Title: [Spring 1759.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       The Road is walled on each side with a Grove of Trees. The stillness, silence, and the uniformity of the Prospect puts the Mind into a stirring, thoughtful Mood.
       But the Reflections that are made in a Grove, are forgotten in the Town, and the Man who resembles a saint in his Thoughts in the first, shall resemble a Devil in his Actions in the last.
       In such silent scenes, as riding or walking thro the Woods or sitting alone in my Chamber, or lying awake in my Bed, my Thoughts commonly run upon Knowledge, Virtue, Books, &c. tho I am apt to forget these, in the distracting Bustle of the Town, and ceremonious Converse with Mankind.
       This morning rode to Moses Frenchs to get him to serve a Writ for me. He told me he was not yet sworn, but was obliged to me for coming to him, and would be glad to serve me at any Time, and would now rather than It should be any Damage to me. Thus he was pleased, I hope secured. Men are only secured by falling in with their Inclination, by favouring their Hopes, clearing their Prospects.
       Then I went to Wales’. He was not at home. I followed him to Germantown. He served the Writt. We returned together. He seemed quite pleasant. Told me the Practice of the two Thayers, of Hollis, Niles, &c. They drive a great stroke. There is two Thayers, 2 Niles’s, Faxon, Hollis, Wales, Moses French, W. Penniman, are all pettifogging Dabblers in Iniquity and Law. I might except 2 Niles’s, Wales and French, and perhaps Faxon from the Iniquitous part. I hope that Wales and French are secured to me. How they love Thayer I cant say. I hope they will recommend me to Persons that they hear Speaking of Business, as Wm. Veasey did. Veasey knew me, and mentioned me, to Shaw.
       The Difference between a whole Day and a divided scattered Day.
       Query. Can any Man take a Book in his hand, in the Morning, and confine his Thoughts to that till Night. Is not such a Uniformity tiresome? Is not Variety more agreable, and profitable too? Read one Book one Hour, then think an Hour, then Exercise an Hour, then read another Book an Hour, then dine, smoke, walk, cutt Wood, read another Hour loud, then think, &c. and thus spend the whole day in perpetual Variations, from Reading to thinking, Exercise, Company, &c. But what is to be acquired by this Wavering Life, but a Habit of Levity, and Impatience of Thought?
       I never spent a whole Day upon one Book in my Life.
       What is the Reason that I cant remove all Papers and Books from my Table, take one Volume into my Hands, and read it, and then reflect upon it, till night, without wishing for my Pen and Ink to write a Letter, or taking down any other Book, or thinking of the Girls? Because I cant command my attention. My Thoughts are roving from Girls to friends, from friends to Court, to Worcester, to Piscataquay, Newbury, and then to Greece and Rome, then to France, from Poetry to oratory, and Law, and Oh, a rambling, Imagination. Could I fix my attention, and keep off every fluttering Thought that attempts to intrude upon the present subject, I could read a Book all Day. Wisdom, curse on it, will come soon or late.
       I have to smooth and harmonise my Mind, teach every Thought within its Bounds, to roll, and keep the equal Measure of the Soul.
       H. went up to the Negroes Chamber over this little Room and awakened Jack and Ruby. Ruby was frightened and screamed till H. pacified her at last. Jack got up to alight a Candle and see if his Master was abed and if he found him up was to say he got up to get some thing for his Child. Thus a Girls Invention is alone sufficient for every Intrigue of this sort.

       Accidents, as we call them, govern a great Part of the World, especially Marriages. Sewal and Esther broke in upon H. and me and interrupted a Conversation that would have terminated in a Courtship, which would in spight of the Dr. have terminated in a Marriage, which Marriage might have depressed me to absolute Poverty and obscurity, to the End of my Life. But the Accident seperated us, and gave room for Lincolns addresses, which have delivered me from very dangerous shackles, and left me at Liberty, if I will but mind my studies, of making a Character and a fortune.
       I never began an Explanation of my Designs and Thoughts so that she was obliged to act without certain Knowledge. She had peculiar Reasons to desire an immediate Marriage, viz. a young and a very fruitful Mother in Law, on whom her father fondly doats, &c. and she had peculiar Reasons to receive the Drs. Addresses viz. The fondness of her father and his father, for the Match. The Drs. family, Business, and Character. And, in oposition to these Inducements, she had no Certainty of my Passions or Reason or Designs in her favour, but a strong suspicion that I was apprised of the Drs. Designs, and determined to see her no more.—But the Thing is ended. A tender scene! a great sacrifice to Reason!
       Now let me collect my Thoughts, which have been long scattered, among Girls, father, Mother, Grandmother, Brothers, Matrimony, Husling, Chatt, Provisions, Cloathing, fewel, servants for a family, and apply them, with steady Resolution and an aspiring Spirit, to the Prosecution of my studies. Now Let me form the great Habits of Thinking, Writing, Speaking. Let my whole Courtship be applyed to win the Applause and Admiration of Gridley, Prat, Otis, Thatcher &c. Let Love and Vanity be extinguished and the great Passions of Ambition, Patriotism, break out and burn. Let little objects be neglected and forgot, and great ones engross, arouse and exalt my soul.
       The Mind must be aroused, or it will slumber. To make and confirm in his Mind a Contempt of Cowardice, and an Admiration of Bravery.
       I found a Passion growing in my heart and a consequent Habit of thinking, forming and strengthening in my Mind, that would have eat out every seed of ambition, in the first, and every wise Design or Plan in the last.
       A Young fellow of fond amorous Passions, may appear quite cold and insensible. The Love of Knowledge may prevail over the Love of Girls. Old Men may be mistaken in their opinion of young ones. Mr. Goffe and Mr. Putnam, especially Goffe, thought me incapable of Gallantry and Intrigue.
       Should have drawn a Confession from her (by shewing the Imprudence, Danger, Cruelty, and Wickedness of her Conduct without that supposition) that she loved me, and was determined to run all Hazards with me, to run the chance of Business, and success. Should have tryed, what the Imputation of Jilting, and Wheedling, and hinting, for a Courtship, in order to Torment, or at least to secure one for fear another should fail, would have produced. Should have said, H. you was dissatisfied with your situation and desirous of a Husband. In order to get one, you Wheedled Wibirt; you wheedled Lincoln. You gave each of them hints and Encouragement to Court you. But especially you wheedled me. For 6 months past you and I have never been alone together but you have given me broad Hints, that you desired I should court you, &c. &c.
       Used to say how moderate her Desires were. She cared not for Riches or Dress, nor Gentility. She could live upon common Necessaries. Such Speeches used to be frequently dropped to me, and before me. She used before their House was burned to say frequently before me in Company, and to me alone, she should admire to be Courted a great while. She should admire a long Courtship. She would not be married by any means, these 4 or 5 years; but since she lost that House and her Agreable Retirement, solitude, and especially since her mother has been with Child again, she has said to me, that nothing should persuade her to be married these seven Years if it were not for her fathers young Wife, that nothing
       Deed from Stephen Dudley, of Exeter, in N. Hampshire, Cordwainer, to Wm. Cunningham of Boston Glaiser, of 150 Acres of Land, to be taken out of the Tract of Land that Capt. Peter Renewitt and Abigail his Squaw gave to said Stephen by deed of Gift 7 of Jan. 1718, which Tract begins on the River 3 miles above Petuckaway mill in Exeter and running 3 miles in breadth on Each side of said River and Ten miles in Length up said River.
       I will get an Husbandmans Common Place Book.
       I will make me a Common Place Book of Agriculture—and Place Wheat, Rye, Corn, and Pease, Beans, sentence unfinished

