My childhood's home I see again,
And sadden with the view;
And still, as memory crowds my brain,
There's pleasure in it too.

O Memory! thou midway world
'Twixt earth and paradise,

Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise,

And, freed from all that's earthly vile,
Seem hallowed, pure and bright,
Like scenes in some enchanted isle
All bathed in liquid light.

As dusky mountains please the eye
When twilight chases day;
As bugle-notes that, passing by,
In distance die away;

As leaving some grand waterfall,
We, lingering, list its roar—

So memory will hallow all

We've known but know no more.

Near twenty years have passed away

Since here I bid farewell

To woods and fields, and scenes of play,
And playmates loved so well.

Where many were, but few remain
Of old familiar things;

But seeing them to mind again

The lost and absent brings.

The friends I left that parting day,
How changed, as time has sped!
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray;
And half of all are dead.

I hear the loved survivors tell

How naught but death could save,

Till every sound appears a knell,
And every spot a grave.

I range the fields with pensive tread,
And pace the hollow rooms,
And feel (companion of the dead)
I'm living in the tombs.

On September 6, 1846, Lincoln enclosed to "Friend Johnson" another of the cantos he had promised, this one on a certain Matthew Gentry, "son of the rich man of a very poor neighborhood," who had been a schoolmate of Lincoln's in Indiana. This boy, three years Lincoln's senior, at nineteen, had become "furiously mad," and on Lincoln's visit in Indiana in 1844, he found him "still lingering in this wretched condition." Lincoln made him the subject of this second

canto.

But here's an object more of dread
Than aught the grave contains-
A human form with reason fled,
While wretched life remains.

When terror spread, and neighbors ran
Your dangerous strength to bind,
And soon, a howling, crazy man,

Your limbs were fast confined;

How then you strove and shrieked aloud,
Your bones and sinews bared;

And fiendish on the gazing crowd
With burning eyeballs glared;

And begged and swore, and wept and prayed,
With maniac laughter joined;

How fearful were these signs displayed
By pangs that killed the mind!

And when at length the drear and long
Time soothed by fiercer woes,

How plaintively thy mournful song
Upon the still night rose!

I've heard it oft as if I dreamed.
Far distant, sweet and lone,
The funeral dirge it ever seemed
Of reason dead and gone.

To drink its strains I've stole away,
All stealthily and still,

Ere yet the rising god of day

Had streaked the eastern hill.

Air held her breath; trees with the spell
Seemed sorrowing angels round,
Whose swelling tears in dewdrops fell
Upon the listening ground.

But this is past, and naught remains
That raised thee over the brute:

Thy piercing shrieks and soothing strains
Are like, forever mute.

Now fare thee well! More thou the cause
Than subject now of woe.

All mental pangs by time's kind laws
Hast lost the power to know.

O death! thou awe-inspiring prince
That keepst the world in fear,
Why dost thou tear more blest ones hence,
And leave him lingering here?

Mr. Nicolay's comment on these two poems of Lincoln's is that, although "they call for no special admiration on account of intrinsic merit, they are of exceeding interest as stepping-stones to the attainment of that literary style and power which, in his later speeches and writings, have elicited the enthusiasm of the best scholars and critics."

MISCELLANIES

NOTE FOR LAW LECTURE. UNDATED. WRITTEN ABOUT JULY 1, 1850

In the following note, Lincoln condenses the essential ethics of the legal profession. The note is autobiographical in respect to his own practice. It is now conceded that Lincoln stood among the first men of the profession in Illinois. Mr. Richards shows conclusively that Lincoln was concerned in one hundred and seventy-five cases before the Illinois Supreme Court, and in two cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. This is not to mention his practice in the lower courts. Lincoln's largest fee, Herndon tells us (1:351353), was $5,000, for services as attorney for the Illinois Central railroad, of which George B. McClellan was superintendent. Several young men read law in Lincoln and Herndon's office. Of these, Mr. Henry B. Rankin, now eighty-two years of age, and the author of an important volume of "Recollections,' was one. Mr. Rankin still lives in Springfield. Lincoln's advice to prospective readers of the law will be found in his letters to Isham Reavis, November 5, 1855; to James T. Thornton, December, 1858; and to J. M. Brockman, September 25, 1860, written after his nomination for the Presidency. The letter to J. M. Brockman is included in the Appendix.

I am not an accomplished lawyer. I find quite as much material for a lecture in those points wherein I have failed, as in those wherein I have been moderately successful. The leading rule for a lawyer, as for the man of every other calling, is diligence. Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labour pertaining to it which can then be done. When you bring a common law-suit, if you have the facts for doing so, write the declaration at once. If a law point be involved, examine the books, and note the

authority you rely on upon the declaration itself, where you are sure to find it when wanted. The same of defences and pleas. In business not likely to be litigated-ordinary collection cases, foreclosures, partitions, and the like-make all examinations of titles, and note them and even draft orders and decrees in advance. The course has a triple advantage; it avoids omissions and neglect, saves your labour when once done, performs the labour out of court when you have leisure, rather than in court when you have not.

Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business if he cannot make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal error to young lawyers than relying too much on speechmaking. If any one, upon his rare powers of speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery of the law, his case is a failure in advance.

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbours to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser-in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peace-maker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.

The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule, never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common