The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll
Chapter 1 : The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll.Vol. 1.by Robert G. Ingersoll.PREFACE.IN presenting to

The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll.

Vol. 1.

by Robert G. Ingersoll.

PREFACE.

IN presenting to the public this edition of the late Robert G.

Ingersoll's works, it has been the aim of the publisher to make it worthy of the author and a pleasure to his friends and admirers. No one can be more conscious than he of the magnitude of the task undertaken, or more keenly feel how far short it must fall of adequate accomplishment.

When it is remembered that countless utterances of the author were never caught from his eloquent lips, it is matter for congratulation that so much has been preserved. The authorized addresses, arguments and articles that have already appeared in print and pa.s.sed the review of the authors more or less careful inspection, will be readily recognized as accurate and complete; but in this latest and fullest compilation are many emanations from his heart and brain that have never had his scrutiny, were not revised by him, and that yet, by general judgment, should not be lost to the world.

These unedited sundries consist of fragments of speeches and incompleted articles discovered amongst the authors literary remains and for unknown reasons left in more or less unfinished form. It has been the publisher's ambition to gather these fugitive pieces and place them in this edition by the side of the saved treasures. Whether the work has been well or ill done a generous public must decide, while the sole responsibility must rest with, as it has been a.s.sumed by, the publisher.

In carrying out the design of the present edition, the publisher gratefully acknowledges the a.s.sistance of Mr. Ingersoll's family, who have freely placed at his disposal many papers, inscriptions, monographs, memoranda and pages of valuable material.

Recognition is also here made of the kind courtesy of the press and of publishers of magazines who have generously permitted the publication of articles originally written for them.

Finally, the publisher gives his thanks to all the devoted friends of the author who in many ways, by suggestion and unselfish labor, have aided in getting out this work. Of these, none have been more unremitting in service, and to none is the publisher more indebted, than to Mr. I. Newton Baker, Mr. Ingersoll's former private secretary, to Dr.

Edgar C. Beall, and to Mr. George E. Macdonald for the fine Tables of Contents and the very valuable Index to this edition.

C. P. FARRELL.

New York, July, 1900.

THE G.o.dS

An Honest G.o.d is the n.o.blest Work of Man.

EACH nation has created a G.o.d, and the G.o.d has always resembled his creators. He hated and loved what they hated and loved, and he was invariably found on the side of those in power. Each G.o.d was intensely patriotic, and detested all nations but his own. All these G.o.ds demanded praise, flattery, and wors.h.i.+p. Most of them were pleased with sacrifice, and the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume. All these G.o.ds have insisted upon having a vast number of priests, and the priests have always insisted upon being supported by the people, and the princ.i.p.al business of these priests has been to boast about their G.o.d, and to insist that he could easily vanquish all the other G.o.ds put together.

These G.o.ds have been manufactured after numberless models, and according to the most grotesque fas.h.i.+ons. Some have a thousand arms, some a hundred heads, some are adorned with necklaces of living snakes, some are armed with clubs, some with sword and s.h.i.+eld, some with bucklers, and some have wings as a cherub; some were invisible, some would show themselves entire, and some would only show their backs; some were jealous, some were foolish, some turned themselves into men, some into swans, some into bulls, some into doves, and some into Holy Ghosts, and made love to the beautiful daughters of men. Some were married--all ought to have been--and some were considered as old bachelors from all eternity. Some had children, and the children were turned into G.o.ds and wors.h.i.+ped as their fathers had been. Most of these G.o.ds were revengeful, savage, l.u.s.tful, and ignorant. As they generally depended upon their priests for information, their ignorance can hardly excite our astonishment.

These G.o.ds did not even know the shape of the worlds they had created, but supposed them perfectly flat Some thought the day could be lengthened by stopping the sun, that the blowing of horns could throw down the walls of a city, and all knew so little of the real nature of the people they had created, that they commanded the people to love them. Some were so ignorant as to suppose that man could believe just as he might desire, or as they might command, and that to be governed by observation, reason, and experience was a most foul and d.a.m.ning sin.

None of these G.o.ds could give a true account of the creation of this little earth. All were wofully deficient in geology and astronomy. As a rule, they were most miserable legislators, and as executives, they were far inferior to the average of American presidents.

These deities have demanded the most abject and degrading obedience. In order to please them, man must lay his very face in the dust Of course, they have always been partial to the people who created them, and have generally shown their partiality by a.s.sisting those people to rob and destroy others, and to ravish their wives and daughters.

Nothing is so pleasing to these G.o.ds as the butchery of unbelievers.

