Every person in Virginia fond of reading, & those, more especially, who have cultivated a taste for miscellaneous research, must frequently experience interruption & disappointment from the difficulty & expense of procuring books.—Few, probably, have felt the disadvantages, arising from this circumstance, more painfully than I have done.—Engaged in a profession, the duties of which call for constant accessions of general information & require that I should occasionally have it in my power to consult books extremely rare & expensive, the difficulty & expence of procuring such works, have greatly abridged my utility as a teacher & narrowed the range of my enjoyments & enquires.—I have flattered myself with a hope that my vcinity to Monticello, will enable me to surmount this hitherto insuperable impediment to utility & improvement.—You would lay me under a lasting obligation to your goodness & render me a most essential service, by permitting me to borrow from your library occasionally such books as I cannot afford to purchase or readily procure elsewhere.—Should you think proper to comply with the request I take the liberty of making, I shall be scrupulously & punctiliously cautious than none of the books I take out, shall sustain any avoidable injury in my possession & be regularly returned & replaced, as soon as possible—Believe me to be, with sentiments of sincere veneration & esteem

Dear Sir Your very humle. Serv