hundred and eighty slices, making every section in the plane of a circle of latitude, perpendicular to the axis:  every one of these slices, except the equatorial one, would be unbalanced, as there would be more matter on one side of its axis than on the other.  There could be but one diameter drawn through such a slice, which would divide it into two equal parts.  On every other possible diameter, the parts would hang unequal.  This would produce an irregularity in the diurnal rotation.  We may, therefore, conclude it impossible for the poles of the earth to shift, if it was made spheroidical; and that it would be made spheroidical, though solid, to obtain this end.  I use this reasoning only on the supposition, that the earth has had a beginning.  I am sure I shall read your conjectures on this subject with great pleasure, though I bespeak beforehand, a right to indulge my natural incredulity and scepticism.  The pain in which I write, awakens me here from my reverie, and obliges me to conclude with compliments to Mrs. Thomson, and assurances to yourself of the esteem and affection with which I am sincerely, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

P. S. Since writing the preceding, I have had a conversation on the subject of the steam-mills, with the famous Boulton, to whom those of London belong, and who is here at this time.  He compares the effect of steam with that of horses, in the following manner.  Six horses, aided with the most advantageous combination of the mechanical powers hitherto tried, will grind six bushels of flour in an hour; at the end of which time they are all in a foam, and must rest.  They can work thus six hours in the twenty-four, grinding thirty-six bushels of flour, which is six to each horse, for the twenty-four hours.  His steam-mill in London consumes one hundred and twenty bushels of coal in twenty-four hours, turns ten pair of stones, which grind eight bushels of flour an hour each, which is nineteen hundred and twenty bushels in the twenty-four hours.  This makes a peck and a half of coal perform exactly as much as a horse in one day can perform.

LETTER XXXIV.—­TO COLONEL MONROE, December 18, 1786

TO COLONEL MONROE.

Paris, December 18, 1786.

Dear Sir,

Your letters of August the 19th and October the 12th have come duly to hand.  My last to you was of the 11th of August.  Soon after that date I got my right wrist dislocated, which has till now deprived me of the use of that hand; and even now I can use it but slowly, and with pain.  The revisal of the Congressional intelligence contained in your letters, makes me regret the loss of it on your departure.  I feel, too, the want of a person there to whose discretion I can trust confidential communications, and on whose friendship I can rely against the unjust designs of malevolence.  I have no reason to suppose I have enemies in Congress; yet it is too possible, to be