BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, 
 1706-1790. 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
 AND EDUCATION 
 
 HIS IDEAL OF LIFE 
 
 AND HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION FOR THE 
 REALIZATION OF THAT IDEAL 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID EXCELMONS CLOYD 
 
 PH.B., UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA; A.M., TEACHERS COLLEGE, 
 
 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 FIELD REPRESENTATIVE OF THE GENERAL EDUCATION .BOARD 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A. 
 
 D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 
 1902 
 

 
 COPYRIGHT, 1902, 
 BY DAVID EXCELMONS CLOYD. 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 DR. D. L. KIEHLE 
 
 WHO FIRST AWAKENED MY INTEREST 
 IN THE 
 
 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 120792 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I HAVE endeavored in this volume to give a 
 simple presentation of Franklin s ideal of life, 
 and the means whereby an individual might 
 attain nearest to this ideal in his own life. I 
 have conceded that there was a great gulf be 
 tween the ideal Franklin and the real Franklin, 
 and I have indicated that there are proofs of 
 this fact in his writings, but I have touched 
 lightly upon this topic because it was the ideal 
 and not the real I was attempting to portray, 
 believing as I do that it was this ideal which 
 made Franklin the great and good man that he 
 was, and that it still has power to lift up from 
 poverty many another boy to eminence and 
 virtue. 
 
 DAVID EXCELMONS CLOYD. 
 
 116 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK, 
 August, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE . . . . . . ... . . v 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY ix 
 
 PART I 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 3 
 
 ^i. Life as a whole : . . . . . . . . . 3 
 
 * . a. Aim of life 4 
 
 v b. Theory of morality ...... 5 
 
 * c. Two governing principles in life ... 6 
 d. Method of attaining moral perfection . . 7 
 
 / e. Religion an element of his ideal ... 9 
 
 //. Ideal realized in himself 1 1 
 
 2. Estimate of mankind 14 
 
 a. Two classes of people 14 
 
 * b. Tolerant of others opinions . . . -15 
 1 c. Charitable feeling for humanity . . .16 
 
 d. Motives that govern mankind . . . 17 
 
 3. Guide to material success 18 
 
 4^-IJQwJFranklin was- educated . -. . . . 18 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 SYJTEM 0^D^ATiON AnvocATRn RV FRANTCT.TTJ . 22 
 
 I. His writings on education . . . . . 22 
 
Viii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 \S 2. Self-education 22 
 
 a. Literary and debating societies ... 23 
 
 ,J& Value and use of a library .... 24 
 
 vj c. Self-education not the only method . . 26 
 J 3. Organized schools . . . . . . .26 
 
 a. Function of the state in education ... 26 
 
 /;. Schools for the masses 28 
 
 N - c. Function of the church in education . . 29 
 
 * 4. The curriculum 3 
 
 5. Education of special classes 4 1 
 
 a. Of women 4 2 
 
 ^ b. Of orphans 44 
 
 >J c. Of negroes 45 
 
 6. Methods of teaching 46 
 
 a. Socratic . 47 
 
 b. By example . 49 
 
 c. By comparison . . . . . -5 
 
 7. The ideal teacher . , 51 
 
 PART II 
 
 FRANKLIN S OWN WRITINGS ON EDUCATION ... 55 
 
 1. Plan of daily examinations in moral virtues . . 55 
 
 2. Father Abraham s speech 58 
 
 3. Proposals relating to the education of youth in 
 
 Pennsylvania 73 
 
 4. Sketch of an English school 86 
 
 5. Speech in the Constitutional Convention at the 
 
 close of its deliberations 9& 
 
 6. Motion for prayers in the Constitutional Convention 102 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 1. The Works of Benjamin Franklin, by Jared Sparks. --> 
 
 2. The Works of Benjamin Franklin, by John Bigelow. Cb> 
 -3. Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters, by McMaster. 
 
 4. Benjamin Franklin as an American Statesman, by J. T. 
 
 Morse, Jr. 
 
 5. The Many-sided Franklin, by Paul Leicester Ford. 
 
 6. Benjamin Franklin and the University of Pennsylvania, by 
 
 Francis Newton Thorpe. 
 
 7. Life of Franklin, by Jared Sparks. 
 
 8. Tracts of the American Revolution, P. L. R. 
 
 9. Character of Benjamin Franklin, by Henry D. Gilpin, P. H. S. 
 
 10. Life and Times of Franklin, by James Parton, P. H. S. 
 
 11. The Beauties of Franklin, by Alfred Howard, P. H. S. 
 
 12. Sayings of Poor Richard (Prefaces, Proverbs, and Poems), 
 
 Paul L. Ford, P. H. S. 
 
 13. Eulogiums on Dr. Franklin, by Dr. William Smith, P.L. R. 
 
 14. Curious and Facetious Letters of Franklin, P. H. S. 
 
 15. The Ideal versus the Real Franklin, by E. D. Neil, P. H. S. 
 
 1 6. Benjamin Franklin as an Economist, by W. A. Wetzel, P. H. S. 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS 
 
 P. L. R. means Philadelphia Library, Ridgeway Branch. 
 P. H. S. means Pennsylvania Historical Society. 
 S. means Jared Sparks. 
 B. means John Bigelow. 
 
PART I 
 
 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL 
 IDEAL 
 
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 _ OF 
 
 CHAPTER I " 
 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 POSSIBLY no other practical man has given in 
 his writings a fuller and clearer statement of 
 what education should do for one than has 
 Franklin. This is largely due to the fact that 
 he was what is generally called a self-educated 
 man. ( And self -education with him was a defi 
 nite, conscious means of realizing in himself an 
 Ideal, which Ideal was a life of service, and 
 Abroad enough to comprehend the whole of life/ 
 To properly understand his, attitude toward the 
 school as an institution and toward the various 
 subjects in the curriculum, as well as his views 
 regarding methods of learning and instructing, 
 one must see clearly the end, or aim, that 
 Franklin would have the student reach. 
 
 The analysis of his thoughts of life as & 
 whole shows clearly that he always had in mind 
 3 
 
4 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 the effect in after life of each present act. An 
 illustration of this is his comparison of life with 
 
 a dramatic piece, which he said should 
 A iSe f not on ty ru n with regularity but sbioul(f" 
 
 end handsomely ; and for such an 
 ending he began in middle life to cast about, 
 believing that in such an enterprise God would 
 give him success, if he undertook it with a sin 
 cere regard to His honor, the service of his 
 gracious King, and the public good. 1 This 
 carefully regulated life was to be one of service 
 :o mankind, to one s country, friends, and family ; 
 and the idea__of_ such ^service, as true merit, 
 should be often explained and impre>e^d on the 
 minds of youth. 2 Every word of tjiisy aim or 
 purpose of life rings with altruistic utilitarianism. 
 And a man who gave himself in this way was 
 wise and good, and it was upon such that the 
 strength of the state depended rather than upon 
 riches and armies. 3 From early youth till his 
 death Franklin kept himself under the mos : 
 rigid discipline and training that he might realize 
 in himselfthis. lofty ideal. He says in his auto- 
 
 1 To George Whitefield, 1756. B. II. 466. 
 
 2 Proposals relating to the. Education of the Youth of Pennsyl 
 vania, 1749. B. I. 224. 
 
 8 To Dr. Johnson. B. II. 204. 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 ( biography j that(at the age of twenty-six he con- 
 ^-eeivctftHe bold and arduous project of arriving 
 at moral perfection.) In this plan we find his 
 simple, practical theory of morality. Hejvished 
 to live without committing any fault and" to 
 conquer all that natural inclination, custom, or 
 company might lead him into. Knowing what 
 was right and what was wrong he believed he 
 could form the habit of doing the 
 right, and in the self-denial that such 
 a course necessitated he believed that 
 he would find the greatest good and the highest 
 satisfaction. 2 He believed that a man should 
 seek happiness, but not as a Hedonist; the 
 pleasures of sense were rather to be despised, 
 because thevjtended to blight the higher life. 
 He advocated rational pleasure and moral good, 
 which were to be found in acts of kindness, 
 friendship, generosity, and benevolence. For," 
 said he, that kind of pleasure lasts to the end of 
 one s being. It is preservative of mankind and 
 produces real and universal happiness. But the 
 self-denial necessary to such morality was not 
 that of an ascetic. His argument regarding the 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 105. 
 
 ^ Dialogue between Horatio and Philodes, 1730. S. II. 46 ; 
 B. I. 383- 
 
6 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 essence of virtue is to show that there is virtue 
 without self-denial. 1 Virtue is merit, and" the 
 saints in heaven who are~free from temptation 
 have the most perfect virtue. Hence, self-denial 
 is only to be commended when it is applied in a 
 good sense, in an act of service. This whole 
 some philosophy of life is found in most all of 
 his important writings. 
 
 All the world, he says, seeks happiness, but 
 by different methods. There are two principles 
 that guide men in this pursuit one^passion, the 
 other reason. 2 Passion often chooses evil, but 
 as an imaginary good, while reason 
 Governing chooses what is in reality good. The 
 Principles quality of one s happiness depends 
 upon which prevails in the conflict 
 between these two principles. Passions are 
 concerned too much with earthly objects to givt 
 us composure and acquiescence of mind, whik 
 submission to the will of Providence, which ih 
 guidance by reason, gives true happiness and i^ 
 the best guard against the evils which passion?. 
 choose.X-A. rational being finds a brighter satis 
 faction in the expectation of the things of the 
 
 1 Self-denial not the Essence of Virtue, 1734. S. II. 63 ; B. I. 
 414. 
 
 2 True Happiness. S. II. 70 ; B. I. 422. 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 7 
 
 next world than in the enjoyment of those of 
 the present. 
 
 His method of self-discipline whereby he 
 hoped to become virtuous and "to realize this 
 ideal of life was elaborate and comprehensive 
 regarding the minutest acts. It showed clearly 
 that he believed one becomes virtuous by prac 
 tising the virtues by acquiring the 
 habit of doing right. Mere specula^^ttaining 
 tive conviction that it was to our Moral 
 
 ... Perfection. 
 
 interest to be completely virtuous was 
 not sufficient to keep us from slipping, but the 
 contrary habits must be broken and good ones 
 acquired before we can have any dependence 
 on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. He 
 made a list of thirteen virtues and annexed to 
 each a precept which fully expressed the extent 
 which he gave to its meaning. 1 In a little book 
 which he always carried with him he allotted 3! 
 page for each virtue, and each day he graaedT 
 him&elfy-concentrating his attention for a weekT 
 at a time upon a single virtue. In his auto- 1 
 biography, written late in life, he says that he 
 kept up this self-examination for 
 
 it up only with the press of business, though he 
 always carried the little book with him. The| 
 
 1 Sparks, Autobiography of Franklin, p. 106 ; B. I. 174. 
 
8 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 extent to which he realized the moral perfection 
 which he hoped that this scheme would give 
 him, is told admirably in his own words. 
 
 " It may be well my posterity should be in 
 formed that to this little artifice, with the bless 
 ing of God, their ancestor owes the constant 
 felicity of his life down to his seventy-ninth 
 year, in which this is written. Whatever re 
 verses may attend, the remainder is in the hand 
 of Providence ; but, if they arrive, the reflection 
 on past happiness enjoyed ought to help his 
 bearing them with more resignation." 
 
 So strongly did he believe in the efficacy of 
 this method, that he proposed writing a book, 
 to be called, The Art of Virtue, in which he 
 would show the manner and means of attaining 
 virtue. He intended that this should be the 
 greatest work of his life. The plan of it is 
 given in a letter to Llord Kames, 2 written when 
 Franklin was fifty years old. His thesis is: 
 " Most people have naturally some virtues, but 
 none have naturally all the virtues. To acquire 
 those that are wanting and to secure what we 
 acquire, as well as those we have naturally, is 
 as properly an art as painting, navigation, or 
 
 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 114- 
 
 To Lord Kames, 1760, 1761. B. III. 47 X 5 2 - 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 architecture." Hejrepeatedly refers to this book 
 in his correspondence, but left it unfinished at 
 his death. 
 
 Intentionally he left out of this scheme every 
 mark of any of the distinguishing tenets of re 
 ligious sects, because he, believing so strongly 
 in the utility and excellency of it, thought that 
 he could thereby make it more serviceable to 
 people of all religions. But it is by Religionan 
 no means to be concluded that Frank- Element 
 lin omitted religion from his ideal ofhisldeal - 
 man. Though in early life a deist, he soon be 
 gan to feel the inadequacy of such a belief in the j 
 dealings between man and man, and was con 
 vinced that truth, sincerity, and integrity were 
 of the utmostjmportance to the felicity of life. 1 
 And while he never accepted, though he did not 
 deny, the doctrine of Revelation nor of the di 
 vinity of Christ, yet he was religious in what 
 he thought to be the most practical, wholesome, 
 and ideal way a religion without offence to any 
 sect, but suggestive to all in its simplicity and 
 saving power X In a letter to a friend a short 
 time before his death, he gave his creed in the 
 following simple and beautiful lines : 
 
 " I believe in one God, the creator of the uni- \/ 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 76. 
 
IO FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 verse. That He governs it by His providence. 
 
