The Weather was hazy and portended snow which however did not begin to fall until evening, at least in any quantity. I attended divine Service at the Church in Chauncy Place and heard Mr. Frothingham deliver two Sermons upon what he called the doctrine of Compensation, or the principle by which suffering or privation in one respect, is made up to us by enjoyment or possession in some other. This is in 385some lights a useful as well as a fascinating doctrine, but will bear application better to past than to future events. A man who shall rely upon happiness merely because he is suffering in misery will be likely to have that misery only increased by the bitterness of disappointment and will be led to forget that permanent dependance which he can justly place only upon the future of a beneficent Deity. This world is one of trial, in which the wicked often succeed, and the good are tried severely, so that compensation to either can only come from the final doom in another and a better world. But I don’t design going so deep into this matter. I read a portion of Drake which I found trifling, and some of Hutchinson that convinces me the English Pamphlet is wrong, and some of Enfield’s History of Philosophy upon the Greek Schools that was interesting, and some of Corinne, and Baroness Minutoli, after which my Catalogue, and the Tatler.