10 - Plain Truth: or, Serious Considerations On the Present State of the City of Philadelphia, and Province of Pennsylvania (17 November 1747)

Summary

“Capta urbe, nihil sit reliqui victis. Sed, per Deos immortales, vos ego appello, qui semper domos, villas, signa, tabulas vestras, tantæ æstimationis secistis; si ista, cujuscumque modi sint, quæ amplexamini, retinere, si voluptatibus vestris otium præbere vultis; expergiscimini aliquando, & capessite rempublicam. Non agitur nunc de sociorum injuriis; Libertas & Animanostra in dubio est. Dux hostium cum exercitu supra caput est. Vos cunctamini ætam nunc, & dubitatis quid faciatis? Scilicet, res ipsa asperæ est, sed vos non timetis eam. Imo vero maxume; sed inertia & mollitia animi, alius alium expectantes, cunctamini; videlicet, Diis immortalibus consisi, qui hanc rempublicam in maxumis periculis servavere. Non Votis, neque Suppliciis Mulibribus, Auxilia Deorum Parantur: vigilando, agendo, bene consulendo, prospere omnia cedunt. Ubi socordiæ tete atque ignaviæ tradideris, nequicquam Deos implores; irati, infestique sunt.”

M. Por. Cat. in Sallust

[Franklin first used this woodcut in his edition of Thomas Dilworth's A New Guide to the English Tongue (Philadelphia, 1747). The picture accompanies the fable “Of the Waggoner and Hercules”: “As a Waggoner was driving his Team, his Waggon sunk into a Hole, and stuck fast. The poor Man immediately fell upon his Knees, and prayed to Hercules, that he would get his Waggon out of the Hole again. Thou Fool, says Hercules, whip thy Horses, and set thy shoulder to the Wheels; and then if thou wilt call upon Hercules, he will help thee. The Interpretation.