My last letter to you, was from Dresden, and dated the 17th: of last month, since which I have not had the pleasure to receive any thing from you.1 We spent a month at that place very agreably, & as long as the picture gallery remained open, I did not fail to visit it almost every day. We likewise went to Königstein, & saw also at Dresden the electoral jewels, the library, the old porcellain, the collection of antient armour, & the antiques, & models from antiques, all which, as you have seen them yourself, it is needless to describe to you— We returned (not by the way of Leipzig, as we had first proposed, because we were informed that during the Fair, it would be almost impossible to find tolerable lodgings there) but by that of Potsdam, where we visited once more the picture gallery of Sans-Souci, & saw the pfaueninsal, which had escaped our attention, when we were there together in the summer of 1798.2

While we were at Dresden, I dined twice with the Elector, who regularly invites the foreign Ministers, as well as those to his own 24 Court, as those to others, who are transiently at Dresden, every other Sunday.— I found an old acquaintance there in Count Zinzendorf, who is now Minister in the war department, & as I mentioned in my last met several other persons among the nobility attached to the court, who appeared to be men of much information, & whose circle of ideas was not so exclusively limited to military concerns as I had generally found here—3 We became acquainted besides with two or three English families residing at Dresden, who contributed much to make the time, which we passed there, pleasant.

On the 12th: instt: we returned to this place, after a tour of nearly three months, & with the satisfaction of having my wife’s state of health as much improved as could reasonably be expected.— She is now as well as I have ever known her, & will I hope continue to enjoy long uninterrupted health.

Upon our return we found Berlin, what is called remarkably dull, & as nothing can be more tedious than the continual gaiety, or rather dissipation of the last winter, we are happy to hear there will probably be much less of it in the season now coming on.— The King & queen are at Potsdam, where she was delivered a few days since of a daughter.4 They will therefore not come to town untill the beginning of December— The diplomatic corps here is now very small indeed— Count Panin as I have before written you is gone— Mr Grenville is gone— Since the death of Prince Reuss, no new Austrian Minister has been appointed to this court— There is no french Minister since Sieyes became a member of the Directory; & the Marquis de Musquiz is gone as Spanish Ambassador to Paris.5

As the winter will probably afford me much leisure I shall continue those pursuits of German literature, which my very slow progress in the language has hitherto so much obstructed. I am ashamed to say that although my studies of German since you left us have been interrupted, I have made no advances in the power of speaking, & very few in the facility of reading it.— With Lessing, & Gellert & Gesner & Wieland I have indeed made myself tolerably familiar, as by frequenting the theatre I have seen most of the fashionable drama’s of Kotzebue, now the favorite play wright, not only of Germany, but of England & France, from the former of which I perceive he has found his way to America—6 But the utter impossibility of meeting any opportunity here to speak the language constantly, for any length of time makes me dispair of ever acquiring it to any considerable degree.

The number of books daily published in Germany rather augments than diminishes. There are certainly more volumes published here in one year, than there are of volumes worth reading in the world.— In every department of Science & literature, what loads of trash burden the stalls of Leipzig at the moment of the present Fair, but in none perhaps so much as in that of metaphysics & moral philosophy. You will remember it is not long since I anticipated that Atheism & Revolution would soon be preached in Germany without resorting to that canting gibberish which many good folks have been kind enough to take for obscurity— A disciple of Kant, one Fichte, professor of moral philosophy at Jena, has already done it in part.— He has written a book, ridiculing the ideas of a future life, & retribution of rewards & punishments, & of a supreme being, as the dispenser of them— But Mr Fichte unfolded the mysteries of the sect rather too soon. The work was denounced to the Governments of Saxony, Prussia, Hanover, & Brunswick, & was prohibited by them all except the king of Prussia, who answered that atheism was too absurd a thing to be believed however it might be inculcated, & that an author, who preached it, could only expose his own folly— Fichte has been removed by the Duke of Weimar from his professorship, & now wanders about Germany, scribbling, & holding himself forth as the victim of persecution.7

