190 The University of St. Andrews 



recognition of his great services, not only to his own 

 country but to the world. 



In conversing with Matthew Arnold one day upon 

 America's great men, I remember how impressively he 

 spoke these words, " Franklin's is the weightiest voice 

 that has as yet sounded from across the Atlantic." You 

 of this Society, so conversant with his history, will I 

 believe find no fault with this opinion. The startling 

 triumphs of electricity in our day and the surprises it 

 promises still to give us, the discovery of radium and 

 of numerous other properties in matter, all lead in the 

 direction of Tyndall's famous prediction that we shall 

 finally find the potency of all things in matter. At the 

 very root of this revelation, stands for all time the man 

 who first drew the lightning from the clouds and pro- 

 claimed it electricity, matter with something beyond, 

 he in whose honor we are met from various parts of 

 the Earth to-day. His name cannot be omitted in any 

 list of the few supremely great who have exerted a 

 potent influence upon mankind. To the numerous 

 tributes made upon the altar of his m.emory this day, 

 St. Andrews' University reverently and gratefully begs 

 to be permitted to add hers. She who honored Franklin 

 in life, in death still treasures his memory as one of 

 her most illustrious, perhaps the most illustrious, of 

 all her sons. 



