21121 Wednesday. (Adams Papers)
Kept School.—I am now entering on another Year, and I am resolved not to neglect my Time as I did last Year. I am resolved to rise with the Sun and to study the Scriptures, on Thurdsday, Fryday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings, and to study some Latin author the other 3 mornings. Noons and Nights I intend to read English Authors. This is my fixt Determination, and I will set down every neglect...
21222 Thurdsday. (Adams Papers)
Fast day. Rose not till 7 o clock. This is the usual Fate of my Resolutions! Wrote the 3 first Chapters of St. James. Wrote in Bolinbroke pretty industriously. Spent the Evening at Mr. Paines.—The Years of my Youth are marked by divine Providence with various and with great Events. The last Year is rendered conspicuous in the memorials of past Ages, by a Series of very remarkable Events, of...
21323 Friday. (Adams Papers)
Rose at 7. Wrote the 2 last Chapters of St. James. Spent the Evening at the Majors and drank Tea at Putnams.
21424 Saturday. (Adams Papers)
Rose at 7. Wrote a little in Greek. Afternoon wrote Bolinbroke.
21525 Sunday. (Adams Papers)
Rose 1/2 after 6.—Good Sense, some say, is enough to regulate our Conduct, to dictate Thoughts and Actions which are proper upon certain Occasions. This they say will soften and refine the Motions of our Limbs into an easy and agreable Air altho the Dancing Master never was applied to, and this will suggest good Answers, good Observations and good Expressions to us better than refined...
21626 Monday. (Adams Papers)
Rose at 7. Read carefully 30 lines in Virgil.
21727 Tuesday. (Adams Papers)
Rose at 7. Read carefully 30 lines, in Virgil. Wrote a little in Bolingbroke at noon and a little at night. Spent the Evening at Mr. Putnams.
21828 Wednesday. (Adams Papers)
Read about 40 lines in Virgil, and wrote a little at noon. Nothing more.
21929 Thurdsday. (Adams Papers)
Rose half after 6. Read a little Greek.
22030 Fryday. (Adams Papers)
A very rainy Day. Dreamed away the Time.
22131 Saturday. (Adams Papers)
A rainy forenoon. Dined at Mr. Paines. A fair after noon . The Nature and Essence of the material World is not less conceal’d from our knowledge than the Nature and Essence of God. We see our selves surrounded on all sides with a vast expanse of Heavens, and we feel our selves astonished at the Grandeur, the blazing Pomp of those Starrs with which it is adorned. The Birds fly over our Heads...
222[August 1756] (Adams Papers)
Heard Mr. Maccarty all Day. Spent the Evening at the Collonels.— The Event Shews that my Resolutions are of a very thin and vapory Consistence. Almost a fortnight has passed since I came to Worcester the last Time. Some part of the Time, I have spent as frugally and industriously as I possibly could. But the greatest Part I have dreamed away as Usual. I am now entering upon a new month, and a...
223August. 1756. 1 Sunday. (Adams Papers)
Heard Mr. Maccarty all Day. Spent the Evening at the Collonels.— The Event Shews that my Resolutions are of a very thin and vapory Consistence. Almost a fortnight has passed since I came to Worcester the last Time. Some part of the Time, I have spent as frugally and industriously as I possibly could. But the greatest Part I have dreamed away as Usual. I am now entering upon a new month, and a...
2242 Monday. (Adams Papers)
Agreably to the Design laid last night, I arose this Morning before the sun. Dined at Pains. Lodgd at Putnams.
2253 Tuesday. (Adams Papers)
Dind at the Colonels. Lodged at Put nam’s .
2264 Wednesday. (Adams Papers)
Breakfasted at Put nam’ s.
2277 Saturday. (Adams Papers)
All this past Week my designs have been interrupted, by the Troubles and Confusion of the House. I shall be able to resume the Thread of my Studies I hope now. Wrote pretty industriously in Bolinbroke.— I have never looked attentively into my own Breast. I have never considered, (as I ought) the surprizing Faculties and Opperations of the Mind. Our minds are capable of receiving an infinite...
22812 [–13] Thurdsday. Fryday. (Adams Papers)
I know not what became of these days.
