In 1892, the Ben Franklin Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., issued the "Farmers' New Poor Richard Almanac," with some observations on the prosperity of the country. Every page contains philosophic wisdom, sayings, adages, and quo'ations from Franklin, Hamilton, Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, McKinley, etc.

"WHO WAS JESUS CHRIST? Quite a large number of my correspondents have asked this question, and I am the only individual on this planet able to answer it correctly.

"Jesus Christ is a Jupiterian Architect of great prominence in his profession. He was on a visit to Venus when we petitioned him to come here and present the phenomena of Pure Uniism. The Intellectual presentation is my work. I was spokesman of the delegation who waited upon him with the petition, and leader of one of the choral companies at the Grand Festival given upon his triumphant return.

"He was, like myself, a Hierarch, not a Messiah. He came mainly to the submerged Jupiterians, as it is written :

not come but to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.'

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'I am

At that time the Jews were nearly all submerged Jupiterians, and to them was his special mission.

"The reason a great architect was chosen was this: all architectual work is caried on by will-force, not by manual labor, on the Uniistic planets. Those who apply their mentality to this pursuit become great phenomena producers, and can cause the atomic aggregates of immense masses of solid rock to shape themselves as ordered, and levitate to their positions in the building under construction. It required very little additional study on the part of the Hierarch Jesus, to apply this vibrative power to the abnormal human organism, hence his great healing power, his production of bread from the ethero atmospheric solution, and his transmutation of water into wine from the same source." But I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye shall say unto this mountain: Be removed, and cast into the midst of the sea, and it shall be done.'

on a

The Jupiterian Art Palaces and Musical Salons are gigantic scale of architectual magnificance, and he had been accustomed to starting the proper vibration in huge blocks by his spoken word, causing them to whirl upward on his willwind to their appointed positions in the edifice.

"He is still on Venus, and at times appears to his beloved. ROBERT J. BUrns,

Box 189, Pueblo, Colo.

The Man from Venus.

Franklin's Basis of Religion.

A correspondent (N. AND Q., Vol. XVII, Dec., 1899), who heard the liberal lectures on Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington, "The Founders of Our Republic," by J. E. Remsberg, inquires for the basic principles of Franklin's belief. We can do no better than to give it in the philosopher's own words as published in a paper, dated Philadelphia, November 20, 1728. This is extracted from a lecture on the "Life of Franklin," by Rev. Hugh M'Neile, A. M., spoken Nov. 17, 1841:

"I never was without some religious principles; I never doubted, for instance the existence of deity; that he made the world, and governed it by his providence.

"I believe there is one supreme most perfect Being, author and father of the gods themselves.

"For I believe that man is not the most perfect being but one, but rather that there are many degrees of beings superior to him.

"Also when I stretch my imagination through and beyond our system of planets, beyond the visible fixed stars themselves, into that space that is every way infinite, and conceive it filled with suns like ours, each with a chorus of worlds forever moving around him; then this little ball on which we move, seems, even in my narrow imagination, to be almost nothing, and myself less than nothing, and of no sort of consequence.

"When I think thus, I imagine it great vanity in me to suppose that the supremely perfect does in the least regard such an inconsiderable nothing as man; more especially, since it is impossible for me to have any clear idea of that which is infinite and incomprehensible. I cannot conceive otherwise than that he, THE INFINITE FATHER, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that he is even INFINITELY ABOVE IT.

"But since there is in all men something like a natural principle which inclines them to DEVOTION, or the worship of some unseen power; and since men are endowed with reason, superior to all other animals that we are acquainted with in our world; therefore, I think it is required of me, and my duty, as a man, to pay divine regard to SOMETHING.

"I conceive then that the INFINITE has created many beings or gods, vastly superior to men, who can better conceive of his perfections than we, and return him a more rational and glorious praise.

"As, among men, the praise of the ignorant or of children, is not regarded by the ingenious painter or architect, who is rather honored than pleased with the approbation of wise men and artists.

