himself at the outset the full strength of the other man's position. It
was also his principle to accept no case in the justice of which he had
not been able himself to believe. He possessed also by nature an
exceptional capacity for the detection of faulty reasoning; and his
exercise of the power of analysis in his work at the Bar proved of great
service later in widening his influence as a political leader. The power
that he possessed, when he was assured of the justice of his cause, of
convincing court and jury became the power of impressing his convictions
upon great bodies of voters. Later, when he had upon his shoulders the
leadership of the nation, he took the people into his confidence; he
reasoned with them as if they were sitting as a great jury for the
determination of the national policy, and he was able to impress upon
them his perfect integrity of purpose and the soundness of his
conclusions,--conclusions which thus became the policy of the nation.

He calls himself a "mast-fed lawyer" and it is true that his
opportunities for reading continued to be most restricted. Davis said in
regard to Lincoln's work as a lawyer: "He had a magnificent equipoise of
head, conscience, and heart. In non-essentials he was pliable; but on
the underlying principles of truth and justice, his will was as firm as
steel." We find from the record of Lincoln's work in the Assembly and
later in Congress that he would never do as a Representative what he was
unwilling to do as an individual. His capacity for seeing the humorous
side of things was of course but a phase of a general clearness of
perception. The man who sees things clearly, who is able to recognise
both sides of a matter, the man who can see all round a position, the
opposite of the man in blinders, that man necessarily has a sense of
humour. He is able, if occasion presents, to laugh at himself. Lincoln's
capacity for absorbing and for retaining information and for having this
in readiness for use at the proper time was, as we have seen, something