LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter 2 Benjamin Franklin

       Table of Contents

      THE Perfectibility of Man! Ah heaven, what a dreary theme! The perfectibility of the Ford car! The perfectibility of which man? I am many men. Which of them are you going to perfect? I am not a mechanical contrivance.

      Education! Which of the various me's do you propose to educate, and which do you propose to suppress?

      Anyhow, I defy you. I defy you, oh society, to educate me or to suppress me, according to your dummy standards.

      The ideal man! And which is he, if you please? Benjamin Franklin or Abraham Lincoln? The ideal man! Roosevelt or Porfirio Diaz?

      There are other men in me, besides this patient ass who sits here in a tweed jacket. What am I doing, playing the patient ass in a tweed jacket? Who am I talking to? Who are you, at the other end of this patience?

      Who are you? How many selves have you? And which of these selves do you want to be?

      Is Yale College going to educate the self that is in the dark of you, or Harvard College?

      The ideal self! Oh, but I have a strange and fugitive self shut out and howling like a wolf or a coyote under the ideal windows. See his red eyes in the dark? This is the self who is coming into his own.

      The perfectibility of man, dear God! When every man as long as he remains alive is in himself a multitude of conflicting men. Which of these do you choose to perfect, at the expense of every other?

      Old Daddy Franklin will tell you. He'll rig him up for you, the pattern American. Oh, Franklin was the first downright American. He knew what he was about, the sharp little man. He set up the first dummy American.

      At the beginning of his career this cunning little Benjamin drew up for himself a creed that should 'satisfy the professors of every religion, but shock none'.

      Now wasn't that a real American thing to do?

      'That there is One God, who made all things.'

      (But Benjamin made Him.)

      'That He governs the world by His Providence.'

      (Benjamin knowing all about Providence.)

      'That He ought to be worshipped with adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving.'

      (Which cost nothing.)

      'But—' But me no buts, Benjamin, saith the Lord.

      'But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to men.'

      (God having no choice in the matter.)

      'That the soul is immortal.'

      (You'll see why, in the next clause.)

      'And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter.'

      Now if Mr. Andrew Carnegie, or any other millionaire, had wished to invent a God to suit his ends, he could not have done better. Benjamin did it for him in the eighteenth century. God is the supreme servant of men who want to get on, to produce. Providence. The provider. The heavenly storekeeper. The everlasting Wanamaker.

      And this is all the God the grandsons of the Pilgrim Fathers had left. Aloft on a pillar of dollars.

      'That the soul is immortal.'

      The trite way Benjamin says it!

      But man has a soul, though you can't locate it either in his purse or his pocket-book or his heart or his stomach or his head. The wholeness of a man is his soul. Not merely that nice little comfortable bit which Benjamin marks out.

      It's a queer thing is a man's soul. It is the whole of him. Which means it is the unknown him, as well as the known. It seems to me just funny, professors and Benjamins fixing the functions of the soul. Why, the soul of man is a vast forest, and all Benjamin intended was a neat back garden. And we've all got to fit into his kitchen garden scheme of things. Hail Columbia !

      The soul of man is a dark forest. The Hercynian Wood that scared the Romans so, and out of which came the white-skinned hordes of the next civilization.

      Who knows what will come out of the soul of man? The soul of man is a dark vast forest, with wild life in it. Think of Benjamin fencing it off!

      Oh, but Benjamin fenced a little tract that he called the soul of man, and proceeded to get it into cultivation. Providence, forsooth! And they think that bit of barbed wire is going to keep us in pound for ever? More fools they.

      This is Benjamin's barbed wire fence. He made himself a list of virtues, which he trotted inside like a grey nag in a paddock.

      1. TEMPERANCE

      Eat not to fulness; drink not to elevation.

      2. SILENCE

      Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

      3. ORDER

      Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

      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 employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary action.

      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 extremes, forbear resenting injuries as much as you think they deserve.

      10. CLEANLINESS

      Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

      11. TRANQUILLITY

      Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

      12. CHASTITY

      Rarely use venery but for health and offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.

      13. HUMILITY

      Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

      A Quaker friend told Franklin that he, Benjamin, was generally considered proud, so Benjamin put in the Humility touch as an afterthought. The amusing part is the sort of humility it displays. 'Imitate Jesus and Socrates,' and mind you don't outshine either of these two. One can just imagine Socrates and Alcibiades roaring in their cups over Philadelphian Benjamin, and Jesus looking

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