The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 6 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 6 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
You will find it inconceivable that Lewis's journey to the Pacific should
not yet have appeared; nor is it in my power to tell you the reason. The
measures taken by his surviving companion, Clarke, for the publication,
have not answered our wishes in point of despatch. I think, however,
from what I have heard, that the mere journal will be out within a
few weeks in two volumes 8vo. These I will take care to send you with
the tobacco seed you desired, if it be possible for them to escape the
thousand ships of our enemies spread over the ocean. The botanical and
zoological discoveries of Lewis will probably experience greater delay,
and become known to the world through other channels before that volume
will be ready. The Atlas, I believe, waits on the leisure of the engraver.
Although I do not know whether you are now at Paris or ranging the
regions of Asia to acquire more knowledge for the use of men, I cannot
deny myself the gratification of an endeavor to recall myself to your
recollection, and of assuring you of my constant attachment, and of
renewing to you the just tribute of my affectionate esteem and high
respect and consideration.
TO MADAM DE TESSÉ.
December 8, 1813.
While at war, my dear Madam and friend, with the leviathan of the ocean,
there is little hope of a letter escaping his thousand ships; yet I cannot
permit myself longer to withhold the acknowledgment of your letter of
June 28 of the last year, with which came the memoirs of the Margrave of
Bareuth. I am much indebted to you for this singular morsel of history
which has given us a certain view of kings, queens and princes, disrobed
of their formalities. It is a peep into the state of the Egyptian god
Apis. It would not be easy to find grosser manners, coarser vices, or
more meanness in the poorest huts of our peasantry. The princess shows
herself the legitimate sister of Frederic, cynical, selfish, and without
a heart. Notwithstanding your wars with England, I presume you get the
publications of that country. The memoirs of Mrs. Clarke and of her
_darling_ prince, and the book, emphatically so called, because it is
the Biblia Sacra Deorum et Dearum sub-cœlestium, the Prince Regent, his
Princess and the minor deities of his sphere, form a worthy sequel to the
memoirs of Bareuth; instead of the vulgarity and penury of the court of
Berlin, giving us the vulgarity and profusion of that of London, and the
gross stupidity and profligacy of the latter, in lieu of the genius and
misanthropism of the former. The whole might be published as a supplement
to M. de Buffon, under the title of the "Natural History of Kings and
Princes," or as a separate work and called "Medicine for Monarchists."
The "Intercepted Letters," a later English publication of great wit
and humor, has put them to their proper use by holding them up as butts
for the ridicule and contempt of mankind. Yet by such worthless beings
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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