1Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 11 September 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I am lately returned from the warm springs with my health entirely prostrated by the use of the waters. they produced an imposthume and eruptions which with the torment of the journey back reduced me to the last stage of weakness and exhaustion. I am getting better, but still obliged to lie night and day in the same reclined posture which renders writing painful. I cannot be at Poplar Forest...
2Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 12 June 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieved while at Poplar Forest your’s of May 13. and am glad to learn that you find Coke Lit. not as difficult as you expected. the methodical arrangement of his work and the new notes and cases have certainly been a great improvement. according to your information I have retained in my hands enough to import for you this edition of Coke Lit. & Bacon ’s abridgment. the present high...
3Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 1 January 1819 (Jefferson Papers)
Leschot has repaired mrs Eppes ’s watch and changed the pipe of the key, but the watch was so short a time in his hands that she could not be well regulated. she will therefore probably need further regulation to make her keep good time. I am sorry you are disappointed in your teacher. but it depends on yourself whether this is of any consequence. a master is necessary only to those who...
4Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 21 September 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
I leave at Flood’s with this letter a packet containing 3. small volumes of my petit format library containing several tragedies of Euripides , some of Sophocles and one of Aeschylus . the 1 st you will find easy, the 2 d tolerably so; the last incomprehensible in his flights among the clouds. his text has come to us so mutilated & defective and has been so much plaistered with amendments by...
5Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 6 February 1818 (Jefferson Papers)
I have deferred acknoleging the reciept of your letter of Dec. 28. in the daily hope of being able to speak with more certainty of the time when our Central college will be opened. but that is still undecided and depending on an uncertainty which I have explained to your father . I do not wonder that you find the place where you are disagreeable. it’s character, while I lived in Washington was...
6Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 13 December 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Oct. 31. came to me here Nov. 28. having first gone to Monticello . I observe the course of reading at Columbia which you note. it either is, or ought to be the rule of every collegiate institution to teach to every particular student the branches of science which those who direct him think will be useful in the pursuits proposed for him, and to waste his time on nothing which they...
7Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 27 June 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of May 7 . was recieved in due time, and in it you ask my opinion as to the utility of pursuing metaphysical studies. no well educated person should be entirely igno r a n t of the operations of the human mind, to which the name of metaphysics has been given. there are three books on this subject, Locke ’s essay on the human understanding, Tracey ’s element s of Idiology, & Stewart...
8Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 6 October 1820 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 28 th came to hand yesterday, and, as I suppose you are now about leaving Richmond for Columbia , this letter will be addressed to the latter place. I consider you as having made such proficiency in Latin & Greek that on your arrival at Columbia you may at once commence the study of the sciences: and as you may well attend two professors at once, I advise you to enter...
9Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 8 April 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Yours of Mar. 27 . has been duly recieved. the effect of what our legislature did for us at their last session is not exactly what you suppose. they authorised us to borrow another 60,000.D. pledging however our own funds for repayment. this loan enables us to finish all our buildings of accomodation this year, and to begin the Library, which will take 3. years to be compleated. without...
10Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 17 November 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
On my return to this place on the 5 th inst. I found here your letter of Oct. 22 . I learnt from that with real affliction that it was doubtful whether you would be permitted at Columbia to pursue those studies only which will be analogous to the views & purposes of your future life. it is a deplorable considn that altho neither your father nor myself have spared any effort in our power to...
11Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 19 January 1821 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of the 1 st came safely to hand. I am sorry you have lost mr Elliot ; however the kindness of D r Cooper will be able to keep you in the tract of what is worthy of your time. You ask my opinion of L d Bolingbroke and Thomas Paine . they were alike in making bitter enemies of the priests & Pharisees of their day. both were honest men; both advocates for human liberty.
12Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 9 April 1822 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter of Mar. 22. did not reach me till a few days ago. that of Feb 6 . had been recieved in that month. being chiefly a statement of facts, it did not seem to require an answer, and my burthen of letter writing is so excessive as to restrain me to answers absolutely necessary. I think, with you, that you had now better turn in to the study of the law. as no one can read a whole day...
13Enclosure: Thomas Jefferson’s List of Books Recommended for Reading Law, [ca. 9 April 1822] (Jefferson Papers)
Bracton . English Brooke ’s abridgment. 4 to edn. Thomas ’s Coke Littleton 3. v. 8 vo Coke ’s 2 d 3 d and 4 th