Morning at the Office. Employed in reading Law and drawing up my paper upon the subject of the Middlesex Canal. I received this morning the first money in the way of my profession. It was very gratifying, for I felt as if no one had a right to reproach me for it. And I have unhappily known too well what that is, not to relish even the mere dawn of independence. My spirits are not very bright, a cloud hangs over them which I cannot dispel. But I feel cheerful enough to prosecute my duties without tedium. Afternoon, with Abby at Mrs. Frothingham’s. Nothing remarkable, but time very agreeable. In the evening at the Office, where I read Johnson’s Life of Pope, and criticism upon his Epitaphs. I was not as attentive as I should have been, I strongly suspect, for I was dull to much of it’s point.