Excerpt from Oh, Why Should the Spirit, of Mortal Be Proud? The poem Mortality, by William Knox, was a special favorite with Abraham Lincoln, up to the period of his death. Indeed the poem, or hymn, was often ascribed to the pen of Lincoln. A mournful, melancholy poem with its familiar line 0 Why Should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud, remained throughout President Lincoln's life the favorite expres sion of his own melancholy nature. Lincoln never went far afield in the walks of literature. He knew his Bible well, and was fond of Burns, Milton and Shakespeare. These with the William Knox were his literature. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.