The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1899-10-20
TRIBUTE TO INGERsOLL..
HELEN II.
From the Free Thought Magazine.

Five years ago had this great and
fearless man died | should have felt
not only that words were vain and the
sorrow terrible for those who loved him
but that the world Ind sustained an
irreparable loss. To day, so close have
death and life been woven with thought
aud sense, | can have sorrow for Those
who loved him, only. For his wife and
children, and his million friends the
blow, the loss, is still beyond the realms
OF words or thought. For these, our
tears, Il sympathy, our sorrow is I'M
bounded. Bat for him, no tears. no
fears, no anguish. He is at rest. with
his brilliant light nobly won. He has
civilized the Church and won the battle
for intellectual liberty He has changed
the gall Of petty and malicious persecu-
ton for opinion sake, into kindly toll
Grafton and friendly discussion. This
was a stupendous achievement and the
worlds loss is less today because this
great work is virtually complete,
He was fearless, true. honest and a
peerless soul, He loved the truth
whether it was pleasant or not, He
hated p~retense and lies, even though
they might be e%nticing. He was for
years misunderstood and maliSned by
thousands, feared by fraud. hated by
the ignorant and superstitious aud
loatbed by hypocrites and liars.
BY those who really knew this great
ana splendid man, he was reyered. He
taught the world the immortality of
narrow-mindedness and to say: Not
always do | agree with him, but al,
ways do | respect him. Not always do
| say that believe You are right, but
always can ! say that ! know you are
honest and sincere
He has been and viii be maligned by
tine narrow minded, bigotel and igno
rnrt who are not homes: enough in their
thought to understand him before they
condemn him, but for such as these he
had only pity and contempt, More
than any other influence he civilized
the savage orthodoxy of your childhood
and of mine, More than any other in
huence of his time he gave to religion
its humane, tender tone, and drew from
it the savage sting OF its malice.imbed
ed .in-mystery. He loved his fellow
mtn, Yet he vas not Il maudlin martyr
to reform" He was Il father such as
few have ever known and all might
pray to have. He was II husband who
from youth to age both gave aud in
spired the loyal, undying, perfect con
i1ence, devotion and love which make
Of home a holy spot AMI the nam, Of
husband hallowed.
He has been in all his life Il proof that
honor, loyalty, purity and truth are far
above all creeds. He is, he was, the
molel husband, father and friend of his
country and bis time. lie never posed.
He was too great, too brave, too honest
and sincere 10 ever cringe or stoop to
power. We who knew him well, we
who loved him utterly, and knew the
splendor Of this splendid man, can only
look and feel and understand. One day
the world will know what it has lost.
1t dimly feels it now. The tone of
press and pulpit, IN speaking Of his
death, shows the revolution he has
wrought in the past decade rs nothing
else could show it. 1t shows that he
has won, not conquered, his old time
enemies.
We have no tears, no fears, no ap.
prehension for this splendid. manly
man. Our tears, our fears, our sor-
ana sympathy, supreme. are for his
stricken loving fami Y and friends. Our
noble dead can know no Ill. and yet, if.
As the dreamers dream, he sees and
knows our grief and loss, | know he is
happy, for his loyal heart is with
his wife and children, and his friends,
not for a day, a year, a life, but for all
he is all for time; and if he
lives to-day, his thought is not for his
soul but their grief and ours.
No one who knew him fears for him.
No one who loved him doubts that,
or dead, he was, and is, the lofty
soul, the loyal friend, the splendid
personality that dared all things for