Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

There were no novels, dramas, poetry, or great literature, other than two classics (Homer and Virgil).

Franklin spent an hour or two each day reading the books in the library, “and thus repaired in some degree the loss of the learned education my father once intended for me.”

stickler

Franklin recalled in his autobiography, so he set about organizing the Union Fire Company, which was incorporated in 1736.

One fraternal association, more exalted than the Junto, already existed in Philadelphia, and it seemed perfectly tailored to Franklin’s aspirations: the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.

many of the town’s top merchants and lawyers were Freemasons.

Within a few weeks, he was invited to join, after which the Gazette retracted its December article and printed some small, flattering notices. Franklin became a faithful Freemason. In 1732, he helped draft the bylaws of the Philadelphia lodge, and two years later became the Grand Master and printed its constitution.5

fealty

embr...

allay

He did concede, however, that she had a right to be displeased that they did not admit women.

enthralled

dearth

endear

censured

The Hemphill affair occurred just as an emotional tide of revivalism, known as the Great Awakening, began sweeping America.

Jonathan Edwards,

“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,”

Edwards and Franklin, the two preeminent Americans of their generation, can be viewed, Carl Van Doren noted, as “symbols of the hostile movements that strove for the mastery of their age.”

exalted

Whitefield.

pecuniary.

disdain

ardent

Infidelity,”

“Throw enough dirt,” he laments, “and some will stick.”13

perusing

“He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”14

ensuing

retaliating,

“If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.”

turncoat

endearing

enmity

deprive

disingenuous

kindle

industrious

affectionate,

prudential

enlightened

indecent

amours

debauch

purports

consented

forsook

acquitted,

parochial

feud