 That He ought to be worshipped. That the 
 
 I most acceptable service rendered to Him is 
 
 / doing good to His other children. That the soul 
 
 ; of man is immortal, and will be treated with 
 
 ! justice in another life respecting its conduct in 
 
 this." l 
 
 These were the main principles of his reli 
 gion a religion which he believed would be a 
 powerful regulator of ourjactions, give us peace 
 and tranquillity within our minds, and render 
 us benevolent, useful, and beneficial to others. 2 
 The following instance is strong proof of his 
 faith in the guiding hand of a divine Provi 
 dence. It is his famous motion for prayers in 
 the convention that framed the Constitution 
 of the United States. 3 In the deliberations of 
 that body no agreement could be reached on 
 most of the questions ; the convention had sought 
 models of government in ancient forms, but had 
 found none suited to their needs. "Why not 
 go now to the Father of Lights," asked Frank 
 lin, "to illuminate our understanding? In the 
 
 1 To Ezra Stiles, 1790. S. X. 422; B. X. 192. 
 
 2 Lecture on the Providence of God in the Government of the 
 World. B. VII. 489. 
 
 8 B. IX. 428 ; S. V. 153. 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL II 
 
 beginning of our conflict with Great Britain we 
 offered up daily prayers to Him, and these were 
 heard and answered." The longer he lived, he 
 said, the more convincing proof he saw that 
 God governs in the affairs of men. However, 
 it must be admitted that, both in a theoretical 
 sense and in its practical workings, his religion 
 was very different from that of the orthodox 
 sects of his day. 1 The utilitarian turn of his ^ 
 mind led him to attempt to adapt the Book of 
 Common Prayer to the needs of the old, sick, 
 and young who could not find it prudent or con 
 venient to attend service. Though no practical 
 use was ever made of this book, yet it helps us 
 to see that his religious nature was always 
 turned toward the people who were in need of 
 service. 
 
 With this view of his ideal man before us, we 
 look to see to what extent Franklin realized it 
 in his own life. A quotation from a letter to a 
 friend, 2 when Franklin was in his Ideal 
 seventy-eighth year, is a beautiful realized in 
 
 . r himself. 
 
 summary of his own conception ot 
 
 what his life had been. He had "enemies 
 
 as an American," he said, " enemies as a minis- v 
 
 1 B. v. 274. 
 
 2 To John Jay, 1784. S. X. 52 ; B. VIII. 425. 
 
12 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAI 
 
 ter, but not as a man. No human being exists 
 who can say, Benjamin Franklin has wronged 
 me. " 
 
 Duke de la Rochefoucauld, an eminent 
 Frenchman, in a letter to Franklin, 1 charac 
 terized him as a " philosopher whose genius 
 has thrown light upon physical and political 
 science, has taught what liberty is, and how we 
 may acquire and preserve it, who knows the 
 - value of friendship, who can judge himself with 
 \ th^s^me^impjJiiality with which he can judge 
 others." 
 
 Washington s conception of what Franklin 
 had realized in himself is told in a letter to 
 him. 2 " If to be venerated for benevolence, if 
 to be admired for talents, if to be esteemed for 
 patriotism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, 
 can gratify the human mind, you must have the 
 pleasing consolation to know that you have not 
 lived in vain." 
 
 Morse, in his Benjamin Franklin, an Ameri 
 can Statesman? says : " If we can imagine a 
 circumference whiciusjiall express humanity ; we 
 can place~within it no one man who will reach 
 
 1 To Franklin, 1788. S. X. 354 ; B. X. 2. 
 
 2 Washington to Franklin, ^89. S. X. 396 ; B. X. 148. 
 8 J. T. Morse, Benjamin Franklin, p. 420. 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 13 
 
 out to approaqk_it-a4-4e-touch it at so many 
 points as will Franklin." 
 
 His great ambition was to benefit mankind, 
 and every moment that could be taken from his 
 public service was spent in devising something 
 to promote the general welfare. He founded, 
 libraries, organized societies, started schools./ . 
 wrote, gave counsel, money, inventions, every 
 thing that his hand or brain could^prDduce, 
 that humanity might be blessed. Possibly no one 
 has ever lived who, relative to his own time of 
 life, has ever- done more than Franklin for man- / 
 kind. Yet, there wasjjjjarkef side to his life. 
 some habits he had not succeeded in breaking, >J 
 notwithstanding his high ideal and all his rigid 
 self-discipline. He wrote some things that were 
 not pure in thought, and violated some virtues 
 which he considered so essential to a moral life. 
 But this was not the Franklin that he wanted to 
 be, and not the Franklin that lives to-day in the 
 many institutions founded by him, or in accord 
 with his ideals. And the criticisms made upon 
 him by his enemies while he lived, and by some 
 present students of his life, are certainly too 
 severe in the light of the tremendous force for 
 good that Franklin was in his own day and will 
 continue to be till time is no more. 
 
14 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 With this ideal and its partial realization in 
 his own life, Franklin was severe and at times 
 rather pessimistic in his estimate of people in 
 general. His keen desire to improve their con- 
 Estimate dition made him study them as to 
 of their nature, their tendency, and their 
 possibilities, and he found much that 
 was not good. 1 He says that he found more 
 pleasure in studying the inanimate works of 
 nature than the animate or moral part, which 
 disgusted him more and more. He found men 
 to be a sort of beings, very badly constructed, 
 as they are generally more easily provoked than 
 reconciled, more disposed to do mischief to each 
 other than to make reparation, much more easily 
 deceived than undeceived, and having more 
 pride and even pleasure in killing than in be 
 getting one another. In an essay, The Hand 
 some and Deformed Leg? he divides the 
 world into two parts, both of which start with 
 equal health, wealth, and comforts of life ; one 
 becomes happy, the other miserable. This is 
 due to the different views they take of persons 
 and things. All things, he_&ays, have both a 
 good and a bad side, but one /class have formed 
 
 1 To Joseph Priestly, 1782. S. 1X7^25 ; B. VII. 464. 
 
 2 The Handsome and Deformed Leg. S. II. 186 ; B. VI. 253. 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 15 
 
 the habit of being bad through the continuous 
 imitation of the bad which they see in life about 
 them. They have perverted their nature, which 
 was originally good. His admonition to such 
 was to change their habits, as otherwise no one 
 could ever love them. 
 
 But regarding peoples opinions, he was more 
 charitable, 1 and was tolerant almost to a fault. 
 An illustration of this fact is found in a letter 
 to his son William, who had broken with his 
 father because he had conceived that Tolerant of 
 his duty to his king and regard for others 
 his country required it. In a letter P lnlons - 
 replying to the son s request to renew the affec 
 tionate intercourse, Franklin says, " I ought not 
 to blame you for differing in sentiment with me 
 in public affairs, for our opinions are not in our 
 own hands, they are formed and governed much 
 by circumstances that are often as inexplicable 
 as they are irresistible." 
 
 Notwithstanding this adverse criticism Frank- 
 lin loved humanity, believed in it, and trusted 
 it. 2 He found a saving element in every char 
 acter, an innate power, which, when directed by 
 reason, would lead each soul into a happy life. 
 
 1 To William Franklin, 17. S. X. 121 ; B. IX. 43. 
 
 2 Poem on Ambition, Almanac 1758. P. L. R. 
 
1 6 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 Every one at some time felt the impelling power 
 
 of ambition, which, if Heaven directed, would 
 
 Charitable ma ^e the individual both good and 
 
 Feeling for great. A wise ambition, through in- 
 
 imamty. ^ustry, awa k ens nature s powers and 
 adds some new-born grace each day. These 
 struggles are first for selfish ends, but nature 
 inspires thoughts for others which manifest 
 themselves as love for family and then for 
 friends. If this friendship be cherished for 
 mutual ends, then it ripens into charity, which 
 is love for all mankind, the highest service to 
 one s maker. This is the possibility which he 
 saw in mankind, and he sought to lay hold on it 
 and to help to make it easier for each individual 
 to do something for himself, and at the same 
 time to do something for his fellow-men. This 
 / problem was more laj^eJ^L^^iindividual one 
 with Franklin than it was with almost any one 
 else who has written on education. This ac 
 counts mainly for the difference between the 
 school system advocated by him and that of 
 his illustrious contemporaries, John Adams and 
 Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 His practical insight into human nature con 
 vinced him that most men were guided T>y 
 utilitarian and material ends, and that they could 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL I/ 
 
 best be reached and controlled by an appeal to 
 such motives. This accounts for the utilitarian 
 philosophy in all of his moral and Motives 
 economic writings and especially in that 
 the prefaces, proverbs, and poems J^d. - 
 in Poor Richard s Almanac. He 
 found men idle, and he told them in material 
 terms the consequences of it; he saw them 
 puffed up with pride, and he showed them its 
 ruinous course ; he saw them running into debt, 
 and he pictured them as slaves to their creditors. 
 He filled their minds with proverbs on industry, 
 frugality, and prudence, to guide and impel 
 them to make the proper use fte ir time their 
 strength, and their aspiration, ^hese were the 
 concrete statements of the principles which 
 made up Franklin s ideal a homely philoso 
 phy suited to the needs of the people of his 
 tj m e of all time, though narrowly interpreted 
 by some as materialistic utilitarianism, 
 
 The sayings of poor Richard after twenty- 
 five years of promiscuous use were gathered 
 together into Franklin s masterpiece, Father 
 Abrahams Speech.^ This little classic is an 
 infallible guide to material success to a member 
 of any class or profession. With such success 
 
 1 Father Abraham s Speech, Almanac 1 758. P. L. R. ; B. I. 441. 
 
1 8 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 Franklin believed and taught would come the 
 higher or moral success which his ideal called 
 
 Franklin s f r * ThUS WG haVC before us the 
 
 Guide ideal Franklin, and the real Frank- 
 
 lin > and the world of humanity as 
 he believed it to be humanity as 
 he loved it, trusted it, and gave his life for it. 
 In the light of this we look with interest to see 
 what were the means and methods advocated 
 by him for the education of mankind. Bearing 
 upon this point it is most necessary to sketch 
 briefly his own education. 
 
 He entered a Boston grammar school at the 
 
 age of eight, and in one year passed through 
 
 two classes. l He had learned to read so early 
 
 that he had no recollection of when he could 
 
 HOW he not read - Before the end of the 
 
 was year he was taken from this school 
 
 and put into a private school for 
 
 writing and arithmetic, where, under a skilful 
 
 master, he learned to write a good hand, but 
 
 failed completely in arithmetic. At ten years 
 
 of age he began work with his father in the 
 
 business of tallow-chandler and soap-boiler and 
 
 remained there until twelve years of age, when 
 
 he was apprenticed to his brother to learn the 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, Chap. I. 
 
FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 19 
 
 printer s trade. In this apprenticeship he con 
 tinued till he was seventeen years old. From 
 his infancy, he says that he was passioriately 
 fond of reading, and spent all the money he 
 could get for books. The books he read dur 
 ing these years of apprenticeship were his real 
 teachers. The important ones were : Bunyan s 
 Pilgrim s Progress, Burton s Historical Collec 
 tions, Plutarch s Lives, Defoe s An Essay on 
 Projects, Cotton Mather s An Essay to do Good, 
 Addison s Spectator, Cocker s Arithmetic, Seller 
 & Sturny s Navigation, Locke s Human Under 
 standing, the Port Royal Art of Thinking, 
 Greenwood s English Grammar, Xenophon s 
 Memorable Things of Socrates, Tryon on Vege 
 table Diet, Shaftesbury, Collins. He also says 
 that his father often had some sensible friend 
 or neighbor at the table to converse with and 
 took care to have the conversation turn upon 
 useful topics to improve the minds of his chil 
 dren, and in this way taught them what was 
 good, and just, and prudent in the conduct of. 
 life. By conversing, disputing, arguing, and 
 debating with another bookish lad he was led 
 to inform himself on various topics, and by 
 writing out his arguments to improve his style. 
 At this time a volume of Addison s Spectator 
 
2O FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 fell into his hands and became at once his mas 
 ter and instructor in composition. He wrote 
 poems and sketches for his brother s paper, and 
 in this way gained some confidence in his ability 
 to write. Then followed a year in New York 
 City in the printer s business, where he formed 
 the acquaintance of a group of young people 
 who were lovers of reading, with whom he spent 
 his evenings. 1 The next eighteen months he 
 spent in London, where, aside from his business, 
 he attended plays and read books, thereby in 
 creasing his knowledge. Then he went to Phil 
 adelphia, 2 where he made his home for life, 
 except during the years of public service abroad, 
 and there continued the same methods of edu 
 cation, and added to them the famous Junto, a 
 literary and debating club, organized for the 
 mutual improvement of Franklin and a few 
 favorite acquaintances. There they discussed 
 questions of morals, politics, philosophy, poetry, 
 history, and science. This, then, wasffnetrain- 
 ing he had for the social, literary, and political 
 life which he lived so intensely and with such 
 great blessing to mankind. His was a school 
 in which he was both master and student he 
 found the subject-matter and determined the 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, Chap. II. 2 Ibid., Chap. III. 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
 \. or s 
 
 X^^Hg^X 
 
 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 21 
 
 method. It was an education for life. By 
 reading, he unlocked the storehouses of the wis 
 dom of all people ; by conversing, arguing, and 
 debating, he learned to be at ease with his fel 
 low-men ; by writing, he learned to organize and 
 enrich his knowledge and to direct the thoughts 
 of others ; by his trade apprenticeship, he came 
 close to life and learned to love the struggling 
 masses, and acquired that deep interest in tech 
 nical training which became the vital element in 
 his educational scheme. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 SYSTEM OF EDUCATION ADVOCATED BY FRANKLIN 
 
 THE sources in which are found in the most 
 finished form Franklin s recommendations for 
 the organization of education are : The Rules 
 His Writings governing the Junto ; Proposals relat- 
 on ing to the Education of Youth in 
 Education. p ennsy i van i a . Sketch of an English 
 School ; Observations concerning the Intentions 
 of the Original Founders of the Philadelphia 
 Academy. Other valuable ideas and explana 
 tions are found in minor treatises and in letters 
 to friends. 
 
