Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2

24th. JQA

1786-03-24

24th. Adams, John Quincy
24th.

No reciting, for any of the Classes, on Fridays, for the whole, Day. I wrote some Problems out of Ward1 to carry to Mr. Williams, next Monday Morning. After Prayers, I declaim'd, as it is term'd. Two Students every evening Speak from Memory, any Piece they chuse, if it be approved by the President. It was this Evening my turn, with the 2d. Abbot, and I spoke, from As you 7 8 9 like it. All the world's a stage &c. When I came to the description of the Justice, in fair round Belly with good Capon lined, Tutors and scholars, all laugh'd, as I myself, truly represented the Character. But the President did not move a feature of his face. And indeed I believe, it is no small matter, that shall extort a smile from him when he is before the College. This Afternoon I took from the Library, Montesquieu's Reflections on the rise and fall of the Romans, and an Anacreon.2 The two elder Classes have a right, every second friday to take from the Library, each person three volumes, which he must return at the End of a fort'night.

1.

John Ward, The Young Mathematician's Guide. Being a Plain and Easie Introduction to the Mathematicks... with an Appendix of Practical Gauging, London, 1719, and other editions (Harvard, Catalogus Bibliothecae, 1790, p. 92).

2.

Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence, Amsterdam and Leipzig, 1759; Works of Anacreon, transl., with the original Greek, by Joseph Addison, London, 1735, and other editions (A Catalogue of the Library of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, 1830; Harvard, Catalogus Bibliothecae, 1790, p. 12).

25th. JQA

1786-03-25

25th. Adams, John Quincy
25th.

We had no reciting to day. Saturday mornings commonly the two elder Classes, recite to their own Tutors in Doddridge's Lectures on Divinity;1 but our Tutor did not hear us. The weather, warm and Pleasant. In the Afternoon Mr. Cranch, and my Cousin, came, and brought me the remainder of my furniture; I did but little to day, because the weather being so fine, we were almost all day walking, about.

1.

A Course of Lectures on the Principal Subjects in Pneumatology, Ethics and Divinity, London, 1763, by Philip Doddridge. So essential had the lectures become to the Harvard curriculum that the college treasurer ordered thirty sets of them from London to lend to such of the two senior classes as were unable to buy them (Harvard, Catalogus Bibliothecae, 1790, p. 166; MH-Ar: Corporation Records, 3:199).

26th. JQA

1786-03-26

26th. Adams, John Quincy
26th.

Mr. Patten,1 a young Clergyman from Rhode Island, preach'd in the forenoon, from Proverbs III. 17. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are Peace. I never felt so disagreeably, in hearing any Preacher. He look'd as if he had already, one foot in the grave, and appeared plainly, to suffer while he spoke. His diction was flowery, but he spoke, in a whining manner, lowering his voice, about an octave, at the last Sylla-10ble of every Sentence. I dined at Mr. Dana's. In the afternoon Mr. Everett,2 a Boston preacher, gave us a discourse, from II of Corinthians. I. 12. For our rejoycing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly Sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our Conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you ward toward you. The Contrast in the preaching, was as great as that in the men, for Mr. Everett is quite, a large man. He pleased very generally. The weather has been uncomfortably warm all day, and the Evening, has by no means been cool.

1.

Probably William Patten, minister at Newport (Historical Catalogue of Brown University, 1764–1904, Providence, 1905).

2.

Oliver Everett, minister of New South Church, Boston, 1782–1792, and father of Edward Everett (Sprague, Annals Amer. Pulpit, 1:559).