FRANKLIN’S METHODS IN LITERATURE AND SCIENCE
The career of Franklin well illustrates these changes. He finds himself cramped in Boston and moves to Philadelphia. He pays the most careful attention to the matter of writing well,〖H. C., i, 16.〗 because he sees that it pays to consult the convenience of the reader. In his writing he employs the secular arts of humor and irony and takes particular care to “forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others, and all positive assertions of ［his］ own.”〖H. C., i, 87.〗 He seeks the convenience of mankind also by various mechanical improvements and by the better organization of certain departments of the public service. His experiments in pure science mark him as patient, observant, and logical to an unusual degree. But most of his attention—in business, science, and public service—is given to matters of immediate utility.