Childhood's impressions are ineffaceable, though they may be for a time
set aside. Abraham Lincoln with all his lofty mind, acquiesced in the
vulgar belief when he took his son Robert to have the benefit of a
"madstone," at a distance from where the boy was dog-bitten. He made
the pact with the Divine Power as to the Emancipation Act, with a
sincerity which robbed worldly wisdom of its sting, and he had dreams
and visions like a seer.
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