Four American Leaders | Page 3

would make brief notes of the thoughts contained in a good piece of
writing, and lay these notes aside for several days; then, without
looking at the book, he would endeavor to express these thoughts in his
own words as fully as they had been expressed in the original paper.
Lastly, he would compare his product with the original, thus
discovering his shortcomings and errors. To improve his vocabulary he
turned specimens of prose into verse, and later, when he had forgotten
the original, turned the verse back again into prose. This exercise
enlarged his vocabulary and his acquaintance with synonyms and their
different shades of meaning, and showed him how he could twist
phrases and sentences about. His times for such exercises and for
reading were at night after work, before work in the morning, and on
Sundays. This severe training he imposed on himself; and he was well
advanced in it before he was sixteen years of age. His memory and his
imagination must both have served him well; for he not only acquired a
style fit for narrative, exposition, or argument, but also learned to use
the fable, parable, paraphrase, proverb, and dialogue. The third element
in his education was writing for publication; he began very early, while
he was still a young boy, to put all he had learned to use in writing for
the press. When he was but nineteen years old he wrote and published
in London "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and
Pain." In after years he was not proud of this pamphlet; but it was,
nevertheless, a remarkable production for a youth of nineteen. So soon
as he was able to establish a newspaper in Philadelphia he wrote for it

with great spirit, and in a style at once accurate, concise, and attractive,
making immediate application of his reading and of the conversation of
intelligent acquaintances on both sides of the ocean. His fourth
principle of education was that it should continue through life, and
should make use of the social instincts. To that end he thought that
friends and acquaintances might fitly band together in a systematic
endeavor after mutual improvement. The Junto was created as a school
of philosophy, morality, and politics; and this purpose it actually served
for many years. Some of the questions read at every meeting of the
Junto, with a pause after each one, would be curiously opportune in
such a society at the present day. For example, No. 5, "Have you lately
heard how any present rich man, here or elsewhere, got his estate?"
And No. 6, "Do you know of a fellow-citizen ... who has lately
committed an error proper for us to be warned against and avoid?"
When a new member was initiated he was asked, among other
questions, the following: "Do you think any person ought to be harmed
in his body, name, or goods, for mere speculative opinions or his
external way of worship?" and again, "Do you love truth for truth's sake,
and will you endeavor impartially to find it, receive it yourself, and
communicate it to others?" The Junto helped to educate Franklin, and
he helped greatly to train all its members.
The nature of Franklin's own education accounts for many of his
opinions on the general subject. Thus, he believed, contrary to the
judgment of his time, that Latin and Greek were not essential subjects
in a liberal education, and that mathematics, in which he never excelled,
did not deserve the place it held. He believed that any one who had
acquired a command of good English could learn any other modern
language that he really needed when he needed it; and this faith he
illustrated in his own person, for he learned French, when he needed it,
sufficiently well to enable him to exercise great influence for many
years at the French court. As the fruit of his education he exhibited a
clear, pungent, persuasive English style, both in writing and in
conversation--a style which gave him great and lasting influence among
men. It is easy to say that such a training as Franklin's is suitable only
for genius. Be that as it may, Franklin's philosophy of education
certainly tells in favor of liberty for the individual in his choice of

studies, and teaches that a desire for good reading and a capacity to
write well are two very important fruits of any liberal culture. It was all
at the service of his successor Jefferson, the founder of the University
of Virginia.
Franklin's studies in natural philosophy are characterized by remarkable
directness, patience, and inventiveness, absolute candor in seeking the
truth, and a powerful scientific imagination. What has been usually
considered his first discovery was the now familiar fact that northeast
storms on the Atlantic coast begin