Another limitation must be found in Lincoln's morbid cautiousness. Herndon tells us that his very walk gave the impression of craftiness; that it was not the product of deceit, but only of a caution so excessive that it became something more than second nature. He was secretive to a marked degree. When he seemed to be confidential it was in minor matters, or matters on which he had already made up his mind and intended soon to make a public statement. Whatever may be the true story of his engagement to Mary Todd and of those stormy and obscure months between "that fatal first of January, 1840," and the date of their wedding, November 4, 1842, Lincoln's letters to Speed show an excess of caution that was positively abnormal. That it was a mark of insanity has been vigorously denied and with much apparent reason; but if it was not the mark of acute mental aberration, it was the manifestation of a permanent mental trait. Such a nature, which debated like Hamlet the question of suicide and actually printed a brief article which was later cut from the files of the Springfield paper--probably by Lincoln himself--which lingered shivering on the brink of matrimony like the "timorous mortal" of whom Lincoln was taught to sing, must have hesitated long before coming to such a confident poise between alternating faith and doubt as that he could have stood before the altar of a Presbyterian church in Springfield or in Washington and taken upon him the vows of church membership. Different writers have attempted to account for Lincoln's failure to affiliate with the church wholly on the basis of his being greater than the churches. I quote from one of these characteristic addresses, and one that is in many respects excellent: "Perhaps his religious nature was so broad that it could not be compassed within the limits of any particular creed or system of doctrines. Perhaps he saw the soul of truth so clearly that he could not accept any one of them as a complete and final revelation of truth. Perhaps he so clearly realized that all religious creeds and systems have their roots in human nature that he could look upon the Christian system as the only deposit of truth committed to the children of men. Perhaps his conception of Deity was so vast that he could not see all the Divine attributes manifest in the historic Christ. Perhaps he felt that some of the doctrines of Christianity, as they were formulated and preached in his day, would be a hindrance rather than a help to his religious faith, so clear was his vision of the things which are unseen and eternal, and so close was his relation to the Author of his being. Perhaps he felt no need of a daysman or mediator, because he himself knew the Lord face to face."--MILTON R. SCOTT: _Lincoln, Was He an Inspired Prophet?_, pp. 55-57.