23–29 December 1822

If (as saith Voltaire) all- that is related of Alfred the Great be true, I know not the man that ever lived, more worthy of the gratitude of posterity. I hope the reservation means nothing. There is not one incredible assertion made either of his abilities, his character, or his actions. Besides it was not an age, nor were Saxon monks the men, to invent and adorn another Cyropaedia. Sharon Turner, an ambitious flashing writer, and else- where a loon, hath done well by Alfred. His praise rests not upon monkish eulogy or vague traditioHj but upon facts. . . .

I have heard this evening and shall elsewhere record Prof. Everett's lecture upon Eleusinian mysteries, Dodona,and St. Sophia's temple. . . . Though the lecture contained nothing origi- nal, and no very remarkable views, yet it was an account of antiquities bearing everywhere that " fine Roman hand," and presented in the inimi- table style of our Cicero. " Bigotry and Philoso- phy are the opposite poles of the judgment, and the scepticism of Hume and Gibbon is as differ- ent as the superstition of the Catholics from the freedom of the Protestant." (Professor E.)