nce, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, and Brazil all
show that slavery existed where Catholicism was a power. I would
suggest an education that would rule theology out of the government,
and teach people to rely more on themselves and less on providence.
There are two ways of living--the broad way of life lived for others,
and the narrow theological way. It is wise to so live that death can
be serenely faced, and then, if there is another world, the best way to
prepare for it is to make the best of this; and if there be no other
world, the best way to live here is to so live as to be happy and make
everybody else happy.

INGERSOLL'S LECTURE ON THE GREAT INFIDELS

Ladies and Gentlemen: There is nothing grander in this world than to
rescue from the leprosy of slander a great and splendid name. There is
nothing nobler than to benefit our benefactors. The infidels of one
age have been the aureole saints of the next. The destroyers of the
old have always been the creators of the new. The old passes away and
the new becomes old. There is in the intellectual world, as in the
material, decay and growth; and even by the sunken grave of age stand
youth and joy. The history of progress is written in the lives of
infidels. Political rights have been preserved by traitors;
intellectual rights by infidels.

To attack the kings was treason; to dispute the priests blasphemy. The
sword and cross have always been allies; they defended each other. The
throne and altar are twins--vultures born of the same egg. It was
James I. who said: "No king, no bishop; no church, no crown; no tyrant
in heaven, no tyrant on earth." Every monarchy that has disgraced the
world, every despotism that has covered the cheeks of men with fear has
been copied after the supposed despotism of hell. The king owned the
bodies and the priest owned the souls; one lived on taxes and the
other on alms; one was a robber and the other a beggar.

The history of the world will not show you one charitable beggar. He
who lives on charity never has anything to give away. The robbers and
beggars controlled not only this world, but the next. The king made
laws, the priest made creeds; with bowed backs the people received and
bore the burdens of the one, and with the open mouth of wonder the
creed of the other. If any aspired to be free they were crushed by the
king, and every priest was a hero who slaughtered the children of the
brave. The king ruled by for