 Franklin, being himself self-educated, advo 
 cated a system whereby each individual could 
 so utilize the sources and forces about him that 
 in so doing he would become learned 
 of Eduction and useful. It was just the system 
 advocated by which he had educated himself. 
 He believed that a man by his own 
 ^fforts could reach perfection in almost any 
 art This we have set forth in the discussion of 
 22 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 23 
 
 -L- 
 
 his plan for attaining to moral perfection. His 
 altruism led him to give to others whatever he 
 had found useful to himself, and his utilitarian 
 ism led him to seek from others what could be 
 made of use to himself. This idea took shape " 
 in the Junto, 1 a literary and debating club or 
 ganized by him when he was twenty-two years 
 old, for the purpose of applying his principles 
 of self -education in a cooperative way. I^je im 
 portance of mutual aid was strongly , 
 
 . . J Literary and 
 
 emphasized in the rules governing the Debating 
 club. Every member was required to Societ y- 
 propose queries for discussion, and periodically 
 to produce and read an essay of his own writing 
 upon some subject of interest to him. The de 
 bates were conducted in the sincere spirit of 
 inquiry after truth, and members were prohib 
 ited, by small pecuniary penalties, from indulg- 
 ing in offensive personalities, trifling disputes, or 
 strivings for victory. This club continued for 
 nearly forty years, and was, according to Frank 
 lin s judgment, the best school of philosophy, 
 morality, and politics that then existed in the 
 province. What he felt in after life that he had 
 gotten from this method of training was a thor 
 ough, systematic habit of reading and the better 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 81. B. I. 319^ 
 
24 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 habits of conversation, through the close observ 
 ance of the rules which might prevent the mem 
 bers from displeasing each other. The debating 
 method of the Junto is made prominent in the 
 plan for an English school, to be noticed later. 
 The Junto itself has developed into the Ameri 
 can Philosophical Society, which has its offices 
 and library at Philadelphia a living monument 
 of Franklin, a far-reaching and broadening influ 
 ence upon present thought and action. 
 
 No other writer has ever exemplified in his own 
 life or attached more importance in his writings 
 to the value of a good book as a means of edu 
 cation. Through them the best thoughts of the 
 best writers may be conveyed to the minds of 
 youth in such a way as to inform them and in 
 fluence them for lifeH-By the cooperative method 
 i e and of the J unto a common library was 
 Use of built up for its members, whereby 
 a Library. each mem ber loaned his books for 
 general use. Out of this idea gi^ew up a sub 
 scription library for Philadelphia. 1 ) Reading be 
 came fashionable, and the people became better 
 acquainted with books, till within a few years 
 they were better instructed and more intelligent 
 than the people of the same rank generally in 
 
 i Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 99. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 25 
 
 other countries. So important a means of edu 
 cation he believed the library to be, that he said 
 if one would read on any subject a few hours 
 each day he would within a few years become 
 educated. . The extent to which this method has 
 become a vital one in the education of to-day is 
 attested by the thousands of both subscription 
 and public libraries in the schools and cities of 
 this country. ^In advocating the use of a library, 
 Franklin is not original in the idea, for libraries 
 and their value had been a favorite theme of 
 writers on education for several centuries, and 
 with these writers he was well acquainted, as is 
 shown in his autobiography and by an analysis of 
 his writings ; but nevertheless he does deserve 
 the credit of understanding the tremendous 
 power of the library as an educational factor, 
 and of having the practical ability to put one 
 within the reach of the masses, that they might 
 become informed, might acquire habits of men 
 tal industry, and might form strong characters 
 through contact with the souls of the books. 
 
 We have given first his scheme for the edu 
 cation of those who, like himself, are deprived 
 of a school training a method whereby they 
 may to some degree repair that loss. 1 We have 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 101. 
 
26 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 now to present his plan for the education of the 
 
 more favored class. He did not believe that 
 
 self-education was the best, but that 
 
 Self-educa- . 
 
 , / tion not it was the best possible substitute for 
 the only a training by a master a substitute 
 that it was possible for every individ 
 ual to avail himself of. Also it is important to 
 note that this method of education goes on 
 throughout life and that it is both a vital part 
 and a continuation of the systematic training to 
 be given to the more fortunate through the 
 schools proposed by him. 
 
 Nowhere in his writings did he have in mind 
 a government system of public schools, and 
 there were no such in his day in this country. 
 In his own province the only school that was in 
 any sense public was the Penn Charter school, 1 
 
 Function of founded in l6 9 s > and which at the 
 the state in time of Franklin s proposed scheme 
 
 Education. f()r the education of the youth of 
 
 Pennsylvania had admitted the children of all 
 parents who applied. The nearest approach to 
 a state system of public schools was the com 
 pulsory schools of Massachusetts, established in 
 1648, though that was not a system of free 
 schools, but was supported by individual tuition. 
 
 1 Boone, Education in the U. S., Chap. III. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 27 
 
 However, Franklin did recognize the govern 
 ment s interest in the education of its citizens 
 and strongly urged the duty upon the state, but : 
 his idea of state aid was through donations and j 
 endowments. 1 The idea of a central govern 
 ment, determining and directing through a sys 
 tem of taxation the schools of the entire country, 
 was contrary to Franklin s nature, education, 
 training, or philosophy of government. It was ^ 
 the true interest of this country, as expressed in / 
 his favorite phrase, " general welfare," and not 
 the life of the state, as such, that concerned him 
 in planning for the education of youth. He 
 recites that the good .education of youth has 
 been esteemed by 5 wise men in all ages as the 
 surest foundation of the happiness, not only of 
 private families, but of the commonwealths 
 that all governments had therefore made it a 
 principal object of their attention to establish 
 and endow such seminaries of learning as might 
 supply the succeeding ages with men qualified 
 to serve the public with honor to themselves 
 and to their country. The state should grant 
 charters to educational institutions that they 
 might be conducted according to the same busi 
 ness principles as govern other corporate bodies, 
 
 1 Education of Youth in Pa. S. I. 569. 
 
28 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 and he also advised some system of government 
 inspection to guard against their mismanage 
 ment. 1 And it is worthy of notice that the 
 national government has not to this day gone 
 much beyond Franklin s idea regarding a state 
 system, but has left the organization and sup 
 port to the local commonwealths, using her 
 power only to aid and encourage through appro 
 priation of funds where most needed. 
 
 The plan proposed for the organization of the 
 Philadelphia Academy is what he believed could 
 be used by all communities for general educa 
 tional purposes. The Academy was chartered 
 by the governor and placed under the control 
 . . ,. of a Board of Trustees. Its support 
 
 Subscription 
 
 School for came from private subscription, from 
 the Masses. tuitionSj anc j f rom endowments. It 
 
 was only for those who could pay for the in 
 struction, though two years later a free school 
 was attached to the Academy. This free school 
 he approved of as a means of teaching reading, 
 writing, and arithmetic to poor children from 
 eight to thirteen years of age who would other 
 wise probably never have attended any other 
 school. But this free school was paid for by 
 
 * Hints for Consideration Respecting the Orphan School- 
 house in Philadelphia. S. II. 159. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 29 
 
 private subscriptions or by profits on the tuition 
 school. 
 
 He believed that schools for public education 
 should be free from church interference, and 
 should be non-sectarian in every respect. The 
 school should be supported by all churches alike, 
 and no church should have a majority 
 
 Function 
 
 on the Board of Trustees, lest one sect O f the 
 should get control of the school and 
 pervert it from its original purpose. 1 
 The lessons on morality outlined by him as a 
 part of the curriculum were such as could be 
 indorsed by every sect, though they fell short 
 of what could be called religious instruction. 
 The nearest approach to religious instruction 
 was in the lessons that he would draw from 
 history, showing the necessity of a public reli 
 gion, the advantage of a religious character, and 
 the excellency of the Christian religion above 
 all others. 2 His attitude was in strict accord 
 with the spirit of the founders of this country j 
 and has been to no extent deviated from to this 
 day. This idea prevails in most every school 4 
 district in the entire country. 
 
 Naturally one would think that a man who 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 159. 
 
 2 Proposals for an Academy. 
 
3O FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 had read so broadly as Franklin had, had advo 
 cated so strongly the universal use of a library, 
 and had touched life itself in so many phases 
 
 would recommend a curriculum that 
 Curriculum. was both broad an ^ practical. He 
 
 would also be expected, from what 
 has been said regarding his views of life, to give 
 a large place to the ethical elements in subjects, 
 but to place no stress upon religion. And in a 
 choice between a general course and a technical 
 one he would, as a result of his own apprentice 
 ship, and his utilitarian philosophy, give prefer- 
 ; ence to those subjects that best prepared for the 
 professions. An examination of his three main 
 treatises on this subject will show that he was 
 consistent with these principles. These sources 
 are : Proposals Relating to the Education of 
 Youth in Pennsylvania, written in 1749; Sketch 
 of an English School, written in 1 749 ; Observa 
 tions Concerning the Original Intentions of the 
 Founders of the Philadelphia Academy, written 
 in 1789. 
 
 The first was a plan for the organization of 
 an academy, and it contained a discussion of 
 the purpose of education, the value of the vari 
 ous subjects in the curriculum, the methods of 
 teaching these subjects, and attached quotations 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 31 
 
 from the writers on education which he had 
 studied in preparing his recommendation. The 
 effect of these writers in determining his ideal 
 is glaringly apparent. The second source was 
 written just before the opening of the Academy, 
 and was read at the opening by the principal ; 
 it was a detailed syllabus of the work for each 
 of the six grades of the school. The third was 
 a protest against the discrimination of the Trus 
 tees of the Academy against the English school. 
 It is valuable because it is a close analysis of 
 his ideas contained in the first source, and was 
 written just at the close of his life and when 
 forty years test had been made of his first rec 
 ommendations. 
 
 Regarding the subjects, he says it would be 
 well if everything useful and everything orna 
 mental could be taught; but since time is so 
 short, it is therefore proposed that only those 
 things that are likely to bejnost useful and most 
 ornamental be taught, especial regard being had 
 for those who prepare for any business, calling, 
 or profession. He had in mind an English 
 school that would be adapted to this country, 
 although with the language modification it would 
 be equally suited to any country. Whatever of 
 the classical languages was recommended was 
 
32 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 due to a compromise with the learned gentle 
 men whose subscriptions and countenance were 
 needed in opening the school. 1 This compro 
 mise gave rise in the Academy to two parallel 
 schools, the English and the Latin. The friends 
 to the classical languages were the wealthy and 
 learned few, but they were aggressive and soon 
 succeeded in gaining for Latin and Greek the 
 greatest favor from the Trustees, to such an ex 
 tent that the English school declined in value 
 till many parents, after protesting in vain, took 
 their, children out of the Academy and put them 
 into private schools where they might get an 
 English education. Franklin saw in this condi 
 tion the best proof that his original idea of an 
 English school was the kind most desired and 
 most needed by the people, consequently he 
 protested against the change, in the interest of 
 : posterity. That he had the modern point of 
 ; view is attested by the many Manual Training, 
 I; Industrial, and Technical Schools all over the 
 jland, that give no place to the classical lan 
 guages. He anticipated enough of modern psy 
 chology to account for the continuance of Latin 
 and Greek in the schools on the basis of the 
 theory of habit. There is in mankind, he says, 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 133. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 33 
 
 an unaccountable prejudice in favor of ancient 
 customs and habitudes, which inclines to a con 
 tinuance of them after the circumstances which 
 formerly made them useful cease to exist 
 their continuance is the chapeau bras of modern 
 literature. This point of view is not due to a 
 lack of knowledge of languages, for he had a 
 fairly good working knowledge of Latin, knew 
 some Italian and Spanish, and was at ease in 
 reading, writing, and talking French. 1 He 
 recommended that the languages be offered only 
 as electives and on conditon that the English 
 subjects should not be neglected. 
 
 The subjects of the curriculum were English 
 grammar, rhetoric, composition, public speak 
 ing, English authors, geography, chronology, 
 natural philosophy, ancient customs, morality, 
 history, classical and modern languages (as elec 
 tives), history of commerce. Many of those 
 terms had not the same content that is given to 
 them to-day, but that will be made clear in the 
 discussion of each in particular. 
 
 It is strikingly noticeable that no comment is 
 made on mathematics, in these sources, as a sep 
 arate subject, but only as a part of such branches 
 as geography, natural science, and other sub- 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 126, 
 
34 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 jects requiring mathematical exactness; these 
 facts were to be taught by the special teacher of 
 mathematics. However, he attached the high 
 est importance to this subject on both the arith 
 metical and geometrical side. Several years 
 before the preparation of the plan for a school, 
 he wrote a paper on the Usefulness of Mathe 
 matics, 1 in which he emphasized the commercial 
 value of arithmetic by noting that no business 
 can be carried on without the assistance of num 
 bers, and that no scientist can do his work with 
 out it. The kind of arithmetic he would have 
 taught is what is termed to-day business^-or 
 commercial arithmetic that kind that had 
 directly in view the student s functioning in 
 society. It was to be taught in connection with 
 other subjects in order that the child might feel 
 his need of it and thereby appreciate it. 
 
 His idea about geometry was of the same prac 
 tical kind ; it was needed by the astronomer, 
 the surveyor, the mariner. But most of this 
 knowledge he expected the student to get after 
 he left school and by work in his profession. 
 He did look somewhat to the cultural value of 
 the training ; he believed that it was of greater 
 value than other subjects in the formation of the 
 
 ^Influence of Mathematics, 1735. S. II. 66. B. I. 414. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 35 
 
 mind, enlarging its capacity, and strengthening 
 it to make it more capable of exact reasoning 
 and discerning truth from falsehood in other 
 subjects. This conception of the cultural value 
 of mathematical training he had gotten from 
 reading Plato s Republic. The total of mathe 
 matics in the six years course was arithmetic, 
 accounts, and the simplest principles of geome 
 try and astronomy. 
 
 J^J2rphy consisted of reading, with maps, 
 for the purpose of pointing out the places where 
 the greatest actions had occurred, naming the 
 countries and giving their boundaries. What he 
 called chronology was in fact only a study of 
 the dates of the great events, the names of the 
 states, and of the famous men that existed at 
 that time. The primary purpose of such geog 
 raphy was to understand the map and the globe. 
 He had no conception of the importance of teach 
 ing the physical elements as causal forces in 
 determining the civilization of a country as a 
 legitimate and vital part of geography, although 
 he did provide for much of this dynamic work 
 under what he called History of Commerce, where 
 he would have taught the reasons and causes of 
 the rise of industries, the progress of trade, and 
 the change of customs. 
 
