Benjamin Franklin's Pursuit of Moral Perfection, ca. 1730s

From Benjamin Franklin. Autobiography. New York: Derby & Jackson, 1859.

I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time, and to conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined. While my attention was taken up, and employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, beÐfore we can have any dependence on a steady, uniÐform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I thereÐfore tried the following method.

In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as different writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drinking, while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, even to our avarice and ambition. I proposed to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurred to me as necÐessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short preÐcept, which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning.

These names of virtues, with their precepts, were,

1. TEMPERANCE.-Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE.-Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER.-Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION.-Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY.-Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; that is, waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY.-Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY.-Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE.-Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION.-Avoid extremes; forbear reÐsenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS.-Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
11. TRANQUILLITY.-Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY . . . .
13. HUMILITY.-Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone through the thirÐteen; and, as the previous acquisition of some might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arranged them with that view, as they stand above. TemÐperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where conÐstant vigilance was to be kept up, and a guard mainÐtained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquired and established, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improved in virtue, and conÐsidering that in conversation it was obtained rather by the use of the ear than of the tongue, and thereÐfore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and jesting, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave Silence the second place. This and the next, Order, I expectÐed would allow me more time for attending to my project and my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues; Frugality and InÐdustry relieving me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, &c.,&c. Conceiving then, that, agreeably to the advice of Pythagoras in his Golden Verses, daily examinaÐtion would be necessary, I contrived the following, method for conducting that examination.

I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day. [See first chart.]

I determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the virtues successively. Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offense against Temperance, leaving the other virÐtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day. Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots. Proceeding thus to the last, I could get through a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year. And like him who, having a garden to weed, does not attempt to eradicate all the bad herbs at once, which would exceed his reach and his strength, but works on one of the beds at a time, and, having accomplished the first, proceeds to a second, so I should have, I hoped, the encouraging pleasure of seeing on my pages the progress made in virtue, by clearing successively my lines of their spots, till in the end, by a number of courses, I should be happy in viewing a clean book, after a thirteen weeks' daily examination. . . .

The precept of Order requiring that every part of my business should have its allotted time, one page in my little book contained the following scheme of employment for the twenty-four hours of a natural day. [See second chart.]

I entered upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continued it with occasional intermissions for some time. I was surprised to find myÐself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish. To avoid the trouble of renewing now and then my little book, which, by scraping out the marks on the paper of old faults to make room for new ones in a new course, became full of holes, I transferred my tables and precepts to the ivory leaves of a memoÐrandum book, on which the lines were drawn with red ink, that made a durable stain, and on those lines I marked my faults with a black-lead pencil, which marks I could easily wipe out with a wet sponge. After a while I went through one course only in a year, and afterward only one in several years, till at length I omitted them entirely, being employed in voyages and business abroad, with a multiplicity of affairs that interfered; but I always carried my little book with me.

My scheme of Order gave me the most trouble; and I found that, though it might be practicable where a man's business was such as to leave him the disposition of his time, that of a journeyman printer, for instance, it was not possible to be exactÐly observed by a master, who must mix with the world, and often receive people of business at their own hours. Order, too, with regard to places for things, papers, &c., I found extremely difficult to acÐquire. I had not been early accustomed to method, and, having an exceedingly good memory, I was not so sensible of the inconvenience attending want of method. This article, therefore, cost me much painful attention, and my faults in it vexed me so much, and I made so little progress in amendment, and had such frequent relapses, that I was almost ready to give up the attempt, and content myself with a faulty character in that respect, like the man who, in buying an ax of a smith, my neighbor, desired to have the whole of its surface as bright as the edge. The smith consented to grind it bright for him if he would turn the wheel; he turned, while the smith pressed the broad face of the ax hard and heavily on the stone, which made the turning of it very fatiguing. The man came every now and then from the wheel to see how the work went on, and at length would take his ax as it was, without furÐther grinding. ãNo,ä said the smith, ãturn on, turn on; we shall have it bright by-and-by; as yet, it is only speckled. ãYes," said the man, ãbut I think I like a speckled ax best.ä And I believe this may have been the case with many, who, having, for want of some such means as I employed, found the diffiÐculty of obtaining good and breaking bad habits in other points of vice and virtue, have given up the struggle, and concluded that "a speckled ax is best;" for something, that pretended to be reason, was every now and then suggesting to me that such exÐtreme nicety as I exacted of myself might be a kind of foppery in morals, which, if it were known, would make me ridiculous; that a perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in counÐtenance.

In truth, I found myself incorrigible with respect to Order; and now I am grown old, and my memory bad, I feel very sensibly the want of it. But, on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a hapÐpier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writÐing by imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach the wished-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and is tolerÐable while it continues fair and legible.