公民Ben的七大美德（9/13）

When he formed his discussion club of fellow tradesmen, known as the Junto, Franklin's first rule was to display humility in conversation. America was to become, as Tocqueville would later point out, a nation of joiners and club formers, and Franklin was the first and foremost of the breed. And although civil and political discourse has been coarsened in recent years, there is still a tradition of Rotary Clubs and high-minded councils dedicated to discussing the common good without resorting to partisan fervor. Franklin decreed that Junto members should put forth their ideas through suggestions and questions, using (or at least feigning) naive curiosity to avoid contradicting people in a manner that could give offense. "All expressions of positiveness in opinion or of direct contradiction were," he recalled, "prohibited under small pecuniary penalties." It was a style he would urge upon the Constitutional Convention 60 years later, and he would wryly say of disputing: "Persons of good sense, I have since observed, seldom fall into it, except lawyers, university men and men of all sorts that have been bred at Edinburgh."

他与其商业伙伴组成的俱乐部里，也可以说是一个党派，Franklin所作的第一条规矩就是言谈务必谦逊。正如Tocqueville随后指出的那样，美国之所以会变成一个各种组织和俱乐部遍地的民族，Franklin可是“始作俑者”。尽管近年来公民政治沟通意识渐显得淡薄，但在美国还是有着如传统的扶轮社（Rotary Clubs）这样的组织，这些高尚的理事会抛开党派偏见专注于讨论共同的利益话题。Franklin要求成员们通过建议和提问的方式来表述自己的观点，用（至少也要装做如此）温和的姿态来避免伤害意见相左的成员。他回忆起当时的情形：“任何强硬的态度和直接的攻击都是被禁止的，违者需要交纳罚款。”即使在六十年以后的合众国宪法会议（Constitutional Convention）上，他依然坚持一点，他挖苦那些争辩的人们：“除了律师、大学文人和那些在爱丁堡长大的家伙，至今为止我所看到的那些有良好教养的人们，很少会乐于此事。”

In a newspaper piece called "On Conversation," which he wrote shortly after forming the Junto, Franklin stressed the importance of deferring--or at least giving the appearance of deferring--to others. Otherwise, even the smartest comments would "occasion envy and disgust." His secret for how to win friends and influence people read like an early Dale Carnegie course: "Would you win the hearts of others, you must not seem to vie with them, but to admire them. Give them every opportunity of displaying their own qualifications, and when you have indulged their vanity, they will praise you in turn and prefer you above others... Such is the vanity of mankind that minding what others say is a much surer way of pleasing them than talking well ourselves."

在组建俱乐部不久以后，Franklin在报纸上刊登了一篇名为《言谈》（On Conversation）的文章，他强调了空间的重要性——至少也要表示出给人空间的姿态——要给人发表观点的空间。否则，即便是最聪明的言谈也会“导致嫉妒和厌恶”。他对于如何交朋友和影响人们的阐述有点像是早期的Dale Carnegie课程：“如果你打算赢得别人的信任，你不能与他们竞争，而是应该赞赏他。给予各种可能让他们展示自己的优点，纵容他们的虚荣心，他们也会回过头来赞美你并且更信任你……这就是人类的虚荣心：注意聆听比自己在那里高谈阔论，能更容易地取悦人心。”

When he decided to use his Junto to launch the first subscription lending library in America, he realized that a show of humility would make it easier to raise funds. If he claimed the idea as his own, it would provoke jealousy. So he put himself, he said, "as much as I could out of sight" and gave credit for the idea to his friends. This method worked so well that "I ever after practiced it on such occasions." People will eventually give you the credit, he noted, if you don't try to claim it at the time. "The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid."

当打算利用俱乐部的影响力来筹建美国第一个收费图书馆的时候，他清楚地知道谦逊的姿态能更快地筹集到资金。如果他宣称这个主意是他自己想出来的，肯定会遭到人们的嫉妒。所以他调整心态，说：“我尽所能也没有看到”并把功劳归到他朋友的门下。这无疑是个好法子，而“我在以后各种事件中的运用越发熟练了”。他强调，即使你没有在当时炫耀功绩，但是最后人们还是会给予你恰如其分的评价的。“只是在目前牺牲一下你的虚荣心，之后肯定会有补偿的。”

President Bush, during his 2000 campaign, spoke of the need for America to have a little more humility in its dealings with the world. Sept. 11 changed that, and America felt the need to become more assertive. Nevertheless, Franklin would likely raise, in a gentle questioning way, whether it might make sense now to display just a bit of humility, or at least the appearance of it on occasion.

布什总统在2000年的竞选中也指出，美国在处理国际事务的时候应该多一些谦逊。911事件改变了这一态度，美国要更加自信才对。不过，Franklin应该会赞成采取温和的处理方式，表现出谦逊的态度，至少在必要的时候如此表现。