DATE OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY. 175 



himself, had it not been that this was one in which 

 Franklin himself took a deep interest. It need not be 

 assumed that Thomson was guilty of tautology when 

 he refers to the efforts in 1766 to revive the Society 

 " begun in the year 1750, " and says "some few of us 

 exerted ourselves to revive it again." He was a student 

 and teacher of languages, distinguished as a careful 

 and precise writer ; and mainly for that reason he was 

 selected as Secretary of the Continental Congress. It 

 was the same fidelity to the meaning of words that led 

 him in later life to make a new translation of the Bible. 

 He may well mean that both the efforts of 1750 and the 

 more successful attempt of 1766 were revivals of the 

 old Junto. 



In 1767 there still existed the law for the exclusion 

 of members for non-attendance ; but in January, 1768, 

 Thomson presented his "Proposals for enlarging this 

 Society, in order that it may better answer the end for 

 which it was instituted." These rules did away with 

 the limited membership, the obligation of each member 

 in turn to perform specific duties, the system of fines 

 for neglect of duty and for absence, as well as the ex- 

 clusion of members for continued absence without satis- 

 factory excuse. Moreover, as Cadwalader Evans tells 

 us, these new rules were based on the rules of the Eoyal 

 Society and the Society of Arts. 



After the adoption of the "Bules" resulting from 

 Thomson's "Proposals" in January, 1768, there ap- 

 pears on the Minutes of February 12, 1768, this entry : 



