Having served his country long and faithfully and contributed largely in placing her on the great highway of FREEDOM and prosperity, Mr. Jefferson retired from public life on the 31st of December 1793 enjoying for a season the more peaceful and substantial comforts of life at Monticello. He imparted comfort to all around him--treated his slaves in the kindest manner, reducing to practice the mode of treatment he always recommended to others. The education of his children--the cultivation and improvement of his land and the resumption of his scientific researches, gave to him an exhilarating consolation he had long desired and could never enjoy in the arena of public business and political turmoil. His manner of life at the time alluded to is happily described by the Duke de Liancourt who visited him during his brief time of repose. "His conversation is of the most agreeable kind. He possesses a stock of information not inferior to any other man. In Europe he would hold a distinguished rank among men of letters and as such he has already appeared there. At present he is employed with activity and perseverance in the management of his farms and buildings and he orders, directs and pursues, in the minutest detail, every branch of business relating to them. I found him in the midst of harvest from which the scorching heat of the sun does not prevent his attendance. His negroes are nourished, clothed and treated as well as white servants could be. Every article is made on his farm--his negroes being cabinet makers, carpenters and masons. The children he employs in a nail manufactory and the young and old negresses spin for the clothing of the rest. He animates them all by rewards and distinctions. In fine, his superior mind directs the management of his domestic concerns with the same ability, activity and regularity, which he evinced in the conduct of public affairs and which he is calculated to display in every situation of life." During his recess from the toils of public life Mr. Jefferson was unanimously elected President of the American Philosophical Society with which he was highly gratified. It afforded him much pleasure to occupy the chair which had been ably filled by his revered friends--the illustrious Franklin and philosophic Rittenhouse.