The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents, by Robert G. Ingersoll This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents Dresden Edition--Twelve Volumes Author: Robert G. Ingersoll Editor: David Widger Release Date: February 9, 2012 [EBook #38813] Language: English Character set encoding: ASCII *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONTENTS OF INGERSOLL'S WORKS *** Produced by David Widger THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL, CONTENTS OF THE 12 VOLUMES By Robert G. Ingersoll Edited and Compiled by David Widger "The Destroyer Of Weeds, Thistles And Thorns Is A Benefactor, Whether He Soweth Grain Or Not." 1900 THE DRESDEN EDITION VOLUME I.--LECTURES DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. THE GODS HUMBOLDT. THOMAS PAINE INDIVIDUALITY. HERETICS AND HERESIES. THE GHOSTS. THE LIBERTY OF MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD. LIBERTY OF WOMAN. THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN. CONCLUSION. ABOUT FARMING IN ILLINOIS WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? I. WHAT WE MUST DO TO BE SAVED II. THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW III. THE GOSPEL OF MARK IV. THE GOSPEL OF LUKE. V. THE GOSPEL OF JOHN VI. THE CATHOLICS VII. THE EPISCOPALIANS VIII. THE METHODISTS IX. THE PRESBYTERIANS X. THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. XI. WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE? DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. THE GODS. (1872.) An Honest God is the Noblest Work of Man--Resemblance of Gods to their Creators--Manufacture and Characteristics of Deities--Their Amours--Deficient in many Departments of Knowledge--Pleased with the Butchery of Unbelievers--A Plentiful Supply--Visitations--One God's Laws of War--The Book called the Bible--Heresy of Universalism--Faith an unhappy mixture of Insanity and Ignorance--Fallen Gods, or Devils--Directions concerning Human Slavery--The first Appearance of the Devil--The Tree of Knowledge--Give me the Storm and Tempest of Thought--Gods and Devils Natural Productions--Personal Appearance of Deities--All Man's Ideas suggested by his Surroundings--Phenomena Supposed to be Produced by Intelligent Powers--Insanity and Disease attributed to Evil Spirits--Origin of the Priesthood--Temptation of Christ--Innate Ideas--Divine Interference--Special Providence--The Crane and the Fish--Cancer as a proof of Design--Matter and Force--Miracle--Passing the Hat for just one Fact--Sir William Hamilton on Cause and Effect--The Phenomena of Mind--Necessity and Free Will--The Dark Ages--The Originality of Repetition--Of what Use have the Gods been to Man?--Paley and Design--Make Good Health Contagious--Periodicity of the Universe and the Commencement of Intellectual Freedom--Lesson of the ineffectual attempt to rescue the Tomb of Christ from the Mohammedans--The Cemetery of the Gods--Taking away Crutches--Imperial Reason HUMBOLDT. (1869.) The Universe is Governed by Law--The Self-made Man--Poverty generally an Advantage--Humboldt's Birth-place--His desire for Travel--On what Humboldt's Fame depends--His Companions and Friends--Investigations in the New World--A Picture--Subjects of his Addresses--Victory of the Church over Philosophy--Influence of the discovery that the World is governed by Law--On the term Law--Copernicus--Astronomy--Aryabhatta-- Descartes--Condition of the World and Man when the morning of Science Dawned--Reasons for Honoring Humboldt--The World his Monument THOMAS PAINE. (1870.) With his Name left out the History of Liberty cannot be Written--Paine's Origin and Condition--His arrival in America with a Letter of Introduction by Franklin--Condition of the Colonies--"Common Sense"--A new Nation Born--Paine the Best of Political Writers--The "Crisis"--War not to the Interest of a trading Nation--Paine's Standing at the Close of the Revolution--Close of the Eighteenth Century in France-The "Rights of Man"--Paine Prosecuted in England--"The World is my Country"--Elected to the French Assembly--Votes against the Death of the King--Imprisoned--A look behind the Altar--The "Age of Reason"--His Argument against the Bible as a Revelation--Christianity of Paine's Day--A Blasphemy Law in Force in Maryland--The Scotch "Kirk"--Hanging of Thomas Aikenhead for Denying the Inspiration of the Scriptures--"Cathedrals and Domes, and Chimes and Chants"--Science--"He Died in the Land his Genius Defended," INDIVIDUALITY. (1873.) "His Soul was like a Star and Dwelt Apart"--Disobedience one of the Conditions of Progress.--Magellan--The Monarch and the Hermit-Why the Church hates a Thinker--The Argument from Grandeur and Prosperity-Travelers and Guide-boards--A Degrading Saying--Theological Education--Scotts, Henrys and McKnights--The Church the Great Robber--Corrupting the Reason of Children--Monotony of Acquiescence: For God's sake, say No--Protestant Intolerance: Luther and Calvin--Assertion of Individual Independence a Step toward Infidelity--Salute to Jupiter--The Atheistic Bug-Little Religious Liberty in America--God in the Constitution, Man Out--Decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois that an Unbeliever could not testify in any Court--Dissimulation--Nobody in this Bed--The Dignity of a Unit HERETICS AND HERESIES. (1874.) Liberty, a Word without which all other Words are Vain--The Church, the Bible, and Persecution--Over the wild Waves of War rose and fell the Banner of Jesus Christ--Highest Type of the Orthodox Christian--Heretics' Tongues and why they should be Removed before Burning--The Inquisition Established--Forms of Torture--Act of Henry VIII for abolishing Diversity of Opinion--What a Good Christian was Obliged to Believe--The Church has Carried the Black Flag--For what Men and Women have been Burned--John Calvin's Advent into the World--His Infamous Acts--Michael Servetus--Castalio--Spread of Presbyterianism--Indictment of a Presbyterian Minister in Illinois for Heresy--Specifications--The Real Bible THE GHOSTS. (1877.) Dedication to Ebon C. Ingersoll--Preface--Mendacity of the Religious Press--"Materialism"--Ways of Pleasing the Ghosts--The Idea of Immortality not Born of any Book--Witchcraft and Demon-ology--Witch Trial before Sir Matthew Hale--John Wesley a Firm Believer in Ghosts--"Witch-spots"--Lycanthropy--Animals Tried and Convicted--The Governor of Minnesota and the Grasshoppers--A Papal Bull against Witchcraft--Victims of the Delusion--Sir William Blackstone's Affirmation--Trials in Belgium--Incubi and Succubi--A Bishop Personated by the Devil--The Doctrine that Diseases are caused by Ghosts--Treatment--Timothy Dwight against Vaccination--Ghosts as Historians--The Language of Eden--Leibnitz, Founder of the Science of Language--Cosmas on Astronomy--Vagaries of Kepler and Tycho Brahe--Discovery of Printing, Powder, and America--Thanks to the Inventors--The Catholic Murderer and the Meat--Let the Ghosts Go THE LIBERTY OF MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD. (1877.) Liberty sustains the same Relation to Mind that Space does to Matter--The History of Man a History of Slavery--The Infidel Our Fathers in the good old Time--The iron Arguments that Christians Used--Instruments of Torture--A Vision of the Inquisition--Models of Man's Inventions--Weapons, Armor, Musical Instruments, Paintings, Books, Skulls--The Gentleman in the Dug-out--Homage to Genius and Intellect--Abraham Lincoln--What I mean by Liberty--The Man who cannot afford to Speak his Thought is a Certificate of the Meanness of the Community in which he Resides--Liberty of Woman--Marriage and the Family--Ornaments the Souvenirs of Bondage-The Story of the Garden of Eden--Adami and Heva--Equality of the Sexes-The word "Boss"--The Cross Man-The Stingy Man--Wives who are Beggars--How to Spend Money--By the Tomb of the Old Napoleon--The Woman you Love will never Grow Old--Liberty of Children--When your Child tells a Lie--Disowning Children--Beating your own Flesh and Blood--Make Home Pleasant--Sunday when I was a Boy--The Laugh of a Child--The doctrine of Eternal Punishment--Jonathan Edwards on the Happiness of Believing Husbands whose Wives are in Hell--The Liberty of Eating and Sleeping--Water in Fever--Soil and Climate necessary to the production of Genius--Against Annexing Santo Domingo--Descent of Man--Conclusion ABOUT FARMING IN ILLINOIS. (1877.) To Plow is to Pray; to Plant is to Prophesy, and the Harvest Answers and Fulfills--The Old Way of Farming--Cooking an Unknown Art-Houses, Fuel, and Crops--The Farmer's Boy--What a Farmer should Sell--Beautifying the Home--Advantages of Illinois as a Farming State--Advantages of the Farmer over the Mechanic--Farm Life too Lonely-On Early Rising--Sleep the Best Doctor--Fashion--Patriotism and Boarding Houses--The Farmer and the Railroads--Money and Confidence--Demonetization of Silver-Area of Illinois--Mortgages and Interest--Kindness to Wives and Children--How a Beefsteak should be Cooked--Decorations and Comfort--Let the Children Sleep--Old Age WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? (1880.) Preface--The Synoptic Gospels--Only Mark Knew of the Necessity of Belief--Three Christs Described--The Jewish Gentleman and the Piece of Bacon--Who Wrote the New Testament?--Why Christ and the Apostles wrote Nothing--Infinite Respect for the Man Christ--Different Feeling for the Theological Christ--Saved from What?--Chapter on the Gospel of Matthew--What this Gospel says we must do to be Saved--Jesus and the Children--John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards conceived of as Dimpled Darlings--Christ and the Man who inquired what Good Thing he should do that he might have Eternal Life--Nothing said about Belief--An Interpolation--Chapter on the Gospel of Mark--The Believe or be Damned Passage, and why it was written--The last Conversation of Christ with his Disciples--The Signs that Follow them that Believe--Chapter on the Gospel of Luke--Substantial Agreement with Matthew and Mark--How Zaccheus achieved Salvation--The two Thieves on the Cross--Chapter on the Gospel of John--The Doctrine of Regeneration, or the New Birth--Shall we Love our Enemies while God Damns His?--Chapter on the Catholics--Communication with Heaven through Decayed Saints--Nuns and Nunneries--Penitentiaries of God should be Investigated--The Athanasian Creed expounded--The Trinity and its Members--Chapter on the Episcopalians--Origin of the Episcopal Church--Apostolic Succession an Imported Article--Episcopal Creed like the Catholic, with a few Additional Absurdities--Chapter on the Methodists--Wesley and Whitfield--Their Quarrel about Predestination--Much Preaching for Little Money--Adapted to New Countries--Chapter on the Presbyterians--John Calvin, Murderer--Meeting between Calvin and Knox--The Infamy of Calvinism--Division in the Church--The Young Presbyterian's Resignation to the Fate of his Mother--A Frightful, Hideous, and Hellish Creed--Chapter on the Evangelical Alliance--Jeremy Taylor's Opinion of Baptists--Orthodoxy not Dead--Creed of the Alliance--Total Depravity, Eternal Damnation--What do You Propose?--The Gospel of Good-fellowship, Cheerfulness, Health, Good Living, Justice--No Forgiveness--God's Forgiveness Does not Pay my Debt to Smith--Gospel of Liberty, of Intelligence, of Humanity--One World at a Time--"Upon that Rock I Stand" VOLUME II.--LECTURES DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. PREFACE. SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES. SOME REASONS WHY ORTHODOXY. MYTH AND MIRACLE. DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES. (1879.) Preface--I. He who endeavors to control the Mind by Force is a Tyrant, and he who submits is a Slave--All I Ask--When a Religion is Founded--Freedom for the Orthodox Clergy--Every Minister an Attorney--Submission to the Orthodox and the Dead--Bounden Duty of the Ministry--The Minister Factory at Andover--II. Free Schools--No Sectarian Sciences--Religion and the Schools--Scientific Hypocrites--III. The Politicians and the Churches--IV. Man and Woman the Highest Possible Titles--Belief Dependent on Surroundings--Worship of Ancestors--Blindness Necessary to Keeping the Narrow Path--The Bible the Chain that Binds--A Bible of the Middle Ages and the Awe it Inspired--V. The Pentateuch--Moses Not the Author--Belief out of which Grew Religious Ceremonies--Egypt the Source of the Information of Moses--VI. Monday--Nothing, in the Light of Raw Material--The Story of Creation Begun--The Same Story, substantially, Found in the Records of Babylon, Egypt, and India--Inspiration Unnecessary to the Truth--Usefulness of Miracles to Fit Lies to Facts--Division of Darkness and Light--VII. Tuesday--The Firmament and Some Biblical Notions about it--Laws of Evaporation Unknown to the Inspired Writer--VIII. Wednesday--The Waters Gathered into Seas--Fruit and Nothing to Eat it--Five Epochs in the Organic History of the Earth--Balance between the Total Amounts of Animal and Vegetable Life--Vegetation Prior to the Appearance of the Sun--IX. Thursday--Sun and Moon Manufactured--Magnitude of the Solar Orb--Dimensions of Some of the Planets--Moses' Guess at the Size of Sun and Moon--Joshua's Control of the Heavenly Bodies--A Hypothesis Urged by Ministers--The Theory of "Refraction"--Rev. Henry Morey--Astronomical Knowledge of Chinese Savants--The Motion of the Earth Reversed by Jehovah for the Reassurance of Ahaz--"Errors" Renounced by Button--X. "He made the Stars Also"--Distance of the Nearest Star--XI. Friday--Whales and Other Living Creatures Produced--XII. Saturday--Reproduction Inaugurated--XIII. "Let Us Make Man"--Human Beings Created in the Physical Image and Likeness of God--Inquiry as to the Process Adopted--Development of Living Forms According to Evolution--How Were Adam and Eve Created?--The Rib Story--Age of Man Upon the Earth--A Statue Apparently Made before the World--XIV. Sunday--Sacredness of the Sabbath Destroyed by the Theory of Vast "Periods"--Reflections on the Sabbath--XV. The Necessity for a Good Memory--The Two Accounts of the Creation in Genesis I and II--Order of Creation in the First Account--Order of Creation in the Second Account--Fastidiousness of Adam in the Choice of a Helpmeet--Dr. Adam Clark's Commentary--Dr. Scott's Guess--Dr. Matthew Henry's Admission--The Blonde and Brunette Problem--The Result of Unbelief and the Reward of Faith--"Give Him a Harp"--XVI. The Garden--Location of Eden--The Four Rivers--The Tree of Knowledge--Andover Appealed To--XVII. The Fall--The Serpent--Dr. Adam Clark Gives a Zoological Explanation--Dr. Henry Dissents--Whence This Serpent?--XVIII. Dampness--A Race of Giants--Wickedness of Mankind--An Ark Constructed--A Universal Flood Indicated--Animals Probably Admitted to the Ark--How Did They Get There?--Problem of Food and Service--A Shoreless Sea Covered with Innumerable Dead--Drs. Clark and Henry on the Situation--The Ark Takes Ground--New Difficulties--Noah's Sacrifice--The Rainbow as a Memorandum--Babylonian, Egyptian, and Indian Legends of a Flood--XIX. Bacchus and Babel--Interest Attaching to Noah--Where Did Our First Parents and the Serpent Acquire a Common Language?