Day fine. Time divided as usual. Evening at Mrs. Everett’s.

My time at the Office is now a little on my hands and I am not sure that I make the very best use of it. Walk and Accounts. Began today the play of the Trachinians, founded upon the death of Hercules the great giant killer of antiquity.

Afternoon the Chinese, a remarkable people whose history is really worth studying. There is something a little extraordinary in the fact of 208the opposition of the habits and manners and customs of the two most civilized races of the world, the European of the Caucasus, and the Asiatic Mongol. We settle it however in America that we know every thing, and the rest of the world is benighted. Happy self-complacency which each Nation cultivates towards all the rest.

Evening at Mrs. Everett’s where we had a few of the family and nothing new. Burr.