The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII | Page 3

thing as intellectual crime. No man can commit a mental crime. To become a crime it must go beyond thought.
Question. What punishment is there for physical crime?
Answer. Such punishment as is necessary to protect society and for the reformation of the criminal.
Question. If there is only punishment in this world, will not some escape punishment?
Answer. I admit that all do not seem to be punished as they deserve. I also admit that all do not seem to be rewarded as they deserve; and there is in this world, apparently, as great failures in matter of reward as in matter of punishment. If there is another life, a man will be happier there for acting according to his highest ideal in this. But I do not discern in nature any effort to do justice.
--The Post, Washington, D. C., 1878.
MRS. VAN COTT, THE REVIVALIST
Question. I see, Colonel, that in an interview published this morning, Mrs. Van Cott (the revivalist), calls you "a poor barking dog." Do you know her personally?
Answer. I have never met or seen her.
Question. Do you know the reason she applied the epithet?
Answer. I suppose it to be the natural result of what is called vital piety; that is to say, universal love breeds individual hatred.
Question. Do you intend making any reply to what she says?
Answer. I have written her a note of which this is a copy:
Buffalo, Feb. 24th, 1878. MRS. VAN COTT;
My dear Madam:--Were you constrained by the love of Christ to call a man who has never injured you "a poor barking dog?" Did you make this remark as a Christian, or as a lady? Did you say these words to illustrate in some faint degree the refining influence upon women of the religion you preach?
What would you think of me if I should retort, using your language, changing only the sex of the last word?
I have the honor to remain,
Yours truly,
R. G. INGERSOLL
Question. Well, what do you think of the religious revival system generally?
Answer. The fire that has to be blown all the time is a poor thing to get warm by. I regard these revivals as essentially barbaric. I think they do no good, but much harm, they make innocent people think they are guilty, and very mean people think they are good.
Question. What is your opinion concerning women as conductors of these revivals?
Answer. I suppose those engaged in them think they are doing good. They are probably honest. I think, however, that neither men nor women should be engaged in frightening people into heaven. That is all I wish to say on the subject, as I do not think it worth talking about.
--The Express, Buffalo, New York, Feb., 1878.
EUROPEAN TRIP AND GREENBACK QUESTION
Question. What did you do on your European trip, Colonel?
Answer. I went with my family from New York to Southampton, England, thence to London, and from London to Edinburgh. In Scotland I visited every place where Burns had lived, from the cottage where he was born to the room where he died. I followed him from the cradle to the coffin. I went to Stratford-upon-Avon for the purpose of seeing all that I could in any way connected with Shakespeare; next to London, where we visited again all the places of interest, and thence to Paris, where we spent a couple of weeks in the Exposition.
Question. And what did you think of it?
Answer. So far as machinery--so far as the practical is concerned, it is not equal to ours in Philadelphia; in art it is incomparably beyond it. I was very much gratified to find so much evidence in favor of my theory that the golden age in art is in front of us; that mankind has been advancing, that we did not come from a perfect pair and immediately commence to degenerate. The modern painters and sculptors are far better and grander than the ancient. I think we excel in fine arts as much as we do in agricultural implements. Nothing pleased me more than the painting from Holland, because they idealized and rendered holy the ordinary avocations of life. They paint cottages with sweet mothers and children; they paint homes. They are not much on Ariadnes and Venuses, but they paint good women.
Question. What did you think of the American display?
Answer. Our part of the Exposition is good, but nothing to what is should and might have been, but we bring home nearly as many medals as we took things. We lead the world in machinery and in ingenious inventions, and some of our paintings were excellent.
Question. Colonel, crossing the Atlantic back to America, what do you think of the Greenback movement?
Answer. In regard to the Greenback party, in the first place, I am not a believer in miracles. I do not believe that something can be made out