Cold and calm. The Clouds were dispersed in the course of the day. My Wife has been suffering considerably for some days and presented so much the appearance of immediate confinement that I have been in great agitation of mind. In the first place her being out of her own 135house only to return tomorrow, and the danger of great inconvenience from a detention, but far more the apprehension of the thing itself owing to the great hazard she ran the last time and to the fact of the absence of the physician she has had and trusts the most, altogether makes my state of mind not enviable. I know my foible is to look forward a little too mournfully. I will try to dispel the gloominess and put my entire trust in a Deity who has never been otherwise than merciful to me.

Read Cumberland whose life is amusing although he is vain and a little lachrymose. Some people have a great dislike to the egoistical style. I am not one of them, for human nature is human nature. To ourselves I is the most important character. All we require is not to be shocked by grossness or insulted by arrogance. Vanity is pardonable.

Attended divine service and heard Mr. Frothingham all day. Morning, Matthew 11.7. “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind.” Afternoon Acts 17. 22 “Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.” The first discourse was upon the character of John the Baptist as the precursor of the Christian dispensation. The other was a very good discourse upon the nature of superstition as contrasted with it’s opposite scepticism, and a verbal criticism of the word superstition in that connexion. I have heard this last discourse before and remember it distinctly. It is probably on record somewhere in the pages of my Journal, but I was glad to hear it again.

Read a Sermon of Barrow upon the Love of God. Matthew 22. 37. “Jesus said unto him. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” He explains first his definition of the love of God, then he shows the means of cultivating it and finishes with some inducements to it. This never appeared to me a happy subject. The Deity must always be considered by man in the light of a Protector. As such love is to a certain degree essential and may be considered as implied. But no dilating will carry any more force to the injunction in the Text than it’s meaning already implies. The Author insists upon the sacrifice of all worldly affections that take off from this one to the Deity. But is this the right course. The faculty of loving like all other faculties is increased by exercise. And it is the dictate of nature to love those connected with us as well as the blessings of this world. If the Deity requires us to crush this disposition, are we likely to regard him with the views which prompt affection? No, I do not so read Christianity nor the second law which is like unto the first. The things of 136this world are not to be exclusively prized nor unduly, but the bosom is not too narrow for all good feeling. Evening at home. Finished the sixth volume of Thiers with the death of Robespierre.