The book itself is not in the Lincoln Home at Springfield, nor is it in the Oldroyd Collection at Washington, in one of which places I hoped that it might be found. Neither the librarian of the Illinois Historical Society in Springfield, nor Mr. Barker, the painstaking and discriminating collector and vendor of Lincoln books in Springfield, had ever noticed the title in Herndon's book, though both were at once impressed with its significance when I called it to their attention.
The material in Herndon's lectures on Lincoln is pretty well absorbed in his book, and quoted in this volume; but there are some interesting additional details in Herndon's letters. In these, answering specific questions or replying to definite statements, he now and then added a statement which was not later included in his book, but which has present interest and in some cases value.
The following is an excerpt from a letter of Herndon to John E. Remsburg, and bears in an important way on Lincoln's use of Vestiges of Creation:
"I had an excellent private library, probably the best in the city for admired books. To this library Mr. Lincoln had, as a matter of course, full and free access at all times. I purchased such books as Locke, Kant, Fichte, Lewes; Sir William Hamilton's Discussions of Philosophy; Spencer's First Principles, Social Studies, etc.; Buckle's History of Civilization, and Lecky's History of Rationalism. I also possessed the works of Parker, Paine, Emerson and Strauss; Gregg's Creed of Christendom, McNaught on Inspiration, Volney's Ruins, Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity, and other works on Infidelity. Mr. Lincoln read some of these works. About the year 1843[44] he borrowed the Vestiges of Creation of Mr. James W. Keys, of this city, and read it carefully. He subsequently read the sixth edition of this work, which I loaned him. He adopted the progressive and development theory as taught more or less directly in that work. He despised speculation, especially in the metaphysical world. He was purely a practical man."—Remsburg: Six Historic Americans, pp. 114-15.
As already stated Dr. Smith's book The Christian's Defence is excessively rare. The edition was small; the argument which it contained was modified with the progress of discovery; there was little to keep in circulation the few copies of the book that survived. They have nearly all disappeared. I have searched the second-hand shops of the principal cities and the dusty duplicates of libraries with repeated disappointment. For this reason, I have carried a complete analysis of the book into the Appendix of this volume; for few who read the present volume will be able to see the book itself.
It is quite otherwise with Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. It was widely circulated, and copies of even the older editions are not impossible to obtain. It can be purchased, new, at very small cost.[45] But most of the editions that the reader will be likely to find, if he seeks for them, are later than the one which influenced Lincoln, and contain more or less of supplementary matter.
Before passing to another subject, it will be well to say a further word about this book, for a fuller discussion of which one may go to Andrew D. White's Conflict of Science with Theology and other learned works.
The author of this book was Robert Chambers,[46] one of the famous firm of publishers, and himself an author of note. He was born in Peebles, Scotland, July 10, 1802, and died at St. Andrews, March 17, 1871. He was an author as well as publisher of books. He published this book anonymously, and its authorship was not known for forty years. In 1884, thirteen years after his death, his name appeared for the first time upon the title page of a new edition.
It was, in the author's own phrase, "the first attempt to connect the natural sciences with the history of creation."