A very mild day. I went to Meeting after devoting an hour to coins nearly all of which I have arranged. The knowledge to be acquired by them is very considerable. I begin to define more accurately the succession of the Roman Empire than I ever could through Gibbon.

Mr. Frothingham preached in the morning from Revelation 21. 23. “And the lamb is the light thereof.” The true purpose of the Christian dispensation to furnish a refuge from the stormy passions of the world, through which position a glance at the present excited state of the public mind and the attempt to work upon through the pulpit in the 354case of this Lovejoy. The view is undoubtedly just, but Mr. Frothingham like all others of that school wears the collar of public opinion and becomes the instrument of it to ungenerous and illiberal purposes of which he is not himself conscious.

Walk with my boy John, met Edward Brooks who tells me my opinions of the Mayor’s reasoning are held by many. We are not all broken into the cotton interest then. Afternoon, Matthew 25. 29. “For unto every one that hath, shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” An explanation of this singular text and illustration of it in life. Another walk with my little girl after which read a Sermon of Sterne on Religious Enthusiasm. St. John 15. 5. “For without me, ye can do nothing.” The influences of the spirit erroneously construed to work too much by some sects and too little by others, but the Sermon appears to me a feeble one.

Evening, I went down with my Wife to pay a visit to Edward and his Wife. Mrs. Lyman was there. Conversation with him upon various matters. He is always quite liberal in his tone with me and would be so generally, if it was not for the surroundings. Home at ten.