At the beginning of the book he even claims that he's "recollecting" his life because it's impossible to relive it. In his book, Franklin draws a vivid picture of his early life and the person he was, telling us about the many contributions he made to society and the kinds of experiences he had. Technically, Franklin's talking about heaven here, but, funnily enough, he could also be talking about his Autobiography. After death, his soul or his "Contents" will be reprinted – given a certain kind of immortality – in another book. Here, he compares his body to the pages and binding of the book, and his soul to those ideas contained within it. In other words, at age 22 Franklin was already obsessed with measuring his life in books. 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). 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. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Introductionīenjamin Franklin was only 22 years old when he wrote himself an epitaph ( source).
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