not fail to strike; and I am convinced you have
conducted them with as much originality as if you had been conducting
discussions in politics or philosophy; and what more worthy of
experiments and system (its importance and its errors considered) than
human life?

"Some men have been virtuous blindly, others have speculated
fantastically, and others have been shrewd to bad purposes; but you,
sir, I am sure, will give under your hand, nothing but what is at the
same moment, wise, practical and good, your account of yourself (for I
suppose the parallel I am drawing for Dr. Franklin, will hold not only
in point of character, but of private history) will show that you are
ashamed of no origin; a thing the more important, as you prove how
little necessary all origin is to happiness, virtue, or greatness. As
no end likewise happens without a means, so we shall find, sir, that
even you yourself framed a plan by which you became considerable; but
at the same time we may see that though the event is flattering, the
means are as simple as wisdom could make them; that is, depending upon
nature, virtue, thought and habit. Another thing demonstrated will be
the propriety of everyman's waiting for his time for appearing upon the
stage of the world. Our sensations being very much fixed to the
moment, we are apt to forget that more moments are to follow the first,
and consequently that man should arrange his conduct so as to suit the
whole of a life. Your attribution appears to have been applied to your
life, and the passing moments of it have been enlivened with content
and enjoyment instead of being tormented with foolish impatience or
regrets. Such a conduct is easy for those who make virtue and
themselves in countenance by examples of other truly great men, of whom
patience is so often the characteristic. Your Quaker correspondent,
sir (for here again I will suppose the subject of my letter resembling
Dr. Franklin), praised your frugality, diligence and temperance, which
he considered as a pattern for all youth; but it is singular that he
should have forgotten your modesty and your disinterestedness, without
which you never could have waited for your advancement, or found your
situation in the mean time comfortable; which is a strong lesson to
show the poverty of glory and the importance of regulating our minds.
If this correspondent had known the nature of your reputation as well
as I do, he would have said, Your former writi