Here has been at Berlin, another, but a more cautious & guarded attack against the religion of the Country.— A large number of Jews, heads of families, of respectable character have subscribed & published a Letter to Mr Teller, provost of the upper consistory, (the department of Government, which has the superintendance of ecclesiastical affairs) in which they declare that being convinced the laws of Moses are no longer binding upon them, as not being adapted to their circumstances at this day, they are willing & ready to become Christians, as far as relates to the moral doctrines of Christianity, provided they shall not be required to believe the miraculous part of the christian creed & above all, the divinity of Jesus Christ; & provided they may be admitted to enjoy all the rights & privileges, enjoyed by the members of the established religion— Their confession of faith would be something less than Socinianism; but approaching nearly to it— They ask Mr Teller’s advice upon their plan, & whether he thinks it practicable— He has published his answer, which besides being, as I hear, not so well written as their letter, has given satisfaction to nobody— He tells them that they do well to believe in as 26 much Christianity as they can; & that if they cannot in conscience believe more, they do well not to profess it; but as to the question whether their fragment of faith, ought to entitle them to share the civil & political privileges enjoyed exclusively by entire Christians, it is not his Province, but belongs to the civil authority of the country to decide.

Mr De Luc, a celebrated chemist, & theologian has published a letter to these Jews, in which he boldly advances to meet them on the ground, which Mr Teller eludes; he tells them that, far from scrupling points of Christian doctrine, they ought not even to abandon the standard of Moses; that the history of the earth, & its present appearance are the strongest of all possible testimonies, to the truth of the Mosaic History, & that if they will only take the pains to become natural philosophers; they will not be so ready to renounce their faith as Jews.8

There have been numerous pamphlets more, written & published upon this subject, which has made, as the french term it a great sensation in the North of Germany— It has even given rise to epigrams, though these are not a species of wit, native to the german soil— I have heard one repeated, the substance of which was

I can give you no satisfactory political intelligence. Since I wrote you last the Fortune of war has every where turned again in favor of the French. They have driven the Austrians & Russians from Switzerland, & the English & Russians from Holland. In Egypt likewise Buonaparte is again victorious, & although the Grand vizier has been upon his march from Constantinople ever since the month of May, I have no doubt that when he arrives he will but add a new sprig to the laurels of the Corsican ruffian.9

I enclose two letters; one for Mrs: Johnson; & the other for a Mr F Schultz, who I believe is a sadler at Philadelphia. I shall thank you to deliver to him yourself, & offer to forward his answer to me— It is from his brother in Law, one of the Elector’s servants at Dresden— He is very anxious to hear from his kinsman, & I have engaged to transmit the answer to him, if I should receive any.10

Dr Brown’s family always offer their kind remembrance to you— William is gone & has, I believe, been in Holland.11

I have received your favors of the 17th: & 19th: instants and take the first moment of leisure, that has occurred, since their receipt, to acknowledge gratefully these fresh instances of parental solicitude respecting my personal concerns. I shall reply without reserve to your last letter, which relates more immediately to my professional prospects.

I have always been persuaded of the necessity of patronage for a young man, at his first entrance into life, be his profession or occupation what it might, but I know it to be preeminently requisite to a young lawyer and that without this patronage, in one shape or an other, he must expect to remain in a subordinate station at the Bar for a length of time, however briliant his talents or his scientific acquisitions. The kind of patronage to which you allude, though useful & important to a young practitioner, is by no means equal to that of a numerous family connection, being of a particular extraction or belonging to some religious sect. With advantages built on either of these foundations a lawyer can scarcely fail of success at the Bar in this state, if he has the capacity to improve them. It is certainly in the power of any gentleman at the head of the profession, who renounces practice himself to advance & befriend a younger brother very essentially, by transferring to him his dockett with his unfinished business & referring future applicants to his Office, & such instances have fallen within my observation; but that friendship & confidence must be very strong, that would induce a gentleman to select a stranger on whom to bestow this favor to the seclusion of a near relative or more intimate acquaintance. I am so fully persuaded of the gloom that overspreads my prospects as a professional man, that I am often tempted to consider what other course of life would furnish me an honest livelihood, should the want of success, in my present line, compel me to renounce it. I cannot say, that I ever 29 made a choice among the variety, that presented themselves to my mind, but if a change of pursuits should hereafter be necessary, I shall at least have the advantage of having contemplated the subject.

