Full of sympathy
for the trouble of his friend, Lincoln tried in every way to persuade
him that his "twinges of the soul" were all explained by nervous
debility. When Speed returned to Kentucky, Lincoln wrote him several
letters, in which he consoled, counselled, or laughed at him. These
letters abound in suggestive passages. From what did Speed suffer?
From three special causes and a general one, which Lincoln proceeds to
enumerate:
"The general cause is, that you are naturally of a nervous
temperament; and this I say from what I have seen of you
personally, and what you have told me concerning your mother
at various times, and concerning your brother William at the
time his wife died. The first special cause is your exposure
to bad weather on your journey, which my experience clearly
proves to be very severe on defective nerves. The second is
the absence of all business and conversation of friends,
which might divert your mind, give it occasional rest from the
intensity of thought which will sometimes wear the sweetest
idea thread-bare and turn it to the bitterness of death. The
third is the rapid and near approach of that crisis on which
all your thoughts and feelings concentrate."
Speed writes that his _fiancee_ is ill, and his letter is full of
gloomy forebodings of an early death.
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