One reason for Lincoln's power over his audiences was his intense sincerity. He carried his conscience into every discussion, he took no position that he did not believe was right, and he made no statements that he did not believe to be fair and true. Another was the sympathy he excited; when he related a story he laughed all over, and his own enjoyment was so contagious that the effect was greatly increased. He once said to Mr. Depew, in reference to some criticisms which had been made upon his story-telling, "They say I tell a great many stories; I reckon I do, but I have found in the course of a long experience that common people"--repeating it--"common people, take them as they run, are more easily influenced and informed through the medium of a broad illustration than in any other way, and as to what the hypercritical few may think I don't care." His pathos was quite as effective as his humor. His natural tenderness, his affectionate disposition, his poetic temperament, his sympathy for the weak and the sorrowful, and his comprehensive love of all that was good inspired him with a power to touch the hearts of the people as no other man in this country has ever been able to do. James H. McVicker, the famous actor, once told the author that the most marvellous exhibition of elocution he ever witnessed was Lincoln's recitation of the Lord's Prayer, and said that Lincoln told him at the time that it was the sublimest composition in the English language. Lincoln had the advantage of a photographic memory which could retain almost any passage in literature, and he was able to repeat long passages from Shakespeare and other plays and poems which pleased him. It was only necessary for him to read them over once or twice and they remained in his memory forever. He developed this faculty early in life, and it was the greatest enjoyment allowed the humble people among whom he lived to hear him recite passages from the books he had read and declaim selections from "The Kentucky Preceptor," which was a standard text-book in those days. He could repeat with effect all the poems and speeches in other school-readers, and his talent at mimicry furnished amusement for the neighborhood. The traditions of Gentryville tell us that the neighbors seldom gathered for a "raising," or a "quilting," or a "paring," or a "husking-bee" without hearing Abe Lincoln "take off" the itinerant preachers and politicians whose peculiarities had attracted his attention and appealed to his sense of humor. He attended all the trials in the neighborhood, and frequently walked fifteen miles to the town of Boonevile when court was in session there. His faculty was so well known in that part of the State that the lawyers and others who gathered on such occasions would invariably induce him to make a stump speech or imitate some backwoods orator. His essays and rhymes were much admired, and an itinerant Baptist preacher was so impressed