to the gods all power, and declaring man independent, so as to
act for himself; and here the poet says, "Braving the thunderous
recesses of heaven, _he snatched the lightning from Jove and the arrows
from Apollo_, and, liberating the mortal race, ordered it to dare all
things,"--

"Coeli et tonitralia templa lacessens,
_Eripuit fulmenque Jovi, Phoeboque sagittas_;
Et mortale manumittens genus, omnia jussit
Audere."[49]

To deny the power of God and to declare independence of His commands,
which the poet here holds up to judgment, is very unlike the life of
Franklin, all whose service was in obedience to God's laws, whether in
snatching the lightning from the skies or the sceptre from tyrants; and
yet it is evident that the verse which pictured Epicurus in his impiety
suggested the picture of the American plenipotentiary in his double
labors of science and statesmanship.

But the present story will not be complete without an allusion to that
poem of antiquity which was supposed to have suggested the verse of
Turgot, and which doubtless did suggest the verse of the
"Anti-Lucretius." Manilius is a poet little known. It is difficult to
say when he lived or what he was. He is sometimes supposed to have lived
under Augustus, and sometimes under Theodosius. He is sometimes supposed
to have been a Roman slave, and sometimes a Roman senator. His poem,
under the name of "Astronomicon," is a treatise on astronomy in verse,
which recounts the origin of the material universe, exhibits the
relations of the heavenly bodies, and vindicates this ancient science.
It is while describing the growth of knowledge, which gradually mastered
Nature, that the poet says,--

"Eriputque Jovi fulmen, viresque tonandi."[50]

The meaning of this line will be seen in the context, which, for
plainness as well as curiosity, I quote from a metrical version of the
first book of the poem,[51] entitled, "The Sphere of Marcus Manilius
made an English Poem, by Edward Sherburne," which was dedicated to
Charles II.:--

"Nor put they to their curious search an end
Till reason had scaled heaven, thence viewed this round
And Nature latent in its causes found:
Why thunder does the suffering clouds assail;
Why winter's snow more soft than summer's hail;
Whence earthquakes come and subterranean fires;
Why showers descend, what force the wind inspires:
From error thus the wondering minds uncharmed,
_Un