Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 4 - 2nd ed.djvu/311

 CaRRESPONDENCE. 299 and know better than I do the character of his herd. I salute Mrs. Adams and yourself with every sentiment of affectionate cor- diahty and respect.

LETTER CXXXIX.

TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, January 11, 1817.

,

Forty-three volumes read in one year, and twelve of them quarto! Dear Sir, how I envy you ! Half a dozen octavos in that space of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my rest : nor would that time be indulged to me, could I by that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o'clock, and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all this to answer letters into which neither interest nor inclination on my part enters ; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard. Yet, writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers. This is the burthen of my life, a very grievous one indeed, and one which I must get rid of. Delaplaine lately requested me to give him a line on the subject of his book ; meaning, as I well knew, to pub- lish it. This I constantly refuse ; but in this instance yielded, that in saying a word for him, I might say two for myself. I ex- pressed in it freely my sufferings from this source ; hoping it would have the effect of an indirect appeal to the discretion of those, strangers and others, who, in the most friendly dispositions, op- press me with their concerns, their pursuits, their projects, inven- tions, and speculations, political, moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical, historical, &,c. &c. &;c. I hope the appeal will bring me relief, and that I shall be left to exercise and enjoy cor- respondence with the friends I love, and on subjects which they, or my own inclinations, present. In that case, your letters shall not be so long on my files unanswered, as sometimes they have been to my great mortification.

To advert now to the subjects of those of December the 12th and 16th. Tracy's Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been pubhshed in the original. Duane printed a translation from the original manuscript a few years ago. It sold, I believe, read- ily, and whether a copy can now be had, I doubt. If it can, you