These fragmentary doctrines have been still more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatizing followers who have found an interest in perverting the simple doctrines he taught, frittering them into subtleties, obscuring them with jargon until they have caused good men to reject the whole in disgust, and to view Jesus himself as an impostor. He contended that it was the priest-not Jesus himself-who put forward the claims that his origin was miraculous and divine. He read the Bible just as he read Euripides, Æschylus, or Xenophon. From the New Testament he made the volume called Jefferson's Lible, which contains the life and teachings of Christ, omitting everything about his miraculous birth and resurrection.

In writing to a friend about this little book Mr. Jefferson regretted that he did not have time to prepare a similar volume from the teachings of Epicurus-a philosopher whom he defends against Cicero and the Stoics. Writing to the son of his dearest friend, Dabney Carr, he tells this young man, his nephew, to put the Bible on a par with Livy and Tacitus, to read the one just as he would the others; and by inference as plain as inference can be, advises him to reject the story that Joshua made the sun stand still, and that Christ was the son of God, born of a Virgin, who reversed all the laws of nature and ascended bodily into heaven. He tells his young nephew that when he reads of a

miracle in the Bible he ought to class it with the showers of blood and the statues and animals which in the books of Livy and Tacitus are made to speak. In other letters he charges in effect that the early founders of the Christian Church borrowed the idea of the Trinity from the Roman Cerberus, which had one body and three heads. Calvin's creed excited his especial horror; and his language was never more violent than when denouncing it.

But the doctrine of the Trinity aroused his indignation also because it compelled the individual to take leave of his senses. He thought that to compel a sane person to declare that he believed three to be one, and one to be three, was a priestly triumph over common sense which was degrading to the human race.

In 1822 he wrote, "I trust there is not a young man now living in the United States who will not die a Unitarian."

And in his letter to Pickering he speaks glowingly of what might result if we could get back to the pure and simple doctrine of Jesus-knocking down artificial scaffolding of the Trinitarians and doing away with their incomprehensible jargon that three are one and one are three. He said that the Apocalypse was the ravings of a maniac. Nobody could possibly understand what it meant.

But what theologian ever wrote a more beauti

ful letter than this, which the great Deist left for his little namesake, Thomas Jefferson Smith:

"This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in his grave before you can weigh its counsel. Adore God. Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not of the ways of Providence.

"So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it be permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life will be under my regard."

This was written the year before he died.

To Peter Carr, son of Dabney Carr, he wrote: "Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give up earth itself, and all it contains, rather than do an immoral act."

Mr. Jefferson had always taken a deep interest in guiding young men in their reading, their studies, and their physical exercises. Even when he himself had barely finished his collegiate course parents sought his advice as to the education of their boys. In this way he mapped out a program for weakly little James Madison which came near making a gap in the Madison family. James could not carry

the load which the strength of Thomas Jefferson shouldered with ease. To his two daughters and the Carr children, and then to his own grandchildren, Mr. Jefferson wrote line upon line and precept upon precept for three generations, and sounder lessons for the young it would be hard to find.

His system may be summed up as follows:

Exercise in the open air, walking long distances being preferable to all other forms. Violent exercises, such as games of ball, he condemned. Bodily health is essential to good spirits and to a sound mind. Never be idle; let each hour of the day be occupied with something useful.

Do not sit up late at night; study and work in the daytime. Rise early and go to bed early. Avoid novel reading and cultivate the companionship of good books. Never tell a lie or stoop to a mean act. Be kind to every living creature. Speak no evil of any one. Be good, adore God, be loyal to friends, and love your country better than yourself. Take hold of things by the smooth handle; avoid disputes; do not turn pleasant conversation into heated argument. Too much speaking is not best. Washington and Franklin rarely made speeches, and never spoke longer than ten minutes-and then to the main point only. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. Never spend your money before you have it. Never buy what you do not need because it is cheap. Pride costs more than