If Booth's diary can be accepted as a faithful representation of his mental condition it will appear that he had on that fatal Friday submitted himself to the influence of three strong passions. He had accepted the South as his country, and he had come to look upon Mr. Lincoln as a tyrant and as its enemy. Hence he was influenced with hatred for Mr. Lincoln. Finally he had become maddened by an ambition to rival, or to excel Brutus. The influence of his possession is to be seen in the entries in his diary in the days following the 14th of April: "I can never repent it, though we hated to kill. Our country owed all our troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment. "The country is not what it was. This forced union is not what I have loved. I have not desired to outlive my country. . . . After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods, and last night being chased by gunboats till I was forced to return wet, cold, and starving with every man's hand against me, I am here in despair. And why? For doing what Brutus was honored for--what made Tell a hero. And yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew, am looked upon as a common cut-throat. My action was purer than either of theirs. One hoped to be great. The other had not only his country's, but his own wrongs to avenge. I knew no private wrong. I struck for my country and that alone. A country that groaned beneath this tyranny, and prayed for the end, and yet now behold the cold hand they extend to me. "God cannot pardon me if I have done wrong, yet I cannot see my wrong except in serving a degenerate people. The little, the very little I left behind to clear my name, the Government will not allow to be printed. So ends all. For my country I have given up all that makes life sweet and holy, brought misery upon my family, and am sure there is no pardon for me in Heaven since man so condemns me. "I do not repent of the blow I struck. I may before my God but not to man. I think I have done well. Thought I am abandoned with the curse of Cain upon me, when if the world knew my heart that one blow would have made me great, though I did desire no greatness." Finally, he writes: "I bless the entire world. Have never hated or wronged anyone. This last was not a wrong unless God deems it so; and it is with him to damn or bless me." These extracts from Booth's diary reveal the influences that controlled him in the great tragedy in which he became the principal actor. The death of Booth was only a lesser tragedy than the death of Mr. Lincoln.