Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/256

 240

LETTER LXV.

TO CHARLES THOMPSON.

Paris, June 21, 1785.

DEAR SIR,

Your favor of March the 6th, has come duly to hand. You therein acknowledge the receipt of mine of November the llth; at that time you could not have received my last, of February the 8th. At present there is so little new in politics, literature, or the arts, that I write rather to prove to you my desire of nourishing your correspondence, than of being able to give you any thing inte resting at this time. The political world is almost lulled to sleep by the lethargic state of the Dutch negotiation, which will proba bly end in peace. Nor does this court profess to apprehend, that the Emperor will involve this hemisphere in war by his schemes on Bavaria and Turkey. The arts, instead of advancing, have lately received a check, which will probably render stationary for a while, that branch of them which had promised to elevate us to the skies. Pilatre de Roziere, who had first ventured into that region, has fallen a sacrifice to it. In an attempt to pass from Bou logne over to England, a change in the wind having brought him back on the coast of France, some accident happened to his bal loon of inflammable air, which occasioned it to burst, and that of rarefied air combined with it being then unequal to the weight, they fell to the earth from a height, which the first reports made six thousand feet, but later ones have reduced to sixteen hun dred. Pilatre de Roziere was dead when a peasant, distant one hundred yards only, run to him ; but Romain, his companion, lived about ten minutes, though speechless, and without his senses. In literature there is nothing new. For I do not consider as having added any thing to that field, my own Notes, of which I have had a few copies printed. I will send you a copy by the first safe convey ance. Having troubled Mr. Otto with one for Colonel Monroe, I could not charge him with one for you. Pray ask the favor of Colonel Monroe in page 5, line 17, to strike out the words above the mouth of Appamattox, which make nonsense of the passage ; and I forgot to correct it before I had enclosed and sent off the copy to him. I arn desirous of preventing the reprinting this, should any book merchant think it worth it, till I hear from my friends, whether the terms in which I have spoken of slavery and the constitution of our State, will not, by producing an irritation, retard that reformation which I wish, instead of promoting it. Dr.