52 
easily supersedes all former versions. It contains, moreover, six or 
eight additional pages of printed matter from Franklin’s pen, 
which had never before appeared in English. It is also a curious 
fact in the history of the book that there are no less than five 
editions in French, all distinct and different translations. 
The limits of this paper will not allow me to follow Franklin in 
his various wanderings either back to his native town or across the 
ocean to London, where he worked as a journeyman printer. Nor 
can I even mention the different projects he devised for improving 
the condition of all classes of mankind, from the highest to the 
lowest, and thereby adding to the comforts and pleasures of life. 
The recollection of his own narrow circumstances during his 
younger days always prompted him to help others similarly placed ; - 
and the famous line of Terence applied to him as truthfully as to 
-any other man of the last century. In brief, it is enough to say 
that on all occasions and at all times his sympathies were with the 
people. In the great political contest which really began on the 
passage of the Stamp Act, and did not end until the Declaration of 
Peace in 1783, he was from the first on the side of the Colonists, 
and one of their main supports. During the War of the Revolu- 
tion he was a venerable man, the senior of General Washington by 
more than twenty-five years, and the leaders all looked up to him 
for advice. In such an emergency it is young men for action, but old 
men for counsel ; and on all occasions he was a wise counselor. 
Franklin’s services in Europe as one of the Commissioners of 
the United States were as essential to the success of the patriots as 
those of any military commander at home; and he gave as much 
time and thought to the public cause, and with as marked results, 
as if he had led legions of men on the battlefield. The pen is 
mightier than the sword, and the triumphs of diplomacy are equally 
important with those of generals who lead armies on to victory. 
I regret that the space of time allowed forbids me to dwell, as I 
should like to do, on Franklin’s brilliant career as a philosopher. 
From early boyhood his inquiring mind had led him to study the 
lessons of Nature and to learn the hidden meaning of her myste- 
ries. It is easy to understand how, while yet a young man, his 
youthful imagination became excited over the wonders of the 
heavens, when the lightning flashed and the thunder pealed ;'and 
how he burned to find out the causes of the phenomena. By his 
OE ——————— 
