sophisticatenature:sophisticatenature:Jefferson on Plato, in a letter to John Adams. I cannot stop l
sophisticatenature:sophisticatenature:Jefferson on Plato, in a letter to John Adams. I cannot stop laughing as I imagine Jefferson putting his copy of Plato down with a look of befuddled consternation.“While wading thro’ the whimsies, the puerilities, the and unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could be that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?”Adams’s reply is even better:“I’m very glad you have seriously read Plato: and still more rejoiced to find that your reflections upon him so perfectly harmonize with mine. Some thirty Years ago I took upon me the severe task of going through all his Works. with the help of two Latin Translations, and one English and one French Translation and comparing some of the most remarkable passages with the Greek, I laboured through the tedious toil. My disappointment was very great , my Astonishment was greater and my disgust was shocking. Two Things only did I learn from him. 1. that Franklin’s Ideas of exempting Husbandmen and Mariners etc. from the depredations of War were borrowed from him. 2. that Sneezing is a cure for the Hickups. Accordingly I have cured myself and all my Friends of that provoking disorder, for thirty Years with a Pinch of Snuff.”Oh, snap. -- source link