Apart from a report of a mysterious sea-serpent, September’s entries are typical of Gallison’s later writing. He had begun his journal in 1807 as a commonplace book. Even after he began to add accounts of daily life, in Volume B, he continued to devote a substantial fraction of his entries to self-improvement. Thoughts on religion came to displace readings in the classics, but served much the same purpose.
This month contains several reports of Sunday sermons– Channing’s, in particular. If Gallison was a little too distracted to keep perfect notes on all of them, his candid disclosure of that makes its own contribution to his quest for personal growth.