Faust is certainly a very striking piece. The idea is so wild and yet so natural. A man who has exhausted himself in study, finding nothing new or interesting or solid in this world longs for an acquaintance with the more powerful spiritual creation. He accordingly dabbles in magic until he gets the Devil in the shape of Mephistophiles, a travelling student into his company, who is at liberty to tempt and torment him as much as he likes. Perhaps the most singular and German idea is the prologue in which the Deity with all his angels is introduced discussing matters with Mephistophiles and giving him permission to go after Faust. I was shocked and yet what is it more than Milton has done? Perhaps the idea of representation makes the difference.

I went to the Office where I wrote my Diary and in a book of a curious description in which about this time for many years past, I have been in the habit of once recording my feeling of the moment.1 Perhaps as good a moral may be drawn from it as from any thing 39in this world. Walk. Dropped in to look at the Statues with which I was more pleased. Ovid.

Afternoon, took a vacation from work to read a pleasant book, the Bubbles, but I think his theory about the Classics is a thorough Bubble. He is a military man. Evening Mrs. Jameson, Diary of an Ennuyé,2 and Faust.

Our weather now is generally cloudy. I do not mind it much for I am now so deeply interested in my pursuit of German that I forget other things. This is as I like to be. But I wish I could pitch upon something fit to translate. This would exercise my mind and it’s powers.

At the Office where Mr. Brown the broker came for the purpose of closing the sale of the New England shares by proposing an offer for the remainder of 2 per cent premium which I instantly accepted, and wrote a Letter with the particulars to my father1 which took me the remainder of the morning. Walk. Ovid, the pretty story of Ceyx and Halcyone.

Mrs. Everett and Miss Lydia Phillips with Edward Brooks dined with Mr. Brooks. Pleasant enough. Afterwards I finished the Bubbles which are on the whole amusing but I cannot forgive him the assault upon classical learning. Read also Mrs. Jameson’s Diary of an Ennuyé, which is got up prettily enough, but whether founded in fact or entirely imaginary is a little doubtful. I sat down to Faust and made great progress in him and yet not half great enough. I devour it.

A fine afternoon although appearances before dinner indicated a storm. I continued reading Faust and then went to the Office. Time there but very short.

Went in to see a collection of paintings made or copied by one of our young artists while learning his trade abroad which he is about to sell. He has copied with great diligence but I do not think very well. His drawing is deficient. He does not seem to have been disposed to 40study Anatomy with the patience the subject requires. His coloring is pretty good and yet you see too much of the same in the copies of all the different masters. The painter, Hewins, has also made a collection of pictures which he dubs with very high sounding names. Some of them are good copies and some tolerable originals but the impression is generally unsatisfactory.1

Walk. Ovid. Afternoon pursued the arrangement of the papers. Mr. Jefferson’s correspondence. He appears most agreeably while acting as Minister in France. And least so in the interval of his retirement from public life in 1791. Evening, continued reading Faust.