The season now tends rapidly to spring. Today was soft and mild. I went to the Office and was engaged pretty constantly in business, various things requiring some attention. Received a note from Spear saying that he had agreed for my bricks so that I think I now have secured all the materials necessary for my construction. This relieves my mind considerably.

Short walk. The intelligence from Washington is still very interesting as the Southern members appear to have taken in great dudgeon the result in the House of Representatives. A southern Convention is talked of which will end in smoke.

Home. Livy. Had company at home. Mr. Brooks, Governor Everett, Mr. Frothingham and P. C Brooks Jr. Pleasant enough but not so agreeable as is very commonly my dinner of young men. They left at sunset and evening quietly reading Lamartine to my Wife. After which I revised more copy.

Morning mild. I went to the Office and sat there quite uninterrupted during the morning. Nothing new. Congress appears to make no progress and I am at work only upon my papers. Accounts a little but not much.

Walk with Mr. Walsh. Then home where instead of reading Livy I turned my attention to Herodotus.1 Mr. Quincy has notified me to go to Cambridge next Monday on the Committee to examine in this book. I think it therefore as well if I was to refresh my recollection of the language a little. It is now four or five years since I devoted so much time to the perusal of Demosthenes and Thucydides. Since then I have hardly touched Greek. I read a little of the first book of Herodotus with tolerable facility.

Afternoon, a considerable quantity of time taken up in superintending some wine in my cellar at no little risk of a cold. The read Burnet. Evening Lamartine to my Wife. He looks upon every thing with a Poet’s eyes. To him all women are beautiful and the East is the land of fairy. His account of Damascus is however extremely interesting. After this I revised more of the numbers. A severe snow storm commenced tonight.