Musée Musings appears regularly in Terrance Gelenter’s Paris Insider newsletter that I subscribe to. Dr. Beverly Held is an inveterate museum maven whose Musings almost always make for invaluable reading. She is a regular visitor to Paris and spends most of her time, when there, visiting art galleries and museums, befitting her Fine Arts background.
She is also very much a San Francisco Liberal so I’ve never had another political conversation with her after a first very contentious discussion. However, her knowledge and love of art for art’s sake betrays a clever mind worth paying attention to.
The following is a smidgen of her latest contribution to the Paris Insider. It’s not what she does ordinarily, but I thought it was appropriate reading for my Purely Political column and a way of introducing both Terrance’s newsletter and Beverly’s column.
Dr. B’s Latest
New from Musée Musings!
Bienvenue and welcome back to Musee Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. Not much art this week, mostly random wandering and haphazard grazing. I’m calling this week, Noshing with Nicolas. It has not been easy!
The Protestant Ethic may not be my birthright, but it seems as if it has always been my belief system. When Max Weber wrote The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in 1905, (Figure 1) he had Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues in mind. (Figure 2) That colonial polymath had enumerated them in his autobiography (1771). Franklin’s virtues were 13 in number. Not for their symbolic value, not in reference to the 13 colonies, which he would help become 13 states. But for their utilitarian value. His self improvement scheme was to concentrate on a single virtue each week. With 13 virtues, he could focus on each virtue four times each year.
Figure 1. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber
Figure 2, Benjamin Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues
Among Franklin’s virtues are Industry and Frugality. These are the ones that have always called out to me. Along with the avoidance of idleness. From Franklin’s Autobiography I remember this story. Whenever he needed to take something (books?) from one place to another, he would put them in his wheel barrow, and make his journey very early in the morning. What a racket that made on the cobbled streets of Boston! [Editor’s note: I believe Franklin lived in Philadelphia.] People rushed to their windows, in their night clothes, to see what was making all the noise. They saw the young Benjamin Franklin, up before dawn, working hard. They were impressed. Moral of the story, don’t just be busy, look busy. Autrement dites, don’t hide your industriousness under a bushel. (Figure 3)
Figure 3. Franklin and the wheel barrow. But in the story I remember, he is walking through the streets before dawn.