&c. &c.
I hope the appeal will bring me relief, and that I shall be left to,
exercise and enjoy correspondence with the friends I love, and on
subjects which they, or my own inclinations, present. In that case, your
letters shall not be so long on my files unanswered, as sometimes they
have been to my great mortification.
To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th and 16th.
Tracy's Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the
original. Duane printed a translation from the original manuscript a few
years ago. It sold, I believe, readily, and whether a copy can now
be had, I doubt. If it can, you will receive it from my bookseller in
Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends,
under the word 'Ideology' all the subjects which the French term
_Morale_, as the correlative to _Physique_, His works on Logic,
Government, Political Economy, and Morality, he considers as making up
the circle of ideological subjects, or of those which are within the
scope of the understanding, and not of the senses. His Logic occupies
exactly the ground of Locke's work on the Understanding. The translation
of that on Political Economy is now printing; but it is no translation
of mine. I have only had the correction of it, which was, indeed, very
laborious. _Le premier jet_ having been by some one who understood
neither French nor English, it was impossible to make it more than
faithful.
Pages:
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509