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
We need far more schoolhouses than we have, and while money is being
wasted in a thousand directions, thousands of children are left to be
educated in the gutter. It is far cheaper to build schoolhouses than
prisons, and it is much better to have scholars than convicts.
The Kindergarten system should be adopted, especially for the young;
attending school is then a pleasure--the children do not run away from
school, but to school. We should educate the children not simply in
mind, but educate their eyes and hands, and they should be taught
something that will be of use, that will help them to make a living,
that will give them independence, confidence--that is to say, character.
The cost of the schools is very little, and the cost of land--giving the
children, as I said before, air and light--would amount to nothing.
There is another thing: Teachers are poorly paid. Only the best should
be employeed, and they should be well paid. Men and women of the highest
character should have charge of the children, because there is a vast
deal of education in association, and it is of the utmost importance
that the children should associate with real gentlemen--that is to say,
with real men; with real ladies--that is to say, with real women.
Every schoolhouse should be inviting, clean, well ventilated,
attractive. The surroundings should be delightful. Children forced to
school, learn but little. The schoolhouse should not be a prison or the
teachers turnkeys.
I believe that the common school is the bread of life, and all should
be commanded to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. It would have
been far better to have expelled those who refused to eat.
The greatest danger to the Republic is ignorance. Intelligence is the
foundation of free government.--The World, New York, September 7, 1800.
VIVISECTION.
*A letter written to Philip G. Peabody. May 27, 1800.
VIVISECTION is the Inquisition--the Hell--of Science.
All the cruelty which the human--or rather the inhuman--heart is capable
of inflicting, is in this one word. Below this there is no depth. This
word lies like a coiled serpent at the bottom of the abyss.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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