The Manufacturing System

Franklin, who of all philosophers seems to have possessed the greatest share of good, practical, every-day sense, (and the least of comprehensive philosophy,) has written a playful essay upon early rising, wherein he assures his readers that the sun actually appears during the greater part of the year many hours before they are in the habit of leaving their beds; and he endeavours to convince them that it would be worth their while to profit by this discovery, and save the expense of candles in the evening by making use of the early daylight. In this instance he has well applied his favourite principle of trying every thing by the rule of profit and loss… a principle which he has been but too successful in impressing upon his countrymen. ²¹⁸ Wesley has published an excellent sermon upon the same subject. ²¹⁹ The better to enforce his precepts, he required his preachers to hold forth [I, 149. EARLY RISING] at five in the morning, and expected his people to attend them. Whoever has tasted the breath of morning, knows that the most invigorating and most delightful hours of the day are commonly spent in bed, though it is the evident intention of nature that we should enjoy and profit by them. [Illustration XXVII.] Children awake early and would be up and stirring long before the arrangements of the family permit them to use their limbs. We are thus broken in from childhood to an injurious habit: and yet were we not necessarily the slaves of society, that habit might be shaken off with more ease than it was imposed. ²²⁰ We rise with the sun at Christmas; it were but continuing so to do till the middle of April, and without any perceptible change we should find ourselves then rising at five o’clock; at which hour we might continue till September, and then accommodate ourselves again to the change of season, regulating always the time of retiring in the same proportion. They who require eight hours sleep would upon such a system go to bed at nine during four months. The propriety and the easiness of such an arrangement cannot be disputed; I confess, however, that my mode of life, independent as it is, is not independent enough for me to follow it. ‘Inter causas malorum nostrorum [I, 150. A WINTER MORNING] est, quod vivimus ad exempla: nec ratione componimur, sed consuetudine abducimur’. ⁱ