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
And now, as with the Parthenon, this finished circuit of these four
constituents makes the outline of Lincoln's character not only clear
and cardinal, but inclusive and complete. Combining in their
significance and sweep all fleshly and material things; all things
superior and supreme; all the realm and range of human brotherhood;
and all the truth and worth within his own identity--every factor and
relation of his conscious life has been embraced. His neighbor and
himself as conscious peers, each in loyalty and love demanding and
awarding equal mutual heed; his spirit and his flesh, the two and only
two constituents of his personal life; his finite nature, facing, with
the daily meed and due of humble reverence, his infinite Creator, the
Lord of grace and truth--these exhaust the primal co-efficients of his
life; these enjoin and specify his primal obligations; these inspire
and consummate every moral excellence. When these four virtues are
discovered and admired, when each and all are elected and achieved;
when any man stands true and firm in self-respecting constancy; benign
and kind in self-devoting love; spiritually refined and pure amid a
world of corroding change; bending before the Most High God with the
adoration and awe that are forever so beautiful and meet, his moral
stature stands fully finished, balanced, and mature. So plain to see,
so integral, and so comprehensive are these four qualities of
Lincoln's character.
And now a mighty statement is waiting to be made. These four
constituents of Lincoln's virtue are not four fractions of his
character, each possessing and commanding in solitude and exclusively
some separate segment of his morality. Not alone is each one integral,
but Lincoln is integrally in each. His kindliness is not the action of
a section of his character; it enlists and occupies his being as a
whole and indivisibly. In Lincoln's faithfulness Lincoln's stature
stands complete. Pureness is by no means an occasional or intermittent
exercise of his judgment or choice. Nor in the geography of his life
is Lincoln's lowliness local or sectional. The total Lincoln is
kindly, faithful, pure, and lowly equally, fully and continually. When
in this address he calls the Nation to firmness in the right as God
reveals the right, his manhood stands full-sized in its exercise and
pledge of patriotic loyalty to duty and oath. When again with pitying
heart he makes reference to the slave driver's lash, to those
centuries of unpaid toil, to the terrible cruelty of the war with its
sorrowful entail of widows and orphans and wounds and graves, and,
disowning all malice, voices his great-souled plea for universal
charity and everlasting peace, the full flood of his full strength is
pouring through his speech. When he reminds his fellowmen how far the
worth of man transcends all other wealth, he is professing and
commending a faith to which all his hopes stand pledged. And when in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account