AS Citizen and Philanthropist 43 



republican character. The rock withstood the ocean! 

 Now although it may not prove a title to the claim 

 of consummate citizenship that a man has his por- 

 trait in bracelets and on snuff-boxes, and his bust in 

 every house, and his likeness in every shop-window, 

 yet it does reveal how thoroughly ingrained are all 

 the best elements of democratic citizenship when all 

 such blandishments fail to have the faintest influence 

 on character or deportment. 



" The glories of our birth and state 

 Are shadows, not substantial things," 



and Dr. Franklin returned to his home here the same 

 unbending republican citizen that he was when he left 

 these shores, and among the charges brought against 

 him by envy and party-spirit (we have the highest 

 authority that " woe be unto us when all men speak 

 well of us"), I cannot recall any which denied his re- 

 publican simplicity in garb or demeanor, or one that 

 accused him of aping foreign aristocratic manners. In- 

 deed, his sense of humour kept him from all ostenta- 

 tion; the incongruity, — one of the elements of humour, — 

 between the simplicity of a republic and the gewgaws 

 of a monarchy was too palpable. Moreover, " silks and 

 satins, scarlet and velvet put out the kitchen fire, as 

 Poor Richard says," and " Pride that dines on vanity, 

 sups on contempt, as Poor Richard says." Verily, his 



