Reflection #12 Franklin and Tuckerman

Ben Franklin had many virtues in his life. Ben Franklin came up with a list of virtues that he thought could possibly make people in the world better people. The first thing that Ben Franklin did when he made this list of virtues was to incorporate them into his daily lifestyle to know that theses virtues were actually practical and it was not totally impossible for any one person to be able to have all of these virtues and to keep up with them. I think that Ben Franklin had a really good plan for implementing the virtues into his life because he did this by adding the virtues to his life one by one. I think that Franklin made a good observation that it would be really hard to change all of your virtues in one day, so he knew that it was going to take some time to change. He started to conform his current virtues to the new and improved list that he had come up with. By reading the literary criticism by Tuckerman I got a really good vibe about Ben Franklin. Tuckerman must have really liked Franklin because for a criticism he seemed to be really nice to Franklin. I noticed that Tuckerman said the Ben Franklin was “practical and he has prominent characteristics” (Tuckerman).I think that Tuckerman’s criticism is a good one because I can find support from Franklin’s autobiography that supports the opinions of Tuckerman and also myself. In Franklin’s autobiography, I noticed that he seemed to be a man that was never a hypocrite. I think that Ben Franklin was a really good man in that he did not just preach the virtues that he thought were right, he actually incorporated them into his own life at the rate of one virtue per week (Franklin 150). I think that it is really neat to look at the order that Ben Franklin organized his virtues in because I do believe that there was a method to his madness. Franklin said, “And, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with that view, as they stand above” (Franklin 150). I noticed the order was kind of in a reverse order on the scale of importance or power. I think that the easiest virtue should be first and I do believe that is the method that Mr. Franklin did in fact use. I also notice the order because the very last virtue was “Humility- Imitate Jesus and Socrates” (Franklin 150). I think that the last virtue would be very hard to incorporate into your life if you had trouble with the prior twelve virtues. I think that Ben Franklin organized these virtues by the level of their importance. With the chart that Ben Franklin used to keep track of his progress came his understanding that he is not perfect and nor will he ever be (Franklin 157). Ben Franklin is a very honest man and I admire him for his efforts to make humans be better people.

Franklin, Benjamin, and Leonard Woods Labaree. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale UP, 1964. Print.

Tuckerman, Henry T. "The Character of Franklin." Facts on File. Web. 30 Oct. 2011.