[00:01.72]Benjamin Franklin
[00:07.17]Franklin's life is full of charming stories
[00:11.27]which all young men should know—
[00:13.04]how he peddled ballads in Boston, and stood,
[00:16.22]the guest of kings in Europe;
[00:18.15]how he worked his passage as a stowaway to Philadelphia,
[00:21.80]and rode in the queen's own litter in France;
[00:24.92]how he walked the streets of Philadelphia,
[00:28.07]homeless and unknown, with three penny rolls for his breakfast,
[00:32.28]and dined at the tables of princesses,
[00:34.95]and received his friends in a palace;
[00:37.34]how he raised a kite from a cow shed,
[00:40.31]and was showered with all the high degrees
[00:43.66]the colleges of the world could give;
[00:45.50]how he was duped by a false friend as a boy,
[00:48.50]and became the friend of all humanity as a man;
[00:51.60]how he was made Major General Franklin,
[00:54.98]only to resign because, as he said,
[00:58.19]he was no soldier, and yet helped to
[01:01.30]organize the army that stood
[01:03.07]before the trained troops of England.
[01:05.48]This poor Boston boy, with scarcely a day's schooling,
[01:09.37]became master of six languages
[01:11.69]and never stopped studying;
[01:13.41]this neglected apprentice tamed the lightning,
[01:16.62]made his name famous, received degrees and diplomas
[01:20.46]from colleges in both hemispheres,
[01:22.30]and became forever remembered as “Doctor Franklin”,
[01:25.86]Philosopher, patriot, scientist,
[01:29.50]philanthropist and statesman.
[01:31.54]Self-made, self-taught, self-reared,
[01:34.72]the candle maker's son gave light to all the world;
[01:37.60]the street ballad seller set all men singing of liberty;
[01:41.73]the runaway apprentice became the most sought-after
[01:44.56]man of two continents, and brought his native land
[01:47.99]to praise and honour him.
[01:49.59]He built America—for what our Republic is today
[01:52.89]is largely due to the prudence, the forethought,
[01:56.31]the statesmanship, the enterprise, the wisdom,
[01:59.43]and the ability of Benjamin Franklin.
[02:01.97]He belongs to the world, but especially
[02:04.86]does he belong to America.
[02:06.41]As the nations honoured him while living,
[02:08.91]so the Republic glorifies him when dead,
[02:11.97]and has enshrined him in the choicest of it's niches—
[02:15.42]the one he regarded as the loftiest—
[02:17.97]the hearts of the common people,
[02:19.82]from whom he had sprung and in their hearts Franklin will live forever.
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