proof of the engraving of the earliest picture of
Abraham Lincoln.

I have studied this portrait with very great interest. All
the portraits with which we are familiar show us the man _as
made_; this shows us the man _in the_ _making_; and I think
every one will admit that the making of Abraham Lincoln
presents a more singular, puzzling, interesting study than the
making of any other man known in human history.

I have shown it to several persons, without telling them who
it was. Some say, a poet; others, a philosopher, a thinker,
like Emerson. These comments also are interesting, for Lincoln
had the raw material of both these characters very largely in
his composition, though political and practical problems
so over-laid them that they show only faintly in his later
portraits. This picture, therefore, is valuable evidence as to
his natural traits.

Was it not taken at an earlier date than you indicate as
probable in your letter? I should think that it must have
been.

I am very sincerely yours,

JOHN T. MORSE, JR.

Dr. Hale also draws attention to the resemblance of the early portrait
to Emerson:

ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS,

_October 28, 1895._

_My dear Mr. McClure_:--I think you will be interested to know
that in showing the early portrait of Lincoln to two young
people of intelligence, each of them asked if it were not a
portrait of Waldo Emerson. If you will compare the likeness
with that of Emerson in Appleton's "Cyclopedia of Biography,"
I think you will like to print copies of the two likenesses
side by side.

Yours truly,

EDWARD E. HALE.

Mr. T.H. Bartlett, the eminent sculptor, who has for many years
collected portraits of Lincoln, and has made a scientific study of
Lincoln's physiognomy, contributes this:

The first interest of the early portrait to me is that it
shows Lincoln, even at that age, as a _new man_. It may to
many suggest certain other heads, but a short study of it
establishes its distinctive originality in every respect.
It's priceless, every way, and copies of it ought to be in the
gladsome possession of every lover of Lincoln. Handsome is
not enough--it's great--not only of a great man, but the first
picture representing the only new physiognomy of which we
have any correct knowledge contributed by the New World to th