Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/328

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stances published about them. Their hatred against Great Bri tain, having lately received from that nation new cause and new aliment, has taken a new spring. Among the individuals of your acquaintance, nothing remarkable has happened. No revolution in the happiness of any of them has taken place, except that of the loss of their only child to Mr. and Mrs. Walker, who, however, left them a grand child for their solace, and that of your hum ble servant, who remains with no other family than two daughters, the elder here, (who was of your acquaintance) the younger in Virginia, but expected here the next summer. The character in which I am here, at present, confines me to this place, and will confine me as long as I continue in Europe. How long this will be, I cannot tell. I am now of an age which does not easily accommodate itself to new manners and new modes of living : and I am savage enough to prefer the woods, the wilds, and the inde pendence of Monticello, to all the brilliant pleasures of this gay Capital. I shall, therefore, rejoin myself to my native country, with new attachments, and with exaggerated esteem for its advantages ; for though there is less wealth there, there is more freedom, more ease, and less misery. I should like it better, however, if it could tempt you once more to visit it : but that is not to be expected. Be this as it may, and whether fortune means to allow or deny me the pleasure of ever seeing you again, be assured that the worth which gave birth to my attachment, and which still animates it, will continue to. keep it up while we both live, and that it is with sincerity I subscribe myself, Dear Sir,

your friend and servant,

TH: JEFFERSON.

LETTER CVI. TO JOHN LANGDON,

Paris, September 11, 1785. DEAR SIR,

Your Captain Yeaton being here, furnishes me an opportunity of paying the tribute of my congratulations on your appointment to the government of your State, which I do sincerely. He gives me the grateful intelligence of your health, and that of Mrs. Lang- don. Anxious to promote your service, and believing he could do it by getting himself naturalized here, and authorised to command your vessel, he came from Havre to Paris. But on making the best inquiries I could, it seemed that the time requisite to go through