ipped by adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving.

"But that the most acceptable service to God is doing good to man.

"That the soul is immortal.

"And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here
or hereafter."

The real religion of his life consisted in the practice of virtue with
a minimum of emotional imagination. His methodical mind found it
convenient to tabulate the virtues in a manner more precise, as he
thought, than they usually appear. His table is not without interest:--

"1. TEMPERANCE.--Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

"2. SILENCE.--Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid
trifling conversation.

"3. ORDER.--Let all your things have their places; let each part of
your business have its time.

"4. RESOLUTION.--Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without
fail what you resolve.

"5. FRUGALITY.--Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself;
i.e., waste nothing.

"6. INDUSTRY.--Lose no time; be always employed in something useful;
cut off all unnecessary actions.

"7. SINCERITY.--Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and
if you speak, speak accordingly.

"8. JUSTICE.--Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting benefits that
are your duty.

"9. MODERATION.--Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as
you think they deserve.

"10. CLEANLINESS.--Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or
habitation.

"11. TRANQUILLITY.--Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common
or unavoidable.

"12. CHASTITY....

"13. HUMILITY.--Imitate Jesus and Socrates."

These virtues he has arranged in such an order that the acquisition of
one naturally leads to the acquisition of the following. As regards
chastity, he says himself: "The hard-to-be-governed passion of youth"
had more than once led him astray. But there is every reason to suppose
he exercised great self-control in this as in all other passions. We
may remark here that Franklin had an illegitimate son, William, whom he
reared in his own home, but who caused him great pain by siding with
the Tories in the Revolution. An illegitimate son of William, born in
London and named William Temple Franklin, adhered to the grandfather
and was a great comfort to him in his old age. One other of these
virtues Franklin could never acquire. He confesses sadly that try as he
might he could never learn orderliness. But in general it may be said
that few men have ever set be