       A Common Place Book of Husbandry and Gardening—and Place in the Index Wheat, Rye, Corn, Pease, Beans, Turnips, Potatoes. Apples, Cyder, Trees, Elms, Butten Woods, Locusts, Cherry Trees, Plumb Trees, Quince Trees, &c. Nurseries. Lands, Grounds, Plough land, Pasture, mowing Land. Meadow, Upland, fields, Groves, forests. Hills, Valleys, Ditches. Fresh Meadows, gravelly Land, clay Land. Loomy Land. Springy Land, &c. Horses, oxen, Cows, Calves, sheep, Hogs. Scrub Oak Plains, pitch Pine Plains. Rocks. Wall. Posts, Rails, fence. Red Ceder, Juniper, Savine, Oaks, Pine, Hemlock, Holly. Apple Trees, Pear Trees. Orchard. Salt Meadow. Manure. Rock Wick Weed, sea Weed. Dung, Ashes, Marl, Chips, sticks, straw, &c. Weeds, Nature of Weeds, methods of destroying, and extirpating them. Barbery Bushes, Cadlock, White Weed, yellow Weeds. Grasses, Clover, while white honey suckle, fowl medow Grass, fox Tail or Herds Grass. St. foin, Tree foin, &c. Roots, fibres, saps, Juices, Vessells, Circulation, Inoculation, Engraftments, scients scions, &c.
       Currants. Goose Berries. Currants, white and red, Goose Berries, strawberries.
       Husbandry may be studied by me either as a Phylsopher inquisitive into the secrets of Nature in Vegetation, Generation, and of Art in Manufacture or as a Politician and Patriot, desirous of promoting the Improvement of Laws &c. for the Interest of the Public, or as a Private Man, selfishly thirsting after Profit, in order to make money.
       I would fill my Yard with Geese, Turkies, Ducks, Guinea Hens, Peacocks, fowls. Bees, &c.
       Labour, Howing, Ploughing. Ploughs, mathematical Principles on which Ploughs are constructed. Raking, Mowing, scythes, &c. Carts, Waggons, Wheelbarrows. Harrow. Utensils of Husbandry. Sleds. Methods of subduing Land, cutting Wood and Bushes, burning wood and Bushes, eradicating Stumps, Plowing new Ground, &c.
       Potatoes, different sorts. Cabbages, different sorts. Colly flower, sellery, &c. Peas, different sorts. Beans, English and others, different sorts, white black, red, large, small, &c. Turnips. Bates for rats. Parsnips, Parsley, Pepper Grass, Horse radish, Mustard, Onions, shyves chives, Herbs. Hog Weed, red rood root. Pursley, Dandelyons, &c. Balm, Sage, Penny Royal, Hyssop, &c. Pinks, Tulips.
       Roses, white and Red Peonies, &c.
       Yesterday afternoon, a Plea, Puis darrien Continuance, was argued by Mr. Prat for the Plea, and Gridley and Otis against it. The Plea was, that after the last Continuance and before the 1st day of the sitting of this Court this Term, viz. on such a day, one Allin one of the Plaintiffs died. Mr. Prat argued that the Writ must abate, for it was clear Law, that the Writt in this Case was ipso facto abated and might be dismissed at the Motion of any Person as amicus Curiae. And of this opinion was the whole Court. G. took an Exception to the Plea as imperfect in not giving the Plaintiff a better Writ. The whole Afternoon was Spent in arguing this Point, and 20 Volumes of Institutes and Reporters, I suppose were produced as authorities.
       (Otis aside. It makes me laugh to see Pratt lugg a Cart load of Books into Court to prove a Point as clear as the Sun. The Action is as dead as a Hubb.)
       Otis. I will grant, Mr. Prat, very readily, that there has been a time since Wm. the Conqueror when this Plea would have abated this Writ in England. But I take it that Abatements at this day are rather odious than favored and I dont believe that this Plea would abate this Writ at any time within this Century in Westminster Hall.
       This morning, the Action Patten vs. Basen was argued. It was a Case for not returning an Execution. Prat and the Court, an Action will not lie against the officer for not returning without averring and proving Special Damages, as that the Party was broke, run away, or dead, leaving nothing. Then the special Damage may be laid equal to the whole Debt. Gruchy v. Hews Hughes comes on this afternoon.
       Of Abatement by the Death of Parties.
       The Rule is “That wherever the Death of any Party happens pending the Writt and yet the Plea is in the same Condition, as if such Party were living, there such death makes no Alteration; for where the death of the Parties makes no Change of Proceeding, it would be unreasonable that the surviving Parties should make any Alteration in their Writt; for if such Writ and Proscess were changed, twould let  but in the same Condition they were at the Death of the Parties; and ’twould be absurd that what made no alteration should change the Writ and the Proscess;” and on this Rule all the Diversities turn.
       1. Inst. 139. The first Difference is in Real Actions; where there are several Pleadings, there is summons and severance, as there is in the most real Actions, there the death of one of the Parties abates the suit; but in Personal and mixed Actions, where one entire Thing is to be recovered, there the Death of the Parties does not abate the Writt; and the Reason of the Difference is, where there are two Jointenants and the one goes on to recover his Moiety, and the other will not proceed, there is no Reason that he that is willing to proceed should not recover his Ritt, since such tenant has a distinct Moiety, and therefore should have an Action to recover it. But no Summons and severance lies in Personal Actions; as if Trespass be committed in such Jointenants, they must both join in the Action, for as one may release the whole, so the other may refuse to go on, and the other cant recover his Part of the Damage without him; and so in Debt by an obligation to two, there can be no summons and severance, because one of the joint obligees may release the Bond, and therefore may not go in the Action; but if a Man appoint two men Executors, there shall be summons and severance, because tho one of the Executors may release, tho such a Release is a Devastavit in him; but if he will not proceed at Law, tis no Devastavit; and therefore both Executors being only Trustees for the Person deceased, they shall not both be compelled to go on together; but if one refuses, the other may bring his Action in the name of both, and have summons and severance; for otherwise each Co-executor might by Collusion with the Debtor and not proceeding, keep the other from recovering the assitts, and not create a Devastavit in himself.
       Coll. Hunt.
       A single Adventure, Expedition, Undertaking or Incident in a Mans Life often renders him forever afterwards attentive to Matters of that sort.
       Coll. Hunt was highly entertained and gratified with my Relation of the Gallant bloody Action between an English Privateer and two frenchmen in the West Indies. It Engaged his Attention, and gave him a high Pleasure, which Mr. Olivers Project of improving Husbandry, and making Profits, was not able to do.
       He hearkened to the story of the fight, but was cold to the Project of inriching his Country. He acquired at Louisbourg this Admiration of Bravery, which all the Perplexity, Disgrace, and Indigence, which he has been brought to endure, since his Return from that Expedition, has never been able to extinguish.
       There he saw frequent Instances of daring Actions, and he heard such Actions applauded. There he saw frequent Instances of Cowardice; and he heard such Persons despized, which hightened the Distinction, which it is natural to Mankind to
       Justice with a Band, a Veil before her Eyes, sitting on the Globle, with a Pair of scales and a sword in her right Hand, the scales hang below her hand, the sword points to the Zenith with a Crown upon it, and with four pieces of something in her left Hand. With her left foot she treads upon a Lion, the Emblem of strength, i.e. Violence, and with her right upon a serpent, the Emblem of subtlety, i.e. fraud. The Roman Eagle, with her Wings hovering, half spread, stands on her right Claw foot, upon the Globle, by the left side of Justice, and extending her left Claw, in which she grasps some Arrows, perhaps, towards the East.
       Behind the Globle on the right hand of Justice, you see some stately Buildings, with a fine Row of Roman statues, round the Roofs, and with the statue of an Horse and Man on the Top of a Chimney almost behind Justice.
       On the left Hand of Justice, you see the Roman Army, entrenched, and picketted in, with a large Castle, and flag flying at a Distance.
       At the Foot of Justice, on the left Hand, stands truth arrayed in a roman Habit with her curled Hair, decently yet negligently tyed, pointing with her left Hand to Justice, and with her Right, extending her Torch, over to an old Gentleman, who stands, at the feet of Justice on the Right, with a large Book in his left Hand, a Pen in his Right, and seems in a listening attentive Posture, taking down the Dictates of Justice by the light of Truth. Query, is this old Gentleman Justinian? There are four figures, or there is a Groupe of figures, at the feet of this old Gentleman, which I am unable to decypher. They are habited differently. One is black like a Negro, with a Chain of Beeds about his Neck and a Crown of Feathers on his Head. Is this an African? The next is black too, but without any Beads or Crown, but he seems to wear the Proboscis of an Elephant, upon his Cap. The other two are clothed in Roman Habits, one in Armour. The three last are on their Knees, and seem to shrink from the sight of Justice and Truth. Q.—was not the Architecture and statuary, behind the Globle and Justice, designed to represent the roman skill in those Arts. They must have had Master Architects to build those grand and beautiful Piles, and Master Statuaries, to make those statues, round the Roofs, and on the Chimney Tops.
       And is not the entrenched Army on the left Hand designed to represent the Glory and Terror of their Arms.
       I cannot decypher half these figures.
       Parson Wibird is crooked, his Head bends forwards, his shoulders are round and his Body is writhed, and bended, his head and half his Body, have a list one Way, the other half declines the other Way, and his lower Parts from his Middle, incline another Way. His features are as coarse and crooked as his Limbs. His Nose is a large roman Nose with a prodigious Bunch Protuberance, upon the Upper Part of it. His Mouth is large, and irregular, his Teeth black and foul, and craggy. His Lips  to command, when he speakes, they dont move easily and limberly pliant. His lips are stiff, rigid, not pliant and supple. His Eyes are a little squinted, his Visage is long, and lank, his Complexion wan, his Cheeks are fallen, his Chin is long, large, and lean. These are the Features, these the Limbs, and this the Figure of the worthy Mr. Wibirt.
       But his Air, and Gesture, is still more extraordinary. When he stands, He stands, bended, in and out before and behind and to both Right and left; he tosses his Head on one side. When he prays at home, he raises one Knee upon the Chair, and throws one Hand over the back of it. With the other he scratches his Neck, pulls the Hair of his Wigg, strokes his Beard, rubbs his Eyes, and Lips.
       When he Walks, he heaves away, and swaggs on one side, and steps almost twice as far with one foot, as with the other.
       When he sitts, he sometimes lolls on the arms of his Chair, sometimes on the Table. He entwines his leggs round the Leggs of his Chair, lays hold of the Iron Rod of the stand with one Hand. Sometimes throws him self, over the back of his Chair, and scratches his Hed, Vibrates the foretop of his Wigg, thrusts his Hand up under his Wigg, &c.
       When he speakes, he cocks and rolls his Eyes, shakes his Head, and jerks his Body about.
       Thus clumsy, careless, slovenly, and lazy is this sensible Man.
       It is surprizing to me that the Delicacy of his Mind has not corrected these Indecent, as well as ungraceful Instances of Behaviour. He has Wit, and he has Fancy, and he has Judgment. He is a Genius. But he has no Industry, no Delicacy, no Politeness. Tho’ he seems to have a sort of Civility, and Cleverness in his Manners. A civil, clever Man. He observes that in Dana which I have observed—a cleverness, a good Humored look.
       What is it, that Settles Men’s opinions of others? It is Avidity, Envy, Revenge, Interest.
       Colonel Quincy will represent Eb. Thayer as one of the worst of Men, as a Conspirator against his Country, as a Cataline.
       Colonel’s Friendship is not worth a wise Mans seeking, nor his Enmity worth fearing. As long as you flatter his Vanity, gratify his avarice, or favour his Ambition, you will be a great Genius, an honest Man, a good man, in short you will be every thing, but as soon as you obstruct any of his Views you will be a silly man, a Knave, in short every thing that is bad.
       While the Governor as he thought, had a great Opinion of him, the Governor was wise, learned, industrious &c., but when he found the Governor despized him, the Governor had no Principles, was guided by self Interest &c.
       Coll. Q. I have discovered the Phylosophers stone in military Matters.
        this is the darling, favorite Theme still. Tho every Man who hears this scheme conceives at once the most contemptible Opinion of it, yet no one chuses to shew his Disapprobation of it. A few Queries, and distant Proposals, are the Utmost that has been said against it, to him.—Thus he is flattered to his face by Nods, and Winks, of seeming Assent and compliance, and cursed behind his back as a Villain and a fool. Oh, envied State of Greatness.
       He calls it a scheme to do men good in spight of their Teeth—forcing food down a hungry Mans Throat. The Philosophers Stone &c. Others say he is a cursed Rogue, a dutiful son of his father the Devil, he wants to get Money into his Pocket. Thus the Coll. and some of his Company differ in Opinion, of his Contrivance. He thinks, tis fatherly, patriotical, sagacious. They think it inimical, diabolical and silly!
       You may hint to him particular Defects of his Plan, and he will contrive Amendments, but the general Plan would never be exploded by his Consent. I will not attempt to undeceive him any more. This scheme is Mentis gratissimus Error. demptus, Error, gratissimus Error the most agreable Error mentis of the Mind, demptus taken away, per Vim, by violence. Pol. by Pollux, amici my friends, occidistis you have killed me, non servastis you have not preserved me, saved me alive, cui, sic extorta Voluptas—Pleasure extorted, torn away, cui from which thus.
       This political scheme is mentis gratissimus Error Mentis  Error. It will be told to the Disadvantage of his Character, for sense and Honesty. Twill furnish his Enemies with a topick of scandal and will introduce Jealosy’s and suspicions into the Minds of his friends. He will suffer the most by it.

