nass_ 
 Book-_ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
BF 
 
 =*a 
 
 WORLDLY 
 
 WISDOM 
 
 from 
 
 ABRAHAM 
 LINCOLN 
 
 ll 
 
 Edited and Arranged 
 
 By F. S. BIGELOW 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY 
 
 J 
 
r? 
 
 PUBLISHER'S NOTE 
 
 Several of the paragraphs in this little volume 
 
 are used through the courtesy of The 
 
 Century Company, publishers 
 
 of the complete works of 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 trffc?JtTTt3[nl 
 
 Copyright, 1908, by 
 Howard E. Altemus 
 
 LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Tv/o Copies Received 
 
 NOV \2 \dOQ 
 
 CopyniiHt entry 
 CLASS^ Oi. ^XC. No. 
 ^ copy 3. J 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A 
 
 MAN cannot prove 
 
 a negative, but he 
 
 has a right to claim 
 
 that when a man 
 
 makes an affirmative charge, 
 
 he must offer some proof. 
 
 Towering genius disdains a 
 beaten path. 
 
 m 
 
 ■M 
 
p 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 AN honest laborer digs 
 coal at about seventy 
 w cents a day, while 
 the President digs 
 abstractions at about seventy dol- 
 lars a day. The coal is clearly 
 vi^orth more than the abstract- 
 ions^ and yet what a monstrous 
 inequality in the prices! Does 
 the President, for this reason, 
 propose to abolish the Presi- 
 dency ? He does not, and he 
 ought not. 
 
 b- 
 
^ 1 1 *^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A MAN watches his 
 pear-tree day after 
 day, impatient for 
 the ripening of the 
 fruit. Let him attempt to 
 force the process, and he may 
 spoil both fruit and tree. But 
 let him patiently wait^ and the 
 ripe fruit at length falls into 
 his lap. 
 
 Gold is good in its place; 
 but living, brave and patriotic 
 men are better than gold. 
 
 ^ 
 
p 
 
 b 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 A 
 
 LL the armies of 
 Europe, Asia, and 
 Africa combined, 
 with all the treasure 
 of the earth (our own excepted) 
 in their military chest, with a 
 Bonaparte for a commander, 
 could not by force take a drink 
 from the Ohio or make a track 
 on the Blue Ridge in a trial 
 of a thousand years. 
 
 Hisses will not blow down 
 the walls of justice. 
 
m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 \ 
 
 A DEFINITION of 
 general popular sov- 
 ereignty, in the 
 abstract, would be 
 about this — that each man 
 shall do precisely as he pleases 
 with himself, and with all 
 those things which exclusively 
 concern him. Applied to 
 Government, this principle 
 would be, that a General Gov- 
 ernment shall do all those 
 things which pertain to it, and 
 all local governments shall do 
 
 ^ 
 
m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 precisely as they please in 
 respect to those matters which 
 exclusively concern them. 
 
 They [the Revolutionary 
 fathers] were pillars of the 
 temple of liberty; and now 
 that they have crumbled away, 
 that temple must fall unless 
 we, their descendants, supply 
 their places with other pillars, 
 hewn from the solid quarry of 
 sober reason. 
 
 fl 
 
 ib 
 
m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 BY general law, life an6l 
 limb must be pro- 
 tected; yet often a 
 limb must be ampu- 
 tated to save a life; but a life 
 is never wisely given to save 
 a limb. 
 
 Let us renew our trust in 
 God, and go forward without 
 fear and with manly hearts. 
 
 If I have risen, why should 
 any be hindered from rising ? 
 
 ■A 
 
p- 
 
 ir 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 CONCEDE that the 
 new government of 
 Louisiana is only to 
 what it should be as 
 the egg is to the fowl, we 
 shall sooner have the fowl by 
 hatching the egg than by 
 smashing it. 
 
 It may seem strange that 
 any man should dare to ask a 
 just God's assistance in wringing 
 his bread from the sweat of 
 other men's faces. 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 10 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 DIE when I may, I 
 want it said of me 
 by those who know 
 me best, that I 
 always plucked a thistle and 
 planted a flower where I 
 thought a flower would grow. 
 
