Rev. Laurence Sterne was Jefferson’s favorite novelist, andeven moralist. Jefferson read often Sterne’s novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (hereafter, TS; 1759–1767),and A Sentimental Journey(hereafter, SJ; 1768).
That said, almost nothing has beenwritten about Jefferson and Laurence Sterne. There is a literary consensus inthe literature on Jefferson in passing comments concerning Sterne’s influence thatJefferson enjoyed the novels of Laurence Sterne because of their moral value. DumasMalone is typical, as he writes in TheSage of Monticello, “In the whimsies of Laurence Sterne he found not onlyentertainment but moral value.” That, however, is not hard to miss, asJefferson in several letters extols the moral value of Sternian literature.
Yet in a letter to nephew PeterCarr (10 Aug. 1787), Jefferson says more. “The writings of Sterne particularlyform the best course of morality that ever was written.” Why the superlative?Douglas L. Wilson says in his edition of Jefferson’s Literary Commonplace Book, “That Jefferson sincerely admired Sterneas a writer and moralist is beyond question, but these superlatives [sic] must be taken in context. Jeffersonwas trying to steer younger readers to something that they would relish andremember as he did.”
If we take Jefferson’s use of thesuperlative in the context of his letter to Carr, as Wilson asks us to do, weget more than Wilson thinks we ought to get. Jefferson is advising his belovednephew on a course of study to develop most fully Carr’s character. Jeffersonin the letter limns the features of the moral sense and advises Carr “to readgood books because they will encourage as well as direct your feelings.” Hethen lists only the writings of Sterne within the letter, though he adds theSocratic dialogs, Cicero’s moral writings, Lucretius, Kames, Helvetius, andLocke in the enclosure under “Morality.” So more needs to be said on thequestion of Jefferson’s choice of the superlative.
Part of the answer comes in anearlier letter to friend Robert Skipwith (3 Aug. 1771). Jefferson says that worksof fiction are superior to works of history—“considering history as a moral exercise,her lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life”—in that theyallow much exercise of the human moral-sense faculty through indirectexperience of acts either of charity and gratitude or of atrocity. History,which Jefferson always valued chiefly for its moral lessons (e.g., TJ to AnneRandolph Bankhead, 8 Dec. 1808, and TJ to William Duane, 4 Apr. 1813), fails“to excite in any high degree this sympathetic emotion of virtue.” He citesSterne’s SJ, and remarks that itmatters little whether “Sterne really went to France.” What matters is that wedo feel remorse that he rebuked a Franciscan and grateful that he subsequentlymade an offering of peace—“a view with emulation [of] a soul candidlyacknowledging it’s fault and making just reparation.”
Reference to SJ in the letter to Skipwith on the superiority of fiction is notincidental. Jefferson found in Sterne’s novels much more than a whimsical,entertaining novelist. As Andrew Burstein notes in “Jefferson and the Languageof Friendship,” Sterne “highlighted episodes in life in which the highest valuelay not in ascetic withdrawal but in sentimental attachment”—“sentimental”being a reference to moral sentiment (e.g., Smith and Hume). Thus, Sterne’snovels were substratally and situation-sensitive moral guidebooks. Yet Jeffersontoo held moral engagement in highest regard. Consider, for instance, hiscastigation of daughter Maria (3 Mar. 1802) for her “willingness to withdrawfrom society,” which he claimed would prove sufficient punishment for any whomight withdraw.Thus, Jefferson likeSterne considered himself a “sentimental traveller”—hence his attraction to,perhaps obsession with, Sterne’s writings.
In SJ, Sterne writes of a “traveller”—readers quickly recognize thetraveler is Sterne himself—who is not idle, inquisitive, lying, proud, vain, orsplenetic. He is instead a “sentimental traveller”—one governed by the heart,not the head. “I seldom go to the place I set out for,” Sterne writes. “I am governed by circ*mstances—Icannot govern them.” Sterne means by such statements that there are numerousunanticipated episodes in each day that provide opportunities for meaningfulmoral engagement. In such scenarios, a sentimental traveler ought to and willact. “You take a withering twig, and put it in the ground; and then you waterit, because you have planted it.” Thus, a sentimental traveler is first andforemost a moralist, fully engaged in local, even worldly, affairs.
