Harvard Classics Reading Club discussion

Start us off!

Ha, this is going to make me laugh every time I watch CNBC:

"There are croakers in every country, always boding its ruin. Such a one then lived in Philadelphia; a person of note, an elderly man, with a wise look and a very grave manner of speaking; his name was Samuel Mickle. This gentleman, a stranger to me, stopt one day at my door, and asked me if I was the young man who had lately opened a new printing-house. Being answered in the affirmative, he said he was sorry for me, because it was an expensive undertaking, and the expense would be lost; for Philadelphia was a sinking place, the people already half-bankrupts, or near being so; all appearances to the contrary, such as new buildings and the rise of rents, being to his certain knowledge fallacious; for they were, in fact, among the things that would soon ruin us. And he gave me such a detail of misfortunes now existing, or that were soon to exist, that he left me half melancholy. Had I known him before I engaged in this business, probably I never should have done it. This man continued to live in this decaying place, and to declaim in the same strain, refusing for many years to buy a house there, because all was going to destruction; and at last I had the pleasure of seeing him give five times as much for one as he might have bought it for when he first began his croaking."

I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed Franklin's autobiography, which I only just finished. He has a nice twisted wit, and made plenty of interesting observations. I'm with you, I highlighted the croakers comment too, in part because I think it's funny, but also because it's good to know there have been people crying that the economy is going to ruin for the life of America (and probably throughout civilization).

I did really enjoy his frequent comments about dissention and disputations, and how people who seek them out, even if they "win" the argument, tend to "lose" in terms of long-term gain.

I also enjoyed his goal of moral perfection. Given the stories told of his womanizing, I found this humorous.

Finally, I think if I lived near Franklin, I'd probably roll my eyes and go, "Old Ben is putting something up to vote again!" every time I received a pamphlet espousing or decrying something. lol