Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/167

THOMAS JEFFERSON 131 and for want of which the people were perishing and the monarchy was in peril. He kept the American colleges advised of the new inventions, discoveries, and books of Europe. He was par ticularly zealous in sending home seeds, roots, and nuts for trial in American soil. During his journey to Italy he procured a quantity of the choicest rice for the planters of South Carolina, and he sup plied Buff on with American skins, skeletons, horns, and similar objects for his collection. In Paris he published his "Notes on Virginia," both in French and English, a work full of information concern ing its main subject, and at the same time sur charged with the republican sentiment then so grateful to the people of France. In 1786, when at length the Virginia legislature passed his "Act for Freedom of Religion," he had copies of it printed for distribution, and it was received with rapture by the advanced Liberals. It was his cus tom while travelling in France to enter the houses of the peasants and converse with them upon their affairs and condition. He would contrive to sit upon the bed, in order to ascertain what it was made of, and get a look into the boiling pot, to see what was to be the family dinner. He strongly advised Lafayette to do the same, saying: "You must ferret the people out of their hovels as I have done, look into their kettles, eat their bread, loll on their beds, on pretence of resting yourself, but in fact