John Quincy Adams, who was present, seemed to concur. Mr. Sparks, in his notes to the correspondence of Franklin, attributes to it the same origin.[224] But there are other places where its origin is traced with more precision. One of the correspondents of “Notes and Queries” says that he has read, but does not remember where, “that this line was immediately taken from one in the ‘Anti-Lucretius’ of Cardinal Polignac.”[225] Another correspondent shows the intermediate authority.[226] My own notes were made without any knowledge of these studies, which, while fixing its literary origin, fail to exhibit its important character, especially as illustrating an historical epoch.
The verse cannot be found in any ancient writer,—not Claudian or anybody else. It is clear that it does not come from Antiquity, unless indirectly; nor does it appear that at the time of its first production it was referred to any ancient writer. Manilius was not mentioned. It is of modern invention, and was composed after the arrival of Franklin in Paris on his eventful mission. At first it was anonymous, but was attributed sometimes to D’Alembert and sometimes to Turgot. Beyond question, it was not the production of D’Alembert, while it is found in the Works of Turgot, published after his death, in the following form:—
“Eripuit cœlo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.”[227]
There is no explanation by the editor of the circumstances under which the verse was written; but it is given among poetical miscellanies of the author, immediately after a translation into French of Pope’s “Essay on Man,” in connection with the following French composition, entitled “Verses beneath the Portrait of Benjamin Franklin”:—
“Le voilà ce mortel dont l’heureuse industrie
Sut enchaîner la Foudre et lui donner des loix,
Dont la sagesse active et l’éloquente voix
D’un pouvoir oppresseur affranchit sa Patrie,
Qui désarma les Dieux, qui réprime les Rois.”