The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1882-05-24
IngersoII an Enigma.
From the Memphis Appeal


Among the phenomena presented to-
day to the eye Of the thoughtful OBJ
server the attitude of the iconoclast In
gersoll is deserving Of notice and refiec-
ton. To blame him is easy, as many
Of the preachers are careful to prove.
To account for him, and the welcome
that everywhere crowds accord him, is
not easy, and his confulors let that side
Of the subject alone. lie is a blasphe-
mer without being n blackguard; a
mocker at religion without being immor-
al in his life; a despiser of the teach
ings Of christianity, yet without viru'
lenco toward It's generators and advo-
Gates. Nor il he an ignoramus throw
ing mud, nor an unbalanced visionary,
Incapable of exercising judgment. The
vulgar, immoral, ignorant, unbalanced
or proAigatc creature usually pictured
by the preachers as the ideal "infidel,"
is not lngersoll; therefore 1ngersoll is
to large portion OF the religious
world that never entertained an honest
doubt or read an unorthodox book--a
sort of unnatural being. He has de.
PRAYED heart, but is pure in conduct.
His views, his IDEAS, his principles, are
al twisted, distorted, false and awry
yet he walks his way through life Gs
correctly as the average Of man, and
much more sobcrly and virtuously than
large portion Of them do To the
usual, stereotypcd believer there is NJ
possibility Of chasing the man. He il
intellectually Il contradiction, and NOR
ally an enigma. Putting aside unreas
oning belief on one hand, and stupid be
lief in all that does not come within ma
terial apprehension on the other, we find
Mr.. Ingersoll to be man Of quick nat
ural insight; he has a keen perception
Of incongruity; aud is therefore a sub.
tie detector Of shams. With the in
stinct to detect is combined the impulse
to expose and denounce. Unfortunate.
ly this instinct and this impulse are not
accompanied by acute power Of logical
discrimination the judgment is there.
fore liable to err, and prejudice as pow,
er to blind, so that associated facts are
regarded as identical, aud the indigna.
ton against sham is not safe from at
lacking the reality the sham iraudu.
lently intimates. Had "lIamlet" been
incapable Of distinguishing his fathers
spirit from common Cock Lane ghost,
he never could have been that fascina-
ting embodiment Of genius Shakespeare
has so wildly portrayed. Jesus detect
ed the shams of the Pharisces, and laid
bare the glazing cunning of the Sad
ducecs, pierced to the marrow the grov-
cling slavIshness Of the Jewish lcgalist
to the bare letter, and his quick appre-
citation discovered and exposed selfish
motive under the guisc of reverential
obedience. But the grand Characters
ties Of Christ was that he did not only
expose and battle error, n merely mega
tive proceeding, but he taught truth as
Il congerles Of affirmative principles.
Mr.. lngers0ll also has keen ear for the
ring Of false com, but he has not the
power Of analysis that eliminates the
false ingredients which constitute the
fraud, Like a man who having been
bit by Il snake hates all snakes, having
detected counterfeit religion, he declares
that no religion is true. A defect in the
power Of individualizing details eventu.
ates in II defective, because premature
generalization. From hereditary and
early environment having n natural and
acquired disgust for vice and every
form Of ialsehood or what is made to
appear like falschood, or is by mental
association derived from observed but
not Disseminated facts connected with
fraud end sham, he came cordially to
hate and vchemently denouncc religion.
Unlike Jesus, he is mere iconoclast,
destroyer, a distributor of negations.
lie casts down, but to him who demands
of the universe whence? why? and
whittier? he is dumb, for he constructs
Born into Il world where the
absolute is untaught by either shining
star or somber earth, having no re-
sources beyond their revelations, he
wanders on in gloom through n life
where suffering is sure, comfort uncer.
tain and joy hccting. lie treads path
of whose Issue he is ignorant; he knows
only that injustice rules over human
life, for oppression and wrong, when
prudently inflicted, are continually re.
warded, while unyielding devotion to
rarely wins liGe's prizes or es.
,apes its rebufs, and in death the
wrong is not made right, for the injured
md the injurcr share the same annihla-
ion. Life, therefore, as nature reveals
t, is Il scene Of a certain sorrow, check
red with transient joys, while death
makes permanent the injustice life has
injured or inflicted. Such is the sum
# mere negative teaching, philosophy
hat brands nature us cruel and unjust,
md yet she is the only instructor of
i'm for whom Jesus is not sufficiently
good nor God sufficiently righteous