--Babel and the Confusion of Tongues--XX. Faith in Filth--Immodesty of Biblical Diction--XXI. The Hebrews--God's Promises to Abraham--The Sojourning of Israel in Egypt--Marvelous Increase--Moses and Aaron--XXII. The Plagues--Competitive Miracle Working--Defeat of the Local Magicians--XXIII. The Flight Out of Egypt--Three Million People in a Desert--Destruction of Pharaoh ana His Host--Manna--A Superfluity of Quails--Rev. Alexander Cruden's Commentary--Hornets as Allies of the Israelites--Durability of the Clothing of the Jewish People--An Ointment Monopoly--Consecration of Priests--The Crime of Becoming a Mother--The Ten Commandments--Medical Ideas of Jehovah--Character of the God of the Pentateuch--XXIV. Confess and Avoid--XXV. "Inspired" Slavery--XXVI. "Inspired" Marriage-XXVII. "Inspired" War-XXVIII. "Inspired" Religious Liberty--XXIX. Conclusion. SOME REASONS WHY. (1881.) I--Religion makes Enemies--Hatred in the Name of Universal Benevolence--No Respect for the Rights of Barbarians--Literal Fulfillment of a New Testament Prophecy--II. Duties to God--Can we Assist God?--An Infinite Personality an Infinite Impossibility-Ill. Inspiration--What it Really Is--Indication of Clams--Multitudinous Laughter of the Sea--Horace Greeley and the Mammoth Trees--A Landscape Compared to a Table-cloth--The Supernatural is the Deformed--Inspiration in the Man as well as in the Book--Our Inspired Bible--IV. God's Experiment with the Jews--Miracles of One Religion never astonish the Priests of Another--"I am a Liar Myself"--V. Civilized Countries--Crimes once regarded as Divine Institutions--What the Believer in the Inspiration of the Bible is Compelled to Say--Passages apparently written by the Devil--VI. A Comparison of Books--Advancing a Cannibal from Missionary to Mutton--Contrast between the Utterances of Jehovah and those of Reputable Heathen--Epictetus, Cicero, Zeno, Seneca--the Hindu, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius--The Avesta--VII. Monotheism--Egyptians before Moses taught there was but One God and Married but One Wife--Persians and Hindoos had a Single Supreme Deity--Rights of Roman Women--Marvels of Art achieved without the Assistance of Heaven--Probable Action of the Jewish Jehovah incarnated as Man--VIII. The New Testament--Doctrine of Eternal Pain brought to Light--Discrepancies--Human Weaknesses cannot be Predicated of Divine Wisdom--Why there are Four Gospels according to Irenaeus--The Atonement--Remission of Sins under the Mosaic Dispensation--Christians say, "Charge it"--God's Forgiveness does not Repair an Injury--Suffering of Innocence for the Guilty--Salvation made Possible by Jehovah's Failure to Civilize the Jews--Necessity of Belief not taught in the Synoptic Gospels--Non-resistance the Offspring of Weakness--IX. Christ's Mission--All the Virtues had been Taught before his Advent--Perfect and Beautiful Thoughts of his Pagan Predecessors--St. Paul Contrasted with Heathen Writers--"The Quality of Mercy"--X. Eternal Pain--An Illustration of Eternal Punishment--Captain Kreuger of the Barque Tiger--XI. Civilizing Influence of the Bible--Its Effects on the Jews--If Christ was God, Did he not, in his Crucifixion, Reap what he had Sown?--Nothing can add to the Misery of a Nation whose King is Jehovah ORTHODOXY. (1884.) Orthodox Religion Dying Out--Religious Deaths and Births--The Religion of Reciprocity--Every Language has a Cemetery--Orthodox Institutions Survive through the Money invested in them--"Let us tell our Real Names"--The Blows that have Shattered the Shield and Shivered the Lance of Superstition--Mohammed's Successful Defence of the Sepulchre of Christ--The Destruction of Art--The Discovery of America--Although he made it himself, the Holy Ghost was Ignorant of the Form of this Earth--Copernicus and Kepler--Special Providence--The Man and the Ship he did not Take--A Thanksgiving Proclamation Contradicted--Charles Darwin--Henry Ward Beecher--The Creeds--The Latest Creed--God as a Governor--The Love of God--The Fall of Man--We are Bound by Representatives without a Chance to Vote against Them--The Atonement--The Doctrine of Depravity a Libel on the Human Race--The Second Birth--A Unitarian Universalist--Inspiration of the Scriptures--God a Victim of his own Tyranny--In the New Testament Trouble Commences at Death--The Reign of Truth and Love--The Old Spaniard who Died without an Enemy--The Wars it Brought--Consolation should be Denied to Murderers--At the Rate at which Heathen are being Converted, how long will it take to Establish Christ's Kingdom on Earth?--The Resurrection--The Judgment Day--Pious Evasions--"We shall not Die, but we shall all be Hanged"--"No Bible, no Civilization" Miracles of the New Testament--Nothing Written by Christ or his Contemporaries--Genealogy of Jesus--More Miracles--A Master of Death--Improbable that he would be Crucified--The Loaves and Fishes--How did it happen that the Miracles Convinced so Few?--The Resurrection--The Ascension--Was the Body Spiritual--Parting from the Disciples--Casting out Devils--Necessity of Belief--God should be consistent in the Matter of forgiving Enemies--Eternal Punishment--Some Good Men who are Damned--Another Objection--Love the only Bow on Life's dark Cloud--"Now is the accepted Time"--Rather than this Doctrine of Eternal Punishment Should be True--I would rather that every Planet should in its Orbit wheel a barren Star--What I Believe--Immortality--It existed long before Moses--Consolation--The Promises are so Far Away, and the Dead are so Near--Death a Wall or a Door--A Fable--Orpheus and Eurydice. MYTH AND MIRACLE. (1885.) I. Happiness the true End and Aim of Life--Spiritual People and their Literature--Shakespeare's Clowns superior to Inspired Writers--Beethoven's Sixth Symphony Preferred to the Five Books of Moses--Venus of Milo more Pleasing than the Presbyterian Creed--II. Religions Naturally Produced--Poets the Myth-makers--The Sleeping Beauty--Orpheus and Eurydice--Red Riding Hood--The Golden Age--Elysian Fields--The Flood Myth--Myths of the Seasons--III. The Sun-god--Jonah, Buddha, Chrisnna, Horus, Zoroaster--December 25th as a Birthday of Gods--Christ a Sun-God--The Cross a Symbol of the Life to Come--When Nature rocked the Cradle of the Infant World--IV. Difference between a Myth and a Miracle--Raising the Dead, Past and Present--Miracles of Jehovah--Miracles of Christ--Everything Told except the Truth--The Mistake of the World--V. Beginning of Investigation--The Stars as Witnesses against Superstition--Martyrdom of Bruno--Geology--Steam and Electricity--Nature forever the Same--Persistence of Force--Cathedral, Mosque, and Joss House have the same Foundation--Science the Providence of Man--VI. To Soften the Heart of God--Martyrs--The God was Silent--Credulity a Vice--Develop the Imagination--"The Skylark" and "The Daisy"--VII. How are we to Civilize the World?--Put Theology out of Religion--Divorce of Church and State--Secular Education--Godless Schools--VIII. The New Jerusalem--Knowledge of the Supernatural possessed by Savages--Beliefs of Primitive Peoples--Science is Modest--Theology Arrogant--Torque-mada and Bruno on the Day of Judgment--IX. Poison of Superstition in the Mother's Milk--Ability of Mistakes to take Care of Themselves--Longevity of Religious Lies--Mother's religion pleaded by the Cannibal--The Religion of Freedom--O Liberty, thou art the God of my Idolatry VOLUME III--LECTURES DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME III. SHAKESPEARE ROBERT BURNS.* ABRAHAM LINCOLN VOLTAIRE. LIBERTY IN LITERATURE. THE GREAT INFIDELS.* CONCLUSION. WHICH WAY? ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME III. SHAKESPEARE (1891.) I. The Greatest Genius of our World--Not of Supernatural Origin or of Royal Blood--Illiteracy of his Parents--Education--His Father--His Mother a Great Woman--Stratford Unconscious of the Immortal Child--Social Position of Shakespeare--Of his Personal Peculiarities--Birth, Marriage, and Death--What we Know of Him--No Line written by him to be Found--The Absurd Epitaph--II. Contemporaries by whom he was Mentioned--III. No direct Mention of any of his Contemporaries in the Plays--Events and Personages of his Time--IV. Position of the Actor in Shakespeare's Time--Fortunately he was Not Educated at Oxford--An Idealist--His Indifference to Stage-carpentry and Plot--He belonged to All Lands--Knew the Brain and Heart of Man--An Intellectual Spendthrift--V. The Baconian Theory--VI. Dramatists before and during the Time of Shakespeare--Dramatic Incidents Illustrated in Passages from "Macbeth" and "Julius Caesar"--VII. His Use of the Work of Others--The Pontic Sea--A Passage from "Lear"--VIII. Extravagance that touches the Infinite--The Greatest Compliment--"Let me not live after my flame lacks oil"--Where Pathos almost Touches the Grotesque--IX. An Innovator and Iconoclast--Disregard of the "Unities"--Nature Forgets--Violation of the Classic Model--X. Types--The Secret of Shakespeare--Characters who Act from Reason and Motive--What they Say not the Opinion of Shakespeare--XI. The Procession that issued from Shakespeare's Brain--His Great Women--Lovable Clowns--His Men--Talent and Genius--XII. The Greatest of all Philosophers--Master of the Human Heart--Love--XIII. In the Realm of Comparison--XIV. Definitions: Suicide, Drama, Death, Memory, the Body, Life, Echo, the World, Rumor--The Confidant of Nature--XV. Humor and Pathos--Illustrations--XVI. Not a Physician, Lawyer, or Botanist--He was a Man of Imagination--He lived the Life of All--The Imagination had a Stage in Shakespeare's Brain. ROBERT BURNS. (1878.) Poetry and Poets--Milton, Dante, Petrarch--Old-time Poetry in Scotland--Influence of Scenery on Literature--Lives that are Poems--Birth of Burns--Early Life and Education--Scotland Emerging from the Gloom of Calvinism--A Metaphysical Peasantry--Power of the Scotch Preacher--Famous Scotch Names--John Barleycorn vs. Calvinism--Why Robert Burns is Loved--His Reading--Made Goddesses of Women--Poet of Love: His "Vision," "Bonnie Doon," "To Mary in Heaven"--Poet of Home: "Cotter's Saturday Night," "John Anderson, My Jo"--Friendship: "Auld Lang-Syne"--Scotch Drink: "Willie brew'd a peck o' maut"--Burns the Artist: The "Brook," "Tam O'Shanter"--A Real Democrat: "A man's a man for a' that"--His Theology: The Dogma of Eternal Pain, "Morality," "Hypocrisy," "Holy Willie's Prayer"--On the Bible--A Statement of his Religion--Contrasted with Tennyson--From Cradle to Coffin--His Last words--Lines on the Birth-place of Burns. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. (1894.) I. Simultaneous Birth of Lincoln and Darwin--Heroes of Every Generation--Slavery--Principle Sacrificed to Success--Lincoln's Childhood--His first Speech--A Candidate for the Senate against Douglass--II. A Crisis in the Affairs of the Republic--The South Not Alone Responsible for Slavery--Lincoln's Prophetic Words--Nominated for President and Elected in Spite of his Fitness--III. Secession and Civil War--The Thought uppermost in his Mind--IV. A Crisis in the North--Proposition to Purchase the Slaves--V. The Proclamation of Emancipation--His Letter to Horace Greeley--Waited on by Clergymen--VI. Surrounded by Enemies--Hostile Attitude of Gladstone, Salisbury, Louis Napoleon, and the Vatican--VII. Slavery the Perpetual Stumbling-block--Confiscation--VIII. His Letter to a Republican Meeting in Illinois--Its Effect--IX. The Power of His Personality--The Embodiment of Mercy--Use of the Pardoning Power--X. The Vallandigham Affair--The Horace Greeley Incident--Triumphs of Humor--XI. Promotion of General Hooker--A Prophecy and its Fulfillment--XII.--States Rights vs. Territorial Integrity--XIII. His Military Genius--The Foremost Man in all the World: and then the Horror Came--XIV. Strange Mingling of Mirth and Tears--Deformation of Great Historic Characters--Washington now only a Steel Engraving--Lincoln not a Type--Virtues Necessary in a New Country--Laws of Cultivated Society--In the Country is the Idea of Home--Lincoln always a Pupil--A Great Lawyer--Many-sided--Wit and Humor--As an Orator--His Speech at Gettysburg contrasted with the Oration of Edward Everett--Apologetic in his Kindness--No Official Robes--The gentlest Memory of our World. VOLTAIRE. (1894.) I. Changes wrought by Time--Throne and Altar Twin Vultures--The King and the Priest--What is Greatness?--Effect of Voltaire's Name on Clergyman and Priest--Born and Baptized--State of France in 1694--The Church at the Head--Efficacy of Prayers and Dead Saints--Bells and Holy Water--Prevalence of Belief in Witches, Devils, and Fiends--Seeds of the Revolution Scattered by Noble and Priest--Condition in England--The Inquisition in full Control in Spain--Portugal and Germany burning Women--Italy Prostrate beneath the Priests, the Puritans in America persecuting Quakers, and stealing Children--II. The Days of Youth--His Education--Chooses Literature as a Profession and becomes a Diplomat--In Love and Disinherited--Unsuccessful Poem Competition--Jansenists and Molinists--The Bull Unigenitus--Exiled to Tulle--Sent to the Bastile--Exiled to England--Acquaintances made there--III. The Morn of Manhood--His Attention turned to the History of the Church--The "Triumphant Beast" Attacked--Europe Filled with the Product of his Brain--What he Mocked--The Weapon of Ridicule--His Theology--His "Retractions"--What Goethe said of Voltaire--IV. The Scheme of Nature--His belief in the Optimism of Pope Destroyed by the Lisbon Earthquake--V. His Humanity--Case of Jean Calas--The Sirven Family--The Espenasse Case--Case of Chevalier de la Barre and D'Etallonde--Voltaire Abandons France--A Friend of Education--An Abolitionist--Not a Saint--VI. The Return--His Reception--His Death--Burial at Romilli-on-the-Seine--VII. The Death-bed Argument--Serene Demise of the Infamous--God has no Time to defend the Good and protect the Pure--Eloquence of the Clergy on the Death-bed Subject--The Second Return--Throned upon the Bastile--The Grave Desecrated by Priests--Voltaire. A Testimonial to Walt Whitman--Let us put Wreaths on the Brows of the Living--Literary Ideals of the American People in 1855--"Leaves of Grass"--Its reception by the Provincial Prudes--The Religion of the Body--Appeal to Manhood and Womanhood--Books written for the Market--The Index Expurgatorius--Whitman a believer in Democracy--Individuality--Humanity--An Old-time Sea-fight--What is Poetry?--Rhyme a Hindrance to Expression--Rhythm the Comrade of the Poetic--Whitman's Attitude toward Religion--Philosophy--The Two Poems--"A Word Out of the Sea"--"When Lilacs Last in the Door"--"A Chant for Death"-- The History of Intellectual Progress is written in the Lives of Infidels--The King and the Priest--The Origin of God and Heaven, of the Devil and Hell--The Idea of Hell born of Ignorance, Brutality, Cowardice, and Revenge--The Limitations of our Ancestors--The Devil and God--Egotism of Barbarians--The Doctrine of Hell not an Exclusive Possession of Christianity--The Appeal to the Cemetery--Religion and Wealth, Christ and Poverty--The "Great" not on the Side of Christ and his Disciples--Epitaphs as Battle-cries--Some Great Men in favor of almost every Sect--Mistakes and Superstitions of Eminent Men--Sacred Books--The Claim that all Moral Laws came from God through the Jews--Fear--Martyrdom--God's Ways toward Men--The Emperor Constantine--The Death Test--Theological Comity between Protestants and Catholics--Julian--A childish Fable still Believed--Bruno--His Crime, his Imprisonment and LIBERTY IN LITERATURE. (1890.) "Old Age"--"Leaves of Grass" THE GREAT INFIDELS. (1881.) Martyrdom--The First to die for Truth without Expectation of Reward--The Church in the Time of Voltaire--Voltaire--Diderot--David Hume--Benedict Spinoza--Our Infidels--Thomas Paine--Conclusion. WHICH WAY? (1884.) I. The Natural and the Supernatural--Living for the Benefit of your Fellow-Man and Living for Ghosts--The Beginning of Doubt--Two Philosophies of Life--Two Theories of Government--II. Is our God superior to the Gods of the Heathen?