aceas for all human ills, which are constantly urged
upon the public, and which, under the name of progress, are the most
serious obstacles to progress. Both faculties are necessary to one
who undertakes high and useful action. Mr. Jefferson was a
philosopher because he was a constant and accurate observer; he was
correct in his generalizations because he was so in matters of detail.

His career at the bar was short. The acquisition of a science like
the law was an easy task for a mind so ingenious and active as his.
He had no talent as an advocate, but was at once successful in the
more retired and not less difficult departments of the profession.
During seven years' practice, his income averaged three thousand
dollars a year;--a large sum then, and no mean reward at the present
day.

When twenty-nine years old, he married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a young
and childless widow, of great beauty. In relation to this affair
a pleasant anecdote is told. Mr. Jefferson had a number of rivals.
Two of these gentlemen met, one evening, in the drawing-room of
Mrs. Skelton's house. While waiting for her to enter, they heard her
singing in an adjoining room, and Jefferson playing an accompaniment
upon the violin. There was something in the burden of the air, and
in the expression with which the performers rendered it, which
conveyed unpleasant suggestions; and the two suitors, after
listening awhile, departed without seeing the lady. The inevitable
account-book mentions the sums paid to the clergyman, fiddlers, and
servants, on the occasion of the marriage.

His wife's fortune, as he informs us, doubled his own, and placed
him in a position of pecuniary independence. He soon abandoned his
profession, and thenceforward his career was a public one. He
entered political life at the time when it first became evident that
a war with England must occur, and threw himself into the extreme
party. He was admirably fitted for success in a legislative body.
His talents were deliberative, rather than executive. He had no power
in debate, but he possessed qualities which we believe are more
uniformly influential in a public assemblage,--tact, industry, a
conciliatory disposition, and systematic habits of thought. He was
always familiar with the details of legislation. The majority of the
members of a legislature can seldom know much about its business.
Those questions which excite popular attention and become party
tests are inquired into; but m