Unit Three
Text
Jefferson died long ago, but many of his ideas are still of great interest to us.
1604英语
LESSONS FROM JEFFERSON mmkey.net Bruce Bliven英.语.文.摘
Thomas Jefferson, the third
President of the United States, may
be less famous than George Washing-
ton and Abraham Lincoln, but most
5 people remember at least one fact
about him: he wrote the Declaration
of Independence.
Although Jefferson lived more
than 200 years ago, there is much
10 that we can learn from him today.
Many of his ideas are especially in-
teresting to modern youth. Here are
some of the things he said and wrote:
Go and see. Jefferson believed
15 that a free man obtains knowledge from many sources besides books and
that personal investigation is important. When still a young man, he was
appointed to a committee to find out whether the South Branch of the
James River was deep enough to be used by large boats. While the other
members of the committee sat in the state capitol and studied papers on
20 the subject,Jefferson got into a canoe and made on-the-spot observations.
You can learn from everyone. By birth and by education Jefferson be-
longed to the highest social class. Yet, in a day when few noble persons
ever spoke to those of humble origins except to give an order, Jefferson
went out of his way to talk with gardeners, servants, and waiters. Jefferson
25 once said to the French nobleman, Lafayette, "You must go into the
people's homes as I have done, look into their cooking pots and eat their
bread. If you will only do this, you may find out why people are
dissatisfied and understand the revolution that is threatening France. "
Judge for yourself. Jefferson refused to accept other people's opinions
without careful thought. "Neither believe nor reject anything," he wrote to
30 his nephew, "because any other person has rejected or believed it. Heaven
has given you a mind for judging trttth and error. Use it. "
Jefferson felt that the people "may safely be trusted to hear everything
true and false, and to form a correct judgment. Were it left to me to
decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newsp-
35 apers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the
latter. "
Do what you believe is right. In a free country there will always be
conflicting ideas, and this is a source of strength. It is conflict and not
40 unquestioning agreement that keeps freedom alive.Though Jefferson was for
many years the object of strong criticism, he never answered his critics.
He expressed his philosophy in letters to a friend, " There are two sides
to every question. If you take one side with decision and act on it with
effect, those who take the other side will of course resent your actions."
45 Trust the future; trust the young. Jefferson felt that the present
should never be chained to customs which have lost their usefulness. " No
society," he said, "can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual
law. The earth belongs to the living generation. " He did not fear new
ideas, nor did he fear the future. " How much pain, " he remarked, "has
50 been caused by evils which have never happened! I expect the best, not the
worst. I steer my ship with hope, leaving fear behind. "
Jefferson's courage and idealism were based on knowledge. He proba-
bly knew more thari any other man of his age. He was an expert in agricul-
ture,archeology; and medicine.He practiced crop rotation and soil conser-
55 vation a century before these became standard practice, and he invented a
plow superior to any other in existence. He influenced architecture
throughout America, and he was constantly producing devices for making
the tasks of ordinary life easier to perform.
Of all Jefferson's many talents, one is central. He was above all a good
60 and tireless writer. His complete works, now being published for the first
time, will fill more than fifty volumes. His talent as an author was soon
discovered,and when the time came to write the Declaration of Independence
at Philadelphia in 1776, the task of writing it was his. Millions have
thrilled to his words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
65 are created equal. . . "
When Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of American
independence, he left his countrymen a rich legacy of ideas and examples.
American education owes a great debt to Thomas Jefferson, who believed
that only a nation of educated people could remain free.