The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-06-06
is DEATH ALL
OR Is There a Hereafter for the Human
Race.

kansas City Times.l
There came up in connection with Col
Ingersolls eulOgy delivered upon the life
and character Of Roscoe Conkling some
serious thoughts To Ingersoll he was
paladin. Yes, and to many another be-
sides Ingersoll. He is described by the
orator as being brave, true, clean, inn
movable in his friendships and unalter-
able in his love. The country knew that
long ago. We put aside all OF Ingersoll's
slush. wherein the bloody shirt and abo-
litionism are mixed in equal proportions,
and come directly TO the question:
Where, beyond the grave, is the Pantheon
for such a hero?
Take this great American as he is put
upon Ingersolls canvas. Look at his
face his eyes, his pose, his stature and his
whole commanding presence in every
feature and aspect. Is no soul there? II
there is a soul, who gave it? Into whose
hands does it return? Is it humiliation?
Do men like Napoleon, Caesar, Hannibal,
Victor Hugo and a whole mighty array of
other giants disappear into nothingness.
1t cannot be. 1t is against reason,
common sense, revealed religion, the bible,
the agony in the garden, the torture on
the cross. 1t is also against human nature.
Man, in any state, is supremely selfish.
He wants a hereafter, he wants another
world when he gets old, a place TO lie
down, to sleep, perchance to dream. Lies
battle may have borne against him
heavily. Bosoms-despite all love, and
courage, and watchfulness, and tender
ness-have been stricken home at his
side. lie knows where his graves are.
The dew falls upon them like a bene-
diction. The birds sing above them
rs they do when they find sweet seed in
the summer grasses. He IS worn now, and
feeble and far spent. He dies, and Inger-
soil says that death is the last of him. He
turns to a leaf, asprout, a shrub, perhaps
fOur-leafed clover, perhaps a head of
timothy, it may be one thing or it may be
another, but whateyerit is the end is utter
oblivion.
1t is against every selfish instinct of man
that such fate is desirable. In his inner
being there is constant revolt against
such abOminable paganism. Indeed, it is
worse than paganism. Paganism did
have its affairs, its shrines, its sacred
groves, its temples, its vestal virgins, its
priests, its augurs, its elysian fields, its
gods, its goddesses, its spirits of good and
evil; but it never had extinction. In
stead it had sinners immortal IN their ca
pacity to suffer and endure. 1t had Pluto
and Prometheus; il had Proserpine and
Action; it had Midas and Tantalus; it
had the Furies and the Eumen-
ides, but it's future was never
without resurrection. That has
remained for the superior development
OF the nineteenth century---steam every
where; electricity everywhere; oceans
speaking TO the land through great coils Of
wires that even teach the fishes a speech,
and cause the great yet invisible monsters
OF the deep 10 send forth their dUdnts
courier, their krakens, their sea serpents,
their devils of indescribable things which
have as many arms as wheel has spokes,
and in each arm the strength OF screw
prOpellor---send them forth to know all
the meaning of the new things men have
invented who are totally without souls,
and yet with an intelligence equal 10 the
angels. In fact, this wonderful period in
the life OF mankind has waited for Robert
q. Ingersoll.
IL may be all as he says, but he has put
his race at a terrible disadvantage. He
has made of them mummies, monkeys
and blocks of wood. "A far as be could
he has burnt out the eyes offaith. He
has taken from cripples, paralytics and
deformed people what little staff and
script they had for this unknown journey,
creeping on apace and making fiercer and
fiercer inroads at every returning season.
He has made OF the holy mysteries things