Benjamin Franklin Notes

Instituto de Profesorado Sedes Sapientiae D56
Profesorado de Inglés
AMLIT
"TRUTH, SINCERITY and INTEGRITY"
These three premises ruled Franklin's life, and in all of his writings, Franklin remained true to his own
beliefs.
FRANKLIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Looking at Franklin's Autobiography, it is fairly obvious why he is revered as the ultimate example of a
successful pursuit of the "American dream." He began as the fifteenth child of a poor candle maker,
and through his own hard work and determination, Franklin literally makes himself into an educated,
successful, and influential man. This is the ultimate story of what can be accomplished by pulling
oneself up by the bootstraps. Although Franklin provides his audience with plenty of specific details
about his life (and gives what some modern readers consider excessive information about presses
and the printing industry of the period), the life lessons found throughout the Autobiography have
proven to be the most valued aspect of his story. When Franklin began his autobiography, he hoped
to preserve some "little anecdotes" for his son. But when Benjamin Vaughan and Abel James
encouraged him to finish his autobiography, the educational value of such a work by a respected man
was deemed necessary for the youth of America. Indeed, although his original intent was not wholly
didactic, Franklin did consider his life worthy "to be imitated" on some points (524).
Franklin's approach to everything in life was based on the premise that all things are within man's
grasp if he focuses his abilities and remains industrious. Everything from business success to
spiritual salvation was attainable if one was willing to work hard -- this is quite a different view from
the Calvinists who believed that all things were preordained by God. An example of Franklin's belief
in man's ability to perfect himself is his system for achieving "moral Perfection" (577).
FRANKLIN'S THIRTEEN VIRTUES
TEMPERANCE RESOLUTION SINCERITY
SILENCE FRUGALITY JUSTICE
ORDER INDUSTRY MODERATION
CLEANLINESS TRANQUILITY CHASTITY HUMILITY
In his pursuit of "moral Perfection," Franklin sets up a chart that allows him to focus on achieving one
moral virtue at a time. At the end of each day, he marked off "the Faults of the Day" and was
"surpris'd to find [himself] much fuller of Faults than [he] had imagined" (580-1), but his system was
based on the idea that if he worked on one virtue at a time he would have "the encouraging Pleasure
of seeing on my Pages the Progress I made in Virtue, by clearing successively my Lines of their
Spots" (580). And thus, like a person who makes a list and feels gratified when able to mark a task as
finished, Franklin establishes a system with a visual reward and the more valuable (but intangible)
moral reward.
When he discovers that he has trouble with Order, he creates the plan seen on page 582 dividing the
day carefully into blocks with assigned tasks attached to each block. This approach is typical of
Franklin's view of man's ability to perfect himself and his systematic approach to that perfection.
FRANKLIN'S SELF EDUCATION
Franklin's early list of readings indicates a willingness to expand his horizons by looking outside of his
father's small library. Franklin's eagerness to gain knowledge is obvious from the early "Bookish
inclination" (530) that leads his father to apprentice him as a printer. He arranges to board himself as
a young apprentice to allow more time for study. And he takes it upon himself to methodically
improve his writing when his father tells him that his prose fell "far short in elegance of Expression, in
Method, and in Perspicuity" (532). He details his approach to improving his writing style (for example,
he discusses how he paraphrased works and created verse from prose before returning it to prose)
and is pleased to discover that his writing seems much improved.
Nowhere is Franklin's eagerness to attain knowledge for its own sake more overt than when he
discusses his foray into language study in 1733. He casually mentions that he was able to teach
himself enough French, Italian, and Spanish to allow him to read books in those languages. He also
discovered that a familiarity with modern languages made Latin easier to learn, leading him to
suggest a revision of the educational curriculum that forced students to begin with Latin before
proceeding to Italian, French, or Spanish.
“Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America”
This selection from Franklin’s social essays makes it clear who the savages are (at least in Franklin’s
mind). He opens with an attempt to put the conflict between Native American and European
American cultures into perspective by stating simply that both cultures consider themselves “the
perfection of civility” and suggests that an impartial look at all cultures would reveal both politeness
and rudeness equally distributed (516). Although this statement would have been considered radical
coming from a young activist, Franklin’s reputation as a man of uncommon good sense probably
made this essay more palatable to all but the staunchest of Indian haters.
Franklin discusses aspects of Native American culture in such as way as to make it seem like an
ideal. Young men hunt and protect; old men govern with the wisdom of experience; women cook and
tend to the children -- “These employments of men and women are accounted natural and honorable”
(516). And the comparisons that he makes between the two cultures overtly satirize the frivolity and
uselessness of much of the European American “civilized” society.
EDUCATIONAL DIFFERENCES -- He quotes an Indian leader as turning down the offer of a

university education for six Indian youths because “We have had some experience of [university
education] . . . but, when they came back to us . . . they were totally good for nothing. . . [however], if
the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education,
instruct them in all we know, and make men of them” (517). Knowing how firmly grounded
Franklin’s education was in the practical arts, it is easy to ascertain which educational system is of the
most use to society.
COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES -- Franklin mentions that Indians consider interrupting a speaker

as “highly indecent” and compares that to a “polite British House of Commons” meeting wherein there
is a continual cry for “order” or any of the “polite companies of Europe” where one must finish
sentences quickly before he is cut off by his audience (517).
AVOIDANCE OF CONFLICT -- Native Americans avoid disputes by listening politely to whatever is

asserted in their presence as if they believed (Franklin’s humorous example of the civility of natives in
light of the evangelical Swedish minister on pages 517-518).
RULES OF HOSPITALITY -- Privacy is valued by the Indians to the point that hiding in the bushes to
observe a stranger is preferable to gawking, and once a traveler has been properly welcomed into the
village, he is given every courtesy. Franklin uses an anecdote and a quotation form an Indian to
compare native hospitality with that of the white man: “If a white man . . enters one of our cabins . . .
we dry him if he is wet, we warm him if he is cold, we give him meat and drink, that he may allay his
thirst and hunger; and we spread soft furs for him to rest and sleep on; we demand nothing in return.
But, if I go into a white man’s house at Albany, and ask for victuals and drink, they say, ‘Where is your
money?’ and if I have none, they say, ‘Get out, you Indian dog’” (519). The difference in cultural
values is obvious.
From http://www4.ncsu.edu/~wdlloyd/Franklin%20notes.htm

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Instituto de Profesorado Sedes Sapientiae D56

"TRUTH, SINCERITY and INTEGRITY"

FRANKLIN'S THIRTEEN VIRTUES

TEMPERANCE RESOLUTION SINCERITY

SILENCE FRUGALITY JUSTICE

ORDER INDUSTRY MODERATION

CLEANLINESS TRANQUILITY CHASTITY HUMILITY

FRANKLIN'S SELF EDUCATION

“Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America”

EDUCATIONAL DIFFERENCES -- He quotes an Indian leader as turning down the offer of a

COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES -- Franklin mentions that Indians consider interrupting a speaker

AVOIDANCE OF CONFLICT -- Native Americans avoid disputes by listening politely to whatever is

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