Accept my thanks for the ingenious work which you were so obliging as to send me by Mr. Childs. I have read it with pleasure and improvement; it casts new light on several interesting questions, and I observe in it a degree of perspicuity not always to be found in dissertations on such subjects.

The connection between mind and body, and the operations of the former on and through the latter, continue involved in great obscurity. Persevering attention and inquiry will probably produce further information. The spiritual and material worlds, if I may use the expression, appear to me to be so widely different and opposite, that I am often inclined to suspect the existence of others, intermediate, but of a nature distinct from either.

It is much to be wished that nothing may occur to prevent your finishing the analysis of the intellectual

1 Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh.

powers, and extending your speculations to man considered as an active and moral being, and as the member of a political society. There is reason to doubt whether this field of science has, as yet, received the highest cultivation of which it is capable. The republic of letters is under many obligations to your country. May those obligations be increased. I have the honour to be, with sentiments of respect and esteem, sir,

Your most obedient and very humble servant,

JOHN JAY.

JAY TO MRS. JAY.1

PHILADELPHIA, 9th April, 1794.

I arrived here on Monday evening; and yesterday dined with the President. The question of war or peace seems to be as much in suspense here as in New York when I left you. I am rather inclined to think that peace will continue, but should not be surprised if war should take place. In the present state of things, it will be best to be ready for the latter event in every respect.

1 From this point, for about a year, the correspondence chiefly concerns the "Jay Treaty" of 1794. The threatening complications arising from the Revolution in France, and the divided sympathies of the American people, determined Washington to follow up his proclamation of neutrality with a special effort to avert war with Great Britain whose presumption and aggressions had become exasperating. The delicate mission was entrusted to Jay as Envoy Extraordinary, and in the following letters and documents the course of his negotiations may be traced to their successful issue. See Jay's "Life of Jay," vol. i., pp. 301-367, and Pellew's "Jay," pp. 294–317.

10th April, 1794.

The aspect of the times is such, that prudential arrangements calculated on the prospect of war should not be neglected, nor too long postponed. Peace or war appears to me a question which cannot be solved. Unless things should take a turn in the meantime, I think it will be best on my return to push our affairs at Bedford briskly. There is much irritation and agitation in this town, and in Congress. Great Britain has acted unwisely and unjustly; and there is some danger of our acting intemperately.

MY DEAR SALLY:

JAY TO MRS. JAY.

PHILADELPHIA, 15th April, 1794.

I was this evening favoured with yours of the 14th. It is now between eight and nine o'clock, and I am just returned from court. I expect, my dear Sally, to see you sooner than we expected. There is here a serious determination to send me to England, if possible to avert a war. The object is so interesting to our country, and the combination of circumstances such, that I find myself in a dilemma between personal considerations and public ones. Nothing can be much more distant from every wish on my own account. I feel the impulse of duty strongly, and it is probable that if, on the investigation I am now making, my mind should be convinced that it is my duty to go, you will join with me in thinking that, on

an occasion so important, I ought to follow its dictates, and commit myself to the care and kindness of that Providence in which we have both the highest reason to repose the most absolute confidence. This is not of my seeking; on the contrary, I regard it as a measure not to be desired, but to be submitted to.

A thousand reflections crowd into my mind, and a thousand emotions into my heart. I must remember my motto, "Deo duce perseverandum." The knowledge I have of your sentiments on these subjects affords me consolation.

If the nomination should take place, it will be in the course of a few days, and then it will appear in the papers; in the meantime say nothing on the subject, for it is not impossible that the business may take another turn, though I confess I do not expect it will.

My dear, dear Sally, this letter will make you as grave as I am myself; but when we consider how many reasons we have for resignation and acquiescence, I flatter myself that we both shall become composed.

If it should please God to make me instrumental to the continuance of peace, and in preventing the effusion of blood, and other evils and miseries incident to war, we shall both have reason to rejoice. Whatever may be the event, the endeavour will be virtuous, and consequently consolatory. Let us repose unlimited trust in our Maker; it is our

business to adore and to obey. My love to the children.

With very sincere and tender affection,

I am, my dear Sally, ever yours,

JOHN JAY.

P.S.-It is supposed that the object of my mission may be completed in time to return in the fall.

JAY TO MRS. JAY.

MY DEAR SALLY:

PHILADELPHIA, 19th April, 1794.

I refer you to the two last letters which I wrote to you this week. It was expected that the Senate would yesterday have decided on the nomination of an envoy to the court of London, but measures re specting the embargo occupied them through the day. To-day that business is to be resumed, and you shall have the earliest notice of the result. So far as I am personally concerned, my feelings are very, very far from exciting wishes for its taking place. No appointment ever operated more unpleasantly upon me; but the public considerations which were urged, and the manner in which it was pressed, strongly impressed me with a conviction that to refuse it would be to desert my duty for the sake of my ease and domestic concerns and comforts. I derive some consolation from the prospect that my absence will not be of long continuance, and that the same Providence which has hitherto preserved me