struction, riding to the University grounds almost every day, a
distance of four miles, and back, and watching with paternal solicitude
the laying of every brick and stone. His design was the perhaps
over-ambitious one of displaying in the University buildings the various
leading styles of architecture; and certain practical inconveniences, such
as the entire absence of closets from the houses of the professors, marred
the result. Some offense also was given to the more religious people of
Virginia, by the selection of a Unitarian as the first professor. However,
Jefferson's enthusiasm, ingenuity, and thoroughness carried the scheme
through with success; and the University still stands as a monument to its
founder.

It should be recorded, moreover, that under Jefferson's regency the
University of Virginia adopted certain reforms, which even Harvard, the
most progressive of eastern universities, did not attain till more than
half a century later. These were, an elective system of studies; the
abolition of rules and penalties for the preservation of order, and the
abolition of compulsory attendance at religious services.

Mr. Jefferson's daily life was simple and methodical. He rose as soon as
it was light enough for him to see the hands of a clock which was opposite
his bed. Till breakfast time, which was about nine o'clock, he employed
himself in writing. The whole morning was devoted to an immense
correspondence; the discharge of which was not only mentally, but
physically distressing, inasmuch as his crippled hands, each wrist having
been fractured, could not be used without pain. In a letter to his old
friend, John Adams, he wrote: "I can read by candle-light only, and
stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be indulged to me
could I by that light see to write. From sunrise to one or two o'clock,
and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing-table. And all
this to answer letters, in which neither interest nor inclination on my
part enters; and often from persons whose names I have never before heard.
Yet writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers." At his
death Jefferson left copies of 16,000 letters, being only a part of those
written by himself, and 26,000 letters written by others to him.

At one o'clock he set out upon horseback, and was gone for one or two
hours,--never attended by a servant, even when he became old and infirm. He
continued these rides until he had beco