Ben Franklin Is a Smart Man

Part II of Ben Franklin's Autobiography is primarily focused around a point in Franklin's life where he felt the need for self-improvement. For instance, he speaks of thirteen virtues that he vowed to master in order to make himself a better person. One of the things that I find comical about Franklin's method is how he came about deciding to do it. He decided that going to church was not beneficial because the sermons were "dry, uninteresting, and unedifying...their aim seeming to be rather to make us Presbyterians than good citizens." His reasons for stopping going to church continue with his opinions about how a certain sermon should have gone: "They were not the kind of good things that I expected from that text, I despaired of ever meeting with them from any other, was disgusted, and attended his preaching no more." This reasoning in itself was proud and arrogant. Just as I was thinking in my mind that I could call Ben Franklin out on this little observation, he proves to actually be a very intelligent man.
Towards the end of his Part II, he tells of a Quaker friend who informed him of the arrogance and pride that I just spoke of, which was why he pledged to fix it. However, he does point out that "...mortify it [pride] as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility." And thus, because Franklin ends in such a way, I cannot call him out for his disgusting pride.

Another aspect of this section of his autobiography that I would like to take notice of his analogy of the speckled axe. He utilizes the story a man unwilling to turn a wheel to help shine his axe to illustrate how many people say they wish to cleanse their souls or fix bad habits, but once realizing the amount of work has to go into such tasks, they give up and conform their expectations with that of the easier route. In this sense, a "speckled axe" represents a soul or character that maintains its bad habits and faults. I think this is a good analogy and metaphor, but I also feel like it's not necessarily a bad thing that the man gave up and accepted a speckled axe. Many people lack the persistence to obtain perfection, but that's why perfect is such a rare thing. If everyone had the endurance to completely shine their axe, it wouldn't be such an amazing feat to be perfect. Human fault is one of the beauties of being human.