       The Notes will give offence. A rich Man will be allowed to give a Note, but a poor Man must pay the Money. This will be a Distinction between poor and rich, a Partiality to the rich and Oppression of the poor. It will occasion such Ravings, and swearing and Impudence and Insolence as was never seen by a military officer in this Company. Bass and my Uncle told him, how it would be received. He is wrongheadedly Headstrong, headstrongly Wrongheaded.
       Ned tells a story tolerably well. He told of illegible name. He was a better Prophet than Elijah for he stretched himself on her but once to bring her to Life whereas Elijah did 3 times. He breathed into her the Breath of Life. Ned told the Duke of Whartons Character and Life, &c. Ned was sociable, told the stories he had read pretty well, &c. Billy was sociable too, but awed, afraid.
       They told of the wickedest jokes that had been put upon Nat Hurd, by some fellows in Boston, who found out that he had such a Girl at his shop, at such a time. One went to him and pretended to make a confidant of him. Oh god, what shall I do? That Girl,  her, has given me the Clap. That scared him and made him cry, Oh damn her, what shall I do? I saw her such a Night. I am peppered. He went to the Dr.  and was salivated for the Clap. Then they sent him before Justice Phillips, then before Justice Tyler, in short they played upon him till they provoked him so that he swore, he would beat the Brains out of the first man that came into his shop, to plague him with his .
       I think it is an equal Proof of Piety, Wit, and sensuality.—This was affected. I thought it witty, wise, smart. It could not but disgust.
       Why have I not Genius to start some new Thought. Some thing that will surprize the World. New, grand, wild, yet regular Thought that may raise me at once to fame.
       Where is my Soul? where are my Thoughts.
       When shall I start some new Thought, make some new Discovery, that shall surprize the World with its Novelty and Grandeur?
       Coll. Q’s End is Popularity. He intends to procure Votes by his schemes for raising Men, but if he had used all his Ingenuity to contrive a scheme to disgust People, to raise scruples, Jealousies, and Contempt, he could not have found a better. He will loose more Votes than he will get by this Project.
       Would it not save trouble to give the Men that he shall impress after 4 o’clock, leave to inlist and date their Inlistment a few days sooner?
       Is it not absurd to study all Arts but that of Living in the World, and all sciences but that of Mankind? Popularity is the Way to gain and figure.
       The Arts of Gain are necessary. You may get more by studying Town meeting, and Training Days, than you can by reading Justinian and all his voluminous and heavy Commentators.
       Mix with the Croud in a Tavern, in the Meeting House or the Training Field, and grow popular by your agreable assistance in the Tittle tattle of the Hour, never think of the deep hidden Principles of natural, civil, or common Law, for thoughts like these will give you a gloomy Countenance and a stiff Behaviour.
       I should talk with Tirrells, Lamberts, Clarks, Thayers, Faxons, Beal, Wales, French &c. about changing Horses. Offer to change or sell, trade in any Thing.
       It is certain that Retirement will loose its Charms if it is not interrupted, by Business, and Activity. I must converse and deal with Mankind, and move and stir from one scene of Action and Debate and Business, and Pleasure, and Conversation, to another and grow weary of all before I shall feel the strong Desire of retiring to contemplation on Men and Business and Pleasure and Books.
       After hard Labour at Husbandry, Reading and Reflection in Retirement will be a Relief and a high refined Pleasure. After attending a Town Meeting, watching the Intrigues, Acts, Passions, Speeches, that pass there, a Retreat to reflect, compare, distinguish will be highly delightful. So after a Training Day, after noting the Murmurs, Complaints, Jealousies, Impudence, Envy that pass in the field, I shall be pleased with my solitude.
       Transitions from study to Business, from Business to Conversation and Pleasure, will make the Revolution of study still more agreable and perhaps not less profitable, for we are very apt, in total Retirement, to forget the sciences, and to smoak, and trifle and drone it too much.
       I have been very negligent and faulty, in not treating Deacon Savil, Nat. Belcher, Deacon Belcher &c. with more Attention, and sprightliness. I should bow and look pleasant to Deacon Savil, and talk with him about News, War, Ministers, Sermons &c. Should watch critically every Word that Nat Belcher says, and let him see by the Motions of the Muscles of my face, that I have discernment between wise and foolish, witty and silly, candid and ill natured, grave and humourous speeches and let him know on proper occasions I can vent a Smart Repartee. Should always speak and shake Hands with the Deacon, inquire after his Wife, Sons, Samuel, William, Elijah, and humour his talkative Disposition.—It is of no small Importance to sett the Tongues of old and young Men and Women a prating in ones favour.
       As to Dr. Savil and his Wife, I have dismissed all my Guards before Them, and acted and spoke at Random. But I might easily gain their warmest Words and assiduous Assistance, by visiting seldomer, by using tender and soothing, instead of rough and reproachful Language, and by complying with their Requests of riding out with her, and reading Plays, once in a while, to them in the Evening.
       But I have been rash, boastful, prophane, uncivil, Blustering, threatning, before them.
       Let me remark Parson Wibirts Popularity. He plays with Babes and young Children that begin to prattle, and talks with their Mothers, asks them familiar, pleasant Questions, about their affection to their Children. His familiar careless way of conversing with People, Men and Women. He has Wit, and Humour.
       Ripping, i.e., using the Words faith, Devil, I swear, damnable, cursed, &c., displease the Dr. but especially his Wife.
       Threatning to Quarrell with Thayer, Penniman, Hollis &c., disgusts them, especially her.
       Asserting dogmatically on Points of Province Law which he knows more of than I, by several Years experience, and Conversation with People concerning their Estates, Law suits, &c., and being fretted, disgusts them very much.—I have more faults, Mistakes, Imprudences, follies, rashness to answer for in the Drs. House than in all the Town besides.
       I am to attend a Vendue this afternoon at Lamberts. My Father, Captain Bracket and Thayer are a Committee to lease out the Town Lands to the highest Bidder. Let me remark the Management of the sale, and the Behaviour of Persons especially of Thayer and Bracket, watch his Treatment of People, and their Treatment of him.
       Let me ask myself this Question when I return. What have I seen, heard, learned? What hint observed to lift myself into Business, what Reputation or Disgrace have I got, by attending this Vendue. My Character will be Spread, and mended or injured by it.
       I was consulted by 2 Men this afternoon, who would not have applied to me if I had not been at Vendue, E. Niles and Elijah Belcher. And the Questions they asked, have led me into Useful Thoughts and Inquiries. I find hints, and Inquiries, arise sooner in the World than in my Study.
       It would be an agreable and useful speculation to inquire into that Faculty which we call Imagination. Define it, enquire the Good Ends it answers in the human system, and the Evils it sometimes produces.
       What is the Use of Imagination? It is the Repository of Knowledge. By this faculty, are retained all the Ideas of visible objects, all the observations we have made in the Course of Life on Men and Things, our selves &c.
       I am conscious that I have the faculty of Imagination, that I can at Pleasure review in my Thoughts, the Ideas and Assemblages of Ideas that have been before in my Mind. Can revive the scenes, Diversions, sports of Childhood, Youth. Can recall my youthful Rambles, to the farms, frolicks, Dalliances, my lonely Walks thro the Groves, and swamps, and fields, and Meadows at Worcester. Can imagine my self with the wildest Tribe of Indians in America in their Hunting, their Warrs, their tedious Marches, thro wild swamps and Mountains. Can fly by this faculty to the Moon, Planets, fixed Starrs, unnumbered Worlds. Can cross the Atlantic and fancy my self in Westminster Hall, hearing Causes in the Courts of Justice, or the Debates in the Houses of Commons or Lords.—As all our knowledge is acquired by Experience, i.e. by sensation or Reflection, this faculty is necessary to retain the Ideas we receive and the observations we make, and to recall them, for our Use, as Occasion requires.
       I am conscious too, that this faculty is very active and stirring. It is constantly in Action unless interrupted by the Presence of external Objects, by Reading, or restrained by Attention. It hates Restraint, it runs backward to past scenes &c. or forward to the future. It flyes into the Air, dives in the sea, rambles to foreign Countries, or makes excursions to foreign planetary starry Worlds. These are but Hints, irregular observations, not digested into order.
       But what are the Defects of this faculty? What are the Errors, Vices, Habits, it may betray us into, if not curbed? What is the Danger.
       I must know all the Ends of this faculty, and all its Phenomena, before I can know all its Defects. Its Phenomena are infinitely various, in different Men, and its Ends are different. Therefore its Defects must be almost infinitely various. But all its Defects may be reduced to general Laws.
       The Sphere of Imagination includes both Actuality and Possibility, not only what is but what may be.
       One Use of Imagination, is to facilitate the Acquisition and Communication of Knowledge. How does it facilitate the Acquisition. It lays up, It retains, the Ideas of Things and the Observations we make upon them. By reviving past scenes, or creating new, it suggests Thoughts and inquiries. Starts Hints and doubts, and furnishes Reason with Materials in our retired Hours. In the Hours of solitude, Imagination recalls the Ideas of Things, Men, Actions, Characters, and Reason reduces them to order, and forms Inferences and Deductions from them.
       How does it help to communicate? Why by recalling our Knowledge, and by comparing abstract Notions with sensible Images—by Metaphor, allusion &c.
       Another End of Imagination, may be personal Pleasure and Entertainment. We take Pleasure in viewing the Works of Nature, and the Productions of Art, as Painting, Statuary, Poetry, oratory &c., but are not these rather objects and Pleasures of sense than of Imagination?
       We take Pleasure in recollecting the Sports, Diversions, Business, scenes of Nature &c. that we have seen in our past Lives. We take Pleasure in fancying our selves in Places, among Objects, Persons, Pleasures, when we are not; and a still greater Pleasure in the Prospect which Imagination constantly gives us of future Pleasure, Business, Wealth, fame &c.
       This Prospect of futurity, which Imagination gilds and brightens, is the greatest Spur to Industry and Application. The scholars spur to study. The Commanders spur to Activity and Courage. The Statesmans Spur to the Invention and Execution of Plans of Politicks. The Lovers Spur to assiduity, and &c.
       Coll. Quincy told the Compliment the Governor passed on him in calling him one of the most active Members, before 20 Persons in a Tavern, and one was lolling out his Tongue, another shrugging his shoulders and another sneering all the Time.
       Men are aspiring and ambitious in their souls and hearts as their Imaginations are vivid.
       I had an acking Void within my Breast, this night. I feel anxious, eager, after something. What is it? I feel my own Ignorance. I feel concern for Knowledge, and fame. I have a dread of Contempt, a quick sense of Neglect, a strong Desire of Distinction.
       Went this morning to D.B. Deacon Belcher and L.B. to see the Leases under which they held the Town Lands. I learned enough to reward me for the Trouble, tho I could not see the Leases. I find that as much knowledge in my Profession is to be acquired by Conversing with common People about the Division of Estates, Proceedings of Judge of Probate, Cases that they have heard as Jurors, Witnesses, Parties, as is to be acquired by Books. Talked familiarly with Deacon B. and his Wife. Talked to N.B. Nathaniel Belcher about The Ile of Orleans, and the Contrast between the present and the last administration, to J. Curtis, of Husbandry, and the Tittletattle of the Town. Thus I believe I have lost no Credit yet, but have gained Credit as a knowing as well as a familiar young fellow. I must sett the Town to talking about me.
       What shall I say to Majr. Crosby to procure his Love and Admiration too? Ask him for Executions, Writs, News Papers, what days he usually attends at Home to try Causes. What say to Deacon Webb, to procure his Love and Admiration. Papers.
       As I rode under the Rocks and savines in the common the Project darted into my Head of writing a Poem under the Title of the matrimonial Ballance, or the Ballance of Celibacy. A Ballance for weighing the Pleasures of Matrimony against the Pains, the Inconveniences vs. the Conveniences. Let me invent the Fable. Wisdom appears to a young fellow, as he sits meditating on Celibacy and Matrimony, and presents him with these scales. How shall I describe Wisdom? the Scales? that every Air, Shape, Colour, may convey some moral Instruction.
       Billy Belcher has a very mean Opinion of all the Quincies, all 3 Neds, and Josiah and Samll. and Henry.

