Parsons' two-volume journal dates from his early professional years, with entries running from January 1819 (when he opened his Boston law practice) to March 1823. The volumes are bound in polished calf, with Parsons' name stamped in gilt on the covers. Entries are irregular but often lengthy, running to a total of perhaps 60,000 words. The journal discusses aspects of Parsons' personal, professional, and intellectual/spiritual life with what appears to be a high degree of candor. Topics include the courtship of his future wife, Catherine; travel through New York and New England; detailed accounts of his extensive and eclectic reading; literary efforts; and a budding legal career, including work on an early fugitive slave case. There is discussion of what proved to be influential cultural events, like the Swedenborgian Sampson Reed's "Oration on Genius," heard by Parsons (and Emerson) at Harvard in 1821. There is also a great deal on Boston and Cambridge intellectual life generally. Parsons travelled in elevated social circles, and mention is made of many of New England's first families. As he makes clear in a preface to volume 1, Parsons regarded his "journalising" as a vehicle for self-improvement, and strengths and (more commonly) inadequacies of character are frequently meditated upon. Parsons is no Calvinist, but the introspective nature of his entries places his journal in the tradition of New England forebears like Samuel Sewall.