Her husband declined the appointment and resumed the practice of law in Springfield.(9)

VII.  THE SECOND START

Stung by his failure at Washington, Lincoln for a time put his whole soul into the study of the law.  He explained his failure to himself as a lack of mental training.(1) There followed a repetition of his early years with Logan, but with very much more determination, and with more abiding result.

In those days in Illinois, as once in England, the judges held court in a succession of towns which formed a circuit.  Judge and lawyers moved from town to town, “rode the circuit” in company,—­sometimes on horseback, sometimes in their own vehicles, sometimes by stage.  Among the reminiscences of Lincoln on the circuit, are his “poky” old horse and his “ramshackle” old buggy.  Many and many a mile, round and round the Eighth Judicial Circuit, he traveled in that humble style.  What thoughts he brooded on in his lonely drives, he seldom told.  During this period the cloud over his inner life is especially dense.  The outer life, in a multitude of reminiscences, is well known.  One of its salient details was the large proportion of time he devoted to study.

“Frequently, I would go out on the circuit with him,” writes Herndon.  “We, usually, at the little country inn, occupied the same bed.  In most cases, the beds were too short for him and his feet would hang over the footboard, thus exposing a limited expanse of shin bone.  Placing his candle at the head of his bed he would read and study for hours.  I have known him to stay in this position until two o’clock in the morning.  Meanwhile, I and others who chanced to occupy the same room would be safely and soundly asleep.  On the circuit, in this way, he studied Euclid until he could with ease demonstrate all the propositions in the six books.  How he could maintain his equilibrium or concentrate his thoughts on an abstract mathematical problem, while Davis, Logan, Swett, Edwards and I, so industriously and volubly filled the air with our interminable snoring, was a problem none of, us—­could ever solve."(2)

A well-worn copy of Shakespeare was also his constant companion.

He rose rapidly in the profession; and this in spite of his incorrigible lack of system.  The mechanical side of the lawyer’s task, now, as in the days with Logan, annoyed him; he left the preparation of papers to his junior partner, as formerly he left it to his senior partner.  But the situation had changed in a very important way.  In Herndon, Lincoln had for a partner a talented young man who looked up to him, almost adored him, who was quite willing to be his man Friday.  Fortunately, for all his adoration, Herndon had no desire to idealize his hero.  He was not disturbed by his grotesque or absurd sides.