The true northerner., 1895-09-27

nifty, 80 CALLED. ne appeared simple In
his carriage and bearing. He was sad
looking man. His melancholy dripped
from him ~ he walked His apparent
gloom impressed his friends and Great
cd sympathy for him-one means Of his
great success. He was gloomy, abstract
ed and joyous-rather humorous---by
turns, but do not think he knew what
real joy was for many years.
Mr.. Lincoln sometimes walked our
streets oheerily. he was not always
gloomy. and then il was that on meet
ing friend he greeted him with plain
''Howd'y?" clasping his hand in both
Of his own. and gave him hearty soul
welcome. On a winters morning he
might be seen stalking toward the mar
ket house. basket ON arm, his old gray
shawl wrapped around his neck, his lit
tie boy Willie or Tad running along at
his heels. asking thousand boyish ques-
tions, which his father. in deep abstrac-
tion, neither needed nor heard. II q
friend met or passed him and he awoke
from his reverie something would re-
mind him of a story he had heard in In
diana. and tell il he would, and there
was no alternative but to listen.
Thus, / repeat, stood and walked and
talked this singular man. He was odd,
but when that gray eye and that face
and those features were lit up by the in
ward soul in fires of emotion then it was
that all those apparently ugly features
sprang into organs of beauty or disap
peared in the sea Of inspiration that often
flooded his face. Sometimes it appeared
as if Lincoln's soul was fresh from its
Creator
His Perceptivo Faculties.
have asked the friends and foes of
Mr. Lincoln alike what they thought Of
his perceptions. One gentleman of un-
questioned ability and free from all par
TALLY or prejudice said, "Mr. Lincoln's s
perceptions were slow. little pervert-
ed, if not somewhat distorted and dis
eased If the meaning of this is that
Mr.. Lincoln saw things from peculiar
angle of his being. and from this was
susceptible to natures impulses, and
that he so expressed himself, then have
no objection to what is said. Otherwise
/ dissent. Mr.. Lincoln's perceptions
were slow. cold, clear and exact Every
thing came to him in its precise shape
and color. To some men the world Of
matter and Of man comes ornamented
with beauty, life and action, and hence,
more or less false and inexact. No lurk-
ing illusion or other error, false in itself
and clad for the moment in robes of
splendor, ever passed undetected or un-
challenged over the threshold of his
mind-that point which divides vision
from the realm and home of thought
Names to him were nothing, and titles
naught. assumption always standing
back abashed at his cold, intellectual
glare. Neither his perceptions nor intel
lectual vision was perverted, distorted
or diseased. He saw all things through
a perfect mental lens. There was no diff
fraction or refraction there. He was not
impulsive, fanciful or imaginative, but
cold, calm and precise. He threw his
whole mental light around the object.
and after time substance and quality
stood apart, form and color took their
appropriate places, and all was clear and
exact in his mind. His fault. if any,
was that he saw things less than they
really were-less beautiful and more
frigid. He crushed the unreal, the mex
act, the hollow and the sham. He saw
things in rigidity rather than in vital
action. He saw what no man could dis
pute, but he failed to see what might
have been seen.
The truth about Mr. Lincoln is that
he read less and thought more than any
man in his sphere in America No man
written in the last or present century
that he read thoroughly. When young.
he read the Bible. and when of age he
read Shakespeare; but, though he often
quoted from both, he never read either
one through. He is acknowledged now
TO have been great man, but the ques-
tion is what made him great. / repeat
that he read less and thought more than
any man Of his standing in America, II
not in the world. He possessed original
ity and power of thought in an eminent
degree. Besides his well established
reputation for caution he was concen-
trated in his thoughts and had great con.
tinuity of reflection. In everything he
was patient and enduring. These are
some Of the grounds of his wonderful
success.
His Reasoning Powers.
Not only were nature, man and prin.
ciples suggestive to Mr.. Lincoln, not only
had he accurate and exact perceptions,
but he was causative. His mind, appar
emily with an automatic movement,
ran back behind facts. principles and
all things to their origin and first cause
to that point where forces act at once
as effect and cause He would stop in
the street and analyze a machine. H.
would whittle thing to a point and
then count the numberless inclined
planes and their pitch making the point
Mastering and defining this, he would
then cut that point back and get broad
transverse section of his pine stick ant
peel and define that Clocks, omnibuses
language, paddle wheels and idioml
never escaped his observation and analy
sis. Before he could form an idea o
anything, before he would express hii
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