閱讀理解
“Benjamin Franklin,” Walter Isaacson tells us at the beginning of his long(but never boring)new biography, “is the founding father who winks at us．” By that, Isaacson explains, he means Franklin is the most human－and most modern－of the men who shaped the American republic．We admire Washington, Jefferson and Adams, but they remain creatures of the 18th century．The man we encounter in “Benjamin Franklin”－funny, pragmatic and self-aware－seems like one of us, or at least someone we'd like to be．
Unlike Washington's cherry tree, Franklin's kite was real．His experiments with electricity made him one of the great scientists of his day．He was a middle-class businessman whose success as a printer and a journalist allowed him to retire at 42－and he devoted the rest of his life to his country．He was diplomat who persuaded the French to back the American Revolution and the author of the first great American autobiography．He was an excellent swimmer．There was almost nothing he couldn't do well, except write poetry．But what truly distinguished Franklin was his talent of being great and human at the same time．He owned slaves as a younger man, but in his last years became an abolitionist(廢奴主義者)．When he fathered an illegitimate(私生的)son, he acknowledged his fatherhood and took the responsibility of raising the boy．
He seems strange today in the joy he took in compiling and creating all those self- improvement maxims he published in Poor Richard's Almanac(年鑒)－“early to bed, early to rise” and so on．Generations of lazy boys could have been happier without that．But he was no hypocrite(偽君子)．Isaacson tells us Franklin practiced what he preached, and often laughed at himself while he did so．
By a happy accident, this is the second excellent biography of Franklin to appear in two years, after Edmund S．Morgan's inspiring “Benjamin Franklin．”
