“ upon my Hands; so that what with selecting & arranging the manuscripts, superintending the Press, making the necessary Drawings & continually watching & urging the Engraver I have my Hands full of it. I hope the volume will be complete in about two months. I shall not fail sending you a copy as early as possible . . .”

On March 28 Hopkinson sent to Jefferson the sheets of his article [No. XIX in the printed volume], An improved Method of Quilling a Harpsichord: “. . . Our Second Volume of Transactions is going on with Spirit. I send you a few Sheets, containing my Improvements in the Harp . . .”

On May 1, Hopkinson wrote to Jefferson: “. . . You say you had written to me on the 3 ^d. of Janu ^ry but that Letter has not got to hand. My last to you was dated the 28 ^th. of March, by a vessel from hence to L’Orient. I enclosed, for your amusement, a few Pages of our Volume of Philosophical Transactions, now in the Press. That work is going on & will be published, I hope, in about Six or Eight Weeks--I shall take Care to forward a Copy to you as early as possible . . .”

On June 28 Hopkinson wrote to announce that he was sending a copy: “I would fain deserve the good Character you were pleased to give me in one of your late Letters--that of a punctual Correspondent. Our Volume of Philosophical Transactions made it’s first appearance in public yesterday & to Day I shall put one on the way at last to your Hand . . .”

Jefferson acknowledged the receipt of the copy in a letter dated from Paris on December 23: “ . . . I thank you for the volume of the Phil. Trans. which came safely to hand, & is in my opinion a very valuable volume & contains many precious papers . . . ”

Both David Rittenhouse, a fellow Counsellor, and Benjamin Franklin, the President of the Society, also sent to Jefferson a copy of Volume II. Rittenhouse’s letter is dated from Philadelphia on June 26, two days earlier than that of Hopkinson: “Your favour of Jan. 25 ^th. I received sometime ago, and likewise all the Nautical Almanac’s you mention, except that for 1790. As a small return for all your favours I beg you will accept a copy of the second Volume of the Transactions of our Philosophical Society, which I have sent to M ^r. Adams at London requesting him to transmit it to you. Shou’d you be furnished with the publication before this arrives it will serve to oblige some friend . . .”

On April 14 of the following year, 1787, in a letter to Jefferson, Rittenhouse mentioned: “About the latter end of June last I sent you the 2 ^d. Vol. of our Transactions, directed to M ^r. Adams at London. I afterwards found that M ^r. Adams was at that time absent, it is therefore probable that you have not yet recived it, should it still come to hand it may give you an opportunity of gratifying some friend . . .”

Jefferson’s reply from Paris is dated September 18, 1787: “ I am now to acknolege the receipt of your favour of April 14. & June 26 as also of the 2 ^d. vol. of the Transactions you were so kind as to send me. it would have been a grateful present indeed could you have accompanied them with a copy of your observations on our Western country. besides the interest I feel in that country in common with others, I have a particular one as having ventured so many crudities on that subject. a copy of these with some late corrections I have put into a box of books sent to m ( ^~ r) Madison, and another for m( ^~ r) Hopkinson I hope he will forward them to you from New York . . . I shall be happy to recieve an account of your improvement in time pieces, as well as the 3 ^d. vol. of the Transactions when published. There are abundance of good things in the 2 ^d. vol. but I must say there are several which had not merit enough to be placed in such company. I think we should be a little rigid in our admission of papers. it is the peculiar privilege derived from our not being obliged to publish a volume in any fixed period of time . . . ”

Benjamin Franklin sent a copy to Jefferson with a letter dated October 8, 1786: “I obey with Pleasure the Order of the Philosophical Society, in transmitting to you the enclos’d Proof of their Respect for you, and of the ”