Hore Browse Trist to Nicholas P. Trist
| Dr Nicholas | May 25th [1821.] |
I have just received your letter & proceed forthwith to make a reply. If $50 would suffice, I might retain that sum or thereabouts, for I could conscientiously leave a small debt in consideration that there is no uncertainty, unless fortuitous, as to my receiving money to discharge it. What think you? Upon mature reflection I feel solicitous to back change my abode for a time, if it be only to make a retrenchment in my expenses, which if not effected will probably amount to more than my allowance. when do you expect to set out for Virginia? for you say nothing about if it. Perhaps there is a deficit in your finances if so you had better wait than borrow. of the two accomplishments in question, drawing claims the preference in point of utility because there are many situations in life, which require an acquaintance with that art; A Botanist wants it to represent his plants indeed in all the departments of science, you will find it, on consideration, to be necessary & useful, for a traveller particularly so and for a Mathematician as much as any other. I agree with you however that as a means of solace & amusement to ourselves and friends, it music is more valuable, at the same time it is infinitely more difficult and tedious to be acquired.
Perhaps I was too harsh in my expressions as it relates to Dumoulin, because the poor fellow was deranged. I can’t bear prejudices, they abound only in weak or in unthinking minds & I try to divest myself of all that may be in my possession. If I think better of my countrymen in general than of others, it is because the government they enjoy & the local advantages they possess, [. . .] throw impediments in the way of wickedness and corruption The nation is as it were in the purity of innocence infancy & if in reality it “vaut mieux” than others, probably these are the reasons. but I am not so blind as not to see that our compatriots are as frail both in their “Physique et Morale” as others. witness the number of public frauds, that is breaches of public trust, which shews that we are not more honest. witness the patricianism the mimicking & aping of manners & customs, prevailing among those more noble than ourselves & which sit badly upon us sometimes; proving that we our feelings are as aristocratic as theirs. but these is are useless remarks insomuch that, every one who has taken the trouble to observe must have remarked that poor human nature is the same every where & those who go into the excess of preferring a worthless man of one clime to a deserving one of another merely through prejudice, must either be madmen or fools & such was D’s Case. but I must make one more remark before I drop him, which is that my animadversions were directed particularly to his disposition and temper.
What enduced you to send that book to Albemarle for Mr Jeffersons perusal? no doubt you have been informed that the postage amounted to some $20 & odd. This will probably reach Mr J’s years. suppose he were. I wrote some time since to Father and told him to I would want a supply to effect my departure in the summer but I did not mention any precise time but as Mothers wished me to go with you the to V. & knew at what time you expected to set off, it will come shortly.
Gâre à l’ortage. ennemies (rectè enemies) mine were lapsus pennæ.