hundred ninety and eight years, and nourished him, and clothed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against me; and couldst not thou, that art thyself a sinner, bear with him one night?"

12. And Abraham said, "Let not the anger of the Lord wax hot against his servant; lo, I have sinned; lo, I have sinned; forgive me, I pray thee."

13. And Abraham arose, and went forth into the wilderness, and sought diligently for the man, and found him, and returned with him to the tent; and when he had entreated 2 him kindly he sent him away on the morrow with gifts.

3.- AN AMUSING BURLESQUE.

[The following clever jeu d'esprit is from a communication by Franklin to a London newspaper in 1765. It was designed to cast ridicule on the absurd stories, then current in the British press, as to the danger to English industry arising from the feeble attempts at manufacturing then made by the American colonists. No one knew better than Franklin how to handle the powerful weapon of irony.]

SIR, I beg leave to say that all the articles of news that seem improbable are not mere inventions. Some of them, I can assure you on the faith of a traveler, are serious truths. Give me leave to instance the various accounts the news-writers have given us, with so much honest zeal for the welfare of Poor Old England,

1 wax, grow.

3 inventions, fabrications; false 2 entreated, treated, dealt with. things invented.

of the establishing1 manufactures in the colonies to the prejudice 2 of those of the kingdom. It is objected by superficial readers, who yet pretend to some knowledge of those countries, that such establishments are not only improbable, but impossible, for that their sheep have but little wool, not in the whole sufficient for a pair of stockings a year to each inhabitant; that, from the universal dearness of labor among them, the working of iron and other materials, except in a few coarse instances, is impracticable to any advantage.

Dear sir, do not let us suffer ourselves to be amused with such groundless objections. The very tails of the American sheep are so laden with wool, that each has a little car or wagon on four little wheels, to support and keep it from trailing on the ground. Would they calk their ships, would they even litter their horses, with wool, if it were not both plenty and cheap? And what signifies the dearness of labor, when an English shilling passes for five and twenty? Their engaging three hundred silk throwsters here in one week for New York was treated as a fable, because, forsooth, they have "no silk to throw."

1 establishing, etc.: an example | shows the word to be derived from of the infinitive in -ing governing Latin calcare, to tread, to press close. a noun in the objective case.

2 prejudice, damage.

3 those countries: that is, the colonies.

4 suffer, permit.

5 calk, to stop up the seams of a ship. The etymology of this word in Webster is erroneous; as Skeat (Etymological Dictionary)

The primary notion in "calk" is that of forcing in by great pressure.

6 litter (connected with French lit, Latin lectus, a bed), to bed; to furnish with a coarse bed of straw, etc.

7 throwster (throw + ster, one who), one who throws, twists, or winds silk.

1

Those who make this objection perhaps do not know that at the same time the agents from the King of Spain were at Quebec to contract 2 for one thousand pieces of cannon 3 to be made there for the fortification. of Mexico, and at New York engaging the usual supply of woolen floor-carpets for their West-India houses; other agents from the Emperor of China were at Boston treating about an exchange of raw silk for wool, to be carried in Chinese junks through the Straits of Magellan.

And yet all this is as certainly true, as the account said to be from Quebec, in all the papers of last week, that the inhabitants of Canada are making preparations for a cod and whale fishery this "summer in the upper lakes." Ignorant people may object, that the upper lakes are fresh, and that cod and whales are saltwater fish; but let them know, sir, that cod, like other fish when attacked by their enemies, fly into any water where they can be safest; that whales, when they have a mind to eat cod, pursue them wherever they fly; and that the grand leap of the whale in the chase up the Falls of Niagara is esteemed, by all who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature.

Really, sir, the world is grown too incredulous. It

1 agent. See Glossary.

2 contract: from con and trahere, to draw together, as a writing. 3 pieces of cannon-cannon. The idiom is French.

4 usual. Notice the irony in the use of this word.

5 junk, a Chinese vessel.

6 ignorant. Show the appositeness of the word as here used.

the grand leap, etc. The delicious absurdity of this passage will be taken in by every pupil.

8 spectacles: from specere, to see; hence, literally, sights.

9 incredulous. See Glossary.

is like the pendulum ever swinging from one extreme to the other. Formerly every thing printed was believed, because it was in print: now things seem to be disbelieved for just the very same reason.

[In inclosing to a friend a copy of the following charming little allegorical sketch, Franklin wrote: "To understand it rightly you should be acquainted with some few circumstances. The person to whom it was addressed is Madame Brillon, a lady of most respectable character and pleasing conversation; mistress of an amiable family in this neighborhood [Passy, now a part of Paris], with which I spend an evening twice in every week. She has, among other elegant accomplishments, that of an excellent musician. The Moulin Joly is a little island in the Seine, about two leagues hence, part of the country-seat of another friend, where we visit every summer. At the time when the letter was written, all conversations at Paris were filled with disputes about the music of Gluck and Picini, a German and Italian musician, who divided the town into violent parties."]

You may remember, my dear friend, that when we lately spent that happy day in the delightful garden and sweet society of the Moulin Joly, I stopped a little in one of our walks, and stayed some time behind the company. We had been shown numberless skeletons of a kind of little fly, called an ephemera, whose successive generations, we were told, were bred and expired within the day. I happened to see a living

1 You may remember... behind the company. Period or loose sentence?

2 ephemera: from Greek epi, for, and hemera, a day; hence, literally, a fly that lives for a day only.

company of them on a leaf, who appeared to be engaged in conversation.

You know I understand all the inferior animal tongues. My too great application to the study of them is the best excuse I can give for the little progress I have made in your charming language.2 I listened, through curiosity, to the discourse of these little creatures; but as they, in their natural vivacity, spoke three or four together, I could make but little of their conversation. I found, however, by some broken expressions that I heard now and then, they were disputing warmly on the merit of two foreign musicians, one a piping gnat, the other a mosquito, in which dispute 3 they spent their time, seemingly as regardless of the shortness of life as if they had been sure of living a month.

"Happy people!" thought I; "you are certainly under a wise, just, and mild government, since you have no public grievances to complain of, nor any subject of contention but the perfections and imperfections of foreign music." I turned my head from them to an old gray-headed one, who was alone on another leaf, and talking to himself. Being amused with his soliloquy, I put it down in writing, in hopes it will likewise

1 the inferior animal tongues. Change to a neater form of expres

sion.

2 your charming language: that is, French, the language of the lady he was addressing, and in which this letter was originally written.

3 dispute. See Glossary.

4 subject of contention. It must be understood that all this has oblique reference to the condition of the French people at this time.

5 soliloquy: from Latin solus, alone, and loqui, to speak; a talking to one's self.