An American period eminent for narrowness, superstition, and bleak beliefs Benjamin Franklin was mirthful, generous, open-minded, learned, tolerant, and humor-loving that is why he is known as our founding Yuppie. He was the first American man of the world in the sense that he was the first American world-man.
"Franklin was not one of those men who owe their greatness merely to the opportunities of their times but his beliefs make him achieve his goal of life. In any age, in any place, Franklin would have been great. Mind and will, talent and art, strength and ease, wit and grace met in him as if nature had been lavish and happy when he was shaped. Nothing seems to have been left out except a passionate desire, as in most men of genius, to be all ruler, all soldier, all saint, all poet, all scholar, all some one gift or merit or success. Franklin's powers were from first to last in a flexible equilibrium. Even his genius could not specialize him. He moved through his world in a humorous mastery of it. Kind as he was, there was perhaps a little contempt in his lack of exigency. He could not put so high a value as single-minded men put on the things they give their lives for. Possessions were not worth that much, nor achievements. Comfortable as Franklin's possessions and numerous as his achievements were, they were less than he was. Whoever learns about his deeds remembers longest the man who did them. And sometimes, with his marvelous range, in spite of his personal tang, he seems to have been more than any single man: a harmonious human multitude." Brands, H.W., 2000, pg 45
He came to be a writer of power in his appeal to men's intelligence. He never loses poise or control. But he seldom, if ever, stirs the emotions.................
