A book called Helpers, the Impending Crisis of the South had at this time woven itself into the clouds of the gathering storm.  It had influenced the election of a Speaker in Congress, for although Lincoln was defeated in Illinois, the Republicans had 25 Senators to 38 Democrats; and the House had 109 Republicans to 128 Democrats.  A crisis was indeed impending, with Douglas, the greatest man in the country, dishonored and disarmed by the Southern States.  What was growing up, and from what source, which should be the master of the destiny of the country?  What was giving it strength but some form of materialism?  The phrase “the struggle for existence” crept into our conversation, for Darwin’s The Origin of Species had made its appearance this year.  We discussed its principles as far as we could make them out from the reports of the book.  Every one knew that strength survives.  But what is strength?  Did the North have strength, or the South?  Did moral ideas have strength, or did war?  All the while, where did God come in?  Abigail said:  “He comes in in this very struggle, defeat and devouring.  For all the while there is triumph in the realm of the mind, and mind is God.  My friend, you can think of Douglas and slavery and politics, and impending war; I know of something that overtops them all and can handle all of them as playthings.  That is chemistry.”

“Where do you get all these things?” I asked Abigail.  “From Richard, from books, from publications, everywhere.  I am watching this thrilling thing called life and I can laugh when I see you taking Douglas and Lincoln so seriously; for really they amount to very little.  Douglas has given some of his land to found a university.  What will they teach in it?  Anything of Douglas’?  What?  No, young minds will read philosophy there and study mathematics and chemistry by which engines, bridges, telegraphs, will be constructed.  Here is a funny thing.  You remember the Atlantic cable was laid last summer.  Poor old Buchanan, the mighty President of a mighty Republic, is so ignorant that he doubts the verity of the message which Queen Victoria sent to him.  Douglas and Lincoln!  What are their speculations as to whether this ridiculous old document called the Constitution goes into a territory or not?  Give me old Bishop Berkeley with his inquiries concerning the virtues of tar water.  It takes imagination of some moment to sense, as he did, that tar contains the purified spirits of the trees, of vegetation which can heal and help man.  These were dreams worth while.  Now a German chemist named Kekule, comes along and develops a theory called the valence of atoms.  And who can tell what will come of that?  For that matter, Sir Walter Raleigh did more for the world than Douglas.  He found petroleum in the Trinidad pitch lake way back in the sixteenth century.  And now a well has just been drilled, not for salt as you saw it in Kentucky as a boy, but for the oil for which they then had no use except to make ointment for people who stumble on the pier trying to catch a boat.”