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
So with the fashion of his humble ways among his fellowmen. It also
wears a varying guise. It may be modest reticence, abhorrence of
parade, companionship with need, submission to abuse, co-partnership
with a brother's shame, preferring another's gain, honoring other's
worth, seeking ways to serve. But common, essential and unchanged
within all these as well, is simple, pure humility. It is a solid
moral trait, substantial and irreducible. As illustrated in Lincoln's
life, it is entirely dignified and beautiful, essential and
inseparable. As shown in his behavior, it corresponds with a
relationship, as inherent and inwrought in his very being as his very
breath. As a trait of Lincoln's character, his humility has a root, as
firm and durable as is the transcendence of God, and as are the
opportunity and obligation of every man among his brothermen to bear,
forbear, and serve.
It is just the same with his fidelity. It too, is an uncompounded and
imperative moral trait. It is a living, facile grace, easily capable
of many kinds of affirmation. It may identify itself with truth, in
reasoned or implicit faith; with promise, pledge, or oath, in loyalty;
with proof by testing fires, as fidelity, steadfastness, or
reliability; with unvarying, free adhesion to eternal principles, as
consistency; with clear conviction of sure reality, as verity; with
ethical straightforwardness, as rectitude, sincerity, or honesty; with
even, balanced justice, as equity; with the innermost and final norm
of truth in any personal life, as self-assertion, or self-respect. But
common within them all, unaltered and unalterable amid all those
varied and varying forms, is simple, unmixed constancy. In any
analysis of Lincoln's moral life this moral trait will forever demand
distinct and distinctive recognition and name. It is based and
centered in his estimate and estimation of himself, the eye of his
very honor, the core of his nobility, the very sense within his living
soul of the life of his integrity. It is the inward attitude of his
moral worth, as invincible, insistent, and elemental as any purest
action of his self-consciousness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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