--What our God has done--III. Two Theories about the Cause and Cure of Disease--The First Physician--The Bones of St. Anne Exhibited in New York--Archbishop Corrigan and Cardinal Gibbons Countenance a Theological Fraud--A Japanese Story--The Monk and the Miraculous Cures performed by the Bones of a Donkey represented as those of a Saint--IV.--Two Ways of accounting for Sacred Books and Religions--V-Two Theories about Morals--Nothing Miraculous about Morality--The Test of all Actions--VI. Search for the Impossible--Alchemy--"Perpetual Motion"--Astrology--Fountain of Perpetual Youth--VII. "Great Men" and the Superstitions in which they have Believed--VIII. Follies and Imbecilities of Great Men--We do not know what they Thought, only what they Said--Names of Great Unbelievers--Most Men Controlled by their Surroundings--IX. Living for God in Switzerland, Scotland, New England--In the Dark Ages--Let us Live for Man--X. The Narrow Road of Superstition--The Wide and Ample Way--Let us Squeeze the Orange Dry--This Was, This Is, This Shall Be. ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE. (1894.) The Truth about the Bible Ought to be Told--I. The Origin of the Bible--Establishment of the Mosaic Code--Moses not the Author of the Pentateuch--Some Old Testament Books of Unknown Origin--II. Is the Old Testament Inspired?--What an Inspired Book Ought to Be--What the Bible Is--Admission of Orthodox Christians that it is not Inspired as to Science--The Enemy of Art--III. The Ten Commandments--Omissions and Redundancies--The Story of Achan--The Story of Elisha--The Story of Daniel--The Story of Joseph--IV. What is it all Worth?--Not True, and Contradictory--Its Myths Older than the Pentateuch--Other Accounts of the Creation, the Fall, etc.--Books of the Old Testament Named and Characterized--V. Was Jehovah a God of Love?--VI. Jehovah's Administration--VII. The New Testament--Many Other Gospels besides our Four--Disagreements--Belief in Devils--Raising of the Dead--Other Miracles--Would a real Miracle-worker have been Crucified?--VIII. The Philosophy of Christ--Love of Enemies--Improvidence--Self-Mutilation--The Earth as a Footstool--Justice--A Bringer of War--Division of Families--IX. Is Christ our Example?--X. Why should we place Christ at the Top and Summit of the Human Race?--How did he surpass Other Teachers?--What he left Unsaid, and Why--Inspiration--Rejected Books of the New Testament--The Bible and the Crimes it has Caused. VOLUME IV.--LECTURES DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV. WHY I AM AN AGNOSTIC. THE TRUTH. HOW TO REFORM MANKIND. A THANKSGIVING SERMON. A LAY SERMON. THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. SUPERSTITION. THE DEVIL. PROGRESS. WHAT IS RELIGION? DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME IV. WHY I AM AN AGNOSTIC. (1896.) I. Influence of Birth in determining Religious Belief--Scotch, Irish, English, and Americans Inherit their Faith--Religions of Nations not Suddenly Changed--People who Knew--What they were Certain About--Revivals--Character of Sermons Preached--Effect of Conversion--A Vermont Farmer for whom Perdition had no Terrors--The Man and his Dog--Backsliding and Re-birth--Ministers who were Sincere--A Free Will Baptist on the Rich Man and Lazarus--II. The Orthodox God--The Two Dispensations--The Infinite Horror--III. Religious Books--The Commentators--Paley's Watch Argument--Milton, Young, and Pollok--IV. Studying Astronomy--Geology--Denial and Evasion by the Clergy--V. The Poems of Robert Burns--Byron, Shelley, Keats, and Shakespeare--VI. Volney, Gibbon, and Thomas Paine--Voltaire's Services to Liberty--Pagans Compared with Patriarchs--VII. Other Gods and Other Religions--Dogmas, Myths, and Symbols of Christianity Older than our Era--VIII. The Men of Science, Humboldt, Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Haeckel--IX. Matter and Force Indestructible and Uncreatable--The Theory of Design--X. God an Impossible Being--The Panorama of the Past--XI. Free from Sanctified Mistakes and Holy Lies. THE TRUTH. (1897.) I. The Martyrdom of Man--How is Truth to be Found--Every Man should be Mentally Honest--He should be Intellectually Hospitable--Geologists, Chemists, Mechanics, and Professional Men are Seeking for the Truth--II. Those who say that Slavery is Better than Liberty--Promises are not Evidence--Horace Greeley and the Cold Stove--III. "The Science of Theology" the only Dishonest Science--Moses and Brigham Young--Minds Poisoned and Paralyzed in Youth--Sunday Schools and Theological Seminaries--Orthodox Slanderers of Scientists--Religion has nothing to do with Charity--Hospitals Built in Self-Defence--What Good has the Church Accomplished?--Of what use are the Orthodox Ministers, and What are they doing for the Good of Mankind--The Harm they are Doing--Delusions they Teach--Truths they Should Tell about the Bible--Conclusions--Our Christs and our Miracles. HOW TO REFORM MANKIND. (1896.) I. "There is no Darkness but Ignorance"--False Notions Concerning All Departments of Life--Changed Ideas about Science, Government and Morals--II. How can we Reform the World?--Intellectual Light the First Necessity--Avoid Waste of Wealth in War--III. Another Waste--Vast Amount of Money Spent on the Church--IV. Plow can we Lessen Crime?--Frightful Laws for the Punishment of Minor Crimes--A Penitentiary should be a School--Professional Criminals should not be Allowed to Populate the Earth--V. Homes for All-Make a Nation of Householders--Marriage and Divorce-VI. The Labor Question--Employers cannot Govern Prices--Railroads should Pay Pensions--What has been Accomplished for the Improvement of the Condition of Labor--VII. Educate the Children--Useless Knowledge--Liberty cannot be Sacrificed for the Sake of Anything--False worship of Wealth--VIII. We must Work and Wait. A THANKSGIVING SERMON. (1897.) I. Our fathers Ages Ago--From Savagery to Civilization--For the Blessings we enjoy, Whom should we Thank?--What Good has the Church Done?-Did Christ add to the Sum of Useful Knowledge--The Saints--What have the Councils and Synods Done?--What they Gave us, and What they did Not--Shall we Thank them for the Hell Here and for the Hell of the Future?--II. What Does God Do?--The Infinite Juggler and his Puppets--What the Puppets have Done--Shall we Thank these Gods?--Shall we Thank Nature?--III. Men who deserve our Thanks--The Infidels, Philanthropists and Scientists--The Discoverers and Inventors--Magellan--Copernicus--Bruno--Galileo--Kepler, Herschel, Newton, and LaPlace--Lyell--What the Worldly have Done--Origin and Vicissitudes of the Bible--The Septuagint--Investigating the Phenomena of Nature--IV. We thank the Good Men and Good Women of the Past--The Poets, Dramatists, and Artists--The Statesmen--Paine, Jefferson, Ericsson, Lincoln. Grant--Voltaire, Humboldt, Darwin. A LAY SERMON. (1886.) Prayer of King Lear--When Honesty wears a Rag and Rascality a Robe-The Nonsense of "Free Moral Agency "--Doing Right is not Self-denial-Wealth often a Gilded Hell--The Log House--Insanity of Getting More--Great Wealth the Mother of Crime--Separation of Rich and Poor--Emulation--Invention of Machines to Save Labor--Production and Destitution--The Remedy a Division of the Land--Evils of Tenement Houses--Ownership and Use--The Great Weapon is the Ballot--Sewing Women--Strikes and Boycotts of No Avail--Anarchy, Communism, and Socialism--The Children of the Rich a Punishment for Wealth--Workingmen Not a Danger--The Criminals a Necessary Product--Society's Right to Punish--The Efficacy of Kindness--Labor is Honorable--Mental Independence. THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH. (1895.) I. The Old Testament--Story of the Creation--Age of the Earth and of Man--Astronomical Calculations of the Egyptians--The Flood--The Firmament a Fiction--Israelites who went into Egypt--Battles of the Jews--Area of Palestine--Gold Collected by David for the Temple--II. The New Testament--Discrepancies about the Birth of Christ--Herod and the Wise Men--The Murder of the Babes of Bethlehem--When was Christ born--Cyrenius and the Census of the World--Genealogy of Christ according to Matthew and Luke--The Slaying of Zacharias--Appearance of the Saints at the Crucifixion--The Death of Judas Iscariot--Did Christ wish to be Convicted?--III. Jehovah--IV. The Trinity--The Incarnation--Was Christ God?--The Trinity Expounded--"Let us pray"--V. The Theological Christ--Sayings of a Contradictory Character--Christ a Devout Jew--An ascetic--His Philosophy--The Ascension--The Best that Can be Said about Christ--The Part that is beautiful and Glorious--The Other Side--VI. The Scheme of Redemption--VII. Belief--Eternal Pain--No Hope in Hell, Pity in Heaven, or Mercy in the Heart of God--VIII. Conclusion. SUPERSTITION. (1898.) I. What is Superstition?--Popular Beliefs about the Significance of Signs, Lucky and Unlucky Numbers, Days, Accidents, Jewels, etc.--Eclipses, Earthquakes, and Cyclones as Omens--Signs and Wonders of the Heavens--Efficacy of Bones and Rags of Saints--Diseases and Devils--II. Witchcraft--Necromancers--What is a Miracle?--The Uniformity of Nature--III. Belief in the Existence of Good Spirits or Angels--God and the Devil--When Everything was done by the Supernatural--IV. All these Beliefs now Rejected by Men of Intelligence--The Devil's Success Made the Coming of Christ a Necessity--"Thou shalt not Suffer a Witch to Live"--Some Biblical Angels--Vanished Visions--V. Where are Heaven and Hell?--Prayers Never Answered--The Doctrine of Design--Why Worship our Ignorance?--Would God Lead us into Temptation?--President McKinley's Thanks giving for the Santiago Victory--VI. What Harm Does Superstition Do?--The Heart Hardens and the Brain Softens--What Superstition has Done and Taught--Fate of Spain--Of Portugal, Austria, Germany--VII. Inspired Books--Mysteries added to by the Explanations of Theologians--The Inspired Bible the Greatest Curse of Christendom--VIII. Modifications of Jehovah--Changing the Bible--IX. Centuries of Darkness--The Church Triumphant--When Men began to Think--X. Possibly these Superstitions are True, but We have no Evidence--We Believe in the Natural--Science is the Real Redeemer. THE DEVIL. (1899.) I. If the Devil should Die, would God Make Another?--How was the Idea of a Devil Produced--Other Devils than Ours--Natural Origin of these Monsters--II. The Atlas of Christianity is The Devil--The Devil of the Old Testament--The Serpent in Eden--"Personifications" of Evil--Satan and Job--Satan and David--III. Take the Devil from the Drama of Christianity and the Plot is Gone--Jesus Tempted by the Evil One--Demoniac Possession--Mary Magdalene--Satan and Judas--Incubi and Succubi--The Apostles believed in Miracles and Magic--The Pool of Bethesda--IV. The Evidence of the Church--The Devil was forced to Father the Failures of God--Belief of the Fathers of the Church in Devils--Exorcism at the Baptism of an Infant in the Sixteenth Century--Belief in Devils made the Universe a Madhouse presided over by an Insane God--V. Personifications of the Devil--The Orthodox Ostrich Thrusts his Head into the Sand--If Devils are Personifications so are all the Other Characters of the Bible--VI. Some Queries about the Devil, his Place of Residence, his Manner of Living, and his Object in Life--Interrogatories to the Clergy--VII. The Man of Straw the Master of the Orthodox Ministers--His recent Accomplishments--VIII. Keep the Devils out of Children--IX. Conclusion.--Declaration of the Free. PROGRESS. (1860-64.) The Prosperity of the World depends upon its Workers--Veneration for the Ancient--Credulity and Faith of the Middle Ages--Penalty for Reading the Scripture in the Mother Tongue--Unjust, Bloody, and Cruel Laws--The Reformers too were Persecutors--Bigotry of Luther and Knox--Persecution of Castalio--Montaigne against Torture in France--"Witchcraft" (chapter on)--Confessed Wizards--A Case before Sir Matthew Hale--Belief in Lycanthropy--Animals Tried and Executed--Animals received as Witnesses--The Corsned or Morsel of Execution--Kepler an Astrologer--Luther's Encounter with the Devil--Mathematician Stoefflers, Astronomical Prediction of a Flood--Histories Filled with Falsehood--Legend about the Daughter of Pharaoh invading Scotland and giving the Country her name--A Story about Mohammed--A History of the Britains written by Archdeacons--Ingenuous Remark of Eusebius--Progress in the Mechanic Arts--England at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century--Barbarous Punishments--Queen Elizabeth's Order Concerning Clergymen and Servant Girls--Inventions of Watt, Arkwright, and Others--Solomon's Deprivations--Language (chapter on)--Belief that the Hebrew was of Paradise--Geography (chapter on)--The Works of Cosmas--Printing Invented--Church's Opposition to Books--The Inquisition--The Reformation--"Slavery" (chapter on)--Voltaire's Remark on Slavery as a Contract--White Slaves in Greece, Rome, England, Scotland, and France--Free minds make Free Bodies--Causes of the Abolition of White Slavery in Europe--The French Revolution--The African Slave Trade, its Beginning and End--Liberty Triumphed (chapter head)--Abolition of Chattel Slavery--Conclusion. WHAT IS RELIGION? (1899.) I. Belief in God and Sacrifice--Did an Infinite God Create the Children of Men and is he the Governor of the Universe?--II. If this God Exists, how do we Know he is Good?--Should both the Inferior and the Superior thank God for their Condition?--III. The Power that Works for Righteousness--What is this Power?--The Accumulated Experience of the World is a Power Working for Good?--Love the Commencement of the Higher Virtues--IV. What has our Religion Done?--Would Christians have been Worse had they Adopted another Faith?--V. How Can Mankind be Reformed Without Religion?--VI. The Four Corner-stones of my Theory--VII. Matter and Force Eternal--Links in the Chain of Evolution--VIII. Reform--The Gutter as a Nursery--Can we Prevent the Unfit from Filling the World with their Children?--Science must make Woman the Owner and Mistress of Herself--Morality Born of Intelligence--IX. Real Religion and Real Worship. VOLUME V.--DISCUSSIONS DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME V. PREFACE. INGERSOLL'S INTERVIEWS ON TALMAGE. FIRST INTERVIEW. SECOND INTERVIEW. THIRD INTERVIEW. FOURTH INTERVIEW. FIFTH INTERVIEW, SIXTH INTERVIEW. THE TALMAGIAN CATECHISM. A VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE. CONCLUSION. THE OBSERVER'S SECOND ATTACK INGERSOLL'S SECOND REPLY. CONTENTS OF VOLUME V. INGERSOLL'S SIX INTERVIEWS ON TALMAGE. (1882.) Preface--First Interview: Great Men as Witnesses to the Truth of the Gospel--No man should quote the Words of Another unless he is willing to Accept all the Opinions of that Man--Reasons of more Weight than Reputations--Would a general Acceptance of Unbelief fill the Penitentiaries?