[Phys-L] Re: Ben Franklin 1706 -- 1790

[Bernard Cleyet <bernardcleyet@REDSHIFT.COM>]

READER ADAM GODNER justly writes: "I was a bit surprised to find no
mention of the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth.
Franklin's contributions to the founding of the United States cannot
be overestimated.

"I also found this quotation from one of his speech to the
Constitutional Convention in 1787 that seems oddly prophetic today.
'In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its
faults, - if they are such; because I think a general Government
necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a
blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther,
that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and
can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when
the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government,
being incapable of any other.'"

Godner is quite right, especially since your editor has been a
Franklin fan since he was a boy visiting the lightning exhibit at
Philadelphia's Franklin Institute and more recently watching the
despotism taking hold of which Franklin warned. It is significant and
revealing that Franklin receives so little attention these days.

In our case, however, it was simply a matter of being swept into the
rush of the temporal rather than indifference or antipathy. And we
particularly apologize for having failed the memory of the man who
once proposed as a life's goal to "either write something worth
reading or do something worth writing."

[Sam Smith]

bc, rarely fails to insert politics when given the excuse.

John Clement wrote:

> Then of course there are good articles in Physics Today.  I did note the
> passing of his birthday at the end of one of my long posts.  It is
> interesting that he was already well known in Europe long before he went
> there as an ambassador.  He was one of the most famous Americans both here
> and abroad at that time, and probably our first great scientist.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
>
>
> > The History Channel had a decent biography on Ben last week...pretty
> > interesting life that he led.
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