Note 242 — MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF DAVID RITTENHOUSE; CONTINUED, FROM THE TIME OF HIS SETTLEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA.
Reading edition
The body of Dr. Franklin was interred in the cemetery belonging to Christ-Church in Philadelphia, under a plain marble tomb-stone, inscribed with only his name, the time of his decease, and his age. But the following epitaph on himself was written by him, many years before his death. As it contains a pretty allusion, typically expressed, to his belief in the Immortality of the Soul, it may not be deemed superfluous to add, on the present occasion, the testimony of this philosopher in concurrence with Rittenhouse’s, on that subject. If the doctrine had needed any further verification than before established it, the suffrages of two such men as Franklin and Rittenhouse could scarcely fail to remove the doubts of the most sceptical. This epitaph is copied from Stuber’s Continuation of the Life of Franklin.
The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin, Printer,
(Like the Cover of an old Book,
It’s Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,)
Lies here, food for worms;
Yet the Work itself shall not be lost,
For it will (as he believed) appear once more,
In a new
And more beautiful Edition,
Corrected and amended
by
The Author.
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