science; in six weeks he has learned enough to begin his labors.
Sangamon County must have representatives, why not he? and his
circular goes out. Ambition alone will not explain this power of
instantaneous action. It comes largely from that active imagination
which, when a new relation or position opens, seizes on all its
possibilities and from them creates a situation so real that one
enters with confidence upon what seems to the unimaginative the
rashest undertaking. Lincoln saw the possibilities in things and
immediately appropriated them.

But the position he filled in Sangamon County in 1835 was not all
due to these qualities; much was due to his personal charm. By all
accounts he was big, awkward, ill-clad, shy--yet his sterling honor,
his unselfish nature, his heart of the true gentleman, inspired
respect and confidence. Men might laugh at his first appearance, but
they were not long in recognizing the real superiority of his nature.

Such was Abraham Lincoln at twenty-six, when the tragic death of Ann
Rutledge made all that he had attained, all that he had planned, seem
fruitless and empty. He was too sincere and just, too brave a man, to
allow a great sorrow permanently to interfere with his activities.
He rallied his forces, and returned to his law, his surveying,
his politics. He brought to his work a new power, that insight and
patience which only a great sorrow can give.

(_Begun in the November number 1895; to be continued_)


LINCOLN'S BEARD--THE LETTER OF MRS. BILLINGS REFERRED TO ON
PAGE 217.