e, had elected him a member.
Splendid editions of his works were published in London; and three
editions were issued from the press in Paris.

In France, Franklin met with no insults, with no opposition. All alike
smiled upon him, and the voices of commendation alone fell upon his
ear.

Returning to England, his reputation there, as a man of high moral
worth, and of almost the highest intellectual attainments, and a man
honored in the most remarkable degree with all the highest offices
which his countrymen could confer upon him, swept contumely from his
path, and even his enemies were ashamed to manifest their hostility.
From London he wrote to his son,

"As to my situation here, nothing can be more agreeable.
Learned and ingenious foreigners that come to England,
almost all make a point of visiting me; for my reputation is
still higher abroad, than here. Several of the foreign
ambassadors have assiduously cultivated my acquaintance,
treating me as one of their corps, partly, I believe, from
the desire they have from time to time, of hearing something
of American affairs; an object become of importance in
foreign courts, who begin to hope Britain's alarming power
will be diminished by the defection of her colonies."[23]

[Footnote 23: "For dinner parties Franklin was in such demand that,
during the London season, he sometimes dined out six days in the
week for several weeks together. He also confesses that occasionally
he drank more wine than became a philosopher. It would indeed have
been extremely difficult to avoid it, in that soaking age, when
a man's force was reckoned by the number of bottles he could
empty."--_Parton's Life of Franklin_, Vol. i, p. 540.

As an illustration of the state of the times, I give the following
verse from one of the songs which Franklin wrote, and which he was
accustomed to sing with great applause. At the meetings of the Junto,
all the club joined in the chorus,

"Fair Venus calls; her voice obey
In beauty's arms spend night and day.
The joys of love all joys excel,
And loving's certainly doing well.

_Chorus._

Oh! no!
Not so!
For honest souls still know
Friends and the bottle still bear the bell."

"It is well," Mr. Parton writes, "for us, in these days, to consider
the spectacle of this large, robust soul, sporting in this simple,
homely way. This superb Frankl