Excerpt from The New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. 32: Published Quarterly, Under the Direction of the New-England Historic, Genealogical Society; For the Year 1878

He spent two years in this situation, attending school eight months the first year and ten months the second. He expresses in his diary gratitude for the friends who surrounded him on every side, and states that he improved his time to as good advantage as youth usually spend this precious season, but not so well as it might and should have been.

He had now arrived at a period when it became necessary to select some occupation for life. His own preference was for the printing business, but his father did not approve of this choice, and he con cluded to try a mercantile life. In April, 1829, in his nineteenth year, he entered the dry-goods and grocery store of William West, as a clerk, where he continued two years or more. He was next employed, in the summer of 1832, in the store of John Leach. The ensuing autumn he took charge of a store for Nathaniel H. Osgood Co., with which firm he remained one year. From the fall of 1833 to the spring of 1834, he was in the employ of Samuel Evans. On the first of April of the latter year, he engaged with Daniel Carr, and went immediately to Boston to purchase goods for his employer, spending eleven days in that city. During his stay there he took particular care to visit the prominent landmarks connected with the events of which he had read.

On the 14th of April, 1834, after his return from the trip to Boston, be commenced a diary, which he kept for a little over four years, the last entry being November 30, 1838. It is still preserv ed, and its two post-octavo volumes show the writer's characteristics, neatness and method. He prefaces this diary with an account of his ancestry and a sketch of his life to that time. Very little is afterwards recorded of his business, and nothing concerning it after he had taken up his residence in Boston. The diary is chiefly de voted to the sermons and lectures he heard, and what he saw in a few journeys which he made, some of which were visits to his parents, while others no doubt were business trips. His entries show a strong desire for self-improvement and Spiritual culture, and a fear that he had failed in doing his whole duty. There are some notices of and reflections on his reading, and an early reference to his study of Mason on self-knowledge.

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