390
14. IV:45. When I rose Fahrenheit’s Thermometer was at 80. and the lassitude
occasioned by the sultriness of the weather so great that I could not
sit down at the table to write— So I took a chair at my window, and
finished the perusal of the Protagoras, upon which several incidental
remarks occurred to me— There is some singularity in the hour of the
day, which Plato has selected for this
Dialogue— Just at the dawn—Socrates is
roused from bed; and goes to the house of Callias, where he finds the Sophists assembled with a
company of at least fifty persons. Protagoras is represented as surrounded by a train of
disciples who treat him as modern Courtiers do kings; following
his train, as he walks and whenever he turns round, fall
into two files, to let him pass between them— Alcibiades and Critias come in immediately after Socrates— It
would seem that there were no fixed hours at which the Sophists taught
their Science— Their disciples followed them; and they delivered their
doctrines in formal harangues— Socrates finds fault with this mode of
instruction, by saying that he is forgetful and cannot remember long
discourses. His method of teaching was by interrogatories and familiar
conversation— There is a keen stroke of Satire upon the declamation of
the Sophists, thrown in by way of incident in the narrative— When
Socrates and his young friend come to the house of Callias, they stop a
few minutes in the porch to finish the Conversation in which they were
engaged on the way. They then knock at the door— The Porter, an old
Eunuch, half opens it and seeing them exclaims—So! More Sophists? He has
not time!—and shuts the door upon their faces— They have quite an
expostulation with him, and solemnly protest they are no Sophists, and
only want to see Protagoras, before he lets them in— There is in the
dialogue a long and acute critical analysis of a Song of Simonides,
which is first quoted by Protagoras,
as containing two contradictory passages, but which Socrates vindicates
against the charge of inconsistency— He calls in aid the nice
distinctions of Prodicus, and makes
free use of them in this discussion, but concludes by censuring the
introduction of quotations from Poets; which he compares to the
introduction of music at entertainments; by those who have no resources
of conversation in themselves— This passage opens a train of reflections
which I should be glad to pursue— But my Sylph or Demon must say like
the old Eunuch of Callias, he has not time— After I had passed an hour
or two at my window, reading there came up a shower of rain, followed by
a change of wind and a fall of ten or twelve degrees of the thermometer—
I sat down to write, and brought up my Journal— But for this I was
obliged to encroach upon my Office hours after breakfast— At the Office,
I finished my draft of Instructions to Captain Mullowney, and wrote to J. J. Simpson, the son of the
late Consul at Tangier— Two men by the name of Audley and Florence, came to the Office,
saying that they belonged to Charleston South-Carolina, which they left
nearly a year since; that they had been residing some time at New-York;
then went upon a visit to Boston— There took passage in a Coasting
vessel for Alexandria—went ashore at Barnstable, and passed the Night;
during which their vessel made sail and left them behind— Then they took
passage in another vessel to Baltimore, and thence walked to this place,
to enquire after Commissions in the army; but were informed there was no
vacancy— And now they were here in want of the necessaries of life— They
had the dress, and pretensions of Gentlemen, and Audley pretended to be
personally acquainted with the President— They were not truant boys, escaped from
school, and pushing to seek their fortunes, but one avowed 391himself to be twenty, and the other twenty-four years old.
After putting several questions to them, which I found them shy to
answer, I told them that their account of themselves was so strange that
I could only advise them to write to their friends at New-York or
Charleston whom they represented as respectable and wealthy, for relief.
Mr
Roth, the Chargé d’Affaires from France, brought and left
at the Office the two Letters of State, from the King of France, and his brother the
Count d’Artois, announcing
the Death of the Duke de Berry—
He also read to me the despatch from the Minister complaining that
similar Letters had heretofore not been answered— I told Roth that it
was because they had not been received and assured him that the answers
to these should be sent to Mr Gallatin. Roth told me that
he should be obliged to address me a Note of remonstrance against the
late Act of Congress laying extra-duties of tonnage upon French vessels;
especially with reference to the eighth Article of the Louisiana cession
Treaty. The claims upon him from New-Orleans he said were so strong that
he could not resist them—though he should have preferred to leave it as
a subject pending for discussion between the two Governments— I told him
I would readily receive his note, and give it all due consideration—
While I was at dinner there was a Mr Weems a Clergyman came with
a subscription book, for an Edition of Le
Sage’s Atlas, now publishing by Matthew Carey— Weems is author of a
life of General
Washington—and of one of General
Marion. He had been an old acquaintance of Mr
Johnson my
wife’s father, and of my
father also. He says that he has a passion for the
circulation of books; meaning that he is an itinerant collector of
subscriptions. Mrs. Adams and the children
spent the Evening at Frye’s—
