The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 4 (of 12)

ead Volney, who shows that all religions are, and have been, established in the same way-that all had their Christs, their apostles, mira

that Christianity is only a name for Paganism-for the old religion, shorn of its beauty-that some absurdities had been

s sublime and slandered man. He came to this country just before the Revolution. He bro

t slavery, the second against duelling, the third on the treatment of prisoners-showing that the object should be to reform, not to punish and

he suggested the great

d of his fellow-men, and did as much to found the Gre

Scriptures, about the superstitions of his time. He wa

loved their enemies, and the occupant of every orthodox pulpi

, his argument against the dogma of in

e God of Nature, the creator and preserver of all. In this he was wrong, because, as Watson s

, one of the heroes, who gladly gave his life, his

e savagery of the law, the cruel decisions of venal courts, and rescued victims from the wheel and rack. Voltaire, who waged war against the tyranny of thrones, the greed and heartlessness of power. Voltaire, who filled the flesh of priests with the barbed and poisoned arr

ic, the unjust. He had no reverence for the ancient. He was not awed by pageantry and pomp, by crow

udgment against them all, and that judgment has been affirmed by the intelligent world. Voltaire lighted a torch an

uries before our Christ was born, t

title is bad. They who claim to own their fellow-men, look down

ance, of courage and wisdom, and who said: "Why should I fear death? If I am, death

e wondrous words: "I have not sought during my life to amass wealth and to adorn my body, but I have

emple, reverently approached the altar, crushed a louse between the nails of his thumbs, and solemnly said: "The sacrifice of Di

ired" passage-"Without the shedding o

ament or the Ten Commandments, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, three favorites of Jehovah, and I wa