The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-10-23
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

LII Is certainly PITY UnAb ''Ono OF Flu
tarch's men" should have had his life
omitted by that biographer. The mod
ern writer, who accounts for his hero in
stead Of representing him, and records
painstakingly his diurPal doings in the
flesh in the place of the experiences of
the immortal past, will not serve for a
man of the old stamp. Plutarch had a
special sense for the significant deeds
and words in which greatness resides,
and, happily, the rapid destruction OF
what was unessential, even in the most
famous careers, made it easy for him to
write brief narratives, so justly delineat-
ing living traits that he was the Holbein
OF antiquity. In our day, however, indi-
viduality has we'll nigh dropped out of
history and literary criticism altogether,
and seems to have taken refuge in fic-
ton. Where it used to be Cato and
Regulus it is Jean Vatican and Sir Gala
had. The ideal in character has become
in letter, thing of the imagination;
hence arises our commiseration for any
Plutarchian who was born too late. In
the case of Lincoln, regret ought to reach
some degree of poignaney, because not
only was he distinguished by that genu-
inc and original quality of manhood
which Mr.. LowelPs phrase is meant to
express, but remini scences of him are of
the sort which Plutarch's method makes
a Of nd = 4,
er up into life of the brevity and sue.
cinctness of these age worn chronicles
what was capital in Lincoln's actions and
characteristic in his saying, it were
book to make the owls Of the common
place wink Lincoln possessed in re-
markable measure the kind of personal
ity which Plutarch rendered most per-
fectly; for it is the peculiarly of that
old style biographer not to dissociate the
deed or word from it's author, but to set
it forth as the trnest and most vital ex-
preston of the mans nature, SO that at
the end one seems to remember, not
what the hero did or said, but what he
was. This unity of the outward express
sion with the inward spirit, together with
an ever present sense of dominant indi-
viduality, is constantly brought home to
the mind in any reading about Lincoln;
whatever the trait may be named, genu-
mess, originality, sincerity, directness,-
it pervaded his life; and so true is this
that many person, who has had the op-
portunity of hearing of Lincoln from his
companions in early circuit days, must
have remarked that anecdotes concerning
him then are not less plentiful and char
acteristic than in the stirring times OF the
war. He seems always to have been do
ing or saying something noticeable, from
boyhood. In consequence, the amount
of detail respecting him which has sur
vived from hundred perishsble sources
is very large; and, while it would be Cos
sip if it related of another man, it is Of
very high interest in connection with him.
Other men have been known to us by
anecdote, such as Dr. johnson; but much
of the attractiveness of Boswelrs mar
rative is due to the club, to the manners
of the time, and to the humors and idi,
Osyncrasies Of the old doctor, while in
Lineoln's case the charm is exclusively
individual, and, moreover, owes nothing
to cratic human nature, but all TO a no.
bic type of manhood.-AtLantie Month.
Iy for October.