I know the depth of the affliction it has
caused, and can sympathize with it the more sensibly, inasmuch as there
is no degree of affliction, produced by the loss of those dear to us,
which experience has not taught me to estimate. I have ever found time
and silence the only medicine, and these but assuage, they never can
suppress, the deep-drawn sigh which recollection for ever brings
up, until recollection and life are extinguished together. Ever
affectionately yours.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 28, 1813
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Monticello, October 28, 1813.
Dear Sir,
According to the reservation between us, of taking up one of the
subjects of our correspondence at a time, I turn to your letters of
August the 16th and September the 2nd.
The passage you quote from Theognis, I think has an ethical rather than
a political object. The whole piece is a moral exhortation,
[Illustration: page226]
and this passage particularly seems to be a reproof to man, who,
while with his domestic animals he is curious to improve the race, by
employing always the finest male, pays no attention to the improvement
of his own race, but intermarries with the vicious, the ugly, or the
old, for considerations of wealth or ambition. It is in conformity with
the principle adopted afterwards by the Pythagoreans, and expressed by
Ocellus in another form;
[Illustration: page226a
which, as literally as intelligibility will admit, may be thus
translated; 'Concerning the interprocreation of men, how, and of whom it
shall be, in a perfect manner, and according to the laws of modesty and
sanctity, conjointly, this is what I think right.
Pages:
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384