Introduction
Variously known as the Enlightenment, the Neoclassical Era, and the Augustan Age, the period between 1700 and 1800 was a natural outgrowth of the Renaissance. Europeans, especially the French and the English, took the Renaissance interest in human affairs to new heights, focusing particularly on human potential. Scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, who introduced revolutionary ideas in the study of force and optics, demonstrated humans' capacity for understanding nature, and the inventions of the steam engine, cotton gin, and other machines showed the extent to which humans could control their environment. This attitude of empowerment showed up in other areas, as well. In philosophy and politics, writers such as John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin argued that individual humans, guided by their reason, could and should govern their own lives and play a role in the government of their countries, paving the way for the American and French revolutions.
Even artists seemed to show new interest in controlling things, namely their works. Indeed, order and delicate ornamentation are distinctive characteristics in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's symphonies, Benjamin Franklin's prose, and Alexander Pope's poetry (Levin, 1963).
Though most men devote their years to one principal vocation, Benjamin Franklin made notable achievements in several careers. Men have described him as amazing, ingenious, universal - a many-sided man whose inquiring mind turned with zest to the contemplation of his age and its people (Sayre, 1964).
His life nearly spanned his century. It epitomized the ideals of the Enlightenment - humanist in approach, versatile in range, passionate for self-improvement, and practical in the uses of knowledge. During his eighty-four years, from 1706 to 1790, he was printer, publisher, inventor, scientist, educator, colonial agent, politician, statesman, militia colonel, postmaster-general, diplomat, and peacemaker. In all these pursuits, in a century marked by far-reaching intellectual and political changes, Franklin achieved eminence as "a great and wise man moving through great and troubling times." (Lawrence, 1961)
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