The cultivation of the instinct of beauty, he observed, is a primary practical concern, especially under a government that makes no plans for an astocracy. On a day i1760, Young Thomas Jefferson rides into williamsburg, virginia. Back home, at the foot of the blue ridge mounins, he had already begun his study of greek and latin. [bell tolling] now he will enter the college of william and mary to gain what he called a more universal acquaintance. Though he is critical of the government and the architecture in williamsburg, he will return here many times over the next 20 years to study and practice law. And eventually to take up residence with his family as the second governor of virginia. I was bred to the law, he once reflected, and that gave me a view of the dark side of humanity. Then i read poetry to qualify it with a gaze upon its bright side. The books he was purchasing in these years embraced the whole spectrum of 18thcentury knowledge. None were more treasured than his books on