22914 Saturday. (Adams Papers)
I seem to have lost sight of the Object that I resolved to pursue. Dreams and slumbers, sloth and negligence, will be the ruin of my schemes. However I seem to be awake now. Why cant I keep awake? I have wrote Scripture pretty industriously this morning.—Why am I so unreasonable, as to expect Happiness, and a solid undisturbed Contentment amidst all the Disorders, and the continual Rotations...
23015 Sunday. (Adams Papers)
If one Man or Being, out of pure Generosity, and without any Expectation of Returns, is about to confer any Favour or Emolument upon Another, he has a right and is at Liberty to choose in what manner, and by what means, to confer it. He may convey the Favour by his own Hand or by the Hand of his Servant, and the Obligation to Gratitude is equally strong upon the benefited Being. The mode of...
23122 Sunday. (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I compleated a Contract with Mr. Putnam, to study Law under his Inspection for two years. I ought to begin with a Resolution to oblige and please him and his Lady in a particular Manner. I ought to endeavour to oblige and please every Body, but them in particular. Necessity drove me to this Determination, but my Inclination I think was to preach. However that would not do. But I set...
23223 Monday. (Adams Papers)
Came to Mr. Putnams and began Law. And studied not very closely this Week.
23329 Sunday. (Adams Papers)
29 Sunday.
234From John Adams to Richard Cranch, 29 August 1756 (Adams Papers)
I am set down with a Design of writing to you.—But the narrow Sphere I move in, and the lonely unsociable Life I lead, can furnish a Letter with little more than Complaints of my hard fortune. I am condemnd to keep School two Years longer. This I sometimes consider as a very grievous Calamity and almost sink under the Weight of Woe.—But shall I dare to complain and to murmur against Providence...
235From John Adams to John Wentworth, September 1756 (Adams Papers)
I brought a few Ideas with me when I first came to this Town, that grew in the luxurious soil of Cambridge. These I have dispersd among my Friends, and you have had your share. Be contented, therefore, now with such as grow at Worcester. It is a political Climate and the soil produces state Reflections as rank as hogweeds in a Garden. After the melancholly Accounts from the Mediterranean and...
236From John Adams to Richard Cranch, 18 October 1756 (Adams Papers)
In my last you remember I desired your sincere Opinion of the new Resolution I had taken, but as you have not yet been so kind as to send it, I must beg your patience while I tell you my sincere opinion of it. The Law, I take to be a very difficult and a very extensive Science and to acquire any considerable degree of knowledge in the Theory and of skill in the Practice, a serene head, a large...
237From John Adams to Charles Cushing, 19 October 1756 (Adams Papers)
I look upon myself obliged to give you the reasons that induced me to resolve upon the study and profession of the law, because you were so kind as to advise me to a different profession. When yours came to hand I had thoughts of preaching, but the longer I lived, and the more experience I had of that order of men, and of the real design of their institution, the more objections I found in my...
238[1757] (Adams Papers)
At the time when Fort William Henry was besieged, there came down almost every day dispatches from the General to the New England Collonies urging for Troops and Assistance. Col. Chandler the Younger had sent so many Expresses that he found it difficult to get Persons to undertake the Journeys. Complaining of this Embarrassment one Evening, in company, I told him, I had so long led a sedendary...
239[1758] (Adams Papers)
In 1758 my Period with Mr. Putnam expired. Doolittle and Baldwin visited me in the office, and invited me to settle in Worcester. They said as there were two Sides to a question and two Lawyers were always wanted where there was one, I might depend upon Business in my profession, they were pleased to add that my Character was fair and well esteemed by all Sorts of People in the Town and...
240Adams’ Student Notes: Ca. 1758 (Adams Papers)
Nunquam prospere succedunt Res humanae, ubi negliguntur divinae. Sex horas somno, totidem des Legibus aequis; Quatuor orabis, des Epulisque duas. Quod superest ultro sacris largire Camenis. Co. Lit. sec. 85. The student must know how to work into, with Delight these rough Mines of hidden Treasure. En la Ley. There be diverse Laws within the Realm of England. 1. Lex Coronae. 2. Lex et...