36 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 History was the rich subject of the course, in 
 fact he thQUgh.t_that most all subjects could be 
 taught by the historic method. A character 
 study of historic men and women would give 
 the material for lessons in morality, whereby 
 impressions of the beauty and influence of vir 
 tue would be made upon the minds of youth ; 
 the value of oratory in leading and governing 
 mankind is estimated from the study of famous 
 orators of the world ; the necessity of a public 
 religion and the superiority of the Christian re 
 ligion could be taught as a generalization from 
 the comparative study of the religions of the his 
 toric people ; the elementary principles of good 
 government could be best taught through his 
 tory ; the importance of logic in the discovery 
 and defence of truth is a historic fact ; the in 
 terest in and the desire to know the classical 
 and modern languages could be induced by show 
 ing that the greatest nations and the wisest and 
 most influential men have spoken and written 
 in those languages; the means whereby this 
 country can be made great are to be found in 
 the study of causes of greatness in the countries 
 of the world. Thus it is seen that every pur 
 pose in the study of history was to help the stu 
 dent in his daily living to give him guiding 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 37 
 
 principles in the discharge of his private and 
 public duties. Such a study of history is/phil- 
 osophical in its method and utilitarian in its 
 purpose. 
 
 Natural history was to be begun in the third 
 year of the school, and was to furnish informa 
 tion for conversation and letter writing, to en 
 able merchants to understand commodities in 
 trade, the handicraftsman to improve his busi 
 ness by new inventions and mixtures, and to 
 help the farmer to improve his land. The most 
 important recommendation in the light of pres 
 ent tendencies was for elementary lessons in 
 agriculture, through gardening and through ex 
 cursions to neighboring farms. He was prac 
 tical enough to see that the masses needed this 
 more than they needed the classics, and he was 
 so far-sighted as to advocate what the people 
 have been more than a century in realizing. 
 
 English grammar, composition, rhetoric, and \ 
 public speaking were the heart of the curricu 
 lum, and the subject-matter and the method 
 which he recommended were in the main those 
 which he himself had used. Models in form and 
 style were to be read and explained to the youth 
 in terms of the rules of formal grammar, which 
 were to be memorized by the youth from the 
 
 o 
 
\A 
 
 38 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 very first year of the school. Next in impor 
 tance to the models in literature was the read 
 ing master, whom the pupils should imitate in 
 vocal expression. Greatest attention was given ] 
 from the beginning to written composition, pub- | 
 lie speaking, and theoretical and logical rea- 1 
 soning. In the highest class the best English^ 
 authors were to be read and explained; these 
 were Tillotson, Milton, Locke, Addison, Pope, 
 Swift, and translations of the Latin and Greek 
 classics. The standard by which he determined 
 good literature was very high, though simple 
 and practical : to be good, it should have a ten 
 dency to benefit the reader by t improving his 
 virtue or his knowledge; the author s method 
 should be a just one, that is, it should proceed 
 clearly without confusion from the known to 
 the unknown ; the words chosen for emphasis 
 should be those generally understood; the ar 
 rangement of words should give pleasure to the 
 ear. 1 
 
 About the only ^criticism of consequence that 
 could be made upon his English work was in 
 beginning technical grammar too soon. In the 
 amount of work and the quality of the method 
 
 1 Letter to a Friend, 1787. S. IX. 221. S. II. 553, Idea of 
 Literature. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 
 
 39 
 
 in English, the schools have just begun in the 
 last few years to approach to his r standard. He 
 had great faith in the English language, and 
 hoped soon to see it take the second place, the 
 French being then the first language of the world. 
 He regretted that the English language presented 
 so many difficulties to the learner, so he there 
 fore proposed several ways for simplifying it, 
 but none of these were sufficiently practical to 
 meet with favor in his day, though his recom 
 mendation for the simplification of the spelling 
 is gradually going on in a natural process of 
 selection. 
 
 Music was given no place in his course of 
 study, though he himself valued it very highly 
 and had considerable knowledge of it. 1 The 
 omission of it was doubtless due to two reasons : 
 first, that he thought it had not the utilitarian 
 value of other subjects ; and second, because he 
 thought that modern music was very defective. 
 In comparison with such music as the ancient 
 legislators favored to influence the manners of 
 their people, he believed that modern music was 
 very inferior, inasmuch as it abounded in defects 
 and absurdities, such as wrong accent, wrong 
 emphasis, drawling, stuttering, and screaming. 
 
 1 Letter to Peter Franklin. S. VI. 269. 
 
40 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 He of course failed to see the power of music 
 as a positive force in moral development. 
 
 Drawing was given very slight attention, and 
 only consisted of imitation of prints and the sim 
 plest principles of perspective. An interest in 
 this kind of work was to be created through the 
 study of the history of commerce in the consid 
 eration of industrial machinery and of the im- 
 plements of war. (Training in art for aesthetic 
 purposes was in no sense a part of his plan, and 
 the neglect of this sense of the beautiful was 
 possibly the greatest defect in his system ; but 
 it must be remembered even in making this criti 
 cism that Franklin lived in a day when every 
 energy needed to be directed toward the mas 
 tery of the forces of nature which were promis 
 ing just at that time a tremendous change in 
 industrial life. 
 
 Physical exercise was made a prominent part 
 of each child s duty, and consisted in running, 
 leaping, wrestling, and swimming all for the 
 double purpose of preventing disease and giv 
 ing strength and vigor to both body and mind. 
 The quality of each kind of exercise was to be 
 determined by the degree of warmth it produced 
 in the body. 1 Walking was the best if sufficient 
 
 1 To his son William, 1772. S. VIII. 112. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 41 
 
 time could be given ; but if the time were lim 
 ited, such exercise as that with the dumb-bells 
 was the best. The famous Dialogue between 
 Franklin and the Gout 1 is in part intended to 
 show by the Socratic method the evil conse 
 quences of too little and of ill-chosen exercise. 
 And in the attention that most people give to 
 this, as well as to other laws of health, he ob 
 served that even philosophers are sages in maxim, 
 but fools in conduct. He was an expert swim 
 mer, and taught many of his friends the art. 
 He even wrote two papers on The Art of 
 Swimming? At one time while in London he 
 seriously considered opening a swimming school, 
 which action, he observed in his biography, 
 would possibly have materially altered his after 
 life. 3 Had he lived to-day he would doubtless""" " 
 have been a strong advocate of all manly sports, 
 and the football boys best friend. 
 
 Though the above scheme of education was 
 for both sexes, yet Franklin had important views 
 regarding the education of special Education of 
 classes that are worthy of separate special 
 consideration. He was too practical Classes - 
 to think that any one curriculum could be made 
 1 s. n. 194. 2 s. vi. 286, 290. 
 
 3 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 65. 
 
42 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 to meet the needs of all individuals or all classes. 
 A special training was needed for each individ 
 ual and for each class to fit it for its own peculiar 
 functions in life. 
 
 The education of women to fill the places of 
 wives and mothers is treated of in two letters 
 to a friend, 1 as Reflections on Courtship and 
 Marriage, a plan whereby happiness may be 
 secured in the matrimonial state. He first 
 makes a criticism of the character of 
 
 Of Women. . . . . 
 
 the education of young women in his 
 day and the attitude of husbands toward their 
 wives, and then tells what these should be. 
 The education of young women was too super- 
 \ ficial, and it consisted too largely in exterior 
 accomplishments. This resulted merely in arti 
 ficial behavior intended wholly for the purpose 
 of catching men s eyes. The character of men s 
 conversation with her was so trivial and flatter 
 ing that she was not required to read and reflect 
 on either serious or practical things. Men were 
 lacking in a taste for real worth and were con 
 sequently not a proper stimulus to develop the 
 higher elements in the woman, though she is 
 just as capable by nature as man is of all the 
 higher charms of friendship and intellectual 
 
 1 Reflections on Courtship and Marriage, 1746. P. L. R. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 43 
 
 companionship. Women were taught to have 
 mercenary views regarding marriage views 
 which kill the tender sentiments, without which 
 there can be no happiness in married life a 
 happiness which consists in a union of mind, a 
 sympathy of affection and a mutual esteem and 
 friendship. These finer sentiments, with the 
 necessary prudence and discretion with regard 
 to fortune, is what should be taught to both 
 sexes alike. Men should accustom her to sober 
 reason and good sense, and should pursue in 
 common with her a course of profitable reading. 
 A knowledge of accounts was also a necessary 
 part of female education, as it would be of great 
 use in case of widowhood. 1 He thought that 
 nature makes man superior to woman and in 
 vests him with the guiding power in the more 
 difficult affairs of life, though he must convince 
 her of this superiority by using it gently, kindly, 
 and prudently. And she must be taught to 
 influence him by the just reverence which she 
 pays him. It is also invaluable for her to con 
 tinue in her married life the same care of person, 
 of dress, and mental charm as she.exercised in her 
 days of courtship, on the theory that love, though 
 it may come by chance, can be kept only by art. 
 
 1 Works of Franklin. B. I. 195. 
 
44 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 The education of poor children had been 
 provided for by the annexation of a free school 
 to the Philadelphia Academy, but there was still 
 another class to be cared for. This was the 
 orphans for whom homes as well as 
 schooling had to be provided. In a 
 paper on this subject, intended for the considera 
 tion of the citizens of Philadelphia, he gives his 
 idea of the characteristic features of such a 
 school. 1 The school for orphans should be sup 
 ported by charitable contributions, and no at 
 tempt should be made, as in the case of the 
 Academy, to realize a profit on it. An account 
 should be opened with each orphan, and the 
 profits arising from his labor should go to him 
 when discharged from the school, and if there 
 should be a deficit he should be exhorted to pay 
 it when he becomes able. The managers should 
 consider the discharged ones still as their chil 
 dren, and counsel and help them in the affairs 
 of life. These recommendations came from the 
 fatherly heart of a great man, and they were 
 contrary to the practices of the day, though they 
 characterize the spirit in the management of 
 such schools at the present time. 
 
 The last public act of Franklin was a memo- 
 
 1 Orphan School-house in Philadelphia. S. II. 157. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 45 
 
 rial addressed to Congress in 1789, by him as 
 president of the Abolition Society, praying that 
 they devise means for removing that of the 
 inconsistency from the character of Negro, 
 the American people, to promote mercy and jus 
 tice toward the distressed race, to use all of its 
 power to discourage traffic in the persons of 
 our fellowmen. He had all his life been opposed 
 to slavery and had improved every opportunity 
 to make sentiment against it. Many of his let 
 ters contain denunciatory references to its prac 
 tice and many rejoicings over the increasing 
 sentiment in favor of its abolition. 1 
 
 His plea for the education of the freed negroes 
 was presented by him to the Society for the 
 Abolition of Slaves, of which he was president. 2 
 It proposed a general committee of twenty-four 
 persons to be subdivided into four sub-committees. 
 
 1. A Committee of Inspection to superintend 
 the moral conduct and the ordinary situation of 
 the negro, and to advise him regarding his actions. 
 
 2. A Committee of Guardians to place out 
 children and young persons and to arrange for 
 
 1 To Benezet, 1772; S. VIII. 16. Dean Woodward, 1773; S. 
 VIII. To John Wright, 1 789 ; S. X. 405. Marquis de Condorcet, 
 1774; S. VI. 412. 
 
 2 Plan for fmproving the Condition of the Blacks. S. II. 513. 
 
46 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 their education and to represent the state in its 
 relationship to them as citizens. 
 
 3. A Committee on Education to superintend 
 the school instruction of the free blacks, with 
 power to send them to schools already in exist 
 ence or to establish schools for them. 
 
 4. A Committee of Employment to get them 
 positions or to establish industries for the pur 
 pose of employing them. 
 
 The funds for carrying on this work were to 
 be secured by charitable donations and subscrip 
 tions and were to be controlled by a committee 
 of the general society. 
 
 This method has been practically the one in 
 use by the philanthropic societies interested in 
 Southern education ever since Franklin s day. 
 It shows both his deep, earnest humanity and 
 his broad, practical method of dealing with 
 questions of individual and public interest. 
 
 Much has already been said that belongs to 
 the subject of methods of teaching, because 
 Franklin s idea of a system of schools 
 Methods wa s the outgrowth of his own method 
 Teaching. f education. Yet so valuable are 
 the methods advocated by him, they 
 are worthy of separate notice. A compre 
 hensive general description of his method is 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 47 
 
 contained in the word ^Socratic, which in reality 
 tells the attitude of the teacher s or the pupil s 
 mind, rather than the manner of presenting the 
 subject. 1 As Franklin used it and recommended 
 it to others, it consists in the habit of expressing 
 one s self in terms of modest diffidence, never 
 using such words as give an air of positiveness 
 to one s opinion, but using terms that indicate 
 that one s mind is in the attitude of an earnest 
 inquirer. He believed that much of his success 
 in public life in interesting, instruct- Socratic 
 ing, and leading people was due to 
 this method of presenting what he thought to 
 be the truth for by this method the hearer is 
 not antagonized, but his sympathy is elicited and 
 his cooperation secured. Zhis .method, in terms 
 of the scientist, is experimental ; it says we may 
 not know, but we will seek the truth, that all 
 who help may know. The two best illustrations 
 of his use of this methocTare his examination in 
 the British House of Lords in i;66 2 and his 
 last speech in the convention that framed the 
 Constitution of the United States in 1789* The 
 first has the Socratic form of question and an- 
 
 1 Sparks, Life of Franklin, p. 21. 
 
 2 Tracts of the American Revolution. P. L. R.; B. 111.407. 
 3 S. V. 155. 
 
48 FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 swer, which are so clear, so full, and so skilfully 
 arranged that they lead on to one, and only one 
 answer, and this is, that " England is wrong and 
 the Colonies have but one pride, and that is, to 
 defend their rights as peers of the Englishmen 
 in every respect." The answers are free from 
 arrogance, but they show a decision and pre 
 cision in all that he says, and display a mind 
 filled with information concerning trade, manu 
 facture, human nature, and public policy. 
 
