en
accustomed to; and in many instances it is never overcome, but
continues to haunt the imagination with pleasing pictures of the past
or imaginations of the future, when hope gives assurance that those
scenes of former enjoyment may be renewed. That most of our country
gentlemen, past the heyday of youth, would soon tire of Paris, and
pant after the simple pleasures and exemption from restraint which
their own country affords, is little to be wondered at; but it is the
more remarkable in Mr. Jefferson, and more clearly illustrates the
force of early habit, when it is recollected that he found in the
French metropolis that society of men of letters and science which he
must often have in vain coveted in his own country, and that here he
met with those specimens of music, painting, and architecture, for
which he had so lively a relish. But in these comparisons between the
life we are leading and that which we have left, or are looking
forward to, we must always allow much to the force of the imagination,
and there are few men who felt its influence more than Mr. Jefferson.
In one of his letters to Mr. Carmichael, he says, "I sometimes think
of building a little hermitage at the Natural Bridge, (for it is my
property), and of passing there a part of the year at least."

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

(_From the Same._)

We have seen that the subject of education had long been a favourite
object with Mr. Jefferson, partly from his own lively relish for
literature and science, and partly because he deemed the diffusion of
knowledge among the people essential to the wise administration of a
popular government, and even to its stability. He had not long retired
from public life, before the subject again engaged his serious
attention, and, besides endeavouring to enlist men of influence in
behalf of his favourite scheme of dividing the counties of the State
into wards, and giving the charge of its elementary schools to these
little commonwealths, he also aimed to establish a college, in the
neighbourhood of Charlottesville, for teaching the higher branches of
knowledge, and which, from its central and healthy situation, might be
improved into a university.

He lived to see this object accomplished, and it owed its success
principally to his efforts. It engrossed his attention for more than
eleven years, in which time he exhibited his wonted judgment and
address, in overcoming the numerous obstacles he en