| Show AN INFIDELS REASONING A recent number ot of the new york word contains an interview by arthur brisbane of col B R 0 ingersoll in ID which so go much that is characteristic of the great inocel appears that it justifies the expenditure of a few words word of review he to la as plausible and shifting as ever giving deductions based upon nothing but a most moat perverse and fantastic will wih and to those who are noted not addicted to profound reasoning reavo ning and prefer superficial conc conclusions lusious the interview would doubtless be looked upon as a casket of polemical gevas gems he announces that mans chief concern is with himself which the interviewer pronounces but it is not it Is a truism and the most moat rational statement in the entire article though the inadvertency of it to la so apparent that the force it would otherwise have is ia spent beforehand of the immortality of the soul ingersoll speaks with a slight blight uncertainty doubtless due to the inborn and universal joining Joi ging for life hereafter he has no do serious belief or interest in it if the interviewer interprets what he said accurately G once JI 1 he said 1 I had bad no existence now I 1 am in a short time I 1 shall hall exist no DO longer when that time comes it will be just juat as extraordinary to inflect that I 1 once did exist as it would be to believe in the possibility of my existing again which is a more intellectual version of the negro preachers statement during camp gue meeting eting services icee if dose gemmen what to is in de front seats would set down dem as la is in do de back seats would set down too cause dey wouldn j have to stand up to see over dem as aint aida sta seanan up IJ it belongs in that class of statements known as and as such euch is altogether deleath rio neath the iconoclast is ifs plane or of controversy an AD iuLio cent fact is sometimes more damaging than a ponderous falsehood because of the lack of argumentative skill whick it imparts and this is oven even such a case the colonel seeks to dispose of the matter mailer atone at one stroke in the following 1 cl I do not occupy my mind w with ith use wiss lens discussion or speculation as to origin or dt destiny stiny between these two hori horizons there is plenty of work tor for mans manla intellect intel leeL exactly MI d and within the boundaries ot of the unite J states are all the materials needed to keep the biad of man energetically energetic getic ally employed nervously active from the cradle to the grave if it is only materials to work on that are desi desired reds why leave a bel j that furnishes an abundance merely to go to another or to others that could only prove an enlargement of the territory lern tory devoted to mental exercises by remaining within prescribed limits that which to is learned will be more thoroughly learned lii iii all probability whereas by going further we only burden ourselves unnecessarily ac aad d make it more likely that ane work will not be so no complete that is about the logic of the situation practically applied dont seek to go beyond the verible horizon for it pay you will not thenon course know that there is a great britain teeming with grand cities magnificent enterprises wonderful resources resu ures and historic races equal to any in all our own field in point of learning civilization advancement van vaDo cement ement and culture and greatly superior eu in numbers and aggregated wealth will fail to learn about a nation elevated to the zenith of m mundane u glory through the prowess and skill of its soldiers and the genius and learning of its men of science a nation that gave birth to at two ot of the infidels idols of modern times voltaire and kenan will not be informed that a european confederation was formed of sufficient power and valor to over overthrow turow the nation last spoken of and dissipate its theretofore unbroken prestige pre pres tilte almost in the twinkling of an eye the facts that the land we are on is but a small fragment of a great globe whose pata through space Is ag aa well defined and unchangeable an aa any ally that is in laid with iron bands that the globe iglo beig is but one of many similarly propelled through space apace and the all but so 80 many grains grain of send upon the shores of infinity all this will not net be known because it la is unnecessary because it does dot a not dot come within our horizon because it is divert diverting ilog the mind irom from the things immediately surrounding us and which we can never exhaust asa as a source of ii forma queer reasoning this even for a materialist and unbeliever disbeliever yet it tili but a corollary of what he actually doom doen advance that between birth and death there to la enough to keep the mind employed without going back of the one or ahead ol of the other in a word we should according to the Ingers ollian creed deal only with purely temporal and physically LaD tangible gible things even voltaire would not thus be bound up intellectually and columbus revolted at such limitation by mind and movement as aa well of course the interview would not be satisfying to those readers who wiio admire col Inger ve peculiar culiar methods it it contained no DO allusion to divinity purely secular reasoning must be seasoned with a dash of bas blasphemy phemy or the mae dish is not so palatable this la nut wanting and tte tie tol tollow lowin iu is a fair sample of many more such there may be one god or there may be a million but if there to ie a god I 1 know he la is ori or zy I the means by which such know knowledge ledgel la in gained are not given probably for the reason that an atheist is of necessity an egotist aud his opinions or what ile he gives out as such are all that he be rethinks bethinks thinks the common herd should rt require quire or it may be he thinks there Is no need doe to give reasons for those who accept accent implicitly the statements made do not require would rather not have any and the other kind could not loot be con cn offer vinced by any that he has the ability to ingersoll adds nothing to his credited stock of intelligence by his latest contribution trib ution As he advances in y years bars he be seems to grow in impudence unfortunately for him the scoffs and sneers with which he once gave novelty to his diatribes diatribe are now too vacant and pointless to excite even passing attention the word of god has lived jived in strength and beauty dur ing the centuries and to is today as aa full fall of life and satisfaction as an ever while the dull reasoning of the agnostic rarely survives his own existence and to in me present I 1 instance almost MoUl deft on his very lips in this one fact there them is a suggestion that would carry convincing force to anyone except a short i 1 egotist or a stubborn knave |
