Fine day. I attended divine service and heard Mr. Frothingham preach an excellent Sermon from Malachi 3. 14. “Ye have said, what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts.” It was upon the doctrine of utility, as at present advanced in politics, the greatest happiness of the greatest number and, showing it’s selfishness, its utter inconsistency with true principles and its folly. I was much struck with the decided character of the Sermon and it’s aptness to the present state of the political world. To be sure, nothing ever was more contemptible than the doctrine advanced in these times, but it is the march of the democratic principle which in this Country is sweeping every thing before it. I am always glad to hear a Clergyman like Mr. Frothingham proclaim aloud his principles.

I did not attend divine Service in the afternoon, but as the weather was fine thought it better to take my Wife to ride for her health which is yet very delicate. We went along that pretty road by Jamaica pond and Brooklyn. I got home in time to read a Sermon of Atterbury upon the miraculous progress of the Gospel. Isaiah 60. 22. “A little one 211shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I, the Lord will hasten it, in his time.” He considered first the fact of the progress of the Gospel, next that it must have been miraculous, he then refutes those who attempt to explain it upon ordinary grounds and refers the remainder of the subject to another discourse. This is characterised by the same qualities which belong to the others which I have read, good sense, simplicity, and practical views.

In the evening, I read to my Wife, but Edward Brooks came in and passed some time. I this day heard through Mr. Peabody of an accident which happened on the Railroad between New York and Philadelphia by which my father was brought into very great danger. The Car in which he was broke an axle tree, and the one next in order coming up struck and overturned. My father was in the first and escaped unhurt.1 We have great cause to thank the Deity that he has preserved to us a life valuable on more than private accounts. The tempests of politics are nothing to the manifestation of the Divine will, and the nothingness of human power before it.

This is the day appointed by law for the election of State Officers. The result is with a higher power. I went to perform my duty by voting for the whole of the Antimasonic ticket with the exception of my father for Governor, in whose place I substituted Henry Shaw, and of myself for Representative, for whom I put T. K. Davis. This once done, I set about my usual occupations of reading and writing. Took a walk.

Afternoon, I finished Bacon’s Novum Organum—A work which will require many more than one deliberate perusal before I can be said to be master of it’s wisdom. Lord Brougham has made a valuable analysis of it.1

In the evening at home very quietly with my Wife. Finished the first volume of the Fair Maid of Perth, and the third book of the Aeneid. Read also, Racine’s delightful little Comic piece of the Plaideurs—Singular that the French critics set this down so low. La Harpe scarcely speaks of it. I laughed heartily several times.