Morning pleasant but still cool. Read Buffon for an hour as usual, and then went to the Office. Nothing material took place; I received a letter from my Father, and a Copy of Verses addressed to me.1 He frequently poetizes, and what he writes is in the usual strain of lofty morals. The remainder of the morning was taken up in my common duties, and in reading over the Essays of Hume which affected me 14much in the same manner as heretofore. They made me doubt not principles but his system of explaining them. My Uncle Judge Adams from Quincy paid me a long visit and gave me some Account of the proceedings at that place in relation to the House &ca. He seems puzzled in regard to the Posts.

Returned home, having lost my walk and after dinner was busy in reading over the Orations against Rullus. They do not strike me as very much deserving further Comment. But as a peculiar kind of Oratory, they deserve some attention. Speaking against the Popular Current.

Evening, Parry’s second Voyage, which appears to have been unsuccessful enough. He was entangled in Bays all the time. It is on the whole somewhat doubtful whether there is any passage through Hudson’s Bay. But we shall see more. Buffon afterwards and the Spectator.

Morning delightfully mild and pleasant. I went to the Office as usual after finishing the fifth volume of Buffon’s Natural History, and thus concluding all that I propose to do in this way just now. I have been interested by much that he says, although in a great many things he seems to me to be wrong. Particularly in the closing Dissertation upon Men and Animals. In which he does not maintain fully the ground he starts upon. After reading several Letters from Washington,1 and T. B. Adams Jr.—The latter enclosing a power of Attorney for his stock in the Fire and Marine2—I sat down and considered the Analysis of Locke’s Essay upon Government.3 A very remarkable production. Took my usual walk.

Mr. Brooks and Miss Julia Gorham dined with us. The former seemed a little depressed. The latter passed the Evening. I felt languid and unable to study but I continued the reading over the Second 15Oration against Rullus and nearly accomplished it. Evening, I thought I would look into Kotzebue’s Voyage4 and I became interested enough in it to accomplish one half of the first Volume. After which I read the Spectator. Two of Addison’s Papers upon Tragedy.