A subsequent writer in this same work, after calling the verse “a parody” of a certain line of antiquity, says,—­“I am unable to say who adapted these words to Franklin’s career.  Was it Condorcet?"[8] Another writer in the same work says,—­“The inscription was written by Mirabeau."[9]

I remember well a social entertainment in Boston, where a most distinguished scholar of our country, in reply to an inquiry made at the table, said that the verse was founded on the following line from the “Astronomicon"[10] of Manilius,—­

    “Eripuit Jovi fulmen, viresque tonandi.”

John Quincy Adams, who was present, seemed to concur.  Mr. Sparks, in his notes to the correspondence of Franklin, attributes it to the same origin.[11] But there are other places where its origin is traced with more precision.  One of the correspondents of “Notes and Queries” says that he has read, but does not remember where, “that this line was immediately taken from one in the ‘Anti-Lucretius’ of Cardinal Polignac."[12] Another correspondent shows the intermediate authority.[13] My own notes were originally made without any knowledge of these studies, which, while fixing its literary origin, fail to exhibit the true character of the verse, both in its meaning and in the time when it was uttered.

The verse cannot be found in any ancient writer,—­not Claudian or anybody else.  It is clear that it does not come from antiquity, unless indirectly; nor does it appear that at the time of its first production it was in any way referred to any ancient writer.  Manilius was not mentioned.  The verse is of modern invention, and was composed after the arrival of Franklin in Paris on his eventful mission.  At first it was anonymous; but it was attributed sometimes to D’Alembert and sometimes to Turgot.  Beyond question, it was not the production of D’Alembert, while it will be found in the Works of Turgot,[14] published after his death, in the following form:—­

    “Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.”

There is no explanation by the editor of the circumstances under which the verse was written; but it is given among poetical miscellanies of the author, immediately after a translation into French of Pope’s “Essay on Man,” and is entitled “Inscription for a Portrait of Benjamin Franklin.”  It appears that Turgot also tried his hand in these French verses, having the same idea:—­

    “Le voila ce mortel dont l’heureuse industrie
    Sut enchainer la Foudre et lui donner des loix,
    Dont la sagesse active et l’eloquente voix
    D’un pouvoir oppresseur affranchit sa Patrie,
    Qui desarma les Dieux, qui reprime les Rois.”

The single Latin verse is a marvellous substitute for these diffuse and feeble lines.

If there were any doubt upon its authorship, it would be removed by the positive statement of Condorcet, who, in his Life of Turgot, written shortly after the death of this great man, says, “There is known from Turgot but one Latin verse, designed for a portrait of Franklin";[15] and he gives the verse in this form:—­