“I have received, sir, your excellent dissertation on the utility of electric conductors which you have had the goodness to send me, and I have read it with much pleasure. I beg leave to return you my sincere thanks for it.

“I found, on my return to this country, that the number of conductors was much increased, the utility of them having been demonstrated by several experiments, which shewed their efficacy in preserving buildings from lightning. Among other examples, my own house one day received a severe shock from lightning: the neighbours perceived it, and immediately hastened to give assistance, in case it should be on fire; but it sustained no damage: they found only the family much frightened by the violence of the explosion.

“Last year, when I was making some addition to the building, it was necessary to take down the conductor: I found, upon examination, that its copper-point, which was nine inches in length and about one third of an inch in diameter in the thickest part, had been almost entirely melted, and very little of it remained fixed to the iron rod. This invention, therefore, has been of some utility to the inventor; and to this advantage is added, the pleasure of having been useful to others.

“Mr. Rittenhauss,[[241a]] our astronomer, has informed me, that having observed with his excellent telescope several conductors which were within his view, he perceived that the points of a certain number of them had been in like manner melted. There is no instance where a house furnished with a complete conductor has suffered any considerable damage; and those even which had none have been very little injured, since conductors have become common in the city.”

[241a]. So written by Dr. Franklin.

[242]. The body of Dr. Franklin was interred in the cemetery belonging to Christ-Church in Philadelphia, under a plain marble tomb-stone, inscribed with only his name, the time of his decease, and his age. But the following epitaph on himself was written by him, many years before his death. As it contains a pretty allusion, typically expressed, to his belief in the Immortality of the Soul, it may not be deemed superfluous to add, on the present occasion, the testimony of this philosopher in concurrence with Rittenhouse’s, on that subject. If the doctrine had needed any further verification than before established it, the suffrages of two such men as Franklin and Rittenhouse could scarcely fail to remove the doubts of the most sceptical. This epitaph is copied from Stuber’s Continuation of the Life of Franklin.

The Body

of

Benjamin Franklin, Printer,

(Like the Cover of an old Book,