the only sure barrier against
Hamilton's getting in.

*****

The Political Progress is a work of value and of a singular complexion.
The author's eye seems to be a natural achromatic, divesting every
object of the glare of color. The former work of the same title
possessed the same kind of merit. They disgust one, indeed, by opening
to his view the ulcerated state of the human mind. But to cure an ulcer
you must go to the bottom of it, which no author does more radically
than this. The reflections into which it leads us are not very
flattering to the human species. In the whole animal kingdom I
recollect no family but man, steadily and systematically employed in the
destruction of itself. Nor does what is called civilization produce any
other effect than to teach him to pursue the principle of the _bellum
omnium in omnia_ on a greater scale, and instead of the little contests
between tribe and tribe, to comprehend all the quarters of the earth
in the same work of destruction. If to this we add, that, as to other
animals, the lions and tigers are mere lambs compared with man as a
destroyer, we must conclude that nature has been able to find in man
alone a sufficient barrier against the too great multiplication of other
animals and of man himself, an equilibrating power against the fecundity
of generation. While, in making these observations, my situation points
my attention to the warfare of man in the physical world, yours may
perhaps present him as equally warring in the moral one.

Adieu. Yours affectionately.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CCIV.--TO MR. VOLNEY, January 8, 1797

TO MR. VOLNEY.

Monticello, January 8, 1797.

Dear Sir,

I received yesterday your two favors of December the 26th and 29th. Your
impatience to receive your valise and its key was natural: and it is we
who have been to blame; Mr. Randolph, for not taking information of the
vessel and address to which your valise was committed, and myself, for
having waited till I heard of your being again immerged into the land of
newspapers before forwarded your key. However, as you have at length got
them safe, I claim absolution under the proverb, that 'all is well which
ends well.'

About the end of 1793, I received from Mr. Dombey (then at Lyons)
a letter announcing his intention to come here. And in May, 1794, I
received one from a M. L'Epine, dated from New York, and stating himself
to be master of the brig De Boon, Captain Brown, which