This is the day appointed by law for the election of State Officers. The result is with a higher power. I went to perform my duty by voting for the whole of the Antimasonic ticket with the exception of my father for Governor, in whose place I substituted Henry Shaw, and of myself for Representative, for whom I put T. K. Davis. This once done, I set about my usual occupations of reading and writing. Took a walk.

Afternoon, I finished Bacon’s Novum Organum—A work which will require many more than one deliberate perusal before I can be said to be master of it’s wisdom. Lord Brougham has made a valuable analysis of it.1

In the evening at home very quietly with my Wife. Finished the first volume of the Fair Maid of Perth, and the third book of the Aeneid. Read also, Racine’s delightful little Comic piece of the Plaideurs—Singular that the French critics set this down so low. La Harpe scarcely speaks of it. I laughed heartily several times.