Year: 1875




IT'S natures Elnue,t boon TO die!


| really think 50. have ever dreaded Il
dotng old age; and my health has been
generally so good that dread it still. The
rapid decline Of my strength during the last
winter has made me hope sometimes that
see land. During summer, | enjoy its tenn
peraturc but shudder at the approach of
winter, and wish | could sleep through it
with the dormousc, and only wake with him
in spring, if ever. They say that Stark
could walk about his room. | am told
you walk and firmly. | can only reach my
garden and that with sensible fatigue.
ride however, daily; but reading is my de-
| light. | should never wish to put my pen
to paper and the more because the treacher-
Gus practice some people have Of publishing
ones letters without leave. Lord NJ Nanslield
declared it Il breach of trust, and punisha-
Bile at law. | think it should be Il peniten-
tiary felony; yet you will see that they have
drawn me out Of the arena of the newspa-
pers. Although know it is too late for me
to buckle on the armor of youth, yet my in
| dignation would not permit me passiyely ia
receive the kick of an ass.


To turn to the news of the day; it seeems
that the cannibals Of Europe are going to
eating one another again. A war between
Russia and Turkey is like the battle of the
kite and snake; which ever destroys the 9TH
err leave, a destroyer the less for the world
| This puguaciou5 humor of mankind seems tC
I be the law of his nIture-One Of the obsta-
cles to too great multiplication provided in
the mechanism of the universe. The cock,
of the hen yard kill one another; bulls
bears, rams do the same; and the horse in
his wild state, kills all the young males,
until worn down with age and war, some
vigorous youth kills him.
nope we shall prove how much happier 70,
man the Quaker policy is, and that the life
of the feeder is better than that of the fight
er; and it is some consolation to the desola
tion Of these maniac5 of one part of the
earth is the means of improving the othe
parts. Let the latter be our office, and le
us milk the COW while the Russians hold he
by the horns and the Turks by the tail. Goo
bless you and give you health, strength
good spirits and as much of life as you thnl
worth having THos. JEFFERSON.


MR.. ADAMss REPLY.


QUINCY, June II, 1922. Dear Sir; Hal
an hour ago | received and this moment
have heard read for the third time, the bes
letter that ever was written by an octogena
rian, dated June |.
have not sprained my wrist, but both m!
hands and arms are 50 overstrained that
cannot write line. Poor Stark remembered
nothing and could talk of nothing but tn,
battle of Bennington is no
quite SO reduced. | cannot mount my horse
but can walk three miles over rugged
rocky mountain, and have done it within
month; yet ! feel when sitting in my chai
Us if could not rise out of it; and wher
risen as if could not walk across the room
My sight is very dim, hearing pretty good
memory poor enough,


answer you queston-is death an evil
1t isnot an evil 1t is blessing to the in
diyidual and to the world; vet we ought no
to wish ior it till life becomes insupporable
We must wait the pleasure and convenience
of the "Great Teacher" Winter is as terri
BILE to me as to you. am almost reduce,
in lit to the life of a bear or a torpid swallow
| cannot read, but my delight is to hear 9th
ers read, and | tax all my friends most un