of violence, within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or treasonable, according to circumstances. I therefore consider that the Union is unbroken; and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some tangible way direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will have its own and defend itself.. I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. Although passion has strained our bonds of affection too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not be broken. The mystic chords which, proceeding from so many battle-fields and so many patriot graves, pass through all the hearts and all hearths in this broad continent violence, within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part; and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. . . I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again of ours, will yet again harmonize in their ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian angel of the nation.1 touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. LESSON 28. Imaginative Expressions. There are two principal ways in which the mind may do its thinking. One way is by means of "images." We think in images, when we call up in mind pictures of things that we have seen, or revive impressions of sounds, touches, tastes, or smells. When we read the words "full moon," if we see in mind a big yellow disk rising over the treetops, or when we read the word "thunder-clap," if we hear in mind a startling crash, followed by hollow reverberations, in either case we think by means of images. Another way of thinking is by means of what are called "general ideas." When we think in this way, we seem to think about the meaning of things rather than about the things themselves. It is true we always have some sort of image in the mind, but we are less interested in the image itself than in what the image signifies or stands for. Thus when we read the sentence, "Several of the planets have moons," if an image of a moon rises in the mind, what we are interested in is not the size or shape or color of the image; these particulars do not now concern us; we are 1 This suggestion for a closing paragraph was written by Mr. Seward. The original draft by Lincoln ran as follows: "My dissatisfied fellowcountrymen: You can forbear the assault upon it [the Government], I cannot shrink from the defence of it. With you, and not with me, is the solemn question of Shall it be peace or a sword." To this Mr. Seward objected on the ground that "something besides or in addition to argument is needful- -to meet and remove prejudice and passion in the South and despondency and fear in the East. Some words of affection - some of calm and cheerful confidence." interested rather in the meaning of the image, or, to use a common expression, in "the idea of moon in general." Certain words and expressions have the power to make us think in images; certain other words and expressions have the power to make us think in general ideas. The difference between these two kinds of expressions is illustrated in the following. The paragraph in the left-hand column aims to make us think in images. The version of this paragraph in the right-hand column aims to make us think in general ideas. I. 1. The very gnarliest and hardest of hearts has some musical strings in it. 2. But they are tuned differently in every one of us, so that the self-same strain, which wakens a thrill of sympathetic melody in one, may leave another quite silent and untouched. 3. For whatever I love, my delight amounts to an extravagance. 4. There are verses which I cannot read without tears of exultation which to others are merely indifferent. 5. Those simple touches scattered here and there, by all great writers, which make me feel that I, and every most despised and outcast child of God that breathes, have a common humanity with those glorious spirits, overpower me. 6. Poetry has a key which unlocks some more inward cabinet of my nature than is acces II. 1. Even the most irresponsive person is in some degree susceptible to the influence of poetry. 2. But our susceptibilities are of different kinds, so that a poem which affects one person a good deal may affect another not at all. 3. For whatever I love, my delight amounts to an extravagance. 4. There are verses which I cannot read without a strong feeling of exultation which to others are merely indifferent. 5. Those simple passages occurring in various places in the poems of great writers, which make me feel that I and every other person, however humble, have a common humanity with those superior minds, make me have very strong emotions. 6. Poetry causes feelings which are not caused by anything else. 7. I cannot explain it or account for it, or say sible to any other power. 7. I cannot explain it or account for it, or say what faculty it appeals to. 8. The chord which vibrates strongly becomes blurred and invisible in proportion to the intensity of its impulse. 9. Often the mere rhyme, the cadence and sound of the words, awaken this strange feeling in me. 10. Not only do all the happy associations of my early life, that before lay scattered, take beautiful shapes, like iron dust at the approach of the magnet, but something dim and vague beyond these, moves itself in me with the uncertain sound of a far-off sea. - LowELL: Conversations on some of the Old Poets. what faculty it affects. 8. The stronger the feeling, the harder it is to say what it is or whence it comes. 9. Often the mere rhyme, the cadence and sound of the words, cause this strange feeling in me. 10. Not only do all the happy associations of my early life, that were before separated in my mind, now come together in beautiful and symmetrical order, but I am conscious of something undefined and difficult of apprehension in addition to these. Note how differently the two versions affect you as you read them. In reading I., the word "gnarliest" calls up an image of a knotty piece of oak; "musical strings" an image of an instrument of music, a harp or a violin; at the word "tears," in sentence 4, we picture a man with streaming eyes; "the chord which vibrates strongly becomes blurred" revives the familiar sight of the vibrating string and its accompanying sound; "like iron dust at the approach of the magnet" makes us picture iron filings arranging themselves in concentric curves. None of these images is called up in reading II. Expressions which make us think in images may be called, for convenience, imaginative expressions. They go by a variety of names, the most important of which are the following: 1. The word particular or specific is sometimes applied to these expressions to direct attention to the definiteness of the aroused images. Particular terms are contrasted with general terms. In the illustration given above the expression "tears of exultation " arouses a particular, definite image. "A strong feeling of exultation" is more general. 2. Sometimes the term concrete is applied to these expressions. It means that the images they arouse are images of things that appeal to the senses, that is, of things that can be seen, heard, touched, smelt, or tasted. Concrete expressions are contrasted with abstract expressions. "Tears of exultation" is more concrete than "a strong feeling of exultation," because tears appeal to the sense of sight while feelings do not. 3. To a large number of imaginative expressions may be applied the term figurative. A figurative expression is one which makes us think of something under the image of something else. In a figure an object is represented either as being something else or as being (or acting) like something else. A heart is represented as being a musical instrument; scattered recollections of childhood are represented as acting like iron filings. Figurative expressions are contrasted with literal expressions or plain statements. Although many different kinds of figures are mentioned by rhetoricians, we shall speak of but two, similes and metaphorical expressions. The difference between them is that in the simile the image of "something else" is kept apart from the thing or idea it illustrates, the separation being marked usually by such words as like, as, just so; whereas in metaphorical expressions the thing and the image blend together, and we speak of the thing as if it actually were the image. "Poetry has a key which unlocks some more inward cabinet of my nature" is metaphor, because we speak of the mind as if it were actually a set of cabinets one within another, and of poetry as if it were |