The daily course of my record brings me now and then to a new Volume, and upon such occasions it has been my habit to speculate and look forward as well as backward. I am little disposed now to do so. My prospects change but little from year to year and they have been so uniformly favorable that I have but one tone in which to consider them, that of continued gratitude to God, for such bounty. Of all things that which I most fear is the loss of the humble spirit which takes no undue advantage of it’s blessings to press upon others. Arrogance is part of my nature. I have seen it in all of the members of my own family from my Grandfather down, and I am aware of it’s existence in myself. Prosperity is the hotbed which forces the plant into it’s greatest luxuriance. I hope I shall ever retain good sense sufficient to keep it tolerably pruned down. This daily Diary is perhaps as effective an instrument for this purpose as any I possess. It reminds me of my duties. It warns me of my sins as well of omission as of commission. It calls to mind the times when I have failed as well as those when I succeed. May God prosper my efforts to improve.

I attended divine Service today. Heard Mr. Frothingham from Matthew. 21. 12 and 13. “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” He took occasion from this text to descant upon the necessity of forms of some kind to religious worship, and to refute the argument so often rested upon the mere state of casual feeling. He also distinguished the nature 282of the feeling which prompted the Saviour to such an act, contrasted it with the usual character which is ascribed to him, and drew the conclusion that a certain degree of indignation at acts of an injurious tendency whether to morals or valuable forms was allowable and even proper.

Dr. F. Parkman in the Afternoon. Psalm 71. 17 and part of 18th verses. “O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God forsake me not.” Upon old age, its sufferings and privations, with some remarks upon the prevailing tendencies of the day to slight the distinction. This gentleman is commonly quite sensible.

At home I read a Discourse of Dr. Barrow upon Industry, in our general calling as Christians, being the third part of the entire subject. The text from Romans. 12. 11. “Not slothful in business.” He begins by showing the value of industry, then defines what he means by business, excluding all vicious or unworthy activity, and dividing it into that springing from the general obligations of Christianity and from the special ones of life. But he does not finish. These discourses are all of them valuable. Evening, I generally devote to conversation with my Wife after which I finished Adam Smith’s1 Dissertation upon Banking.