I have forgotten for the last few months, so… My friend Julian Haydon has created a website dedicated to the great agnostic, Robert G. Ingersoll. The site is set out like a newspaper and is a labour of love. Please check it out – the link is below. To give respect to both men, I will be posting some Ingersoll delights once a month to acquaint people with his genius.
LIFE*
(From a Memorial Tribute by Robert G. Ingersoll)
In youth we front the sun; we live in light without a fear, without a thought of dusk or night. We glory in excess.
There is no dread of loss when all is growth and gain. With reckless hands we spend and waste and chide the flying hours for loitering by the way.
The future holds the fruit of joy; the present keeps us from the feast, and so, with hurrying feet we climb the heights and upward look with eager eyes.
But when the sun begins to sink and shadows fall in front, and lengthen on the path, then falls upon the heart a sense of loss, and then we hoard the shreds and crumbs and vainly long for what was cast away.
And then with miser care we save and spread thin hands before December’s half-fed flickering flames, while through the glass of time we moaning watch the few remaining grains of sand that hasten to their end.
In the gathering gloom the fires slowly die, while memory dreams of youth,
and hope sometimes mistakes the glow of ashes for the coming of another morn.
***
* (Ingersoll did not title this excerpt)
(For more on this great man please visit theingersolltimes.com. It is in a lively newspaper format.)