168 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



those who demand an heroic treatment for even the 

 most trifling occasion, and who will not cut their coat 

 according to their cloth, unless they can borrow the 

 scissors of Atropos, it has been at least not unworthy of 

 the long-headed king of Ithaca. Mr. Lincoln had the 

 choice of Bassanio offered him. Which of the three 

 caskets held the prize that was to redeem the fortunes 

 of the country? There was the golden one whose showy 

 speciousness might have tempted a vain man ; the silver 

 of compromise, which might have decided the choice of 

 a merely acute one ; and the leaden, — dull and homely- 

 looking, as prudence always is, — yet with something 

 about it sure to attract the eye of practical wisdom. 

 Mr. Lincoln dallied with his decision perhaps longer than 

 seemed needful to those on whom its awful responsibility 

 was not to rest, but when he made it, it was worthy of 

 his cautious but sure-footed understanding. The moral 

 of the Sphinx-riddle, and it is a deep one, lies in the 

 childish simplicity of the solution. Those who fail in 

 guessing it, fail because they are over-ingenious, and 

 cast about for an answer that shall suit their own notion 

 of the gravity of the occasion and of their own dignity, 

 rather than the occasion itself. 



In a matter which must be finally settled by public 

 opinion, and in regard to which the ferment of prejudice 

 and passion on both sides has not yet subsided to that 

 equilibrium of compromise from which alone a sound 

 public opinion can result, it is proper enough foi the 

 private citizen to press his own convictions with all pos- 

 sible force of argument and persuasion ; but the popular 

 magistrate, whose judgment must become action, and 

 whose action involves the whole country, is bound to 

 wait till the sentiment of the people is so far advanced 

 toward his own point of view, that what he does shall 

 find support in it, instead of merely confusing it with 



