In the minds of Frenchmen Franklin was associated always with this verse; but such association was no common fame. The Marquis de Chastellux, while on board the French frigate in the Chesapeake Bay, on which he was about to leave, after those travels which did so much to make our country known in Europe, addressed a communication to Professor Madison, of Virginia, on the fine arts in America, where he recommends for all the great towns a portrait of Franklin, “with the Latin verse inscribed in France below his portrait.”[268] Thus, while teaching our fathers the homage due to the great citizen, the generous Frenchman did not forget the testimony of his countryman.
French invention stopped not with Turgot. Other verses were pitched on the same key. An engraving of Franklin by Chevillet, after a portrait by Duplessis, has this tribute:—
“Honneur du Nouveau Monde et de l’Humanité,
Ce Sage aimable et vrai les guide et les éclaire;
Comme un autre Mentor, il cache à l’œil vulgaire,
Sous les traits d’un mortel, une Divinité.”
Under another engraving, by F. N. Martinet, where Franklin is seated in a chair, are these lines:—
“Il a ravi le feu des cieux,
Il fait fleurir les arts en des climats sauvages;
L’Amérique le place à la tête des sages,