10 HISTOKICAL ACCOUNT OF THE OKIGIN OF THE 



I shall begin with the Junto. . 



The Eecords 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 he 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- 



