Chapter 14.
- A glimpse of Lincoln's home. -- Sunday in the office with the boys. -- Mrs. Lincoln's temper. -- troubles with the servants. -- letter to John E. Rosette. -- what Lincoln did when the domestic sea was troubled. -- a retrospect. -- Lincoln's want of speculation. -- his superstition. -- reading the life of Edmund Burke. -- his scientific notions. -- writing the book against Christianity. -- recollections of Lincoln's views by old friends. -- statement of Mrs. Lincoln.
Before Mr. Lincoln surrenders himself completely to the public — for it is apparent he is fast approaching the great crisis of his career — it may not be entirely inappropriate to take a nearer and more personal view of him. A knowledge of his personal views and actions, a glimpse through the doorway of his home, and a more thorough acquaintance with his marked and strong points as they developed, will aid us greatly in forming our general estimate of the man. When Mr. Lincoln entered the domain of investigation he was a severe and persistent thinker, and had wonderful endurance; hence he was abstracted, and for that reason at times was somewhat unsocial, reticent, and uncommunicative. After his marriage it cannot be said that he liked the society of ladies; in fact, it was just what he did not like, though one of his biographers says otherwise. Lincoln had none of the tender ways that please a woman, and he could not, it seemed, by any positive act of his own make her happy. If his wife was happy, she was naturally happy, or made herself so in spite of countless drawbacks. He was, however, a good husband in his own peculiar way, and in his own way only. If exhausted from severe and long-continued
