Life Is Hard But So Very Beautiful

Towering Genius Distains A Beaten Path.

A New Book Is Like A Friend That I Have Yet To Meet

I Was Born Feb. 12, 1809, In Hardin County, Kentucky. My Parents Were Both Born In Virginia, Of Undistinguished Families--second Families, Perhaps I Should Say. My Mother, Who Died In My Tenth Year, Was Of A Family Of The Name Of Hanks.... My Father ... Removed From Kentucky To ... Indiana, In My Eighth Year.... It Was A Wild Region, With Many Bears And Other Wild Animals Still In The Woods. There I Grew Up.... Of Course When I Came Of Age I Did Not Know Much. Still Somehow, I Could Read, Write, And Cipher ... But That Was All.

Our Eldest Boy, Bob, Has Been Away From Us Nearly A Year At School, And Will Enter Harvard University This Month. He Promises Verywell, Considering We Never Controlled Him Much.

Any People Anywhere, Being Inclined And Having The Power, Have The Right To Rise Up, And Shake Off The Existing Government, And Form A New One That Suits Them Better. This Is A Most Valuable - A Most Sacred Right - A Right, Which We Hope And Believe, Is To Liberate The World.