AMERICAN LITERATURE

Chapter 2
THE AGE OF REASON (THE ENLIGHTENMENT)
(1750-1800)

2.1 Historical Background: The American Revolution (1775-1783)

The claims for the ownership in North America were the main cause of the
wars between Spain and England from 1739 to 1748, and the war between England and
France from 1755 to 1763. England was the winner.
th
By the end of the 18 century, the entire part of the eastern coast of the North
America was under the British control. The British colonized 13 states in North America
then. The English Government under the control of the Prime Minister George
Grenville applied many policies to North America, especially The Stamp Act in 1765 in
order to get the income and impose taxes on North America. The colonies had to
supply the mother country with raw materials, and not to compete in manufacturing.
However, the British Parliament did not include any American-elected members. The
colonies in North America, therefore, were opposed to contributing taxes to maintain
British Army. The American began to feel that their way of life, their customs, their
associations and connections were of an independent nation. After the second
Conference of Colonies in May, 1775, army of Colonies was established and led by
George Washington. All of those were the direct cause for the American Revolution in
th
1776. On July 4 , 1776. George Washington, the American-elected leader, delivered the
formal Declaration of Independence, in which there was a famous declaration that “all
men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Under George
Washington’s leadership, and with the assistance of French army, the American Revolution
came to the victory and set up the new United States Government. A great new nation was
rd
born on September 3 , 1783 when Great Britain reluctantly signed the peace treaty
recognizing the independence of America.

16
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

2.2 The Reality of American Literature

American books, the books of a very young nation, were harshly reviewed in
England. Americans were painfully aware of their dependence on English literary models.
The search for a native literature became a national obsession.
Revolutionary writers, despite their genuine patriotism, were of necessity self-
conscious, and they could never find roots in their American sensibilities. Colonial
writers of the revolutionary generation had been born English, had grown to maturity as
English citizens, and had cultivated English modes of thought and English fashions in dress
and behavior. Their parents and grandparents were English (or European), so were all their
friends. In addition, American awareness of literary fashion still lagged behind the English,
and this time lag intensified American imitation. Fifty years after their fame in England,
English neoclassic writers such as Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift,
Alexander Pope, Oliver Goldsmith, and Samuel Johnson were still eagerly imitated in
America.
Moreover, the challenges of building a new nation attracted talented and educated
people to politics, law, and diplomacy. Early American writers, now separated from
England, effectively had no modern publishers, no audience, and no adequate legal
protection. Editorial assistance, distribution, and publicity were rudimentary. Until 1825,
most American authors paid printers to publish their work. Obviously only the leisured and
independently wealthy, like Washington Irving and the New York Knickerbocker group,
or the group of Connecticut poets known as the Hartford Wits, could afford to indulge their
interest in writing. The exception, Benjamin Franklin, though from a poor family, was a
printer by trade and could publish his own work.
The lack of an audience was another problem. The audience in America were
just interested in well-known European authors’ works. This preference for English works
was not entirely unreasonable because of the low-quality works in America then, but it
worsened the situation by depriving American authors of an audience. Only journalism
offered financial remuneration, but the mass audience wanted light, undemanding verse and
short topical essays - not long or experimental work.
The absence of adequate copyright laws was also one of the major causes of
literary stagnation. American printers pirated English best-sellers to print and sold in

17
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

America and found no reasons to pay an American author for unknown material. The
unauthorized reprinting of foreign books was originally seen as a service to the colonies
as well as a source of profit for printers. Because imported authorized editions were more
expensive and could not compete with pirated ones, the copyright situation damaged
foreign authors and American authors as well.

