165

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS A.Ms.

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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS A.Ms.
<b>165. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS</b> (1767 - 1848) Sixth President of the United States, Secretary of State under Monroe who principally formulated the Monroe Doctrine. Early, rare, fine content A.Ms. (unsigned), 2pp. 8vo., [n.p., n.d.], a synopsis of "<i>Adams's Lecture 4.382</i>," likely part of his well-known <i>Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory</i>. In small part: "<i>...It is a great, but unavoidable inconvenience, attached to the pursuits of sciences, that the student is obliged to devote more of his time to trace and detect the errors of other men, tan to observe, and fix in his mind the operations of nature. In entering upon the investigation of any single branch of natural history, philosophy, we are soon reminded of that admirable comparison of the past between the seeker of knowledge and the traveller over the Alps [here Adams insert a lengthy poem, possibly by Shelley]...Perhaps in the whole circle of the sciences, there is notion to which the designation of the first prospect, and the dreary, weary wilderness in which they close, are so peculiarly applicable, as to that which is now the subject of our researches. There is none in which Nature has so superficial observations much the appearance of contradicting her own Laws...At the very first entrance upon our enquiries, before we had learnt the alphabet of the language we are to acquire...we have been called upon to settle the disagreement of the doctors, and to form a...judgment of comparative merits between three distinct and rival theories, only one of which can possibly be true, and all of which may possibly be false...We are all as able at this moment to pronounce upon the doctrines of Franklin, Ecles and Nollst, and we shall be after years of industrious investigation...</i>". Adams held a professorial chair of rhetoric and oratory at Harvard. A clean central fold-tear, otherwise boldly written and very good, quite worthy of archival repair.<b>$1,000-1,500</b>