AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 49 



House. We may judge of the excess of his mortifica- 

 tion, and it is probable that he had been opposed even 

 to the union, foreseeing its results. It may be easily 

 understood why the United Society did not get a 

 Charter of incorporation during the continuance of 

 the proprietary government. 



Thus the two Societies which during two years 

 and more had been opposed to each other, and seemed 

 to aim at each other's destruction, became firmly 

 united. Their union was sincere, and they laboured 

 harmoniously in promoting the cause of Science. 

 Laws were made according to the Treaty, taken from 

 those of the two Societies with great fairness. The 

 division of the Society into Committees was taken 

 from the Eules of the Philosophical Society, and the 

 oral communication and discussion which give so 

 much life to our proceedings, from those of the old 

 Junto, which the American Society had retained. 

 In 1771, they published the first volume of their 

 transactions, which gained them credit and reputa- 

 tion in America and Europe. 



From the facts above stated it appears to me to 

 result : 



1. That our Society dates its origin as far back as 

 the year 1727 when the Junto was first established 

 by Dr. Franklin. 



2. That having been the founder of the two So- 

 cieties which were united in 1768, that great man 

 may justly be considered as the founder and the 



