He then states that at this period of affairs among the Jews Christ appeared, in lowly circumstances, with great endowments in an innocent life, and fell a victim early to the jealousy of the throne and the altar before developing a complete system of morals. Hence, the doctrines he did leave being defective, were greatly mutilated and otherwise suffered by the ignorance of those who wrote them, and who were long mainly their custodians; that they have been still further disfigured by the corruptions of His schismatic followers; yet, notwithstanding these disadvantages, His system of morals, if filled up in the style and spirit of what He left, would be the best and the sublimest ever taught on earth. In it He corrected the errors of the Jewish system; went far beyond the ancient philosophers and the Jews in the extent and beauty of His moral doctrines; inculcated much that was new and better in the system of general philanthropy, common helps, peace, and charity; and above all and alone pushed his scrutinies into the heart of man; erected his tribunal in his secret thoughts, moving in the waters at the fountain head; and, lastly, teaching emphatically the doctrine of a future state, making this a paramount incentive to a correct moral life.

This is the complete outline of Mr. Jefferson's theological system, in which he evidently recognizes none of the elements of what he calls the corruptions of the learned followers of Jesus.

Although Mr. Jefferson claimed, with a singular desperation, the inviolability and sacredness of relig ious convictions for every individual, and that the public had no right even to know in this matter, in this, as in politics, he set up his system, and was as

ready, as in politics, to declare against the motives of others, and pronounce their views and creeds "corruptions of Christianity." So extravagant did he

become that, in 1820, in a letter to William Short, he asserted that one of the religious denominations wanted to establish by law an inquisition, and said that to these hierophants of superstition was universally committed the direction of public opinion. To Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, in 1822, he said that these Calvinistic and Athanasian people were but usurpers of the name of Christian; that their religion was the deliria of crazy imaginations, and one of his last wishes, expressed in the same letter, was that all young men in the country should take his position, as Unitarians. As if that were the chief of all goods. So tender was he of this corner-stone in his creed, that he imagined it should be very offensive to the modest, eloquent, mainly correct, long-suffering reformer, Jesus, to be looked upon as God among us, or as any part of the great one God of the universe.

But while Mr. Jefferson may be regarded as an uncompromising partisan in religion, as in other things, it is out of all reason to call him an atheist and antiChristian in every sense. He adhered to many of the teachings of Christ, and revered His character. He believed in one God, who is the Creator, but denied His relation, in any way, to Christ, whose very inspiration he rejected.

In a letter to William Short, in April, 1820, Mr. Jefferson wrote:

"But it is not to be understood that I am with him [Jesus] in all his doctrines. I am a materialist; he takes the side of spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance toward for

giveness of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it, etc., etc. It is the innocence of his character, the purity and sublimity of his moral precepts, the eloquence of his inculcations, the beauty of the apologues in which he conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed, needing indulgence to Eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to him the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphæus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable interpolations and falsification of his doctrines led me to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that his part composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man."

Among writers regarded as strictly respectable, it is difficult to find any thing in the English language more worthy of disgust and contempt than Mr. Jefferson's supreme egotism and clownish irreverence as displayed in this letter. The temptation to omit this revolting picture in this wonderful man's character has only been overcome by the greater one of expressing unutterable contempt for that kind of culture, refinement, and spirit which could give rise to such sentiments.

Still, in any attempt to form a fair and just judgment of this most perplexing and difficult character, no intelligent reader and thinker can, for a moment, stop at the brief, written theory, or neglect to hold up to view the man's actual temper and life. Mr. Jefferson was never known to scoff at religion, real religion

itself, although, in many of his letters to intimate friends, he made direct and fierce assaults on creeds and religious practices. He daily read his compilation of the "Life and Sayings of Jesus," and theoretically, as well as practically, in some degree established his title of Christian, which he, at times, stoutly claimed. He contributed regularly and freely, according to his means, to the support of the Churches, and was, no doubt, sincre in what he did. Among a profane people, he was not himself profane, and in all his personal, private, and social habits he was eminently exemplary.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE MAN, HIS WORK, WRITINGS, THeories, and FANCIES.

N this chapter it is designed to touch in review a

IN

few points in Mr. Jefferson's work, mention some charges against him, an occasional opinion of his services, and supply some facts of interest omitted in the consecutive history.

Mr. Jefferson believed that he had a mission, and was undoubtedly a leader of the people. Pointing to this belief he wrote to a friend :

"I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in any thing else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."

A similar wisdom and stubbornness may stand in the way of many a man's prospects in the same direction. The great crisis in the affairs of the Federal Government had passed in the first eight or twelve years of its existence, and fortunate that was, for although Mr. Jefferson, as he thought, filled a place in the progress of events, he could not have been the man for the organizing period. He was wanting in the qualities of a leader for a great crisis. When unavoidable issues were upon the country he was undetermined and without boldness. In dealing with great