Middletown transcript., 1916-02-12

some, and wholly incapable Of prepar
ing in advance for any task or respon
sibility. In all these respects Lincoln
differed from his fellow countrymen
and upon these differences his emf
nence depends. He was not particu-
larly ambitious, aggressive or practi
cal. In spite of his lively social feel
ings, he lived a contemplative life. in
which the intellectual interest OBJ
tanned full expression and which at
tanned high degree Of internal con-
centration. He fought hard and well
but he never quarreled. During his
formative years he quietly but unos-
tentatiously prepared himself for great
enterprises. He trained his mind be-
cause he enjoyed hard intellectual ex-
ertion. His style shaped itself under
the influence of the Bible and Shake
speare. Thus at a period and in a
country favorable to the cheap per-
formance and the easy victory, Mr..
Lincoln tempered his reason and his
spirit for a great performance and a
costly victory. Was there anything
typically American about that2"
Ideas Worth Consideration.
This is refreshing variation from
the canned eloquence" of the Lincoln
day utterance, and it will repay con-
sideration and emphasis, since we are
very like our forbears as to just the
defects the New Republic here pun
gently outlines. If we thought more
OF Lincoln's extraordinary disinterest-
edness. of his heroic patience, of his
deeply brooding spirit, and less Of
those qualities with which we estab.
lish all too readily a rough resem-
blance to our daily selves, we might
get a wholesome and much-needed re-
action from our rafting, self-satisfied
and shallow life without losing our
sense of his reality as a human being
having human weaknesses. Especially
keen is the thrust delivered at our
tendency to the cheap performance
and the easy victory" and it's contrast
with Lincoln's tempting reason and
spirit for a great performance and
a costly victory"
No great victory was ever DUR.
chased cheaply. 1t has always been
paid for in long and costly, though
often unconscious preparation. Our
national optimism, our impatience and
,superfciality obscure that truth.
AS Typical American.
But, after all, in the legend we are
making of Lincoln as typical Ameri.
can there is an instinct and q truth
that are not superficial. All legend
making is profound process Of ma.
tional self-realization. an intuitive in.
carnation of national ideals, and in the
case Of Lincoln it is based upon tha
sincere, the religious democracy Of
this great man. The high distinction
of mind, as shown, for example. in the
prose of the Gettysburg grafton. the
moral nobility, the interpretive aloof.
ness which were an essential part of
him, only accentuate for us the warn,
nearness of his nature to the Common
man and the common life. lincoln
himself held to the mystical concan-
tion of democracy which Whitman az
pressed in his poetry and which is the
dream in the heart of Americanism
The essential brotherhood or man
was an intimate and glowing reality to
Lincoln, not lofty abstraction. and
though we betray it and misread if we
must cling to it if we are to save the
national soul
Idealizing. ourselves through T.inoo,,,
is more than self-flattery. It is a crrde
but not ignoble effort to express +be
deepest and most pervasive element ne
American idealism.