"It may be these created gods are immortal; or it may be that after many ages, they are changed, and others supply their places.

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Howbeit, I conceive that each of these is exceeding wise and good, and very powerful; and that each has made for himself one glorious sun, attended with a beautiful and admirable system' of planets.

"It is that particular wise and good God, who is the author and owner of our system, that I propose for the object of my praise and adoration."

Franklin tried the following systematic method, which we will give in his own words:

"In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. For example, Temperance was confined by some to eating and drinking; while by others it was extended to moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I proposed for myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen namies of virtues, all that at that time occurred to me as necessary or desirable and annexed to each a short precept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning:

"These names of virtues, with their precepts, were :

1. Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

2.

3. Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or to yourself; for example, waste nothing.

6. Industry. Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

7.

Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and if you speak, speak accordingly.

8. Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9.

IO.

II.

Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

Tranquillity. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable..

12. Chastity. Avoid injury to your own, or another's place or happiness.

13. Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

The combination in the last reminds us of the quotation from Rousseau, (N. AND Q., Vol. XIII, p. 97, 1895):

"Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ like a God.” Lord Chatham, speaking of Franklin, and in his presence, in the House of Lords, when Franklin was delegated to England:

"A gentleman, whom all Europe held in estimation for his knowledge and his wisdom, and ranked with our Boyles and New ons; who was an honor, not to the English nation only, but to human nature."

COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP. Justice Thomas McCann, of Lorain, Ohio recently joined in holy bands of wedlock Joseph Hartman and his son Adam Hartman to the two Bordee sisters, Katie and Gertie. An interesting complication of relationships thus arises. Of course Gertie, who married the father, Joseph Hartman, will be both step-mother and sister in law to the son, Adam Hartman Hence if Adam and his wife have any children Gertie will be grandmother to her nephews and neices, but Katie, the son's wife, will be aunt to her father in law's children, and Adam will have to be an uncle to his own half brothers and sisters. The children of the father will be aunts and uncles and cousins to the children of the son. The wife of the father becomes her own sister's mother-in-law, and father and son become brothers in law.-Cincinnati Enquirer.

IMAGINARY AND VISIONARY COUNTRIES. (Vol. XVII, Dec., 1899.) We shall have to answer "IOSEPH" by giving some titles of books that separately treat on several of the ideals he inquires for. Most of these works can be procured at the city bookstore or found by advertising.

"Hygeia," by Benjamin Ward Richardson, is the "City of Health," a new plan and foundation for a Neapolis for about 100,000 inhabitants, 20,000 houses, to occupy 4,000 acres of 25 persons to the acre. A model for modern prospective cities, A presidential address, Social Science Association, in October, 1875. London, 1876.

"Miragea," by D. Willard (a psneudonym), or a city seen in the mirage, and described in a dream. Published in the Crimson and White, Vol. II, No. 1, Manchester, N. H., High School.

Nauvoo," a city founded in the '30's, by the Mormons at the delta of the Des Moines and Mississippi rivers, in Illinois, and known as the "City of Beauty." It was abandoned in 1846. The corner-stone of their Mormon Temple was laid in April 6, 1841, and two and a half years after its dedication it was destroyed by fire. In September, 1846, the last Mormons left the City of Beauty.

"Olombia," a name derived from Columbia. The plan is designed to make Utopia practical. The Olombia Commonwealth, New Order of Builders, was developed and elaborated by Dr. William H. Von Swartwout of New York City. He is the author of the "The New Political Economy," which gives a clear and comprehensive view of anew state of society. He can be addressed box 248, New York, and his work supplied,

"Platonopolis," a city proposed by Plotinus, the Neoplatonic philosopher, in Campania, where he intended to build and carry out his socialistic ideas and platonic system, but it was never built. The works of Plotinus describe it.

"Sirenia," (anonymous), re-collections of a past existence, the word re-calling the Odyssean Scylla and Charybdis allurements. The re-collections are portrayed in a work of 388 pages and of