"Rejoice as you point to this child of the people, who was lifted so high that republican institutions became manifest in him! * * * Above all, see to it that his constant vows are fulfilled, and that the promises of the fathers are maintained, so that no person in the upright form of man can be shut out from their protection. Then will the unity of the republic be fixed on a foundation that cannot fail, and other nations will enjoy its security. The cornerstone of national independence is already in its place, and on it is inscribed the name of George Washington. There is another stone which must have its place at the corner also. This is the Declaration of Independence, with all its promises fulfilled. On this stone we will gratefully inscribe the name of Abraham Lincoln." [Illustration: Emancipation Statue of Lincoln--Washington, D. C.] Carlyle says that "sincerity, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic. All great men have this as the primary material in them." This is why the so-called "art for art's sake" never can be great. It is sincerity for merely formal success, and not for the spirit of "life more abundantly." Formal efficiency is achieved only in the complicated training of an extended education, but social efficiency of immeasurably greater value is the simplicity of knowledge. It is the source and explanation of all interests, and in that learning, Lincoln had no superior. He never achieved any good that he did not at once want to share it with others. As a boy he never learned anything good that he did not want to express it to others. In this process of receiving and giving is the fundamental means of building character and mind. In teaching others, he taught himself, and thus in losing his life he found it. In being able to tell his observations and interpretations to his comrades, he was training to be the schoolmaster of the world. Lincoln's earnest sincerity relating to himself, his associates, his community, his country, and for all mankind, may be illustrated in a few quotations: "The man who will not investigate both sides of a question is dishonest." "After all, the one meaning of life is simply to be kind." "I have not done much, but this I have done--wherever I have found a thistle growing, I have tried to pluck it up, and in its place to plant a flower." "I have been too familiar with disappointment, to be very much chagrined by defeat." "Without the assistance of that Divine Being I cannot succeed, and with that assistance I cannot fail." "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide." "A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people."