My time now begins to be more at my disposal, and I enter again very quietly upon my ancient occupations. This produces a monotony in my Diary which is after all a sign of tolerable content.

At the Office I read Bradford’s History, examined accounts and finished Dumont’s Recollections of Mirabeau. I have read this work in the translation which is evidently great injustice to it. The egotism of an old Frenchman (for although Genevese, he appears to have much of the French manner) is not unpleasant in his own language, but when you show it off in another it is intolerable. A greater defect is it’s shallowness, for he had great opportunities and little has come of it. The illustrations of Mirabeau’s character are meagre but yet the most valuable portion of the book.

I went to the Athenaeum to investigate one or two historical points, without success. Afternoon, Hutchinson and the Massachusetts State Papers. Quiet evening. Sidney Brooks spent it with us.