The third volume, Logique, was not sold to Congress.

In a letter to Thomas Cooper from Monticello on July 10, 1812, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . glancing over the pages of your book, the last one caught my attention, where you recommend to students the books on metaphysics. not seeing De-Tutt Tracy’s name there, I suspected you might not have seen his work. his 1 ^st. vol. on Ideology appeared in 1800. I happen to have a duplicate of this and will send it to you. since that, has appeared his 2 ^d. vol. on Grammar, and his 3 ^d. on Logic. they are considered as holding the most eminent station in that line . . . ”

In a letter to William Duane, dated from Monticello January 22, 1813, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . he [i.e., Destutt de Tracy] has written a work entitled Ideology which has given him a high reputation in France. he considers that as having laid a solid foundation for the present volume on Political economy . . . ”

Writing on April 4, 1813, of Destutt de Tracy’s former “ treatise on Ideology,” to the same correspondent, Jefferson mentioned: “ . . . by the bye, it is surely to this work that Bonaparte alludes in his answer to his council of state, published not long since, in which he scouts ‘the dark & metaphysical doctrine of Ideology, which, diving into first causes, founds on this basis a legislation of the people &c.’ if indeed this answer be not a forgery; for every thing is now forged, even to the fat of our beef & mutton . . . ”

In a letter to John Adams from Monticello, October 14, 1816, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . Destutt-Tracy is, in my judgment, the ablest writer living on intellectual subjects, or the operations of the understanding. his three 8 ^vo. volumes on Ideology, which constitute the foundation of what he has since written, I have not indeed entirely read; because I am not fond of reading what is merely abstract, and unapplied immediately to some useful science. Bonaparte, with his repeated derisions of Ideologists (squinting at this author) has by this time felt that true wisdom does not lie in mere practice without principle. ” and again on January 11, 1817 to the same correspondent, who had written in reference to the “ 3 vols of Idiology” to ask Jefferson to explain this “ Neological Title.” “ . . . Tracy comprehends, under the word ‘Ideology’ all the subjects which the French term Morale, as the correlative to Physique . his works on logic, government, political economy, and morality, he considers as making up the circle of ideological subjects, or of those which are within the scope of the understanding, & not of the senses . . . ”

In a letter to Edward Everett on the Greek ablative, written from Monticello on March 27, 1824, Jefferson quoted a long passage from the second volume of Destutt de Tracy’s work: “ . . . turning, for satisfaction, to the work of Tracy, the most profound of our Ideological writers, and to the volume particularly which treats of grammar, I find what I suppose to be the correct doctrine of the case. omitting unnecessary words, to abridge writing, I copy what he says . . . ” Jefferson then copied from the Seconde partie, page 114, in 9 lines of his handwriting.

Comte Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de Tracy, 1754-1836, French philosopher, was, as Jefferson explained in a letter to John Adams, on November 25, 1816, connected with Lafayette’s family. In the same letter Jefferson informed Adams that he had just heard from Destutt de Tracy that he had become blind and so infirm that he is [ sic -- Ed. ] no longer able to compose anything.