Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/7

Rh He ſubjoins a letter from the late celebrated and amiable Dr. Price, to a gentleman in Philadelphia, upon, the ſubject of Dr. Franklin's memoirs of his own life.

"Hackney, June 19, 1790.

"DEAR SIR,

"I am hardly able to tell you how kindly I take the letters with which you favour me. Your laſt, containing an account of the death of our excellent friend Dr. Franklin, and the circumſtances attending it, deſerves my particular gratitude. The account which he has left of his life will ſhow, in a ſtriking example, how a man, by talents, induſtry, and integrity, may riſe from obſcurity to the firft eminence and conſequence in the world; but it brings his hiſtory no lower than the year 1757, and I underſland that ſince he ſent over the copy, which I have read, he has been able to make no additions to it. It is with a melancholy regret I think of his death; but to death we are all bound by the irreverſible order of nature, and in looking forward to it, there is comfort in being able to reflect—that we have not lived in vain, and that all the uſeful and virtuous ſhall meet in a better country beyond the grave.

"Dr. Franklin, in the laſt letter I received from him, after mentioning his age and infirmities, obſerves, that it has been kindly ordered by the Author of nature, that, as we draw nearer the concluſion of life, we are furniſhed with more helps to wean us from it, among which one of the ſtrongeſt is the loſs of dear friends. I was delighted with the account you gave in your letter of the honour ſhewn to his memory at Philadelphia, and