Great Empire to a Small One, and the Bagatelles. Having done this he has acquired a delightful, if not exactly a profound, impression of Franklin's writings, and if he does not soon return to the occupation, with a thirst for more letters and more essays, it will be his fault or misfortune rather than that of the doctor. Franklin wrote for the comprehension of all men; they who run may read him, and need not tarry by the way to organise societies wherewith to ferret out his meanings.

CHAPTER XIII

FINAL DAYS

1784-1790

AVING done such yeoman's service in the establishment of peace, Franklin's thoughts turned again towards the home wherein he might await, in semi-comfort of body and complete tranquillity of mind, the approach of that Grim Visitor who had so considerately allowed him to exceed the three score and ten of existence. He felt tired and feeble. But Congress still refused to recall the envoy, and his stay in France assumed such a length that he began to fear that he would not have left enough of health to make the tossing journey to America. Still, life at Passy was very charming; friends increased as the months glided on, and the atmosphere breathed good-will and reconciliation. "It is a sweet word," the philosopher had said of that self-same reconciliation. Possibly the truism came home to him when William Franklin, ex-American and at present in London as a protégé of the British Government, wrote to his

father, in the summer of 1784, with dutiful tenders of affection. The doctor never forgot the political apostasy of his son,* but he was ready to forgive; and so he replied that he would be glad to revive the old ties.

"It will be very agreeable to me; indeed, nothing has ever hurt me so much, and affected me with such keen sensations, as to find myself deserted in my old age by my only son; and not only deserted, but to find him taking up arms against me in a cause, wherein my good fame, fortune, and life were all at stake. You conceived, you say, that your duty to your King and regard for your country required this. I ought not to blame you for differing in sentiment with me in public affairs. We are men, all subject to errors. Our opinions are not in our own power; they are formed and governed much by circumstances that are often as inexplicable as they are irresistible. Your situation was such that few would have censured your remaining neuter, though there are natural duties which precede political ones, and cannot be extinguished by them. This is a disagreeable subject. I drop it; and we will endeavour, as you propose, mutually to forget what has happened relating to it, as well as we can. I send your son

* Franklin showed, in the following clause of his will, that he did not indulge in the luxury of forgetfulness. To my son, William Franklin, late Governor of the Jerseys, I give and devise all the lands I hold or have a right to, in the Province of Nova Scotia, to hold to him, his heirs and assigns forever. I also give to him all my books and papers, which he has in his possession, and all debts standing against him on my account books, willing that no payment for, nor restitution of, the same be required of him by my executors. The part he acted against me in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him no more of an estate he endeavoured to deprive me of." William Franklin was rewarded for his Toryism by a pension from the British Government. He spent the latter part of his life in England, and lived to be eighty-two years old. The son, William Temple Franklin, went to England after the death of Benjamin Franklin; he subsequently edited, and poorly, the works of the latter (he tampered with the wording of the Autobiography), and died at Paris in 1823,