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Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson Second Series

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Published as part of the *Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series*, *Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book* is the definitive edition of a collection of about four hundred quotations Jefferson gathered from his more literary readings during his student years. It represents, according to the editor, «one of the few surviving documents from Jefferson's formative years» and reveals a transitional, private facet of a man most of us know through his mature, public years.

«Commonplacing » seems to have been one of the practices of the readers of Jefferson's time: it consisted in copying the most eloquent or profound passages one encountered in one's readings into a notebook one would presumably read over and over again. If I remember correctly, John Locke also commonplaced, and Jefferson himself left us more specialized notebooks, such as the legal ones he produced in the mid 1760s.

Most of the quotes in the present volume are from works of «imaginative literature»- mostly poems Jefferson enjoyed in his youth, from Homer to another favorite of his, «Ossian», whom he believed to be a genuine third-century Celtic bard but who was in fact a fabrication of his eighteenth-century «translator», James McPherson. Most of the quotes are in English, but a substantial number of them are in foreign languages Jefferson was fluent in: ancient Greek, latin and French, all of them translated in the footnotes. Two criteria seem to have presided to their inclusion: their felicity of expression and very often the little gems of wisdom they contain - on the law of identity: «If white, & black, blend, soften & Unite/ A thousand Ways ; is there no black or White ?» ; on the virtue of productivity: «without employ/ the soul is on a rack ; the rack of rest» ; or on objective reasoning: «He who has judged aught, with the other side unheard, may have judged righteously, but was himself unrighteous.»

Perhaps more interesting to the historian of ideas, this literary commonplace book also contains thirty pages of extracts from Bolingbroke's essays and letters, which almost singlehandedly shaped Jefferson's religious outlook and help explain the «self-evident» standards Jefferson applied in his heretical selective rewriting of the Gospels. Bolinbgroke's crucial influence on Jefferson's philosophical outlook is stressed by the editor in the highly helpful thirty-two-page «Register of Authors» which follows the excerpts : «the major tenets of Bolingbroke's philosophical program were ultimately adopted by Jefferson as his own: a thoroughgoing materalism; a rejection of metaphysics and all speculation that ventures beyond the reach of human apprehension; an uncompromising commitment to reason as the final arbiter of knowledge and validity; a disposition to regard churchmen and theologians as the corrupters of Christianity; a distate for the doctrines of Plato and his influence on Christian teachings; and a strong skepticism regarding the historicity of biblical accounts. » (p156)

In addition to being a window on the young Jefferson's soul (or lack thereof), this volume is remarkable for the thorough and careful work of its editor (except for a grammatical error in a French quotation from Racine, in §395) and will be beautifully complemented by *Jefferson's Extracts from the Gospels*, published in the same series.

Another reviewer has already done an admirable job of placing this book within our understanding of Thomas Jefferson as a man and, more broadly, within the 18th century history of letters.

This review is nitty-gritty about the book...

Hardback: dark grey cloth over boards with gold details; dustjacket; sewn binding; 242 pp, 1.25 pounds.

Fully annotated by editor Wilson. Foreword, Preface, Introduction, "Editorial Apparatus," "Symbols and Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited," index, and Register of Authors.

4 Appendices cover the handwriting in the commonplace book, a description of the manuscript, the Non-Jefferson entries, and tables which provide an overview of the organization of the Commonplace Book.