of the obvious she was shrewd, courageous and stubborn.  Not any danger that Mary Lincoln would go wandering after dreams, visions, presences, such as were drifting ever in a ghostly procession at the back of her husband’s mind.  There was a danger in him that was to grow with the years, a danger that the outer life might be swamped by the inner, that the ghosts within might carry him away with them, away from fact—­seeking-seeking.  That this never occurred may be fairly credited, or at least very plausibly credited, to the firm-willed, the utterly matter-of-fact little person he had married.  How far he enjoyed the mode of his safe-guarding is a fruitless speculation.

Another result that may, perhaps, be due to Mary Lincoln was the improvement in his fortunes.  However, this may have had no other source than a distinguished lawyer whose keen eyes had been observing him since his first appearance in politics.  Stephen T. Logan “had that old-fashioned, lawyer-like morality which was keenly intolerant of any laxity or slovenliness of mind or character.”  He had, “as he deserved, the reputation of being the best nisi prius lawyer in the state."(4) After watching the gifted but ill-prepared young attorney during several years, observing the power he had of simplification and convincingness in statement, taking the measure of his scrupulous honesty—­these were ever Lincoln’s strong cards as a lawyer—­Logan made him the surprising offer of a junior partnership, which was instantly accepted.  That was when his inner horizon was brightening, shortly before his marriage.  A period of great mental energy followed, about the years 1842 and 1843.  Lincoln threw himself into the task of becoming a real lawyer under Logan’s direction.  However, his zeal flagged after a time, and when the partnership ended four years later he had to some extent fallen back into earlier, less strenuous habits.  “He permitted his partner to do all the studying in the preparation of cases, while he himself trusted to his general knowledge of the law and the inspiration of the surroundings to overcome the judge or the jury."(5) Though Lincoln was to undergo still another stimulation of the scholarly conscience before finding himself as a lawyer, the four years with Logan were his true student period.  If the enthusiasm of the first year did not hold out, none the less he issued from that severe course of study a changed man, one who knew the difference between the learned lawyer and the unlearned.  His own methods, to be sure, remained what they always continued to be, unsystematic, not to say slipshod.  Even after he became president his lack of system was at times the despair of his secretaries.(6) Herndon, who succeeded Logan as his partner, and who admired both men, has a broad hint that Logan and Lincoln were not always an harmonious firm.  A clash of political ambitions is part explanation; business methods another.  “Logan was scrupulously exact and used extraordinary care in the preparation of papers.