- Apthorp— William P.
I awoke this morning; rose and lighted my Lamp, and found it was a few minutes short
of three O’Clock. Read four Chapters in the Bible to finish the first Book of Kings;
and seven Sections in Cicero de Amicitia, to
finish the second reading of that— Then returned to bed, and dozed till broad
daylight. I was chilled and could get no heat in bed— I betook myself to the spade in
my Nursery, and dug for half an hour till driven into the house by the rain— William P. Apthorp was here yesterday; to enquire if
I had occasion to purchase any old wine; but I have more than I want upon my hands.
His father’s stock is for sale; and they are
selling off also the family furniture— Mr Cutler the Minister of the Episcopal Church,
has lived some years in the house, but has a pulmonary complaint, and is obliged to
pass the Winter at the South— Elizabeth
Apthorp, a single Lady of 65 is now the only remnant of that numerous and
prosperous family of Apthorps remaining at Quincy— It will soon be extinct here. The
families that endure, are in the humble vale— High-Life is beyond all things
transitory— William told me that they found great difficulty in letting the House,
because it had the reputation of being haunted— He said the rumour had originated from
a woman; a Mantua-maker, who had slept in the west wing of the house; while his mother was living; and to his Mother’s having
gone late at Night, to fetch something, into the room where the woman was in bed— I
worked again with the Spade in my Nursery before dinner; and towards Evening walked to
my brother’s House. His Son John Quincy was recovering. Mrs Adams unwell— His daughter Abigail brought me from Boston a packet of Letters
sent by Charles. One from my dear wife of the 17th. one from Dr
Waterhouse, and one from Alpheus
Cary. I wrote myself, a Letter to Judge
Story, for which I had very cogent motives; but the consequences of which
are with a higher power— I intend is as introductory to a Correspondence with him,
which may influence his Career, and Lectures as Professor of Law at Cambridge— But I
know not how he will receive it. My experience has taught me to distrust deeply my own
foresight in the relation of effects with their causes.— My
father’s Letter of 12. October 1755 to Nathan
Webb was the immediate occasion of my now having read Cicero de Amicitia— The Dialogue is between Laelius, and his two Sons in Law Mutius Scaevola and
Fannius— Cicero tells Atticus that in his Youth, by direction of his father
he frequented much Scaevola the Augur, and after his death, the Pontiff Mutius Scaevola, whom he pronounces the brightest genius
and most upright Roman of his time— He adds that one day on the occasion of a violent
quarrel between Pompey while Consul, and Publius Sulpicius then a Tribune of the People who
till then had been his most intimate friend, Scaevola, sitting in his Hemicycle, and
conversing with friends among whom Cicero was present, upon this rupture which caused
great excitement in the City, repeated the purport of a Discourse, of Laelius upon
Friendship, many years before; a few days after the Death of his friend Scipio— Cicero says he had retained in his Memory
this narrative of 264Scaevola, and as Atticus had often urged him
to write upon Friendship, he thought he could not more effectually comply with this
request, than by introducing Laelius as the Speaker on that subject, and writing from
memory what Scaevola had reported him to have said— How ingenious and beautiful a
Frame for a Dissertation! But I have no Time for further comment here.