in possession of new substances without having perceived them; and
he never dissimulated the erroneous views which sometimes directed
his efforts, and from which he was only undeceived by experience.
These confessions did honour to his modesty, without disarming
jealousy. Those to whom their own ways and methods had never
discovered anything called him a simple worker of experiments,
without method and without an object "it is not astonishing,"
they added, "that among so many trials and combinations, he should
find some that were fortunate." But real natural philosophers were
not duped by these selfish criticisms.

Many encomiums like the preceding--yes, a thousandfold--could easily be
gathered if necessary to show the regard and confidence held for this
remarkable man to whom America is truly very deeply indebted.

Some years ago the writer paid a visit to the God's Acre of
Northumberland. He arrived after dark and was conveyed to the sacred
place in an automobile. Soon the car stopped. Its headlights illuminated
the upright flat stone which marked the last resting place of the great
chemist, and in that light not only was the name of the sleeper clearly
read but the less distinct but legible epitaph:

Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt
bountifully with thee. I will lay me down in peace and sleep till
I wake in the morning of the resurrection.

Pondering on these lines there slowly returned to mind the words of
Franklin's epitaph,--Franklin, who, years before, had encouraged and
aided the noble exile, who was ever mindful of the former's goodness to
him:

The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin
Printer
(Like the cover of an old book
Its contents torn out
And stript of its lettering and gilding)
Lies here food for Worms
But the work shall not be lost
For it will (as he believed) appear
once more
In a new and more elegant Edition
Revised and corrected
by
The Author

And then, by some strange mental reaction, there floated before the
writer the paragraph uttered by Professor Huxley, when in 1874 a statue
to Priestley was unveiled in the City of Birmingham:

Our purpose is to do honour ... to Priestley the peerless defender
of national freedom in thought and i