University of Virginia Library

3720. HISTORY, Ancient vs. Modern.—

I feel a much greater interest in knowing what
passed two or three thousand years ago than in
what is passing now. I read nothing, therefore,
but of the heroes of Troy, of the wars of
Lacedæmon and Athens, of Pompey and Cæsar,
and of Augustus, too, the Bonaparte and parricide
scoundrel of that day.—
To Nathaniel Macon. Washington ed. vii, 111. Ford ed., x, 120.
(M. 1819)