DATE OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY. 173 



calling it the ancient or the new, but " the Junto, " from 

 which, too, we are justified in concluding that it was the 

 one and only Junto to which he referred. 



There is no unequivocal evidence whatever for the 

 existence of the two Juntos as separate contempora- 

 neous societies in Philadelphia. The seventy years 

 which have elapsed since the report of the old Commit- 

 tee have witnessed a great revival of interest in -our 

 colonial history. Most of the older diaries and corre- 

 spondance now extant have been carefully read and 

 many of them have been printed. In all these diaries 

 and letters, as well as in the newspapers of the day, 

 your present Committee has been unable to find a single 

 reference which can justify the hypothesis of the old 

 Committee. The references in the correspondence of 

 the day to the Ancient Junto or the old Junto, to the 

 new Junto or the Young Junto, may all pass as facile 

 expressions to differentiate the revived Junto from its 

 preceding organization. This view is confirmed by the 

 newly discovered fragments of letters found among 

 some unbound, dilapidated sheets of the Franklin 

 papers. One letter from Cadwalader Evans to William 

 Franklin, under date of January 25, 1768, speaks of 

 "some members of the young Junto, " and says, "this 

 young Junto ever since last September has been fabri- 

 cating a plan. . . . ' ' And another letter from William 

 Franklin to Cadwalader Evans, under date of January 

 29, 1768 (p. 139), says, "I am much obliged to you for 

 your Account of the two new Philosophical Societies/' 



