Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues: Humility

At the ripe old age of 20, Benjamin Franklin came up with a list of 12 Virtues to develop his character.

Recognizing his personal foibles, young Ben decided to focus on one per week as his goal, progressively rotating through them in sequence in hopes of eventually making each habitual to the point where it would carry forward without conscious efforts on his part.

The way I heard the story long ago was that in pontificating about these virtues, a friend said he might want to consider adding humility, but here's Franklin's own words on that subject:

"My list of virtues contained at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show’d itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinced me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavoring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list."

In taking an online series of classes about The Age of Benjamin Franklin in anticipation of an upcoming return to Philadelphia, I re-read with interest his brief summary of instructions for being humble:

"Imitate Jesus and Socrates."

When I've read this previously, I just accepted that Jesus and Socrates were wise and good., ergo good examples.  Certainly, Jesus taught humility to his followers, as in His Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth."

I happen to have recently completed a series of classes on The Intellectual History of the 17th and 18th Century, which was the modern mindset under which our imperfect but well-intentioned Founding Fathers including Poor Richard (a famous pseudonym for Ben Franklin) formed our nation.  Despite its flaws, the American way proved vastly superior to feudal systems which dominated the world at that time.

During Medieval times in Europe before the Rennaissance, the Great Chain of Being was accepted as the only acceptable view of reality.  In this paradigm, God was on top, then below Him were angels, then the king and queen, then the aristocracy, then the serfs, then animals, then vegetables and finally rocks and other inanimate objects.  A similar relationship with the physical universe existed, with the earth at its center and the sun, moon and stars rotating around so as to come into view periodically.  Ancient Astronomers seem to have known far more in earlier times, even before the birth of Jesus and Socrates, but the Catholic Church and the royal kingdoms controlled not only all reality but all conceptions of reality until the Age of Enlightenment began in the 1600's.

It's not surprising that the magnificent breakthroughs in science, philosophy, arts, politics and most other areas occurred as the Age of Discovery yielded great wealth.  It is always wealthy civilizations which have time to think about anything beyond day-to-day survival.

In addition, terrible plagues that swept through Europe, decimating populations and impoverishing royals, also had a positive aspect.  With markedly fewer people, there were more resources per capita.  The lack of manpower resulted indirectly to a meritocracy, where even the poorest serf could choose to move to a different lord's estate if he could get a better share of the crop.  Some individuals saved a little capital to enter trade, and a prosperous middle class developed to meet the newly created demand.  

Ken Follett's painstakingly-researched "Pillars of the Earth" novel series offers a fascinating glimpse into how life for serfs and the aristocracy evolved through these times, though admittedly it requires quite a commitment to read them all.

People who would have otherwise been damned to lives of quiet desperation planting and reaping crops for powerful lords became not only better-fed farmers but in some cases merchants, scientists, inventors, authors and statesmen. 

Ben Franklin became all of those things and more over the course of his life.  He is also in the Chess Hall of Fame and the Swimming Hall of Fame.  "Oh lord, it's hard to be humble," as the occasional philosopher Mac Davis used to sing.

Ben was the youngest son of the youngest son going back four generations, so even if he had been in a royal family --- which he wasn't by any means --- he would have been relegated to much lower status, since the eldest male inherited the estate and title (and the next oldest went into the clergy).

Franklin should have been born humble and remained such, had he not accomplished so much during his remarkable life.  By the time he was an adult frequenting the royal palaces in London and Paris, he was the most famous American in the world.  He became even a fashion icon of sorts, as he popularized wearing American-made coonskin caps among the rich and famous of Europe.

In any case, he did not say to live by the teachings of Jesus to be humble.  He said to emulate Jesus and Socrates.

Think about that.  If you went to Sunday School, you know that when Jesus was a boy, He got separated from his parents at the marketplace and was found teaching the rabbis and Pharisees.  That was hardly the act of a humble child.  As an adult, He stormed into the temple and overturned tables of moneychangers, publicly rebuking the whole sacrilege of turning holy days into unscrupulous commercial enterprises.  He was eventually crucified for performing very public miracles and then refusing to deny that He was God in human form.

Imitate Jesus to be humble?

That's particularly interesting in light of the fact that Deism, where belief in God but not religion, emerged during the Age of Enlightenment as the choice for many learned Europeans.  Franklin is often referred to as a Deist himself, although he was known to also have attended Christian churches and prayed to God in public for guidance.

Socrates could not exactly be called humble either.  He took on the purportedly wisest of philosophers, doctors, artists and politicians in Athens and proved them to be no more knowledgeable about their chosen specialties than he was.  Yes, he humbly proclaimed that he was not an exceptional person, but he seemed to rate himself as equal to the best in terms of his understanding of many fields, as heard in "Plato's Apology, a play written by his student Plato.

I highly recommend clicking the link to watch the video of that "Apology" which I included at the end of a post about Abba's latest movie.  I'd post the video in this blog, but I think if you have interest, you can click that link so that I don't have to delete it in two places when Youtube inevitably bans it for encouraging freedom of thought.  

As in the case of Jesus, Socrates could have avoided his own execution had he humbly apologized and slunk away sheepishly.  It would have made more sense for Franklin to say, "Do not have the hubris of Jesus and Socrates unless you want to risk their fate" rather than "Imitate them," if humility leading to happiness was the point.

Interestingly, neither Jesus nor Socrates wrote anything about themselves that survives.  Their immortality arose from their actions and words while living, but only as recorded by their apostles.

I think "Imitate Jesus and Socrates" as direction to achieve humility belies the wry humorist, as evidenced once more in the final line of this closing quote:

"In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it 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 completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."