T orch of R eason . • TRUTH BEAR5 THE TORCH IN THE SEARCH FOR TR U TH ." VOL. 3. . . „ c r e t in s. 8ILV ER T0N , OREGON, THUR8 >AY, NOVEMBER 18, 1889. Robert G. Ingersoll and th e F ight A gainst Death NO. 45. liai body” fare better under the and shoal of time”—what folly to N Tew Chemistry and Biology. Ev trust them! How soon do they let ery single element of the body is fly the highest, brightest meteor of of the earth earthy” and inde fame into the dark and eternal si structible; and because indestructi lence. Thither, even Homer (sacro An Address a t an In g e rs o ll M e m o ria l H e e tin g Held a t M c M in n ble , matter can not “in the twink vate), must follow his Achilles, the v ille , by th e L ib e ra ls of Y a m h ill C o u n ty , Oregon, mg of an eye,” be changed into any hero he glorified. S u n d a y, O ctober 29, E f l . 299 other matter, or “coelestial body”, Thus to sum up, we find that or “spirit” prior to A. D. 1600, that is, Era of BY T. B. W AKEM AN. Nor can ‘“spirit” escape by claim Man 1, man knew of no real immor ing immateriality, or claiming to be tality. F ellow L ibera ls and F r ie n d s : All of those which he turn? Then how patiently did they mind, thought or soul oí some kind. This is a “Memorial Meeting”, await that return through the long, thought he had were simply selfish For all of these faculties are found and that fact, together with the long, silent ages? But, alas! no re illusions, which could only breed appropriate and touching remarks turn ever came, and so their hope to be concomitant-correlatives of selfish degradation for a time, or which have already been made, and civilization died away. And the changes in, and, therefore, pro lead to a never-ending and loath show that we are today taking part, next arose the Greek Temple, the perties of, protoplasm — existing some satiety—the fate of Tithonus. How the millions of the East in our humble way, in the sublim- Roman Mausoleum, and the Druid only, as far as we now know, on the surface of our mother earth, and of have thought and suffered in hope est, the most terrible battle of all Henge, — all glorious dwellings which the human race is the most less efforts to reach a deadening time,— the tight of Man against raised first for the returning lost glorious form, yet physically sub Nirvana by which to escape the Death. 7 he fact of Death, who and loved—but never tenanted ex- jected to its changes and deaths. horrors of conscious immortality! can deny? All of the ages of learn- cept by the owl, or death and fame. Until some one can find life that is But every Theosophist and Spirit ing, the grace, the beauty, the 4, . , f , . . 11 ' 1 hen the Christian Apostle Paul not a property of protoplasm; or ualist assembly shows even they pathos of the old world seem to „ 1 UI 1 11 i . • , T ' , ,. , i c a m e ioOO years ago and said the can find under the laws of correla have thought and suffered in vain, have blossomed ouUm the English \ b , * n 1 I • ut "«, • Ideal Christ, whom he never saw tion two differing results from the for, as Prof. Huxley savs, they poet Gray and his “ Elegv in a , , •., , , 6‘ but with the eye of the spirit, would same correlation, so that life mav have only added new horrors to the Country Church Yard”. Can we - * come from the heaven above, during he a correlative-concomitant of pro old conception of immortality. ever forget the exquisite tenderness the lives of those to whom he was toplasmic changes, and yet some Thus, prior to the E ra of M an , with which it admits the inevit then speaking, and would bring thing else—until this can he done, every phase or conception of im able? down and marry to Palestine the which is inconceivable, for nature mortality was at bottom an illusion ‘T o r who to d u m b forgetfulness a prev New Jerusalem and kingdom of the can never have two lines of co rrel based upon ignorance, and in its This pleasing anxious being e ’e r re Heavenly Father in which no death ates doing the same thing, we are effects on its believers morally and signed, Left th e w arm precincts of th e cheerful should be; and for which even Abra- simply talking the inconceivable humanly a degradation or a horror. Xor cast one longing, lingering look ^ a m anc^ those patriarchs of old when we talk about the continu But as the illusions drop is there behind. who died in faith should be resurrec ance of personal consciousness after no escape from Death? ‘ The boast of h erald ry , th e pom p of ted, and with “coelestial” bodies en death. Thus to the returned soul Prior to the iucoming of the E ra power, joy coelestial bliss forever! There of t he Egyptian, and the consciously And all th a t b eauty, all th a t w ealth e ’er gave, never was a single provable fact hack continued soul of the Christian, of M an , A. D. 1600, with i ts new astronomy, new scientific, secular Await alike th e inevitable hour, of this “epileptic hallucination.” It Science alike savs her farewell!