Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:
I went to pass the evening with a circle of my friends at Miss [Elizabeth Sherman] Hoar’s. The Conversation ran mostly on the significance of Christ as the genius of modern culture. Elizabeth Hoar agreed with me in declaring the friendly influence he was, standing in this particular in a more tender and intimate nearness to the heart of mankind than any character in life or literature. The Conversation was suggested by my asking Miss H. who were the teachers of the Nations at this time; and she mentioned Jesus, with Goethe, Carlyle, and Emerson.
Henry Thorough [sic] thought we asserted this claim for the fair Hebrew in exaggeration; and declared against our estimate with some vehemence. I asserted his claim as a poet—the poet of the moral instinct—yet as the mythological personage now to Christendom, who had no clear perception of his ideas and actions.
(The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 175-176)
