FRANKLIN'S METHOD OF GROWING BETTER. "I made a little book in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. [He had classified the virtues and made a list of thirteen, which will be named below.] I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line and in its proper column I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day. The thirteen virtues were: 1. TEMPERANCE; 2. SILENCE; 3. ORDER; 4. RESOLUTION; 5. FRUGALITY; 6. INDUSTRY; 7. SINCERITY; 8. JUSTICE; 9. MODERATION; 10. CLEANLINESS; 11. TRANQUILLITY; 12. CHASTITY; 13. HUMILITY. Each of these appears, by its full name or its initial, on every page of the book. But the full name of one only appears on each page. "My intention being to acquire the habitude of these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time, and when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another,--and so on, till I should have gone through the thirteen; and as the previous acquisition might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with that view. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head which is so necessary where constant vigilance has to be kept up, and a guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations."[6] And so he goes on to show how Temperance would prepare for Silence, Silence for Order, Order for Resolution, and thus to the end. Here is the first page of the book, with the marks for the first six of the virtues. +--------------------------------+ | TEMPERANCE. | +--------------------------------+ | EAT NOT TO DULNESS. | | | | DRINK NOT TO ELEVATION. | +----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ | | S.| M.| T.| W.|Th.| F.| S.| | T. | | | | | | | | | S. | * | * | | * | | * | | | O. | * | * | * | | * | * | * | | R. | | | * | | | * | | | F. | | * | | | * | | | | I. | | | * | | | | | | S. | | | | | | | | | J. | | | | | | | | | M. | | | | | | | | | C. | | | | | | | | | T. | | | | | | | | | C. | | | | | | | | | H. | | | | | | | | +----+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+