Your frdly lre of Apr. 25. was duly recd and altho so much a cripple in both my wrists as to make writing slow & painful I cannot resist the impulse of the spirit to acknolege it’s rect. the degeneracy of man, it’s interesting1 subject is still a moot question,2 but if a fact I do not think it is on this side the Atlantic we are to seek it. were Buffon alive the holy alliance would now point it to him3 nearer home. if it be true, as you suppose, of our own country this admits some explann. before the revoln a good grammar school was kept in almost every parish by it’s incumbent and the pupils finished at Wm & M. so that every man who could afford it had schools convenient for4 educating his sons. it is not so now and we have been and still are declining in character. I look to our University to raise us again in the respect of our co-states with whom5 at present we are held in low rank. this establmt is now well worth a rid[e] altho it will be more so when our last building shall be finished [w]hich6 just now begun, shall and will form the key-stone of the whole fabric.7 it will depend on our legislature, to say when the instn shall be opened by declareg that the monies furnished for the buildings8 under the name of loans were legitimate approprians of so much of the Literary fund, and that their reimbursement is dispensed with. we9 shall require one year only to provide professors, among whom we shall admit none who is not of the 1st order of science in his line, on whichever side of the Atlantic he is to be found.10 if I can live to see this instn put well under way, I shall say with old Simeon, ‘Lord now lettest thou thy servt depart in peace for mine eyes have seen the salvn of my country.’ accept the assurance of my great esteem & respect.