f his philosophy, and in the harmony of his
versification, which delighted me."

To perfect his knowledge of the German language, Mr. Adams made a metrical
translation of Wieland's Oberon into the English language. The
publication of this work, which at one time was designed, was superseded
by the appearance of a similar translation by Sotheby.

In the summer of 1800, Mr. Adams made a tour through Silesia. He was
charmed with the inhabitants of that region, their condition and habits.
In many respects he found them bearing a great similarity to the people of
his own native New England. He communicated his impressions during this
excursion, in a series of letters to a younger brother in Philadelphia.
These letters were interesting, and were considered of great value at that
time, in consequence of many important facts they contained in regard to
the manufacturing establishments of Silesia. They were published, without
Mr. Adams's knowledge, in the Port Folio, a weekly paper edited by Joseph
Dennie, at Philadelphia. The series was afterwards collected and
published in a volume, in London, and has been translated into German and
French, and extensively circulated on the continent.

Among other labors while at Berlin, Mr. Adams succeeded in forming a
treaty of amity and commerce with the Prussian government. The protracted
correspondence with the Prussian commissioners, which resulted in this
treaty, involving as it did the rights of neutral commerce, was conducted
with consummate ability on the part of Mr. Adams, and received the fullest
sanction of the government at home.

Mr. Adams' missions at the Hague and at Berlin, constituted his first step
in the intricate paths of diplomacy. They were accomplished amid the
momentous events which convulsed all Europe, at the close of the
eighteenth century. Republican France, exasperated at the machinations of
the Allied Sovereigns to destroy its liberties, so recently obtained, was
pushing its armies abroad, determined, in self-defence, to kindle the
flames of revolution in every kingdom on the Continent. Great Britain,
combined with Austria and other European powers, was using every effort to
crush the French democracy, and remove from before the eyes of
down-trodden millions an example so dangerous to monarchical institutions.
The star of Napoleon had commenced its ascent, with a suddenness and
brightness which startled the imbecile occupants of old thrones. His
legions had r