_November 2, 1895._
S.S. MCCLURE, ESQ.--_Dear Sir_: I thank you very much for the
artist's proof of the engraving of the earliest picture of
Abraham Lincoln.
I have studied this portrait with very great interest. All
the portraits with which we are familiar show us the man _as
made_; this shows us the man _in the_ _making_; and I think
every one will admit that the making of Abraham Lincoln
presents a more singular, puzzling, interesting study than the
making of any other man known in human history.
I have shown it to several persons, without telling them who
it was. Some say, a poet; others, a philosopher, a thinker,
like Emerson. These comments also are interesting, for Lincoln
had the raw material of both these characters very largely in
his composition, though political and practical problems
so over-laid them that they show only faintly in his later
portraits. This picture, therefore, is valuable evidence as to
his natural traits.
Was it not taken at an earlier date than you indicate as
probable in your letter? I should think that it must have
been.