I shall go in a week to Monticello ... my situation there & taste, will lead me to ask for curious & hardy trees, than flowers. of the latter a few of those remarkeable either for beauty or fragrance will be the limits of my wishes.
[England’s] sun-less climate has permitted them to adopt what is certainly a beauty of the very first order in landscape. their canvas is of open ground, variegated with tufts clumps of trees tastily distributed with taste. they need no more of wood than will serve to embrace a lawn or a glade....
The expedition of Messrs Lewis & Clarke, for exploring the river Missouri, and the best communication from that to the Pacific ocean, has had all the success which could have been expected. they have traced the Missouri nearly to...
I congratulate you, fellow citizens, on the approach of the period at which you may interpose your authority constitutionally, to withdraw the citizens of the United states from all further participation in those violations of human rights, which have been so long continued on the unoffending...
The President was less cheerful in his manners than usual, but told some of his customary staring stories. Among the rest, he said that before he went from Virginia to France, he had some ripe pairs sewed up in tow bags, and that when he returned six years afterwards, he found them in a perfect...
Dined at the President’s ... There was as usual a dissertation upon Wines; not very edifying ... Mr Jefferson said that he had always been extremely fond of Agriculture, and knew nothing about it; but the person who united with other Science the greatest agricultural knowledge of any man he knew...
I mentioned to Mr Jefferson that the publishing Committee had a letter from him to the Earl of Buchan, sent by him to the Massachusetts Historical Society with a view to its publication–But the Committee thought it most consistent at least with delicacy to ascertain whether the publication would...
It is with real pain I oppose myself to your passion for the lanthern, and that in a matter of taste, I differ from a professor in his own art. but the object of the artist is lost if he fails to please the general eye. you know my reverence for the Graecian & Roman style of architecture. ...
no body can desire more ardently than myself to concur in whatever may promote useful science, and I view no science with more partiality than Natural history.
Smith’s wealth of nations is the best book to be read, unless Say’s Political economy can be had which treats the same subjects on the same principles, but in a shorter compass & more lucid manner.
To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted so as to be most useful, I should answer ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’ yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers ... nothing can now be believed which is seen in a...
my happiness at Monticello (if I am able to go there) will be lessened by not having yourself & Francis there ... he will ever be to me one of the dearest objects in life.
He was a fine young lad, and, according to what I was told was a general custom in Virginia among boys, he walked into the drawing room, without shoes or stockings, tho’ very neatly dressed in other respects.
I am sincerlely glad that your family dispute is made up, as I am convinced it will tend to your own happiness, and particularly to th to the well-being of your children. the differings between man & wife, however they may affect their tranquility, can never produce such sufferings as are...
we defer therefore till this time twelve month to avail ourselves of the instruction of that place, and particularly of your kindness in the two branches of Botany and Natural history to which we wish him particularly to apply.
I sincerely congratulate you on the addition to your family announced in the last. the good old book speaking of children says ‘happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them.’
3. ... Mr Jefferson said that the Epicurean philosophy came nearest to the truth, in his opinion, of any antient system of philosophy—But that it had been misunderstood and misrepresented—He wished the work of Gassendi concerning it had been translated—It was the only accurate account of it...
further trial of the Stylograph convinces me it can never take the place of the Polygraph but with travellers, as it is so much more portable. the fetid smell of the copying paper would render a room pestiferous, if filled with presses of such papers.
Mr. Jefferson is very regular and temperate in his mode of living; he retires to his chamber about nine o’clock, and rises before the sun, both in summer and winter ... Until breakfast (which is early) he is employed in writing, after that he generally visits his work-shops, labourers, &c....