[1] The two groups admitted the same number of members and, between them, included half of the students of Columbia College.
[1] The society's debates focused on national and international contemporary issues, but some covered education, ethics, philosophy, or religion.
[1] Members also wrote and presented orations and memorized passages by notable authors.
In his famous diary, George Templeton Strong recorded that a Philolexian gathering was disrupted by "those rascally Peithologians"; firecrackers and stink bombs, tossed into the midst of each other's meetings, were usually the weapons of choice.
Its Latin motto was "Vitam Impendere Vero" meaning, roughly, "To devote one's life to truth."