 The man who stands by and 
 says nothing, when the peril 
 of his Government is discussed, 
 cannot be misunderstood. If 
 not hindered, he is sure to 
 help the enemy. 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 11 
 
m 
 
 & 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 DISCOURAGE litiga- 
 tion. Persuade your 
 neighbors to com- 
 promise whenever 
 you can. Point out to them 
 how the nominal winner is 
 often a real loser — in fees, 
 expenses, and waste of time. 
 As a peacemaker the lawyer 
 has a superior opportunity 
 of being a good man. 
 There will still be business 
 enough. 
 
 m 
 
 12 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IF in your judgment you 
 cannot be an honest 
 lawyer, resolve to be 
 honest without being a 
 lawyer. Choose some other 
 occupation, rather than one in 
 the choosing of which you do, 
 in advance, consent to be a 
 knave. 
 
 One man is offended because 
 a road passes over his land, and 
 another is offended because it 
 does not pass over his. 
 
 ^ 
 
 LU 
 
 13 
 
» 
 
 b 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 I HOLD if the Almighty 
 had ever made a set of 
 men that should do all 
 the eating and none of 
 the work, he would have 
 made them with mouths only, 
 and no hands; and if he had 
 ever made another class, that 
 he had intended should do 
 all the work and none of the 
 eating, he would have made 
 them without mouths and with 
 all hands. 
 
 14 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IF I send a man to buy a 
 horse for me, I expect 
 him to tell me his 
 
 ^' points^ ^ not how 
 
 many hairs there are in his tail. 
 
 I would not take any risk 
 of being entangled .... like 
 an ox jumped half over a fence 
 and liable to be torn by dogs 
 front and rear without a fair 
 chance to gore one way or to 
 kick the other. 
 
 « 
 
 M 
 
 15 
 
^ 
 
 m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 I UNDERSTAND the 
 ship to be made for the 
 carrying and the preser- 
 vation of the cargo; and, 
 so long as the ship can be 
 saved with the cargo, it should 
 never be abandoned, unless it 
 fails the possibility of its pres- 
 ervation, and shall cease to 
 exist, except at the risk of 
 throwing overboard both freight 
 and passengers. So long, then, 
 as it is possible that the pros- 
 perity and the liberties of the 
 
 [ti l i Jl 
 
 16 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 people be preserved in this 
 Union, it shall be my purpose, 
 at all times, to use all my pow- 
 ers to aid in its perpetuation. 
 
 Nothing valuable can be lost 
 by taking time. If there be 
 an object to hurry any of you, 
 in hot haste, to a step which 
 you would never take deliber- 
 ately, that object will be frus- 
 trated by taking time; but no 
 good object can be frustrated 
 by it. 
 
 ffl 
 
 M 
 
 i Worldl)) Wizdom — Lincoln. 17 
 
P I 1 ^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IT'S the people^ 5 business, — 
 the election is in their 
 hands. If they turn their 
 backs to the fire, and get 
 scorched in the rear, they'll find 
 they have got to sit on the 
 blister ! 
 
 I have found that when one 
 is embarrassed, usually the 
 shortest way to get through 
 with it is to quit talking or 
 thinking about it, and go at 
 something else. 
 
 l4 l \ M 
 
 18 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IF you would win a man to 
 your cause, first convince 
 him that you are his 
 sincere friend. Therein 
 is a drop of honey that catches 
 his heart, which, say what he 
 will, is the great highroad to 
 his reason, and which, when 
 once gained, you will find but 
 little trouble in convincing his 
 judgment of the justice of your 
 cause, if indeed that cause really 
 be a just one. On the contrary, 
 assume to dictate to his judg- 
 ment, or to command his 
 
 m 
 
 d 
 
 19 
 
P I I 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 action, or to mark him as one 
 to be shunned and despised, 
 and he will retreat within him- 
 self, close all the avenues to his 
 head and his heart ; and though 
 your cause be naked truth itself, 
 transformed to the heaviest 
 lance, harder than steel, and 
 sharper than steel can be made, 
 and though you throw it with 
 more than herculean force and 
 precision, you shall be no more 
 able to pierce him than to 
 penetrate the hard shell of a 
 tortoise with a rye straw. 
 
 20 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 I WOULD despise myself 
 if I supposed myself ready 
 to deal less liberally with 
 an adversary than I was 
 willing to be treated myself. 
 
