There is a measure of truth in this presentation of one side of the case, but it is not the whole truth. Lincoln did not possess this supposed clarity of vision of all spiritual truth. Some things he saw clearly, but his faith and vision had each of them marked and undeniable limitations. In his widely popular and in many respects excellent oration on Lincoln, Bishop Fowler said: "Let us analyze Mr. Lincoln if we are able. This task is difficult on account of his symmetry. He was so much like a sphere that he projected farthest in every direction. His comprehension is to us impossible on account of his immensity, for a man can be comprehended only by his peers" (p. 28). He found the same difficulty in estimating Grant. "It is difficult to analyze General Grant, because he is so simple and complete. Like Lincoln, he is like a sphere; approached from any side he seems to project farthest toward you. Try to divide, and each section is like all the rest. Cut him through, and he is all the way through alike" (p. 127). I do not think that this is correct concerning Grant, and it certainly is not true concerning Lincoln. He was not a sphere; he was angular or he was nothing.[57] In endeavoring to assess his religious convictions, we are liable to encounter contradictions. But there is a certain inconsistent consistency in those contradictions. There are certain kinds of contradictions which we do not encounter, and certain which, encountering, may be interpreted in the light of certain underlying agreements. For instance, the Calvinism which he inherited and heard through his childhood and which he accepted in a kind of semi-fatalistic philosophy might seem the reverse of scientific. But the natural science which Lincoln learned from _Vestiges of Creation_, while it would have been repudiated by every Baptist preacher whom Lincoln ever heard in his youth, was capable of being grafted upon that very root.