Abstract
IN view of the distinguished position occupied by the United States to-day, one is perhaps apt to forget what strife and labour went into the development of the young republic in the period of its third president. Those were times when ‘art' was too expensive, yet in all its forms, so much to be desired. Thus we find Jefferson the revolutionary, workman, writer, thinker, toiling ever and anon to establish culture, both abstract and material, in his youthful America. To him there was no difference between ‘pure' and ‘applied' (whether art or science); all was for the benefit of mankind, and the pursuit of the good. Naturally, this led to some strong likes and dislikes, short shrift for Plato and Samuel Johnson, to mention but two.
Thomas Jefferson Among the Arts
An Essay in Early American Esthetics. By Eleanor Davidson Berman. Pp. xviii + 305 + 20 plates. (New York : Philosophical Library, Inc., 1947.) 3.75 dollars.
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RAWLINS, F. Thomas Jefferson Among the Arts. Nature 162, 513 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162513a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162513a0