Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin · Benjamin Franklin
"DEAR SIR,
"In the affair of so much importance to you, wherein you ask my advice, I cannot, for want of sufficient premises, counsel you _what_ to determine; but, if you please, I will tell you _how_. When those difficult cases occur, they are difficult chiefly because, while we have them under consideration, all the reasons, _pro_ and _con_, are not present to the mind at the same time; but sometimes one set present themselves, and at other times another, the first being out of sight. Hence the various purposes or inclinations that alternately prevail, and the uncertainty that perplexes us. To get over this, my way is, to divide half a sheet of paper by a line into two columns, writing over the one _pro_ and over the other _con_: then, during three or four days' consideration, I put down under the different heads short hints of the different motives that at different times occur to me _for_ or _against_ the measure. When I have thus got them all together in one view, I endeavour to estimate their respective weights, and where I find two (one on each side), that seem equal, I strike them both out. If I find a reason _pro_ equal to some _two_ reasons _con_ I strike out the _three_. If I judge some _two_ reasons _con_ equal to some _three_ reasons _pro_, I strike out the _five_; and, thus proceeding, I find at length where the _balance_ lies; and if, after a day or two of farther consideration, nothing new that is of importance occurs on either side, I come to a determination accordingly. And though the weight of reasons cannot be taken with the precision of algebraic quantities, yet, when each is thus considered separately and comparatively, and the whole lies before me, I think I can judge better, and am less liable to make a rash step; and, in fact, I have found great advantage from this kind of equation, in what may be called moral or _prudential algebra_. "Wishing sincerely that you may determine for the best, I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, * * * * * "_Mr. Mather, Boston._ "London, July, 4, 1773.
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