Benjamin Banneker was born in Maryland on November 9, 1731. His father and grandfather were former slaves.
A farmer of modest means, Banneker nevertheless lived a life of unusual achievement. In 1753, the young man borrowed a pocket watch from a well-to-do neighbor; he took it apart and made a drawing of each component, then reassembled the watch and returned it, fully functioning, to its owner.
From his drawings Banneker then proceeded to carve, out of wood, enlarged replicas of each part. Calculating the proper number of teeth for each gear and the necessary relationships between the gears, he constructed a working wooden clock that kept accurate time and struck the hours for over 50 years.
At age 58, Banneker began the study of astronomy and was soon predicting future solar and lunar eclipses. He compiled the ephemeris, or information table, for annual almanacs that were published for the years 1792 through 1797. "Benjamin Banneker's Almanac" was a top seller from Pennsylvania to Virginia and even into Kentucky.
In 1791, Banneker was a technical assistant in the calculating and first-ever surveying of the Federal District, which is now Washington, D.C.
Banneker died on Sunday, October 9, 1806 at the age of 74. In 1980, the U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp in his honor.
Due today: your origin of evil tale.
Gout vocabulary quiz
Make sure you understand what an aphorism and an
almanac are.
almanac are.
In class: As we went over aphorisms and almanacs last Friday, we'll look quickly at a couple of examples. Please review the following information on Ben Franklin and Benjamin Banneker.
READ THE INFORMATION BEGINNING IN BLUE FOR TODAY'S WORK.
note that you have a handout of the Gout Dialogue, but the four accompanying responses, which are due on Monday 14 November, are only on the blog.
Ben Franklin and Benjamin Banneker and the almanac (By definition an almanac is "a book containing a calendar of a given year, with a record of various astronomical phenomena, often with weather prognostications, seasonal suggestions for farmers, and other information - Britannica")
Aphorism- A tersely phrased statement of a truth or opinion
Aphorisms
1. Eat to live, and not live to eat.
2. After three days men grow weary, of a wench, a guest, and weather rainy.
3. Necessity never made a good bargain.
4. Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
5. Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.
6. Tis easy to see, hard to foresee.
7. He that lieth down with Dogs, shall rise up with Fleas.
8. God helps them that help themselves.
9. The worst wheel of a cart makes the most noise.
10. After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser.
11. There are three faithful friends -- an old wife, an old dog, and ready money.
12. Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
13. Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.
14. When the well's dry, we know the worth of water.
15. Does thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.
16. Little strokes, Fell great oaks.
17. The cat in gloves catches no mice.
18. One good Husband is worth two good Wives; for the scarcer things are, the more they're valued.
19. Fish and visitors stink after three days.
20. Well done is better than well said.
21. Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee.
22. Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.
23. Who is rich? He that rejoices in his Portion.
24. Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose.
25. What you seem to be, be really.
26. The Muses love the Morning.
27. When there's no Law, there's no Bread.
28. Love your Neighbour; yet don't pull down your Hedge.
Definition of Satire:
1. A literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit. 2. The branch of literature constituting such works.
Satire is, basically, a word used to describe works of art, including (and especially) literature, which is designed to ridicule and, often, parody. It is most often recognised in the political sense of making light of genuinely serious problems and issues. However, since Satire is a formalised subject, one must recognise that like any written genre, it also has its forms and modes and although in ancient times satire was more likely to be presented as poetry, it clearly also is presented as narrative and dramatic text.
contemporary example: http://peterandrobmakelistsofthings.blogspot.com/2008/08/top-xx-best-examples-of-modern-satire.html Mr. Show More Money Equals
Dialogue between Franklin and the Gout
After the quiz, we will read this as a class.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Midnight, 22 October, 1780.
