Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson
Chapter 44 : Th: Jefferson.LETTER CXVI.--TO RICHARD O'BRYAN, September 29, 1785 TO RICHARD O�

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXVI.--TO RICHARD O'BRYAN, September 29, 1785

TO RICHARD O'BRYAN.

Paris, September 29, 1785.

Sir,

I have received your letter, and shall exert myself for you. Be a.s.sured of hearing from me soon: but say nothing to any body, except what may be necessary to comfort your companions. I add no more, because the fate of this letter is uncertain. I am, Sir,

your very humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXVII.--TO MR. BELLINI, September 30,1785

TO MR. BELLINI.

Paris, September 30,1785.

Dear Sir,

Your estimable favor, covering a letter to Mr. Mazzei, came to hand on the 26th instant. The letter to Mr. Mazzei was put into his hands in the same moment, as he happened to be present. I leave to him to convey to you all his complaints, as it will be more agreeable to me to express to you the satisfaction I received, on being informed of your perfect health. Though I could not receive the same pleasing news of Mrs.

Bellini, yet the philosophy, with which I am told she bears the loss of health, is a testimony the more, how much she deserved the esteem I bear her. Behold me at length on the vaunted scene of Europe! It is not necessary for your information, that I should enter into details concerning it. But you are, perhaps, curious to know how this new scene has struck a savage of the mountains of America. Not advantageously, I a.s.sure you. I find the general fate of humanity here most deplorable.

The truth of Voltaire's observation offers itself perpetually, that every man here must be either the hammer or the anvil. It is a true picture of that country to which they say we shall pa.s.s hereafter, and where we are to see G.o.d and his angels in splendor, and crowds of the d.a.m.ned trampled under their feet. While the great ma.s.s of the people are thus suffering under physical and moral oppression, I have endeavored to examine more nearly the condition of the great, to appreciate the true value of the circ.u.mstances in their situation which dazzle the bulk of spectators, and, especially, to compare it with that degree of happiness which is enjoyed in America by every cla.s.s of people. Intrigues of love occupy the younger, and those of ambition the elder part of the great.

Conjugal love having no existence among them, domestic happiness, of which that is the basis, is utterly unknown. In lieu of this, are subst.i.tuted pursuits which nourish and invigorate all our bad pa.s.sions, and which offer only moments of ecstacy, amidst days and months of restlessness and torment. Much, very much inferior, this, to the tranquil, permanent felicity, with which domestic society in America blesses most of its inhabitants; leaving them to follow steadily those pursuits which health and reason approve, and rendering truly delicious the intervals of those pursuits.

In science, the ma.s.s of the people is two centuries behind ours; their literati, half a dozen years before us. Books, really good, acquire just reputation in that time, and so become known to us, and communicate to us all their advances in knowledge. Is not this delay compensated, by our being placed out of the reach of that swarm of nonsensical publications, which issues daily from a thousand presses, and perishes almost in issuing? With respect to what are termed polite manners, without sacrificing too much the sincerity of language, I would wish my countrymen to adopt just so much of European politeness, as to be ready to make all those little sacrifices of self, which really render European manners amiable, and relieve society from the disagreeable scenes to which rudeness often subjects it. Here, it seems that a man might pa.s.s a life without encountering a single rudeness. In the pleasures of the table they are far before us, because with good taste they unite temperance. They do not terminate the most sociable meals by transforming themselves into brutes. I have never yet seen a man drunk in France, even among the lowest of the people. Were I to proceed to tell you how much I enjoy their architecture, sculpture, painting, music, I should want words. It is in these arts they s.h.i.+ne. The last of them, particularly, is an enjoyment, the deprivation of which with us cannot be calculated. I am almost ready to say, it is the only thing which from my heart I envy them, and which, in spite of all the authority of the Decalogue, I do covet. But I am running on in an estimate of things infinitely better known to you than to me, and which will only serve to convince you, that I have brought with me all the prejudices of country, habit, and age. But whatever I may allow to be charged to me as prejudice, in every other instance, I have one sentiment at least founded on reality: it is that of the perfect esteem which your merit and that of Mrs. Bellini have produced, and which will for ever enable me to a.s.sure you of the sincere regard with which I am, Dear Sir,

your friend and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXVIII.--JAMES MADISON, October 2, 1785

JAMES MADISON, of William and Mary College.

Paris, October 2, 1785.

Dear Sir,

I have duly received your favor of April the 10th, by Mr. Mazzei. You therein speak of a new method of raising water by steam, which you suppose will come into general use. I know of no new method of that kind, and suppose (as you say that the account you have received of it is very imperfect) that some person has represented to you, as new, a fire-engine erected at Paris, and which supplies the greater part of the town with water. But this is nothing more than the fire-engine you have seen described in the books of hydraulics, and particularly in the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, published in 8vo, by Owen, the idea of which was first taken from Papin's Digester. It would have been better called the steam-engine. The force of the steam of water, you know, is immense. In this-engine it is made to exert itself towards the working of pumps. That of Paris is, I believe, the largest known, raising four hundred thousand cubic feet (French) of water, in twenty-four hours; or rather I should have said, those of Paris, for there are two under one roof, each raising that quant.i.ty.

The Abbe Rochon not living at Paris, I have not had an opportunity of seeing him, and of asking him the questions you desire, relative to the crystal of which I wrote you. I shall avail myself of the earliest opportunity I can, of doing it. I shall cheerfully execute your commands as to the _Encyclopedie_, when I receive them. The price will be only thirty guineas. About half the work is out. The volumes of your Buffon, which are spoiled, can be replaced here.