       Cranch has been mean since, if Quincy was before the first difference between them.
       Billy B. He says he will charge you with 1/2 the Rent of the Warehouse in Boston. If he does, I can swear that he declared to me in a very solemn manner that he kept the Warehouse open only to oblige me.
       This might be new. The Coll. and all his sons are insincere. They make a greater shew, more Expressions of Kindness and Friendship, than they really have for any Man. He wanted to convince B. that he was a great Benefactor to him. Perhaps he wanted his good Words at home at Braintree, to his father and Brother.
       Master Cleverly. I have no Opinion of our Courts. They act as the spirit moves them. There is no Dependance upon Judge Sewall, nor Judge Hutchinson, the Governor &c.
       He is as hungry after Vices and Follies in the Characters of the Quincies, and of our Courts, as a Wolf ever was for Prey. An Instance of Weakness or Wickedness practiced by any Quincy gratifies him to the quick. He has no Candour, no Charity. He is censorious. He is spightful.
       Dr. Savil. Ephraim Thayer told a Story the other day that he saw a small ground Squirrell run away with 2 large Ears. He introduced it with a solemn Train of Circumstances. He raised a great deal of Corn, and could not imagine how it went. He could not suspect any of his Neighbours, and he thought no Creature but Man could take it off so fast. At last he lay and watched it and soon found that the squirrells were the Thieves for he saw one single ground squirrell run out of his fold with 2 Ears.—This Pun.
       Another time he was a gunning and he saw at a little distance a Partridge at the foot of a Tree and a grey Squirell, at the Top of it. He wanted to get both, but he knew if he shot at the squirrel the Partridge would fly, and if he shot at the Partridge the squirrel would run away before he could charge his Gun a second time. He tho’t he would contrive to kill both at once, and he crept round in fair Sight of both, and shot and killed both at once. Now one must be very quick and very expert to hold the Gun just at the Root long eno’ to kill the Partridge and then raise it to the Top in order to kill with the other half of the Charge the squirrel at the Top. But the Riddle was, The Tree was blown down, and he got the Partridge and Squirrel in a very fair Range.

       An Advocate. The Patron of the Cause, assisting the Litigant with his Advice, the Person who pleads or represents the Cause of his Client. They should not be interrupted in their studies by . De quota litis. Tis a public offence.


Title: June 29. 1759.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Have this moment finished Woods new Institute of the Imperial or civil Law. It is a great Help in the study of Van Muyden and Justinian. I understand Wood much better for having read Van Muyden, and shall now understand Van Muyden much better for having read Wood.


Title: [Summer 1759.]
From: Adams, John
To:

       Mr. Wibirt. Ld. Chancellor Hardwick used at night to take off the Robes of his office and lay them aside. “There Ld. Chancellor lie there till morning.” This Story means that he assumed the state and Dignity of his office, when he was in the Exercise of it, but threw off all state with his Robes and shewed the sociable Friend and Companion.
       Parson Wibird. Out of Hannah and Esther might be made a very personable Woman but not a great soul.

