CSS Forums - Abraham Lincoln By Henry Watterson

[CENTER][B][FONT="Georgia"][SIZE="4"]Abraham Lincoln
By
Henry Watterson[/SIZE][/FONT][/B][/CENTER]
[FONT="Georgia"][SIZE="3"]From Caesar to Bismarck and Gladstone the world has had its statesmen and its soldiers-men, who rose to eminence (high station, rank, or repute) and power step by step, through a series of geometric progression (A sequence of numbers in which each number is multiplied by the same factor to obtain the next number in the sequence 5, 25, 125, 625, ...), as it were each advancement following in regular order one after the other, the whole obedient (submissive to another's authority) to well-established and well understood laws of cause and effect. They were not what we call ‘men of destiny’. They were ‘men of the time’. They were men whose careers had a beginning, middle, and an end, rounding off lives with histories, full it may be of interesting and exciting events, but comprehensive(including many details or aspects of something) and comprehensible(able to be understood), simple, clear and complete.

The inspired ones are fewer. Whence their emanation (To send something out into the air or environment), where and how they got their power, by what rule they lived, moved and had their being, we know it. There is no explication (the process of analyzing and developing an idea or principle in detail) to their lives. They rose from shadow and they went in mist (a mass of small drops of water in the air close to the ground). We see them, feel them, but we know them not. They came, God’s word upon their lips; they did their office, God’s mantle (the authority or responsibility connected with someone’s position, duties, or beliefs) about them; and they vanished, God’s holy light between the world and them, leaving behind a memory, half mortal and half myth (story). From first to last, they were the creation of some special Providence (Fate and destiny), baffling (impossible to understand; perplexing) the wit (cleverness) of men to fathom (understand a difficult problem or an enigmatic person after much thought), defeating the machinations (a plot or scheme) of the world, the flesh and the devil, until their work was done, then passing from the scene as mysteriously (in a way that is difficult or impossible to understand, explain, or identify) as they had come upon it.

Tried by this standard, where shall we find an example so impressive as Abraham Lincoln, whose career might be chanted (to keep shouting a word or phrase many times) by a Greek chorus (the part of a song that does not change and is repeated several times) as at once the prelude (a short piece of music that introduces a longer piece of music) and the epilogue(an extra part added at the end of a novel, long poem, or other piece of writing) of the most imperial theme of modern times?

Born as lowly as Christ in a hovel (a small and dirty or untidy house); reared(to look after a child or young animal until it is fully grown) in penury (the state of being extremely poor) and squalor (dirty and unpleasant conditions that people live or work in); with no gleam (to shine brightly) of light or fair surrounding; without graces(kind, polite, and fair behavior) actual or acquired; without name or fame or official training, it was reserved for him to have command at a supreme moment of a nation’s fate.

The great leaders of his party, the most experienced and accomplished public men of the day were made to stand aside, were sent to the rear whilst this fantastic figure was led by an unseen hand to the front and given the reins (government) of power. It is immaterial whether we were for him or against him; wholly immaterial (not important or relevant). That during four years he filled the vast space allotted him proves that he was inspired of God.

Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where did Mozart get his music? Whose hand smote (hit) the lyre (an ancient Greek musical instrument with strings and shaped like the letter U) of Scottish ploughman, and stayed the life of German priest? God, God and God alone; and as surely as these were raised up by God, inspired by God, was Abraham Lincoln; and a thousand years hence, no drama, no tragedy, no epic poem, will be filled with greater wonder, or be followed by mankind with deeper feeling than that which tells the story of his life and death.

[/SIZE][/FONT]