The day was so rainy and disagreeable that I concluded not to go to town at all. My time was very much taken up in commencing upon an Alphabetical arrangement of the books. This is slow and difficult as I look at each Title and in a great many cases examine the account of the Author very fully. In this manner the acquisition of general knowledge of a description a good deal wanted will go on with the mechanical part of the Work. I accomplished this day, the letter A. which as I thought was doing pretty well. The afternoon was taken up in the prosecution of the same plan which carried me through a part of B. My mother being now unwell, deprives me of the chance of going through with the remainder of the books.

The rain continued without any cessation and confined us to the House. Conversation with John and Robert Buchanan. It is surprising to me how little John has cultivated elegant tastes. His steps ever since he has been at Washington, may be called retrograde, which is somewhat of a pity. Evening reading an Article in the Quarterly Review upon the Peerage of England.1 A good article though breathing a spirit of a character questionable to say the least, in this Country.