I expect that this letter will be carried by the Mr. Fitzhughs, in a s.h.i.+p from Havre to Portsmouth. I have therefore sent to Havre some books, which I expected would be acceptable to you. These are the _Bibliotheque Physico-oeconomique_, which will give you most of the late improvements in the arts; the _Connoissance des Terns_ for 1786 and 1787, which is as late as they are published; and some pieces on air and fire, wherein you will find all the discoveries. .h.i.therto made on these subjects. These books are made into a packet, with your address on them, and are put into a trunk wherein is a small packet for Mr. Wythe, another for Mr. Page, and a parcel of books, without direction, for Peter Carr. I have taken the liberty of directing the trunk to you, as the surest means of its getting safe. I pay the freight of it here, so that there will be no new demands, but for the transportation from the s.h.i.+p's side to Williamsburg, which I will pray you to pay; and as much the greatest part is for my nephew, I will take care to repay it to you.

In the last volume of the _Connoissance des Terns_, you will find the tables for the planet Herschel. It is a curious circ.u.mstance, that this planet was seen thirty years ago by Mayer, and supposed by him to be a fixed star. He accordingly determined a place for it, in his catalogue of the zodiacal stars, making it the 964th of that catalogue. Bode, of Berlin, observed in 1781, that this star was missing. Subsequent calculations of the motion of the planet Herschel show, that it must have been, at the time of Mayer's observation, where he had placed his 964th star.

Herschel has pushed his discoveries of double stars, now, to upwards of nine hundred, being twice the number of those communicated in the Philosophical Transactions. You have probably seen, that a Mr. Pigott had discovered periodical variations of light in the star Algol. He has observed the same in the _n_ of Antinous, and makes the period of variation seven days, four hours, and thirty minutes, the duration of the increase sixty-three hours, and of the decrease thirty-six hours.

What are we to conclude from this? That there are suns which have their orbits of revolution too? But this would suppose a wonderful harmony in their planets, and present a new scene, where the attracting powers should be without, and not within the orbit. The motion of our sun would be a miniature of this. But this must be left to you astronomers.

I went some time ago to see a machine, which offers something new. A man had applied to a light boat, a very large screw, the thread of which was a thin plate, two feet broad, applied by its edge spirally round a small axis. It somewhat resembled a bottle-brush, if you will suppose the hairs of the bottle-brush joining together, and forming a spiral plane.

This, turned on its axis in the air, carried the vessel across the Seine. It is, in fact, a screw which takes hold of the air and draws itself along by it: losing, indeed, much of its effort by the yielding nature of the body it lays hold of, to pull itself on by. I think it may be applied in the water with much greater effect, and to very useful purposes Perhaps it may be used also for the balloon.

It is impossible but you must have heard long ago of the machine for copying letters at a single stroke, as we had received it in America before I left there. I have written a long letter to my nephew, in whose education I feel myself extremely interested. I shall rely much on your friends.h.i.+p for conducting him in the plan I mark out for him, and for guarding him against those shoals, on which youth sometimes s.h.i.+pwreck. I trouble you to present to Mr. Wythe my affectionate remembrance of him, and am with very great esteem, Dear Sir,

your friend and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXIX.--TO DR. FRANKLIN, October 5,1785

TO DR. FRANKLIN.

Paris, October 5,1785.

Dear Sir,

A vessel sailing from Havre to Philadelphia, furnishes the Messrs.

Fitzhughs with a pa.s.sage to that place. To them, therefore, I confide a number of letters and packets which I have received for you from sundry quarters, and which, I doubt not, they will deliver safe. Among these is one from M. Du Plessis. On receipt of your letter, in answer to the one I had written you, on the subject of his memorial, I sent to M. La Motte, M. Chaumont, and wherever else I thought there was a probability of finding out Du Plessis' address. But all in vain. I meant to examine his memoir, as you desired, and to have it copied. Lately, he came and brought it with him, copied by himself. He desired me to read it, and enclose it to you, which I have done.

We have no public news worth communicating to you, but the signing of preliminaries between the Emperor and Dutch. The question is, then, with whom the Emperor will pick the next quarrel. Our treaty with Prussia goes by this conveyance. But it is not to be spoken of till a convenient time is allowed for exchanging ratifications.

Science offers nothing new since your departure, nor any new publication worth your notice. All your friends here are well. Those in England have carried you captive to Algiers. They have published a letter, as if written by Truxen, the 20th of August, from Algiers, stating the circ.u.mstances of the capture, and that you bore your slavery to admiration. I happened to receive a letter from Algiers, dated August the 24th, informing me that two vessels were then there, taken from us, and naming the vessels and captains. This was a satisfactory proof to us, that you were not there. The fact being so, we would have gladly dispensed with the proof, as the situation of our countrymen there was described as very distressing.

Were I to mention all those who make inquiries after you, there would be no end to my letter. I cannot, however, pa.s.s over those of the good old Countess d'Hoditot, with whom I dined on Sat.u.r.day, at Sanois. They were very affectionate. I hope you have had a good pa.s.sage. Your essay in crossing the channel gave us great hopes you would experience little inconvenience on the rest of the voyage. My wishes place you in the bosom of your friends, in good health, and with a well grounded prospect of preserving it long, for your own sake, for theirs, and that of the world.

I am, with the sincerest attachment and respect, Dear Sir,

your most obedient