Ben Franklin's Virtues vs. Wilderness

            I would have to agree that Ben Franklin’s ideas about virtue are the antithesis of the ideas about wilderness that we have discussed with regard to our prior readings.  In previous blogs, I've written about how wilderness has been variously characterized as free and untamed, harsh and dangerous, a sanctuary, an enemy, a place of confusion, and a condition of being alone and friendless.  In Franklin’s autobiography, we find no references to wilderness as such; Franklin is very much a man of the urban community.  He sees the moral improvements he seeks to make in himself as a means of overcoming his own nature:  “I wish’d to live without committing any Fault at anytime; I would conquer all that either Natural Inclination, Custom, or Company might lead me into” (284).  By imposing order on the chaos of his innate thoughts and behaviors, Franklin is, in a way, taming the wilderness.  His statement that “In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride” (292) demonstrates this perspective.

            In Blogs 5 and 6, I explored the idea of wilderness as a state of being cut off from human society.  Franklin sees individual self-improvement as a means of strengthening human society and promoting national progress (and thus antithetical to wilderness).  On page 290, Franklin describes in detail the ways in which his cultivation of virtues has made him a better citizen.  In particular, “To Industry and Frugality the early Easiness of his Circumstances, and Acquisition of his Fortune, with all that Knowledge which enabled him to be an useful Citizen, and obtain’d for him some Degree of Reputation among the Learned” (290).  Several paragraphs later, he asserts that “…it was therefore every one’s Interest to be virtuous, who wish’d to be happy even in this World” (291).  In Franklin’s view, virtue strengthens community and reinforces the individual’s bond with his/her community – thus keeping the wilderness at bay.