Heavy rain this morning so that I made up my mind very quietly to remaining at home. Read German, Muller, History of the Appenzel War which is interesting. But I find my progress exceedingly slow. The great difficulty in German is from the great number of compound 329words which are not to be found in Dictionaries and yet which represent shades of ideas different from any simple words. Read Hume, Dialogues upon Natural Religion. Tried to begin an Essay upon the character and influence of Mr. Jefferson but only succeeded in laying out what might be considered as the rough ground. Read some of Mr. Jay’s book.

Afternoon Cowper’s Correspondence. This opens to me a new view of character. It seems his morbid sensitiveness took the direction of religion. He believed himself everlastingly damned. The Deity appeared to him only as an avenger. At times this state of mind merged into insanity but it rarely rose into a better condition. Shocking enough—Yet with all this his letters and Poems show a sort of humour which betokens a mind at peace with itself and others. Flowers covering a precipice.