The Alumni Bulletin of the University of Virginia Volume . 7, 1-5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... books as decorative furniture, but each book was bought to read and study. It required sixteen wagons to transport his ten thousand books to Washington and it was found that they were written in many languages and comprised in their sweep nearly every department of intellectual activity. When he planned the great University, in which I have the honor to speak, his idea of the curriculum was botany, chemistry, zoology, anatomy, surgery, medicine, natural philosophy, agriculture, mathematics, astronomy, biography, politics, commerce, history, ethics, the law, the industrial and the fine arts and in all of these his versatile mind had some proficiency. Few men in recorded history have been more versatile than Jefferson. In this respect he is only surpassed in our history by Franklin and he belongs to the class of universal genius of which Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci were the greatest illustrations. Here was a man who could supervise a farm, study nature like a scientist, make useful inventions, draw the plans for a mansion or a public building with the detail of a finished architect, play a Mozart minuet on the violin, ride after the hounds, write a brief or manage an intricate law case, draft State papers of exceptional importance and conduct correspondence with distinguished men in half a dozen languages upon questions of history, law, ethics, politics, science, literature and fine arts. "To him the ancient classics were 'a sublime luxury, ' and he thanked God that He had given him in his early education this great source of delight. One of his recreations was the reading of Homer in its melodious original. His linguistic attainments included Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, Italian and Gaelic. With his all-absorbing love of study, ...