 men had not before been able to understand ; and the great 

 American philosopher, at the same time he discovers these 

 phenomena, suggests useful methods for guarding against 

 their dangers." 



The feelings of his own countrymen toward him were equal- 

 ly enthusiastic. When he came home, in 1785, from his long 

 service abroad, the Provost of the University of Pennsylvania 

 addressed him, recognising him as the projector of the institu- 

 tion, and acknowledging that " not contented with enriching the 

 world with the most important discoveries in natural philoso- 

 phy, your benevolence and liberality of sentiment early engaged 

 you to make provision for exciting a spirit of inquiry into the 

 nicest operations of Nature, for exalting and refining the 



