Cooler but still unusually mild. I went to the Office and from thence to the Theatre to obtain Tickets of admission for tonight but without success. The Bostonians are always in a fever when they are not in Ice. They will give five dollars to see an Actor or Actress in January and in March if she comes again they will desert her unanimously.

I returned to the Office and finished my No. 3 upon Mr. Webster’s prospects which I carried to the Press. The arguments developed in that paper strike me as perfectly unanswerable. Yet the greatest good fortune that could happen to my prospects would be that they should pass off unrecognized and unnoticed.

Walk but not so long as usual. The Child Louisa appeared to droop a good deal today. This always makes me anxious and I have felt in other respects very low spirited. It has been a misfortune to me that I did not live at home this winter. I there felt called upon to make exertion and maintain a station in Society. Ovid, but I have got tired of the learned Frenchman.

Afternoon, looking over Miscellaneous papers of no consequence. My Grandfather kept even Notes of Invitation. Evening, read to my Wife from the Correspondence of Hannah More.1 Rather interesting from the Company she kept, but a leetle too much blueism.2 I continued tonight Götz von Berlichingen.

Mild weather in order to compensate us for the severity of the early part of the month. I went to the Office as usual and was occupied all my morning. I write my Diary now in an extremely irregular manner. This takes very much from the interest and adds to the labour of it.

Mr. Beale called for the purpose of letting me know that the Lessee of the piece of land belonging to the Trust at Quincy had called for his Lease and he wished me to make it. I told him that I had thought this call might be made upon me and had concluded to decline it. First because I had ceased to practice and second because I could ask no compensation of that trust. They ought to have the draught of a Lease from a responsible Lawyer.

Walk as usual. Accounts. Home but my Ovid lags very much in this translation. They are idle modes of reading and I shall proceed directly to the next book of the text. Afternoon La Fayette’s letters and those of the Bankers, Willink &ca. My father sent me a copy of his Eulogy today and I read the first half of it aloud to Mr. Brooks.1 We were interrupted by a visit from Mr. S. P. Gardiner.

Cooler day. My child, Louisa is unwell again and for the first time this winter. Though generally healthy, she is delicate and easily put out of order. I am therefore generally anxious about her.

Attended divine Service all day. Heard Mr. Frothingham, from 1 Corinthians 13. 12. “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” A mistaken version he maintains. The idea as he illustrated is that we now see in a dim speculum as all those in ancient times were, but then, i.e. hereafter, face to face. The afternoon discourse was a better one from Romans 10. 8. “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach.” The origin of the moral sentiment, and the modes by which 62unbelievers have attempted to account for it, tradition, the fears of men, priestcraft, law, he finally explains his own opinion which inclines to the existence of an original sense.

Read a Sermon of Barrow upon the duty of Thanksgiving. Ephesians 5. 20 “Giving thanks always for all things unto God.” He divides, 1. The nature of thanksgiving, 2. the meaning of to God, and he gets only so far in this discourse. He is more of a commentator than any Preacher I know. I have often thought this might be a very useful way of preaching and perhaps the original mode of doing so, but it requires a particular style of oratory which is not probably the highest. Among other things in Dr. Barrow I particularly remark the use of language, which is not perfectly pure, either from Latin or Gallicisms. Evening, although it rained there were visitors, Mr. Josiah Bradlee and Mr. P. R. Dalton.