[Back to Homepage |
Back to Literature Links Homepage]
Letter to Peter Carr (Jefferson's Nephew)
Thomas Jefferson, 1787
Dear Peter, -- I have received your two letters of December the
30th and April the 18th, and am very happy to find by them, as well as by
letters from Mr. Wythe, that you have been so fortunate as to attract his
notice and good will; I am sure you will find this to have been one of
the most fortunate events of your life, as I have ever been sensible it
was of mine. I enclose you a sketch of the sciences to which I would
wish you to apply, in such order as Mr. Wythe shall advise; I mention,
also, the books in them worth your reading, which submit to his
correction. Many of these are among your father's books, which you
should have brought to you. As I do not recollect those of them not in
his library, you must write to me for them, making out a catalogue of such
as you think you shall have occasion for, in eighteen months from the date
of your letter, and consulting Mr. Wythe on the subject. To this sketch,
I will add a few particular observations:
1. Italian. I fear the learning of this language will confound your French
and Spanish. Being all of them degenerated dialects of the Latin, they
are apt to mix in conversation. I have never seen a person speaking the
three languages, who did not mix them. It is a delightful language, but
late events having rendered the Spanish more useful, lay it aside to
prosecute that.
2. Spanish. Bestow great attention on this, and endeavor to acquire
an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and
Spanish America, will render that language a valuable acquisition. The
ancient history of that part of America, too, is written in that language.
I send you a dictionary.
3. Moral Philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures on this
branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had
made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man
of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become
of them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was
to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and
wrong, merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his
nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true
foundation of morality, and not the "to kalon" (Greek: The beautiful),
truth, &c., as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or
conscience, is as much a part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to
all human beings in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is
given them in a greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by
exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. This sense is
submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of reason; but it is
a small stock which is required for this: even a less one than what we
call common sense. State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor.
The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter,
because he has not been led astray by artificial rules. In this branch,
therefore, read good books, because they will encourage, as well as
direct your feelings. The writings of Sterne, particularly, form the
best course of morality that ever was written. Besides these, read the
books mentioned in the enclosed paper; and, above all things, lose no
occasion of exercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous,
to be charitable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly,
courageous, &c. Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise which
will strengthen your moral faculties and increase your worth.
4. Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine this object.
In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of novelty and
singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other subject rather than
that of religion. It is too important, and the consequences of error may
be too serious. On the other hand, shake off all the fears and servile
prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason
firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion.
Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be
one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of
blindfolded fear. You will naturally examine first, the religion of your
own country. Read the Bible, then as you would read Livy or Tacitus.
The facts which are within the ordinary course of nature, you will
believe on the authority of the writer, as you do those of the same kind
in Livy and Tacitus. The testimony of the writer weighs in their favor,
in one scale, and their not being against the laws of nature, does not
weigh against them. But those facts in the Bible which contradict the
laws of nature, must be examined with more care, and under a variety of
faces. Here you must recur to the pretensions of the writer to
inspiration from God. Examine upon what evidence his pretensions are
founded, and whether that evidence is so strong, as that its falsehood
would be more improbable than a change in the laws of nature, in the
case he relates. For example, in the book of Joshua, we are told, the
sun stood still several hours. Were we to read that fact in Livy or
Tacitus, we should class it with their showers of blood, speaking of
statues, beasts, etc. But it is said, that the writer of that book was
inspired. Examine, therefore, candidly, what evidence there is of his
having been inspired. The pretension is entitled to your inquiry,
because millions believe it. On the other hand, you are astronomer
enough to know how contrary it is to the law of nature that a body
revolving on its axis, as the earth does, should have stopped, should
not, by that sudden stoppage, have prostrated animals, trees, buildings,
and should after a certain time gave resumed its revolution, and that
without a second general prostration. Is this arrest of the earth's
motion, or the evidence which affirms it, most within the law of
probabilities? You will next read the New Testament. It is the history
of a personage called Jesus. Keep in your eye the opposite pretensions:
1, of those who say he was begotten by God, born of a virgin, suspended
and reversed the laws of nature at will, and ascended bodily into heaven;
and 2, of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a
benevolent heart, enthusiastic mind, who set out without pretensions to
divinity, ended in believing them, and was punished capitally for sedition,
by being gibbeted, according to the Roman law, which punished the first
commission of that offence by whipping, and the second by exile, or death
"in furea"....
Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its consequences.
If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will find incitements
to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise, and
the love of others which it will procure you. If you find reason to
believe there is a God, a consciousness that you are acting under his
eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast additional incitement; if
that there be a future state, the hope of a happy existence in that
increases the appetite to deserve it; if that Jesus was also a God, you
will be comforted by a belief of his aid and love. In fine, I repeat,
you must lay aside all prejudice on both sides, and neither believe nor
reject anything, because any other persons, or description of persons,
have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given
you by heaven, and you are answerable, not for the rightness, but
uprightness of the decision. I forgot to observe, when speaking of the
New Testament, that you should read all the histories of Christ, as well
of those whom a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us, to be
Pseudo-evangelists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these
Pseudo-evangelists pretended to inspiration, as much as the others,
and you are to judge their pretensions by your own reason, and not by
the reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There are
some, however, still extant, collected by Fabricius, which I will
endeavor to get and send you.
5. Travelling. This makes men wiser, but less happy. When men of
sober age travel, they gather knowledge, which they may apply usefully
for their country; but they are subject ever after to recollections
mixed with regret; their affections are weakened by being extended over
more objects; and they learn new habits which cannot be gratified when
they return home. Young men, who travel, are exposed to all these
inconveniences in a higher degree, to others still more serious, and do
not acquire that wisdom for which a previous foundation is requisite,
by repeated and just observations at home. The glare of pomp and
pleasure is analogous to the motion of the blood; it absorbs all
their affection and attention, they are torn from it as from the only
good in this world, and return to their home as to a place of exile and
condemnation. Their eyes are forever turned back to the object they
have lost, and its recollection poisons the residue of their lives.
Their first and most delicate passions are hackneyed on unworthy objects
here, and they carry home the dregs, insufficient to make themselves or
anybody else happy. Add to this, that a habit of idleness, an inability
to apply themselves to business is acquired, and renders them useless to
themselves and their country. These observations are founded in
experience. There is no place where your pursuit of knowledge will be
so little obstructed by foreign objects, as in your own country, nor any,
wherein the virtues of the heart will be less exposed to be weakened.
Be good, be learned, and be industrious, and you will not want the aid
of travelling, to render you precious to your country, dear to your
friends, happy within yourself. I repeat my advice, to take a great
deal of exercise, and on foot. Health is the first requisite after
morality. Write to me often, and be assured of the interest I take in
your success, as well as the warmth of those sentiments of attachment
with which I am, dear Peter, your affectionate friend.