The morning was very pleasant, but the usual change took place at noon, and we were chilled by an Easterly wind. At the Office, but felt indisposed to translating; so that I read the laws upon the course of Administration upon insolvent Estates, and made a reexamination of New’s Papers. Found nothing of any value. Mr. Kinsman called about a demand made in favour of New, and with some propositions to a settlement. I told him that I would attend to it. Mr. Greenough called to be paid his demand for the expenses of the Bust, a stale thing for which he ought to have been ashamed.1 I called on Mr. Bowditch for a memorandum of New’s debt to the Life Office but could get none.2 Called also upon Mr. Welsh for it. He had mislaid it. Thus the morning passed.

The Afternoon found me engaged in an occupation very different from my usual ones. I had sent for Prior’s Life of Burke to the Athenaeum, and could not help sitting down at once to it’s perusal.3 The character of the man, his eloquence, and the society in which he lived, all make him to me one of the most interesting individual biographies in the world. I could not leave excepting for an hour in the Evening to read to my Wife from Eustace. How valuable the privilege of the Athenaeum is to me. I obtain books to amuse my Wife whose state of health depresses her spirits, and to instruct me—Though my own resources are very considerable. Continued Prior until I had nearly devoured the volume.