se for a scientific knowledge of
birds and flowers and the host of life that thronged the forest. And when
the pair had strayed so far beyond the town that darkness gathered and the
stars came out, they conversed of the wonders of the sky.

The true scientist has no passion for killing things. He says with
Thoreau, "To shoot a bird is to lose it." Professor Small had the gentle
instinct that respects life, and he refused to take that which he could
not give. To his youthful companion he imparted, in a degree, the secret
of enjoying things without the passion for possession and the lust of
ownership.

There is a myth abroad that college towns are intellectual centers; but
the number of people in a college town (or any other) who really think, is
very few.

Williamsburg was gay, and, this much said, it is needless to add it was
not intellectual. But Professor Small was a thinker, and so was Governor
Fauquier; and these two were firm friends, although very unlike in many
ways. And to "the palace" of the courtly Fauquier, Small took his young
friend Jefferson. Fauquier was often a master of the revels, but after his
seasons of dissipation he turned to Small for absolution and comfort. At
these times he seemed to Jefferson a paragon of excellence. To the grace
of the French he added the earnestness of the English. He quoted Pope, and
talked of Swift, Addison and Thomson. Fauquier and Jefferson became
friends, although more than a score of years and a world of experience
separated them. Jefferson caught a little of Fauquier's grace, love of
books and delight in architecture. But Fauquier helped him most by
gambling away all his ready money and getting drunk and smoking strong
pipes with his feet on the table. And Jefferson then vowed he would never
handle a card, nor use tobacco, nor drink intoxicating liquors. And in
conversation with Small, he anticipated Buckle by saying, "To gain
leisure, wealth must first be secured; but once leisure is gained, more
people use it in the pursuit of pleasure than employ it in acquiring
knowledge."

* * * * *

Had Jefferson lived in a great city he would have been an architect. His
practical nature, his mastery of mathematics, his love of proportion, and
his passion for music are the basic elements that make a Christopher Wren.
But Virginia, in Seventeen Hundred Sixty-five, offered no temptation to
ambitions along that line; log houses with a goodly "crac