Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 2
I was absent from meeting all this day. Bridge dined with me, at my chamber. I begun, and read 100 pages in Gibbon's history; with the stile of which I am extremely pleased. The author is not only an historian but a philosopher. The only fault with which I think he may be charged, is, an endeavour sometimes at the point of an epigram, when a serious reflection, would be more proper.