'Niagara Falls !' Lincoln and Herndon discuss their awe

In addition to his stories, Abraham Lincoln was also known for his unique sense of irony. His law partner, William Herndon, on the other hand, had none. 

During one of their many non-legal discussions, Herndon expansively detailed his impression of Niagara Falls - with its “mad rush of water, the roar, the rapids, and the rainbow.” He then asked Lincoln for his opinion of the Falls, and Lincoln replied, “The thing that struck me most forcibly when I saw the Falls was, where in the world did all that water come from?”

But don't mistake Lincoln's irony for simplicity like many of Lincoln's adversaries often did.

Lincoln and his wife Mary visited Niagara Falls in 1849, as they were returning to Springfield from Lincoln's two-year stint in Congress. Later, on the steamboat home, Lincoln wrote down his thoughts and reflections about the natural wonder. 

“It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent—when Christ suffered on the cross—when Moses led Israel through the Red Sea—nay, even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker—then as now, Niagara was roaring here.…”

Lincoln was not entirely correct geologically and historically - as science has learned since 1849. However, his wonder of such a magnificent natural phenomenon, and his attempt to place its longevity relative to the knowable past indicates a deep sense of the world around him.

Or to borrow from Einstein's Relativity of Simultaneity - (and with due apologies for the misrepresentation) - two thoughts, simultaneous for one person may not be simultaneous for another person in a relative situation.

While Herndon saw 'the roar, the rapids and the rainbow' of the falls, Lincoln saw 'the then as now' relationship with the 'indefinite past' of Niagara.

While Lincoln loved to tease Herndon, Lincoln's depth of thought was unbelievable.

Below is the full fragment of Lincoln's thoughts on 'Niagara Falls!' from Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (1953) by Roy Basler, but note, the manuscript stops abruptly with an unfinished sentence. Was that comma at the end - 'never rested,' - Lincoln's emphasis on its continuity into the future?

Food for thought.

Mac

Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 2: pp. 10-11

Niagara-Falls ! By what mysterious power is it that millions and millions, are drawn from all parts of the world, to gaze upon Niagara Falls ? 

There is no mystery about the thing itself. Every effect is just such as any inteligent man knowing the causes, would anticipate, without [seeing] it. If the water moving onward in a great river, reaches a point where there is a perpendicular jog, of a hundred feet in descent, in the bottom of the river,---it is plain the water will have a violent and continuous plunge at that point. It is also plain the water, thus plunging, will foam, and roar, and send up a mist, continuously, in which last, during sunshine, there will be perpetual rain-bows. The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. 

Yet this is really a very small part of that world's wonder. It's power to excite reflection, and emotion, is it's great charm. The geologist will demonstrate that the plunge, or fall, was once at Lake Ontario, and has worn it's way back to it's present position; he will ascertain how fast it is wearing now, and so get a basis for determining how long it has been wearing back from Lake Ontario, and finally demonstrate by it that this world is at least fourteen thousand years old. A philosopher of a slightly different turn will say Niagara Falls is only the lip of the basin out of which pours all the surplus water which rains down on two or three hundred thousand square miles of the earth's surface. He will estim[ate with] approximate accuracy, that five hundred thousand [to]ns of water, falls with it's full weight, a distance of a hundred feet each minute---thus exerting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, through the same space, in the same time. And then the further reflection comes that this vast amount of water, constantly pouring down, is supplied by an equal amount constantly lifted up, by the sun; and still he says, 'If this much is lifted up, for this one space of two or three hundred thousand square miles, an equal amount must be lifted for every other equal space,' and he is overwhelmed in the contemplation of the vast power the sun is constantly exerting in quiet, noiseless opperation of lifting water up to be rained down again.

But still there is more. It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent---when Christ suffered on the cross---when Moses led Israel through the Red-Sea---nay, even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker---then as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. 

Co[n]temporary with the whole race of men, and older than the first man, Niagara is strong, and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago. The Mammoth and Mastadon---now so long dead, that fragments of their monstrous bones, alone testify, that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara. In that long---long time, never still for a single moment. Never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested,

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