“Franklin sut arrêter la foudre dans les airs, Et c’est le moindre bien qu’il fit à sa patrie; Au milieu de climats divers, Où dominait la tyrannie, Il fit régner les arts, les mœurs, et le génie; Et voilà le héros que j’offre à l’univers.”[283] Nor should I omit a translation into English by Mr. Elphinston:-- “He snatched the bolt from Heaven’s avenging hand, Disarmed and drove the tyrant from the land.”[284] A song, by the Abbé Morellet, written for one of the dinners of Madame Helvétius, adopts, in some of its verses, the idea of Turgot. “Comme un aigle audacieux, Il a volé jusqu’aux cieux, _Et dérobé le tonnerre_ Dont ils effrayaient la terre, Heureux larcin De l’habile Benjamin. “L’Américain indompté _Recouvre sa liberté_; Et ce généreux ouvrage, Autre exploit de notre sage, Est mis à fin Par Louis et Benjamin.” These verses are characteristic of that intimate circle. _L’habile Benjamin!_ Nothing with regard to Franklin is more curious than the Memoirs of the long-lived Abbé,[285] including especially the humorous engraving illustrating the benevolence of Nature in the construction of the elbow, from a design by the lightning-and-sceptre-seizer. In some copies this engraving is wanting. Franklin is represented as fond especially of Scottish airs and _chansons à boire_, which he accompanied sometimes on the harmonica, “an instrument, as is known, of his invention.” The scandalous whispers with regard to him, strangely adopted by a German traveller in our country,[286] had no better authority, probably, than these hilarities and the well-known “infatuation” of the court ladies. But the good Abbé, who saw him so freely with the friends he loved, dwells on his exquisite social qualities, his perfect good-nature, his simplicity of manners, his uprightness of soul, which made itself felt in the smallest things, his extreme tolerance, and, above all, his sweet serenity, changing easily into gayety; and he describes the great void made in that circle when he left for America. * * * * * In concluding this sketch, I wish to say that the literary associations of the subject did not tempt me; but I could not resist the inducement to present in proper light an interesting incident, which is truly comprehended only when seen in its political relations. Its history, even in details, becomes important, so that the verse which occupied so much attention should be recognized not only in its scholarly fascination, but in its wide-spread influence among the learned and even the fashionable in Paris and throughout France, binding this great nation by an unchangeable vow to the support of American Liberty. Words are sometimes deeds; but never were words so completely deeds as those with which Turgot welcomed Franklin. The memory of that welcome cannot be forgotten in America. Can it ever be forgotten in France?