nowledge, which they may apply usefully for
their country; but they are subject ever after to recollections mixed
with regret; their affections are weakened by being extended over more
objects; and they learn new habits, which cannot be gratified when
they return home. Young men who travel are exposed to all these
inconveniences in a higher degree, to others still more serious, and do
not acquire that wisdom for which a previous foundation is requisite, by
repeated and just observations at home. The glare of pomp and pleasure
is analogous to the motion of the blood; it absorbs all their affection
and attention; they are torn from it as from the only good in this
world, and return to their home as to a place of exile and condemnation.
Their eyes are for ever turned back to the object they have lost, and
its recollection poisons the residue of their lives. Their first and
most delicate passions are hackneyed on unworthy objects here, and they
carry home the dregs, insufficient to make themselves or any body else
happy. Add to this, that a habit of idleness, an inability to apply
themselves to business is acquired, and renders them useless to
themselves and their country. These observations are founded in
experience. There is no place where your pursuit of knowledge will be
so little obstructed by foreign objects, as in your own country, nor any
wherein the virtues of the heart will be less exposed to be weakened. Be
good, be learned, and be industrious, and you will not want the aid
of travelling, to render you precious to your country, dear to your
friends, happy within yourself. I repeat my advice, to take a great deal
of exercise, and on foot. Health is the first requisite after morality.
Write to me often, and be assured of the interest I take in your
success, as well as the warmth of those sentiments of attachment with
which I am, Dear Peter, your affectionate friend,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER LXXXV.--TO DR. GILMER, August 11, 1787

TO DR. GILMER.

Paris, August 11, 1787.

Dear Doctor,

Your letter of January the 9th, 1787, came safely to hand in the month
of June last. Unluckily you forgot to sign it, and your hand-writing is
so Protean, that one cannot be sure it is yours. To increase the causes
of incertitude, it was dated Pen-Park, a name which I only know, as the
seat of John Harmer. The hand-writing, too, being somewhat in his style,
made me ascribe it hastily to him, indorse it with his name, and