Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1839-06-18
Clouds and latterly rain. To Boston. At home after dinner and evening.
I went to town and was industriously engaged all the morning in business of the Agency, of Mr. Curtis for the Boylston Estate and in my own. This left me little or no time for any thing else. Received a notice that my Tenant in No. 4 Acorn Street vacates which is a vexation.
Return to dinner. Afternoon Lucan finish the 8th book, and read Grimm whose criticism is often extremely amusing. Also Le Comte’s description of China about which I am curious.1 In the evening retained at home by the rain. Mascou, Costume des Anciens Peuples.2
At MQA is Louis Le Comte, Nouveaux mémoires sur l’état présent de la Chine, 2 vols., Amsterdam, 1697.
Perhaps the reference is to a section of Johann Jacob Mascou’s Geschichte der Teutschen. CFA’s copies are at MQA in the original German (Leipzig, 1750) and in English: The History of the Ancient Germans ... and other Ancient Northern Nations, transl. T. Lediard, 2 vols., London, 1737–1738. However, CFA’s use of the title in French is puzzling.