Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;: A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to TheologiansBeardslee, Clark S. (Clark Smith)
Philosophy
Abraham Lincoln's Cardinal Traits;: A Study in Ethics, with an Epilogue Addressed to Theologians
Beardslee, Clark S. (Clark Smith)
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Psychology
These observations upon the immediate directness, the integral
whole-heartedness, and the deathless eagerness of Lincoln's
friendliness, if thoughtfully compared together, reveal that these
distinctive phases of his outpouring good-will are in nature
identically the same, and spring from an identical source. This
essential coincidence, this mutual convergence deserves attention. It
intimates wherein the very essence and being of his neighborly
kindness consists. And in Lincoln's life this indication of the
precise whereabouts and substance of the essential and innermost
quality and being of human kindliness is certain and clear, as in
hardly any other man. His benignance in his dealings with men is of
well-nigh unparalleled openness and freedom from all admixture and
alloy. Lincoln's kindness embodies and conveys Lincoln's self. In
every favor from him he is in the gift. In the center of all the
friendliness that is characteristic of Lincoln, Lincoln himself stands
erect and entire, offering and commending in every case his
full-sized, undivided self. This is the core and this the
circumference, this is the sum and this the substance of his
good-will. It is rich with all his personal wealth, solid with all his
personal worth. In him an act of friendship was an inauguration of
personal copartnership. In his good-will was all the energy of his
life. In his benefactions he gave himself. Just so with his
compassions. With the sorrows of humanity it was his way to enter into
personal fellowship. This was the form and being of all his
generosity. His mastery over all malice when facing a foe, his
abounding charity when judging a wrong, his hearty gladness in the
presence of human joy, his cordial ways in greeting friends, his
fatherly affection for his boy, his love for his native land, his pity
in presence of the bereft, his sadness at sight of wounds, his
readiness to share evenly with all his Nation all that guilty Nation's
painful discipline--all this variety and plenitude of ample,
open-hearted tenderness towards other men was alike and always the
complete and conscious contribution of himself. In brief, in full, and
finally, Lincoln's friendliness, through all its beautiful
versatility, was a free and facile, a full and total, personal
self-devotion. This is the common content giving all its value to all
the forms of his human kindliness.
HIS PURENESS--LIFE
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