2803. EXECUTIVE, The Confederation and.—[continued].
I was in France when
we heard of this schism and separation of our
Committee, and, speaking with Dr. Franklin of
this singular disposition of men to quarrel and
divide into parties, he gave his sentiments, as
usual, by way of apologue. He mentioned the
Eddystone lighthouse in the British channel, as
being built on a rock in the mid-channel, totally
inaccessible in winter from the boisterous character
of that sea, in that season; that, therefore,
for the two keepers, employed to keep up the
lights, all provisions for the winter were necessarily
carried to them in autumn, as they could
never be visited again till the return of the
milder season; that, on the first practicable day
in the spring a boat put off to them with fresh
supplies. The boatmen met at the door one of
the keepers and accosted him with a “How
goes it, friend”? “Very well”. “How is your
companion”? “I do not know”. “Don't
know? Is he not here”? “I can't tell”. “Have
not you seen him to-day”? “No”. “When
did you see him”? “Not since last fall”.
“You have killed him”? “Not I, indeed”.
They were about to lay hold of him, as having
certainly murdered his companion: but he desired
them to go upstairs and examine for themselves.
They went up, and there found the
other keeper. They had quarrelled, it seems,
soon after being left there, had divided into two
parties, assigned the cares below to one, and
those above to the other, and had never spoken
to, or seen one another since.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 54.
Ford ed., i, 76.
(1820)
