The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ghosts, by Robert G. Ingersoll

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Title: The Ghosts
And Other Lectures

Author: Robert G. Ingersoll

Release Date: October 6, 2009 [EBook #30208]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GHOSTS ***

Produced by David Widger

THE GHOSTS

AND OTHER LECTURES.

By Robert G. Ingersoll.

New York, N. Y. C.
P. FARRELL, PUBLISHER,
1892.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1878,
by Robert G. Ingersoll
ECKLER, PRINTER, 35 FULTON ST., N. Y.

The idea of immortality, that like a sea has ebbed and
flowed in the human heart, with its countless waves of hope
and fear, beating against the shores and rocks of time and
fate, was not born of any book, nor of any creed, nor of any
religion. It was born of human affection, and it will
continue to ebb and flow beneath the mists and clouds of
doubt and darkness as long as love kisses the lips of death.

CONTENTS:

PREFACE.
THE GHOSTS.
THE LIBERTY OF MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD
LIBERTY OF WOMAN.
THE LIBERTY OF CHILDREN.
CONCLUSION.
1776. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
ABOUT FARMING IN ILLINOIS.
SPEECH AT CINCINNATI
"THE PAST RISES BEFORE ME LIKE A DREAM."
THE GRANT BANQUET
A TRIBUTE TO THE Rev. ALEXANDER CLARK.
A TRIBUTE TO EBON C. INGERSOLL,

PREFACE.

These lectures have been so maimed and mutilated by orthodox malice;
have been made to appear so halt, crutched and decrepit by those who
mistake the pleasures of calumny for the duties of religion, that in
simple justice to myself I concluded to publish them.

Most of the clergy are, or seem to be, utterly incapable of discussing
anything in a fair and catholic spirit. They appeal, not to reason,
but to prejudice; not to facts, but to passages of scripture. They can
conceive of no goodness, of no spiritual exaltation beyond the horizon
of their creed. Whoever differs with them upon what they are pleased to
call "fundamental truths" is, in their opinion, a base and infamous man.
To re-enact the trag