Thoughts on Liberty and Progress.

I want to prove to you if I can that this is all a question of intellectual development, a question of sense, and the more a man knows the more liberal he is; the less a man knows the more bigoted he is. The less a a man knows the more certain he is that he knows it, and the more a man knows the better satisfied he is that

he is entirely ignorant. Great knowledge is philosophic, and little, narrow, contemptible knowledgs is bigoted and. hateful.

We used to worship the golden calf, and the worst you can say of us now, is, we worship the gold of the calf, and even the calves are beginning to see this distinction. We used to go down on our knees to every

man that held office, now he must fill it if he wishes any respect. We care nothing for the rich, except what will they do with their money? Do they benefit mankind? That is the question. You say this man holds an office. How does he fill it ?-that is the question. And there is rapidly growing up in the world an aristocracy of heart and brain-the only aristocracy that has a right to exist. We are getting free. We are thinking in every direc

tion.

We are investigating with the the microscope and the telescope. We are digging into the earth and findidg souvenirs of all the ages. We are finding out something about the laws of health and disease. We are adding years to the span of human life and we are making the world fit to live in. That is what we are doing and every man that has an honest thought and expresses it, helps, and every man that tries to keep honest thought from being expressed is an obstruction and a hindrance.

But there are now and then a man who would not do that. He said, "No, I believe I am right, and I will die for it," and I suppose we owe what little progress we have made to a few meu in all ages of the world who really stood by their convictions. The men who stood

by the truth and the men who stood by a fact, they are the men that have helped raise this world, and in every age there has been some sublime and tender soul who was true to his convictions and

men better. Kellys and who really lived to make

In every age some men carried the torch

of progress and handed it to some other, and it has been carried through all the dark ages of barbarism, and had it not been for such men we would have been naked and unciviliz ed to-night, with pictures of wild beasts tat

tooed on our skins, dancing around some dried snake fetish.

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The Abolitionists.

The abolitionits were horoes.

He loves his country
The bravest men are

best who strives to make it best, those who have the greatest fear of doing wrong. Mere politicians wish the country to do something for them; true patriots desire to do something for their conntry.

To-day we reverently thank the abolitionists. Earth has produced no grander men and nobler women. They were the real philanthropists, the true patriots.

We demand, next, that woman shall be put on an equality with man.

Why not? Why shouldn't men be

decent enough in the management af the politics of the country for the women to mingle with them? It is an outrage that any one should live in this country for sixty or seventy years and be forced to obey the laws without having any voice in making them. Let us give woman the opportunity to care for herself, since men are not decent enough to care for her. The time will come

when we'll treat a woman that works and takes care of two or three chileren as well as a woman dressed in diamonds who does nothing. The time will come when we'll not tell our domestic we expect to meet her in heaven, and yet not be willing to have her speak to us in the drawing-room.

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Ingersoll on the Chinese Question.

Our religion can only be brought into contempt by the

actions of those who profess to be governed by its teachings. This report will do more in that direction than millions of Chinese could do by burning pieces of paper

before a wooden image. If you wish to impress the Chinese with the value of your religion, of what you are pleased to call "The American system," show them that Christians are better than heathens. Prove to them that what you are pleased to call the "living God" teaches higher and holier things, a grander and purer code of morals than can be found upon pagan pages. Excel these wretches in industry, in honesty, in reverence for parents, in cleanliness, in frugality; and above all by advocating the absolute liberty of human thought.

Do not trample upon these people because they have a different conception of things about which even this committee knows nothing.

For the benefit of these four philosophers an prophets, I will give a few extracts from the writings of Confucius that will, in my judgment, compare favorably with the best passages of their report:

My doctrine is that man must be true to the principles of his nature, and the benevolent exercises of them toward others.

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and with my bended a;m for a pillow, I will have joy.

"Riches and honor acquired by injustice are to me but floating clouds.

"The man who, in view of gain, thinks of righteousness; who, in view of danger, forgets life, and who remembers an old agreement, however far back it extends, such a man may be reckoned a complete man.

Recompense injury with justice, and kindness with

kindness."