The Way to Wealth quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which form best describes "The Way to Wealth"?

   • Correct answer: Didactic essay
   • Epistolary novel
   • Gothic horror tale
   • Political pamphlet

   Correct. A didactic work sets out to teach. Franklin wrote it as the preface to his almanac, and Father Abraham's speech instructs readers in industry, frugality and the dangers of debt, inside a short story frame.

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2. 2

   Question 2. When the essay opens, why has a crowd gathered where the narrator stops his horse?

   • For a church service led by a visiting preacher
   • For a county fair where farmers are trading horses
   • For a town meeting called to protest the new taxes
   • Correct answer: For an auction of merchants' goods that has not yet begun

   The narrator stops "where a great number of people were collected at an auction of merchants’ goods," and they are talking because "The hour of the sale not being come." The whole speech happens while they wait for the sale.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Which two virtues does Father Abraham build his whole speech around?

   • Learning and wit
   • Correct answer: Industry and frugality
   • Kindness and mercy
   • Courage and loyalty

   After his long section on hard work he says, "So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one’s own business; but to these we must add frugality." Industry earns wealth and frugality keeps it.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Father Abraham says the crowd pays taxes far heavier than the government's. Who or what lays those taxes?

   • The king's collectors, through duties on tea
   • Landlords who raise their tenants' rents each year
   • Correct answer: Their own idleness, their pride and their folly
   • Merchants who overcharge at every auction

   He says, "We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly." His point is that the crowd can lift these taxes themselves by changing their habits.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why, says Poor Richard, have the Indies not made Spain rich?

   • Correct answer: Her out-goes are greater than her incomes
   • Her ships are lost to storms and to pirates
   • Her kings tax the Indies far too heavily
   • Her people are too idle to mine the gold

   The saying runs: "The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her out-goes are greater than her incomes." Even a country with a flood of gold stays poor if it spends more than it takes in.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Poor Richard says, "Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears, while the used key is always bright." What does this simile argue?

   • Old tools should be replaced before they rust away
   • Hard work wears a person out, so rest is wiser
   • Money locked away loses value like an unused key
   • Correct answer: Idleness wears a person down faster than work does

   Rust eats an idle key faster than use wears down a working one. Father Abraham uses the image to argue that "sloth, by bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life," so laziness costs more than labor.

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7. 7

   Question 7. Poor Richard says that if time is the most precious of all things, wasting time must be "the greatest prodigality." What does prodigality mean?

   • Return of a lost son
   • Careful, sparing thrift
   • Correct answer: Reckless, lavish waste
   • Remarkable early talent

   Prodigality is reckless, lavish wastefulness. Franklin calls wasting time the worst kind of waste, since "Lost time is never found again." It is the opposite of thrift, and it is not the same as being a prodigy.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What lesson does the 'for want of a nail' chain of sayings teach?

   • A good horse is worth more than a rich man's gold
   • Correct answer: A little neglect can breed a great mischief
   • A small army can beat a larger one with good luck
   • A wise buyer keeps spare nails and shoes at home

   The chain opens with "A little neglect may breed great mischief" and ends with the rider slain, "all for want of a little care about a horse-shoe nail." Small carelessness can grow into disaster.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Poor Richard says running in debt is the first vice. What is the second?

   • Gambling
   • Idleness
   • Envy
   • Correct answer: Lying

   "The second vice is lying, the first is running in debt," as Poor Richard says. A debtor who cannot pay falls into excuses and then into lies.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Why does Father Abraham call running into debt for fine clothes a kind of tyranny?

    • Correct answer: It gives the creditor power over your liberty, even to jail you
    • It breaks the king's edict against buying fine dress on credit
    • It lets the government tax anyone who has borrowed money
    • It makes your children answer for the debt after you die

    In debt "you give to another power over your liberty," and the creditor may deprive you of it "by confining you in gaol for life, or by selling you for a servant." The edict against fine dress is only an imagined example he uses to make the point.

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11. 11

    Question 11. In the line "and, by degrees, come to lose your veracity, and sink into base, downright lying," what does veracity mean?

    • Good credit with lenders
    • Correct answer: Habit of telling the truth
    • Boldness in speaking up
    • Fierce, eager hunger

    Veracity is truthfulness. A debtor who cannot pay makes excuses, loses his truthfulness and sinks into lying. Do not confuse it with voracity, which means a fierce appetite.

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12. 12

    Question 12. "Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty and supped with Infamy." What does this personification show?

