Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1832-04-13
A very lovely day. I went to the Office after making some progress in the reading of Virgil though not so much as I wished. I did hope to finish Virgil this week. My day was somewhat wasted. The weather was so fine I could not make up my mind to remaining at the Office. Received an urgent letter from my father inviting my Wife and myself to spend the Summer with them. I suppose I must accede to it. If it was not for the inconvenience that it puts us to I should like it very much.1 Spent an hour with Mr. Davis in which we had very pleasant literary Conversation. His mind is unusually cultivated. Took a walk, but the heat of the Sun was absolutely oppressive.
Afternoon. Read as usual but found my Spanish uncommonly hard. My only purchase yesterday was of a copy of Vasari’s Works which I consider a great bargain.2 But the consumption of money in these cases is quite prodigious.
Evening quiet at home. I read a little of the introduction to the first 279volume of Vasari. My Wife was out. Afterwards, I was interested in the account of the disastrous expedition to Russia in 1812. And the Rambler.
“[Y]ou are necessaries of life to us, during the summer.... It is my ardent wish to devote the ensuing Summer to the memory of my father, and if I am permitted so to do, I shall want your assistance more than ever. I depend upon you for aid in my labours and for company in my Solitude.... [Y]our wife will be as necessary to the happiness of your mother, as you will be to mine”
(JQA to CFA, 10 April, Adams Papers).
The handsome set of Giorgio Vasari’s Vite de’ più eccelenti pittori scultori e architetti, 16 vols., Milan, 1807–1811, now at MQA, has CFA’s bookplate pasted partially over the bookplate of William H. Eliot.