Professor Gilbert Chinard, of Princeton University, speaking last night in the Dunster House Common Room in the first of a series of informal House speeches sponsored by the American Civilization group, took as his subject "The European Background of Jefferson's Thought."

Declaring that Jefferson was not as much influenced in his philosophy by French thinkers as is commonly thought. Chinard traced the course of his life to prove that although in contact with French literature and people, he derived his policies not from France, but from the Greek and Roman classics.