Pleasant day. Finished the Maid of Orleans, a piece with which I have been much charmed. The mechanism is perhaps objectionable by the introduction of a spirit who seems to have no effect upon the conduct of the piece nor to be essential in any way to it’s catastrophe. How different from Hamlet who learns from the unearthly visitant the secret which impels his whole course of action.

Office. My cold still prevented me from sitting down seriously to work. I attended to money matters and Mr. S. Conant from Weston came with whom I settled for the yearly rent of that Farm. Walk with E. Quincy.

Afternoon, nothing remarkable. Read Grimm and continued the book of Deontology with the tone and spirit of which I find it hard to put up. Nor do I see any great value in the pretended discovery. Mr. Brooks dined out and I sat with my Wife in the evening in conversation. Nothing material.