Dame Akehurst a-washing for me half the day and dined with me on the remains of yesterday’s dinner. At home all day. In the evening my brother came over and stayed and kept me company till past 11 o’clock. Very melancholy all day; in the evening wrote my London letters. Rec’d of my brother 12/9 for 3 reams of paper bought of me today. Let me tread the precarious path of this life with care and caution, and mark the rocks and shoals which so many of mankind split upon and what, alas! may be my own fate one of these days.