Life of Abraham Lincoln, by J. G. Holland.

62 LIFE OF ABRAHAIIAM LINCOLN.
Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran like a thread
of gold through all the inner experiences of his life. IHis
constant sense of human duty was one of the forms by which
his faith manifested itself. His conscience took a broader
grasp than the simple apprehension of ri ght and wrongl. He
recognized an immediate relation between God and ilimself, in
all the actions and passions of his life. He was not professedly a Christian-that is, he subscribed to no creed,joined no organization of Christian disciples. He spoke little
then, perhaps less than he did afterward, atnd always sparingly,
of his religious belief and experiences; but that he had a
deep religious life, sonmetimes imbued with superstition, there
is no doubt. XWe guess at a mountain of marble by the outcropping ledges that hide their whiteness among the ferns.
At this period of his life he had not exhibited in any form
that has been preserved, those logical and reasoning powers
that so greatly distinguished him during his subsequent public
career. The little clubs at and around New Salem where he' "practiced polemics" kept no records, and have published no
reports. The long talks in Offutt's store, on the flat-boat, on
the farm and by the cabin fireside have not been preserved;
but there is no doubt that the germn of the power was within
him, and that the peculiarity of his education developed it
into the remarkable and unique faculty which did much to
distinguish him amongo the men of his generation. He had
been from a child, in the habit of putting his thoughts into
language. He wrote much, and to this fact is doubtless owing
his clearness in statement. lIe could state with great exactness any fact within the range of his knowledge. HIis knowledge was not areat, nor his vocabulary rich, but he could state
the details of one by the use of the other with a precision that
Daniel Webster never surpassed.
He was a childlike man. No public man of modern days
has been fortunate enough to carry into his manhood so much
of the directness, truthfulness and simplicity of childhood as
distinguished him. Hle was exactly what he seemed. He
was not awkward for a purpose, but because lie could not help