作者简介
本杰明·富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin,1706—1790），作家、科学家、政治家、发明家。出身低微，10岁起受过两年的小学教育，12岁开始在印刷厂当学徒，但利用业余时间刻苦自学，除母语之外，还能够熟练地阅读法语、西班牙语、意大利语和拉丁语著作。16岁开始在《新英格兰周报》发表小品文，评论时务。24岁成为印刷厂的业主后，致力于社会公共事业，先后创建费城公共图书馆，主编《宾夕法尼亚报》，还于1751年协助创办了宾夕法尼亚大学。中年之后，他发奋研究物理、化学、数学、天文学等自然科学，取得了重要成就。后成为美国革命中的核心人物之一，参与起草《独立宣言》。1776年至1785年，他作为美国的全权代表出使法国，寻求欧洲盟友在政治、经济、军事等方面的支持和援助，出色地完成了使命。富兰克林一生著述丰富，内容涉及时政、科学、经济、教育、个人生活阅历等诸多方面。1732年，他用笔名发表了《格言历书》（Poor Richard's Almanac），内容除历书之外还附有谚语、格言、警句，非常畅销，后作为系列出版物发行25年。他的《自传》（The Autobiography）著于1771年至1790年，生动而深刻地记载了他个人的生活经历，历来被公认为美囯文学的经典之作。
内容提要
选篇出自《自传》第一章。1771年，时年65岁的富兰克林在英国回忆自己前半生的生活经历，并以“自传”的形式记载下来，以传后人。《自传》的写作前后历时近20年。该书共由四个部分组成，第一部分主要讲述了他一生前25年的生活经历，包括短暂的学校读书生活、在印刷厂的学徒经历、如何在艰苦的环境中勤奋自学、匿名为报纸撰稿，以及开始在印刷业获得成功并结婚成家。1784年，第二部分成文于巴黎，侧重描写作者在科学研究方面的兴趣和成就，还涉及到他所从事的社会公共事业。第三、四两个部分分别在1788年、1789年至1790年写于富兰克林的家乡费城，先后记叙了他从25岁至51岁的生活。至于作者后半生33年的生活，尤其是在欧洲和本国政界、外交界的经历和成就，作者只是在最后两个部分略有提及。换言之，《自传》并非作者一生完整的传记。富兰克林去世后，该书的部分章节未经授权曾在法国和英国出版，文字及内容均有失实之处，全部手稿直至1868年在巴黎发现后，才在当年出版了该书最为完整的版本。
赏析
《自传》不仅是美国第一部成功的传记体作品，而且也是美国民族文学的早期代表作。自1868年全书问世之后，其价值和影响经久不衰。对于这部在美国文学史上占有重要地位的作品，可以从若干不同的视角解读和赏析。从传记文学的角度来说，《自传》的作者是一位土生土长的美国人，出身寒微，没有受过良好的正规教育，没有浪漫的爱情，没有权贵的提携，完全借助于自己不懈的努力而获得了成功。这有别于欧洲文学中传统的传记作品，不像它们以君王、重臣或者英雄为主人公，描写远离普通人见识的经历，字里行间充满了宫廷争斗、颠覆夺权、战争杀戮、神秘莫测的命运以及政治化事件。在富兰克林的笔下，一个原本普通的美国平民逐步从幼年走向青年和成年，从幼稚变得成熟，从致力于工业过渡到投身科学研究，从个人奋斗转而为国家的独立发挥重要作用，而他所经历的所有一切，都是平凡而简单的生活故事。他之所以成功，一方面依靠自身的勤奋和信念的力量，另一方面还在于时代的造就。但是对于18世纪前半叶美国相对自由、宽松的社会环境，富兰克林并没有着力渲染，而是将其作为一种背景衬托他个人的成长历程。
《自传》不仅描写了一个成功者在美国建国前期取得的成就，其价值和意义还在于揭示这一人物内在道德品性的塑造过程。清教主义中勤奋、务实、上进的精神，以及启蒙时期美国人民对于自己民族未来发展的想象与信心，都凝聚于他的个性之中，从而表现为一种强大的生命活力。富兰克林以此为自豪，而且自觉地设法将其道德伦理信念传达给读者。这一点明显见于书中的第二、三、四部分。作为一个典型的美国人的写照，《自传》展示了18世纪美国的社会图景以及启蒙时代的精神风貌，塑造了一个全新的美国人的形象，并以个人的发展和成就再现了社会孕育的活力。对于美国民族个性的形成，这一人物形象起到了重要而长久的影响，同时也在一定程度上开始扭转欧洲人对美国人的蔑视与偏见。
从叙事语言来看，《自传》真实感人，个性化的文笔洗练清新，风格纯朴，少有18世纪英国乃至整个欧洲文坛所崇尚的雕琢的文风。但在该书的四个部分中，显然富兰克林心目中拥有不同的读者，因此各个部分的叙事风格也有所差异。在第一部分，富兰克林以“亲爱的儿子”开篇，读者为他的后嗣，纯朴亲切的字句可以使人领略到父子深情。从第二部分开始，读者以社会大众为对象，作者与读者之间的对话开始保持一定的距离，说教的意味也溢于字面。此外，由于《自传》写作的时间漫长，各个部分只是按照时间顺序衔接，在叙事结构上略显松散。
The Autobiography [1]
（Excerpt）
TO HIS SON
Twyford, at the Bishop of St. Asaph's,1771 [2]
Dear Son [3]，
I have ever had a pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the enquiries I made among the remains of my relations [4] when you were with me in England and the journey I undertook for that purpose.Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my Life—many of which you are yet unacquainted with—and expecting a week's uninterrupted Leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you.Besides, there are some other inducements that excite me to this undertaking.From the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and in which I passed my earliest years, I have raised myself to a state of affluence [5] and some degree of celebrity in the world.As constant good fortune has accompanied me even to an advanced period of life, my posterity will perhaps be desirous of learning the means, which I employed, and which, thanks to Providence [6]，so well succeeded with me.They may also deem them fit to be Imitated, should any of them find themselves in similar circumstances.That good fortune, when I reflected on it, which is frequently the case, has induced me sometimes