“ tains. However should you refuse me this, any alteration you may suggest shall be attended to, with that pleasure which I shall always have in complying with your wishes . . .”

Jefferson replied on the 15th: “ Your favor of the 13 ^th. is recieved. in the paper which your partiality for me proposes to prefix to your work I have ventured to make an alteration in the first paragraph because it contained an unnecessary & perhaps injurious reflection on foreign characters.

" Certainly it must be to every man the greatest of gratifications to enjoy the good opinion of his fellow citizens, & especially of the thinking part of them, who examine & approve before they praise. yet in expressing this to the public a due moderation is necessary. and I refer to your own consideration whether the expressions which your partiality for me induces you to hazard, would not be less likely to excite dissent in others, if they were moderated through the whole of the composition. I confess they would much better accord with the consciousness of my own mind, which while it’s wishes to do well are without measure, is perfectly aware that it’s powers of effecting it are very limited. I do not say this from a false modesty, but from the observation that praise beyond it’s due limits defeats itself.

" I subscribe with pleasure to Bell’s chirurgery, which is one of the most valuable books a family can possess. I do not recollect whether I have done the same by your own book of chemistry. but certainly I wish to be one of it’s subscribers . . . ”

Ewell wrote on August 28: “My opinion of your goodness towards everyone, is such that I cannot give way to the fear that you may be offended at my addressing you so frequently.--Indeed it is with unaffected diffidence I now offer for your consideration, the first pages of that work, of the plan of which you were pleased to approve. My feelings are common to those who engage in hazardous enterprises, on which they are to rise--or fall for-ever. Upon reflection I thought it most prudent to alter those parts of the dedication alluding to your exertions in the political world. This was done with a view to avoid exciting in prejudiced & ill-natured persons that dissent which would prompt them to analyze the performance so minutely, as to exhibit in the strongest colors those defects which might retard its sale: for I was fully sensible that my writings are not fit for the scrutinizing eye. In the present state I hope you’ll accept of the dedication as a testimony of the fact that there is no other person for whom I have such unbounded respect & gratitude.

"I beg that you will not be displeased at seeing your letter in the preface of the work: Its value led me to insert it; & I cannot avoid believing with Dr. Rush that a letter of the kind & from such an influential source, ought to preface every book on chemistry . . .

"Should you favor me by reading the first pages of my discourses, you will find something new. In fact it is only the three first & two last discourses which have the least claim for your perusal . . .”

This letter had a postscript: “If it would not be too troublesome, I would be thankful if you would be pleased to return by mail, the Discourses after having read them.”

Jefferson subscribed for a copy of the book for which he paid Ewell $ 3.00; Ewell’s signed receipt for that sum is dated December 27, 1806. His manuscript catalogue calls for two copies; only one was sold to Congress.

Thomas Ewell, 1785-1826, was the son of a friend and classmate of Jefferson at William and Mary, at which college this work was eventually used as a text book. Ewell entered the naval hospital through Jefferson’s influence and became a naval surgeon.