John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. XXV 
His early relinquishment of legal practice gave him more time 
for general studies ; yet, as he did not postpone business to books, 
the engagements of a public kind, as well as the private duties, 
early devolving upon him, often drew him off from this liberal 
occupation, so agreeable to his taste and wishes. 
He read Latin with facility and constantly, the books in that 
language being an every-day amusement and his favorite travelling 
companions ; though he complained, after his retirement from 
public life, of the failure of the critical skill he once had in 
Roman literature. He had studied Greek in his youth with 
success, but, during the long lapse of time in which he had 
neglected it, lost much of his knowledge; which, however, by 
much effort, he recovered so as to read Homer and the tragic 
poets, Sophocles and Euripides, — also Plutarch, Dion Cassius, 
and the Byzantine historians. 
Such was his attachment to the ancient languages, that he 
said he felt himself more indebted to his father for his classical 
education, than for his estate. 
He learned French in a French family when a boy; but 
had lost the habit of speaking it when he went to France. He 
recovered it so as to speak it with ease, but with occasional 
mistakes in minor particulars, and with a strong accent. He 
learned Italian early. One of the first authors. he took up in - 
that language was Davila, whom he read with great interest, and 
whose work he said had exerted an influence on his opinions 
through life. 
Notwithstanding his attachment to Italian, he rather recom- 
mended Spanish for those who wanted time for both. He learn- 
ed it late, after he was appointed minister to France. He took 
it up on his voyage, and, pursuing it with his characteristic energy 
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