Beginning of Essay
FRIEND OF SELF, FRIEND OF SOCIETY: THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN OF THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY Franklin's memoirs, his Autobiography, project a Benjamin Franklin who is a highly self-conscious individual able to reason himself into a life of self-control, self-improvement, virtue, ....

Middle of Essay
.... Franklin explicitly lists eight reasons (Lemay 1307-8): (1) his son (though anyone may become Franklin's moral descendant) may have a filial interest in the events of his ancestor's life; (2) Franklin has the time and ability to write a good memoir; (3) his moral posterity, desiring self-improvement, may want to imitate those actions, "suitable to their own Situations," that led to Franklin's successes; (4) composing his autobiography provides Franklin the pleasure of recollecting his successes; (5) recording his memories permits him to return continually to more pleasures of recollection in the future; (6) old men, as a rule, tend to repeatedly ....