PENSYLVANIA 77 



fine works and mathematical and physical instruments. 

 The most conspicuous work of art here is the Planet- 

 system or Orrery * of the famous Mr. Rittenhouse, a 

 detailed description of which is to be found in the 

 Transactions of the Philosophical Society. I had not 

 the pleasure of seeing the whole of this Orrery ; only 

 that part was there showing the course of the moon. 

 Mr. Rittenhouse had taken apart the remainder and 

 transferred it to his house, in order to make certain 

 improvements. 



Public Schools and Academies are established also 

 in several of the other provinces : at Cambridge near 

 Boston, at New Haven in Connecticut, at New York, 

 at Williamsburg in Virginia, and in Delaware a new 

 college called Washington College ; however Philadel- 

 phia can boast of an advance still more considerable in 

 the prosecution and diffusion of the useful and benefi- 

 cent sciences. That is to say, there is established here 

 a Philosophical Society which owes its origin to the 

 industrious and fruitful genius of Dr. Franklin, known 

 for science and statecraft equally. 



More than twenty years ago Dr. Franklin with cer- 

 tain of his learned friends founded a society of like 

 character. But a number of members getting in who 

 were pretty ignorant but proud enough to desire a 

 place among the philosophers, the society fell into a 

 decline. So in the year 1769 a new plan was formed, 

 and without recourse to all the members enrolled at 

 that time. Those excluded, out of revenge began to 



* Lord Orrery was the patron of a certain Rowley who pre- 

 pared the first apparatus of this sort in England; hence the 

 name given all similar apparatuses. 



