Franklin belonged to a clique or club at the height of this fashion, where each member in turn came prepared to point out or to discuss some new bit of wit or wisdom he felt himself to have discovered in an ancient writing, or, if very fortunate, to present and interpret some hitherto unheard-of newly found record, saying, verse, or even perchance book or treatise from the east, but none mentioned or made intelligent allusion to the bible.