"Let me describe to
you a man, not yet forty, tall, and with a mild and pleasing countenance, but
whose mind and understanding are ample substitutes for every exterior grace. An
American, who without ever having quitted his own country, is at once a
musician, skilled in drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural
philosopher, legislator, and statesmen. A senator of America, who sat for two
years in that famous Congress which brought about the revolution; and which is
never mentioned without respect, though unhappily not without regret: a
governor of Virginia, who filled this difficult station during the invasions of
Arnold, of Phillips, and of Cornwallis; a philosopher, in voluntary retirement
from the world, and public business, because he loves the world, inasmuch only
as he could flatter himself with being useful to mankind; and the minds of his
countrymen are not yet in a condition either to bear the light, or to suffer
contradiction. A mild and amiable wife, charming children, of whose education
he himself takes charge, the house to embellish, great provisions to improve,
and the arts and sciences to cultivate; these are what remain to Mr. Jefferson,
after having played a principal character on the theater of the New World, and
which he preferred to the honorable commission of Minister Plenipotentiary in
Europe."
No comments:
Post a Comment