公民Ben的七大美德（11/13）

It worked. Medallions of his fur-capped head were struck, engravings were hung in homes, and his likeness graced snuffboxes and signet rings. The fad went so far as to mildly annoy, though still amuse, King Louis XVI himself. He gave a lady of his court, who had bored him often with her praise of Franklin, a Sevres porcelain chamber pot with Franklin's cameo embossed inside. Neither the King nor his ministers were instinctive champions of America's desire, which they correctly feared might prove contagious, to cast off hereditary monarchs. But the combination of Franklin's realist and idealist appeals eventually brought France into the war on America's side, which proved critical to its victory in the Revolution. It also showed that even France, at least back then, could be charmed.

策略奏效了。他戴着皮帽的头像被雕刻在各种场合，居民家里也会悬挂画像，鼻烟盒甚至印章戒指上都有他的头像。虽然有点搞笑，但是这种行为风靡一时，法王路易十六都是他的粉丝。国王还向一名夫人赠送了一个上面雕刻着Franklin头像的塞弗勒瓷器，因为这位女士总是在他耳边叨叨对Franklin的崇拜。国王和他的大臣们都不会自觉地给予美国支持，他们之间弥漫着担忧而裹足不前的气氛，这有着深刻的历史原因。但是Franklin现实主义与理想主义结合起来的诉求，最终把法国拉到美国的统一战线里来了，这是革命胜利的决定性因素之一。这也表示法国，至少从那个时候起，做了正确的选择。

When Franklin visited Versailles to receive the King's formal assent to the treaties, he declined to wear the ceremonial sword and regalia that were considered de rigueur at court. Seeing no reason to abandon the simple style that had served him well, he dressed in a plain brown suit with his famous spectacles as his only adornment. His one fashion concession was that he did not wear his fur cap and instead carried a hat of pure white under his arm. "Is that white hat a symbol of liberty?" asked an aristocratic woman at whose salon Franklin had worn his fur cap. Whether or not he meant it to be, white hats for men were soon in vogue in Paris.

Franklin会见外长Versailles以接受国王正式签订条约的决定时，他拒绝佩戴佩剑和徽章，尽管这些是正式场合表明身份的象征物。因没有有理由拒绝那些基本的礼节，他穿着简单的褐色套装，带着他那“著名的”眼睛，以此作为装饰。唯一一个对装扮的让步就是，他并没有戴着皮帽，而是在手臂上夹着纯白装饰的沿边帽。“这顶白色帽子象征着自由吗？”一名贵妇在Franklin着皮帽出席的某场沙龙上问道。不管他说是还是不是，当时法国巴黎的男士着白沿边帽的风尚已经流行开来。

After the ceremony, Franklin had the honor, if not pleasure, of being allowed to stand next to the Queen, the famously haughty Marie-Antoinette, as she played at the gambling tables. Alone among the throng at Versailles, she seemed to have little appreciation for the man who, she had been told, had once been "a printer's foreman." As she noted dismissively, a man of that background would never have been able to rise so high in Europe. Franklin would have proudly agreed.

仪式以后，Franklin很荣幸地，可能也并不怎么情愿吧，被允许在高傲的Marie-Antoinette玩牌的时候，站在她身旁。与凡尔赛宫大部分的人们不同，她似乎对这个男人没什么兴趣，就像她曾说过的那样，Franklin不过是个“出版界的工头”罢了。即使是如此轻蔑的形容，对这种背景的男士来说已经算得上是欧洲最高评价了。Franklin自己也引以为豪。

Better than most diplomats in the nation's history, Franklin understood that America's strength in world affairs would come from a mix that included idealism as well as realism. When woven together, as they would be in policies ranging from the Monroe Doctrine to the Marshall Plan, they were the warp and woof of a sturdy foreign policy. And when countries such as France felt that the soft suasion of idealism was lacking, as has recently been the case, it proved harder to attract them to a cause. "America's great historical moments," historian Bernard Bailyn has noted, "have occurred when realism and idealism have been combined, and no one knew this better than Franklin."

在历史上，Franklin可以算得上是数一数二的外交家了，他明白美国在国际事务上的实力取决于现实主义和理想主义的混合操作手法。当它们可以和谐地在一起运作的时候，不管是从门罗主义到马歇尔计划也好，它们都是国际事务处理的参考基础。当像法国这样的国家对理想主义政策没有什么兴趣时，正如它最近表现的那样，这个时候就要用现实的事务对其施压或是诱惑。“美国历史上的关键时刻，”历史学家Bernard Bailyn曾经强调，“就在现实主义和理想主义混合的那一时刻来临，这一点没有人比Franklin更清楚。”

6 COMPROMISE 6 让步

When he returned from France to become the sage at the Constitutional Convention, Franklin was not America's most profound political theorist. But he did embody one crucial virtue that was key to the gathering's success: a belief in the nobility of compromise. Throughout his life, one of his mantras had been, "Both sides must part with some of their demands." He used this phrase many times, but never more notably than when the Constitutional Convention became deadlocked on the issue of whether the new Congress should be proportioned by population or have equal votes for each state.

从法国归来，他成为了合众国制宪大会的头号人物，尽管Frankin并不是美国最权威的政治理论家。他一项重要的美德让本次大会成功地举行：让步这一高贵的信念。终其一生，这也是他常说的：“任何一边都必须放弃部分利益。”他时常说这句话，而在大会因为新国会选举的选票应该是按人口分配还是按州分配的问题陷入僵局时，则更常重复他的观点。