1851Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 14 October 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your letter, dear Sir, of May 6. had already well explained the Uses of grief, that of Sep. 3. with equal truth adduces instances of it’s abuse; and when we put into the same scale these abuses, with the afflictions of soul which even the Uses of grief cost us, we may consider it’s value in the economy of the human being, as equivocal at least. those afflictions cloud too great a portion of...
1852John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 4 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Letter of Oct. 14 has greatly obliged me. Tracy s A a n alysis, I have read once; and wish to read it a Second time. It Shall be returned to you. But I wish to be informed whether this Gentleman is of that Family of Tracy s with which the Marquis La Fayette is connected by intermariages.? I have read, not only the Analysis, but Eight Volumes out of 12 of The origine de tous les Cultes,...
1853Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 25 November 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I recieve here, dear Sir, your favor of the 4 th just as I am preparing my return to Monticello for winter quarters; and I hasten to answer to some of your enquiries. the Tracy I mentioned to you is the one connected by marriage with La Fayette ’s family. the mail which brought your letter brought one also from him . he writes me that he is become blind & so infirm that he is no longer able to...
1854John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 12 December 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
I return the Analysis of Dupuis with my thanks for the loan of it. It is but a faint Miniature of the original. I have read that original in twelve Volumes, besides a 13 th of plates . I have been a Lover and a Reader of Romances all my Life. From Don Quixotte and Gill Blas to the Scottish Chiefs and an hundred others. For the last year or two I have devoted myself to this kind of Study: and...
1855John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 16 December 1816 (Jefferson Papers)
Your Letter dear Sir of Nov. 15 from Poplar Forrest was Sent to me from the Post Office the next day after I had Sent “ The Analysis ” with my Thanks to you. “3. Vol s of Idiology!” Pray explain to me this Neological Title! What does it mean? When Bonaparte used it, I was delig h ted with it, upon the Common Principle of delight in every Thing We cannot understand. Does it mean Idiotism? The...
1856Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 11 January 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
Forty three volumes read in one year, and 12. of them quartos! dear Sir, how I envy you! half a dozen 8 vos in that space of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be allowed me indulged to me, could I, by that light, see to write. from sun-rise to one or two aclock, and often from dinner to dark, I am...
1857John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 February 1817 (Jefferson Papers)
In our good old English language of Gratitude, I owe you and give you a thousand thanks, for Tracy ’s Review of Montesquieu which M r Dufief has Sent me by your order. I have read an hu n dred pages, and will read the rest. He is a Sensible Man and is easily understood. He is not an abstruse misterious incomprehensi ble Condorcet . Though I have banished the Subject from my thoughts for many...