Background of Benjamin Franklin Essay

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was thought by himself to be the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral flawlessness. It refers to when he was in his twenties, around 1726, he found himself jobless pinched in debt and suddenly a single father. He was rattling apt and he knew there was emphatically something wrong in his disembodied spirit and he was eager to make a change. So he wrote this archives non only to tell his son about his life but as well to improve his financial situation and to provide a model for self-reformation for any angiotensin converting enzyme interested. In browse to achieve his goal, Franklin developed and committed himself to a ain improvement program that consisted of long dozen virtues. Actuall(a)y, Franklin found twelve virtues out of thirteen in the reading (124). And another one was from the suggestion of his friend (133). Franklin do a list of thirteen virtues as follow silence order resolution frugality industry sincerity jus tice moderation cleanliness quietness chastity and humility (125-126).The first eight virtues relate to peoples attitudes towards their daily activities and their challenges, which belongs to personal virtues . The last five virtues that Franklin stated concern ones attitudes toward people with whom one has to be dealings, which fall into social virtues. Franklin caboodle forth the thirteen virtues in a precise practical and sagacious way. Simultaneously, he gave reasons for the order of these virtues (126). He put temperance at the contribute of the list, while humility came last. If a person drive out conquer temperance, much(prenominal) a primal urge for food or drink, he seat keep a cool and clean mind to do something more(prenominal) important, thus making self-development in other virtues. Overall, his rational arrangement for the virtues makes individually prior virtue help Franklin acquire each following virtue. In order to acquire these thirteen virtues, Franklin charted his daily progress, focusing his attention on one virtue each week, so after thirteen weeks he had completed all the virtues (127-128).Keeping track of his successes and failures in a downhearted book, he kept it with him at all times for many years. every(prenominal) night before going to bed, he would reflect and evaluate himself on what he had acquired and what he had failed. His goal was to minimize faults in his life, thus indicating he was moving toward living a more virtuous life throw in the towel of mistakes. Although Franklin tried to follow the virtues himself, he sometimes strayed from his good intentions. The most difficult virtue he met with was order (130-132). It was partly because Franklins good computer storage make order not as necessary. When he was young he remembered whenever he left anything. As he grew older, his memory became poorer and poorer, which caused him problems with order. Partly because he was a business man to be interrupted from the public ofttimes so that he could not focus on something as it was expected. another(prenominal) troublesome virtue Franklin confronted with was humility (133).Virtually, Franklin was born to be proud, but he had to pretend to be humble in public so that he could establish a good social status. Though Franklin admitted in his autobiography that he often fell short, he believed the process helped make him a better man and contributed to his success and happiness (131-132). For example, temperance contributed to his long life and good health. As for persisting in Industry and Frugality, he accumulate a lot of wealth and gained a large scope of cognition to do scientific research. All those virtues together had shaped Franklins very pleasant personality. Furthermore, the autobiography indicates Franklin was very intelligent. Initially, he could list out these virtues in the reading (124) and the method of virtues was very rational for people to follow(127).In all his life, Franklin had followed his plan of virtues and become a person full of virtuousness. He too set a good model for the descendants to follow and uttered his good will for them (132). As for the autobiography itself, I completely suit with his consents the bold and arduous project. It means that it was not easy for people to follow. just Franklin himself had proved to be very successful in many handle by following his plan of thirteen virtues. Franklin was also a very responsible person because he educated and raised his son on his own. He was passionate about science, thats why he had do great contribution to our society, making a lot of inventions lighting rod, Franklins stove and odometer, so on and so forth. The autobiography female genital organ be of great use to others.If only we descendants can follow his virtues, we can make great self-improvement in our own fields and in moral standards. I have been reckoning how Franklin made his own bring out? When he was xx-two years old, he wa s strikingly impoverished and a single father. But by the age of forty-two, Franklin had achieved all his goals, which were not acquired by accident, but by his strong faith in his virtues. For more than twenty years, six days a week with dirty hands, Franklin had been doing the routine browse in the printing house.Every night he constantly made self-criticism on what he had achieved and what he should have to acquire. If only I can follow some of Franklins thirteen virtues, I am definitely making great progress in my study overseas and in my future teaching career. Take the virtue order for example, it sounds so minor(ip) that we can easily neglect in our daily life, actually, searching for items for furcate every day is always time-consuming. If I can arrange everything in its place, I would study more efficiently and achieve much high grades. Of course, the thirteen virtues are a good guide for me to follow. In fact, memory track of how well I do in maintaining the virtues a nd having positive lineament traits, as Franklin did, is worth trying.