to say that were it left to my choice, I should have no objection to go over the same life from its beginning to the end, only asking the advantage authors have of correcting in a second edition some faults of the first.So would I also wish to change some incidents of it for others more favourable.Notwithstanding, if this condition were denied, I should still accept the offer.But as this repetition is not to be expected, that which resembles most living one's life over again, seems to be to recall all the circumstances of it;and, to render this remembrance more durable, to record them in writing, in thus employing myself I shall yield to the inclination so natural to old men of talking of themselves and their own actions, and I shall indulge it, without being tiresome to those who, from respect to my age, might conceive themselves obliged to listen to me, since they will be always free to read me or not.And lastly（I may as well confess it, as the denial of it would be believed by nobody）I shall perhaps not a little gratify my own vanity.Indeed, I never heard or saw the introductory words,“Without Vanity I may say,”etc.，but some vain thing immediately followed.Most people dislike vanity in others whatever share they have of it themselves, but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it,[7] being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor and to others who are within his sphere of action.And therefore, in many cases it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to his divine providence, which led me to the means I used and gave them success.My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised towards me in continuing that happiness or in enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done—the complexion of my future fortune being known to him only, and in whose power it is to bless to us even our afflictions.
THE ARRIVAL IN PHILADELPHIA
[Following the altercation with his older brother to whom Franklin had been apprenticed（and whose oppressive treatment of Franklin, the latter says, gave him“that aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my whole life”），and after a brush with the law, the seventeen-year-old lad leaves Boston and comes to Philadelphia, the city whose first citizen he would eventually become.
This might be one occasion of the differences we [8] began to have about this time. Though a brother, he considered himself as my master and me as his apprentice, and accordingly expected the same services from me as he would from another;while I thought he degraded me too much in some he required of me, who from a brother expected more indulgence.Our disputes were often brought before our father, and I fancy I was either generally in the right or else a better pleader, because the judgment was generally in my favour.But my brother was passionate and had often beaten me, which I took extremely amiss.I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me might be a means of impressing me with that aversion to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my whole life.Thinking my apprenticeship very tedious, I was continually wishing for some opportunity of shortening it, which at length offered in a manner unexpected.
