Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 6
1834-12-24
Day very dark. I passed most of my time in lounging at an Auction room where there was a sale of pictures. Bought none. They were not very good, and the day was so unfavourable as to remove all temptation. What time remained was devoted to the pursuit of toys for the children as Christmas presents. Home. Read Ovid, and Mr. Gerry’s letters which contain more than any I have yet seen. There is however a want of minuteness about them all which I can not relish. It is a great defect in letter writing. Yet I perceive my grandfather cautioned not infrequently to avoid it in his letters. Such is the world.
Miss Henrietta Gray came to town for the purpose of attending the Theatre with my Wife and Mr. Brooks to see Matthews. I do not go in obedience to the custom. Neither do I desire to. I attach no importance to the customary conventions of society, yet I would not entirely violate them. Mourning I consider as entirely conventional. It must frequently act as a substitute for grief.1
Spent the evening desultorily. Read some of Madle de L’Espinasse’s Letters to taste them, a little of d’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature and Schiller’s Don Carlos.2
CFA’s observance of mourning in the matter of theater attendance in Boston is in contrast to his failure to observe it when in Philadelphia. See above, entries for 12 and 20 November.
CFA borrowed from the Athenaeum copies of Mlle. de L’Espinasse’s Lettres, 2 vols., Paris, 1809, and of Isaac D’Israeli’s Curiosities of Literature, 3 vols., London, 1824. His earlier reading of the 2d series of the latter did not give him as much satisfaction (vol. 4:33
Don Karlos, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1801, is at MQA, but it is not clear that he was here reading Schiller in German.