The Portrait Life of Lincoln PART I An Epigrammatic Philosophy on Life and Abraham Lincoln The Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln This bronze doth keep the very form and mold Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this is he; For storms to beat on; the lone agony Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. As might some prophet of the elder day- T ROAD TO GREATNESS THE ROAD Philosophy of the Life of Lincoln HE Greatest Man in the World is not the man who accumulates the most money or the most power; it is not the man who takes the most out of life; it is the man who gives the most to life. The world is a great harvest-house of man's bounteous industry. Death garners the crops which he has sown. His true riches are estimated, not that which he leaves to his sons, but by that which he leaves to his fellow-men as a heritage for the generations to come. Life is a journey between the starting point of Decision and the faraway mountain heights of Ambition. The path is long and tortuous. It leads down through the dark and dismal swamps of Indecision, and over the rough and stony hills of Disappointment. There loom in the pathway the jagged cliffs of Discouragement that seem almost impossible to climb. Below them is the deep abyss of Lost Hope. There are crossroads of Temptation; and rivers of Sorrow to ford. It takes a strong man to make the journey; one who knows the forests, who has been hardened to the storms; who knows Nature because he has lived close to its heart. It is the rugged country boy, with his face tanned by the winds, his muscles strengthened by hard labor, and his heart full of sunshine and cheerfulness as its own beacon light, that makes the most courageous journeyman. It needs one whose will has been beaten into steel on the forge of life; one who knows the sweet peace of the rest that follows fatigue and suffering; one who has no fear because he has many times met danger face to face and overcome it. He knows that just beyond the gloomy clouds the golden light of life still shines; he knows the truth of the old adage, that it is darkest just before the dawn. The abyss of Time holds the millions that have been too weak for the journey; those who wandered in the glamour of luxury and ease-only to be lost. Far beyond, on the pinnacles that pierce the sky, where the glorious sun casts a halo about them, are the strong who have gained the heights and live forever in the sublime light of Immortality. Among them are many who were without worldly possessions and were counted poor on earth. Few, indeed, are there who were rich and powerful. Not one is among them who purchased his way with tributes of gold and silver. Courage, Fortitude, Sacrifice, Sympathy, Love-these are the price of Immortal Greatness; they lie in the heart of man. THE FULLNESS OF LIFE AND OPPORTUNITY-BIRTH I T is with this measure of a man that we look upon the American boy who journeyed from the humblest log home, along the road of life, to an everlasting abiding-place in the heart of humanity; who overcame the greatest obstacles that can beset man; who carried on his shoulders a burden that weighed down the world. There is not one who reads these lines who was born in humbler circumstances than Abraham Lincoln; not one whose opportunities in life are so limited as those which surrounded him; and yet he became one of the greatest of men. His life proves to all generations the power of an indomitable will and a resolute purpose; that man, when he conquers himself, can conquer the world. Do you remember that old homestead where you were born? It was a mansion compared with that rough log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness where Abraham Lincoln began life on that cold winter day on the twelfth of February, in 1809. Do you remember the dear old village where you spent your childhood days; its long country roads, shaded with towering maples and elms, along which you romped and shouted and played on your way to schoolthose good old days in the country? It was a great world of light and laughter, of pleasure and friendship, of wonderful opportunities, compared with that forest home of Abraham Lincoln where only the growl of the bear echoed along the trail, where the ring of the ax was the only sound of civilization, and desolation and poverty were his only friends-and they were staunch friends. Every American is rich today in comparison with the worldly possessions of Abraham Lincoln during his childhood, his youth, and his early manhood-rich in surroundings of home; rich in the comforts of life; rich in the opportunities for learning and education. There is not an American youth who is not a millionaire in the possibilities of vast success in life, compared to the possibilities that were within the grasp of Abraham Lincoln on the day that he left his father's roof to go out into the great world, of which he knew only the knowledge that comes from the school of the woods and the motherhood of Nature. There was one thing that he did not know and never learned-and that was Fear. He learned early that man is his own master; that with a strong arm, a strong heart, and a strong will, there is no power on earth that he need fear; that with his conscience clear and his mind clean the future will take care of itself and even Death is conquered. |