FRANKLIN. Eh! Oh! eh! What have I done to merit these cruel sufferings? 1
GOUT. Many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence. 2
FRANKLIN. Who is it that accuses me? 3
GOUT. It is I, even I, the Gout. 4
FRANKLIN. What! my enemy in person? 5
GOUT. No, not your enemy. 6
FRANKLIN. I repeat it, my enemy; for you would not only torment my body to death, but ruin my good name; you reproach me as a glutton and a tippler; now all the world, that knows me, will allow that I am neither the one nor the other. 7
GOUT. The world may think as it pleases; it is always very complaisant to itself, and sometimes to its friends; but I very well know that the quantity of meat and drink proper for a man, who takes a reasonable degree of exercise, would be too much for another, who never takes any. 8
FRANKLIN. I take—eh! oh!—as much exercise—eh!—as I can, Madam Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem, Madam Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not altogether my own fault. 9
GOUT.in life is a sedentary one, your amusements, your recreation, at least, should be active. You ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at billiards. But let us examine your course of life. While the mornings are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why, instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast, by salutary exercise, you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inordinate breakfast, four dishes of tea, with cream, and one or two buttered toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the most easily digested. Immediately afterwards you sit down to write at your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. Thus the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise. But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your sedentary condition. But what is your practice after dinner? Walking in the beautiful gardens of those friends with whom you have dined would be the choice of men of sense; yours is to be fixed down to chess, where you are found engaged for two or three hours! This is your perpetual recreation, which is the least eligible of any for a sedentary man, because, instead of accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid attention it requires helps to retard the circulation and obstruct internal secretions. Wrapt in the speculations of this wretched game, you destroy your constitution. What can be expected from such a course of living, but a body replete with stagnant humors, ready to fall prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the Gout, did not occasionally bring you relief by agitating those humors, and so purifying or dissipating them? If it was in some nook or alley in Paris, deprived of walks, that you played awhile at chess after dinner, this might be excusable; but the same taste prevails with you in Passy, Auteuil, Montmartre, or Sanoy, places where there are the finest gardens and walks, a pure air, beautiful women, and most agreeable and instructive conversation; all which you might enjoy by frequenting the walks. But these are rejected for this abominable game of chess. Fie, then, Mr. Franklin! But amidst my instructions, I had almost forgot to administer my wholesome corrections; so take that twinge,—and that. 10
FRANKLIN. Oh! eh! oh! Ohhh! As much instruction as you please, Madam Gout, and as many reproaches; but pray, Madam, a truce with your corrections! 11
GOUT. No, Sir, no,—I will not abate a particle of what is so much for your good,—therefore— 12
FRANKLIN. Oh! ehhh!—It is not fair to say I take no exercise, when I do very often, going out to dine and returning in my carriage. 13
GOUT. That, of all imaginable exercises, is the most slight and insignificant, if you allude to the motion of a carriage suspended on springs. By observing the degree of heat obtained by different kinds of motion, we may form an estimate of the quantity of exercise given by each. Thus, for example, if you turn out to walk in winter with cold feet, in an hour’s time you will be in a glow all over; ride on horseback, the same effect will scarcely be perceived by four hours’ round trotting; but if you loll in a carriage, such as you have mentioned, you may travel all day and gladly enter the last inn to warm your feet by a fire. Flatter yourself then no longer, that half an hour’s airing in your carriage deserves the name of exercise. Providence has appointed few to roll in carriages, while he has given to all a pair of legs, which are machines infinitely more commodious and serviceable. Be grateful, then, and make a proper use of yours. Would you know how they forward the circulation of your fluids, in the very action of transporting you from place to place; observe when you walk, that all your weight is alternately thrown from one leg to the other; this occasions a great pressure on the vessels of the foot, and repels their contents; when relieved, by the weight being thrown on the other foot, the vessels of the first are allowed to replenish, and, by a return of this weight, this repulsion again succeeds; thus accelerating the circulation of the blood. The heat produced in any given time depends on the degree of this acceleration; the fluids are shaken, the humors attenuated, the secretions facilitated, and all goes well; the cheeks are ruddy, and health is established. Behold your fair friend at Auteuil; a lady who received from bounteous nature more really useful science than half a dozen such pretenders to philosophy as you have been able to extract from all your books. When she honors you with a visit, it is on foot. She walks all hours of the day, and leaves indolence, and its concomitant maladies, to be endured by her horses. In this, see at once the preservative of her health and personal charms. But when you go to Auteuil, you must have your carriage, though it is no farther from Passy to Auteuil than from Auteuil to Passy. 14
FRANKLIN. Your reasonings grow very tiresome. 15
GOUT. I stand corrected. I will be silent and continue my office; take that, and that. 16
FRANKLIN. Oh! Ohh! Talk on, I pray you. 17
GOUT. No, no; I have a good number of twinges for you to-night, and you may be sure of some more tomorrow. 18
FRANKLIN. What, with such a fever! I shall go distracted. Oh! eh! Can no one bear it for me? 19
GOUT. Ask that of your horses; they have served you faithfully. 20
FRANKLIN. How can you so cruelly sport with my torments 21
GOUT. Sport! I am very serious. I have here a list of offenses against your own health distinctly written, and can justify every stroke inflicted on you. 22
FRANKLIN. Read it then. 23
GOUT. It is too long a detail; but I will briefly mention some particulars. 24
FRANKLIN. Proceed. I am all attention. 25
GOUT. Do you remember how often you have promised yourself, the following morning, a walk in the grove of Boulogne, in the garden de la Muette, or in your own garden, and have violated your promise, alleging, at one time, it was too cold, at another too warm, too windy, too moist, or what else you pleased; when in truth it was too nothing, but your insuperable love of ease? 26
