c form of expression. In his own way he gained an insight
into the structure of English, and a freedom and skill in the
selection and combination of words, which not only made him the most
convincing speaker of his time, but which have secured for his
speeches a permanent place in literature. One of those speeches is
already known wherever the English language is spoken; it is a classic
by virtue not only of its unique condensation of the sentiment of a
tremendous struggle into the narrow compass of a few brief paragraphs,
but by virtue of that instinctive felicity of style which gives to the
largest thought the beauty of perfect simplicity. The two Inaugural
Addresses are touched by the same deep feeling, the same large vision,
the same clear, expressive and persuasive eloquence; and these
qualities are found in a great number of speeches, from Mr. Lincoln's
first appearance in public life. In his earliest expressions of his
political views there is less range; but there is the structural
order, clearness, sense of proportion, ease, and simplicity which give
classic quality to the later utterances. Few speeches have so little
of what is commonly regarded as oratorial quality; few have approached
so constantly the standards and character of literature. While a group
of men of gift and opportunity in the East were giving American
literature its earliest direction, and putting the stamp of a high
idealism on its thought and a rare refinement of spirit on its form,
this lonely, untrained man on the old frontier was slowly working his
way through the hardest and rudest conditions to perhaps the foremost
place in American history, and forming at the same time a style of
singular and persuasive charm.

There is, however, no possible excellence without adequate education;
no possible mastery of any art without thorough training. Mr. Lincoln
has sometimes been called an accident, and his literary gift an
unaccountable play of nature; but few men have ever more definitely
and persistently worked out what was in them by clear intelligence
than Mr. Lincoln, and no speaker or writer of our time has, according
to his opportunities, trained himself more thoroughly in the use of
English prose. Of educational opportunity in the scholastic sense, the
future orator had only the slightest. He went to school "by littles,"
and these "littles" put together aggregated less than a year; but he
discerned very early the practical uses of knowled