Benjamin Franklin was born poor, but nothing could keep him ignorant. His genius and strong will were wealth enough for any man. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to his brother James, who was a printer. At the same time--perhaps a little later--he used to sell his own ballads in the streets of Boston. At twenty-one years of age he was a master printer in Philadelphia, in his shop on Market Street. He had been at school in Boston for two years, but after the age of ten he had been obliged to teach himself: he was too poor to spend even those early years in a schoolhouse. Yet he learned without such helps as schools and schoolmasters afford. He studied Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, and German, and lived to hear two continents call him the greatest philosopher of his time. He discovered that lightning and electricity are the same, and taught men how to guard their houses against the thunder-bolt. To his great mind it seemed that all things came alike: no invention was too simple, and no idea too lofty. Whatever had to be done was worth doing in the best and simplest way: that was the ruling principle of Benjamin Franklin's life. He was an earnest and fearless patriot, always on the side of the people and their rights. His strong will, his cool manner, and his bold spirit made him an enemy not to be scorned by England. "What used to be the pride of the Americans?" asked a member of the English Parliament in 1776. And Franklin, then pleading the cause of the colonies before the House of Commons, replied, "To indulge in the fashions and wear the manufactures of Great Britain." The Englishman, sure that Franklin would be less ready to answer, continued: "What is now their pride?" And in a flash the old philosopher of threescore and ten said, "To wear their old clothes over again till they can make new ones." Years had not broken the strong will or dulled the sharp wit. His efforts to secure for the Americans the aid of France can never be forgotten by the American people. Burgoyne's surrender made the French believe that the patriots' cause was worthy of assistance, but it is quite certain that the eloquence of Dr. Franklin, as the French people called the Great American, had opened the way for all that followed. Whatever favor he met with in society, whatever honor he received, whatever fame he acquired at home or abroad, he turned all to account for the good of his country. SELECTION XXII GIVE ME THE PEOPLE Some love the glow of outward show, The shine of wealth, and try to win it: The house to me may lowly be, If I but like the people in it. What's all the gold that glitters cold, When linked to hard and haughty feeling? Whate'er we're told, the noblest gold Is truth of heart and honest dealing. A humble roof may give us proof That simple flowers are often fairest; And trees whose bark is hard and dark May yield us fruit, and bloom the rarest.