Note 80 — Chapter IV · ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE ARGUMENT FROM DEFINITION

This may impress some as an unduly cynical reading of human nature, but it will be found much closer to Lincoln’s settled belief than many representations made with the object of eulogy. Herndon, for example, reports that he and Lincoln sometimes discussed the question of whether there are any unselfish human actions, and that Lincoln always maintained the negative. Cf. Herndon, op. cit., III, 597.