As, darkly painted on the crimson sky, Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast Lone wandering, but not lost. All day thy wings have fanned, At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, And soon that toil shall end; Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest, Thou 'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet, on my heart He who, from zone to zone, 10 15 20 25 Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, so In the long way that I must tread alone, Will lead my steps aright. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. In reading the life of Franklin we are constantly sur prised at the versatility of his powers. He achieved an undying reputation as a man of business, as a scientist, as a writer, as a statesman, and as a diplomatist. It is impossible to give here an adequate idea of his greatness or of the debt of gratitude which we all owe him for the help he rendered our nation in times of sore need. For the events of his life the reader is referred to his Autobiography1-a classic masterpiece with which every American should be familiar. What follows is a review of Franklin's character by John T. Morse, Jr., at the end of his admirable biography of Franklin, in the American Statesmen Series: "Among illustrious Americans Franklin stands preëminent in the interest which is aroused by a study of his character, his mind and his career. One becomes attached to him, bids him farewell with regret, and feels that for such as he the longest span of life is all too short. Even though dead, he attracts a personal regard which renders easily intelligible the profound affection which so many men felt for him while living. It may be doubted whether any one man ever had so many, such constant, and such firm friends as in three different nations formed about him a veritable host. In the States and in France he was loved, and as he grew into old age he was revered, not by those who heard 1 See Riverside Literature Series, Nos. 19 and 20. of him only, but most warmly by those who best knew himEven in England, where for years he was the arch rebel of all America, he was generally held in respect and esteem, and had many constant friends whose confidence no events could shake. Moral, intellectual, and material boons he conferred in such abundance that few such benefactors of the race can be named, though one should survey all the ages. A man of a greater humanity never lived: and the quality which stood Abou Ben Adhem in good stead should suffice to save Franklin from human criticism. He not only loved his kind, but he also trusted them with an implicit confidence, reassuring if not extraordinary in an observer of his shrewdness and experience. ... "Franklin's inborn ambition was the noblest of all ambitions to be of practical use to the multitude of men. The chief motive of his life was to promote the welfare of mankind. Every moment which he could snatch from enforced occupations was devoted to doing, devising, or suggesting something advantageous more or less generally to men. . . . His desire was to see the community prosperous, comfortable, happy, advancing in the accumulation of money and of all physical goods, but not to the point of luxury; it was by no means the pile of dollars which was his end, and he did not care to see many men rich, but rather to see all men well to do. He was perfectly right in thinking that virtuous living has the best prospects in a well-to-do society. He gave liberally of his own means and induced others to give, and promoted in proportion to the ability of the community a surprising number of public and quasi-public enterprises; and always the fireside of the poor man was as much in his thought as the benefit of the richer circle. Fair dealing and kindliness, prudence and economy in order to procure the comforts and simpler luxuries of life, reading and knowledge for those uses which wisdom subserves, constituted the real essence of his teaching. His inventive genius was ever at work devising methods of making daily life more agreeable, |