ned by merit, and not by solicitation, may always be
accepted without the imputation of vanity. Of this nature is the
degree which your masters proposed to confer on you. I congratulate you
sincerely on it. It will be a pleasing event to yourself; it will be the
same to your parents and friends, and to none more than myself. Go on
deserving applause, and you will be sure to meet with it: and the way to
deserve it, is to be good, and to be industrious. I am sure you will be
good, and hope you will be industrious. As to your future plan, I am
too distant from you, to advise you on sure grounds. In general, I am
of opinion that till the age of about sixteen, we are best employed on
languages; Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish, or such of them as we can.
After this, I think the College of William and Mary the best place to
go through courses of Mathematics, Natural Philosophy in its different
branches, and Law. Of the languages I have mentioned, I think Greek the
least useful. Write me word, from time to time, how you go on. I shall
always be glad to assist you with any books you may have occasion for,
and you may count with certainty on every service I can ever render you,
as well as on the sincere esteem of, Dear Jack, yours affectionately,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER LXXIII.--TO A. DONALD, July 28, 1787

TO A. DONALD.

Paris, July 28, 1787.

Dear Sir,

I received with infinite satisfaction your letter of the 1st of March:
it was the first information I had of your being in America. There is no
person whom I shall see again with more cordial joy, whenever it shall
be my lot to return to my native country; nor any one whose prosperity,
in the mean time, will be more interesting to me. I find as I grow
older, that I set a higher value on the intimacies of my youth, and am
more afflicted by whatever loses one of them to me. Should it be in my
power to render any service, in your shipment of tobacco to Havre de
Grace, I shall do it with great pleasure. The order of Bernis has, I
believe, been evaded by the Farmers General as much as possible. At
this moment, I receive information from most of the seaports, that they
refuse taking any tobacco, under the pretext, that they have purchased
their whole quantity. From Havre I have heard nothing, and believe you
will stand a better chance there than any where else. Being one of the
ports of manufacture, too, it is entitled to a higher price. I have now
desired that the Fa