Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends.
Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect,
which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person,
should your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER XCIV.--TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH, January 16, 1811
TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.
Monticello, January 16, 1811.
Dear Sir,
I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a
letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I received
your welcome favor of the 2nd instant. I had before heard of the
heart-rending calamity you mention, and had sincerely sympathized with
your afflictions. But I had not made it the subject of a letter, because
I knew that condolences were but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and
still think, this is one of the cases wherein we should 'not sorrow,
even as others who have no hope.'
*****
You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. 'My present course of life
admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest,
to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farms or other
concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind, and affairs; and the
few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences;
not those with my intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange
sentiments, but with others, who, writing to me on concerns of their
own in which I have had an agency, or from motives of mere respect and
approbation, are entitled to be answered with respect and a return of
good will.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262