Morning warm with clouds, but the wind became easterly and very uncomfortable. I went to the Office and was occupied in Accounts. The time becomes so short that these with my Diary and an occasional interruption make up all I can do.

I intended to have gone to Quincy but the Carriage came in with my Mother. She appears exceedingly depressed. Her lonely way of life is not calculated for her at all. She dissuaded me from going to Quincy so I took a walk. My Wife and child are doing nicely. I thank Heaven for all mercies.

Afternoon, I read Lord Bacon’s New Atlantis, a singular fragment, and afterwards some other of his little detached works. Not one of them is without value. There is thought and that very profound in most of them. His observation of nature was clear and if he had meddled less with the profligacy of the times he lived in, how much more his mind could have done for the benefit of the World. The older I grow, the more I admire the powers of intellect and the less I see of them round and about me. Mediocrity is the stamp of almost every thing with us. My father is the only one of the great men of our day who appears to me to have any thing durable, and he has wasted his powers. Evening my article.

The storm set in last night and it rained heavily in showers throughout the day. I attended Divine Service all day and heard my friend Mr. George Whitney preach. Texts John 20. 29. “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” Matthew 21. 30. “And he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said I go, Sir, and went not.” The first discourse upon faith, the necessity of which he maintained from the limited faculties of man which disable him from comprehending the purposes of God, from the control which any direct evidence would necessarily have over man’s will purposely left free by the Deity, and from his weakness which fails him at once under the pressure of a revelation from a superior world. The other sermon was upon good resolutions, the failure of which arises from their originating in momentary remorse, or personal fears or from a want of knowledge of their nature and the force necessary to execute them. The two were good and creditable to Mr. Whitney who would do very well if he had a little better manner, alias more Modesty. This is somewhat of a deficiency in a Clergyman.

I read Massillon. Third Sermon upon a nun’s taking the veil. 1. Thessalonians 4. 3. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification.” The subject, the three vows of the nun as means of regeneration, that of perpetual virginity a victory over the body, of perpetual poverty 192a victory over the temptations of the world, and obedience a relinquishment of that pride of character so common and so dangerous. To all this I would submit one question in answer. Which has the most merit, a nun or a woman in the world of equal purity of character? I am not positive that some places of the description recommended are not expedient in every community. As a resort for the afflicted in mind, for the despairing in fortune, for all who have passed through the hope of futurity in this world it strikes me as useful, but not for young women who are formed for active life. Evening continued writing. Lounger.