10 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF THE OKIGIN OF THE 



I shall begin with the Junto. 



The Records or Minutes of that institution during 

 the first thirty years of its existence, are unfortu 

 nately lost. Those that we possess begin only with 

 the 22nd of September 1758. This is not to be 

 wondered at; it is more astonishing that so much 

 should have been preserved. The Junto in its 

 origin was an Association of young men for mutual 

 improvement. It was, in fact, a Club, as Dr. Frank 

 lin properly called it. His spirit kept it alive, and 

 raised it gradually to what it afterwards became. 

 They had no common repository ; they met at taverns, 

 and their papers passed from hand to hand, and ulti 

 mately disappeared. This is no more than what 

 might have been expected. 



We are not in .possession of their original rules, 

 or Constitution. For all we know respecting it we 

 are indebted to Dr. Franklin, who fortunately has 

 supplied us in his autobiography with much informa 

 tion on this subject. To that and some other Docu 

 ments found among his papers, we must, therefore, 

 have recourse. 



The great man informs us that in the autumn of 

 1727, he formed most of his ingenious acquaintances 

 into a Club, for mutual improvement, which they 

 called the Junto. They met on Friday evenings. 

 The rules that lie drew up required that every mem 

 ber in his turn, should produce one or more queries 

 on any point of morals, politics, or natural philos- 



