Morning at the Office. Weather cloudy with mist. I began reading over Mr. Williston’s Book of the Eloquence of the United States.1 It is a large collection and it seems to me something of a labour to undertake to read it through. Indeed I do not know that I shall entirely succeed, but I hope to do so at least sufficiently to be able to attempt something in the shape of an Essay upon that subject even though I should not endeavour to print it. My time is now coming when to be successful I must at least dare. I suffered from no interruption during 98the morning and was thus enabled to go on with great and unaccustomed rapidity.

In the afternoon I read Aeschines and translated but the spirit has gone from this business as I feel that I am not sufficiently master of the Language to be able to go through with such a translation as I should desire to make. The Evening was spent in reading Clarissa Harlowe to my Wife excepting an hour in my Study when I attempted to embody some of my thoughts on the subject of Eloquence, but without any result in the least satisfactory to myself. They say perseverance will conquer all things, if I possess any talent so it shall with me. The evening was warm and misty, so that I sat in my study until past eleven o’clock.