— The p a th s of glory lead b u t to the and human life, no escape was pos was a craze of faith, hope and love, both are impossible. grave sible, because under the Chris with no foundation but ignorance. But then ltt us look further at in a similar way, the learning, Y et how mightily has it swept the inquiry, cannot death be es tian theology and dispensation, grace and tenderness of our New there was no conception of human through the centuries! The rise of caped or avoided, if not defeated? World blossomed out in our poet the Sun of Science has made its The oldest and chiefest hope of progress . There was no movement Longfellow and his “ Psalm of Life”, Faith burn dimly now,but still mil the escape of death has been by even, except backward, towards but he could only repeat the ad Eden, i/j or u upwards the IJCdVGll heaven 1 p w a r u r to (<> liJC lions sacrifice with half faith at its FAME—by a glorious continuance in u 1 1 mission, if possible, more exqui , above—to which all were to ascend shrines, because they can not break the mouths and so in the hearts . t „ , sitely: 1 ,, , , . . , to mass the dream-habit of hope that this and heads of mankind. This hope , be saved—except the great . . . . J1 °f our condemned race, who were to ‘ ‘A rt is long and tim e is fleeting, phantom story may enable them has become the mainspring of gio- 1 .. , . x , ,, , , , , 1 , , drop through into hell beneath the And o ur h e arts, tho stro n g and brave, ♦ _ ... /, , . S till lik e muffled drums are beating 1 sorne w ay , With th e rious exertions—for good and ill. rp, . , r . , earth! I here was no conception of Funeral m arches to th e g rav e.” shout, “O Death, where is th v sting? I h e p o e ts Horace and Shakespeare .. H t . 1 the actuatl distribution, age and (in hi3 sonnets) have each boasted: • .. . ... ’ . Yes, the fact of D eath-the inev i ° GrSVe’ W,‘erP ” immensity of mankiud on the earth, ¡table!—that, how shall Man defeat, Pitiable was all this then, more “ A m o n u m en t I rear m ore en d u rin g nor of their past history, nor of th a n b ra s s.” , ... J , , »'.-'cape, avoid? Man has answered P’t able now’—when only the dazed human earthly progress in the t y what are called his “immortali- blind can fail to see through the A a,,ucl aim tm r nave m r .c was no concep But ™ Alexander and v Caesar have future. There concep- ties”, and tireless have been his transparent illusion. Some give this sought to do the same by the sword tion of Truth or Progress, and con hopes and efforts to make some of illusion symbolical meanings, but instead, of the pen, and death by frequently none of human goodness, them seem to him real and reliable.! to of it as fact and reality is to millions reaped the harvest of their or true and realizeable immortality Pitiable were those first efforts of repeat the fancies, cries and prattle single lives! And yet to each, in so prior to A. D. 1600. Even the most the Egyptian lovers away back in of the childhood of our race. The far as he wrought for fame only or advanced of mankind were heaven- the dim twilight of civilization, rotating Earth of the New Astron- chiefly, fame was hut a temporary hunters, dreamers of and workers How carefully with precious gums omy, circling the Sun and follow- vanity that ended to him with his for a sky-immortality which we now and spices and jewels did they en- ing Him at the rate of ten miles a days. Death was not defeated nor know to he impossible, and morally wrap and enclose the beloved form second—three hundred millions of escaped by the conqueror. Rather defective beyond expression. »gainst the day when the breath, miles a year,—has no “firmament” the hero made his own inevitable Since theology consecrated the *he spirit (spiritual would require where the God of a coelestial empire death a horror, by the millions he Era of Man by the burning of Bruno R again in a highef life! How pa- holds his court, and to which his Son had sacrificed to death to obtain an and Servetus, a mighty change has Deritly did they build the caves and could have ascended to bring down illusory but impossible escape from come over the more intelligent part pyramids and temples for their a new Jerusalem of any kind upon his darkening shadow. “Theglimp- of the collective soul of M an ; and memory, and homes for their re- this earth. Nor does the “codes-; ees of the moon” over “this bank this resulted because Man then