Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1831-09-06
Morning clear and pleasant. Took a ride with my Wife and lengthened it considerably as I found her better able to bear it. But it brought me to the Office very late and I had no morning. Mr. Rupp the Clerk of the Boylston Market called and I spoke of the proceedings of yesterday, and doubted the expediency of so large a Dividend, as they decided upon.1 I afterwards said the same thing to Mr. Child whom I met.2 Mr. Rupp gave me one or two desperate debts to collect for the Company which I promised to do with as well as I could. 130The rest of the time was passed in running about town, and finally in going for a book to the Athenaeum.
I have concluded to go back to Cicero and consequently began the Letters to Atticus this Afternoon. It is hard that so great a man should rarely be free from suspicion. Guthrie the translator even denies him credit in the famous Conspiracy of Catiline, and intimates that he made full as much of it as it would bear.3 The idea has certainly crossed my mind when considering the apparent power enjoyed by the enemies of Cicero when accusing him upon this matter, yet on the whole I am led to think it unfounded. Summary punishment was and is a very unpopular, though occasionally a just measure—And we have the evidence of an Enemy, Sallust, besides. Read Bacon’s Essay upon Travel, Fenelon, Boileau’s Longinus and the Spectator, besides translating a page of Cicero, de optimo genere Oratorum.
The newly declared semiannual dividend was at $4 a share where the preceding one had been at $2.50 (M/CFA/3).
Doubtless Joshua Child, secretary of the Boylston Market; see above, vol. 3, entry for 24 April 1830.
CFA’s practice in the afternoon was to read from the Latin text. Apparently he was here reading a commentary on and perhaps some of the translation of the letters preliminary to studying the text itself. William Guthrie was the editor and translator of an edition of Epistles to Atticus published at London in 3 vols. in 1806.
1831-09-07
I have begun by way of a little variety to read the Oration of Demosthenes accusing Aeschines on the matter of the Embassy to Philip. I did not think I should have begun upon him again, but the more I see, the more I am satisfied that the knowledge of the force of Eloquence is only to be got from a study of those specimens in which it is most displayed. I will get the mastery of the Greek Language if it can be done, by perseverance. Rode with my Wife as far as Brookline, making nearly six miles. She seemed to bear it pretty well.
At the Office, but Isaac Hull Adams soon came in to inform me that my Mother and Miss Roberdeau1 were in town at the Athenaeum Gallery. I went to see them and consumed a good proportion of the morning. My Mother informed me of the illness of the Judge my Uncle, and urged my going to see him. After leaving her I saw Mr. Foster and Edward Miller and their Account dissuaded me, for I can be of no use.2
Returned home and in the Afternoon read the Letters to Atticus which are pleasant but degrade the character of Cicero very much. It is impossible to deny it. He was a very weak great man and as for his patriotism it was not the patriotism of Cato. Read Bacon’s Essay on 131Empire in which he shows the same profoundness of mind which always distinguished
Mary Roberdeau, of Philadelphia, had several times during JQA’s Presidential term paid extended visits to the Adamses in Washington. She had arrived at Quincy on 31 Aug. for a visit of some weeks. Her presence occasioned a number of evening gatherings that, because she sang prettily, were frequently musical. JQA, Diary, 3 Sept.; above, vols. 1 and 2 passim; LCA to Mrs. JA2, 27 Sept. (Adams Papers).
TBA had been in declining health for some months. Currently his illness was diagnosed as a nervous fever, characterized by involuntary convulsive motions of the limbs and delirium. Unexpectedly, his condition took a favorable turn on the 8th and he became for some time thereafter convalescent. JQA, Diary, 4 Sept.; JQA to JA2, 9 Sept. (Adams Papers).