Rain fell heavily but calm in the morning but it cleared at noon. At home all day, reading and working. Dined at the Mansion.

Continued Locke’s Essay, Chapter on power. p. 220–252. A difficult topic not very satisfactorily developed. The famous question of liberty and necessity rather evaded than met. The title itself, power does not appear to me to express any very distinct idea.

Finished Lessing’s Essay. Very ingenious and in portions almost convincing. Death as a skeleton certainly is in it’s analogy more Gothic than Grecian. Yet it is a natural idea and was unquestionably adopted in some shape by Lessing’s admission. Lucretius Book 3. 1–136. The work on my ground took some time. Evening passed at the Mansion.