One of the pieces in our newspaper on some political point which I have now forgotten, gave offence to the Assembly [9]. He was taken up, censured, and imprisoned for a month by the Speaker's warrant, I suppose because he would not discover the author.I, too, was taken up and examined before the Council;but though I did not give them any satisfaction, they contented themselves with admonishing me and dismissed me, considering me, perhaps, as an apprentice who was bound to keep his master's secrets.During my brother's confinement, which I resented a good deal notwithstanding our private differences, I had the management of the paper, and I made bold to give our rulers some rubs in it, which my brother took very kindly, while others began to consider me in an unfavourable light as a young genius that had a turn for libelling and satire.My brother's discharge was accompanied with an order from the House（a very odd one）that“James Franklin should no longer print the paper called the New England Courant.”There was a consultation held in our printing house amongst his friends in this conjuncture.Some proposed to elude the order by changing the name of the paper;but my brother seeing inconveniences in that, it was finally concluded on as a better way to let it be printed for the future under the name of“Benjamin Franklin”；and to avoid the censure of the Assembly that might fall on him as still printing it by his apprentice, the contrivance was that my old indenture [10] should be returned to me with a full discharge on the back of it, to show in case of necessity;but to secure to him the benefit of my service, I should sign new indentures for the remainder of the term, which were to be kept private.A very flimsy [11] scheme it was, but, however, it was immediately executed, and the paper went on accordingly under my name for several months.At length a fresh difference arising between my brother and me, I took upon me to assert my freedom, presuming that he would not venture to produce the new indentures.It was not fair in me to take this advantage, and this I therefore reckon one of the first errata [12] of my life.But the unfairness of it weighed little with me, when under the impressions of resentment for the blows his passion too often urged him to bestow upon me, though he was otherwise not an ill-natured man.Perhaps I was too saucy and provoking.
When he found I would leave him, he took care to prevent my getting employment in any other printing house of the town by going round and speaking to every master, who accordingly refused to give me work. I then thought of going to New York as the nearest place where there was a printer;and I was the rather inclined to leave Boston when I reflected that I had already made myself a little obnoxious [13] to the governing party;and from the arbitrary proceedings of the Assembly in my brother's case, it was likely I might if I stayed soon bring myself into scrapes, and further that my indiscreet disputations about religion began to make me pointed at with horror by good people as an infidel or atheist.I determined on the point, but my father now siding with my brother, I was sensible that if I attempted to go openly, means would be used to prevent me.My friend Collins therefore undertook to manage my flight.He agreed with the captain of a New York sloop for my passage, under pretence of my being a young man of his acquaintance that had had an intrigue with a girl of bad character, whose parents would compel me to marry her and therefore I could not appear or come away publicly.I sold some of my books to raise a little money, was taken on board the sloop privately, had a fair wind, and in three days found myself at New York, near three hundred miles from my home, at the age of seventeen, without the least recommendation to or knowledge of any person in the place, and with very little money in my pocket.
The inclination I had had for the sea was by this time done away, or I might now have gratified it. But having another profession and conceiving myself a pretty good workman, I offered my services to the printer of the place, old Mr.Wm.Bradford（who had been the first printer in Pennsylvania, but had removed thence in consequence of a quarrel with the Governor, Geo.Keith）.He could give me no employment, having little to do and hands enough already.“But,”says he,“my son at Philadelphia has lately lost his principal hand, Aquila Rose, by death.If you go thither I believe he may employ you.”
Philadelphia was a hundred miles farther. I set out, however, in a boat for Amboy [14]，leaving my chest and things to follow me round by sea.In crossing the bay we met with a squall that tore our rotten sails to pieces, prevented our getting into the kill, and drove us upon Long Island.In our way a drunken Dutchman, who was a passenger, too, fell overboard;when he was sinking, reached through the water to his shock pate and drew him up so that we got him in again.His ducking sobered him a little, and he went to sleep, taking first out of his pocket a book which he desired I would dry for him.It proved to be my old favourite author Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress [15] in Dutch, finely printed on good paper with copper cuts, a dress better than I had ever seen it wear in its own language.I have since found that it has been translated into most of the languages of Europe, and suppose it has been more generally read than any other book except, perhaps, the Bible.Honest John [16] was the first that I know of who mixes narration and dialogue, a method of writing very engaging to the reader, who in the most interesting parts finds himself, as it were, admitted into the company and present at the conversation.Defoe [17] has imitated him successfully in his Robinson Crusoe [18]，in his Moll Flanders [19]，and other pieces;and Richardson has done the same in his Pamela [20]，etc.