FRANKLIN. That I confess may have happened occasionally, probably ten times in a year. 27
GOUT. Your confession is very far short of the truth; the gross amount is one hundred and ninety-nine times. 28
FRANKLIN. Is it possible? 29
GOUT. So possible, that it is fact; you may rely on the accuracy of my statement. You know M. Brillon’s gardens, and what fine walks they contain; you know the handsome flight of an hundred steps, which lead from the terrace above to the lawn below. You have been in the practice of visiting this amiable family twice a week, after dinner, and it is a maxim of your own, that “a man may take as much exercise in walking a mile, up and down stairs, as in ten on level ground.” What an opportunity was here for you to have had exercise in both these ways! Did you embrace it, and how often? 30
FRANKLIN. I cannot immediately answer that question. 31
GOUT. I will do it for you; not once. 32
FRANKLIN. Not once? 33
GOUT. Even so. During the summer you went there at six o’ clock. You found the charming lady, with her lovely children and friends, eager to walk with you, and entertain you with their agreeable conversation; and what has been your choice? Why, to sit on the terrace, satisfy yourself with the fine prospect, and passing your eye over the beauties of the garden below, without taking one step to descend and walk about in them. On the contrary, you call for tea and the chess-board; and lo! you are occupied in your seat till nine o’clock, and that besides two hours’ play after dinner; and then, instead of walking home, which would have bestirred you a little, you step into your carriage. How absurd to suppose that all this carelessness can be reconcilable with health, without my interposition! 34
FRANKLIN. I am convinced now of the justness of Poor Richard’s remark, that “Our debts and our sins are always greater than we think for.” 35
GOUT. So it is. You philosophers are sages in your maxims, and fools in your conduct. 36
FRANKLIN. But do you charge among my crimes, that I return in a carriage from M. Brillon’s? 37
GOUT. Certainly; for, having been seated all the while, you cannot object the fatigue of the day, and cannot want therefore the relief of a carriage. 38
FRANKLIN. What then would you have me do with my carriage? 39
GOUT. Burn it if you choose; you would at least get heat out of it once in this way; or, if you dislike that proposal, here’s another for you; observe the poor peasants, who work in the vineyards and grounds about the villages of Passy, Auteuil, Chaillot, etc.; you may find every day among these deserving creatures, four or five old men and women, bent and perhaps crippled by weight of years, and too long and too great labor. After a most fatiguing day, these people have to trudge a mile or two to their smoky huts. Order your coachman to set them down. This is an act that will be good for your soul; and, at the same time, after your visit to the Brillons, if you return on foot, that will be good for your body. 40
FRANKLIN. Ah! how tiresome you are! 41
GOUT. Well, then, to my office; it should not be forgotten that I am your physician. There. 42
FRANKLIN. Ohhh! what a devil of a physician! 43
GOUT. How ungrateful you are to say so! Is it not I who, in the character of your physician, have saved you from the palsy, dropsy, and apoplexy? one or other of which would have done for you long ago, but for me. 44
FRANKLIN. I submit, and thank you for the past, but entreat the discontinuance of your visits for the future; for, in my mind, one had better die than be cured so dolefully. Permit me just to hint, that I have also not been unfriendly to you. I never feed physician or quack of any kind, to enter the list against you; if then you do not leave me to my repose, it may be said you are ungrateful too. 45
GOUT. I can scarcely acknowledge that as any objection. As to quacks, I despise them; they may kill you indeed, but cannot injure me. And, as to regular physicians, they are at last convinced that the gout, in such a subject as you are, is no disease, but a remedy; and wherefore cure a remedy?—but to our business,—there. 46
FRANKLIN. Oh! oh!—for Heaven’s sake leave me! and I promise faithfully never more to play at chess, but to take exercise daily, and live temperately. 47
GOUT. I know you too well. You promise fair; but, after a few months of good health, you will return to your old habits; your fine promises will be forgotten like the forms of the last year’s clouds. Let us then finish the account, and I will go. But I leave you with an assurance of visiting you again at a proper time and place; for my object is your good, and you are sensible now that I am your real friend. 48
ASSIGNMENT FOR THE GOUT DIALOGUE DUE MONDAY 14 NOVEMBER Using specific textual evidence respond to the following four questions in well-written complete sentences / short paragraphs. Please type.
The Literature of 1750-1800
During the years from 1750-1800, almost all writing in America was influenced by the revolutionary spirit or the spirit of the new nation. Recognizing this spirit and the ideas of this period will enable you to understand better the purpose and techniques of the writer of the period.
It was during these years that the American colonists reached the point where they were no longer able to tolerate the British rule. The colonies united and took a stand against Britain. The revolution was successful, and a proud and practical new nation emerged.
This was the Age of Reason. The ideas of reason and discipline prevailed in the writing of the time. Because the attention of the nation was on political events surrounding the revolution, the literature was mostly political also. There was some personal writing—poetry and letters, for example, but most writing was public—pamphlets, speeches, and other documents—advocating and supporting a break with England.
Logical reasoning is the major technique used by the writers of this period. Public writing offered sound clear arguments in support of the causes. Personal writing too showed the reasoning process.
1. How does Franklin’s dialogue reflect a belief in reason?
2. How does the dialogue reflect a belief in moderation and self-restraint?
3. How does the dialogue reflect an interest in science?
4. Understanding Reasoning: In his dialogue Franklin uses the process of reasoning to analyze his condition. First he assesses the causes of his condition; then he provides a body of evidence to support his assessment and ends his dialogue by presenting possible solutions. Break down his reasoning steps.
a. Causes of his condition: ____________________________________________
b. Evidence to support his assessment ______________________________________
c. Possible solutions______________________________________________________
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