"What did Ingersoll ever accomplish?"
What a vulgar and coarse little donkey you are:
"PEERLESS
When the record is made up, and truthful history shall assign to each his niche of honor in the Hall of Fame it will be found that Robert G. Ingersoll fills a place high up among the mightiest of the race. It will surely write him first of orators, -- the Demosthenes of his day; prince of righteous satire, -- the American Voltaire; Emancipator of the minds of men, -- the Intellectual Lincoln of his time; himself "The Plumed Knight" flinging down the gauntlet of enlightened Truth to ignorant Error; piercing with shining lance the armor of Superstition; unmasking with trenchant blade the face of, Falsehood, and with heavy battle axe shattering dungeon doors and opening wide at last the way "Liberty for Man, Woman and Child."
TRULY RELIGIOUS
In a beautiful tribute by one of his grandchildren, Eva Ingersoll-Brown, that "daughter's babe upon his knees," -- we may read a faithful record, a true echo of his own voice. In a preface to "The Ingersoll Birthday Book," published by The Truth Seeker Company, this "babe," while yet a maiden, wrote:
"Ingersoll was, I believe, the most profound ethical, the most deeply spiritual, the most truly religious of men. His was the only real religion, -- the religion of goodness, of justice and of mercy, -- the religion of Humanity and His whole life was one heroic consecration to the furtherance of his religion. I beg leave to repeat this all-important fact: Ingersoll was a religious man -- religious in the highest and holiest, the only true sense of the term, -- religious in his irrepressible and matchless zeal for truth, -- religious in his love for and trust in humanity, -- religious in his fine, intrepid fealty to facts, to justice and to rectitude, -- religious in his temperament of storm and fire, -- religious in his splendid scorn of wrong, in his superb capacity for wrath and for rebellion, -- and religious in his peerless power for tenderness, for pity, and for love; religious even in his fearless enmity to creed and cant, to every form of futile dogma, ignorant theology and childish faith -- to base hypocrisy that masquerades as virtue and as truth."
Quoting his own words which we have already given, but which cannot be too often repeated or emphasized, she gives us this summary of what he believed true religion to be:
"To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits -- to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love wife and child and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beautiful in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the world, to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the splendor of generous deeds, the warmth of loving words, to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths in gladness, to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then to be resigned -- this is the religion of reason, the creed of science. This satisfies the brain and heart."
Following this she writes:
"A more inspiring, noble and complete declaration of faith was never born of human heart and brain. And, above all, be it said, to the eternal glory of this transcendent man, that he lived in absolute accord with these high ideals. His life was one unbroken melody of thought and deed, of heart and hand, of will and act, -- one sublime symphony of conscience and of conduct, of precept and practice -- one lofty consecration to the service of his fellow-men."
L'ENVOI
And now, "thou great and complete man," farewell! Wher'eer thou art, in all the "Shoreless vast," it must be well with thee, for thou thyself did'st well, and now hast got thy meed. Believe and know, O lofty soul! that loyal friends remaining here still cherish thee and all thy words and deeds, and fondly hope that when it comes their turn to go, thou wilt with open arms receive and clasp them to thy waiting heart; that they and thou, with all true souls that loved thee here together joined, mayst be and go for aye through all the worlds! This Hope sustains and blesses them, -- completes, fulfills thy Joy. Again, farewell! Farewell!" |
