In the letter, Thomas Jefferson gives John Barnes instructions about collecting William Short’s dividends and their payment to James Monroe. In the notes in Oeuvres de Sénèque, Jefferon questions the identity of the author and the editor, and attempts to identify the translator. In his notes on Le vrai sens du systême de la nature, Jefferson identifies the author as the baron d’Holbach, discusses letters by d’Alembert and Voltaire, and summarises a paragraph with a Latin quotation.