Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 4
1831-07-22
Morning fine and clear. I pursued my study of Aristotle’s Poetics for an hour, and find it on the whole more simple than I expected. The Essay however seems to be guided not so much by any principle founded in nature as by experience of what has been successful with Men. Thus the Works of Homer and of the early Grecian Tragic Poets are the sum of his lessons. Perhaps this is looking at the subject in rather a contracted light. Yet he really deserves the name of a great genius who can succeed in a new line.
Went to the Office and was occupied during the morning in writing. Mr. J. T. Adams called upon me about my Article. I found myself anticipated by a severe Pamphlet so that I shall discontinue my intended criticism.1 Read a little of Puffendorf as abridged in the Bibliotheque de l’homme public.
At one o’clock I returned home for the purpose of going with my Wife to Medford. We reached there quite late to dinner. Found Mr. 95Brooks, P. C. Jr. and his Wife and Miss Phillips. Passed the Afternoon doing nothing. Mr. G. W. Pratt and his Lady paid a visit. On the whole the day went pleasantly, and we returned safe and sound calling on our way upon Mrs. Angier. I read Grimm to the end of the first part of the Work, (I believe I shall not take up the second) and the Spectator. Read this evening another Letter about that business of Farmer’s.2
When CFA completed his first letter in answer to W. F. Otis’ position, seemingly he sent it for publication to Joseph T. Adams, editor of the Columbian Centinel, and intended following it with a second. Apparently neither number saw publication although it is possible that the Centinel’s own mildly critical review of the Oration (23 July, p. 1, cols. 1–2) reflected something of CFA’s stance. Immediately following the Centinel’s review was a notice of the anonymous attack upon the oration, published as A Review of an Oration.... This pamphlet elicited a defence signed “Chesterfield” in the Centinel, 27 July, p. 2, cols. 2–3, as well as another pamphlet by Otis, The Reviewer Reviewed, A Defence of an Oration ..., Boston, 1831.
The letter has not been identified.
1831-07-23
Morning fine but very warm. I passed an hour or more in examining the Poetic of Aristotle and comparing it with Pye’s Commentary which I have obtained from the Library of the Athenaeum.1 Then to the Office where I was busy in finishing the Analysis of Puffendorf. I cannot say that I have read this with the attention it deserves.
At my Office with frequent interruptions and without the habits of thinking which seem to me to belong only to a Library, I can do infinitely less than I ought. I had no interruptions of any consequence however, and on the whole executed more than for some time past. Finished and copied a Letter to John in answer to his inquiry about the Oregon Settlement.2 I seized the opportunity to express to him my deliberate opinion upon the matter of the Flour business and to shake off all responsibility from myself as to the probable consequences arising from the pursuit. I am sorry for John but I am satisfied that neither he nor my father are equal to the task. Returned home, a little shower fell and it was windy.
Afternoon, read over the long Letter to Lentulus, of the character of which I am more and more satisfied, and several to Curio which are very good. This Curio was a good for nothing fellow, and the immediate cause of the civil War. Yet Cicero threw away upon him abundance of the best advice. Evening, my Wife went to see her Sister. I walked until nine. Read a part of Pye’s Commentary on Aristotle and the Spectator.
96Henry James Pye, A Commentary Illustrating the Poetic of Aristotle; with a New Translation, London, 1792.
JA2’s letter is missing. CFA’s response to the request for information about a scheme, apparently centering in Boston, for encouraging settlement in Oregon noted that the manager of the scheme, Hall Jackson Kelley, was of doubtful reputation and that the essence of the scheme seemed to be to form a company of poor persons who would contribute according to their means toward the costs of a trip to New Orleans, then up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and thence by land to the point of settlement. CFA to JA2, 22 July (Adams Papers). Although Kelley’s American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of the Oregon Territory was soon disbanded and Kelley’s own journey to Oregon was a disaster, his efforts to forward migration to Oregon were not without influence in the later successful movement. See the notice of Kelley in
DAB
.