The Athenian Society

This group was originally composed of a small number of friends: John Dunton and mathematics teacher Richard Sault, then philosopher Dr. John Norris (though he declined to be part of the Society in writing and associated to profits), quickly joined by Dunton's brother-in-law the poet Rev.

(Acts 17:21 KJV) The society was established in order to write and publish the Athenian Gazette, become The Athenian Mercury with its second issue due to a legal threat,[5] a journal sold one penny twice weekly, then four times a week.

[6] It professed to answer in print all questions received from anonymous readers on "divinity, history, philosophy, mathematics, love, poetry", and things in general; the answers (and sometimes the questions) were written anonymously by "a Member of the Athenian Society" (one of the four friends).

[7] On 14 February 1692 a young Jonathan Swift sent them a letter of appreciation[8] along with an "Ode to the Athenian Society",[9] his first published work.

Concurrently to the periodical, issues of the journal were bound in calf leather and sold as The Athenian Gazette, collecting a whole volume for 2.5 shilling (about one month after the last issue collected was released), a more permanent form with indexes preferred by learned customers and distinguished women;[10] this is why the journal is often referenced to by its original Athenian Gazette name rather than the Athenian Mercury issues.