Morning warm with a Southerly and very heavy rain, which did not last. I went to the Office after stopping to make inquiry about the woman of Dr. Stevenson. She is a little better today and if she goes on improving I have pretty much made up my mind to have her moved. My time at the Office was taken up in Accounts and my Diary. Attended a Meeting of the Directors of the Middlesex Canal called for the purpose of assenting to the sale of a piece of land in Charlestown. It is a mere formality as the regulation of all those affairs will lie with two or three, and the other Directors know but very little about it. Took a short walk.

Afternoon, made some progress in the review of Lucullus, every step in which I comprehend better as I go. The old Philosophers were always stumbling upon a mass of crude stuff their ingenuity formed which only embarrassed the perception of truth, and retarded the progress of knowledge.

Evening read Fuseli’s Lectures upon Invention, Design and Chiaroscuro. They pleased me much. My Wife was so fatigued I did not read to her, so that I amused myself by writing something that may be of use to me hereafter. Read the Spectator.