This was the day which the ancient custom of the Country has fixed under the appointment of the Governor of the State for a holiday of thanksgiving. The holidays of the Puritans were all spent in Prayers and were a relaxation only to the labouring portion of the Community. It is a matter of great doubt to me whether the human mind can stand this perpetual recurrence to grave thoughts. It can not be denied that New England never has been able to throw off the sad coloured livery which distinguished its origin. I know that gaiety and the lively feelings have a tendency to insinuate folly and vice into the heart and into the manners of the Community. But yet the medium is after all the only safety. Melancholy on one side makes life insupportable. Indulgence in excess makes it a condemnation of self.

I attended divine service and heard Mr. Frothingham deliver a discourse of merit upon the prevailing tendencies of the day and the necessity of religious feeling to the safety of the State. Assuredly. I lost the Text however.

Our day was a very quiet one at home. We declined going to Mr. Frothingham’s and partaking of the excessive table which is the only amusement of a Thanksgiving day in most families. We went however in the evening. Edward Brooks and his two boys the only persons. Conversation of a quiet kind and home.

Mrs. Parks the Aunt of my Wife by her Mother’s side is dead after a lingering illness. The members of the family thought it fit to attend the Funeral which took place today at her house at Cambridge.

The dinner hour was fixed at one o’clock so that my morning was rendered of very little service to me. I did however succeed in making up a few of the longer days of my Diary. The variety of a Journey had become exceedingly necessary to infuse interest in these ordinarily monotonous pages. I have ceased to believe in the utility of a Journal and would break off mine if it had not become a habit which I do not like to destroy. The Communion with my own mind, the expression of feelings which escape nowhere else have become necessary to me and will often do much to soothing down the moments of depression which will occasionally come upon me.

The afternoon was passed partly at the Athenaeum, partly at the shops where I am ordering my various things. I hope on Monday to 26get myself into train for the winter. I continued Sir James Mackintosh and finished Mr. Sedgwick.