EXTRACT FROM THE EULOGY ON DR. FRANKLIN, PRONOUNCED BY THE ABBE FAUCHET, IN THE NAME OF THE COMMONS OF PARIS, 1790.

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SECOND creation has taken place; the elements of fociety begin to combine together; the moral universe is now feer iffuing from chaos; the genius of Liberty is awakened, and fprings up; she theds her divine light and creative powers upon the two hemifpheres. A great nation, aftonifhed at feeing herself free, ftretches her arms from one extremity of the earth to the other, and embraces the firft nation that became fo: the foundations of a new city are created in the two worlds; brother nations haften to inhabit it. It is the city of mankind!

One of the first founders of this univerfal city was the immortal FRANKLIN, the deliver of America. The fecond founders, who accelerated this great work, made it worthy of Europe. The legiflators of France have rendered the moft folemn homage to his memory. They have faid, "A friend of humanity is dead; mankind ought to be overwhelmed with forrow! Nations have hitherto only worn mourning for Kings; let us affume it for a man, and let the tears of Frenchmen mingle with thofe of Americans, in order to do honor to the memory of one of the Fathers of Lib

The city of Paris, which once contained this philofopher within its walls, which was intoxicated with the pleasure of hearing, admiring, and loving him; of gathering from his lips the maxims of a moral legislator, and of imbibing from the effufions of his heart a paffion for the public welfare, rivals Bofton and Philadelphia, his two native cities (for in one he was born as it were a man, and in the other a legislator) in its profound attachment to his merit and his glory.

It has commanded this funeral folemnity in order to perpetuate the gratitude and the grief of this third country, which, by the courage and activity with which it has profited of his leffons, has shown itself worthy of having him at once for an instructor and model.

In felecting me for the interpreter of its wishes, it has declared, that it is lefs to the talents of an orator, than to the patriotifm of a citizen, the zeal of a preacher of liberty, and the fenfibility of a friend of men, that it hath confided this folemn function. In this point of view, I may fpeak with firm confidence; for I have the public opinion, and the testimony of my own confcience, to fecond my wifhes. Since nothing else is wanting than freedom, and fenfibility, for that fpecies of eloquence which his eulogium requires, I am fatiffied; for I already poffefs them.

My voice fhall extend to, France, to America, to posterity. I am now to do juftice to a great man, the founder of tranfatlantic freedom, I am to praise him in the name of the mother city of French liberty. I myself also am a man; I am a free man; I poffefs the fuffrages of my fellow-citizens: this is enough; my difcourfe fhall be immortal..

The academies, the philofophical focieties, the learn ed affociations which have done themselves honor by infcribing the name of Franklin in their records, can best appreciate the debt due to his genius, for having extended the power of man over nature, and prefented new and fublime ideas, in a style fimple as truth, and pure as light.

It is not the naturalift and the philofopher that the orator of the commons of Paris ought to defcribe; it is the man, who hath accelerated the progrefs of focial order; it is the legiflatdr, who hath prepared the liberty of nations.

Franklin, in his periodical works, which had prodigious circulation on the continent of America, laid the facred foundations of focial morality. He was no lefs inimitable in the developements of the fame morality,

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when applied to the duties of friendship, general charity, the employment of one's time, the happiness attendant upon good works, the neceffary combination of private with public welfare, the propriety and neceffity of industry; and to that happy state which puts us at eafe with fociety and with ourfelves. The proverbs of "Old Henry," and "Poor Richard," are in the hands both of the learned and the ignorant; they contain the most fublime morality, reduced to popular language and common comprehenfion; and form the catechifm of happinefs for all mankind.

Franklin was too great a moralift, and too well acquainted with human affairs, not to perceive that women were the arbiters of manners. He ftrove to perfect their empire; and accordingly engaged them to adorn the fceptre of virtue with their graces. It is in their power to excite courage; to overthrow vice, by means of their difdain; to kindle civifm, and to light up in every heart the holy love of our country.

His daughter, who was opulent and honored with the public esteem, helped to manufacture and to make up the clothing for the army with her own hands; and spread abroad a noble emulation among the female citizens, who became eager to affist those by means of the needle and the fpindle, who were ferving the ftate with their fwords and their guns.

With the charm ever attendant upon true wifdom and the grace ever flowing from true fentiment, this grave philofopher knew how to converfe with the other fex; to infpire them with a tafte for domeftic occupations; to hold out to them the prize attendant upon honor unaccompanied by reproach, and inftil the duty of cultivating the first precepts of education, in order to teach them to their children; and thus to acquit the debt due to nature, and fulfil the hope of fociety. It must be acknowledged, that in his own country, he addreffed himfelf to minds capable of comprehending him.

Immortal females of America! I will tell it to the daughters of France, and they only are fit to applaud you! You have attained the utmost of what your sex is capable; you poffefs the beauty, the fimplicity, the manners, at once natural and pure; the primitive graces of the golden age. It was among you that liberty was first to have its origin. But the empire of freedom, which is extended to France, is about to carry your manners along with it, and produce a revolution in morals as well as in politics.

Already our female, citizens, (for they have lately become fuch) are not any longer occupied with those frivolous ornaments and vain pleasures, which were nothing more than the amufements of flavery; they have awakened the love of liberty in the bosoms of fathers, of brothers, and of husbands; they have encouraged them to make the most generous facrifices; their delicate hands have removed the earth, dragged it along, and helped to elevate the immenfe amphitheatre of the grand confederation. It is no longer the love of voluptuous foftness that attracts their regard; it is the facred fire of patriotism.

The laws which are to reform education, and with it the national manners, are already prepared; they will advance, they will fortify the caufe of liberty by means of their happy influence, and become the fecond faviours of their country!

Franklin did not omit any of the means of being useful to men, or serviceable to fociety. He spoke to all conditions, to both fexes, to every age. This amiable moralist descended, in his writings, to the moft artlefs details; to the moft ingenuous familiarities; to the first ideas of a rural, a commercial, and a civil life; to the dialogues of old men and children; full at once of all the verdure and all the maturity of wisdom. In fhort, the prudent leffons arifing from the expofition of thofe obfcure, happy, eafy virtues, which form so many links in the chain of a good man's life, derived immense weight from that reputation for genius which he had

acquired, by being one of the first naturalists and greateft philofophers in the universe.

At one and the fame time, he governed nature in the heavens and in the hearts of men. Amidst the tempefts of the atmosphere, he directed the thunder; amidst the storms of fociety, he directed the paffions. Think, Gentlemen, with what attentive docility, with what religious respect, one must hear the voice of a fimple man, who preached up human happiness, when it was recollected that it was the powerful voice of the fame man who regulated the lightning.

He electrified the confciences, in order to extract the deftructive fire of vice, exactly in the fame manner as he electrified the heavens, in order peaceably to invite them from the terrible fire of the elements.

Venerable old man! auguft philofopher! legiflator of the felicity of thy country, prophet of the fraternity of the human race, what ecftatic happinefs embellifhed the end of thy career! From thy fortunate asylum, and in the midst of thy brothers who enjoyed in tranquility the fruit of thy virtues, and the fuccefs of thy genius, thou haft fung fongs of deliverance. The laft looks which thou didst cast around thee, beheld Ame-, rica happy; France, on the other fide of the ocean, free, and a fure indication of the approaching freedom and happiness of the world.

The United States, looking upon themselves as thy children, have bewailed the death of the father of their republic. France, thy family by adoption, has honored thee as the founder of her laws; and the human race has revered thee as the univerfal patriarch who has formed the alliance of nature with fociety. Thy remembrance belongs to all ages; thy memory to all nations; thy glory to eternity!