The Art of Manliness blog recently completed its series on living the virtuous life, according to the 13 virtues delineated by Benjamin Franklin, as he endured his own spiritual combat and struggled to cultivate an interior life.

1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation. “Is there a less sexy idea today than temperance? Yet when Benjamin Franklin began his pursuit of the virtuous life, it was this virtue he chose to concentrate on first.”
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself, avoiding trifling conversation. “Clearly, Ben was not referring to monastic solitude when he presented silence as a virtue. Instead, he had in mind the ability of knowing the appropriate time and words to speak. A gentlemen has always been judged by his manner of speech, yet our modern age presents a host of difficulties in this area that Franklin never faced.”
3. Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time. “Almost three centuries have passed since old Ben set out to perfectly live the virtue of Order. The lives of Americans today are far busier and distraction-filled than Ben could ever have imagined. People strive to order their lives so that they can have peace and tranquility. An entire industry has sprung up around helping them to do that. Books, blogs, magazines, and consultants offer advice on how you can clean up your clutter. Yet despite the information out there, people still have trouble living up to this virtue. Why?”
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve. “If you are to succeed in life, you must develop the virtue of resolution. Resolution is the firm determination to accomplish what you set out to do. Benjamin Franklin included resolution as his fourth virtue, because attaining it would ensure he would work through the other nine.”
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing. “The Founding Fathers feared … that too much luxury made a nation weak. They would often point to the Greeks and Romans as examples of what happens to a nation when it lets prosperity go unchecked by temperance and frugality. John Adams often preached against effeminate luxuries. And although wealthy, Ben Franklin lived a relatively simple life. He made an effort to eat and dress plainly. Unfortunately, Americans have lost sight of the importance of frugality. For a generation of men who have grown up in a period of unprecedented affluence, living frugally seems down right silly and old fashioned. But if a man wishes to remain economically and emotionally independent, frugality is an essential virtue to develop.”
6. Industry: Lose not ime; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and if you speak, speak accordingly. “At the heart of sincerity is honesty in all your conduct and especially your communications. Honesty and integrity are the marks of true men. Seek sincerity in all your communications by becoming a man who keeps confidences, curbs his sarcasm, and avoids dishonesty.”
8. Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty. What is justice? For millennia philosophers have debated this question. Justice, like beauty or goodness, is an ethereal and hard to define concept. Catholic theologian and philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas put it quite succinctly when he defined justice as the constant and perpetual will to render to everyone his due.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve. Moderation doesn’t seem to get a lot of play these days. Everything is presented in extremes. We have extreme sports, extreme deodorant, extreme energy drinks, even an Extreme Teen Bible. We seek extremes because we erroneously believe that the more intense an experience is, the more pleasurable it will be.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes or habitation.
11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation. Ahhh, chastity. A word that can make teenagers blush and grown men cringe. A word that conjures up thoughts of medieval belts, “true love waits” pledge cards, and ranting preachers. Many believe the concept of chastity has no place in a modern, enlightened society. Indeed, in many ways the virtue of chastity is the most difficult to write about. Unlike the other virtues, it is hard to define chastity apart from its relationship to religious beliefs. Yet, while the precise definition of chastity will vary from man to man, there are aspects of this virtue that all men, regardless of belief system, should aspire to.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates. Our popular image of manliness usually consists of a man with a cocky swagger, a rebel who blazes his own path and stands confident and ready to take on the world. “Humility” doesn’t seem to fit into this image. Humility oftentimes conjures up images of weakness, submissiveness, and fear. But this is a false idea of humility. Real humility is a sign of strength, authentic confidence, and courage. It is the mark of a true man.

The Art of Manliness blog sums up the 13 virtues in this wrap-up.