Attacked in the Privy Council for his "bad faith," Franklin stood silent until the vituperation ended, and then quietly withdrew. His demeanor inspired Horace Walpole's famous epigram:
The calm philosopher, without reply,
Withdrew, and gave his country liberty.
On that fateful day Franklin was dressed in "a new suit of spotted Manchester velvet." The man's sense of humor appears in the fact that he deliberately laid that suit aside and did not put it on again until the day when he signed the treaty of alliance between France and the American colonies.
His labors in France during the period of the American Revolution are part of the history of the time. As the French historian Lacretelle says:
His virtues and renown negotiated for him; and before the second year of his mission had expired no one conceived it possible to refuse fleets and armies to the countrymen of Franklin.
A PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.
How did Franklin make himself so effective a man? How did he succeed where others failed? The secret lies in his practical philosophy of life. Fortunately he bequeathed that secret to us in the maxims which he composed for his own guidance during his voyage back to America from England when he was twenty-two years of age. The pithy phrases are full of vitality to-day.
Eat not to dulness; drink not to elevation.
Speak naught but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.