       She is pleased. I find that the Chat I had with H. is uppermost in my mind. While my Eyes are on my Book, my Attention, my Imagination is playing and prating with her. These scenes of Pleasure make too deep Impressions on my Imagination.
       K. I see H. have such an one, and asked her who it was for?
       Again I find my Thoughts ruminating the idle Chat, and Banter, I had with K. and Easther. A Contest, a Combat between Reason and Passion is unequal. A struggle between Reflections upon Law and Reflections upon Love, between art Inclination to study and an Inclination to ruminate on the Prate, Banter, laughter, looks, airs of the Girls, is likely to be followed by Victory on the side of Trifles.
       I asked Mr. Wibirt if he made the fowl eat his Comb and Gills to make him couragious?—and Nan. broke out into a triumphant, awkward, silly, shamefaced, malignant Laugh, and cryed, why some has been cutt off of your Head, lately, did you eat it to make you couragious? You eat it I believe and that made you so couragious.— This is ill breeding.
       I find, that by walking, riding, and talking so much, I have got a restless Habit. As I set, writing or reading a Thought, a Desire of running over to the Drs. will dart into my Head, and I feel a damp in suppressing of it. Next minute a Thought and desire of running down to Dr. Webbs, John Mills’s &c. Thus Reflections upon past and Projects for future Pleasures, interrupt my studies.
       Enim for omnis Res, every Thing. Virtus, Virtue. Fame, Decorum, both divine and human Things, obey, bow with Reverence to fair Riches: which, whoever has accumulated, heaped up, he will be handsome, valiant, just  wise, and a King, and what ever he will.
       Novation. An obligation is abolished, by Novation. A Transfer of the 1st Obligation into another. Transfer the obligation by Changing the Person, shift the Debtor. I take A.B. for my Debtor, for that Debt which was owed me by B.C. Dr. Savel owes me 10 Dollars, I discharge him and take J. Field for Paymaster. Tis only a Transfer, a shifting the obligation from the Dr. to Field. That obligation which lay on Sempronius to pay me 10 Dolls, is now on Titius. Or Novation may be by transferring one obligation into another while the same Persons continue.
       Sempronious owes me £10 on Account. This £10 by mutual Consent is acknowledged to be due to me as money lent him, cui Bono.
       May I call them 2 sorts of Novation. Quibus Modis, by what Ways—by what Means, by what Ways, an obligation is taken away or abolished. Concerning Novation or Renewal. This Conversion is made by Words or Stipulation. Besides an obligation is taken away by Renewal, as, if that which Sejus owed you, if that which Savil owed you, you should stipulate to be given by Titius. If you should stipulate that that should be given paid by Titius which Sejus owed you. For by the Intervention of a new Person, a new obligation is born, springs, grows, and the 1st is abolished, translata in Posteriorum, is transferred on the latter, so that some times, altho the latter stipulation is useless, yet the first by the Law of Renewal is taken away. As if that which you owe to Titius, and he stipulated by the Pupil without the Authority of a Tutor. There are many ways, in which by the Law itself an Obligation is abolished. In this Title only 4 are related. Novation is a transfusion and Translation of a former Debt, into another obligation, civil or natural, and is either voluntary, which is made by the Agreement of Parties, or necessary, which is made  by a Joining of Issues and the sentence of the Judge. This does not diminish the Right of the Plaintiff.
       Novation moreover is made either the Persons of the Creditor and Debtor remaining: or these Persons changed. Continuing which either the Cause of  is changed or a new quality is added, or an old one substituted, so that it be acted among the Contracting Parties. A Mutation Change of Persons happens three Ways, either the Person of the Creditor being changed, or of the Debtor, which in specie i.e. in this form is called Delegation, or by changing the Person of both. In Delegation a twofold Act ought to be considered, the first between the delegating and the delegated in which naked Consent is sufficient, declared by Writing or a Nod or by any other manner, in which Consent it may be defined.
       Delegation is a Command, by which a Debtor substitutes his Debtor in his own Place to his own Creditor. Another Act is committed between a Delegate and him to whom the Delegation is made in which a stipulation is required. A stipulation, by which a Debtor delegate to a stipulating Creditor to whom delegated, promises that he is about to pay the Debt, in whose Name the Delegation is made.
       Acceptilation is an imaginary Payment, an Acknowledgment of the Creditor, that he has been paid when in truth he has not, with Design to discharge the Debtor. Acceptilation is a stipulation by which a Creditor, with a design of dissolving the obligation answers the Debtor interrogating, that he has received his Debt when indeed he has not. Simple Acceptilation is that by which is abolished only an Obligation contracted by Words. An Exception is an Exclusion, barring of an Action  by law.
       Consider what figure is fittest for you to make. Consider what Profession you have chosen? The Law. What Rule and Method must I observe to make a figure to be useful, and respectable in that Station. Ask this Question upon every Occasion, of what Use to the Lawyer? of what use at the Bar—to have perfection of Knowledge in Theory or Expertness in Practice, or Eloquence at Bar? Let my Views concenter, and terminate in one focus, in one Point, a great, useful, virtuous Lawyer. With this View I might plan a system of study for seven Years to come, that should take in most Parts of Science and Literature. I might study Mathematics, and Poetry and Rhetorick and Logick, as auxiliary Sciences and Arts, but my principal Attention should be directed at british Law, and roman and Grecian Antiquities.
       Gad. Chd. I set out once for a merry, jovial fellow. Merriment and Jollity, a thoughtless, careless Air, humming a Tune, &c. are esteemed the Supream Excellence of human Nature by some Men.
       I have slid insensibly of late into a Channell of Prattle with Dr. Savel that will carry me into folly if I dont get out of it. I talk dogmatically big, impudent, bully like, and think it wit, sense and Eloquence.
       Let me avoid such silly and indecent freedoms with the Dr. and such silly, affected drollery with his Wife and Niese.
       I shall loose the natural Course of my Thoughts.
       Trumbull has nothing new upon the Subject. His Principles are all taken from ancient Moralists, and from Dr. Clark, Mr. Hutchinson, Bp. Butler, Ld. Shaftesbury and Mr. Pope.
       Nat. Gardner. I can never recollect Mens Names. I remembered your Face, and Person, but I could not recollect your Name.
       This is a Habit of Inattention, a Habit of ruminating on Poetry, &c., on what he has read as he walks the Streets. This slowness of Memory, is consistent with ready Wit.
       His Memory is very quick and prompt sometimes, tho it is very slow at others.—Ruggles now is a contrast. Ruggles has the most constant Presence of Mind. He never makes Blunders thro Inattention. He received Money from 1/2 a dozen Gentlemen, and then rummaged his Pocketts, and dropd with John Chandler with as much Composure as if he had been a week in studying how to behave. And, upon that sudden Occasion, at Worcester, he planned his scheme in a moment, and he managed every Part of it with as much Readiness and Propriety as he could have done, if he had prepared himself for it, a week before hand.
       N. Gardner is heedless, and inattentive, has no Presence of Mind. Ruggles is the Man for Attention.
       Dan. Treadwell. There is a linear, a superficial and a solid Amplification. Thus if a Globe of one Inch in Diameter, appears thro a Microscope, 10 Inches in Diameter, This Microscope magnifies lineally 10 times, superficially 100 times and in solidity 1000 times, because the solidity is amplified in a cubical and the superficies in a quadratical Proportion to the Amplification of the Diameter. So that a Glass which magnifies in Diameter only 10 times, magnifies in solidity 1000 times.
       Any Attraction or Repulsion that should accelerate or retard the Motion of the Comet would alter the Excentricity of its Elipsis and its Inclination too, if the attracting or repelling Body was without the Plane of the Comets Orbit.
       Treadwell and I were four Hours on the Road to Boston. Our Horses never went out of a Walk and I believe, sometimes almost stood still, while we were engaged in Conversation upon Mathematicks, Physicks, Astronomy, optics &c. I am ashamed of my self. Treadwell has had great Advantages, and has greatly improved them. He bears a great share in all Conversation, upon Politicks, War, Geography, Physicks &c.
       Treadwell. The Rule for determining the Specific Gravity of a Body is to multiply not its Superficies, but its Capacity, its solid Contents into its Weight. For two Bodies of the same Metal of the same specific Gravity but of different Figures as a Sphere and a Cube e.g. may have equal surfaces but unequal solid Contents, and on the other Hand equall solid Contents or Capacity and unequal surfaces. Suppose a Sphere and Cube of Gold, of equal superficies, the Sphere will have the greatest Capacity.
       The solid Content, the real Magnitude multiplied into the absolute Gravity or absolute Weight determines its Specific Gravity or relative Weight.
       Treadwell. Sewall and Mr. Langdon together made a very great Blunder. They made just observations of the Comet, but they drew several false Consiquences from those observations. I was sorry for Sewall is a very ingenious, young fellow. I blamed him for printing so hastily.
       Quere, does the Capacity, the Solid Content, bear the same Proportion to the Weight, when the Matter is in one Sphere, as it does when divided into 20 Spheres.
       Take a Sphere of gold one foot in Diameter, and divide it into 12 Globes, Quere, will the solid Content, the Capacity be increased?
       Parson Smith has no small share of Priest Craft.—He conceals his own Wealth, from his Parish, that they may not be hindered by knowing it from sending him Presents.—He talks very familiarly with the People, Men and Women of his Parish, to gain their affection.— He is a crafty designing Man.—He watches Peoples Looks and Behaviour.—He laughs at Parson Wibirts careless Air and Behaviour—his Walk across the Room, his long step and his Clapping his naked sides and Breasts with his Hands before the Girls.—He made just Remarks on the Character of Mr. Maccarty.—his Conceit, his orthodoxy, his Ignorance &c. and I caught him, several times, looking earnestly at my face.—He is not one of the heedless, inattentive Crew, that take no Notice of Mens Behaviour and Conversation and form no Judgment of their Characters.
       Polly and Nabby are Wits. Ned will not take Account of all of every Colour that spring from the Quincys. Easthers Simile.
       A Man of fond Passions. Cranch was fond of his Friend, fond of his Girl, and would have been fond of his Wife and Children. Tender and fond. Loving and compassionate. H.Q. is of the same Character, fond of her Brother, fond of herself and tenderly pitiful. Query, are fondness and Wit compatible? Parson Smiths Girls have not this fondness, nor this Tenderness.
       Fondling and Indulgence. They are the faulty Effects of good Nature. Good nature is H’s universal Character. She will be a fond, tender Wife, and a fond indulgent Mother. Cranch is endeavoring to amend this Defect, to correct this fault in his Character, he affects an Asperity, to the Children, to his old Friends. His former Complaisance is vanished.—Do real Fondness, and Frankness, always go together. They met in C. and they met in H.—Fondness and Candour, and Frankness. Frankness, and Simplicity. Fondness is doting Love. Candor is a Disposition to palliate faults and Mistakes, to put the best Construction upon Words and Actions, and to forgive Injuries. Simplicity is a direct, open, artless, undisguised, Behaviour.
       Are S Gils the Smith Girls either Frank or fond, or even candid.—Not fond, not frank, not candid.

       Draft of a Letter to Samuel Quincy.

        Dear Sam

       I am seated, to write you a most humble Petition for, what you have already repeatedly promised to grant, the favour of a Letter. I have, in this Place, none to converse with but the dead, and altho their Conversation is generally very entertaining and instructive yet I find in my Heart, sometimes an Inclination to speak to the Living, but as that Priviledge is denyed me, I would be satisfied with Writing to them, if that could interceed for an Answer. For my own Part, I flatter my self sometimes, that I have an uncommon share of Benevolence, sociability and friendship in my Composition, since I feel the strongest Desire of talking and writing, to you and many others, but upon a closer Reflection I find it is self at Bottom that hungers for the Instruction that others can give. Your situation, in the most busy office, in the Center of one of the best Libraries, and under the Instructions and Advice of one of the ablest Masters in America, not to mention (least you should suspect me of Compliment) the early youthful friendship between us, nor your happy Talents for such a Correspondence, have made me wish most heartily for a constant Correspondence with you.

