READ LITTLE FICTION.
While he was an extensive reader in his early days, going into almost
every field of literature, including poetry, he read very little
fiction.
In fact, there was comparatively but little fiction then worth the name.
Not from any sentiment of duty or moral impropriety, but from simple
aversion he let it alone.
NEITHER ORATOR NOR GOOD TALKER.
Jefferson was neither an orator nor a good talker. He could not make a
speech. His voice would sink downwards instead of rising upwards out of
his throat.
But as regards legal learning he was in the front rank. No one was more
ready than he in ably written opinions and defenses.
It was in what John Adams termed "the divine science of politics" that
Jefferson won his immortal and resplendent fame.
SELF-CONTROL.
With all his apparent tolerance and good humor, there was a great deal
of the arbitrary and despotic in Mr. Jefferson's nature. Stern principle
alone enabled him to keep his native imperiousness within proper bounds.
THE INFLUENCE OF JEFFERSON'S SISTER.
Among those who exerted a marked influence on Jefferson's early years
was his oldest and favorite sister Jane. She was three years his senior,
and was a woman of superior standing and great elevation of character.
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