Yet the real test of Lincoln's supremacy in our distinctly civic
literature lies not so much in his skill in the manipulation of
language, consummate as that was, but rather in those large
elements of his nature which enabled him to perceive the true
quality and ideal of American citizenship and its significance to
the world. There was melancholy in that nature, else there had
been a less rich humor; there was mysticism and a sense of
religion which steadily deepened as his responsibilities
increased. There was friendliness, magnanimity, pity for the
sorrowful, patience for the slow of brain and heart, and an
expectation for the future of humanity which may best be
described in the old phrase "waiting for the Kingdom of God." His
recurrent dream of the ship coming into port under full sail,
which preluded many important events in his own life--he had it
the night before he was assassinated--is significant not only of
that triumph of a free nation which he helped to make possible,
but also of the victory of what he loved to call "the whole
family of man.
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