Benjamin Franklin Essay

I. INTRODUCTION

Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston as the son of a candle maker. From humble beginnings, he grew into a renowned figure of American history. "He became famous for being a scientist, an inventor, a statesman, a printer, a philosopher, a musician, and an economist" . Today, Americans recognize him for being one of our Founding Fathers and a prominent citizen of the city of Philadelphia. In his autobiography, Franklin shows that he desired self-improvement and in pursuit of this goal focused on improvements of four different types: intellectual, moral, business, and social.

II. BODY

Franklin's intellectual improvements were numerous. As a child, he had a thirst for knowledge . He exhibited a readiness to learn and read at an early age, and while in school, he rose to the head of his class and then skipped a grade . After Franklin's father pointed out that he had a poor manner of writing, Franklin resolved to improve not only his manner of writing but also his arrangement of thoughts in his written work . His ambition was to become a good English writer . In his young age, he also was intent on improving his language and when he got older he taught himself French, Italian, Spanish, and Latin . He used the library as a means of improvement by constant study of one to two hours per day here .

Franklin went to great lengths to achieve moral improvement. As a young man, Franklin developed a plan regulating his future conduct in life that he adhered to even in his old age . He wrote a list of moral characters that he would like to possess such as temperance, frugality, and humility. He had thirteen categories in all that he wrote down in a book to carry with him. He had a separate column for each day of the week. He would pull out the book and mark which virtues he felt he had committed a fault in that day so that he may examine them and improve upon them . During the course of this practice, Franklin said that he found himself fuller of faults than he would have thought, but he had the satisfaction of seeing those faults diminish .

His actions also showed that he strove for moral perfection. He thought excessive drinking was a detestable habit and abstained from doing so when his coworkers drank all day long . He spent no time in taverns, playing games, or displaying antics of any kind . He also believed in the importance of frugality and did his best to save money on housing . During the eighteen months he lived in London, he worked hard and spent little on himself except for the occasional play or book . It was his practice of frugality that lead to his wealth and distinction later in life . Benjamin Franklin had a Quaker friend that pointed out that he thought that Franklin had a problem with pride and so Franklin endeavored to be more humble . He attributed his humility, or sometimes his appearance of humility, with allowing him to hold so much weight with his fellow citizens . Franklin also strove for truth, sincerity, and integrity in all of his business dealings .

Not only did Franklin improve