Morning cloudy and looked very much like rain. The first thing that was announced to us was that the Baby had been sick during the night. She has so little sickness, that at this Season any thing like it alarms us. She was better during the day.

I remained quietly at home all the morning. Read the Preface of Bolingbroke to his Dissertation upon Parties, and some of this piece itself.1 I find my views of the English History during the Stuarts generally born out by him. He has some power with his pen though he is frequently faulty. Spent an hour comparing and correcting MS Journals with my father,2 and then rode in the Carriage with my Wife to Boston.

A dinner at Mr. Bradlee’s.3 Company consisted of Mr. Brooks, Sidney and his Wife and Henry, Mr. Frothingham and Wife, Mr. J. D. Bates,4 a Mr. Teschemaker, and Mr. Mier, besides F. H. Bradlee and his Wife.5 The dinner was quite a pleasant one. The two foreigners with the singular names did a great deal to enliven it. It is a little remarkable that the first of the two should have been an Englishman. 366We left the table before six and returned directly to Quincy. I was fearful I had been imprudent in diet, though I know not why. I did not suffer.

As the Weather changed and the appearances were rather in favour of a Storm of some days, I thought I would go to town today instead of tomorrow. At the Office, most of my time occupied in various ways, doing as much as I could. Went to the House where I was glad to see the Mason had done his work pretty thoroughly. One or two applications for Houses and Offices and all told. Indeed the account which I can render of my1 never corresponds to the quantity spent.

Returned to Quincy. After dinner, read Seneca de beneficiis, book 6. I have been a most incredibly long time about this business. Seneca is not one of those Writers in whom you find reason to hurry. His doctrine of the present book is upon the question how far particular gratitude is due for a general benefit. And how far it is due when the benefit is not voluntary. Minor questions these.

Notwithstanding the bad weather, my Wife and I concluded to go according to invitation to Mr. Whitney’s. Nobody there but ourselves and the new Doctors who rushed into the town on the decease of Dr. Phipps—Gordon, Stetson, and Dorr. The two former are promising looking young men. The latter is an old acquaintance, having been a Classmate at College.2

Morning cloudy and it rained occasionally throughout the day. I did not go to town and hardly stirred out of the House all day. My morning was consumed in another attempt to bring into order the Papers of my Grandfather. In this I undid a great deal of my last Sum-367mer’s work and did it over in a new shape—Alphabetical instead of chronological. Passed an hour in comparing the Journals of my Grandfather written when he was twenty. They display a power of mind which is as striking as his conduct in any subsequent part of his life.

Read more of the Dissertation upon Parties. A charge that the Dissenters favoured James the 2d. Is it true? I think not. After dinner, continued the reading of Seneca. Question, whether a man is justified in wishing evil to his benefactor so that he may have an opportunity of acquitting himself of his obligation by rescuing him from it. Decided that he is not. For it is not in fact doing a kindness. It is wishing what would meet the views of a violent enemy instead of a friend. The case is simple enough, yet he explains its details with considerable success.

I took a short walk in the evening with my father, pasted in a few labels for my father, read a little of Dr. Granville to the ladies and retired early.