Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
  Life is but an empty dream! 
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
  And things are not what they seem.

Life is real!  Life is earnest! 
  And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
  Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
  Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
  Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
  And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
  Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
  In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle! 
  Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant! 
  Let the dead Past bury its dead! 
Act—­act in the living Present! 
  Heart within, and God o’erhead.

Lives of great men all remind us
  We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
  Footprints on the sands of time;—­

Footprints, that perhaps another,
  Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
  Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
  With a heart for any fate;
  Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait. 
                                  —­Longfellow.

CXXVI.  FRANKLIN’S ENTRY INTO PHILADELPHIA. (431)

Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790, was born in Boston.  He received little schooling, but being apprenticed to his brother, a printer, he acquired a taste for reading and study.  In 1723, he went to Philadelphia, where he followed his chosen calling, and in time became the publisher of the “Pennsylvania Gazette” and the celebrated “Poor Richard’s Almanac.”

As a philosopher Franklin was rendered famous by his discovery of the identity of lightning with electricity.  His career in public affairs may be briefly summarized as follows:  In 1736 he was made Clerk of the Provincial Assembly; in 1737, deputy postmaster at Philadelphia; and in 1753, Postmaster general for British America.  He was twice in England as the agent of certain colonies.  After signing the Declaration of Independence, he was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to France in 1776.  On his return, in 1785, he was made “President of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” holding the office three years.  He was also one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States.

As a writer Franklin commenced his career when only twelve years old by composing two ballads, which, however, he condemned as “wretched stuff.”  Franklin’s letters and papers on electricity, afterwards enlarged by essays on various philosophical subjects, have been translated into Latin, French, Italian, and German.  The most noted of his works, and the one from which the following extract is taken,