The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 7 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
Philosophy
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 7 (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
has the stamp of the eloquence and fine imagination of Jesus. The last
I attempted too hastily some twelve or fifteen years ago. It was the
work of two or three nights only, at Washington, after getting through
the evening task of reading the letters and papers of the day. But with
one foot in the grave, these are now idle projects for me. My business
is to beguile the wearisomeness of declining life, as I endeavor to do,
by the delights of classical reading and of mathematical truths, and by
the consolations of a sound philosophy, equally indifferent to hope and
fear.
I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple of
our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which you say you
are yielding. One of his canons, you know, was that "that indulgence
which presents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater pain, is to be
avoided." Your love of repose will lead, in its progress, to a suspension
of healthy exercise, a relaxation of mind, an indifference to everything
around you, and finally to a debility of body, and hebetude of mind,
the farthest of all things from the happiness which the well-regulated
indulgences of Epicurus ensure; fortitude, you know, is one of his four
cardinal virtues. That teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not
to fly from them, like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain, for they will
meet and arrest us at every turn of our road. Weigh this matter well;
brace yourself up; take a seat with Correa, and come and see the finest
portion of your country, which, if you have not forgotten, you still do
not know, because it is no longer the same as when you knew it. It will
add much to the happiness of my recovery to be able to receive Correa and
yourself, and prove the estimation in which I hold you both. Come, too,
and see our incipient University, which has advanced with great activity
this year. By the end of the next, we shall have elegant accommodations
for seven professors, and the year following the professors themselves.
No secondary character will be received among them. Either the ablest
which America or Europe can furnish, or none at all. They will give us
the selected society of a great city separated from the dissipations
and levities of its ephemeral insects.
I am glad the bust of Condorcet has been saved and so well placed. His
genius should be before us; while the lamentable, but singular act of
ingratitude which tarnished his latter days, may be thrown behind us.
I will place under this a syllabus of the doctrines of Epicurus, somewhat
in the lapidary style, which I wrote some twenty years ago, a like one
of the philosophy of Jesus, of nearly the same age, is too long to be
copied. _Vale, et tibi persuade carissimum te esse mihi._
_Syllabus of the doctrines of Epicurus._
_Physical._--The Universe eternal.
Its parts, great and small, interchangeable.
Matter and Void alone.
Motion inherent in matter which is weighty and declining.
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