Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/212

Deceased, who had grown up under him for several Years, and was a Plant reared by his own Hand, the Discourse had a very great effect upon the Audience. It is now in the Press, by the particular Desire and Advice of some who heard it, and will be published about the Middle of next week. * During Franklin's absence in the early part of 1755 in a tour in the New England States, he visited New Haven, at which time at a reception in College Hall the Rev'd Ezra Stiles, an alumnus of 1746, then a Tutor, and in 1778 President of Yale College pronounced a Latin oration in compliment to him. Franklin's friendship with the Rev. Jared Eliot, one of the Trustees of the College, and acquaintance with President Clap had induced him in 1749 to send an electrical machine to the College; and the experiments made with it at this time by Mr. Stiles are claimed to have been the first of the kind in New England. 3 J " Personal Affliction and frequent Reflection upon human Life of great Use to lead man to the Remembrance of God." A Sermon, &c., Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1754. 8 Yale College, Kingsley. i. 78, 103. This oration, " In Gratulatione Nobilissimi et Amplissimi vivi B. FRANKLINI, Armig. Pensylvan. De Honoribus suis, ob. Ratiocinia & Inventiones ejus eximias et insignes in ELECTRICISMO; oratio, quam ad ILLUM, in Aula Acad. Yal. Habuit. EZRA STILES, Nonis Februarii, A. D. 1755," is given in full in William Temple Franklin's Memoirs of the Life and Writings of his Grandfather, London, 181 8, quarto Vol. i,p. 443, and octavo edition ii. 289. Mr. Dexter, Assistant Librarian of Yale University, favors me with a copy from Dr. Stiles' original MS. of the oration; the author must have furnished Dr. Franklin, upon request, with a copy, and this doubtless was found among the latter's papers from which it was inserted in the Memoirs of 1818. This latter bears some verbal changes from the original which make no difference, however, in the proper rendering. Mr. Dexter writes me: " In February, I755i the Tutors were the only resi" dent instructors besides the President; and with President Clap's partiality for Stiles, "it is not strange that the duty of welcoming Franklin was committed to him." For a further reference to this interesting occasion see Mr. Dexter's Annals of the College History for 1754-55, ii. 355: " Another distinguished writer in the following Feb"ruarywas Benjamin Franklin, who was now Deputy Postmaster General for the " North American Continent, and had already received the honors of the College for " his brilliant electrical discoveries, &c."