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        〃A REAL CHRISTIAN〃




        _To Charles Thomson_

        _Monticello; January 9; 1816_




        MY DEAR AND ANCIENT FRIEND;  An acquaintance of fifty…two

years; for I think ours dates from 1764; calls for an interchange of

notice now and then; that we remain in existence; the monuments of

another age; and examples of a friendship unaffected by the jarring

elements by which we have been surrounded; of revolutions of

government; of party and of opinion。  I am reminded of this duty by

the receipt; through our friend Dr。 Patterson; of your synopsis of

the four Evangelists。  I had procured it as soon as I saw it

advertised; and had become familiar with its use; but this copy is

the more valued as it comes from your hand。  This work bears the

stamp of that accuracy which marks everything from you; and will be

useful to those who; not taking things on trust; recur for themselves

to the fountain of pure morals。  I; too; have made a wee…little book

from the same materials; which I call the Philosophy of Jesus; it is

a paradigma of his doctrines; made by cutting the texts out of the

book; and arranging them on the pages of a blank book; in a certain

order of time or subject。  A more beautiful or precious morsel of

ethics I have never seen; it is a document in proof that _I_ am a

_real Christian_; that is to say; a disciple of the doctrines of

Jesus; very different from the Platonists; who call _me_ infidel and

_themselves_ Christians and preachers of the gospel; while they draw

all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor

saw。  They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond

the comprehension of man; of which the great reformer of the vicious

ethics and deism of the Jews; were he to return on earth; would not

recognize one feature。  If I had time I would add to my little book

the Greek; Latin and French texts; in columns side by side。  And I

wish I could subjoin a translation of Gosindi's Syntagma of the

doctrines of Epicurus; which; notwithstanding the calumnies of the

Stoics and caricatures of Cicero; is the most rational system

remaining of the philosophy of the ancients; as frugal of vicious

indulgence; and fruitful of virtue as the hyperbolical extravagances

of his rival sects。




        I retain good health; am rather feeble to walk much; but ride

with ease; passing two or three hours a day on horseback; and every

three or four months taking in a carriage a journey of ninety miles

to a distant possession; where I pass a good deal of my time。  My

eyes need the aid of glasses by night; and with small print in the

day also; my hearing is not quite so sensible as it used to be; no

tooth shaking yet; but shivering and shrinking in body from the cold

we now experience; my thermometer having been as low as 12 degrees

this morning。  My greatest oppression is a correspondence

afflictingly laborious; the extent of which I have been long

endeavoring to curtail。  This keeps me at the drudgery of the

writing…table all the prime hours of the day; leaving for the

gratification of my appetite for reading; only what I can steal from

the hours of sleep。  Could I reduce this epistolary corvee within the

limits of my friends and affairs; and give the time redeemed from it

to reading and reflection; to history; ethics; mathematics; my life

would be as happy as the infirmities of age would admit; and I should

look on its consummation with the composure of one _〃qui summum nec

me tuit diem nec optat。〃_




        So much as to myself; and I have given you this string of

egotisms in the hope of drawing a similar one from yourself。  I have

heard from others that you retain your health; a good degree of

activity; and all the vivacity and cheerfulness of your mind; but I

wish to learn it more minutely from yourself。  How has time affected

your health and spirits?  What are your amusements; literary and

social?  Tell me everything about yourself; because all will be

interesting to me who retains for you ever the same constant and

affectionate friendship and respect。







        YOUR PROPHECY AND MINE




        _To John Adams_

        _Monticello; Jan。 11; 1816_




        DEAR SIR  Of the last five months I have past four at my

other domicil; for such it is in a considerable degree。  No letters

are forwarded to me there; because the cross post to that place is

circuitous and uncertain。  During my absence therefore they are

accumulating here; and awaiting acknolegments。  This has been the

fate of your favor of Nov。 13。




        I agree with you in all it's eulogies on the 18th。 century。  It

certainly witnessed the sciences and arts; manners and morals;

advanced to a higher degree than the world had ever before seen。  And

might we not go back to the aera of the Borgias; by which time the

barbarous ages had reduced national morality to it's lowest point of

depravity; and observe that the arts and sciences; rising from that

point; advanced gradually thro' all the 16th。 17th。 and 18th。

centuries; softening and correcting the manners and morals of man?  I

think too we may add; to the great honor of science and the arts;

that their natural effect is; by illuminating public opinion; to

erect it into a Censor; before which the most exalted tremble for

their future; as well as present fame。  With some exceptions only;

through the 17th。 and 18th。 centuries morality occupied an honorable

chapter in the political code of nations。  You must have observed

while in Europe; as I thought I did; that those who administered the

governments of the greater powers at least; had a respect to faith;

and considered the dignity of their government as involved in it's

integrity。  A wound indeed was inflicted on this character of honor

in the 18th。 century by the partition of Poland。  But this was the

atrocity of a barbarous government chiefly; in conjunction with a

smaller one still scrambling to become great; while one only of those

already great; and having character to lose; descended to the

baseness of an accomplice in the crime。  France; England; Spain

shared in it only inasmuch as they stood aloof and permitted it's

perpetration。  How then has it happened that these nations; France

especially and England; so great; so dignified; so distinguished by

science and the arts; plunged at once into all the depths of human

enormity; threw off suddenly and openly all the restraints of

morality; all sensation to character; and unblushingly avowed and

acted on the principle that power was right?  Can this sudden

apostacy from national rectitude be accounted for?  The treaty of

Pilnitz seems to have begun it; suggested perhaps by the baneful

precedent of Poland。  Was it from the terror of monarchs; alarmed at

the light returning on them from the West; and kindling a Volcano

under their thrones?  Was it a combination to extinguish that light;

and to bring back; as their best auxiliaries; those enumerated by

you; the Sorbonne; the Inquisition; the Index expurgatorius; and the

knights of Loyola?  Whatever it was; the close of the century saw the

moral world thrown back again to the age of the Borgias; to the point

from which it had departed 300。 years before。  France; after crushing

and punishing the conspiracy of Pilnitz; went herself deeper and

deeper into the crimes she had been chastising。  I say France; and

not Bonaparte; for altho' he was the head and mouth; the nation

furnished the hands which executed his enormities。  England; altho'

in opposition; kept full pace with France; not indeed by the manly

force of her own arms; but by oppressing the weak; and bribing the

strong。  At length the whole choir joined and divided the weaker

nations among them。  Your prophecies to Dr。 Price proved truer than

mine; and yet fell short of the fact; for instead of a million; the

destruction of 8。 or 10。 millions of human beings has probably been

the effect of 

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