 The second has Franklin s characteristic mod 
 est diffidence, an air of doubt as to the validity 
 of his own opinions, and a feeling of assurance 
 only in a superhuman guidance. He wanted 
 unanimity in the vote to adopt the proposed con 
 stitution, though several, and himself one of 
 them, did not favor some provisions of the draft. 
 He admitted that he had many times changed 
 his judgment and that he might do so again ; he 
 was willing to sacrifice his own opinions to the 
 public good, and he urged them to do so. The 
 result was the passage of the motion to adopt 
 by unanimous consent. He used this method 
 in both his private and public writings as well 
 as in his social intercourse with men, and he 
 therefore recommended it to all who would be 
 successful in public life, or be loved by friends. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 49 
 
 Teaching by example was another method in 
 which he believed equally strong. Man he be 
 lieved to be largely imitative, and as much 
 inclined to follow the bad as the 
 good. Hence, the better the models 
 or examples given him to follow, the more beau 
 tiful and useful would he make his life. In a 
 letter written near the close of his life l he says 
 that this belief in the power of example deter 
 mined for him what he would put into his biog 
 raphy. Consequently he wrote only what he 
 thought would have a tendency to benefit the 
 young reader and at the same time to interest 
 and instruct him, by showing him the advan 
 tages of certain models of conduct as exempli 
 fied in his own success in life. This autobiog 
 raphy has been declared by many able critics to 
 be one of the most wholesome literary products 
 of its kind in existence. Belief in the power of 
 example determined his recommendations for 
 the selection of teachers. The teacher, he said, 
 should have just those elements of moral and 
 mental strength which the pupils were expected 
 to acquire. In speech he should be a correct, 
 pure speaker, and master of the English tongue. 
 In teaching reading, the master should read the 
 
 1 To Benjamin Vaughan, 1788. S. X. 364. 
 
5O FRANKLIN S EDUCATIONAL IDEAL 
 
 piece with proper modulation of voice, due em 
 phasis, and suitable action, and then have the 
 youth imitate his manner. He should have the 
 student, in learning to write compositions, imi 
 tate some model in diction, force, and style, just 
 as Franklin had imitated the Spectator. 
 
 The method of comparison also is everywhere 
 present in his writings and is definitely described 
 as he used it in reaching a conclusion on a sub- 
 By Compari- ject concerning which there were 
 son. conflicting arguments. 1 He arranged 
 the arguments for and against in two parallel 
 columns, and by cancellation determined where 
 the balance lay. A conclusion reached in this 
 way, he felt, was less liable to be rash or un 
 sound than one reached by any other method. 
 Many of his manuscripts show signs of this 
 same careful method, some being scratched, 
 erased, and interlined till they are almost illegi 
 ble. It was in this way that the final copy 
 acquired such a clear, simple, and convincing 
 style. 2 In his proposals for an academy, the 
 work outlined in history is most all to be done 
 by the comparative methods. By comparing 
 the lives and characters of the great men of his- 
 
 1 To Dr. Priestly, Sept. 19, 1772. S. B. IV. 522. 
 
 2 To Benjamin Vaughan, 1789. S. X. 397. 
 
HIS SYSTEM OF EDUCATION 51 
 
 tory he would get his moral lessons, his incenO 
 tives for the study of oratory, his reasons for a\ 
 public religion, his principles of sound politics,/ 
 the advantage of classical training. 
 
 These, then, are the fundamental or general 
 methods used and advocated by Franklin, out 
 of which grew his special methods of teaching, 
 the character of which is sufficiently apparent 
 from what has been given of the man and his S\ 
 works. 
 
 We have now before us the ideal man and the 
 ideal system of schools, as conceived and advo 
 cated by Franklin, who himself was, one of the 
 greatest educators that the world has The Ideal 
 ever had. It only remains to present Teacher, 
 his ideal teacher, who through such a system of 
 schools and by the use of such methods could 
 come nearest to the realization of the ideal man 
 in his pupil. We let his own words characterize 
 this teacher : " I think that talents for the edu 
 cation of youth are the gift of God, and that he 
 on whom they are bestowed is as strongly called 
 as if he heard a voice from heaven, nothing 
 more surely pointing out duty in a public service 
 than the ability and opportunity of performing 
 it." 1 
 
 1 To Dr. Samuel Johnson. B. n. 204. 
 
PART II 
 
 FRANKLIN S OWN WRITINGS 
 ON EDUCATION 
 
FRANKLIN S OWN WRITINGS 
 ON EDUCATION 
 
 PLAN OF DAILY EXAMINATIONS IN THE MORAL 
 VIRTUES 
 
 [The following list of thirteen virtues, with their pre 
 cepts which expressed the meaning he gave to them, 
 Franklin placed on separate pages in a little book which 
 he carried with him for more than fifty years. Each day 
 he graded himself upon these virtues, concentrating his 
 attention for a week at the time upon a single virtue. 
 The form of one page is also given ; the virtue named at 
 the top of the page is the one upon which he concentrated 
 his attention for the week. Franklin s conception of what 
 he accomplished by the use of this scheme is told in a 
 quotation from his autobiography: "It may be well my 
 posterity should be informed that to this little artifice, 
 with the blessing of God, their ancestor owes the constant 
 felicity of his life down to his seventy-ninth year, in which 
 this is written. Whatever reverses may attend the re 
 mainder is in the hand of Providence ; but if they arrive, 
 the reflection on past happiness enjoyed ought to help his 
 bearing them with more resignation."] 
 
 55 
 
56 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 LIST OF VIRTUES 
 
 1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dulness; drink 
 not to elevation. 
 
 2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may bene 
 fit 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 ; that is, waste nothing. 
 
 6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always 
 employed in something useful; cut off all un 
 necessary actions. 
 
 7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit ; think 
 innocently and justly ; speak accordingly. 
 
 8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, 
 or omitting the benefits that are your duty. 
 
 9. MODERATION. Avoid extremes ; forbear 
 resenting injuries so much as you think you 
 deserve. 
 
 10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanli- 
 ness in body, clothes, or habitation. 
 
 11. TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at 
 trifles or at accidents common or unavoidable. 
 
 12. CHASTITY. . . . 
 
 13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 
 
PLAN OF DAILY EXAMINATIONS 57 
 
 FORM OF PAGE 
 
 TEMPERANCE 
 Eat not to dulness ; drink not to elevation. 
 
 Sun. M. T. W. Th. F. S. 
 Tern 
 
 Sil x x x x 
 
 Ord. x x x x x__ 
 
 Res. x x 
 
 Fru x x 
 
 Ind x 
 
 Sine 
 
 Jus 
 
 Mod 
 
 Clea . 
 
 Tran 
 
 Chas 
 
 Hum._. 
 
II 
 
 FATHER ABRAHAM S SPEECH 
 
 [This speech is a compilation and rearrangement of the 
 prefaces, proverbs, and poems of Poor Richard" 1 s Almanacs. 
 It is Franklin s masterpiece. He wrote it after twenty-five 
 years 1 use had been made of Poor Richard s sayings. It 
 is a little classic with which every one should be familiar. 
 Its teachings, if followed, would give strength and happi 
 ness to many lives now weak and wretched.] 
 
 I HAVE heard that nothing gives an author so 
 great pleasure as to find his works respectfully 
 quoted by other learned authors. This pleas 
 ure I have seldom enjoyed; for though I have 
 been, if I may say it without vanity, an eminent 
 author (of almanacs) annually, now a full quar 
 ter of a century, my brother authors in the same 
 way, for what reason I know not, have ever been 
 very roaring in their applause, and no other au 
 thor fms taken the least notice of me; so that, 
 did not my writings produce me some solid pud 
 ding, the great deficiency of praise would have 
 quite discouraged me. I concluded, at length, 
 58 
 
FATHER ABRAHAM S SPEECH 59 
 
 that the people were the best judges of my 
 merit, for they buy my works ; and besides, in 
 my rambles, where I am not personally known, 
 I have frequently heard one or other adages of 
 mine repeated, with " as Poor Richard says," at 
 the end on t. This gave me some satisfaction, 
 as it showed not only that my instructions were 
 regarded, but discovered likewise some respect 
 for my authority ; and I own that, to encourage 
 the practice of remembering and reading those 
 wise sentences, I have sometimes quoted myself 
 with great gravity. Judge, then, how much I 
 must have been gratified by an incident I am 
 going to relate to you. 
 
 I stopped my horse lately where a great num 
 ber of people were collected at an auction of 
 merchants goods. The hour of the sale not 
 being come, they were conversing on the bad 
 ness of the times, and one of the company called 
 to a plain, clean old man with white locks : 
 " Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the 
 times? will not these heavy taxes quite ruin the 
 country ? how shall we ever be able to pay them ? 
 What would you advise us to do ? " Father 
 Abraham stood up and replied : " If you would 
 have my advice, I will give it to you in short, 
 for, A word to the wise is enough, as Poor 
 
60 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 Richard says." They joined in desiring him 
 to speak his mind, and gathering around him, 
 he proceeded as follows : 
 
 " Friends," said he, " the taxes are indeed 
 very heavy, and if those laid on by the govern 
 ment were the only ones we had to pay, we 
 might more easily discharge them ; but we have 
 many others, and much more grievous to some 
 of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idle- 
 nessjjhree times as much by our pride, and four 
 much by our folly; and from these 
 
 taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver 
 us by allowing an abatement. However, let us 
 hearken to good advice, and something may be 
 done for us ; God helps them that help them 
 selves, as Poor Richard says. 
 
 " I. It would be thought a hard government 
 that should task its people one-tenth part of their 
 time, to be employed in its service; but idleness 
 taxes many of us much jnore ; sloth, by bringing 
 On diseases, absolutely shortens life. Sloth, 
 like rust, consumes faster than labor wears, 
 while the used key is always bright, as poor 
 Richard says. But dost thou love life? then 
 do not squander time, for that is the stuff life 
 is made of, as Poor Richard says. How much 
 more than is necessary do we spend in sleep, 
 
FATHER ABRAHAM S SPEECH 6 1 
 
 forgetting that the sleeping fox catches no 
 poultry, and that there will be sleeping enough 
 in the grave, as Poor Richard says. 
 
 " If time be of all things the most precious, 
 wasting time must be, as Poor Richard says, the 
 greatest prodigality ; since, as he elsewhere tells, 
 Lost time is never found again ; and what we call 
 time enough always proves little enough. Let 
 us then be up and doing, and doing to the pur 
 pose; so by diligence shall we do more with 
 less perplexity. Sloth makes all things diffi 
 cult, but industry, all easy ; and He that riseth 
 late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake 
 his business at night ; while J^aziness travels so 
 
 ~~^"^ 
 
 slowly that Poverty soon overtakes mm. Drive 
 thy business, let not that driveTfiee ; and Early f 
 to bed, an^arly__to_rise^. makes a man healthy, f 
 wealthy, and wise T as Poor Richard says. 
 
 "So what signifies wishing and hoping for 
 better times ? We make these times better, if 
 we bestir ourselves. Industry need not wish, 
 and he that lives upon hopes will die fasting. 
 There are no gains without pains ; then help, 
 hands, for I have no lands ; or, if I have, they 
 are smartly taxed. He that hath a trade hath 
 an estate ; and he that hath a calling hath an 
 office of profit and honor, as Poor Richard says ; 
 
62 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 but then the trade must be worked at, and the 
 calling followed, or neither the estate nor the 
 office will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are 
 industrious we shall never starve; for At the 
 workingman s house hunger looks in, but dares 
 not enter. Nor will the bailiff or the constable 
 enter ; for Industry pays debts, while despair 
 increaseth them. What though you have found 
 no treasure, nor has any rich relation left you a 
 legacy ; Diligence is the mother of good luck, 
 and God gives all things to Industry. Then 
 plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall 
 have corn to sell and to keep. Work while it is 
 called to-day, for you know not how much you 
 may be hindered to-morrow. One to-day is 
 worth two to-morrows, as Poor Richard says ; 
 and further, Never leave that till to-morrow 
 which you can do to-day. If you were a servant, 
 would you not be ashamed that a good master 
 should catch you idle ? Are you then your own 
 master ? Be ashamed to catch yourself idle 
 when there is so much to be done for yourself, 
 your family, your country, your king. Handle 
 your tools without mittens ; remember that The 
 cat in gloves catches no mice, as Poor Richard 
 says. / It is true there is much to be done, and 
 perhaps you are weak-handed ; but stick to it 
 
FATHER ABRAHAM S SPEECH 63 
 
 steadily and you will see great effects ; for Con 
 stant dropping wears away stones ; and By Dili 
 gence and Patience the mouse ate in two the 
 cable ; and Little strokes fell great oaks. 
 
 " Methinks I hear some of you say, Must a 
 man afford himself no leisure ? I will tell thee, 
 my friend, what Poor Richard says : Employ 
 thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure ; 
 and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw 
 not away an hour. Leisure is time for doing 
 something useful ; this leisure the diligent man 
 will obtain, but the lazy man never ; for A life 
 of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. 
 Many, without labor, would live by their wits 
 only, but they break for want of stock ; whereas, 
 industry gives comfort, and plenty, and respect. 
 Fly pleasures and they will follow you. The 
 diligent spinner has a large shift; and now I 
 have a sheep and a cow every one bids me good- 
 morrow. 
 
 "II. But with our industry we must likewise 
 be steady and careful, and oversee our own 
 affairs with our own eyes, and not trust too 
 much to others ; for, as Poor Richard says, 
 
 I never saw an oft-removed tree, 
 
 Nor yet an oft-removed family, 
 
 That throve so well as those that settled be. 
 
