Page:Old man's wish.pdf/2



Benjamin Franklin L L D speaking of the following song, in a letter to his friend George Whately Esq Treasurer of the Foundling Hospital, London; says, 'What signifies our wishing?' Things happen after all as they will happen.

I have sung that wishing Song a thousand times when I was young, and now find at fourscore that the three contraries have befallen me; being subject to the gout, and the stone, and not being yet master of all my passions Like the proud girl in my country, Who wishsd and resolved not to marry a Parson, nor a Presbyterian, nor an Irishman, and at length found herself married to an Irish Presbyterian Parson!

IF I live to grow old, for I find I go down,

Let this be my fate:—in a neat country town,

May I have a warm house, with a stone at the gate.

And a cleanly young girl, to rub my bald pate.

May I govern my passion with an absolute way.