Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 5
1834-05-27
Morning cloudy with a cold Easterly wind, but it cleared away and became pleasanter in the afternoon. I went to town accompanied by Mr. Brooks. Called to see Mrs. Frothingham and from thence went round to the Athenaeum where I stepped in for a moment to see the gallery. It is not so good as it was last year,1 but will compare favorably with any other season. The proportion of good pictures is small, and I do not know that I was much struck with one of the new ones. Perhaps I may except from this remark the piece from Tristram Shandy by Leslie, and one or two copies from the old masters. Office. Nothing new.
Home. Afternoon Mandeville. Finished the Fable of the Bees. A system that recommends itself for nothing but its ingenuity. It is not worthy of an answer because it is as Hume calls it, almost a contradiction in terms. Ovid, Acontius to Cydippe—People whom I never had heard of before. It is much doubted whether the two Epistles are written by Ovid. Evening, read aloud to Mr. Brooks the report of the Committee of the House of Representatives upon the affair of the Bank.2 Hume.
The 1833 exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery had been rendered special by the importation from New York of a collection of paintings of the principal European schools exhibited under the management of an Englishman, John Watkins Brett, and referred to by his name (Swan, The Athenaeum Gallery, p. 95–97).
The Report of the Bank Committee appeared in the Globe on 24 May under unusual circumstances (National Intelligencer, 26 May, p. 3, col. 1). The Intelligencer was not able to carry it until the 27th (p. 1, col. 2 – p. 3, col. 4).