The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 03 (of 12): Dresden Edition—LecturesIngersoll, Robert Green
General
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 03 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Lectures
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
There is another way. Let us live for man, for this world. Let
us develop the brain and civilize the heart. Let us ascertain the
conditions of happiness and live in accordance with them. Let us do what
we can for the destruction of ignorance, poverty and crime. Let us do
our best to supply the wants of the body, to satisfy the hunger of the
mind, to ascertain the secrets of nature, to the end that we may make
the invisible forces the tireless servants of the human race, and fill
the world with happy homes.
Let the gods take care of themselves. Let us live for man. Let us
remember that those who have sought for the truths of nature have never
persecuted their fellow-men. The astronomers and chemists have forged no
chains, built no dungeons. The geologists have invented no instrument
of torture. The philosophers have not demonstrated the truth of their
theories by burning their neighbors. The great infidels, the thinkers,
have lived for the good of man.
It is noble to seek for truth, to be intellectually honest, to give to
others a true transcript of your mind, a photograph of your thoughts in
honest words.
X.
HERE are two ways: The narrow way along which the selfish go in single
file, not wide enough for husband and wife to walk side by side
while children clasp their hands. The narrow road over the desert of
superstition "with here and there a traveler." The narrow grass-grown
path, filled with flints and broken glass, bordered by thistles and
thorns, where the twice-born limping walk with bleeding feet. If by this
path you see a flower, do not pick it. It is a temptation. Beneath its
leaves a serpent lies. Keep your eyes on the New Jerusalem. Do not look
back for wife or child or friend. Think only of saving your own soul.
You will be just as happy in heaven with all you love in hell. Believe,
have faith, and you will be rewarded for the goodness of another. Look
neither to the right nor left. Keep on, straight on, and you will save
your worthless, withered, selfish soul.
This is the narrow road that leads from earth to the Christian's
heartless heaven.
There is another way--the broad road.
Give me the wide and ample way, the way broad enough for us all to go
together. The broad way where the birds sing, where the sun shines and
the streams murmur. The broad way, through the fields where the flowers
grow, over the daisied slopes where sunlight, lingering, seems to sleep
and dream.
Let us go the broad way with the great world, with science and art, with
music and the drama, with all that gladdens, thrills, refines and calms.
Let us go the wide road with husband and wife, with children and friends
and with all there is of joy and love between the dawn and dusk of
life's strange day.
This world is a great orange tree filled with blossoms, with ripening
and ripened fruit, while, underneath the bending boughs, the fallen
slowly turn to dust.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account