tudied by every one
with pleasure and profit. They should constitute a part of the curriculum
of every college and high school that aspires to cultivate in its pupils a
pure style and correct literary taste.

We know of no man who ever lived a fuller life, a happier life, a life
more useful to other men, than Benjamin Franklin. For forty-two years he
gave the constant efforts of his life to his country, and during all that
time no taint of a selfish action can be laid to his charge. Almost his
last public act was to petition Congress to pass an act for the abolition
of slavery. He died in Seventeen Hundred Ninety, and as you walk up Arch
Street, Philadelphia, only a few squares from the spot where stood his
printing-shop, you can see the place where he sleeps.

The following epitaph, written by himself, not, however, appear on the
simple monument that marks his grave:

The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin, Printer
(Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stripped of its lettering and gilding,)
Lies here food for worms.
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believes) appear once
more
In a new
And more beautiful Edition
Corrected and Amended
By
The Author.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

If I could not go to Heaven but with a Party, I would not go
there at all.
--Jefferson, in a Letter to Madison

[Illustration: THOMAS JEFFERSON]

William and Mary College was founded in Sixteen Hundred Ninety-two by the
persons whose names it bears. The founders bestowed on it an endowment
that would have been generous had there not been attached to it sundry
strings in way of conditions.

The intent was to make Indians Episcopalians, and white students
clergymen; and the assumption being that between the whites and the
aborigines there was little difference, the curriculum was an ecclesiastic
medley.

All the teachers were appointed by the Bishop of London, and the places
were usually given to clergymen who were not needed in England.

To this college, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty, came Thomas Jefferson, a
tall, red-haired youth, aged seventeen. He had a sharp nose and a sharp
chin; and a youth having these has a sharp intellect--mark it well.

This bo