you; it has its influence on us all, and in your company we are not only pleased with you, but better pleased with one another and with ourselves. I am ever, with great respect and affection, etc., B. FRANKLIN. DCCXXXVI TO L'ABBÉ DE LA ROCHE, AT AUTEUIL I have run over, my dear friend, the little book of poetry, by M. Helvetius, with which you presented me. The poem on Happiness pleased me much, and brought to my recollection a little drinking-song, which I wrote forty years ago upon the same subject, and which is nearly on the same plan, with many of the same thoughts, but very concisely expressed. It is as follows: Then let us get money, like bees lay up honey; Chorus Oh! no! Not so! For honest souls know, Friends and a bottle still bear the bell. Singer If this does not fit ye, let's govern the city, In power is pleasure no tongue can tell; By crowds though you're teased, your pride shall be pleased, And this can make Lucifer happy in hell! Oh! no! Chorus Not so! For honest souls know, Friends and a bottle still bear the bell. Singer Then toss off your glasses, and scorn the dull asses, Who, missing the kernel, still gnaw the shell; What 's love, rule, or riches? Wise Solomon teaches, That's true; Chorus He knew; He'd tried them all through; Friends and a bottle still bore the bell. 'T is a singer, my dear Abbé, who exhorts his companions to seek happiness in love, in riches, and in power. They reply, singing together, that happiness is not to be found in any of these things; that it is only to be found in friends and wine. To this proposition the singer at last assents. The phrase "bear the bell," answers to the French expression, "obtain the prize." I have often remarked, in reading the works of M. Helvetius, that, although we were born and educated in two countries so remote from each other, we have often been inspired with the same thoughts; and it is a reflection very flattering to me, that we have not only loved the same studies, but, as far as we have mutually known them, the same friends, and the same woman.1 Adieu! my dear friend, etc., B. FRANKLIN. DCCXXXVII TO L'ABBÉ DE LA ROCHE "M. Franklin n'oublie jamais aucune Partie où Mme. Helvetius doit être. Il croit même que s'il était engagé d'aller à Paradis ce matin, il ferai supplication d'estre permis de rester sur terre jusqu' à une heure et demi, pour recevoir l'Embrassade qu'elle a bien voulu lui promettre en le rencontrant chez M. Turgot." " 2 I Madame Helvetius. 2 "One may judge of Franklin's gallantry," says M. Laboulaye, "by a note which is preserved in the Imperial Library, and which has never been published. I am indebted for a copy of it to my amiable and learned colleague, M. Paulin, of Paris. I respect the orthography of Franklin." The note here referred to is given in the text, and the following is a translation of it: "Mr. Franklin never forgets any party at which Madame Helvetius is expected. He even believes that if he were engaged to go to Paradise this morning, he would pray for permission to remain on the earth until half-past one, to receive the embrace promised him at the Turgots'." DCCXXXVIII TO L'ABBÉ MORELLET PASSY, You have often enlivened me my dear friend, by your excellent drinking-songs; in return, I beg to edify you by some Christian, moral, and philosophical reflections upon the same subject. In vino veritas, says the wise man,-Truth is in wine. Before the days of Noah, then, men, having nothing but water to drink, could not discover the truth. Thus they went astray, became abominably wicked, and were justly exterminated by water, which they loved to drink. The good man Noah, seeing that through this pernicious beverage all his contemporaries had perished, took it in aversion; and to quench his thirst God created the vine, and revealed to him the means of converting its fruit into wine. By means of this liquor he discovered numberless important truths; so that ever since his time the word to divine has been in common use, signifying originally, to discover by means of WINE. Thus the patriarch Joseph took upon himself to divine by means of a cup or glass of WINE a liquor which obtained this name to show that it was not of human but divine invention (another proof of the antiquity of the French language, in opposition to M. Gébelin); nay, since that time, all things of peculiar excellence, even the Deities themselves, have been called Divine or Divinities. We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this VOL. VII.-26. conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. The miracle in question was only performed to hasten the operation, under circumstances of present necessity, which required it. It is true that God has also instructed man to reduce wine into water. But into what sort of water? -Water of Life. And this, that man may be able upon occasion to perform the miracle of Cana, and convert common water into that excellent species of wine which we call punch. My Christian brother, be kind and benevolent like God, and do not spoil his good work. He made wine to gladden the heart of man; do not, therefore, when at table you see your neighbor pour wine into his glass, be eager to mingle water with it. Why would you drown truth? It is probable that your neighbor knows better than you can what suits him. Perhaps he does not like water; perhaps he would only put in a few drops for fashion's sake; perhaps he does not wish any one to observe how much he puts in his glass. Do not, then, offer water, except to children; 't is a mistaken piece of politeness, and often very inconvenient. I give you this hint as a man of the world; and I will finish as I began, like a good Christian, in making a religious observation of high importance, taken from the Holy Scriptures. 1 Eau-de-vie, that is, brandy. |