I thought that as no especial business called me to town this morning, I would not go, and employ the time instead in the work I have 54undertaken, to methodize the Papers of my Grandfather. This is a prodigious work, it is one that I foresee must be performed by me, or it will never be done. There is so much that is useless and cumbersome mixed among many very valuable historical materials, that my Father shrinks at the task of assorting. I looked over a vast multitude of Papers relating to the affairs of the Revolution. Also some of the correspondence relating to the Army of 1799. An eventful period in the life of my Grandfather.1 I made some progress though not a great deal.

Afternoon, occupied in reading Cicero, but I find that out of my own house and comfortable accommodations it is not quite so easy to make progress. I was obliged to review what I had already done of the Oration for Balbus. T. B. Adams Jr. spent the day here. Evening, quietly at home with the family, reading to them a part of Moore’s Life of Byron. After it, the Spectator.

A thick mist hung over the Country followed by heavy rain. As I had made engagements that could not easily be broken, and my Father wished also to go to town, we started together and reached Boston as usual. I went to the Office where I transacted some business, received the amount of the Note taken in payment for rent, from one of my Tenants, and gave directions for the few additional necessary ones to be made upon the Tenement not yet occupied. I then went to the House and from thence to the performance of a variety of Commissions with which I had been charged. In this way my time all went, and my Father having done all he had to do, we started upon our return at one. The weather had been terrible all the time.

Afternoon, Engaged in the Oration for Balbus in which I made much progress. It is one of the series for which Cicero is responsible to his Country. His weight having by then1 been thrown into the scale of Caesar and Pompey, and against the Senate. In itself I see little of peculiar interest—The question being upon a point of law. My task progressed a little besides, but it is surprising how much time I am always managing to waste. Evening with the family. Nothing material. Read a little of the Spectator.