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 a few years Mr. B. was the owner of many millions. He also considered
himself as one of God's stewards; felt that Providence had given him the
intelligence to combine interests, to carry out great schemes, and
that he was specially raised up to give employment to many thousands
of people. He often regretted that he could do no more for his laborers
without lessening his own profits, or, rather, without lessening his
fund for the blessing of mankind--the blessing to begin immediately
after his death. He was so anxious to be the providence of posterity
that he was sometimes almost heartless in his dealings with
contemporaries. He felt that it was necessary for him to be economical,
to save every dollar that he could, because in this way he could
increase the fund that was finally to bless mankind. He also felt that
in this way he could lay the foundations of a permanent fame--that
he could build, through his executors, an asylum to be called the "B.
Asylum," that he could fill a building with books to be called the
"B. Library," and that he could also build and endow an institution of
learning to be called the "B. College," and that, in addition, a
large amount of money could be given for the purpose of civilizing the
citizens of less fortunate countries, to the end that they might become
imbued with that spirit of combination and manufacture that results in
putting large fortunes in the hands of those who have been selected by
Providence, on account of their talents, to make a better distribution
of wealth than those who earned it could have done.
Mr. B. spent many thousands of dollars to procure such legislation as
would protect him from foreign competition. He did not believe the law
of supply and demand would work when interfered with by manufacturers
living in other countries.
Mr. B., like Mr. A., was a man of judgment. He had what is called a
level head, was not easily turned aside from his purpose, and felt that
he was in accord with the general sentiment of his time. By his own
exertions he rose from poverty to wealth. He was born in a hut and died
in a palace. He was a patron of art and enriched his walls with the
works of the masters. He insisted that others could and should follow
his example. For those who failed or refused he had no sympathy. He
accounted for their poverty and wretchedness by saying: "These paupers
have only themselves to blame." He died without ever having lost a
dollar. His funeral was magnificent, and clergymen vied with each other
in laudations of the dead. Over his dust rises a monument of marble with
the words:
HE LIVED FOR OTHERS.
III
"But there are men who steal, and vainly try
To gild the crime with pompous charity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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