First Aid on Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography

Hugh Omsby-Lennon

I assign the Norton Critical Edition, edited by J. A. Leo Lemay and P.M. Zall because "it is the first accurate edition . . . intended for the general reader" and because it is based on the two editors' meticulous edition of the surviving manuscript. The edition also has excellent explanatory notes on each page. It also has a useful selection of excerpts from Franklin's other works and of major criticism about him, notably by President John Adams, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and D. H. Lawrence. Students should familiarise themselves with these as well as with the "Introduction." The "Biographical Notes," 173-201, can be very helpful.

Franklin's Autobiography may seem hard to read and digest because it is so crammed with characters, so full of details and of incident, perhaps no more than "one damn thing after another." In fact, it often displays the craft of a great novel.

Part One is full of advice to young men (and now women!) starting their careers: listen to your father, beware of unreal ambitions, beware of destructive imbroglios with members of the opposite sex, don't succumb to alcohol, beware of false friends and financial entanglements with them, work hard, take care of your money . . .

[Did Franklin follow his own advice? He certainly took care of his money. But how often did he carouse? How frequently did he continue to pursue the ladies--long after the marriage that he advised other young men to contract? Opinions vary. From one perspective--and despite, or perhaps because of, Franklin's continual protestations of candor--his Autobiography can be read as a profoundly disingenuous document. Consider the challenge of composing your own autobiography, particularly if you were writing after having achieved fame.]

Part Two shows how a successful young man should make his way in the world and contribute to his community through good works.

My comments which follow are intended not as a substitute for reading the Autobiography but as a means of highlighting (*) some of the most enjoyable and important passages. The central paradox of the Autobiography is that it was written by a genius who was still confident he had much to teach ordinary men and women. Its reputation and its status as a continuing best seller testify to Franklin's success.

Part One (page numbers keyed into the Norton text)

1 The introduction, started in the form a letter to BF's sole surviving son, is not an instant page-turner. But BF announces the "Poverty and Obscurity" from which he emerged to win "Reputation" and enjoy "Felicity."

*BF muses over enjoying a "second Edition" of his Life, using imagery from printing that runs throughout A. See BF's description of his mistakes and moral shortcomings as errata: 27, 36, 56 See, also, the epitaph that BF wrote for himself when aged 28: 226.

2 BF formally gives thanks to God and Providence "with all Humility." Scholars debate whether he is more than merely formulaic.

2-4 The modest (but Protestant) beginnings of BF's family in central England. Many family members are "mechanicals." *Hiding the English Bible. Conventicles.

5 1682: BF's nonconformist father arrives in New England. His two wives and F's 16 siblings. F's mother and religious liberty.

6 Boston. *F intended for the church. Too expensive. F removed from school to become candle and soap-maker like his father, a trade he dislikes. Dreams of running away to sea. Learns to swim.

7 *The "early projecting public Spirit" of a naughty F: "tho' I pleaded the Usefulness of the work [my father] convinc'd me that nothing was useful which was not honest."

8 The "mechanical Genius," "sound Understanding and solid Judgment in prudential Matters" of F's father.

9 *Mechanical trades. F as prospectivecutler. F's "Little Machines for my Experiments"

*F as compulsive reader: Bunyan, chapmen's books, polemic divinity, Defoe's Essay on Projects, Mather's "Essays to do Good."

10 *F apprenticed as printer to his brother. More books. Writes 2 ballads ("wretched Stuff in the Grubstreet Ballad Style"). F's father assures him "Verse-makers were generally Beggars," a recurrrent theme in A.

11-13 *How F taught himself to write good prose. Disputations with John Collins, a bookish friend (see 26 for his subsequent drinking and gambling). Imitations of The Spectator. Reading instead of going to church.

*F's vegetarianism (see also 28). Temperance. Books on free-thinking . For F's other flirtations with irreligion, see 17, 19, 29, 34-5, 45-6)

13-14 *"the Habit of expressing myself in Terms of modest Diffidence" (see esp.75-6)

15 *F's "Silence Dogood" papers (the first essays in America and how published)

16 Political problems of F's brother and his newspaper

17-19 F leaves for Philadelphia. "A drunken Dutchman" and novels. F's adventures.

20 *October 6, 1723. (For a map and chronology, see xx-xxi and 166-68). F enters Philadelphia. Currency. Bread. F noticed by his future wife Deborah Read. The Quaker meeting house.

