70 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HEROGRAPHY. Returning to England, he exerted all his power in an attempt to prevail on the ministry to change their course toward the American colonies, but without success. The haughty obstinacy of British character was never more foolishly exhibited, than in the treatment of her colonial subjects by that imperious government. She seems to have forgotten that they boasted Hampden's blood, and might perhaps be found as ready as he to shed it in the cause of freedom. Foiled in all his efforts to ward off from his country the dreadful scourge of war, the patriot philosopher returned to her shores in time to share its fury. He was not, however, permitted long to remain among his countrymen in their hour of peril; for, soon after the declaration of independence, he was appointed by congress to assist in negotiations at the court of France, where his influence was considerable and exerted with great effect in behalf of his suffering country. While he was residing in Paris, the subject of Animal Magnetism began to excite the public mind of Europe; and was deemed of so great interest that King Louis appointed a commission of the most learned and able philosophers, among whom he nominated Franklin, to give the subject a full and fair investigation. After industrious and impartial examination, they reported that no sufficient reason appeared to sustain a belief that the pretended science was founded in truth or worthy further attention. In 1788, the independence of his country being achieved, and a constitution for its future government adopted, one of its most laborious founders, at the advanced age of eighty-two years, retired from his protracted and useful public life; his last act being, as president of an abolition society, to sign a petition to congress praying a full exertion of its power towards the suppression of slavery. Thus THE LIGHTNING KING. 71 did he crown his life of philanthropic labor, by an act of humanity worthy of himself and his preceding illustrious career. Advancing years brought increasing infirmities, until, on the 17th day of April, 1790, God sent his angel for the old man's soul. One month mourned his bereaved countrymen, wearing funeral crape. Three days did the French people likewise; for a great man and a lover of his race had gone. No! he had not gone! His mortal had but been disunited from his eternal part, and was laid to rest beneath this self-written epitaph : The Body BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, (Like the cover of an old book, Its contents torn out, And stripped of its lettering and gilding,) But the work shall not be lost, Revised and corrected By THE AUTHOR. Yes! glorious old patriot! the Author will not suffer such a work to perish. It has doubtless reappeared in another library, to be read by brighter than human eyes. The character of Franklin shall receive a momentary analysis. As a philosopher he was patient, industrious and liberal; as a legislator, prudent, perspicuous and sagacious; as a diplomatist, acute, profound and skillful; as a citizen, it has been truly remarked of him, that "he was eminently great in ordinary things: he could enliven 72 CONTRIBUTIONS TO HEROGRAPHY. every conversation with an anecdote and conclude it with a moral." As a man, he was temperate, punctual and laborious, polite and affable in manner, disposed rather to hear than to speak, ready in debate, not quick to affirm or deny, but ever prepared to argue calmly and decide dispassionately. As a writer, his manner was clear, pure and concise, comprehensive, dignified, and at times, even majestic. His reasonings are admirably conclusive; and this, united with his charms of style, make all his articles impress the reader's mind with unusual force. To young Americans we recommend them as models—their precepts as lessons. Such was Franklin, a truly great man, an honor to his country, an ornament to humanity. Reader! in considering such a character as the one before us, we feel an entirely irresistible influence exciting us to admiration and emulation. Who is so base that he has no desire to be great? I believe but few such can be found. But many are discouraged from action by the reflection that circumstances make men. They suppose if they had lived in the same age, and been placed in the same positions as the eminent philosophers, historians, warriors, poets, orators or statesmen of the olden time, they might perhaps have become equally great. If they had lived in the days of our revolution, they might have been its Henrys or its Franklins, or aspired even to the glory of its Washington. It is true that circumstances do make men: it is quite as true that men make circumstances. No lazy dolt was ever, by any combination of events, made great. No industrious thinker was ever, by any cause, made less so. He who acts nobly in his sphere, may be as great, perhaps truly greater, in an ignoble than an honored one, since his only motive must be duty. Let no one be discouraged because the forgetful world does not regard and commend him. Let him rather rejoice that he may be superior to the influence of its opinion, and all the more god-like when he rests on his own strength alone. Young man! you are entering upon the stage of action at a most interesting period of the world's history; the great battle is now being fought, whose general result will determine whether freedom and the rights of man shall be respected, or whether the world is ever to remain shrouded by the night-shade of despotism. The materials which are. to produce a yet more general eruption have been long in the process of collection; the preparation is now nearly complete; when it is quite made and a few more sparks of burning democratic truth are applied, the explosion which will then ensue will, we trust, hurl tyranny to the dust and blot her name and nature from the world. The slumbering volcano has already given unequivocal symptoms of the coming outbreak. Revolution succeeding revolution has convulsed Christendom-yes, and Heathendom. First in this grand fifth act contest, our own beloved land arose in her youthful strength, and, as the rejoicing lion. rousing from slumber shakes off the trembling dew-drops from his mane, shook off a foreign yoke too galling to be longer borne. That stroke jarred the crown on many a royal brow. It was but the first thunderbolt of the coming storm which is still blackening in vengeance over the heads of those who have dared to defy its fury. Liberty, wandering homeless o'er the groaning earth, found here, in our young native land, the hardy Puritan, the devoted Patriot, the virtuous Man, struggling against the usurpations of a foreign power. Here she found a welcome home and a genial clime. She endowed the American arms with invincibility in a just cause, and said to the nascent nation, "Be great and free!" A mighty people hung entranced on the sweet accents of her lips, and having declared itself independent, nobly swore by life, fortune, and sacred honor, to maintain that declaration or perish in the attempt. It was maintained; and a brilliant example was thus set before the world, which has excited universal admiration, which has inspired and will continue to inspire the spirit. of emulation. Doubtless, the successful termination of the American revolutionary struggle was one cause that, co-operating with many others, served to prepare the French nation for the commencement of its regeneration; a revolution in its incidents, its causes, and its developed and developing effects, affording the most interesting of historical themes; for during its progress, the public mind of a great and enlightened people, a people too the most volatile and excitable in character of any that the world has ever seen, was wrought to the extreme pitch of excitement, and then set at work by demagogic dictators under all this head of passion, unregulated by any balance-wheel of cold iron. The result was that almost every individual in France had his own peculiar and original system of society, of government, of religion. Of course, by far the greater number of these systems were mere abortions, never receiving any active being; and such as did obtain a limited experiment, were successively thrust out of life before they had half learned to walk with even a moderately firm step. As has been said on another subject, "Everything was attempted, much accomplished, nothing perfected." A man cannot run one thousand miles sooner than he can walk it and a nation cannot permanently revolutionize its governmeut by violent sooner than by gradual means. Civilization in France, in Europe, and throughout the world, has been advanced by the French revolution; but France could not |