The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-09-21
IngerSOll Not a Thinker .
ONLY AS A PROFESSIONAL ATHE-
IST WAS HE REGARDED.

Added to-lt was in 1876 In Nominal
I ting Blaine for r:--Presidencyt that
! tie First--7. Ic Attention to
/ Himse==.. .mate of the Man.
! Pro o'A|rry Peck. of Columbia Col
lege, n. Y, contributes to the Book
man of which he is the editor, an
able and incisive but impartial review
of the late Col. Robert q. Ingersoll.
i | have thought that few extracts
may interest the readers of the GOLD
LEAF.
WHAT MADE HIM KNOWN.
'.On the day when in the Repub-
! lican Convention of 1876, he rose to
urge the nomination of Mr.. Blaine
for the Presidency of the United States
his reputation ceased to be merely a
local one, and in short half-hour
had become distinctly national. 1t
was by this nominating speech that
he first became known to the Ameri-
can people, and in the Presidential
campaign that followed, his services
as a speaker On the stump materially
added to his reputation. That is TO
say it was as Ingersoll the political
orator and not as Ingersoll the mill
tant agnostic that men first learned
to think of him"
HOW He WILL BE REMEMBERED.
1T is indeed as professional
atheist that Col. Ingersoll is des-
tined to be remembered. In spite of
his first strikingly dramatic effort he
never added to his reputation as a
political orator; of late years he let
| that reputation slowly die. AS a
jury lawyer his services were always
in request yet he never stood out in
conspicuous pre-eminence above the
other members of the legal profession.
1t was in the end entirely as an
agnostic and as a public opponent of
all Christian teaching that men came
to think of him.
HIS CONTRIBUTION TO INFIDELITY.
"Col. Ingersoll was in no respect
thinker. He had received good
professional training; he had read a
reasonable amount of standard liter
| ature and he possessed the Oratorical
| temperament with liberal fund OF
wit and racy humor. But that was all.
He had none of the scholars thorough
ness and none of the scholars sobrie-
ty of thought. His controversial
addresses when stripped of all their
rhetoric, their pungent phaselogy and
their often rather unsavory jokes,
exhibit absolutely nothing that had
not been advanced a hundred years
before Col. Ingersoll was born. His
criticisms on the Bible were mainly
taken from the writings of Thomas
Paine; his arguments against the
| truth of revelation have been the
common property of intidels for CEN
turics He added nothing whatever
to the literature of the subject or to
the strength of the agnostic position.
All that can be STYLED his own is to be
found in the bits of defamation, the
expression and also in the gibes and
eers, the ludicrous smiles, the ir-
reverent stories and the pointed jests
with which the old material was
seasoned and made for the moment
| to appear original and startling. In
| his religious controversies as in his
political controversies, Col. Inger-
soil was at the most a gloritied stump
speaker, precisely the sort of person
| to please the fancy and tickle the
ears of miscellaneous crowd but
with nothing in his utterances to
convince or seriously concern a
thoughtful man"
CONDEMNS THE MANNER OF HIS ATTACK
..He attacked religious faith in
precisely the same spirit and with |
precisely the same free and easy |
manner that he showed in attacking
what he regarded as political error. |
Yet political opinions and religious |
faith are very different things and
they appeal in very different ways
to those who hold them. For his |
political belief man will give his |
money and the labor of his brains
and hands; but for his religious faith
he will Law down his life. Its sway
begins for most of us with conscious
ness itself: it's memories go back to |
earliest childhood: it is as fundament-
al as the thought of home, OF family, |
of country; and as the years go by |
each one as it departs gives to that
faith deeper meaning in linking it
with all the mysteries Of life and |
death, of Joy, of hope, Of loss, OF sor-
row and of consolation. The faith !
of a believer then is not a part of his |
material life alone; it is the sanctuary |
of his soul and redolent OF ali that Is
sacred, and intimate, and tender. |
nj rGnn
Col Ingersoll for the manner of his |
propaganda: The religion which he :
mocked, the ancient faith on which /
he cracked his lokes, the Book over |
whose marvellous pages he was wont |
to utter loud outlaws, were to>many |
millions the most precious. the most |
wonderful, and the most beautiful
possession of their lives. the source |
of all that was good and spiritual in
them; refuge in distress, a comfort IN
adversely, guide and an inspiration
through their whole existence on
earth
Such things, says Prof. Peck, are
to be treated reverently, or at least
with respect and tenderness: whereas
Col. Ingersoll approaches them
with the rancorous believing OF an
itinerant stumpspeaker and the
clowning OF a vulgar mountebank- He
showed the spirit of one who lacked
the finest instincts OF high-bred
gentleman, and who. il indeed he
felt that be was acting in the line OF
duty. did so in the character of a
public entertainer for his own person.
Al profit, feeling pleased and proud if
he could evoke over the most solemn
of all themes the hee-haws of reck-
less rabble.'
THE FIENDIsHSESs OF IT ALL.
If a thinking man looks about him