Cloudy and cold. But very little rain. I did not go to town. Time occupied between Thucydides and the examination of the old letters of my Grandmother, some of which I found quite interesting. Those of my father at an early age when he had his doubts of his success have much to produce reflection. They come to me with the more force as many of them were written at just my present age. It is true that our situations are very dissimilar and that in many respects my early life has been a very prosperous one. But this very circumstance assisted him in his subsequent course when it will be very likely to keep me down.

After dinner I finished Seneca’s book de Providentia. The latter part is a justification of suicide. With the doctrine of the Pagans, there is no reason to object to it. But it would seem as if any person having sense enough to believe in a Deity, would see that the object of his creation was not to put his life in his own power. Elizabeth C. Adams was here all day. Evening at home. I read parts of the Bank Report.