His creed was,
if not innate, innurtured. That fellowship and that faith were at the
bottom of his democracy--not merely patient love of his neighbors but
faith in their ultimate judgments--democracy that made him a nationalist
and a world humanist.
But in the making of Lincoln there were more than the usual disciplines.
He had also the tuition of the "solemn solitude," as Bancroft says. He
sought the fellowships of the past--of that "invisible multitude of the
spirits of yesterday." He read every book that he could get within fifty
miles, it is said. But what is more certain is that he read thoroughly and
"inwardly digested" a few books. He knew the Bible, Shakespeare, and
Burns, Aesop's "Fables," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and "Robinson
Crusoe." He read a history of the United States and a life of Washington,
and he learned by heart the statutes of the State of Indiana. Moreover, he
studied without guidance algebra and geometry. It is said that later in
life, when his political career was beginning, he continued his studies
even more seriously and attempted to master a foreign language.
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