Benjamin Franklin was described by Mirabeau, the French revolutionary leader, as the philosopher who had contributed most to extending the rights of humankind across the globe. He was a printer and author, a philosopher and statesman, a scientist and inventor. In short, one of the most remarkable men produced by the American continent. Of simple character, he possessed a pleasant personality and a delightful sense of humour. As a young man he had an athletic build, something we can no longer verify, since the well-known portraits depict him already as a statesman. His gaze was calm and friendly; particularly striking were his large grey eyes and a wide mouth with an expression of good humour in a broad face. Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston as the 15th of 17 children of a poor candle-maker. He attended school for barely more than a year, as his father sent him to work early. Almost everything he knew he acquired through his own efforts: science, philosophy and languages. He spoke Latin, French, German, Spanish and Italian.

At the age of 12 he was already an apprentice in his brother’s printing workshop. At 17 he wrote articles anonymously and slipped them under the door at night so that his brother could publish them. In the same year he went to New York and began working in a print shop. Later he set up on his own. He founded a newspaper and a magazine. By the age of 42 he had already accumulated a modest fortune. From then on, he devoted a further 40 years of his life to serving his country. He was sent twice on diplomatic missions to England and once to France. As a politician, he was the first to conceive of the United States as a single nation, and he devised a system of united states under a single authority, twenty years before the American War of Independence. As a scientist and inventor, he was the first to identify the positive and negative poles of electricity. We owe to him the terms and concepts of battery, electric charge, capacitor and conductor. He invented the lightning rod, a mechanical arm for lifting objects to great heights and a kitchen stool that can be converted into a ladder.

At the age of 78 he invented bifocal spectacles. As a musician he played the harp, guitar and violin and wrote on problems of musical composition. He was the first to study the effect of water on a ship’s hull while in motion and became the father of hydrodynamics. Likewise, he discovered that dark fabrics retain heat. Europeans took a hundred years to follow his advice and take light-coloured clothing to the tropics. He organised the American Philosophical Society, the first scientific association in the United States. He founded the first professional police organisation and the first volunteer fire service. He also gave impetus to the abolitionist movement and, as Postmaster General, improved national and international postal services, particularly in exchanges with England.

He was probably the most popular writer in the English-speaking world, with his autobiography, the “Edict of the King of Prussia”, “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One”, the “Almanack of Poor Richard”, and a book on electrical phenomena translated into several languages. He preached the joy of work and lived by what he preached. He paid particular attention to the discoveries of others and insisted that authorship should always be correctly attributed. In many cases he withdrew his own work when another researcher had made a similar discovery. He believed that one could improve one’s character by imposing strict discipline upon oneself. “It is an art that must be studied like painting and music,” he said. As a young man he drew up a list of virtues and resolved to pursue them: moderation in eating, avoiding gossip, being systematic in business, finishing every task begun, being sincere, treating others fairly, enduring injustices patiently, avoiding exaggeration, and not being swayed by trivial matters. He compiled a small personal notebook in which he devoted a page to each virtue, working on one virtue per week in a focused manner. After his death in 1790, at the age of 84, his self-written epitaph from his youth was found:

“Here lies the body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, from which the pages have been torn and its lettering and gilding removed. But the work is not entirely in vain; for he believes it will appear again, in a new and more perfect edition, corrected and enlarged by its author.”

Two years earlier, George Washington wrote of him:

“If the united wishes of a free people, supported by the sincere prayers of all friends of science and humanity, could relieve a body from pain and illness, he would soon be restored to health. If it were enough to be revered for one’s kindness, admired for one’s talent, esteemed for one’s patriotism, and loved for one’s philanthropy to satisfy the human spirit, then he has the pleasant consolation of not having lived in vain. You will be remembered with respect, reverence and affection—by this your sincere friend and most obedient and faithful servant.”

Benjamin Franklin is also mentioned, among other things, in the “Prolegomena” to “The Book of Spirits”, which is intended to show that he is among those who contributed to the extraordinary work of codifying the spiritist doctrine.