5913. NEWS, Home.—
But why has nobody
else written to me? Is it that one is forgotten
as soon as their back is turned? I have
a better opinion of men. It must be either that
they think that the details known to themselves
are known to everybody, and so come to us
through a thousand channels, or that we should
set no value on them. Nothing can be more
erroneous than both those opinions. We value
those details, little and great, public and private,
in proportion to our distance from our
own country; and so far are they from getting
to us through a thousand channels, that we
hear no more of them or of our country here
[Paris] than if we were among the dead.—
To James Monroe.
Ford ed., iv, 45.
(P.
1785)
