Mr. Copeland began his lecture on Abraham Lincoln last evening by stating briefly and frankly the exceedingly low and poor beginnings of Lincoln's career. Lincoln's formal education was in fragments, which made up altogether less than a year's schooling. The Bible, however, Aesop's Fables, The Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, Weems's Life of Washington, and a history of the United States, for reading; a wooden fire shovel scraped clean and a coal for writing materials, enabled his eager intelligence to make a better start than many a more favored boy achieves in the best schools. And after a somewhat florid period of youth, his style of writing and speaking became extraordinarily simple and impressive. Lincoln's practice as a country lawyer, his repeated terms in the Legislature of Illinois and even his three years in Congress brought him little reputation; but all these experiences of course were unconscious preparation for the joint debate with Douglas in 1858, with which Lincoln's hour may be said to have struck. Yet it was not till after the Mason and Slidel affair that the country began to discover itself in the bands of a wise, firm and gentle ruler. The successes of Grant's armies in 1864 fully established Lincoln with the world. It has been said with truth that at the time of his death he was the most absolute ruler in christendom. He had ever been very near the hearts of those whom he delighted to call the plain people-from whom he sprang-and if Washington was indeed the father of his country, Lincoln was in a deeper, more sympathetic sense, the father of his people.