'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
