The fog still continues thick and heavy, without rain. I passed an hour in reading the criticism of La Harpe upon Esther and Athalie, together with occasional dipping into the Volumes of Voltaire whose inexhaustible variety supplies the place of depth and judgment. By this last word I mean that consistency of a mind which forms opinions upon thorough reflection and adheres to them stubbornly. At the Office—My time not spent very profitably. Two or three interruptions. My new Tenant among others who adheres tenaciously. A true bore, I fear. Nothing of consequence took place. I went home after calling upon a Tenant.

My Wife went out of town to see Mrs. Gorham Brooks who is confined. I finished the Oration for Caelius. It is as Middleton calls it, amusing, but its general character does not recommend itself to my judgment—Abuse of vice and justification of it in the same breath. Evening, read Athalie over again to remember it. It seems the perfec-50tion of melodious versification. Read the Life of Racine in the Dictionnaire Historique, and Two Spectators.