President Lincoln owed his success as a speaker to his ancestry and
parentage, his knowledge of human nature, and his mastery of English.
His Puritan-pioneer ancestry endowed him with the great physical and
mental vigor that characterized all his life; and his parents
inspired him with the love of learning, the high moral sense and the
devotion to truth, freedom and religion, that made him the man we so
revere. His knowledge of human nature was due to his early life and
studies, and is best illustrated by his use of stories. By them he
could at need rebuke, explain, or encourage, for he had studied men
till he knew them and their motives as he did his scanty library.
His mastery of English was due to his study of the best models in our
tongue, the Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, and Blackstone. These books
he read until he had memorized their words and absorbed their spirit
so thoroughly that when he came to clothe in words his own great and
wise thoughts he spake as a master of English style. Lincoln's early
environment was rough, but he made it subserve great and mighty
purposes; and those of us who labor in his spirit may hope also to do
great works.