"Lincoln's incessant reading of Shakspere and Burns had much to do in giving to his mind the 'skeptical' tendency so fully devoloped by the labors of his pen in 1834-5, and in social conversations during many years of his residence at Springfield" (Life of Lincoln, p. 145).
Mr. Green's conclusion, especially in regard to Burns, is quite generally shared by Lincoln's friends. Burns's satirical poems were greatly admired by-Lincoln. "Holy Willie's Prayer," one of the most withering satires on orthodox Christianity ever penned, was memorized by him. Every one of its sixteen stanzas, beginning with the following, was an Infidel shaft which he delighted to hurl at the heads of his Christian opponents:
"O thou, wha in the heavens dost dwell,
Wha, as it pleases best thysel',
Sends ane to heaven and ten to hell,
A' for thy glory,
And no for ony guid or ill
They've done afore thee!"
JOSHUA F. SPEED.
Another of Lincoln's earliest and best friends was Joshua F. Speed. When he was licensed as a lawyer and entered upon his professional career at Springfield without a client and without a dollar, Speed assisted him to get a start. W. H. Herndon was clerking for Speed at the time, and for more than a year Lincoln, Herndon and Speed roomed together. Referring to the religious views held by Lincoln at that time, Mr. Speed, in a lecture, says:
"I have often been asked what were Mr. Lincoln's religious opinions. When I knew him, in early life, he was a skeptic. He had tried hard to be a believer, but his reason could not grasp and solve the great problem of redemption as taught."
This is the testimony of an orthodox Christian, and a church-member. Mr. Speed, during the years that he was acquainted with Lincoln, was not a member of any church; but late in life he united with the Methodist church. As "the wish is father to the thought," Mr. Speed professed to believe that Lincoln before his death modified, to some extent, the radical views of his early manhood.
GREEN CARUTHERS.
Soon after Lincoln removed to Springfield, he became acquainted with Mr. Green Caruthers and remained on intimate terms with him during all the subsequent years of his life. Mr. Caruthers was a quiet, unobtrusive old gentleman, universally respected by those who knew him. The substance of his testimony is as follows:
"Lincoln, Bledsoe, the metaphysician, and myself, boarded at the Globe hotel in this city. Bledsoe tended toward Christianity, if he was not a Christian. Lincoln was always throwing out his Infidelity to Bledsoe, ridiculing Christianity, and especially the divinity of Christ."