2.3 The Enlightenment (The Age of Reason)

2.3.1 What is meant by enlightenment?
The Enlightenment refers to a powerful intellectual movement which began in
th
England in the 17 century and then spread to the Continent. However, it is not easy to
define this term. Broadly speaking, “Enlightenment” contrasts with the darkness of
irrationality and superstition dominating the Middle Ages. It is said to be the emergence of
man from self-imposed infancy characterized by lack of the courage to use reason.
The leading doctrines of the Enlightenment center around the following categories of
thought:
- Reason is a principle tool for all humans to think and act correctly.
- Man is good by nature. And man’s good nature can be brought to perfection
through education
- All men and women are born equal in respect of their rationality and should
thus be given the right to equality before the law.
- Belief, religions, customs are to be questioned and accepted on the basis
of reason only, not on the basis of authority, sacred texts or tradition
- Supernatural and miraculous elements are discarded as the whole
universe is conceived as a rational system accessible to human reason.
- Man to man is brother, regardless of nationality or country of residence
The Enlightener-writers focused on humanistic studies of Man, his nature and origin
of his good and evil doings. To these writers, vice was due to ignorance which could be done
away by force of reason

18
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

2.3.2 The American Enlightenment

The spirit of the Enlightenment came rather late to the American colonies
partly because of the natural cultural lag between dependencies and a mother country, partly
because of the predominantly religious nature of the colonies, and partly because the almost
completely agrarian economy in America was less concerned with scientific and
mechanical development than was the industrialized England. Nevertheless, by the later half
of the eighteenth century, the eastern seaboard cities had become centers of rationalistic
thought. Nearly all the leaders of the Revolution were children of the Enlightenment, rarely
attended public worship and were deeply interested in the newly developing scientific and
sociological ideas. It is at first puzzling to contemplate a society whose spiritual
foundations were largely Calvinistic turning against mysticism toward rational practicality
as the basis for its morality. But as we have seen, New England Calvinism almost
from the first had been weakened by strong currents of dissent, most of which had
attacked the authority of the clergy and had stressed the need for individual practicality
and self-reliance.
The most important figure among the anti-mystics was Benjamin Franklin who
represents the spirit of the Enlightenment in America. Less material minded, but even
sharper in attacking metaphysical religion was Thomas Paine. One of the Enlightenment's
most fiery champions, Paine on “Age of Reason” (1794) heavily, and often crudely,
scored what he considered to be the claptrap of clerical mythology. Far less renowned
than either Franklin or Paine, but perhaps even more effective among the non-
intellectuals was Elihu Palmer, an ex-Baptist minister who left his calling to devote his
life to attacking religious supernaturalism. His widely read “Principles of Nature”
(1801) was one of the most uncompromising works of the Enlightenment and also one
of the most forceful in calling for an ethical religion based on natural laws.
The greatest poet born in America before the Revolutionary War was Philip
Freneau, who graduated at Princeton in 1771, and became a school teacher, sea captain,
poet, and editor. The Revolution broke out when he was a young man, and he was moved to
write satiric poetry against the British. Freneau's best poems are few and short, but no
preceding American poet had equaled them. Some of his popular work are The Wild
Honeysuckle, The Indian Burying round, and To a Honey Bee.

19
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

2.4 Typical Writers and Their Works

2.4.1 Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Benjamin Franklin, America's "first great
man of letters", embodied the Enlightenment ideal
of humane rationality. Practical, but idealistic,
hard-working and enormously successful, Franklin
recorded his early life in his famous
“Autobiography”. Being a writer, a printer, a
publisher, a scientist, a philanthropist, and a
diplomat, he was the most famous and respected
private figure of his time. He was the first great
self-made man in America, a poor democrat born
in an aristocratic age that his fine example
helped to liberalize.
Franklin was a second-generation immigrant. His father, a chandler (candle-
maker) was Puritan. Franklin's life illustrates the impact of the Enlightenment on a
gifted individual. Self-educated but well-read in John Locke, Lord Shaftesbury, Joseph
Addison, and other Enlightenment writers, Franklin learned from them to apply reason to his
own life and to break with tradition - in particular the old-fashioned Puritan tradition -
when it threatened to smother his ideals.
While a youth, Franklin taught himself languages, read widely, and practiced writing
for the public. When he moved from Boston to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Franklin
already had the kind of education associated with the upper classes. He also had the
Puritan capacity for hard, careful work, constant self-scrutiny, and the desire to better
himself. These qualities steadily propelled him to wealth, respectability, and honor.
Franklin tried to help other ordinary people become successful by sharing his insights
and initiating a characteristically American genre - the self-help book. Franklin's “Poor
Richard's Almanack” written in 1732 and published for many years, made Franklin
prosperous and well-known throughout the colonies. In this book Benjamin Franklin
expresses useful encouragement, advice, and factual information, through amusing
characters such as old Father Abraham and Poor Richard. In "The Way to Wealth,"

