41Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 13 October 1815 (Jefferson Papers)
I was highly gratified with the receipt of your letter of Sep. 1. by Gen l and mrs Dearborne ; and by the evidence it furnished me of your bearing up with firmness and perseverance against your the persecutions of your enemies, religious, political and professional. these last I suppose have not yet forgiven you the introduction of vaccination, and annihilation of the great variolous field of...
42From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 18 December 1815 (Adams Papers)
Permit me to sympathize with you and your Children on the loss of your amiable and excellent Consort. As my reflections on this mournfull Event can be no other than your own I shall spare you the pain of reading them. I thank you for your Letter of the 14th and the Pamphlet inclosed. Do you know the Meaning of the Words “ Awakenings ”? and “ Revivals ”? I am old enough to have attended the...
43From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 25 June 1816 (Adams Papers)
In the style of John and Jonathan Bull, I give you a thousand thanks for your letter of the 18th and the Journal of the Surgeon. The great James Otis whose style was hasty, rough and coarse, and who hated and despised correction, often gave some of his compositions to Sam Adams, whose language was soft, harmonious, and oily, as Otis expressed himself “To quieu it” Who “quieu ” this little...
44Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Waterhouse, 20 July 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I thank you, dear Sir, for the new Robinson Crusoe you have been so good as to send me . the name of it’s hero, like that of the old, merits to be known as should that also of the new Defoe . I have read it with avidity, for a more attaching narrative I have not met with; and it may be truly said of the whole edifice, that the bricks and the mortar are worthy of each other, and promise to be a...
45From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 17 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Have you read certain Strictures upon Painters and Paintings, in the Newspapers? what do you think of them? I am pleased with his gratitude to Copeley—but I believe he was not perfect Master of Copeleys Merit. There is a Portrait of Justice Dana in his Robe bands and Tie Wig of a Barrister at Law, now no doubt in possession of his Descendants. There is a fault Length Portrait of Governor...
46From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Graüs Ingenium dedit Musa. the Greeks refined and polished every thing. The Competition between Apelles and Protogenes, and its termination in Unchangeable Friendship is one of the most amiable Tales of Antiquity. Yet these keen Greeks must always have something marvellous; Something Supernatural. The Spunge, after all, wrought the miracle. The froth of the exhausted hound could not be hit,...
47From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 26 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Where the Fine Arts are Studied or practiced there Should be a Trybunal of Criticism always in Session, before which every new production Should be arraigned and tried; by no other laws however than Truth or Nature, and no other penalty than Reputation in the public Opinion. “Are We not in too great a hurry, in our Zeal for the fine Arts”? This is as noble and beautiful a question, as that of...
48From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 27 February 1817 (Adams Papers)
Are the works of Apuileus in Harvard College Library or in any other collection in America Have you read his Metamorphosis which he calls his Ass of Gold, his Assinus Aureus, or Asinus Runi.” Among these novels, fables, tales or whatever you please to call them, is his Amours of Cupid and Psyche. Have you read Molier’s Psyche? Have read La Fontaines Psyche? Have you seen a splendid translation...