Morning fine. At the Office. The associations with the recurrence of 327this day have been to me most generally productive of pleasure. But for the two last there has been nothing to support them. At College, I looked to it as the certain period of reunion with my own friends, and afterwards, as the time in the year when all were disposed to pleasure and congratulation and happiness. These ideas are not congenial here, for with the customs of the Puritans they transfer to Thanksgiving, an Institution of their own, what ought to come at Christmas and New Year. My day was a dull one, being passed alone, my landlord and lady having gone out of town. But it was spent in study unremitting and brought in the evening satisfactory reflections.

Morning pleasant. At the Office, reading the Massachusetts Reports, as usual. I have not seen George for more than a week. We have had a slight difference. Afternoon, Mr. Burke on the French Revolution. My trunk has at last arrived from Washington. It contains the Volumes of Burke, the Shirts and all my Mother’s papers. It came open, whether intentionally or not, I cannot say. In the evening, read Dr. Johnson’s Preface to his English Dictionary which I admire very much. It pleases me more than any of his writings I have yet read.

Morning pleasant. At the Office reading as usual. Wrote a letter to my Mother in answer to one received from her some days since, which I omitted to mention, and that also of a kind one from John.1 Afternoon, read a portion of Mr. Burke on the French Revolution, a third or fourth reading. J. Otis called and paid me a visit of an hour or more, conversing upon matters in general. Evening, as the subject for discussion at the Debating Society was not a very suitable one, I went to the Office, and read Boswell’s Life of Johnson together with his pamphlet of the False Alarm, upon the Middlesex Election.

Morning cloudy but still pleasant. This month has been delightful and has made a material difference in the length of the winter. Attended Meeting this morning and heard Dr. Channing preach a Sermon, but not remarkable for any thing. The close of the year generally presents a fine opportunity to a meditative mood, but he would not seize it. Went to Medford in the afternoon. I have at present rather a 328distaste to it. I enjoy Abby’s society exceedingly when she is alone, and the uniformity of my spirits tends just sufficiently to curb her’s to make them agreeable. But when there are others who run her wild with unmeaning and loud nonsense, my own character is so inappropriate to these scenes as to make me feel a burden and clog. What the French call “de trop.” Gravity looks ill placed and I cannot join in it, so I pay for my pleasure now and then pretty severely. And yet I could not forego the gratification I do receive. My spirits slightly depressed.