by the Rev. James Maury, a Huguenot, a man of broad and independent mind, and a correct classical scholar. For two years he remained with this masterful tutor, working hard at his books during school time, and during holidays and vacations taking abundant exercise, hunting the mountains for their plentiful game and joining heartily in all the sports of boyhood.

In 1760, Jefferson of his own will and desire, began his studies at the College of William and Mary, situated at Williamsburg, the capital of the colonial government of Virginia. Williamsburg was an unpaved, hap-hazard village of about a thousand inhabitants. Small as the little capital may appear to us by comparison, it was nevertheless the center of much social and civic activity. While the legislature and Great Court were in session, prominent personages from all parts of the colony resided there with their families, and the winter season was passed in a round of pleasures and imposing functions. By reason of his connection with the Randolphs, Jefferson had easy access to the aristocratic set. Without the Randolphs he would probably have been long excluded from the fashionable circle, for he was a great, raw-boned, freckled-face, sandy-haired boy, awkward and shy. While he did not disdain the amusements of society, he did not forget the purpose for which he was spending his time and money in Williamsburg.

William and Mary was a poor specimen of a college in those days. It was poorly governed and poorly equipped, and its teachers were all that teachers should not be. There was one exception to this indictment. "It was my great good fortune," said Jefferson in speaking of his college days, "and what probably fixed the destinies of my life, that Dr. William Small of Scotland was then professor of mathematics, a man profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners, and an enlarged and liberal mind. He, most happily for me, became soon attached to me and made me his daily companion, when not engaged in the school; and from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science and of the system of things in which we are placed." Dr. Small was a skeptic as

well as a mathematician, and it was from him that Jefferson learned his first lessons in agnosticism.*

By the professor the student was introduced to Francis Fauquier, the Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia-the ablest man, in Jefferson's opinion, that ever held that position. Fauquier was a man of the world, an imitator of the manners and a disciple of the philosophy of Chesterfield, a liberal host, and a thorough-going sportsman, both on the turf and at the table. Jefferson spent much time in the company of the governor, and learned many things that were to be avoided and much that was to be imitated. A third associate was George Wythe, a high-principled, scholarly lawyer, who has the honor of having been the law preceptor of Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Henry Clay. These four-Dr. Small, Governor Fauquier, George Wythe, and "Tom" Jefferson-were the acknowledged intellectual leaders of Williamsburg; and who shall say that such a coterie was not a university in itself? It proved to be a university to Jefferson. From Fauquier he learned manners, from Wythe the meaning of scholarship, and from Dr. Small the habit of thinking for himself. His mind thus awakened never relapsed into provincial slumber. The attainments of his friends stimulated him to an industry that knew no bounds. He sometimes studied fifteen hours a day.

After two years of this sweet and wholesome intimacy, the circle was broken. Dr. Small returned to Great Britain, there to become famous. The heart of the college was now gone, and Jefferson left it to return to his home at Shadwell. He took with him a sound knowledge of French, Greek, Latin, and the higher mathematics, good health, and an open, inquisitive mind. Better than all, he took away with him good habits. He had refused to join in the governor's gaming, he had not partaken of his wine, and he had not learned to use tobacco. college morally sound.

He left

There was one thing the youth of seventeen had brought to Williamsburg that the youth of nineteen did not take away

*See Religion, page 357; Christianity, page 152; Jesus, page 270. †See Habits of Jefferson, page 237.

with him: that was his heart. Amid the social pleasures of the capital, he had looked long and fondly into the eyes of Rebecca Burwell, an heiress and a flamboyant and cruel beauty. Now that he was separated from her, he found that the image of the girl had burned itself into his soul, and that his peace of mind was gone. Upon leaving college he had made arrangements to read law under the direction of his friend Wythe, and had taken home his Coke and Littleton. "But to the devil with Coke; Coke is an old scoundrel," wrote the miserable youth to his friend Page. After the manner of young men in love for the first time, he bitterly bemoaned his fate. Numerous letters in which he describes his wretched condition have been preserved. "Inclination tells me to go," he writes to Page, "receive my sentence and be no longer in suspense; but reason says if you go and your attempt proves unsuccessful, you will be ten times more wretched than ever. If Belinda (a love-name for Rebecca) will not accept of my service, it shall never be offered to another." To be sure not! But the asseveration does credit to his heart.

