AN ESSAY

Towards Facilitating Instruction

in the

ANGLO-SAXON

and

Modern Dialects of the English Language

For the Use of the University of Virginia.

BY

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.-Jefferson's "Essay on Anglo-Saxon" is reproduced here for the first time since it was originally printed in 1851 by order of the Board of Trustees of the University of Virginia— twenty-five years after his death. Copies of this pamphlet are very rare, and the publication of the "Essay" in this volume is due to the courtesy of Dr. Charles W. Kent, who placed the copy belonging to the University of Virginia at the disposal of the editors of the present Edition of Jefferson's Writings. Jefferson sent his "Essay" to Herbert Croft, an eminent Englishman who was preparing an etymological dictionary, and the letter to him which precedes the “Essay" was no doubt intended to take the place of the customary preface. It may be of interest to note that Jefferson was one of the first, it not the pioneer, in this country to advocate the study of Anglo-Saxon and incorporate it in the college curriculum.