e among your father's books, which you
should have brought to you. As I do not recollect those of them not in
his library, you must write to me for them, making out a catalogue of
such as you think you shall have occasion for, in eighteen months from
the date of your letter, and consulting Mr. Wythe on the subject. To
this sketch, I will add a few particular observations:

1. Italian. I fear the learning this language will confound your French
and Spanish. Being all of them degenerated dialects of the Latin, they
are apt to mix in conversation. I have never seen a person speaking the
three languages, who did not mix them. It is a delightful language, but
late events having rendered the Spanish more useful, lay it aside to
prosecute that.

2. Spanish. Bestow great attention on this, and endeavor to acquire an
accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish
America, will render that language a valuable acquisition. The ancient
history of that part of America, too, is written in that language. I
send you a dictionary.

3. Moral Philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures on this
branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had
made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of
science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of
them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be
formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong,
merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature, as
the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of
morality, and not the [Greek: to kalon], truth, &c., as fanciful
writers have imagined. The moral sense, or conscience, is as much a
part of man as his leg or arm. It is given to all human beings in a
stronger or weaker degree, as force of members is given them in a
greater or less degree. It may be strengthened by exercise, as may any
particular limb of the body. This sense is submitted, indeed, in some
degree, to the guidance of reason; but it is a small stock which is
required for this: even a less one than what we call common sense.
State a moral case to a ploughman and a professor. The former will
decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not
been led astray by artificial rules. In this branch, therefore, read
good books, because they will encourage, as well as direct your
feelings. The writings of Ster