DATE OP THE FOUNDATION OP THE SOCIETY. 177 



of its change of name to the " American Society." 

 Philip Syng, writing to Franklin on March 1, 1766, says 

 (p. 133) : "The Junto fainted last summer in the hot 

 weather, and has not yet revived ; your presence might 

 reanimate it, without which I apprehend it will never 

 recover. " But it did recover without Franklin's pres- 

 ence, and the recorded minutes begin again on April 

 25, 1766, after a lapse from October 22, 1762 ; the para- 

 graph quoted can refer to no other than Franklin's 

 Junto. This is confirmed by Hugh Boberts's letter to 

 Benjamin Franklin of October 12, 1765 (see p. 138), 

 found among the data collected in 1910: "The remain- 

 ing members of the good old Junto adjourned during 

 the warm and short evenings and are now endeavoring 

 to find a House for -their and thy reception where we 

 may sit with more satisfaction than of late ' ' ; and he 

 writes this, too, notwithstanding that Franklin was not 

 formally elected to membership until 1768. 



The identity of the Junto and the so-called l i Society 

 Junto" is confirmed by Dr. Franklin in his Autobiog- 

 raphy in which, writing of the Junto and speaking of 

 William Coleman as one of its members, he says of 

 him, "our friendship continued without interruption 

 to his death, upwards of forty years ; and the club con- 

 tinued almost as long, and was the best school of phi- 

 losophy, morality, and politics that then existed in the 

 province." The records show that William Coleman 

 died in January, 1769, making the duration of his mem- 

 bership in the Junto agree with the statement of Dr. 



