pears by letters to his wife, he looked forward to months as a long stay, and indulged in the hope that he would return in the autumn. But in January, 1758, six months after his arrival, he was compelled to the unwilling admission that the public business would detain him for twelve months at least from that date. He had been able to do no more in relation to the affairs of the colony than to prepare and digest his facts for the lawyers who appeared for the Assembly, that they might be ready whenever the public business permitted, and the dilatory measures of the proprietaries would suffer it, to appear before the Board of Trade. Time never hung heavily upon Franklin's hands. The frequent publications, and the philosophical and curious pursuits in which he was engaged, were varied by journeys in search of his family connections, and those of his wife, and by acceptance of the civilities tendered to him by his many friends. Among his excursions this year were two visits with his son to the University of Cambridge, the second being by invitation to be present at the Commencement exercises. In a letter to his wife, he says, "We were present at all the ceremonies, dined every day in their halls, and my vanity was not a little gratified by the particular regard shown me by the chancellor and vice-chancellor of the University, and the heads of colleges."

From Cambridge he proceeded in search of the collateral branches of the Franklin family in England. Sufficient is said in the opening of his autobiography upon this subject for the general reader,

and we will only add to it what he has there omitted: that, wherever he found these relatives in need, he conferred upon them substantial aid and benefit. The fact that any were poor and obscure was an additional motive for searching them out, and in his letter to his wife, giving an account of this excursion, he records many minute circumstances which, though unimportant to his biography in themselves, are interesting as marking his character in two particulars. One of these is the care he preserved for his wife's gratification in the minutest respect, sparing no trouble to interest her. The other point is the sturdy independence of conventional forms which he manifested in identifying himself with the poor and the humble. To us this may seem a small matter, and one rather of pride than otherwise; but it must be recollected that Franklin was, in these feelings, a hundred years in advance of his time. At this period the theory of a republic was perhaps entertained by him and by others, but it must have been more as a theory than with any hope of its practical operation. Americans before the Revolution were loyal subjects, and deferred, perhaps, with more reverence than English residents, to power and title, and their conventional limits and usages. To the English feeling Americans added respect for the island itself, as "home," and the "father-land," the center of power, and the guide in learning and in arts. Nothing, indeed, annoyed them more than the distinctions made between them and other British subjects, as they were proud to consider themselves.

In the month of February, 1759, the University of St. Andrew's conferred upon Franklin the degree of Doctor of Laws. If the conferring of college honors in America was a source of honest pride to him, we may imagine that compliments from the venerable institutions of Europe gave him much more gratification, particularly as no false modesty could lead him to feel that these honors were not honestly deserved. They were not, as in some cases, his introduction to the society of the learned, but followed the estimation with which he was held by those who were attracted to his friendship by his practical knowledge, and his eminently useful writings and discoveries. During a visit made to Scotland in the summer of 1759, Franklin met Henry Home, Lord Kames, with whom he afterward frequently corresponded, Dr. Robertson, and many others of the distinguished men who marked this era as one of the most brilliant in Scottish literature. Of the time spent in that country, Dr. Franklin speaks, in a letter to Lord Kames, as six weeks of the densest happiness he ever experienced in his life. The exchange of the writings of Kames and of Franklin, and the mutual respect entertained by each for the other, show an intimacy founded on high esteem, and a sincerity which lasted until the death of Lord Kames. Many years the senior of Franklin, he died eight years before him, in 1782.

Connected with the history of the acquaintance of Franklin and Lord Kames is a curious literary anecdote. While on his visit to Lord Kames, Frank

lin read or recited his well-known "Parable against Persecution." Lord Kames inserted it in his work entitled "Sketches of the History of Man," published in the year 1774. He there prefaced it with the remark that it was communicated to him by Dr. Franklin, of Philadelphia; "a man who makes a great figure in the learned world, and who would make a still greater figure for benevolence and candor, were virtue as much regarded in this declining age as knowledge." The parable we here annex:

ND it came to pass after these things, that Abraham sat in the door of his tent, about the going down of the sun.

2. And behold, a man, bowed with age, came from the way of the wilderness, leaning on a staff.

3. And Abraham arose and met him, and said unto him, "Turn in, I pray thee, and wash thy feet, and tarry all night, and thou shalt arise early on the morrow, and go on thy way."

4. But the man said, "Nay, for I will abide under this tree."

5. And Abraham pressed him greatly; so he turned, and they went into the tent, and Abraham baked unleavened bread, and they did eat.

6. And when Abraham saw that the man blessed not God, he said unto him, "Wherefore dost thou not worship the most high God, Creator of heaven and earth?"

7. And the man answered and said, "I do not worship the God thou speakest of, neither do I call