Adams Family Correspondence, volume 4
1780-12-23
Yours of the 22d came to hand this Morning. I shall leave it wholly to Mr. Thaxters Judgment, what Lectures you are to attend, as at this distance I cannot form any opinion.
You will apply the most of your Attention, I hope, to your Latin and Greek Master, for the present.
I am pleased to see that you recollect the 22 of December, the day on which, those Patriots and Heroes landed at Plymouth, who emigrated immediately from the Town where you now are. It is impossible, but you must ever entertain a Veneration for the Memory of those great and good Men, to whose adventurous Spirit and inflexible Virtue you certainly, as well as I owe our Existence.
I wish you, in your next Letter, to transcribe me the Passage of Shakespear, in which the Brownists are mentioned.
You should treat the Minister of that Society, in Leyden with the greatest Respect, and attend his Meeting, every Sunday both in the forenoon and Afternoon.
You will also behave with the Utmost Respect to Mr. Luzacs Family who are worthy People and very good Friends to your Country.
I have heard a very great Character of Mr. Hemsterhuis, formerly Professor of Greek, in the University of Leyden,1 and that the present Professor of that Language is a Disciple of his Mr. Valkennaar.2
And that another Disciple of his Mr. Rhunkenius, is Professor of History and Eloquence. This Mr. Rhunkenius has published an Edition of an Hymn to Ceres, (found in Russia, and supposed to have been composed by Homer) with a Latin Translation and Notes. I would have you purchase that Hymn.3
Mr. Pestel is Professor of the Law of nations and of the publick Law.4
Mr. Voorda is Professor of the civil Law, that is to say as I understand it, of the Roman Imperial Law, as the Institutes of Justinian &c.5 Pray enquire whether he reads Lectures upon the whole Corpus Juris, the Digest, the Code, the Novells &c., whether he takes any Notice of the Feudal Law, that is of the Consuetudines Feudorum, and whether any Mention is made of the Cannon Law.
Mr. Vanderkesel is another Professor of the civil Law, but what is his Department?6
Mr. Dehahn is Professor of Medicine and Chymistry.7
Mr. Allemand is Professor of Experimental Philosophy.8
49I wish you to make all the Enquiries possible concerning these learned Professors, and let me know whether I have their Names and Departments right.
Let me know also whether you are matriculated into the University. If not, I wish you to procure the Priviledge and Honour, provided you can by the Rules of the University be admitted to it. The Expence is not to be regarded.
I hope in short that you will inform yourself as perfectly as possible concerning, the Origin, the Progress, the Institutions, Regulations, Revenues &c. of that celebrated University, and especially to remark every Thing in it, that may be imitated, in the Universities of your own Country.
Let me know whether there is any Professor of Mathematicks and in what manner they are taught.—Here are Enquiries enough for you, a long time.—Dont neglect to write me often.
Also Tr in hand of CFA, numbered by him “No. 275.” This is one of
the large number of transcripts of family letters, 1780–1843, mentioned in the Introduction
to Series II of
The Adams
Papers
(vol. 1:xxxiii, above). These
were evidently prepared in and about 1843, some doubtless earlier and others quite possibly
after JQA's death in 1848, with a view to publishing a more comprehensive
collection of family letters than, in the end, CFA issued. The numbering of the
earliest letters among the transcripts suggests that CFA proposed to include
these in his edition of the JA-AA Familiar Letters
of 1876, because numbers he assigned them
correspond closely with the numbers of adjacently dated letters printed in that volume (see
note on JA to JQA, 17
March 1780, vol. 3:309, above); but he finally excluded them and never carried out his
earlier plan for a collection of family letters in which JQA was to be the
central figure and his parents, wife, brother TBA, and son CFA the
other correspondents. It should be stated here that, except for special circumstances, the
existence of a CFA transcript alongside the original in the Adams Papers will not hereafter be recorded in descriptive notes on
letters in the
Adams
Family Correspondence
.
Nieuw Ned. Biog. Woordenboek
,
1:1068–1072; Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae,
MDLXXV-MDCCCLXXV . . . , The Hague, 1875). The register of the Leyden faculties in the
compilation called the Album studiosorum has also been used in
the biographical notes below to confirm dates of appointment, &c.
Ned. Biog. Woordenboek,
1:1514–1516).
Nieuw Ned. Biog. Woordenboek
, 10:851–854). His edition of
the Hymn 50to Ceres, from a codex recently found in Moscow
and attributed to Homer, was published this year: Hymnus in Cererem,
nunc primus editus a Davide Ruhnkenio, Leyden, 1780; a copy was sent by Thaxter to
JA under cover of a letter dated 25
Jan. 1781, below, and remains among JA's books in the Boston Public
Library (
Catalogue of
JA's Library
, p. 122).
Nieuw Ned. Biog.
Woordenboek
, 3:968–969). Pestel was one of the great figures in Dutch legal
scholarship, and JA acquired both his Commentarii de
Republica Batava, Leyden, 1782, and Fundamenta jurisprudentiae
naturalis, Leyden, 1777 (
Catalogue of JA's Library
, p. 191; see also
Thaxter to JA, 1, 23 Jan. 1781, below).
rector magnificus of the University; because of his
prominence in the Dutch Patriotic (anti-Orangist) party he was dismissed from the University
in 1788, but was restored in 1795 during the French regime (
Nieuw Ned. Biog. Woordenboek
, 3:
1336–1338).
Nieuw Ned.
Biog. Woordenboek
, 3:674–675).
Nieuw
Ned. Biog. Woordenboek
, 8:666; mention only).
Nieuw Ned. Biog. Woordenboek
,
1:75–77).