Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 3
1830-05-23
My wife was so unwell this Morning that we did not make any attempt to leave town. I went to Meeting at Mr. Frothingham’s for the first time for several months. Heard him preach morning and Afternoon. His Sermons are highly laboured, and in themselves finished pieces of Composition, though the thoughts run hard. There is no natural and easy flow which is attractive even in its redundancy. I have noticed that his best Sermons are preached in the Afternoon. Probably because they are selected from the best of his efforts for a considerable period of time. My principal occupation was the correcting Copies for Mr. Sparks, which with all the time today I did not entirely finish. Mr. and Mrs. Frothingham, Miss Carter and Dr. Stevenson called to see my Wife. Evening, a Sermon of Dr. Barrow’s,1 and an attempt to write which failed.
CFA continued to read the sermons of Isaac Barrow until very late in life. In the edition (5 vols., London, 1823) in MQA which has GWA’s signature and JQA’s bookplate, CFA has written the date at which he read each of the ser-244mons; many were read more than once and at intervals of as much as forty years. CFA’s bookplate is in vols. 3, 4, and 6 of another edition (6 vols., Edinburgh, 1751), of which vols. 2, 3, 4, and 6 are in MQA.