No choir celestial sang at Lincoln's birth,
No transient star illumined the midnight sky
In honor of some ancient prophecy,
No augury was given from heaven or earth.
He blossomed like a flower of wondrous worth,
A rare, sweet flower of heaven that ne'er should die,
Altho' the vase in which it grew should lie
Most rudely rent amid the darkling dearth.
There, in that humble cabin, separate
From everything the world regarded great,
Where wealth had never pressed its greedy feet,
Where honor, pomp or fame found no retreat;
E'en there was born beneath the eye of God
The noblest man His footstool ever trod.
[Illustration: Mendelssohn Darwin Lincoln]
MENDELSSOHN
DARWIN
LINCOLN
_February 12, 1809_
Clarence E. Carr, born in Enfield, New Hampshire, January 31, 1853.
Received his early education from the common schools and academies of
the State, later from Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in
1875.
Practiced law, was also a manufacturer and farmer. Was president of
the New Hampshire Unitarian Conference, director and vice-president of
the American Unitarian Association, bank trustee, president of the
United Life and Accident Insurance Company of Concord, New Hampshire,
and occasionally a wanderer in the Elysian Fields of the Muses.
_The Three Birthday Anniversaries_ is the subject of a highly
appreciative article on the subject of Mendelssohn, Darwin and Lincoln,
by President Samuel A. Eliot of the American Unitarian Association, in
the _Christian Register_ of February 4, 1909. The central thought
therein is thus expressed very beautifully by Mr. Carr.
Three lives this day unto the world were given
Into whose souls God breathed the air of heaven,--
The first He taught the music of the spheres,
The next, of worlds, the story of the years;
And, loving, wise, and just beyond our dream,
The third a pilot made upon the New World's stream.
Their work is done, but ere they crossed "the portal,"
One, Song; One, Truth; One, Freedom; Made Immortal!
James Phinney Baxter, born at Gorham Maine, March 23, 1831. Academic
education; President of Savings Bank; Mayor of Portland, six terms,
1893-97--1904-5. Organized Associated Charities and was its first
President; built and donated to the City of Portland its public
library in 1888, and to Gorham in 1907; also conveyed to Gorham his
family mansion for use as a Museum. President Portland Public Library,
Baxter Library (Gorham), Portland Benevolent Society, Overseer of
Bowdoin College, President Maine Historical Society since 1890,
Northeast Historical Society since 1899. Author: _The Trelawney
Papers_, 1884; _The British Invasion From the North_, 1887; _Sir
Ferdinando Gorges and His Province of Maine_, 1890; _The Pioneers of
New France in New England_, 1894; edited ten volumes of _Documentary
History of Maine_, etc.