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 
greatasin England. ‘Thermometers are often badly made : 
T 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 compared with 
those of another by the same instrument. I will think of 
what you hint concerning the Hydrostatic balance. 
What 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. 
This 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 an in- 
decency, Sum pius /Eneas,—fama super ethera notus. One 
of the Romans, I forget who, justified speaking in his own 
praise, by saying, every freeman hada 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, J ama good boy; am Inot 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 
recurret ; being forbid to praise themselves, they learn in- 
stead of it to censure others ; which is only a round about 
way of praising themselves ; for, condemning the conduct of 
another in any particular, amounts to as much as saying, J 
am so honest or wise, or good or prudent, that I could not 
do or approve of such an action. This fondness for our- 
selves, rather than malevolence to others, I take to be the 
general source of censure and backbiting ; and I wish men 
had not been taught to dam up natural currents, to the over- 
flowing and damage of their neighbor’s grounds. Another 
