Moderate in the morning but it grew excessively cold before night. I went to the Office and was occupied as usual. Went about trying hard to make up a company for tomorrow but did not succeed. Mr. Wm. Spear and Mr. Alpheus Spear came to see me to decide about a farm at Quincy, the former also to pay me some money. We could not agree upon the terms of Lease so that we left it as it was before. Could not bring up my Diary. My second number came out today and is perfectly satisfactory to me. I think it states the case with strength and distinctness. Walk and home.

Read the fifteenth Satire of Juvenal entire, and then went to dine with Mr. A. H. Everett by invitation. Political dinner. Present only Mr. Hallett, C. G. Greene the Editor of the Morning Post, and after dinner Mr. Wm. Foster. I had never seen Greene before. The dinner was an exceedingly pretty one, and very pleasant. Conversation chiefly political. And the main topic the great difficulty of reconciling the Jackson Masons to the Antimasonic Union. There is a great deal to be reflected upon in this business. Mr. Hallett intimated to me a plan of going to Harrisburgh to attend the Convention of Pennsylvania on the 14th in conjunction with the New York Committee. This too is to be thought about as it will prove no place for pleasure. We sat until 275nine o’clock, and then home in the cold. Nothing afterwards but a little of Coleridge.

This was the day fixed for the annual Thanksgiving. It was bitterly cold in the morning but moderated as the day advanced. I occupied myself in reading an introduction to the study of the Greek Classics by young Coleridge a nephew of the Poet.1 It is a sensible production. When I think of my taste for the classics and of the little I do for them, I am filled with regret.

Attended divine service and heard Mr. Frothingham from Nehemiah 8. 10. “Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy unto our Lord. Neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” He discoursed upon health, plenty, and peace. He was quite happy.

Walk. Mr. Brooks, Mr. Frothingham and Mr. Walsh dined with me. Pleasant enough. Evening over to Mr. Everett’s. Nobody there but Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Everett and the Earl of Selkirk, a Scotch nobleman travelling in this Country to amuse himself.2 He was unassuming, something uncommon. I was not in sorts, and glad to get home.

I had drank wine enough to give me a slight head ach and it was very much increased by both the children, Louisa and the baby who were so restless as to keep us awake nearly all night. But the pain went off in the morning. At the Office where I was occupied in Accounts, and Diary which has fallen very much into Arrears. Nothing of any particular consequence. Walk and home.

Read the sixteenth and last Satire of Juvenal which does not appear to be more than a skeleton. And incidentally turned to a letter of Pliny which charmed me. I must take him up too. I must dip myself in fully into the spirit of the Latin Classics at least.

Afternoon read part of Levesque’s History of Russia during the reign of Peter the great,1 and pursued the Correspondence between Voltaire and Mad. du Deffand. It wants amusement to me in most cases. Yet Voltaire is one of the most spirited of all letter writers.

Went to the Theatre in the Evening to hear the Maid of Judah and the Woods.2 I liked it much better on this representation. The quartette at the close of the first Act, a song of her’s in the Prison Scene, and the Chorus in the Trial are what I like the best, but I still persist in my opinion that the piece as a whole wants a decided general character.