Mild day. Office. Time as usual. Evening to Mr. Shaw’s.

Called for Mr. Brooks and we went to see a collection of plants from France, some of which I desire to buy for Quincy. Then Office where I did not much. Looking over Accounts and into probabilities. I undertake rather more than I ought.

Trachinians. Afternoon, Chinese. I am much interested in them and think I will make them the subject of a Lecture if I should ever again be expected to deliver one.

Evening at Mr. Robert G. Shaw’s at a Levee made by him of members of the Legislature and others. I found there many gentlemen who greeted me with great cheerfulness and one or two spoke to me of my papers. So that I have not entirely thrown away my labours. My headway is not rapid but it is gradual and safe. Abbott Lawrence puffed 209which seemed to me hollow. T. W. Ward less fulsome but I think more sincere. Home early. On with Burr.

Fine day. Fast. Morning service. Afternoon at home. Evening visit at Mrs. Minots.

The day was pleasant as is almost always the case so far as my experience is concerned when the annual fast has been appointed. But it did not seem to me so lively. The streets were less full and the common less animated.

Attended divine service in the morning and heard Dr. Frothingham preach a Sermon from Isaiah 22. 12.13. “And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding with sackcloth. And behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine, let us eat, and drink for tomorrow we shall die.” The misuse of the purposes on this day has been frequently the topic of the Drs. late discourses on this occasion and very justly. The people of this State are by no means a people who now feel what the Puritans two centuries ago felt, the necessity of self-mortification. Yet I have liked the day for its quietness and for the appearance of sports among the male population which we so seldom else see.

I took a walk, but my dinner was quiet and simple and not as it has been for some preceding years attended by friends. Davis and Walsh are both gone from us, and the reflection made me feel a little melancholy. I made good use of my afternoon however in a long stretch upon Burr.

Evening Mrs. Adams and I paid a visit to Mrs. Minot who has made her acquaintance. Home early. Burr.

Dark and damp. Distribution as ordinary. Evening at home.

The accounts from Maine are at last pacific, but the apprehensions now are respecting all the intelligence to arrive from Great Britain. Stocks are falling, there is much want of confidence in the money market and evidence of serious derangement in the Banking system of the Southwest. Well, the game is not yet out.

Time at Office rather wasted. Walk and purchase plants for Quincy. The Trachinians. After dinner, the Chinese, and in the evening, French and Burr. Nothing can be more quiet than the present state of 210our life. When I finish this interminable review my Winter’s work is done, and Heighho for Spring labours.