This charming vivacity and this play and sparkle of mind greatly contributed towards making Franklin so beloved of the French. His life in Paris was the happiest of his whole career. He was very social, and he therefore enjoyed the Parisian garden parties and dinners, the attractive women, and the literary, scientific and philosophical men. He left France with reluctance, saying he could never forget the years of happiness that he had spent “in the sweet society of a people whose conversation is instructive, whose manners are highly pleasing, and who, above all the nations in the world, have, in the greatest perfection, the art of making themselves beloved by strangers.”
Franklin had a great talent for making friends; and one of the greatest pleasures of his life was the enjoyment of his children and grandchildren. He was always ready with a witty retort, and he loved a joke and a hearty laugh. In fact, nothing seemed too large or too small for Benjamin Franklin.
Regarding religion, he early revolted against New England Puritanism and went through various stages of belief; but in his old age he had faith in the immortality of the soul. His tolerance led John Adams to say: “The Catholics thought him a Catholic. The Church of England claimed him. The Presbyterians thought him half a Presbyterian, and Friends believed him a wet Quaker.” Of his morals he has himself written, and he prepared a moral code with comments.
Intellectual, practical, industrious, capable and genial, combining so many qualities in one mind and with a vast amount of public work achieved, Franklin remains a puzzle, for he seems to have had abundant time to enjoy those social talents which amounted to genius.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 6. No. 7. SERIAL No. 155
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
FROM AN ENGRAVING BY ROBERT WHITECHURCH. FROM THE PAINTING BY C. SCHUESSELE
FRANKLIN BEFORE THE LORDS IN COUNCIL. Whitehall Chapel, London, 1774