him for his journey to Havre, which took six days. The litter was borne by Spanish mules, and he was able to travel in it without pain or fatigue.

As soon as Franklin arrived in America, letters of congratulation and addresses were sent to him from all parts of the country. General Washington was one of the first to welcome him, and he was most enthusiastically received at Philadelphia. Even now, though eighty years of age, he was not suffered to retire into private life, but, shortly after his return, was chosen President of the State of Pennsylvania. He was also elected a member of the convention for forming the constitution of the United States. A Society had been formed in Philadelphia, called the Society for Political Inquiries of this Franklin was chosen President. He was also President of a Society for alleviating the miseries of public prisons, and of another Society for the abolition of slavery; and to his honour be it said, that his last public act was to sign a memorial to Congress on this subject.

Franklin's three years' service as President of Pennsylvania terminated in October 1788, and his infirmities then compelled him to retire altogether from public life. His domestic life, since his return from England, seems to have been peculiarly happy. He says in a letter to a friend— "I am got into my niche after being kept out of it twenty-four years by foreign employments. It is a very good house, that I built so long ago to retire into without being able till now to enjoy it. I am again surrounded by my friends, with a fine

family of grandchildren about my knees, and an affectionate good daughter and son-in-law to take care of me. And after fifty years' public service, I have the pleasure to find the esteem of the country with regard to me undiminished." Franklin, however, seems to have felt keenly the ingratitude of Congress in not making him any acknowledgment or compensation for his long and faithful services.

The malady, to which he had been subject for many years, now left him seldom free from acute bodily pain, and, during the last twelve months of his life, confined him chiefly to his bed. Still, during the intervals of relief, he not only amused himself by reading and conversation, but wrote pieces on various subjects, which give proof that the vigour of his mind was undiminished.

About sixteen days before his death he was attacked by a disease of the lungs. He bore the sufferings which attended this complaint with patience and fortitude, "acknowledging his grateful sense of the many blessings which he had received from the Supreme Being, who had raised him from small beginnings to such high rank and consideration among men; and made no doubt but that his present afflictions were kindly intended to wean him from a world in which he was no longer fit to act the part assigned to him. On the 17th of April 1790 he quietly expired, closing a useful life of eighty-four years.

He was buried with every mark of honour and respect, and more than twenty thousand people were present at his funeral.

Although Franklin was endowed with unusual powers of mind, yet his great success in life is due far more to the less brilliant qualities of industry, energy, perseverance, and self-control, qualities which every one may improve or acquire. And it was by qualities such as these that he was enabled to accomplish those many and great services to his country which his benevolence, humanity, and goodness of heart, ever prompted him to undertake.

We will close this memoir with an epitaph written by Franklin on himself, many years before his death, but not inscribed on the plain marble slab which marks his grave, which, by his own wish, bears only his name and the date of his death,

THE BODY

OF

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,

PRINTER,

(LIKE THE COVER OF AN OLD BOOK,
ITS CONTENTS TORN OUT,

AND STRIPT OF ITS LETTERING AND GILDING,)

LIES HERE FOOD FOR WORMS.

YET THE WORK ITSELF SHALL NOT BE LOST, FOR IT WILL (AS HE BELIEVED) APPEAR ONCE MORE

IN A NEW

AND MORE BEAUTIFUL EDITION,

CORRECTED AND AMENDED

BY

THE AUTHOR.

120

CAPTAIN COOK.

AMONG all the enterprising seamen whom our country has produced, there are few whose lives are more instructive and encouraging to young and ardent minds than that of the celebrated Captain Cook. There are few lives, also, which furnish us with a better example of a man who, from a humble beginning, and even in the face of many difficulties, has risen to greatness and dis tinction, by the continued exercise of industry, steadiness, and perseverance.

James Cook was born at Marton, a small village in Yorkshire, six miles from Stockton-on-Tees. His parents were in a very humble condition of life, and little is known of them, except that they were noted for their honesty and industry. His father was a poor day labourer, but having gained the approval of his master, by his steady conduct, he was promoted, when James was about eight years old, to the situation of farm bailiff. James, as soon as he was old enough, was employed to assist his father in the work of the farm, and in his spare hours he was sent to a grammar school in a neighbouring village, where he was taught reading, writing, and a little arithmetic; the expenses of

his schooling being kindly paid by his father's employer.

Though it does not appear that James was either idle or wilful, we are told that he showed more fondness for the sea than for any thing else. Boys of James's age often have a passion for a seafaring life, and such an inclination is only strengthened by opposition. If it arise merely from idleness, or a love of roving, a single voyage will probably cure it, and the self-willed youth will gladly return from the dangers, sufferings, and discipline a sailor must undergo, to the safety and comforts of a landsman's life. But such a spirit as that which our greatest navigators and explorers have shown is not to be thus easily daunted; and had the parents of James Cook finally detained their son from the life to which his genius disposed him, his name, in all probability, would never have been heard of, and his country would have been unserved. They did not, however, yield to his boyish fancy, but, in the hope of changing it, bound him apprentice to a haberdasher at Staiths, a fishing town in Yorkshire.

James, notwithstanding his disinclination, applied himself to his business for a year and a half; but the sight and neighbourhood of the sea only increased his desire to be a sailor, and finding that his mind was quite bent on it, his master kindly agreed to give up his indentures. was soon afterwards bound to the owner of a collier that traded at Whitby, on the coast of York

He