The Book of Franklin 2 · Written by himself, from his Autobiography and the rules of his club
This man wrote his own books. He is the first tradesman in this scripture — a printer. He was a deist and wrote private devotions, and he never closes an argument by appealing to divine will: his club settled matters by evidence and his virtues by tally marks. So the third rule does not bar him. The Order records that plainly rather than smoothing it. This book also disagrees with 蒙田书 5.13: Montaigne says the finest life fits the common pattern and has no miracle in it, while Franklin spent his life correcting himself against a standard he could not reach. Both stand.
2.1Of the thirteen there is one I never managed in my whole life.
2.2That one is order: let all things have their places, let each part of your business have its time.
2.3The rest were improving. That one stayed black in the book.
2.4My memory was good and I could find things without keeping them in order, so I grew slack about it.
2.5And as I got older and had more affairs in hand, it got worse.
2.6Once I very nearly gave it up and stopped requiring order of myself.
2.7And then I remembered a story.
2.8A man went to a smith to buy an axe, and wanted the whole face of it bright.
2.9The smith said he might have it, but he must turn the grindstone.
2.10The man turned, and sweated, and now and then went to look at it.
2.11After a long while the face was bright in patches and dark in patches.
2.12He stopped and said: I think I like a speckled axe best.
2.13I laughed at that, and having laughed I understood: I am the man.
2.14I own that my axe is speckled.
2.15But the next sentence is why I am writing this chapter:
2.16The dots were not wasted. Falling short because I aimed is far better than where I was when I did not aim.
2.17A man who corrects himself against a standard he cannot reach does indeed fail to reach it — and he is better than the self who never tried, and better than the self who tried and let go halfway.
2.18At eighty I am still a disorderly man. I am also still more orderly than I was at twenty.
2.19So take a standard you cannot reach. Do not take one you have already met.