20
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

which originally appeared in the Almanack, Father Abraham, "a plain clean old Man, with
white Locks," quotes Poor Richard at length. "A Word to the Wise is enough," he says. "God
helps them that help themselves." "Early to Bed, and early to rise, makes a Man healthy,
wealthy, and wise." Poor Richard is a psychologist ("Industry pays Debts, while Despair
encreaseth them"), and he always counsels hard work ("Diligence is the Mother of Good
Luck"). Do not be lazy, he advises, for "One To-day is worth two tomorrow." Sometimes
he creates anecdotes to illustrate his points: "A little Neglect may breed great
Mischief....For want of a Nail the Shoe was lost; for want of a Shoe the Horse was lost; and
for want of a Horse the Rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the Enemy, all for
want of Care about a Horse-shoe Nail." Franklin was a genius at compressing a moral
point: "What maintains one Vice, would bring up two Children." "A small leak will sink
a great Ship." "Fools make Feasts, and wise Men eat them."
Franklin's “Autobiography” is, in part, another self-help book. Written to advise
his son, it covers only the early years. The most famous section describes his scientific
scheme of self - improvement. A pragmatic scientist, Franklin put the idea of perfectibility
to the test, using himself as the experimental subject.
Despite his prosperity and fame, Franklin never lost his democratic sensibility,
and he was an important figure at the 1787 convention at which the U.S. Constitution
was drafted. In his later years, he was president of an antislavery association. One of his
last efforts was to promote universal public education.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY
a. Overview
A year after Benjamin Franklin's death, his
autobiography, entitled "Memoires De La Vie
Privee," was published in Paris in March, 1791.
The first English translation, "The Private Life of
the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. Originally
Written By Himself, And Now Translated From
The French," was published in London in 1793.
Known today as "The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin," this classic piece of
21
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

American literature was originally written for Franklin's son William, then the Governor
of New Jersey.
The work shows a fascinating picture of life in Philadelphia, as well as Franklin's
shrewd observations on the literature, philosophy and religion of America's Colonial and
Revolutionary periods. The first five chapters of his autobiography were written in
England in 1771, resumed again thirteen years later (1784-85) in Paris and later in 1788
when he returned to the United States. Franklin ends the account of his life in 1757
when he was 51 years old. Being the greatest autobiography produced in Colonial
America, Franklin's Autobiography is published here in 14 chapters.

b. Extract 1
I had begun in 1733 to study language; I soon made myself so much a master of the
French as to be able to read the books with case. I then undertook the Italian. An
acquaintance, who was also learning it, used often to tempt me to play chess with him.
Finding this took up too much of the time I had to spare for study, I at length refused
to play anymore, unless on this condition, that the victor in every game should have a right
to impose a task, either in parts of the grammar to be got by heart, or in translations,
etc., which task the vanquished was to perform upon honor, before our next meeting. As
we played pretty equally, we thus beat one another into that language. I afterwards was a
little painstaking, acquired as much of the Spanish as to read the book also.
I have already mentioned that I had only one year’s instruction in a Latin school, and
that when very young, after which I neglected that language entirely. But, when I had
attained an acquaintance with the French, Italian, and Spanish, I was surprised to find, on
looking over a Latin Testament, that I understood so much more of the language than
I had imagined, which encouraged me to apply myself again to the study of it, and I met
with more success, as those preceding languages had greatly smoothed my way. From these
circumstances, I have thought that there is some inconsistency in our common mode of
teaching languages. We are told that it is proper to begin first with the Latin, and, having
acquired that, it will be more easy to attain those modern languages which are derived
from it; and yet we do not begin with the Greek, in order more easily to acquire the Latin, It
is true that if you can clamber to get to the top of a staircase without using the steps, you
will more easily gain them in descending; but certainly, if you begin with the lowest you

