His Kindliness--Love } His Pureness--Life } } The Cardinal Virtues His Constancy--Truth } His Humility--Worth } PART III. SYNTHESIS Lincoln's Moral Unison PART IV. STUDIES His Symmetry--The Problem of Beauty His Composure--The Problem of Pessimism His Authority--The Problem of Government His Versatility--The Problem of Mercy His Patience--The Problem of Meekness His Rise from Poverty--The Problem of Industrialism His Philosophy--The Problem of Reality His Theodicy--The Problem of Evil His Piety--The Problem of Religion His Logic--The Problem of Persuasion His Personality--The Problem of Psychology PART V. CONCLUSION Lincoln's Character Lincoln's Preference AN EPILOGUE--Addressed to Theologians LAST INAUGURAL ADDRESS LINCOLN'S CARDINAL TRAITS PART I. INTRODUCTION LINCOLN'S MENTAL ENERGY In ethics, if anywhere, a master needs to be mentally sane and strong. Truth cannot be trifled with here. Error here, whether in judgment or as to fact, is fatal. Insight to exactly discern, and balance to considerately compare must be the mental instincts of a moralist. How was this with Lincoln? What was his outfit and what his discipline mentally? Was he unfailingly shrewd? Was he sufficiently sage? Was he by instinct and by habit truly an explorer and a philosopher? Did he have in store, and did he have in hand, the needful wealth of pertinent facts? Had he the logical strength and breadth to set them all in order and to see them all as one? Such inquiries are severe--too severe to be pressed or faced by anyone in haste. But in this study of Lincoln such inquiries are not to be escaped. To fairly answer them is worth to any man the toil of many days. For just as surely as such research is resolutely pushed through all its course, the eye will come to see where wisdom dwells, and to learn what mental judgment and mental insight truly mean. And it will grow clear as day that Lincoln mentally, as well as physically, was no weakling; that in intellect, as in stature, he stands among the first. In many places this stands clear. There is no better way to trace it out than to start from his last inaugural. To fully explore one single paragraph of this address, the paragraph with which it opens, will make one's examination of Lincoln's mental competence all but complete. Its opening sentence alludes to his first inaugural. That one allusion will repay pursuit.