1、The 18th-century American enlightenment as a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy. Enlightenment thinkers and writers, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas
2、Paine, were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man. In these period with the exception of outstanding political writing, such as Common sense, Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers and so on, few works of note appeared. Even if there appeare
3、d poetry and fiction, they were full of imitativeness and vague universality. So most Americans were painfully aware of their excessive dependence on English literary models. The search for a native literature became a national obsession.,I. Introduction,Benjamin Franklin 1706 - 1790 (An Extraordina
4、ry Life and An Electric Mind),Born the tenth of fifteen children in a poor candle and soap makers family, he had to leave school before he was eleven. At twelve he was apprenticed to an older brother, James, a printer in Boston. As a voracious reader he managed to make up for the deficiency by his o
5、wn effort and began at 16 to publish essays under the pseudonym, Silence Dogood, essays commenting on social life in Boston. When he was 17 he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune marking the beginning of a long success story of an archetypal kind.,1. His Life,He set himself up as an ind
6、ependent printer and publisher, found the Junto Club and subscription library, issued the immensely popular Poor Richards Almanac. Retired around forty-two, he did what was to him a great happiness: read, make scientific experiments and do good to his fellowmen. He helped to find the Pennsylvania Ho
7、spital, an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania, and the American Philosophical Society. At the same time he did a lot of famous experiments and invented many things such as volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin Stove, bifocal glasses, efficient heating d
8、evices, lightning-rod and so on.,Beginning his public career in the early fifties, he became a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly, the Deputy Postmaster-General for the colonies, and for some eighteen years served as representative of the colonies in London. During the War of Independence, he was m
9、ade a delegate to the Continental Congress and a member of the committee to write the Declaration of Independence. One of the makers of the new nation, he was instrumental in bringing France into an alliance with America against England, and played a decisive role at the Constitutional Convention.,P
10、oor Richards Almanac Maxims（谚语，格言） and axioms（哲理，格言） Lost time is never found again. A penny saved is a penny earned. God help them that help themselves. Fish and visitors stink in three days. Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. Ale in, truth out. Eat not to dull
11、ness. Drink not to elevation. Diligence is the Mother of Good Luck. One Today is worth two tomorrow. Industry pays debts. Despair encreaseth them.,2. Major Works,Autobiography It is perhaps the first real post-revolutionary American writing as well as the first real autobiography in English. It give
12、s us the simple yet immensely fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity into which he was born, the faithful account of the colorful career of Americas first self-made man. First of all, it is a puritan document. The most famous section describes his
13、 scientific scheme of self-examination and self-improvement. It is also an eloquent elucidation of the fact that Franklin was spokesman for the new order of eighteenth century enlightenment, and that he represented in America all its ideas, that man is basically good and free, by nature endowed by G
14、od with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the pattern of Puritan simplicity, directness, and concision. The plainness of its style, the homeliness of imagery, the simplicity of diction, syntax and expression are some of the salient features we cannot mistake.,
15、He was a rare genius in human history. Nature seemed particularly lavish and happy when he was shaped. Everything seems to meet in this one man, mind and will, talent and art, strength and ease, wit and grace, and he became almost everything: a printer, postmaster, citizen, almanac maker, essayist,
16、scientist, inventor, orator, statesman, philosopher, political economist, ambassador, musician and parlor man. He was the first great self-made man in America, a poor democrat born in an aristocratic age that his fine example helped to liberalize.,3. Evaluation,Politically he brought the colonial er
17、a to a close. For quite some time he was regarded as the father of all Yankees, even more than Washington was. He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States: the declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the treaty of peace with England, an
18、d the constitution. Scientifically, as the symbol of America in the Age of Enlightenment, he invented a lot of useful implements. His research on electricity, his famous experiment with his kite line and many others made him the preeminent scientist of his day. Literally, he really opened the story of American literature. D. H. Lawrance agreed that Franklin was everything but a poet. In the Scottish philosopher David Humes eyes he was Americas “first great man of letters”.,
