The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-24

years sweep on. The ages of force and
Tear OF cruelty and wrong, are behind,
and the real Eden is beyond. 1t is
said that desire for knowledge lost
us the Eden of the past but whether
that is true or not, it will give us the
Eden of the future.
Beyond this he professed he knew
nothing-he could only hope.
We live on an atom called earth. and
what we know of the infinite is almost
infinitely limited but, little as we know,
all have an equal right to give their
honest thought Life is a shadowy,
strange and winding road on which we
travel for a little way-a few short
steps-just from the cradle, with its lul-
laby Of love, to the low and quiet way
side Inn, where all at last must sleep,
and where the only salutation is-Good
night"
In an grafton over the grave of an
infant he gave vent to the same nru-
fession of agnosticism: Every cradle
asks us, 'Whence?' and every coffin.
Whittier? The poor barbarian, Weep
ing above his dead, can answer these
questions just as well as the robed
priest of the most authentic creed T5a
fearful ignorance of the one is as con i.
sollng as the learned and unmeaning
words of the other. No man, standing
where the horizon of life has touched
grave, has any right to prophesy a
future filled with pain and tears.
The idea of immortality, that like a
sea has ebbed and flowed in the human
heart, with its countless waves of hope
and fe1r beating against the shores and
rocks OF time and fate, was rot born Of
any book, nor of any creed, nor of any
religion. 1t was born of human affec !.
ton, and 1t viii continue to ebb and flow
beneath the nlists and clouds of doubt
and darkness as long as love kisses the
lips of death. 1t is the rainbow-Houe
shining upon the tears Of grief
An intense patriot, some Of the finest
and truest of his rhetorical efforts We e
dictated by his love OF country. What
can be better in its way than the spon-
taneous and unexpected outbreak into
genuine poetical feeling which con-
cluies this paragraph:
I have been in other countries and
have said to myself. After all, my
country is the best And when 1 came
back to the sea and saw the old flag
flying 1T seemed as though the air from
pure joy had burst into blossom
One of the most widely copied of all
Col. Ingersoll's speeches was that en-
titled "A vision of war;" which he de-
livered at the soldiers reunion at In
dianapolis, Sept 81 1870:
The past rises before us. We hear
the roar and Shrek Of the bursting
shell. The broken letters fall. These
heroes died. We look. Instead of slaves
we see men and women and children.
The wand of progress touches the auc-
ton block, the slave pen, the whipping
post, and we see homes and firesides
and school houses and books, and where
all was. want and crime and cruelty and
fear we see the faces of the free.
h. tn 81 =.
liberty-they died for us. They are at
rest They sleep in the land they made
free, under the flag they rendered stain
less, under the solemn pines, the sad
hemlocks, the fearful willows and the
embracing vines. They sleep beneath
the shadows of the clouds, careless alike
of sunshine or of storm, each in the
windowless palace of rest. Earth may
run red with other wars-they are at
peace. In the midst of battle, In the roar
of conflict, they found the serenity Of
del-h. / have one sentiment for soldiers
living and dead-Cheers for the living:
tears for the dead"
Next to his passion for his country
was the passion for his home. He
grows idyllic whenever he touches upon
home life. I'm loves fair realm" ne
says, husband and wife are king and
queen, sceptred and crowned alike and
seated on the selfsame throne"
In his answer to Cardinal Manning,
who had spoken of celibacy as higher
state than matrimony, Colonel Inger-
soil said:
THE goodness, the sympathy, the
self-denial of the nun, of the monk.
all come from the mother instinct. the
father instinct; all We're produced by
human affection, by the love Of man
for woman, of woman for man. Love
Is TRANSPORTATION. 1t ennobles, puri-
tles and glorifies. In true marriage two
hearts burst into flower. Two lives
unite. They melt In music. Every mo-
ment Is melody Love is a revelation
creation. From love the world bor-
rows its beauty and the heavens their
glory. Justice, lf-denial, charity and
pity are the children of love. Lover.
wife, mother, husband, father. child
home--those words shed light; they are
the gems of human speed. Without love
all glory fades, the noble falls from life
art dies, music loses meaning and be-
Genes mere motions of the air, and yir
tue ceases to exist. Never
theless, the home must be n
true home. Few men have been
patriotic enough to shoulder a muslxet
in defense of a boarding house And
the marriage bond must be one Of mu-
tUal affection, not compulsion.
THE marriage Of the one woman to