ad no surplus flesh. He had an
iron constitution, and was very strong."

Jefferson was always the most cheerful and optimistic of men. He once
said, after remarking that something must depend "on the chapter of
events:" "I am in the habit of turning over the next leaf with hope, and,
though it often fails me, there is still another and another behind." No
doubt this sanguine trait was due in part at least to his almost perfect
health. He was, to use his own language, "blessed with organs of digestion
which accepted and concocted, without ever murmuring, whatever the palate
chose to consign to them." His habits through life were good. He never
smoked, he drank wine in moderation, he went to bed early, he was regular
in taking exercise, either by walking or, more commonly, by riding on
horseback.

The college of William and Mary in Jefferson's day is described by Mr.
Parton as "a medley of college, Indian mission, and grammar school,
ill-governed, and distracted by dissensions among its ruling powers." But
Jefferson had a thirst for knowledge and a capacity for acquiring it,
which made him almost independent of institutions of learning. Moreover,
there was one professor who had a large share in the formation of his
mind. "It was my great good fortune," he wrote in his brief autobiography,
"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 and
an enlarged liberal mind. He, most happily for me, soon became 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."

Jefferson, like all well-bred Virginians, was brought up as an
Episcopalian; but as a young man, perhaps owing in part to the influence
of Dr. Small, he ceased to believe in Christianity as a religion, though
he always at home attended the Episcopal church, and though his daughters
were brought up in that faith. If any theological term is to be applied to
him, he should be called a Deist. Upon the subject of his religious faith,
Jefferson was always extremely reticent. To one or two friends only did he
disclose his creed, and that was in letters which were published after his
death. When asked, even by one of his own family, for his opinion upon any