He was a social man. He could not fully enjoy even a jest alone.
He wanted somebody to share the pleasure with him. Often when
care kept him awake late at night he would wander through the
halls of the Executive Mansion, and coming to the room where his
secretaries were still at work, would stop to read to them some
poem, or a passage from Shakspere, or a bit from one of the
humorous books in which he found relief. No one knew better than
he what could be cured, and what must be patiently endured. To
every difficulty that he could remove he gave cheerful and
uncomplaining thought and labor. The burdens he could not shake
off he bore with silent courage, lightening them whenever
possible with the laughter that he once described as the
"universal joyous evergreen of life."
It would be a mistake to suppose that he cared only for humorous
reading. Occasionally he read a scientific book with great
interest, but his duties left him little time for such
indulgences. Few men knew the Bible more thoroughly than he did,
and his speeches are full of scriptural quotations. The poem
beginning "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" was one
of his favorites, and Dr. Holmes's "Last Leaf" was another.
Shakespere was his constant delight. A copy of Shakespere's works
was even to be found in the busy Executive Office, from which
most books were banished.
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