He was a worshipper of liberty, a friend of the oppressed. A thousand
times I have heard him quote these words: "_For Justice all place a
temple, and all season, summer!_" He believed that happiness was the
only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the
only religion, and love the only priest. He added to the sum of human
joy; and were every one to whom he did some loving service to bring a
blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a wilderness of
flowers.
Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two
eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud,
and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless
lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word; but in the night of
death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the rustle of a wing.
He who sleeps here, when dying, mistaking the approach of death for the
return of health, whispered with his latest breath, "I am better now."
Let us believe, in spite of doubts and dogmas, of fears and tears, that
these dear words are true of all the countless dead.
And now, to you, who have been chosen, from among the many men he loved,
to do the last sad office for the dead, we give his sacred dust.
Speech cannot contain our love. There was, there is, no gentler,
stronger, manlier man.
End of Project Gutenberg's Mistakes of Moses, by Robert G. Ingersoll
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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