Mild but cloudy. I went to the Office and spent an hour in reading the Parliamentary Debates. In the present disturbed state of our own Country it is a great relief to go abroad and look at the state of things in foreign countries and in history. Yet wherever one looks, there is an appearance of solidity which comforts. Here the example is lost every twenty years.

I took a walk. Afternoon, reading Dubos Reflexions upon Poetry and Painting—A pleasing book upon a pleasing subject. On the whole, I take more pleasure in these studies than in all the noise of politics. Were it not, that the present measures press upon the industry of the Country and consequently upon our resources, I should make myself tolerably indifferent to the state of things.

Evening. The Absentee, a pleasing work, and La Fontaine’s Fables which are charming.1