64 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 And again, Three removes are as bad as a fire ; 
 and again, Keep thy shop, and thy shop will 
 keep thee ; and again, If you would have your 
 business done, go ; if not, send. And again, 
 
 He that by the plough would thrive, 
 Himself must either hold or drive. 
 
 And again, The eye of the master will do more 
 work than both his hands ; and again, Want of 
 care does us more damage than want of knowl 
 edge ; and again, Not to oversee workmen is to 
 leave them your purse open. Trusting too much 
 to others care is the ruin of many ; for, In the 
 affairs of this world men are saved, not by faith 
 but by the want of it ; but a man s own care is 
 profitable; for, If you would have a faithful 
 servant and one that you like, serve yourself. 
 *A little neglect may breed great mischief ; for 
 want of a nail the shoe was lost ; and for want 
 of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and 
 slain by the enemy ; all for a little care about a 
 horse-shoe nail. 
 
 " III. So much for industry, my friends, and 
 attention to one s own business ; but to these we 
 must add frugality, if we would make our indus 
 try more certainly successful. A man may, if 
 he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his 
 
FATHER ABRAHAM S SPEECH 65 
 
 nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not 
 worth a groat at last. A fat kitchen makes a 
 lean will ; and 
 
 Many estates are spent in the getting, 
 Since women forsook spinning and knitting, 
 And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting. 
 
 " If you would be wealthy, think of saving as 
 well as getting. The Indies have not made 
 Spain rich, because her outgoes are greater 
 than her incomes. 
 
 " Away then with your expensive follies, and 
 you will not then have so much cause to com 
 plain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable 
 families, for 
 
 Women and wine, game and deceit, 
 Make the wealth small and the want great. 
 
 And further, What maintains one vice would 
 bring up two children. You may think, perhaps, 
 that a little tea or a little punch now and then, 
 diet a little more costly, clothes a little finer, and 
 a little entertainment now and then can be no 
 great matter ; but remember, Many a little makes 
 a mickle. Beware of little expenses ; A small 
 leak will sink a great ship, as Poor I^icKard 
 Who dainties love shall beg- 
 
66 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 gars prove ; and moreover, Fools make feasts 
 and wise men eat them. 
 
 " Here you are all got together at this sale of 
 fineries and knickknacks. You call them goods ; 
 but, if you do not take care, they will prove 
 evils to some of you. You expect they will be 
 sold cheap, and perhaps they may for less than 
 they cost, but, if you have no occasion for them, 
 they must be dear to you. Remember what 
 Poor Richard says, Buy what thou hast no 
 need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy neces 
 saries. And again, At a great pennyworth 
 pause a while. He means that perhaps the 
 cheapness is apparent only, and not real; or 
 the bargain, by straightening thee in thy busi 
 ness, may do thee more harm than good. For 
 in another place he says, Many have been 
 ruined by buying good pennyworths. Again, it 
 is foolish to lay out money in a purchase of 
 repentance ; and yet this folly is practised every 
 day at auctions, for want of minding the almanac. 
 Many a one, for the sake of finery on the back, 
 have gone with a hungry belly and half starved 
 their families. Silks and satins, scarlet and vel 
 vets, put the kitchen fire out, as Poor Richard 
 says. 
 
 " These are not the necessaries of life ; they 
 
" or THE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 or 
 
 FATHER ABRAHAM S SP 
 
 can scarcely be called the conveniences; and 
 yet, only because they look pretty, how many 
 want to have them. By these, and other ex 
 travagances, the genteel are reduced to poverty, 
 and forced to borrow of those whom they for 
 merly despised, but who, through industry and 
 frugality, have maintained their standing; in 
 which case it appears plainly that, A ploughman 
 on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his 
 knees, as Poor Richard says. Perhaps they 
 have a small estate left them which they knew 
 not the getting of ; they think, It is day and it 
 never will be night ; that a little to be spent out 
 of so much is not worth minding; but Always 
 taking out of the meal-tub, and never putting in, 
 soon comes to the bottom, as Poor Richard says ; 
 and then, When the well is dry, they know the 
 worth of water. But this they might have 
 known before, if they had taken his advice. If 
 you would know the value of money, go and try 
 to borrow some ; for He that goes a-borrowing 
 goes a-sorrowing, as Poor Richard says; and, 
 indeed, So does he that lends to such people, 
 when he goes to get it again. Poor Richard 
 further advises, and says, 
 
 Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse ; 
 Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse. 
 
68 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 And again, Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, 
 and a great deal more saucy. When you have 
 bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, 
 that your appearance may be all of a piece ; but 
 Poor Richard says, It iseasier to suppress the 
 first desire than to satisfy alT that follow it. 
 And it is as truly folly for the poor to ape the 
 rich, as for the frog to swell in order to equal 
 the ox. 
 
 Vessels large may venture more, 
 
 But little boats should keep near shore. 
 
 It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as 
 Poor Richard says, Pride that dines on vanity, 
 sups on contempt. Pride breakfasted with 
 plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with 
 infamy. And after all, of what use is this pride 
 of appearance, for writer! so much is risked, so 
 much is suffered ? It cannot promote health, 
 nor ease pain ; it makes no increase of merit in 
 the person ; it creates envy ; it hastens mis 
 fortune. 
 
 " But what madness must it be to run in debt 
 for these superfluities ? We are offered by the 
 terms of this sale six months credit; and that, 
 perhaps, has induced some of us to attend it, 
 because we cannot spend the ready money, and 
 hope now to be fine without it. But, ah ! think 
 
FATHER ABRAHAM S SPEECH 69 
 
 what you do when you run in debt ; to give to 
 another power over your liberty. If you cannot 
 pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your 
 creditor ; you will be in fear when you speak to 
 him ; you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking ex 
 cuses, and by degrees come to lose your veracity 
 and sink into base, downright lying; for The 
 second vice is lying, the first is running into 
 debt, as Poor Richard says ; and again, to the 
 same purpose, Lying rides upon Debt s back; 
 whereas, a free-born Englishman ought not to 
 be ashamed nor afraid to see or speak to any 
 man living. . But poverty often deprives a man 
 of all spirit and virtue. It is hard for an empty 
 bag to stand upright. 
 
 " What would you think of that prince, or of 
 that government, who should issue an edict for 
 bidding you to dress like a gentleman or gentle 
 woman, on pain of imprisonment or servitude ? 
 Would not you say that you were free, have a 
 right to dress as ypu please, and that such an 
 edict would be a breach of your privileges, and 
 such a government tyrannical ? And yet you 
 are about to put yourself under such tyranny, 
 when you run in debt for such dress. Your 
 creditor has authority at his pleasure to deprive 
 you of your liberty, by confining you in gaol till 
 
70 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 you shall be able to pay him. When you have 
 got your bargain, you may, perhaps, think little 
 of payment ; but, as Poor Richard says, credit 
 ors have better memories than debtors ; creditors 
 are a superstitious set, great observers of set 
 days and times. The day comes round before 
 you are aware, and the demand is made before 
 you are prepared to satisfy it; or, if you bear 
 your debt in mind, the term, which at first 
 seemed so long, will, as it lessens, appear ex 
 tremely short. Time will seem to have added 
 wings to his heels as well as his shoulders. 
 Those have a short Lent who owe money to be 
 paid at Easter. At present, perhaps, you may 
 think yourselves in thriving circumstances, and 
 that you can bear a little extravagance without 
 injury; but 
 
 For age and want save while you may ; 
 No morning sun lasts a whole day. 
 
 Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever, 
 while you live, expense is constant and certain ; 
 and, It is easier to build two chimneys than to 
 keep one in fuel, as Poor Richard says; so, 
 Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt. 
 
 Get what you can, and what you get hold ; 
 
 Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold. 
 
FATHER ABRAHAM S SPEECH 71 
 
 And when you have got the Philosopher s Stone, 
 sure you will no longer complain of bad times, 
 or the difficulty of paying taxes. 
 
 " IV. This doctrine, my friends, is reason 
 and wisdom ; but, after all, do not depend too 
 much upon your own industry and frugality 
 and prudence, though excellent things ; for they 
 may all be blasted, without the blessing of 
 Heaven ; and, therefore, ask that blessing hum 
 bly, and be not uncharitable_to thosethat at 
 present seem to want it, butcomfort ImcTTTeTp 
 them. ^Remember Job suffered, and was after- 
 ards prosperous. 
 
 " And now, to conclude, Experience keeps a 
 / dear school, but fools will learn in no other, as 
 Poor Richard says, and scarce in that ; for, it is 
 true we may give advice, but we cannot give 
 conduc^ However, remember this : They that 
 will not be counselled cannot be helped; and 
 further, that, If you^will not hear Reason, she 
 will surely rap your knuckles, as Poor~Richard 
 says." 
 
 Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. 
 The people heard it and approved the doctrine, 
 and immediately practised the contrary, just as 
 if it had been a common sermon ; for the auc 
 tion opened, and they began to buy extrava- 
 
72 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 gantly. I found the good man had thoroughly 
 studied my almanacs, and digested all I had 
 dropped on these topics during the course of 
 twenty-five years. The frequent mention he 
 made of me must have tired any one else ; but 
 my vanity was wonderfully delighted with it, 
 though I was conscious not a tenth part of the 
 wisdom was my own which he ascribed to me, 
 but rather the gleanings that I had made of the 
 sense of all ages and nations. 
 
 However, I resolved to be better for the echo 
 of it; and, though I had at first determined to 
 buy stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved 
 to wear my old one a little longer. Reader, if 
 thou wilt do the same, thy profit will be as great 
 as mine. I am, as ever, thine to serve thee, 
 
 RICHARD SAUNDERS. 
 
Ill 
 
 PROPOSALS RELATING TO THE EDUCATION OF 
 YOUTH IN PENNSYLVANIA 
 
 [This paper was written by Franklin in 1749. It is a 
 plan for the organization of an Academy at Philadelphia 
 and it contains a discussion of the jDurpose of education, 
 the value of the various subjects in the curriculum, and the 
 methods of teaching these subjects. The Academy was 
 organized pretty much after this plan and was many years 
 later developed into what is now the University of the 
 State of Pennsylvania. Franklin was, until the time of 
 his death in 1790, a member of the Board of Trustees of 
 this school, and he gave much of his time, money, and 
 thought to its management.] 
 
 / THE good education of youth has been es 
 teemed by wise men in all ages as the surest 
 foundation of the happiness both of private 
 families and of commonwealths. Almost all 
 governments have therefore made it a principal 
 object of their attention to establish and endow 
 with proper revenues such seminaries of learn 
 ing as might supply the succeeding age with 
 73 
 
74 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 men qualified to serve the public with honor to 
 themselves and to their country. 
 
 Many of the first settlers of these provinces 
 were men who had received a good education in 
 Europe ; and to their wisdom and good man 
 agement we owe much of our present prosperity. 
 But their hands were full, and they could not do 
 all things. The present race are not thought to 
 be generally of equal ability ; for, though the 
 American youth are allowed not to want capac 
 ity, yet the best capacities require cultivation ; it 
 being truly with them as with the best ground, 
 which, unless well tilled and sowed with profit 
 able seed, produces only ranker weeds. 
 
 That we may obtain the advantages arising 
 from an increase of knowledge, and prevent, as 
 much as may be, the mischievous consequences 
 that would attend a general ignorance among us, 
 the following hints are offered toward forming a 
 plan for the education of the youth of Penn 
 sylvania, viz. : 
 
 It is proposed, 
 
 That some persons of leisure and public spirit 
 apply for a charter, by which they may be in 
 corporated, with power to erect an Academy for 
 the education of youth, to govern the same, pro 
 vide masters, make rules, receive donations, 
 
EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 75 
 
 purchase lands, and to add to their number from 
 time to time such other persons as they shall 
 judge suitable. 
 
 That the members of the corporation make it 
 their pleasure and, in some degree, their busi 
 ness, to visit the Academy often, encourage and 
 countenance the youth, countenance and assist 
 the masters, and by all means in their power 
 advance the usefulness and reputation of the 
 design; that they look on the students as in 
 some sort their children, treat them with famil 
 iarity and affection, and, when they have behaved 
 well, and gone through their studies, and are to 
 enter the world, zealqusly unite, and make all 
 the interest that can be made to establish them, 
 whether in business, offices, marriages, or any 
 other thing for their advantage, preferably to all 
 other persons whatsoever, even of equal merit. 
 
 And if men may, and frequently do, catch 
 such a taste for cultivating flowers, for planting, 
 grafting, inoculating, and the like, as to despise 
 all other amusements for their sake, why may 
 not we expect they should acquire a relish for 
 that more useful culture of young minds. 
 Thomson says, 
 
 " Tis joy to see the human blossoms blow, 
 When infant reason grows apace, and calls 
 
76 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 For the kind hand of an assiduous care. 
 Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, 
 To teach the young idea how to shoot ; 
 To pour the fresh instruction o er the mind, 
 To breathe the enlivening spirit, and to fix 
 The generous purpose in the glowing breast." 
 
 That a house be provided for the Academy, 
 if not in the town, not many miles from it ; the 
 situation high and dry, and, if it may be, not far 
 from a river, having a garden, orchard, meadow, 
 and a field or two. 
 
 That the house be furnished with a library if 
 in the country (if in the town, the town libraries 
 may serve), with maps of all countries, globes, 
 some mathematical instruments, an apparatus 
 for experiments in natural philosophy and for 
 mechanics ; prints of all kinds, prospects, build 
 ings, and machines. 
 
 That the rector be a man of good understand 
 ing, good morals, diligent and patient, learned in 
 the languages and sciences, and a correct, pure 
 speaker and writer of the English tongue ; to 
 have such tutors under him as shall be necessary. 
 
 That the boarding scholars diet together, 
 plainly, temperately, and frugally. 
 
 That, to keep them in health and to strengthen 
 and render active their bodies, they be frequently 
 
EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 77 
 
 exercised in running, leaping, wrestling, and 
 swimming. 
 
