Ecclesiastical History to a subsection of Civil History and eliminated altogether.
the section reserved for literary matters. In Philosophy, he combined Bacon's.
Civil and Divine Reason categories into a new division entitled Moral Philoso-.
phy. His treatment of theological and ecclesiastical subjects stems from his dis-.
trust of organized religions. On the other hand, Jefferson expanded Bacon's.
Imagination section into a Fine Arts category that embraced not only literary.
works but also such decorative and fine arts as gardening, painting, architecture,.
and music.
Jefferson added a further dimension to Bacon's scheme by creating forty-.
four chapters, as he termed them, that identified specific subjects. Some chap-.
ters dealt with areas such as chemistry that were unknown in Bacon's time.
Jefferson saw this elaborate arrangement not as a rigid system but as a flexible.
model adaptable to the exigencies of time and circumstance. Since during his.
own life he was deeply involved in political and legal matters, these sections in.
his classification scheme were necessarily very detailed. He allowed that a phy-.
sician or theologian, having acquired a different kind of library, would have.
created different chapters.
2.
To twentieth-century eyes, parts of Jefferson's classification may seem puz-.
zling. It is no surprise to find categories such as Modern British History under.
the broad division of History, but such unexpected subjects as Agriculture,.
Surgery, and Natural History also appear there. The second broad category,.
Philosophy, combines subjects such as Mechanics, the Law of Nature and Na-.
tions, Politics, Phonics, and Arithmetic. Today's reader might sensibly ask not.
only what Agriculture and Modern British History have in common but also.
how Mechanics and the Law of Nature and Nations can both be related to what.
we call Philosophy.
To pursue these questions is to confront Jefferson's world and his world.
view.