Clear but cold with an Easterly wind. Day passed in the usual duties and evening at the Mansion. There has been a very bright Aurora borealis for four successive nights.

Attended divine service and heard Dr. Henry Ware Jr. preach in the morning from Proverbs 4. 23. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” A very good discourse explanatory of Pope’s verse “An honest man’s the noblest work of God” which he considers as designed only to embrace that sort of honesty which is of the world and not the higher duty of faithfulness to God. Afternoon Matthew 16. 26. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” He first considered the probable meaning of the word in this text as it was used in other places indiscriminately for life or spirit, but whichever it might mean he regarded it as emphatically expressing the value of another life and the vanity of attaching the affections to the things of this.

Read a discourse of Bishop Atterbury’s in the English Preacher upon the duty of praise and thanksgiving. Psalm 50. 14. “Offer unto God thanksgiving.” I take much pleasure also in reading the criticism of Grimm, which though prejudiced is still excellent. He possessed a great deal of discriminating talent which is the sine qua non for the critic.