Fine day. I went to town as usual. Morning passed as usual. I got a chance to go to the Athenaeum and read a little, for my Office work is trifling. Even the business I usually transact has ceased. My father’s 352Tenants do not come near me. Read a little more of the trials. A work very judiciously compiled—The records of crime exhibiting the force of the passions. How one error invariably leads to another. How the best feelings of human nature once perverted can produce the worst of consequences. Adultery and murder, Robbery and murder, Gaming and robbery, Forgery and licentiousness, are constantly connected. These however do not surprise. How much more strange is it, when there is an absence of all motive.

Returned to Medford, being the only one of the gentlemen who did. I had a quiet afternoon in which I read a part of an apologetic life of Cromwell which I found in the library of Mr. Brooks. It is unsound. The reasoning is almost all of it false. He must be justified upon different grounds. Mr. Brooks and Mr. Frothingham came out in the evening and announced a new case of disease in Boston. Quiet evening.

Fine day but the weather has turned off quite cold. I took my last shower bath this season and found it extremely pleasant. Left Medford after breakfast accompanied by Mr. Frothingham. My visit has on the whole been quite a pleasant one, yet I think I see alterations going on which will result in material changes before long. This is merely my own feeling. I hope and trust that we shall all be benefitted by them.

Time passed in town partly at the Office partly in going to the House to obtain some papers and Journals for my father who talks seriously of resuming his great undertaking,1 a circumstance that I am very glad to see. This has been delayed too long already. Went also to the Athenaeum for half an hour.

At my usual hour I rode to Quincy. My Wife had reached there before my arrival. Found the family much as usual, and spent the afternoon in reading the life of Cromwell. My absence has however broken the connection of my thoughts so much that I fear I shall have to give up my project or go over all the ground again. Miss Smith dined at the House but returned home in the Afternoon. I accompanied my Mother in a visit to Mrs. T. B. Adams and Mrs. Angier who is there. Returned and retired pretty early. A short conversation with my father upon political Affairs.