. It may not be entirely superfluous to
recount the history of a verse which has justly attracted so much
attention, and which, in the history of civilization, has been of more
value than the whole State of South Carolina.

From its first application to Franklin, this verse has excited something
more than curiosity. Lord Brougham tells us that it is often discussed
in private circles. There is other evidence of the interest it has
created. For instance, in an early number of "Notes and Queries"[7]
there is the following inquiry:--

"Can you tell me who wrote the line on Franklin, '_Eripuit_,'etc.?

"HENRY H. BREEN.

"_St. Lucia_."

A subsequent writer in this same work, after calling the verse "a
parody" of a certain line of antiquity, says,--"I am unable to say who
adapted these words to Franklin's career. Was it Condorcet?"[8] Another
writer in the same work says,--"The inscription was written by
Mirabeau."[9]

I remember well a social entertainment in Boston, where a most
distinguished scholar of our country, in reply to an inquiry made at the
table, said that the verse was founded on the following line from the
"Astronomicon"[10] of Manilius,--

"Eripuit Jovi fulmen, viresque tonandi."

John Quincy Adams, who was present, seemed to concur. Mr. Sparks, in his
notes to the correspondence of Franklin, attributes it to the same
origin.[11] But there are other places where its origin is traced with
more precision. One of the correspondents of "Notes and Queries" says
that he has read, but does not remember where, "that this line was
_immediately_ taken from one in the 'Anti-Lucretius' of Cardinal
Polignac."[12] Another correspondent shows the intermediate
authority.[13] My own notes were originally made without any knowledge
of these studies, which, while fixing its literary origin, fail to
exhibit the true character of the verse, both in its meaning and in the
time when it was uttered.

The verse cannot be found in any ancient writer,--not Claudian or
anybody else. It is clear that it does not come from antiquity, unless
indirectly; nor does it appear that at the time of its first production
it was in any way referred to any ancient writer. Manilius was not
mentioned. The verse is of modern invention, and was composed after the
arrival of Franklin in Paris on his eventful mission. At first it was
anonymous; but it was attributed sometimes to D'Alembert and sometimes
to Turgot. Beyond question