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Summary
En route to England with James Ralph, Franklin meets a Quaker named Mr. Denham with whom he will stay friends in England. They arrive in London in December 24, 1724. Franklin quickly learns, however, that despite what Keith promised, he did not actually write Franklin a letter of recommendation to be shown to the printers and stationery sellers in London with whom Franklin was hoping to make connections. Denham advises Franklin to get a job at Palmer's, a famous printing house, where Franklin works for the next year while living with Ralph. Ralph slowly forgets about his wife and children on the other side of the ocean and Franklin forgets about Miss Read as they live life to the fullest—always having fun and always ending up broke.
Franklin, meanwhile, befriends a man named Wilcox, and together they work out details for a small lending library, an idea which will later come to greater fruition for Franklin back in Philadelphia. Franklin prints a pamphlet called A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. The pamphlet is read by a well known surgeon in London, who makes a point of befriending Franklin and introducing him to a number of famous London figures.
Meanwhile, Ralph decides to move out of London into the countryside with his new girlfriend. He becomes a school teacher and begins writing epic poetry (most of which is terrible), and mailing it to Franklin to read. Ralph's girlfriend begins to worry about Ralph, and goes to Franklin for advice. Franklin mistakenly thinks that she is flirting with him. When he propositions her, she runs back to Ralph and tells him about it, forcing Ralph and Franklin to break off their friendship.
The ever-talented Franklin eventually gets promoted out of presswork and into composing articles. He makes more money and moves out of his former lodgings. Franklin begins renting a room from an elderly woman who entertains him with her stories. He makes more friends and spends much of his time swimming—he even thinks of opening a swimming school!—but after 18 months in London, Mr. Denham persuades Franklin to depart and return to Philadelphia.
Back in America, Franklin sees that Keith has lost his job as Governor and has become a common citizen. Keimer offers Franklin a manager job on his return, which Franklin at first declines so that he may work for Denham in his goods store. But then Denham dies and Franklin takes on managerial work at Keimer's—"putting his printing house in order," as Franklin puts it. Although some employees end up quitting, Franklin gets along with them quite well. He becomes a full-fledged workaholic, making a mold for duplicate types and spending all hours of the day at the presses.
When Keimer seeks to cut Franklin's wages, however, Franklin quits. Next, Franklin agrees to take over Keimer's printing house with his friend Meredith when it goes broke. Franklin and his new partner will use the printing house to begin a new newspaper with printing supplies (often called cuts and types) from London. Keimer, however, gets a new job in New Jersey, and offers Franklin a partnership, which Franklin accepts so that he can meet new people in New Jersey. Although Keimer gains a lot from being able to use Franklin's cuts and types, Franklin also gains from these new connections. Franklin then returns to Philadelphia and—with his new material from London—begins work in a new printing house with Meredith.
Amidst all these developments, Franklin is able to find the time to explore his intellectualism, and decides to fully convert to Deism. (See the Analysis section below for a brief explanation of Deism.) He adopts the ideals of "truth, sincerity and integrity," and as a means of debating these, he forms a group called the Junto, which meets every Friday to discuss questions of philosophy and morality. The group lasts approximately 40 years, and expands substantially later on.
Through Franklin's great industry, his new paper avoids bankruptcy. However, when Keimer falls on the verge of bankruptcy, Franklin buys his paper and turns it around .(Keimer will later goes fully broke and moves to the Caribbean.) Franklin also become the official printer for the Pennsylvania Assembly, the colonial government, thanks to his connections with a Mr. Hamilton whom he met on a boat to England. Franklin begins to make a substantial amount of money which he uses to pay off all the debts he ever incurred, plus interest. Meredith, meanwhile, leaves the newspaper and moves to the Southern colonies. In 1729, Franklin hires two men named Coleman and Grace to replace Meredith and to expand the operation.
Several months later, a debate arises in the government over paper money, and Franklin prints his pamphlet entitled The Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency. When the House votes in favor of paper currency, they hire Franklin to print it, which brings him a good income. He was later hired to print even more government documents. Meanwhile, he starts to think about marriage. He has trouble finding a wife because the job of a printer is not seen as very respectable. He finally weds his old sweetheart, Miss Read, on September 1, 1730. It is her second marriage. (Her first husband had abandoned her.) She helps Franklin in his "first project of a public nature"—a subscription library, which Franklin founds as the first library in America.
Note: At this point, Franklin stops writing his autobiography so that he can devote himself fully to the events of the American Revolution, which are just beginning. He resumes writing after the Revolution, in the early 1780s.
Analysis
We see that Franklin is beginning to become more prolific as a writer. In this section, he publishes a pamphlet in England and talks about the reasons for its necessity. Franklin clearly sees that writing is a tool through which he can express his ideas and argue points—and he believes that it is this mentality that helps him become such a success later on in life. One of the purposes of the Autobiography is to trace Franklin's intellectual growth as he slowly becomes that great mind that future generations always remember him as being. This facet of his Autobiography may in part provide the theoretical groundwork for Henry Adams's autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams. This facet also partly places the work in its 18th-century Age of Reason context, when the perfectibility of the human mind through education was idealized by the intellectual community.
In this section, Franklin proves that he does in fact have a generous side. He follows the religious principle of allowing others to borrow from you when they are in need, and as a result he loans much money to Ralph—none of which is ever repaid. Franklin shows here that although he thinks it necessary to live virtuously, he does not mind giving money to people who do not live virtuously, such as Collins and Ralph. Franklin shows that even though he aspires to be a part of the aristocracy, he is not interested in accruing as much money as possible and that he is willing to be generous and non-judgmental in the lending of his money.
Franklin also states in this section that he has becomes a believer in Deism. Loosely explained, Deism emerged during the Age of Reason as a religious philosophy based on a belief in God but not in any particular denominations. To Deists, God was like a watchmaker who creates a watch and then lets its run of its own accord without interfering in its mechanisms. Most Deists believed in a non-interventionist God who created the world and humans but watches them from a distance without affecting the outcome of every action. Deists do not subscribe to any particular Christian denomination.
Franklin's subscription to Deism places him intellectually among many prominent thinkers of the later 17th century. Franklin's faith in God but coupled with his belief in Deism also worked its way into some of his writings, leading him to create his famous aphorism, "God helps those who help themselves." Along with Deism comes a utilitarian attitude by which Franklin idealizes things that are somehow useful or promote pleasure, utilitarianism itself being another ideal to grow out of the Age of Reason.
Also in this section, Franklin refers sometime to his various virtues and why they are important. This foreshadows the lengthy discussion of virtues that follows in Part Two of his Autobiography. However, Franklin's outline of some virtues here may be the result of poor planning on his part that results in repetition. Franklin wrote his Autobiography in several segments separated by many years. Part Two was written over a decade after Part One, and it was written at a time when Franklin did not have access to Part One, He likely had little recollection of what he had even written in Part One. He did, however, with the aide of some letters, remember that he had meant to discuss virtue more completely, thus prompting his decision to outline his list of 13 virtues as we will see in the next section.
