Morning cold but pleasant. I went to the Office as usual. Found myself occupied without knowing how, first in the receipt of a Letter from my Father which I read with pleasure, as it had nothing in it of a disagreeable or depressing nature.1 This and the writing my Journal took up an hour. I then went to ask after Mrs. Brooks, and was told that she was much the same, though it was hoped that the applications made would relieve her. My proposed Tenant, Mr. Gilbert then called upon me, who had been to see Mrs. Lewis, and had been much shaken in his inclinations for the House by the series of representations, or rather misrepresentations she had made. This was not a little provoking and I felt out of temper, it being enough that I should reduce the rent. He left me promising an answer on Monday. I then went to Mr. 141Edward Blake’s Office to meet with the Committee on the Militia for the Debating Society.2 We sat nearly two hours and talked of every thing without coming to any conclusion. I was obliged to leave off because I was fearful that I had lost my Tenants at the Office. I shall not feel easy until the Houses are let. On returning to it, I found Mr. Degrand had called to let me know that he had transferred the shares of the State Bank which had been purchased for my Father, so that I went down and concluded the business by adding these with the remainder of George’s making eleven to the sixty already owned by my Father. This took the rest of the morning.

The Afternoon was spent in reading Mitchell’s Translation of the Knights of Aristophanes, and comparing the Letters copied by the copyist of Mr. Sparks with the originals in the Letter books. They are very interesting and it will be a good way for me to read them. But in objecting to any for publication I feel a little doubtful of my Judgment and dislike the responsibility. After tea, I went down leaving my Wife at Mrs. Frothingham’s to the Meeting of the Debating Society. It was respectable and the discussion upon the subject of Dissection was continued with great interest. I felt much more engaged in it than I had expected, but the cold was so great that we adjourned early without coming to any decision or without hearing all the information upon the subject. The evening was severe. I returned home with my Wife at nine.

Arose very late this morning, the weather more cold than at any preceding time this Winter, and I feeling unwell from a severe cold caught upon my preceding one which had not altogether left me. Went to Meeting at Mr. Frothingham’s this morning and heard him deliver a much better Sermon than usual. I was quite pleased with it though I felt severely the cold during the Service. I was glad to get home, from which I resolved that I would not again stir, during the day.

Miss Julia Gorham and Mr. Edmund Quincy dropped in, the former by chance, the latter by invitation and they dined with us very pleasantly. Quincy remained all the afternoon, conversing about things in general. He is tolerably agreeable, and has a kind of superiority about him to the generality of our young men which I do not dislike. He has tastes which are in themselves rare and which do ennoble a man, let people say what they will. He left us at dark when I felt much 142worse with the oppression from my cold, than heretofore. Being somewhat upon my breast it alarmed me a little.

After tea, I read to my Wife a little of Clarissa Harlowe but we were soon interrupted by the entrance of my friend Edward Blake who came in and talked with us agreeably for a couple of hours. It would give me a good deal of pleasure if I could select a number of young men to frequent my house such as these and a few like them. I reject many of the coarse and disagreeable persons I meet in Society and even the rough in manners, for with these I cannot coalesce. But my notions are perhaps a little too fastidious upon these subjects—And I shall only succeed in quite excluding myself out of young men’s society. Be it so. I am independent. After he had gone and Abby had retired, I sat down and wrote a long Letter to my Father in reply to his two last, which took up until near twelve o’clock.1 The weather was cold and I was glad to retire.