The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
KNOWLEDGE / SCIENTIFIC
I have duly received your letter of the 8th instant, on the subject
of the stone in your possession, supposed meteoric. Its descent from
the atmosphere presents so much difficulty as to require careful
examination. But I do not know that the most effectual examination
could be made by the members of the National Legislature, to whom you
have thought of exhibiting it. Some fragments of these stones have
been already handed about among them. But those most highly qualified
for acting in
their stations, are not necessarily supposed most familiar
with subjects of natural history; and such of them as have that
familiarity, are not in situations here to make the investigation. I
should think that an inquiry by some one of our scientific societies,
as the Philosophieal Society of Philadelphia for example, would be
most likely to be directed with such caution and knowledge of the
subject, as would inspire a general confidence.
We certainly are not to deny whatever we cannot account for. A
thousand phenomena present themselves daily which we cannot explain,
but where facts are suggested, bearing no analogy with the laws of
nature as yet known to us, their verity needs proofs proportioned to
their difficulty.. A cautious mind will weigh well the opposition of
the phenomenon to every-thing hitherto observed, the strength of the
testimony by which it is supported, and the errors and misconceptions
to which even our senses are liable. It may be very difficult to
explain how the stone you possess came into the position in which it
was found. But is it easier to explain how it got into the clouds from
whence it is supposed to have fallen? The actual fact however is the
thing to be established, and this I hope will be done by those whose
situations and qualifications enable them to do it.
to Daniel Salmon, 15 February 1808
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