       Cards, Fiddles, and Girls, are the objects of Sam. Cards, Fiddles and Girls. Kissing, fidling and gaming. A flute, a Girl, and a Pack of Cards.
       Note. I am liable to absence and Inattention, stupidity. I called at Baldwins with J. Crosby and Mr. W and left W. to pay for my Oats. T. Lyde asked me for an Account. I took 3 or 4 wrong Papers before I could find the . L. bid me open the Door, and I shut it.
       Thatcher. Pownalls style is better than Shirleys. Shirley never promoted any Man for Merit alone. If Satan himself were incarnate and in Competition with Parson Wells for the Election, I would vote for old Harry. I cant think that any Man of true good sense can be so vain, and fond of talking of himself as Parson Wells. Tully was not a vain Man. The vainest Thing that ever he said was, in his oration for Murena, that if they provoked him, he would profess himself a Lawyer in 3 days. I wish my self a soldier. I look upon these private soldiers with their Guns upon their shoulders, as superiour to me.
       These are all wild, extravagant, loose Opinions and Expressions. He expresses himself as madly as Coll. Chandler. Wild flights. He has not considered that these crude Thoughts and wild Expressions are catched and treasured, as Proofs of his Character. He is extreamly tender, and sensible of Pleasure and of Paine.
       Kent is for fun, Drollery, Humour, flouts, Jeers, Contempt. He has an irregular immethodical Head, but his Thoughts are often good and his Expressions happy.
       Thatchers Passions are easily touched, his shame, his Compassions, his fear, his Anger, &c.
       Worthington. A Man may be in Duress as well by an Injury to his Estate as by a Restraint of his Liberty, or by Menaces to his Person. I remember a Case in Sir John Stayer Sir James Stair to this Purpose. A Man borrowed of his Neighbour £100 for 6 months, and gave him a Pawn of twice that Value, for security. When the 6 months were expired, he offered to pay the Money and the lawful Interest for it, and redeem his Pawn, but the Pawnee refused to resign it, without £10 for the Interest of his £100 for the 6 months. The Owner of the Pawn accordingly paid the £10, and redeemed his Pawn and afterwards brought his Action against Pawnee, for the £10 he had paid him as Interest, and it was pleaded, that he paid it voluntarily, and Volenti non fit Injuria, i.e. as he had paid it voluntarily, he was not injured. But it was adjudged that he should recover, for he was under a Constraint, a Necessity, in Point of Interest, i.e. in order to regain his Pawn, to pay the ten Pounds, and therefore, it should be considered as extorted from him by Duress.
       Thatcher. The Speaker of the House of Commons in some former age, was impeached before the House, of Bribery. And was obliged to sett in the Chair, and hear the whole Examination of his own Conduct, and all the Debates of the Members upon it, till the House was ready for a Vote, and then was obliged to put the Vote himself whether he should be expelled the House? The poor Man earnestly prayed to be excused, but could not, for while he was Speaker he alone could demand the Vote, which he did at last, and it passed in the Affirmative.
       Divorce. Is it for the Benefit of Society, for the Convenience and Happiness of human Life, to allow of Divorces, in any Cases. I think it is. I think that either Adultery or Impotence are sufficient Reasons of Divorce. But Quere, if Dissonance of Dispositions is a sufficient Reason. This may be known, if sufficient Caution is taken beforehand. But the others cannot. By Conversation with a Lady, and Tryals of her Temper, and by Inquiry of her Acquaintance, a Man may know, whether her Temper will suit him or not. But he can never know whether she will be fruitful or barren, continent or incontinent.
       But would an unlimited Toleration of Divorces promote the multiplication of Mankind or the happiness of Life.
       Suppose every Man had a Power by Law, to repudiate his Wife and marry another at his Pleasure. Would not such a Power produce confusion, and Misery? After a Man and Woman had cohabited 7 years and had as many Children a seperation would be very inconvenient and unhappy. If either retained all the Children the other would be deprived of the Pleasure of educating, and seeing them. But if the Children were divided, each would want to see and provide for the others half.
       Fortune has burned Coll. Quincys House, and some of his Furniture. Fortune is a capricious Goddess. She diverts herself with Men. She bestows her favours sometimes with very great Profusion on a Man, and within a few Years she strips him even of Necessaries. Tis a fluctuating state. We are tossed on the Waves sometimes to Heaven, and then sunk down to the Bottom. That House and Furniture clung and twined round his Heart, and could not be torn away without tearing to the quick.
       Is it possible to preserve a serene undisturbed Mind, thro such a fire, and the Consequences of it.
       There is in human Nature an attainable Magnanimity, which can see a valuable House, full of furniture, consuming in flames, a Friend, a Child, a Wife, struggling in the Agonies of Death, without a sigh, a Tear, or a painful sensation or Reflection. The Felicis Animi immota Tranquilitas, the immovable Tranquility of a happy Mind, unmoved by Perils of Water or of fire, unmoved by any Losses, Accidents, by Loss of Wealth, of fame, of friends, &c. Happy Mind indeed. Cant a Mind be called happy, unless its Tranquility, its Ease, its Rest, is immovable, invincible.
       It is not at all surprizing, that the Coll. is more dejected than his Brother was, for tho his Brothers Reduction was more compleat, yet the Coll’s was less expected. Ned was reduced to be worse than nothing. Josa. Josiah has a Competency left. But Josa.’s loss was entirely unforeseen, unexpected, and unprepared for. But Neds was, I presume, familiarly known and considered, by him at least beforehand.
       Edmund lost a son as suddenly as the Coll. lost his House. And he shewed as much Anxiety too. He could not sleep, all night, after he heard of it. The Colls Grief is more eloquent than Neds.
       Dissappointments are Misery. If a Man takes Pride and Pleasure in a House, or in rich furniture, or Cloathing, or in any Thing, how is it possible for him to be satisfied when they are lost, destroyed, consumed.
       Not to admire is all the Art I know, to make men happy and to keep them so. Coll. admired his House, tis burned, he is unhappy, &c. They are burned. He is unhappy.
       It is a natural, immutable Law that the Buyer ought not to take Advantage of the sellers Necessity, to purchase at too low a Price. Suppose Money was very scarce, and a Man was under a Necessity of procuring a £100 within 2 Hours to satisfy an Execution, or else go to Goal. He has a Quantity of Goods worth £500 that he would sell. He finds a Buyer who would give him £100 for them all, and no more. The poor Man is constrained to sell £500s worth for £100. Here the seller is wronged, tho he sell them voluntarily in one sense. Yet, the Injustice, that may be done by some Mens availing them selves of their Neighbours Necessities, is not so Great as the Inconvenience to Trade would be if all Contracts were to be void which were made upon insufficient Considerations. But Q. What Damage to Trade, what Inconvenience, if all Contracts made upon insufficient Considerations were void.
       I made some observations on Barbery Bushes, Shoe make Sumach, Cater Pillars, &c.
       Inquire the Properties of Isinglass, and of Carpenters Glew. How the 1st attracts all the Pumice and Sediment in Cyder to the Bottom and the latter to the Top?

       Inquire how the Juice lies in the Apple. What is the Cause of its natural Fermentation and inquire the operation of artificial fermentation.

       Draft of a Letter to Colonel Josiah Quincy.
       You regret your Loss. But why? Was you fond of seeing, or of thinking that others saw and admired, so stately a Pile? Or was you pleased with viewing the convenient and elegant Contrivance of the inside, and with shewing to others how neatly it was finished. Is it the Pleasure of seeing, with your own Eyes, the Elegance, and Grandeur of your House, or is it the Pleasure of imagining that others admired it and admired or envyed you for it that you regrett the Loss of? Did you suppose that you was esteemed and regarded for the Beauty and Conveniency of your House? Or are you mortified to think that your Enemies will be gratified, at your Misfortune. If these are the sources of your Grief, it is irrational, unmanly. For the Friendship, that is founded on your figure and Estate, is not worth preserving, and the Man who can rejoice, at your Loss, is not worth attention. But if you consider it as a punishment of your Vices and follies, as a frown that is designed to arrouse your attention, to Things of a more permanent Nature, you should not grieve, but rejoice, that the great Parent of the World has thus corrected you for your good.
       Figure, and shew, may indeed attract the Eyes, and Admiration of the Vulgar, but are little very little regarded by wise Men. Is it not rational, noble, to dote of the Pleasure of viewing a fine Horse, and being seen by others to ride such a one. A fine Horse, a fine House, Riches, Learning, make People stare at me and talk about me, and a mighty Boon this to be stared at, and talked of by People that I despize, and all that I regard will love and Honor me for Acquisitions that I have Power to make and which cant be torn from me. Wisdom and Virtue are not dependent on the Elements of fire or Water, Air or Earth.

