...of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time, and to conquer all that either natural inclination, custom or company might lead me into." Everyone will recall how Franklin drew up his table of thirteen moral virtues, and how he studied the...

...would never leave him : "I wished to live without committing any fault, and to conquer those that my inclination, custom or company might lead me into. As I knew, or thought I knew, right from wrong, I did not see why I might not always do right and keep from doing wrong. And so I...

...of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time, and to conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into.' Everyone will recall how Franklin drew up his table of the thirteen real moral virtues, and how diligently...

...touched by the wearing hand of life's frictions. He said about this experiment with the thirteen virtues, "As I knew or thought I knew what was right and wrong,...might not always do the one and avoid the other." The idea of acquiring virtue by deliberate practice did not evaporate with this one experiment. More...

...conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either...thought I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not sec why 'I might not always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had undertaken a task...

...of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time, and to conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into." Every one will recall how Franklin drew up his table of the thirteen real moral virtues, and how diligently...

...Life of Rev. William Smith, vol. ii. p. 174. 101 " I wished to live," he says, " without committing any fault at any time ; I would conquer all that either...might not always do the one and avoid the other." So he prepared his moral code of all the virtues he thought necessary, with his comments thereon, and...

...in his ambition to free himself, and others, from vicious influences, external and internal— "to conquer all that either Natural Inclination, Custom, or Company might lead me into" (148). He concludes his account of his "Project of arriving at moral Perfection" —which, predictably,...

...of arriving at moral Perfection" stems directly from his commendable wish to live a faultless life: "I would conquer all that either Natural Inclination,...might not always do the one and avoid the other." The shock at being "surpriz'd" by one fault after another drives Franklin to devise a fail-safe method...

...to us, moral perfection was exactly what young Franklin meant: "I wish'd to live without committing any Fault at any time; I would conquer all that either...Inclination, Custom, or Company might lead me into" (A:148).8 The twenty-twoyear-old soon recognized, however, that such moral perfection was going to...