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1、【英文读物】The Soul of Abraham LincolnPREFACE The author is aware that he is dipping his net into a stream already darkened by too much ink. The fact that there are so many books on the religion of Abraham Lincoln is a chief reason why there should be one more. Books on this subject are largely polemic w
2、orks which followed the publication of Hollands biography in 1865, and multiplied in the controversies growing out of that and the Lamon and Herndon biographies in 1872 and 1889 respectively. Within that period and until the death of Mr. Herndon in 1892 and the publication of his revised biography o
3、f Lincoln in 1893, there was little opportunity for a work on this subject that was not distinctively controversial. The time has come for a more dispassionate view. Of the large number of other books dealing with this topic, nearly or quite all had their origin in patriotic or religious addresses,
4、which, meeting with favor when orally delivered, were more or less superficially revised and printed, in most instances for audiences not greatly larger than those that heard them spoken. Many of these are excellent little books, though making no pretense of original and thorough investigation.Of la
5、rger and more comprehensive works there are a few, but they do not attempt the difficult and necessary task of critical analysis.So much has been said, and much of it with such intensity of feeling, on the subject of Lincolns religion, that a number of the more important biographies, including the g
6、reat work of Nicolay and Hay, say as little on the subject as possible.The author of this volume brings no sweeping criticism against those who have preceded him in the same field. He has eagerly sought out the books and speeches of all suchPg viii within his reach, and is indebted to many of them f
7、or valuable suggestions. A Bibliography at the end of this volume contains a list of those to whom the author knows himself to be chiefly indebted, but his obligation goes much farther than he can hope to acknowledge in print. With all due regard for these earlier authors, the present writer justifi
8、es himself in the publication of this volume by the following considerations, which seems to him to differ in important respects from earlier works in the same field:(1) He has made an effort to provide an adequate historical background for the study of the religious life of Abraham Lincoln in the s
9、uccessive periods of his life; and without immediately going too deeply into the material of the main subject, to relate the man to his environment. In this the author has been aided not only by books and interviews with men who knew Lincoln, but by some years of personal experience in communities w
10、here the social, educational, and religious conditions were in all essential respects similar to those in which Mr. Lincoln lived during two important epochs of his career. The author was not born in this environment, but he spent seven years of his youth and young manhood as a teacher and preacher
11、in a region which give him somewhat exceptional opportunities for a discriminating judgment.(2) The author has assembled what is, so far as he knows, all the essential evidence that has appeared in print concerning the religious life and opinions of Mr. Lincoln, a larger body, as he believes, than a
12、ny previous writer has compiled. He has added to this all evidence available to him from written and personal testimony.He has subjected this evidence to a critical analysis, in an effort to determine the degree of credibility with which its several portions may reasonably be received. The author is
13、 not unaware that this is the most disputable, as it is the most difficult part of his task, and, as he believes, the most valuable part of it. Unless some such analysis is made, the evidence resolves itself into chaos.(3) Several entirely new avenues of investigation have been opened and lines of e
14、vidence adduced which find no placePg ix in any previous book on Mr. Lincolns religious life, and very scant reference, and that without investigation, in one or two of the biographies.(4) The book also contains a constructive argument, setting forth the conviction to which the author has come with
15、regard to the faith of Abraham Lincoln.It is entirely possible that some readers will find themselves in essential agreement with the author in the earlier parts of the book, but will dissent in whole or in part from his own inferences. Whether the reader agrees or disagrees with the author in his c
16、onclusions, he will find in this book some material not elsewhere available for the formation of an independent judgment. Nevertheless the author counts himself justified not only in adducing the evidence but in stating frankly the conclusion which to his mind this evidence supports.This book treats