 When a man hears himself 
 somewhat misrepresented, it 
 provokes him — at least, I find 
 it so with myself; but when 
 misrepresentation becomes very 
 gross and palpable, it is more 
 apt to amuse him. 
 
 m 
 
 d 
 
 21 
 
P I 1 ^1 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 I BELIEVE each individual 
 is naturally entitled to do 
 as he pleases with himself 
 and the fruit of his labor, 
 so far as it in no wise interferes 
 with any other man's rights. 
 
 We can succeed only by 
 concert. It is not *' Can any 
 of us imagine better?" but, 
 "Can we all do better?" 
 
 Important principles must 
 be inflexible. 
 
 b- 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IF I saw a venomous snake 
 crawling in the road, any 
 man would say I might 
 seize the nearest stick and 
 kill it; but if I found that 
 snake in bed with my children, 
 that would be another question. 
 I might hurt the children more 
 than the snake, and it might 
 bite them. Much more, if I 
 found it in bed with my neigh- 
 bor's children, and I had bound 
 myself by a solemn compact 
 not to meddle with his children 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 23 
 
P I m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 under any circumstances, it 
 would become me to let that 
 particular mode of getting rid 
 of the gentleman alone. But 
 if there was a bed newly made 
 up, to which the children were 
 to be taken, and it was pro- 
 posed to take a batch of young 
 snakes and put them there with 
 them, I take it no man would 
 say there was any question how 
 I ought to decide! 
 
 The plainest print cannot be 
 read through a gold eagle. 
 
 24- 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 I SAY, that, whereas God 
 Almighty has given every 
 man one mouth to be 
 fed, and one pair of hands 
 adapted to furnish food for that 
 mouth, if any thing can be 
 proved to be the will of Heaven, 
 it is proved by this fact, that 
 that mouth is to be fed by 
 those hands, without being 
 interfered with by any other 
 man, who has also his mouth 
 to feed, and his hands to 
 labor with. 
 
 m 
 
 hi 
 
 25 
 
m 
 
 ^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 I HAVE said nothing but 
 what I am wilHng to 
 Uve by, and if it be the 
 pleasure of Almighty 
 God, Jie by, 
 
 I am not bound to win, but 
 I am bound to be true. I am 
 not bound to succeed, but I 
 am bound to live up to the 
 light I have. 
 
 I am nothing, but Truth is 
 everything. 
 
 26 
 
m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 I CAN no more be per- 
 suaded that the Govern- 
 ment can constitutionally 
 take no strong measures 
 in time of rebellion, because 
 it can be shown that the same 
 could not be lawfully taken in 
 time of peace, than I can be 
 persuaded that a particular 
 drug is not good medicine for 
 a sick man, because it can be 
 shown not to be good food for 
 a well one. 
 
 27 
 
 ■M 
 
p 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IN times like the present 
 men should utter nothing 
 for which they would not 
 willingly be responsible 
 through time and in eternity. 
 
 I must study the plain ^ phys- 
 ical facts of the case^ ascertain 
 what is possible, and learn what 
 appears to be wise and right. 
 
 I shall do nothing in malice. 
 What I deal with is too vast 
 for malicious dealing. 
 
 b 
 
 28 
 
 d 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IT has been said, ** all that 
 a man hath he will give 
 for his life;" and, while 
 all contribute to their 
 substance, the soldier puts his 
 life at stake, and often yields 
 it up in his country's cause. 
 The highest merit, then, is 
 due the soldier. 
 
 I claim not to have con- 
 trolled events, but confess 
 plainly that events have con- 
 trolled me. 
 
 J^D 
 
 ■s 
 
 29 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 JUDICIAL decisions have 
 two uses: First, To ab- 
 solutely determine the 
 case decided; and, Sec- 
 ondly, To indicate to the pub- 
 lic how other similar cases will 
 be decided when they arise. 
 
 May the vast future not 
 have to lament that you have 
 neglected it ! 
 
 The proneness of prosperity 
 is to breed tyrants. 
 
 30 
 
V 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 1ET reverence for the laws 
 be breathed by every 
 ^ American mother to 
 the lisping babe that 
 prattles on her lap ; let it be 
 taught in schools, in seminaries, 
 and in colleges; let it be writ- 
 ten in primers, spelling-books, 
 and in almanacs; let it be 
 preached from the pulpit, pro- 
 claimed in legislative halls, and 
 enforced in courts of justice. 
 And, in short, let it become 
 the political religion of the 
 
 « 
 
 M 
 
 31 
 
^ 
 
 b 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 nation; and let the old and the 
 young, the rich and the poor, 
 the grave and the gay of all 
 sexes and tongues and colors 
 and conditions, sacrifice unceas- 
 ingly upon its altars. 
 
