Page:Collection of notable things worth knowing.pdf/15

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Franklin, the greatest philosopher and statesman of America, was once a printer’s boy; Simpson, the Scotch mathematician, and author of many learned works, was at first a poor weaver; Herschel, one of the most eminent astronomers, rose from the low station of a fifer boy in the army. These examples show us the happy effects of assiduity and perseverance.

Voltaire says, that the treaty which William Penn made with the Indians in America is the only treaty between those people and the christians that was not ratified by an oath, and was never infringed. Mr. Penn endeavoured to settle his new colony upon the most equitable principles, and took great pains to conciliate the will of the natives. He appointed commissioners to treat with them, and purchased from them the land of the province, acknowledging them to be the original proprietors. As the land was of little value to the natives, he obtained his purchase at a moderate rate; but by his equitable conduct, he gave them so high an opinion of him, and by his kind and humane behaviour so ingratiated himself in their favour, that the American Indians have ever since expressed a great veneration for his memory, and styled the governor of Pennsylvania, onias, which in their language signifies a pen. At the