-- My Creed--Most Criminals Orthodox--Relig-ion and Morality not Necessarily Associates--On the Creation of the Universe out of Omnipotence--Mr. Talmage's Theory about the Pro-duction of Light prior to the Creation of the Sun--The Deluge and the Ark--Mr. Talmage's tendency to Belittle the Bible Miracles--His Chemical, Geological, and Agricultural Views--His Disregard of Good Manners- -Second Interview: An Insulting Text--God's Design in Creating Guiteau to be the Assassin of Garfield--Mr. Talmage brings the Charge of Blasphemy--Some Real Blasphemers--The Tabernacle Pastor tells the exact Opposite of the Truth about Col. Ingersoll's Attitude toward the Circulation of Immoral Books--"Assassinating" God--Mr. Talmage finds Nearly All the Invention of Modern Times Mentioned in the Bible--The Reverend Gentleman corrects the Translators of the Bible in the Matter of the Rib Story--Denies that Polygamy is permitted by the Old Testament--His De-fence of Queen Victoria and Violation of the Grave of George Eliot--Exhibits a Christian Spirit--Third Interview: Mr. Talmage's Partiality in the Bestowal of his Love--Denies the Right of Laymen to Examine the Scriptures--Thinks the Infidels Victims of Bibliophobia --He explains the Stopping of the Sun and Moon at the Command of Joshua-- Instances a Dark Day in the Early Part of the Century--Charges that Holy Things are Made Light of--Reaffirms his Confidence in the Whale and Jonah Story--The Commandment which Forbids the making of Graven Images--Affirmation that the Bible is the Friend of Woman--The Present Condition of Woman--Fourth Interview: Colonel Ingersoll Compared by Mr. Talmage tojehoiakim, who Consigned Writings of Jeremiah to the Flames--An Intimation that Infidels wish to have all copies of the Bible Destroyed by Fire--Laughter Deprecated--Col. Ingersoll Accused of Denouncing his Father--Mr. Talmage holds that a Man may be Perfectly Happy in Heaven with His Mother in Hell- -Challenges the Infidel to Read a Chapter from St. John--On the "Chief Solace of the World"--Dis- covers an Attempt is being made to Put Out the Light-houses of the Farther Shore--Affirms our Debt to Christianity for Schools, Hospitals, etc.--Denies that Infidels have ever Done any Good-- Fifth Interview: Inquiries if Men gather Grapes of Thorns, or Figs of Thistles, and is Answered in the Negative--Resents the Charge that the Bible is a Cruel Book--Demands to Know where the Cruelty of the Bible Crops out in the Lives of Christians-- Col. Ingersoll Accused of saying that the Bible is a Collection of Polluted Writings--Mr. Talmage Asserts the Orchestral Harmony of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, and Repudiates the Theory of Contradictions--His View of Mankind Indicated in Quotations from his Confession of Faith--He Insists that the Bible is Scientific-- Traces the New Testament to its Source with St. John--Pledges his Word that no Man ever Died for a Lie Cheerfully and Triumphantly--As to Prophecies and Predictions--Alleged "Prophetic" Fate of the Jewish People--Sixth Interview: Dr. Talmage takes the Ground that the Unrivalled Circulation of the Bible Proves that it is Inspired--Forgets' that a Scientific Fact does not depend on the Vote of Numbers--Names some Christian Millions--His Arguments Characterized as the Poor-est, Weakest, and Best Possible in Support of the Doctrine of Inspira-tion--Will God, in Judging a Man, take into Consideration the Cir-cumstances of that Man's Life?--Satisfactory Reasons for Not Believ- ing that the Bible is inspired. THE TALMAGIAN CATECHISM. The Pith and Marrow of what Mr. Talmage has been Pleased to Say, set forth in the form of a Shorter Catechism. A VINDICATION OF THOMAS PAINE. (1877.) Letter to the New York Observer--An Offer to Pay One Thousand Dollars in Gold for Proof that Thomas Paine or Voltaire Died in Terror because of any Religious Opinions Either had Expressed-- Proposition to Create a Tribunal to Hear the Evidence--The Ob-server, after having Called upon Col. Ingersoll to Deposit the Money, and Characterized his Talk as "Infidel 'Buncombe,'" Denies its Own Words, but attempts to Prove them-- Its Memory Refreshed by Col. Ingersoll and the Slander Refuted--Proof that Paine did Not Recant - -Testimony of Thomas Nixon, Daniel Pelton, Mr. Jarvis, B. F. Has-kin, Dr. Manley, Amasa Woodsworth, Gilbert Vale, Philip Graves, M. D., Willet Hicks, A. C. Hankinson, John Hogeboom, W. J. Hilton, Tames Cheetham, Revs. Milledollar and Cunningham, Mrs. Hedden, Andrew A. Dean, William Carver,--The Statements of Mary Roscoe and Mary Hindsdale Examined--William Cobbett's Account of a Call upon Mary Hinsdale--Did Thomas Paine live the Life of a Drunken Beast, and did he Die a Drunken, Cowardly, and Beastly Death?--Grant Thorbum's Charges Examined--Statement of the Rev. J. D. Wickham, D.D., shown to be Utterly False--False Witness of the Rev. Charles Hawley, D.D.--W. H. Ladd, James Cheetham, and Mary Hinsdale--Paine's Note to Cheetham--Mr-Staple, Mr. Purdy, Col. John Fellows, James Wilburn, Walter Morton, Clio Rickman, Judge Herttell, H. Margary, Elihu Palmer, Mr. XV Lovett, all these Testified that Paine was a Temperate Man--Washington's Letter to Paine-- Thomas Jefferson's--Adams and Washing-ton on "Common Sense"---James Monroe's Tribute-- Quotations from Paine--Paine's Estate and His Will--The Observer's Second Attack (p. 492): Statements of Elkana Watson, William Carver, Rev. E. F. Hatfield, D.D., James Cheetham, Dr. J. W. Francis, Dr. Manley, Bishop Fenwick--Ingersoll's Second Reply (p. 516): Testimony Garbled by the Editor of the Observer--Mary Roscoeand Mary Hins- dale the Same Person--Her Reputation for Veracity- -Letter from Rev. A. W. Cornell--Grant Thorburn Exposed by James Parton--The Observer's Admission that Paine did not Recant--Affidavit of William B. Barnes. VOLUME VI.--DISCUSSIONS DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; INGERSOLL'S OPENING PAPER THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, BY JEREMIAH S. BLACK. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. FAITH OR AGNOSTICISM. THE FIELD-INGERSOLL DISCUSSION. A REPLY TO THE REV. HENRY M. FIELD, D.D. A LAST WORD TO ROBERT G. INGERSOLL LETTER TO DR. FIELD. CONTROVERSY ON CHRISTIANTY COL. INGERSOLL TO MR. GLADSTONE. ROME OR REASON. THE CHURCH ITS OWN WITNESS, By Cardinal Manning. ROME OR REASON: A REPLY TO CARDINAL MANNING. IS DIVORCE WRONG? DIVORCE. IS CORPORAL PUNISHMENT DEGRADING? DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; INGERSOLL'S OPENING PAPER (1881.) I. Col. Ingersoll's Opening Paper--Statement of the Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Reasons for Thinking that Portions of the Old Testament are the Product of a Barbarous People--Passages upholding Slavery, Polygamy, War, and Religious Persecution not Evidences of Inspiration--If the Words are not Inspired, What Is?--Commands of Jehovah compared with the Precepts of Pagans and Stoics--Epictetus, Cicero, Zeno, Seneca, Brahma--II. The New Testament--Why were Four Gospels Necessary?--Salvation by Belief--The Doctrine of the Atonement--The Jewish System Culminating in the Sacrifice of Christ--Except for the Crucifixion of her Son, the Virgin Mary would be among the Lost--What Christ must have Known would Follow the Acceptance of His Teachings--The Wars of Sects, the Inquisition, the Fields of Death--Why did he not Forbid it All?--The Little that he Revealed--The Dogma of Eternal Punishment--Upon Love's Breast the Church has Placed the Eternal Asp--III. The "Inspired" Writers--Why did not God furnish Every Nation with a Bible? II. Judge Black's Reply--His Duty that of a Policeman--The Church not in Danger--Classes who Break out into Articulate Blasphemy--The Sciolist--Personal Remarks about Col. Ingersoll--Chief-Justice Gibson of Pennsylvania Quoted--We have no Jurisdiction or Capacity to Rejudge the Justice of God--The Moral Code of the Bible--Civil Government of the Jews--No Standard of Justice without Belief in a God--Punishments for Blasphemy and Idolatry Defended--Wars of Conquest--Allusion to Col. Ingersoll's War Record--Slavery among the Jews--Polygamy Discouraged by the Mosaic Constitution--Jesus of Nazareth and the Establishment of his Religion--Acceptance of Christianity and Adjudication upon its Divinity--The Evangelists and their Depositions--The Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Persecution and Triumph of the Church--Ingersoll's Propositions Compressed and the Compressions Answered--Salvation as a Reward of Belief--Punishment of Unbelief--The Second Birth, Atonement, Redemption, Non-resistance, Excessive Punishment of Sinners, Christ and Persecution, Christianity and Freedom of Thought, Sufficiency of the Gospel, Miracles, Moral Effect of Christianity. III. Col. Ingersoll's Rejoinder--How this Discussion Came About--Natural Law--The Design Argument--The Right to Rejudge the Justice even of a God--Violation of the Commandments by Jehovah--Religious Intolerance of the Old Testament--Judge Black's Justification of Wars of Extermination--His Defence of Slavery--Polygamy not "Discouraged" by the Old Testament--Position of Woman under the Jewish System and under that of the Ancients--a "Policeman's" View of God--Slavery under Jehovah and in Egypt--The Admission that Jehovah gave no Commandment against Polygamy--The Learned and Wise Crawl back in Cribs--Alleged Harmony of Old and New Testaments--On the Assertion that the Spread of Christianity Proves the Supernatural Origin of the Gospel--The Argument applicable to All Religions--Communications from Angels ana Gods--Authenticity of the Statements of the Evangelists--Three Important Manuscripts--Rise of Mormonism--Ascension of Christ--The Great Public Events alleged as Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Judge Black's System of "Compression"--"A Metaphysical Question"--Right and Wrong--Justice--Christianity and Freedom of Thought--Heaven and Hell--Production of God and the Devil--Inspiration of the Bible dependent on the Credulity of the Reader--Doubt of Miracles--The World before Christ's Advent--Respect for the Man Christ--The Dark Ages--Institutions of Mercy--Civil Law. THE FIELD-INGERSOLL DISCUSSION. (1887.) An Open Letter to Robert G. Ingersoll--Superstitions--Basis of Religion--Napoleon's Question about the Stars--The Idea of God--Crushing out Hope--Atonement, Regeneration, and Future Retribution--Socrates and Jesus--The Language of Col. Ingersoll characterized as too Sweeping--The Sabbath--But a Step from Sneering at Religion to Sneering at Morality. A Reply to the Rev. Henry M. Field, D. D.--Honest Differences of Opinion--Charles Darwin--Dr. Field's Distinction between Superstition and Religion--The Presbyterian God an Infinite Torquemada--Napoleon's Sensitiveness to the Divine Influence--The Preference of Agassiz--The Mysterious as an Explanation--The Certainty that God is not what he is Thought to Be--Self-preservation the Fibre of Society--Did the Assassination of Lincoln Illustrate the Justice of God's Judgments?--Immortality--Hope and the Presbyterian Creed--To a Mother at the Grave of Her Son--Theological Teaching of Forgiveness--On Eternal Retribution--Jesus and Mohammed--Attacking the Religion of Others--Ananias and Sapphira--The Pilgrims and Freedom to Worship--The Orthodox Sabbath--Natural Restraints on Conduct--Religion and Morality--The Efficacy of Prayer--Respect for Belief of Father and Mother--The "Power behind Nature"--Survival of the Fittest--The Saddest Fact--"Sober Second Thought." A Last Word to Robert G. Ingersoll, by Dr. Field--God not a Presbyterian--Why Col. Ingersoll's Attacks on Religion are Resented--God is more Merciful than Man--Theories about the Future Life--Retribution a Necessary Part of the Divine Law--The Case of Robinson Crusoe--Irresistible Proof of Design--Col. Ingersoll's View of Immortality--An Almighty Friend. Letter to Dr. Field--The Presbyterian God--What the Presbyterians Claim--The "Incurably Bad"--Responsibility for not seeing Things Clearly--Good Deeds should Follow even Atheists--No Credit in Belief--Design Argument that Devours Itself--Belief as a Foundation of Social Order--No Consolation in Orthodox Religion--The "Almighty Friend" and the Slave Mother--a Hindu Prayer--Calvinism--Christ not the Supreme Benefactor of the Race. COLONEL INGERSOLL ON CHRISTIANITY. (1888.) Some Remarks on his Reply to Dr. Field by the Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone--External Triumph and Prosperity of the Church--A Truth Half Stated--Col. Ingersoll's Tumultuous Method and lack of Reverential Calm--Jephthah's Sacrifice--Hebrews xii Expounded--The Case of Abraham--Darwinism and the Scriptures--Why God demands Sacrifices of Man--Problems admitted to be Insoluble--Relation of human Genius to Human Greatness--Shakespeare and Others--Christ and the Family Relation--Inaccuracy of Reference in the Reply--Ananias and Sapphira--The Idea of Immortality--Immunity of Error in Belief from Moral Responsibility--On Dishonesty in the Formation of Opinion--A Plausibility of the Shallowest kind--The System of Thuggism--Persecution for Opinion's Sake--Riding an Unbroken Horse. Col. Ingersoll to Mr. Gladstone--On the "Impaired" State of the human Constitution--Unbelief not Due to Degeneracy--Objections to the Scheme of Redemption--Does Man Deserve only Punishment?--"Reverential Calm"--The Deity of the Ancient Jews--Jephthah and Abraham--Relation between Darwinism and the Inspiration of the Scriptures--Sacrifices to the Infinite--What is Common Sense?--An Argument that will Defend every Superstition--The Greatness of Shakespeare--The Absolute Indissolubility of Marriage--Is the Religion of Christ for this Age?--As to Ananias and Sapphira--Immortality and People of Low Intellectual Development--Can we Control our Thought?--Dishonest Opinions Cannot be Formed--Some Compensations for Riding an "Unbroken Horse." ROME OR REASON. (1888.) "The Church Its Own Witness," by Cardinal Manning--Evidence that Christianity is of Divine Origin--The Universality of the Church--Natural Causes not Sufficient to Account for the Catholic Church---The World in which Christianity Arose--Birth of Christ--From St Peter to Leo XIII.--The First Effect of Christianity--Domestic Life's Second Visible Effect--Redemption of Woman from traditional Degradation--Change Wrought by Christianity upon the Social, Political and International Relations of the World--Proof that Christianity is of Divine Origin and Presence--St. John and the Christian Fathers--Sanctity of the Church not Affected by Human Sins. A Reply to Cardinal Manning--I. Success not a Demonstration of either Divine Origin or Supernatural Aid--Cardinal Manning's Argument More Forcible in the Mouth of a Mohammedan--Why Churches Rise and Flourish--Mormonism--Alleged Universality of the Catholic Church--Its "inexhaustible Fruitfulness" in Good Things--The Inquisition and Persecution--Not Invincible--Its Sword used by Spain--Its Unity not Unbroken--The State of the World when Christianity was Established--The Vicar of Christ--A Selection from Draper's "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe"--Some infamous Popes--Part II. How the Pope Speaks--Religions Older than Catholicism and having the Same Rites and Sacraments--Is Intellectual Stagnation a Demonstration of Divine Origin?--Integration and Disintegration--The Condition of the World 300 Years Ago--The Creed of Catholicism--The "One true God" with a Knowledge of whom Catholicism has "filled the World"--Did the Catholic Church overthrow Idolatry?--Marriage--Celibacy--Human Passions--The Cardinal's Explanation of Jehovah's abandonment of the Children of Men for four thousand Years--Catholicism tested by Paganism--Canon Law and Convictions had Under It--Rival Popes--Importance of a Greek "Inflection"--The Cardinal Witnesses. IS DIVORCE WRONG? (1889.) Preface by the Editor of the North American Review--Introduction, by the Rev. S. W. Dike, LL. D.