On approaching the island, we found it was in a place where there could be no landing, there being a great surf on the stony beach. So we dropped anchor and swung out our cable towards the shore.Some people came down to the water edge and hallooed to us, as we did to them, but the wind was so high and the surf so loud that we could not understand each other.There were some canoes on the shore, and we made signs and called to them to fetch us, but they either did not comprehend us or thought it impracticable so they went off.Night approaching, we had no remedy but to have patience till the wind abated, and in the meantime the boatman and I concluded to sleep if we could, and so we crowded into the scuttle [21] with the Dutchman who was still wet, and the spray breaking over the head of our boat leaked through to us, so that we were soon almost as wet as he.In this manner we lay all night with very little rest;but the wind abating the next day, we made a shift to reach Amboy before night, having been thirty hours on the water without victuals or any drink but a bottle of filthy rum, the water we sailed on being salt.
In the evening I found myself very feverish and went to bed;but having read somewhere that cold water drank plentifully was good for a fever, I followed the prescription, sweat plentifully most of the night, my fever left me, and in the morning crossing the ferry, I proceeded on my journey on foot, having fifty miles to Burlington [22]，where I was told I should find boats that would carry me the rest of the way to Philadelphia.
It rained very hard all the day, I was thoroughly soaked and by noon a good deal tired, so I stopped at a poor inn, where I stayed all night, beginning now to wish I had never left home. I made so miserable a figure, too, that I found by the questions asked me I was suspected to be some run-away servant, and in danger of being taken up on that suspicion.However, I proceeded the next day, and got in the evening to an inn within eight or ten miles of Burlington, kept by one Dr.Brown [23].
He entered into conversation with me while I took some refreshment and, finding I had read a little, became very sociable and friendly. Our acquaintance continued all the rest of his life.He had been, I imagine, an itinerant doctor, for there was no town in England or any country in Europe of which he could not give a very particular account.He had some letters and was ingenious, but he was an infidel and wickedly undertook some years after to travesty the Bible in doggerel verse as Cotton had done with Virgil [24].By this means he set many of the facts in a very ridiculous light and might have done mischief with weak minds if his work had been published, but it never was.At his house I lay that night, and the next morning reached Burlington, but had the mortification to find that the regular boats were gone a little before and no other expected to go before Tuesday, this being Saturday.Wherefore [25]，I returned to an old woman in the town of whom I had bought some gingerbread [26] to eat on the water and asked her advice;she invited me to lodge at her house till a passage by water should offer;and being tired with my foot travelling, I accepted the invitation.Understanding I was a printer, she would have had me remain in that town and follow my business, being ignorant of the stock necessary to begin with.She was very hospitable, gave me a dinner of ox cheek with great goodwill, accepting only of a pot of ale in return.And I thought myself fixed till Tuesday should come.However, walking in the evening by the side of the river, a boat came by, which I found was going towards Philadelphia with several people in her.They took me in, and as there was no wind, we rowed all the way;and about midnight, not having yet seen the city, some of the company were confident we must have passed it and would row no farther;the others knew not where we were, so we put towards the shore, got into a creek, landed near an old fence, with the rails of which we made a fire, the night being cold in October, and there we remained till daylight.Then one of the company knew the place to be Cooper's Creek, a little above Philadelphia, which we saw as soon as we got out of the creek, and arrived there about eight or nine o'clock, on the Sunday morning and landed at the Market Street wharf.
