ended to avert the dangers of lightning, and how far removed
was Franklin at the time from all scientific society, libraries,
or patronage.

It has also been stated by no less an authority in science than
Sir Humphrey Davy, that "the style and manner of Dr. Franklin's
publication on Electricity are almost as worthy of admiration as
the doctrine it contains." The same remark may indeed be applied
to all his writings. All of them are justly celebrated for their
clear, plain, and lively style, free from every appearance of art,
but, in fact, carefully pointed and nicely poised. In public
speaking, on the other hand, he was much less eminent. His last
American biographer observes of him, that he never even pretended
to the accomplishments of an orator or debater. He seldom spoke in
a deliberative assembly, except for some special object, and then
only for a few minutes at a time.

As a slight instance of Franklin's humor and shrewdness in all
affairs of common life I may quote the following: "QUESTION. I am
about courting a girl I have had but little acquaintance with. How
shall I come to a knowledge of her faults? ANSWER. Commend her
among her female acquaintance!"

Whether in science and study, or in politics and action, the great
aim of Franklin's mind was ever practical utility. Here again we
may quote Sir Humphrey Davy as saying of Franklin that he sought
rather to make philosophy a useful inmate and servant in the
common habitations of man, than to preserve her merely as an
object of admiration in temples and palaces. Thus, also, in
affairs he had a keen eye to his own interest, but likewise a
benevolent concern for the public good. Nor was he ever
indifferent to cases of individual grievance or hardship. In the
pursuit of his objects, public or private, he was, beyond most
other men, calm, sagacious, and wary; neither above business nor
yet below it; never turned aside from it by flights of fancy nor
yet by bursts of passion.

Among the good qualities which we may with just cause ascribe to
Franklin we cannot number any firm reliance on the truths of
Revelation. Only five weeks before his death we find him express a
cold approbation of the "system of morals" bequeathed to us by
"Jesus of Nazareth." In his Memoirs he declares that he always
believed in the existen