The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12): Dresden Edition—MiscellanyIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Miscellany
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
In all the schools children should be taught to work in wood and
iron, to understand the construction and use of machinery, to become
acquainted with the great forces that man is using to do his work. The
present system of education teaches names, not things. It is as though
we should spend years in learning the names of cards, without playing a
game.
In this way boys would learn their aptitudes--would ascertain what they
were fitted for--what they could do. It would not be a guess, or an
experiment, but a demonstration. Education should increase a boy's
chances for getting a living. The real good of it is to get food and
roof and raiment, opportunity to develop the mind and the body and live
a full and ample life.
The more real education, the less crime--and the more homes, the fewer
prisons.
X.
The fear of punishment may deter some, the fear of exposure others; but
there is no real reforming power in fear or punishment. Men cannot be
tortured into greatness, into goodness. All this, as I said before, has
been thoroughly tried. The idea that punishment was the only relief,
found its limit, its infinite, in the old doctrine of eternal pain; but
the believers in that dogma stated distinctly that the victims never
would be, and never could be, reformed.
As men become civilized they become capable of greater pain and of
greater joy. To the extent that the average man is capable of enjoying
or suffering, to that extent he has sympathy with others. The average
man, the more enlightened he becomes, the more apt he is to put himself
in the place of another. He thinks of his prisoner, of his employee, of
his tenant--and he even thinks beyond these; he thinks of the community
at large. As man becomes civilized he takes more and more into
consideration circumstances and conditions. He gradually loses faith in
the old ideas and theories that every man can do as he wills, and in the
place of the word "wills," he puts the word "must." The time comes
to the intelligent man when in the place of punishments he thinks of
consequences, results--that is to say, not something inflicted by some
other power, but something necessarily growing out of what is done. The
clearer men perceive the consequences of actions, the better they will
be. Behind consequences we place no personal will, and consequently do
not regard them as inflictions, or punishments. Consequences, no matter
how severe they may be, create in the mind no feeling of resentment, no
desire for revenge.' We do not feel bitterly toward the fire because it
burns, or the frost that freezes, or the flood that overwhelms, or the
sea that drowns--because we attribute to these things no motives, good
or bad. So, when through the development of the intellect man perceives
not only the nature, but the absolute certainty of consequences, he
refrains from certain actions, and this may be called reformation
through the intellect--and surely there is no better reformation than
this.
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