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"To front a lie in arms and not to yield

This shows, methinks, God's plan
And measure of a stalwart man."

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

66 "There are no mistakes in the universe of God."-CHARLES SUMNER.

"That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science."-GEORGE BANCROFT.

46

The great master-spirits of the world are not so much distinguished, after all, by the acts they do as by the sense itself of some mysterious girding of the Almighty upon them, whose behests they are set to fulfil."-HORACE BUSHNELL.

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

"No human council has devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out, these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God."-ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

FAR

CHAPTER I.

ANCESTRY.

AR back in the centuries the river Witham, which winds through the lowlands of eastern England, was known as the Lindis. The town which the Romans built on the bank of the stream received the name of Lindum. When the Normans made themselves masters of England they built a castle on the top of the hill that overlooks the town and changed the name to Lincoln. (') In the course of years it became the name of a family. Possibly there were several families

bearing the name in Norfolk and Lincoln counties. We know 1620. that one such family had its home in Hingham, and that Samuel Lincoln was an infant on that day when the Pilgrims, in December, 1620, established a government of the people in America. We also know that there was an older brother, Thomas; but it is not certain that we shall ever learn much about their parents. It seems probable that they were obliged to work hard to obtain a living for themselves and their children. We may conclude that their home was a cottage thatched with straw. We may think of the brothers as playing in the streets, or going into the green fields and gathering daisies, listening to the larks and nightingales. They could look across the meadows and see the tall spire of Norwich Cathedral, and in the hush and stillness hear the great bell sending forth its music.

Quite likely they heard their parents say that King James had died, and that his son, Charles I., was King. Then the talk was about troublesome times. The King maintained that he was ordained by God to rule the nation, and that it was the duty of the people to obey. The bishop preached that the King could do no wrong.

1625.

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Charles wanted money, and levied taxes without consulting Parliament. The Puritans who would not pay, together with those who would not accept the ritual prepared by the bishop, were arrested-so many that the jail and the Guildhall in Norwich were filled. When the officers undertook to collect the tax in Lincoln the people pelted them with

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