I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, and shall be so of my first entry into that city, that you may in your mind compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made there. I was in my working dress, my best clothes being to come round by sea.I was dirty from my journey;my pockets were stuffed out with shirts and stockings;I knew no soul, nor where to look for lodging.Fatigued with walking, rowing, and want of sleep, I was very hungry, and my whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and about a shilling in copper coin, which I gave to the boatmen for my passage.At first they refused it on account of my having rowed, but I insisted on their taking it.A man is sometimes more generous when he has little money than when he has plenty, perhaps through fear of being thought to have but little.I walked towards the top of the street, gazing about till near Market Street, where I met a boy with bread.I have often made a meal of dry bread, and inquiring where he had bought it, I went immediately to the baker's he directed me to.I asked for biscuit, meaning such as we had in Boston, but that sort, it seems, was not made in Philadelphia.I then asked for a threepenny loaf and was told they had none such.Not knowing the different prices nor the names of the different sorts of any bread, I told him to give me three pennyworth of any sort.He gave me accordingly three great puffy rolls.I was surprised at the quantity but took it, and having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm and eating the other.Thus I went up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the door of Mr.Read, my future wife's father, when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made-as I certainly did—a most awkward, ridiculous appearance.Then I turned and went down Chestnut Street and part of Walnut Street, eating my roll all the way, and coming round, found myself again at Market Street wharf near the boat I came in, to which I went for a draught of the river water, and being filled with one of my rolls, gave the other two to a woman and her child that came down the river in the boat with us and were waiting to go farther.Thus refreshed, I walked again up the street, which by this time had many clean dressed people in it who were all walking the same way;I joined them, and thereby was led into the great meetinghouse of the Quakers [27] near the market.I sat down among them, and after looking round awhile and hearing nothing said, being very drowsy through labour and want of rest the preceding night, I fell fast asleep and continued so till the meeting broke up, when someone was kind enough to rouse me.This was therefore the first house I was in or slept in, in Philadelphia.
Questions:
1.Why did Franklin write his Autobiography?
2.What made Franklin decide to leave the brother to whom he had been apprenticed?
3.How did he arrive in Philadelphia?
4.What features do you find in the style of the above selection?
注释
[1]选篇节自《自传》的第一部分，其一为该书的开场白，其二描述富兰克林离开哥哥初到费城时的情形。1723年，17岁的富兰克林两手空空、独自一人来到费城，这是他逐步走向成功的一个重要转折点。
[2]Twyford:伦敦西南约50英里处的一个村落。富兰克林在此写作《自传》的第一部分。
[3]Dear Son:指富兰克林的儿子威廉·富兰克林（1731—1813），当时任新泽西州州长。但在独立战争中，威廉·富兰克林是忠于英国的保皇派。
[4]the remains of my relations:仍然健在的亲属。1758年，富兰克林曾携子访问祖先在英国的故乡。
[5]affluence:富裕；充足。
[6]Providence:上帝；神。
[7]but I give it fair quarter:但我却公平地对待它。
[8]we:指富兰克林和他的哥哥。他当时给哥哥做学徒。
[9]the Assembly:马萨诸塞州议会的众议院。
[10]indenture:师徒合同；定期服务契约。
[11]flimsy:不足以使人有信心的；薄弱的。
[12]errata:erratum复数形式，指书写或者印刷中的错误。此处，这一专业术语指人生中出现的失误。
[13]obnoxious:讨厌的；令人厌恶的。
[14]Amboy:地名，位于新泽西州。
[15]Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress:英国作家约翰·班扬（John Bunyan,1628—1688）的讽喻小说《天路历程》。
[16]Honest John:指英国小说家班扬。
[17]Defoe:英国小说家笛福（Daniel Defoe，约1660—1731）。
[18]Robinson Crusoe:笛福的小说《鲁宾逊漂流记》。
[19]Moll Flanders:笛福的小说《摩尔·弗兰德斯》。
[20]Richardson has done the same in his Pamela, etc.指英国作家理查逊（Samuel Richardson,1689—1761）以及他的书信体小说《帕美勒》。
[21]scuttle:小舱口；舷窗；船底孔洞。
[22]Burlington:费城北面约18英里的一个城市，当时为新泽西州的州政府所在地。
[23]Dr.Brown:Dr.John Brown（约1667—1737），旅馆的老板，也是当地有名的医生和无神论者。
[24]to travesty the Bible in doggerel verse as Cotton had done with Virgil:蹩脚地将《圣经》变为打油诗，就如同科顿拙劣地模仿维吉尔的作品那样。Cotton，即Charles Cotton（1630—1687），英国诗人，曾模仿维吉尔的《埃涅伊德》创作了诗作《斯卡龙尼德》。Virgil:古罗马诗人（公元前70—前19），主要作品为史诗《埃涅伊德》（Aeneid）。
[25]wherefore:因此；所以。
[26]gingerbread:姜饼；华而不实的东西。
[27]the Quakers:（基督教的一个教派）贵格会教徒。该教会由英国人乔治·福克斯（George Fox,1624—1691）创立，他主张将“内心之光”，即灵感，置于圣经和教条之上，反对繁琐的、程式化的宗教仪式，因此受到宗教当局与政府的双重迫害。
