Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 8
1840-01-30
Clear. Usual routine. At home.
I resumed the medals this morning and thus fell exactly into my old habits as if there had never been any change. At the Office making up the arrears of my Diary from where I went down to the Athenaeum to look up the works necessary for my proposed undertaking. Picked up Sharon Turner and Hallam, and more than all, the little tract called the Planter’s Plea1 which makes the basis for the whole edifice of The 368New York Review. With these and with what I can procure elsewhere I shall be able to get along. Home to read Oedipus.
Afternoon, went to work reading and endeavoring to methodise. But this is a very difficult process. I ordinarily do not commence it until I begin to write but this is far too laborious. I must habituate myself to closer mental exercise as a principle of economy. Evening at home.
Of the works of Sharon Turner, the History of the Reigns of Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth (London, 1829) seems most apposite for use in the article on the “Politics of the Puritans” CFA was preparing. The Constitutional History of England, from ... Henry VIII to ... George II (2, vols., London, 1827) seems likeliest of the works of Henry Hallam. John White was the author of Planter’s Plea, or, The Grounds of Plantations Examined, London, 1630.
1840-01-31
Clouds and snow. Division as usual.
I have very little to remark. My days pass monotonously enough. I am writing up my arrears of Diary, and arranging my accounts which I have nearly accomplished. There is a satisfaction in thinking that one owes nothing although tomorrow the thing may again occur.
Continue my review of Oedipus Coloneus. I wonder much at the writers who so often say of the Greeks that they knew nothing of the higher female affections. It appears to me that the character of Antigone is from first to last an impersonation of the very highest kind of female excellence and one which I do not know to be surpassed in any language.
Afternoon, a chaos of authorities against every thing advanced by the New York Review. The getting clear light out of it will be troublesome. In the evening at home. Walpole. Suffering from a cold.