Spencer Perceval (1762–1812)

"While at war, my dear madam and friend, with the Leviathan of the ocean there is little hope of a letter's escaping his thousand ships; yet I cannot permit myself longer to withold the acknolegement [sic] of your letter of June 28. of the last year, with which came the Memoirs of the Margrave of Bareuth. I am much indebted to you for this singular morsel of history which has given us a curtain view of kings, queens & princes disrobed of their formalities. it is a peep into the stable of the Egyptian god Apis. it would not be easy to find grosser manners, coarser vices, or more meanness in the poorest huts of our peasantry. the princess shews herself the legitimate sister of Frederic, cynical, selfish, and without a heart. notwithstanding your wars with England, I presume you get the publications of that country. the Memoirs of mrs Clarke and of her Darling prince, and the Book, emphatically so called, because it is the Biblia Sacra Deorum et Dearum sub-caelestium, the Prince regent, his princess and the minor deities of his sphere, form a worthy sequel to the memoirs of Bareuth; instead of the vulgarity and penury of the court of Berlin giving us the vulgarity & profusion of that of London, and the gross stupidity and profligacy of the latter, in lieu of the genius and misanthropism of the former. the whole might be published as a Supplement to M. de Buffon, under the title of the 'Natural history of kings & Princes', or as a separate work & called 'Medecine for Monarchists' ..." — Thomas Jefferson to Madame de Tessé, 8 Dec. 1813

". . . I send, for a place on your book-shelf, from which you can take occasional doses, the famous 'Book,' written by Percival. it will confirm the moral truth that, independantly of another world, the wicked have their torment here also." — Thomas Jefferson to Elizabeth Trist, 10 June 1814… (plus d'informations)