Nothing so enrages them, even now, as to have some one deny their existence.

Few nations have been so poor as to have but one G.o.d. G.o.ds were made so easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the G.o.d market was fairly glutted, and heaven crammed with these phantoms. These G.o.ds not only attended to the skies, but were supposed to interfere in all the affairs of men. They presided over everybody and everything.

They attended to every department. All was supposed to be under their immediate control. Nothing was too small--nothing too large; the falling of sparrows and the motions of the planets were alike attended to by these industrious and observing deities. From their starry thrones they frequently came to the earth for the purpose of imparting information to man. It is related of one that he came amid thunderings and lightnings in order to tell the people that they should not cook a kid in its mother's milk. Some left their s.h.i.+ning abodes to tell women that they should, or should not, have children, to inform a priest how to cut and wear his ap.r.o.n, and to give directions as to the proper manner of cleaning the intestines of a bird.

When the people failed to wors.h.i.+p one of these G.o.ds, or failed to feed and clothe his priests, (which was much the same thing,) he generally visited them with pestilence and famine. Sometimes he allowed some other nation to drag them into slavery--to sell their wives and children; but generally he glutted his vengeance by murdering their first-born.

The priests always did their whole duty, not only in predicting these calamities, but in proving, when they did happen, that they were brought upon the people because they had not given quite enough to them.

These G.o.ds differed just as the nations differed; the greatest and most powerful had the most powerful G.o.ds, while the weaker ones were obliged to content themselves with the very off-scourings of the heavens. Each of these G.o.ds promised happiness here and hereafter to all his slaves, and threatened to eternally punish all who either disbelieved in his existence or suspected that some other G.o.d might be his superior; but to deny the existence of all G.o.ds was, and is, the crime of crimes. Redden your hands with human blood; blast by slander the fair fame of the innocent; strangle the smiling child upon its mother's knees; deceive, ruin and desert the beautiful girl who loves and trusts you, and your case is not hopeless. For all this, and for all these you may be forgiven. For all this, and for all these, that bankrupt court established by the gospel, will give you a discharge; but deny the existence of these divine ghosts, of these G.o.ds, and the sweet and tearful face of Mercy becomes livid with eternal hate. Heaven's golden gates are shut, and you, with an infinite curse ringing in your ears, with the brand of infamy upon your brow, commence your endless wanderings in the lurid gloom of h.e.l.l--an immortal vagrant--an eternal outcast--a deathless convict.

One of these G.o.ds, and one who demands our love, our admiration and our wors.h.i.+p, and one who is wors.h.i.+ped, if mere heartless ceremony is wors.h.i.+p, gave to his chosen people for their guidance, the following laws of war: "When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, _then proclaim peace unto it_. And it shall be if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it.

"And when the Lord thy G.o.d hath delivered it into thy hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself, and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies which the Lord thy G.o.d hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these people which the Lord thy G.o.d doth give thee for an inheritance, _thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth_"

Is it possible for man to conceive of anything more perfectly infamous?

Can you believe that such directions were given by any being except an infinite fiend? Remember that the army receiving these instructions was one of invasion. Peace was offered upon condition that the people submitting should be the slaves of the invader; but if any should have the courage to defend their homes, to fight for the love of wife and child, then the sword was to spare none--not even the prattling, dimpled babe.

And we are called upon to wors.h.i.+p such a G.o.d; to get upon our knees and tell him that he is good, that he is merciful, that he is just, that he is love. We are asked to stifle every n.o.ble sentiment of the soul, and to trample under foot all the sweet charities of the heart. Because we refuse to stultify ourselves--refuse to become liars--we are denounced, hated, traduced and ostracized here, and this same G.o.d threatens to torment us in eternal fire the moment death allows him to fiercely clutch our naked helpless souls. Let the people hate, let the G.o.d threaten--we will educate them, and we will despise and defy him.

The book, called the Bible, is filled with pa.s.sages equally horrible, unjust and atrocious. This is the book to be read in schools in order to make our children loving, kind and gentle! This is the book to be recognized in our Const.i.tution as the source of all authority and justice!

Strange! that no one has ever been persecuted by the church for believing G.o.d bad, while hundreds of millions have been destroyed for thinking him good. The orthodox church never will forgive the Universalist for saying "G.o.d is love." It has always been considered as one of the very highest evidences of true and undefiled religion to insist that all men, women and children deserve eternal d.a.m.nation. It has always been heresy to say, "G.o.d will at last save all."

