14 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF THE OKIGIN OF THE 



We may, however, gather something more from what 

 we possess of the records or minutes of their proceed- 

 ings, from 1758 to 1768 inclusive, a period of eleven 

 years, in which unfortunately there is a chasm of 

 four years, from 1762 to 1766, by the loss, as is be- 

 lieved, of a volume of those .minutes, which there is 

 little hope of recovering. 



I shall then by the aid of those manuscripts, follow 

 the Junto through their various labours, to the period 

 when the " Philosophical 7 ' Society which had been 

 asleep during more than twenty years, began to 

 revive, when, after a short history of that institution, 

 I shall follow the two Societies in their mutual 

 jealousies, and in their negotiations for an union, 

 which were happily terminated by the formation of 

 the American Philosophical Society, held at Phila- 

 delphia, for promoting useful Knowledge. 



The minutes of the Junto, afterward called the 

 " American " Society, that are now in our possession, 

 consist of two folio manuscript volumes, which, by 

 the care of our active and zealous Librarian, 151 have 

 been handsomely bound up in one. One of these 

 manuscripts contains the proceedings of the Junto, 

 so-called, from the 22nd of September 1758 to the 

 24th of the same month in 1762, being a period of 

 four years. The other consists of the minutes of the 

 same body, first under its original name and after- 

 wards under that of the " American Society, held 



158 John Vaughan. 



