CHAPTER XVII

Lincoln as a student - The effect of a college education - Comparison of John Fiske's and Lincoln's conception of social evolution - Lincoln takes up Euclid-Reading "The Annual of Science"- Studying higher mathematics - His attempt to square the circle - His self-confidence and secretiveness His mechanical bent Securing a patent- Working on the model of his invention at Walter Davis's shop - Explaining it to his partner and callers at his office- Preparing his lecture on "Discoveries and Inventions" - Delivers it at Jacksonville and Springfield - What some of his colleagues thought about it-Several paragraphs of the lecture - Account by S. H. Melvin of what Lincoln did with the manuscript - Herndon also enters the lecture field - Delivers his effort entitled "The Sweep of Commerce" before an audience in Cook's Hall in Springfield What the “Journal” said about it.

THERE is no gainsaying the assertion that Lincoln was in the main a profound student. A natural logician and patient investigator he was so relentless and unerring in his pursuit of knowledge that the question naturally arises: "What effect would the discipline and attrition of a college training have had upon him?" I have met people who pretend to believe that instead of strengthening, it would have weakened him. "If he had been trained in a university before his style of expression had crystallized," said Herndon, "his utterances, though conforming to the tenets of modern and so-called artistic criticism, would have been rounded and the sharp edges which so unmistakably betoken his individuality would have disappeared beneath the gloss of conventionality. His mental evolution was through thought to Æsop's Fables, through these to general maxims, from maxims to stories, jokes and jests; from these to clear, strong Anglo-Saxon words of power. I have heard Lincoln substantially state this, including what he

believed was the probability of the weakening process the methods of a classical or college education."

Illustrative of this element in Mr. Lincoln's makeup and style of expression as compared to that of a profoundly scientific and college trained mind, attention is called to the "Formula of the Law of Progress" as laid down by John Fiske in his book on "Cosmic Philosophy": "The evolution of Society is a continuous establishment of psychical relations within the community in conformity to the physical and psychical relations arising in the environment; during which both the community and the environment pass from a state of relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a state of relatively definite coherent heterogeneity; and during which the constituent units of the community become even more distinctly individuated."

So much for a university-trained philosopher's conception of social evolution! But note how Lincoln, a clearheaded, self-educated man illustrates the law of progress: "Many independent men everywhere in these States a few years back in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all."

The failure of Lincoln to return to Congress after the end of his first and only term in 1849 marks the beginning of an important epoch in his development. Believing he

PART OF A LETTER OF LINCOLN'S TO A CLIENT (ROWLAND SMITH & CO., APRIL 24, 1844), SHOWING ERRORS IN HIS USUALLY

CORRECT SPELLING

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

HE TAKES UP EUCLID

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was politically moribund and yearning to broaden hist knowledge, he turned most heartily to intensive study.

"He secured a copy of Euclid," related Herndon, "and took it with him on the circuit. Of nights and at odd times he would bury himself in the study of the problems of the great Greek geometrician. Occasionally I traveled with him, occupying the same bed, he reading by the light of a tallow candle. Sometimes the bedsteads were slightly short so that his feet would extend a trifle over the footboard. Thus engaged he would study for hours. Having apparently abandoned all thought of ever rising above the waves of the political sea, he became not only deeply studious and abstracted, but markedly reticent if not gloomy.

"One day about this time I purchased at Bradford & Johnson's book-store in Springfield a copy of a work called 'The Annual of Science,' as I now recall the name, and was reading it when Lincoln came in the office. In answer to his query: 'Billy, what are you reading?' I handed it to him. He looked over it for a while and then returned it with the suggestion that so far as he could observe it was constructed on the right principle. 'Unlike many books of its class,' he said, 'it recites the failures as well as the successes of life. Too often we read only of successful experiments in science and philosophy, whereas if the history of failure and defeat was included there would be a saving of brain work as well as time. The evidence of defeat, the recital of what was not as well as what cannot be done serves to put the scientist or philosopher on his guard sets him to thinking on the right line.' In the afternoon he picked the book up again and later took it home with him to read that night. The next morning when he had re