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MODULE 2.7 Colonial Society and Culture 123

the Virgin;) she turns her Head round as it were to see if any body observ’d
her; then crouching down gently, with her Hands on her Knees, she looks
These sample pages are distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
wistfully for a while right forward. He judges rightly what she’s about: And
having calculated the Distance and allow’d Time for its Falling, finds that next
Spring we shall have a fine April shower. . . . O the wonderful Knowledge to
be found in the Stars! Even the smallest Things are written there, if you had
Copyright (c) 2024 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
but Skill to read. . . .
Besides the usual Things expected in an Almanack, I hope the profess’d
Teachers of Mankind will excuse my scattering here and there some instructive
Strictly for use with its products. NOT FOR REDISTRIBUTION.
Hints in Matters of Morality and Religion. And be not thou disturbed, O grave
and sober Reader, if among the many serious Sentences in my Book, thou
findest me trifling now and then, and talking idly. In all the Dishes I have hitherto
cook’d for thee, there is solid Meat enough for thy Money. There are Scraps
from the Table of Wisdom, that will if well digested, yield strong Nourishment
to thy Mind. . . .
When I first begun to publish, the Printer made a fair Agreement with me
for my Copies, by Virtue of which he runs away with the greatest Part of the
Profit. — However, much good may’t do him; I do not grudge it him; he is a Man
I have a great Regard for, and I wish his Profit ten times greater than it is. For
I am, dear Reader, his, as well as thy
Affectionate Friend,
R. SAUNDERS.”
Questions for Analysis
1. Describe Franklin’s tone, citing examples from the text to support your
characterization.
2. Explain the causes of the popularity of Poor Richard’s Almanack.
3. Explain how this excerpt from Poor Richard’s Almanack undermines a traditional
source of social authority.

Opposed to the religious concept that people were born sinful, Enlightenment think-
ers generally believed that human beings were born neither necessarily good nor evil,
but instead open to the world around them, and were innately capable of understand-
ing the logic behind natural laws and the construction of governments that protected
their individual rights as human beings. From this stemmed a general belief that gov-
ernments were created for the benefit of people, rather than as a means of keeping them
under control.
John Locke led the way in the late seventeenth century, with his argument that
human beings created government to bring people out of a state of nature, where
individuals had to protect their own rights, into a civilized state where government
represented the people’s interest and instituted laws for the general good. The French
“philosophe” Baron de Montesquieu refined this idea in the mid-eighteenth century
by arguing that good government was divided into executive, legislative, and judicial
branches that prevented any one individual or group of individuals from acquiring
too much power to the detriment of the people. Likewise, another French philosopher,
Voltaire, advocated free speech based on his belief that truth and justice were born of
rational discourse rather than the dictates of all-powerful monarchs or priests wielding
divine power.
The Enlightenment provided colonists with a worldview with more room for accep-
tance of religious diversity than had previously existed. Enlightenment ideas also
undermined what many likely saw as the religious vitality of the colonies. While many

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