Warm morning but change. At home. Bath. Evening at Mrs. T. B. Adams’.

I was pretty steadily occupied in writing upon my Lecture until noon. It goes on quite swimmingly but I doubt whether it will be very fit to deliver. The subject will not admit of that kind of ornament which takes every where but most especially in New York.

Just as I was relaxing by reading Menzel, my boys came in to beg me to go down to the bath with them at Mount Wollaston. I consented and we took a refreshing bath in the face of an East wind which changed the temperature of the air very quickly, and before night brought up a heavy fog from the Sea.

Read Tacitus history b. 2. s 60–80. and Grimm. Evening an hour at 291my father’s and another hour at Mrs. T. B. Adams’ where were the younger ladies of our family, to see Mrs. Angier. Miss Miller and her brother were there.

Warm and showery. Exercises as usual. Evening an hour at the Mansion.

I have to record only a repetition of the exercises usual in my Sunday, first with my daughter and then at meeting and at home. The day was rainy so that the attendance was thin. I heard Mr. Lunt preach first from James 5. 11. “Ye have heard of the patience of Job.” This was a discourse written as far as I could judge in consequence of a suggestion of my Wife in conversation the other day, that Job did not deserve his character for patience. He went on to consider the character of Job, his trials, the reproaches of his Wife and reasoning of his friends and finally his own submission, the character of his complaint being rather the anguish of suffering nature than repining or murmurs. He cited as a parallel case, the cry of the Saviour on the Cross which he regarded as quite as valuable a historical trait as any in the Testament.

The afternoon sermon was from that remarkable verse in Genesis. 49. 4. “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.” The dying address of Jacob to his first born whose crime had probably been the result of a fluctuating character. Mr. Lunt made it’s application to religion which he affirmed to be unstable when not firmly based upon faith. Both these sermons were very good and deserved a better audience.

I read one by Dr. Chandler from the English Preacher, from Micah 4. 5. “All people will walk, every one in the name of his God.” Upon the natural tendency of man to superstition or the worship of idols. The rain was not constant but so frequent that I only went to my father’s. My mother was unwell upstairs. Spent an hour with her and returned.

Warm and cloudy. At home. Occupied as usual. Evening at the Mansion.

I continued my occupations all the morning and finished a very considerable part of my Lecture. It pleases me well while I write it, but my feeling is never one of much confidence. So much is there in repu-292tation that my late efforts have been attended with twice the success that I had from earlier and much more laboured ones. Read some of Menzel too.

Afternoon, Tacitus, finishing the second book of the history. I like it better than the Annals. A little work and evening, an hour’s visit to my father’s. Nothing new.