ll--it is
a fine room." Which do you think was the greater of these two men? A
small mind makes much ado about little things.

_True Greatness does not consist in being in the fashion._

When Dr. Franklin was received at the French Court as American Minister,
he felt some scruples of conscience about complying with their fashions
of dress. "He hoped," he said to the Minister, "that as he was a very
plain man, and represented a plain republican people, the king would
indulge his desire to appear in the court in his usual dress.
Independent of this, the season of the year," said he, "renders the
change from yarn stockings to fine silk somewhat dangerous." The French
Minister made him a bow, but said that fashion was too sacred a thing
for him to meddle with, but he would do him the honor to mention it to
his majesty. The king smiled and returned word that Dr. Franklin was at
liberty to appear at court in any dress that he pleased. In spite of
that delicate respect for foreigners for which the French are so
remarkable, the courtiers could not help staring at first at Dr.
Franklin's Quaker dress. But it soon appeared as though he had been
introduced upon this splendid theatre only to demonstrate that great
genius, like beauty, "needs not the aid of ornament."

CHAPTER VII.

ADVANTAGES OF HONESTY.

_Colbert._

Go the world over, and you will find that "honesty is the best policy."
Jean Baptiste Colbert was born at Rheims, in France, in the year 1617,
of poor parents. When a boy, he was apprenticed to M. Certain, a woollen
draper. Young Colbert was very fond of books, and spent his leisure in
reading. He had indeed a taste above his station. But his mind was so
much on what he read, that he was sometimes absent-minded and
forgetful. M. Certain, who thought of nothing but of selling cloth,
would ridicule him, and tell him he would never make any thing. One day
he sent him and the porter with four rolls of cloth, to the hotel of M.
Cenani, a French banker, who wished to buy hangings for a country house
which he had purchased. The pieces were marked 1, 2, 3, and 4; and as
Colbert left the house, M. Certain told him that No. 1 was marked three
crowns a yard; No. 2, six crowns; No. 3, eight crowns; and No. 4,
fifteen crowns. The banker selected No. 3, and asked the young man how
much it was a yard. Colbert replied, "fifteen crowns." The porter
grinned, but seeing the mistake was on the side of his master he said
no