Morning exceedingly warm and sultry. Remained at home all day and wasted it shockingly. I could regret much this way if I did not hope it was soon to cease. In the afternoon, I read half a Volume of Chesterfield, Letters to his son. They display wonderful knowledge of men and though it is the fashion to decry them, I think they are admirable as instruction. To be sure it will not do to put them into the hands of the very young, but after moral education is complete they are useful, for they only teach to combine the useful and ornamental with the correct, when properly taken, and who would not wish to unite them all. P. Chardon Brooks and his wife out here in the afternoon and Mr. Cotton Brooks of whom I have spoken once or twice heretofore. The weather was warm until evening when there was a violent thunder shower.