The Classicist Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin was considered a jack of all trades, as some of his credentials are diplomat, postmaster, statesman, scientist, and inventor. With these in mind, Benjamin Franklin had intelligence and wisdom from all the experiences he had during his lifetime. Some of his intelligence is evident in his literature, as Franklin was known for his values of the Enlightenment. These values would excel Franklin to be a renowned classicist of persuasion. Three reasons that would assist Benjamin to be a strong classicist are his simple aphorisms, his virtues, and his helpful advice.

First, aphorisms helped Franklin as these are still around even to this day. One of the literary works that Franklin wrote was “Poor Richard’s Almanack”, which was abundant of aphorisms. Some of Benjamin Franklin’s aphorisms are “There are no gains without pains.”, “Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge.”, and “When befriended, remember it; When you befriend, forget it.”. Aphorisms are Ben Franklin’s specialty because there are so many aphorisms he made. These sayings can remembered easily and can show great wisdom from its creator. Some aphorisms by Benjamin Franklin tie in some of his virtues that are very evident in his literary works.

Second, virtues are very critical to Franklin as he was an Enlightenment thinker and if it were not his virtues, we would not be where we are today in the United States of America. In “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”, Benjamin Franklin added thirteen virtues which could correlate to the number of original colonies. These virtues are temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. One question that could be asked is why are there so many virtues? In order to have a well running machine, there must be restrictions to discipline and learn from these hardships. To have virtue is like to do an overwhelming task and to do that task you need help and advice.

Finally, advice is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as recommendation regarding a decision or course of conduct. To be able to recommend on a situation, the person giving advice had to have a time in their life where they were in that same sticky situation. Benjamin Franklin was a virtuous man who tried everything that he was capable in doing. “The Way to Wealth” was an essay in the year of 1758 and as the title says, it provides information to help the reader become a good consumer as it promotes work ethic and frugality. In a sense, Ben Franklin is multi-tasking as he gives advice in the form of aphorisms that promote some of his virtues. Franklin is killing three birds with one stone to be frank.

Benjamin Franklin is still considered even to this day as the model American citizen. He gave us and our country virtues, advice, and aphorisms to remember of him. He deserves to be acknowledged of his efforts as we lackadaisically take English courses to get better lives. We think of the American dream and yet we can not acknowledge a founding father who created this nation of ours. Americans should be ashamed of their thoughtlessness along with other topics. If it were not for Ben Franklin, we would not be able to express our ideas openly like him.