Autobiography of benjamin franklin shmoop

Benjamin Franklin was only 22 years old when he wrote himself an epitaph (source).

Aside from the fact that this was kind of a pessimistic, suffering artist thing to do, what's really interesting is his description of what he imagined his legacy would be.

Autobiography of benjamin franklin shmoop

Franklin wrote that after he dies, his body will be like "Like the Cover of an Old Book / Its Contents torn Out," and that those "Contents" will "Appear once More / In a New and More Elegant Edition" (source). In other words, at age 22 Franklin was already obsessed with measuring his life in books.

Here, he compares his body to the pages and binding of the book, and his soul to those ideas contained within it. After death, his soul or his "Contents" will be reprinted – given a certain kind of immortality – in another book.

Technically, Franklin's talking about heaven here, but, funnily enough, he could also be talking abou