Principes de chronologie pour les temps antérieurs aux olympiades

I have received your letter of Aug. 19. & with it the volume of Chronology you were so kind as to send me, for which be pleased to accept my thanks. It presents a happy combination of sparse and unconnected facts, which, brought together & fitted to each other, forms a whole of symmetry, as well as of system. It is as a gleam of light flashed over the dark abyss of times past. Nothing would be more flattering to me than to give aid to your enquiries as to this continent... but time tells me I am nearly done with the history of the world; that I am now far advanced in the last chapter of my own, & that it's last verse will be read out ere a few letters could pass between St. Petersburg and Monticello.

(TJ to Potocki, May 12, 1811.)
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