I have had a fever of about three weeks, during the last and preceding
month, from which I am entirely recovered except as to strength.
Ever affectionately yours.
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CLXXV.--TO JOHN ADAMS, October 12, 1823
TO JOHN ADAMS.
Monticello, October 12, 1823.
Dear Sir,
I do not write with the ease which your letter of September the 18th
supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make writing slow and laborious.
But while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things in the
recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out
of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we
can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid
of our heavy hours until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all
at once. Against this _tedium vita_, however, I am fortunately mounted
on a hobby, which, indeed, I should have better managed some thirty
or forty years ago; but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give
exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider. This is the establishment
of a University, on a scale more comprehensive, and in a country more
healthy and central than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles
have long kept in a state of languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness
with which such works proceed, may render it doubtful whether I shall
live to see it go into action.
Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this
letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now
attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new
affections.
Pages:
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642