Benjamin Franklin was perfect.

Oh, okay. He was a bit chubby. And bald. And his eyesight was bad. And… yeah, that’s about it.

He also aimed at moral perfection.

Ambitious? Undoubtedly. But we must remember we’re talking about the greatest diplomat-scientist-inventor-philosopher of the Revolutionary Age — wait a second. That hasn’t happened yet.

This is only 1733. George Washington is a grand total of one year old.

In that year, Franklin set out 13 virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility.

He dedicated a week to focus on each virtue, making an X in a little book whenever he fell short.

“I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined,” wrote Franklin — and who wouldn’t be? — “but I had........

© The Saratogian