 That they have peculiar habits to distinguish 
 them from other youth, if the Academy be in 
 or near the town; for this, among other rea 
 sons, that their behavior may be the better 
 observed. 
 
 As to their studies, it would be well if they i/ 
 could be taught everything that is useful, and 
 everything that is ornamental. But art is long, 
 and their time is short. It is therefore proposed 
 that they learn those things that are likely to be 
 most useful and most ornamental, regard being 
 had to the several professions for which they 
 are intended. 
 
 All should be taught to write a fair hand, and 
 swift, as that is useful to all. And with it may 
 be learned something of drawing, by imitation 
 of prints, and some of the first principles of 
 perspective. 
 
 Arithmetic, accounts, and some of the first 
 principles of geometry and astronomy. 
 
 The English language might be taught by 
 grammar; in which some of our best writers, 
 as Tillotson, Addison, Pope, Algernon Sidney, 
 Cato s Letters, etc., should be classics ; the_ style 
 principally to be cultivated being the clear and 
 
78 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 the concise. Reading should also be taught, 
 and pronouncing properly, distinctly, emphati 
 cally ; not with an even tone, which underdoes, 
 nor a theatrical, which overdoes nature. 
 
 To form their style, they should be put on 
 writing letters to each other, making abstracts 
 of what they read, or writing the same things in 
 their own words ; telling or writing stories lately 
 read, in their own expressions, all to be revised 
 and corrected by the tutor, who should give his 
 reasons and explain the force and import of 
 words. 
 
 To form their pronunciation, they may be put 
 on making declamations, repeating speeches, and 
 delivering orations ; the tutor assisting at the re 
 hearsals, teaching, advising, and correcting their 
 accent. 
 
 But if history be made a constant part of their 
 reading, such as the translations of the Greek 
 and Roman historians, and the modern histories 
 of ancient Greece and Rome, may not almost 
 all kinds of useful knowledge be that way intro 
 duced to advantage, and with pleasure to the 
 student ? As 
 
 Geography, by reading with maps, and being 
 required to point out the places where the great 
 est actions were done, to give their old and new 
 
EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 79 
 
 names, with the bounds, situation, and extent of 
 the countries concerned. 
 
 Chronology, by the help of Helvicus or some 
 other writer of the kind, who will enable them 
 to tell when those events happened, what princes 
 were contemporaries, and what states or famous 
 men flourished about that time; the several 
 principal epochs to be first well fixed in their 
 memories. 
 
 Ancient customs, religious and civil, being fre 
 quently mentioned in history, will give occasion 
 for explaining them, in which the print of med 
 als, basso-rilievos, and ancient monuments will 
 greatly assist. 
 
 Morality, by descanting and making continual 
 observations on the causes of the rise or fall of 
 any man s character, fortune, and power, men 
 tioned in history ; the advantages of temperance, 
 order, frugality, industry, and perseverance. 
 Indeed, the general natural tendency of reading 
 good history must be to fix in the minds of youth 
 deep impressions of the beauty and usefulness of 
 virtue of all kinds, public spirit, and fortitude. 
 
 History will show the wonderful effects of 
 oratory in governing, turning, and leading great 
 bodies of mankind, armies, cities, nations. 
 When the minds of youth are struck with ad- 
 
80 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 miration at this, then is the time to give them 
 the principles of that art, which they will study 
 with taste and application. Then they may be 
 made acquainted with the best models among the 
 ancients, their beauties being particularly pointed 
 out to them. Modern political oratory being 
 chiefly performed by the pen and press, its ad 
 vantages over the ancient in some respects are 
 to be shown, as that its effects are more ex 
 tensive and more lasting. 
 
 History will also afford frequent opportunities 
 of showing the necessity of a public religion, from 
 its usefulness to the public ; the advantage of a 
 religious character among private persons ; the 
 mischiefs of superstition, and the excellency of 
 the Christian religion above all others, ancient 
 or modern. 
 
 History will also give occasion to expatiate on 
 the advantage of civil orders and constitutions, 
 how men and their properties are protected by 
 joining in societies and establishing government; 
 their industry encouraged and rewarded, arts 
 invented, and life made more comfortable ; the 
 advantages of liberty, mischiefs of licentiousness, 
 benefits arising from good laws and a due execu 
 tion of justice. Thus may the first principles of 
 sound politics be fixed in the minds of youth. 
 
EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 8 1 
 
 On historical occasions, questions of right and 
 wrong, justice and injustice, will naturally arise, 
 and may be put to youth, which they may debate 
 in conversation and in writing. When they ar 
 dently desire victory, for the sake of the praise 
 attending it, they will begin to feel the want and 
 be sensible of the use of logic, of the art of rea 
 soning to discover truth, and of arguing to defend 
 it, and convince adversaries. This would be the 
 time to acquaint them with the principles of that 
 art. Grotius, Puff endorff, and some other writers 
 of the same kind may be used on these occasions 
 to decide their disputes. (Public disputes warm 
 the imagination, whet the industry, and strengthen ; 
 the natural abilities . 
 
 When you are told that the great men whose 
 lives and actions they read in history spoke two 
 of the best languages that ever were, the most 
 expressive, copious, beautiful ; and that the finest 
 writings, the most correct compositions, the most 
 perfect productions of human wit and wisdom, 
 are in those languages, which have endured for 
 ages, and will endure while there are men ; that 
 no translation can do them justice, or give the 
 pleasure found in reading the originals; that 
 those languages contain all science; that one 
 of them is become almost universal, being the 
 
82 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 language of learned men in all countries ; and 
 that to understand them is a distinguishing orna 
 ment ; they may therefore be made desirous of 
 learning those languages, and their industry 
 sharpened in the acquisition of them. All in 
 tended for divinity should be taught the Latin 
 and Greek; for physic, the Latin, Greek, and 
 French; for law, the Latin and French; mer 
 chants, the French, German, and Spanish ; and, 
 though all should not be compelled to learn Latin, 
 Greek, or the modern foreign languages, yet none 
 that have an ardent desire to learn them should 
 be refused, their English, arithmetic, and other 
 studies absolutely necessary being at the same 
 time not neglected. 
 
 If the new Universal History were also read, 
 it would give a connected idea of human affairs, 
 so far as it goes, which should be followed by the 
 best modern histories, particularly of our mother 
 country ; then of these colonies, which should be 
 accompanied with observations on their rise, in 
 crease, use to Great Britain, encouragements and 
 discouragements, the means to make them flour 
 ish and secure their liberties. 
 
 With the history of men, times, and nations, 
 should be read, at proper hours or days, some of 
 the best histories of nature, which should not 
 
EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 83 
 
 only be delightful to youth, and furnish them 
 with matter for their letters, as well as other his 
 tory, but would afterward be of great use to them, 
 whether they are merchants, handicrafts, or di 
 vines ; enabling the first the better to understand 
 many commodities and drugs, the second to im 
 prove his trade or handicraft by new mixtures 
 and materials, and the last to adorn his discourses 
 by beautiful comparisons, and strengthen them 
 by new proofs of divine Providence. The con 
 versation of all will be improved by it, as oc 
 casions frequently occur of making natural 
 observations, which are instructive, agreeable, 
 and entertaining in almost all companies. Natu 
 ral history will also afford opportunities of 
 introducing many observations relating to the 
 preservation of health, which may be afterward 
 of great use. Arbuthnot on Air and Aliment, 
 Sanctorius on Perspiration, Lemery on Foods, 
 and some others, may now be read, and a very 
 little explanation will make them sufficiently in 
 telligible to youth. 
 
 While they are reading natural history, might 
 not a little gardening, planting, grafting, and in 
 oculating be taught and practised, and now and 
 then excursions made to the neighboring planta 
 tions of the best farmers, their methods observed 
 
84 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 and reasoned upon for the information of youth ? 
 The improvement of agriculture being useful to 
 all, and skill in it no disparagement to any. 
 
 The history of commerce, of the invention of 
 arts, rise of manufactures, progress of trade, 
 change of its seats, with the reason and causes, 
 may also be made entertaining to youth, and 
 will be useful to all. And this, with the accounts 
 in other history of the prodigious force and effect 
 of engines and machines used in war, will natu 
 rally introduce a desire to be instructed in me 
 chanics, and to be informed of the principles of 
 that art by which weak men perform such won 
 ders, labor is saved, and manufactures expedited. 
 This will be the time to show them prints of 
 ancient and modern machines ; to explain to 
 them, to let them be copied, and to give lectures 
 in mechanical philosophy. 
 
 With the whole should be constantly inculcated 
 and cultivated that benignity of mind which 
 shows itself in searching for and seizing every 
 opportunity to serve and to oblige, and is the 
 foundation of what is called good breeding, 
 highly useful to the possessor, and most agree 
 able to all. 
 
 The idea of what is true merit should also be 
 often presented to youth, explained and impressed 
 
EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA 85 
 
 on their minds, as consisting in an inclination, 
 joined with an ability, to serve mankind, one s 
 country, friends, and family; which ability is, 
 with the blessing of God, to be acquired or 
 greatly increased by true learning, and should 
 indeed be the great aim and end of all learning. 
 
IV 
 
 SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH SCHOOL 
 
 FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE 
 PHILADELPHIA ACADEMY 
 
 [Franklin s plan was for an English school, with no 
 ancient or modern languages. It was to fit the youth " for 
 learning any business, calling, or profession, except such 
 wherein languages are required." This Sketch of an Eng 
 lish School was written in 1749, and read by the principal at 
 the opening of the Academy.] 
 
 IT is expected that every scholar, to be ad 
 mitted into this school, be at least able to pro 
 nounce and divide the syllables in reading, and 
 to write a legible hand. None to be received 
 that are under nine years of age. 
 
 First or Lowest Class 
 
 Let the first class learn the English Grammar 
 rules, and at the same time let particular care 
 be taken to improve them in orthography. Per 
 haps the latter is best done by pairing the 
 scholars : two of those nearest equal in their 
 86 
 
SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH SCHOOL 8/ 
 
 spelling to be put together. Let these strive 
 for victory, each propounding ten words every 
 day to the other to be spelled. He that spells 
 truly most of the other s words is victor for that 
 day ; he that is victor most days in a month to 
 obtain a prize, a pretty, neat book of some kind, 
 useful in their future studies. This method 
 fixes the attention of children extremely to the 
 orthography of words, and makes them good 
 spellers very early. It is a shame for a man to 
 be so ignorant of this little art in his own lan 
 guage as to be perpetually confounding words 
 of like sound and different significance; the 
 consciousness of which defect makes some men, 
 otherwise of good learning and understanding, 
 averse to writing even a common letter. 
 
 Let the pieces read by the scholars in this 
 class be short, such as Croxall s Fables, and 
 little stories. In giving the lesson let it be read 
 to them ; let the meaning of the difficult words 
 in it be explained to them ; and let them con 
 over by themselves before they are called to 
 read to the master or usher, who is to take par 
 ticular care that they do not read too fast, and 
 that they duly observe the stops and pauses. A 
 vocabulary of the most usual difficult words 
 might be formed for their use, with explana- 
 
88 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 tions ; and they might daily get a few of those 
 words and explanations by heart, which would 
 a little exercise their memories ; or at least they 
 might write a number of them in a small book 
 for the purpose, which would help to fix the 
 meaning of those words in their minds, and at 
 the same time furnish every one with a little 
 dictionary for his future use. 
 
 The Second Class 
 
 To be taught reading with attention, and with 
 proper modulation of the voice, according to the 
 sentiment and the subject. 
 
 Some short pieces, not exceeding the length 
 of a Spectator, to be given this class for lessons 
 (and some of the easier Spectators would be 
 very suitable for the purpose). These lessons 
 might be given every night as tasks, the scholars 
 to study them against the morning. Let it then 
 be required of them to give an account, first, of 
 the parts of speech and construction of one or 
 two sentences. This will oblige them to recur 
 frequently to their grammar and fix its principal 
 rules in their memory. Next, of the intention 
 of the writer, or the scope of the piece, the 
 ^meaning of each sentence and of every common 
 word. This would early acquaint them with the 
 
SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH SCHOOL 89 
 
 meaning and force of words, and give them that 
 most necessary habit of reading with attention. 
 
 The master then to read the piece with the 
 proper modulations of voice, due emphasis, and 
 suitable action, where action is required ; and 
 put the youth on imitating his manner. Where 
 the author has used an expression not the best, 
 let it be pointed out; and let his beauties be 
 particularly remarked to the youth. 
 
 Let the lessons for reading be yjariejl, that the 
 youth may be acquainted with good style of all 
 kinds, in prose and verse, and the proper man 
 ner of reading each kind ; sometimes a well-told 
 story, a piece of a sermon, a general s speech to 
 his soldiers, a speech in a tragedy, some part of 
 a comedy, an ode, a satire, a letter, blank verse, 
 Hudibrastic, heroic, etc. But let such lessons 
 be chosen for reading as contain some useful 
 instruction, whereby the understanding or morals 
 of the youth may at the same time be improved. 
 
 It is required that they should first study and 
 understand the lessons before they are put upon 
 reading them properly ; to which end each boy 
 should have an English dictionary to help him 
 over difficulties. When our boys read English 
 to us we are apt to imagine they understand 
 what they read, because we do, and because it 
 
90 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 is their mother tongue. But they often read, as 
 parrots speak, knowing little or nothing of the 
 meaning. And it is not possible a reader should 
 give the due modulation to his voice and pro 
 nounce properly, unless his understanding goes 
 before his tongue and makes him master of the 
 sentiment. Accustoming boys to read aloud 
 what they do not first understand is the cause 
 of those even, set tones so common among 
 readers, which when they have once got a habit 
 of using they find so difficult to correct; by 
 which means among fifty readers we scarcely 
 find a good one. For want of good reading 
 pieces published with a view to influence the 
 minds of men, for their own or public benefit, 
 lose half their force. Were there but one good 
 reader in a neighborhood a public orator might 
 be heard throughout a nation with the same 
 advantages, and have the same effect upon his 
 audience as if they stood within the reach of his 
 voice. 
 
