Read this passage and answer the question that follows. I recollect with pleasure that as we were conversing one evening over a
bowl of punch, after Mrs. Jefferson had retired, our conversation turned on
the poems of Ossian. It was a spark of electricity which passed rapidly
from one to the other; we recollected the passages in those sublime
poems, which particularly struck us, and entertained my fellow travelers,
who fortunately knew English well, and were qualified to judge of their
merit, though they had never read the poems. In our enthusiasm the book
was sent for, and placed near the bowl, where, by their mutual aid, the
night far advanced imperceptibly upon us. Sometimes natural philosophy,
at others politics or the arts were the topicks of our conversation, for no
object had escaped Mr. Jefferson; and it seemed as if from his youth he
had placed his mind, as he has done his house, on an elevated situation,
from which he might contemplate the universe.
What is the most likely purpose of the anecdote in this passage?