Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/233

223 I wiſh it were poſſible, from this inſtance, to invent a method of embalming drowned perſons, in ſuch a manner that they might be recalled to life at any period, however diſtant; for having a very ardent deſire to fee and obſerve the ſtate of America an hundred years hence, I ſhould prefer, to an ordinary death, the being immerſed in a caſk of Madeira wine, with a few friends, until that time, then to be recalled to life by the ſolar warmth of my dear country! But ſince, in all probability, we live in an age too early, and too near the infancy of ſcience, to ſee ſuch an art brought in our time to its perfection, I muſt, for the preſent, content myſelf with the treat, which you are ſo kind as to promiſe me, of the reſurrection of a fowl or a turkey-cock.