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    OH 1 GINAL LETTEll $ of Br . FBANEMN . LETTER II . Dear old Friend , Passy , May 19 * 17 S 5 v I Received the very good letter you sent me by my grandson , together with your resemblance , which is placed in my chamber , and gives me great pleasure : there is no trade they say without returns , and therefore I am punctual in making those you have ordered . I intended this should have been a long epistle , but I am interrupted , and can only add * that I am ever , Your * s most affectionately , B . Franklin . My grandson presents his most affectionate respects * IETTER III . Dear old Friend , Passy , May 23 , 1735 .

    I Sent you a few lines the other day , with the medallion ^ when I should have written more , but was prevented by the coming in of a Bavdrd , who worried me till evening , I bore with him , and now you are to bear with me , for I shal probably bavardtr in answering your letter . I am not acquainted with the saying of Alphonsus , which you allude to as a sanctification of your rigidity in refusing to allow Hie the plea of old age as an excuse for my want of exactitude in correspondence . What was that saying ? You do not , it seems , feel any occasion for such an excuse , though you are as you say rising 75 , but I am rising ( perhaps more properly falling ) 80— -and I leave the excuse with you till you arrive at that age ; perhaps you may then be more sensible of its validity and see fit to use it for yourself .

    I must agree with you , that the gout is bad , and that the stone is worse . I am happy in not having them both together , and I join in your prayer that you may live till you die without either . But I doubt the author of the epitaph you sent me is a little mistaken when speaking of the world , he says that He ne ' er car'd a pin What they said or may say of the mortal within .

    It is so natural to wish to be well spoken of whether alive or dead , that I imagine he could not be quite exempt from that desire , and that at least he wished to be thought a wit , or he would not have given , himself the trouble of writing so good an epitaph to leave Behind him . Was it not worthy of his caref that the world should say he was an honest and a good man ? 1 like better the concluding sentiment in the old song called C € the

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1806, page 192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1723/page/24/