. Abraham Lincoln and the downfall of American slavery . ew and distant neighbors, wasBurns Poems, a thick and chunky volume, as he after-wards described it, bound in leather and printed in verysmall type. This book he kept long enough to commit tomemory almost all its contents. And ever after, to theday of his death, some of the familiar lines of the Scottishpoet were as ready on his lips as those of Shakespeare, theonly poet who was, in Lincolns opinion, greater thanRobert Burns. His step-mother said of him : He read every thing hecould lay his hands on, and when he came across apassage that
. Abraham Lincoln and the downfall of American slavery . ew and distant neighbors, wasBurns Poems, a thick and chunky volume, as he after-wards described it, bound in leather and printed in verysmall type. This book he kept long enough to commit tomemory almost all its contents. And ever after, to theday of his death, some of the familiar lines of the Scottishpoet were as ready on his lips as those of Shakespeare, theonly poet who was, in Lincolns opinion, greater thanRobert Burns. His step-mother said of him : He read every thing hecould lay his hands on, and when he came across apassage that struck him, he would write it down onboards, if he had no paper, and keep it by him until hecould get paper. Then he would copy it, look at it,commit it to memory, and repeat it. In this way, he col-lected a great many things from books that he did notown and could not keep. We have heard of writers andscholars who make a commonplace book in which maybe recorded things noteworthy and memorable. Lincoln, at the age of ten, kept such a book. It. GOING TO SCHOOL. 31 was first written on wooden shakes with to paper with pen and ink, and repeated often,the noble thoughts and melodious lines of famous menhad already become a part of the education of the Presi-dent that was to be. But although young Lincoln devoured books with ahunger that was almost pathetic, and sorely tried his eyeswith study by the light of blazing pine-knots on thehearth, he was no milksop, no weakly bookworm. Inthe athletic sports of the time, and in the manual dex-terity so helpful in those frontier pursuits, he was themaster of every other boy of his age. He had learnedthe use of tools, could swing the maul and chip out shakes and shingles, lay open rails and handle logs aswell as most men. Although not a quarrelsome boy, hecould throw any of his weight and years in the neigh-borhood, and far and near Abe Lincoln was earlyknown as a capital wrestler and a tough champion at everyg
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectslaves, bookyear1894