22
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

will with more ease ascend to the top; and I would therefore offer it to the consideration of
those who superintend the education of our youth, whether, since many of those who begin
with the Latin quit the same after spending some years without having made any great
proficiency and what they have learned becomes almost useless, so that their time has
been lost, it would not have been better to have begun with the French, preceding to the
Italian, etc., for, though after spending the same time they should quit the study of
languages and never arrive at the Latin, they would, however, have acquired another tongue
or two that, being in modern use, might be serviceable to them in common life.
Study Questions

1. What role did the game of chess play in Franklin’s study of foreign languages?
2. What languages did Franklin learn?
3. How did learning these languages help him?
4. What is Franklin’s idea regarding how languages should be taught?
5. What can be learnt from Franklin’s process language learning?

c. Extract 2: Benjamin Franklin's Thirteen Virtues.

1. TEMPERANCE - Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE - Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling
conversation.
3. ORDER. - Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its
time.
4. RESOLUTION. - Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you
resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. - Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. - Lose no time; 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.
8. JUSTICE. - Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. - Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they
deserve.

23
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

10. CLEANLINESS. - Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.

11.TRANQUILLITY - Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. - Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness,
or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY - Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Study Questions

1. Explain Franklin’s virtues

2. How can Franklin’s virtues be interpreted in today’s light? Are there any changes in
their application? Why (not)?

2.4.2 Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Thomas Paine was born in Thetford in
th
Norfolk on January 29 , 1737. His father, Joseph,
was a poor Quaker corset maker who tried to
provide his son with an education at the local
grammar school but eventually was forced to
apprentice him to his trade. Paine was unable to
accept this occupation. After a short time at
sea, Paine returned to his trade in Kent, but
then served as an exciseman in Lincolnshire,
followed by a stint as a school teacher in
London, before he again settled down in 1768 as
an excise officer in Lewes in East Sussex.

At Lewes, Paine was active in local affairs, serving on the town council and
establishing a debating club at a local tavern. As a shopkeeper, however, he was a
failure. In April 1774, Paine was discharged from his duties for having absented himself
from his post without leave. He published the pamphlet “The Case of the Officers of
Excise” (London, 1772), and had devoted too much time campaigning in London on
behalf of the excise officers. In London he met Benjamin Franklin who helped him to

24
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

emigrate to America in October 1774. Paine settled in Philadelphia and began a new
career as a journalist. He contributed articles to the Pennsylvania Magazine on a wide
range of topics. In 1776, he published a short pamphlet, “Common Sense”, which
immediately established his reputation as a revolutionary propagandist. Although he had
only been in America less than a year, Paine committed himself to the cause of
American independence. He attacked monarchical government and the alleged virtues of
the British constitution, opposing any reconciliation with Great Britain. He also urged an
immediate declaration of independence and the establishment of a republican constitution.
Paine was convinced that the American Revolution was a crusade for a
superior political system and that America was ultimately unconquerable. He did as
much as any writer could to encourage resistance and to inspire faith in the Continental
Army. In essays published in the Pennsylvania Journal under the heading "Crisis," Paine
attacked the faint-hearted, campaigned for a more efficient federal and state tax system to
meet the costs of war, and encouraged the belief that Britain would eventually recognize
American independence.
Often tactless, Paine provoked considerable controversy. He was invariable hard-
pressed for money and had to depend upon the generosity of his American friends and the
occasional reward from the French envoy in America. When the War came to an end, his
financial position was so precarious that he had to campaign to obtain recompense from
the government. Congress eventually rewarded him $3000. Pennsylvania granted him
£500 in cash, while New York proved more generous and gave him a confiscated Loyalist
farm at New Rochelle.
After American independence had been won, Paine played no part in the
establishment of the new republic. Instead, he tried to invent a smokeless candle and devise
an iron bridge. Restless because he was no longer at the center of affairs, Paine left
for Europe in 1787. For the next four years he divided his time between Britain and
France. Although he spent much of his time trying to find financial support for his iron
bridge, he eventually resumed work as a revolutionary propagandist in the 1790s.
Burke's resistance to the French Revolution inspired Paine to write his most influential work,
the “Rights of Man” . In Part I, Paine urged political rights for all men because of their
natural equality in the sight of God. All forms of hereditary government, including the
British constitution, were condemned because they were based on farce or force. Only a

