The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 61Mediocrity prevails” – as long as they apply themselves to useful toil. Like the good
scientist, Franklin the narrator looks at the events of Franklin the autobiographical
character’s life and tries to draw inferences from them. Or he tries to see how his
own moral hypotheses worked, when he put them to the test of action. This means
that he is more than just remembering in his Autobiography. He is also demonstrat-
ing those truths about human nature, human society, and God which, as he sees it,
should be acknowledged by all reasonable men.
Just how much Franklin presents his story as a prototypical American one is
measured in the first section of the Autobiography. His “first entry” into the city of
Philadelphia in 1723, for instance, is described in detail. And what he emphasizes is
his sorry appearance and poverty. “I was in my working dress,” he tells the reader,
“my best clothes being to come round by sea.” “I was dirty from my journey,” he
adds, “and I knew no soul nor where to look for lodging.” “Fatigued with travelling,”
“very hungry,” and with a “stock of cash” consisting only of “a Dutch dollar, and
about a shilling in copper,” all he could purchase for himself to eat was “three great
puffy rolls.” Munching disconsolately on these, he then walked through the streets of
Philadelphia “passing by the door of Mr. Read, my future wife’s father,” Franklin
explains, “when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly
did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance.” Whatever the truth of this story,
Franklin is also clearly constructing a myth here, one that was to become familiar in
American narratives. This is the self-made man as hero, on his first appearance, poor
and unknown and unprotected, entering a world that he then proceeds to conquer.
That Franklin was able to rise to affluence and reputation from these humble
beginnings was due, he tells the reader, not only to self-help and self-reliance but to
self-reinvention. In the second section of his Autobiography he explains how he
“conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection.” Wanting
“to live without committing any fault at any time,” he drew up a list of the “moral
virtues,” such as “temperance,” “silence,” “order,” “resolution,” and “frugality.” And he
then gave “a week’s attention to each of the virtues successively.” “My great goal,”
Franklin says, “was to avoid even the least offence” against the moral virtue for that
week, “leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance.” A complicated chart was
drawn up for the week; and, if ever he committed a least offense against that week’s
moral virtue, he would mark it on the chart, his obvious aim being to keep it “clean
of spots.” Since he had enumerated thirteen virtues, he could “go through a course
complete” in moral reeducation in thirteen weeks, and “four courses in a year.”
Springing from a fundamental belief that the individual could change, improve, and
even recreate himself with the help of reason, common sense, and hard work,
Franklin’s program for himself was one of the first great formulations of the
American dream. Rather than being born into a life, Franklin is informing his read-
ers, a person can make that life for himself. He can be whoever he wants to be. All he
needs is understanding, energy, and commitment to turn his own best desires about
himself into a tangible reality.
And that, as he tells it and indeed lived it, is exactly what Franklin did. By 1748,
when he was still only 42, he had made enough money to retire from active business.GGray_c01.indd 61ray_c 01 .indd 61 8 8/1/2011 7:54:56 AM/ 1 / 2011 7 : 54 : 56 AM