Robert Buchanan on Robert Ingersoll.
By Editor
MR. INGERSOLL, having been completely demolished by Father Lambert, is now attacked from a new quarter, and in the presence of some of his own friends. This time the arraignment is made not by priest or minister, but by one who, so far as we know, does not even make a profession of Christianity,—Robert Buchanan, poet, novelist, and dramatist. The article is entitled, "Free Thought in America," and appears in the April number of the North American Review. The entire number is one of great interest. We present to our readers some selections from the article:— "There is a notion even in refined circles in America that the influence of a man like Colonel Robert Ingersoll may be an influence for good. I altogether fail to see it. While doing full justice to the honesty, the courage, and the good humor of this remarkable orator, I am convinced that he is precisely the sort of teacher—I had almost written devil's advocate—to whom Americans should just now shut their ears. Free thought should be distinguished from the offenses against common intelligence committed by this Philistine of the Philistines. . . . Ingersoll enters the temple of religion with his hat on one side, a cigar in his mouth, and a jest upon his lips. . . . He is just the sort of person of whom America does not stand in need. The predominant vices of America, especially as represented by its great cities, are its irreverence, its recklessness, its impatience—in one word, its materialism. The exhibition can do no good; it may do no little harm. For my own part, I should prefer even to accept hell with John Calvin, rather than to eat cakes, drink ale and much hot ginger with Colonel Ingersoll. . . . He is the boy in the gallery, cracking nuts and making precocious comments during the performance of the tragedy of life. . . . That such a person should have a large following, among a generation so much of his way of thinking is no matter for surprise; in the nineteenth century it is truly sad, as showing how little science has done, after all, to elevate the intellectual condition of the masses. . . . Colonel Ingersoll is very fond of proclaiming his admiration for the great scientific teachers of the age; but in reality he is as far away in spirit from the thought of Darwin as from the vision of Shakespeare." "To go to him for religious guidance is like asking a native of the kingdom of Dahomey to favor us with his ideas on free-will or the incarnation. . . . The gospel of hot ginger as preached by Colonel Ingersoll, would soon make of New York another Sodom."—Buffalo Christian Advocate.