Reflection: Franklin's Virtues/ Deism

The virtues that Franklin laid out in his autobiography reflect the beliefs and ideas of deism. I think this because all of the virtues sound they have a religious undertone to them. Deists did not necessarily believe that there is no “God”, it is more like a belief that God is not tied down to a particular religion because they find it hard to believe in something that’s only basis is based on divine revelation (Quinn). Deists seem to be more of the rational people who look at religion in a logical way, instead of a faith based one. They believe that God simply made the world as we know it, and just stepped away and let people settle their own problems and survive on their own (Quinn). I think that this has to do more with the fact that since they are more analytical than most people, they would have a hard time believing in miracles, which are what some religions base their faiths on.



It is a well known fact that Benjamin Franklin was a very famous Deist. It is very evident in the passage we read from his autobiography. In one instance he quoted Addison's Cato, "'Here will I hold. If there's a power above us, (And that there is all nature cries aloud through all her works), He must delight in virtue; and that which He delights in must be happy'" (Franklin 154). The fact that he quoted this shows that he is definitely a deist because he, like Addison, believes that there is a God, and the way you can tell that there is one is by looking at the world around you. All of the things in nature are proof to His existence.



I think that Franklin ended up coming out of this whole experience a better person. This is because, for one, it is hard to follow a strict code for an extended period of time, and the fact that he could stick to it shows that he is a strong willed person, and he went on to talk about how he started improving on other virtues, he had a hard time on the virtue Order because he was very busy. He also claimed that he was smart, so he was able to keep track of his things in all of his clutter, and that it was difficult to work with other people while also working with his and their schedules (Franklin 159). After many years of following this strict moral code, Franklin says “But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been, if I had not attempted it; as those who aim at perfection writing by imitating the engraved copies, though they never reach the wished-for excellence of those copies, their hand is mended by the endeavour, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible” (Franklin 159).





Franklin, Benjamin, and Leonard Woods Labaree. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale UP, 1964. Print.


Quinn, Edward. "deism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006.Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.