Morning at the Office. Accounts and various commissions which consumed a good part of the morning. I go about paying the debts which I incur as fast as possible. The times are becoming very bad. The accounts from New York are such as create great alarm in the mercantile community here. Confidence appears to be entirely destroyed and every kind of property is falling in price. The bubble has at last burst, with the greater violence because it has been kept so long from doing so.

Home, where I read Homer. Afternoon, I had to myself. Read Plutarch and Agathon. The first I have been making rather slow progress with but am now nearly through this Essay. It contains much wisdom clumsily and immethodically put together.

Evening at a ball given by Mrs. S. C. Gray.1 Her first. It was rather pleasant than otherwise, although they are all vexations, to me who feel oldish and out of the circle of young ones. I found myself however much flattered by the notice of my Pamphlet, having several applications, and complimentary speeches. This is gratifying to me who need only reputation. Home late.