I recommend the study of Franklin to all young people;
he was a real philanthropist, a wonderful man. It was
said that it was honor enough to any one country to
have produced such a man as Franklin.—_Sydney Smith._
A man who makes a great figure in the learned world;
and who would still make a greater figure for
benevolence and candor were virtue as much regarded in
this declining age as knowledge.—_Lord Kaimes._
He was a great experimental philosopher, a consummate
politician, and a paragon of common sense.—_Edinburgh
Review._
He has in no instance exhibited that false dignity by
which science is kept aloof from common application;
and he has sought rather to make her an useful inmate
and servant in the common habitations of man, than
to preserve her merely as an object of admiration in
temples and palaces.—_Sir Humphrey Davy._
His style has all the vigor, and even conciseness
of Swift, without any of his harshness. It is in no
degree more flowery, yet both elegant and lively.—_Lord
Jeffrey._
When he left Passy it seemed as if the village had lost
its patriarch.—_Thomas Jefferson._
Extracts From Poor Richard’s Almanac.
“Love well, whip well.” “The proof of gold is fire; the proof of
woman, gold; the proof of man, a woman.” “There is no little enemy.”
“Necessity never made a good bargain.” “Three may keep a secret, if
two of them are dead.” “Deny self for self’s sake.” “Keep thy shop,
and thy shop will keep thee.” “Here comes the orator, with his flood
of words and his drop of reason.” “Sal laughs at everything you say;
why? because she has fine teeth.” “An old young man will be a young old
man.” “He is no clown that drives the plow, but he that does clownish
things.” “Diligence is the mother of good luck.” “Wealth is not his
that has it, but his that enjoys it.” “He that can have patience can
have what he will.” “Good wives and good plantations are made by good
husbands.” “God heals, the doctor takes the fee.” “The noblest question
in the world is, What good may I do in it?” “There are three faithful
friends, an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.” “Who has deceived
thee so oft as thyself?” “Fly pleasures, and they will follow you.”
“Hast thou virtue? Acquire also the graces and beauties of virtue.”
“Keep your eyes wide open before marriage; half shut afterward.”
“As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle
silence.” “Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.”
“Grace thou thy house, and let not that grace thee.” “Let thy child’s
first lesson be obedience, and the second will be what thou will.”
“Let thy discontents be thy secrets.” “Happy that nation, fortunate
that age, whose history is not diverting.” “There are lazy minds, as
well as lazy bodies.” “Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools,
who have not wit enough to be honest.” “Let no pleasure tempt thee, no
profit allure thee, no ambition corrupt thee, no example sway thee, no
persuasion move thee, to do anything which thou knowest to be evil; so
shalt thou always live jollily, for a good conscience is a continual
Christmas.”
“Altho’ thy teacher act not as he preaches,
Yet ne’ertheless, if good, do what he teaches;
Good counsel failing men may give, for why?
He that’s aground knows where the shoal doth lie.
My old friend Berryman, oft when alive,
Taught others thrift, himself could never thrive.
Thus like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others while themselves are blunt.”
Poetry for December, 1834.
“He that for the sake of drink neglects his trade,
And spends each night in taverns till ’tis late,
And rises when the sun is four hours high,
And ne’er regards his starving family,
God in his mercy may do much to save him,
But, woe to the poor wife, whose lot it is to have him.”
An Astronomical Notice.
During the first visible eclipse _Saturn_ is retrograde: for which
reason the crabs will go sidelong, and the rope-makers backward.
Mercury will have his share in these affairs, and so confound the
speech of the people, that when a _Pennsylvanian_ would say _panther_,
he shall say _painter_. When a _New Yorker_ thinks to say _this_, he
shall say _diss_, and the people in _New England_ and _Cape May_ will
not be able to say _cow_ for their lives, but will be forced to say
_keow_, by a certain involuntary twist in the root of their tongues. No
_Connecticut man_ nor _Marylander_ will be able to open his mouth this
year but _sir_ shall be the first or last syllable he pronounces, and
sometimes both. Brutes shall speak in many places, and there will be
about seven and twenty irregular verbs made this year if grammar don’t
interpose. Who can help these misfortunes? This year the stone-blind
shall see but very little; the deaf shall hear but poorly; and the dumb
sha’n’t speak very plain. As to old age, it will be incurable this
year, because of the years past. And toward the fall some people will
be seized with an unaccountable inclination to roast and eat their
own ears: Should this be called madness, doctors? I think not. But
the worst disease of all will be a most horrid, dreadful, malignant,
catching, perverse, and odious malady, almost epidemical, insomuch that
many shall seem mad upon it. I quake for very fear when I think on’t;
for I assure you very few shall escape this disease, which is called by
the learned Albromazer—_Lacko’mony_.