It was while my father was at the academy that he commenced a practice which he continued until within three or four days of his death, of keeping a diary, in which he put down the occurrences of the day; what he was employed about, where he had been, and particularly an exact account of what he had been reading, mentioning the names of the authors, and the number of pages he read, which was generally a fixed number, previously determined upon in his own mind. He likewise noted down any hints suggested by what he read in the course of the day. It was his custom at the beginning of each year to arrange the plan of study that he meant to pursue that year, and to review the general situation of his affairs, and at the end of the year he took an account of the progress he had made, how far he had executed the plan he had laid down, and whether his situation exceeded or fell short of the expectations he had formed. This practice was a source of great satisfaction to him through life. It was at first adopted as a mode of regulating his studies, and afterwards continued from the pleasure it gave him. The greater part of his diaries were destroyed at the riots at Birmingham, but there are still extant those for the year 1754, 1755 and several of the subsequent years. As it will serve to shew the regularity with which he pursued his studies, and may possibly be instructive as well as amusing to the reader, I shall give a specimen of the manner in which he spent a year while he was at the academy, at Daventry, and for that purpose shall select his diary for the year 1755 when he was in his 22d year. The diary contains a particular account of what he read and wrote each day, and at different periods of the year he sums up in the following manner, the progress he had made in improvement, which I give as entered at the end of the diary. * * * * * Business done in January, February and March. _Practical._ Howe’s blessedness of the righteous; Bennet’s pastoral care; Norris’s letters and some sermons. _Controversial._ Taylor on Atonement; Hampton’s Answer; Sherlock’s discourses Vol. 1; Christianity not founded in Argument; Doddridge’s Answer; Warburton’s divine legation; Benson on the first planting of Christianity; King’s Constitution of the Primitive Church. _Classics._ Josephus, Vol. 1, from page 390 to 770; Ovid’s Metamorphoses to page 139; Tacitus’s History, Life of Agricola, and Manners of the Germans. _Scriptures._ John the Evangelist, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, 1st and 2d Corinthians, in Greek; Isaiah to the 8th chapter, in Hebrew. _Mathematics._ Maclaurin’s Algebra to part 2d. _Entertaining._ Irene; Prince Arthur; Ecclesiastical characters; Dryden’s fables; Peruvian tales; Voyage round the world; Oriental tales; Massey’s travels; Life of Hai Ebn Yokdam; History of Abdallah. _Composition._