Pleasant day, not so cold as it has been. I read two hundred and odd lines of Virgil’s sixth Book of the Aeneid before going out and hoped it was a sign of improvement for the future. Finished Gibbon’s seventh volume at the Office which was also quite a gain. I again remained at my Office all day for the purpose of seeing my Tenant and he did not come. I lost my walk thereby and did not feel so well for it.

Afternoon I progressed very successfully in Spanish, and pretty well in Italian. I think I shall succeed in acquiring both languages. My Afternoon’s are thus pretty fully taken up, yet I cannot help recollecting my Grandfathers injunction to me, “studium sine calamo sommium.”1 I am doing nothing for my reputation.

We went in the Evening to a party at Mrs. A. Thorndike’s.2 Small but very pleasant. I have no great taste for such things now, but my neglect of them has had the effect of making me a stranger in my native town. This will not do. Returned before Midnight. Omitted Paley.