Post 6

As I explored Jefferson’s commonplace book, I couldn’t help but compare it to the kinds of things that I make note of in my own journal of quotes and works; the closest thing that I have to a commonplace book of my own. It fascinated me to think of how Jefferson determined what he would include in his commonplace book, and encouraged me to reflect on why I choose certain things to include in my own journal. I found that Jefferson’s compilation is very much in line with Enlightenment values of intellectualism, rationalism, and study of religion and philosophy in terms of their moral implications rather than their spiritual function.

One of the things that most clearly demonstrated the way in which Jefferson was studying these religious and philosophical texts is that he cites authors with a wide variety of spiritual views. For example, Jefferson quotes John Tillotson, an Archbishop of Canterbury during the 17th century, in order to explore the principles of what makes a history valid based on Tillotson’s writings about Moses as a historian (Wilson, 52). As a clergyman, Tillotson was a theologian, but also deeply spiritually committed to the Church. On the other hand, Jefferson quotes Bolingbroke, a man rather known for being antireligious, in his philosophizing about the contradictory nature of “the law of god,” discussing instead the “law of nature” (Wilson, 40). It seems clear to me from the fact that Jefferson saw both of these philosophical approaches as viable and worth exploring that his study of religion and philosophy was not focused on its spiritual element, but rather on its elements of morals and ethics. Again, the fact that these texts were not only freely studied in conjunction with one another but a part of the upper-class educational aspiration is demonstrative of both the Enlightenment values and the relative religious freedom of the time.

In terms of how this compares to my own “commonplace book,” I would say the main similarity is that I too choose interdisciplinary texts to record, many of which might not necessarily agree with each other on the whole. However, I tend to choose works or quotes based on whether they contribute something to my spiritual or creative life, rather than seeking some kind of moral or ethical truth. This is perhaps the difference between a person who is grooming himself to become a political leader and a person who is an aspiring writer. However, I think it can also be true that this is in part a result of how we are taught to read and use texts in today’s America versus Jefferson’s.

Works Cited

Jefferson’s Literary Commonplace Book. Edited by Douglas L. Wilson, Princeton University Press, 1989.