Posted by David Post:
The Fourth of July:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_06_28-2009_07_04.shtml#1246744805
July 4, 1776 - entry in Jefferson's "Memorandum Book":
"Pd. Sparhawk for a thermometer 3/15"
Somehow I've always loved that - that on the day Congress approves the
revised version of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson heads
into town to buy a thermometer.
And regarding co-blogger Kenneth Anderson's [1]comments on Jefferson's
violin-playing musical tastes: one of the great encounters in history
took place in 1760 when the 17 year-old Jefferson is heading off to
college (William and Mary, in Williamsburg); along the way (several
days journey in those days), he stops off at Nathaniel Dandridge's
plantation in Hanover County for 4 or 5 days, and who should be there
but Patrick Henry (then 23). Henry, too, played the violin, and the
two of them, apparently, spent hours each day playing together. I've
always loved that picture in my head, too -- Jefferson and Henry,
fiddling away together.
And it's also nice that Jefferson, like just about every amateur
musician around, grossly exaggerated the amount of time he epent
practicing, writing to his son-in-law late in life that he practiced
three hours a day (!). [If you're interested in
Jefferson-the-Musician, I can recommend Helen Cripe's "Jefferson and
Music" (UVA Press 1974) and Sandor Salgo, "Thomas Jefferson: Musician
and Violinist" (TJ Foundation 2000).]
"What so hard, so stubborn, or so fierce, But music for the time
will change its nature? The man who has not music in his soul, Or
is not touch'd with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons,
strategems, and spoils . . . Let no such man be trusted."
From Jefferson's "Commonplace Book" (original quotation from The
Merchant of Venice, Act V)
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_06_28-2009_07_04.shtml#1246735059
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