The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-09-03
EMIT THE GREAT AGNosT1o." j"

/
the Democratic platform as a whole
EMIT THE GREAT AGNOSTIC.'
To the Editor: Since the days of Vol
ney, Voltaire, Paine and Hume, no one
has cut a broader swath in the field o1
agnosticism than Col. r. G. Ingersoll
whose inglorious career recently was sc
suddenly closed in the State of New
York.
In some respects he was the most
/ dangerous of the quartette. being pan
oplied as he was with so many variegat-
| ed gifts, and a personnel embracing both
the 'suaviter in mode and fortiter in re-
a tout ensemble, fitted for the unfor-
tunate task of enthusing and misleading
the impulsive and plastic minds of the
youth with whom he came in contact
of commanding and attractive person
ality-brilliant mentality, logical rea-
| soning, persuasive oratory embellished
with apt Witticsms he never failed of at
| tracing large and intelligent assemblys
of young men, who in their depraved ma
ture were cheerfully ready to embrace
any sophistry which cleared the way for
personal indulgence unattended with sug-
gestion of future punishment. Here
| the deadly upas took root and spread its
| poisonous miasma.
| 1t is becoming too common to euloglze
| the dead at the expense of truth and
public safety, from strained construc-
| tion of charity; hence we combat not the
man, but the false doctrines he promul-
| gated in his capacity as public teacher,
unattended as they were by any evidence
mythical surmising. As the world goes
| he was a brilliant success, but at last
when he went down under the relentless
| scythe of the Great Reaper he fell a
| broken shaft, an unfinished pyramid,
a miracle of genius, a dethroner of hope.
| Painful as it is we must in honest
candor place him in the niche he is to
| unfortunately occupy.
We cannot force ourselves to the con-
clusion that primarily he was disbe-
| lever believing as we do the Creator at
some period in every mans existence IL
Eliminates his benighted being, through
the direct radiance of spiritual truth,
but this refused, he may be led to believe
lie and be lost. We surnlise, too. that
the Colonel was unfortunate in his
chosen environments, environments which
fostered and encouraged his dangerous
position. One thing seems to be a rea-
sonable deductions: with all his grace of
person, and charm of manner and his
multiform benefactions, he must have,
under the instigation of the great Arch
Enemy, formed an intense hatred for the
God who made him, else he would not
have labored so assidiously to subvert
His cause-a subversion which, if he
hay a6 hav
with it our boasted civilization, with all
its privileges, immunities, and blessings,
and sadly invested us with the orphan
age of hope. Failing in his mission he
sunk into the icy arms of death, unpre-
pared, ''unwept, unhonored and unsung,
After sowing so many seeds of moral
leprosy, and placing the poisoned challce
to so many lips of the young manhood of
his country, it is a fearful thing to ap-
pear before the Great Court of Assize
with ones own short comings, but to
bear the accumulated weight of thou
sands is an idea so fraught with horror
we forbear to enlarge upon it. Whilst
we in the sublimity of our faith have
never feared the ability of the COM
bators of Christianity to wrench us from
our moorings or that its essentials
would be weakened through any malev
olent Vaccinations of men, yet we know
through such agencies many have been
engulfed in irretrieyable disaster.
Even England's great poet the versa
tile Lord Byron. in some respects occu-
p ed a like place to Col. Ingersoll in his
influence over lmpressionable natures,
through the medium Of the passionate
strains of his inimitable poesy-poesy IN
some parts suggestive of immoral life,
and antagonistic to high ideals, yet he,
in taking "a retrospective review of his
restless career sang in tones Of mourn
full cadence
''The thorns that I've reaped
Are of the tree | planted
They have torn me and | bleed;
/ might have known what fruit
Would spring from such seed
At another time he virtually confesses
to mans infrmity and the existence of
a higher power, when he says
"A spark of that immortal fire,
BY Angels shared, by Allah given
To lift from earth our low desire"
1t would have lifted his had he not,
in his weakness and love of pleasure al
lowed the carnal to dominate the spirit
ual Of his being. Thus we often find
among the brave, the generous, the i'm
pulsive, men worthy of better fate go
down through unwillingness to curb
the fleeing passions of the hour.
Again, unfortunately, too many con-
clude that as almoners of charity, and
adherents of the conventionalities of
life. passport will be furnished them
to the blissful regions of the Great Be-
yond," but alas, may realize when too
late, their great mistake; and then
Beyond the wreck of years
Spend an eternity of tears
JNO. ID. THOMAS.
T ;t4lo+o, NJ ~ A11ouct 1O 1See