I take advantage, Sir, of a very favorable opportunity to send you the horse chestnuts that you asked me to send when they were halfway between their maturation and their germination.

Mr. de Lafayette will accuse me of yielding only to my tastes, while I believe I am fulfilling a debt of equity by begging you to place in your library the engraving of an illustrious traveler, a devotee of your government, and a great admirer of your person. I do not doubt in the least that Mr. Humboldt will be very flattered to find himself at Monticello when he learns of it, but I have, however, whatever my nephew might say about it, less a desire to please him by sending it than pleasure in repaying him.

If he should come to renounce his principles, throw the engraving in the fire. So many apostates! I cannot console myself for not having had two hours with Mr. Coles at my little country house. You will always imagine me henceforth as decrepit because you will imagine me as he saw me in Paris. If he had given you an account of my garden, which is entirely my own creation, you would know that I still have soul and imagination, and the saddening aspect of old age would be erased from your memory. If I dared to give you an account of a conversation that I had two days ago with Mr. de Lafayette, I would perhaps appear to you to be too youthful for your compassion. For I was constructing a plan that would lead you to make a trip to France and little by little I imagined myself at the moment when you descended from your carriage at the place you had chosen for your lodging.