Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notesFranklin, Benjamin
General
Benjamin Franklin : $b Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notes
Franklin, Benjamin
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
[Footnote i-415: He read Thomas Tryon's _The Way to Health, Long Life
and Happiness_, probably the second edition (London, 1691), a copy of
which is in the W. S. Mason Collection. Tryon holds that no "greater
Happiness" than Attic sobriety is "attainable upon Earth" (p. 1). Divine
Temperance is the "spring head of all Virtues" (p. 33). Inward harmony
"is both the Glory and the Happiness, the Joy and Solace of created
Beings, the celebrated Musick of the Spheres, the Eccho of Heaven, the
Business of Seraphims, and the Imployment of Eternity" (p. 500). From
Xenophon he learned that "self-restraint" is "the very corner-stone of
virtue." The classic core of the _Memorabilia_ is the love of the
moderate contending with the love of the incontinent. Franklin has
impressed many as representing an American Socrates. Emerson was certain
that Socrates "had a Franklin-like wisdom" (Centenary Ed., IV, 72).
Franklin's fondness for Socratic centrality, discipline, and knowledge
of self is fragmentarily shown by the aphorisms appropriated in _Poor
Richard_. There are scores of the quality of the following: "He that
lives carnally won't live eternally." "Who has deceived thee so oft as
thyself?" "Caesar did not merit the triumphal car more than he that
conquers himself." "If Passion drives, let Reason hold the Reins." "A
man in a Passion rides a mad Horse." "There are three Things extremely
hard, Steel, a Diamond and to know one's self." Consult T. H. Russell's
_The Sayings of Poor Richard, 1733-1758_.]
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