Morning clear and cold. I went to the Office. Time taken up in Accounts and making up my Diary. The mornings now are short and I do as I have always done, waste them. My mode of life is not favorable to my own improvement, I feel sensible. The best and most valuable time in the day is precisely that which I do not make use of.

Called for my Wife and we took a walk. Afternoon. Read the remainder of the volume of Bacon’s Letters. These display him such as he was, with a mind far above all his contemporaries, and yet willing to abase himself by compliances which would dishonor the meanest. Perhaps his is a striking illustration of the character of man even in his best estate. Read Virgil also and in the evening Patronage. The children continue to give us uneasiness although they are better. Instead of reading from which my attention wavered I wrote, part of an Essay.