--A Catholic View by Cardinal Gibbons--Divorce as Regarded by the Episcopal Church, by Bishop, Henry C. Potter--Four Questions Answered, by Robert G. Ingersoll. DIVORCE. Reply to Cardinal Gibbons--Indissolubility of Marriage a Reaction from Polygamy--Biblical Marriage--Polygamy Simultaneous and Successive--Marriage and Divorce in the Light of Experience--Reply to Bishop Potter--Reply to Mr. Gladstone--Justice Bradley--Senator Dolph--The argument Continued in Colloquial Form--Dialogue between Cardinal Gibbons and a Maltreated Wife--She Asks the Advice of Mr. Gladstone--The Priest who Violated his Vow--Absurdity of the Divorce laws of Some States. REPLY TO DR. LYMAN ABBOTT. (1890) Dr. Abbott's Equivocations--Crimes Punishable by Death under Mosaic and English Law--Severity of Moses Accounted for by Dr. Abbott--The Necessity for the Acceptance of Christianity--Christians should be Glad to Know that the Bible is only the Work of Man and that the New Testament Life of Christ is Untrue--All the Good Commandments, Known to the World thousands of Years before Moses--Human Happiness of More Consequence than the Truth about God--The Appeal to Great Names--Gladstone not the Greatest Statesman--What the Agnostic Says--The Magnificent Mistakes of Genesis--The Story of Joseph--Abraham as a "self-Exile for Conscience's Sake." REPLY TO ARCHDEACON FARRAR. (1890.) Revelation as an Appeal to Man's "Spirit"--What is Spirit and what is "Spiritual Intuition"?--The Archdeacon in Conflict with St. Paul--II. The Obligation to Believe without Evidence--III. Ignorant Credulity--IV. A Definition of Orthodoxy--V. Fear not necessarily Cowardice--Prejudice is Honest--The Ola has the Advantage in an Argument--St. Augustine--Jerome--the Appeal to Charlemagne--Roger Bacon--Lord Bacon a Defender of the Copernican System--The Difficulty of finding out what Great Men Believed--Names Irrelevantly Cited--Bancroft on the Hessians--Original Manuscripts of the Bible--VI. An Infinite Personality a Contradiction in Terms--VII. A Beginningless Being--VIII. The Cruelties of Nature not to be Harmonized with the Goodness of a Deity--Sayings from the Indian--Origen, St. Augustine, Dante, Aquinas. IS CORPORAL PUNISHMENT DEGRADING? (1890.) A Reply to the Dean of St. Paul--Growing Confidence in the Power of Kindness--Crimes against Soldiers and Sailors--Misfortunes Punished as Crimes--The Dean's Voice Raised in Favor of the Brutalities of the Past--Beating of Children--Of Wives--Dictum of Solomon. VOLUME VII.--DISCUSSIONS DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII. MY REVIEWERS REVIEWED. MY CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. TO THE INDIANAPOLIS CLERGY. THE BROOKLYN DIVINES. THE LIMITATIONS OF TOLERATION. A CHRISTMAS SERMON. SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE. IS SUICIDE A SIN? IS AVARICE TRIUMPHANT? A REPLY TO THE CINCINNATI GAZETTE AND CATHOLIC TELEGRAPH. AN INTERVIEW ON CHIEF JUSTICE COMEGYS. A REPLY TO REV. DRS. THOMAS AND LORIMER. A REPLY TO REV. JOHN HALL AND WARNER VAN NORDEN. A REPLY TO THE REV. DR. PLUMB. A REPLY TO THE NEW YORK CLERGY ON SUPERSTITION. DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME VII. MY REVIEWERS REVIEWED. (1877.) Answer to San Francisco Clergymen--Definition of Liberty, Physical and Mental--The Right to Compel Belief--Woman the Equal of Man--The Ghosts--Immortality--Slavery--Witchcraft--Aristocracy of the Air--Unfairness of Clerical Critics--Force and Matter--Doctrine of Negation--Confident Deaths of Murderers--Childhood Scenes returned to by the Dying--Death-bed of Voltaire--Thomas Paine--The First Sectarians Were Heretics--Reply to Rev. Mr. Guard--Slaughter of the Canaanites--Reply to Rev. Samuel Robinson--Protestant Persecutions--Toleration--Infidelity and Progress--The Occident--Calvinism--Religious Editors--Reply to the Rev. Mr. Ijams--Does the Bible teach Man to Enslave his Brothers?--Reply to California Christian Advocate--Self-Government of French People at and Since the Revolution--On the Site of the Bastile--French Peasant's Cheers for Jesus Christ--Was the World created in Six Days--Geology--What is the Astronomy of the Bible?--The Earth the Centre of the Universe--Joshua's Miracle--Change of Motion into Heat--Geography and Astronomy of Cosmas--Does the Bible teach the Existence of that Impossible Crime called Witchcraft?--Saul and the Woman of Endor--Familiar Spirits--Demonology of the New Testament--Temptation of Jesus--Possession by Devils--Gadarene Swine Story--Test of Belief--Bible Idea of the Rights of Children--Punishment of the Rebellious Son--Jephthah's Vow and Sacrifice--Persecution of Job--The Gallantry of God--Bible Idea of the Rights of Women--Paul's Instructions to Wives--Permission given to Steal Wives--Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy and Concubinage?--Does the Bible Uphold and Justify Political Tyranny?--Powers that be Ordained of God--Religious Liberty of God--Sun-Worship punishable with Death--Unbelievers to be damned--Does the Bible describe a God of Mercy?--Massacre Commanded--Eternal Punishment Taught in the New Testament--The Plan of Salvation--Fall and Atonement Moral Bankruptcy--Other Religions--Parsee Sect--Brahmins--Confucians--Heretics and Orthodox. MY CHICAGO BIBLE CLASS. (1879.) Rev. Robert Collyer--Inspiration of the Scriptures--Rev. Dr. Thomas--Formation of the Old Testament--Rev. Dr. Kohler--Rev. Mr. Herford--Prof. Swing--Rev. Dr. Ryder. TO THE INDIANAPOLIS CLERGY. (1882.) Rev. David Walk--Character of Jesus--Two or Three Christs Described in the Gospels--Christ's Change of Opinions--Gospels Later than the Epistles--Divine Parentage of Christ a Late Belief--The Man Christ probably a Historical Character--Jesus Belittled by his Worshipers--He never Claimed to be Divine--Christ's Omissions--Difference between Christian and other Modern Civilizations--Civilization not Promoted by Religion--Inventors--French and American Civilization: How Produced--Intemperance and Slavery in Christian Nations--Advance due to Inventions and Discoveries--Missionaries--Christian Nations Preserved by Bayonet and Ball--Dr. T. B. Taylor--Origin of Life on this Planet--Sir William Thomson--Origin of Things Undiscoverable--Existence after Death--Spiritualists--If the Dead Return--Our Calendar--Christ and Christmas-The Existence of Pain--Plato's Theory of Evil--Will God do Better in Another World than he does in this?--Consolation--Life Not a Probationary Stage--Rev. D.O'Donaghue--The Case of Archibald Armstrong and Jonathan Newgate--Inequalities of Life--Can Criminals live a Contented Life?--Justice of the Orthodox God Illustrated. THE BROOKLYN DIVINES. (1883.) Are the Books of Atheistic or Infidel Writers Extensively Read?--Increase in the Number of Infidels--Spread of Scientific Literature--Rev. Dr. Eddy--Rev. Dr. Hawkins--Rev. Dr. Haynes--Rev. Mr. Pullman--Rev. Mr. Foote--Rev. Mr. Wells--Rev. Dr. Van Dyke--Rev. Carpenter--Rev. Mr. Reed--Rev. Dr. McClelland--Ministers Opposed to Discussion--Whipping Children--Worldliness as a Foe of the Church--The Drama--Human Love--Fires, Cyclones, and Other Afflictions as Promoters of Spirituality--Class Distinctions--Rich and Poor--Aristocracies--The Right to Choose One's Associates--Churches Social Affairs--Progress of the Roman Catholic Church--Substitutes for the Churches--Henry Ward Beecher--How far Education is Favored by the Sects--Rivals of the Pulpit--Christianity Now and One Hundred Years Ago--French Revolution produced by the Priests--Why the Revolution was a Failure--Infidelity of One Hundred Years Ago--Ministers not more Intellectual than a Century Ago--Great Preachers of the Past--New Readings of Old Texts--Clerical Answerers of Infidelity--Rev. Dr. Baker--Father Fransiola--Faith and Reason--Democracy of Kindness--Moral Instruction--Morality Born of Human Needs--The Conditions of Happiness--The Chief End of Man. THE LIMITATIONS OF TOLERATION. (1888.) Discussion between Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, Hon. Frederic R. Coudert, and ex-Gov. Stewart L. Woodford before the Nineteenth Century Club of New York--Propositions--Toleration not a Disclaimer but a Waiver of the Right to Persecute--Remarks of Courtlandt Palmer--No Responsibility for Thought--Intellectual Hospitality--Right of Free Speech--Origin of the term "Toleration"--Slander and False Witness--Nobody can Control his own Mind: Anecdote--Remarks of Mr. Coudert--Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, and Ingersoll--General Woodford's Speech--Reply by Colonel Ingersoll--A Catholic Compelled to Pay a Compliment to Voltaire--Responsibility for Thoughts--The Mexican Unbeliever and his Reception in the Other Country. A CHRISTMAS SERMON. (1891.) Christianity's Message of Grief--Christmas a Pagan Festival--Reply to Dr. Buckley--Charges by the Editor of the Christian Advocate--The Tidings of Christianity--In what the Message of Grief Consists--Fear and Flame--An Everlasting Siberia--Dr. Buckley's Proposal to Boycott the Telegram--Reply to Rev. J. M. King and Rev. Thomas Dixon, Jr. Cana Day be Blasphemed?--Hurting Christian feelings--For Revenue only What is Blasphemy?--Balaam's Ass wiser than the Prophet--The Universalists--Can God do Nothing for this World?--The Universe a Blunder if Christianity is true--The Duty of a Newspaper--Facts Not Sectarian--The Rev. Mr. Peters--What Infidelity Has Done--Public School System not Christian--Orthodox Universities--Bruno on Oxford--As to Public Morals--No Rewards or Punishments in the Universe--The Atonement Immoral--As to Sciences and Art--Bruno, Humboldt, Darwin--Scientific Writers Opposed by the Church--As to the Liberation of Slaves--As to the Reclamation of Inebriates--Rum and Religion--The Humanity of Infidelity--What Infidelity says to the Dying--The Battle Continued--Morality not Assailed by an Attack on Christianity--The Inquisition and Religious Persecution--Human Nature Derided by Christianity--Dr. DaCosta--"Human Brotherhood" as exemplified by the History of the Church--The Church and Science, Art and Learning----Astronomy's Revenge--Galileo and Kepler--Mrs. Browning: Science Thrust into the Brain of Europe--Our Numerals--Christianity and Literature--Institution's of Learning--Stephen Girard--James Lick--Our Chronology--Historians--Natural Philosophy--Philology--Metaphysical Research--Intelligence, Hindoo, Egyptian--Inventions--John Ericsson--Emancipators--Rev. Mr. Ballou--The Right of Goa to Punish--Rev. Dr. Hillier--Rev. Mr. Haldeman--George A. Locey--The "Great Physician"--Rev. Mr. Talmage--Rev. J. Benson Hamilton--How Voltaire Died--The Death-bed of Thomas Paine--Rev. Mr. Holloway--Original Sin--Rev. Dr. Tyler--The Good Samaritan a Heathen--Hospitals and Asylums--Christian Treatment of the Insane--Rev. Dr. Buckley--The North American Review Discussion--Judge Black, Dr. Field, Mr. Gladstone--Circulation of Obscene Literature--Eulogy of Whiskey--Eulogy of Tobacco--Human Stupidity that Defies the Gods--Rev. Charles Deems--Jesus a Believer in a Personal Devil--The Man Christ. SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE. (1892.) Reply to the Western Watchman--Henry D'Arcy--Peter's Prevarication-Some Excellent Pagans-Heartlessness of a Catholic--Wishes do not Affect the Judgment--Devout Robbers--Penitent Murderers--Reverential Drunkards--Luther's Distich--Judge Normile--Self-destruction. IS SUICIDE A SIN? (1894.) Col. Ingersoll's First Letter in The New York World--Under what Circumstances a Man has the Right to take his Own Life--Medicine and the Decrees of God--Case of the Betrayed Girl--Suicides not Cowards--Suicide under Roman Law--Many Suicides Insane--Insanity Caused by Religion--The Law against Suicide Cruel and Idiotic--Natural and Sufficient Cause for Self-destruction--Christ's Death a Suicide--Col. Ingersoll's Reply to his Critics--Is Suffering the Work of God?--It is not Man's Duty to Endure Hopeless Suffering--When Suicide is Justifiable--The Inquisition--Alleged Cowardice of Suicides--Propositions Demonstrated--Suicide the Foundation of the Christian Religion--Redemption and Atonement--The Clergy on Infidelity and Suicide--Morality and Unbelief--Better injure yourself than Another--Misquotation by Opponents--Cheerful View the Best--The Wonder is that Men endure--Suicide a Sin (Interview in The New York Journal)--Causes of Suicide--Col. Ingersoll Does Not Advise Suicide--Suicides with Tracts or Bibles in their Pockets--Suicide a Sin (Interview in The New York Herald)--Comments on Rev. Alerle St. Croix Wright's Sermon--Suicide and Sanity (Interview in The York World)--As to the Cowardice of Suicide--Germany and the Prevalence of Suicide--Killing of Idiots and Defective Infants--Virtue, Morality, and Religion. IS AVARICE TRIUMPHANT? (1891.) Reply to General Rush Hawkins' Article, "Brutality and Avarice Triumphant"--Croakers and Prophets of Evil--Medical Treatment for Believers in Universal Evil--Alleged Fraud in Army Contracts--Congressional Extravagance--Railroad "Wreckers"--How Stockholders in Some Roads Lost Their Money--The Star-Route Trials--Timber and Public Lands--Watering Stock--The Formation of Trusts--Unsafe Hotels: European Game and Singing Birds--Seal Fisheries--Cruelty to Animals--Our Indians--Sensible and Manly Patriotism--Days of Brutality--Defence of Slavery by the Websters, Bentons, and Clays--Thirty Years' Accomplishment--Ennobling Influence of War for the Right--The Lady ana the Brakeman--American Esteem of Honesty in Business--Republics do not Tend to Official Corruption--This the Best Country in the World. A REPLY TO THE CINCINNATI GAZETTE AND CATHOLIC TELEGRAPH. (1878.) Defence of the Lecture on Moses--How Biblical Miracles are sought to be Proved--Some Non Sequiturs--A Grammatical Criticism--Christianity Destructive of Manners--Cuvier and Agassiz on Mosaic Cosmogony--Clerical Advance agents--Christian Threats and Warnings--Catholicism the Upas Tree--Hebrew Scholarship as a Qualification for Deciding Probababilities --Contradictions and Mistranslations of the Bible--Number of Errors in the Scriptures--The Sunday Question. AN INTERVIEW ON CHIEF JUSTICE COMEGYS. (1881.) Charged with Blasphemy in the State of Delaware--Can a Conditionless Deity be Injured?--Injustice the only Blasphemy--The Lecture in Delaware--Laws of that State--All Sects in turn Charged with Blasphemy--Heresy Consists in making God Better than he is Thought to Be--A Fatal Biblical Passage--Judge Comegys--Wilmington Preachers--States with Laws against Blasphemy--No Danger of Infidel Mobs--No Attack on the State of Delaware Contemplated--Comegys a Resurrection--Grand Jury's Refusal to Indict--Advice about the Cutting out of Heretics' Tongues--Objections to the Whipping-post--Mr. Bergh's Bill--One Remedy for Wife-beating. A REPLY TO REV. DRS. THOMAS AND LORIMER. (1882.) Solemnity--Charged with Being Insincere--Irreverence--Old Testament Better than the New--"Why Hurt our Feelings?"--Involuntary Action of the Brain--Source of our Conceptions of Space--Good and Bad--Right and Wrong--The Minister, the Horse and the Lord's Prayer--Men Responsible for their Actions--The "Gradual" Theory Not Applicable to the Omniscient--Prayer Powerless to Alter Results--Religious Persecution--Orthodox Ministers Made Ashamed of their Creed--Purgatory--Infidelity and Baptism Contrasted--Modern Conception of the Universe--The Golden Bridge of Life--"The Only Salutation"--The Test for Admission to Heaven--"Scurrility." A REPLY TO REV. JOHN HALL AND WARNER VAN NORDEN. (1892.) Dr. Hall has no Time to Discuss the subject of Starving Workers--Cloakmakers' Strike--Warner Van Norden of the Church Extension Society--The Uncharitableness of Organized Charity--Defence of the Cloakmakers--Life of the Underpaid--On the Assertion that Assistance encourages Idleness and Crime--The Man without Pity an Intellectual Beast--Tendency of Prosperity to Breed Selfishness--Thousands Idle without Fault--Egotism of Riches--Van Norden's Idea of Happiness--The Worthy Poor. A REPLY TO THE REV. DR. PLUMB. (1898.) Interview in a Boston Paper--Why should a Minister call this a "Poor" World?--Would an Infinite God make People who Need a Redeemer?