Download Abraham Lincoln; the Evolution of His Literary Style Volume 1 Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...formation of foliage belonging to every species. 'Trees, ' he said, 'are as deceptive in their likeness to one another as are certain classes of men, amongst whom none but a physiognomist's eye can detect dissimilar moral features until events have developed them.'"1 It is significant that both these nature comparisons are based on woodcraft.8 'Nicolay & Hay, Works, II., 398.-. "Scribner's Monthly, XVIII., 586. In spite of this strong evidence of Lincoln's love and close observation of nature, few instances of true nature comparisons were noted in his writings, and none of these suggest the poetical coloring shown in the quotations just given. It is possible that Lincoln's nature comparisons were, like his stories, confined mainly to conversation, and that they were suggested, as in those instances, by the sight of the natural objects. A collection of notes for a lecture on Niagara Falls fur-. nishes the most important written testimony to Lincoln's love of nature and his habit of associating natural phenomena with the affairs of life. After commenting on the purely physical characteristics of the Falls, he continues: "The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. Yet this is really a very small part of that world's wonder. Its power to excite reflection and emotion is its great charm.... But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent--when Christ suffered on the cross--when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea--nay, even when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker: then, as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants whose bones fill the mounds of America have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Contemporary with the first race of...