He spoke of him
with love and gratitude. I think I have had a similar account from
Dr. Franklin, but cannot be quite certain. I know, that being in
Philadelphia when the first set of patent wheels arrived from London,
and were spoken of, by the gentleman (an Englishman) who brought them,
as a wonderful discovery, the idea of its being a new discovery was
laughed at by the Philadelphians, who, in their Sunday parties across
the Delaware, had seen every farmer's cart mounted on such wheels.
The writer in the paper supposes the English workman got his idea from
Homer. But it is more likely the Jersey farmer got his idea from thence,
because ours are the only farmers who can read Homer; because, too, the
Jersey practice is precisely that stated by Homer: the English practice
very different. Homer's words are (comparing a young hero killed by Ajax
to a poplar felled by a workman) literally thus: 'He fell on the ground,
like a poplar, which has grown smooth, in the west part of a
great meadow; with its branches shooting from its summit. But the
chariot-maker, with his sharp axe, has felled it, that he may bend
a wheel for a beautiful chariot.
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