Arose a little earlier and by this means succeeded in getting to the Office a little earlier than heretofore. The morning was quietly passed partly in reading Marshall, partly in the settlement of my Accounts. My interruptions were not many. Dr. Storer called and I settled with him.1 This closes the affairs contracted with the Estate of my Brother by a business not over creditable to any of the parties concerned. I 45paid this considerable demand with less difficulty because I did not wish to hear what probably might have been disclosed to me. The whole affair ought to be forgotten. My mornings are not now spent satisfactorily. I feel as if I should be doing something more creditable than settling accounts and talking nothings. But at present I am not in the way of commencing with spirit. John has promised to send me the Trial of Dr. Watkins and I have expected it in order to try my hand and expend my time upon it, but he does not keep his resolutions.2 I must talk with my father upon it.

Afternoon at home, reading La Harpe’s view of the Ancient Fable and Satire, with his parallel between Horace and Juvenal. The reading of this Author has inspired me with a Taste for Ancient Literature and I propose directly to turn my attention again to the Latin Classics, and to become more completely the master of their Style than I have yet been. This will require study but I am equal to it. In the evening I read to Abby, Scott’s Life of Smollett which is not so interesting as either of the preceding. It is too long, and mixed up too much. He borrows to save himself the trouble of writing, and makes the whole book appear like a Catch penny thing which in fact it was. After Abby retired, I again read La Harpe and five Chapters in Matthew, and reflected more upon the beauty of the precepts of Jesus Christ as given in the Sermon on the Mount than I had hitherto done. It merits deep consideration.