explanation of this curious contrast between his conversation and his
writing, so far as the debates are concerned, may be found in a remark
made by Lincoln to a friend who had urged him to treat the subject more
popularly. Lincoln said; "The occasion is too serious, the issues are
too grave. I do not seek applause, or to amuse the people, but to
convince them." With Lincoln the desire to prove his proposition,
whatever it might be, was always uppermost. In the earliest speeches
were noted the severe logic and the strict adherence to the subject in
hand. To the end Lincoln never changed this principle of his public
speaking.

Although the stories, then, have but little direct bearing upon
Lincoln's writings, they are so characteristic a feature of the man
that they cannot be wholly disregarded. In the two cases already noted
the stories were illustrative, and this appears to be true of all of
Lincoln's anecdotes, whether they occur in his conversation or in his
writings. He apparently never dragged in stories for their own sake,
as so many conversational bores are in the habit of doing, but the
story was suggested by or served to illustrate some incident or
principle. Indeed, in aptness of illustration Lincoln has never been
surpassed. Emerson said of him: "I am sure if this man had ruled in a
period of less facility of printing, he would have become mythological
in a very few years, like Aesop or Pilpay, or one of the Seven Wise
Masters, by his fables and proverbs." Many of the anecdotes attributed
to Lincoln are undoubtedly to be referred to other sources, but the
number of authentic stories noted, especially during the presidency, is
very large.

The question has often been raised whether Lincoln originated the
stories he told so well. Fortunately we have his own words in this