Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/90

80. The regulations I drew up, obliged every member to propoſe, in his turn, one or more queſtions upon ſome point of morality, politics or philoſophy, which were to be diſcuſſed by the ſociety; and to read, once in three months, an eſſay of his own competition, on whatever ſubject he pleaſed. Our debates were under the direction of a preſident, and were to be dictated only by a ſincere deſire of truth; the pleaſure of diſputing, and the vanity of triumph having no ſhare in the buſineſs; and in order to prevent undue warmth, every expreſſion which implied obſtinate adherence to an opinion, and all direct contradiction, were prohibited, under ſmall pecuniary penalties.

The firſt members of our club were Joſeph Breintal, whoſe occupation was that of a ſcrivener. He was a middle-aged man, of a good natural diſpoſition, ſtrongly attached to his friends, a great lover of poetry, reading every thing that came in his way, and writing tolerably well, ingenious in many little trifles, and of an agreeable converſation.

Thomas Godfrey, a ſkilful, though ſelf-taught mathematician, and who was afterwards the inventor of what now goes by the name of Hadley's dial; but he had little knowledge out of his own line, and was inſupportable in company, always requiring, like the majority of mathematicians that have fallen in my way, an unuſual preciſion in every thing that is ſaid, continually contradicting, or making trifling diſtinctions; a ſure way of defeating all the ends of converſation. He very ſoon left us.

Nicholas Scull, a ſurveyor, and who became afterwards ſurveyor-general. He was fond of books, and wrote verſes. William Parſons, brought up to the trade of a ſhoe-maker, but who, having a taſte for