The day cold. Morning to town. Return to Quincy to dinner and Afternoon spent in reading without progress. Evening at the Mansion.

I left Medford immediately after breakfast without regret, for I cannot spend time so idly with any satisfaction. The acquisition of knowledge in some shape or other being my principal pleasure, I feel not at home where I do not pursue it. My present mode of life has done much to fasten upon me attachments which the interruption of former summers tended to weaken.

My occupation in town was to read General Gaines’s plan for the defence of the Western frontier, a document having some bearing upon the Texas schemes and remarkable for exhibiting the foibles of its author.1

Upon my return to reading Lucretius I found how much my mind had been dissipated and gave it up. So I read a little of the desultory criticism of Grimm. Dr. Palfrey and his daughter made us a visit. In the evening a discussion with my father upon the influence of College educations.