The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 12 (of 12): Dresden Edition—MiscellanyIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 12 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Miscellany
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
In these attacks there is not one word of truth. They are based upon
mistakes and misconceptions.
There is not in this world a nobler, braver man. In England he has done
more for the great cause of intellectual liberty than any other man
of this generation. He has done more for the poor, for the children of
toil, for the homeless and wretched than any other living man. He has
attacked all abuses, all tyranny and all forms of hypocrisy. His weapons
have been reason, logic, facts, kindness, and above all, example. He has
lived his creed. He has won the admiration and respect of his bitterest
antagonists. He has the simplicity of childhood, the enthusiasm of
youth and the wisdom of age. He is not abusive, but he is clear and
conclusive.. He is intense without violence--firm without anger. He has
the strength of perfect kindness. He does not hate--he pities. He does
not attack men and women, but dogmas and creeds. And he does not attack
them to get the better of people, but to enable people to get the better
of them. He gives the light he has. He shares his intellectual wealth
with the orthodox poor. He assists without insulting, guides without
arrogance, and enlightens without outrage. Besides, he is eminent for
the exercise of plain common sense. He knows that there are wrongs
besides those born of superstition--that people are not necessarily
happy because they have renounced the Thirty-nine Articles--and that
the priest is not the only enemy of mankind. He has for forty years been
preaching and practicing industry, economy, self-reliance, and kindness.
He has done all within his power to give the workingman a better home,
better food, better wages, and better opportunities for the education
of his children. He has demonstrated the success of co-operation--of
intelligent combination for the common good. As a rule, his methods have
been perfectly legal. In some instances he has knowingly violated the
law, and did so with the intention to take the consequences. He would
neither ask nor accept a pardon, because to receive a pardon carries
with it the implied promise to keep the law, and an admission that
you were in the wrong. He would not agree to desist from doing what he
believed ought to be done, neither would he stain his past to brighten
his future, nor imprison his soul to free his body. He has that happy
mingling of gentleness and firmness found only in the highest type of
moral heroes. He is an absolutely just man, and will never do an act
that he would condemn in another. He admits that the most bigoted
churchman has a perfect right to express his opinions not only, but
that he must be met with argument couched in kind and candid terms. Mr.
Holyoake is not only the enemy of a theological hierarchy, but he is
also opposed to mental mobs. He will not use the bludgeon of epithet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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