i68 Carson: Franklin 



the aristocratic and wealthy Mr. Bingham, and David 

 Rittenhouse, the astronomer. His hearse was followed 

 by the Secretary and Members of the Supreme Execu- 

 tive Council, by the Speaker and Members of the Gen- 

 eral Assembly, the Judges of the Courts and other offi- 

 cers of the Governmnt, the Bar, the Mayor and Cor- 

 poration of the City, the printers and journeymen and 

 apprentices, the American Philosophical Society, the 

 College of Physicians, the Cincinnati, the College of 

 Philadelphia, and numerous trade and civic associations, 

 while twenty thousand people attended and witnessed 

 the ceremony of interment. Beyond the Atlantic Mira- 

 beau pronounced his eulogy before the National Assem- 

 bly of France, and the Abbe Sieyes, the President, ad- 

 dressed a letter of condolence to the Congress of the 

 United States. His mortal remains sleep beneath a plain 

 marble slab rising but a few inches from the ground, 

 with the simple inscription, "Benjamin Franklin." 



In a few hours this distinguished audience will assem- 

 ble at his grave. ^^ Si monumentum requiris, circum- 

 Spice. 



Who can question the greatness of this man? He 

 meets the definition of Emerson that " He is truly great 

 who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds 

 us of others." What man in all the centuries. Christian 

 or pagan, resembles Franklin? Of whom does he re- 

 mind us? Take him in the astonishing aggregate of his 



