An "out-of-character" moment for Lincoln?

[RJNorton]

I think I mentioned this story many months ago, but in a different context. I think it shows Lincoln's honesty with himself. Sure, saving an animal was wonderful for the animal, but was that really the prime motive? Was the most pressing motive actually so the person takes a pain out of their own mind? I think Lincoln's honesty in this regard is what strikes me the most.

I have no idea of the veracity or source of this story. Maybe it happened; maybe it didn't. It certainly could be apocryphal. But the story's source is Abraham Lincoln's Stories and Speeches by J. B. McClure.

"An amusing incident occurred in connection with 'riding the circuit,' which gives a pleasant glimpse into the good lawyer's heart. He was riding by a deep slough, in which, to his exceeding pain, he saw a pig struggling, and with such faint efforts that it was evident that he could not extricate himself from the mud. Mr. Lincoln looked at the pig and the mud which enveloped him, and then looked at some new clothes with which he had but a short time before enveloped himself. Deciding against the claims of the pig, he rode on, but he could not get rid of the vision of the poor brute, and, at last, after riding two miles, he turned back, determined to rescue the animal at the expense of his new clothes. Arrived at the spot, he tied his horse, and coolly went to work to build of old rails a passage to the bottom of the hole. Descending on these rails, he seized the pig and dragged him out, but not without serious damage to the clothes he wore. Washing his hands in the nearest brook, and wiping them on on the grass, he mounted his gig and rode along. He then fell to examining the motive that sent him back to the release of the pig. At the first thought, it seemed to be pure benevolence, but, at length, he came to the conclusion that it was selfishness, for he certainly went to the pig's relief in order (as he said to the friend to whom he related the incident) to "take a pain out of his mind." This is certainly a new view of the nature of sympathy, and one which it will be well for the casuist to examine."