The Washington critic., 1888-07-27
TIE ONLY TRUE CREED.
Colonel IngcrsoiI's Grafton over the
Body of Courtiandt Palmer.

Colonel Ingorsoil's Grafton over the
Body of Courtiandt Palmer.
Funeral services over the remains of
the late Courtlandt Palmer were held Mt
the late residence IN New York yesterday,
and in accordance with the wishes of the
deceased, Robert G.. Iugersoll delivered
an address, Itwas as follows:
My FRIENDS a thinker of pure
thoughts, speaker of grave words a
doer of generous deeds, has reached the
silent haven that all the dead have
reached. and where the voyage of life
must end We, his friends, Fastening
after him, are met to do the last kind acts
of man TO man, to tell his virtues and to
lay his ashes in their place of rest and
peace.
Some one has said: ain the open hands
of death men only find what they have
given away" Let us believe that good
deeds brave thoughts, have endless fruit.
Let us believe that noble, seli.denying
life enlarges the moral life of man, and
assures future grander than the past
In the monotony of subservienCe there
is nothing grander than free and inde-
pendent man, who gives and asks rea-
sons, who demands freedom, who refuses
to be slave or master. Such man was
Courtlandt Palmer.
He was an honest man. He granted
the same rights which he so Fstoutly
claimed. To think the thought he be.
lieyed and to help others was his life.
He preserved the realm of mind from
brute force, and protected the children of
the brain from the Herod of authority.
No error was old enough, plausible
enough or profitable enough to stay him
or to keep his conscience Still.
He knew that next to honest truth was
honest search for truth. He believed in
the chivalry of discussion and held that
| they who question should answer, and
the striving of man should be, not for
| victory over ones fellow-man, but for
| truth.
He knew that truth feared not investi-
| CATION; that its enemies are egotism, hyp-
| ocTisy, fear and darkness, and that integ
rity, selfdenial, honesty, courage and
light are its friends.
He believed in the morality of the use
ful and that what man sows, that he
| Will reap. In Auguste Comte he. found
the framework of his creed. He found
rest, serenity and the certainty he sought.
He saw that the old creeds were naught
but mans struggles toward the light.
To add knowledge to ones own mind
and be the bearer of IT to others was his
ideal. This Is the religion of duty, per Sc
"A religion without mystery, religion
understood by the head and approved by
the heart; to develop the human race by
legitimate means, teaching each one TO
live Tor all. Thisis the Gospel of man,
the light Of this world, the religion OF
humanity.
He denied the supernatural, the ghosts
and.shadows that ill the twilight land OF
fear. The religion of hope was his,
which has reason for ltsguide, happiness
as its end, intelligence as the means.
Man is the providence Of man, and with
him 1t was not religion and science, but
the religion of science, q religion which
drives monsters from the mind wolves of
want from homes and from every brain
the night of ignorance.
He lived for his fellow man. He sided
with the weak and poor against the
strong and rich. His soul was eager fol
the light and his face was set ever to the
East
The world was his country; to do good
his religion. No other creed exists. A
heart breaks, n man dies, leaf in the
heart Of an unexplored forest flutters tc
the earth, o babe is born, and-the great
world sweeps on
No one can tell which is better-Life
with its thrill, its eager vitality and 1t:
Golgotha, or Death, with its peace ant
rest, its cool and placid brow, which
keeps no memory of pain or woe.
Farewell, dear friend the world is bet
ter for your lite, the world is braver fo
your death. Farewell We loved you
living, and we love you now.