This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in
the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and
excellent father has requested that I would address to you something
which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life
you have to run; and I, too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that
course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your
part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor
as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true.
Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you
have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if
to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world, every
action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell.
MONTICELLO, February 21, 1825.
_The Portrait of a good man by the most sublime of Poets, for your
Imitation._[2]
Lord, who’s the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair;
Not stranger like to visit them, but to inhabit there?
’Tis he whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves;
Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart disproves.
Who never did a slander forge, his neighbor’s fame to wound;
Nor hearken to a false report by malice whispered round.
Who vice in all its pomp and power can treat with just neglect;
And piety, though clothed in rags, religiously respect.
Who to his plighted vows and trust has ever firmly stood;
And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good.
Whose soul in usury disdains his treasures to employ;
Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy.
The man who, by this steady course, has happiness insured,
When earth’s foundations shake, shall stand by Providence secured.
Footnote 2:
Paraphrase of Psalm xv.
_A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life._