This meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me. was, therefore, the first house I was in, or slept in, in Philadelphia. GLOSSARY. Penny; Quakers; meetinghouse. STUDY. At the age of seventeen Franklin left his home in Boston and went first to New York, and then on to Philadelphia, where he hoped to obtain work at his trade, which was that of a printer. From any hints given fill out the picture of Franklin's appearance as he went along the street. Do you find any special evidence of his future great capacity for business in this incident? Does he seem ashamed of the impression he must have created? What humor do you find in the meetinghouse incident? Suppose Franklin had not attained to great eminence, would he have been as likely to tell such a story of his early experiences? Do you find his language simple and direct, or labored and difficult? II. LEARNING TO WRITE GOOD PROSE About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought 35 it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the 40 papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recol45 lecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time if I had gone on making verses; since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rime, would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for 50 variety, and also have tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before 55 I began to form the full sentences and complete the paper. This I met with an odd volume of the Spectator was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleasure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had 60 been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer, of which I was extremely ambitious. GLOSSARY. Spectator; jumbled; amended; tolerable. STUDY. This passage tells you how Franklin acquired, or at any rate bettered, his style of writing. Explain in detail just how it was done. Why did he think writing verse would have helped him? What were the objects he tried to secure? Suppose you take this passage and do with it what Franklin did with the Spectator. III. ORDER My scheme of Order gave me the most trouble; and I found 65 that, though it might be practicable where a man's business was such as to leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it was not possible to be exactly observed by a master, who must mix with the world, and often receive people of business at their own hours. Order, too, with 70 regard to places for things, papers, etc., I found extremely difficult to acquire. I had not been early accustomed to it, and, having an exceeding good memory, I was not so sensible of the inconvenience attending want of method. This article, therefore, cost me so much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed me 75 so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbor, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The 80 smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turned, while the smith pressed the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length would take 85 his ax as it was, without farther grinding. "No," said the smith, "turn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; as yet, it is only speckled." "Yes," says the man, "but I think I like a speckled ax best." And I believe this may have been the case with many, who, having for want of some such means as I em90 ployed, found the difficulty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and concluded that "a speckled ax was best"; for something, that pretended to be reason, was every now and then suggesting to me that such extreme nicety as I exacted of myself might be 95 a kind of foppery in morals, which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous; that a perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance. In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; 100 and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted 105 it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach the wished-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible. GLOSSARY. Journeyman; foppery; keep .. in countenance; incorrigible. STUDY. Franklin worked out a scheme for attaining moral perfection. The main feature of his plan was to take some one of the virtues he was desirous of securing and to spend some time in consciously practicing it. What virtue did he have most difficulty with? What were the sources of his difficulty? What illustrative story does he tell? Show how this story fits the point he wishes to make. What were the final results of his efforts? (It is interesting to learn that after his death Franklin's papers were found in such confusion that they have given his editors great trouble in preparing editions of his works.) IV. POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC In 1732 I first published my Almanac, under the name of 110 Richard Saunders; it was continued by me about twenty-five years, and commonly called Poor Richard's Almanac. I endeavored to make it both entertaining and useful, and it accordingly came to be in such demand, that I reaped considerable profit from it, vending annually near ten thousand. And observing that it 115 was generally read, scarce any neighborhood in the province being without it, I considered it as a proper vehicle for conveying instruction among the common people, who bought scarcely any other books; I therefore filled all the little spaces that occurred 120 between the remarkable days in the calendar with proverbial sentences, chiefly such as inculcated industry and frugality, as the means of procuring wealth, and thereby securing virtue; it being more difficult for a man in want to act always honestly, as, to use here one of those proverbs, it is hard for an empty sack 125 to stand upright. These proverbs, which contained the wisdom of many ages and nations, I assembled and formed into a connected discourse; prefixed to the Almanac of 1757, as the harangue of a wise old man to the people attending an auction. The bringing all these 130 Scattered counsels thus into a focus enabled them to make greater impression. The piece, being universally approved, was copied in all the newspapers of the Continent; reprinted in Britain on a broadside, to be stuck up in houses; two translations were made of it in French, and great numbers bought by the clergy and 135 gentry, to distribute gratis among their poor parishioners and tenants. In Pennsylvania, as it discouraged useless expense in foreign superfluities, some thought it had its share of influence in producing that growing plenty of money which was observable for several years after its publication. GLOSSARY. Vending; vehicle; inculcated; frugality; harangue; focus; broadside; gentry; gratis; superfluities. STUDY. What was Poor Richard's Almanac? Why did Franklin fill all the blank spaces with proverbs? How successful was the almanac and the connected series of proverbs? Do you think Franklin could have served any higher purpose than the one he sets forth? Are industry and frugality of any special value in a new and undeveloped country? PROVERBS FROM POOR RICHARD BENJAMIN FRANKLIN The noblest question in the world is, What good may I do in it? The nearest way to come at glory, is to do that for conscience which we do for glory. |