Extract from Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Rush
| Monticello Sep. 22. 09 |
I find I am losing sight of the progress of the world of letters. here we talk but of rains & droughts, of blights & frosts, of our ploughs & cattle; & if the topic changes to politics I meddle little with them. in truth I never had a cordial relish for them, & abhor the contentions and strife they generate. you know what were the times which forced us both from our first loves, the natural sciences. the interest I have taken in the success of the experiment, whether a government can be contrived which shall secure man in his rightful liberties & acquirements, has engaged a longer portion of my life than I had ever proposed: & certainly the experiment could never have fallen into more inauspicious times, when nations have openly renounced all the obligations of morality, and shamelessly assume the character of robbers & pyrates.