--Gospel Gossip--Christ's Sayings Repetitions--The Philosophy of Confucius--Rev. Mr. Mills--The Charge of "Robbery"--The Divine Plan. A REPLY TO THE NEW YORK CLERGY ON SUPERSTITION. (1898.) Interview in the New York Journal--Rev. Roberts. MacArthur--A Personal Devil--Devils who held Conversations with Christ not simply personifications of Evil--The Temptation--The "Man of Straw"--Christ's Mission authenticated by the Casting Out of Devils--Spain--God Responsible for the Actions of Man--Rev. Dr. J. Lewis Parks--Rev. Dr. E. F. Moldehnke--Patience amidst the Misfortunes of Others--Yellow Fever as a Divine Agent--The Doctrine that All is for the Best--Rev. Mr. Hamlin--Why Did God Create a Successful Rival?--A Compliment by the Rev. Mr. Belcher--Rev. W. C. Buchanan--No Argument Old until it is Answered--Why should God Create sentient Beings to be Damned?--Rev. J. W. Campbell--Rev. Henry Frank--Rev. E. C.J. Kraeling on Christ and the Devil--Would he make a World like This? VOLUME VIII.--INTERVIEWS INTERVIEWS THE BIBLE AND A FUTURE LIFE MRS. VAN COTT, THE REVIVALIST EUROPEAN TRIP AND GREENBACK QUESTION THE PRE-MILLENNIAL CONFERENCE. THE SOLID SOUTH AND RESUMPTION. THE SUNDAY LAWS OF PITTSBURG.* POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS. POLITICS AND GEN. GRANT POLITICS, RELIGION AND THOMAS PAINE. REPLY TO CHICAGO CRITICS. THE REPUBLICAN VICTORY. INGERSOLL AND BEECHER.* POLITICAL. RELIGION IN POLITICS. MIRACLES AND IMMORTALITY. THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK. MR. BEECHER, MOSES AND THE NEGRO. HADES, DELAWARE AND FREETHOUGHT. A REPLY TO THE REV. MR. LANSING.* BEACONSFIELD, LENT AND REVIVALS. ANSWERING THE NEW YORK MINISTERS.* GUITEAU AND HIS CRIME.* DISTRICT SUFFRAGE. FUNERAL OF JOHN G. MILLS AND IMMORTALITY.* STAR ROUTE AND POLITICS.* THE INTERVIEWER. POLITICS AND PROHIBITION. THE REPUBLICAN DEFEAT IN OHIO. THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. JUSTICE HARLAN AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS BILL. POLITICS AND THEOLOGY. MORALITY AND IMMORTALITY. POLITICS, MORMONISM AND MR. BEECHER FREE TRADE AND CHRISTIANITY. THE OATH QUESTION. WENDELL PHILLIPS, FITZ JOHN PORTER AND BISMARCK. GENERAL SUBJECTS. REPLY TO KANSAS CITY CLERGY. SWEARING AND AFFIRMING. REPLY TO A BUFFALO CRITIC. BLASPHEMY.* POLITICS AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. INGERSOLL CATECHISED. BLAINE'S DEFEAT. BLAINE'S DEFEAT. PLAGIARISM AND POLITICS. RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE. CLEVELAND AND HIS CABINET. RELIGION, PROHIBITION, AND GEN. GRANT. HELL OR SHEOL AND OTHER SUBJECTS. INTERVIEWING, POLITICS AND SPIRITUALISM. MY BELIEF. SOME LIVE TOPICS. THE PRESIDENT AND SENATE. ATHEISM AND CITIZENSHIP. THE LABOR QUESTION. RAILROADS AND POLITICS. PROHIBITION. HENRY GEORGE AND LABOR. LABOR QUESTION AND SOCIALISM. HENRY GEORGE AND SOCIALISM. REPLY TO THE REV. B. F. MORSE.* INGERSOLL ON McGLYNN. TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO ANARCHISTS. THE STAGE AND THE PULPIT. ROSCOE CONKLING. THE CHURCH AND THE STAGE. PROTECTION AND FREE TRADE. LABOR, AND TARIFF REFORM. CLEVELAND AND THURMAN. THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1888. JAMES G. BLAINE AND POLITICS. THE MILLS BILL. SOCIETY AND ITS CRIMINALS* WOMAN'S RIGHT TO DIVORCE. SECULARISM. SUMMER RECREATION--MR. GLADSTONE. PROHIBITION. ROBERT ELSMERE. WORKING GIRLS. PROTECTION FOR AMERICAN ACTORS. LIBERALS AND LIBERALISM. POPE LEO XIII. THE SACREDNESS OF THE SABBATH. THE WEST AND SOUTH. THE WESTMINSTER CREED AND OTHER SUBJECTS. SHAKESPEARE AND BACON. GROWING OLD GRACEFULLY, AND PRESBYTERIANISM. CREEDS. THE TENDENCY OF MODERN THOUGHT. WOMAN SUFFRAGE, HORSE RACING, AND MONEY. MISSIONARIES. MY BELIEF AND UNBELIEF.* MUST RELIGION GO? WORD PAINTING AND COLLEGE EDUCATION. PERSONAL MAGNETISM AND THE SUNDAY QUESTION. AUTHORS. INEBRIETY.* MIRACLES, THEOSOPHY AND SPIRITUALISM. TOLSTOY AND LITERATURE. WOMAN IN POLITICS. SPIRITUALISM. PLAYS AND PLAYERS. WOMAN. STRIKES, EXPANSION AND OTHER SUBJECTS. SUNDAY A DAY OF PLEASURE. THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS. CLEVELAND'S HAWAIIAN POLICY. ORATORS AND ORATORY.* CATHOLICISM AND PROTESTANTISM. THE POPE, THE A. P. A., AGNOSTICISM WOMAN AND HER DOMAIN. PROFESSOR SWING. SENATOR SHERMAN AND HIS BOOK.* REPLY TO THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVORERS. SPIRITUALISM. A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING. IS LIFE WORTH LIVING--CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND POLITICS. VIVISECTION. DIVORCE. MUSIC, NEWSPAPERS, LYNCHING AND ARBITRATION. A VISIT TO SHAW'S GARDEN. THE VENEZUELAN BOUNDARY DISCUSSION AND THE WHIPPING-POST. COLONEL SHEPARD'S STAGE HORSES.* A REPLY TO THE REV. L. A. BANKS. CUBA--ZOLA AND THEOSOPHY. HOW TO BECOME AN ORATOR. JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG AND EXPANSION. PSYCHICAL RESEARCH AND THE BIBLE.* THIS CENTURY'S GLORIES. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AND THE WHIPPING-POST. EXPANSION AND TRUSTS.* VOLUME IX.--POLITICAL DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME IX. AN ADDRESS TO THE COLORED PEOPLE. SPEECH AT INDIANAPOLIS. CENTENNIAL ORATION. BANGOR SPEECH. COOPER UNION SPEECH, NEW YORK. INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH. CHICAGO SPEECH. EIGHT TO SEVEN ADDRESS. HARD TIMES AND THE WAY OUT. SUFFRAGE ADDRESS. WALL STREET SPEECH. BROOKLYN SPEECH. ADDRESS TO THE 86TH ILLINOIS REGIMENT. DECORATION DAY ORATION. DECORATION DAY ADDRESS. RATIFICATION SPEECH. REUNION ADDRESS. THE CHICAGO AND NEW YORK GOLD SPEECH. DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME IX. AN ADDRESS TO THE COLORED PEOPLE. (1867.) Slavery and its Justification by Law and Religion--Its Destructive Influence upon Nations--Inauguration of the Modern Slave Trade by the Portuguese Gonzales--Planted upon American Soil--The Abolitionists, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and Others--The Struggle in England--Pioneers in San Domingo, Oge and Chevannes--Early Op-posers of Slavery in America--William Lloyd Garrison--Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, John Brown--The Fugitive Slave Law--The Emancipation Proclamation--Dread of Education in the South--Advice to the Colored People. INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH. (1868.) Suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus--Precedent Established by the Revolutionary Fathers--Committees of Safety appointed by the Continental Congress--Arrest of Disaffected Persons in Pennsylvania and Delaware--Interference with Elections--Resolution of Continental Congress with respect to Citizens who Opposed the sending of Deputies to the Convention of New York--Penalty for refusing to take Continental Money or Pray for the American Cause--Habeas Corpus Suspended during the Revolution--Interference with Freedom of the Press--Negroes Freed and allowed to Fight in the Continental Army--Crispus Attacks--An Abolition Document issued by Andrew Jackson--Majority rule--Slavery and the Rebellion--Tribute to General Grant. SPEECH NOMINATING BLAINE. (1876.) Note descriptive of the Occasion--Demand of the Republicans of the United States--Resumption--The Plumed Knight. CENTENNIAL ORATION. (1876.) One Hundred Years ago, our Fathers retired the Gods from Politics--The Declaration of Independence--Meaning of the Declaration--The Old Idea of the Source of Political Power--Our Fathers Educated by their Surroundings--The Puritans--Universal Religious Toleration declared by the Catholics of Maryland--Roger Williams--Not All of our Fathers in favor of Independence--Fortunate Difference in Religious Views--Secular Government--Authority derived from the People--The Declaration and the Beginning of the War--What they Fought For--Slavery--Results of a Hundred Years of Freedom--The Declaration Carried out in Letter and Spirit. BANGOR SPEECH. (1876.) The Hayes Campaign--Reasons for Voting the Republican Ticket--Abolition of Slavery--Preservation of the Union--Reasons for Not Trusting the Democratic Party--Record of the Republican Party--Democrats Assisted the South--Paper Money--Enfranchisement of the Negroes--Samuel J. Tilden--His Essay on Finance. COOPER UNION SPEECH, NEW YORK. (1876.) All Citizens Stockholders in the United States of America--The Democratic Party a Hungry Organization--Political Parties Contrasted--The Fugitive Slave Law a Disgrace to Hell in its Palmiest Days--Feelings of the Democracy Hurt on the Subject of Religion--Defence of Slavery in a Resolution of the Presbyterians, South--State of the Union at the Time the Republican Party was Born--Jacob Thompson--The National Debt--Protection of Citizens Abroad--Tammany Hall: Its Relation to the Penitentiary--The Democratic Party of New York City--"What Hands!"--Free Schools. INDIANAPOLIS SPEECH. (1876.) Address to the Veteran Soldiers of the Rebellion--Objections to the Democratic Party--The Men who have been Democrats--Why I am a Republican--Free Labor and Free Thought--A Vision of War--Democratic Slander of the Greenback--Shall the People who Saved the Country Rule It?--On Finance--Government Cannot Create Money--The Greenback Dollar a Mortgage upon the Country--Guarantees that the Debt will be Paid-'The Thoroughbred and the Mule--The Column of July, Paris--The Misleading Guide Board, the Dismantled Mill, and the Place where there had been a Hotel, CHICAGO SPEECH. (1876.) The Plea of "Let Bygones be Bygones"--Passport of the Democratic Party--Right of the General Government to send Troops into Southern States for the Protection of Colored People--Abram S. Hewitt's Congratulatory Letter to the Negroes--The Demand for Inflation of the Currency--Record of Rutherford B. Hayes--Contrasted with Samuel J. Tilden--Merits of the Republican Party--Negro and Southern White--The Superior Man--"No Nation founded upon Injustice can Permanently Stand." EIGHT TO SEVEN ADDRESS. (1877.) On the Electoral Commission--Reminiscences of the Hayes-Tilden Camp-- Constitution of the Electoral College--Characteristics of the Members-- Frauds at the Ballot Box Poisoning the Fountain of Power--Reforms Suggested--Elections too Frequent--The Professional Office-seeker--A Letter on Civil Service Reform--Young Men Advised against Government Clerkships--Too Many Legislators and too Much Legislation--Defect in the Constitution as to the Mode of Electing a President--Protection of Citizens by State and General Governments--The Dual Government in South Carolina--Ex-Rebel Key in the President's Cabinet--Implacables and Bourbons South and North--"I extend to you each and all the Olive Branch of Peace." HARD TIMES AND THE WAY OUT. (1878.) Capital and Labor--What is a Capitalist?--The Idle and the Industrious Artisans--No Conflict between Capital and Labor--A Period of Inflation and Speculation--Life and Fire Insurance Agents--Business done on Credit--The Crash, Failure, and Bankruptcy--Fall in the Price of Real Estate a Form of Resumption--Coming back to Reality--Definitions of Money Examined--Not Gold and Silver but Intelligent Labor the Measure of Value--Government cannot by Law Create Wealth--A Bill of Fare not a Dinner--Fiat Money--American Honor Pledged to the Maintenance of the Greenbacks--The Cry against Holders of Bonds--Criminals and Vagabonds to be supported--Duty of Government to Facilitate Enterprise--More Men must Cultivate the Soil--Government Aid for the Overcoming of Obstacles too Great for Individual Enterprise--The Palace Builders the Friends of Labor--Extravagance the best Form of Charity--Useless to Boost a Man who is not Climbing--The Reasonable Price for Labor--The Vagrant and his strange and winding Path--What to tell the Working Men. SUFFRAGE ADDRESS. (1880.) The Right to Vote--All Women who desire the Suffrage should have It--Shall the People of the District of Columbia Manage their Own Affairs--Their Right to a Representative in Congress and an Electoral Vote--Anomalous State of Affairs at the Capital of the Republic--Not the Wealthy and Educated alone should Govern--The Poor as Trustworthy as the Rich--Strict Registration Laws Needed. WALL STREET SPEECH. (1880.) Obligation of New York to Protect the Best Interests of the Country--Treason and Forgery of the Democratic Party in its Appeal to Sword and Pen--The One Republican in the Penitentiary of Maine--The Doctrine of State Sovereignty--Protection for American Brain and Muscle--Hancock on the Tariff--A Forgery (the Morey letter) Committed and upheld--The Character of James A. Garfield. BROOKLYN SPEECH. (1880.) Introduced by Henry Ward Beecher (note)--Some Patriotic Democrats--Freedom of Speech North and South--An Honest Ballot-- ADDRESS TO THE 86TH ILLINOIS REGIMENT. DECORATION DAY ORATION. DECORATION DAY ADDRESS. RATIFICATION SPEECH. REUNION ADDRESS. THE CHICAGO AND NEW YORK GOLD SPEECH. VOLUME X.--LEGAL DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME X. ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE MUNN TRIAL. CLOSING ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE FIRST STAR ROUTE TRIAL. OPENING ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE SECOND STAR ROUTE TRIAL. CLOSING ADDRESS IN SECOND STAR ROUTE TRIAL ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE. ARGUMENT BEFORE THE VICE-CHANCELLOR IN THE RUSSELL CASE. DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME X. ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE MUNN TRIAL. Demoralization caused by Alcohol--Note from the Chicago Times--Prejudice--Review of the Testimony of Jacob Rehm--Perjury Characterized--The Defendant and the Offence Charged (p. 21)--Testimony of Golsen Reviewed--Rehm's Testimony before the Grand Jury--Good Character (p. 29)--Suspicion not Evidence. CLOSING ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE FIRST STAR ROUTE TRIAL. Note from the Washington Capital--The Assertion Denied that we are a Demoralized Country and that our Country is Distinguished among the Nations only for Corruption--Duties of Jurors and Duties of Lawyers--Section under which the Indictment is Found--Cases cited to Show that Overt Acts charged and also the Crime itself must be Proved as Described--Routes upon which Indictments are Based and Overt Acts Charged (pp. 54-76)--Routes on which the Making of False Claims is Alleged--Authorities on Proofs of Conspiracy (pp. 91-94)--Examination of the Evidence against Stephen W. and John W. Dorsey (pp. 96-117)--The Corpus Delicti in a Case of Conspiracy and the Acts Necessary to be Done in Order to Establish Conspiracy (pp. 120-123)--Testimony of Walsh and the Confession of Rerdell--Extravagance in Mail Carrying (p. 128)--Productiveness of Mail Routes (p. 131)--Hypothesis of Guilt and Law of Evidence--Dangerous Influence of Suspicion--Terrorizing the Jury--The Woman at Her Husband's Side. OPENING ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE SECOND STAR ROUTE TRIAL. Juries the Bulwark of Civil Liberty--Suspicion Not Evidence--Brief Statement of the Case--John M. Peck, John W. Dorsey, Stephen W. Dorsey, John R. Miner, Mr. (A. E. ) Boone (p.p. 150-156)--The Clendenning Bonds--Miner's, Peck's, and Dorsey's Bids--Why they Bid on Cheap Routes--Number of Routes upon which there are Indictments--The Arrangement between Stephen W. Dorsey and John R. Miner--Appearance of Mr. Vaile in the Contracts--Partnership Formed--The Routes Divided--Senator Dorsey's Course after Getting the Routes--His Routes turned over to James W. Bosler--Profits of the Business (p. 181)--The Petitions for More Mails--Productive and Unproductive Post-offices--Men who Add to the Wealth of the World--Where the Idea of the Productiveness of Post routes was Hatched--Cost of Letters to Recipients in 1843--The Overland Mail (p. 190)--Loss in Distributing the Mail in the District of Columbia and Other Territories--Post-office the only Evidence of National Beneficence--Profit and Loss of Mail Carrying--Orders Antedated, and Why--Routes Increased and Expedited--Additional Bonds for Additional Trips--The Charge that Pay was Received when the Mail was not Carried--Fining on Shares--Subcontracts for Less than the Original Contracts--Pay on Discontinued Routes--Alleged False Affidavits--Right of Petition--Reviewing the Ground. CLOSING ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE SECOND STAR ROUTE TRIAL. Scheme of the Indictment--Story of the Case--What Constitutes Fraudulent Bidding--How a Conspiracy Must be Proved--The Hypothesis of Guilt and Law of Evidence--Conversation Unsatisfactory Evidence--Fallibility of Memory--Proposition to Produce Mr. Dorsey's Books--Interruption of the Court to Decide that Primary Evidence, having Once been Refused, can not afterwards be Introduced to Contradict Secondary Evidence--A Defendant may not be Presumed into the Penitentiary--A Decision by Justice Field--The Right of Petition--Was there a Conspiracy?