"2. Do you sincerely declare that you love mankind in general of what profession or religion soever? Answer: I do.
"3. Do you think any person ought to be harmed in his body, name, or goods for mere speculative opinions or his external way of worship? Answer: No.
"4. Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself and communicate it to others? Answer: Yes."
At every meeting certain questions were read, with a pause after each one; and these questions might very well have been suggested by those of the Mather benefit societies. The first six are sufficient to give an idea of them all:
"1. Have you met with anything in the author you last read, remarkable or suitable to be communicated to the Junto, particularly in history, morality, poetry, physic, travels, mechanic arts, or other parts of knowledge?
"2. What new story have you lately heard, agreeable for telling in conversation?
"3. Hath any citizen in your knowledge failed in his business lately, and what have you heard of the cause?
"4. Have you lately heard of any citizen's thriving well, and by what means?
"5. Have you lately heard how any present rich man, here or elsewhere, got his estate?
"6. Do you know of a fellow-citizen, who has lately done a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation; or who has lately committed an error, proper for us to be warned against and avoid?"
The number of members was limited to twelve, and Franklin always opposed an increase. Instead of adding to the membership, he suggested that each member form a similar club, and five or six were thus organized, with such names as The Vine, The Union, The Band. The original club is said to have continued for forty years. But it did not keep up its old character. Its original purpose had been to educate its members, to supply the place of the modern academy or college; but when the members became older and their education more complete, they cared no longer for self-imposed tasks of essay-writing and formal debate on set questions. They turned it into a social club, or, rather, they dropped its educational and continued its social side,--for it had always been social, and even convivial, which was one of the means adopted for keeping the members together and rendering their studies easy and pleasant.