AND The University of Pennsylvania 169 



many parts, divide his character into sections, and anal- 

 yze each, and what result do you find which has its 

 exact counterpart, or which suggests that it is but a 

 fac simile of that which made another man famous or 

 successful? We may speak of industry, sobriety, fru- 

 gality, punctuality, intelligence, inventiveness, economy, 

 prudence, ambition, wit, humor, culture, style, courage, 

 patriotism, judgment, sagacity, firmness, dignity, sim- 

 plicity, knowledge, sympathy and foresight, all of which 

 go to make up the business man, the author, the citizen, 

 the statesman, the philosopher and the sage — but, after 

 all, these are generic terms. We are familiar with them 

 in reading or in daily contact with living men, and can 

 point to a thousand instances of each, but of all these 

 traits in human nature, there is a distinct species which 

 is peculiar to Franklin and to him alone, while in the 

 strange totality of attributes he is abnormal and colossal. 

 Others, it is true, have been industrious, intelligent, 

 inventive and economical, but with all the remarkable 

 lads in mind that you have known, whether from actual 

 acquaintance or from books, it must be admitted that 

 this seventh son in a family of ten brothers and sisters 

 and six half brothers and sisters, who was deprived of 

 schooling at the end of a year, who dipped candles and 

 set wicks, and whose mind fed on Bunyan, DeFoe, 

 Plutarch, Locke, Burton's Historical Collections, Cotton 

 Mather, and controversial theological tracts, was a very 