--Dorsey's Benevolence (p. 250)--The Chico Springs Letter--Evidence of Moore Reviewed--Mr. Ker's Defective Memory--The Informer System--Testimony of Rerdell Reviewed--His Letter to Dorsey (p. 304)--The Affidavit of Rerdell and Dorsey--Petitions for Faster Time--Uncertainty Regarding Handwriting--Government Should be Incapable of Deceit--Rerdell's withdrawal of the Plea of Not Guilty (p. 362)--Informers, their Immunity and Evidence--Nailing Down the Lid of Rerdell's Coffin--Mistakes of Messrs. Ker and Merrick and the Court--Letter of H. M. Vaile to the Sixth Auditor--Miner's Letter to Carey--Miner, Peck & Co. to Frank A. Tuttle--Answering Points Raised by Mr. Bliss (396 et seq.)--Evidence regarding the Payment of Money by Dorsey to Brady--A. E. Boone's Testimony Reviewed--Secrecy of Contractors Regarding the Amount of their Bids--Boone's Partnership Agreement with Dorsey--Explanation of Bids in Different Names--Omission of Instructions from Proposals (p. 450)--Accusation that Senator Mitchell was the Paid Agent of the Defendants--Alleged Sneers at Things held Sacred--What is a Conspiracy?--The Theory that there was a Conspiracy--Dorsey's Alleged Interest--The Two Affidavits in Evidence--Inquiry of General Miles--Why the Defendant's Books were not Produced--Tames W. Bosler's Testimony Read (p. 500)--The Court shown to be Mistaken Regarding a Decision Previously Made (pp. 496-502)--No Logic in Abuse--Charges against John W. Miner--Testimony of A. W. Moore Reviewed-The Verdict Predicted--The Defendants in the Case--What is left for the Jury to Say--Remarks of Messrs. Henkle and Davidge--The Verdict. ADDRESS TO THE JURY IN THE DAVIS WILL CASE. Note from the Anaconda Standard--Senator Sander's Warning to the Jury Not to be Enticed by Sinners--Evidence, based on Quality of Handwriting, that Davis did not Write the Will--Evidence of the Spelling--Assertion that the Will was Forged--Peculiarities of Eddy's Handwriting--Holes in Sconce's Signature and Reputation--His Memory--Business Sagacity of Davis--His Alleged Children--Date of his Death--Testimony of Mr. Knight--Ink used in Writing the Will--Expert Evidence--Speechlessness of John A. Davis--Eddy's Failure to take the Stand--Testimony of Carruthers--Relatives of Sconce--Mary Ann Davis's Connections--The Family Tree--The Signature of the Will--What the Evidence Shows--Duty and Opportunity of the Jury. ARGUMENT BEFORE THE VICE-CHANCELLOR IN THE RUSSELL CASE. Antenuptial Waiving of Dower by Women--A Case from Illinois--At What Age Men and Women Cease to Feel the Tender Flame--Russell's Bargain with Mrs. Russell--Antenuptial Contract and Parole Agreement--Definition of "Liberal Provision "--The Woman not Bound by a Contract Made in Ignorance of the Facts--Contract Destroyed by Deception. VOLUME XI.--MISCELLANY DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME XI. ADDRESS ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. TRIAL OF C. B. REYNOLDS FOR BLASPHEMY. GOD IN THE CONSTITUTION. A REPLY TO BISHOP SPALDING. CRIMES AGAINST CRIMINALS. A WOODEN GOD. SOME INTERROGATION POINTS. ART AND MORALITY. THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH. WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. ERNEST RENAN. TOLSTOI AND "THE KREUTZER SONATA." THOMAS PAINE. THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS. SHOULD THE CHINESE BE EXCLUDED? A WORD ABOUT EDUCATION. WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS. FOOL FRIENDS. INSPIRATION THE TRUTH OF HISTORY. HOW TO EDIT A LIBERAL PAPER. SECULARISM. CRITICISM OF "ROBERT ELSMERE," "JOHN WARD, PREACHER," AND "AN AFRICAN FARM." THE LIBEL LAWS REV. DR. NEWTON'S SERMON ON A NEW RELIGION. AN ESSAY ON CHRISTMAS. HAS FREETHOUGHT A CONSTRUCTIVE SIDE? THE IMPROVED MAN. EIGHT HOURS MUST COME. THE JEWS. CRUMBLING CREEDS. OUR SCHOOLS. VIVISECTION. THE CENSUS ENUMERATOR'S OFFICIAL CATECHISM. THE AGNOSTIC CHRISTMAS SPIRITUALITY. SUMTER'S GUN. WHAT INFIDELS HAVE DONE. CRUELTY IN THE ELMIRA REFORMATORY. LAW'S DELAY. THE BIGOTRY OF COLLEGES. A YOUNG MAN'S CHANCES TO-DAY. SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT. SOWING AND REAPING. SHOULD INFIDELS SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO SUNDAY SCHOOL? WHAT WOULD YOU SUBSTITUTE FOR THE BIBLE AS A MORAL GUIDE? GOVERNOR ROLLINS' FAST-DAY PROCLAMATION. A LOOK BACKWARD AND A PROPHECY. POLITICAL MORALITY. A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. DETAILED CONTENTS OF VOLUME XI. ADDRESS ON THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. Introduction by Frederick Douglass("Abou Ben Adhem")--Decision of the United States Supreme Court pronouncing the Civil Rights Act Unconstitutional--Limitations of Judges--Illusion Destroyed by the Decision in the Dred Scott Case--Mistake of Our Fathers in adopting the Common Law of England--The 13th Amendment to the Constitution Quoted--The Clause of the Constitution upholding Slavery--Effect of this Clause--Definitions of a State by Justice Wilson and Chief Justice Chase--Effect of the Thirteenth Amendment--Justice Field on Involuntary Servitude--Civil Rights Act Quoted--Definition of the Word Servitude by the Supreme Court--Obvious Purpose of the Amendment--Justice Miller on the 14th Amendment--Citizens Created by this Amendment--Opinion of Justice Field--Rights and Immunities guaranteed by the Constitution--Opinion delivered by Chief-Justice Waite--Further Opinions of Courts on the question of Citizenship--Effect of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments--"Corrective" Legislation by Congress--Denial of equal "Social" Privileges--Is a State responsible for the Action of its Agent when acting contrary to Law?--The Word "State" must include the People of the State as well as the Officers of the State--The Louisiana Civil Rights Law, and a Case tried under it--Uniformity of Duties essential to the Carrier--Congress left Powerless to protect Rights conferred by the Constitution--Definition of "Appropriate Legislation"--Propositions laid down regarding the Sovereignty of the State, the powers of the General Government, etc.--A Tribute to Justice Harlan--A Denial that Property exists by Virtue of Law--Civil Rights not a Question of Social Equality--Considerations upon which Social Equality depends--Liberty not a Question of Social Equality--The Superior Man--Inconsistencies of the Past--No Reason why we should Hate the Colored People--The Issues that are upon Us. TRIAL OF C. B. REYNOLDS FOR BLASPHEMY. ADDRESS TO THE JURY. Report of the Case from the New York Times (note)--The Right to express Opinions--Attempts to Rule the Minds of Men by Force--Liberty the Greatest Good--Intellectual Hospitality Defined--When the Catholic Church had Power--Advent of the Protestants--The Puritans, Quakers. Unitarians, Universalists--What is Blasphemy?--Why this Trial should not have Taken Place--Argument cannot be put in Jail--The Constitution of New Jersey--A higher Law than Men can Make--The Blasphemy Statute Quoted and Discussed--Is the Statute Constitutional?--The Harm done by Blasphemy Laws--The Meaning of this Persecution--Religions are Ephemeral--Let us judge each other by our Actions--Men who have braved Public Opinion should be Honored--The Blasphemy Law if enforced would rob the World of the Results of Scientific Research--It declares the Great Men of to-day to be Criminals--The Indictment Read and Commented upon--Laws that go to Sleep--Obsolete Dogmas the Denial of which was once punished by Death--Blasphemy Characterized--On the Argument that Blasphemy Endangers the Public Peace--A Definition of real Blasphemy--Trials for Blasphemy in England--The case of Abner Kneeland--True Worship, Prayer, and Religion--What is Holy and Sacred--What is Claimed in this Case--For the Honor of the State--The word Liberty--Result of the Trial (note). GOD IN THE CONSTITUTION. The Feudal System--Office and Purpose of our Constitution--Which God shall we Select?--The Existence of any God a Matter of Opinion--What is entailed by a Recognition of a God in the Constitution--Can the Infinite be Flattered with a Constitutional Amendment?--This government is Secular--The Government of God a Failure--The Difference between the Theological and the Secular Spirit--A Nation neither Christian nor Infidel--The Priest no longer a Necessity--Progress of Science and the Development of the Mind. A REPLY TO BISHOP SPALDING. On God in the Constitution--Why the Constitutional Convention ignored the Question of Religion--The Fathers Misrepresented--Reasons why the Attributes of God should not form an Organic Part of the Law of the Land--The Effect of a Clause Recognizing God. CRIMES AGAINST CRIMINALS. The Three Pests of a Community--I. Forms of Punishment and Torture--More Crimes Committed than Prevented by Governments--II. Are not Vices transmitted by Nature?--111. Is it Possible for all People to be Honest?--Children of Vice as the natural Product of Society--Statistics: the Relation between Insanity, Pauperism, and Crime--IV. The Martyrs of Vice--Franklin's Interest in the Treatment of Prisoners--V. Kindness as a Remedy--Condition of the Discharged Prisoner--VI. Compensation for Convicts--VII. Professional Criminals--Shall the Nation take Life?--Influence of Public Executions on the Spectators--Lynchers for the Most Part Criminals at Heart--VIII. The Poverty of the Many a perpetual Menace--Limitations of Land-holding.--IX. Defective Education by our Schools--Hands should be educated as well as Head--Conduct improved by a clearer Perception of Consequences--X. The Discipline of the average Prison Hardening and Degrading--While Society cringes before Great Thieves there will be Little Ones to fill the Jails--XI. Our Ignorance Should make us Hesitate. A WOODEN GOD. On Christian and Chinese worship--Report of the Select Committee on Chinese Immigration--The only true God as contrasted with Joss--Sacrifices to the "Living God"--Messrs. Wright, Dickey, O'Connor and Murch on the "Religious System" of the American Union--How to prove that Christians are better than Heathens--Injustice in the Name of God--An honest Merchant the best Missionary--A Few Extracts from Confucius--The Report proves that the Wise Men of China who predicted that Christians could not be Trusted were not only Philosophers but Prophets. SOME INTERROGATION POINTS. A New Party and its Purpose--The Classes that Exist in every Country--Effect of Education on the Common People--Wants Increased by Intelligence--The Dream of 1776--The Monopolist and the Competitor--The War between the Gould and Mackay Cables--Competition between Monopolies--All Advance in Legislation made by Repealing Laws--Wages and Values not to be fixed by Law--Men and Machines--The Specific of the Capitalist: Economy--The poor Man and Woman devoured by their Fellow-men--Socialism one of the Worst Possible forms of Slavery--Liberty not to be exchanged for Comfort--Will the Workers always give their Earnings for the Useless?--Priests, Successful Frauds, and Robed Impostors. ART AND MORALITY. The Origin of Man's Thoughts--The imaginative Man--"Medicinal View" of Poetry--Rhyme and Religion--The theological Poets and their Purpose in Writing--Moral Poets and their "Unwelcome Truths"--The really Passionate are the Virtuous--Difference between the Nude and the Naked--Morality the Melody of Conduct--The inculcation of Moral Lessons not contemplated by Artists or great Novelists--Mistaken Reformers--Art not a Sermon--Language a Multitude of Pictures--Great Pictures and Great Statues painted and chiseled with Words--Mediocrity moral from a Necessity which it calls Virtue--Why Art Civilizes--The Nude--The Venus de Milo--This is Art. THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH. The Way in which Theological Seminaries were Endowed--Religious Guide-boards--Vast Interests interwoven with Creeds--Pretensions of Christianity--Kepler's Discovery of his Three Great Laws--Equivocations and Evasions of the Church--Nature's Testimony against the Bible--The Age of Man on the Earth--"Inspired" Morality of the Bible--Miracles--Christian Dogmas--What the church has been Compelled to Abandon--The Appeal to Epithets, Hatred and Punishment--"Spirituality" the last Resource of the Orthodox--What is it to be Spiritual?--Two Questions for the Defenders of Orthodox Creeds. WHY AM I AN AGNOSTIC? Part I. Inharmony of Nature and the Lot of Man with the Goodness and Wisdom of a supposed Deity--Why a Creator is Imagined--Difficulty of the Act of Creation--Belief in Supernatural Beings--Belief and Worship among Savages--Questions of Origin and Destiny--Progress impossible without Change of Belief--Circumstances Determining Belief--How may the True Religion be Ascertained?--Prosperity of Nations nor Virtue of Individuals Dependent on Religions or Gods--Uninspired Books Superior--Part II. The Christian Religion--Credulity--Miracles cannot be Established--Effect of Testimony--Miraculous Qualities of all Religions--Theists and Naturalists--The Miracle of Inspiration--How can the alleged Fact of Inspiration be Established?