Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-10-22

again2 If you do, please call, and let me
make your personal acquaintance.
Yours truly, A. LIEOoLs. a.
Now, tO-us this letter speaks for itself as
fayorably as ANY letter ever spoke. Its
simplicity and candor are as fresh and
delightful as new mOWn hay. Only fancy
q statesman, Q President, cOnfessing thus
frankly he had never read Shakespeare
throughl Bow many British u. Pc would
have confessed it2 Aud yet how many Of
them there are who would have 70 own as
much If they were put 70 it We meet
around intellectual or observation-disclosures
dinner tables. We talk OF Shelley as fs-
miliarly as sherry. We affect 60 languish
At the thought Of Pascal, aud ehnekle
hyp0cFitieRlly- over q reference 70 Mon
taigBe. We laugh consumedly at alquota-
tiOn from JuVenal IL the quoter looks hui
mprous, pretend 10 be otherwise occupied
if the expression Of his cOuntenance Is not
very readable. -E .lst
We talk as familiaFly Of Rabelais as Of
last weeks PHRehS comment on the trans
cendentalism OF "Sartor ResartnsH without
the faintest idea of the tenor Of the book.
aud narrowly escape denouncing Thomas
Carlyle downright, under the impression
that he Is Richard CaFIiIe. the iuiidel, who
outraged the orthodoxy Of our fathers and
mothers, There is no more abundant
source of sham and preteutiOn than the
affectatiOn in society Of being well read in
the ''works which no gentleman's library
should be without" Depend upon il there
is much good, truth and honesty in any
man, and especially in public man, who
sdmires and respects Shakespeare, aud
yet voluntarily says he has not read all his
plays. El5lI'l sis -
But we are more pleased still with Mr.
Lincoln for having read several of the
plays many times over. Il is far better
for man to read one play twenty times
because he loves it, than 70 read swenty
plays once, because they constitute the
authors works aud must be gone through.
There is much indication of character, too,
10 his selection of faVOfites. "Lear,"
"Richard III" "Henry VIII" "Hamlet''
and "Macbeth" would n0the a bad library
for any man who would really make him-
self master OF them; and for q EULER Of men
who at the same time is a lover Of human
nature and q quaint humOrist, they may
we'll prove continual feast. The choice
of macbeth" as principal character, and
the preference Of the less popular of HAM
let's soliloQuies, also indicate that incistve
use of his own wits which is one of the
surest indications of man of power.
Long may Mr.. Lincoln be able 70 find
solace and enjoyment thus pleasantly and
profitably; and '-he never lack moral
courage and graceful courtesy to do honor
to those who, by illustrating the great
dramatists, do almost all thatis done effec.'
tually to keep them pOpulaFly alive. In
Mr.. Hackett's case the honor is doubly
due, as many Of our readers are aware
Not only is he brilliant and unctiOus Fall
stat, bat thoroughly estimabls man.
Once an Opulent merchant, and afterwards
unfortunate. he -Wents on the -stage5 SOD
paid every creditor in fiiIl mt IS sllS-sIsW-
fortune he made IN his new RVOeatiOn. He
is an honor to Q noble profession, the
credit of which is but too often made
quately sustained; and his distinguished
correspondent is man whose simple.
truth and uncultiyated intelligence will
not forever be concealed by the unWieldi.
ness of his frame or the Hncourtliness Of
his manners. A contrast was wanted to \
the sauve deceitfnllness and emptiness Of
James Buchanan, and one was found in
Abraham Lincoln. I fHtaG