Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography
"9. MODERATION.--Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as
you think they deserve.
"10. CLEANLINESS.--Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or
habitation.
"11. TRANQUILLITY.--Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common
or unavoidable.
"12. CHASTITY....
"13. HUMILITY.--Imitate Jesus and Socrates."
These virtues he has arranged in such an order that the acquisition of
one naturally leads to the acquisition of the following. As regards
chastity, he says himself: "The hard-to-be-governed passion of youth"
had more than once led him astray. But there is every reason to suppose
he exercised great self-control in this as in all other passions. We
may remark here that Franklin had an illegitimate son, William, whom he
reared in his own home, but who caused him great pain by siding with
the Tories in the Revolution. An illegitimate son of William, born in
London and named William Temple Franklin, adhered to the grandfather
and was a great comfort to him in his old age. One other of these
virtues Franklin could never acquire. He confesses sadly that try as he
might he could never learn orderliness. But in general it may be said
that few men have ever set before themselves so wise a law of conduct,
and that still fewer men have ever come so near to attaining their
ideal. This was both because his ideal was so thoroughly practical, and
because he was a man of indomitable will who had genuinely chosen true
Philosophy as his guide. "O vitae Philosophia dux! O virtutum
inda-gatrix expultrixque vitiorum!"--O Philosophy, thou guide of life!
thou searcher out of virtues and expeller of vices!--he wrote as one of
the mottoes on his little book of conduct, and to him the words were a
living reality.
The virtues in Franklin were eminently human. Though dwelling in a
community of Quakers and often identified with them, he looked to
anything rather than the inner light for guidance, nor could he
conceive the meaning of those "divine pleasures" which William Penn
declared "are to be found in a free solitude." On his voyage home from
London the boy philosopher had written in his journal: "Man is a
sociable being, and it is, for aught I know, one of the worst of
punishments to be excluded from society." Accordingly on his return to
Philadelphia he began to cultivate seriously his "sociable being."
Among the few clubs famous in literature is the Junto which Franklin
established in 1727, and which lasted for forty years. This club was a
little circle of friends, never more than twelve, who met on Friday
evenings to discuss matters of interest. Twenty-four questions were
read, with a pause after each for filling and drinking a glass of wine.
Two or three of these questions will suffice to show their general aim.
"1. Have you met with anything in the author you last read, remarkable,
or suitable to be communicated to the Junto, particularly in history,
morality, poetry, physic, travels, mechanic arts, or other parts of
knowledge?
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