At Internet Archive

At Project Gutenburg

At Amazon

I think I grabbed this because it was part of the Harvard Classics list and I hadn't ever actually read it. It's a short and easy read, but a lot of the things that stand out (like his 13 Virtues) that have been written about pretty extensively elsewhere. A few other things that that stood out to me were:

Gathering people to sharpen their thoughts and stances through writing and debate:

I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the preceding year, I had formed most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which was called the “Junto”; we met on Friday evenings. The rules that I drew up required that every member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discussed by the company; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.

Mention of inflation / currency depreciation in New England:

About this time there was a cry among the people for more paper money, only fifteen thousand pounds being extant in the province, and that soon to be sunk. The wealthy inhabitants opposed any addition, being against all paper currency, from an apprehension that it would depreciate, as it had done in New England, to the prejudice of all creditors.

I've heard that mentioned elsewhere (maybe Lyn Alden's Broken Money?), but I never followed up to learn more about it.


Also, here's at least a partial list of books or writings that Franklin mentions (sometimes by other names) for later reference:

  • The Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan
  • Parallel Lives, Plutarch
  • Essay Upon Projects, Daniel Defoe
  • Essays to Do Good, Cotton Mather
  • The Essays of Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, published in The Spectator
  • The Memorabilia, Xenophon
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke
  • Art of Thinking or Port-Royal Logic, Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole
  • Shaftesbury and Collins' works
  • Burton's Historical Collections, not sure exactly what this one is