Morning cloudy but the day was clear, mild and beautiful. I attended with Abby in the morning at Mr. Frothingham’s Church and heard Dr. Lowell preach a very pretty Sermon upon the fall of the year illustrating the life of man. It is true, the subject is trite, but in the pulpit who expects to hear new things. The search after novelty is there most dangerous, for it drives preachers to violent paradoxes, and artificial trains of sentiment, which injure rather than benefit the true tone of Christian morality. His language was appropriate, his figures animated, his end clear and apt. I know little more required in a Preacher.

Attended in the afternoon alone and heard Mr. Frothingham upon the History of Joseph. It struck me as a Sermon I had heard before with a new piece upon the late sudden death of Mr. Huskisson in England.1 A true moral lesson to be sure.

I felt a head ach today and my general system so much out of order as to make me a little dull. I have experienced some internal palpitation which has troubled if2 it has not distressed me. I therefore did little or nothing but write a little of my Catalogue. Read over the first book of Paradise Lost and two Numbers of the Tatler.