Lincoln speaks in the evening before an audience of the Young Men's Association at Centre Hall. A newspaper reports that his speech dealt with "the progress of mankind as exhibited by their inventions." The report adds that "The first half of the lecture displayed great research and a careful study of the Bible, evidencing that the lawyer is not by any means unfamiliar with the Books of the Great Law-Giver. The latter half was brim full of original thought. The whole forcibly reminded us of his legal arguments, wherein he first states the facts in a clear and simple manner, and then reasons from those facts backward and forward to cause and effect." The paper concludes that "Mr. Lincoln is an able and original thinker, and in the department of literature fully sustains the reputation he has so justly earned at the bar." The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 9 April 1858, 3:2-3; First Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions, [6 April 1858], CW 2:437-42.