Jefferson qua sentimental travelerwas obliged to live life in pursuance of the dictates of the heart—forJefferson, the moral sense (a separate faculty), not moral sentiment (whichneeds no separate faculty). He too writes of not governing, but being governed,by circ*mstances, “The motions of a traveller are always controuled by so manyimperious circ*mstances that wishes and courtesies must yield to their sway”(TJ to Gen. Andrew Jackson, 18 Dec. 1823).
Much more must be said apropos oflife as a sentimental journey for both.
First, a sentimental traveler goesthrough life with his eyes opened fully and turned to all things—especiallythings which, because they are uncommon, escape the notice of everyday persons.“What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span oflife by him who interests his heart in everything,” writes Sterne in SJ, “and who having eyes to see, whattime and chance are perpetually holding out to him as he journeyeth on his way,misses nothing he can fairly lay hishands on.” Again, “the man who either disdains or fears to walk up a dark entrymay be an excellent good man, and fit for a hundred things; but he will not doto make a good sentimental traveller. I count little of the many things I seepass at broad noon-day in large and open streets. –Nature is shy, and hates toact before spectators but in such an unobserved corner, you sometimes see asingle short scene of hers worth all the sentiments of a dozen French playscompounded together.” Jefferson too believed in engaged, open-eyed living. “Itis unfortunate that most people think the occurrences passing daily under theeyes,” he writes to John Page (4 May 1786), “are either known to all the world,or not worth being known. They therefore do not give them place in theirletters.” To the Marquis de Lafayette (11 Apr. 1787), he writes about his peregrinationsthrough France: “I am constantly roving about, to see what I have never seenbefore and shall never see again. In the great cities, I go to see whattravellers think alone worthy of being seen; but I make a job of it, andgenerally gulp it all down in a day. On the other hand, I am never satiatedwith rambling through the fields and farms, examining the culture andcultivators, with a degree of curiosity which makes some take me for a fool,and others to be much wiser than I am.”
Though a sentimental travelertravels au pied levé, yet the traveling isneither aimless nor goaded by mere inquisitiveness. The sentimental travelerstrives for “useful knowledge and real improvements” of character. “I have amortal aversion for retuning back no wiser than I set out,” writes Sterne inhis travels through Italy. With wisdom as his goal, life for the sentimentaltraveler is a moral adventure. Jefferson too was wedded to the notion of usefulknowledge, so much that he formed the curriculum at UVa around electiveeducation and subjects for students of greatest utility—agriculture beingforemost (cf. TJ to Augustin François Silvestre, 29 May 1807). He also, likeSterne, sought “useful knowledge and real improvements” of character. He writesto Robert Skipwith in his 1771 letter, “Everything is useful which contributesto fix in the principles and practices of virtue.”
Third, a sentimental traveler is modestand humble. Sterne says that he, while in France, was fêted and treated as acelebrity—“at this price I could have eaten and drank and been merry all thedays of my life at Paris”—but “’twas a dishonest reckoning, … the gain of a slave.” Feeling himself a co*ckalorum, he“grew sick,” and left for Italy the morning next. Again, he says: “There is nota more perplexing affair in life to me, than to set about telling anyone who Iam—for there is scarce anybody I cannot give a better account of than myself.”Jefferson also considered humility a virtue. To William Short (4 Aug. 1820), hesays that Jesus’s “precepts of the purest morality” are “sanctioned by a lifeof humility.” Jefferson also practiced modesty. He eschewed the pomp of priorpresidents when he took office, as he wished then to be treated as no Tritonamong minnows, but as a mere steward, answerable to the people.
In addition to modesty, asentimental traveler is self-controlled. “There is nothing unmixt in thisworld,” writes Sterne in SJ, and even“enjoyment itself was attended ever with a sigh.” Again, “man has a certaincompass,” and so “the social and other calls have occasion by turns for everykey in him.” If he begins “a note too high or too low, there must be a wanteither in the upper or under part, to fill up the system of harmony.”Jefferson’s commitment to self-control is evidence in a letter to Madame deTott (5 Apr. 1787). “The plan of my journey, as well as of my life, being totake things by the smooth handle (cf. TS,Vol. II, chap, 7), few occur which have not something tolerable to offer me.”
