s supply their
places. Howbeit, I conceive that each of these is exceeding wise and
good, and very powerful; and that each has made for himself one
glorious sun, attended with a beautiful and admirable system of
planets. It is that particular wise and good God, who is the author and
owner of our system, that I propose for the object of my praise and
adoration." Thereupon follows the form of adoration, or liturgy,
including an invocation, psalm, indication of philosophic reading to
take the place of the lessons, singing of the Hymn to the Creator from
Milton's Paradise Lost, and litany. The whole is not without elevation,
and the litany, composed as it is by a young man of twenty-two, touches
one with a feeling almost of pathos for its true humility and reaching
out after virtue.

Franklin continued to use this form of worship for a number of years;
but its fantastic nature seems to have dawned on him at last, and he
gave it up for a still simpler creed consisting merely in reverence for
the Deity and in respect for the moral law. In the matter of public
worship he was of the same opinion as Spinoza and many other
philosophers. He esteemed public worship salutary for the state, and
paid an annual subscription to the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia;
but he also esteemed it his privilege to stay away from service, and
indulged in this privilege to the full, making Sunday his chief day of
study. Though affiliated in this way to the Presbyterians, he showed
perfect impartiality, or even indifference, to the various
denominations of the Christian world. The only sect he ever really
praised was the Dunkers, whom he commended for their modesty in not
formulating a creed. He quotes with pleasure the character given
himself of being merely "an honest man of no sect at all." Tolerance in
religion and in every other walk of life was indeed a marked and
distinguishing trait of his character. He was of the mind of Bishop
Warburton, when he said, "Orthodoxy is my doxy and Heterodoxy is your
doxy."

It is a little disconcerting to find our philosopher himself proposing
a new sect, which should be called the Society of the Free and Easy,
and which actually progressed so far as to possess two enthusiastic
disciples. The creed of this projected sect may be taken as an
expression of Franklin's mature belief:--

"That there is one God, who made all things.

"That he governs the world by his providence.

"That he ought to be worsh