Pleasant day though rather cool. I have since the arrival of the Quincy books resumed my German and made progress in Werther—One of the most popular of all the writings of Goethe. But I find that the occupation of my mind upon other things has in a degree weakened my recollection of this difficult language.

Attended divine service and heard Mr. Lunt. I am not yet so settled as to remember the Texts. He was sensible as he usually is but rather dry and as my nights have been rendered rather uneasy by the crying of the boy I felt too sleepy to listen with improvement.

The Afternoon service was deferred until three o’clock on account of an eclipse of the sun which took place at the usual time of Meeting. It was very nearly total and remarkable for being the last visible here for a generation or thirty five years. I watched it for some time obscured 27as it was at times by heavy banks of cloud. The darkness was not so great as I anticipated. It was much that of sunset, and showed how powerful even the small portion of the sun’s beams are. The light was as great as that of the full moon. Singular, the occurrence. Vastness gives sublimity to all the movements of the solar system. A shadow falling through immensity is nothing to the mind of a mere mortal, but when it accidentally touches the earth in its natural progress through space he then wonders for a minute and looks through a bit of smoked glass to see what the matter is. Mr. Frothingham took up the subject in his afternoon discourse, Joel 2.