Pleasant day. I read Wallenstein and then to the Office. My time taken up partly in Accounts, partly in attending a sale of Stocks, and partly in writing upon my piece of work. The last French Packets give accounts of the recall of the French minister and of the dismission of Mr. Livingston. The inference here seems to be war and I attended the sale for the purpose of observing the effect of the panic. It was considerable but did not affect the prices generally. I tried to do something but without success.

Continued my Essay upon Education. Walk. Then home where I read Ovid. Afternoon, the papers and de Grimm. My Wife went with her father to Medford. I read until my eyes troubled me. This is the first winter I ever experienced an inconvenience of this description.

Conversation with Mr. Brooks about French affairs. He like all men of property feels alarmed. I believe the only way to maintain the dignity of this country is not to allow itself to be trifled with. France has acted in a manner shamefully wrong and the sense of it ought to be expressed by this Country. General Jackson can do it. But if my father had done it, what a hue and cry there would have been. Wallenstein.

A mild, South wind today and sultry. I read Wallenstein in the morning comparing it with Coleridge’s translation.1 Much appears to have been since added. Attended divine service and heard Mr. Frothingham from Luke 7. 31–32 “And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? And to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the market place and calling to one another and saying, We have piped unto you and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you and ye have not wept.” Explanation of the allusion, and an application of it to the habits of the present day. The habit of quarrelling about the objects of public benefit and the tyranny of opinion exercised in the pursuit of them. The combination of men to attain a purpose, pursued with acrimony and allowing no difference of sentiment. His allusions might be taken either to the political or the philanthropic schemes of the day. And his Sermon was a masterly one. One of the closing sentences contained the idea that if the Saviour could be supposed to return at this day among our enthusiasts he would be judged to be far in arrears of the great march of improvement. I took my walk afterwards.

Afternoon Nehemiah 2. 4.5. “Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the King, If it please the king and if thy servant have found favor in thy sight that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my father’s sepulchres that I may build it.” Patriotism, its definition and example in Nehemiah, with a reflection upon the abuses of the name, an outbreak against the present idea of war and a pretty allusion to this, the Anniversary of George Washington. I did not relish the political portion because I think the Clergy are not the best of judges of public policy. They are wise to hold their tongues upon what they do not understand.

Home where I read a Consecration Sermon of Dr. Barrow. Psalms 132. 16. “I will also clothe her priests with salvation.” A discourse 83upon the necessity of exalting the Churchmen in temporal matters. The Dr. would have made a great Pope of Rome. He maintains strictly the expediency of the union in church and State which to our singular notions appears so strange. Evening at home.