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1.

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

HE filled the Nation's eye and heart,
An honored, loved, familiar name;
So much a brother, that his fame
Seemed of our lives a common part.

His towering figure, sharp and spare,
Was with such nervous tension strung,
As if on each strained sinew swung
The burden of a people's care.

His changing face what pen can draw?
Pathetic, kindly, droll, or stern;
And with a glance so quick to learn
The inmost truth of all he saw.

Pride found no idle space to spawn

Her fancies in his busy mind;

His worth-like health or air-could find No just appraisal till withdrawn.

He was his Country's-not his own!

He had no wish but for her weal; Nor for himself could think or feel But as a laborer for her throne.

Her flag upon the heights of power,
Stainless and unassailed to place-
To this one end his earnest face
Was sent through every burdened hour.

Charles G. Halpine.

I.

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

THERE is perhaps no point in which all human history, and the records of inspiration, are more clearly illustrative of each other than this-that Providence, in working out the great and mighty revolutions in the civil and social, no less than in the religious order, chooses the unknown, the lowly, the apparently unfit. But though drawn from obscurity, these instruments in the Mighty Hand are always intrinsically great-great in clearness of thought, great in calm deliberation, great in earnestness, in unaffectedness, in unselfish devotion to duty.

Thus viewed, Abraham Lincoln was truly great. Raised suddenly to the station which Washington was the first to fill, his sudden elevation sent a pang to the hearts of many, as though a sad degeneracy had fallen on our times; while others shuddered at the unequalness of the man for the most critical position which had yet arisen in American affairs.

Four years have so changed all this, that his name is uni versally revered; the great qualities which he really possessed, his knowledge of men, his uprightness and honesty, his kindliness of heart, his extreme caution in the unnumbered difficulties that daily arose in the constant civil and military emergencies, with a firmness that was never swerved by flattery or fear-all these, and the great results effected under his administration, have given him in the heart of the people a place second only to that of the Father of his Country. The sudden and terrible assassination which so suddenly cut short his second administrative term, has embalmed his memory, and in its very suddenness convinced men of all opinions and all parties of the extent and greatness of the national loss.

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