In his attempt to try to achieve moral perfection, Benjamin Franklin was able to pinpoint some of the many virtues needed to achieve the ability of  living “life without committing any fault at any time;” However, one of the virtues suggested by Franklin are only possible to some and not something that should be held as a stepping stone for moral perfection

In the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin he suggests that “order” is essential to meeting higher virtues. He defines order as having all things have their place in the day, with everything in your business having its own time. However, this is not always possible and may sometimes interfere with other important goals one may have.

This is the main focus of analysis of this post. Franklin acknowledges that this is one of the harder tasks to accomplish from the 13 when he writes: “My scheme of ORDER gave me the most trouble.” He goes on to acknowledge that for some professions like a journeyman printer this virtue would be nearly impossible to achieve. But I want to focus on another aspect that makes ORDER so hard. To have order one must have his time planned out and organized, without making any alterations to what was set. But when we talk about the artist or the thinker, he or she does not control when to be inspired or how long it will take to accomplish their masterpiece or theory. In today’s world, this virtue may be possible for those who have a 9-5 job today but what about those who don’t go by a certain schedule everyday? Sometimes you may find yourself in situations where one task is more important then another and requires more of your time.  Placing constraints and specific times for specific activities limits the possibilities and the creativity one is able to achieve when they are able to think and do at erratic moments.