The Writings of Benjamin Franklin. 163 



"sure it is a shoe? Should not that be settled first?" 

 Speaking of a friend who was exceptionally fond of 

 argument he says : — 



" Works" vol. 1, p. 17. 



" This contentious temper, I would observe by the way, 

 "is in danger of becoming a very bad habit ; and frequently 

 " renders a man's company insupportable as being no other- 

 wise capable of indulgence than by an indiscriminate 

 " contradiction . . . 



" I have since remarked that men of sense seldom fall 

 " into this error : lawyers, fellows of universities, and persons 

 " of every profession educated at Edinburgh, excepted." 

 Quoting the lines of Pope : — 



" Immodest words admit of no defence, 

 For want of decency is want of sense." 

 He remarks : — 



" Now is not want of sense, when a man has the mis- 

 <( fortune to be so circumstanced, a kind of excuse for want 

 " of modesty ? and would not the verses have been more 

 " accurate if they had been construed thus : — 



" Immodest words admit but this defence, 

 That want of decency is want of sense". 



" Works" vol. II., page 223. 



" I have seen an instance of common flies preserved in a 

 " manner somewhat similar. They had been drowned in 

 " Madeira wine, apparently about the time when it was 

 " bottled in Virginia, to be sent hither to London. At the 

 " opening of one of the bottles, at the house of a friend 

 *' where I then was, three drowned flies fell into the first 

 " glass that was filled. Having heard it remarked that 

 " drowned flies were capable of being revived by the rays of 

 " the sun, I proposed making the experiment on these: they 

 " were therefore exposed to the sun upon a sieve, which had 

 " been employed to strain them out of the wine. In less than 

 " three hours, two of them began by degrees to recover life. 

 " They commenced by some convulsive motions of the 

 " thighs, and at length they raised themselves upon their 



