4104. JEFFERSON (Thomas), Mrs. Jefferson's death.—
Your letter found me a
little emerging from the stupor of mind
which had rendered me as dead to the world
as she whose loss occasioned it. * * *
Before that event my scheme of life had been
determined. I had folded myself in the arms
of retirement, and rested all prospects of
future happiness on domestic and literary objects.
A single event wiped away all my
plans and left me a blank which I had not the
spirits to fill up. In this state of mind an
appointment from Congress[mission to
France] found me, requiring me to cross the
Atlantic.—
To Chevalier de Chastellux. Washington ed. i, 322.
Ford ed., iii, 64.
(A.
Nov. 1782)
