The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-07-30
hAS1'ER OF EPIGRAM
EoBERT G. INGERSOLL A WONDER
OF THE CENTURY IN
THIS WORK
NOT a VERY DEEP THINKER

AhouSht ana Willis Weaving
of AnecdOte Into Argument Was
Usually Very ERective-The In
tensity of His Patriotism.
The late Robert G. Ingersoll was GER
tainly not a great thinker, a close schol-
+" ar, or a calm and dispassionate logician.
But he was a great maker of epigrams
master of ornate poetical imagery and
telling phrase. His methods were the
methods of the bar and the platform. His
task was to convince the jury or the au-
dience before him. He had to strike the
iron hot at the first blow, and follow this
up with blow after blow as calorically
potent. Hence, his speeches and lectures
were a succession of flashes rather than
a continuous confagration. And it is for
this very reason-getting down from met
aphor to plain prcse-that he is one of
the most quotable of men. You detach
epigram or sarcasm from its context
without injuring its integrity, says the
New York Herald.
Unfortunately, some of his most effect
i've sayings were too decorating to the
sensibilities of Christians to be fitted for
general circulation. Others while they
behind. And still others are so perfectly
wise, humane and true that they bless,
rather than ban, for they might have
fallen as worthily from the lips of any
clergyman as from those of the genial
philanthropist, who was not always an
iconoclast.
In order to present a fair picture of
the man. it is a necessity to quote from
at least the second class into which I
have grouped his sayings. and it is a
pleasure to quote from the third.
"ORATION ON THE GODS"
Nothing can express better the attitude
of the great free thinker than this IA
nous phrase from the earliest of his
lectures, the "Oration on the Gods:''
Give me the storm and tempest of
thought and action, rather than the dead
calm of ignorance and faith! Danish me
from Eden when you will. but first let
me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowI-
edge!
In another of these early lectures that
on the "Arraignment of the Church." he
made use Of this ingenious ccnceit:
A believer is a songless bird in a cage,
free thinker is an eagle parting the
clouds with tiraess wing
cries.
there is grandeur in knowing that in the
realm Of thought at least, you are with
out a chain; that you have the right to
explore all heights and all depths; that
there are no walls nor fences nor pro-
hibited places nor sacred corners in all
the vast expanse of thought; that your
intellect owes no allegiance to any be-
ing, human or divine; that you hold all
in fee and upon no condition and by no
tenure whatever; that in the world of
mind you are relieved from all personal
dictatfon, and from the ignorant tyranny
of majOrities'
WOVE ANECDOTE INTO ARGUMENT.
Col. Ingersol, like Lincoln, was espe-
cially happy in weaving an illustrative
anecdote into an argument. Thus, in
speaking of the necessity of freedom and
truth of speech, he said:
"a few years ago a Methodist minister
took it upon himself to give me a piece
of friendly advice. Although you NAV
disbelieve the Bible said he, you ought
not to say so. That you should keep to
yourself DO you believe the Bible?'
said I. Most assuredIy.' To which I re,
torted, Your answer conveys no infor-
nation to me. You may be following
your own advice. You told me to sup
press my opinions OF course, a man
who will advise others to dissimulate
will not always be particular about tell
Ing the truth himself
Some of his neatest bits of agnostic
epigram were the following:
THE spirit of worship is the spirit of
tyranny. The intellect has no knees"
The first doubt was the womb and
. cradle of progress"
But atheism of this somewhat crude
and garish sort was only one side of In
gersolPs character. He could be solemn
and emphatic and dignif1ed when ex,
nj ni1ocr tic oTxyT ,ie-r I,;oI
an unbounded faith in human nature. He
said:
1t is not true that man was once per-
fectly pure and innocent, and became de-
generate by disobediehce The real truth
IS and the history of man shows that he
has advanced. Events, like the pendulum
of a clock, have swung forward and
backward, but after all man, like the
hands has gone steadily on Man is
growing grander He is not degenerate
ing. Nations and individuals fail and die
and make room for higher forms. The
intellectual horizon of the world widens
as the centuries pass. Ideals grow strong
er and purer; the difference between JUS
tice and mercy becomes less and less;
nberty eniarges, and love intenSifies as
the Years sweep on. The ages of force
and fear Of cruelty and wrong are be-
hind, and the real Eden is beyond 1t
Is said that a desire for knowledge lost
us the Eden of the past, but whether
that is true or not it will give US the
al the future.
Beyond this he OIL ofessed he knew moth
ing-he could only hope
I'VE live on an atom called earth and
what we know of the Infinite is almost in
finitely 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 q lit
tie way-just a few short steps-Just from
the cradle, with its lullaby Of love- to the
low and quiet wayside inn, where all at
last must sleep, and where the only salu-
tatiOp is-Good night"
OVER GRAVE OF AN INFANT.
IT an grafton over the grave of an in
FAINT he gave vent to the same profession
OF agnostcism:
Every cradle asks us, Whence% and
every coffin, 'Whither?' The poor bar
barian, weeping over his dead, can an
svSer these questions Just as well as the
roEed priest of the most authentic creed.
The fearful ignorance of the one is as
ccnsoling as the learned and unIneaning
words of the other. No man, standing
where the horizon of a life has touched a
grave, has any right to prophesy a future
filled with pain and tears.
1.-THE idea of immortality, that like sea
has ebbed and flowed in the human heart,
with its countless waves Of hope and fear
beating against the shores ana rocks of
time and fate, was not born of any book,
nor of any creed, nor of any religion. 1t
was born of human affection, and 1t will
continue to ebb and flow beneath the
rnists and clouds of doubt ana darkness
as long as love kisses the lips OF death.