ABSTRACT
In the completeness of nature's handiwork, and in its intricacy and perfection, Jefferson found not only one universe, but a myriad of universes contained within that one. His religious sense was his feeling of awe as he viewed nature as a work of art, contrived with total economy and coherence in an unparalleled design by a superb craftsman whom he called God. Jefferson's views on freedom of the mind were of course central to his whole value system. But they too, in turn, derived from his naturalistic view of the cosmos. A good deal has been written about Jefferson as a humanist, in the sense that he was a close student of the classical societies, of their languages, their great books, their view of life. Jefferson did not believe that revolutions alone could change social institutions and dissolve exploitation and misery, and he had little faith in institutions as such and even less in man's capacity to transform them.
