Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - LatestIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
little brushing and went out with the Abbe Gautier. He expired, says
Wagnierre, on the 30th of May, 1778, at about a quarter past 11 at
night, with the most perfect tranquility. A few moments before his
last breath he took the hand of Morand, his valet de chambee, who was
watching by him, pressed it, and said: "Adieu, my dear Morand, I am
gone." These were his last words. Like a peaceful river, with green
and shaded banks, he flowed without a murmur into the waveless sea,
where life is rest.
From this death, so simple and serene, so kind, so philosophic and
tender; so natural and peaceful; from these words so utterly destitute
of cant or dramatic touch, all the frightful pictures, all the
despairing utterances have been drawn and made. From these materials,
and from these alone, or rather, in spite of these facts, have been
constructed by priests and clergymen and their dupes all the shameless
lies about the death of this great and wonderful man. A man, compared
with whom all of his calumniators, dead and living, were, and are, but
dust and vermin. Let us be honest. Did all the priests of Rome
increase the mental wealth of man as much as Bruno? Did all the
priests of France do as great a work for the civilization of the world
as Voltaire or Diderot? Did all the ministers of Scotland add as much
to the such of human knowledge as David Hume? Have all the clergymen,
monks, friars, ministers, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes, from
the day of Pentecost to the last election, done as much for human
liberty as Thomas Paine? What would the world be if infidels had never
been? The infidels have been the brave and thoughtful men; the flower
of all the world; the pioneers and heralds of the blessed day of
liberty and love; the generous spirits of the unworthy past; the seers
and prophets of our race; the great chivalric souls, proud victors on
the battlefields of thought, the creditors of all the years to be.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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