Morning at the Office. The Easterly winds have now set in and give the usual disagreeable chill to the Air. I walked down to State Street, and received at the Boston Bank the Dividend of Stock, being one third of their Capital—My share being one hundred and fifty dollars and reducing thus much my Capital in Bank Stock. This amount is already invested in the Atlas Insurance. Whether for better or for worse remains to be seen. I then obtained the Dividend of one per cent in the American Bank—A very large distribution for one year. This Company has lost part of it’s Capital. My little property has on the whole been far from prosperous,1 having done very little for it’s increase in the way of profit. Returned to my Office and spent the morning in reading Marshall, where I made considerable progress, yet I feel dissatisfied with that book. It does not contain that extent of philosophical view which I should have expected from such a pen. My morning time is not available as I would wish. So many interruptions occur, and so much trouble in regard to the pecuniary affairs of the moment that the mind is distracted and unsteady. I hoped to day, that Whitney would come to settle. He did not. I had expected the rent from the House occupied by the Olivers. They fail to pay this Quarter, making another trouble upon my hands.2

After dinner, I read Beverley’s History of Virginia, Part the first. A curious book published in 1705 a copy of which happened to belong to George.3 It relates the History of the Settlement plainly and apparently in a very concise and impartial way. I then began Grahams, 207Account of New England. He is a warm Advocate of the Puritans, and justly so for in England they have been much misrepresented. I was then called down to spend the Evening at home at the usual meeting of the Brooks family, which was this week at my house. It was as usual tolerably pleasant, but not so much so as some of the later ones have been.