Your most obedient, humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER XXIX.—­TO MRS. COSWAY, October 13, 1786

TO MRS. COSWAY.

Paris, October 13, 1786.

My Dear Madam,

Just as I had sealed the enclosed, I received a letter of a good length, dated Antwerp, with your name at the bottom.  I prepared myself for a feast.  I read two or three sentences:  looked again at the signature, to see if I had not mistaken it.  It was visibly yours.  Read a sentence or two more.  Diable!  Spelt your name distinctly.  There was not a letter of it omitted.  Began to read again.  In fine, after reading a little, and examining the signature alternately, half a dozen times, I found that your name was to four lines only, instead of four pages.  I thank you for the four lines, however, because they prove you think of me; little, indeed, but better little than none.  To show how much I think of you, I send you the enclosed letter of three sheets of paper, being a history of the evening I parted with you.  But how expect you should read a letter of three mortal sheets of paper?  I will tell you.  Divide it into six doses of half a sheet each, and every day, when the toilette begins, take a dose, that is to say, read half a sheet.  By this means, it will have the only merit its length and dulness can aspire to, that of assisting your coiffeuse to procure you six good naps of sleep.  I will even allow you twelve days to get through it, holding you rigorously to one condition only, that is, that at whatever hour you receive this, you do not break the seal of the enclosed till the next toilette.  Of this injunction I require a sacred execution.  I rest it on your friendship, and that in your first letter, you tell me honestly, whether you have honestly performed it.  I send you the song I promised.  Bring me in return the subject, Jours heureux! Were I a songster, I should sing it all to these words; ‘Dans ces lieux qu’elle tarde a se rendre!’ Learn it, I pray you, and sing it with feeling.  My right hand presents its devoirs to you, and sees with great indignation the left supplanting it in a correspondence so much valued.  You will know the first moment it can resume its rights.  The first exercise of them shall be addressed to you, as you had the first essay of its rival.  It will yet, however, be many a day.  Present my esteem to Mr. Cosway, and believe me to be yours very affectionately,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER XXX.—­M.  LE ROY DE L’ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES, November 13, 1786

M. LE ROY DE L’ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES.

Paris, November 13, 1786.

Sir,

I received the honor of yours of September the 18th, a day or two after the accident of a dislocated wrist had disabled me from writing.  I have waited thus long in constant hope of recovering its use.  But finding that this hope walks before me like my shadow, I can no longer oppose the desire and duty of answering your polite and learned letter.  I therefore employ my left hand in the office of scribe, which it performs indeed slowly, awkwardly, and badly.