and writings at the time of their delivery, it was after the war that I awoke to a full appreciation of Lincoln's power of expression-a power which was one of the main elements of his strength as a leader.

It is not strange that an unusual faculty of expression should be found to belong to those who have risen to leadership among men. This expressiveness may be of various kinds. Lincoln and Gladstone' having been contemporaries, born in the same year, and each rising to the highest leadership in the two great English-speaking nations, it is natural that they should be compared as to their use of language spoken and written. Gladstone's elaborate and persuasive eloquence, his manifold learning and well-stored memory, the copiousness of his diction, and the dignity, as well as the fire and energy of his forensic appeals-these were among the wonders of a good part of the last century. But lately, on separate occasions, I asked of two of Gladstone's most eminent parliamentary supporters and admirers, without contradiction, and, indeed, with full agreement on the part of both, whether it was not one of the miracles of genius that notwithstanding Gladstone had enjoyed all that culture could accomplish,-by means of university training, and familiarity with the art and literature of the ancient and modern world, and long training and leadership in public life, he had not left a single masterpiece of English, hardly one great phrase that clings to the memory of men; while Lincoln, without any educational advantages whatever, growing up in the backwoods, with scarcely a dozen books of value at his command, and ignorant of the literature and art of modern Europe, as of ancient times, had acquired a style of higher distinction than that of Gladstone, and had bequeathed more than one masterpiece to the literature of the English tongue.

Lincoln's style in speech and writing is the same sort of miracle that gave us the consummate art of Shakspere, the uncolleged actor; of Burns, the plowman; and of Keats, the apothecary's apprentice, son of a livery-stableman. It is not easy to analyze a miracle, but in discussing the leadership of Lincoln it is interesting to find certain qualities in his literary style

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that are traits of his character, and thus elements of his leadership.

Notwithstanding that the country has been ransacked for every record of his public speech, and every scrap of paper to which he put pen, there has been found from him absolutely nothing discreditable, and little that can be criticized in the way of expression. Without the aid. of any teacher, he early learned to be moderate and reasonable in statement, so that on the part even of the obscure young politician there is a complete absence of that kind of public speech which is described in a passage he loved to quote, where it is said of the orator that "he mounted the rostrum, threw back his head, shined his eyes, and left the consequences to God."

LINCOLN'S SENSE OF HUMOR LINCOLN'S relish for a phrase like this recalls his extraordinary sense of humor. Probably no great historical figure in the realm of action ever had Lincoln's intense humorousness, combined with so keen and racy a wit. Lincoln's laugh was something amazing. His face, in repose, well-balanced and commanding, with the grimace of laughter is said to have become a surprising thing. Many anecdotes relate the boisterousness of his appreciation of a humorous situation or story. Hay tells of his cheery laugh, which filled the Blue Room with infectious good nature. "Homeric laughter," Hay says it sometimes was; adding this genial touch, that it was "dull pleasure" to Lincoln "to laugh alone." Some visitors at the White House were filled with wonder at the quick transition from unbridled mirth to pathetic seriousness. What wonder that "the boisterous laughter became less frequent year by year, the eye grew veiled by constant meditation on momentous subjects; the air of reserve and detachment from his surroundings increased," and, as Hay says, and his pictures and the two contrasting life-masks show, he rapidly grew old.

Lincoln's sense of humor, which flavored now and then his speeches and writings, and constantly his conversation, went along with a homely wit which frequently brought to his argument quaint and convincing illustration. His sense of humor

was, indeed, a real assistance in his leadership, having many uses: it relieved the strain of his strenuous labors; it helped to attach the masses to his personality; and it assisted him out of many difficulties. We did not fully know till lately that he himself so keenly appreciated the part that story-telling played in his career. Colonel Burt reports a strange interview with Lincoln at the Soldiers' Home at a time of keen anxiety and when a person present had rudely demanded one of his "good stories." "I believe," said Lincoln, turning away from the challenger, "I have the popular reputation of being a storyteller, but I do not deserve the name in its general sense; for it is not the story itself, but its purpose, or effect, that interests me. I often avoid a long and useless discussion by others or a laborious explanation on my own part by a short story that illustrates my point of view. So, too, the sharpness of a refusal or the edge of a rebuke may be blunted by an appropriate story, so as to save wounded feeling and yet serve the purpose. No, I am not simply a story-teller, but story-telling as an emollient saves me much friction and distress."

TRAITS OF LINCOLN'S STYLE

THE most striking characteristic of Lincoln's style may be found in the record from the beginning. Candor was a trait of the man, and not less of his verbal manner. His natural honesty of character, his desire to make his meaning clear, -literally to demonstrate what he be lieved to be the truth with mathematical precision, this gave his expression both attractiveness and force. The simplicity of his nature, his lack of self-consciousness and vanity, tended to simplicity and directness of diction. An eminent lawyer has said, perhaps with exaggeration,that without the massive reasoning of Webster, or the resplendent rhetoric of Burke, Lincoln exceeded them both in his faculty of statement. His style was affected, too, by the personal traits of consideration for those of a contrary mind, his toleration, and large human sympathy. But Lincoln's style might have had all these qualities, and yet not have carried as it did. Beyond these traits comes the miracle-the cadence of his prose, and its traits of pathos and of imagination. Lin

coln's prose, at its height, and when his spirit was stirred by aspiration and resolve, affects the soul like noble music. Indeed, there may be found in all his great utterances a strain which is like the leading motive-the Leit-motif-in musical drama; a strain of mingled pathos, heroism, and resolution. That is the strain in the two inaugurals, in the "Gettysburg Address," and in his letter of consolation to a bereaved mother, which moves the hearts of generation after generation.

Lincoln's power of expression was evidently one of the most effective elements of his leadership. The sympathy and toleration which made his writings and speeches so persuasive assisted his leadership not only in convincing his listeners, and in endearing him, the leader, to individuals and the masses, but helped him as a statesman to take large and humane views, and to adopt measures in keeping with such views. To that sympathy and that toleration a reunited country is under constant obligation not merely for the result of a successfully conducted war,successful in the true interests of both antagonists, but for the continuing possibility of good feeling between the sections. To think that in the preparatory political struggle and during the four years of the hideous conflict, Abraham Lincoln, though his spirit was strained almost beyond human endurance by the harassments of his position; though misunderstood and foully calumniated by public antagonists, and thwarted and plotted against by some of his own apparent supporters, uttered not one word of violence or rancor,-not a phrase which, after the cessation of hostilities, might return to embitter the defeated combatants, or be resented by their descendants!

HIS TOLERANCE AND SYMPATHY

THIS extraordinary forbearance of the President's has often been spoken of as an amiable trait of the man; but do we fully realize the value to the nation of this trait, and the worth of its example in public leadership? After so tremendous a conflict, the world abroad wonders at the quickness of the return to sympathetic relations-to closer relations than everbetween the sections so lately at war. But we of the country know that the obstacles