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
Love, human love, love of men and women, love of mothers fathers, and
babes, is the perpetual and beneficent force. Not the love of phantoms,
the love that builds cathedrals and dungeons, that trembles and prays,
that kneels and curses; but the real love, the love that felled the
forests, navigated the seas, subdued the earth, explored continents,
built countless homes, and founded nations--the love that kindled the
creative flame and wrought the miracles of art, that gave us all there
is of music, from the cradle-song that gives to infancy its smiling
sleep to the great symphony that bears the soul away with wings of
fire--the real love, mother of every virtue and of every joy.--North
American Review, September, 1890.
THOMAS PAINE.
A MAGAZINE ARTICLE.
"A great man's memory may outlive his life half a year,
But, by'r lady, he must build churches then."
EIGHTY-THREE years ago Thomas Paine ceased to defend himself. The moment
he became dumb all his enemies found a tongue. He was attacked on every
hand. The Tories of England had been waiting for their revenge. The
believers in kings, in hereditary government, the nobility of every
land, execrated his memory. Their greatest enemy was dead. The believers
in human slavery, and all who clamored for the rights of the States
as against the sovereignty of a Nation, joined in the chorus of
denunciation. In addition to this, the believers in the inspiration of
the Scriptures, the occupants of orthodox pulpits, the professors in
Christian colleges, and the religious historians, were his sworn and
implacable foes.
This man had gratified no ambition at the expense of his fellow-men;
he had desolated no country with the flame and sword of war; he had not
wrung millions from the poor and unfortunate; he had betrayed no trust,
and yet he was almost universally despised. He gave his life for the
benefit of mankind. Day and night for many, many weary years, he labored
for the good of others, and gave himself body and soul to the great
cause of human liberty. And yet he won the hatred of the people for
whose benefit, for whose emancipation, for whose civilization, for whose
exaltation he gave his life.
Against him every slander that malignity could coin and hypocrisy pass
was gladly and joyously taken as genuine, and every truth with regard to
his career was believed to be counterfeit. He was attacked by thousands
where he was defended by one, and the one who defended him was instantly
attacked, silenced, or destroyed.
At last his life has been written by Moncure D. Conway, and the real
history of Thomas Paine, of what he attempted and accomplished, of what
he taught and suffered, has been intelligently, truthfully and candidly
given to the world. Henceforth the slanderer will be without excuse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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