So he had companionship of the patriarchs and prophets and poets of
Israel. And it was the experience of many another prairie boy that he knew
intimately these Asiatic heroes of history before he consciously heard of
modern or contemporary heroes. I knew of Joshua before I was aware of
Napoleon, and I remember carving upon a primitive arch of triumph--which
was only the stoop at the roadside, but the most, conspicuous public place
accessible to my knife--the name of one of the cities taken in the
conquest of Canaan, an instinct of hero-worship--so splendidly illustrated
in French art and monuments.
Lincoln the youth had not only those ancient companionships but the
intimate counsel of the greatest of teachers of democracy. He knew, too,
the homely wisdom of Greece as well as he knew the treasured sayings of
his own people handed on from generation to generation. He was as familiar
with the larger-horizoned gossip and philosophies of Shakespeare's plays
as with those which gathered around the post-office of Clary's Grove,
where later this youth as postmaster carried the letters in his hat and
read the newspapers before they were delivered.
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