21 A house of ill-repute avoided. Philadelphia's second-rate printers. (Lessons in how not to run a business!)

22 *Samuel Keimer, a mad printer (see 28-9 for his project of a new sect and gluttony). F's youthful Philadelphia friendships & "gaining Money by my Industry and Frugality."

23-4 Governor William Keith . . . ultimately, a false friend (see 27, 31. F's genteel visit to Boston. Currency.

25 *Father's advice.

25-7 *Strumpets on a sloop. Collins (see 11): now a drunken gambler who borrows money. F's erratum.

28 *How F broke his vows of vegetarianism with cod on the sloop from Boston.

28-9 *Keimer again.

29 *F "made some Courtship to Deborah Read."

29-31 F's Philadelphia friends--Charles Osborne, Joseph Watson, and James Ralph--who were "All lovers of Reading." F unsettles their religion, particularly Ralph's. Ralph's ambitions as a poet.

31 *Governor Keith gives F letters of recommendation and of credit for London. F is joined by Ralph who leaves his wife and child. F "interchang'd some Promises with Miss Read."

32 [Complex details involving the mendacious Governor Keith.]

33 F and Ralph arrive in London. Ralph borrows money from F and is unsuccessful in finding work as an actor or hack writer.

34-5 *"I immediately got work." F works for a publisher. Books and free-thinking. F and Bernard Mandeville, the great free-thinker and author of A Modest Defence of the Public Stews. F meets Sir Hans Sloane--famous physician, scientist, and founder of the British Museum and British Library--and sells him an asbestos purse for his collection.

35-6 *Ralph has an affair with a single mother with whom F "attempted Familiarities (another Erratum)" while Ralph is working in the country as a schoolmaster and attempting to become a famous poet. F and Ralph break up, debts unpaid. Contrast this unnamed milliner with Deborah Read, 56

36-7 **The "great Guzzlers of Beer" with whom F works in the printing shop. F becomes known as as "the Water American."

37-38 **F finds cheaper lodgings with "a Widow, an elderly woman" who reduces his rent. The madwoman in the attic. (Should we think of F's "Apologue for Old Mistresses"?)

39-40 Swimming as a career?

40 *Sailing to Philadelphia. F's "plan of life." F is attaining maturity.

41-4 [Philadelphia. Keimer and his new roguish, dram-drinking assistants. Paper currency.]

45-6 *F rejects free-thinking for "Truth, Sincerity and Integrity." Providence or "accidental favorable Circumstances"?

47 Croakers: "Philadelphia was a sinking Place."

47-8 **F forms the Junto Club "for mutual Improvement." Membership of mechanics and others; studies ("Morals, Politics, or natural Philosophy"); "conducted in the sincere Spirit of Enquiry after Truth, without fondness for Dispute").

49-53 [Printing ventures]

53-4 *"a cry among the People for more Paper Money." F's The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency (1729). "Another profitable job."

54-5 "I now opened a little Stationer's Shop . . . In order to to secure my Credit and Character as a Tradesman, I took care not only to be in Reality Industrious and frugal, but to avoid all Appearances of the contrary." F's wheelbarrow.

Keimer's declining business. Leaves for the Barbados

55-6 **Looking for a wife. Mrs Godfrey's suggestion (but no dowry forthcoming). F finds marriage preferable to "that hard-to-be-govern'd Passion of Youth [that] had hurried me into Intrigues with low Women who fell in my Way" but who, "by great good Luck," did not infect him with venereal disease.

**Re-enter Miss Deborah Read "who was generally dejected, seldom cheerful, and avoided Company." Contrast her with James Ralph's milliner in London who had been genteelly bred, was sensible and lively, and of a most pleasing Conversation" (35). Common-law marriage to Deborah (despite fears over bigamy and debts). "She prov'd a good and faithful Helpmate, who assisted me much in attending the shop; we throve together . . . Thus I corrected that great Erratum as well as I could." [Was Deborah the mother of F's illgitimate son William to whom the A is addressed?]

57 **"And now I set on Foot my first Project of a public Nature": the Library Company. Secure in his marriage and profession, F can undertake good works for Philadelphia and America itself.

Part Two

58-62 [Yuk?] F's narrative is interrupted by two panegyrical letters about his character and his achievements. In their celebration of F's temperance, benevolence self-education, Art of Virtue, &c, these correspondents may be right but they are wax tiresome.

