John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

21. Count Bussche and the Chevalier Bezerra paid me long morning visits— The Count is extremely impatient for the issue of the political Crisis which he thinks lasts intolerably long— He says if it continues three weeks longer he will take a house— He begins to think nothing will be done this Summer— He complained that he was not well paid, and had no provision made for the expences of his Journey home— He said that his Salary was eighty thousand franks a year— But being Westphalian Franks there is a discount upon them of 8 1/2 per Cent, in exchange for French Franks; and he had only twenty thousand franks for the expences of his journey here— And as for an establishment (or outfit) he had never had any thing but promises— Whereas the Chevalier de Bray, who came here about the same time that he did, had received from the king of Bavaria, 30,000 franks for the expences of his journey, 42000 florins for outfit, eight thousand ducats a year Salary, and a present of twenty thousand ducats besides— Of all this De Bray had shewn him the particular account; so that in four years time De Bray had received 160,000 franks more than he had, which was not at-all pleasing to him. He told me also a number of other circumstances respecting his own family and private fortune— The Chevalier Bezerra is still in great distress on account of the decease of his friend Count Linhares, of which he had now received the confirmation— He came to look at my maps of Russia, and has the intention of going to Schlüsselburg, and up the Ladoga-Canal which he thought was the canal uniting the waters of the Caspian with those of the Baltic— I shewed him by the maps and by Coxe, that the Canal of Vishnei Voloshok was a different thing— I lent him the English papers to 26. May, which he returned me in the Evening.— Mr Plummer came and introduced to me Mr Kimball and Mr two Americans lately from Moscow; and who arrived last Summer at Archangel— These visits engrossed almost entirely the Morning— After dinner we rode out to the Whitsunday Catherinenhoff procession which was thinly attended, and from which we were obliged to return in the midst of a heavy shower of rain— There had already been one accompanied with thunder in the morning while Mr Bezerra was with me— The weather was so warm this morning that I had been tempted to lay aside my flannel garments; but was obliged to resume the waistcoat in the Evening, and suffered for my imprudent haste— It seems impossible to trust this climate for an hour.— I read the Sermons 7 and 8. Vol. 7. of the English preacher— The first on Anxiety—and the second on Envy— That on Anxiety, is by Atterbury— The text “Take no thought for the morrow” and contained many observations of which I felt the force— My own disposition has in it too much anxiety, and the experience of life has a great tendency to increase that propensity— The precept itself, as Atterbury Remarks is too strongly expressed in the English Translation— A father of a Family, in this world must take thought of To-morrow— Not for what he himself shall eat or drink, or wherewithal he shall be clothed; but for his wife and children— The situations in which I have been placed since the obligation of providing for others has become incumbent upon me, have been almost perpetual temptations, and stimulations to waste the means of provision bestowed upon me by the goodness of that Heavenly father who feeds the fowls of the air, and who clothes the lilies of the field— Had I not a constant, unabating, and unyielding thought for the morrow, my family would long ere this have been destitute, and my children without the means of obtaining a suitable education— With all the thought that I do bestow, and all the precautions that I can take resulting from it, frequent untoward events and unforeseen accidents disconcert all my prudence, and require new sacrifices of feeling, of pleasure, and even of indulgence to the thought for the morrow.— When life must be one uninterrupted struggle against impulses of every kind, to expence beyond income, what but an anxious thought for the morrow, can be adequate to maintain it?— But the guard upon my own disposition which it behoves me to seek, is against allowing this thought for the morrow to run to excess—and to prevent its degenerating into carking Care and distrust of Providence— The Discourse upon Envy, was not very striking to me— I am not conscious of being much afflicted with this vice—and though I cannot deny that I sometimes have felt more of it than was comfortable to myself, I cannot charge myself with ever having indulged it— I read also several Sections of Watts’s Logic, and finished the first Part; on Perception or Ideas— I find in this Book which I studied twenty-seven years ago, and into which I had not since looked, untill this reperusal, much knowledge familiar to my mind, but which I was not conscious of having learnt from it— As I advance in years this experience multiplies upon me— The knowledge remains when the Memory of the Master from whom I learnt it has vanished— If I should ever have the opportunity to examine the progress of my Sons in this part of their Studies, I think I can suggest thoughts to them concerning it, which would have been useful to me, had they been pointed out to me when I first read this Book.— Its method, and its divisions, deserve to be noticed— The five properties essential to perception—clearness—completeness—comprehensiveness, extensiveness, and order are set forth in a variety of forms, and with illustrations which ought to have been better impressed upon my recollection. 388The application of these five properties to this Treatise of Logic itself, had escaped my attention heretofore— The remarks upon the definitions of names and things, and upon the distribution of ideas, deserved more reflection than I ever gave to them. It would perhaps be a good exercise for Students in this Art to make them give definitions of various objects, and to discuss their definitions according to the rules in the Book— The practice would I think have a tendency to make them think with precision; a want of which is one of the most copious sources of erroneous opinions, and of misconduct.— Accurate definition is perhaps a more difficult thing than any person would imagine, who never tried the experiment of formally defining.— I had thoughts of going out to see the Sun rise to-morrow; being the Morning of the Summer Solstice; but found myself too unwell.