Rainy, cold, disagreeable day. I attended Divine Service in the morning but missed in the Afternoon from the drowsiness which has of late overcome me so much. Mr. Whitney preached, and really if I did not make it a point to pay a little attention to the Minister I do not think I should ever gain any thing from him. As it is, today, I must confess myself exceedingly deficient.

Read a Sermon of Massillon’s upon the spirit in which works of 95charity ought to be performed. Galatians 5. 25. “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” He prescribes three rules by which it will be possible to judge 1. first, that they should be considered as belonging to the duties rather than the merits of men, 2. second, they should be performed as a counterbalance to the sin committed, 3 thirdly, they should have no mixture of human views. A tolerably good practical Sermon.

The remainder of my time was passed either in reading Horace or some of Madame de Sevigné. Evening at home. Mr. Beale and his Son George came in. The former leaves tomorrow on a trip to Niagara Falls and quits his house to take up his abode when he returns home at Mrs. Adams’s.