 No work — no object — can ^ 
 be so general as to dispense its 
 benefits with precise equality. 
 
 Bad promises are better 
 broken than kept. 
 
 32 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IET US have that faith 
 that right makes 
 ^ might, and in that 
 faith let us, to the 
 end, dare to do our duty as 
 we understand it. 
 
 Let no man who is house- 
 less pull down the house of 
 another, but let him labor 
 diligently and build one for 
 himself, thus by example assur- 
 ing that his own will be safe 
 from violence when built. 
 
 d 
 
 ■Worldlo Witdom— Lincoln, 33 
 
rh 
 
 % 
 
 ^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 1ABOR is the superior of 
 capital, and deserves 
 ^ much the higher con- 
 sideration. Capital 
 has its rights, which are as 
 worthy of protection as any 
 other rights. Nor is it denied 
 that there is, and probably 
 always will be, a relation be- 
 tween labor and capital, pro- 
 ducing mutual benefits. 
 
 Broken eggs cannot be 
 mended. 
 
 34 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 IET the nation take hold 
 ot the larger works, 
 ^ and the States the 
 smaller ones; and 
 thus, working in a meeting 
 direction, discreetly, but steadily 
 andlirmly, what is made unequal 
 in one place may be equalized in 
 another, extravagance avoided, 
 and the whole country put on 
 that career of prosperity which 
 shall correspond with its extent 
 of territory, its natural re- 
 sources, and the intelligence 
 and enterprise of its people. 
 
 « 
 
 ^ 
 
 35 
 
^ 
 
 m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 N^ EVER Stir up litiga- 
 tion. A worse 
 man can scarcely 
 be found than one 
 who does this. 
 
 Advancement — improve- 
 ment in condition — is the 
 order of things in a society 
 of equals. 
 
 Why, as to improvements, 
 magnify the evily and stoutly 
 refuse to see any good in them ? 
 
 36 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 NO men living are more 
 worthy to be trusted 
 than those who toil 
 up from poverty ; 
 none less inclined to take or 
 touch aught which they have 
 not honestly earned. 
 
 The true rule, in determin- 
 ing to embrace or reject any 
 thing, is not whether it have 
 any evil in it, but whether 
 it have more of evil than 
 of good. 
 
 fl 
 
 ^ 
 
 37 
 
w- 
 
 ^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 OUR people are fast 
 approaching the 
 point where it can 
 be said that seven- 
 eighths of them are trying to 
 find out how to live at the 
 expense of the other eighth. 
 
 The smallest are often the 
 most difficult things to deal 
 with. 
 
 Were it not for an occa- 
 sional joke, I should die. 
 
 38 
 
m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 OUR government rests 
 in public opinion. 
 Whoever can change 
 public opinion can 
 change the government prac- 
 tically just so much. 
 
 As to the young men. You 
 must not v^ait to be brought 
 forward by the older men. 
 For instance, do you suppose 
 that I should ever have got 
 into notice if I had waited to 
 be hunted up and pushed for- 
 ward by older men? 
 
 39 
 
p 
 
 ^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 PERSISTING in a 
 charge which one does 
 not know to be true, 
 is simply malicious 
 slander. 
 
 If both factions, or neither, 
 shall abuse you, you will prob- 
 ably be about right. Beware 
 of being assailed by one, and 
 praised by the other. 
 
 It is not best to swap horses 
 while crossing the river. 
 
 40 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 REPEAL the Missouri 
 Compromise; repeal 
 all compromise; re- 
 peal the Declaration 
 of Independence; repeal all 
 past history, — you still cannot 
 repeal human nature. 
 
 I do not want to issue a 
 document that the whole world 
 will see must necessarily be 
 inoperative, like the Pope's 
 bull against the comet. 
 
 m 
 
 ■A 
 
 41 
 
p 
 
 & 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 STAND with anybody 
 that stands right. 
 Stand with him while 
 he is right, and part 
 with him when he goes wrong. 
 
 I could scarcely credit that I, 
 a poor boy, had earned a dollar 
 in less than a day, — that by 
 honest work I had earned a dol- 
 lar. The world seemed wider 
 and fairer before me. I was 
 a more hopeful and confident 
 being from that time. 
 