 The Third Class 
 
 To be taught speaking properly and gracefully, 
 which is nearer akin to good reading, and natu 
 rally follows it in the studies of youth. Let the 
 scholars of this class begin with learning the 
 
SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH SCHOOL 91 
 
 elements of rhetoric from some short system, so 
 as to be able to give an account of the most 
 useful tropes and figures. Let all their bad 
 habits of speaking, all offences against good 
 grammar, all corrupt or foreign accents, and all 
 improper phrases, be pointed out to them. Short 
 speeches from the Roman or other history, or 
 from thejDarliamentary debates, might be got 
 by heart, and delivered with the proper action, 
 etc. Speeches and scenes in our best tragedies 
 and comedies (avoiding everything that might 
 injure the morals of youth) might likewise be 
 got by rote, and the boys exercised in delivering 
 or acting them, great care being taken to form 
 their manner after the truest models. 
 
 For their further improvement, and a little to 
 vary their studies, let them now begin to read 
 Jiistory, after having got by heart a short table 
 of the principal epochs of chronology. They 
 may begin with Rollin s Ancient and Roman 
 Histories and proceed at proper hours, as they 
 go through the subsequent classes, with the best 
 histories of our own nation and the colonies. 
 Let emulation be excited among the boys by 
 giving, weekly, little prizes, or other small en 
 couragements, to those who are able to give the 
 best account of what they have read, as to time, 
 
92 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 places, names of persons, etc. This will make 
 them read with attention, and imprint the history 
 well in their memories. In remarking on the 
 history the master will have fine opportunities 
 of instilling instruction of various kinds, and 
 improving the morals as well as the understand 
 ings of youth. 
 
 The natural and mechanic history, contained 
 in the Spectacle de la Nature, might also be be 
 gun in this class, and continued through the 
 subsequent classes by other books of the same 
 kin d ; for, next to the knowledge of duty, this 
 kind of knowledge is certainly the most useful, 
 as well as the most entertaining. The merchant 
 may thereby be enabled better to understand 
 many commodities in trade ; the handicraftsman 
 to improve his business by new instruments, 
 mixtures, and materials ; and frequently hints 
 are given for new manufactures, or new methods 
 of improving land, that may be set on foot 
 greatly to the advantage of a country. 
 
 The Fourth Class 
 
 To be taught composition. Writing one s own 
 language well is the necessary accomplishment 
 after good speaking. It is the writing master s 
 business to take care that the boys make fair 
 
SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH SCHOOL 93 
 
 characters and place them straight and even in 
 the lines ; but to form their style, and even to 
 take care that the stops and capitals are properly 
 disposed, is the part of the English master. The 
 boys should be put on writing letters to each 
 other on common occurrences, and on various 
 subjects, imaginary business, etc., containing lit 
 tle stories, accounts of their late reading, what 
 parts of authors please them, and why ; letters 
 of congratulation, of compliment, of request, of 
 thanks, of recommendation, of admonition, of 
 consolation, of expostulation, excuse, etc. In 
 these they should be taught to express them 
 selves clearly, concisely, and naturally, without 
 affected words or high-flown phrases. All their 
 letters to pass through the master s hands, who 
 is to point out the faults, advise the corrections, 
 and commend what he finds right. Some of the 
 best letters published in our own language, as 
 Sir William Temple s, those of Pope and his 
 friends, and some others, might be set before the 
 youth as models, their beauties pointed out and 
 explained by the master, the letters themselves 
 transcribed by the scholar. 
 
 Dr. Johnson s Ethices Elementa, or First Prin 
 ciples of Morality, may now be read by the 
 scholars, and explained by the master, to lay a 
 
94 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 solid foundation of virtue and piety in their 
 minds. And as this class continues the reading 
 of .history, let them now, at proper hours, receive 
 some further instruction in chronology, and in 
 that part of geography (from the mathematical 
 master) which is necessary to understand the 
 maps and globes. They should also be acquainted 
 with the modern names of the places they find 
 mentioned in ancient writers. The exercises of 
 good reading and proper speaking still continued 
 at suitable times. 
 
 Fifth Class 
 
 To improve the youth in composition, they 
 may now, besides continuing to write letters, 
 begin to write little essays in prose, and some 
 times in verse ; not to make them poets, but for 
 this reason, that nothing acquaints a lad so 
 speedily with variety of expression as the neces 
 sity of finding such words and phrases as will 
 suit the measure, sound, and rhyme of verse, 
 and at the same time well express the sentiment 
 These essays should all pass under the master s 
 eye, who will point out their faults, and put the 
 writer on correcting them. Where the judg 
 ment is not ripe enough for forming new essays, 
 let the sentiments of a Spectator be given, and 
 
SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH SCHOOL 95 
 
 required to be clothed in the scholar s own 
 words ; or the circumstances of some good story, 
 the scholar to find expression. Let them be put 
 sometimes on abridging a paragraph of a diffuse 
 author; sometimes on dilating or amplifying 
 what is written more closely. And now let Dr. 
 Johnson s Noetica, or First Principles of Human 
 Knowledge, containing a logic or art of reason 
 ing, etc., be read by the youth and the difficul 
 ties that may occur to them be explained by the 
 master. The reading of history, and the exer 
 cises of good reading and just speaking, still 
 continued. 
 
 Sixth Class 
 
 In this class, besides continuing the studies of 
 the preceding in history, rhetoric, logic, moral 
 and natural philosophy, the best English authors 
 may be read and explained ; as Tillotson, Milton, 
 Locke, Addison, Pope, Swift, and higher papers 
 in the Spectator and Guardian, the best transla 
 tions of Homer, Virgil, and Horace, and Telem- 
 achus, Travels of Cyrus, etc. 
 
 Once a year let there be public exercises in the 
 hall, the trustees and citizens being present. Then 
 let fine gilt books be given as prizes to such boys 
 as distinguish themselves and excel the others 
 
96 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 in any branch of learning, making three degrees 
 of comparison ; giving the best prize to him that 
 performs best, a less valuable one to him that 
 comes up next to the best, and another to the 
 third ; commendations, encouragement, and ad 
 vice to the rest ; keeping up their hopes, that 
 by industry they may excel another time. The 
 names of those that obtain the prize to be yearly 
 printed in a list. 
 
 The hours of each day are to be divided and 
 disposed in such a manner as that some classes 
 may be with the writing master, improving their 
 hands ; others with the mathematical master, 
 learning arithmetic, accounts, geography, use of 
 the globes, drawing, mechanics, etc. ; while the 
 rest are in the English school, under the English 
 master s care. 
 
 Thus instructed, youth will come out of this 
 school, fitted for learning any business, calling, 
 or profession, except such wherein languages 
 are required ; and, though unacquainted with any 
 ancient or foreign tongue, they will be masters 
 of their own, which is of more immediate and 
 general use, and withal will have attained many 
 other valuable accomplishments ; the time usu 
 ally spent in acquiring those languages, often 
 without success, being here employed in laying 
 
SKETCH OF AN ENGLISH SCHOOL 97 
 
 such a foundation of knowledge and ability as, 
 properly improved, may qualify them to pass 
 through and execute the several offices of civil 
 life, with advantage and reputation to themselves 
 and country. 
 
SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION 
 
 AT THE CONCLUSION OF ITS DELIBERATIONS 
 
 [This speech shows Franklin s characteristic modest 
 diffidence, an air of doubt as to the validity of his own 
 opinions and a feeling of assurance only in a superhuman 
 guidance. He wanted unanimity in the vote to adopt the 
 proposed Constitution of the United States, though several 
 members, and himself one of them, did not favor some 
 provisions of the draft. He admitted that he had many 
 times changed his judgment and that he might do so 
 again ; he was willing to sacrifice his own opinions to the 
 public good, and he urged others to do the same. The 
 result was the passage of the motion to adopt by unanimous 
 consent.] 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : I confess that I do not en 
 tirely approve of this Constitution at present; 
 but, Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve 
 it; for, having lived long, I have experienced 
 many instances of being obliged, by better in 
 formation or fuller consideration, to change 
 opinions even on important subjects which I 
 once thought right, but found to be otherwise. 
 
SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION 99 
 
 It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more 
 apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others. 
 Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in 
 religion, think themselves in possession of all 
 truth, and that wherever others differ from them 
 it is so far error. Steele, a Protestant, in a 
 dedication, tells the Pope that the only differ 
 ence between our two churches in their opinions 
 of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Romish 
 church is infallible, and the church of England 
 is never in the wrong. But, though many 
 private persons think almost as highly of their 
 own infallibility as that of their sect, few express 
 it so naturally as a certain French lady who, in 
 a little dispute with her sister, said, " But I meet 
 with nobody but myself that is always in the 
 right." "Je trouve que moi qui aie toujours 
 raison." 
 
 In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Con 
 stitution, with all its faults if they are such; 
 because I think a general government necessary 
 for us, and there is no form of government but 
 what may be a blessing to the people, if well 
 administered ; and I believe further that this 
 is likely to be well administered for a course 
 of years, and can only end in despotism, as 
 other forms have done before it, when the people 
 
IOO FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 shall become so corrupted as to need despotic 
 government, being incapable of any other. I 
 doubt, too, whether any other convention we can 
 obtain may be able to make a better constitu 
 tion ; for when you assemble a number of men, 
 to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you 
 inevitably assemble with those men all their 
 prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, 
 their local interests, and their selfish views. 
 From such an assembly can a perfect produc 
 tion be expected ? It therefore astonishes me, 
 Sir, to find this system approaching so near 
 to perfection as it does; and I think it will 
 astonish our enemies, who are waiting with con 
 fidence to hear that our councils are confounded 
 like those of the builders of Babel, and that our 
 states are on the point of separation, only to 
 meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one 
 another s throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this 
 Constitution, because I expect no better and 
 because I am not sure that it is not the best. 
 The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice 
 to the public good. I have never whispered a 
 syllable of them abroad. Within these walls 
 they were born and here they shall die. If 
 every one of us, returning to our constituents, 
 were to report the objections he has had to it 
 
SPEECH IN THE CONVENTION IOI 
 
 and endeavor to gain partisans in support of 
 them, we might prevent its being generally re 
 ceived, and thereby lose all the salutory effects 
 and great advantages resulting naturally in our 
 favor among foreign nations, as well as among 
 ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. 
 Much of the strength and efficiency of any 
 government in procuring and securing happiness 
 to the people depends upon opinion, on the 
 general opinion of the goodness of that govern 
 ment, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of 
 its governors. I hope, therefore, for our own 
 sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake 
 of our posterity, that we shall act heartily and 
 unanimously in recommending this Constitution 
 wherever our influence may extend, and turn 
 our future thoughts and endeavors to the means 
 of having it well administered. 
 
 On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a 
 wish that every member of the convention who 
 may still have objections to it would with me on 
 this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility 
 and, to make manifest our unanimity, put his 
 name to this instrument. 
 
 [Then the motion was made for adding the last formula, 
 viz., " Done in convention by the unanimous consent," etc., 
 which was agreed to and added accordingly.] 
 
VI 
 
 MOTION FOR PRAYERS IN THE CONVENTION 
 
 [This motion was made during the session of the con 
 vention that framed the Constitution of the United States. 
 It shows Franklin s faith in the guiding hand of a divine 
 Providence.] 
 
 MR. PRESIDENT : The small progress we have 
 made, after four or five weeks close attendance 
 and continual reasonings with each other, our 
 different sentiments on almost every question, 
 several of the last producing as many noes as 
 ayes, is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the 
 imperfection of the human understanding. We 
 indeed seem to feel our own want of political 
 wisdom, since we have been running all about 
 in search of it. We have gone back to ancient 
 history for models of government, and exam 
 ined the different forms of those republics, 
 which, having been originally formed with the 
 seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer 
 exist; and we have viewed modern states all 
 
 102 
 
PRAYERS IN THE CONVENTION 103 
 
 around Europe, but find none of their constitu 
 tions suitable to our circumstances. 
 
 In this situation of this assembly, groping, as 
 it were, in the dark to find political truth, and 
 scarce able to distinguish it when presented to 
 us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not 
 hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the 
 Father of Lights to illuminate our understand 
 ings ? In the beginning of the contest with 
 Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we 
 had daily prayers in this room for divine pro 
 tection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard ; and 
 they were graciously answered. All of us, who 
 were engaged in the struggle, must have ob 
 served frequent instances of a superintending 
 Providence in our favor. To that kind Provi 
 dence we owe this happy opportunity of consult 
 ing in peace on the means of establishing our 
 future national felicity. And have we now for 
 gotten that powerful Friend ? or do we imagine 
 we no longer need its assistance ? I have lived, 
 Sir, a long time ; and the longer I live the more 
 convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God 
 governs in the affairs of men. And, if a sparrow 
 cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is 
 it probable that an empire can rise without His 
 aid ? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred 
 
104 FRANKLIN S WRITINGS ON EDUCATION 
 
 Writings, that, " except the Lord build the house, 
 they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe 
 this ; and I also believe that, without his con 
 curring aid, we shall succeed in this political 
 building no better than the builders of Babel ; 
 we shall be divided by our little, partial, local 
 interests, our projects will be confounded, and 
 we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by 
 word down to future ages. And, what is worse, 
 mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate 
 instance, despair of establishing government by 
 human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and 
 conquest. 
 
 I therefore beg leave to move, 
 
 That hereafter prayers, imploring the assist 
 ance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliber 
 ations, be held in this assembly every morning 
 before we proceed to business ; and that one or 
 more of the clergy of this city be requested to 
 officiate in that service. 
 
 NOTE BY DR. FRANKLIN. " The convention, except 
 three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary ! " 
 
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