Morning fine but very warm. I passed an hour or more in examining the Poetic of Aristotle and comparing it with Pye’s Commentary which I have obtained from the Library of the Athenaeum.1 Then to the Office where I was busy in finishing the Analysis of Puffendorf. I cannot say that I have read this with the attention it deserves.

At my Office with frequent interruptions and without the habits of thinking which seem to me to belong only to a Library, I can do infinitely less than I ought. I had no interruptions of any consequence however, and on the whole executed more than for some time past. Finished and copied a Letter to John in answer to his inquiry about the Oregon Settlement.2 I seized the opportunity to express to him my deliberate opinion upon the matter of the Flour business and to shake off all responsibility from myself as to the probable consequences arising from the pursuit. I am sorry for John but I am satisfied that neither he nor my father are equal to the task. Returned home, a little shower fell and it was windy.

Afternoon, read over the long Letter to Lentulus, of the character of which I am more and more satisfied, and several to Curio which are very good. This Curio was a good for nothing fellow, and the immediate cause of the civil War. Yet Cicero threw away upon him abundance of the best advice. Evening, my Wife went to see her Sister. I walked until nine. Read a part of Pye’s Commentary on Aristotle and the Spectator.