Morning clear and very pleasant. I went to town where I was occupied as usual. Accounts and various little commissions. Call from I. P. Davis about Felt’s Lecture which he does not get but promises if I go and get it, at the State House. Spoke of the dinner and then of his son Thomas whose course he seems to regret, and partly charges upon me. I told him that I leaned that way but did not sustain the Administration in its course of imbecility and error. I am myself sorry that Davis gives this uneasiness to his father, but like all sanguine temperaments he must be allowed to work his own way out of the evil. Home After-84noon, Pliny’s panegyric upon Trajan and evening down at the Mansion.

A turn towards greater heat again today. I remained very quietly at home with the exception of a short visit at the house. Time devoted to reading, particularly Hamilton’s Report upon funding the State debts. He certainly puts into the back ground all the modern politicians of the modern school who know little of the value of Office but in it’s perquisites. Hamilton was certainly a great man if not in all respects a judicious one.

Afternoon Pliny’s long Panegyric. In the midst of tedious and fulsome adulation, there are passages relating to the time of Domitian which are of value as showing the character of his reign. An address of this kind to a reigning prince, delivered before a crowded auditory could not have treated of such matters if they were not generally known to be true. And what a picture they give, in connection with the details of the historians. Evening as Mrs. Adams has gone to town I took tea and spent the rest of it at the Mansion.

This was a morning of as great heat as any we have had, but we had a tremendous shower at noon which refreshed the herbage if it did not greatly cool the air. I began today Dr. William Paley’s Horae Paulinae1 being a system of evidences made up of casual coincidences in the various writings of Paul.

Attended divine service and heard Mr. Lunt from Hebrews 3. 2. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” A very neat discourse upon hospitality full of allusion to ancient manners and of good doctrine upon this subject. Perhaps I have something in this matter to charge against myself. J. H. Adams dined with me. Afternoon Sermon from 2. Colossians 3. 14. “Above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.” Charity is among the most pleasing of the Christian virtues. It expands the heart and exercises the affections. Mr. Lunt’s view was a sensible one but I was not attentive.

Read a Sermon by Bishop Tillotson in the English Preacher. Psalm 119. 165. “Great peace have they that love thy law and nothing shall offend them.” Upon the effect of Religion to tranquillize the mind. After working my usual exercises through, I began a sort of review of 85the Address of the Republican Members.2 Evening at the Mansion. The air cooler.