Thermometer below zero. Office as usual where I was so wholly engrossed by my Accounts as to be entirely unable to take up my Diary. Mr. Hurlbert the Tenant was my only visitor. I was unable to take as long a walk as usual and from Mr. Brooks dining earlier lost my time for Ovid. I made it up however in the Afternoon, and read a good deal of the correspondence of Dr. Rush. His children did right to decline the publication of his letters. For he was evidently no friend of Washington, and a member of the Gates and Conway party.1 Yet there is great good feeling in the Letters, and a general honesty which highly recommends them.

Mr. Brooks and my Wife went to Medford so that I was uninter-51rupted and wrote with more ease and fluency. Received a letter from my father2 which depressed my spirits somewhat. He is still struggling with his affairs there and appears to grow more hopeless as he proceeds. This devolves upon me the duty of considering what it is proper for me to do in the case. Shall I continue to be dependent upon him to his own ruin, when a little sacrifice on my part may contribute to relieve him.

Fine morning and the weather a little more moderate but still quite cold. I finished Oberon with which I have been quite charmed. It is as pretty a thing as ever was made of fairy story. Looked over Sotheby’s translation but I was not much pleased with it.1 The language is pretty but not so clearly rendered as it might be. It wants the vigor of the original and it’s sprightliness. Office. Occupied in writing Diary, nothing of material consequence.

Took a walk and home. But being invited to dine out at P. C. Brooks’ I did not read any of Ovid as usual. Nobody there but Mr. Brooks and Edward with my wife and myself. Tolerably pleasant but I indulged too much and felt the effect of it all day. It is a little singular how well I have been ever since my return from Washington which I attribute entirely to my life at home. This dining out deranges one.

Afternoon, read Mrs. Trollope’s first volume which is poor throughout and d’Israeli’s third volume. Mr. Shepherd came in to see Mr. Brooks but as he was not at home, I was obliged to see him.

The weather is moderating gradually and continues bright and pleasant. I began Goethe’s Götz von Berlichingen but read only one 52scene of it. Office. Mr. William Spear from Quincy called upon me as usual for the purpose of making his Quarterly settlement. I attended a sale of Stocks for the purpose of making one or two purchases on my own and T. B. Adams’ Accounts. This done I returned and completed my Diary &ca. For the first time since the day I started for Washington, exactly two months ago I had a head ach—The consequence of overeating and drinking yesterday. Even a long walk and the fine air did not restore me. But a moderate dinner and a short nap had the effect so that I passed my evening in scribbling. I have been over half a quire of paper and have as yet produced nothing to my mind.

Mr. Brooks was out until late. I went over a file of Dr. Rush’s Letters in which are many very characteristic anecdotes and sprightly observations. I must make some farther investigations into the character of Dr. Rush. Read part of Sir James Mackintosh’s short biography of Sir Thomas More—A little gem to be found in Lardner’s Cyclopedia.1 He was not valued at his worth by his own generation and it is a little doubtful whether he will go down to posterity. For most of his works are but the fragments of a great whole which he did not live to make out. Indulged in a little of d’Israeli’s third volume, but the Items were dry. My evenings are of some advantage to me this winter.