       How should I bear Bob Pains Detraction? Should I be angry, and take Vengeance by scandalizing him? or should I be easy, undisturbed, and praise him, as far as he is Praise worthy. Return good for Evil. I should have been as well pleased if he had said I was a very ingenious, promising young fellow, but as it is I am pretty easy.—I should not have been sorry if you had called at our House.
       Try her Hannah Quincy’s Prudence. See if you cant draw from her saucy disrespectfull Expressions concerning her Mother in Law.—Was not you very intimate with your Mother, when she was Bty. Waldron?—as intimate as you are with N. Marsh. She assumes the Authority of the Step mother.—She wears more Airs of Reserve, and Distance, and Superiority than your father.—She is elated with her Match.—She is not the most discreet Woman. She told the Behaviour of the People, at the Tavern they were at in the Country about the Tea, before all the Monatiquot officers, shoe string fellows that never use Tea and would use it as awkwardly as the Landlady did. That was quite imprudent and impopular. It was designed to divert and please, but it had a contrary Effect. It made them all jealous and suspicious that they were remarked and laughed at as much to the next Company. And her unguarded Expressions about Peoples being afraid, backward to go near the fire, and about their Eating her Sweet meats, drinking their Brandy, and stealing their  and Cloathing have given offence to many People.
       These are Indiscretions, that some Women would have avoided.
       H. was very imprudent, to endeavour to exasperate Mr. Cranch, for she is sensible, that he knows a story to her Disadvantage, and she should remember that Love turned to Hatred, is like the best Wine turned to Vinegar, the most acrid in the World. He will seek Revenge. Arise black Vengeance from the hollow Hell is the language of Othello. I expect to hear very soon that he has divulged that story.
       By saying you have corresponded with Dr. Lincoln so long and by saying I can tell you how J. Brackett carries your Letters to Captn. Hews’s, and leaves them there, and takes Lincolns Letters to you, she judged, that J. Brackett had told me she held a correspondence with Lincoln, and went to clearing herself. She declared and protested, she never wrote a Line to him in her Life, excepting one Billet, relating to those Reflections on Courtship and Marriage which she sent with that Book. So I got satisfied.
       H. I dont know who has been plagued most, Mr. Cranch or I. I think I have as much Reason to complain of being plagued as he.
       Parson Wiberts Hints. I am not obliged to answer his Hints. I could see a good deal of Passion mixed with his Raillery. This is bragging. She will drop such Hints, by and by, that I am in Love with her, and will tell others, that she aint obliged to take my meaning by my saying, but let me explain my self, and then I shall receive a  Repulse. My Father gave me my Choice, left me at Liberty. I am not controuled nor constrained. My own Pleasure and Inclinations are to be my Guide.
       Suppose I should hear that J. Wentworth, Dan. Lock, B. Crawford, Mr. Cranch was dead, what Sentiment would rise? A tender Grief, sorrow, mourning. But should Hannah die, what sentiment? Should not I be more affected with her Death than with Cranch’s? I cant say. But should my father or Mother die or my Brothers, how should I feel? But the Deaths of Acquaintances, Relations, Friends, are but one sort of sorrowful Events. Losses by Shipwreck, Bankruptcy, or fire, are another sort. How should I bear a sudden Consumption of a fine Estate, by any such Accident? How should I bear acute Pain, or frequent sickness, or a lingering chronical Disorder? The latter I have born, the former never tryed. Scorn Grief, and create Joy. Create, and maintain out of your own Thoughts a constant Satisfaction of Mind, by considering the Littleness of Grief, and the Magnanimity of Resignation.
       Littleness of Mind alone can be grieved, and grumble at what it cannot help, and what it would be foolish to help if it could.
       An habit of Indolence, and Listlessness is growing very fast upon me.
       I am unable to think patiently, for any Length of Time.
       Secondat says, that a Man, in the State of Nature i.e. unimproved by Education or Experience, would feel Nothing but his own Impotence and would tremble at the motion of a Leaf, and fly from every Shadow.
       But Q.—What proof can be given of this Assertion? What Reason is there to think that Timidity, rather than Confidence or Presumption, would hold the Ascendancy in him? Is it not as reasonable to think he would be too bold, as too timorous, and engage oak Trees, unwieldy Rocks, or wild Beasts, &c. as that he would fly from every Shadow? The scarcity of Phenomena, make it impossible to decide. There never was more than one or two Men found, at full Age, who had grown up with the Beasts in the Woods and never seen a human Creature, and they were not very critically observed. What does he mean by a Man in a State of Nature? Suppose a Child, confined in a Room, and supplied with Necessaries, by some secret invisible avenue, till 20 years old, without ever seeing a human Creature. That Man would be in a State of Nature, i.e. unimproved by Experience and human Conversation. Suppose, this Man at 20, brought from his Cell. Suppose a Man of the same Age and size let into this poor fellows Cell. What would be the Effect of the Meeting. Would the savage be frightened, or pleased. Surprized he would be, but agreably, or disagreably. Would his fears make him fly, or his Curiosity examine, or his Presumption assault the new object?
       In a total Inexperience and Ignorance, how would human Passions operate? I cant say. A Child, at its first Entrance upon the World, discovers no signs of Terror or Surprize at the new scenes and objects, that lie around it, and if the Child is not terrified, why should the Man be. The Child is pleased as soon as its Eyes are first opened with bright and luminous objects, not frightened. It will smile not cry. Suppose then a whole Army of Persons, trained up in this manner in single seperate Cells, brought together, would they mutually dred and fly each other, or be pleased with the sight of each other, and by consequence allured gradually to a more intimate Acquaintance or would they fall together by the Ears for the Mastery as two Herds of strange Cattle do? Would the State of Nature be a State of War or Peace? Two might meet, and be pleased with each others looks, and fall to play, like two Lambs. Two others might meet, and one might apply his Hands to the others Body and hurt him, and then both fall afighting like 2 Dogs. So that both Friendship and Squabbles might be the Consequences of the first Congress. But Passions work so differently in different men especially when several of them are complicated together, and several, as Surprize, Joy, fear, Curiosity would in this Case be combined, that we cant judge what the Consequences would be in such an imaginary Congress.
       Hobbes thinks, that Men like Cattle, if in a state of Nature, would mutually desire and strive for the Mastery, and I think Secondat’s Argument from the Complexity of the Idea of Dominion, is not a Refutation of Hobbes’s Hypothesis, for Cattle fight for Dominion, and Men in the State of Nature may be supposed to have as clear an Idea of Dominion as the Cattle have. The Laws received in a State of Nature i.e. before the Establishment of society, are the Laws of Nature. How can man be considered out of Society, before the Establishment of Society. We put possible imaginable Cases, and then ask what would be the Effect. The Species cant subsist, without Society, but an Individual may, as the wild Man found in a forrest, or a Child bred alone in a Cell out of all Human sight. Now suppose 1000 such Individuals should exist at once and all be collected and turned loose together in the same forrest. What would succeed. Some squabbles, wild staring, and some plays, sports, Copulation would soon succeed.
        Lust of Dominion could not at first produce a War of all against all. They would not feel any such Desire of ruling and subduing. They would soon feel hunger and thirst, and desire of Copulation and Calf, and would endeavour to supply these Wants and gratify these Desires, but would not yet conceive the Thought and Wish of governing all the Rest. Peace, Nourishment, Copulation, and Society. Recur to this by all means, when I get into a thotless dissipated Mood, set down and write my self into steady thinking.
       Law is human Reason. It governs all the Inhabitants of the Earth; the political and civil Laws of each Nation should be only the particular Cases, in which human Reason is applied.
       Let me attend to the Principle of Government. The Laws of Britain, should be adapted to the Principle of the british Government, to the Climate of Britain, to the Soil, to its situation, as an Island, and its Extent, to the manner of living of the Natives as Merchants, Manufacturers and Husbandmen, to the Religion of the Inhabitants.
       This is a succession in Capita. Suppose my father should die, and leave me and my 3 Brothers. In that Case The Inheritance, all my fathers Estate must be divided into 3 Parts. And if he had left 4 or 5 or 6 Children, his Estate must have been divided into 4 or 5 or 6 Parts or shares. The Inheritance is to be divided according to the Number of Heads, that are to succeed.
       This is a succession in stirpes. Suppose I had a family and should die leaving 3 Children and afterwards my father should die, leaving my two Brothers alive, in this Case my 3 Children must succeed to my fathers Estate in my stead and my fathers Inheritance must be divided into 3 parts, one of which should be inherited by my three Children. Here it is divided not according to the No. of Heads but according to the Number of stocks, that spring from the common Root which is my father.
       An alliance between the Emperor and the States to which England acceeded. England and Holland obliged themselves to assist the House of Austria, in taking and keeping Possession of the Spanish Monarchy, when ever Charles 2d should die without lawful Heirs. France had designs and Pretensions on the Spanish Monarchy. The 1st object of the grand alliance was the Reduction of the Power of France; the 2d to secure the succession of Spain to the House of Austria. Charles 2d of Spain whose good Queen could not with all her . Right of succeeding would have been in the Children of Maria Theresa, in whom this Right was  by  1657–1688.
       Have been out of Humour, this Evening, more than I have been for some Weeks if not Months. Reflection, thinking on a Girl, ill Health, Want of Business, &c., wrought me by insensible degrees into a peevish Mood. I felt reduced to Necessities, needy, poor, pennyless, empty Pockets. I have given away at least 10s. this day. Thus decayed Merchants must preserve the Appearances of Affluence. But Poverty is infinitely less deplorable to me than a nervous Languor of the Body. If I have good Digestion and Spirits, I can bear with an easy Mind an empty Purse.
       But I have been stupid, to the last Degree, in neglecting to spred my Acquaintance. I have neglected Parson Robbins, Parson Tafte, and Parson Smith too. I have neglected Dr. Tufts and Esqr. Niles, Eben Miller, Dr. Miller, and Edmund Quincy. Dr. Millers &c., Mr. Allins, Mr. Borlands, Mrs. Apthorps, Edd. Quincies. I should aim at an Acquaintance. Not to spend much Time at their Houses but to get their good Word. And behave with Spirit too. I have hitherto behaved with too much Reserve to some and with too stiff a face and air, and with a face and Air and Tone of Voice of pale Timidity. I should look bold, speak with more Spirit. Should talk Divinity with Parson Tafte, and gain his Love or else extort his Admiration, or both. Make him love and admire. I ought to hire, or wheedle or allure two or 3 in every Town, to trumpet my Character abroad. But I have no Trumpets in Weighmouth, none in Skadin, none in Milton. Oh! what have I been about? I lay no schemes to raise my Character. I lay no schemes to draw Business. I lay no Schemes to extend my Acquaintance, with young fellows nor young Girls, with Men of figure, Character nor fortune. Am content to live unknown, poor, with the lowest of all our species for Company. This is the Tenor of my Conduct.
       Lincoln. My father gave me a serious Lecture last Saturday night. He says I have waited on H.Q. two Journeys, and have called and made Visits there so often, that her Relations among others have said I am courting of her. And the Story has spread so wide now, that, if I dont marry her, she will be said to have Jockied me, or I to have Jockied her, and he says the Girl shall not suffer. A story shall be spread, that she repelled me.
       These are the Inconveniences of such Reports. When it has been generally talked and believed that a young fellow is Courting a Girl, if they seperate, if they slacken their Intimacy, the fault will be laid to one or the other—either he would not have her or she would not have him. Oh Tittle Tattle!—subject of Tittle Tattle!
       Lincoln. Dependance is, if Inequality is not, inconsistent with a lasting Friendship.
       I. A Man cannot maintain, for any Length of Time, a Friendship with another on whom he is dependant, for the Benefactor will expect Condescentions and verbal or other Expressions of Gratitude, that the Receiver will not be always careful to pay.
       The Benefactor may, through accident or Passion, or inadvertency, show that he is conscious of the favours he confers, that he expects Submissions and Expressions of Gratitude that the Receiver thro the same Imperfections may not be always careful to perform, and hence Disgusts will arise on both sides. That a Friendship may subsist between two Persons very unequal in Rank and fortune, may be true. Or between two very unequal in Age or Character—as between Gridley and me. But a Friendship between two of equal rank and fortune, of equal Age and Character, has the fairest Probability to continue. But there will be one Tye, that of Gratitude, which ought to have great Strength.
       Put this Case. A Gentleman of great Experience and Character in the Profession of the Law as Mr. Gridley, or in that of Physick as Dr. Hersey, may receive a young fellow, just admitted to the Bar as me or just beginning the Practice of Physick as you, to his Friendship. Their Age and Character demand from you and me Deference and Respect, and Gratitude as well as Interest will prompt us to pay it. Yet why may not such a Friendship subsist? Now why should a Dependance for Advice and Assistance in Practice and in the Conduct of Life or for a good Character and Recommendation to the World, be less destructive to friendship than a Dependance for the Necessities of Life, food and Cloathing. There is however a Distinction between Patronage and Friendship. A Patron may advise and assist his Pupil in Practice and may spred his Character with great Advantage to the World, without receiving him to that Intimacy, Confidence, Affection which I distinguish by the Word friendship. It is not natural for old Men to contract intimate, familiar friendships with young ones. For, Experience shows that human Nature is scarcely capable at any Age of Constancy, sincerity, and Virtue enough for a very unreserved friendship, but specially in youth, and young ones are not allured by freedoms and friendly familiarities, to engage with old Men. Yet I cant see why a Man of sense and sentiment too, as well as fortune, might not maintain the strictest friendship, with another of the same Character, tho in very needy Circumstances and tho supported and supplied by him, even with Necessaries. Genius and Virtue might be gratified and improved on both sides. And Generosity, the satisfaction of making the Life of such a friend easy, might be gratified on the Part of the Benefactor, and Gratitude, and Interest on the Part of the Receiver would be ties enough to hold.
       Parson Gay. Two Countrymen were disputing which did the most good, the Sun or the Moon. One of them asserted that the Moon did the most because that shines in the Night, when without that, we should be in absolute Darkness, but the Sun never shone till it was broad day light, as light as Day. But the Sun never shone but in the day, when there was no need of it.—Oh the stupidity, not to see that the sun was the Cause of the day light without which those Hours that we now call the day would be as dark as the Night without a moon.
       Another—at some ordination, a certain Indian, who had never seen a public assembly before, seated himself, in the Alley, very near the Deacon’s seat. He sat in Silence with the rest, while the Priests were at Prayer, but when the Psalm was named, and the Deacon rose up to set the Tune, he began to stare and grew angry at the Deacon, but when the Deacon had read a Line and the whole Congregation broke out with him, the Indian grew quite mad and rushing up to the Deacon, layed on upon him most unmercifully. ’Tis you says he are the Cause of all this plaguey Rout.
       Eunice Paine. Thunder and Lightning have a physical Effect upon me. I am always sick when it thunders. My Mother had a Child that was born in the latter Part of the fall, it lived thro the Winter and Spring, and when warm Weather came there was a violent storm of Thunder and Lightning one afternoon. As soon as the Storm began the Child was thrown into Convulsions. It twitched and trembled from Head to foot, its Nails and its face turned black, and it continued so till the Storm was over, and then it recovered. Sometime afterwards another Thunder Gust happened and the Child was taken exactly in the same manner. We sent for the Dr. but before he got there, the Thunder Cloud was blown over, and the Child as well as ever.
       What effluvia, what Physical Virtue, can a Cloud or Thunder or Lightning, diffuse to the Earth that should convulse that Child, (or make Mrs. Eunice Vomit). An Imagination prompted by Hystericks and by fear, might possibly occasion Mrs. Eunices sickness, but not the Childs. No Habit of fear, no association of Terror, Horror with the Idea of Lightning, had yet been formed in the Childs Mind. So that Either the sight of the flashes of Lightning, which it is unlikely the Child saw, or the sound of the Thunder, which the Child no Doubt heard, or else some unknown Effluvia emitted by the Clouds, meeting with some peculiar Property in that Childs Constitution, was the Occasion of its Convulsions.
       E.P. My Brother says there is no such Thing as fancy distinct from Judgment. A Man may prefer a Woman, or a Woman a Man, for some Property or Qualification, that he or she may be unable to name. They may be unable to give a reason for their Choice. But sentence unfinished
       Deacon Belcher. I have buried father and Mother, but I never felt, before, as I feel now. I am almost overwhelmed.—The Deacon and his Wife too, were in Trouble. The Pangs of her Grief were violent.— What a pleasant Child have I lost? What a pleasant sister has Billy lost? The Loss of Moses was nothing to this. Oh how deceitful is my Heart? I thought, If Moses had died at home and I could have followed him decently to his Grave, it would have been an alleviation. But I find I was mistaken.
       She was so full at the first sight of me, that she could not speak plainly. She sighs and groans and weeps, most bitterly. The father and the mother with throbbing Hearts bewail the Death of their only Daughter. These are Sensations that I never felt. I can reflect on these sorrowful Events with great Serenity. I feel none of that Anguish, which the Parent feels. But cant I fortify my Mind with Patience, with an entire Resignation to the Dispensations of Heaven?
       Make Preparation to bear Misfortunes. Prepare your Mind, furnish your Mind with Reflections, Considerations, that will support you and mitigate your Grief.


