Clouds and showers with thunder and Lightning throughout the day. I remained at home and read Thucydides whose third book I finished. The picture it gives of the state of morals which the war introduced into Greece is shocking enough. Every City was divided into two parties, the aristocratic and democratic. The one favouring Sparta, the other Athens. It was a contest between two principles of government, neither of which are capable of well ordering mankind. It would seem however as if the world was on a larger scale destined to exhibit the same scenes. May they not close as before in a military despotism.

Read some of Sidney, who is rather dry. He is a staunch Republican. I also finished Seneca upon a question whether retirement is proper for a wise man. It is a pretty fragment enough. My other time was divided between the debate in the first Congress and the life of Mr. Canning. On the whole I now accomplish a good deal when at home. 339Yet I ought to remember my Grandfather’s constant advice, “Studium sine calamo somnium.”