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the course he pursued. "I talk of ploughs and harrows," he wroteto a friend," of seeding and harvesting, with my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of being free to say and do what I please, without being responsible for it to any mortal." A part of his occupation, and one in which he took great delight, was the direction of the studies of young men; multitudes of whom resorted to him, as to an Oracle, to imbibe the inspirations of his councils, and listen to the incantations of his genius. They located themselves in the neighboring village of Charlottesville, where they were invited to a free access to his library, enjoyed the benefit of his counsel, participated of his cordial hospitality, and made an interesting part of his daily society. "In advising the course of their reading" said he, "I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils and government of their country, they will keep ever in view the sole objects of all legitimate government."

The agricultural operations of Mr. Jefferson were conducted upon an extensive scale, and consequently engaged a great share of his attention, by no means the least pleasantly. The domains at Monticello, including the adjoining estates, contained about eleven thou sand acres, of which about fifteen hundred were cleared. In addition to this, he owned a large estate in Bedford county, by right of his wife, from which he raised annually about 40,000 weight of tobacco, and grain sufficient to maintain the plantation. He visited this estate, about seventy miles distant, once every year, which kept him from home six or seven weeks at a time. He had about two hundred negroes on his farms, who required a constant superintendance; more especially, under the peculiar system of agriculture pursued by Mr. Jefferson, of which some notice has heretofore been taken. But his choicest labors, in this department, were bestowed on that delightful and beloved spot, where all his labors were to end, as they had been begun. He had reclaimed its awful ruggedwhen a very young man, and of its wilderness made a garden; and now, in his old age, he returned, with all the enthusiasm of his early efforts, to the further development and improvement of the natural beauties of a site, whose bold and gigantic features, whose far-reaching prospects, whose tranquil and immovable brow

ness,

amidst the agitations of the storm below, were eminently in unison with the elements of his character. A more particular description of this celebrated seat may not be unedifying to the majority of read

ers.

MONTICELLO is derived from the Italian, and announces the owner's attachment, at once, to that beautiful language, and to the fine arts, of which Italy is both the cradle, and the favorite abode. It signifies 'little mountain,'-modest title for a bold and isolated eminence, which rises six hundred feet above the surrounding country, and commands one of the most extensive and variegated prospects in the world. The base of the mountain, which is washed by the Ravanna, exceeds a mile in diameter; and its sides are encompassed by four parallel roads, sweeping round it at equal distances, and so connected with each other by easy ascents, as to afford, when completed, a level carriage-way of almost seven miles. The whole mountain, with the exception of the summit, is covered with a dense and lofty forest. On the top is an elliptic plain, of about ten acres, formed by the hand of art cutting down the apex of the mountain: and, in its richly cultivated aspect, contrasting powerfully with the unreclaimed and wild magnificence of the subjacent world. This extensive artificial level is laid out in a beautiful lawn, broken only by lofty weeping willows, poplars, acacias, catalpas and other trees of foreign growth, distributed at such distances, as not to obstruct the view from the centre in any direction. On the West, stretching away to the North and the South, the prospect is bounded only by the Alleganies,—a hundred miles distant in some parts,—overreaching all the intervening mountains, commanding a view of the Blue Ridge for a hundred and fifty miles, and looking down upon an enchanting landscape, broad as the eye can compass, of intermingling villages and deserts, forest and cultivation, mountains, vallies, rocks and rivers. On the East is a literal immensity of prospect, bounded only by the rotundity of the Earth, in which nature seems to sleep in eternal repose, as if to form one of her finest contrasts with the rude and rolling grandeur on the West.' From this grand point. bringing under the eye a most magnificent panorama, are overlooked, like pigmies, all the neighboring mountains as far as the Chesapeake; and the Atlantic itself might be seen were it no for the greatness of the distance. Hence it was, that the youthful philosopher, before the Revolution, was wont to scrutinize the motions of

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the planets, with the mightier revolutions of the celestial sphere; and to witness that phenomenon so interestingly described in his Notes on Virginia, as among the sublimest of Nature's operations, the looming of the distant mountains. From this elevated seat he was wont to enjoy those scenes to which he reverted with so much fondness and enthusiasm, while in France: "And our own dear Monticello; where has nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye? -mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. With what majesty do we there ride above the storms! How sublime to look down into the work-house of Nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet! and the glorious sun when rising as if out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, and giving life to all nature." From this proud summit, too, 'the Patriot,' in the language of a visiter, 'could look down, with uninterrupted vision, upon the wide expanse of the world around, for which he considered himself born; and upward, to the open and vaulted heavens which he seemed to approach, as if to keep him continually in mind of his high responsibility. It is indeed a prospect in which you see and feel, at once, that nothing mean or little could live. It is a scene fit to nourish those great and high-souled principles which formed the elements of his character, and was a most noble and appropriate post for such a sentinel over the rights and liberties of man.'

In the centre of the suminit of this chosen eminence, rose the magnificent Mansion of the secluded Patriarch. It was erected and furnished in the days of his affluence; and was such an one, in all respects, as comported with the character and fortune of the man.

main structure is one hundred feet in length, from east to west, above sixty in depth, from north to south, presenting a front in every direction. The basement story is raised five or six feet above the ground, from which springs the principal story, above twenty feet in height, whereon rests an attic of about eight feet. The whole is surmounted by a lofty dome, of twenty eight feet in diam eter, rising from the centre of the building. The principal front faces the east, and is adorned with a noble portico, ballancing a corresponding one on the west. The north and south fronts pre-` sent arcades, or piazzas, under which are cool recesses that open in both cases on a floored terrace, projecting a hundred feet in a straight line, and then another hundred feet at right angles, until

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