As an enterprising but impecunious young man, Benjamin Franklin made a list of thirteen virtues—which he formulated into graphs—and set about perfecting each one in rotating cycles of thirteen weeks. He and some friends in Philadelphia formed a group called the Junto which was dedicated to mutual moral and intellectual improvement. Their most significant legacy was to establish one of the first subscription libraries in America, in 1731. The Library Company of Philadelphia still exists to this day. As an elder statesman, after he had achieved a reputation for greatness and amassed a small fortune, Franklin related stories such as these in his Autobiography. He hoped to encourage forthcoming generations to emulate his example of doing well through doing good.
George Washington began his life on the opposite end of the social hierarchy. Though saddled with the disadvantage of being a younger son, he was born into a family of some wealth. He would eventually earn, inherit, and marry into even greater prosperity. And beyond the good things that money could buy, even more important to his success was the influence of family and friends in the upper echelons of Virginia's gentry.
More pedigreed but less original than Franklin, he cribbed his moral program, the Rules of Civility, from a French guide to manners. These rules blended social niceties with serious moral guidance, such as admonitions against spitting into the fire, picking one's teeth at the table, or visibly rejoicing at the misfortunes of anyone, even an enemy. Although Washington's sense of honor would mature with age, it always ran deeper than mere social graces. From his earliest days he aspired to be America's Cato, and he really did become our Cincinnatus.
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