The really interesting question (which no doubt some people will think is easily answered as "no one") is, who invented this even earlier than Lincoln? To reus

The really interesting question (which no doubt some people will think is easily answered as "no one") is, who invented this even earlier than Lincoln? To reuse Thomas Mann's metaphor, history is like a set of coulisses, walls sliding away to reveal something else behind. Every time you think you've found the bottom of the well, something slides out and reveals another bottomless chasm further on. So it is with ideas.