Franklin's Advice for the New Year
January 01, 2021Benjamin Franklin |
Benjamin Franklin. (1706–1790). His Autobiography.
"Resolution:
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you
resolve"-was one of the rules for success framed by America's
first "self-made" man.
These names of virtues,
with their precepts, were:
1. TEMPERANCE.
Eat not to dullness;
drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.
Speak not but what may
benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.
4. RESOLUTION.
Resolve to perform what
you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.
Make no expense but to
do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.
Lose no time; be always
employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.
Use no hurtful deceit;
think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.
Wrong none by doing
injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.
Avoid extreams; forbear
resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.
Tolerate no
uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY.
Be not disturbed at
trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY.
Rarely use venery but
for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of
your own or another’s peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY.
Imitate Jesus and
Socrates.
My intention being to
acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg’d 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 thro’ the thirteen; and, as the previous acquisition of some
might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arrang’d them
with that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to
procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary
where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained
against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force
of perpetual temptations. This being acquir’d and establish’d,
Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at
the same time that I improv’d in virtue, and considering that in
conversation it was obtain’d rather by the use of the ears than of
the tongue, and therefore wishing 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. This and the next,
Order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my
project and my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, would keep
me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues;
Frugality and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and
producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the
practice of Sincerity and Justice, etc., etc. Conceiving then, that,
agreeably to the advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, daily
examination would be necessary, I contrived the following method for
conducting that examination.
I made a little book,
in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I rul’d 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 cross’d
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.
I determined to give
a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively.
Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least
offence against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their
ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day.
Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T,
clear of spots, I suppos’d the habit of that virtue so much
strengthen’d, and its opposite weaken’d, that I might venture
extending my attention to include the next, and for the following
week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I
could go thro’ a course compleat in thirteen weeks, and four
courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does
not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would
exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a
time, and, having accomplish’d the first, proceeds to a second, so
I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my
pages the progress I made in virtue, by clearing successively my
lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I
should he happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks’
daily examination.
This my little book
had for its motto these lines from Addison’s Cato:
“Here will I
hold. If there’s a power above us
(And that there is, all
nature cries aloud
Thro’ all her works),
He must delight in virtue;
And that which he
delights in must be happy.”
Another from Cicero,
“O vitæ
Philosophia dux! O virtutum indagatrix expultrixque vitiorum! Unus
dies, bene et ex præceptis tuis actus, peccanti immortalitati est
anteponendus.”
Another from the
Proverbs of Solomon, speaking of wisdom or virtue:
“Length of
days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”
iii. 16, 17.
And conceiving God to
be the fountain of wisdom, I thought it right and necessary to
solicit his assistance for obtaining it; to this end I formed the
following little prayer, which was prefix’d to my tables of
examination, for daily use.
“O
powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! Increase in me
that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my
resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind
offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy
continual favors to me.”
I used also sometimes
a little prayer which I took from Thomson’s Poems, viz.:
“Father of
light and life, thou Good Supreme!
O teach me what is
good; teach me Thyself!
Save me from folly,
vanity, and vice,
From every low pursuit;
and fill my soul
With knowledge,
conscious peace, and virtue pure;
Sacred, substantial,
never-fading bliss!”
The precept of Order
requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted
time, one page in my little book contain’d the following scheme of
employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day:
THE MORNING.
(5–7)
Question. What good
shall I do this day?
Rise, wash, and address
Powerful Goodness! Contrive day’s business, and take the resolution
of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.
(8–11)
Work.
NOON.
(12–1) Read, or
overlook my accounts, and dine.
(2–5)
Work.
EVENING. (6–9)
Question. What good
have I done to-day?
Put things in their
places. Supper. Music or diversion, or conversation. Examination of
the day.
NIGHT. (10–4)
Sleep.
I enter’d upon the
execution of this plan for self-examination, and continu’d it with
occasional intermissions for some time. I was surpris’d to find
myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the
satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the trouble of
renewing now and then my little book, which, by scraping out the
marks on the paper of old faults to make room for new ones in a new
course, became full of holes, I transferr’d my tables and precepts
to the ivory leaves of a memorandum book, on which the lines were
drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on those lines I
mark’d my faults with a black-lead pencil, which marks I could
easily wipe out with a wet sponge. After a while I went thro’ one
course only in a year, and afterward only one in several years, till
at length I omitted them entirely, being employ’d in voyages and
business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered; but
I always carried my little book with me.
My scheme of ORDER
gave me the most trouble; and I found that, tho’ 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 regard to places for things, papers, etc., I
found extreamly 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 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 neighbour, desired to have
the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented
to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turn’d,
while the smith press’d 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 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,” said 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 employ’d, 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 extream nicety as I exacted of myself
might be 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; and now I am grown old,
and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the
whole, tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so
ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the
endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have
been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing
by imitating the engraved copies, tho’ they never reach the
wish’d-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the
endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible.
It may be well my
posterity should be informed that to this little artifice, with the
blessing of God, their ancestor ow’d the constant felicity of his
life, down to his 79th year, in which this is written. What reverses
may attend the remainder is in the hand of Providence; but, if they
arrive, the reflection on past happiness enjoy’d ought to help his
bearing them with more resignation. To Temperance he ascribes his
long-continued health, and what is still left to him of a good
constitution; to Industry and Frugality, the early easiness of his
circumstances and acquisition of his fortune, with all that knowledge
that enabled him to be a useful citizen, and obtained for him some
degree of reputation among the learned; to Sincerity and Justice, the
confidence of his country, and the honorable employs it conferred
upon him; and to the joint influence of the whole mass of the
virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire them, all
that evenness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation, which
makes his company still sought for, and agreeable even to his younger
acquaintance. I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may
follow the example and reap the benefit.
1 comments
Thank you, Ma'am! Wish you a Happy New Year.
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