17、 of the religion of Abraham Lincoln; but it does not consider his religion as wholly expressed in his theological opinions. Important as it is that a man should think correctly on all subjects, and especially on a subject of such transcendent value, religion is more than a matter of opinion. We cann
18、ot adequately consider religion apart from life. Abraham Lincolns life was an evolution, and so was his religion. In a way which this volume will seek to set forth, Lincoln was himself a believer in evolution, and his life and religion were in accord with this process as he held it.This book is, the
19、refore, more than an essay on the religion of Lincoln, unless religion be understood as inclusive of all that is normal in life. It deals, therefore, with the life, as well as with the opinions, of Lincoln; and it considers both life and opinion as in process of development in each of the successive
20、 stages of his career.In this respect the present book may claim some distinctive place in the literature of this subject. Other books have drawn sharp contrasts between the supposed religious opinions of Lincolns youth and those which he is believed to have cherished later. This book undertakes wha
21、t may be termed a study of the evolution of the spiritual life of Abraham Lincoln.Pg x The author is not aware that this has been done before in quite this way.The author acknowledges his obligations to many friends for their assistance in the preparation of this volume. Mr. Jesse W. Weik, of Greenc
22、astle, Indiana, associate of Mr. Herndon in the preparation of his Life of Lincoln, and owner of the Herndon manuscripts, has been generous to me. Mrs. Clark E. Carr, of Galesburg, Illinois, widow of my honored friend, and the friend of Lincoln, Colonel Carr, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg, has pla
23、ced at my disposal all her husbands books and papers. Mr. Judd Stewart, of New York City, owner of one of the largest collections of Lincolniana, has assisted me. President John W. Cook of the Northern Illinois State Normal School has suggested important lines of research. Mr. John E. Burton, of Lak
24、e Geneva, Wisconsin, whose collection of Lincoln books was once the largest in America, has sold me some of his chief treasures, and imparted to me much of the fruit of his experience. Mr. O. H. Oldroyd, of Washington, owner of the famous Lincoln Collection, and custodian of the house where Lincoln
25、died, has, on two visits, placed all that he has within my reach. To these, and to a considerable number of men and women who knew Lincoln while he was yet living, and to many others whom I cannot name, my thanks are due.I regret that one great collection, consisting, however, more largely of relics
26、 than of manuscripts, is so largely packed away that it has not been of much use to me. Mr. Charles F. Gunther of Chicago has, however, produced for me such Lincoln material as seemed to him to bear upon my quest, and I acknowledge his courtesy.Mr. Oliver P. Barrett of Chicago has given me great joy
27、 in the examination of his fine collection of Lincoln manuscripts.I have spent a few pleasant and profitable hours in the collection of Honorable Daniel Fish, the noted Lincoln bibliographer, of Minneapolis, and thank him for his friendly interest in this undertaking.Among libraries, my largest debt
28、 is to those of the ChicagoPg xi Historical Society, the Illinois State Historical Society at Springfield, and the Library of Congress in Washington. In each of these I have had not only unrestricted access to the whole Lincoln material possessed by them, but the most generous and courteous assistan
29、ce. I have examined every rare Lincoln book, and many manuscripts, in these three collections. I have had occasion also to use the Chicago Public Library, the Newberry Library, and the Library of the University of Chicago, as well as those of Chicago Theological Seminary and McCormick Theological Se
30、minary. In certain important local matters, I have been assisted by the libraries of Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois, Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois, the Public Library of Peoria, Illinois, and the library of Transylvania University at Lexington, Kentucky. I also visited the Public Libra
31、ry of Louisville, with its historical collections, but most that I found there I had already consulted elsewhere. The New York Public Library and the Library of Columbia University supplemented my research at a few important points. The Oak Park Public Library has been constantly at my service. The
32、Library of Berea College, Kentucky, has given me very valuable assistance in finding for me a large amount of periodical literature bearing on my study. The five great Boston libraries would have yielded me much had I come to them earlier. While the book was undergoing revision, I visited the Athena
33、eum, the Massachusetts State, the Boston Public, the Massachusetts Historical, and the Harvard University libraries. It was gratifying to discover that even in the last named of these, enriched as it is with the collections of Charles Sumner, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and the Lincoln collection of
