The weather grows slightly cooler but still uncommonly mild. I went to the Office. My time principally occupied in writing No. 2 of my Newspaper talk. I am foolish enough to follow this ridiculous business when I never produced any effect by it. The Newspaper in which I publish is not circulated widely nor is it a popular paper yet as things are here I can easily publish in no other. I am a sort of solitary among parties here embracing none. And the situation of my father in relation to them also affects me.

Walk. Nothing material. Home but omitted Ovid, there being company to dinner. Edward and P. C. Brooks Jr. with Mr. Frothingham. Tolerably pleasant. Nothing however of any consequence. But the afternoon was very much consumed.

Purchased the other day at a shop for a trifle Clarendon’s Essays,1 and I am reading a few of them, but I think they are not equal to the reputation of the Author. His style is heavy and lumbering for this sort of thing. It may do for a history because now and then it rises up to eloquence and flow. Evening quietly at home. Read a little of D’Israeli’s third Volume. This and the second are not equal to the first volume but yet there is something exceedingly interesting in the information he has managed to put into the articles. His knowledge is evidently superficial and yet he must have a great deal of that. I have not attended to my German so closely since I began Götz von Berlichingen, owing to the greater difficulty of the Text. But I will remedy that.

Colder morning. I read a good deal of Götz today, but I confess I lose much of the force of the piece. Attended Divine Service. Acts 3. 6. My Classmate, S. K. Lothrop. “Silver and Gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee.” Charity not confined to the rich and the gift of money, may be exercised by every one in his sphere, in acts of kindness, courtesy and good advice. When I remember Lothrop as he was at Cambridge and see the influence of circumstances in bringing him where he is, my mind immediately turns to the moral of this life and it’s wonderful vicissitudes. I thank God for being where I am. Lothrop I am told succeeds with his congregation. Yet his Sermon today was only tolerably well conceived and not so well executed.

Afternoon Mr. Robbins. Psalms 57. 6. “Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” This is another young man who spins cobweb which looks well. I am sure the age is degenerating. These clergymen would not have passed the ordeal twenty years ago. The Boston Clergy were then men of more mental vigor.

Read a Discourse of Dr. Barrow in continuation of that last Sunday, and directed particularly to the necessity of frequent exercise of prayer and attendance upon public exercises of devotion. But I do not alter my mind upon the general character of Dr. Barrow. I took my usual Sunday walk. Evening at home. Read a work on Travelling in Germany and Switzerland, written pleasantly enough by some lady.1