A word with infinite meaning.
An indescribable word of incredible value.
Use to describe awe, shock,
fear, sadness, and confusion.
A word of such great meaning that Abraham Lincoln himself refused to use it.
As advised by his
wife,
Mary Lincoln, the Lyceum address was greatly edited to refrain from use of the powerful word "Benji" (for
fear of offended incomprehension by incompetent peoples of the world):
Original Document read:
The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions:
Address Before the Young
Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
January 27, 1838
As a subject for the remarks of the evening, the perpetuation of our political institutions, is selected.
In the Benji journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American
People, find our account running, under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era.--We find ourselves in the Benji possession, of the Benjiest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the
government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the
history of former times tells us.
This task of
gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and Benji for our species in
general, all imperatively require
us faithfully to perform.