 42 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 SLAVERY is founded in 
 the selfishness of man's 
 nature; opposition to 
 it, in his love of justice. 
 These principles are an eternal 
 antagonism; and when brought 
 into collision, so fiercely as 
 slavery extension brings them, 
 shocks, throes, and convulsions 
 must ceaselessly follow. 
 
 People of any color seldom 
 run unless there be something 
 to run from. 
 
 « 
 
 li 
 
 43 
 
^ 
 
 m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE purposes of the 
 Almighty are perfect 
 and must prevail, 
 though we erring 
 mortals may fail to accurately 
 perfect them in advance. 
 
 God must like the common 
 people, or he would not have 
 made so many of them. 
 
 The dogmas ' of the quiet 
 past are inadequate to the 
 stormy present. 
 
 44 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE shepherd drives 
 the wolf from the 
 sheep's throat, for 
 which the sheep 
 thanks the shepherd as a liber- 
 ator; while the wolf denounces 
 him, for the same act, as the 
 destroyer of liberty, especially 
 as the sheep was a black one. 
 Plainly, the sheep and the wolf 
 are not agreed upon the word 
 ** liberty"; and precisely the 
 same difference prevails to-day 
 among us human creatures. 
 
 ^ 
 
 li 
 
 45 
 
GP-I 
 
 ir 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 even in the North, and all 
 professing to love liberty. 
 
 It has been said that one bad 
 general is better than two good 
 ones; and the saying is true, if 
 taken to mean no more than 
 that an army is better directed 
 by a single mind, though in- 
 ferior, than by two superior 
 ones at variance and cross-pur- 
 poses with each other. 
 
 46 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 TO remove a man is 
 very easy, but when 
 I go to fill his 
 place there are twenty 
 applicants, and of these I must 
 make nineteen enemies. 
 
 The Government must not 
 undertake to run the churches. 
 
 War, at the best, is terrible. 
 
 One war at a time. 
 
 m 
 
 d 
 
 47 
 
p 
 
 b 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE Saviour, I suppose, 
 did not expect that 
 any human creature 
 could be perfect as 
 the Father in Heaven; but 
 He said, **As your Father in 
 Heaven is perfect, be ye also 
 perfect." He set that up as a 
 standard, and he who did most 
 toward reaching that standard 
 attained the highest degree of 
 moral perfection. 
 
 Keep pegging away. 
 
 48 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THERE may be . . . 
 dangers; but I guess 
 it wouldn't improve 
 things any to publish 
 that we were afraid of them 
 in advance. 
 
 We don't read that Hannibal 
 had any money to prosecute his 
 wars with. 
 
 I choose always to make my 
 ** statute of limitations" a 
 short one. 
 
 « 
 
 d 
 
 •Worldly IVisdom— Lincoln. 49 
 
n 
 
 & 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THERE'S a mighty 
 amount of character 
 in sticks, . . . Have 
 you ever noticed how 
 a stick in one's band will 
 change his appearance? 
 
 A jury too frequently has at 
 least one member more ready 
 to hang the panel than to 
 hang the traitor. 
 
 I can't take pay for doing 
 my duty. 
 
 50 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 T^ERE is not a more 
 fatal error to young 
 lawyers than relying 
 too much on speech- 
 making. If any one, upon his 
 rare powers of speaking, shall 
 claim an exemption from the 
 drudgery of the law, his case 
 is a failure in advance. 
 
 My old father used to have 
 a saying that ''If you make a 
 bad bargain, hug it all the 
 tighter." 
 
 fl 
 
 ^ 
 
 51 
 
p 
 
 m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE prudent, penniless 
 beginner in the world 
 labors for wages for 
 awhile, saves a surplus 
 with which to buy tools or 
 land for himself, then labors 
 for himself 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. 
 
 52 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE way for a young 
 man to rise is to im- 
 prove himself every 
 way he can, never 
 suspecting that anybody wishes 
 to hinder him. 
 
 Allow me to assure you that 
 suspicion and jealousy never did 
 help any man in any situation. 
 
 There is no grievance that 
 is a fit object of redress by 
 mob law. 
 
