LETTER IX.--TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY, January 29, 1804


TO DOCTOR PRIESTLEY.

Washington, January 29, 1804.

Dear Sir,

Your favor of December the 12th came duly to hand, as did the second
letter to Doctor Linn, and the treatise on Phlogiston, for which I pray
you to accept my thanks. The copy for Mr. Livingston has been delivered,
together with your letter to him, to Mr. Harvie, my secretary, who
departs in a day or two for Paris, and will deliver them himself to Mr.
Livingston, whose attention to your matter cannot be doubted. I have
also to add my thanks to Mr. Priestley, your son, for the copy of your
Harmony, which I have gone through with great satisfaction. It is
the first I have been able to meet with, which is clear of those long
repetitions of the same transaction, as if it were a different one
because related with some different circumstances.

I rejoice that you have undertaken the task of comparing the moral
doctrines of Jesus with those of the ancient Philosophers. You are so
much in possession of the whole subject, that you will do it easier and
better than any other person living. I think you cannot avoid giving,
as preliminary to the comparison, a digest of his moral doctrines,