    • A rich man's pride is forgiven, but a poor man's is punished
    • Hard work at breakfast brings plenty by the end of the day
    • Correct answer: Vanity leads by stages from plenty to poverty to disgrace
    • Proud people feast all day while their servants go hungry

    Pride keeps worse company at each meal: Plenty, then Poverty, then Infamy, which means disgrace. Father Abraham calls pride "a folly soon punished," and says it "creates envy, it hastens misfortune."

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13. 13

    Question 13. The poor who ape the rich are as foolish as which animal swelling to equal the ox?

    • A goose
    • Correct answer: A frog
    • A fox
    • A mouse

    Father Abraham says "it is as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich, as for the frog to swell, in order to equal the ox," an allusion to Aesop's fable of the frog that burst trying to grow as big as an ox.

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14. 14

    Question 14. In the line "Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue," what does harangue mean?

    • Friendly joking chat
    • Written legal complaint
    • Quiet private prayer
    • Correct answer: Long, forceful speech

    A harangue is a long, forceful speech, often a lecture. The word fits Father Abraham's address, which piles proverb on proverb for pages before he concludes.

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15. 15

    Question 15. Which saying quoted in the speech does the crowd's behavior after the speech prove true?

    • Correct answer: We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct
    • It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright
    • Creditors have better memories than debtors
    • The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands

    The people "heard it, and approved the doctrine, and immediately practised the contrary," buying extravagantly once the auction opened. Advice can be given, but no speaker can make listeners act on it.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What does the narrator admit about the wisdom Father Abraham credits to Poor Richard?

    • All of it comes from his own hard years as a poor shopkeeper
    • None of it is meant seriously; he printed the sayings as jokes
    • Correct answer: Little of it is his own; he gleaned it from all ages and nations
    • Most of it he learned from Father Abraham, who taught him as a boy

    He confesses that "not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own," but rather "the gleanings that I had made of the sense of all ages and nations." Franklin collected and polished old proverbs more than he invented them.

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17. 17

    Question 17. Why does the narrator's decision about his coat matter at the end of the essay?

    • He shows that a gentleman must dress well to keep respect
    • Correct answer: Unlike the crowd, he acts on the advice he has just heard
    • He admits he is too poor to buy anything at the auction
    • He proves the advice wrong by buying the finest cloth for sale

    He had "at first determined to buy stuff for a new coat," but went away "resolved to wear my old one a little longer." While the crowd buys extravagantly, he practises the frugality Father Abraham preached, and invites the reader to do the same.

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18. 18

    Question 18. Which of these does the essay say?

    • Father Abraham is described as a plain, clean old man with white locks.

      Happened

      One of the crowd calls "to a plain, clean, old man, with white locks" and asks him what he thinks of the times.

    • Father Abraham urges the crowd to petition the government to lower the taxes.

      Didn't happen

      He never mentions a petition. He says the heavier taxes are their own idleness, pride and folly, from which "the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us."

    • Father Abraham warns that a small leak will sink a great ship.

      Happened

      He tells them, "Beware of little expences; ‘A small leak will sink a great ship,’ as Poor Richard says." Small spending adds up.

    • The crowd refuses to listen, and Father Abraham leaves before he finishes.

      Didn't happen

      They "joined in desiring him to speak his mind," gathered round him, and heard him to the end: "Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue."

    • The sale offers buyers six months' credit, which Father Abraham warns against.

      Happened

      He says, "We are offered, by the terms of this sale, six months credit," and warns that it tempts people to run in debt for finery.

    • Father Abraham tells the crowd that leisure is sinful and should be avoided.

      Didn't happen

      He says "Leisure is time for doing something useful," which the diligent man earns. He separates leisure from laziness rather than condemning it.

    • Father Abraham reminds the crowd that Job suffered and was afterwards prosperous.

      Happened

      He tells them to ask Heaven's blessing humbly, then adds, "Remember, Job suffered, and was afterwards prosperous."

    • Father Abraham buys a new coat at the auction once his speech is over.

      Didn't happen

      The essay never says what Father Abraham buys. It is the narrator who had planned to buy cloth for a new coat, and he decides against it.

    • The narrator signs the essay with the name Richard Saunders.

      Happened

      The essay closes "I am, as ever, thine to serve thee," signed Richard Saunders, the name behind Poor Richard.

    • The narrator says every proverb in the speech is entirely his own invention.

      Didn't happen

      He admits "not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own," but gathered from "the sense of all ages and nations."

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