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