Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/404

enemy by doing him too much kindness. It is the honestest way of acquir- ing an enemy. And, since it is convenient to have at least one enemy, who, by his readiness to revile one on all occasions, may make one careful of one' s conduct, I shall keep him an enemy for that purpose ; and shall observe your good mother's advice, never to receive him again as a friend. She once admired the benevolent spirit breathed in his sermons. She will now see the justness of the lines your laureate Whitehead 12 addresses to his poets, and which I now address to her : Full many a peevish, envious, slandering Elf Is, in his works, benevolence itself, For all mankind, unknown, his bosom heaves ; He only injures those with whom he lives. Read then the Man ; does truth his actions guide, Exempt from petulance, exempt from pride f To social duties does his Heart attend, As son, as father, husband, brother, friend f Do those who Know him love him f if they do, You've my permission, you may love him too. 13 It was doubtless at this time that Dr. Franklin also wrote these lines in his copy of Dr. Smith's Discourses printed in 1759, on the fly-leaf opposite the title page where an asterisk at the name of the Author calls attention to them ; it was also doubtless in the sermons printed in this volume that good Mrs. Stevenson admired the benevolent spirit breathed in them. Dr. Franklin's handwriting cannot be questioned, and appearing without naming their source, many have given him the credit of their authorship, which, however, his letter to Miss Stevenson sets at rest One cannot part with this unfortunate difference between the Founder and the Provost (and here we can let it rest) with- out now reciting the charge made by Dr. Smith affecting the 12 Poet Laureate in 1757, succeeding Colley Gibber. 18 These lines occur in William Whitehead's A Charge to the Poets, first printed in 1762, and found in the edition of his Plays and Poems. The italics here followed are Dr. Franklin's in his copy of the lines, in his letter to Miss Stevenson, in the possession of the descendants of Mrs. Hewson, and from which this present copy of his letter is rendered. These are quoted in Smith I, 341, but from the context the authorship of the epigram might be attributed to Franklin himself. Their repro- duction here seems necessary after the prominence given them by Dr. Smith's Biogra- pher, otherwise they might not have merited a place in a history of the Institution with which both were so intimately acquainted. See this letter in Bigelow, iii, 235, wherein, however, only the initial letter of Smith's name is given.