Sometimes he is more hopeful, as when he writes to his friend Fleming: "I have thought of the cleverest plan of life that can be imagined. You exchange lands for Edgehill, or I mine for Fairfields; you marry Sukey Potter, I marry Rebecca Burwell, join and get a pole-chair and a pair of keen horses, and drive about to all the dances in the country together. How do you like it?" A fine program, but in a few short months he wrote to Fleming again: "With regard to the scheme I proposed to you sometime since, I am sorry to tell you it is totally frustrated by Miss Rebecca Burwell's marriage with Jacquelin Ambler."

The young man drowned his disappointment in dull old Coke. He read deeply of the law, following its history back beyond Coke, beyond Littleton, beyond Bracton, even to its Anglo-Saxon origins. Abstracts from Jefferson's note-book, kept while he was a student of the law, have come down to us, and these show that he had the instincts of a scholar, patient, accurate and fearless in his investigations. For four years he

pursued his law studies, spending his winters in Williamsburg and his summers on his estate of Shadwell. Once he left his books to take a journey and get a glimpse of the outside world. In a one-horse chaise he traveled north as far as New York, passing through Annapolis and Philadelphia. At the latter place, in obedience to his penchant for science, he had himself inoculated for small-pox. In New York he made the acquaintance of Elbridge Gerry, a young man whose ideals and aims were similar to his own. The young men conceived a deep regard for each other and for many years were political allies, Gerry being the most powerful supporter of Jefferson in New England. Soon after his return from this trip, Jefferson was admitted to the practice of the law at the bar of the General Court of Virginia. He was now in his twenty-fourth year.

JEFFERSON AS A FARMER AND LAWYER.

The civilization of Virginia in the eighteenth century was uniformly and universally rural. When Jefferson at the age of seventeen entered Williamsburg, he had never in his life seen a collection of houses numbering as many as a dozen. There were no large towns, no manufacturing industries, no intercounty or inter-colonial commerce. Farming was the one occupation of the people, and tobacco the one product of the farm. Tobacco, as has been pithily said, was king. The farms -large tracts of land consisting sometimes of thousands of acres were tilled by slaves. Slavery and tobacco formed the basis of society. Jefferson was a farmer, owned slaves, and impoverished his land by the cultivation of tobacco. He esteemed farmers as God's chosen people and he never ceased to praise agriculture* as the only moral and ennobling vocation. As the oldest son of Peter Jefferson he inherited, besides a number of slaves, the homestead, Shadwell-an estate of nineteen hundred acres of the finest land in Virginia, situated on the Rivanna, a tributary of the James. When the young man took possession of his lands the Rivanna was unnavigable for

*See Agriculture, page 135.

boats of any kind, but it was not long before he had its channels deepened and the stream rendered useful to himself and his neighbors a servicet which he deemed worthy of being ranked among the greatest of his life. The management of the plantation was assumed by Jefferson, who throughout his life was what we should call, in these days, a scientific farmer. His "garden-book," a monument of detail and patience, shows that he was deeply interested in the processes of nature, and that he brought to bear the keenest observation and the most careful reflection upon numberless experiments in garden, orchard, and field. His avowed ambition was to make two blades of grass grow where one had grown before. Although much given to theory, he was sufficiently practical to make his farm pay. For many years it yielded him an annual income of two thousand dollars, which, combined with an income of three thousand dollars made by the practice of the law, enabled him by the year 1774 to increase the number of his acres from nineteen hundred to five thousand and the number of his slaves from thirty to fifty-four. It is but just to say, however, that no slaves were ever bought as an investment. We shall see that Jefferson was quite incapable of engaging in such a traffic.

As a lawyer Jefferson was successful from the beginning. He was no orator; he was not even an agreeable public speaker. When elevated, his voice grew husky and indistinct. Yet in other respects he was admirably qualified for the bar. His talent for investigation enabled him to bring his cases into court thoroughly prepared, and a faculty for summarizing a case, however complex or vast, in a few short sentences, made it possible for him to dispense with the tricks of the fluent advocate. During the first year of his practice he had sixty cases before the General Court of Virginia. The second year brought him one hundred and fifteen cases. Among his clients were the Blands, Burwells, Carters, Harrisons, Randolphs, Lees, Nelsons, Pages. He continued in a lucrative practice until 1774, when the duties of public office practically ended his career as an attorney,

†See Services of Jefferson, page 381.