Bens Autobiography begins in humility and ends in humility. He is born into a modest family being the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. He finishes part two with the modesty of an accomplished elder. However, in between it is full of arrogance and pride. During his early years (part 1 of The Autobiography), Bens diligence and thirst for knowledge continuously put him in comforting situations. Unfortunately he repeatedly allows his good fortunes to bring about his youthful pride and arrogance, sometimes to a point where they compromise his decision making. This in turn causes some sort of misfortune or mishap to occur, which humbles him. Ben Franklin shows us that humility is a continuing process that one learns overtime and through his own experiences. A person who has acquired the reality of the virtue never admits it because he doesnt know it. A person with the reality of the virtue will in fact deny it, because of the nature of humility. Upon reading the Autobiography I came to the notion that during his youth and onto early adulthood, Ben was acquiring the appearance of the virtue of humility. However; in his elder years, the reality of the virtue is indisputable.The first instance in which the appearance of humility is evident is when Ben decides to get into the habit of expressing himself in Terms of Diffidence (page 333). When saying anything that could be disputed, Ben didnt use words that gave the air of positiveness to an opinion, he instead said things like, I conceive, it appears to me, and it is so if I am not mistaken. Bens manner of speaking showed the appearance of humility but lacked the reality of it. The reason he spoke like that was because, it procurd them a readier reception and less contradiction. Made it easier for Ben to argue and get his point across, no humility in the heart. In one instance Bens youthful self-regard and dignity forced humility upon him. When Sir William Keith p...
