



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 tragedies of the Sixteenth Century, they lack only
the power. Bigotry in all ages has been the same. Christianity simply
transferred the brutality of the Colosseum to the Inquisition. For the
murderous combat of the gladiators, the saints substituted the _auto de
fe_. What has been called religion is