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This premium is being posted on the day of the Iowa caucuses, and we couldn't think of a better reminder of the innovative, inquiring, resourceful spirit of the founders of this great nation.

Ben Franklin was everything in reality that the Republican Party claims to be (except for the religious pomposity, bigotry, government for the rich and a few other things) in cynical slogans undercut by rampant hypocrisy. Franklin achieved his success and notoriety (he was worshipped in Paris) based on merit, hard work, creativity and the practice of "virtue."

Yes, Franklin believed in virtue, but he also felt a blind belief in religion could be a corrupting force (as we see in the likes of George Bush and Pat Robertson). He was a Deist who opined that there was no space for religious dogma in matters of state.

In fact Franklin, shortly before he died, wrote to the then President of Yale:

"As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble."

Franklin's biography is mostly about his formative years, and, therefore, all the more enlightening as to the youthful origins of a man who symbolizes the best in the American charcter, before it was turned into a corrupted Disneyesque smugness and caricature by opportunists and hucksters.

An online reviewer:

"As a serious reader, I was delighted in the way that Franklin is obsessed with the reading habits of other people. Over and over in the course of his memoir, he remarks that such and such a person was fond of reading, or owned a large number of books, or was a poet or author. Clearly, it is one of the qualities he most admires in others, and one of the qualities in a person that makes him want to know a person. He finds other readers to be kindred souls.

If one is familiar with the Pragmatists, one finds many pragmatist tendencies in Franklin's thought. He is concerned less with ideals than with ideas that work and are functional. For instance, at one point he implies that while his own beliefs lean more towards the deistical, he sees formal religion as playing an important role in life and society, and he goes out of his way to never criticize the faith of another person. His pragmatism comes out also in list of the virtues, which is one of the more famous and striking parts of his book. As is well known, he compiled a list of 13 virtues, which he felt summed up all the virtues taught by all philosophers and religions. But they are practical, not abstract virtues. He states that he wanted to articulate virtues that possessed simple and not complex ideas. Why? The simpler the idea, the easier to apply. And in formulating his list of virtues, he is more concerned with the manner in which these virtues can be actualized in one's life. Franklin has utterly no interest in abstract morality.

One of Franklin's virtues is humility, and his humility comes out in the form of his book. His narrative is exceedingly informal, not merely in the first part, which was ostensibly addressed to his son, but in the later sections (the autobiography was composed upon four separate occasions). The informal nature of the book displays Franklin's intended humility, and for Franklin, seeming to be so is nearly as important as actually being so. For part of the function of the virtues in an individual is not merely to make that particular person virtuous, but to function as an example to others. This notion of his being an example to other people is one of the major themes in his book. His life, he believes, is an exemplary one. And he believes that by sharing the details of his own life, he can serves as a template for other lives....

I think anyone not having read this before will be surprised at how readable and enjoyable this is."

Again, we want to emphasize this is an autobiography of his early years, so don't be expecting to find the scoop on his years as ambassador to France.

Think of it as "The Portrait of an American Original as a Young Man."




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