The following grand oration was delivered by Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll
on the occasion of the funeral of his brother, Hon. Eben C. Ingersoll,
in Washington, June 2:
"My friends, I am going to do that which the dead oft promised he
would do for me. The loved and loving brother, husband, father,
friend, died where manhood's morning almost touches noon, and while
the shadows were still falling towards the west. He had not passed on
life's highway the stone that marks the highest point, but being weary
for a moment he lay down by the wayside, and using his burden for a
pillow fell into that dreamless sleep that kisses down the eyelids.
Still, while yet in love with life and raptured with the world, he
passed to silence and pathetic dust. Yet, after all, it may be best,
just in the happiest, sunniest hour of all the voyage, while eager
winds are kissing every sail, to dash against the unseen rock and in
an instant to hear the billows roar, 'A sunken ship;' for whether in
mid-sea or among the breakers of the farther shore, a wreck must mark
at last the end of each and all, and every life, no matter if its
every hour is rich with love, and every moment jeweled with a joy,
will at its close become a tragedy as sad and deep and dark as can be
woven of the warp and woof of mystery and death. This brave and tender
man in every storm of life was oak and rock, but in the sunshine he
was vine and flower. He was the friend of all heroic souls. He
climbed the heights and left all superstitions far below, while on
his forehead fell the golden dawning of a grander day. He loved the
beautiful, and was with color, form and music touched to tears. He
sided with the weak, and with a willing hand gave alms. With loyal
heart, and with the purest hand he faithfully discharged all public
trusts. He was a worshiper of liberty and a friend of the oppressed.
A thousand times I have heard him quote the words, 'For Justice all
place temple, and all seasons summer.' He believed that happiness
was the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worshiper,
humanity the only religion, and love the priest. He added to the sum
of human joy, and were everyone for whom he did some loving service
to bring a blossom to his grave, he would sleep to-night beneath a
wilderness of flowers. Life is a narrow vale between the cold and
barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the
heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing
cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no
word, but the light of death. Hope sees a star, and listening love can
hear the rustic of a wing, he who sleeps here when dying, mistaking
the approach of death for the return of health, whispered with his
latest breath, 'I am better now.' Let us believe, in spite of doubts
and dogmas, and tears and fears, that these dear words are true of all
the countless dead. And now, to you who have been chosen from among
the many men he loved to do the last sad office for the dead, we give
his sacred dust. Speech cannot contain our love. There was, there is,
no gentler, stronger, manlier man."