In a similar way,
culture directs our attention to the natural current there is in human
affairs, and to its continual working, and will not let us rivet our
faith upon any one man and his doings. It makes us see not only his good
side, but also how much in him was of necessity limited and transient;
nay, it even feels a pleasure, a sense of an increased freedom and of an
ampler future, in so doing.
I remember, when I was under the influence of a mind to which I feel the
greatest obligations, the mind of a man who was the very incarnation of
sanity and clear sense, a man the most considerable, it seems to me,
whom America has yet produced,--Benjamin Franklin,--I remember the
relief with which, after long feeling the sway of Franklin's
imperturbable common-sense, I came upon a project of his for a new
version of the Book of Job,[421] to replace the old version, the style
of which, says Franklin, has become obsolete, and thence less
agreeable. "I give," he continues, "a few verses, which may serve as a
sample of the kind of version I would recommend.
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