--God's work and Man's--Rewards for Falsehood offered by the Church. HUXLEY AND AGNOSTICISM. Statement by the Principal of King's College--On the Irrelevancy of a Lack of Scientific Knowledge--Difference between the Agnostic and the Christian not in Knowledge but in Credulity--The real name of an Agnostic said to be "Infidel"--What an Infidel is--"Unpleasant" significance of the Word--Belief in Christ--"Our Lord and his Apostles" possibly Honest Men--Their Character not Invoked--Possession by evil spirits--Professor Huxley's Candor and Clearness--The splendid Dream of Auguste Comte--Statement of the Positive Philosophy--Huxley and Harrison. ERNEST RENAN. His Rearing and his Anticipated Biography--The complex Character of the Christ of the Gospels--Regarded as a Man by Renan--The Sin against the Holy Ghost--Renan on the Gospels--No Evidence that they were written by the Men whose Names they Bear--Written long after the Events they Describe--Metaphysics of the Church found in the Gospel of John--Not Apparent why Four Gospels should have been Written--Regarded as legendary Biographies--In "flagrant contradiction one with another"--The Divine Origin of Christ an After-growth--Improbable that he intended to form a Church--Renan's Limitations--Hebrew Scholarship--His "People of Israel"--His Banter and Blasphemy. TOLSTOY AND "THE KREUTZER SONATA." Tolstoy's Belief and Philosophy--His Asceticism--His View of Human Love--Purpose of "The Kreutzer Sonata"--Profound Difference between the Love of Men and that of Women--Tolstoy cannot now found a Religion, but may create the Necessity for another Asylum--The Emotions--The Curious Opinion Dried Apples have of Fruit upon the Tree--Impracticability of selling All and giving to the Poor--Love and Obedience--Unhappiness in the Marriage Relation not the fault of Marriage. THOMAS PAINE. Life by Moncure D. Conway--Early Advocacy of Reforms against Dueling and Cruelty to Animals--The First to write "The United States of America"--Washington's Sentiment against Separation from Great Britain--Paine's Thoughts in the Declaration of Independence--Author of the first Proclamation of Emancipation in America--Establishment of a Fund for the Relief of the Army--H's "Farewell Address"--The "Rights of Man"--Elected to the French Convention--Efforts to save the Life of the King--His Thoughts on Religion--Arrested--The "Age of Reason" and the Weapons it has furnished "Advanced Theologians"--Neglect by Gouverneur Morris and Washington--James Monroe's letter to Paine and to the Committee of General Safety--The vaunted Religious Liberty of Colonial Maryland--Orthodox Christianity at the Beginning of the 19th Century--New Definitions of God--The Funeral of Paine. THE THREE PHILANTHROPISTS. I. Mr. A., the Professional Philanthropist, who established a Colony for the Enslavement of the Poor who could not take care of themselves, amassed a large Fortune thereby, built several churches, and earned the Epitaph, "He was the Providence of the Poor"--II. Mr. B., the Manufacturer, who enriched himself by taking advantage of the Necessities of the Poor, paid the lowest Rate of Wages, considered himself one of God's Stewards, endowed the "B Asylum" and the "B College," never lost a Dollar, and of whom it was recorded, "He Lived for Others." III. Mr. C., who divided his Profits with the People who had earned it, established no Public Institutions, suppressed Nobody; and those who have worked for him said, "He allowed Others to live for Themselves." SHOULD THE CHINESE BE EXCLUDED? Trampling on the Rights of Inferiors--Rise of the Irish and Germans to Power--The Burlingame Treaty--Character of Chinese Laborers--Their Enemies in the Pacific States--Violation of Treaties--The Geary Law--The Chinese Hated for their Virtues--More Piety than Principle among the People's Representatives--Shall we go back to Barbarism? A WORD ABOUT EDUCATION. What the Educated Man Knows--Necessity of finding out the Facts of Nature--"Scholars" not always Educated Men; from necessaries to luxuries; who may be called educated; mental misers; the first duty of man; university education not necessary to usefulness, no advantage in learning useless facts. WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS. Would have the Kings and Emperors resign, the Nobility drop their Titles, the Professors agree to teach only What they Know, the Politicians changed to Statesmen, the Editors print only the Truth--Would like to see Drunkenness and Prohibition abolished, Corporal Punishment done away with, and the whole World free. FOOL FRIENDS. The Fool Friend believes every Story against you, never denies a Lie unless it is in your Favor, regards your Reputation as Common Prey, forgets his Principles to gratify your Enemies, and is so friendly that you cannot Kick him. INSPIRATION. Nature tells a different Story to all Eyes and Ears--Horace Greeley and the Big Trees--The Man who "always did like rolling land"--What the Snow looked like to the German--Shakespeare's different Story for each Reader--As with Nature so with the Bible. THE TRUTH OF HISTORY. People who live by Lying--A Case in point--H. Hodson Rugg's Account of the Conversion of Ingersoll and 5,000 of his Followers--The "Identity of Lost Israel with the British Nation"--Old Falsehoods about Infidels--The New York Observer and Thomas Paine--A Rascally English Editor--The Charge that Ingersoll's Son had been Converted--The Fecundity of Falsehood. HOW TO EDIT A LIBERAL PAPER. The Editor should not narrow his Horizon so that he can see only One Thing--To know the Defects of the Bible is but the Beginning of Wisdom--The Liberal Paper should not discuss Theological Questions Alone--A Column for Children--Candor and Kindness--Nothing should be Asserted that is not Known--Above All, teach the Absolute Freedom of the Mind. SECULARISM. The religion of Humanity; what it Embraces and what it Advocates--A Protest against Ecclesiastical Tyranny--Believes in Building a Home here--Means Food and Fireside--The Right to express your Thought--Its advice to every Human Being--A Religion without Mysteries, Miracles, or Persecutions. CRITICISM OF "ROBERT ELSMERE," "JOHN WARD, PREACHER," AND "AN AFRICAN FARM." Religion unsoftened by Infidelity--The Orthodox Minister whose Wife has a Heart--Honesty of Opinion not a Mitigating Circumstance--Repulsiveness of an Orthodox Life--John Ward an Object of Pity--Lyndall of the "African Farm"--The Story of the Hunter--Death of Waldo--Women the Caryatides of the Church--Attitude of Christianity toward other Religions--Egotism of the ancient Jews. THE LIBEL LAWS. All Articles appearing in a newspaper should be Signed by the Writer--The Law if changed should throw greater Safeguards around the Reputation of the Citizen--Pains should be taken to give Prominence to Retractions--The Libel Laws like a Bayonet in War. REV. DR. NEWTON'S SERMON ON A NEW RELIGION. Mr. Newton not Regarded as a Sceptic--New Meanings given to Old Words--The vanishing Picture of Hell--The Atonement--Confidence being Lost in the Morality of the Gospel--Exclusiveness of the Churches--The Hope of Immortality and Belief in God have Nothing to do with Real Religion--Special Providence a Mistake. AN ESSAY ON CHRISTMAS. The Day regarded as a Holiday--A Festival far older than Christianity--Relics of Sun-worship in Christian Ceremonies--Christianity furnished new Steam for an old Engine--Pagan Festivals correspond to Ours--Why Holidays are Popular--They must be for the Benefit of the People. HAS FREETHOUGHT A CONSTRUCTIVE SIDE? The Object of Freethought--what the Religionist calls "Affirmative and Positive"--The Positive Side of Freethought--Constructive Work of Christianity. THE IMPROVED MAN. He will be in Favor of universal Liberty, neither Master nor Slave; of Equality and Education; will develop in the Direction of the Beautiful; will believe only in the Religion of this World--His Motto--Will not endeavor to change the Mind of the "Infinite"--Will have no Bells or Censers--Will be satisfied that the Supernatural does not exist--Will be Self-poised, Independent, Candid and Free. EIGHT HOURS MUST COME. The Working People should be protected by Law--Life of no particular Importance to the Man who gets up before Daylight and works till after Dark--A Revolution probable in the Relations between Labor and Capital--Working People becoming Educated and more Independent--The Government can Aid by means of Good Laws--Women the worst Paid--There should be no Resort to Force by either Labor or Capital. THE JEWS. Much like People of other Religions--Teaching given Christian Children about those who die in the Faith of Abraham--Dr. John Hall on the Persecution of the Jews in Russia as the Fulfillment of Prophecy--Hostility of Orthodox early Christians excited by Jewish Witnesses against the Faith--An infamous Chapter of History--Good and bad Men of every Faith--Jews should outgrow their own Superstitions--What the intelligent Jew Knows. CRUMBLING CREEDS. The Common People called upon to Decide as between the Universities and the Synods--Modern Medicine, Law, Literature and Pictures as against the Old--Creeds agree with the Sciences of their Day--Apology the Prelude to Retreat--The Presbyterian Creed Infamous, but no worse than the Catholic--Progress begins when Expression of Opinion is Allowed--Examining the Religions of other Countries--The Pulpit's Position Lost--The Dogma of Eternal Pain the Cause of the orthodox Creeds losing Popularity--Every Church teaching this Infinite Lie must Fall. OUR SCHOOLS. Education the only Lever capable of raising Mankind--The School-house more Important than the Church--Criticism of New York's School-Buildings--The Kindergarten System Recommended--Poor Pay of Teachers--The great Danger to the Republic is Ignorance. VIVISECTION. The Hell of Science--Brutal Curiosity of Vivisectors--The Pretence that they are working for the Good of Man--Have these scientific Assassins added to useful Knowledge?--No Good to the Race to be Accomplished by Torture--The Tendency to produce a Race of intelligent Wild Beasts. THE CENSUS ENUMERATOR'S OFFICIAL CATECHISM. Right of the Government to ask Questions and of the Citizen to refuse to answer them--Matters which the Government has no Right to pry into--Exposing the Debtor's financial Condition--A Man might decline to tell whether he has a Chronic Disease or not. THE AGNOSTIC CHRISTMAS. Natural Phenomena and Myths celebrated--The great Day of the first Religion, Sun-worship--A God that Knew no Hatred nor Sought Revenge--The Festival of Light. SPIRITUALITY. A much-abused Word--The Early Christians too Spiritual to be Civilized--Calvin and Knox--Paine, Voltaire and Humboldt not Spiritual--Darwin also Lacking--What it is to be really Spiritual--No connection with Superstition. SUMTER'S GUN. What were thereby blown into Rags and Ravelings--The Birth of a new Epoch announced--Lincoln made the most commanding Figure of the Century--Story of its Echoes. WHAT INFIDELS HAVE DONE. What might have been Asked of a Christian 100 years after Christ--Hospitals and Asylums not all built for Charity--Girard College--Lick Observatory--Carnegie not an Orthodox Christian--Christian Colleges--Give us Time. CRUELTY IN THE ELMIRA REFORMATORY. Brockway a Savage--The Lash will neither develop the Brain nor cultivate the Heart--Brutality a Failure--Bishop Potter's apostolical Remark. LAW'S DELAY. The Object of a Trial--Justice can afford to Wait--The right of Appeal--Case of Mrs. Maybrick--Life Imprisonment for Murderers--American Courts better than the English. BIGOTRY OF COLLEGES. Universities naturally Conservative--Kansas State University's Objection to Ingersoll as a commencement Orator--Comment by Mr. Depew (note)--Action of Cornell and the University of Missouri. A YOUNG MAN'S CHANCES TO-DAY. The Chances a few Years ago--Capital now Required--Increasing competition in Civilized Life--Independence the first Object--If he has something to say, there will be plenty to listen. SCIENCE AND SENTIMENT. Science goes hand in hand with Imagination--Artistic and Ethical Development--Science destroys Superstition, not true Religion--Education preferable to Legislation--Our Obligation to our Children. "SOWING AND REAPING." Moody's Belief accounted for--A dishonest and corrupting Doctrine--A want of Philosophy and Sense--Have Souls in Heaven no Regrets?--Mr. Moody should read some useful Books. SHOULD INFIDELS SEND THEIR CHILDREN TO SUNDAY SCHOOL? Teachings of orthodox Sunday Schools--The ferocious God of the Bible--Miracles--A Christian in Constantinople would not send his Child to a Mosque--Advice to all Agnostics--Strangle the Serpent of Superstition. WHAT WOULD YOU SUBSTITUTE FOR THE BIBLE AS A MORAL GUIDE? Character of the Bible--Men and Women not virtuous because of any Book--The Commandments both Good and Bad--Books that do not help Morality--Jehovah not a moral God--What is Morality?--Intelligence the only moral guide. GOVERNOR ROLLINS' FAST-DAY PROCLAMATION. Decline of the Christian Religion in New Hampshire--Outgrown Beliefs--Present-day Views of Christ and the Holy Ghost--Abandoned Notions about the Atonement--Salvation for Credulity--The Miracles of the New Testament--The Bible "not true but inspired"--The "Higher Critics" riding two Horses--Infidelity in the Pulpit--The "restraining Influences of Religion" as illustrated by Spain and Portugal--Thinking, Working and Praying--The kind of Faith that has Departed. A LOOK BACKWARD AND A PROPHECY. The Truth Seeker congratulated on its Twenty-fifth Birthday--Teachings of Twenty-five Years ago--Dodging and evading--The Clerical Assault on Darwin--Draper, Buckle, Hegel, Spencer, Emerson--Comparison of Prejudices--Vanished Belief in the Devil--Matter and Force--Contradictions Dwelling in Unity--Substitutes for Jehovah--A Prophecy. POLITICAL MORALITY. Argument in the contested Election Case of Strobach against Herbert--The Importance of Honest Elections--Poisoning the Source of Justice--The Fraudulent Voter a Traitor to his Sovereign, the Will of the People--Political Morality Imperative. A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. Date and Manner of Composing the Old Testament--Other Books not now in Existence, and Disagreements about the Canon--Composite Character of certain Books--Various Versions--Why was God's message given to the Jews alone?--The Story of the Creation, of the Flood, of the Tower, and of Lot's wife--Moses and Aaron and the Plagues of Egypt--Laws of Slavery--Instructions by Jehovah Calculated to excite Astonishment and Mirth--Sacrifices and the Scapegoat--Passages showing that the Laws of Moses were made after the Jews had left the Desert--Jehovah's dealings with his People--The Sabbath Law--Prodigies--Joshua's Miracle--Damned Ignorance and Infamy--Jephthah's Sacrifice--Incredible Stories--The Woman of Endor and the Temptation of David--Elijah and Elisha--Loss of the Pentateuch from Moses to Josiah--The Jews before and after being Abandoned by Jehovah--Wealth of Solomon and other Marvels. VOLUME XII.--MISCELLANY PROF. VAN BUREN DENSLOW'S "MODERN THINKERS." PREFACE TO DR. EDGAR C. BEALL'S "THE BRAIN AND THE BIBLE." PREFACE TO "MEN, WOMEN AND GODS." PREFACE TO "FOR HER DAILY BREAD." PREFACE TO "AGNOSTICISM AND OTHER ESSAYS." PREFACE TO "FAITH OR FACT." THE GRANT BANQUET. THIRTEEN CLUB DINNER. ROBSON AND CRANE DINNER. THE POLICE CAPTAINS' DINNER. GENERAL GRANT'S BIRTHDAY DINNER LOTOS CLUB DINNER, TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY. MANHATTAN ATHLETIC CLUB DINNER. THE LIEDERKRANZ CLUB, SEIDL-STANTON BANQUET. THE FRANK B. CARPENTER DINNER. UNITARIAN CLUB DINNER. WESTERN SOCIETY OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC BANQUET. LOTOS CLUB DINNER IN HONOR OF ANTON SEIDL. LOTOS CLUB DINNER IN HONOR OF REAR ADMIRAL SCHLEY. ADDRESS TO THE ACTORS' FUND OF AMERICA. THE CHILDREN OF THE STAGE. ADDRESS TO THE PRESS CLUB. THE CIRCULATION OF OBSCENE LITERATURE. CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL LIBERAL LEAGUE. CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN SECULAR UNION. THE RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ORGANIZED CHARITIES. SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. OUR NEW POSSESSIONS. A FEW FRAGMENTS ON EXPANSION. IS IT EVER RIGHT FOR HUSBAND OR WIFE TO KILL RIVAL? PROFESSOR BRIGGS. FRAGMENTS. EFFECT OF THE WORLD'S FAIR ON THE HUMAN RACE. SABBATH SUPERSTITION. A TRIBUTE TO GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE. AT THE GRAVE OF BENJAMIN W. PARKER. A TRIBUTE TO EBON C. INGERSOLL A TRIBUTE TO THE REV. ALEXANDER CLARK. AT A CHILD'S GRAVE. A TRIBUTE TO JOHN G. MILLS. A TRIBUTE TO ELIZUR WRIGHT. A TRIBUTE TO MRS. IDA WHITING KNOWLES. A TRIBUTE TO HENRY WARD BEECHER. A TRIBUTE TO ROSCOE CONKLING. A TRIBUTE TO RICHARD H. WHITING. A TRIBUTE TO COURTLANDT PALMER. A TRIBUTE TO MRS. MARY H. FISKE. A TRIBUTE TO HORACE SEAVER. A TRIBUTE TO LAWRENCE BARRETT. A TRIBUTE TO WALT WHITMAN. A TRIBUTE TO PHILO D. BECKWITH. A TRIBUTE TO ANTON SEIDL. A TRIBUTE TO DR. THOMAS SETON ROBERTSON. A TRIBUTE TO THOMAS CORWIN. A TRIBUTE TO ISAAC H. BAILEY. JESUS CHRIST. LIFE. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Complete Contents, by Robert G. 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