Mild day. I went to the Office and passed my time in making up the arrears of the last few days. My fathers Address appeared this morning in the Advocate1 but it did not appear in the Advertiser. I did not suppose it would.

Walk. Then I went according to invitation to dine with Mr. Brooks—245Company, Mr. John Parker, Mr. Dudley Hall, R. D. Shepherd, R. D. Tucker, P. C. Brooks Jr. and myself. Tolerably pleasant but nothing remarkable. I returned home at dark and passed a quiet evening reading Ormond to my Wife. Lord Bacon.

Day mild. I went to the Office. Engaged in accounts and in reading the North American Review. This Journal is carried on with a good deal of ability, yet when one looks back to reflect what reputation it has added permanently to itself, what sort of a work it is to refer to and read over, one is apt to cry out vanity of vanities. The matter is pleasing and now and then interests but there are no profound views. None of that wisdom of ages which will come down from the book shelf a hundred years hence oftener than it does now.

Walk. Looked into the Newspapers and was amused with the manner in which my father’s Address is treated by the Masons.1 Afternoon reading Lord Bacon whose Sylva Sylvarum is rather dull. There is much of loose experiment in it and all of the unfinished discovery of a powerful mind divided into too many channels. Such a giant few have seen in the mental world before or since. Evening. Virgil, and Miss Edgeworth’s Ormond which is moral as well as charming. Mackintosh.

Day stormy, with snow, rain and frost. I attended divine Service all day and heard Mr. Frothingham in the morning. 1 Corinthians 7. 29,30,31. “But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth that they that weep be as though they wept not, and they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that use this world as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passeth away.” A discourse moral and consolatory. A very refined and yet simple view of human duty 246under all the dispensations of Providence, more particularly directed to Dr. Stevenson and his family under their recent affliction.

Afternoon, Mr. Young.1 1. Samuel 4. 21. “And she named the child Ichabod, saying the glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken.” The doctrine of original sin, followed up by a discussion of the effect of Parents sins upon children. The Jewish Law contains the well–known and fearful passage declaring children to the third or fourth generation to be the sufferers for the sins of the parents. Mr. Young explains it by the moral consequences. Every action has its consequence. Disgrace or infamy has its consequence by the stain it leaves upon a family, which is generally got over at about the fourth generation. It may be so. It is certainly a mystery which no Commentator satisfactorily explains. And I know no better view of it than his.

Read Atterbury. Luke 16. 31. “If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Subject, a standing Revelation the best means of conviction, 1. to whom the text alludes, 2. the truth of the application, 3. inferences to be drawn from it. A slight performance. Evening, finished Ormond.