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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 3, 1898)
'Che Conservative * u day a very large proportion of the best books in science and literature , both ancient and modern. In the Greek and Latin classics it was very complete , and that Jefferson was a zealous student of them is evinced by the numerous differ ent editions of the same author , and by his binding up copies of his Greek clas sics in a unique way , interleaving u Latin version , and often a French or an English translation , side by side with the original text. This he did with Plato , Plutarch , Homer , JEschylus , and many other favorite writers. The num ber of volumes in Greek and Latin was no less than 087. In the French lan guage , so rich in all departments of learning , he amassed 2,172 volumes ; in Italian and Spanish , 801 volumes , and in English about 3,800 volumes. The price paid averaged $4.50 per vol- xirne , a sufficiently moderate value , in view of the great proportion of editions in folio , the fact that nearly all the books wore bound in full calf or sheep , and that some very rare works were included. In the earlier books relating to America , the "library was not rich , though possessing original editions of Herrera , llamusio , Hakluyt , Zarate , Benzoni , Las Casas , Wytfliet , Gomara , Peter Martyr , Champlain , and thirteen out of the fifteen vohimes of Do Bry's "Grands Voyages. " For a collection made by a Virginian more than a cen tury ago , there was a singular deficiency of the early books and tracts relating to Virginia. Only a Stith's History , and n third edition of Smith's "Generall His toric , " 1(532 ( , with a French Beverly , a Burke , and an imperfect copy of Keith's "Virginia , " with the first edition oi Jefferson's own "Notes on Virginia , " were in the collection. Of the rarissimi relating to Now England history , and ot the host of books and tracts printed in Massachussetts from 16(50 ( to 1800 , the library had little or nothing except a couple of Mather's tracts ; but then Jef ferson did not care for New England theology. Talcing it by classes , the library was strong in history , having ( including bi ography ) 1,225 volumes ; jurisprudence and international law numbered 675 vol umes ; political science , 753 volumes ; natural history , 200 volumes ; geography , 550 volumes ; miscellaneous literature , including poetry , fiction and criticism , 425 volumes ; and polygraphy , or col lected works , 407 volumes. His classification was peculiar. Di viding the sum of knowledge as ex pressed in books into three grand divis ions , history , philosophy , and fine arts , he grouped under history all the natural sciences and technical arts , or applied science. Under philosophy , ho placed mathematics , geography , politics , law , metaphysics , ethics , and religion ; and under fine arts , architecture , gar dening , poetry , fiction , oratory , criticism , painting , sculpture , and mu sic. There were forty-four divisions , or chapters , in the catalogue ; and the distribution of books among them led to .some curious results. Tims , ho placed in his chapter 1C , styled "Moral Philo sophy , " all books on slavery , woman , and psychology or metaphysics. One highly peculiar feature of the Jefferson library is the great care he took to mark every volume as his own. This he did , not by the reprehensible habit of writing disfiguring title-pages by ing his name on them , but by a private mark , placed in every volume. He would run through the "signatures" or sheets of the book as marked by letters at the bottom of certain pages , until he came to the letter I ( anciently the same as J ) and write a T before it , always with a pen , thus having his intitials "T. J. " in every book he owned. Not satisfied with this , he would duplicate his private mark in all volumes which ran as far as signature T in the printed sheets , and place a letter J after it. By this ingenious and original device , he could identity or reclaim his books wherever found ; and as libraries were few and many books wore borrowed , the advantage is manifest. In fact , his library was not at all wanting in incom plete sets and odd volumes , showing that the studious owner was less careful in reclamation than in identification. Around the nucleus of the Jefferson- iau library the collections of the Library of Congress grow until the lire in the capitol in J851 destroyed more than half the collection , including the greater portion of Mr. Jefferson's books. The more valuable divisions saved included ancient and American history , political science , and all the law books. Some of the latter are of great rarity and value. Ethics and theology were also saved from the flames , so that the li brary possesses Jefferson's copies of Spinovca , D'flolbach , Volnoy , Ohubb , Tindal , and other free-thinkers , but also his Hooker , Calvin , Massillon , Sherlock , Pascal , and Paley's "Evidences .of Christianity. " About all the books of any importance among those burned have been replaced , though mostly by later editions. The statesman who will ever stand as one of the foremost figures in American history builded better than ho knew when ho gathered the best li brary of his time in political science , law , and history , for the use and in struction of successive generations of congressmen. After parting with his library , Mr. Jefferson , while making no systematic effort to gather a new one , in the eleven years of life remaining to him , bought a goodly number of books. In the next month after the shipment to Washing ton he wrote to John Adams , who had intro'duccd to Jefferson by letter young George Ticknor , afterwards the histor ian of Spanish literature : ' Mr. Ticknor is the best bibliograph I have met with , and very kindly and opportunely offered me the means of reprocuring some part of the literary treasures which I have ceded to con gress. I cannot live without books. But fewer will MI ( lice , where amuse ment , and not use , is the only future object. I am about sending him a cata logue , to which less than his critical knowledge of books would be hardly adequate. " Ticknor visited Paris the same year (1815) ( ) and executed several commissions of book-purchase for Jefferson. And in April , 1810 , Jefferson ordered from a Georgetown bookseller Latin editions of Virgil , Ovid , and Cornelius Nopos , while sending him the MS. for publica tion of an English version of Destutt Tracy's "Political EeonomjV' revised and prefaced by Jefferson , who enjoined it upon the printer not to make the fact known. Jefferson's correspondence with John Adams , fretjuent during the last twelve years of their lives , deals in the frankest manner with the great problems of re ligion , psychology , and sociology. In a letter dated October 13,18153 , ho thus de scribes his construction , out of the text of the four Gospels , of that brief or "syllabus" of the teachings of Jesus , which Jefferson guarded with jealous care while he lived , lending it only to his friends , Dr. Rush and John Adams. "We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists ; select , even from them , the very words only of Jesus. There will be found remaining the most sublime , and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use , by cutting verso by verso out of the printed book , and ar ranging the matter which is evidently His , and which i as easily distinguish able as diamonds in a dunghill. The result is an octavo of forty-six pages of pure and unsophisticated doctrine. " This unique and interesting volume has recently passed from the hands of Mr. Jefferson's heirs into the possession of the Smithsonian Institution. Jefferson was pursued with not very mild rancor for what were doomed highly latitudinarian views in matters of religious belief. Ho wrote to Adams : ' 'They wish it to bo believed that he can have no religion who advocates its freedom * * * Wo should all , then , like the Quakers , live without an order of priests , moralize for our selves , follow the oracle of conscience , and say nothing about what no man can understand , nor therefore believe ; for 1 suppose belief to bo the assent of the mind to an intelligible proposition. " In another letter ho says , in allusion to an attempt to suppress by law a book alleged to be heretical : "Is this , then , our freedom of relig ion ? * * * It is an insult io our citizens to question whether they are rational beings , and blasphemy against religion to suppose it cannot