The young men of my age & standing at the Bar, have the benefit of five or six years practice or the expectation of it; they have had their time of unprofitable waiting & are beginning to emerge from the state of obscurity in which, with all their advantages of nativity, residence, connection or merits of a personal nature, the profession they followed, compelled them to remain. Some of them are men of business & good lawyers, who will succeed by survivorship, rather than any other title, to “the business, emoluments & honors of the Bar.” There is not however, in my judgment, a single man of first rate talents among the younger stock, Not one Lewis or Ingersoll, though many Rawle’s & Tilghman’s. In the second class there are two or three of considerable merit who will run away with all the business of any lawyer who declines the practice to the exclusion of the younger brethren. That this is the fact no one can doubt, but it does not seem to me to be so much an effect of illiberality & intolerance at the Bar, as of custom & public opinion. All the gentlemen now at the head of the profession have some near relations or friends, who are desirous of being brought forward and who of course succeed to all the inferior business of their patrons. Mr: Lewis excepted, they have all either sons or nephews at the Bar. I am only slightly and distantly acquainted with the gentlemen I have named, and though I should not be fearful of their disobliging, I have no reason to expect they will particularly befriend me. Mr: Ingersoll, whose friendship & patronage I should prize before any of the rest, is in fact the only one to whom I look for encouragement & favor. He has already offered to associate me with him in any cause or law argument, which afforded scope for professional talents & learning, and I expect to argue one case at the next term of the Supreme Court, which was proposed to me by him. It is probable, that other opportunities for exercise will occur to me ere long, but the next & most serious question is, how shall I acquit myself in these trials? Not to be anxious & diffident on this score, would deserve the name of arrogance. My want of experience, & long discontinuance from the language & practice of the bar, in addition to a pretty strong natural want of confidence in myself, all combine to persuade me, that the experiment of a first attempt remains yet to be successfully made, and that odds are against it. A fair trial of success or failure in our profession is not made, generally speaking, in a shorter 30 period than four years even where a person has the advantage of being previously known. In Philadelphia, I am very little known, to those classes of people, who bring lawyers forward. I have never been in a situation to form acquaintance with the tradesmen & mechanic’s & in the Country I have no acquaintance whatever, so that time alone, upon ordinary calculation, can bring me into notice as a professional man. I have always come to this ultimatum, whenever the subject has occupied my thoughts, and calculated the sacrifices to ease, comfort & self esteem, which are necessarily involved in its train. To be driven from the theatre of one’s business by annual returns of pestilence, must be ruinous to such as have a name to establish, while the risk of being swept away by accidental exposure keeps the mind in a continual alarm for personal safety.

All these considerations & many others that might be drawn from a full view of the subject, operate as powerful discouragements & drawbacks upon a settlement at Philadelphia, in addition to which, the political triumph of your enemies in this State, reverberates on me to my detriment, though I regard this as one of the smallest of my grievances. I abhor the party & certainly never would accept a favor, if they should unexpectedly offer to bestow one upon me. It is not usual for those whom we make the objects of detestation, to select us for objects of munificence.

During the chief Justiceship of Mr: Mc:Kean there have been instances of intolerance which proceeded partly from his indiscretion & intemperance of character, but more frequently from the forwardness & impudence of the practitioners, who thought that the cause of their clients would be promoted by a display of zeal & fervor, which often trespassed on the bounds of decorum & frequently deserved a harsher name. I think this sort of conduct is now exploded, & so far as my observation extends, the Bar of Philadelphia is upon an equal footing with any on the Continent in this particular. Mr: Shippen will probably succeed Mr: Mc:Kean as chief Justice, & though he will find it difficult to manage some of the older gentlemen, he will not be hard upon the younger who treat him with respect.1

I have hitherto dwelt upon the dark shades of the picture before me, but dreary as they are, it would give me pain to renounce the hope of a settlement at Philadelphia, without a prospect, almost bordering on certainty, of a speedy & eligible establishment on a different Theatre. The price of living in the City is oppressive for a beginner in any occupation & precludes the hope of a family establishment short of years of successful business; yet unpleasant as this 31 idea is & however irksome the anticipation of being subject to the caprice & incommoded with the continual routine of boarding house society, I could make up my mind to endure the sacrifice, if the prosperity & success of my views were sure of being crowned by it. The removal of the seat of Government will produce a sensible effect upon the rate of living & of rents in Philadelphia, without any considerable diminution of the wealth, so that with a moderate share of practice I might expect at least to keep free of debt, while performing the usual quarantine of professional pretentions.

It would be needless to enlarge on this topic, as from the above specimen you will form a judgment of my train of thought on the subject of myself; I shall be glad to renew the subject, when I have the satisfaction of meeting you in person, being with true respect & attachment / Your Son