“Oh thou, whom, borne on fancy’s eager wing, Back to the season of life’s happy spring, I pleas’d remember, and, while mem’ry yet Holds fast her office here, can ne’er forget; Ingenious dreamer, in whose well-told tale Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail; Whose hum’rous vein, strong sense, and simple style; Witty, and well-employ’d, and, like thy Lord, Speaking in parables his slighted word; I name thee not, lest so despis’d a name Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame: Yet, ev’n in transitory life’s late day, That mingles all my brown with sober gray, Revere the man, whose PILGRIM marks the road, And guides the PROGRESS of the soul to God.” Cowper’s _Tirocinium_. The celebrated Benjamin Franklin too, in the account of his Life written by himself, informs us, that the _Pilgrim’s Progress_ (which Franklin there, inadvertently, calls “_Bunyan’s Voyages_,”) was a favourite book of his, in his earlier years. “I have since learned,” says the Doctor, “that it has been translated into almost all the languages of Europe; and, next to the Bible, I am persuaded, it is one of the books which has had the greatest spread.” ----- About three years afterwards, Mr. Rittenhouse seemed to have been less indisposed to accept of an official situation: and, such was his high standing with the government and its most influential friends, there can be very little doubt he could have obtained a respectable one. It is evident that, at this latter period, when perhaps his health was improved, he had some particular office in view: because, by a letter to Mr. Barton, dated January 28th 1767, he said—“I am entirely satisfied with your proceedings in the affair I recommended to you; and I shall wait on Mr. Peters. The reputation of the office would be very agreeable to me; but the execution of it would, I am afraid, greatly interfere with the other projects you have so much insisted on.” Mr. Rittenhouse continued a bachelor until the 20th of February, 1766, when he married Eleanor Colston, daughter of Bernard Colston, a reputable farmer in the neighbourhood. This person belonged to the religious society called Quakers; Mr. Rittenhouse was not himself a member of any particular church: but the marriage was solemnized at Norriton, by the Rev. Mr. Barton, who went thither for the purpose at his brother-in-law’s request.