 « 
 
 ^ 
 
 53 
 
p 
 
 Elir 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THERE may sometimes 
 be ungenerous at- 
 tempts to keep a 
 young man down; 
 and they will succeed, too, if 
 he allows his mind to be 
 diverted from its true channel 
 to brood over the attempted 
 injury. Cast about, and see if 
 this feeling has not injured 
 every person you have ever 
 known to fall into it. 
 
 We cannot escape history. 
 
 54 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THERE are few things 
 wholly evil or wholly 
 good. Almost every 
 thing, especially of 
 governmental policy, is an in- 
 separable compound of the 
 two ; so that our best judgment 
 of the preponderance between 
 them is continually demanded. 
 
 Your thousand pretenses for 
 not getting along better are 
 all nonsense; they deceive 
 nobody but yourself. 
 
 m 
 
 ZLxfa] 
 
 55 
 
1^ 1 I fl 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE leading rule for 
 the lawyer, as for the 
 man of every other 
 calling, is diligence. 
 Leave nothing for to-morrow 
 which can be done to-day. 
 Never let your correspondence 
 fall behind. Whatever piece 
 of business you have in hand, 
 before stopping, do all the 
 labor pertaining to it which 
 can then be done. 
 
 The majority should rule. 
 
 56 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 THE will of God pre- 
 vails. In great con- 
 tests each party claims 
 to act in accordance 
 with the will of God. Both 
 may be, and one must be, 
 wrong. God cannot be for 
 and against the same thing at 
 the same time. 
 
 Men are not flattered by 
 being shown that there has been 
 a difference of purpose between 
 the Almighty and them. 
 
 m 
 
 ■M 
 
 57 
 
If I I f 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 WHILE the people 
 retain their virtue 
 and vigilance, no 
 administration, by 
 any extreme wickedness or 
 folly, can very seriously injure 
 the Government in the short 
 space of four years. 
 
 Time alone releases a debtor 
 nation, so long as its popula- 
 tion increases faster than un- 
 paid interest accumulates on 
 its debt. 
 
 ^ 
 
 58 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 WHAT is the in- 
 fluence of fashion 
 but the influence 
 that other people's 
 actions have on our actions — 
 the strong inclination each of 
 us feels to do as we see all our 
 neighbors do? 
 
 If destruction be our lot we 
 must ourselves be its author 
 and finisher. As a nation of 
 freemen we must live through 
 all time, or die by suicide. 
 
 ^ 
 
 iS 
 
 59 
 
p 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 WITH public senti- 
 ment, nothing can 
 fail; without it 
 nothing can suc- 
 ceed. Consequently, he who 
 moulds public sentiment, goes 
 deeper than he who enacts 
 statutes or pronounces decisions. 
 He makes statutes and decisions 
 possible or impossible to be 
 executed. 
 
 I can bear censure, but not 
 insult. 
 
 60 
 
m 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 WHENEVER I hear 
 anyone arguing for 
 slavery, I feel a 
 strong impulse to 
 see it tried on him personally. 
 
 Stand by your principles, 
 stand by your guns, and victory, 
 complete and permanent, is 
 sure at the last. 
 
 Nothing is so local as not to 
 be ot some general benefit. 
 
 — ^M^ if 
 
 61 
 
 I I I 
 
 ■A 
 
m 
 
 ^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 WOULD you drop 
 the war where it 
 is? or would you 
 prosecute it in 
 future with elder -stalk squirts 
 charged with rose-water? 
 
 Determine that the thing 
 can and shall be done, and then 
 we shall find the way. 
 
 The struggle of to-day is not 
 altogether for to-day: it is for 
 a vast future also. 
 
 62 
 
WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 WE all declare for 
 liberty; but in using 
 the same word we 
 do not all mean 
 the same thing. 
 
 Shall he who cannot do 
 much be for that reason ex- 
 cused if he do nothing ? 
 
 If the end brings me out 
 all right, what is said against 
 me won't amount to anything. 
 
 q 
 
 d 
 
 63 
 
m 
 
 ^ 
 
 WORLDLY WISDOM 
 
 FROM ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 YOU will find that all 
 the arguments in 
 favor of king-craft 
 were of this class; 
 that they always bestrode the 
 necks of the people, not he- 
 cause they wanted to do it, but 
 because the people were better 
 off for being ridden. 
 
 Is it the true test of the 
 soundness of a doctrine, that 
 in some places people won't 
 let you proclaim it ? 
 
 64 
 
I 
 
i 
 
/ 
 
 71 
 
 --3? 
 
I