The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1916-02-10

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
enterprise. 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 period and in a
country favorable to the cheap per-
formance and the easy victory, MIR.
Lincoln tempered his reason and his
spirit for a great performance and q
costly victory. Was there anything
typically American about that?
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-satisfed
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 its contrast
with Lincoln's tempting reason and
spirit "for great performance and
a costly victory"
No great victory was ever pur'
chased cheaply. 1t has always been
paid for in long and costly, though
often unconscious preparation. Our
national optimism, our impatience and
superficiality 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 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 the
sincere, the religious democracy oi
| this great man. The high distinction
of mind, as shown, for example, in the
prose Of the Gettysburg. Grafton, the
moral nobility, the introspective aloof
ness which were an essential part ot
him, only accentuate for us the warn
nearness of his nature to the common
man and the common life. LincoIT
himself held to the mystical concep
tion of democracy which Whitman ex
pressed in his poetry and which is the
dream in the heart of Americanism.
The essential brotherhood Of maj
was an intimate and glowing reality Il
Lincoln, not lofty abstraction, an(
though we betray it and misread it W.
must cling to It If we are to save thu
national soul.
Idealizing ourselves through Lincoll
is more than self-fiattery. It is a crud,
but not ignoble effort to express tn,
deepest and most pervasive element 0
American idealism.