25
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

democratic republic could be trusted to protect the equal political rights of all men.
Part II was even more radical for Paine argued for a whole program of social
legislation to deal with the shocking condition of the poor. His popularity sounded the alarm
and he was forced to leave Britain in September 1792. He was condemned in his absence
and declared an outlaw. Paine immediately immersed himself in French affairs for the next
ten years although he still hoped to see a revolution in Britain. In his “Letter Addressed to
the Addressers of the Late Proclamation” (London, 1792), he rejected the policy of
appealing to parliament for reform and instead urged British radicals to call a national
convention to establish a republican form of government.
In August 1792, Paine was made a French citizen and a month later was elected to the
National Convention. Since he did not speak French, and had to have his speeches read for
him, Paine did not make much of an impact on the Convention. His association with the
moderate republicans made him suspect in the Jacobin camp. In January 1793, he alienated
many extremists by opposing the execution of Louis XVI. When military defeat fanned
Jacobinism into hysteria, he fell victim to the Terror. From December 28, 1793, until
November 4, 1794, he was incarcerated in Luxembourg prison until the intercession of
the new American minister, James Monroe, secured his release.
During his imprisonment, Paine embarked on his third influential work, “The Age
of Reason” (London and Boston, 1794-1795). A deist manifesto to the core, Paine
acknowledged his debt to Newton and declared that nature was the only form of divine
revelation, for God had clearly established a uniform, immutable and eternal order
throughout creation. Paine rejected Christianity, denied that the Bible was the revealed
word of God, condemned many of the Old Testament stories as immoral and claimed
that the Gospels were marred by discrepancies. There was nothing really that new in
Paine's argument, but the bitterness of his attack on the Christian churches and his attempt
to preach deism to the masses made him more enemies than before.
Paine finally returned to America in October 1802 and was well-received by
Thomas Jefferson. Increasingly neglected and ostracized, Paine's last years were marked
by poverty, poor health and alcoholism. When he died in New York on June 8, 1809, he was
virtually an outcast. Since he could not be buried in consecrated ground, he was laid to rest
in a corner of his small farm in New Rochelle.

26
 AMERICAN LITERATURE

Paine never established a political society or organization and was not responsible for a
single reforming measure. His achievements were all with his pen so it is difficult to
accurately assess his influence. Although he spent more than ten years in France, he had
very little influence on the course of the French Revolution. He did not really
understand the Revolution and therefore had little impact on its intellectual foundations.
Paine's political influence was greatest in England. In intellectual terms, his “Rights
of Man” was his greatest political work and was certainly the best-selling radical political
tract in late 18th century England. Before Paine, British radicals sought a reform of
Parliament which would grant to all men the vote for members of the House of
Commons. In his “Rights of Man”, Paine abandoned this approach and, rejecting the lessons
of history, maintained that each age had the right to establish a political system which
satisfied its needs. He rested his case on the moral basis of the natural equality of men in the
sight of God. Paine argued rationally that all men had an equal claim to political rights and
that government must rest on the ultimate sovereignty of the people.

27