would not have much beauty if all human beings were like
Franklin; his nature is wholly destitute of the romantic element, (to
be expressed differently," was written in the margin, and attention
called to it by a cross,) "but the world would have uprightness,
truthfulness, industriousness, and helpfulness. Now they use the word
love, and take delight in their beautiful sentiments; but you are
permitted to speak about love when you have satisfied those four
requirements." (This last sentence was underlined with red ink.)

"In Franklin there is something of Socrates, and there is specially
noticeable a happy vein of humor; Franklin enjoys also a good laugh.

"Franklin is, through and through, good prose, intelligible,
transparent, compact.

"We do not have to educate geniuses in the world. Every genius trains
himself, and can have no other trainer. In the world we have to form
substantial, energetic members of the common weal. What thou dost
specially, whether thou makest shoe-pegs or marble statues, is not my
business but thine.

"We shall never be in a right position in regard to the world, if
we do not believe in purity, in the noblest motives; the inmost of
humanity is revealed to us only on this condition. There is no better
coat-of-mail against assaults, than faith in the good which others do,
and which one is to do himself; one hears then, within, the inspiring
tones of martial music, and marches with light and free step onward
through the contest of life.

"It is the distinguishing and favorable feature in Franklin's life,
that he is the self-made man; he is self-taught, and has discovered by
himself the forces of nature and the treasures of science; he is the
representative of those, who, transplanted from Europe to America and
in danger of deterioration and decay, attained a wholly new
development.

"If we could have, like antiquity, a mythological embodiment of that
world which is called America, which carried with it the gods of
Europe,--I mean those historical ideas which the colonists carried over
with them, and yet freely adopted into their own organic life,--would
you have these ideas embodied in a human form,--here stands Benjamin
Franklin. He was wise, and no one taught him; he was religious, and had
no church; he was a lover of men, and yet knew very well how bad they
were.

"He not only knew how to draw the lightning from the clouds, but also
the stormy elements of passion from the tempers of