63 *"I establish'd myself in Pennsylvania." Stationers (selling almanacs, ballads, schoolbooks) but no real booksellers. Books imported from England. The Junto Club. The spread of reading.

64 *Projects: "I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight." Young family man. "Reading was the only Amusement I allow'd myself. I spent no time in Taverns, Games, or Frolicks . . . " Industry. Frugality.

65 **Hard-working Deborah. "earthen Porringer with a Pewter Spoon . . . China Bowl with a Spoon of Silver." "Luxury."

65-6 F's Presbyterianism: Deity + Providence + Good to Man + Immortal Souls + Rewards and Punishments = "the Essentials of every Religion." Religious divisiveness. "Tho I seldom attended any Public Worship," F endorses its Propriety and Utility and contributes to the the support of the Presbyterian Minister. F eschews polemic divinity.

66-76 **It was about this time that I conceiv'd the bold and arduous Project of arriving at moral Perfection." Twelve (+ one) moral virtues vs. Pleasure, Appetite, Inclination or Passion, Avarice and Ambition. The Memorandum book replaced by an ivory one: illustrations 69 (Temperance) and 72 (Order).

68 **"wishing to to break a Habit I was getting into of Prattling, Punning, and Joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling Company, I gave Silence the second place .

74 Religion?

75 "it was therefore every one's Interest to be virtuous, who wish'd to be happy even in this World."

75-6 **"a Quaker Friend having kindly inform'd me that I was generally thought proud; that my Pride show'd itself frequently in my Conversation . . . I added Humility . . . I cannot boasts of much Success in appearing the Reality of this Virtue; but I had a good deal with regard to the Appearance of it. . . . The modest way in which I propos'd my Opinions, procur'd them a readier Reception and less Contradiction. . . . for these Fifty Years past [1734-1784] no one has ever heard a dogmatical Expression escape me. And to this Habit (after my Character of Integrity) I think it principally owing, that I had so much Weight with my Fellow Citizens, when I proposed new Institutions, or Alterations in the old . . . For I was but a bad Speaker, never eloquent, subject to much Hesitation in my choice of Words, hardly correct in Language, and yet I generally carried my Points.

In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride.

Part Three (increasingly fragmented

77 How the project of moral achievement was based upon his reading. "Public Affairs" and "the Good of Mankind."

78 Restatement of Religious Convictions (see above, ). Creed for an elusive "Society of the Free and Easy" for advancing them.

79 **Account of the publication (1727-1757), contents, and success of Poor Richard's Almanac. Proverbs, wealth, profit.

80 *F's Pennsylvania Gazette: "another Means of communicating Instruction" about moral issues. No libels or personal abuse. "A Newspaper was like a Stage Coach."

81 F's chain stores.

82-3 F and the Philadelphia Presbyterians. A "heterodox" Irish preacher detected as a plagiarist. F's sympathy!

83-4 F's meager education and his self-improvement (in learning languages). Visits Boston. Death of uninoculated son.

83-4 The Junto Society. "Project" for separate sub-Clubs.

84-5 F's advances in Pennsylvania politics help his printing business. F becomes Post-master for Philadelphia, again boosting his finances.

85-6 *"Public Affairs" in Philadelphia. New projects. F replaces a drunken police force. Fire companies formed.

87-91 *Arrival of George Whitefield, the fire-and-brimstone Methodist preacher from England (people are "Half Beasts and half Devils"). A great awakening in Philadelphia (described as "enthusiasm" on 99). Construction of GW's plain meeting-house (see 98-9 for its conversion into the future University of Pennsylvania). F first refuses to contribute to GW's "first Project" of an orphanage in Georgia, but his pockets cannot withstand the effect of GW's religious oratory. F calibrates GW's voice-range. GW's preaching style; stump sermons.

91 "My Business was now continually augmenting. . . Money itself being of a prolific Nature." Chain stores.

91-100 *[Here the details can be difficult to follow.] Projects for an academy (subsequently the University of Pennsylvania) and a militia. F's maneuvering. Madeira wine in New York. Military sermons. Lotteries. Problems with the Quakers' peace testimony. Dunkers. 97. Sectarian modesty "like a Man travelling in foggy Weather." 97-8. *Invention of the Franklin Stove (unpatented).

100-1 *F's retirement from active involvement in business. "Philosophical studies and Amusements . . . Electrical Experiments." Magic Squares and Circles.

