Striving

Chapter 3 traces Benjamin Franklin’s early development—purchasing equipment to open his own print shop and editing a Philadelphia newspaper. His work provided him with an outlet for advice about living a moral life. Sometimes he wrote under pseudonyms, such as Silence Dogood, and reprinted material that reinforced his own efforts to live a good life, creating a Plan for Attaining Moral Perfection. The chapter discusses Jonathan Edwards, whose views were substantially in agreement with Franklin’s, though much of Franklin’s moralism attracted criticism from twentieth-century writers such as D. H. Lawrence. Franklin’s thoughts about virtue emerged from similar concerns that Puritans had for the Christian life as one of sanctity.