34、 my friend Alonzo Rothschild, author of Lincoln, Master of Men, there was practically nothing relating to this subject which I had not already seen and examined. In the Massachusetts Historical Library, however, I discovered some manuscripts, and that quite unexpectedly, which afford me much aid in
35、a collateral study.In addition to the foregoing, I have my own Lincoln library, which, while a working collection rather than one of incunabula, and modest in size as compared with some thatPg xii I have used, is still not small. The Bibliography at the end of the volume is virtually a catalogue of
36、my own Lincoln books.Claims of completeness are dangerous, and I make none. But I have been diligent in pursuit of all probable sources of knowledge of this subject, and I do not now know where to look for any other book of manuscript that would greatly alter or add to the material which this book c
37、ontains. I am glad, therefore, at this stage, to share the fruits of my investigations with the reader.W. E. B.The First Church StudyOak Park, IllinoisPART I: A STUDY OF RELIGIOUS ENVIRONMENTS CHAPTER I THE CONFLICT OF TESTIMONY Of no other American have so many biographies been written as of Abraha
38、m Lincoln. No other question concerning his life has evoked more interest than that of his religious faith and experience. What Abraham Lincoln believed has been told by many who knew him and whose varied relations to him during his lifetime rendered it not unreasonable to suppose that they could gi
39、ve some assured answer to the question of his belief. The answers are not only varied, but hopelessly contradictory. It is stated on apparently good authority that in his young manhood he read Volneys Ruins and Paines Age of Reason, and it is affirmed that he accepted their conclusions, and himself
40、wrote what might have been a book or pamphlet denying the essential doctrines of the Christian faith as he understood them. Friends of his who knew him well enough to forbid the throwing of their testimony out of court have affirmed that he continued to hold these convictions; and that, while he bec
41、ame more cautious in the matter of their expression, he carried them through life and that they never underwent any radical change. On the other hand, there are declarations, made by those who also knew Lincoln well, that these views became modified essentially, and that Lincoln accepted practically
42、 the whole content of orthodox Christian theology as it was then understood; that he observed daily family worship in his home; that he carried a Bible habitually upon his person; and that he was in short in every essential a professed Christian, though never a member of a Christian church.There is
43、more than a conflict of testimony; there is posiPg 20tive chaos. Every recent biographer has felt the inherent difficulties involved in it. One or two of them have passed it over with practically no mention; others have become fierce partisans of the one extreme or the other.Besides the formal biogr
44、aphies, a literature of this special topic has grown up. Entire books and many pamphlets and magazine articles have been written on this one question. The Chicago Historical Society and the Chicago Public Library have each devoted a principal division in the Lincoln material to the literature relati
45、ng to his religion. It has been the writers privilege to examine in both these libraries and in several others the whole known body of literature of the subject.In this investigation the writer came face to face with utterly contradictory testimony from men who had known Abraham Lincoln intimately.O
46、f him Mr. Herndon, for twenty years his law partner, said:As to Mr. Lincolns religious views, he was, in short, an infidel. Mr. Lincoln told me a thousand times that he did not believe the Bible was the revelation of God as the Christian world contends.Lamon: Life of Lincoln, p. 489.The direct antit
47、hesis of this statement is found in a narrative of Hon. Newton Bateman, who knew Mr. Lincoln from 1842 until Mr. Lincolns death, and whose office was in the State House at Springfield next-door to that which, for a period of eight months from the time of his nomination till his departure for his ina
48、uguration, was occupied by Mr. Lincoln. He affirmed (or at least was so quoted by Holland) that Mr. Lincoln said to him:I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for meand I think He hasI beli
49、eve I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God.J. G. Holland: Life of Lincoln, p. 237.Pg 21Popular oratory has carried even farther these two extremes of irreconcilable contradiction. On the one hand are to be found scurrilous publications, shockingly offensive against all good taste, declaring Lincoln to have been an atheist, a mocker, a hypocrite, a man of unclean mind, a