108 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
induce a man to pay more attention to the state of the roads. But 
besides carts and ploughs, we are every day producing fresh machi¬ 
nery. We thrash, dress, plant and sow by its aid, and though of no 
very intricate construction, these machines are somewhat more so 
than the old farming implements. The farmer is not expected to 
neglect his labor to study their principles, and he is not up to his 
work unless he can tell whether his tools are well or ill made, and 
can see the cause of any defect in their workings. If, by a little 
there and here, a man can save the labor of one horse on a farm, it 
is a great thing. The multitude of machines which are rising like 
meteors around us, should, in this branch of science at all events, 
unteach us the foolish vanity of supposing our present practice to be 
the best possible. In the West Indies they are no doubt as well 
convinced of the excellence of their agriculture as we are, and they 
have not generally introduced either the plough or the wheel-bar¬ 
row ! My authority for this is the writer of a lively sketch of their 
manners and customs, entitled, “Marley, or a Planter’s life in the 
West Indies.” He says, “After a week or five days of this kind of 
labor, very distressing to the people, few acres indeed were gone 
over, although there were rather more than 100 negroes employed, 
one day w T ith another, digging only the holes in the ground. Had 
the ground been previously tilled, with the plough, an amazingly greater 
quantity of those holes would have been made in one day than it was 
possible for the people to effect in three or four in the manner in which 
they worked.” “ To carry the manure to the required spot was the 
task of the negresses, and the weak negroes, who, with some little 
help at the manure heaps, had to fill their baskets and then carry 
them on their heads, at a pretty smart pace, and empty them in the 
holes. This employment of bearing the manure none of the carriers 
relished, but the stimulus of the whip, and the daily encouragement 
of a glass of rum, effected wonders. Had the people been furnished 
with wheel-barrows, they would have performed their tasks with case.” 
“It need not be inferred from this, that I suppose our practice to 
be as faulty as theirs. It is adduced for no other purpose than to 
arouse people from the lethargic dream in which we are all loo apt 
to indulge, that the established practice is the ne plus ultra of per¬ 
fection.”— Mr. Hawldns in the Quarterly Journal of Ag. 
~ LIFE OF FRANKLIN. 
We now give, as we promised, some account of the rules which 
Franklin adopted to regulate his conduct in life; and in doing this, 
we shall quote his own words. 
“It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project 
of arriving at moral perfection; I wished to live without committing 
any fault at any time, and to conquer all that either natural inclina¬ 
tion, custom, or company, might lead me into. As I knew, or thought 
I knew, what was right and wrong, I did not see why I might not 
always do the one and avoid the other. But I soon found I had un¬ 
dertaken a task of more difficulty than I had imagined ; while my 
attention was taken up, and care employed in guarding against one 
fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of 
inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason. I con¬ 
cluded at length that the mere speculative conviction, that it was our 
interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our 
slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones 
acquired and established, before we can have any dependance on a 
steady uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore 
tried the following method : 
In the various enumerations of the moral virtues I had met with 
in my reading, I found the catalogue more or less numerous, as dif¬ 
ferent writers included more or fewer ideas under the same name. 
Temperance, for example, was by some confined to eating and drink¬ 
ing ; while by others it was extended to mean the moderating every 
other pleasure, appetite, inclination, or passion, bodily or mental, 
even to our avarice and ambition. I proposed to myself, for the 
sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas an¬ 
nexed to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included 
under thirteen names of virtues, all that at. that time occurred to me 
as necessary or desirable; and annexed to each a short precept, 
which fully expressed the extent I gave to its meaning. 
These names of virtues, with their precepts, were : 
1. TEMPERANCE.—Eat not to dullness ; drink not to elevation. 
2. SILENCE.—Speak not but whai may benefit others or your¬ 
self; 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; per* 
form 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 some* 
thing 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 the 
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, nor at acci¬ 
dents common or unavoidable. 
12. CHASTITY.—Rarely use venery, but for health or offspring; 
never to dullness or weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s 
peace or reputation. 
13. HUMILITY.—Imitate Jesus and Socrates. 
My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I 
judged it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the 
whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and when I 
should be mastir of that, then to proceed to another; and so on ti 1 
1 should have gone through the thirteen ; and as the previous acqui¬ 
sition of some, migl-.t facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I 
arranged them with that view as they stand above. Temperance 
first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which 
is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and a 
guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient ha¬ 
bits and the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquired 
and established, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being 
to gain knowledge at the same time that I improved in virtue; and 
considering that in conversation it was obtained rather by the use of 
the ear than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit 
I was getting into of prattling, punning and jesting, (which only made 
me acceptable to trifling company) I gave Silence the second place. 
This and the next, Order, I expected would allow me more time for 
attending to my project and my studies. Resolution once become 
habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the sub¬ 
sequent virtues. Frugality and Industry relieving me from my re¬ 
maining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would 
make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, &c. &c.— 
Conceiving then, that agreeably to the advice of Pythagoras in his 
Golden Verses, daily examination would be necessary, I contrived 
the following method for conducting that examination. 
I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the 
virtues. I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, 
one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for 
the day. I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking 
the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues ; 
on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark by a little 
black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been com¬ 
mitted respecting that virtue, upon that day. 
FORM OF THE PAGES. 
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Chas. 
Tran. 
Clea. 
Mod. 
Jus. j 
Sine. 
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Res. 
Ord. 
on 
CD 
3 
INTEMPERANCE. 
Eat not to dullness: drink not to elevation. 
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