any recent act of any citizen, marked by such merit as to deserve especial praise and imitation, or of any error or misconduct, against which the members should be warned. Others inquired if any particularly unhappy effects of intemperance, passion, or other vice or folly, had been recently observed; or any marked and happy effects of temperance, prudence, moderation, or other virtue; if any deserving.stranger had recently come to the city, to whom the club could render any useful aid; if any member desired the friendship of some person, which one of the club could with propriety procure for him, or if he could be aided by them in any other honorable way; if there was any meritorious young man just starting in business, to whom they could render any assistance; if any member had recently received important benefits from some person not present; if any member was engaged in any important undertaking, in which he could. be aided by the counsel and information of the club, or any of its associates; if any idea, or plan, had recently occurred to any member, which might be rendered useful to any class of people, to their own community, or to men generally; if any special defect, or mischief, had been recently perceived in any of the laws of the province, and if any effectual remedy could be pointed out, so as to make it expedient to lay the matter before the provincial assembly; or if any recent encroachment upon the rights and liberties of the people had been detected.

These inquiries, it will be seen, appertain to the social relations of men, and bear directly upon their social duties; and their tendency to promote the habitual discharge of those duties, by bringing them regularly forward, every week, for serious acknowledgment and consideration, seems too palpable to be disputed. The faithful observance of the principles of conduct involved in them, was well calculated to encourage habits of self-examination,

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and self-discipline, on the part of individuals, and to foster mutual goodwill, not only among the associates of the Junto, but toward men generally; and by calling into exercise a more vigilant public spirit, to form more valuable members of the commonwealth.

But these standing queries, which formed so peculiar and remarkable a feature of this club, were designed, not as doubtful points to be debated, but as modes of presenting to the attention of the members, just occasions for the discharge of acknowledged obligations. They were calls to duty, not subjects for dispute; and belonged to that part of the organization intended for the moral improvement of the associates of the Junto. Their mental improvement and advancement in useful knowledge, they sought in the discussion of other questions of a different nature, and in the investigations requisite to render such discussion profitable.

From the few published specimens of this class of questions, it would seem that the forms and institutions of government, the rights of the people, the principles of political economy, the permanent interests of the country, the legislation of the British government relating to the colonies, and other points of general politics, stood first in favor, and the various departments of natural philosophy next, as supplying subjects for discussion; though points of practical morality and the subtleties of metaphysical speculation were occasionally interspersed. Viewed collectively, however, they show that the discussions of the Junto took a wide and elevated range; and the research they called for, together with the exercise of the best powers of the mind in arranging materials and framing arguments, tended to foster a taste for earnest study, well suited to exert a wholesome influence on personal character, inspire manly views of duty, and give a higher value to life.

The terms of admission to this club were as peculiar as its standing queries. These, like those, turned exclusively on the social relations. Instead of demanding money in the form of initiation fees, they required of the applicant for admission a simple declaration that he harbored no inimical feeling toward any existing member; that he cherished a sentiment of goodwill toward his fellow-men generally, irrespective of sect or party; that no man ought to be harmed on account of his opinions merely; and that he held truth in esteem for its own sake and would endeavor to seek it, receive it, and impart it, in a spirit of candor and impartiality.

Such were the origin, scope, and spirit of an association, which acquired a high local reputation in its day, proved exceedingly useful to its members, exerted a valuable influence in the community, and even upon the public affairs of the province of Pennsylvania; and after a prosperous existence of forty years, was selected as the healthy and vigorous stock, planted and tended by Franklin, on which, chiefly by the instrumentality of the same assiduous and enlightened cultivator, was engrafted the American Philosophical Society, of which also he was the first president, and which has borne still more abundant fruit, the volumes of its transactions having been among the most efficient aids to the progress of science in this country.

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CHAPTER XIV.

USEFULNESS OF THE JUNTO-ORIGINAL MEMBERS-BUSINESS GROWTH IN PUBLIC ESTEEM-OPINIONS.

THE account of the Junto given in the preceding chapter, has been made somewhat full, not merely from a belief that it would be both gratifying and useful, but mainly because it was one of the early works of Franklin, and in truth, if duly considered in its various bearings, the most important work he had yet performed. Speaking of it himself, in his autobiography, he pronounces it, and with good reason, "the best school of philosophy, morals, and politics, then existing in the province;" and he wisely ranks among its benefits, not only the research and taste for solid studies, which it promoted, but also the "better habits of conversation," which resulted from compliance with regulations requiring mutual deference, courtesy, and candor, and forbidding all direct contradiction and positiveness of assertion, in conversational discussion, as well as in more formal debate-habits to which, as the chief cause, he justly ascribes the remarkable success and duration of the club.

Nor was this all. The most striking peculiarities of that association, were but the embodiment of some of the most marked characteristics of the mind and modes of thinking from which they proceeded; and the pertinence of the sketch given, as well as its intrinsic interest, in this connection, is further seen in the conclusive evidence it furnishes,

of the manly studies which must even then have occupied most of Franklin's time not demanded by his business; thus showing how early and industriously he began to prepare himself for those philosophical inquiries, in which he attained such distinction, and to accumulate those ample stores of political knowledge, and enter upon that training of himself in the principles of civil liberty and just government, which enabled him to render, during almost half a century, such important service to his country.

Of such an association, which not only proved eminently successful in promoting its direct objects, but exerted an important influence in various ways, on the subsequent career of its chief founder, it will be gratifying to know something of his original associates, and especially to see from what occupations, himself a young tradesman working daily for his daily bread, he obtained his earliest coadjutors, in this honorable endeavor to enlarge their knowledge, and enhance their individual value and means of usefulness. For this purpose we copy Franklin's own rapid and graphic sketch of the first members of the club. The first one named was Joseph Breintnall, “a copier of deeds for the scriveners; a good-natured, friendly, middle-aged man; a great lover of poetry, reading all he could meet with, and writing some that was tolerable; very ingenious in making little knick-knacks, and of sensible conversation."

Next was Thomas Godfrey, "a self-taught mathematician, great in his way, and afterward inventor of what is now called Hadley's Quadrant. But he knew little out of his way, and was not a pleasing companion; as, like most great mathematicians I have met with, he expected universal precision in everything said, or was for ever denying or distinguishing upon trifles, to the disturbance of all conversation. He soon left us."