The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographersWeems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Philosophy
The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographers
Weems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography
"The same sun, sir! the same sun!" replied the cockney, rather nettled,
"I am not positive of that sir. But admitting that it is the same sun,
it does not follow that it gives the same light in America as in
England. Every thing, you know, suffers by going to the _West_, as the
great French philosophers have proved; then why not the sun?"
Ben said he wondered the gentleman should talk of the sun going to the
west.
"What, the sun not go to the west!" retorted the cockney, quite angry,
"a pretty story, indeed. You have eyes, sir; and don't these show you
that the sun rises in the east and travels to the west?"
"I thought, sir," replied Ben, modestly, "that your own great
countryman, sir Isaac Newton, had satisfied every body that it is the
earth that is thus continually travelling, and not the sun, which is
stationary, and gives the same light to England and America."
Palmer, who had much of the honest Englishman about him, equally
surprised and pleased to see Ben thus chastise the pride and ignorance
of his foreman, put a stop to the conversation by placing a composing
stick in the hands of Ben, while the journeymen gathering around,
marvelled hugely to see the young North American take _a composing
stick in his hand_!
Having spent a moment or two in running his eyes over the letter cases,
to see if they were fixed as in the printing-offices in America, and
glancing at his watch, Ben fell to work, and in less than four minutes
finished the following--
"And Nathaniel said, can there any thing good come out of
Nazareth?--Philip said, come and see."
Palmer and his workmen were petrified. Near eighty letters set up in
less than four minutes, and without a blunder? And then such a delicate
stroke at their prejudice and nonsense! Ben was immediately employed.
This was a fine introduction of Ben to the printing office, every
person in which seemed to give him a hearty welcome; he wore his rare
talents so modestly.
It gave him also a noble opportunity to be useful, which he failed not
to improve.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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