We are asked to justify these frightful pa.s.sages, these infamous laws of war, because the Bible is the word of G.o.d. As a matter of fact, there never was, and there never can be, an argument, even tending to prove the inspiration of any book whatever. In the absence of positive evidence, a.n.a.logy and experience, argument is simply impossible, and at the very best, can amount only to a useless agitation of the air.

The instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even reasoned about, we are mental serfs. It is infinitely absurd to suppose that a G.o.d would address a communication to intelligent beings, and yet make it a crime, to be punished in eternal flames, for them to use their intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication. If we have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it, and no G.o.d can have the right to punish us for such action.

The doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous.

It is the infamy of infamies. The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called "faith." What man, who ever thinks, can believe that blood can appease G.o.d? And yet, our entire system of religion is based upon that belief. The Jews pacified Jehovah with the blood of animals, and according to the Christian system, the blood of Jesus softened the heart of G.o.d a little, and rendered possible the salvation of a fortunate few. It is hard to conceive how the human mind can give a.s.sent to such terrible ideas, or how any sane man can read the Bible and still believe in the doctrine of inspiration.

Whether the Bible is true or false, is of no consequence in comparison with the mental freedom of the race.

Salvation through slavery is worthless. Salvation from slavery is inestimable.

As long as man believes the Bible to be infallible, that book is his master. The civilization of this century is not the child of faith, but of unbelief--the result of free thought.

All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention--of barbarian invention--is to read it Read it as you would any other book; think of it as you would of any other; get the bandage of reverence from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the throne of your brain the cowled form of superst.i.tion--then read the Holy Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity.

Our ancestors not only had their G.o.d-factories, but they made devils as well. These devils were generally disgraced and fallen G.o.ds. Some had headed unsuccessful revolts; some had been caught sweetly reclining in the shadowy folds of some fleecy cloud, kissing the wife of the G.o.d of G.o.ds. These devils generally sympathized with man. There is in regard to them a most wonderful fact: In nearly all the theologies, mythologies and religions, the devils have been much more humane and merciful than the G.o.ds. No devil ever gave one of his generals an order to kill children and to rip open the bodies of pregnant women. Such barbarities were always ordered by the good G.o.ds. The pestilences were sent by the most merciful G.o.ds. The frightful famine, during which the dying child with pallid lips sucked the withered bosom of a dead mother, was sent by the loving G.o.ds. No devil was ever charged with such fiendish brutality.

One of these G.o.ds, according to the account, drowned an entire world, with the exception of eight persons. The old, the young, the beautiful and the helpless were remorsely devoured by the sh.o.r.eless sea. This, the most fearful tragedy that the imagination of ignorant priests ever conceived, was the act, not of a devil, but of a G.o.d, so-called, whom men ignorantly wors.h.i.+p unto this day. What a stain such an act would leave upon the character of a devil! One of the prophets of one of these G.o.ds, having in his power a captured king, hewed him in pieces in the sight of all the people. Was ever any imp of any devil guilty of such savagery?

One of these G.o.ds is reported to have given the following directions concerning human slavery: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him unto the door, or unto the door-post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."

According to this, a man was given liberty upon condition that he would desert forever his wife and children. Did any devil ever force upon a husband, upon a father, so cruel and so heartless an alternative? Who can wors.h.i.+p such a G.o.d? Who can bend the knee to such a monster? Who can pray to such a fiend?

All these G.o.ds threatened to torment forever the souls of their enemies.

Did any devil ever make so infamous a threat? The basest thing recorded of the devil, is what he did concerning Job and his family, and that was done by the express permission of one of these G.o.ds, and to decide a little difference of opinion between their serene highnesses as to the character of "my servant Job." The first account we have of the devil is found in that purely scientific book called Genesis, and is as follows: "Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord G.o.d had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath G.o.d said, Ye shall not eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden G.o.d hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

For G.o.d doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as G.o.ds, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.... And the Lord G.o.d said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord G.o.d sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life."

According to this account the promise of the devil was fulfilled to the very letter. Adam and Eve did not die, and they did become as G.o.ds, knowing good and evil.

The account shows, however, that the G.o.ds dreaded education and knowledge then just as they do now. The church still faithfully guards the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind from eating the fruit thereof. The priests have never ceased repeating the old falsehood and the old threat: "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." From every pulpit comes the same cry, born of the same fear: "Lest they eat and become as G.o.ds, knowing good and evil." For this reason, religion hates science, faith detests reason, theology is the sworn enemy of philosophy, and the church with its flaming sword still guards the hated tree, and like its supposed founder, curses to the lowest depths the brave thinkers who eat and become as G.o.ds.

If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of civilization.