I am happy to hear of his good health. I think he will outlive us all, I mean the Declaration-men, altho’ our senior since the death of Colo Floyd. it is a race in which I have no ambition to win. man, like the fruit he eats, has his period of ripeness. like that too, if he continues longer...

I write from a place which I visit occasionally, near the New London of this state, 90. miles from Monticello, and where I have not the means of examining whether I have let pass the annual period pass over of saying ‘all’s well’ and ‘how d’ye do’?

the field of knolege is the common property of all mankind