101-2 **F as Justice of the Peace. Problems with Native Americans (drunken, quarrelsome and disorderly). Rum, bonfires, and half-naked dancing. "And indeed if it be the Desire of Providence to extirpate these Savages in order to make room for Cultivators of the Earth, it seems not improbable that Rum may be the appointed Means."

102-6 **Projects for Philadelphia: the Pennsylvania Hospital, a new Methodist meeting house, paving streets, street-cleaning, street lamps. F's "political Maneuvers" for the Hospital, "excusing myself for having made some other Use of Cunning": publicity orchestrated by F who also addresses the city-state tensions over expenditure. Vivid accounts of mud. The invention of the Franklin Lamp.

106-8 **F's project for street-cleaning in London (1757). Street-cleaners. Dust in the wind. "Human Felicity is produc'd not so much great Pieces of good Fortune that seldom happen, as by little Advantages that occur every Day." Barbers.

108-30 [Convoluted and randomly detailed.] F's business as Postmaster General. Honorary degrees. French War. F in Boston and New York. Advertisement for wagon-rates (115). Wagon-contents (118). Atrocious behavior of the British army compared to "the Conduct of our French Friends in 1781" (120). Raising funds for war. Gulliverian measurements of the new Fort at Gnadenhut, "if such a magnificent Name may be given to so miserable a Stockade" (125). Rum and military prayers. *F's account of the Moravians in Bethlehem: dormitories, music, sermons, marriage by lottery (127-8). [Note F's practical and ethnographic interests.] Colonel Franklin. Public affairs.

Note proverbial commentary. For example: "History is full of the Errors of States and Princes . . . the best public Measures are therefore seldom adapted from previous Wisdom, but forc'd by the Occasion" (110); "But Common Sense aided by present Danger, will sometimes be too strong for whimsical Opinions" (124); "when Men are employ'd they are best contented (126)."

130-35 **"Some Account of the Rise and Progress of my Philosophical Reputation." Electrical experiments. Interrupted by visitors. "A Number of similar tubes blown at our Glass-House." Different performers. "I encouraged [Mr Kinnersley, my ingenious Neighbor who lacked Business] to undertake showing the Experiments for Money, and drew up for him two Lectures." "Little Machines" and "Instrument-makers." "One Paper which I wrote for Mr Kinnersley, on the Sameness of Lightning with Electricity, I sent to [the Royal Society of London where it] was laugh'd at by the Connoisseurs."

Impact of experiments in Paris where "the Preceptor in Natural Philosophy to the Royal Family, an able Experimenter" decried them and doubted that "there really existed such a Person as Franklin of Philadelphia." F intends "Observations, offer'd as Conjectures, and not delivered dogmatically" and "concluded to let my Papers shift for themselves." F. widely translated. The key experiment--"the Philadelphia Experiments." Lightning rods. F elected to the Royal Society of London who award him the Copley Medal.

Science, madeira wine, and Pennsylvanian politics. News of James Ralph (see ).

134-142 [Convoluted.] Dealings with the indecisive Governor of Pennsylvania (for a comparison see ). Dealings with Governor, Proprietaries, Assembly, and unsatisfactory military officers. Voyage to and arrival in England. [Note F's continual commentary as an empiricist.]

*"I then wonder'd much, how such a Man came to be entrusted with so important a Business as the Conduct of a great Army: but having since seen more of the great World, and the means of obtaining and Motives for giving Places and Employments, my Wonder is diminished" (138).

*F unsatisfied with English underpayment for military provisions etc (140) [Read the footnote but contemplate the irritations of a rich man!] (140).

*Wager over nautical speeds. "The above Fact I give for the sake of the following Observation. It has been remark'd as an Imperfection in the Art of Shipbuilding, that it can never be known 'till she is tried, whether a New Ship will or will not be a good Sailer; for that Model of a good sailing Ship has been exactly follow'd in a new One, which has prov'd on the contrary remarkably dull. . . . I have often observ'd different Judgments in the Officers" (141). *Danger of shipwreck, because of careless officers, near English coast. "This Deliverance impress'd me strongly with the Utility of Lighthouses, and made me resolve to encourage the building more of them in America, if I should return to live there" (142).

*"I set out immediately with my Son for London, and we only stopped a little by the Way to view Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, and Lord Pembroke's House and Gardens, with his very curious Antiquities at Wilton" (142). [F as an indefatigably inquisitive tourist and scientist.]