Legimus antiqua, ut simus minus recentes.
“We read the old books, that we may be less new.”
Convening the Last Thursday of Every Month · Kansas City · Anno MMXXVI
The Society presently wrestles with Milton — of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree. Bring your marginalia last Thursday.
A proposed order of march for the current campaign — subject, as all things are, to amendment from the floor. (After the manner of the great-books societies: a schedule, some questions, no mercy.)
In the manner of Shared Inquiry: every claim must be argued from the text. Book and line numbers are a courtesy; conviction is mandatory anyway (see Charter, Art. IV).
After the manner of Dr. Franklin’s Junto, whose members did “once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased” — the Society maintains one Lectern per convocation. Claim it, compose upon any subject you please, and hold forth before the peerage. One essayist per meeting; the ambitious may wait their turn.
A record of every campaign the Society has waged and won, each concluded — as all things must be — on a last Thursday. From Uruk to Camelot, the Society has now covered some four thousand years of literature.
Democracy, as practiced by the ancients: loudly, and with strong opinions about translations.
In the tradition of Marcus Aurelius and Emerson: lines worth stealing, stolen honestly. Add your own — attribution required, on your honor as a member.
Titles are self-conferred, non-transferable, and carry no authority whatsoever. This is by design.
Instituted after the manner of Dr. Franklin’s Junto (1727), whose rules banned “all expressions of positiveness in opinions” under small pecuniary penalties. We have improved upon this by accepting payment in snacks.
We, the assembled readers of Kansas City, being of sound mind and excessive opinion, do ordain and establish this Charter.
Done in convocation assembled, Anno MMXXVI. ◆ S·P·Q·KC
Admission to the Society
Requirements: a love of old books, a tolerance for pretension deployed ironically, and one (1) snack tribute. Apply in person. You know which Thursday.
The Society, in its magnanimity, entertains applications for inclusion among its illustrious number. Answer plainly; the Examining Committee reads everything and forgets nothing.
✦ THIS SOCIETY FLOURISHES UNDER THE MUNIFICENT PATRONAGE OF ✦
VERITAS ESSENTIAL SERVICES
Patrono Optimo, Benefactori Benevolentissimo
Great and benevolent benefactor of these proceedings: for the bounty of its support and its lavish contribution to the state of the liberal arts; for its labors toward the reclamation of a culture consonant with reality, and with the way God made the world, in an age turned upside down — the Society, in convocation assembled, extends its perpetual gratitude and this plaque, which cost nothing.
May its ledgers balance, may its inspections pass, and may its name endure to the last Thursday of all.