I salute
Mrs. Adams and yourself with every sentiment of affectionate cordiality
and respect;
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CXXXIX.--TO JOHN ADAMS, TO JOHN ADAMS
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Monticello, January 11, 1817.
Dear Sir,
Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear
Sir, how I envy you! Half a dozen octavos in that space of time are as
much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long
hours from my rest: nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by
that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o'clock, and often
from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this
to answer letters into which neither interest nor inclination on my part
enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
Yet, writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers. This is
the burthen of my life, a very grievous one indeed, and one which I must
get rid of. Delaplaine lately requested me to give him a line on the
subject of his book; meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. This I
constantly refuse; but in this instance yielded, that in saying a
word for him, I might say two for myself. I expressed in it freely
my sufferings from this source; hoping it would have the effect of an
indirect appeal to the discretion of those, strangers and others, who,
in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me with their concerns,
their pursuits, their projects, inventions, and speculations, political,
moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical, historical, &c.
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