The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-09-27

remind him of story he had heard In In
diana, and tell 1t he would, and there was
no alternative but to listen.
Thus, l 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 inward
soul in fires Of emotion then it was that
all those apparently ugly features sprang
into organs of beauty or disappeared in the
sea of inspiration that often flooded his
face. Sometimes it appeared as If Lincoln S
soul was fresh from its Creator.
His Perceptive Faculties.
l have asked the friends and foes of Mr.
Lincoln alike what they thought of his
perceptions. One gentleman of unques-
toned ability and free from all Partially
or prejudice said, "Mr. Lincoln's percep-
tions were slow, little perverted, If not
somewhat distorted and diseased" 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 him
self, then / have no objection to what is
said Otherwise dissent. Mr.. Lincoln's
perceptions were slow, cold, clear and ex-
act. Everything came to him in its pre-
else shape and color. To some men the
world of matter and of man comes orna.
mented with beauty, life and action, and
hence more or less false and inexact. No
lurking illusion or other error, false in it
self and clad for the moment in robes of
splendor, ever passed undetected or I'M
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, as
sumption always standing back tabashed
at his cold, intellectual glare Neither his
perceptions nor intellectual vision was
perverted distorted or diseased He saw
all things through perfect mental lens
There was no diffraction or refraction
there. He was not inpulsive 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 real
" were-lcss beautiful and more frigid.
He crushed the unreal, the ineXact the
hollow and the sham. He saw things in
rigidity rather than III vital action, He
saw what no man could dispute, but he
failed to see what might have been seen.
The truth siout Mr., Lincoln is that he
read less and thought more than any man
in his sphere in America. No man can
put his finger on any great book written
in the last or present century that he read
thoroughly When young, he read the
Bible, and when of age be read Shake
speare; but, though he often quoted from
both, he never read either one through.
10 ic 1a1 OnH tn baDn hppn q
great man, but the question is what made
him great. repeat that he read less and
thought more than any man of his stand
ing in America, if not in the world. He
possessed originality and power of thought
in an eminent degree. Besides his well
established reputation for caution he was
concentrated in his thoughts and had
great continuity of reflection. In every
thing he was patient and enduring. These
are some of the grounds of his wonderful
success.
His Reasoning Powers.
Not only were nature, man and principles
suggestive to Mr. Lincoln, not only had he
accurate and exact perceptions, but he was
causative. His mind, apparently with an
automatic movement, ran back behind
facts, principles and all things to their
forces act at once as effect and cause. He
would stop in the street and analyze ma
chine. He would whittle a thing to
point and then count the numberless in
clined planes and their pitch making the
point. Mastering and defining this, he
would then cut that point back and get a
broad transverse section of his pine stick
and peel and define that Clocks, omni-
10 yubo nd
never escaped his observation and analysis.
Before he could form an idea of anything,
before he would express his opinion on
subject, he must know its origin and his
tory in substance and quality, in magni-
tude and gravity He must know it in
side and outside, upside and down side.
He searched and comprehended his own
mind and nature thoroughly, as l have
often heard him say He must analyze
sensation, an idea, and run back in It's
history to its origin and purpose He was
remorseless in his analysis of facts and
principles When all these exhaustive !,
processes had been gone through with, he |
could form an idea and express it, but no |
sooner. He had no faith and no respect |
for say SOS" come though they might |
from tradition or authority. Thus every |
thing had to run through the crucible and |
be tested by the fires of his analytic mind, |
and when at last he did speak his utter
ances rang out with the clear and keen
ring of gold upon the counters of the I'M
He reasoned logically
through analogy and comparison. All OPP
ponents dreaded his originality of idea
his condensation, definition and force of
expression, and woe be to the man who
Rugged to his bosom a secret error if Lin
coin got on the chase of it. l repeat, woe
to him! Time could hide the error in no
nook or corner of space in which he would
not detect and expose it.
Long Enough.
Stephen A. Douglas and Mr.. Lovejey