Day. Rise at different hours from 5
to 8. generally, about 7.— German lesson, or translating Oberon, till
10. Breakfast.— Read or write as I have occasion till 2.— Walk— Dine at
3.— Translate another Stanza, from Oberon— Read Spenser or Pope’s Iliad; or spend the Evening
out; untill 10.— Bed at 11.
The year would in general have been a pleasant one, but for the state of
my wife’s health
which has been almost continually bad, and concerning which I am even
now deeply concerned— The subject preys upon my spirits more than I can
express.— I have written during the year somewhat more than usual.
Principally in the months of May and June, when I made the translation
of Bülow’s book.— Since the
middle of November too, I have amused myself with translating from
Wieland’s Oberon— A work
which serves in some degree to withdraw my reflections from painful
subjects which have too great a tendency to engross them— I have learnt
in the course of the year something more of the German language, which I
can read with tolerably facility— And I have sufficiently ascertained
that I never shall speak it—
