Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/158

148 acute, attended with a cough and laborious breathing. During this ſtate, when the ſeverity of his pains ſometimes drew forth a groan of complaint, he would obſerve—that he was afraid he did not bear them as he ought—acknowledged his grateful ſenſe of the many bleſſings he had received from that Supreme Being, who had raiſed him from ſmall and low beginnings to ſuch high rank and conſideration among men and made no doubt but his preſent afflictions were kindly intended to wean him from a world, in which he was no longer fit to act the part aſſigned him. In this frame of body and mind he continued till five days before his death, when his pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themſelves with the hopes of his recovery, when an impoſthumation, which had formed itſelf in his lungs, ſuddenly burſt, and diſcharged a great quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had ſufficient ſtrength to do it, but, as that failed, the organs of reſpiration became gradually oppreſſed—a calm lethargic ſtate ſucceeded——and, on the 17th of April 1790, about eleven o'clock at night, he quietly expired, cloſing a long and uſeful life of eighty-four years and three months. "It may not be amiſs to add to the above account, that Dr, Franklin, in the year 1735, had a ſevere pleurify, which terminated in an abſceſs of the left lobe of his lungs, and he was then almoſt ſuffocated with the quantity and ſuddenneſs of the diſcharge. A ſecond attack of a ſimilar nature happened ſome years after this, from which he ſoon recovered, and did not appear to ſuffer any inconvenience in his reſpiration from theſe diſeaſes."