Lincoln and religion

[ELCore]

(03-16-2013 10:19 AM)Mike B. Wrote:  I believe Lincoln made comments about the age of Niagra Falls and was a fan of Volney's "Ruins" that he believed the earth was quite old and did not accept the literal 6 days of creation of the earth in Genesis....

It is possible, maybe even probable, but by no means certain, that Lincoln read Volney. According to Robert Bray in his Reading With Lincoln, p. 57, we have only the word of one man, Abner Y. Ellis, that Lincoln had read Volney, and Ellis's testimony is a recollection of events of a quarter-century earlier. Thus, we have no idea, I think, whether Lincoln was a "fan" of Volney.

Here are the pertinent parts of Lincoln's ruminations on Niagara Falls, which Basler dates to Sep. 1848:

Quote:.... The geologist will demonstrate that the plunge, or fall, was once at Lake Ontario, and has worn it's way back to it's present position; he will ascertain how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for determining how long it has been wearing back from Lake Ontario, and finally demonstrate by it that this world is at least fourteen thousand years old.... When Columbus first sought this continent -- when Christ suffered on the cross -- when Moses led Israel through the Red-Sea -- nay, even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker -- then as now, Niagara was roaring here....

Collected Works, Volume II, page 10.

I once read a brief description of Lincoln's personality; I wish that I could remember where. Anyway, it went something like this: "He had the head of a scientist, but the heart of a poet." I think the fragment on Niagara Falls demonstrates that duality quite clearly.