Fifth, a sentimental traveler useslanguage with laxity and imagination to gain its fullest effect and to communicatethe sentiments of the heart most completely. Everyday expressions are fraughtwith meaning, uncommunicable by language. Sterne writes in SJ: “There are certain combined looks of simple subtlety—wherewhim, and sense, and seriousness, and nonsense, are so blended, that all thelanguages of Babel set loose together could not express them—they arecommunicated and caught so instantaneously, though you can scarce say whichparty is the infecter.” Moreover, Sterne in TristramShandy is lambent—almostirreverently so. His “chapters” are often no more than a few paragraphs—e.g.,Vol. VI chap. 9, and Vol. IX, chap. 9 are merely one sentence, and chaps. 18and 19 of Vol. IX are blank—and each chapter is anecdotal. Sterne uses oftenand brilliantly aposiophesis.The style overall bespeaks a certain joiede vivre. It is the same with Jefferson, who recognized Robertson, Addison,and Sterne as being “of the first merit in the different characters ofcomposition” (TJ to John Garland, 27 Feb, 1822). When Jefferson epistolized, heshowed utmost regard for communicating with his correspondent in a mannercomfortable to that correspondent. Writing for Jefferson—and he was a superbwriter—was not merely a means of putting thoughts on paper, it was active and impassionedengagement with a correspondent. Yet when Jefferson wrote, he intentionallytook certain liberties with the grammatical conventions of his time. Language,like its users, he believed was alive. It needed to mature over time with theadvances of science and changing interests of people. Though he sometimescomplained of writing letters, it was a daily task that he generally foundpleasant—perhaps fun—as writing was for him as with Sterne an affair of theheart.
Sixth, a sentimental traveler hasa sense of humor. That is all too obvious in “the lusty roastbeef humor” (AlfMapp, Thomas Jefferson) of Sterne’s novelsand needs no illustration. Yet Jefferson’s love of Sterne shows plainly that hetoo had a sense of humor, though it was likely dry and intellectual. To Maria Cosway(24 Apr. 1788), he writes: “At Strasbourg I sat down to write to you. But formy soul I could think of nothing at Strasbourg but the promontory of noses, ofDiego, of Slawkenburgius his historian, and the procession of the Strasburgersto meet the man with the nose. Had I written to you from thence it would havebeen a continuation of Sterne upon noses, and I knew that nature had not formedme for a Continuator of Sterne: so I let it alone till I came here and receivedyour angry letter.” The aside is a reference to Sterne’s lengthy, playfuldigression concerning the length of noses, beginning at Vol. III, chap. 31, in TS, Jefferson’s humor went unrecognizedby the French coquette.
Finally and most importantly, asentimental traveler is a lover. Jefferson and his moribund wife copied amoving passing from Sterne’s TS (Vol.IX, chap. 8; her writing in italics),priorto her death on Sept. 6, 1782:
Time wastes too fast: every letter
I trace tells me with whatrapidity
life follows my pen. The days andhours
of it […] are flying over ourheads like
[light] clouds of windy day neverto return—
more every thing presses on—and every
time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, every absence which
follows it, are preludes to that eternal separation
which we are shortly to make!
The passage, taken from Sterne, is expressive of Sterne’sdeep capacity for love. The passage, appropriated by Jefferson, indicates anequally profound regard for love.
One cannot end,however, without emphasizing another part of Jefferson’s obsession with Sterne—AnglicanMinister Sterne’s Sermons of Mr. Yorick,totaling 45, which have not been studied by scholars. Jefferson read andrecommended highly these sermons—andSterne was a powerful, often unconventional sermonizer—not only to Skipwith earlyin life, but also to Joseph C. Cabell (Sept. 1800) and to John Minor (30 Aug.1814) later in life. In the later letters, however, Jefferson recommendsSterne’s sermons, not his fiction. That is telling, and should not come as asurprise, for Jefferson always looked for moral lessons wherever they could befound: in real life, fiction, history, ethical works, and even in the publishedworks of esteemed sermonizers. In that regard, Sterne had the advantage ofbeing both novelist and sermonizer, and of being foremost in Jefferson’s eyesas both.
