"He built the rail-pile as he built the state, Pouring his splendid strength through every blow, The conscience of him testing every stroke, To make his deed the measure of a man." III. A LIFE BUILT AS ONE WOULD HAVE THE NATION Lincoln's life may be prized as much in what he did for himself as in what he did for his country, because in the course of our interest they mean the same and become the same. He has shown to every American boy that the right desire, no matter what the circumstances and conditions, will invariably lead along the right way to the successful life, because the successful character is a successful career for a successful humanity. Very clearly one thing is sure, he was wonderfully successful in finding the right thing to do and in finding the right way to do it. That is what humanity wants and such a man is the human ideal. Accordingly, Lincoln's personal moral development, apart from his historical public career, is an introductory story inspiring an interest for the patriotic study of his statesmanship and the fundamental principles of American life. Any boy or girl can appreciate the events that entered into the making of Lincoln's mind and character, but only a student of statesmanship and history can read beyond this and appreciate the almost superhuman task which Lincoln carried through to the extinction of slavery and the preservation of the United States of America. In that view we are not here writing the biography or history of Lincoln the Statesman, nor of Lincoln the War President, for that work has already been exhaustively and nobly done, but to give the inspiring meaning of his experiences from which arose the boy and man representing above all others the meaning and mission of Americans and America. CHAPTER II I. THE PROBLEM OF A WORTHWHILE LIFE Many of the early events entering into Lincoln's life seem too trivial to mention in the light of his great services to America. But the human struggle and the moral achievement of a supreme American ideal cannot be appreciated or understood unless the experiences buffeting the way to it, and their circumstances, are known for what they mean to his life. Trivial experiences have very much to do with forming our lives and without them we can neither appreciate nor understand the great events that we believe have given us our career and our destiny. After being nominated for the presidency of the United States, Lincoln was asked for material from his early life out of which to make a biography. "Why," he replied earnestly, as if this was a sacred privacy in his own profound struggle, "it is a great folly to attempt to make anything out of me or my early life. It can all be condensed in a single sentence; and that sentence you will find in Grey's Elegy: 'The short and simple annals of the poor.'"