In the Days of Poor Richard

  2

  There was at that time a man of great power whose voice spoke for thesoul of England. He had studied the spirit of the New World and probedto its foundations. He will help us to understand the new diplomacywhich had filled the ministers with astonishment.

  The same week Jack was invited to breakfast with Mr. Edmund Burke andDoctor Franklin. He was awed by the brilliancy of the massive,trumpet-tongued orator and statesman.

  He writes: "Burke has a most ungainly figure. His gait is awkward, hisgestures clumsy, his eyes are covered with large spectacles. He iscareless of his dress. His pockets bulged with papers. He spokerapidly and with a strong Irish brogue. Power is the thing his faceand form express. His knowledge is astounding. It is easy to talkwith Franklin, but _I_ could not talk with him. He humbled andembarrassed me. His words shone as they fell from his lips. I cangive you but a feeble notion of them. This was his idea, but Iremember only a few of his glowing words:

  "'I fancy that man, like most other inventions, was, at first, adisappointment. There seems to have been some doubt, for a time, as towhether the contrivance could be made to work. In fact, there is goodground for believing that it wouldn't work.

  "'It was a failure. The tendency to indolence and folly had to beovercome. Sundry improvements were necessary. An imagination and thelove of adventure were added to the great machine. They were thethings needed. Not all the friction of hardship and peril could stopit then. From that time, as they say in business, man was a payinginstitution.

  "'The lure of adventure led to the discovery of law and truth. Thebest child of adventure is revelation. Man is so fashioned that if hecan see a glimmer of the truth he seeks, he will make for it no matterwhat may be in his way. The promise of an exciting time solves theproblem of help. America was born of sublime faith and a greatadventure--the greatest in history--that of the three caravels. Highfaith is the great need of the world. Columbus had it, and I think,sir, that the Pilgrims had it and that the same quality of faith is inyou. In these dark years you are like the lanterns of Pharus to yourpeople.

  "'When prodigious things are to be done, how carefully men are preparedand chosen for their doing!'

  "He said many things, but these words addressed to my venerable friendimpressed me deeply. It occurs to me that Burke has been chosen tospeak for the soul of Britain.

  "When we think of the choosing of God, who but the sturdy yeomen of ourmother land could have withstood the inhospitalities of the New Worldand established its spirit!

  "Now their Son, Benjamin Franklin, full grown in the new school ofliberty, has been chosen of God to define the inalienable rights offreemen. I think the stage is being set for the second great adventurein our history. Let us have no fear of it. Our land is sown with thenew faith. It can not fail."

  This conviction was the result of some rather full days in the Britishcapital.