Abraham Lincoln: The Practical MysticGrierson, Francis
Religion
Abraham Lincoln: The Practical Mystic
Grierson, Francis
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Psychology
In all vital phenomena there is periodicity. The barometer comes to its
minimum height for the day between four and five in the evening; again,
it is at its maximum height between eight and ten in the morning and
between eight and ten in the evening. The two first of these periods is
when the electric tension is at its minimum; at its maximum during the
two latter periods. The basic unit of the lunar day is twelve hours. An
ordinary or solar day is two days, and an ordinary week is two weeks.
This hebdomadal or heptal cycle governs, either in its multiple or
submultiple, an immense number of phenomena in animal life in which the
number seven has a prominent place. A Mr. Hay, of Edinburgh, writing
some sixty years ago, says:
"There is harmony of numbers in all nature--in the force of gravity, in
the planetary movements, in the laws of heat, light, electricity and
chemical affinity, in the forms of animals and plants, in the
perceptions of the mind. Indeed, the direction of natural and physical
science is towards a generalisation which shall express the fundamental
laws of all by one simple numerical ratio. The mysticism of Pythagoras
was vague only to the unlettered. It was a system of philosophy founded
on existing mathematics which comprised more of the philosophy of
numbers than our present."
Philosophical students of human nature have taken note of the danger
professional and business men encounter when they extend their mental
activities beyond the hour of four p.m. (by the sun). Thousands fail
because of their ignorance of the fundamental laws governing all things
physical. The morning hours up to ten a.m. are just as dangerous for
many who are highly susceptible to the electric tension which occurs up
to that hour. The feeling that prevails from four to eight in the
afternoon is one of mental or physical fatigue, that in the morning one
of irritability.
Lincoln was not immune from natural law. On one occasion, at five p.m.,
he was suddenly informed of the defeat of the Northern Forces, and it
was feared by those who were present that he would fall to the ground.
Mr. C. C. Coffin sprang forward to assist the President, who, however,
succeeded in returning to the White House unaided.
Nature creates the natural, man the unnatural. Solomon declared: "To
everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose."
_Lincoln's Face_
Knowledge, conviction, and certainty gave to Lincoln's face that
penetrating power which could not have been assumed on occasion even by
the most versatile and gifted actor.
The two following quotations from "The Valley of Shadows" describe
Lincoln's personal appearance and the emotions produced by the
expression of his features:--
"'The sperrit air more in the eye than it air in the tongue,' said Elihu
Gest, rising from his seat; 'if Abe Lincoln looked at the wust
slave-driver long enough Satan would give up every time.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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