Background of Benjamin Franklin Essay Example for Free

Background of Benjamin Franklin tasteThe Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was thought by himself to be the blustering and arduous project of arriving at object lesson perfection. It refers to when he was in his twenties, around 1726, he found himself jobless penniless in debt and of a sudden a single father. He was actually intelligent and he knew there was definitely something wrong in his life and he was e festerr to make a change. So he wrote this autobiography not exclusively to tell his son ab give away his life but also to improve his financial situation and to suffer a model for self-improvement for anyone interested. In nine to achieve his goal, Franklin developed and committed himself to a personalized improvement program that consisted of thirteen sexual moralitys. Actually, Franklin found twelve virtues out of thirteen in the reading (124). And another(prenominal) one was from the suggestion of his friend (133). Franklin made a list of thirteen virtues as follow serenity order resolution frugality industry sincerity justice moderation cleanliness tranquility chastity and humbleness (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 verbalize concern ones attitudes toward people with whom one has to be dealings, which fall into social virtues. Franklin set ahead the thirteen virtues in a very practical and rational way. Simultaneously, he gave reasons for the order of these virtues (126). He depute temperance at the top of the list, while humility came last. If a person can conquer temperance, such a primal urge for food or drink, he can keep a imperturbable and clean mind to do something more important, thus making self-development in other virtues. Overall, his rational order for the virtues makes each prior virtue help Franklin involve each following virtue. In order to acquire these thir teen virtues, Franklin charted his daily progress, focusing his attention on one virtue each week, so later thirteen weeks he had completed all the virtues (127-128).Keeping track of his successes and failures in a small book, he kept it with him at all times for many years. either 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 free of mistakes. Although Franklin tried to follow the virtues himself, he sometimes strayed from his good intentions. The most troublesome virtue he met with was order (130-132). It was partly beca aim Franklins good computer storage made 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 popula r frequently so that he could not focus on something as it was expected. Another troublesome virtue Franklin confronted with was humility (133).Virtually, Franklin was born to be proud, but he had to pretend to be humble in usual 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 rejoicing (131-132). For example, temperance contributed to his long life and good health. As for persisting in Industry and Frugality, he put in a lot of wealth and gained a large scope of knowledge to do scientific research. all(prenominal) 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 foll owed his plan of virtues and make out a person full of virtuousness. He also set a good model for the posterity to follow and expressed his good will for them (132). As for the autobiography itself, I completely agree with his consents the bold and arduous project. It means that it was not easy for people to follow. But Franklin himself had proved to be very roaring in many fields by following his plan of thirteen virtues. Franklin was also a very responsible person because he educated and raised his son on his have got. He was passionate close to science, thats why he had made massive contribution to our society, making a lot of inventions luminosity rod, Franklins stove and odometer, so on and so forth. The autobiography can 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 name? When he was 20-two years old, he was 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 work 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 that we can easily neglect in our daily life, actually, searching for items for class any day is always time-consuming. If I can arrange everything in its place, I would study more efficiently and achieve much higher grades. Of course, the thirteen virtues are a good guide for me to follow. In fact, holding track of how well I do in maintaining the virtues and having positive cha racter traits, as Franklin did, is worth trying.