Morning at the Office. Weather changed again and become cold. I found the glass in my room about 42. degrees of Fahrenheit. I have not as yet succeeded in placing it out. I continued my method of translating. This Preface seems to me on nearer inspection not so satisfactory as it did at first.1 There is much irrelevant and much illdigested matter, but the substance differently arranged would comprehend all that we wish to have upon the limits of the Sciences of Natural and Civil Law. I have obtained clear ideas of them by reading it, which I cannot say I had before. Called to see Mr. Tarbell and talked with him upon this business of Henderson’s which by it’s ill success disgusts me. He said he would obtain instructions. Wrote a short letter to my Father in answer to his of the other evening which I put into the Post Office on my return home.2 Authorized Degrand to purchase two shares of the Atlas Insurance Company if he could get them for ninety eight. I do not expect to get them.

After dinner I read my usual portion of Aeschines and began his review of the Life of Demosthenes. This constitutes the essential of the Oration. I read also Potter’s Translation of the Supplicants of Aeschylus which I do not admire so much. The only remarkable thing in it being the principles of public liberty which were then held as exhibited in the mouth of the King of the Greeks. Nothing new has been discovered since. I then went down to hear Dr. Walter Channing deliver a Lecture upon the Education of the Ancients, before the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.3 It was pretty but not well adapted, and it was not long. From thence, to the house of Edward Brooks, to the regular weekly meeting of the family, where we had a tolerably pleasant hour and returned home before the Clock had struck ten.

Morning to the Office. Weather cloudy but not cold. Engaged in writing as usual some of my Preface. I find this business so easy that I have lost my taste for it. My design in future in reading authors in a foreign Tongue will be to translate in my Common Place only the Passages which strike me as particularly,1 and these I will attempt to finish as much as possible. Several persons came to see me to ask for Money on account of my Father’s Improvements in his Kitchen. I paid as far as I was able,2 but could not come near the amount demanded. I do not know what it is advisable to do. Must see my father about it.

Read a Chapter or two of Pufendorf, and was considerably instructed upon the nature and duties of man in his condition apart from Christianity. He follows the three great divisions which seem to be always laid down, the duties to God, to fellow Men and to one’s self. The morning seemed to pass rapidly. Mr. Curtis called and redelivered to me the Indentures of Assignment, with a request to insert a Clause releasing the Executors from any Bonds entered into by Mr. Boylston to give Deeds, a Clause he had forgotten to state to me before. I therefore occupied myself with this.

In the afternoon, read my usual portion of Aeschines, where he begins his attack upon the policy of Demosthenes, which constitutes the essence of his Oration. I translated as usual but I am fearful that I shall not arrive at the whole force of the original from my inability to devote time enough to the force of the Greek. Attended this evening a Meeting of the Debating Society. It was quite full and on the whole a tolerable debate upon a trite subject, Duelling. I was appointed Secretary and acted in that capacity in the absence of Park, but was obliged to leave before it broke up as I had left my Wife at Mrs. Gorham’s. She returned home before me as it was.

Morning cloudy attended with a drizzling rain, making the day very unpleasant though quite warm. I attended divine service at Mr. 83Frothingham’s, both in the morning and the afternoon and heard him deliver Two Sermons, to neither of which I attended much. The one in the afternoon was upon Charity to the Poor, and in aid of the Contribution box served regularly on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and it was good as I thought for it’s intended purpose. I returned home and read for the Afternoon Jeremy Taylor’s Account of the Conception and Nativity of Jesus Christ.1 His style is extraordinary, sometimes brilliant, at all times 2 nervous, and strong, but not infrequently obscure. It is the old vigour of that class of Writers who though subsequently excelled by the smoothness and polish of later ages has in itself never been surpassed. Indeed our times are not like those, we force much and produce little. In the evening I read to Abby part of Clarissa Harlowe. The letters of Lovelace have much power in them and a great deal of wit, not formerly appreciated by me when I read them here and there out of connection. Mr. Everett called in to tell us he was going tomorrow morning to Washington—His departure being accelerated by the account of the Boat. He sat only a single minute, so that we resumed Clarissa and continued it until bedtime.