Francis Dana went out, the latter as Secretary of Legation to Mr. Adams; and besides these was Charles, a younger brother, also destined for school in Europe. Owing to the difficulties of the voyage they were landed at Ferrol, a port in the northern corner of Spain, a country friendly to the United States, and traveled overland to Paris, where John Quincy and his brother were soon entered in a boarding-school.

On the former trip, 'as has been seen, John Quincy made the first step toward beginning his wonderful Diary, but little progress was yet apparent. For many years, indeed, the Diary had a very precarious existence; and not until 1795, perhaps, did it become a certainty among Mr. Adams's other earnest purposes. From that time on to the end of his life there were but few trifling breaks in it. It is certainly little matter of surprise that this apparently worthless sort of scribbling was at times neglected by a youth like John Quincy Adams so favorably situated for occupying his time and vigor to much greater advantage. The examples of the past were not encouraging. The diarists who had gone before him had in the main failed to leave any thing either for their own betterment, or that of the world. Most of them had dealt in scandal and gossip and other men's business, or had taken up their time in recording the time of eating and drinking and sleeping, and such trivial and merely animal usages. Diaries of mental life, the development of great and good thoughts, with a systematic, useful purpose, are few and far between. Few men have been great or thoughtful enough to depart from the ordinary way, in this matter. How far John Quincy Adams succeeded in doing so remains to be seen.

Until the fall of 1780 he continued in school at Paris, and was then for a short time in Amsterdam. The following extract from a, letter from his father to his mother, and dated December 18, 1780, will, perhaps, add some interest at this point:

"I have this morning sent Mr. Thaxter with my two sons to Leyden, there to take up their residence for some time, and there to pursue their studies of Latin and Greek under the excellent masters, and there to attend lectures of the celebrated professors in that university. It is much cheaper there than here. The air is infinitely purer, and the company and conversation are better. It is, perhaps, as learned a university as any in Europe.

"I should not wish to have children educated in the common schools of this country, where a littleness of soul is notorious. The masters are mean-spirited wretches, pinching, kicking, and boxing the children upon every turn. There is, besides, a general littleness, arising from the incessant contemplation of stivers and doits, which pervades the whole people.

Frugality and industry are virtues everywhere, but avarice and stinginess are not frugality. The Dutch say, that without a habit of thinking of every doit before you spend it, no man can be a good merchant, or conduct trade with success.

"This, I believe, is a just maxim in general; but I would never wish to see a son of mine govern himself by it. It is the sure and certain way for an industrious man to be rich. It is the only possible way for a merchant to become the first merchant, or the richest man in the place. But this is an object that I hope none of my children will ever aim at. It is indeed true, everywhere, that those who attend to small expenses, are always rich. "I would have my children attend to doits and farthings as devoutly as the merest Dutchman upon earth, if such attention' was necessary to support their independence. A man who discovers a disposition and a design to be independent, seldom succeeds. A jealousy arises against him. The tyrants are alarmed on the one side, lest he should, oppose them; the slaves are alarmed on the other, lest he should expose their servility. The cry from all quarters is, He is the proudest man in the world; he can not bear to be under obligation.'

"I never in my life observed any one endeavoring to lay me

under particular obligation to him, but I suspected he had a design to make me his dependent, and to have claims upon my gratitude. This I should have no objection to, because gratitude is always in one's power. But the danger is, that men will expect and require more of us than honor, and innocence, and rectitude will permit us to perform.

"In our country, however, any man with common industry and prudence, may be independent."

In the meantime, Francis Dana had been appointed Minister to Russia, and selecting John Quincy Adams as his interpreter and secretary, on the 7th of July, 1781, they set out for St. Petersburg. Adams was now just fourteen years of age, and this was his first public service. The progress he had made in the acquisition of the French language becomes apparent in the fact of his being appointed interpreter on a mission which it was hoped would be of great benefit to the United States. But the appointment indicated much more than this. The Congress actually did him the honor of recognizing him as Secretary to the Mission under Mr. Dana, thus implying a general ability and fitness far beyond his age. This is the most remarkable instance of early political advancement in the history of this country.

After a residence of fourteen months in this capacity at St. Petersburg young Adams returned alone to The Hague, and resumed his studies. This journey he made mostly in the winter, and was six months on the way, stopping at Stockholm, Copenhagen, and other places. Although Mr. Dana's mission was fruitless and young Adams's services of little importance officially, it appears that he made good use of his time at St. Petersburg, in keeping up a systematic course of study..

It was now in the spring of 1783, and the establishment of the independence of his own country was soon to give a new turn in young Adams's affairs. After remaining but a short time in school, he was sent for by his father in Paris, where he aided in preparing copies of the treaty with England, and was fortunate enough to be present at its signature in September of 1783. During the next two years John Quincy's occupations were somewhat irregular, and this period was, perhaps, the most trying in his early career. The path of temptation was open before him. Nor did he wholly escape the fascinations of European follies and wickedness. Yet, in the main, he was able to turn the lessons of the attractive picture to his own benefit, and when the moment came for deciding between a life of European frivolity and a career of earnest, manly effort in America, he had no difficulty.

A part of this time he acted as his father's secretary, and was pronounced by that person to be a good penman and steady in his pursuit of knowledge. He was master of the French language; was a fair Latin and Greek scholar; better than all, had made considerable progress in English studies and literature; and in addition to these things, was quite thoroughly informed in European politics, as well as in all matters connected with American questions. He also spent much time in society, mainly with the friends of his father, but to some extent in a line of his own selection. His Diary at this time exhibited unusual vivacity, and indicated ripeness and polish.

Toward the close of 1784 he wrote to a friend:

"You can imagine what an addition has been made to my happiness by the arrival of a kind and tender mother, and of a

sister who fulfills my most sanguine expectations; yet the desire of returning to America still possesses me. My country has over me an attractive power which I do not understand. Indeed, I believe that all men have an attachment to their country distinct from all other attachments. It is imputed to our fondness for our friends and relations; yet I am apt to think I should still desire to go home, were all my friends and relations here.

But I have another reason for desiring to return to my native country. I have been such a wandering being these seven years, that I have never performed any regular course of studies, and am deficient on many subjects. I wish very much to have a degree at Harvard, and shall probably not be able to obtain it unless I spend at least one year there."

In his Diary soon after this he wrote of the appointment of his father as first Minister to London, and of his own purposes, as follows:

"I believe he will promote the interests of the United States, as much as any man, but I fear his duty will induce him to make exertions which will be detrimental to his health. I wish, however, it may be otherwise. Were I now to go with him, probably my immediate satisfaction might be greater than it will be in returning to America. After having been traveling for these seven years almost all over Europe, and having been in the world and among company for three; to return to spend one or two years within the pale of a college, subjected to all the rules which I have so long been freed from; then to plunge into the dry and tedious study of the law for three years; and afterwards not expect (however good an opinion I may have of myself) to bring myself into notice under three or four years more, if ever. It is really a prospect somewhat discouraging for a youth of my ambition (for I have ambition, though I hope its object is laudable). But still,

'O, how wretched

Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!'

or on those of anybody else. I am determined that so long as I shall be able to get my own living in an honorable manner, I will depend upon no one. My father has been so much taken up all his life-time with the interests of the public, that his own fortune has suffered by it; so that his children will have to pro