"It would puzzle you, I suspect, Mr. Franklin, as keen a critic as you are, to point out one."
"Well, sir," answered Ben, hastily turning to the place, "what do you think of this famous couplet of Mr. Pope's—
"Immodest words admit of no defence,
For want of decency is want of sense."
"I see no fault there."
"No, indeed!" replied Ben, "why now to my mind a man can ask no better excuse for any thing wrong he does, than his want of sense."
"Well, sir," said the governor, sensibly staggered, "and how would you alter it?"
"Why, sir, if I might presume to alter a line in this great Poet, I would do it in this way:—
"Immodest words admit but this defence—
That want of decency is want of sense."