John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

14. IV:30. Sunday.

The Storm with occasional Showers continues. Ninth day.— Heard Mr Whitney in the morning from Matthew 6.31. “Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed?” and in the afternoon, from Mark 12.37. “And the common People, heard him gladly.” It was so dark that Mr. Whitney had great difficulty in reading his Sermons, and in the afternoon, was obliged to have one of the window blinds opened in the midst of his discourse. The whole Service occupied less than an hour each time— The morning Sermon was upon one of those passages in the new Testament, which discountenance the excess of worldly cares— Mr Whitney observed that though seemingly variant, it was not in reality inconsistent with other parts of Scripture which very emphatically recommend laborious diligence, and a watchful regard to worldly interests— There is indeed a very remarkable difference between the Instructions of Solomon in the Proverbs, and the lessons of Jesus to his disciples— The Proverbs are full of rebukes upon the Sluggard— Jesus forbids all taking thought of the morrow— Solomon refers to the example of the Ant— Jesus to the Lilies of the field; which neither toil, nor spin; though Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them— Mr Whitney pointed out the correct meaning of the words of Jesus, which is a caution against excessive or carking care, and cited with approbation a recent translation of the Scriptures which in this passage renders the words of the original, by anxious care— The purpose of the precept is to enjoin trust in God, and Mr Whitney’s Argument was in the true Spirit of his text— He exhorted his hearers also to discard too anxious a thought for worldly goods, by estimating them at their true value; of little worth in comparison with spiritual blessings; and at the same time warned them not to neglect that sober, cheerful, and diligent regard for their own interests and the comforts of those dependent upon them, which has the sanction of the Scriptures as well as the Seal of all experience— The afternoon text prepared the auditory for a democratic discourse, but it was not invidiously so— It appeared to have been written some years since, and from the difficulties in the delivery that the Preacher had not very recently read it— In the Evening I finished reading to my wife, Galt’s Life of Lord Byron. This person has now been seven years dead, and the public interest in him has not abated— He was one of the wonders of his age, and was like Napoleon Buonaparte the Torso of a Hercules—A Grand Homme manqué. A club-footed Apollo, in mind as in person. There are sublime and beautiful passages of detail in his Poetry, and if he had finished his Don Juan, it would have been a worthy companion to Voltaire’s Pucelle, in the Temple of Cloacina, upon the summit of Parnassus— Galt had a slight acquaintance with him, having been for some time a fellow passenger with him on his first voyage to Greece, and feels kind to his Memory. He publishes this life of him because he says Moore’s has not been satisfactory to the 35Public— This book is very amusing—seldom tedious, and has passages of fine writing— But he ranks Byron rather above Milton as a Poet, and is half-inclined to give him the Pas—before Shakespear. He shews that Byron was jealous of Shakespear, and that he was very indignant at being compared to Rousseau, because Rousseau was the Son of a watchmaker— He likens Byron to Raphael— If Raphael had introduced his own Portrait into every picture he ever painted; and given himself in every picture the attributes of some fine mad devil of Pandemonium, there would have been more resemblance between him, and the noble Poet.