After breakfast and finding my Wife still pretty well I concluded to go to Quincy for the purpose of setting in motion the airing and drying the House which my situation has prevented my attending to before. A cold fog from the North East. I gave all the directions which could be given, but it looks dreadfully cheerless and desolate out there. I was glad to return home.

Afternoon quietly at my Office. Read Duclos and a little of Madame du Deffand. Crabbe’s Parish Register, Marriages and Deaths. The colours are too dark. What is life in it’s realities? Not generally an encouraging prospect. The agreeable visions of the imagination form half of the enjoyment. Then why bring up those which are not so, voluntarily, I mean.

Evening after sitting until eight with my Wife I withdrew to my study and sat down to an earnest remodelling of my seventh and most difficult Political Speculation. Finished but half before I retired and it was then unusually late.