Morning cloudy with a cold Easterly wind, but it cleared away and became pleasanter in the afternoon. I went to town accompanied by Mr. Brooks. Called to see Mrs. Frothingham and from thence went round to the Athenaeum where I stepped in for a moment to see the gallery. It is not so good as it was last year,1 but will compare favorably with any other season. The proportion of good pictures is small, and I do not know that I was much struck with one of the new ones. Perhaps I may except from this remark the piece from Tristram Shandy by Leslie, and one or two copies from the old masters. Office. Nothing new.

Home. Afternoon Mandeville. Finished the Fable of the Bees. A system that recommends itself for nothing but its ingenuity. It is not worthy of an answer because it is as Hume calls it, almost a contradiction in terms. Ovid, Acontius to Cydippe—People whom I never had heard of before. It is much doubted whether the two Epistles are written by Ovid. Evening, read aloud to Mr. Brooks the report of the Committee of the House of Representatives upon the affair of the Bank.2 Hume.

Another cloudy, cheerless morning. I accompanied Mr. Brooks to town. Passed some time at the Office reading Jefferson’s book and then spent an hour at the Artists Gallery. I paid some attention to the pictures of Doughty. His Landscapes are in a peculiar style and characteristic to a great degree of American Scenery. There is too much sameness in them. A sheet of Water, bright blue sky and vapoury clouds with high and peaked mountains are the main features. Most of them perfectly wild and almost solitary. He has a good deal of merit. His execution is good and his colouring though gay is not perhaps too much so for his scenes. But he wants the sunny warmth and fertile cultivation which gives one a fancy to dwell upon the spots that are represented.

Returned to Medford. Afternoon devoted to Mandeville. I felt some inconvenience from a cold. Ovid, Acontius to Cydippe and her reply which makes the last of twenty five heroic epistles. I shall be glad to get upon something of a different description, although it be only a variety of the same species. Evening, Hume’s Essay upon the subject of the Human Mind. Liberty and Necessity that long disputed and never to be decided question. He defines necessity to be a power restraining human action in certain limits and is thus a Necessitarian.

We are so accustomed to dark, cold, wet mornings now that we hardly expect any thing else. I accompanied Mr. Brooks to town. Passed part of the morning in reading, writing and Accounts, the remainder, I was at the Athenaeum which is now reopened. Mr. Walsh sat some time in conversation also. Stopped in at the Gallery and was better pleased with it today than I was the other day.

Returned to Medford to dine. Afternoon, Mandeville, the first volume of whom I finished. His Essay upon Charity Schools I think has views which separated from his system may be held as true and 320capable of useful application. Ovid, Cydippe to Acontius. Finished it and the last of the Author’s heroic Epistles. Evening quietly at home. Read Hume. The Chapter upon Miracles is one of the most ingenious pieces of reasoning I have ever seen. But it seems to me rather curious than sound as is much of the other writings of the same Author.