Nay, he also tells us of himself, that by accident, he received a shock which in an instant brought him to the floor, without giving him time to _see, hear, or feel any thing of the matter_! Hence he concludes, and I think with good reason, that all who dread the idea of pain in dying, would do well to pray, if it be God's will, to die of _coelataction_, as the ancients called it, or a _touch from heaven_. It is worthy of remark, that persons thus knocked down, do not _stagger_, or fall _lengthwise_, but as if deprived instantaneously of strength and firmness, they sink down at once, doubled or folded together, or as we say, "_all in a heap_." Dr. Franklin seldom suffered any thing to escape him. From the power of lightning to dissolve the hardest metals, he caught an idea favourable to cooking and matrimony. First, an old dunghill cock killed in the morning by a shock from his electrical jar, by dinner was become so tender that both the doctor and several of his literary friends pronounced it equal to a young pheasant. Second, an old bachelor thought to be far gone in a consumption, had hardly received more than a couple of dozen smart shocks of electricity, before he turned into courting with great spirit, and presently got himself a wife. If electrical jars could be had cheap, this discovery concerning the old dunghill cock might prove a good hint to those gentlemen in the _tavern-keeping_ line, who are so very frugal that they will not keep up a coop full of young poultry, fat and fine, and always ready for the traveller, but prefer giving him the pain, long after his arrival at their door, to hear the lean tenants of the dunghill flying and squalling from the pursuit of the barking dogs and noisy servants. And as to the experiment on the other kind of old CAPON, the grunting wheezing old bachelor, it clearly points to the wish often expressed by Dr. Franklin, viz. "_that the legislature would order an electrical machine, large enough to kill a turkey cock at least, to be placed in every parish, at the cost and for the benefit of all the old bachelors of the same_." CHAPTER XXXVIII. I have been told that Dr. Franklin on his death bed often returned thanks to God for having so kindly cast his lot of life in the very time when of all others he would have chosen to live for the great purposes of usefulness and pleasure. And so indeed it appears; for scarcely had he matured, as above, his most useful discoveries in electricity, before a new door was opened to him for another noble charity to his country. Some there are who for a good work begun by themselves will do every thing; but for the same work begun by others will do nothing; and yet will call themselves christians. Franklin lived to set the example of a better christianity. A notable instance of this occurred about this time, 1754.