most charming qualities of the human
mind. Though sometimes lax in points of grammar, as was much the custom
in his day, he wrote as delightful a style as is to be found in all
English literature, and that too when the stilted, verbose, and turgid
habit was tediously prevalent. He was a man who impressed his ability
upon all who met him; so that the abler the man and the more experienced
in judging men, the higher did he rate Franklin when brought into direct
contact with him; politicians and statesmen of Europe, distrustful and
sagacious, trained readers and valuers of men, gave him the rare honor
of placing confidence not only in his personal sincerity, but in his
broad fair-mindedness, a mental quite as much as a moral trait.

It is hard indeed to give full expression to a man of such scope in
morals, in mind, and in affairs. He illustrates humanity in an
astonishing multiplicity of ways at an infinite number of points. He,
more than any other, seems to show us how many-sided our human nature
is. No individual, of course, fills the entire circle; but if we can
imagine a circumference which shall express humanity, we can place
within it no one man who will reach out to approach it and to touch it
at so many points as will Franklin. A man of active as well as universal
good will, of perfect trustfulness towards all dwellers on the earth, of
supreme wisdom expanding over all the interests of the race, none has
earned a more kindly loyalty. By the instruction which he gave, by his
discoveries, by his inventions, and by his achievements in public life
he earns the distinction of having rendered to men varied and useful
services excelled by no other one man; and thus he has established a
claim upon the gratitude of mankind so broad that history holds few who
can be his rivals.

INDEX

Abolition of Slavery, petition for, signed by Franklin, 415, 416.

Adams, Abigail, on meeting Franklin, 210.

Adams, John, 111, 208;
dislike of Franklin, 210;
on committee to confer with Lord Howe, 214;
pugnacious remarks, 215, 216;
rank as diplomate, 220;
remarks on Franklin in France, 235, 236;
joins Lee in forcing dismissal of Williams, 266;
on rum trade, 276;
feeling towards France, 286;
charged to request admission of United States into Armed Neutrality, 288;
replaces Deane, 294;
his egotism, 294;
endeavors to reform French mission, 294;
censorious language, 295;
advises having a single min