ck the professors of any religion." He
intended that this should serve as the basis of a sect, which should
practice his rules for self-improvement. It was at first to consist of
"young and single men only," and great caution was to be exercised in
the admission of members. The association was to be called the "Society
of the Free and Easy;" "free, as being, by the general practice and
habit of the virtues, free from the dominion of vice; and particularly
by the practice of industry and frugality free from debt, which exposes
a man to confinement and a species of slavery to his creditors." It is
hardly surprising to hear that this was one of the very few failures of
Franklin's life. In 1788 he professed himself "still of the opinion that
it was a practicable scheme." One hardly reads it without a smile
nowadays, but it was not so out of keeping with the spirit and habits of
those times. It indicates at least Franklin's appreciation of the power
of fellowship, of association. No man knew better than he what stimulus
comes from the sense of membership in a society, especially a secret
society. He had a great fondness for organizing men into associations,
and a singular aptitude for creating, conducting, and perpetuating such
bodies. The Junto, a child of his active brain, became a power in local
public affairs, though organized and conducted strictly as a "club of
mutual improvement." He formed it among his "ingenious acquaintance" for
the discussion of "queries on any point of morals, politics, or natural
philosophy." He found his model, without doubt, in the "neighborhood
benefit societies," established by Cotton Mather, during Franklin's
boyhood, among the Boston churches, for mutual improvement among the
members.[4] In time there came a great pressure for an increase of the
number of members; but Franklin astutely substituted a plan whereby each
member was to form a subordinate club, similar to the original, but
having no knowledge of its connection with the Junto. Thus sprang into
being five or six more, "The Vine, The Union, The Band," etc.,
"answering, in some considerable degree, our views of influencing the
public opinion upon particular occasions." When Franklin became
interested in any matter, he had but to introduce it before the Junto
for discussion; straightway each member who belonged to any one of the
other societies brought it up in that society. Thus through so many
active-minded and disputatious young men