Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

I have wished to know what you have entered on, what progress you have made, and how your hours are distributed. for it is only by a methodical distribution of our hours, & a rigorous, inflexible observance of it that any steady progress can be made ... I would advise you to make the Mathematics your principal & almost sole object. consider Natural philosophy as quite secondary, because the books will teach you that as well as any master can. whereas Mathematics require absolutely the assistance of a teacher. you should therefore avail yourself to the utmost of your present situation ... as you are entered with the class of Nat. philosophy, give to it the hours of lecture, but devote all your other time to Mathematics, avoiding company as the bane of all progress.