You should surely cause it to be put in the Paris paper, if it is not there already.
“I am inclined to agree with La Harpe that sceptrumque is better: first, because mox sceptra is a little hard, and then because mox, according to the dictionary of Gesner, who adduces examples, signifies equally statim or deinde, which makes an ambiguity, mox eripuit or mox eripiet.
“Be that as it may, here is how I have attempted to translate this verse for the portrait of Franklin:—
‘Tu vois le sage courageux
Dont l’heureux et mâle génie
Arracha le tonnerre aux dieux
Et le sceptre à la tyrannie.’
If you find these verses sufficiently tolerable, so that people will not laugh at me, you can have them put into the Paris paper, even with my name. I shall honor myself in rendering this homage to Franklin, but on condition once more that you find the verses printable. As I make little pretension on account of them, I shall be perfectly content, if you reject them as bad.
“The third verse might be put, A ravi le tonnerre aux cieux or aux dieux. I should prefer the other; but you shall choose.”[254]
From this letter it appears that the critical judgment of La Harpe, confirmed by D’Alembert, sided for sceptrumque as better than mox sceptra.