Very cold disagreeable morning. Transferred for the present the Italian to be my morning study. Read a little of the Peruvian Letters which are very easy. Time at the Office variously spent. I was busy in collecting seeds for the Garden at Quincy, and other purchases which with the never failing business of accounts consumed the time. Found Joseph H. Adams had been at my House. He is ordered off and is preparing to start. I intended to have gone to Quincy but the setting in of the rain just as I was about to start prevented me.

Passed my Afternoon in reading the Moorish Letters. They contain a great deal of good sense. I know nothing of their Author however. The dearth of books relating to Spanish literature, speaking historically, is great with me, and I may also add with my father.

Quiet Evening at home. Did nothing—on the whole what a mass of 281my time is profitless. Read an excellent number of the Rambler on that point, this evening.