AS Citizen and Philanthropist 37 



the most affable, familiar, and friendly manner imagi- 

 nable." 



"My heart doth joy," said Brutus just before he 

 fell upon his sword after his defeat at Philippi, " My 

 heart doth joy that yet in all my life I found no 

 man but he was true to me." Therein Brutus pays, 

 unconsciously, the highest tribute to his own truth. It 

 was his honour that evoked honour wheresoever he 

 dealt. When we find, therefore, in Franklin's "Auto- 

 biography " or in his " Letters," commendations of his 

 friends as being affable or agreeable, witty or charming, 

 we may know that those qualities were but reflections 

 of himself. How could it be otherwise? He must 

 have been the best company in the world, — never dull; 

 always alert; that active brain was never idle for the 

 thousandth part of a minute; never gloomy, always 

 cheerful; with flashes of wit, and a fund of anecdotes 

 to illustrate the homely problems of life. Thus he 

 must have been as a companion. As a Councillor, a 

 Justice, or a Legislator the smile vanishes and is re- 

 placed, for a while, by the furrows of thought. His 

 popularity could have been no secret to those who met 

 him day by day. 



From the age of thirty, and for fifty years onward, 

 until the very close of his long life, he was continuously 

 fulfilling the duties of public office, fairly forced upon 

 him by his fellow-citizens, or by the rulers of the 



