Jefferson mentioned Gassendi in a letter on Epicureanism, addressed to William Short from Monticello on October 31, 1819:
“
. . . I have sometimes thought of translating Epictetus (for he has never been tolerably translated into English) of adding
the genuine doctrines of Epicurus from the Syntagma of Gassendi, and an Abstract from the Evangelists of whatever has the
stamp of the eloquence and fine imagination of Jesus . . .
”
Pierre Gassendi, 1592-1655, French philosopher and mathematician. In this collected edition of his works, the
Appendix Altera, qvæ est Philosophiæ Epicvri Syntagma is in Volume VI.
Henri Louis Hubert de Montmor, d. 1679, was the editor of this edition.
[4914]
27
L. Bacon’s works.
4. v.
fol.
1815 Catalogue, page 169, no. 37, Bacon’s works, 4 v fol.
BACON,
Sir Francis, Viscount St. Albans.
The Works of Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, Lord High Chancellor of England. In
Four Volumes. With several Additional Pieces, Never before printed in any Edition of his Works. To which is prefixed, A New Life of the
Author, By Mr. Mallet.
London: Printed for
A. Millar, against St. Clement’s Church, in the Strand.
m.dcc.xl
. [1740]
B1153 1740
4 vol. Folio. 323, 308 (including 2 folded sheets), 318 and 386 leaves, engraved frontispiece in each volume, in the first
a portrait by George Vertue, in the third and fourth, Bacon in his tomb, the former by W. Hollar, 1670, the latter by Vertue, titles printed in black and red, with an engraved vignette on each one; list of subscribers at the beginning of Volume I.
Lowndes I, 93.
Cambridge Bibl. of Eng. Lit. I, 868.
Gibson no. 256.
Jefferson expressed his opinion of Sir Francis Bacon in a letter addressed to John Trumbull, and dated from Paris February
15, 1789: “
I have duly received your favor of the 5
th. inst. with respect to the busts and pictures. I will put off till my return from America all of them except Bacon, Locke
and Newton, whose pictures I will trouble you to have copied for me: and as I consider them as the three greatest men that
have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised
in the Physical & Moral sciences, I would wish to form them into a knot on the same canvas . . .
”
His practical use of Bacon’s works is shown in his reports and letters. In his report as Secretary of State to the House of
Representatives, dated November 21, 1791, on Jacob Isaack’s method of converting salt water to fresh, Jefferson wrote: “
. . . Lord Bacon, to whom the world is indebted for the first germs of so many branches of science, had observed, that with
a heat sufficient for distillation, salt will not rise in vapour, and that salt water distilled is fresh . . .
”
In a letter to Thomas Cooper dated from Monticello August 25, 1814, concerning the establishment of the University of Virginia,
Jefferson wrote: “
In my letter of Jan. 16. I mentioned to you that it had long been in contemplation to get an University established in this state, in
which all the branches of science useful
to us,
and
at this day,
should be taught in their highest degree; and that this institution should be incorporated with the college and funds of
W
m. & Mary. but what are the sciences useful to us, and at this day thought useful to any body? a glance over Bacon’s arbor
scientiae will shew the foundation for this question, & how many of his ramifications of science are now lopt off as nugatory
. . .
”
For Jefferson on the
Advancement of Learning
see the next entry.
Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, 1561-1626, Lord Chancellor of England. The first edition of his
Opera Omnia was published in 1665.
David Mallet, 1705?-1765, Scots poet and miscellaneous writer, was the editor of this edition of 1740. The life of Bacon by him at the
beginning of the first volume was separately published in the same year.
