Cold and clear. Exercises as usual. Evening at Mr. Brooks’.

I have finished Milman and am now in want of some substitute. In the mean time and not to be idle, read the last number of the North American Review, two leading articles with neither of which I was entirely pleased.

Attended divine service and heard Dr. Frothingham preach from Proverbs 3. 5 and 6. “Trust in the Lord with all thy heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.” A good Sermon pointed at the extremes very prevalent in these times of utter incredulity and of extreme confidence. If there is any portion of my religious feeling to which I adhere constantly it is to my reliance upon a power in comparison with which the intellect of man is a cipher. After dinner, Matthew 12. 33. “Make the tree good and his fruit good.”

Read as usual a discourse from the English Preacher. Proverbs 3. 17. “Her ways are ways of pleasantness; and all her paths are peace.” A discourse by Dr. Foster upon the value of religion as productive of happiness a variety of the old doctrine of honesty the best policy.

Evening, Mrs. Adams and I to Mr. Brooks’. The usual family and C. 184Brooks and F. Gray. Rather dull. Home where finished Burr’s first Volume of Journal and began second.