Courteous Reader: 
I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure 
as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned 
authors. This pleasure I have seldom enjoyed, for 
though I have been, if I may say it without vanity, an 
eminent author of Almanac annually now a full quarter of a 
century, my brother authors in the same way, for what reason 
I know not, have ever been very sparing in their applauses, and 
no other author has taken the least notice of me, so that, did 
not my writings produce me some solid pudding, the great de¬ 
ficiency of praise would have quite discouraged me. 
I concluded at length that the people were the best judges 
of my merit, for they buy my works, and, besides, in my rambles, 
where I am not personally known, I have frequently heard one 
or other of my adages repeated with, as Poor Richard says, 
“At the end on’t;” this gave me some satisfaction, as it showed 
not only that my instructions were regarded, but discovered, 
likewise some respect for my authority; and I own that to en¬ 
courage the practice of remembering and repeating those wise 
Sentences, I have sometimes quoted myself with great gravity. 
Benjamin Franklin. 
(From the American Bible by Alice Hubbard.) 
©CI.A49755 9 
JUN -31918 
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