Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-03-24
Beautiful morning. I went to the Office after reading a considerable portion of Virgil’s beautiful sixth book of the Aeneid. This on the whole is I think the masterpiece. The imagination, the description the versification combine wonderfully. My time at the Office was somewhat wasted from the want of another volume of Gibbon I had left at the House. I dawdled until I found nothing to do had brought me to my walking hour. Deacon Spear called to see me and let me know about the Farms. I find the people at Quincy have great respect of persons, but it is rather Reversing the common apprehension of things.1 An agreeable walk.
Afternoon, reading the Moorish Letters in Spanish, and the Peruvian Letters in Italian, a translation of Mad. de Grafigny’s work.2 I think I make progress in both.
Quiet Evening. Read a few anecdotes of Johnson. After which my usual work upon the French Revolution. My mind is quite enlightened on this subject since I began. I do not realize my progress in knowledge.
CFA’s meaning would be clearer if following the comma he had written, “and this rather reverses what is commonly thought to be characteristic of small-town social attitudes.”
Françoise d’Issembourg de Happon-court de Grafigny, Lettere d’una Peruviana, tradotte dal francese ..., da G. L. Deodati, Avignon, 1817. The copy at MQA bears the notation in CFA’s hand: “Finished reading this book—the first Italian I ever attempted. April 25, 1832.”