Title: Extract of a Letter to Jona. Sewall, Octr. 1759
From: Adams, John
To:

       The true End, which we ought to have in View, is that praeclarum ac Singulare quiddam, which follows here.
       Tis impossible to employ with full Advantage the Forces of our own minds, in study, in Council or in Argument, without examining with great Attention and Exactness, all our mental Faculties, in all their Operations, as explained by Writers on the human Understanding, and as exerted by Geometricians.
       Tis impossible to judge with much Præcision of the true Motives and Qualities of human Actions, or of the Propriety of Rules contrived to govern them, without considering with like Attention, all the Passions, Appetites, Affections in Nature from which they flow. An intimate Knowledge therefore of the intellectual and moral World is the sole foundation on which a stable structure of Knowledge can be erected.

       And the structure of british Laws, is composed of such a vast and various Collection of materials, taken partly from Saxony, Normandy and Denmark, partly from Greece and Rome, and partly from the cannon and feudal Law, that, ’tis impossible for any Builder to comprehend the whole vast Design, and see what is well and what ill contrived or jointed, without Acquainting himself with Saxon, Danish, Norman as well as Greek and Roman History, with civil, feudal and Cannon Law.
       Besides all this, tis impossible to avail our selves of the genuine Powers of Eloquence, without examining in their Elements and first Principles, the Force and Harmony of Numbers, as employed by the Poets and orators of ancient and modern times, and without considering the natural Powers of Imagination, and the Disposition of Mankind to Metaphor and figure, which will require the Knowledge of the true Principles of Grammar, and Rhetoric, and of the best classical Authors.
       Now to what higher object, to what greater Character, can any Mortal aspire, than to be possessed of all this Knowledge, well digested, and ready at Command, to assist the feeble and Friendless, to discountenance the haughty and lawless, to procure Redress of Wrongs, the Advancement of Right, to assert and maintain Liberty and Virtue, to discourage and abolish Tyranny and Vice.


Title: [October 1759]
From: Adams, John
To:

      Extract of a Letter to Jona. Sewall, Octr. 1759

       The true End, which we ought to have in View, is that praeclarum ac Singulare quiddam, which follows here.
       Tis impossible to employ with full Advantage the Forces of our own minds, in study, in Council or in Argument, without examining with great Attention and Exactness, all our mental Faculties, in all their Operations, as explained by Writers on the human Understanding, and as exerted by Geometricians.
       Tis impossible to judge with much Præcision of the true Motives and Qualities of human Actions, or of the Propriety of Rules contrived to govern them, without considering with like Attention, all the Passions, Appetites, Affections in Nature from which they flow. An intimate Knowledge therefore of the intellectual and moral World is the sole foundation on which a stable structure of Knowledge can be erected.

       And the structure of british Laws, is composed of such a vast and various Collection of materials, taken partly from Saxony, Normandy and Denmark, partly from Greece and Rome, and partly from the cannon and feudal Law, that, ’tis impossible for any Builder to comprehend the whole vast Design, and see what is well and what ill contrived or jointed, without Acquainting himself with Saxon, Danish, Norman as well as Greek and Roman History, with civil, feudal and Cannon Law.
       Besides all this, tis impossible to avail our selves of the genuine Powers of Eloquence, without examining in their Elements and first Principles, the Force and Harmony of Numbers, as employed by the Poets and orators of ancient and modern times, and without considering the natural Powers of Imagination, and the Disposition of Mankind to Metaphor and figure, which will require the Knowledge of the true Principles of Grammar, and Rhetoric, and of the best classical Authors.
       Now to what higher object, to what greater Character, can any Mortal aspire, than to be possessed of all this Knowledge, well digested, and ready at Command, to assist the feeble and Friendless, to discountenance the haughty and lawless, to procure Redress of Wrongs, the Advancement of Right, to assert and maintain Liberty and Virtue, to discourage and abolish Tyranny and Vice.

   First entry in booklet “No. 4”; as numbered by CFA (our D/JA/4); CFA noted on the paper cover that the contents had been “copied” and “compared” (collated). D/JA/4 contains only a handful of scattered entries, nearly all relative to JA’s studies and reading, from 12 Oct. 1759 to 21 Nov. 1772; all but the first two and the last were written in 1760–1761.

   No other version of the present letter to Sewall, the draft of which is obviously incomplete, has been found. The earliest letter known to survive in the correspondence between the two young lawyers is that of Sewall to JA, 29 Sept. 1759 (Adams Papers; partly printed in JA, WorksThe Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols., 2:80, note), but from internal evidence it is clear that the correspondence began earlier.


Title: 1759.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Began Octr. 12th, in Pursuance of the foregoing Plan to transcribe from Brightlands english Grammar, Answer’s to Mr. Gridleys Questions for that Grammar.
       I have begun too, to compare Dr. Cowells Institutes of the Laws of England, with Justinians Institutes of the Laws of Rome, Title by Title, that each may reflect Light upon the other, and that I may advance my Knowledge of civil and common Law at the same Time.


Title: Tuesday [27 May].
From: Adams, John
To:

       At home. Read, in Naval Trade and Commerce.


Title: May 30 1760. Friday.
From: Adams, John
To:

       Rose early. Several Country Towns, within my observation, have at least a Dozen Taverns and Retailers. Here The Time, the Money, the Health and the Modesty, of most that are young and of many old, are wasted; here Diseases, vicious Habits, Bastards and Legislators, are frequently begotten.
       Nightingale, Hayden, Saunders, J. Spear, N. Spear, Benoni Spear, would vote for any Man for a little Phlip, or a Dram. N. Belcher, John Spear, O. Gay, James Brackett, John Mills, Wm. Veasey &c. voted for T. for other Reasons.


Title: 1760 May 31th. Saturday
From: Adams, John
To:

       Read in naval Trade and Commerce, concerning Factors, Consuls, Embassadors, &c., and the South Sea Company, &c. Went into Water. Talked with Wm. Veasey about Church &c. He will not allow that Dr. Mayhew has any uncommon Parts. He had haughty Spirits, and Vanity &c.—How the Judgment is darkened and perverted by Party Passions!
       Drank Tea with Zab. Ran over the past Passages of my Life. Little Boats, water mills, wind mills, whirly Giggs, Birds Eggs, Bows and Arrows, Guns, singing, pricking Tunes, Girls &c. Ignorance of Parents, Masters Cleverly, Marsh, Tutors Mayhew &c. By a constant Dissipation among Amuzements, in my Childhood, and by the Ignorance of my Instructors, in the more advanced years of my Youth, my Mind has laid uncultivated so that at 25, I am obliged to study Horace and Homer.—Proh Dolor!