My eldest boy is this day two years old. Upon every return of these Anniversaries I reflect how much I have to be grateful to God for. May prosperity never have such an effect upon my mind as to render me deserving of the severer lessons of adversity. My confidence never is in any act or merit of my own but in the enduring bounty of a gracious deity.

The day was fine and I went into town. My time of course very much taken up by the accumulated affairs of a week. My Appeal has not been published. The Printer came to a stand upon a passage that need not have puzzled him, so that I had to look over the proof and an opportunity to prefix a short Note explaining the design of my publication. Called at the house and performed several commissions. Called to see Mr. Brooks and T. K. Davis, the latter because he has just recovered from a very bad fall which he had over the stair case of Edmd. Quincy’s house. While at the Office of this person, Mr. Quincy senr. came in and asked us both to be Judges of the dissertations for the Bowdoin prize in the Junior Class at Cambridge. I consented and went off upon other business. Accounts. Mr. B. V. French and Mrs. Proctor consumed the available time at the Office.

Home to dine. Found collected, Mrs. T. B. Adams with her two daughters and L. C. Smith. They dined here as a sort of notice of John’s birthday. I felt as if I could not afford to lose the Afternoon and therefore employed part of it in bringing up the record of this Diary which has again fallen in arrear by this Journey. But evenings are rapidly taking the place of Afternoons and in the evening Mr. Beale and his daughter and Mr. Price Greenleaf dropped in so that we had quite a 227large circle. Conversation principally of our experiences in our Journey. They went early and I continued writing.