he laid his book aside, and, leaning back in his chair, said, 'There's a poem which has been a great favorite with me for years, which was first shown to me, when a young man, by a friend, and which I afterwards saw, and cut from a newspaper, and learned by heart. I would,' he continued, 'give a great deal to know who wrote it; buti I have never been able to ascertain.'”

Then, half closing his eyes, he repeated to me the lines which I enclose to you. Greatly pleased and interested, I told him I would like, if ever an opportunity occurred, to write them down. He said he would some time try to give them to me. A few days afterward, he asked me to accompany him to the temporary studio of Mr. Swayne, the sculptor, who was making a bust of him at the Treasury Department. While he was sitting for the bust, I was suddenly reminded of the poem, and said to him that THEN would be a good time to dictate to me. He complied; and sitting upon some books at his feet, as nearly as I can remember, I wrote the lines down, one by one, as they fell from his lips." The first stanza reads thus:

"Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a fast-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
He passes from life to his rest in the grave."

The closing stanza is as follows:

"'Tis the twink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath,
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud:
Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud?"

There may well be added to this chapter the following letter written by the President to Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, an American lady, the widow of the late well-known

Friend and philanthropist, Joseph John Gurney, one of the wealthiest bankers of London:

"MY ESTEEMED FRIEND, I have not forgotten, probably never shall forget, the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on a sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor had your kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever been forgotten. In all it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance in God. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consolations, and to no one of them more than to yourself. The purposes. of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail accurately to perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this; but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowledge his wis dom and our own errors therein: meanwhile, we must work earnestly in the best lights he gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great end he or dains. Surely he intends some great good to follow this mighty commotion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay.

"Your people, the Friends, have had, and are having, very great trials, on principles and faith opposed to both war and oppression. They can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma, some have chosen one horn, and some the other.

"For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do, the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this, I doubt not; and, believing it, I shall still receive for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our Father in heaven.

"Your sincere friend,

"A. LINCOLN."

In closing this record of the Christian words and deeds of our late President, it may be well to add that many more incidents might be given, did the limits of this volume allow. Enough has been given to show, that, whatever his peculiar belief on religious topics of a doctrinal character, at heart and in his life he was a child of God, and "lived religion."

"For modes of faith, let graceless zealots fight:

His can't be wrong whose life is in the right.” *

President Lincoln's life was right. He was ever giv ing the cup of cold water; and, verily, he shall receive a righteous man's reward.

* Pope's "Essay on Man."

CHAPTER XI.

CHOSEN AGAIN.

"Not lightly fall beyond recall

The written scrolls a breath can float:

The crowning fact, the kingliest act
Of freedom, is the freeman's vote.

So shall our voice of sovereign choice
Swell the deep bass of duty done,

And strike the key of time to be,

When God and man shall speak as one."

WHITTIER.

"But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me; for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." ACTS ix. 15, 16.

In the sixth chapter, the course pursued by the President during the troublous times in which he governed was traced up to a certain point; though, designedly, not as minutely as a history of those times would require. The succeeding chapters have had reference more particularly to the man whom God gave to those times. Reference will now be had, briefly, to the course of events. These were of various character; sometimes bright with victory, sometimes shadowed with defeat.

"The ten months which divide the fall of Fort Donelson (Feb. 16, 1862) from the battle of Fredericksburg (Dec. 13, 1862) constitute the depressing era of military uncertainty. Administrative ability, executive resolution and hardihood, were never more impressively displayed than during this disheartening period; but, in spite of it, inconstant victory seemed to vibrate between the hostile banners.

"The encouraging results of Iuka and Corinth, and the opening of the Upper Mississippi, inspired the national heart with new confidence in the protection of Heaven and in the heroism of our Western soldiers. Brave old Farragut earns the grade of Admiral, and the sobriquet Salamander, by leading his thundering armada through the feu d'enfer which belched from Fort Philip on the right, and Fort Jackson on the left; and the martial and financial heart of the Rebellion in the South-west is palsied when the guns of his fleet sweep the streets of New Orleans, and the Tamer of Cities hangs up its scalp in his wigwam. War surges and resurges over the devoted plains of Missouri and Arkansas. The Peninsular campaign, with its checkered fortunes, alternately excites exultation and wailing; but its final failure plants in the national heart the seeds of despair, while the whirlwind which devours the army of Pope constrains us to doubt the justice of God. The victories of South Mountain and Antietam, fairly costing their weight in gore, and turning to ashes in our grasp, failed to re-animate our hopes; while Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh are more than counterpoised by the heart-rending butchery of Fredericksburg. . . . The definitive proclamation was promulged on the first of January, 1863; and it seems instantly to have been visited with that 'gracious favor' which it so reverently implores. From that eventful date, Federal ascendency flows surely and steadily on to the capture of Richmond and the surrender of Lee. Reverses and checks, it is true, intervene; but they are only eddies in the Amazon. During these twenty-seven controlling months of the war, into which more general engagements were crowded than into any equal period of the world's history, the loss of but one attests the advent of higher inspiration and divine re-enforcement