"Thought of the state of women under the ancient Greeks--convenient enough. Present state a remnant of the barbarism of the chivalry and feudal ages--artificial and unnatural. They ought to mind home--and be well fed and clothed--but not mixed in society. Well educated, too, in religion--but to read neither poetry nor politics--nothing but books of piety and cookery. Music--drawing--dancing--also a little gardening and ploughing now and then. I have seen them mending the roads in Epirus with good success. Why not, as well as hay-making and milking? "Came home, and read Mitford again, and played with my mastiff--gave him his supper. Made another reading to the epigram, but the turn the same. To-night at the theatre, there being a prince on his throne in the last scene of the comedy,--the audience laughed, and asked him for a _Constitution_. This shows the state of the public mind here, as well as the assassinations. It won't do. There must be an universal republic,--and there ought to be. "The crow is lame of a leg--wonder how it happened--some fool trod upon his toe, I suppose. The falcon pretty brisk--the cats large and noisy--the monkeys I have not looked to since the cold weather, as they suffer by being brought up. Horses must be gay--get a ride as soon as weather serves. Deuced muggy still--an Italian winter is a sad thing, but all the other seasons are charming. "What is the reason that I have been, all my lifetime, more or less _ennuyé?_ and that, if any thing, I am rather less so now than I was at twenty, as far as my recollection serves? I do not know how to answer this, but presume that it is constitutional,--as well as the waking in low spirits, which I have invariably done for many years. Temperance and exercise, which I have practised at times, and for a long time together vigorously and violently, made little or no difference. Violent passions did;--when under their immediate influence--it is odd, but--I was in agitated, but _not_ in depressed, spirits. "A dose of salts has the effect of a temporary inebriation, like light champagne, upon me. But wine and spirits make me sullen and savage to ferocity--silent, however, and retiring, and not quarrelsome, if not spoken to. Swimming also raises my spirits,--but in general they are low, and get daily lower. That is _hopeless_; for I do not think I am so much _ennuyé_ as I was at nineteen. The proof is, that then I must game, or drink, or be in motion of some kind, or I was miserable. At present, I can mope in quietness; and like being alone better than any company--except the lady's whom I serve. But I feel a something, which makes me think that, if I ever reach near to old age, like Swift, 'I shall die at top' first. Only I do not dread idiotism or madness so much as he did. On the contrary, I think some quieter stages of both must be preferable to much of what men think the possession of their senses. "January 7. 1821, Sunday.